The Rise of the Black Plain

With his permission to begin the fight, the referee of the match soon rushed towards the side of the stage, giving space for the two young men to fight.

After being given the permission, both Minos and Troy wasted little to no time anymore and began to activate their battle techniques!

Devouring Art!

Indestructible Body!

Spatial Sword!

Minos immediately unleashed all three of his fighting techniques, sparing no effort for this battle. Troy was someone at level 44, so this battle would be quite competitive, and it was also possible that he would lose the battle if he didn't give everything he had.

As soon as Minos activated his techniques, the distinct black ring started to form in the sky while already beginning to absorb Troy's energy!

However, due to the significant disparity in the cultivation between the two, the absorption rate of Troy's spiritual energy was not as good as it had been when Minos had activated it against his other opponents in the second stage. But it also wasn't as weak as when he used to face Ruth.

Anyway, although this in itself didn't have a considerable impact on Troy, it still had some effect, helping Minos with some advantage in this battle!

Day Walk!

Meanwhile, as Minos had activated all of his three techniques, young Troy had also immediately activated his movement technique, advancing towards his opponent while closing the distance between them.

However, just as he entered about 40 meters away from Minos, Troy immediately sensed that his body had suddenly started getting heavier, while his speed had also dropped by more than 30%!

'This is truly incredible! He can manage to affect me in such a way!' Troy pondered while frowning. Now he was a little scared after experiencing the effect of Minos' technique on him.

Before the beginning of the fight, he was aware that his opponent was very strange, but experiencing it firsthand right now was a completely different matter...

And now, he could feel it on his skin. Not only had his speed been reduced, but he was also constantly losing his energy, at a rate that, although not so great, certainly was annoying and bothered him!

As he saw Troy approach closer to him, Minos immediately began to execute his sword movements, unleashing a barrage of attacks, sending it in several directions.

Minos knew that Troy would be able to deflect many of his air blades since the speed of this guy's movement technique was excellent, and also that he would remain relatively unaffected by the Spatial Sword.

So, Minos had planned to corner his opponent, forcing Troy to have no other choice but to defend himself!

Swooish!

Swooish!

With the sound of air being sliced reverberating on the stage, several air blades were created, cutting the path from Minos towards Troy's surroundings.

Seeing this, Troy furrowed his brow even more, feeling a chill running down his spine. 'This can't be real... These attacks are far stronger than mine!'

He was shocked to sense the power emanating from the air blades that were surrounding him. Troy had only a Silver-grade technique which was focused on movement. And that was a reason for his defense and attack techniques being simply of the Black-grade classification, which provided him with only 70% of effectiveness.

Even if he currently possessed more than twice the spiritual energy of Minos, he would have to expend more energy on each attack he made when compared to his opponent, and yet his attacks would remain slightly weaker!

Therefore, he couldn't afford to spend his strength defending against Minos' attacks. Instead, he needed to quickly deflect the approaching attacks and also counterattack the young Stuart as soon as possible!

Troy then exerted even more spiritual energy into his movement technique, skilfully deflecting all attacks that were coming towards him. And at the same time, he was getting closer and closer to Minos while preparing to unleash his attack technique before dealing severe damage to his opponent.

Take Down the Sky!

Just when Troy was only seven meters away from Minos, he punched through the air, causing the air to collapse and rush towards the young Stuart's chest.

Rumble!

Suddenly, followed by an echo of a rumbling in the arena, the air seemed to collapse as Minos slowly approached this rushing attack. The young Stuart didn't plan on deflecting the attack since his defense could absorb most of the damage it might cause.

That way, just by receiving this attack, Minos could also get closer to his opponent, managing to exert even more pressure on him!

To become victorious in this fight, the young Stuart needed to make Troy spend most of his energy on defending himself from Minos' attacks. Otherwise, it would be quite challenging for the young sovereign of the Black Plain to achieve a victory!

Spatial Sword!

In retaliation, Minos activated his attack technique once again, making smooth movements with his magnificent sword while completely ignoring Troy's incoming attack.

'Huh, you're underestimating my attack, en...' Troy wondered as he noticed that Minos had no intention of deflecting or even defending himself against his strike.

