The Rise of the Black Plain

After a short time, many people had already glued their attention to the screen that was showing the confrontation between Minos and Leroy's group.

"Hehe, there haven't been many battles between the competitors so far, especially between such strong people!" a middle-aged man exclaimed with a joyous laugh.

While watching the tournament was very interesting, many of the participants in the second stage were still very weak. Therefore, things would generally only become interesting during the third test.

Because of this, many of the spectators were getting anxious to witness a fight that was about to happen between some of the strongest competitors!

'I wonder who will win...' this question echoed in the minds of many spectators present here.

And while some people were discussing the likely outcome of this fight, Ruth was absent from the scene. She was not interested in wasting time watching this tournament since she knew Minos very well and knew that he would have no problem with this exam.

Thus, she decided to concentrate on training her techniques and cultivation during this period.

...

While everyone was anticipating what events would happen in the forest, where the second test was taking place, Davy was confronting Minos steadily with determination and was ready to unleash his techniques at a moment's notice.

He was increasingly irritated by Minos' authoritative behavior and was almost urging to attack this brat and teach him some lesson. However, he didn't readily do it because he wanted to see what kind of dirty tactics the young Stuart intended to use.

After all, it was not an easy task to defeat someone who was so much stronger than yourself, like what Minos was trying to do.

On the other side, Leroy, the young master from the Chambers family had started sweating cold after seeing that his ally seemed to be waiting for something.

'Shit! Do something! Otherwise, I will be dead!' He cursed young Davy inwardly, directing his frustration towards his 'ALLY.'

Meanwhile, Minos gradually stepped forwards in Leroy's direction, steadily approaching his real enemy while carrying his sword in his right hand, wearing an expressionless face.

This sight alone was enough to give someone a fright.

As he continued approaching, Minos activated his defense and support techniques simultaneously.

Devouring Art!

Indestructible Body!

Suddenly, the surroundings started to turn darker, while a black mist appeared in the sky out of nowhere, gradually morphing into the shape of a big ring that was roughly 100 meters in diameter.

Zuum!

The instant it appeared high in the sky, this ring began rotating, emitting a continuous hum.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Leroy and Davy had already started to feel as if their spiritual energies had started to slowly wane away. However, being at a lower level, the young master of the Chambers family was the one to be affected the most.

'Shit! What kind of monster have I pissed off?' Leroy started lamenting internally and, at the same time, activating his defense and movement techniques as much as possible so that he could have a chance of getting away from here.

On Davy's side, the successor of a family that valued justice was left utterly shocked after the young Stuart activated his techniques.

He knew that he had almost three times more spiritual energy than his opponent Minos, but even then, his body was not able to negate the enemy's technique!

'Ehh?'

Spatial Sword!

Noticing that Leroy was trying to escape, Minos quickly activated his attack technique.

And as soon as he did so, all of Minos' surroundings froze as if the time had turned still.

As for Leroy, this time, when compared to the pressure from last time when he faced Minos before, this time he felt even heavier and struggled to move even at a sluggish pace!

After all, Minos' cultivation had increased significantly during the time his enemy was away, besides, he had also focused his most effective techniques on someone at Leroy's level.

Simultaneously, while the two men felt their bodies becoming heavier with each passing moment, Minos started using his moves, sending some air blades in Leroy's direction.

Swooish!

Within less than a fraction of a second, the blades were flying toward Leroy's body. In contrast, the young man began using everything he could in order to defend himself.

Green Shield!

'Shit, I won't be able to dodge!'

Seeing this, Davy started to feel an increasingly bad feeling rising in his gut as he activated his techniques in an attempt to assist his companion.

'How can this be possible?'

However, even after activating his moment technique, Davy suddenly felt that he would still be unable to reach Leroy before Minos' attack did.

Crash!

At that moment, the spiritual shield that Leroy had deployed as a support for his technique, which resembled a piece of wood, suddenly received one of Minos' blades, resulting in the formation of numerous cracks that began to appear on its surface.

Boom!

In another fraction of a second, after being hit by another blade, the shield exploded right before Leroy's eyes, sending a wave of spiritual energy and all of the shield's shattered shards all over the place!

"Ahhh!"

Young Leroy cried out desperately, feeling several of the shield shards laceration on many regions of his skin, making him experience tremendous pain.

And after the explosion of his spiritual weapon, there was no other way one would have to defend himself, even more, when it was a shield!

People typically relied on shields to protect themselves, and thus they would let their guard down in situations like this...

Leroy staggered backwards while Davy finally managed to get to his side.

"If you are going to continue with this, I will fight as well!" He declared, glaring at Minos.

