The Rise of the Black Plain

Seeing that his target was doing something in the back of one of those carriages, Minos immediately felt that nothing good would result from such action.

'What is this person doing?' He wondered as he had his eyebrows frowned and looked in the direction of where Oliver had stopped.

However, the doubts in young Stuart's mind did not last long when he finally saw a crow being released from a small cage by that man.

'Miserable! He's trying to send a message!' Minos thought in anger, pressing his jaw hard.

He had already concluded that the Silva family knew almost nothing about his territory. In particular, they must not have known about the defensive barrier that surrounded Dry City. And because of that, he didn't have to face even more significant problems right now.

However, if the Silva family found out a little more about the danger that Dry City posed to them, then things would change quickly, and he would have to face his worst nightmares!

Previously Minos had thought that he had already completely lost control of the situation since he did not know what was in the message Urban sent. So, he had assumed the worst.

However, upon noticing the arrival of these people in the area surrounding his city, he regained some of his earlier calm from before the Urban group arrived at Dry City.

That had already made him feel a certain confidence that instead of acting so desperately, he might have a little more time than he expected. That is, at least he would have a few more weeks before the royal family got involved in the matter.

Hence, any information like what his target was probably trying to send to the Silva family would only damage more the Dry City.

Consequently, Minos was somewhat enraged at this moment, seeing that person acting in such a manner right in front of him.

"Miserable, do you think you can do whatever you want on my territory?" Minos said aloud, just before activating his offensive technique once again.

Spatial Sword!

And he quickly made a diagonal gesture with his golden-bladed sword, creating a blade of air just over three meters long.

Swooish!

Instantly the blade sent by young Stuart cut through the air of that spot, heading towards the crow that was leaving the small cage from before.

"Humph, you are powerful for your level but not strong enough to stop me from sending that message!" Oliver said as he threw the small cage on the ground and began to create a barrier in front of the direction the crow from before was already flying.

And almost a millisecond after Oliver did that, a golden, semitransparent rectangular screen appeared in the air above him, precisely in the path where the blade sent by Minos would have to pass.

Crash!

Ssss!

The attack sent by Minos and the barrier created by Oliver quickly collided, creating a robust rumbling in that area, while strong winds formed in the opposite directions to the impact.

Boom!

After the initial collision, Oliver's barrier began to crack until it exploded two seconds later, just as the remnant of Minos' attack continued on its way!

However, the air blade was now less than 50 centimeters long, having lost much of its offensive power.

"This person is a monster!" Oliver said without realizing it, as he felt an intense pain in his body, almost as if he had received a beating in his chest.

"Cough!" He then coughed up a few drops of blood as he lowered his upper body, already with his arms around his waist.

The barrier he had used earlier was not a spiritual technique but an ability that cultivators at the 6th stage onward would have. That was a soul barrier that could concentrate some of his spiritual and soul power to form an object.

As opposed to being done using a small part of individual energy and a large part of the energy from the external environment, such a thing was done using the little bit of soul that 6th stage cultivators had to use in such a way along with the cultivator's own energy. 

That was more dangerous in failure cases since it caused more damage than the mode commonly used in battles. That is, it involved the cultivator's soul, something fundamental... But, on the other hand, this was much stronger than ordinary defenses and could be a safeguard against attacks from people stronger than the one using such a means.

Anyway, such a thing was not commonly used to attack since, despite being 'stronger,' there was the possibility that the attack itself would cause damage to the user. Hence, this possibility was only used in defensive situations, such as the one Oliver had found himself in, trying to defend that crow.

However, to Oliver's misfortune, Minos was not far from reaching level 50, having already surpassed the strength of level 54 noble cultivators of this region!

So, the blade from before had managed to destroy Oliver's barrier, having wounded the soul of this member of the Silva family.

'Eh? Where is he?' Oliver wondered in his mind, just after he looked in Minos' direction and realized that that young man didn't seem the least bit interested in his head.

Gulp!

"It can't be..."

Oliver finally understood why he had not been attacked mercilessly after taking the remaining damage from the attack that had destroyed his soul barrier.

Minos was about 20 meters ahead of Oliver at that instant, while he seemed to be jumping into the air. In contrast, the crow released by this level 54 Spiritual King earlier was utterly frozen in the air, a few dozen meters away from young Stuart.

Spatial Sword!

Swooish!

Quickly another air blade was sent towards that bird, which had a piece of metallic storage on its legs.

Puff!

Seeing the crow fallen in the air after the effect of his technique had stopped, Minos sighed as he felt a chill on his back.

'That was close!'

'That crow was less than 2 meters away from leaving the influence space of my technique!' So he thought to himself, relieved that he had managed to kill that bird in time.

Minos could be much faster than that crow if he used his movement technique. However, this young man could not fly, and as a result, that bird could have risen to an altitude where even his Golden-grade technique could not reach!

The higher that bird was, the easier it would be for it to dodge. Furthermore, although the difference in cultivation between the parties was significant, as that crow was only at the 3rd stage, it was much faster than human cultivators at the 4th stage and could even be considered as fast as some of the 5th!

So, if the crow from before had left the Spatial Sword's space of influence, Minos felt that he could not have the opportunity to kill it later!

Consequently, he had narrowly avoided the worst.

"Damn it!"

"Kid, do you know what power I represent? Why is Dry City attacking us? What grudge the power behind you had against us?" Oliver shouted in anger as he felt the wounds in his body.

However, Oliver received no response. Not because Minos would think that this man had the means to warn the Silva family of anything he could hear now. But because young Stuart had already decided to kill this person!

And there was no need for the dead to know about the problems of the living!

On the other hand, Minos knew that it would be futile to imprison such a person. After all, this man was a Spiritual King of the Silva family, most likely a nobleman, someone who had undoubtedly been indoctrinated for a long time so as never to betray that organization.

Hence, to young Stuart, this person could be considered to have a very high potential to sacrifice himself in order not to let information leak out!

And to avoid the worst, he had already made up his mind to eliminate this person!

Swooish!