The Rise of the Black Plain

Boom!

Boom!

Dozens of cannonballs flew through the skies of that region, causing the characteristic silence of that place to disappear, as flames shot out of the cannon mouths and the ships retreated gently in the opposite direction.

While each people on the 11 House Collins warships had smiles on their faces in anticipation of what would happen next, the same was happening to the other forces of that family.

Several minutes had passed since the order of the leader of that group. Hence, the approximately 1,600 guards from the eight groups from before had already landed on the mainland and rushed towards the outskirts of that naval base.

Because of this, upon hearing the sounds of the cannons, every one of those individuals knew that it was time for their group to act!

Everything had already been planned, and once the high walls of that base were destroyed, these hundreds of guards could invade and massacre whoever was in that place. After this, they would enjoy the valuable resources stored there.

At least that was the plan...

However, the reality was cruel for them.

Zum!

Puff!

Immediately when the first of those dozens of cannonballs was just a few meters away from hitting one of the walls of that base, a significant green barrier suddenly appeared in that place.

At the same time as that, the dozens of cannonballs from before crashed into the defenses activated by that medium-level grade-2 array in that base.

Poof!

And as tremendous as the force of each of these cannonballs was, this barrier had not been destroyed by just one wave of attacks.

There had been a few cracks here and there, cracks as fine as strands of hair, but this was not enough to destroy something that could withstand the full power of a level 58 Spiritual King!

And because of that, the smiles on the faces of every one of those thousands of Collins family members in this place had immediately frozen upon seeing this. 

"What the fuck is going on?" Page complained aloud as she clenched her fists tightly and felt extremely bad for such a surprise.

She then looked at one of the subordinates standing near her and asked coldly. "That's a medium-level grade-2 fucking barrier! Why wasn't I warned about such a thing? I thought this place didn't have protections of this level!"

"Ma'am, that was the information passed down from headquarters after the investigation done less than two months ago... Perhaps..."

Gulp!

"Maybe the people in that place have made the investment in those defenses in the meantime." He said, trying to distance himself from the guilt.

"Miserables! Those useless old men can't even keep a fucking spy in this shitty place!"

"And now I have to deal with this problem!" She growled as the veins in her neck protruded.

Gulp!

"Ma'am, if we use all our loads of cannonballs, we might be able to destroy this barrier." A member of that crew said, right after doing some mental math.

They were not very far from that naval base. And because of that, he could see perfectly well the various cracks around the membrane of that barrier.

After thinking about the ammunition they had in each of those 11 ships, he soon concluded that they could destroy that barrier.

Upon hearing this, Page looked in the direction of that person with a still furious expression. But she concluded the same as that man, "You at least are not useless."

"Gardner, do as he said, use all our ammunition to destroy that barrier!" She shouted, making all the people on that ship hear her. "Take advantage of that and have those other eight ships throw in all their cargo as well."

"Let's at least try to destroy those walls."

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Come on, useless people! Do what Mrs. Page said!"

"Pass the information on to the other ships..."

And it wasn't long before those people on that warship started running around, shouting commands of different kinds, generally following the orders of their leader.

...

Meanwhile, inside the area protected by the defensive array of that base, Celeste had already left her previous post and reached one of the entrances of that base.

That base could only be invaded in three ways. The first was through the harbor, which they controlled through a breakwater that could be enclosed... The second was through the walls of this place, which were each about 10 meters high. And the third was through the sky.

Of the three ways to invade this place, the first was the least feasible since such people would have to abandon their ships and be under the sights of the soldiers on this base while still at sea. The second had its problems, but as long as one was agile enough to get over these walls before being caught by the local soldiers, then it was possible.

As for the third, that was by far the best alternative.

Well, if they could fly, of course...

After all, entering with a giant flying beast in a place like this, full of armed enemies, could also be very dangerous since beasts like this could become easy targets... And to risk falling from a great height was not acceptable even for these 6th stage cultivators.

Thus, not knowing how to fly and risking making such an entrance with a beast could be even more dangerous than the other two alternatives.

For all that, Celeste already knew that she would most likely have to fight people coming in by land, the way with the highest chances for the enemies being successful.

Hence, she had gone directly to the surveillance site of the walls of this location!

"How are things around the base? Have we had sightings of enemies coming overland?" She asked right after entering one of the rooms in that place.

Upon hearing this, the person in charge soon answered her while observing the surroundings. "Lieutenant Celeste, we have hundreds of enemies around the base, from the northernmost position, following around the base until we reach the southernmost point."

"So, that's how it is..." She muttered in a low voice, understanding that the day would not be easy. 'Well, I won't allow them to leave the Black Plain easily, but I will let them spend a little more of their power trying to destroy the local defensive barrier!'

As she thought about it, it wasn't long before more explosions sounded throughout that area, as many cannonballs flew towards the green membrane around that area of Minos' base.

Boom!

Boom!

...

Meanwhile, Page watched the cracks in that barrier grow larger and larger as more and more of her ammunition was used.

But as she watched this process, this woman, who had a reputation as a tough lady, was slowly sweating in anxiety, fearing that even her weapons would not get results.

'Shit! We only have 40 more cannonballs!'

'If we can't destroy this barrier, we'll have no choice but to go back to the family headquarters...' She squeezed a metal bar that was in front of her as she watched that in anticipation.

Not breaking into that base would mean that the organization behind that place would have survivors... And as such, the Collins family would gain a new enemy, which this organization had planned that they would not even find out about the identity of the aggressors.

To make matters worse, besides gaining a new enemy, they would not even get the resources evaluated in tens of millions of low-grade crystals that existed in this place...

That was a nightmare for this woman!

Boom!

"31."

Boom!

"19!"

Boom!

"7!" She muttered in a low voice each time a new cannonball left one of those ships.

Crack!

However, just as the ammunition was about to run out, that membrane around the base of Minos' army cracked until it exploded into endless pieces.

At this sight, Page and all those thousands of people from the Collins family in that place shouted in satisfaction, while many of them were already running towards that area.

Boom!

"Yes, dammit!"

"Let's destroy them and take the wealth of this place!" She shouted in satisfaction as she saw some of the walls of that base falling, just in the places where some of the last cannonballs had hit....