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'Though I have no interest in joining any of the sects from the Flaming Empire, if I could ally with any one of such powerful secs, it would be great. However, achieving something like that at the current moment would be an impossible feat. Hence, in that case, I will try not to interact with any of the powers outside the northern region of the Central Continent.'

What Minos thought was true. If he were to join any one of the Flaming Empire sects, he could only become an external member of those forces.

That was because the sects which organized the Spiritual Tournament were all powers having dozens of Spiritual Emperors and even had Spiritual Saints leading them!

Even if the young Stuart joined one of these sects, it would take years for Minos to achieve a sufficient status before any doors of business could be opened for him in the empire.

Besides, Minos also had no way of providing services to such a distant place.

Hell, he was barely starting to expand his business beyond the Black Plain!

While Minos was seriously thinking, Ruth waited for his response with a satisfied expression on her delicate face. 'He must be very tempted by the Silver-grade technique!' she thought.

After a while, she finally broke the silence and asked. "Then? You want to participate, right?"

After finishing his conjectures, Minos glanced at the beautiful lady in front of him, and nodded with a smile, "Yes, I am interested in this tournament. It can help me a lot."

"Haha, I knew you were going to say this. After all, a Silver-grade technique is precious."

Ruth had a smug on her face, clearly unaware of Minos' thoughts so far.

"Mnn, indeed…" Still, Minos vaguely nodded while the corners of his lips curled upwards.

"Okay, now that you've already decided, we should better go to the Cromwell Kingdom right away," Ruth said as she hastily got up from the couch.

"No, I have other matters to attend to before we go."

But Minos quickly punctured her excitement to leave this place as soon as possible. 

"Another matter? What could be more important than the tournament? Just to let you know, even with the help of my 4th stage spiritual beast, if we depart from Stone Island, it would take at least three weeks to reach the capital of the Cromwell Kingdom."

Minos then asked, "And how much time is left before this competition begins?"

"In 6 months from now," Ruth replied, tilting her head in confusion.

"Ah! So, we have enough time. The way you said it, I thought it was already very close!" Minos replied with a satisfied look.

"I know there is enough time, but it would be better if we went there soon."

Ruth insisted and continued.

"Many of the participants of the Spiritual Tournament will arrive at the competition site up to 4 months before the scheduled date. That's because, by doing so, they would be able to get a better understanding of the situation they are in.

As a result, many of these participants achieve good results in their final training because of the pressure imposed by themselves when meeting other high-level genius opponents." Ruth stared at Minos with a disapproving look after saying this.

She thought Minos was underestimating the opponents of this great competition by planning to go to the competition site later. After all, even if he had an insane speed in cultivation, this didn't guarantee that he would be the most powerful participant in the tournament.

"I am warning you that, while your cultivation speed might be excellent, but based on the previous tournament results, a cultivator at the start of the fourth stage like you can only be considered average.

The strongest in this competition has always been people at the beginning of the 5th stage, and for years there has always been one or other who might have reached level 42 competing in the tournament, or even a little stronger than that!

After all, even if the northern region of the Central Continent has significantly less spiritual energy when compared to the rest of the continent, having a few individuals with a talent that is above-average than the others is quite common with such a large population."

What she said was certainly true. Even though it was a rare occurrence, people having more remarkable talent compared to their parents were not so absurd to find. In fact, such an occurrence can be seen clearly in the examples of Lee and Alison, the two whom Minos had brought to his side.

Ruth then stared into the eyes of the young man standing in front and said, "That's why you shouldn't underestimate the Spiritual Tournament. You may not know that, but some of the great specialists from the Flaming Empire came from here, from this very region. Even some 'small' families from the north of the Central Continent have completely changed after having just a single member going to our Empire.

Let me tell you something, nearly two decades ago, at the tournament during that period, one member of a Brown Kingdom's family had a Silver talent who competed in that competition. They hid this young man wisely, and in the end, he won the Spiritual Tournament and went to one of the Flaming Empire's sects.

After that, his growth was quite considerable and he also gained an important position in the sect he went to, even reaching the stage of Spiritual Emperor before his 40s.

It wasn't long after that and his entire family left the Brown Kingdom for a region with high spiritual concentration, which that young man had obtained as a reward for becoming an elder in the sect.

My master told me this story a few years ago when I found out about this competition. And if I'm not mistaken, that expert's name is Dennis Red," Ruth finished speaking while watching for any change in Minos' expressions.

'Oh! So, that's why the Red family left the Red Valley in the Brown Kingdom…' he thought and then looked at Ruth.

"But don't worry about it. I'm definitely not underestimating this competition," Minos replied with a confident tone.

He sincerely didn't think of himself as some invincible being, one who acted hastily without making any proper plans. However, his current priority was the Black Plain. Although making contacts was important, if he were to neglect his responsibilities as a sovereign, it would only hinder the development of his forces, even after having such connections!

And Minos understood very well what he could and could not do. Thus, he would never pay more attention to something secondary than his main objective.

'Hmph, you don't know what you're talking about! But that's okay as well, hehe, you're the one who will go down in the end anyway,' Ruth thought to herself, as she imagined a future in which Minos would leave this confident pose and apologize to her how wrong he was…

"So, why do you want to stay here any longer?" Ruth asked after a few moments.

"I have a lot of things to do here that include buying weapons and spiritual pills for my organization and along with that, I also have a business to do with the Stone Island," Minos explained sincerely.

"Ah, business? Regardless of what it is, you could do it all in the Cromwell Kingdom instead of doing it here," Ruth blurted with a disapproving expression on her face. According to her, Minos was doing many things that only made matters difficult for himself.

Minos shook his head, "It is not as simple as you think. You don't understand my situation well enough to know where it is better or worse to conduct my business. The Stone Island is the ideal place of all others for the Black Plain to start a negotiation."

"Hmph, if you say so, then I won't say anything anymore," Ruth conceded.

Ruth then asked, "So, you came to see Elen Nash for this purpose?"

"That's right. I made a commercial agreement with Elen. Anyway, now that you've said it all, it's time for me to look for her. Would you come with me?" Minos asked with a smile after getting up from his chair.

"Hmph, since my teacher has assigned me the mission of accompanying you to the Spiritual Tournament, I will accompany you for the time being, besides, returning now would be pointless,"  She replied reluctantly.

She did not like staying in places with a spiritual density such as the north of the Central Continent, but she also couldn't return to her sect during this period.

The Spiritual Tournament was only six months away, and if she were to just go back and forth between the Flaming Empire and this region, it would take more than three months.

And because of this, it was not worth it for her to even try to return to her sect until Minos resolved his final issues.

"Since this is the case, let's get going. I want to find Ms. Elen as soon as possible."

After saying this, Minos and Ruth left the room and headed towards the exit of the hotel, accompanied by the three soldiers and Sergeant Pyke.

They traveled by carriage from the central part of the Old Stone, where the Hotel Olson was located, to the west of the city, where the Nash family's headquarters were.

'I hope Miss Elen is there. Otherwise, it could slow me down a bit.' Minos thought as he watched the scenery of this beautiful city as their carriage wandered the streets.