The Rise of the Black Plain

As soon as Minos left the cave, he was greeted by a scene of an over 3-meter-tall yellow monkey mercilessly beating two young men. It was then that he heard the cry for help from one of them.

'Well, this is the first spiritual beast at the 5th stage I have seen in this forest so far. It will be good training...' Minos thought as he saw the monkey attacking the two competitors.

Without hesitation, Minos quickly took out his low-level grade-2 sword from his spatial ring and swiftly approached the yellow monkey.

He was not afraid of spiritual beasts due to their stronger physical strength. Given his two techniques, attack and support, the only thing that mattered to Minos was the opponent's spiritual level.

This left the young Stuart to have a significant advantage while fighting against spiritual beasts. The primary strength of this type of individual lay their physical prowess and not their spiritual energy!

And because of this, they would be left quite vulnerable against restrictive techniques like the one that Minos was using!

Seeing that Minos was willing to aid them, the two young men tried to evade the yellow monkey's attack and hoped to survive this ordeal. A new determined spark could be seen shining in their eyes, as they seemed ready to do anything to survive.

However, just as they were trying to catch a breath before finally preparing to help Minos fight with this beast, the young Stuart had already lunged in the direction of the yellow monkey.

The young Stuart held a smile on his face as he ran towards the beast as if he were going to do a hobby or something that was pretty ordinary, resulting in him being greatly pleased.

"What is he doing? Does he think about fighting alone?" one of them wondered as he observed Minos' movement with a shocked look on his face.

"Hey, this guy must be powerful!" the other exclaimed in joy, elated with the fact that it was great for him to find a strong ally who could not only save their lives but also help them with the rest of the exam!

Devouring Art!

Indestructible Body!

Spatial Sword!

Minos activated all of his battle techniques at once, resulting in the sudden change in the scenery around this part of the forest.

A black ring that had materialized high in the sky also started to spin, causing the place to get even darker than before.

However, by forcing one's vision by using spiritual energy to stimulate the eyes, it was still possible to see a darkened region like this from a short distance, in fact, it was even for someone at levels as low as that of the two young men who Minos had saved.

Zum!

A buzzing sound reverberated at the scene as Minos' support technique finally began to gradually absorb the yellow monkey's spiritual energy.

Simultaneously, this spiritual beast's speed had also dropped by more than 40% as Minos finally started wielding his sword.

Swooish!

Every swing that Minos made with his sword resulted in the creation of an air blade, which charged and struck at the various parts of the beast's body.

This was a powerful beast, and so to overcome it, Minos needed to wreck a considerable amount of damage in different parts of its body, to the point where he was getting more and more tired, even after simply standing.

It was a challenging task to kill an opponent so much stronger than yourself by using just a single blow. So, Minos adopted to gradually attack and slowly wear it down.

Swooish!

Grrr!

The yellow monkey managed to dodge some of the air blades, but it was still being hit by Minos' relentless attacks.

'Miserable human, I'm going to kill you too!' the monkey thought as it inched itself closer and closer to Minos.

Just like all the powerful spiritual beasts, the yellow monkey had excellent senses. And due to this, it was able to determine that Minos was only at the 4th stage of cultivation.

And in its eyes, just a single punch from it would be enough to defeat this human and lose his life!

'Hehe, you must be thinking that my defense is fragile, huh?' Minos mused inwardly, observing that the big monkey was trying to approach closer to him.

Spatial Sword!

Grr!

And while the monkey was getting closer and closer to Minos, its large body also had to bear several more wounds.

Meanwhile, the young Stuart was attacking and moving simultaneously, making the situation even more difficult for this spiritual beast.

...

While they observed Minos and the yellow monkey fight, the two young men had their mouths wide open, while their eyes almost popped out of their sockets in disbelief!

'How can this be? How can there be such a monster in the tournament?' The one with short hair and tanned skin was alarmed as he observed the turn of battle.

'Ahh... He must be one of those prodigies that will be chosen by the Flaming Empire sects. How envy-worth talent he has!' thought the other long-haired, pale-skinned, and brown-eyed young man.

...

Swooish!

