The Rise of the Black Plain

Kara did not know the Coleman family, the home of Maisie, young Stuart's mother.

And not knowing such power, she had no idea how substantial that part of the Gray Clouds Sect was. However, she did know about Maisie, the master of Ruth, one of her friends in that sect.

Not only that, like every organization, the Gray Clouds Sect had all kinds of debate, gossip, news concerning the sect pillars, elders, the strongest disciples, etc.

After all, wherever there were people, especially from different levels of financial and spiritual power, i.e., social strata, there would be things to talk about.

Some would succeed, which would motivate the admiration, envy, and greed of many others. But, on the other hand, others would fail, and this would motivate contempt from some, laughter from others, relief and pity from some.

These were reactions that might be different, but all of them generated the same thing.

Talks.

And when talking, or rather gossiping, newcomers, the weaker individuals in the organization would pay attention to such things. After all, information was of utmost importance even in the Spiritual World.

Knowing who to approach, who not to approach, when to be more formal or less formal, how to behave to maximize your earnings, and so on requires information.

So, stories of all kinds circulated among the disciples of the same strata as Kara.

As a result, while Kara did not know much about Maisie's family, she had heard a lot about House Coleman, some of which were probably exaggerated, but she had a good idea of how true they were.

All news could be more or less impartial, with objectives not so honest, depending a lot on the agent through which such information was made available.

Sometimes a particular agent would not find it interesting to talk about a specific aspect because this could be harmful to itself. As an example, a mission where its creator would highlight the benefits of the same, leaving aside or even hiding its risks.

But just because the mission's creator would not be telling the whole truth, or even manipulating it in his favor, would not mean that it was not based on something real.

With this, at the same time that accepting everything you read and heard would be crazy; the same would be valid for not believing anything.

The difference was precisely knowing how to analyze information in order to understand the heart of the matter, even when the agent tried to manipulate it.

And as a critical person, capable of thinking independently and intelligent enough not to be influenced by anything she heard or read, Kara identified some of these critical points.

She did not know the Coleman family. Still, considering the power of the sect, Maisie's talent, and some real news from that state, she knew that the rumors she had heard were not made of pure fantasy.

Some might contain certain exaggerations, and she just did not take them fully into account. Others understated the matter a little more but also touched on the critical point that mattered to her.

The fact that House Coleman was a significant power within the Gray Clouds Sect and, consequently, Flaming Empire.

That was why she had made the previous statement with confidence, even though she did not know much about Maisie's family!

Anyway, after hearing Kara's comment, Linette stood in shock in the same place as before, trying to process this information.

She and, of course, all the regional leaders already knew that Minos had a mighty mother who was already at the 7th stage.

But knowing this and knowing the details about that woman were quite different things!

Even if most large regional families had at least one of their members in that empire, this did not mean that they would have information about Maisie.

The Flaming Empire had an area almost equal to that of the northern region of the Central Continent, with more than 2.5 billion people, and there were tens of millions of Spiritual Emperors in that state!

It was virtually impossible for those families, which barely had information about their descendants, to have access to detailed information about Maisie.

Consequently, they did not know that woman's exact level, let alone her background!

Therefore, upon hearing Kara's earlier comment, Linette was shocked that Minos was a descendant of such a powerful family.

Why would a descendant of a family with Spiritual Saints in its ranks decide to stay in the northern region of the Central Continent?

Or rather, why had such a family left Minos in this barren place?

These were some of the questions on that powerful woman's mind.

As Linette was thinking about all this, she had considered the possibility that the Black Plain's power was from the Gray Clouds Sect, but soon such a thing disappeared from her mind.

That was because such a possibility would make no sense.

The Gray Clouds Sect had existed longer than all the current families in this poor region. But the Black Plain had already been an 'abandoned' place for hundreds of thousands of years.

So, if the Gray Clouds Sect had any plan for this region, they would have done such a thing long ago!

There were undoubtedly many individuals from that region in that sect, so there was no need for Minos for that to happen.

But besides that, if that sect had done something like that, the Spiritual Church would be the first to notice and take action.

But here they were, fighting for over a year against Minos, but in the meantime, no kind of promise had been made by the church.

Thinking about it, Linette disregarded the possibility that Minos' mother's organization sponsored the Black Plain.

Obviously, this did not mean that no one was supporting him. Still, his enemy side could do nothing to drag the church into this problem with that information alone.

In any case, it seemed unlikely that such a large organization, with so much to lose, would do something so risky for so little.

'If that's all true, he'll probably get to the 7th stage easily...' She was about to think of something but soon remembered the information passed on by King Brown.

'But that brat only has a Black talent and King-grade Physique!'

'Why is he so different? Is the innate ability of that family so powerful? Maybe his mother helped him raise the rank of his Physique? I heard that she visited him a few times since Albert's death...' She considered.

But she soon put those questions aside and asked Kara, before this young woman left, "And why did you tell me this? No matter how strong they are, they won't violate the church's rules."

"Is that so?"

"Evidently, the sect would never do anything... But what about his mother?"

"I heard that she had to try hard not to take revenge on those responsible for the death of Minos' father... But would that happen if he was the one who died?"

"She could certainly cause a great deal of chaos before the Spiritual Church realizes the problem..."

"That would be suicide!" Linette replied.

Kara nodded in agreement and said. "But there are ways for the sect to disrupt the actions of the local families through the church without having to expose itself to danger!"

That was indeed true. In principle, the Spiritual Church prohibited outside intervention in this region. And suppose the Gray Clouds Sect decided to help Minos. In that case, they could merely pressure the church members in that empire not to accept the requests of this region's families.

After all, the church itself advocated that locals should solve local problems.

By this, Kara was telling Linette that they were not wholly immune to the actions of outside powers!

"In any case, aunt Linette, I will go find my father to talk to him about this. Take this into consideration in your future decisions."

"Minos probably has greater potential than you think."

"And if he suddenly decides to leave the northern region to go to the empire, he will be able to do so very easily."

"And then, it's gone."

"The local families would never be able to do anything against him in that scenario. However, he could still take revenge on every single descendant of the regional families in that state!"