After everyone in that room congratulated Gloria and Minos, the doctors finished their service and left with the others, leaving only the Stuart family there.

When they were alone, Ruth and Abby promptly approached Gloria and the baby in her arms, smiling as they looked at Sarah.

Sarah had cried a little a few moments earlier. Still, she had already fallen asleep in her mother’s arms as Minos ran one of his fingers over her little head.

And with that, after the first-time mommy there spent a few moments with her daughter, she handed that fragile being over to the father.

Minos held his daughter in his arms while Ruth and Abby stood on either side of him, giving Gloria some space to rest from her labor.

When the time came for childbirth, pregnant women stayed highly weakened, almost to the point of becoming ordinary mortals. Because of this, this beautiful redheaded woman was finished at the moment, and as soon as Minos held their daughter, she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

“I want to hold her…” Abby commented to her husband, not expecting much and having the opportunity to do that with Minos’ daughter.

Ruth also wanted the same since even if this was not her daughter, the love of her life, Minos, was the father.

It was just a pity that these two were still in the middle of the 7th stage and would not have the opportunity to breastfeed this big-cheeked baby.

Only the grandmothers of this newborn could have such an opportunity, as they were Spiritual Saints, unlike these two.

Margot had been deceived by Minos and thought that it would still take a month for little Sarah to be born. That had been his revenge for what she had done earlier. So this woman was not yet in Dry City.

As for Maisie, she was not yet in Dry City, but she should be there any moment now since she had a better sense of when the birth in question would be.

Anyway, it would not be long before Minos left the Spatial Kingdom and went to celebrate with the other members of the Black Plain Army and government.

Gloria stayed asleep in her bed to recover from the birth she had gone through, and who knows, maybe raise her level to the 8th stage. But Ruth and Abby stayed behind to care for little Sarah and help that woman in her awakening.

…

“Haha, congratulations on your first daughter, Minos!” Virtus, level 66, a sizeable Feathered Serpent, said this loudly outside the local throne hall as he watched the interior of that construction through a window.

Minos heard the many conversations in the surrounding area of the hall. Still, he did not ignore the comment from his ally, raising his glass of wine in Virtus’ direction and smiling.

At the same time, the fact that that place was full of Spiritual Emperors was no longer a stranger to him, even considering that this was Dry City, not an Empire city.

After years since the Black Plain’s War of Independence, this state had passed 200 Spiritual Emperors, several due to the migration of high-level Spiritual Kings from Albano. Still, a large part came from Minos’ subordinate or vassal forces.

Many of these organizations in this kingdom had leaders between levels 62 and 64. In contrast, families such as House Miller already had more than 10 Spiritual Emperors in their ranks.

At the same time, several royal houses in the northern region of the Central Continent already had at least 2 Spiritual Emperors. Even the first of these cultivators appeared among the noble family of these states!

Noble families from these states were the least likely to get advantages from the Black Plain to send their members to cultivate in Dry City. But even so, many things had changed with the advances the region had undergone since Minos’ departure for the Flaming Empire almost four years ago.

The trade of high-level grade-2 artifacts had increased exponentially, so the previous shortage of goods had ended throughout the region.

With better artifacts for Spiritual Kings, they could fight more vigorously and naturally reap better fruits in their experiments. As a consequence, their cultivation speed increased even without other contributing factors.

However, such a thing had not happened in isolation!

No, Spiritual Emperors were emerging throughout the region, increasing the frequency of people of this strength traveling through the areas. Thus, regional commerce was heated by these people of superior purchasing power. Still, many got the opportunity to receive tips from these experts for token amounts.

Many of the Spiritual Emperors in the region were members of Minos’ army who had no families behind them. Thus, when they traveled around the region, they did not miss the opportunity to make their savings by teaching some of what they knew to wealthy nobles.

At the same time, the increase in the number of Spiritual Kings throughout the region raised the concentration of spiritual energy in certain areas, making it easier for more people to progress to this stage. With more people at the 6th stage, other factors were stimulated, making it easier for peak Spiritual Kings to advance.

Finally, the Black Plain’s grade-3 trade had contributed significantly to the region, helping everyone with the financial ability to achieve substantial advancement.

Thus, the number of Spiritual Kings jumped in this period, leaving the thousands to exceed hundreds of thousands. Because of this, more Spiritual Emperors emerged, even in decadent families like House Cromwell.

When Minos stayed out of the Black Plain, some conflicts took place in two states in this region. One was the Brown Kingdom, and the other was the Cromwell Kingdom.

In these places, noble families had fallen out with their respective royal families and the vassals who were still loyal to these powers. That had not triggered widespread war or rebellion in these states but had led to the even more intense weakening of the sovereign houses over these states.

Both families were still the official leaders of these states at the moment. But they had to give up even more powers to the noble houses of their states.

But amidst all this, these two houses had gotten their own Spiritual Emperors!

The Cromwell family had done this through their descendants. As for House Brown, they had used Albano’s migration to the Black Plain to their advantage and had gotten some high-level Spiritual Kings for their family.

That later resulted in the emergence of the Spiritual Emperors of these families, which had lessened the pressures on their shoulders but not finished.

But, perhaps the most important of all in this period was the emergence of the first Spiritual Saint from the forces of Minos, who was congratulating him at this very moment.

…