The Rise of the Black Plain

"Your Majesty, Vogel is doing very well. With the advent of wormhole ports and the arrival of minerals from the northeast of the Ancestral Sea, we are developing better than we expected.

We now have dozens of level 79 Spiritual Saints, something that 10 years ago was nowhere near what we have today.

Unfortunately, we still don't have a native Spiritual Sage in our area, but that should change in the next few years. With the cultivation possibilities in the empire's capital, I'm sure at least one of us will advance to the 9th stage at the next meeting." He smiled, thinking that he could be that person.

"Also, the state's average level has increased dramatically in recent years and is now at level 59.

As for our production..." He quoted various data, showing how impressive Vogel's current wealth was concerning the other areas of the empire.

As an area that already had Saints decades ago, Vogel had evolved a lot in that period, even without major investments from the Minos government.

It was from this area where most of the empire's Spiritual Saints currently came from. Many of them have even left their homelands to serve Minos in other areas.

After listening for a few minutes to the magnificent numbers from that area, Minos heard Cade Cromwell, level 70, son of the former King Cromwell, speak about his area.

"In Cromwell, we have not made as much progress as our neighbors to the south, but we have seen great results since the creation of the assembly.

Since then, with the investments of the imperial government, we have managed to triple our agricultural production and improve the province's internal and external business by 100%.

Provided with a network of wormhole ports and easier access to the state's core, we have achieved many advances in local noble forces with the emergence of Spiritual Saints in virtually all of our organizations.

However, the number of Spiritual Emperors in my area is most noteworthy, accounting for the increase in the average level of the area from level 47 to level 52 in recent years."

The Cromwell area, as well as Brown, had been the most damaged after the War of Independence.

They had lost many of their Spiritual Kings, so the progress Cade cited reflected the reality of people who were at the 5th stage, between levels 40 and 49.

The same was true for Raynard Brown's area, level 68, which had suffered severe losses to the punishments imposed by Minos and the flight of people from the area to the rest of the empire for several years.

In the case of Brown's area, its Spiritual Saints were all either from the imperial army or people who migrated there after the creation of the assembly. As such, Raynard's group could not present such promising data to Minos on this day.

In any case, his area was not doing badly and, just like Cromwell, had improved in all aspects, from the number of professionals to the general quality of the area.

The area's average level was currently level 50, a huge improvement considering only 3 Spiritual Kings had been left in the area decades ago after Minos' victory in the war.

Moving on, Minos heard from Ambrose Snow and Kara Carline about the magnificent results of their areas, which even had native Spiritual Saints from forces already existing in their areas prior to the rise of Emperor Stuart.

Kara was currently the strongest native in the region after the Stuart family members, standing at level 74, one level above Troy Newman, who had returned to the northern region as a representative of his sect locally.

As for Ambrose, he still had to advance to the 8th stage but was already on the threshold of reaching level 70.

Both their states had grown dramatically in their numbers and were among the most important points in the empire, as one was in direct contact with the North Sea, and the other was the closest point to Elves Island.

As such, both areas received the most support from the empire in regard to Spiritual Sages and currently even had high-level Sages stationed in their areas to protect them.

The former Kingdom of End was the area that received the most investment from the empire recently, already having three domes similar to the one in Dry City and a large army post with over 100,000 men.

Currently, Starclaw was in that area, helping to keep watch over the North Sea.

"... Finally, senior Starclaw is still at level 88. It is not easy for someone of her level to advance into my territory." Kara finished reporting the data from her area, helping to communicate to Minos regarding the status of his mount.

Minos smiled bitterly upon hearing here, sensing that Starclaw was asking him to return to the empire's core. But this was no time for that. Emperor Stuart had a strict scheme to keep his experts around the state and give them cultivation opportunities.

Starclaw could only leave her position to enter seclusion when someone in the capital or the Spatial Kingdom advanced to level 88, so until then, she would have to do her work in the End area.

After Kara finished her speech, Minos saw Blake Walker, the leader of the Waves area, stand up.

Blake, level 69, then briefly gave his report, talking about the good results of the former Kingdom of Waves, which like Stone Island, had had great results in local development, reaching an average level of 55.

These areas had also been producing much of the empire's supply of array and blacksmith items and were important pillars for the future development of the state.

All of these areas might only be led by Emperors and Spiritual Saints, but they were generating significant advances to drive the growth of the core of the empire.

From the resources that came from the billions of inhabitants of these areas, the rich core of the empire could sustain the development of its Sages and Spiritual Saints, approaching the 10th stage.

But not only that but through them, from the taxes generated by the consumption of the populations of those areas, they could develop the marine empire!

After the leaders of those areas spoke, Elena Neel, currently level 76, representative of the underwater area in the northeast of the Ancestral Sea, stood up to speak.

"Your Majesty..."