The Rise of the Black Plain

A while after Ruth's departure, Minos immediately made his way to the Spatial Kingdom, a place which he hadn't visited in several weeks!

Shortly after arriving at a secluded spot, he activated his ring, which teleported him to a place near the large house beside the lake.

As he sensed the scenery changing around him, Minos immediately caught sight of a big fox, it stood at two meters in height, with its five tails resting in a corner near the lake. In contrast, a little fox with two tails was darting back and forth, playing with a stone.

These were the pair of mother and daughter who hadn't seen Minos for quite some time. And when she saw the person arriving at this place, Kyla immediately ran to Minos while making sounds in her beast language.

"Au! Au! Au!"

Two of her fangs swung ferociously while the little fox jumped onto Minos' legs, climbing up to his shoulder. Once she reached and settled on the young Stuart's shoulder, she began to lick the young man's right cheek while letting out sounds of joy as she actively wagged her two little tails.

Kyla had been feeling very bored these last few days since there wasn't much to do here.

Apart from her mother, there was no one else around and she had already run over every nook and cranny of this place during this time. Therefore, she was delighted to see Minos' arrival.

"Look at you. You're getting bigger!" Minos exclaimed with a smile on his face as he took the little fox in his arms and gently massaged her little head.

At the same time, Emlyn got up and approached Minos. "Oh? You finally came back... I thought you forgot about this place..."

Minos nodded and said as he looked at the big fox before him. "Hmm, I was traveling and so couldn't come here. But now I'm back in my city."

"By the way, what did you do with that medicine that I sent here?" Minos then inquired, remembering about the herb he had got from the Mountain of Fog.

"I tried planting it in the ground. And luckily, this place is brimming with vitality, so the plants do not need meticulous care. Otherwise, you would have lost that medicine," she then chuckled. "You were lucky. Little Kyla almost ate your plant when it arrived here..."

Minos then lifted the little fox with both hands, bringing her to eye level, and asked, "Oh? Is that so?"

But the tiny Kyla couldn't understand human language and simply showed a gleeful look in her big beautiful eyes.

"Au! Au!"

Minos just laughed seeing her and then gently put her back on the ground where she started running in a few circles around him while jumping in joy.

He intended to talk to Emlyn about what he had discovered about the organization that had kidnapped the fox couple earlier.

During his travels, Minos had noticed a person in the Cromwell Kingdom wearing clothes that were marked by the symbol which Emlyn had described to him before. Furthermore, Ruth had also told him from which empire that group originated. So, even though he couldn't do anything about it, at that moment, he still wanted to inform the great fox about these things.

...

Time passed, and after talking with Emlyn for a while, Minos finally got ready to cultivate. He had already reached the limit of the 4th stage and was eager to make big progress!

It didn't take long before Minos was already sitting in a meditative position after finding a serene spot in front of the lake.

Minos had already taken off almost all of his clothes, and was only in his shorts. After all, with the advancement of stages, many impurities were eliminated from the cultivators' bodies. For this reason, Minos opted to wear as few clothes as possible during his cultivation this time!

With all that prepared, without wasting any further time, he began circulating his cultivation technique, the Solar God Breath, as he basked in the rays of the sun from the Spatial Kingdom as they reached and entered his body, accelerating his cultivation even more.

There was also a certain amount of low-grade spiritual crystals that were scattered on the floor which emitted a radiant glow, gradually losing their energy.

Using crystals was the fastest way to obtain spiritual energy and doing so especially in an area of high spiritual concentration only enhanced one's cultivation. It was as if the natural spiritual concentration of the environment was channeling the spiritual power within these crystals towards the person engaged in cultivation.

And because of that, cultivation with spiritual crystals was even better in regions like the Spatial Kingdom, which had a very concentrated free spiritual energy of nature!

Anyway, Minos began to absorb the energies of those crystals quickly, while the cells within his body gradually underwent some change.

This was neither a small nor a fast change.

The changes in the physical body would happen gradually as he prepared to break through to the next stage, this improved the natural energy present in his cells, purging the toxins away, and stimulating his vitality.

It was as if at this moment, Minos' youthful body was being repaired from the many issues such as errors, scars, aging, etc. That was the effect of spiritual cleansing that happened during the transition from one stage to the next!

As time passed, the young Stuart's body expelled several toxins, which now lay scattered around him.

A considerable amount of a black, gooey substance could be seen, continuously oozing out of Minos' body.

The smell of this viscous substance was so strong that even the two foxes, who stood about hundreds of meters away, could smell it.

"What a horrible smell!" Emlyn remarked, her face twisted in disgust.

Though even the spiritual beasts underwent a form of spiritual cleansing similar to that of humans. Still, the quality of their toxins was far less. Moreover, spiritual beasts were more compatible with the natural spiritual energy than humans, so they were left with little to no residue of the herbs they consumed.

For this reason, the spiritual beasts released a minimal amount of impurities during their advancement...

And that was also why Emlyn was disgusted by what was happening to Minos. Tiny Kyla was also disgusted as she attempted to bury her snout in her mother's body so that she would not be able to smell it more.

Crack!

Not long after, Minos' spiritual energy finally reached the threshold of level 40, which resulted in the release of a cracking sound from his body!

As Minos opened his eyes, he quickly sensed the myriad changes that had happened in his body. Not only had his cultivation level advanced, but he could also sense that all of his techniques had also leveled up, making them even more potent due to this advancement.

But he quickly stopped thinking about it and headed straight to the big house so that he could get rid of the stink from his body.

This time, the spiritual cleansing was much more extensive than before, so the impurities expelled from his body this time were even more than before.

And as soon as he cleaned himself up, Minos stood in front of a mirror in the room and then carefully observed the transformation of his appearance.

He had made significant progress and he now appeared much more attractive than before, with many visible muscles adorning all over his body.

'Incredible! It's no wonder that the majority of the young people at this level look so dazzling!' Minos thought with a glorious smile.

Ruth herself had a body that was already almost perfect... And Minos couldn't help but wonder how she would look after achieving higher levels. 'Hahaha, I will put this thought aside for now...' A grin appeared on his face as he shook his head.

Anyway, his overall appearance had evolved and he was finally able to feel the energy of heaven and earth!

That was an ability that all people below the 5th stage coveted since it could significantly make their lives easier!

This ability could be used to feel the spiritual energy of living beings. But, it also helped to probe the surroundings, increase the amount of spiritual energy absorbed during the cultivation session, gain a better understanding of their own techniques and those of enemies, etc.

That was why most of Minos' opponents in the Spiritual Tournament already knew about how his techniques worked, just after observing him fight.

Of course, this was not the same as being affected by his techniques firsthand. Still, it was enough to provide them with some valuable information, for example, they knew that after entering the area surrounded by the black ring, their spiritual energies would be absorbed.

So, this proved to be an advantageous ability during battles!

After feeling his surroundings for the first time, Minos put on a piece of clothing and then left the house to go and train in his spiritual techniques. Today, he would also learn a new technique, which would be specialized in movement!

That was the only area in which Minos lacked at this moment since he had none of this type. And because of not having a movement technique, he hadn't been able to defeat young Troy during the Spiritual Tournament finale!

Young Troy had an excellent movement technique, which allowed him to evade many of Minos' attacks. However, that only worked because Minos didn't have such a technique at the time. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to be able to pull a draw against Minos!

Anyway, before he started doing that, Minos quickly probed the strength of the two foxes and discovered that the two were already at levels 49 and 12 respectively. 'Oh? As I expected, she was at the peak of the General Spiritual stage when I met her...'