The Rise of the Black Plain

As the last air blade created by Minos was thrown towards his opponent, the young Stuart's face had turned ashen. With this last blade, he had spent all that he had on this attack, and there was no way for him to continue this fight any further.

Swooish!

At the same time, Troy tried to punch the air again, but he, too, was almost on the brink of collapse. He had endured many of Minos' blows during this fight and since his defense was not as effective as that of his enemy, he had suffered numerous injuries and physical damages!

"Ahh!"

Before the blade even touched him, Troy collapsed on the floor of the stage, wailing. His vision blurred, with his face colliding with the hard surface of the stage's ground.

He had lost consciousness after trying to create a new attack. But, unfortunately, that was too much for him.

However, this turn of events was also quite fortunate for Troy. Because after passing out and falling to the ground, he managed to dodge the tiny blade of air coming towards him!

Witnessing the result in front of him, Minos was pleased with satisfaction, but it couldn't last for even a fraction of a second before the young Stuart's vision began to darken, causing him to pass out in the very spot he was standing.

For those who saw this scene unfold, Minos seemed to want to say, 'I won,' but while trying to do that, the young man who had some bloodstains on his body slowly fell backwards with his eyes still open.

At this moment, while everyone in the arena was silent, a young woman screamed in surprise, shattering the silence as her voice reverberated throughout the arena. "Both of them passed out!"

"It seems that this is the case... But who will be the winner?"

"Of course, it will be Minos. He still managed to send a last attack before he collapsed!"

"That's right! He was also the last to pass out!"

"There's no such thing as the last to pass out! For me, the young Troy was better!"

"What nonsense are you spouting? In what world was Troy better? Of course, it's the young Minos who has won..."

Soon the spectators began to fervently debate on who should be considered as the winner of this fight, taking into account only the opinion of each one...

Some people supported the young Troy more, since there were numerous mysteries surrounding the young Stuart, causing many to not like it. Some did not know which side to stand on. After all, this was a great fight that remained in balance most of the time.

As for the argument that Minos was at a lower level and thus deserved to be the winner, that was simply considered as nonsense. In the world of the strong, justifications like these were nothing but just bad excuses.

If your cultivation was low, then you can only blame yourself and your own luck!

At the end of the day, what truly mattered was who won.

The winner could tell what he wanted, and no one would remember the losers. Such was the privilege of power, which could even make a bandit look like a godly hero, as long as he was successful!

This was also how history was written.

After all, the story was written by the winners, who could manipulate the truth most conveniently...

Anyway, after seeing this result, the eight experts from the Flaming Empire stared at each other and then started discussing.

"I think the young Minos should be the winner."

"No, that would be an injustice to the boy named Troy!"

"But..."

At this moment, the king, who sat next to them, made a suggestion. "Why don't we consider this to be a draw? That will certainly benefit the sects that receive these two youths..."

"This... might be a good idea!"

"Hmm, unless the two decide to go to the same sect, we can only inform our superiors that the competitor we took was the winner..." a young, blond-haired, Spiritual King suggested with a smile on his face.

Some old men in the sects could cause problems if they were to find out about the presence of two champions within the sect. But if the two competitors went to different places, these surly elders would not care about knowing what happened in a simple 'sieve' like this...

"Hmm, I think this can work."

After deliberating for a few minutes, they finally communicated the result to the match referee. Upon hearing this, he immediately ran to the center of the stage and announced the result while Minos and Troy were still lying there motionlessly.

"Ehh, ladies and gentlemen, it is with great regret that I announce that the Spiritual Tournament has come to a conclusion!" He sighed before declaring out loud. "Now, I announce the result of this match as a DRAW!"

"What?"

"A DRAW?"

Screams of surprise filled the whole arena, with many people clearly being unhappy with this result. Many of them had placed bets on the outcome of this fight, but now...

"Shit! That bookmaker better return our money!"

"Hahaha! It looks like the big winner here was the bookmaker!"

"But this is also surprising. There has never been a tie in the Spiritual Tournament before!"

"How will the ranking look now?"

