Currently, the city wall had 80 cultivators in the 5th stage and 160 in the 4th stage of cultivation.
They were subdivided into four different entrances of the Dry City and were intended to stop possible threats to the territory before it reached the interior area of the wall.
Anyway, now the number of soldiers of the Black Plain Army was quite large, being able to maintain these numbers in the surveillance of the city wall.
With the time that had passed, the number of soldiers in the Sergeant's rank had increased to about 200. And there were even some of them already at level 42.
With that, these soldiers could fulfill their obligations by protecting the city with some ease, unless, of course, individuals close to the 6th stage would cause problems...
...
Minos had finished his cultivation session within the Spatial Kingdom, and now he was resting beside a tree not far from the lake.
He could feel the heat of the sun's rays on his skin, while the strong smell of plants could be felt. There was also a light breeze, which gave him an enjoyable feeling.
It was delightful to lie on the grass and feel the nature around you!
And not far from Minos, two youths and two foxes were there. Those, of course, were Emlyn, Kyla, Lee, and Alison.
After all these months that passed, Lee and Alison had managed to reach the 4th stage of cultivation, with him at level 31 while the girl was at level 30.
The two were growing more and more. And it would not be long before the two left behind the childish characteristics of their appearances. Minos also hoped that these two could finally take on greater responsibilities soon.
Due to the talent of the two youngsters and the classification of their cultivation techniques, the young Stuart stipulated that they would reach level 40 around the 15 to 16-year-old.
With that, they would soon be among the strongest of their forces since the two had cultivation speeds far superior to those of the young Stuart's soldiers.
As to why these two were so fast-cultivating, that was due to the investment made by Minos.
The cultivation speed in the Spiritual World could be affected by two factors mainly. That was the talent and the quality of the cultivation technique.
Obviously, constant struggles could slightly improve a person's cultivation speed, but that was not as significant as the quality of cultivation techniques.
The most influential was the classification of the cultivation technique. So, even if they only had Black talent, the two youths would undoubtedly be as quick as those young people with Silver talent!
But it was not only that. The two trained whenever possible in the Spatial Kingdom. Because of that, the time of spiritual gathering that the two took was much less. In addition, the pressure given by a zone of high spiritual concentration, at the level of that of the Spatial Kingdom, made cultivation even easier!
It was no wonder that only the Spatial Kingdoms were called sanctuaries of cultivation!
Regions of high spiritual concentration had a lot of spiritual energy, but that energy was spread over vast terrains. In Spatial Kingdoms, the energy was almost wholly concentrated in a small space.
That is why Minos expected them to move forward so fast!
And soon, the battle arena of the Dry City would open, and the two youths could finally train with other young people. Of course, it would take a while for someone who could challenge them to show up in these areas...
As for the two foxes, Emlyn had not increased her level in this period since it took much longer to achieve this in the 6th stage of cultivation. For a beast from one of the best species like her, even increasing 1 level at such a stage could take about one year!
For this reason, the six months that passed were not enough for the mother fox to increase her strength, even though she was in a cultivation sanctuary. She also still couldn't eat the Spatial Kingdom's medicines since they all had higher amounts of energy than Emlyn's body could handle.
In this case, Emlyn could only continue to strengthen until she could absorb one of these medicines.
As for tiny Kyla, she was now almost twice the size of before and became more graceful. She now has three orange tails that were charming, and the young fox's intelligence increased more and more.
She still couldn't understand human language, but she improved her way of behaving constantly.
Until recently, she was still deceived by Minos when he used food to attract the attention of the little fox.
But after reaching the 3rd stage, Kyla was no longer easily deceived and even devised strategies to steal apples from the big house beside the lake.
That was her favorite food, but she only got a few a day...
Therefore, whenever Minos was not around, she tried to get more, 'robbing' the cabinets of that house!
Finally, the butler Dillian, who was in the Dry City at the moment, taking care of his daily responsibilities, and had already reached level 49!
He was getting closer and closer to reaching the 6th stage of cultivation, Spiritual King!
And even if he wasn't a warrior-type cultivator, having someone of that level in the Dry City was still significant. After all, in the north of the Central Continent, the sign of a force's strength was precisely the number of Spiritual Kings!
Thus, reaching the first member of this stage of cultivation was a significant achievement for the Black Plain Army!
Finally, after staying in the Spatial Kingdom enjoying this peaceful time of rest, Minos decided to return to the Dry City. It was time for him to deal with his daily responsibilities as the sovereign of this place.
He disappeared from where he was, while his surroundings changed suddenly.
Minos had appeared inside a courtyard, inside his residence. There weren't many things in this place, just a bathtub, a space for training, and a table not far from the door to his apartment.
Upon noticing where he was, the young Stuart quickly headed towards the administrative part of the mansion, where he worked out his daily affairs.
Not long after, he finally spotted his office, where secretary Mia was sitting behind her desk. She was already at level 35 and was getting more and more beautiful. Mia was also dressing very well, in a beautiful green silk dress, which neither showed too much nor showed too little.
It was just the right proportion for the occasion.
The young secretary had greatly improved her quality of life. Today, she was able to have a comfortable lifestyle, which would enable her to have expensive clothes, like the young women from large noble families.
Finally, Minos greeted her and went quickly to his office.
He then saw a middle-aged man sitting comfortably on one of the couches in that place, drinking spiritual tea while reading some reports. He wore a beige suit and had a full mustache, completely black.
That was butler Dillian, who was already handling his daily business at this point.
Upon realizing that someone had arrived, Dillian stopped what he was doing and looked in the direction of the door where Minos was passing.
He smiled and said. "Young master, I have good news."
"Oh?"
"The cultivation tower that the young master ordered is already ready! We can open it at any time." He said with a smile on his face.
That was an essential thing for this city. After all, such a tower could be considered standard for the inhabitants of a big city, but this was only seen in those largest urban agglomerations, with more than 1 million inhabitants!
Such a building was costly, and sovereign families were usually unwilling to invest considerable funds in a project for the common public... With this, in addition to the large cities, which yielded many crystals with taxes, there were practically no cultivation towers in other places!
Just to give you an idea, Minos had disbursed 9 million low-grade crystals to pay for the construction of this tower alone!
Any other noble family would not have done such a thing since the tax revenue of the Dry City barely exceeded 100,000 crystals a year!
But for Minos, it was definitely worth it.
With this investment, the cultivation tower would have 400 rooms for the 2nd stage cultivators, 200 niches for the 3rd stage, 100 for the 4th, and 20 for the 5th stage cultivators.
With such numbers, they could significantly increase the cultivation speed of their citizens, increasing the strength of their army and future members as well. After all, the Black Plain Army made selections. Therefore, only those of more significant cultivation was left with the vacancies offered.
Many people wanted to reach the army of Minos, but the competition was just too great.
With that, those who had not yet got their place could train hard in this new option so that from the following selection, they could accomplish this small goal...