Heading Home

"Who was the one who threw that pebble?" A grim voice said from within that carriage.

"I'm not sure, Young Master." The carriage man answered fearfully.

"Not sure, huh? Well since that person is such a hero, I'm sure they wouldn't like to see these peasants killed because of their actions." The voice replied, his meaning clear.

"I understand, Young Master!" The carriage man said, as he hopped off from the carriage, about to get to work.

But before he could even take a step, another pebble shot forward, ripping a hole through his forehead, killing him instantly.

Before the 'Young Master' could even react, another pebble flew out, tearing through the carriage door and killing him as well.

Seeing all the deaths, the crowd quickly dispersed, smart enough to know that they needed to be far away from whatever happened next.

Minos joined them, and soon walked far away from the two corpses, entering a random bar before taking a seat and ordering a drink.

He had given them a choice when he disabled their carriage, unfortunately the two of them refused life, so he would give them death.

For everyone watching this was a major event, but for Minos, it was just another day, not affecting his mood in the slightest.

Getting his drink, Minos slowly sipped it as he heard the crowd discussing what they had just seen, some even talking about leaving the city, afraid that the City Head may go crazy with the death of one of his sons.

"Damn, just when I thought things were getting good, this had to happen."

"What do you guys think the City Head will do?"

"Who knows, but heads will definitely roll. Best to go into hiding until things cool off."

"Hey, talking about big news, you guys heard about the Ancient Desert Kingdom's temple?"

"That's old news."

"I'm talking about something that happened just recently."

"Something happened?"

"Not just something, rather something huge! The temple's gates slammed shut, and till now, no one who entered managed to escape alive. They say everyone who went in is dead."

"Really? Thank heaven I didn't join in on the fun then."

"I knew that place was nothing good."

"Hey, but that's only part of the news, what's much bigger is that someone apparently spotted the princess of the Aleph Empire."

"Princess? Which one?"

"Who else except Princess Lilia!"

"Princess Lilia!? I hear she's the most beautiful woman on the continent, I wonder if it's true?"

"I've never seen her either, but apparently the person who spotted her confirmed that she was the most gorgeous woman he had ever laid eyes on."

"I hear there's some places where you can buy portraits of her, too bad the prices are exorbitant…"

"Thinking about her makes me want to hit the brothel. Who's in?"

"Me!"

"I'm down."

"Count me in."

"What are we waiting for, let's go!"

Soon enough, the bar emptied as they all headed to the brothel, leaving Minos and a few others behind.

After quickly downing the rest of his drink, Minos got up and left the bar, buying a horse before leaving the city behind.

While he originally wanted to enjoy the city's atmosphere for a little longer, he knew that the Sento Family would probably go berserk soon, and it was likely that they would completely seal the city off, making it impossible to leave.

Before that happened, he needed to go, so after jumping on his horse, he hit the roads, quickly leaving the city behind in the distance.

Not long after Minos left, just like he expected, the City Head called for the city gates to be shut, everyone house and person inspected in an attempt to find the murderer.

Unfortunately for the City Head, Minos was long gone, and his son's murderer would forever remain an unsolved mystery to him.

…

With his new Inner Heaven Cultivation and Omniscient Eyes, Minos journey back home was a relaxing one.

If he had any complaints, it would be his cultivation, because even after nearly a year's time, his Inner Heaven had only filled up about 1%.

At this rate, it would take him at least a hundred years just to reach the completion, not to mention breaking through to the Cloud of Water would take another large chunk of time.

Of course, the biggest problem was the incredible size of his Inner Heaven, because had it been a normal size, it would have only taken him a decade rather than a century.

While a decade was also long, considering Inner Heaven Cultivators had a lifespan of about 200 hundred years, it was nothing.

For Inner Heaven Cultivators, breaking through to a new cloud is much harder than just accumulating Nux, which was actually the easy part.

It was a good thing he still hadn't touched the old man's resources, because if his speed was still this slow even after that, he would really feel hopeless.

Now that he was close to reaching home, he would finally have the chance to properly cultivate and see just how useful the old man's resources were.

With another few days passing, Underwood City was once again in sight, Minos's heart feeling a sense of peace as he finally came back home.

Steering his horse into the city, Minos soon came up to his large house, wondering what he should say when he walked inside.

Tethering his horse to a nearby tree, he walked inside, his nerves slightly tense until he swung open the door.

"I'm home." He said, those being the only words he could think of when he saw Beetus, Rubella, and all the others gathered around the dining table.

"Master!" Rubella was the first to shout out, throwing her fork aside and jumping into Minos's arms.

"Aren't you getting a little too old for this?" Minos laughed, as he returned Rubella's hug.

"Hmph, I'm never too old." Rubella said, though by now she was already 16, a bonafide adult by the Alephora Continent's standards.

"How's your cultivation?" Minos asked with a gentle smile even though he already knew the answer.

"I'm at the Sixth Stage of Mortal Renewal! Impressive, huh?" Rubella said with her head held high.

"It really is." Minos laughed, truly impressed by Rubella's talent.

"Hey, we're also a lot stronger now too!" The others joined in, all of them stating their current realms.

"Good, I knew I could trust you all." Minos smiled.

Now that they were finally strong and mature enough, it was time to put them to work, so after sending them off to finish their meals, Minos called Beetus and Rubella to talk alone.

"Boss, how was the journey?" Beetus asked.

"Rewarding, but let's not talk about it. It's time to talk about our organization's future direction." Minos said.

"I'm ready!" Rubella said confidently.

"Me too Boss! So what should we do next?"

"Simple." Minos said as he pulled out a map of Underwood City before pointing to a specific spot.

"See this place? It's a small store I've been paying attention to ever since I first stepped into Underwood City. The owner is struggling, but the location is poor, and it seems he failed to get any buyers."

"What I want you to do Rubella, is go and buy the shop from his hands. As for you Beetus, there's another place I want you to purchase right here."

"So what's our business?" Rubella asked curiously.

"Isn't it obvious? We buy and sell information, though that's only part of it, the other part is the buying and selling, weapons, talisman, materials, etc." Minos explained.

"But doesn't the Nine Treasure House already do that? Won't they do something if they see us trying to step into their business?" Rubella questioned.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of them. So from now on, Rubella is the head of the Intelligence Corps, meanwhile Beetus, you'll be the head of our Trading Corps."

"Yessir!" Rubella and Beetus said simultaneously, feeling a rush of blood in their hearts, excited for the future.

"Good, now go call the children. I'm going to quickly test them and see where their skills lie so that we can maximize their potential." Minos commanded.