The Rise of the Black Plain

Meanwhile, in Dry City.

Minos was finally going to meet the two alchemists of his territory today. He possessed a Warrior-grade spiritual herb and wanted these two people to learn how to crop the Rainbow Fruit.

He hadn't attempted to do this before since it was a wild herb, and the two alchemists would require some time to study it. And so, Minos couldn't afford to let them make a mistake during their studies, as it would likely result in the loss of the rare herb!

And to ensure the safety of the herb he had planted it in his Spatial Kingdom by using the spiritual tools left behind by Henricus Longus. As a result of which, now there were more than just one such herb already growing, thus Minos could let the two alchemists develop a method of planting this herb.

However, he couldn't just plant each herb and tend to them, so this would be a only one-time exception. After all, neither Minos had any expertise in alchemy, nor did he have time to dedicate himself to learning it.

As for letting either of those two use his tools, that was simply out of the question at the moment.

They were very crucial and were the only way for Minos to be able to harvest the high-level herbs that were within the Spatial Kingdom, so he would definitely not risk using these tools for something insignificant. As for letting these two enter the Spatial Kingdom, that would be another absurdity.

The two alchemists had recently joined Minos' forces, and the young Stuart wasn't yet strong enough to protect himself against the forces of the northern Central Continent.

Only when he had reached a significant strength would he allow more of his subordinates to enter the Spatial Kingdom. Before that, only a selected few, deemed more trustworthy and talented would have access.

Finally, Minos made his way towards a large store located not far from his mansion.

There were many commercial buildings in this area, consisting of many restaurants, clothing stores, markets, and the Cohen family store.

Anyway, the specific building where Minos was headed towards had four floors and was completely adorned in green. There were several herbal symbols and a large shield with a golden tree on the building's facade.

This building was known as the Alchemist Guild of Dry City!

Minos had ordered the construction of this place so that it was capable enough to receive the various alchemists who would come here in the future. So this building aimed to kick-start this profession in the Black Plain and, at the same time, provide a place where the citizens could buy pills at low prices and the aspiring youths could learn this specialization.

After all, alchemy was the second most lucrative profession in the Spiritual World, second only to array masters' business. The demand for these two types of professionals was practically in all regions. Moreover, the latter could produce large quantities of simpler arrays, which improved the quality of people's life.

And since most of the human population in this world had a talent of up to a Black one, there was a massive demand for such items produced by the array masters.

As for alchemists, they were indispensable as everyone needed these experts sooner or later. After all, even the ones with Golden talent could not prevent all the bottlenecks they would encounter during their cultivation!

However, spiritual pills, although greatly useful, were single-use items and not generally advisable for frequent use.

These pills would leave toxins in cultivators' bodies over their use, which could negatively affect cultivation speed during higher levels. Therefore, it was generally advisable to use spiritual pills only when there was an extreme need, such as when cultivators needed to break a bottleneck or to heal wounds.

Just because of this drawback, alchemy was not the most profitable profession in the Spiritual World!

Anyway, despite this, the number of people who aspired to become alchemists was not small, and it was only a matter of time before some in Dry City aspired as well. So, having a dedicated place like this could help Minos complete a part of his goal of making this place more attractive.

Finally, Minos entered the building, heading directly to the top floor, where the refining rooms were located.

On this floor, in addition to more than ten rooms prepared to accommodate alchemists, there was also the main hall, where alchemists could rest between the production of a batch of pills.

There were sofas, armchairs, some tables here and there, and also cultivation cushions, arranged spaciously. It resembled a small cafeteria, with a large living room beside it.

It also had bathrooms and a kitchen, but this was still not functional yet.

It was a simple place, but it had a basic yet functional structure to accommodate numerous professionals in this department.

This place also provided a suitable environment for engaging in conversations about alchemy, in which these professionals could address each other's doubts and share their knowledge with the juniors members of this profession.

Anyway, upon arriving at this floor, Minos could see that the two alchemists were currently occupied with producing their pills. Because of this, the young Stuart decided to wait until the two had completed their tasks at hand before approaching them.

Despite being the local sovereign, Minos did not have the arrogance to believe that people had to come to him or do things in the best way for prioritizing him, regardless of the general situation.

And since the two alchemists were struggling hard to supply the great demand for spiritual pills in the present Dry City, the young Stuart did not want to take up more of their time by making them come to him.

Thus, Minos decided to come to the two of them to talk about this subject of Warrior-grade medicine, saving as much time as possible for these two alchemists.

...

Finally, after waiting for almost half an hour, the two alchemists completed producing their previous batches of pills.

The two had already left their rooms and looked extremely tired, with several sweat stains on their clothes and an exhausted look on their faces. After all, alchemy heavily depended on spiritual strength, which meant that producing pills was no different than spending energy during training in battle techniques or even engaging in a fight!

Upon leaving their refining rooms, the two alchemists carried a thick medicinal scent on their bodies, which was already permeating the air in the vicinity.

And just when they intended to sit down to rest for a while, they noticed that there was someone else there, waiting for them.

"Mister Minos, we didn't know you were going to come here. If we knew, we would have made some prior arrangement," Old Edric said apologetically.

"Hmm."

Minos then smiled and said while shaking his head, "Don't worry about it."

Saying that the young Stuart took out a herb that had a seven-colored fruit from his spatial ring and then placed it on the table in front of them.

"This is a Warrior-grade wild medicine which I stumbled upon during my trip to the Cromwell Kingdom. I want both of you to take a part of your time to study it and develop a farming method for it so that we can cultivate more of it."

Observing this, the two men immediately approached the plant and began to look at it with their eyes shining with excitement.

This was a complete herb with fruit, seeds, and the entire plant itself!

Neither of them had ever encountered medicine of this degree ever before!

Seeing this, Davis finally remarked with a smile on his face, "I believe that I will be able to do this only after I reach level 40, which isn't too distant."

"Hehe, that's absolutely right. But for now, only I can be the one to play with this beauty!" Old Edric said with a wide grin on his face.

"AHEM!"

But then he cleared his throat after hearing his words.

Old Edric had already reached level 40, so he could sense the plant's spiritual energy. And as a skilled alchemist, he had a much sharper sense of manipulating such plants which surpassed that of other cultivators.

Thus, he was confident that he could certainly develop a cultivation method for the Rainbow Fruit which Minos had brought to them.

Minos smiled and said in response, "Well, if that is the case, I will take my leave. I don't want to disturb your pill refining too much."

After exchanging a few more words, Minos took his leave, leaving the two alchemists in possession of the spiritual herb for examination. The two stared at the herb and its fruit on the table for a while before Davis finally left, leaving only Edric to analyze it.

Davis knew that he would still need some time to reach level 40, so he wouldn't be of any help at this moment. He could only continue to produce his spiritual pills and cultivate his energy so that he could reach that level as soon as possible.

...

While the alchemists worked in the Alchemy Guild of Dry City, a few dozen kilometers away a carriage was approaching the city while being pulled by 3rd stage spiritual beasts.

Emblazoned on this carriage was a symbol of a silver eagle.

The emblem of the Silva family!

"We're almost there, Ms. Sarah," one of the two men exclaimed happily.

After months of investigating Darell's death, they had reached a dead end. However, they finally concocted an 'ingenious' idea of how to fix it, in a way where 'everyone' would win!

"Hmm, let's see how that brat is living... Hahaha, we will do him a favor by ending the suffering he must be going through all this long," the blond man said with ridicule.

"Let's get this over with. I want to return to the Red Valley as soon as possible. We've been gone for too long..."

And so, the group of three continued to quickly approach the newly built wall on the outskirts of Dry City...