The Rise of the Black Plain

After leaving the building where their physical examination was performed, Minos and his group headed towards the Cultivation Tower, which was located in the central region of the capital of the Cromwell Kingdom.

After completing their test, they had no reason to remain in that spiritual academy, in fact, it was not much good to observe other people's physical examinations.

Nobody from the group was interested in knowing the details of other competitors. After all, knowing something like levels and physique wouldn't make any difference to them!

The competition organization had assumed that the first test of the Spiritual Tournament would last for two days, and therefore, the second test was scheduled for the third day from today.

As a result, both Minos and the pair of siblings wanted to dedicate their remaining hours to training before the real competition started!

...

While the group of four was leaving the building, young Kara, who had been staring at him since his physical exam result was displayed, couldn't help but ask, "Minos, are you using any artifacts to hide your talent from being seen by others?"

In the Spiritual World, there were certain items that were able to conceal this type of information from cultivators. After all, when someone was born with a very great talent, preserving such information was crucial to their families or for the powers behind such a blessed individual.

So, Kara had thought of a theory that Minos was hiding his true talent.

She even thought that perhaps the result of his Physique rating was false! She thought about it while trying to unfold the mysteries surrounding him.

Furthermore, with the fact that Minos was being accompanied by someone from one of the Flaming Empire sects, this hypothesis made more and more sense in Kara's mind.

Upon hearing this, both Ford and Ruth began paying attention. The two also had the same doubts, and while the older brother did not dare to ask, the beautiful young woman with black hair had planned to ask about it later on.

Minos glanced at the three people who seemed rather interested in this matter and laughed. He didn't have any artifact which had such an ability. The spiritual array in the test room had simply failed to ascertain his talent since it had been mutated after he received the inheritance of the God Henricus Longus.

Minos responded vaguely, "Well, not exactly. But seeing it that way, you are not completely wrong either."

Upon hearing this, the two youths sighed, understanding that Minos would not go into further details. But this was to be expected. Such information was usually revealed under two types of scenarios.

One was during the time of a spiritual academy, just before the youth turned 10. And the other was at events like the Spiritual Tournament, which demanded this type of information be disclosed.

After that being settled, the group continued talking about minor things until they finally arrived at the entrance of the Cultivation Tower. And as usual, the place was bustling with movements since it was the best place to practice one's cultivation and training within this city.

After reaching the 11th floor of the large building, Kara suddenly said, "Well, it was nice to talk to both of you, Minos and Ruth. My brother and I will train behind closed doors until the competition starts. Until then!"

"Hmm, until then. We may not meet before the second test, so I wish you luck in advance. But you have to be careful. Some participants may try to form alliances against competitors like you..."

And as he said this, Minos was alerted both to the presence of scum as the young Leroy and also of those profiteers, who would hide, while waiting for other competitors to fight, exhausted themselves for striking them down with the least effort, and then steal their belongings later on...

"Hmm, for you too," Ford nodded before the two siblings headed towards their training room.

Meanwhile, Ruth and Minos followed suit and entered one of the rooms, which was much identical to the one they had used last time.

And once the two were finally alone, Ruth asked Minos with a curious glimmer in her eyes, "Are you going to tell me what your talent and Physique rank is? I don't believe that your ability can be as incredible as you have if you have simply had a Warrior-grade Physique."

Upon hearing this, Minos smiled and said, "Hehe, who knows... Does it make a difference to you?"

"Hmph, acting all mysterious. Forget it. Sooner or later, I'll find out," Ruth snorted while murmuring to herself in a low voice and then said, "It doesn't. Alright, let's change our clothes and start the spar."

"Hmm."

After that, the two quickly repeated the same activities as their last visit here. They started sparring while training their fighting techniques, leaving cultivating for the last.

Minos and Ruth followed the same routine for the two days they had and then left the tower to go to the hotel to settle their 'business' before the Spiritual Tournament's second test could start.

After all, this second test of the tournament would last for a week, leaving the two without having any fun with each other for the time period...

Anyway, at this moment, Minos was almost on the verge of advancing to level 39, which he expected to achieve during this second test. These last few weeks of intense training at the Cultivation Tower had brought him close to this breakthrough, leaving him with just a little more to advance.

...

It didn't take long before Minos, and Ruth were already walking through the streets of Capital City as they headed towards the northern side of the city.

Here, the organizers of the Spiritual Tournament had set up a teleportation array that would transport the competitors to a forest that was under the control of the Flaming Empire sects.

This was a low-level grade-3 array that had the capability to even teleport 30,000 people at once and could even bring them over distances that were tens of thousands of kilometers away!

Although it was something of a high standard, this was not the only means of travel available in the Spiritual World. One such way was by traveling through wormholes, this allowed travel for trips that were much longer than those that teleportation arrays could be used for.

After all, the Spiritual World was incredibly vast, rendering these arrays to not be used over very long distances!

Wormholes were space tunnels where people could travel by 'shortening' the travel distance from one region to another.

Once cultivators reached level 80, they could even travel through space. And if several cultivators of this stage worked together, it was even possible for them to construct a spatial tunnel between two regions!

But wormholes were a very rare anomaly, in fact, even the Flaming Empire didn't have one!

Along with that, wormholes also needed constant maintenance from 9th-stage cultivators to ensure that there were no problems with travel.

As a result, those empires and kingdoms that lacked such high-level cultivators of this stage of cultivation would be unable to utilize this method of travel. They just could not afford to constantly pay for people at such a level to maintain their wormholes.

After touring the capital of the Cromwell Kingdom for some time, Minos and Ruth finally arrived at a large square.

This place was bustling with thousands of people as they were scattered all around while waiting for instructions from the evaluators of the test.

Minos didn't notice any of the people he had met in the past few days, so he simply stood next to Ruth while waiting for the test to start.

Finally, when the sun rose high in the sky, a young woman dressed in a red gown rose on a platform and then began addressing the numerous participants while explaining the details of the test.

"Welcome to all the participants for this edition of the Spiritual Tournament. For those of you who might still be unfamiliar with the exam details, I'm going to explain how this test is going to work."

"Those who wish to participate in the test must remain in these specified areas marked in red," she said while pointing to one of the many large circles drawn on the square's floor.

"After that, as we activate the teleportation array, everyone within those spaces will be teleported to the exam site."

She then stopped for a moment before continuing, "To inform you what you should be expecting, the place all of you will be transported is one of the wild regions, which the organizers of the event manage.

Your mission is to survive for seven days in the 'habitat' and to be able to bring at least three 4th stage spiritual beasts as proof that you have managed to kill them.

These are the only two requirements for this test. As for the rules, there are none in this test. That is a test of survival, so if you are unable to survive or fail to reach the minimum requirement, it will deem you unworthy of the investment of the tournament organization!" the woman declared coldly.

This was not a kind world. And, as much as the Spiritual Tournament's organizers wished that these young competitors would not die so soon, there would be no assistance or rules limiting ''certain'' events in a survival test.

And since this was a simulation of what cultivators would have to experience in their real lives, this test simulated the laws of the jungle, to kill or to be killed, just as what they would encounter during their journeys!

After finishing speaking, the examiner waited for a while as she saw the crowd start moving.

Minos turned to Ruth to bid farewell and asked, "Will this part of the competition be broadcasted?"

Ruth nodded as she explained, "Hmm, but not everything. There are some surveillance arrays in some chosen locations, which will send the images here."

"Alright. See you in a week then," Minos smiled before planting a passionate kiss on Ruth's cherry lips.

A few moments later, the examiner finally noticed that there were no more movements in the square and finally declared the start of the second test.

"The second test will now officially commence!"