16 Spiritual Beginner
With the preparation of the harvest and cultivation of additional lands in progress, Minos had already requested for the formation of another group of farmers, but this time the group was going to consist of 400 people, organized to prepare and cultivate an additional 6 hectares, resulting in 9 hectares for the upcoming farming.
And along with the approaching harvest, it was now time for Minos to look for a market to sell his products. Consequently, Minos had prepared to meet with a local merchant today, who could sell his products inside a market in Dry City.
Right now, Minos was walking towards a busy street in the center of the town where most of the food stores are located, and like usual, he was accompanied by his bodyguards, two of them in this situation.
Minos then entered a place that was called the Central Market, it was a 3-story building.
This establishment was quite large and bustling with crowds of people. After all, it was one of the few in town that sold grains, cereals, fruits, and vegetables that contained a reasonable amount of spiritual energy.
As for the price charged here, for example, the price of a kilo of rice, corn, and spiritual wheat was four low-grade crystals, and this was the exact price that Minos wanted to have for his products.
The only difference was, due to the water of the Spatial Kingdom, the grains and cereals that he was going to sell would be a lot richer in spiritual energy than those that were sold locally.
"Hello, how can I help you?" while he was looking around, a young woman dressed in the uniform asked Minos.
"Hello, where can I find the manager? I have a business to do with him," Minos responded with a friendly smile.
"Oh! Mr. Somir is in his office. I will show you the way," the woman replied while directing them ahead.
…
Shortly after that, Minos met with Somir.
He was a bald, middle-aged man, well-dressed, and looked very healthy. Apparently, Somir lived very well, even though he was in Dry City.
"Welcome to the Central Market, young master Stuart. How can I help someone as important as you?" The fat man said pleasantly. He had recognized the young man in front of him, and that was why he was talking to Minos so warmly.
"Well, as you may know, I've been planting in the Black Plain for a few weeks now, and it's almost time for the harvest, and that's why I want a place to sell my products," Minos spoke sincerely.
Somir quickly understood and asked a question soon after that, "Can I know what the young master would be selling? And if possible, the quantity too."
"2.5 tons of wheat, 3.75 tons of corn, and 3.75 tons of rice, all rich in spiritual energy. I intend to sell them at a price equivalent to the products already being sold at this store."
"Oh! Then that's it. Well, as there isn't a lot, we can do business. If it was much more, as I still don't know the products, I couldn't go on with that," the manager agreed.
After all, he was already reselling the products from Cromwell Kingdom, he simply couldn't just throw away his investment made in those products. Even more in something unknown!
But due to the quantities that Somir heard from Minos, even if the product weren't good, he would still be able to sell it since the demand for these items was quite high, and the quantity offered by this new local sovereign didn't even reach 2% of the total market's requirement.
Hence, Somir was confident in selling Minos' grains and cereals.
After closing the deal, the two agreed that Minos' men would take these negotiated resources to be sold at the Central Market as soon as the harvest was done and a fee of 10% would be paid to the Central Market of the money made through the selling.
After concluding the business with Somir, Minos also returned to his mansion to carry out his daily activities.
…
A week passed quickly, and Minos had already reached level 19 three days ago and today he planned to make a breakthrough to level 20, the Spiritual Beginner stage!
He was diligently cultivating in the Spatial Kingdom as he sat in front of the lake, engrossed in meditation.
Minos then began to circulate his Solar God Breath technique, which had already reached the end of the second phase and was ready to step forward.
Meanwhile, within his body, the spiritual energy was also slowly reaching the very limit of level 19.
At that moment within the young Stuart's consciousness, the spirituality of Minos' soul finally completed the transition to become something that was visible and had a form.
Before this, the soul was but a nebulous cluster that couldn't be understood as something other than the body and only be considered as a part of the individual's metabolism.
But after reaching the Spiritual Beginner stage, the spirituality of the soul would constantly become palpable and continue solidifying till one reaches at the level of Spiritual Saint.
