Night fell in the capital of the Brown Kingdom.
Meanwhile, a young man in a particular mansion was looking very serious right now.
This was Minos. He was mentally preparing to enter the Spatial Kingdom as soon as butler Dillian left his room.
At that time, the middle-aged man was still planning for the trip to the Black Plain, which was supposed to happen in the next few days.
Anyway, some minutes passed, and when Minos finally realized that he could have his privacy, he then activated the ring on his right hand. With just one thought, the young man disappeared from where he was.
Minos almost instantly noticed his entire surroundings change when he began to enjoy the beautiful landscape in front of him.
It was a vast place, which limits could not be seen.
In fact, even though it was already night in the Brown Kingdom, this place was still clear, as if it were a very distant place. It also had a concentration of spiritual energy that was hundreds, if not thousands of times, denser than the spiritual density of the City of the Setting Sun.
There were thousands of trees of all types, with some even emanating a certain pressure. However, for someone without cultivation like Minos, there was no way for him to differ exactly the power contained in each plant in this place.
Anyway, there was also a large lake, which appeared to be near an open area where there was a large house.
Walking for a few minutes, he saw various types of medicines, which by his knowledge, could even help Spiritual Sages!
'Too bad, it will be a long time before I can use these resources...' Minos thought as he walked the place.
Finally, he arrived at the house. It looked like a beach house, with ample space between it and the lake, giving the feeling of being an ideal place to cultivate.
Entering the house, the young man saw many rooms.
There were at least 20 of them, with several bathrooms spread out, three large meeting rooms, one with a table with more than ten seats, and the other two with chairs and sofas. Everything was well decorated, but a specific room caught Minos' attention.
According to the memories received from the inheritance, there were three spatial rings in that room. In these rings, there were weapons, spiritual crystals, techniques specialized in cultivation, movement, attack, soul, healing, etc.
"Hmm, as far as I know, techniques are classified: White, Blue, Black, Silver, and Golden. And what differs it, are basically the conversion of the user's spiritual energy into the techniques, which respectively use, 40%, 50%, 70%, 100%, and 200%, of the energy used to activate the technique."
"If someone releases a Blue-grade attack technique and another releases a Golden-grade attack technique, the second releases a technique four times stronger than the first!"
"The techniques can also be subdivided into phases. According to this, it is preferable to learn a technique with the same number of phases as the steps required for the 11th step. Because using such techniques results in an even greater increase in potential during the final stages of cultivation."
In addition, in this world, cultivators were limited by their stages of cultivation, adding only one technique to each stage.
Thus, cultivators had to choose prudently because, while it was possible to switch techniques, doing so would require selecting one with fewer phases, which would be disadvantageous at the highest levels.
The phases of a technique referred to its characteristics.
For example, if a technique were limited to a specific area, that area would only increase if the cultivator raised his mastery phase over that technique. Before that, no matter the cultivator's level, characteristics like this would be forever limited by the phase that someone was in that technique.
"Finally, the first technique has to be one specialized in cultivation, since a cultivator cannot gather spiritual energy, easily, without its. After that, people usually choose an attack in Transition and a defensive in the Spiritual Beginner..."
"Anyway, it seems that almost all techniques are classified as Golden or Silver. While for these weapons... Unfortunately, I will not be able to use these weapons until I reach at least level 60. Before that, I wouldn't be able to handle it."
While checking all the spatial rings, Minos found an 11-phase cultivation technique, classified as Golden, called Solar God Breath. It had a unique special effect, doubling the speed of collecting free spiritual energy in the air during the day, with an exponential increase of such a characteristic in later phases.
"Hmm, Solar God Breath, huh... You will be my first chosen technique."
After that, Minos concentrated on collecting a few items with the lowest ratings in this location, as he could not use or carry such valuable items without the strength to exercise such a right.
He also chose a cultivation technique for the butler Dillian since this man would certainly not have something as well rated as a Silver-grade or a Golden-grade technique.
Finally, he decided to spend the next few hours cultivating his newly learned technique until he reached level 1.
...
"At this rate, I should be able to reach level 10, the beginning of the Transition, in less than one month..."
