The Rise of the Black Plain

Three more days passed...

After those days, Minos finally settled with a group of beasts to escort him to this kingdom's border with the Western Empire.

He had finished doing business locally and would leave this afternoon for his journey with the beasts he had talked to earlier.

After arranging with that group and the Spiritual Sage who would protect them on the journey, Minos had to wait these days because of the battle of powerful beasts nearby and an unforeseen issue that had arisen for one of the beasts in his group.

However, with such a thing settled the night before, he was already confident he would leave that city of beasts this day!

...

"Edgar, good luck on your journey. I hope you can return here with more items for us to trade." A level 79 beast said while standing in its humanoid form, eating something like a carrot. "Your resources are of great quality."

Minos smiled and thanked that creature for its words, who had been doing business with him during these days.

Then he saw some of the creatures he had interacted with waving their heads, paws, and hands at him, saying goodbye as he and the group that would escort him departed that location.

Meanwhile, the beast that would be securing the group asked Minos. "Edgar, do you want to go around the kingdom getting to know the area, or do you want to go straight to your destination?"

Usually, Minos would choose to go slowly. But being pressed to settle this matter and not be tracked by his watchers, he preferred the second alternative. "If it were up to me, I would already be in the Western Empire."

"Well, that will be better." That fellow said, feeling that his job could be made significantly easier. "Then let's cut through the path. I'll take you to an area of the local coast first, and from there, we'll travel most of the way."

If it were in a 'weak' state like the Black Plain Empire and the Flaming Empire, this group of Minos would be unnecessary, as they could go directly to the border via wormholes.

But this was only possible in that region as there were not many Spiritual Sages around the area and no Demigods.

With the presence of these experts in Veora Kingdom, it was dangerous to travel through wormholes all over the state.

It was not in the king's interest to have experts traversing his state without identifying themselves. So local Spiritual Sages could interfere with these trips. Another problem was local fights, which could even affect space.

Blows from experts above level 80 could affect space and parts of them could even hit independent wormholes.

Another problem was someone using this method of travel and ending up in an area where stronger cultivators were fighting.

Anyway, there were several problems with using this means of travel without caution in powerful states, which is why Minos hadn't chosen to travel alone via this alternative.

That was also why those beings beside Minos were surprised by the words of the strongest among them.

"Won't that be a problem?" One of them asked.

"Not at all." That Spiritual Sage replied. "I will take us to the vicinity of where my master died. There is a powerful aura there that drives away curious and bold beings looking for trouble.

So there should be no problem for us to continue our journey from there."

"Hmm, fine." Minos agreed while the others followed its lead, feeling that there would be no trouble since the master of this being was a level 90 Demigod before it perished.

So it used its spatial manipulation skills and opened a wormhole, from which Minos soon entered alongside those beasts in his group.

...

In the blink of an eye, Minos and his groupmates reached the shore of Veora Kingdom, where they immediately came upon a peaceful place but where there was a terrible aura.

Minos and the other Spiritual Saints frowned upon sensing this. Still, the Spiritual Sage soon took action, taking a pendant from its storage item.

After picking that up, the aura about them diminished, and it said. "That is my master's aura. Anyone who wants to access its remains must overcome such a thing."

Demigods were so strong that even after death, they could leave part of themselves behind for long amounts of time and strong enough to frighten those weaker.

Minos knew this very well because of Henricus Longus and the inheritances of the God of Death and the Goddess of Life.

The others there opened their mouths in astonishment but accepted such a thing, longing to one day be able to reach the level of this expert.

The Spiritual Sage then pointed the way for them to follow, where they soon began to run, not daring to fly through the local skies.

Everyone there was an expert, considering what the population of this continent considered the minimum for someone to be considered such. But locally, they were still weaker than thousands of people around the state, so they had to be careful.

The slightest mistake and they could attract the will of a superior being and die without a chance to defend themselves!

So they began the journey that they would have to travel for at least the next whole day until they reached the border with the Western Empire.

...

Meanwhile, Minos' watchers, people from the Eastern Empire, Spiritual Church, and Blood Triangle Pirates, searched for him in the Flowers Kingdom and Flaming Empire.

After Minos' sudden departure from the Black Plain Empire, they started investigating this fellow for that state but soon found that he didn't seem to be anywhere.

So they quickly began investigating his whereabouts in those two states, which were recently close to his state.

Rosser, Albano, and Blackrock were still for them to investigate, and these people would eventually search for Minos in those places. But for the moment, they were in those other two states, nervously searching for traces of the Stuart Emperor.

For the first time in years, he had acted suspiciously, evading their observation, leaving no trace, and surprising everyone with his abilities.

Even though they were Spiritual Sages, none of their observers could tell where Minos had gone just by the spatial cracks left by him after his escape!

And so, all the organizations behind these observers were already aware of Minos' disappearance and trying to understand its reasons.

But no one was connecting this action to the map of the Ancient Sarcophagus of the Seraphim, so nothing major had been ordered as yet.

In the midst of this, the high-level factions of the Spiritual Church continued their usual pressure on the forces of Minos and Gloria, with no change in their plans.