Finding The Grave

"You'll stop because I said you'll stop." Minos said, pulling a thick stack of talisman's from his robe, slamming them on the desk.

The man glanced at the thick stash and couldn't help but gulp in slight fear. If Minos was to release all those talisman's, he could easily reduce his mansion to pieces.

"I'm just joking boy, I'll make sure my goons never bother the Devim family again."

"Good, and just know, if I come back and find out the Devim family has been harmed, I'm coming to you." Minos threatened.

"No worries, as long as I'm around, I'll make sure to take care of them." The man said as he patted his chest strongly in confidence.

Minos didn't say anymore, instead nodding slightly in confirmation before leaving the room. Seeing Minos shut the door, the middle-aged man couldn't help but sink back into his chair as he exhaled heavily.

While he was used to ruling on this small island with an iron fist, he was no fool. Minos's strength alone already raised concerns in his heart, but once he saw the thick stack of talisman's, his thoughts seemed to be confirmed.

In his mind Minos was the genius of some sect or clan. While he couldn't confirm that with Minos's strength alone, the thick stack of talisman's raised the odds in the middle-aged man's mind to almost 100%.

Of course, his thoughts were completely off, but to be fair to the man, most people would come to a similar conclusion given the same evidence, and they'd usually be right, but Minos was always an outlier.

…

Minos exited the mansion and left in silence. The guard repeatedly bowed as Minos entered the streets, praying in his mind for Minos to never come back.

Meanwhile, Minos himself had headed towards the shops on Tropical Tree City looking for a place to buy a high quality map of the area.

The map he had memorized from the Nine Treasures House had little detail, hence Minos couldn't rely on it to find the sword rock island, instead he needed something more detailed.

It didn't take much time for Minos to find a store that sold maps, and after paying a full 5 Nux Crystals for the best one they had, he re-exited the shop.

With a quick glance, Minos memorized the map. The multiple threads of thoughts in his mind began inspecting the map from different corners as they gathered towards the middle of the map.

Suddenly Minos's thoughts froze as he came across one island to the far south of Volcamie Island.

On first inspection, the small island had nothing of interest, however upon a second glance one would notice the large sword like mountain at the center of the island.

For most people, this strangely shaped mountain would be a slight curiosity at most, but for Minos it was the answer to his long journey.

Having established where the Nine Sword Divinity's grave likely was, Minos wasted no time and quickly burst off towards the ports.

Untethering his large ship, he hit the open seas. As his boat was swallowed by the vast ocean, he looked back towards Volcamie Island, knowing that he may never come back.

While he hadn't spent long on the island, a lot had happened, so he couldn't help but feel slightly depressed as the island slowly vanished from his vision.

Cultivation was much like water, however while water naturally flowed towards lower places, cultivators naturally headed towards higher peaks. The nature was the same, but the goal was different.

Once a river stops flowing, the fish within it aren't far from death, and once a cultivator stops cultivating, he too, is no longer far from death. Those who have the determination to begin this journey must have the same courage to see it to the end.

While it may be much more comfortable to take your strength and head to a small place to call yourself king, doing such is the same as giving up on cultivation itself.

While some people may do this, the vast majority aren't willing. Everyone likes to imagine they are the main characters, and that as long as they persevere, their hard work will pay off.

Of course it's only after being hit by life time and time again does this delusion slowly disappear, as one accepts their true position in life, but the young are always hopeful.

And sometimes their hard work truly does pay off, which further motivates those who see it happen, making them believe that they too, aren't far from the same success.

Minos was no different from most, and while he wasn't so stupid as to think himself a main character, he still believed that only through determination could one ever see success.

Even the greatest genius would never know the peaks of the world if they weren't willing to suffer the journey it would take one to get there.

The only way Minos would ever have a slight chance of seeing that illustrious peak was if he kept fighting, so he will, until he can fight no more.

With that thought, the Volcamie Island disappeared completely. Minos took in a deep breath, the salty sea air stinging his lungs.

