The Rise of the Black Plain

Resting underneath a towering tree in the heart of the forest stood Minos and his two allies as they quenched their thirst and munched on the fruits.

At that moment, Peter, who had a question concerning this enemy that the young Stuart was chasing after, asked, "Minos, why are you still looking for that person? So far, you haven't told us anything."

Hearing his question, Maxwell also raised his head and looked away from Minos. He, too, was curious about the reason for young Stuart's dispute with Leroy.

Minos turned away from the two young men and spoke while looking elsewhere. "He wanted to profane my partner. And as a result, I cannot allow him to live!"

Upon hearing the explanation, the two understood the motivation behind Minos' relentless pursuit of this enemy. However, the two were not astonished to hear this, after all, there were many people like Leroy in this world–arrogant people who believed that they were the owners of the world...

After resting for a few minutes, the group resumed their pursuit.

On their way, the three were engaged in relaxed conversation as if they were taking a leisure stroll in the middle of a park.

"Minos, you should visit my family in the Snow Kingdom. We have the largest concentration of beast tamer in the entire North of the Central Continent," young Maxwell boasted with pride.

And indeed, the Snow Kingdom was notorious in this aspect for its trade of spiritual beasts. And due to the kingdom being geographically closer to Elves Island, it had diverse natural surroundings.

Despite having the name 'SNOW,' this kingdom wasn't entirely as arctic as someone might assume after thinking of its name. It had some places that were close to the coast and had a temperate climate. In fact, there was even a savannah close to its border with the Kingdom of End.

And because of these geographical characteristics, the Snow Kingdom had abundant stretches of land that were not inhabited by humans but rather by the spiritual beasts!

Due to this, after hundreds of thousands of years, the kingdom ended up specializing in the art of taming spiritual beasts, which earned them a reputation of being the best place in the North of the Central Continent to buy low-ranking beasts, the likes of those used in transport and as food for humans.

Minos nodded in agreement, "Hmm, I will definitely visit there in the future."

...

After some time passed, Minos and Leroy were now finally about to cross paths in the forest!

Minos and his teammates had closed the remaining distance to Leroy and Davy and had recently taken a stop near a small lake.

Right now, the group of three was sneaking up closer to the site, eager to see what was going on here.

Finally, one of them spotted two young men who seemed to be resting at the place not far away from them.

...

Not long ago, Leroy and Davy decided to take a break at this location since the two of them had already realized that they were being followed. However, they did not intend to set a trap or anything of the sort.

After all, it was quite irritating to know that you are being continuously chased!

But since both of them were already Spiritual Generals, they could easily sense the energy of their persecutors. Thus, they knew there were three people, all being at only level 39...

"Leroy, do you have any other enemies who would chase after you like that?" Davy asked curiously. He did not care about these people since the difference between them was very significant!

"No," Leroy replied nonchalantly. "The only person who has a grudge against me in this competition is Minos. But he is only at level 37."

He also didn't give a damn about these three poor wretches chasing after him.

If they wanted to come and disturb him, then he wouldn't mind doing them a favor and killing them!

'Shit! Where is this Minos? We've been looking for him all this time, but it's like he simply vanished. Nobody we talked to seemed to know about him!' Leroy fumed angrily in his mind...

Davy then chimed as he yawned, "Haa... Well, in that case, let's wait and see what these guys want..."

Their journey till now had been very uneventful. Despite four days since the start of the test, only a beast at the beginning of the 5th stage had attacked them so far.

However, dealing with such a beast was effortless for two skilled cultivators like them. And as a result, the two had not experienced any significant challenges during this trial.

...

Finally, Minos caught sight of the person who had previously ran away from him.

The bastard was leisurely sitting on a rock, as if he were doing nothing better and had a carefree expression on his face.

'Eh? Didn't this guy recognize me?' Minos wondered as he saw Leroy being so calm. 'Well, it's only been two months since we met. He must probably be thinking that I wouldn't be able to reach level 39 in such a short time...'

After pondering for a moment, Minos called the two companions and whispered, "I think you two shouldn't get involved in this fight. Otherwise, it can put you in some danger."

Maxwell frowned as he inquired further, "Are you planning to kill him?"

"Hmm," Minos nodded without any emotion.

"But there are two cultivators on the other side. Do you intend to fight both of them alone?" after hearing Minos' dry response, Peter asked with concern.

He did not want the person who had saved his life to engage in a fight alone, especially when there was a difference in numbers.

"Don't worry. I can handle this," Minos shook his head in reassurance.

After saying those last words, Minos finally started to make his way towards Leroy and Davy. As for the other two, they stopped for a moment before following in the young Stuart's footsteps.

They would at least stand by so that they would be ready to intervene and help Minos if a need arose.

...

'Oh? It seems that they finally decided to show up...' Davy thought, sensing that Minos and his group were approaching them rapidly.

Seconds later, Minos' figure emerged from behind a tree, finally, coming into sight of the two young men standing near the small lake.

Seeing this, both Davy and Leroy were taken aback. However, the reason for their shock was entirely different…

While Davy thought about how Minos had a striking resemblance to the target they were hunting, Leroy's face had already started turning pale due to fear!

He just couldn't believe that Minos had managed to increase his cultivation by two whole levels in just two months!

'Shit! Had I known that it was going to be him, I would have set a trap here! It wasn't supposed to be like this!' He thought, putting himself in a defensive position.

Observing the reaction of surprise on both of their faces, Minos' expression remained stoic as he stood in the same spot he had arrived.

He was dressed in all-black clothing with his low-level grade-2 spiritual sword already gripped tightly in his right hand.

Looking at him, any of the three young people who didn't know all the details of the grudge between Minos and Leroy could sense the young Stuart's intense murderous desire.

Minos then said as he turned his gaze at Davy for a moment and then focused on Leroy. "I don't know why you are with this scum, but if you involve yourself in this fight, don't blame me for the consequences that you will have to face."

Hearing this, Davy frowned and firmly studied Minos for a moment. 'Oh! He has a lot of courage to threaten someone who is far stronger than him!'

Young Davy was unaware of Minos' strength. After all, Leroy wanted to use him as a sacrifice so that he would erode young Stuart's strength, after which he would have a chance to kill Minos!

As far as Davy knew, Minos was someone who relied on external assistance to fight, such as help from other people, traps, etc...

A bit irritated, Davy retorted, "So, you're threatening me? A man who hides behind a woman dares to say that... You are truly a lunatic!"

'Does he hide behind women?' The two young men processed what they had just heard and thought. 'How absurd, Minos is a real monster, it seems...'

Meanwhile, Minos finally understood the situation. It looked like Leroy was using this young man as nothing but a scapegoat.

'Indeed, a worm that must die!'

'A scum will always remain a scum...' Minos sighed as he thought about Leroy's actions.

The guy clearly had a twisted mind and was even willing to sacrifice someone who had nothing to do with his problems!

"I understand now. Leroy is simply using you to fight me. I will settle my affairs with this worm first, but if you still try to do something, even if I won't kill you, you will receive severe punishment," Minos declared calmly as if he was the only person here who had the authority to say these things.

...

Meanwhile, at the square where the Spiritual Tournament was located, many people noticed the situation getting increasingly tense between Minos' group and Leroy's group.

And since they didn't receive any audio from the forest, they couldn't exactly discern what was going on, but they could tell that there was a grudge between the two groups.

"Hey! Look at that. It seems that Minos' group is going to fight with those two!" someone among the crowd exclaimed in surprise.

Many of the people present here had already gotten familiar with Minos' name since he was even able to kill 5th-stage spiritual beasts single-handedly, causing his name to be widely spread among all the spectators of this competition.