The Rise of the Black Plain

Meanwhile, in the principal office of the local government mansion in Dry City...

Minos was with some of his soldiers in this place as they talked about the arrival of the royal family's entourage.

This young man obviously would not leave his city to receive those people from whom it would be good for him to continue to hide his power. After all, the false reports that had been sent to the Brown family headquarters did not talk about him already being a Spiritual King.

In contrast to this, in the results of the investigation of that group sent to Dry City earlier, what had been reported about Minos was that he had just reached the 5th stage of cultivation. But, on the other hand, that report communicated only of the presence of six Spiritual Kings in this young man's organization.

At first, it would be nice if he didn't have to report the presence of any of his experts. Yet, since some of the Silva family members had managed to escape from the previous confrontations, it would not be wise to lie about such a thing.

Also, it would be strange if he didn't have some experts on his side. After all, he had so many crystals to the point that he bought many medium-level grade-2 defensive arrays.

Consequently, such information had reached the royal family.

Therefore, it would not be good if young Stuart participated in the negotiations with the representatives of the Brown family. 

But there was no need for him to get involved in such bureaucratic matters. His soldiers knew perfectly well what the purposes of these negotiations were. As such, it made no difference what Thomas's envoys were going to propose.

They were going to delay as long as possible until the other side had no more patience!

Anyway, Minos was now sitting in his armchair while the three soldiers in front of him were talking, and he was listening.

"Young master, the group sent by the royal family arrived in the vicinity of the local dome about three hours ago."

"When the city's defensive tower team last reported to us about this, that enemy group had already built a small camp a few dozen kilometers east of Dry City." A level 45 Sergeant said this solemnly.

Soon after that, one of those other two continued to talk about that very subject. "After they had prepared that location, some of the individuals in that group headed towards the joint camp for negotiations, which the army men had already set up."

The people sent by the royal family obviously would not sleep in the same place as Minos' soldiers. After all, this young man had asked for independence, and it would not be reasonable to trust him too much...

So, the joint camp 10 kilometers east of the local dome would only serve during negotiations.

Hence, the group sent by Thomas had built a site for themselves, a little further away from Dry City.

The other soldier then said. "After that, a few minutes ago, the army group that was in charge of the negotiations left the headquarters to make first contact with these envoys."

"They must be getting to know each other by now."

"I see..." Minos muttered in a low voice while having one of his hands resting on top of his mouth. "How is the strength of this group? Do we have this data?"

Upon hearing this, immediately, the person who had this information nodded to Minos, confirming such a thing. "Yes, one of the six groups that are around a few hundred kilometers from Dry City accompanied the arrival of this royal entourage."

"Because of this, we quickly received information that the Brown family group has 100 people." 

"Of those cultivators, 53 of them are Spiritual Warriors, 42 are Spiritual Generals, with only 5 Spiritual Kings were accompanying this group."

"Of the five, three are at level 51, one at level 52, and the last one at level 53." This Sergeant finished reporting this, still standing in front of the table where Minos was sitting behind.

"Oh?" The young sovereign exclaimed but soon contained his surprise after thinking about it for a moment. 'Well, that shouldn't be strange. After all, I only declared the presence of Spiritual Kings below level 53. So, they are using the minimum quantity of force necessary to oppose my group.'

'On the other hand, these people must only be subordinates... The leaders of this group, who are here to negotiate, should be among the Spiritual Generals.'

And young Stuart was not wrong in his conjecture. 

The royal family of the Brown Kingdom knew that this young man wanted independence for the Black Plain previously. Still, him wanting it back then would not be enough for Thomas' team to think he was a rebel.

It was a known fact to many that the royal family did not care about the Black Plain. Therefore, wanting independence for such a poor place would not be considered high treason.

Because of this, the Brown family was still not treating young Stuart as a rebel and was negotiating for a concession.

Consequently, the people in Thomas's group did not think there was any danger to the Brown family on the Black Plain, even in their wildest dreams. That is why they had sent only a small group with minimal strength.

If things went wrong, the group would have the minimum conditions to leave this place and send messages to the kingdom's capital...

And it didn't make sense to think that the newly created organization would try to oppose them in, let's say, a more violent way. That couldn't do Minos any good. On the opposite, it would only make him an enemy that needs to be eliminated for one of the largest organizations in the northern part of the Central Continent.

For all that, there was no royalty Spiritual King in that group. So, the low prestige nobles would lead this negotiation, those still at the 5th stage of cultivation.

After thinking about these things for a moment, Minos finally gave his orders to those soldiers. "Investigate the backgrounds of the royals who will lead these negotiations."

"I want those results ready as soon as possible."

"All right." The three said simultaneously.

"In case there is nothing extraordinary about their identities, when the time comes, when there is no more room for conversation, kill them all." He said coldly. 

"The royal family will hardly agree to negotiate hostages unless they are very vital to the family. So, we won't need to spare anyone from that group if none of those royals are relevant."

Gulp!

"OK, young master, we will pass that on to the rest of the soldiers..."

...

While Minos was in his office talking about these fake negotiations with the royal family of the Brown Kingdom, this event was starting at this very moment.

Just a few seconds ago, the group of administrative soldiers from the Black Plain Army had arrived at the joint camp of the two forces.

This group was not very large, having only 50 soldiers, a sufficient number not to draw unnecessary attention. But, on the other hand, this group was composed of people of similar strengths as the people in this Brown family group.

Most of them were Spiritual Generals, and Eda, the only Spiritual King in the group, was there just to keep up appearances.

After all, it would be strange if none of the Spiritual Kings from young Stuart's forces came to this occasion.

As for Eda's identity as a subordinate of the Miller family, well, before joining Minos' forces, this woman was only at level 48. And at that same level, there were thousands of subordinates of this noble house!

Furthermore, after becoming a Spiritual King, this woman had changed a lot physically. As such, it would be almost impossible for someone from the royal family to recognize Eda here just because of her past.

Hence, it hadn't taken long for these Sergeants to make their way to the main tent of this place, where the negotiations would take place.

"Brown family envoys, welcome to the Black Plain!" The leader of the group of soldiers said this while smiling softly, making the hairs of his prolonged white beard twitch. "Please..."

....