"Hey, ready?"
As he was getting ready to meditate for a while, Minos suddenly felt someone appearing within his action space and heard Julian's voice coming from behind him.
He was not startled and looked at this high-level Demigod. "Yes. Have you finished with your preparations? I'm looking forward to returning to my home."
"Haha, young Minos, you must be missing your wives." Julian smiled, already knowing that Minos had several wives in his harem. "Very well, let's settle these matters once and for all so I can release you."
"Are all your people gathered?" Minos asked.
"Hmm, I have already talked to some members, but others arrived in the city earlier today, so they will hear about you for the first time," Julian advised him. "I will introduce you to them, and then you should talk about your plans.
You don't have to say anything about what you intend to contribute to the organization. Just talk about your plans for your empire and how you intend to become stronger and more influential. That will be enough for them to better understand who they will be getting involved with."
"OK."
With that said, the two quickly left that cultivation site, heading to a local mansion where the faction of Julian's group maintained its operations out of the temple.
...
Upon arriving at the beautiful estate of Julian's group, Minos merely observed the surroundings of the open location where his meeting with this group of Demigods about to host him would take place.
In what appeared to be a small garden, where beautiful plants adorned the surroundings, was a small rectangular pool surrounded by several stone armchairs, which stood under covers supported by pillars similar to the one Minos had spent time in earlier.
There were 11 chairs available at the moment, 5 on either side of the pool and one at the end, where the elder Aarav was sitting watching Minos right now.
The other faction members were equally distributed among the other seats around that pool.
As they arrived there, Julian introduced them to Minos and briefly described who this guest was to those who didn't know anything about him yet.
After he finished talking about what he expected from Minos and indicating to the members his opinion about this young man, he sat down in his seat, leaving Emperor Stuart to talk a bit about his goals.
Minos began. "Elders, some of you must be uncomfortable about welcoming a Spiritual Sage into your group. I understand your doubts and intend to answer them with my actions as time passes.
For now, all I can do to introduce myself is talk about my future plans and what you can charge me for. I will sincerely try everything in my power to achieve these things, so let me show you my ambition."
They heard these words, and no one there raised their voice, waiting to see what this young man had in mind.
"In the beginning, the Black Plain was a mere territory in a kingdom that didn't even have Spiritual Emperors. But we worked hard and changed that. We became autonomous, got allies, fought when we had to fight, and grew until the territory became more than 50 times the size it originally had, with a population tens of thousands of times more significant.
In the beginning, my strongest subordinate was a Spiritual General. Today, it is a level 89 Sage.
That was good growth, but nothing compared to my future plans." He spoke with great determination, changing his tone throughout his sentences to keep those people's attention.
"Currently, the Central Continent is going through a great deal of instability to the south. Because of this, the northern region where my empire is located can be considered an area of tranquility and opportunities for people fleeing the war.
In these times, we expect to receive many experts fleeing the chaos of war while we grow in peace.
Simultaneously, we are expanding our maritime presence, creating outposts in the northeastern part of the Ancestral Sea, where countless underwater mines of precious resources exist, with no power disputing the area.
Through these two fronts, I intend to raise the level of the Black Plain Empire in the coming decades and raise the strength of my army, generating our first Demigods.
This is what I have for the moment, but don't make the mistake of thinking that we have limited ourselves to this. I will seek the peak of cultivation alongside my organization. Then as we achieve our plans, we will have new goals."
Most there already knew several things about the Black Plain Empire due to the days they had to seek information about that state in the Pantheon Of Honor. As such, they knew Minos' first words were not a lie, though impressive.
They could not say that Minos was not ambitious when it came to his plans.
But they really sounded good. Using the war to strengthen themselves with the fugitives from it, but also using an abandoned area to extract resources, were great strategies.
Obviously, there were untold dangers with each of these actions, especially the one in the vicinity of the North Sea. But risks were natural for people defying the natural order of things.
Minos, at least, was acting, and his actions had the potential for a great return.
Thinking about it, these people could see the path he was willing to take to become stronger and more influential, something necessary to make their investment in accepting him into this group worthwhile.
So, in general, these people liked to hear what Minos planned and were willing to be pressed on results concerning these things.
They murmured a few things among themselves, while some kept active mental communication going, asking questions and listening to the opinions of the stronger ones.
Aarav stood silently watching Minos, seeing that this young man would go a long way to becoming stronger.
The level 96 woman then asked him. "Young Minos, since you are committed to laying out your expectations for growth, where do you see yourself during the Continental Tournament? How strong and influential do you hope to be at that time?"
Minos looked at that expert in silence, wondering when that would be and how far he hoped to advance by then.
After considering that, he decided to give a lower estimate of what he thought he could achieve by then to give him a good enough margin to positively surprise those people at the time. "I intend to be at level 88 and have at least 5 level 90 Demigods in my group, elder."
Minos had been conservative in his projection, but he surprised everyone in that place with such an optimistic projection.
"Oh?"
...
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