The Rise of the Black Plain

Chapter 2770  Hell and the Upper Realm

The years of seclusion of Minos and his group were enough for his men in Hilltop City to get information about the current situation of the descendants of Odibrand Redwound.

Before Minos set off for that city alone, he heard from his wives that the family that descended from Odibrand had four branches with different surnames in Uzira. It was possible that there were more names, something the group would still need to find out in order to determine the exact number of targets. But in principle, the number of potential enemies for them was large.

Minos had not yet made any decisions on the matter. He wanted to have more concrete information and even to know about the possible location of Odibrand's descendants outside of Zocarro. Without certainty about this data, he couldn't do much. Any action on his part would be a provocation to the forces behind these groups without him being able to actually complete his mission.

The level 124 soul fragment perhaps didn't know how complicated the mission she had left for Minos had been, having died long before Odibrand's ascension. And consequently, Minos was undecided whether to go through with his word or do as Mylecent had instructed.

He had always been a man of his word. But this was a rather peculiar situation. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

With this further doubt in mind, he made his way to the city where he intended to change the guild representatives' shifts soon and prepare for their absence during the journey west of Uzira.

The Armhands' group had grown accustomed to traveling between their post and Hilltop City, so it was easy for Minos to go there once again.

The guild had grown a little more representative in the area. But it would be a long time before their group went from being a small group to something relevant.

Fortunately, the prospects were excellent. As long as the group at the secret outpost continued to develop, they would eventually achieve their local goals.

So Minos spent two months traveling between the two busiest areas in his guild at the moment until he finally returned to be able to leave with his wives!

...

Minos, Abby, Gloria and Ruth left via a special deformation created by him, once again leaving the group of guild members on their own.

Minos followed ahead of his women as they controlled space, heading for the other side of the continent without stressing about common journeys as he had done on his first trip to Hilltop City. Since he knew exactly where he was going and what kind of existences there were in such a place, he led his women a long way, until he came close to where the True Celestial had left him earlier.

Arriving near the tribe of creatures who had shown him the way and told him about the Macabre Horde, Minos ignored the area of these beings and flew alongside his wives to the dark place they were going to challenge.

"What kind of trouble will we encounter on our way?" Ruth asked as she gradually felt a negative feeling surround her, even stronger than the sensation of being near the Drops of Hell.

"Undead, basically. Poison and lots of necromancers." Abby summarized the characteristics of such an area, using the valuable memories of the level 124 soul fragment. "The Awakening Peak area is a sacred place for the royal family. The way Mylecent messed with the undead in this place is forbidden, and few would have the ability to do that. But many of the family's necromancers come to this place to test their powers and try to become stronger.

Legends say that there is a connection between Hell and Zocarro at the Awakening Peak. Some say that this is where the Drops of Hell come from and in the area necromancers can awaken their latent talents."

"That would be worrying. If Hell is the opposite of the Upper Realm, wouldn't it be a place to avoid at all costs?" Ruth considered the implications and looked at Minos questioningly.

"Understanding the duality between the Upper Realm and Hell is essential for us," Minos said as he made them see what he had already realized. "The Upper Realm is, in a way, recruiting soldiers. Think about it. If everyone who gets a place in the Upper Realm will invariably look for heirs and those heirs will do the same, isn't that the same as increasing the Upper Realm's numbers exponentially?"

The three women frowned as they saw this pattern with some of the behaviors they had witnessed in their long lives.

"Similarly, states and forces usually increase their numbers a lot before a major conflict. Otherwise, they usually remain stable after an initial growth, or even have continued growth, but something more slow.

Even at a slow rate, the growth in numbers of the Upper Realm is clearly exponential, something illogical for peaceful forces. In contrast, Hell grows as we die. It is a place where there is no shortage of members...

So we have two sides of the same coin. Two sides in conflict, one seeking to destroy the other, one seeking to thwart the other's plans.

Those in the Upper Realm want level 130, immortality. Those in Hell, well, they want the mortality of souls."

This was a complicated subject for them. But thinking from Minos' point of view, it made sense to judge these two legendary places as enemies. And if they were going to join either side, they needed to know about both, not just the one they would be joining.

"Anyway, knowing about Hell and the situation with the Upper Realm could give us an advantage when I win the contest for the True Celestial inheritance.

As dangerous as it is, we need to explore our possibilities."

Ruth and Gloria sighed as they thought about how they were surrounded by complicated problems on all sides.

'Will we ever really be at peace in one place? I hope that when we reach the Upper Realm, we don't discover that there is another, even more advanced place that we must reach in order to be at peace.' Gloria looked at the darkening sky as they approached the Awakening Peak.

A cultivator's initial goal was to defy the heavens and overcome their mortality. But now that each of them could easily live for millions of years, Gloria was no longer thinking about reaching higher levels of power, but something simpler.

The others had similar ideas of what their victory would be on this journey of cultivation.

To find eternal peace and live harmoniously with this vast reality.

The road to this was not far, and they would soon reach their momentary destination.