"Don't worry. It should be announced soon." Someone said while reassuring the crowd while pointing at the large screens that started showing the ranks, "Look there. The ranking screen is already working. So, it shouldn't be long before it is announced!"

...

While the audience was actively discussing the unexpected end of this event, Ruth was already running up to the stage to pick up Minos.

She too was a little surprised by this result, since she knew that these sects would not give the privilege of a newcomer to learn a Silver-grade technique without winning this competition...

'Well, that will not be a big issue since Minos doesn't plan to go to any of these sects...' she thought as she went up on stage and approached the unconscious figure of the brown-haired young man.

His whole body was covered in sweat and had many minor injuries, but none of them were serious.

The important concern was the depletion of spiritual energy, but that could be resolved in just a few minutes. And, once Minos woke up, she could quickly deliver him some spiritual fruits, and he would have restored enough energy for them to continue their journey.

The beginning of their journey did not have dangerous regions, and they would travel by flying on her spiritual beast most of the time. Thus, Minos didn't need to be in his 100% best condition, as he had been on the trip when they were coming to the Cromwell Kingdom.

After that, it didn't take long before the final ranking of the competition started to appear on the arena screens.

- 1st: Minos and Troy Newman

- 3rd: Kara Carline

- 4th: Mona Miller

- 5th: Davy Hayes

- 6th: Roger Aguilar

- 7th: Luke Nash

...

- 10th: Ford Carline

...

- 12th: Peter

...

- 16th: Abby Miller

...

- 19th: Maxwell Meyer

...

- 32nd: Todd Cohen

When they saw this, everyone started discussing the ranking order, while some checked their bets to see if they had matched the positions...

"Haha, who is this, Todd Cohen? I don't remember this guy."

"Hehehehe, he was one of the three brats who made it to the fourth test of the tournament before reaching level 40..."

"Oh? Now that you mentioned that, I don't think all Battle Royale groups had level 40 participants!"

...

Meanwhile, King James was currently engaged in a heated discussion with his generals when suddenly the eight young Spiritual Kings entered the VIP room.

One of them spoke up, "Your majesty, after we choose the participants later, we will depart the Cromwell Kingdom."

After conveying this, one of them handed a medallion to the king before saying, "As promised, the royal family will have the privilege to send a talented youth to one of the Flaming Empire sects at any time. All they need to do is show this medallion."

This was a common practice that had been carried on since the beginning of the competition. Whenever a kingdom hosted a tournament, the organization would directly allocate a spot to the royal family of that place.

This acted as a form of incentive for these kingdoms to host this event and even provide opportunities to the young talents from other families. After all, the royal families in this part of the continent were the wealthiest and the strongest.

With thousands of years of history, these families had an abundance of techniques and resources when compared to the others. Therefore, the organization responsible for the Spiritual Tournament came up with this offer to reduce the number of competitors that might come from royal families.

Of course, some young people came from these powers, but their number wasn't much. Also, these families did not always have suitable members for participating in the tournament who met the tournament's requirements...

Anyway, after seeing the medallion, King James smiled and thanked the one who handed it. He had already been waiting for this since this wasn't his first time hosting the tournament!

With this opportunity given by the sects of the empire, royal families in the northern region of the Central Continent could maintain their dominance, remaining in their position as the strongest forces in the region!

...

Meanwhile, unknown to anyone, Minos and Ruth had already departed the arena and were heading towards the city's exit.

At this point, the young Stuart had already recovered a little, and he didn't appear as bad as he was not long ago. 'Ahh, I've never had such a close fight before...' he contemplated while he remembered everything that had happened during the battle.

He did not count the times when he fought Ruth in his battle record. No, that was simply training...

Anyway, as the duo was heading out of this great city, they were forced to halt as two young men suddenly appeared in front of them. The two young men were accompanied by a middle-aged man who was wearing black armor.

One of the young men had long black hair, while the other had a sturdy-looking body and short hair.

These were the two young men that Minos had saved in the forest during the second stage of the tournament, Peter and Maxwell, precisely with the bodyguard of the latter.