The Rise of the Black Plain

When the person responsible for this test officially started the examination, the spiritual teleportation array suddenly made a noise. Then, a large amount of spiritual energy covered the areas that were marked in red.

Zum!

The places where the thousands of people were, started to glow softly when suddenly the space around these areas began to vibrate.

After that, almost in the blink of an eye, all about 30,000 competitors disappeared from that square!

"Oh! Incredible! I didn't know that there were such challenging arrays!" Suddenly, several people who were watching this event for the first time started to speak out loud.

Although this array was not as challenging as people thought, it was indeed something that most people who came to watch this competition could not see elsewhere.

After all, this was the impoverished North of the Central Continent!

"Look, the transmission is about to start!"

And not long after, 20 huge screens appeared at various points in that square, displaying different views from where the competitors had been sent.

...

As people's attention was drawn to the screens displaying portions of the second test, Minos felt the space float, and a completely different landscape appeared in his view shortly after that.

That was a mountainous forest with dense jungle, high relative humidity, many insects, and no trail. It looked like land untouched by humans, where spiritual beasts dominated.

'With so many trees, this place must be extremely dark at night...' Minos thought as he saw many leaves blocking the sun's rays.

Even though it was daytime, the place already had a gloom that would sometimes make someone uncomfortable. So, during the night, when the rays of light that arrived here were less numerous, there would be only absolute darkness!

Minos then looked around and finally noticed that there was no competitor in this place close to him. 'It seems that we are being sent to different places... But as there were many competitors, it shouldn't be long before I find someone.'

Although in situations like it is indicated to form a group, Minos was not worried about that at the moment. If he found someone worth allying with, that would be nice, but that was not his focus. No, he wanted to hunt the young Leroy...

Minos then climbed one of the tallest trees in the place he was in to understand that area.

He wanted to know if he was closer to the center or the limits of this region. In his opinion, the chances of finding the young Leroy would be more significant in the central parts of the forest.

That's because Leroy Chambers was a person with an arrogant personality who certainly wouldn't be standing in one place. He would certainly try to go to the busiest places, which were generally not in the forest bordering regions.

Minos then finished climbing the tree and finally got an idea of where he was. 'Hmm, considering that there is a mountain right behind me and this valley in front of me, I believe that the central region is...'

He did some calculations while checking his location when he finally concluded that his path was the valley in front of where he was.

It was not long before the young Stuart started to move, while he was also careful all the time. Even though the 4th stage spiritual beasts could no longer hurt him, there were 5th stage beasts in this place. So, he had to be wary of the sneak attacks from these individuals.

There was also the possibility that other competitors would attack him. So, he couldn't take this place easily!

Minos also needed to find a safe place for him to spend the night as well as a place where he could cultivate, since he did not dare to go to the Spatial Kingdom, from this place, where he could be being watched!

...

While Minos was traveling to the central region of the forest where the second test of the Spiritual Tournament was taking place, the young Leroy was moving towards the same place as Minos.

But he was not alone. Leroy had found another competitor shortly after this test began.

The person who was traveling with him was called Davy Hayes, who was at level 43. He was the person who occupied the 3rd position in the Cultivation Ranking that Minos had seen previously.

"So, you're saying that this young man, ehh, has two low-level grade-2 weapons, and you want my collaboration to take that from him while each of us has one?"

The two had met and formed a temporary partnership as soon as they saw each other. But after they started moving into the forest, Leroy had just made that suggestion to Davy.

"Hehe, that's right! I don't need two weapons... What do you think? This bastard is a wretch who hides behind a woman's strength and still uses negligible means to fight."

Leroy stopped for a second while laughing inwardly and then continued. "I know that your Hayes family values justice very much. So, we will teach this bastard a lesson, and we will take his weapons so that he learns the meaning of the word justice!"

The young Davy, who was not used to dealing with rascals like Leroy, quickly convinced himself that this was a good decision. After all, it would not be wrong if he won a grade-2 weapon after killing someone despicable, like the person Leroy had described.

"Hm, okay."

'Haha, idiot! I will let you fight him alone, and I will finish you both when you are exhausted!' Leroy thought as he hid his satisfaction, lest Davy believes there was anything strange about this story.

After that, the two continued traveling towards the central region of the forest, sometimes meeting with other groups and even fighting with various spiritual beasts.

...

After a few hours of moving into the central area of the forest, Minos finally found a decent place for him to rest.

At that point, there was a water source not far from where he was, with a cave on the side of a hill.

He had searched the place, looking for spiritual beasts, but there were none. In fact, even in the areas where he had passed, there were not many beasts nor competitors.

'It seems that I was sent to a very distant point...' Minos thought while eating an apple that he had bought at a market this morning.

All the food he had brought from the Black Plain was gone in the meantime. After all, he had been traveling for about three months!

Minos then prepared the place with two arrays that he had previously purchased, one for surveillance and the other for protection.

To rest in a place like this, as Minos had not yet made any alliances, he needed to be sure that he would be safe when he was sleeping or cultivating.

That is because, in these two types of situations, cultivators were very vulnerable. Therefore, he would use the surveillance array to be alerted by the arrival of enemies and the protective one to protect him if he did not manage to wake up in time.

...

Time quickly passed, and the night had already arrived. The forest was utterly dark, to the point that almost nothing could be seen!

At this time, Minos was quietly cultivating inside the cave he had found earlier.

He had his technique. Solar God Breath activated, while several crystals around him shone while decreasing its intensity little by little.

'This feeling... I should reach level 39 in a maximum of 3 days!' He thought while circulating his cultivation technique.

However, about 15 minutes later, his surveillance array suddenly started to emit an alert noise.

Blim! Blim!

'Eh?' Minos then opened his eyes slowly, soon after noticing the noise. 'It looks like some guest is coming.'

He then left his meditative position and headed towards the exit of his cave while trying not to attract attention.

Boom!

Suddenly an explosion sounded when Minos finally saw a battle going on in front of him.

Two people were fighting a spiritual beast, which was in the 5th stage of cultivation.

That was a Yellow Monkey, a breed that could reach the 6th stage of cultivation!

It was 3 meters tall, extremely muscular, and had a lot of hair on its head.

As for the two young men who were fighting this monkey, both were at level 39. They were two men who looked terrified, with expressions of those who knew they were going to die.

Someone couldn't compare forces with a beast from a stage above them!

The difference was just too big, and not everyone was as gifted as Minos.

The two young men defended themselves as best they could as they neared the cave of Minos, with their clothes torn and their bodies covered in abrasions.

"Ahh! Help us!"

One of them shouted all his breath when he caught a glimpse of hope when he saw Minos standing in front of the cave entrance.