The Rise of the Black Plain

While the three siblings were doing their routine activities, the same was happening for Alison.

Unlike Lee, who started the day with training at the Black Plain Army headquarters, Alison had her activities this shift. And as someone who was only in the 4th stage of cultivation, her work, in general, involved patrolling the city and resolving any conflicts that happened.

Only in the afternoon, Alison would train at the headquarters.

Each hierarchy in the Black Plain Army had its functions. For example, starting with students, these soldiers were youths under 11, so they had no relevant roles in the army.

At most, they would be training inside the headquarters, where they would also have classes on regional geopolitics. The difference between these classes and those at the Preparatory Academy of the Dry City was that they talked about enemies, potential competitors, and how to act against threats.

This type of subject was not discussed at the time of the spiritual academy for two reasons. First, this was a matter of state security, which could not be spoken with ordinary citizens. Second, because children under 10 were more immature and did not think carefully as cultivators.

As for the difference between a 9-year-old ordinary person and a 10-year-old who has already started cultivating, well, that was genuinely tremendous!

The sensitive organ that allowed humans to cultivate was close to the human brain. And when a child started to cultivate, this would not only change his physical strength qualitatively but his whole body, including the brain!

And while it didn't make people more intelligent, it still had some effects on the personality of these kids who were starting to cultivate.

These effects were very similar to when an ordinary human matures.

Maturing could usually happen with age or even with specific experiences, sometimes traumatic. And when that happened, the tastes and opinions of these individuals could end up changing!

As in the example of sounds and flavors, when humans get older, the eardrums, taste buds develop and change. With that, most people can gain new personal tastes, and may even leave other things behind, which were once pleasant, but which are no longer!

Something similar happened to the cultivators' brains. Even though they were not becoming cleverer, cultivators could understand certain situations much faster, were more skeptical, and had a greater inclination for cultivation.

Cultivating made their bodies develop, so the bodies of these individuals almost made them addicted to it!

That was a mechanism for people to take cultivation seriously as a biological necessity, like sex. Sex was necessary only for reproduction. However, as a mechanism to ensure that this happened, the bodies of certain living beings functioned so that this activity was pleasant.

That way, reproduction would be guaranteed!

The same was valid with cultivation. Of course, it was not necessary to cultivate, but everyone did it because their bodies told them that doing it was good.

Because of all these changes, a child could quickly understand the implications of issues related to enemies. For example, upon hearing from someone trustworthy that the Silva family was an enemy, a 9-year-old could not take it seriously. Without seeing the consequences of not dealing with an enemy, they could not see the implications of this.

Naive children saw rivals as synonymous with enemies!

Therefore, they were unstable, and in a moment, a person could see that a child hated another, and shortly afterward, they could end up playing happily with each other...

But for someone 10-years-old, who has already started his journey in cultivation, the situation would be quite different. Upon hearing from a trusted person, that a specific power was an enemy, these children would take this very seriously. They understood the dangers of the world of cultivation, which did not spare even children.

They could easily relate the consequences of letting an enemy loose or even alive. Even though their thinking was not over-developed, they understood well that an enemy was someone who wanted to destroy them, kill them, enslave them, etc.

There was no space for friendships.

It was killing or dying.

Protecting their families was the priority!

For this reason, certain subjects were not dealt with at the time of the spiritual academy.

After the Students, the Recruits came. This rank was usually inside the barracks, training and organizing the place. They had to clean the outside areas and take the different materials from one place to another.

They had a similar function to the caretakers of public buildings in the Dry City.

After that came the rank of Soldier and Corporal. The individuals of these two hierarchies had the role of patrolling the city. The Corporals led some groups of Soldiers, while the latter also served as messengers.

Sometimes something happened, and a stronger cultivator was needed or needed to be informed of something. Thus, these Soldiers had the vital role of delivering certain news of less relevance...

Then there were Corporals and Sergeants. Soldiers of the Corporal hierarchy, who were at more advanced levels, were generally commanded by some Sergeants on possible missions, patrolling the city wall and at posts outside the Dry City.

Currently, there was only one external post, which was the army's marine base, on the coast of the Black Plain.

These were the most significant obligations of each patent at present. But it was not only that, of course, there were responsibilities of a different nature, but it involved a small portion of the army.

Generally, these individuals who had different services were older or had a good experience with administration or even training. Consequently, some gave classes, others managed certain activities, things necessary for people to live together in an orderly way...

Anyway, while Alison was patrolling the streets of the central region of the Dry City, she and her four subordinates were passing in front of the cultivation tower.

As had been happening since the inauguration, there were many people outside, waiting for new vacancies. And looking closely at these people, they were not upset that they had to wait. No, some even looked excited.

That was not because they were pleased that the cultivation tower existed but because another location had been opened to the public directly across from the line where dozens of people stood.

There was a small building, only about 8 meters high, on the side of the cultivation tower. There was a vast blue screen in it, which displayed two classifications, with a name at the top, 'Dry City Cultivation Ranking.'

That's right, Minos had also been inspired by what the Spiritual Tournament did. He thought that this was another way to stimulate the local inhabitants, giving some prizes to the top-ranked cultivators in this ranking.

But he was very fair here. For each level of talent, there was a different classification. This ranking is also permanent, different from what happened in that competition.

"Ahh, when I see this ranking, I even feel like competing..." One of Alison's subordinates said when he saw the big blue screen.

The soldiers of the Black Plain Army were forbidden to compete in this ranking since they had far better cultivation techniques than the inhabitants of the city. They also already received many advantages, so it would not be fair to take this opportunity away from the citizens.

"Hmm, it's fascinating. For the blue classification, whoever is in first place for a month in a row has his spot in the next army selection nearly guaranteed. And he can also earn 500 low-grade crystals per month that he remains in this position!" A girl said in awe.

She earned 200 crystals a month but making another 500 crystals just to cultivate... That was just too good for her. But unfortunately, she couldn't compete for this...

As for the vacancy in the army, as long as there was no problem with the background of the person who came in first, then he was guaranteed his place in the army.

In addition, the other top 49 in the blue ranking could receive crystals for each month that they were in a specific position. It started from the 50th position, which could receive ten crystals per month, increasing from 10 in 10 until the 1st position.

Alison smiled at them and said. "But this white ranking is also not bad. It has the same crystal awards as those in the blue ranking. And there's just no chance of first place getting a spot in the army."

And that was great for people with White talent since most of them earned less than 100 crystals a month!

And giving these awards to 100 people monthly was no problem for Minos, but it was perfect for them. That was a chance for them to get a few more crystals and increase their cultivation speeds!

With this, Minos hoped to increase the average strength of the Dry City's population, people that could reach level 49. As declared earlier, each person with White talent was limited to this level, even with outside help.

With this, in the future, Minos could create a police organization within the Black Plain to take care of the less important matters, as much of what was done by his army today.

The Black Plain Army was just getting started, so it had these humbler services. But, in the future, it would undoubtedly be an elite force to deal with significant threats and not those minor issues!