The Rise of the Black Plain

The last blade of air created by Minos was thrown, while this young man had an ashen face. He had spent what he had on this attack, and there was no way for him to continue this fight.

Swooish!

At the same time, Troy tried to punch the air again, but he, too, was almost exhausted. He had received many blows from Minos in this fight, and as his defense was not as effective as that of his enemy, he had suffered much more physical damage!

"Ahh!"

Before the blade even touched him, Troy collapsed, wailing his vision blurred, and he fell slowly to the floor, with his face colliding with the fighting stage's ground.

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

However, that was also fortunate for Troy. Because he passed out and fell to the ground, he managed to dodge the tiny blade of air coming towards him!

Seeing the result in front of him, Minos was pleased, but it did not last even a fraction of a second. Soon the young Stuart's vision began to darken, causing him to pass out in that place where he was.

For those who saw this scene, 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 backward, still with his eyes open.

At this moment, when everyone was silent, a young woman screamed in surprise so that the whole arena could hear. "Both 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 one last attack before he fell!"

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

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

"What nonsense are you saying? In what world was Troy better? Of course, the young Minos won..."

Soon the public began to discuss who should be the winner of this fight, taking into account only the opinion of each one...

Some people supported the young Troy more, as there were many mysteries around Minos, and many did not like it. Some did not know which side to stand on. After all, this was a great fight, which remained in balance most of the time.

As for the argument that Minos was at a lower level and deserved to win, that was just nonsense. In the world of the strong, justifications like these were just bad excuses.

If your cultivation is 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. That was the privilege of power, which could even make a bandit look like a godly hero, as long as he was successful!

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

Anyway, seeing this result, the eight experts from the Flaming Empire looked at each other and then started to talk.

"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 was nearby, made a suggestion. "Why don't we consider this to be a draw? That will certainly be good for the sects that receive these youths..."

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

"Hmm, unless the two decide to go to the same sect, we can only tell our bosses that the competitor we took was the winner..." A young Spiritual King with blond hair said with a smile on his face.

Some old men in the sects could cause problems if they saw two champions coming. But if the two competitors went to different places, these surly elders would not mind 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. He announced the result while Minos and Troy were still lying in that area.

"Ehh, ladies and gentlemen, the announcement that the Spiritual Tournament is over!" He sighed and then said it out loud. "Announcement that the result of this match is a draw!"

"What?"

"A DRAW?"

Screams of surprise were heard, with many people unhappy with this result. Many of them had bet on the outcome of this fight, but now...

"Shit! That bookmaker is going to have to 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 will be announced soon." Someone was saying that when suddenly he said it. "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 was also a little surprised by this result, as she knew that these sects would not give the privilege of a newcomer to learn a Silver-grade technique without winning this competition...

'Well, but that will not be a big problem since Minos will not go to any of these sects...' She thought about it as she went up on stage and approached the unconscious body of the young man with brown hair.

He was very sweaty and had minor injuries, but nothing serious.

The worst was the depletion of spiritual energy, but that could be resolved in a few minutes. Then, after Minos woke up, she could quickly deliver him some spiritual fruit, and he would have enough energy for them to continue their journey.

The beginning of their journey did not have such dangerous regions, and they would fly most of the time. Thus, Minos did not need to be 100% prepared, as he had on the trip that they had previously made. 

After that, it didn't take long, and 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 debating 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 said that, truly not all Battle Royale groups had level 40 participants!"

...

Meanwhile, King James was currently debating with his generals when suddenly the eight young Spiritual Kings entered the VIP room in which the king was accommodated.

One of them said. "Your majesty, after we choose the participants later, we will leave the Cromwell Kingdom."

After saying this, one of them handed a medallion to the king and said. "As promised, the royal family will be able to send a talented youth at any time to one of the Flaming Empire sects. All he needs to do is show this."

That was a common practice since the beginning of the competition. Whenever a kingdom hosted the event, the organization gave a spot directly to the royal family of that place.

That was a form of incentive for these kingdoms to host this event and even give chances to the young people from other families. After all, the royal families in this part of the continent were the richest and the strongest.

Thousands of years old, these families had more techniques and resources than others. Therefore, the organization of the Spiritual Tournament came with this offer to reduce the number of competitors coming from a royal family.

Of course, some young people came from these powers, but they weren't many. Also, families did not always have suitable members to participate in the tournament within the previous requirements...

Anyway, after seeing this, King James smiled and thanked that man. He was already waiting for this since this was not his first time hosting this tournament!

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

...

At the same time, Minos and Ruth had already left 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 look as bad as he used to. 'Ahh, I've never had such a close fight before...' He thought to himself as he remembered what had happened.

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

Anyway, as they were heading out of this great city, suddenly two young men appeared in front of Minos and Ruth. They 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 strong body and short hair.

These were the two young men that Minos had saved in the second test, Peter and Maxwell, precisely with the bodyguard of the second youth.