The Rise of the Black Plain

While Minos was training with his two girlfriends, the interests of the royal family of the Brown Kingdom were growing towards this place...

The news concerning the defensive dome of Dry City and the possibility of planting on the Black Plain had already reached the Brown family!

That had happened just over two weeks ago when a crow from the Black Plain brought this information, which had been gathered by the investigators sent out earlier...

As a result, the local royal family had already wholly changed their attitudes towards this territory in the westernmost part of the kingdom.

To begin with, they had refused the Black Plain's request for independence...

After all, since that place could yield taxes for the kingdom, there was no reason for King Brown to let these crystals get away from him!

After that, a little over a week ago, a group of people from that family went out towards Dry City to begin official talks with Minos.

The governments behind Minos and the Brown Kingdom had already communicated a few times before this happened, and both parties had shown interest in negotiating...

As a result of these talks, this group in question had been formed.

But while this committee was on its way to Dry City to meet with Minos, the royal family had already taken several measures regarding this matter.

For example, some instructions concerning the observation and espionage of Dry City and Minos had already been passed on to the forces in the Maritime City. And not only that, an even larger post would soon be built in that city.

Since the Black Plain was beginning to gain importance, this royal family of the Brown Kingdom could not let Minos threaten their only coastal city.

They did not fear that this young man would plot something against that city, but nothing would prevent young Stuart from building a new coastal city soon.

That place could compete with the Maritime City for trade routes, the passage of specialists from outside the kingdom, and so on.

But since the royal family of this state already had important businesses there, things they did not want to lose, gaining a worthy competitor would be problematic.

Not that they feared that Minos had so many resources to build a great city in that region. But the Maritime City itself was not that great... Hence, it would not be that difficult or costly to make something competitive in that coastal region of the Brown Kingdom!

So, to secure their control over business coming in and out of the kingdom by sea, the Brown family was willing to invest in that town.

With this, more military forces would be in that place to watch over Minos' forces and keep him under control. Also, this royal organization would make more significant investments in the Maritime City.

Other than that, House Brown had already passed on this information to the family experts so that these people would change their behavior regarding the Black Plain.

That place might be just a small fry at the moment, but it could become something more prominent in the future. 

And although the royal family was not totally against the emergence of new power, they wouldn't let new organizations appear out of anywhere, without restrictions.

Since the departure of the Red family, this kingdom had had to deal with a power vacuum, which could be problematic for this organization. After all, that alone had broken the stability of this state.

Even if this hasn't been a significant issue in the past, the Silva family could expand significantly in the future, posing a threat to the royal family.

Commanding a state was difficult, and dividing the power was something that made the process easier. But if part of these more minor powers became more prominent, problems that could lead to war could arise.

In this case, to prevent this kind of situation, it was not bad to have more powers occupying the same state under the control of one big organization. So, the royal family was not against having more associations in its kingdom.

But it needed to be controlled by them!

As such, the leaders of the Brown family would not allow the organization based in Dry City to develop without restrictions, even if it was not that significant yet. And for that, they would need their experts to understand that this place could indeed threaten their interests.

With this, a change in the behavior of the experts of this royal family was necessary!

...

Anyway, in the palace of the royal family of the Brown Kingdom, King Thomas, and some other high-ranking elders were in a specific outdoor place, sitting and drinking.

The place they were in was quite green, where there was a beautiful garden with many different plants that gave a pleasant feeling to people walking by.

But while the surroundings of this place were beautiful, few people from this kingdom had ever had the chance to enter there. Only Brown family Spiritual Kings and a few VIPs were qualified to visit the royal courtyard of Thomas Brown's residence.

And in this difficult place to enter, those men of high regional power were on wooden chairs and special cloth, arranged around a table.

At that table, various fruits were arranged around this table, next to each of the five people's drinking cups.

"It's truly a surprise what happened on the Black Plain!"

"I never thought that such a barren place would recover." One of the three Spiritual Kings, level 57, said this in admiration, referring to the fact that the soil of Minos' territory was now able to receive life.

Of course, he understood that it would not be enough for someone to throw seeds into that soil for plants to flourish... Regardless, that territory had lived without plant life in the soil for a long time, and consequently, it was poor in nutrients.

So, it should not be easy to grow plants on the Black Plain.

But anyway, this new reality was already much better than the previous one, even with difficulties. Now the ruler of that place at least had a way to profit from such an area!

"Yes, it is awe-inspiring. But I'm curious to know how that happened..."

"In the past, some of our ancestors even tried to ask for help from Spiritual Saints, but they never discovered a way to correct the previous problem."

"I wonder what changed?" Another level 57 cultivators inquired as he remembered the history of the Brown family.

That organization had had successful members in the remote past, who had even reached the intermediate parts of the 7th stage of cultivation. As such, it hadn't been impossible for them to get someone from the beginning of the 8th stage to take the time to analyze that territory.

But that had been more than 200,000 years ago, and many things had changed in the meantime...

Anyway, upon hearing that individual's question, the last level 57 cultivator of the three nodded and said. "I also have my doubts. But from what we know, up until the time the last ruler left that territory, the Black Plain was no different from the past information."

"Those changes coincide with Minos Stuart's arrival in that place..."

"Do you think he had any great opportunity after going to the Black Plain?"

"That doesn't make sense. After all, before we left that area hundreds of thousands of years ago, we had already collected all the valuable resources from that place."

"Not even one hidden treasure could have been left behind!"

"And as for the growth of anything of the sort, that would be even more impossible." So, one of the three reasoned, refuting the idea that Minos had caused that change because of some opportunity in that area.

And he was right. The Black Plain had been thoroughly explored before the royal family left that place. And since at that time the spiritual root already presented the problem that Minos solved after his arrival there, nothing of value could grow in such a place.

Even crystals, which only depend on the rock composition in the soil and the spiritual energy in the atmosphere to be formed, had greatly diminished in quantity in that region.

Hence, the growth of any other unique resources would be impossible to occur.

"That makes sense... But maybe he still has some relation to that..."

Hearing this discourse, London, level 58, finally said something. "It's not impossible that Albert's young son has some connection. But, at the very least, he was very efficient in using that place, and we have to give him credit for that."

"But, of course, that may have changed before his arrival!"

"Hmm, the supreme elder is right." Thomas finally said something, as he agreed with his uncle. "That may have changed before this young man arrived. But since we haven't observed that territory often in the past, we may have missed that information."

"If I'm not mistaken, the last experiment happened 26 years ago...."