Although there were some issues with Leroy's information, he still believed that Minos was a despicable person, just based on what he had heard...

So, Davy was determined to help his ally!

"Ehh... Don't regret it later, you fool!" The young Stuart said confidently, not in the least feeling any doubt for what he intended while he started to run towards the two.

Now he would give it his all!

Previously, he wanted to give a reason for this guy not to fight by showing his strength. But since Davy failed to know what was good for him, Minos didn't need to keep wasting his time on such blockheads!

Someone like this would die sooner or later at the hands of a despicable person like Leroy.

Spatial Sword!

Immediately, the young Stuart started to move around them while sending long-range attacks in Leroy's direction.

He didn't intend to fight these two face-to-face since his techniques were especially useful in long-range fights against opponents of a higher level!

And with each moment that the young Stuart made, would result in the unleashing of air blades that were less than 50 centimeters in length that would be sent towards his targets.

Various strikes which were sent in their direction possessed tremendous strength, and were enough to kill someone at level 41 with a single blade!

Swooish!

Earth Wall!

Suddenly, the ground around Davy began to respond to the spiritual power released by the young man, forming a foot-thick wall in front of the two.

With Leroy no longer having his shield and being severely weakened, if Davy were to fall, then that would be the end of both of them!

...

Meanwhile, in the square of the Capital City, thousands of spectators observed the fight taking place in that forest through the screens with intense focus.

"Damn! I never thought that Minos would be so dominating!"

"Hmm, he's constantly pressuring those two..."

"I wonder just what might have happened... it doesn't seem to be anything simple!"

As the crowd argued, the woman overseeing this part of the Spiritual Tournament was observing this fight.

While gazing at the screen, she murmured in a low voice, "This boy, ehh, Minos, is truly impressive. He will probably be in the top 5..."

...

Meanwhile, in the forest, Maxwell and Peter stood on the side, watching the intense battle between Minos and Davy as they admired their savior's impressive fighting prowess.

"It looks that this Davy won't be able to hold it much longer..." Peter remarked, letting out a sigh of pity. Even if Minos chose to spare him, Davy would still suffer a lot because of this battle.

That's because, at this point, the guy was only left with one arm on his body!

But worst of all, Davy was just a victim of Leroy, which made Peter feel sorry for this guy. However, there was nothing they could do. This was the cruel reality of the Spiritual World.

If a cultivator becomes the victim of someone else's actions, all he could do was bear with his regret...

"Ahhhh!"

Davy was left utterly wounded, to the point where one could barely think of him as a human. There were several open wounds near and on his chest, and his face turned as white as a sheet of paper due to a severe loss of blood.

Drops of blood also trickled from his mouth and ears, while his torn clothes revealed numerous purple bruises on his body.

Boom!

Suddenly, Davy's last defenses crumbled and the young man slumped to the ground, losing his consciousness.

Minos' technique hadn't even hit him, in fact, Davy had simply passed out after his defense collapsed!

'Finally.' The young Stuart let out a breath after seeing Davy's body collapse on the ground.

He then glanced at the severely injured and pale Leroy.

The young man then tried to desperately appeal for his life, resorting to using his family's influence as a shield."Minos, you can't kill me! I am an important member of the Chambers family! If something happens to me, you..."

Swooish!

However, before he could even finish his threat, Minos had already swung his sword, quickly cutting through Leroy's neck!

This happened so fast that young Leroy who was still trying to appeal for his life saw his head start to turn to the side while falling to the ground.

Even in the final moments of his life, Leroy had a confused look. He just couldn't believe that Minos would kill him, even after citing the protection of his family!

...

Outside the forest, in the city square, the capital of the Cromwell Kingdom.

While the people were still watching the fight, they were left utterly shocked by the sudden turn of events.

They had seen a bit of everything in these past few days and had even seen a few of the competitors die, none among those competitors had fallen at the hands of another participant!

As for the previous fights between participants during the Spiritual Tournament, all of them had ended up with one side surrendering and delivering their items to the opponent. Nobody dared to kill these young prodigies since most of them hailed from prominent families!

"He actually killed that boy..." a young woman uttered in disbelief.

"Hmm, there was certainly a deep grudge between the two!" a middle-aged man exclaimed.

Most of the spectators didn't disapprove of Minos' action. On the contrary, it was rather better to kill an enemy than to let them live and then potentially cause trouble for yourself later on!

Human beings were complicated creatures, and rarely would anyone change, so it would be nothing but silly to expect second chances in the vicious Spiritual World.

This was the law of the jungle, a law that was responsible for governing the world of those who had the strength!