Minos' body also underwent the traditional cleaning of impurities that took place at each stage. And this time, the volume of toxins released from his body was about four times greater than the amount of toxins released in the previous one.
As for the smell, hehe, Minos couldn't help but as if something dead was living inside him!
This advancement had an even more significant effect than the previous one, because this time Minos' vitality was increased by 100 years, reaching a total of 250 years of life expectancy.
For this advancement, Minos' energy needed to go from level 19 to 20 which was also the energy that was four times greater than the amount that he had previously needed when he went up from the 1st to the 2nd stage.
And it was precisely because of this that the effects of spiritual cleansing and increased vitality were now even more significant than last time!
After taking a long shower to get rid of the stink on his body, Minos then began training his new technique, Indestructible Body.
"With an indestructible body, I will defend the world and crush my enemies..."
Minos slowly began to comprehend the technique when he finally activated it. If anyone looked at him, they would not find any significant change, or perhaps no change at all had happened, but for Minos, it was as if his body was made of pure metal.
He felt that even if someone having the same strength as him were to attack him with a sword while he stood there without even defending himself, he would still not be hurt!
However, he was still unable to use the technique to attack.
That was something that would only come when he became much stronger, at that time he could only use this technique for 10 seconds, while using 50% of his current spiritual energy.
This technique also required an activation time of 50 hours to reach the peak of the first phase, this way, it was no different from the Spatial Sword, which required a minimum number of activations to move forward.
After many hours of training all of his techniques and cultivation, Minos left the Spatial Kingdom, deciding to take some rest for a few moments.
…
Time passed, and finally, it was time for the harvest. Such activity was done in the history of this region for the first time in these hundreds of thousands of years.
The 200 farmers who were hired for the batch were pleased with what they've accomplished, and today the fruits of their labor have finally arrived.
With the strength of these cultivators, all three hectares were harvested in no time, along with the grains and cereals being prepared in a building adjacent to the fields.
Several carriages were also made, especially for the transportation of these grains since none of the farmers had spatial rings, and even if a few had one, the capacity was not enough to carry the amount of harvest.
…
Two days after the harvest, all the items were already in the Central Market and would start to be sold today.
At the Central Market, a middle-aged woman, Dara, was going to buy the week's ingredients for her family. She was a housewife, with two children, and had to save every crystal that her family earned.
'I hope that the rice isn't of poor quality today. Last week I had to throw away half of what I bought,' she thought discontentedly.
A while later, she stopped in front of a stall where the most prominent grains of rice that she had ever seen were being displayed. It had a white color that almost glowed.
And while Dara couldn't feel the free spiritual energy in heaven or on earth, she knew that these grains contained more spiritual energy than the other rice sold in this store.
"Young lady, can you separate 2 kilos of this rice for me?" she asked a uniformed girl who was standing by the balcony.
"Just a minute."
"Young lady, can you tell me where this rice came from?" Dara asked, a bit curious since she had never seen such rice in this place before.
The young woman then responded quickly, "It came from this very place, the region of the Black Plain. This is the spiritual rice grown by the new local sovereign."
"Oh! Then that's it." She was astonished to learn that a crop planted here in these areas could yield such a quality!
...
Back at Dara's house, it was time for lunch, it was just her and her two children at home. Dara had cooked the rice bought at the market earlier and wanted to know its taste and spirituality.
It was not long before one of the boys who had already started cultivating, praised the food. "This rice is delicious, Mom."
Soon afterwards, he let out a cry of surprise.
"Ahh!"
"What happened?" Dara asked with worry.
"Mom, I just advanced while eating this rice!" Heryd, Dara's eldest son, who was already at level 5, uttered in shock.
After simply eating a portion of rice, he went straight up to level 6!
...
While Dara's family was dazzled by the effects of the new spiritual rice sold at the Central Market, similar incidents were happening in the other families of Dry City.
And just like others, it didn't take long before the rumor of spiritual rice that could push advances after a few spoons spread throughout the city as well.
Soon, people were seen rushing to the market, looking for rice and other products that were grown in the Black Plain as if they were some kind of treasures!
