The Rise of the Black Plain

'What choice do I have?' Minos bitterly laughed. "But of course. However, how am I going to do that in my current state? I'm very worn out, so it would be better to schedule it for a few weeks ahead."

"Hmmm, indeed, it would not be good for you to accompany me like this." Julian agreed and then tossed a pill in Minos' direction.

"This is a high-level grade-4, 12-layer medicinal pill. It's for treating symptoms like yours. You probably have your soul destabilized and your body exhausted by the fusion of the three techniques, right? It will solve your problems after you absorb it.

Minos looked at the 12-striped pill that man threw, which was not as expensive as a low-level grade-4 yacht, but could make a big difference even to high-level Demigods.

'Is he giving it to me?' Minos naturally knew the value of this pill, which, unlike the Longus family resources, would not cause problems for his spiritual foundation.

A pill like this could damage the solidity of the foundation of a high-level Demigod who needed to use it to speed up their recovery. But on a low-level Sage, its effects would be so good that it could even improve their foundation!

In the Spiritual World, external items used for strengthening or recovery could damage the cultivation of those using them. After all, these were alternative means that would not support the natural spiritual growth of cultivators.

However, some exceptions didn't harm and could also help cultivators.

Aside from the Spring of Life, there were no resources in nature that had the potential to help and not charge any cost. Usually, anything that could bring good results comes with some consequences.

In a way, these resources enabled faster advancement or recovery in exchange for worsening the stability of the cultivation foundation of the one using them.

But alchemists could work natural resources and produce fantastic things without such high costs to the cultivators who used them.

The problem with this was that an alchemist could hardly produce a pill without side effects for consumers at the same level or stronger than them. In other words, a level 97 alchemist couldn't produce a pill without side effects for cultivators at levels close to his own.

But for someone at level 80, a high-level grade-4 alchemist could produce something good enough not to harm that person's foundations!

Unlike spiritual weapons, pills didn't have so many limits on the power of the person who was going to use them, so their quality level referred more to themselves than to the person who could consume them.

Of course, a pill for spiritual strengthening could not be consumed by just anyone, but a pill for recovery could!

So the pill in Minos' hands was quite helpful for him.

"I don't know what to say... This is very valuable." Minos said, being sincere.

He had never used resources like this for three reasons. First, he was very talented and had a Spatial Kingdom to cultivate; he already had an excellent cultivation speed. Second, these resources that could help him were really too expensive for him to depend on, and he had many people in his state who didn't have the same talents as him and needed items like this more.

Thirdly, on his journey, he rarely met people capable of producing items that could help him without harming him.

For example, when he was at level 50, if he wanted to improve his cultivation artificially without paying high costs, he would have to consume low to medium-level grade-3 pills to achieve such effects. However, that would mean consuming products from alchemists between levels 60 and 75.

At the time, he didn't have access to anyone like that!

Further down the line, at level 70, he would have to consume low-level grade-4 pills. He would have to have access to alchemists much stronger than him, between levels 80 and 86. But again, he had no access to such people.

So even if he wanted to take an easier path on his journey, Minos wouldn't have accomplished enough to change his cultivation speed without immensely damaging his state's foundations.

Rather than spend on resources made by people who were so much stronger than he was, Minos had preferred to set aside this possibility. In the meantime, he had created the foundations of the Black Plain Empire to make such a thing possible for his subordinates.

Precisely because of that that so many members of his army had grown so strong over the years, even with their humble origins.

Anyway, Julian smiled at Minos and said. "If you consider joining my group, you will already pay for it, haha. So come on, take your time to absorb the medicinal effect of this pill.

We'll settle our affairs once you're done."

After saying that, the Demigod soon found a place to meditate in waiting for Minos, putting aside who the people of this tribe were.

To him, it made no difference where they came from. The strongest ones there were mere Spiritual Sages, while Minos came from the Central Continent.

Minos had probably beaten them in some dispute, and now they were his to decide the future.

This would change Julian's interests absolutely nothing, so he didn't even try to understand better what had happened there by setting Minos aside.

Fermo looked at Minos with concern, and the next second, Starclaw and the level 89 elder appeared beside him, both worried.

"Your Majesty..." This old man addressed his words to his new leader for the first time but was interrupted by Starclaw.

"Minos, what are we going to do now? Is it safe for you to consume this pill?" This beautiful gray-haired woman asked.

He closed his eyes and nodded positively. "If he needed to resort to a pill to do anything against us, it would be bizarre, wouldn't it? Or don't tell me that any of you have any secret weapons useful against level 97 Demigods? Because I don't have one."

Starclaw was silent while Fermo and the level 89 old man looked at the ground.

"How can your majesty stand that pressure? Dealing with someone so strong..." Fermo muttered, feeling lost.

"That's bullshit. Against someone so strong, you can only be sincere and not insult their intelligence. Besides, the only thing we can do is go with the flow of things." Minos commented, before looking closely at that pill, noticing there was nothing that could indicate any kind of alteration.

He then swallowed it, signaling for Starclaw to carry it somewhere appropriate.

Such a strong pill needed to be digested slowly!

"Time to go into seclusion..."