The Rise of the Black Plain

As the person in charge of this test announced the start of the examination, the spiritual teleportation array suddenly started emitting a noise, accompanied by a large amount of spiritual energy covering the areas that were marked in red.

Zum!

The places where these thousands of competitors stood started to emit a soft glow, and suddenly the space around these areas started vibrating.

After all, this happened, almost in the blink of an eye, about all the 30,000 competitors disappeared from that square in an instant!

"Oh! Incredible! I didn't know that there were such formidable arrays!" several spectators who were present at the event for the first time started to exclaim out loud.

Although this array was not as grand as people thought, it was still something that most spectators would not be able to see elsewhere.

After all, this was the impoverished North of the Central Continent!

"Look, the transmission is also about to start!"

And not long after the disappearance of the competitors from there, 20 huge screens appeared at various points in the square, displaying different perspectives from the region where the thousands of competitors were sent.

...

As the spectators' attention was drawn towards the massive screens displaying various segments of the second test, Minos felt the space around him had started to float, followed by a completely different landscape appearing in his sight after a short while.

Before him lay a beautiful view of a mountainous forest which was filled with dense jungle, had high relative humidity, myriads of insects, and no trail for one to follow. It looked like a piece of land that was left completely untouched by humans, dominated by the spiritual beasts.

'With so many trees, this place must be extremely dark at night...' Minos thought as he observed the leaves that didn't allow the sunlight to hardly be able to touch the soil.

Even though it was a bright day, the atmosphere here was already gloomy, enough to make someone feel uncomfortable.

Thus, according to Minos' thought, during the night, since the rays of light that were barely enough to let one see were to arrive, the canopy underneath these huge foliage would only be left in absolute darkness!

Minos then looked around and while surveying the surroundings, finally noticed that there was no competitor around him. 'It seems that we are dispersed to different places... But since there are many competitors, it shouldn't take long for me to find someone.'

Although in situations like such, it was advised to form groups, Minos wasn't worried about it at the moment. Though, if he were to find someone who was worth allying with, that would be advantageous, however, that was not his focus. No, his foremost goal was to hunt Leroy…

Climbing on one of the tallest trees in the place, Minos started to look for a better understanding of his surroundings.

He intended to determine whether he was closer to the center or to the outskirts of this region. According to his opinion, he had a significantly higher chance of encountering Leroy in the central parts of the forest.

He assumed so because Leroy Chambers had an arrogant personality and certainly wouldn't remain standing in one place. Rather, he would try to go to the busiest regions, which were generally beyond the region of the forest's borders.

After climbing the tree, Minos finally got a clear idea of his surroundings and where he exactly was. 'Hmm, considering that there is a mountain right behind me and a valley in the front, I believe that the central region will be...'

After performing some calculations while assessing his location, the young Stuart eventually concluded that the path he would have to take would be in the direction of the valley that lay right in front of him.

It didn't take long for Minos to start moving, while still being cautious all the time as he made his way. Even if those 4th stage spiritual beasts could no longer hurt him, there were still some 5th stage beasts in this place. So, he had to remain wary of any sneak attacks from such powerful beings.

Along with that, there was also the possibility of being attacked by other competitors. So, he couldn't afford to take this region casually!

He also needed to find a safe spot to spend the night as well as a place where he could cultivate. He didn't dare to go to the Spatial Kingdom from this place where it was highly likely that he was being watched!

...

And as Minos made his way towards the central region of the forest, where the second test of the Spiritual Tournament was taking place, young Leroy was also moving towards the same direction.

However, he was not alone. Leroy had found another competitor shortly after the test began.

The person who was accompanying him was Davy Hayes, a level 43 participant and also the person who occupied the 3rd position in the Cultivation Ranking which Minos and Ruth had observed previously.

"So, you're saying that this young man, ehh, has two low-level grade-2 weapons, and you want my cooperation to take them from him while each of us gets one?"

After the two met, the duo quickly formed a temporary partnership. But as they started moving deeper into the forest, Leroy made this suggestion to Davy.

"Hehe, that's right! I have no need for two weapons... What do you think? This bastard is a wretch who hides behind a woman's strength and uses negligible means to fight in battles."

Leroy stopped for a second while laughing inwardly before continuing. "I know that your Hayes family gives great importance to justice. So, we will teach this bastard a lesson, and take away his weapons so that he learns the meaning of the word justice!"

Young Davy, who was not used to dealing with rascals like Leroy, quickly convinced himself that this was a good decision. After all, it wouldn't be wrong if he were to win a grade-2 weapon after killing someone who was as despicable as the person Leroy had described.

"Hm, okay."

'Haha, idiot! I will let you fight him alone, and after you are done exhausting each other I will finish both of you!' Leroy thought while hiding his satisfaction, lest Davy felt suspicious that there was something strange about this story.

After that, the two continued heading towards the central region of the forest, occasionally the duo encountered other groups and even fought against various spiritual beasts.

...

After a few hours of advancing deeper into the central region of the forest, Minos finally found a decent spot where he could rest.

There was a water source not far from his chosen spot, along with a cave on the side of a hill.

He then searched the place, looking for any signs of spiritual beasts, but there were none. In fact, even in the areas where he had passed while he walked, there were not many beasts or competitors whom he came across.

'It seems that I was sent to a very distant location...' Minos thought as he bit into eating an apple which he had bought from the market this morning.

All the food that he had brought from the Black Plain was gone in the meantime. After all, they had been traveling for about three months!

To ensure his safety while he was resting and cultivating, Minos started preparing the place to set two arrays which he had purchased beforehand, one for surveillance and the other for protection.

Since he had yet to make any alliances if Minos wanted to rest in a place like this, he needed to be sure that he would be safe while he was sleeping or cultivating, as in these two situations, cultivators were highly vulnerable.

Therefore, he would use the surveillance array to be alerted if any enemy were to arrive and the protective one to protect him for a moment if in case he didn't manage to wake up in time.

...

Time quickly passed, and the night had fallen upon the forest, leaving it in utter darkness, to the point where it was impossible to see anything!

At this time, Minos was quietly cultivating inside the cave he had found earlier.

He had activated his technique, Solar God Breath, while the several crystals around him shone as their intensity continued to gradually decrease.

'This feeling... I should easily be able to reach level 39 in 3 days at most!' he thought while circulating his cultivation technique once again.

However, just after roughly 15 minutes, his surveillance array suddenly started emitting an alerting sound.

Blim! Blim!

'Eh?' Minos opened his eyes slowly, after hearing the noise from the array. 'It looks like some guest is coming.'

He then released his meditative state and headed to the exit of the cave while moving slowly to not attract attention.

Boom!

Suddenly a loud explosive sound filled the air and Minos finally saw a battle that was taking place in front of him.

Two people were locked in a fight against a spiritual beast.

The spiritual beast was a Yellow Monkey, a breed that could reach the 6th stage of cultivation!

However, right now its cultivation was in the 5th stage.

The monkey was 3 meters tall, had an extremely muscular build, with a lot of hair on its head.

As for the two young men who were fighting this monkey, both of them were at level 39. These two looked completely terrified, and from heir expressions it was evident that they knew they were going to die.

Someone simply couldn't just compare against a beast which was a stage above them!

And the difference was just too big, not everyone was as exceptionally gifted as Minos.

The two young men defended themselves as best as they possibly could while trying to get near Minos' cave, with their clothes mostly torn into shreds and bodies covered in abrasions.

"Ahh! Help us!"

One of them shouted with all his breath after noticing Minos standing in front of the cave entrance, as a glimmer of hope ignited within him.