The Rise of the Black Plain

After the fight was over, Neal immediately ran to that stage, heading towards his partner while remaining impressed by everything he had seen during that fight.

Minos had demonstrated an excellent fighting proficiency that Neal had never seen in his life.

Neal understood how difficult it was for Minos to do so because he had already seen Celeste struggle with everything she had!

But he didn't ask anything to his old acquaintance, having just approached his companion and helped her.

"Are you okay?" He asked her.

"Yeah, are just scratches..." She answered him as she slowly got up from that spot, using Neal's support. "But this Minos is a beast!"

"If I didn't already know he's the same age as you and Brooke, I would never believe that such a strong person could be so young.."

After that, the two continued to talk until Minos approached them and said, looking first at Celeste and then at that young man. "You can recover from your injuries, and then one of my soldiers will seal your cultivation again. As for Neal, you can accompany me."

"We will sign the Soul Contract, and then you will join my organization."

"I assume you prefer to do this, right?" Minos asked that young man as he used a towel to dry the sweat on his face.

The fight with Celeste had been quite intense, and this sovereign had spent a part of his energies to defeat her. So, even though he wasn't hurt or as exhausted as that woman, Minos was still quite sweaty.

Hearing this and seeing the young man drying his brown hair in front of him, Neal nodded and responded. "Of course, I'd rather join your army than stay in jail for several years, hehe."

'Besides, with the protection this place has, Brooke's dad can't kill us, and Celeste and I can stop running!' He thought for a moment, concluding that this was the best outcome.

Signing a Soul Contract with Minos was not ideal, as it always diminished the freedom of the people who signed them. But, there were more positives in this matter than negatives.

Therefore, Neal was more than willing to accept this condition, despite having protested previously...

After this short conversation between the three, Celeste soon had her cultivation sealed by a spiritual array. In contrast, Minos and Neal had headed towards the local government mansion, where they intended to sign such a contract.

...

As the day went on smoothly in the Dry City, there was a medium-sized city with more than half a million inhabitants in the heart of the Brown Kingdom.

In this location, there was a mansion in the middle of the city, slightly larger than Minos', with several symbols of black stars scattered on the fences that separated the interior of this location from the street sidewalks.

Inside this property, there were several buildings of different shapes and heights, and in one of the most common of them, a group of four people was talking on one of the balconies of one of the apartments on the top floor.

Three of these people appeared to be already middle-aged, while the last should be in early adulthood.

Of these four men, two of them, the strongest there, were sitting in two leather armchairs, comfortably looking at the horizon, smoking and talking to each other.

At the same time, those other two were standing beside those armchairs, with their heads bowed, listening to those two people.

"Lionel, the family is putting pressure on me because of you!"

"You haven't brought a single new subordinate through the Black Star Academy in the more than four years that have passed since the arrival of this young man." A man with a prominent goatee said this shortly after releasing a mouth of smoke and pointing in the direction of that young man, who should have been around 15.

Hearing this, Lionel moved his head and replied. "I haven't received any contact from my people at that academy in this period. But that's not strange. After all, it's not every day that people with a Black talent show up at the Dry City."

"Hmm, I know that. But what about the students at that academy with Blue talent? We always had some people coming from that place with their families to here. But there hasn't been a single new addition to our Gill family these past few years!"

"The family management is finding this very strange…" He said this to Lionel in a low voice as he looked at this man as if wondering if this guy did something wrong.

However, Lionel made a gesture of denial and began to explain his point of view. "It truly is an unexpected change, considering just the previous years. But you're ignoring the fact that that place has a new sovereign, and when I got out of there, he seemed interested in investing in that city."

"Given that most people with Blue talent prefer to stay in their hometowns, it's not surprising that things have changed a little during this period." So, he ended his explanation, demonstrating that this situation was as expected by him.

Lionel was the principal of the Black Star Academy, the only spiritual academy in the Dry City before Minos' arrival. And because of his position there, he knew it made a lot of sense for some people to give that young man a chance and not venture out of the Black Plain for a while.

Even if the Black Plains soil restoration was a lie, Lionel didn't know; this didn't change the fact that Minos had exhibited committed behavior in acting there.

With that, this man did not find this situation at all strange.

He then said. "But if you're worried about it, I can try to see if there's a problem in that place. What do you think?"

Hearing this, that man nodded, took two puffs on his cigar, and then commented. "This way is better. If there is a problem, we had better find it out soon. And if it's nothing, then we'll just collect our arrays from that place and open a new spiritual academy in another city."

"We're not going to be investing in a place that doesn't give us anything!"

After that, these two men talked for a while longer until that guy with the prominent goatee left those three people behind in the same place as before.

After realizing that his supervisor was gone, Lionel looked at those two people and said. "This bullshit, he wants me to go to the Dry City when I know there's no problem in that place..."

Listening to this, the middle-aged man beside Lionel's chair smiled. "Hehehe, these people don't know the Dry City like we do, chief Lionel. He seems to think that problems might arise in that place!"

"But speaking of which, why don't you let Ralf and I return to the Dry City to look into this matter? That way, chief Lionel doesn't have to waste your time going there for nothing." Railan suggested.

This man was the person with whom Minos had tried to come to terms with one of the three talented young men of the Black degree who had appeared at the Black Star Academy. However, Ralf's father had refused that young man's offer without thinking twice about it, having followed Lionel's lead toward the Gill family headquarters.

And after all these years, he was sure that his choice had been the right one, as his son was already at level 30, even though he was just under 15!

With such a feat, Ralf could be considered a prodigy among the Gill family's subordinates!

And it was no wonder that Railan himself had managed to join this organization as well, having even increased his power to level 35.

Such was the investment by this organization in Ralf and his father...

Anyway, after hearing that suggestion, Lionel thought about it for a moment and then responded. "It's not a bad idea..."