Swooish!

Swooish!

Quickly, Minos and Troy got close to each other, reaching a point when the two would no longer be able to dodge the attacks coming their way.

'This guy is completely crazy! He's not even wearing armor!'

Iron Body!

Troy immediately activated his defense technique to envelop his entire body with an iron-like layer, protecting him from physical attacks.

Boom!

Finally, the two young men received each other's attacks!

Following it was a slight noise that sounded on the stage as a few cracks began to appear in Troy's chest armor while the guy staggered back a few steps. Not only had this attack affected him a lot, but he had to expend a good portion of his spiritual energy to defend himself.

'Shit, I can't let this go on!' Troy thought, feeling the pressure of the situation.

Simultaneously, Minos was also pushed back, coughing as a bloodstain appeared on the left side of his mouth.

'Cough, ehh, that attack was powerful, huh... But now he must have spent a lot of his reserves...' Minos pondered while trying to stabilize himself. He then sighed and murmured to himself. "Let's see who gets exhausted first!"

Rumble!

A deafening rumble filled the arena.

...

Time was passing and every single spectator of this ongoing fight had their eyes and mouths wide open in shock and excitement. That was a fight of the highest quality!

In fact, many of them even thought that this could be a great story to tell their future grandchildren...

"Unbelievable! I knew they would have a great fight, but this is just too much!"

"Hmm, this Minos certainly deserves praise. Imagine if he was already at level 40... Not even the young Troy would have a chance to stop him!"

While the general public made some comments, watching this intense fight, the Spiritual Kings in the VIP seats of this arena were all dazzled as they observed the spectacle happening on that stage.

King James, in particular, thought to himself while admiring the great fight. 'What incredible strength this Minos has! Could this be his innate skill?' he pondered, trying to answer the mystery behind the young Stuart's power.

None among the people present in this place would ever fathom the possibility that Minos would have a Golden-grade technique. In fact, that thought itself was simply too absurd. After all, even Silver-grade techniques were rather scarce in this northern part of the Central Continent...

Moreover, there was also no way for them to recognize the degree of a technique given their cultivation levels.

Old Oswald had only been able to understand this because he had practiced a Golden-grade technique and was already in the advanced stage of cultivation, the 8th stage. He not only had a good understanding of the effects of this type of technique but was also able to use his soul sense to feel the fluctuations emitted by the techniques which Minos had used at the Peak of Fog.

Therefore, Oswald was able to deduce that the young Stuart had an efficiency of about 200% over the energy he expended.

However, it was simply impossible to observe this if someone was below level 70 when the cultivator's soul had not yet grown strong enough. Thus, the Spiritual Kings present here could not identify this detail!

And due to this, King James could only think that Minos had some defiant innate ability, making it possible for him to be so remarkably strong.

"Haha, this fight is excellent, but this young Minos will soon run out of energy..." one of the eight experts commented in a low voice while sensing the remaining energies of the two competitors.

One of the two women in the group voiced disagreement upon hearing this remake. "Don't be so certain. Minos has been spending considerably less energy than Troy. The problem lies in his reserves being less than his opponent, but that definitely doesn't mean that Troy might not run out before him."

"Hmm."

Several of them agreed with this while paying great attention to any movements that the two young men made.

Meanwhile, Ruth was also observing this fight from one of the VIP lounges. But she was quite calm while doing so. 'Hmm, it should be ending soon...'

Unlike the other people present around here, she was the only one who was not interested in the outcome of this confrontation. After all, she was very well aware that the result didn't matter to Minos. As for winning, well, this was just training for him. It wouldn't be much different from their own sparring sessions.

The difference was just that here he had a chance to win... But neither did Ruth care about young Stuart losing this fight. He had lost dozens of times to her, so what weight would another defeat have?

Anyway, she was just eagerly looking forward to starting their journey back to the Black Plain. She wanted to return to her sect as soon as possible so that she could enter secluded cultivation. She planned to cultivate until she reached level 50 which granted her to travel outside the empire whenever she wanted...

...

Finally, at this point, the last blow of the fight was also delivered!