Time quickly passed, and it had been ten days since Minos and Ruth met the young Abby. At the moment, the two were only a few hundred kilometers from the capital of the Cromwell Kingdom.
They had traveled quietly during the days that had passed, with no significant incidents in their path. At most, the two of them were stopping to train their techniques and fight each other, day in, day out.
In some of the cities that Minos and Ruth had passed, there were unique buildings where cultivators could get training, cultivation, and even fighting rooms.
It was something that Minos had liked so much so that he had written that idea down in his mind for him to take to the Dry City. That could certainly help its population to improve their strength further!
In these locations, cultivators could pay to use spiritual arrays that concentrated their full potential on increasing the energy density of small spaces rather than on large areas.
The fight and training rooms were prepared to withstand the remaining energy of the battles without the need for constant maintenance with each match that happened.
That is because these buildings were specially invented by designs and array masters so that the remaining energy of the battles did not harm the structures of the place.
Because of that, these places were trendy, and Minos had liked them a lot too!
And in this period, Minos was getting closer and closer to breaking to the next level!
...
Right now, in one of the rooms in the Cultivation Tower, in the city where Minos and Ruth were staying, there were two youths cultivating side by side.
Ruth had her long black hair tied in a ponytail while she cultivated in a meditative position on one of the cultivation pads in that place.
She was dressed in slim clothing, which facilitated movement, and had a few drops of sweat on her forehead.
She had just finished training her battle techniques a few minutes ago. She was cultivating to recover her energies spent on this training.
At the same time, Minos was in a meditative position, while he was shirtless, wearing only long trousers. And unlike Ruth, he had not trained his techniques before this training since he felt his progression getting closer and closer.
Minos had his technique, Solar God Breath activated, while several low-grade spiritual crystals were shining around him.
He was slowly sucking up the spiritual energy stored in these crystals while gradually increasing his cultivation.
Dozens of minutes passed when the spiritual energy within Minos' body slowly rose to a new level!
Crack!
A slight cracking sound was emitted from Minos' body when his spiritual energy quickly reached level 38!
When he felt that, the corners of Minos' mouth slowly rose in an exuberant smile, which showed how happy he was to be even stronger.
He then thought while he still had his eyes closed. 'In a month or so, I should be able to reach level 39... After that, I should start preparing for my progress towards the 5th stage of cultivation...'
Minos had not yet chosen the 4th battle technique that he would learn in this new stage that he would reach. But he was almost sure that it would be better for him to learn a movement technique.
After all, sometimes the best outcome of a fight would be an escape!
'When I reach 5th stage, my Physique's degree will be closer to evolving again. I currently have a 10% increase in my spiritual energy, but after that, it will go up to 20% when I move up from the 5th stage to the 6th!' He opened his eyes and then looked at Ruth's side while scratching his head.
'This will decrease my cultivation speed even more, but I'll also be more formidable!' He thought with a self-fulfilling smile on his face.
It was delightful to be much stronger than those on the same level as you. That gave a sense of greatness and made the cultivator even happier with his training.
After all, when a job paid off, anyone would feel better about what they were doing!
Minos then got up and started to wait for Ruth while she finished cultivating. It was already night in this city they were in, so he wanted to return to the hotel they stayed at.
And it wasn't long before the beautiful young woman finished her cultivation session.
Because she was stronger than Minos, Ruth could spend a lot more time than he did, so she usually took longer to do that.
As for an increase in her cultivation, this was far more difficult for Ruth to achieve this than for Minos.
She was already at level 46. To move up to level 47, she needed to absorb an amount of spiritual energy about five times greater than Minos required to move up from level 37 to 38!
So, even if she had a good talent and an excellent cultivation technique, she still needed at least another six months to reach the next level!
Ruth then opened her eyes and looked at Minos while she was still sitting on the pillow. She had heard a specific noise during her cultivation session, but she had continued to cultivate without losing focus.
When looking at Minos, she smiled after feeling that he had leveled up. "Congratulations on increasing your strength again. At this rate, you must reach level 39 during the Spiritual Tournament."
Minos then shook his head in agreement before approaching Ruth and kissing her softly.
"Mmm!"
The kisses sounded for a brief moment when Ruth suddenly pulled away and said with an erotic expression. "Let's go to the hotel. We can continue this there..."
"Hmm."
After that, the two left the Cultivation Tower quickly, going to a place where they could have their privacy guaranteed...
...
While Minos and Ruth were having fun, a young blond man with green eyes had just seen the silhouette of the city as he and his two bodyguards approached to enter there.
That was the group of the young master of the Nash family, who had already been traveling to this city for a few days. The young Luke had decided to travel after the rest of his family members since he wanted to move up to level 41 before that trip.
And in fact, he had made his way a few weeks ago, when he finally left Stone Island. So, he was very confident of getting a good place in this competition, recovering his chance to go to the Western Empire!
Beside him was a person already known to Minos, guard Brian, who Ruth had beaten in Old Stone. He had cultivated a lot in the past few months, finally reaching level 47!
As for the other man in the group, he was also one of the Nash family's subordinates, being at level 47 as well.
As they headed towards the entrance to the city, Luke thought. 'At my current level, and considering that I am one of the few participants owning a low-level grade-2 spiritual weapon, I believe that only monsters with the Silver talent will be able to defeat me...'
Luke was very hopeful for this tournament since it was not long before one of the subordinates of the Elemental Sect came to his family's headquarters to pick up the chosen member.
With that, he wanted to fight and be among the first places in this competition as soon as possible. Thus, he would finally achieve the dream he had since his first day of cultivating.
He wanted to join the Elemental Sect, returning in the future in triumph and then leading his family after his father retired!
Luke then murmured under his breath. "I just hope that there is no bastard like that Minos participating in this competition... That would be very bad!"
Minos had created a slight trauma in Luke's mind, that even if it did not affect his cultivation, it was still something that made him deeply fear Minos.
'That miserable one! One day I will come back from the Western Empire and teach that guy a lesson so that I can calm my heart...'
After that, it didn't take long, and Luke's group entered the big city in front of them. That was a city almost the same size as the capital of Stone Island, and it had some even better options than that place.
That is because, among the kingdoms of the northern region of the Central Continent, the Cromwell Kingdom is the southernmost place in this region, being the closest to all of its to the Flaming Empire.
And the capital of the kingdom was also located in an area closer to that empire, which significantly increased the general quality of Capital City concerning the Old Stone!
And although it did not directly border the Flaming Empire, the Cromwell Kingdom was only a few hundred kilometers from this state!
That was even closer than the distance between the Dry City and the capital of the Brown Kingdom, the City of the Setting Sun!