Consecutive Breakthroughs!

He was lucky the crystals had such a charming effect, otherwise all his hard work would have just gone to someone else, but even then, his time was limited. 

Heaven only knew how long such an effect would last for, and not to mention, Minos was certain there were a few Inner Heaven Realm cultivators within the temple, and it was only a matter of time before they arrived here.

The crystal's powers were likely useless against such powerful cultivators, so Minos's lead wouldn't last long.

With all this in mind, he quickly crouched down, squeezing into the small opening that clearly wasn't made with human's in mind.

The tunnel wasn't that deep, so after awkwardly crouch-walking for a short while, he arrived in another large open room.

Standing up in this new area, Minos was shocked, the results being nothing like he had ever expected.

The walls were lined with metal panels, filled with buttons and levers of all sorts, a massive display at the center of it all, the screen currently black.

There was also a large desk that wrapped around the whole room, its surface also fitted with strange dials and buttons.

It was like something from the far off future, a level of technology Minos had never seen before, nor understood.

Walking around for a while, Minos found a massive book, as thick as a human head, resting on one corner of the table.

The book was in good condition unlike all the other's he had found before, but again, the problem of text made it pretty much worthless to Minos.

However, from an educated guess, Minos assumed it was some sort of manual for the strange device he was currently looking at.

If he could understand their language, this would be perfect, but for now, he could only tuck away the large manual into his spatial ring, hoping he could learn their language in the future.

With the manual put away, Minos refocused back on the strange device, but he didn't touch anything, fearing he may accidently trigger something bad.

Right now he needed to be as discreet as possible, so he couldn't waste any chances by playing around with this thing.

Fortunately, Minos's trip wasn't yet wasted, with this room still having another door leading to an unknown space.

Knowing his time was limited, Minos directly headed into this new room, being greeted by another strange sight, though a different strangeness than the first time.

Rather than some sort of advanced technology, Minos was greeted by a large green pool, wires and tubes of all shapes and sizes running directly into it.

By the side of the room, there was just one large switch that was currently flipped down, seemingly in the off mode.

The liquid was unlike anything he had ever seen before, so with a bit of curiosity, Minos crouched down beside it before pulling out a One-Moon dagger from his spatial ring, gently dipping it inside.

Like flesh meeting acid, the dagger only lasted for a few seconds before it began dissolving, turning into chunks of molten metal.

Amazed, Minos couldn't help but pull out a small piece of Dark Ocean Steel, wanting to see just how powerful this liquid was.

Dipping it inside, the Dark Ocean Steel immediately fared much better, the liquid only sizzling, but failing to do any damage whatsoever.

Minos couldn't help but further elevate his opinion on Dark Ocean Steel, realizing just how strong this stuff really was.

Since the One-Moon dagger was too weak, and Dark Ocean Steel was too strong, Minos pulled out a Three-Moon weapon as a middle ground.

This time, the weapon fared much better, not immediately destroyed, but still slowly being eaten away at.

With Minos's current cultivation, to say he was as durable as a Three-Moon weapon was a bit much, but he wasn't far off.

Since the Three-Moon weapon could at least go quite a while without being damaged, he decided to be a little crazy and test his own flesh against the liquid.

Pulling the weapon back out of the pool, Minos gently rubbed its wet surface across his index finger, immediately feeling a slight burning pain.

Fortunately, the pain wasn't much, and the small amount of liquid failed to do any real damage to him.

Minos initially thought the liquid was some sort of energy source used to power the temple, but as it was absorbed by his flesh, something shocking happened.

His cells were like a starving man given food, greedily devouring the green liquid, slightly strengthening Minos's flesh.

Of course, such a strengthening was limited, not only because Minos's body had already come close to reaching its limit, but also because the amount of liquid was so small.

Even then, Minos was fiercely surprised by such a result, never having expected the liquid to have such an effect on cultivation.

Unable to hold back, Minos dipped a full finger into the liquid, allowing his body to absorb the energy as it pleased.

Of course, such a method also came at a cost, Minos's finger burning with an intense pain as his flesh slowly dissolved.

But even then, Minos could feel his flesh reaching its absolute limits, and more than that, he could feel the energy gathering inside him, building up strength to destroy his next Life Lock.

Talking about the next Life Lock, it was important to note that the last three had nothing to do with strength, instead each having a unique effect that was arguably even more important than such a basic power boost.

The Tenth Life Lock was the Mind Lock, and unlocking it would allow a person's mind to operate much faster, like going from riding on a donkey to a horse.

After that was the Mending Lock, which gave a person a massive boost in vitality, not only increasing their lifespan by a hundred years, but also improving their natural regenerative abilities, stamina, and durability.

Finally was the Limit Lock, which allowed a person to temporarily remove their limits, allowing their physical strength to surge ten times over.

So while none of the three locks directly improved strength, when they were put together, they allowed one to easily crush regular Mortal Renewal Realm cultivators.

If one wanted to create as strong a foundation as possible, it was necessary that they unlocked all their Life Locks first, and Minos didn't have the talent to take any risks with his foundation.

So while it would be much easier to just break through now, he didn't plan on doing so unless absolutely necessary.

Originally, with Lilia on his back, he was afraid he might have to make such a sacrifice, but this green liquid was like a heavenly sent gift, giving him a way out.

Of course, what he was about to do was incredibly risky, and may very well end up killing him, but Minos's time was running dry, and if he lacked courage now, he knew he would regret it for the rest of his life.

Praying for the best, Minos tucked all his cloth into his spatial ring before plugging his nose and ears with his fingers and jumping in.

The pool was quite deep, enough to completely submerge Minos, allowing the green liquid to cover his body from all angles.

Almost immediately, Minos was assaulted by the tremendous pain of burning, like he had just been tied up to a stake and ignited, the suffering enough to break even the strongest person.

He could feel his flesh softening, slowly slipping away from his bones as if he was being cooked alive, his meat becoming tender.

The pain was impossible to put into words alone, such an event only capable of being experienced, not described.

Despite wanting to shout out in agony, he kept his mouth shut, not only to avoid alerting others, but also because he was afraid that if he swallowed the liquid, his throat would be destroyed.

His eyes were also sealed shut tightly, his world being submerged in complete darkness as all his senses were closed off, pain being the only thing keeping him company.

Not being able to shout, Minos could only squirm in a futile attempt to lessen the pain, but all he accomplished was flinging his already loose flesh off at an even greater pace.

Feeling that such movements were only causing more harm than good, he kept completely still, steeling his mind as he focused on the energy that he had finally gathered enough of.

Not wasting a single second, Minos immediately gathered the energy, allowing it to attack his Tenth Life Lock, shattering it with ease.

Seeing his Life Lock break so easily, Minos couldn't help but feel some relief, despite the pain still assaulting his mind and body at full force.

He didn't even have time to appreciate the effects of his new breakthrough, just focusing on his Eleventh Life Lock, which was most useful in the current scenario.

Speaking of it, he was actually lucky that the final three Life Lock's didn't improve strength, or else he would have had to waste a lot of time between each breakthrough giving his body time to adapt to the new strength.

Otherwise, breaking through too quickly would again affect the foundation, ruining a person's future potential.

But fortunately, these three Life Lock's were unique, and didn't require much time to acclimate, allowing Minos to break through one after another.

With that in mind, Minos's confidence was further boosted, using all his strength to gather enough energy for his next attack, knowing that it was the Eleventh Life Lock that would determine life or death.