The journey had just barely begun, so there was no need to get sentimental yet. For now, the Sword Mountain Island was the only thing on Minos's mind.

With a strong tug, the boat's sails were shifted, causing the boat to propel to the left, and down towards the south.

…

This island was significantly closer than the island where the firegulls mated, so after only a day and night's journey, Minos saw the iconic sword-like mountain appear on the horizon.

After another half hour of sailing, Minos reached the island. Spending a bit of time lugging the large ship onto land, Minos finally had a chance to examine the island in full.

The island was very small, only about a fourth the size of Vocalmie Island, and of that land, 90% of it was overtaken by the mountain.

It made the terrain incredibly awkward to navigate, with sharp jagged rocks lining the floors and steep cliffs and caverns filling the area.

It was no wonder the island seemed so unpopular. With such an environment, it wasn't even worth coming to as a tourist spot, much less to live on.

Minos couldn't help but wonder why the Nine Sword Divinity would bury him and his most loved one here, on an island where even the birds didn't seem willing to relieve themselves.

What his logic was, Minos didn't know, but from what he had seen, he was quite confident this was the place the Nine Sword Divinity was talking about.

But the only way to confirm was to begin his inspection. With that in mind, Minos began the arduous journey up the sword-shape mountain, heading towards its peak.

While Minos was incredibly strong and resilient, it didn't make the journey any less troublesome. The island was not at all friendly to travelers, and Minos occasionally had to stop just to think about what route to take.

Just as the name stated, the sword-shaped mountain was thin and tall, making it incredibly difficult to climb.

With no direct paths upwards, Minos had to use his strength and wit to navigate the best path, suffering a few injuries on the way.

But while nature was strong, Minos was stronger, and after suffering quite a few injuries, Minos finally reached the peak.

Taking a few deep breaths to steady himself, Minos regained his stamina as he stretched his back and looked downwards.

The mountain was incredibly steep, making it impossible to climb up on foot alone, rather Minos was forced to dig his fingers into the mountain's walls to pull himself up.

The journey was exhausting, but as long as he finds what he's looking for, it'll be more than worth it. With that in mind, Minos turned around, heading towards the center of the peak of the mountain.

While there were no tombstone's or anything like that one may expect from a grave, there was an oddly shaped stone at the end of Minos's vision.

The stone was shaped like a sword, but rather than the sword mountain that only had the vague appearance of a sword, this stone was sculpted to look exactly like a sword.

The mountain's shape could be explained by nature alone, but this stone-sword was undoubtedly the work of a human.

Minos walked closer to the stone-sword, grabbing the earthen hilt. Tugging a few times, Minos failed to pull the sword from the earth.

Rather than say the blade was stabbed into the earth, it felt more like the blade itself was the mountain, and only if one had the strength to shift mountains, would they be able to pull out this sword.

Minos gave up after a few attempts, realizing it was absolutely impossible to pull the rock-sword with his current strength.

But the strange stone wasn't what Minos was here for. Ignoring it, he pulled a shovel out from his spatial ring as he began digging next to the sword-shaped rock.

The earth up here was tough, but Minos managed to get through it with his incredible strength. As he dug deeper, the mound of dirt next to him piled up higher and higher.

As Minos was about to scoop out another shovel of dirt, his shovel hit something hard. Bending down, Minos used his hands to dust away at the dirt, revealing a large wooden coffin made of an unknown wood.

Whatever the wood was, it was definitely not ordinary, since even after getting hit by Minos's iron shovel at full force, it didn't even leave behind a scratch.

With renewed energy, Minos began clearing the area. After another half hour of exhaustion, he finally revealed the coffin in its entirety.

Looking down at the coffin, Minos couldn't help but suddenly feel guilty. A man looking for a place where he and his loved one could rest in peace, yet Minos was here desecrating his grave. He couldn't help but rethink everything, wondering if this was really worth it…