The Rise of the Black Plain

As they came upon the end of that tunnel, Minos' group came to an open, huge place that appeared to be the hollow interior of a mountain top.

In that area, the glowing ceiling, which seemed to be made of pure ice, illuminated the entire interior of that area, glowing in a white tone, similar to lighting arrays.

But besides the unique ceiling, something that the people in Minos' group did not expect to find inside a mountain, the most impressive thing about this headquarters of the Immemorial Graves Sect was the small village inside such a mountain.

When they reached the end of the previous tunnel, their group had stopped next to a flight of stairs that gave access to the lower floors. From there, they could see an open area on the lower floors that went up to 40 meters below them, where several small buildings stood.

At the same time, on these lower floors, which were actually the different levels of this place, there were stairways and walkways through irregular areas where houses and other buildings were.

In a way, the 'geography' of that place was similar to that of built-up residential areas and mountains, only one with a steep slope.

It was as if a small village had been built on a small mountain that was inside another mountain!

And seeing that, the people in Minos' group, even this young man, could not help but open their mouths in surprise, looking at that place of an undisputed doozy.

"This place is truly unique!" Grace said in a low voice to her girlfriend, feeling that it would not be bad to stay a day or two there.

"Yes. I didn't think you could build a village inside a mountain. I'm amazed!" Vivian said this as she leaned on the fence that separated the drop in front of her from the ladder there.

Maxwell then realized something else and quickly commented to his fellow travelers. "But the spiritual density here is impressive! It doesn't even feel like we're in the northern region!"

"Hmmm, this area must have an energy level close to those regions found outside the northern region," Abby commented as she looked at her man.

Minos then saw the leader of that organization starting down those stairs and said. "That must be why there are Spiritual Emperors here, right?"

"Yes. The spiritual energy of this place has always been higher than the surrounding area. So it's as if the inside of that mountain is a high-level cultivation room."

"But didn't you already know that?" She turned to Minos and asked in doubt.

Someone who seemed to know so much about this place should have such basic information.

Minos laughed upon hearing that and gave his explanation. "I found out about this place through ancient information. When this information was left behind, the northern region was not so poor in spiritual energy. As such, whoever left that information behind may not have noticed the small difference in energy concentration between inside and outside this mountain."

"Oh?" Laura's eyes sparkled after she heard that. "So your information is truly archaic. Our organization has been around that long?"

"Yes, as far as I know, these skeletons have been here forever. Because the first group that discovered them decided to seal off the location, they have never been removed from the area, and your organization has always been here."

"Even before the first human Gods appeared, Immemorial Graves Sect already existed in this place."

"Really?" One of the elders beside Laura asked this in surprise, not believing such a thing.

"Hmm, it's true." He looked at that woman in silence for a moment and then said. "Looks like you lost the most important records after the Great Migration, huh?"

Laura's eyes opened wider, with her realizing that Minos did indeed know a lot. "After the spiritual energy density in the region began to decline, the less faithful of our organization left saying that they would keep us safe from afar..."

"But that was obviously a lie. We never received any contact, and most of the most important items they took were never returned."

"So, we know little about ourselves..."

"I see..." Minos realized the resentment that person had for those who left this organization just because the region had become less powerful.

"Anyway, it seems that those skeletons are responsible for this place having such a good concentration of spiritual energy..." Minos commented in a low voice to his group, realizing something important.

'At the time of Henricus Longus, didn't he realize the difference these skeletons made because of how powerful the region was? Or was the seal in this place stronger back then?' He wondered, curious to know the potential of those frozen remnants of the past.

As he made his mind work on this, he soon remembered something. 'Bodies of cultivators naturally have spiritual energy, and once they die, that energy can return to the atmosphere after its decomposition.'

'There is even the possibility of nurturing a spiritual root with powerful cultivator bodies...'

'But those skeletons have been here for so long. How can they still do such a thing? What level were these beings at?' Minos looked strangely in the direction of an ice wall, where he knew one of those beings was.

These questions of his were not easy to answer. After all, the most powerful corpse Henricus Longus had seen had been from cultivators at the 10th stage. But there was a big difference between such a stage and the last!

So Minos didn't know if corpses of 11th stage cultivators would be so dissimilar to those of lower stages that remnants would have such long-lasting effects.

In any case, he seriously doubted that the level of those beings alone would explain such a phenomenon. After all, there could be other explanations because of their size, which could not be found in the Spiritual World's living beings even during Henricus Longus' time.

Anyway, as they descended the stairs of that place, Minos' group soon passed near many houses where members of this organization and their families lived.

There, people went about their daily business while many others watched the strangers coming down the mountain. The women in Minos' group waved several times to some of the few children in their path, interested in the dynamics of this place.

Meanwhile, Laura and some elders talked a little about how they lived there, nothing too significant, just enough for this group to understand a little of the reality of this sect.

In general, the members of the Immemorial Graves Sect lived inside this mountain, cared for the seals left by their ancestors, kept an eye on the area, and kept the curious away. At the same time, they cultivated pacifist ideas, despised fighting for trivial reasons, and disliked contact with outsiders.

This organization had lost much of its information. Still, some of the essential teachings had not been forgotten, even though so much time had passed since the Great Migration.

Therefore, the ideals of these people were still those of the organization that Henricus Longus had met during his journey of power through this region.

Therefore, they were highly reclusive!

But since they had everything they needed to survive there, rarely did any of them need to go out and contact the outside community and the sects in this mountainous region.

...

Finally, after almost 15 minutes of going down the stairs and walkways of that place, Minos' group reached the deepest level, where they had just reached the main point of this mountain.

In that place where the main buildings of this village were, the big blocks of ice where the frozen skeletons were could be seen from the best angles.

And as they came close to one of them, Minos and his group finally stopped paying attention to the words of Laura's team to look in shock at those gigantic things.

Minos was the least impressed, but even he could not help but feel differently at seeing beings dozens of times larger than ordinary humans. In particular, because some of them did not have anatomies identical to those of humans, as they would look if one saw them from afar.

Laura's voice then sounded, with her informing them of what little they knew. "We don't know much about the origin of these skeletons, but they are supposedly from members of a race that self-destructed in the remote past."

"Some of our older books were written by experts who concluded that this area had been an ancient battlefield, and these skeletons are actually the dead on both sides."

...