The Rise of the Black Plain

Time quickly passed, and it was the opening day of the Dry City Public Library.

Minos did not plan to make any speeches or anything like that. He was not a populist who needed to appear to the people. No, he was the sovereign of this place, so he was bothered by the local development, but he was not concerned if people would like him more or less because of it.

He just wanted to look at the place up close so that he could understand if everything was following his requests and if that was a place aimed at the citizens of the Dry City.

That way, after having breakfast with Ruth and the butler Dillian, Minos did not delay. Instead, he proceeded to the place where the library had been built.

The place was not far from the mansion of Minos, only about ten minutes on foot.

In fact, this part of the town had several other public buildings, such as the Preparatory Academy of the Dry City, the Black Plain Army's headquarters, and the mansion of Minos.

As they approached the library site, Minos' group soon came across a masses of hundreds crowded in front of that place.

'Wow, this truly seems to be important to these people.' Ruth thought as she saw this.

That was shocking to her. After all, Ruth had grown up as a disciple of the Gray Cloud Sect, where she never had to worry about the quality of her techniques. And not only that, but Ruth also did not know the reality of those with low-talent people who lived in impoverished regions, like the population of the Dry City.

For her, this whole trip to accompany Minos to the Spiritual Tournament had been a great lesson in her life.

She was learning about the difficulties of those at the base of the Central Continent society, who were responsible for doing those services that people like her did not want.

People like her wanted to eat food rich in spiritual energy and receive their arrays and weapons wherever they were. But it was only after this trip that she understood what these people had to do and how they were poorly paid for it. And for these people, even Blue-grade techniques could still make them happy!

While Ruth had many thoughts about this place, Minos' group finally arrived in front of the library building.

There was a rectangular building in that place, with construction with a large roof showing in the middle. There was also a name at the top of the building that said: 'Dry City Public Library.'

It was what this place was. Minos didn't want to put a strange name or even give his own name to a building. That would sound very narcissistic to him. So, he chose to keep things simple and leave a simple name like that.

Meanwhile, the crowd soon recognized Minos and his group, becoming even more agitated. These people were pleased that this place was being opened and because of the person who was changing their lives.

Upon arriving in front of the building, several soldiers from the Black Plain Army were already at the site. They were here to ensure the safety of the people, preventing a big uproar from forming. They also had to ensure that Minos entered the site before it finally opened to the public.

Upon entering the building, Minos was attended by one of the people who had been hired to work in that place. He also greeted all the employees responsible for the site's security, receptionists, cleaning staff, and those who registered and cataloged all the techniques present in this building.

Although the number of current techniques was small, it would not be long before this place had tens of thousands of parchments. And such a thing would undoubtedly need to be subdivided into certain zones to facilitate citizens' access.

At that point, the director chosen for that library stepped forward and said. "Welcome to the Dry City Public Library, young master. My name is Ivy, and I'm responsible for showing you the library's facilities."

"OK." Minos replied without showing any change in his expression.

"First, this place where we are in is the library's entrance hall. Here is where citizens will have to pass to access the library, where they will be able to find bathrooms, and identify themselves to access the cultivation techniques of this place."

"Citizens simply need to present their citizen identification array, which each Dry City resident earns upon paying the city's annual tax for the first time."

They then left the entrance hall, which was a reception, in the shape of an ellipse and with six side aisles on the right and left sides of that place. Each of these corridors led to large spaces with multiple shelves and individual rooms.

They entered one of the corridors, and Ivy continued her presentation. "The six corridors we saw earlier in the entrance hall lead to places where spiritual techniques are divided into: attack, defense, movement, cultivation, support, soul, just as the young master asked."

"In this corridor that we are going through, we will arrive at the place where the techniques focused on the attack are."

Soon after, after leaving a corridor of about 30 meters, which had several plants and windows to the street. Then, the group arrived at a square place, with several side shelves and some tables in the central part.

There were also some rooms upstairs where cultivators could study and training for the first time these techniques.

"For now, as we have few copies of each technique, library users will not be able to borrow any of them. Therefore, the citizens will be able to use the rooms on the upper floors to learn the basics of each technique."

For the techniques in question, cultivators generally only needed to train them for a few hours with the parchment. After that, they could follow their training on their own. The technique parchment was used only when a cultivator learned a new technique.

Ivy then said. "We currently have 100 individual rooms in each section of the building, giving us a capacity of up to 600 people at the same time."

They then proceeded to the upper floors, where these individual rooms were.

These rooms were divided into four floors. There was a sizeable quadrangular opening that overlooked the area of the tables in the section they were in on all levels.

As in the place where the group of Minos was, the part specialized in techniques focused on attack.

After seeing the rooms, which had an average size of about 50 square meters, the group ended their visit to the Dry City Public Library.

As soon as they said goodbye to the staff in that building, Ruth asked with a curious smile on her face. "I don't know if I understood the reason for the soul-focused techniques section. You know that such a technique could only be learned by a Spiritual Saint, right?"

"I know that." Minos said dryly.

"Do you know? So, do you expect many Spiritual Saints to come and learn techniques in this place?" Ruth said as she held her laugh.

She knew this place would get stronger, but it was still ridiculous that Minos was planning to have Spiritual Saints living in the Dry City!

Even in her sect, there were not many of these experts...

But Ruth did not know an important fact, which was about the fact that the spiritual root of the Black Plain was slowly recovering. With that, in less than 30 years, this place would be as rich in spiritual energy as the headquarters of the Gray Cloud Sect!

"You don't have to worry about that. What difference does it make to you?" Minos asked while hiding the truth from Ruth. Their relationship was excellent, and Minos didn't care that Ruth attended his meetings, but he didn't need to tell her the secrets that could take his life!

That was just the most reasonable thing to do!

After that, the group left and welcomed the external public to enjoy the local library.

...

After Minos' group left the building, one of the soldiers came to the audience and said it aloud. "Welcome to the Dry City Public Library. I ask you to form five lines for those who want to enter. One for those who want to learn..."

The soldier gave all the necessary instructions for safe entry into the building, emphasizing the limit of people who could enter at once.

It didn't take long, and 500 people entered the library with big smiles on their faces. At the same time, the people outside were quite euphoric with the expectation of learning new techniques.

And of the five lines, obviously the one for the cultivation techniques section, it was the longest of all, easily passing a thousand people. But luckily, the soldiers had prepared a place for these people. Otherwise, the line would pass through several city blocks!