"As for these spiritual crystals, there are millions of them here, but they are all of such high quality that my body would not be able to withstand the amount of energy they contain. At least until I reached the Spiritual Saint stage."
The spiritual crystals in question are subdivided into three types in the Spiritual World: low, medium, and high concentration, growing in energy such that the high concentration is 10,000 times richer than the low concentration and 100 times than those of the medium concentration.
Low-grade crystals are indicated for people between levels 20 to 49, medium-grade for levels 50 to 69, and high-grade for people above level 70. The levels at which the body could support the energy contained in each type of spiritual crystal.
The reason those below the Spiritual Beginner stage are unable to cultivate with crystals is straightforward. The Corporal Foundation stage focuses on preparing the body to support the spirit's future power. In contrast, the Transition stage focuses on spiritual development, which would begin to be strengthened from the next stage.
"I'm going to have to find a way to get these low-concentration crystals for when I reach the Spiritual Beginner stage. And even if my father left a decent amount, six years have passed, and I still need them to do business in my territory."
"I think I should go back, or grandpa Dillian may notice that I'm missing. Although I trust him, I will talk about this heritage later in the future. At least I will wait until we move to the Black Plain..."
"As for this region, I think I can try to improve the overall quality of the terrain and increase the spiritual energy of the place with the help of the Spatial Kingdom."
"Well, I have to ask grandpa Dillian to gather the information that can help me plan what to do."
After that, Minos went back to his room and slept through the night.
...
When he woke up in the morning, the butler Dillian had already left to settle pending matters. According to the cook, who had prepared Minos' breakfast, the butler had left the message that everything would be ready for the trip in the afternoon.
Since the Stuart family was newly promoted gentry, consisting solely of the late general and the young Stuart, there were insufficient beasts or carriages for long-distance travel, requiring the need to rent this service.
And despite not having large quantities of things to take, there were still about 20 servants and ten guards who had remained even after Albert Stuart died. So, Dillian needed time to collect all the necessary carriages.
...
Time passed, and soon the afternoon arrived when 12 carriages traveled along the south side of the capital, heading towards the Black Plain. This place was about 4,000 kilometers away, close to the Brown Kingdom border with two other kingdoms of equivalent strength.
The trip in question was supposed to take less than a week using carriages pushed by spiritual beasts that resembled horses. They were 3rd stage beasts that could cover up to 1,000 kilometers a day.
...
Meanwhile, in a Silva family palace, two older men played chess while drinking tea in the City of the Setting Sun. One of them had a calm look on his face, as if there were no worries, while he was dressed in an entirely silver robe.
This older man had white hair and a big beard. His name was Otis Silva, the current patriarch of the Silva family, being in the Spiritual King stage, level 57.
The other was Willian Silva, level 52, one of those responsible for the death of Albert Stuart, at the behest of the older man in front of him. He was dressed in a black robe and had gray hair, while he expressed a thoughtful face that would make anyone walk away.
"Patriarch, the brat Stuart left the city a few hours ago, heading towards the inherited territory, the Black Plain, with all the remaining servants and guards. He also seems to have fully recovered a few days ago."
"Should we attack them while they are traveling?" He asked as he drank his spiritual tea.
"There is no need. I heard that the boy had awakened, but he is already 15-years-old and hasn't even started to cultivate. And now he is going to a place that can barely produce Spiritual Warriors."
After making a move, old Otis then continued. "Even if he has his father's talent, it would still take decades, or even more than a century, to reach Albert's cultivation. In contrast, we are already above level 50, and we continue to strengthen ourselves. We still have a big family with hundreds of experts."
"Even if he wants revenge, his chances are minimal. Forget him and his followers. Even the butler Dillian would have no hope of harming us."
After that, the two continued to play until the patriarch won the round of chess.
Then the two older men said goodbye, while old Otis remained in the room, looking at the side porch when he thought with a smile on his face. 'With the Red Valley in our hands, the Silva family will be able to grow substantially in the coming decades. Hahaha, not even the Miller bastards, with all their financial might, will be able to block us!'