Finally, as the last blade strike hit the big yellow monkey, it jumped forward, sending a punch in Minos' direction!

'Die!'

Noticing the incoming blow, Minos, who still had three more seconds remaining before his defense technique lost its effect, prepared for his last attack. He would use the remaining of his spiritual energy to finish the enemy.

Puff!

The yellow monkey's punch connected with Minos' shoulder, but almost all of the damage was absorbed by his powerful defense. Despite this beast being at the 5th stage, it had reached that level not long ago, and thus his level wasn't so profound.

Thus, its chances of being able to defeat Minos were truly slim!

Nonetheless, the beast's attack still managed to push the young Stuart two steps back while he prepared himself to counterattack.

Swooish!

Just in a thousandth of a second after hitting Minos on the shoulder, the young Stuart's opposite arm lifted up, swiftly moving from side to side as his sword sliced through the yellow monkey's throat!

Grr!

The great monkey uttered a final gurgling sound of despair as it noticed that the enemy's sword had already cut its neck.

As its vision slowly darkened, its blood began gushing out of the cut rapidly.

Soon the humongous beast gradually lost all its senses and finally fell on its knees with its face falling down, then completely falling under Minos' feet.

One could even see a pool of blood rapidly forming in the place, as the beast's face still had an expression of utter terror that it had to go through just before it died.

"Amazing! I've never seen anyone having such an impressive defense before!" the long-haired young man exclaimed with a wide smile on his face. Though he was still shocked by Minos' strength, he was much happier now that the danger of the beast had been taken care of!

"And his attack is just as strong! I wonder where he comes..." whispered the other to his ally, trying not to attract Minos' attention.

They had brought up this problem and had even been saved by this person. Because of this, the two felt a little embarrassed at the moment.

Meanwhile, Minos quickly checked the surroundings, ensuring that there were any other spiritual beasts in the vicinity.

And after observing that there seemed to be no one else around, Minos looked at the beast's body before finally storing it in his spatial ring.

He thought of using it as evidence for the exam. As for the blood left on the ground, he immediately burned it away since he didn't want to attract more problems to this place.

The blood of a 5th-stage spiritual beast was a very valuable resource for other lower-ranking beasts. If Minos didn't want to be constantly bothered by other 4th-stage beasts, he had to eliminate any traces of blood left behind.

Soon after, he made his way back towards the entrance to the cave, where the duo awaited. "You two better get in. We'll attract less attention there."

"Hmm."

"Thank you for saving us. If it weren't for you..." one of them expressed as he let out a deep breath. It was genuinely complicated to see death so up close as these two had seen today.

It was the kind of situation that was enough to make anyone rethink their decisions.

At least, that was what happened to someone after encountering a near-death encounter for the first time.

After that... Although the upcoming encounters won't become comfortable, with the experience, it would be a bit easier to handle such situations.

As they reached the inner part of the cave, the two noticed that it was illuminated since Minos had placed some lighting arrays.

After that, the two of them sat in a corner, and after a few moments, they began to introduce themselves to Minos.

The long-haired youth was the first, as he said in a resolute voice. "Thank you for saving my life. I, Maxwell Meyer, will forever remain grateful to you."

After that, the other youth also said something similar. "Me too. If you ever need my assistance, you can count on me. You can call me Peter."

Minos smiled and said, while nodding his head, "Hmm, nice to meet both of you. I am Minos."

"You two should recover as soon as possible. We can talk after that," Minos then suggested since he wasn't interested in making small talk at the moment. He was almost out of spiritual energy and thus wanted to start cultivating as soon as possible.

Upon hearing Minos' suggestion, the two immediately agreed and began to use their recovery pills and then concentrated their efforts on cultivating and absorbing the energy from these items.

The two were severely injured, so recovering quickly was a great necessity for them.

Otherwise, not only would they miss the exam, but it was also possible that they could lose their lives in the next few days. After all, they could still be attacked by the other spiritual beasts at any given moment!

Time passed very quickly, and the night gave way to sunlight, which could already be seen in the sky for a long time. Meanwhile, the group in the cave was resting before finally preparing to continue with the second day of the test.