Upon seeing the three people in front of him, Minos soon understood what was about to happen. He had made an offer to the young Peter, and this man had probably convinced himself to follow the sovereign of the Black Plain.
After all, it would be challenging for him to be chosen by one of the eight sects of the Flaming Empire.
As for Maxwell, he, too, had not achieved a great ranking, so going to the empire with one of these sects was impossible for him. So, he should be returning to the Snow Kingdom, where his family was.
The two young men already knew that Minos would not join one of these sects, so they were already prepared to come to him when it was time to leave.
Minos then smiled and said. "Oh? Did you come to say goodbye?"
"No. As you had previously proposed, I decided to follow you back to your territories." Peter said firmly.
And soon after, Maxwell also gave his answer. "I will accompany you for a while, and then I will make my way back to the Snow Kingdom."
The Snow Kingdom was a long way from where they were. So, the young Maxwell and his guard had to 'skip' the Brown Kingdom, following another state that bordered the Kingdom of Cromwell and the Flaming Empire.
After crossing that state, they would finally reach the Snow Kingdom.
And, while this kingdom is not located in the northern section of the Central Continent, as long as they maintained a low profile, the journey would not be difficult if they traveled close to the state's northern boundary...
"Hm, I see. Okay, but we're going back as fast as we can go. I just intend to stop to rest on this route. Is it okay for you?"
"Yeah." The two responded, nodding their heads.
Of the two youths, Maxwell had a 4th stage spiritual beast, as was the case with Ruth's eagle. On the other hand, Peter had no spiritual beast since he had no family financing his expenses.
With that, Maxwell and his bodyguard followed in their beast, while Peter went along with Minos and Ruth on the back of the great white eagle. And that would not hinder their journey since there was room for up to 3 people in the eagle's seat.
After that, the group quickly began to move, leaving the capital of the Cromwell Kingdom behind.
...
Meanwhile, in Capital City, it had been a few hours since the end of the last event of the Spiritual Tournament. At this time, the group that had been classified was already lined up in the middle of a large hall, inside the arena where the competition had taken place.
In this room, eight people were sitting side by side in large armchairs while talking to each other.
In front of them were about 25 youths, who had managed to reach the fourth test of the competition. Among them were Minos' acquaintances, Abby, Mona, Troy, Davy, Kara, Ford, Roger, and others from the various competitors ranked in the ranking.
As they waited for their names to be summoned, suddenly, someone asked in a low voice. "Hey! Where's that Minos? Did he forget the time to come here?"
"Hmm, that's right, we've been here for 15 minutes already. I suspect these experts are just waiting for him."
"What an arrogant guy, just a little bit of strength, and he already acts like this!"
Upon hearing this, Mona and Abby looked at each other and smiled. It seemed that Minos didn't care about it, just as he had said to them.
As for Kara and her brother, they immediately responded when they heard this. "Minos told us that he had no interest in going to the empire."
After finishing saying this, all eight experts of the sect looked in the direction of the two siblings in surprise. Then one of them said. "Oh? Can you talk a little more about that?"
Kara then took a step forward and then said it politely. "Minos told us that he didn't want to join any sect. He was only here to improve his contacts and test his strength."
'What?' Troy questioned in his mind.
'And me thinking that this guy could become my rival... But he is just someone with no ambition!'
Troy was a little disappointed to hear this news. After all, this had been the first time he had met someone as talented as Minos. He even thought that if the two went to the Flaming Empire sects, they would undoubtedly have a great rivalry for a long time...
And that was something that Troy appreciated a lot. After all, rivals could boost each other, reaching even greater heights than they could generally achieve if they didn't know each other!
But it was a pity that Minos didn't seem to think that way...
Anyway, on hearing what Kara had said of the eight experts, only Sally was not so shocked. After all, she already knew that Minos had refused to go to the Gray Cloud Sect with his mother, Maisie Coleman.
She only had doubts about whether Minos would come to join a rival sect of the Gray Cloud Sect. But luckily, he seemed to despise them all and not just the sect behind Sally...
'Good thing... It wouldn't look good if he went to a rival power!' She thought as she let out a sigh of relief.
At the same time, the seven Spiritual Kings were completely frightened by this. 'Who in their right mind would do that? Missing an opportunity that might not come back?' They thought about it, trying to understand Minos' mind.
Going to an empire was not difficult. But it was dangerous to go to such a place without the help or support of great powers.
Just to give you an idea, in the Flaming Empire, there were as many people with Black talent as there were people with Blue talent in the north of the Central Continent!
And not only that, while in the north of the Central Continent, it was not uncommon to find natural regions with spiritual beasts of the 5th stage, in the Flaming Empire, something similar happened. But in the case of this empire, 6th stage spiritual beasts were the ones common!
And this was a severe problem. Even the strongest in the north of the Central Continent, they were only in the 6th stage of cultivation... Therefore, if they traveled through the Flaming Empire, they would constantly be in danger!
As for the number of people with Silver talent, these were almost as numerous as the people with Black talent in the north of the Central Continent.
In fact, people with Silver talent were at the top of the power pyramid, not only on the central continent but on all human continents. After all, people with Golden talent were rare.
Even in 100 million people, having someone like that would be incredible!
Thus, the Spiritual World was dominated by those with Silver talent and ruled from the shadows by those with Golden talent who lived long enough to attain high cultivation levels.
Because of this reality, going to an empire where there were so many stronger and even more talented people was an absolute danger for someone from the impoverished north of the Central Continent.
Consequently, few people tried to venture alone, leaving to seize the opportunity given by the sects of the Flaming Empire through the Spiritual Tournament. With that, if a single member of a family was successful, one day they could be taken to these regions safely, as had happened with the Red family of the Brown Kingdom.
And it was for these reasons. The seven Spiritual Kings did not understand Minos' decision. 'Does he have no bigger ambitions and just wants to live peacefully in this place?' They had that thought in their minds.
Anyway, one of them finally decided to speak. "Well, since that is the case, let's get on with our business."
"First, to the three youths who stayed in the top three positions, we are going to give them the right to choose any of the eight sects of the empire. Ehh, and even if Minos gave up, his position would not change..."
The blonde man then looked at Troy and Kara and said. "Make your choices!"
And it was not long before the two gave their answers. Kara had decided to go to Minos' mother sect, the Gray Cloud Sect, while Troy chose the Holy Sect.
After the two had finished speaking, the other woman in the group said. "Now, we are going to call the names of some of you who were chosen by one of the eight sects, and you must come to the person who calls your name. That will be your sect in the future..."
She then sighed and said, remembering Minos' case. "Of course, you can refuse..."
And shortly after that, those selected began to be called.
"Davy Hayes."
"Mona Miller."
...
"Roger Aguilar."
"And lastly, Ford Carline."
After calling the names of 11 people, each of them was allocated to different sects, with Mona being in the same sect as Kara, the Gray Cloud Sect.
The eight experts also called Luke's name, but he was long gone...
After that, each of these competitors said goodbye to their groups that had come to the Cromwell Kingdom and then followed the eight young specialists to the Flaming Empire.
They were all very excited about the idea of going to such a strong place and couldn't wait to get to their new homes...
As for Minos' beautiful friend, Abby, unfortunately, she had not been summoned by any sects. And after saying goodbye to Mona, she and the bodyguards who came to the capital of the Cromwell Kingdom headed back to the Brown Kingdom, where the Miller family was based.
'Ahh! I'm happy for Mona, but now I've lost my best friend... Who knows how long it will take to see each other again...' Abby thought to herself while she had an unhappy look on her face.
'Who knows, I might end up visiting that disgusting Minos in the future...'