Strange Stone

Meanwhile, within the cave, Minos and his two girls were walking down the vast tunnel, the red glow getting stronger as they got deeper.

After walking for what seemed like hours, they finally reached what seemed to be the end of the cave, a large underground cavern with a blood red pool at the center.

This pool seemed to be the origin of the red light that everyone had seen earlier, though what exactly the liquid within the pool was was a complete mystery.

Looking up, Minos saw a few cocoons hanging above the red pool, a red liquid occasionally dropping from among them, seemingly showcasing the true origin of this red liquid.

Minos could only pray that this liquid wasn't what he thought it was while he kept following the faeries.

Soon the faeries stopped in front of the dense red pool, pointing towards it as if asking them to enter the pool, causing Minos's eyebrow to slightly furl, not exactly interested in such a proposal.

But seeing the faeries emotions, Minos decided to give it a test, bending over and reaching a finger into the pool before pulling it back and giving it a taste.

"What is dear?" Tinka asked, climbing down Minos's shoulder and stepping by the red pond.

"Yeah dad, is it tasty?" Rinka asked curiously, reaching over to get a taste for herself.

Grabbing her hand, Minos stopped Rinka from touching the liquid, instead waiting for its effects to activate before he allowed it.

As time passed, the liquid finally hit Minos's stomach, his body rapidly absorbing it, causing his eyes to glimmer in shock.

His Nux reserves, which hadn't grown much these past few years, suddenly increased, and while the increase was small, it was real.

One had to realize that Minos only took a small sip, yet his cultivation had already improved. If he was to consume this entire pool, it was hard to say just how far his cultivation would go!

Of course, even if that was the case, Minos didn't plan on doing so, after all this treasure didn't belong to him.

"You two get into the pool. Tinka, you do perform the Twelve Beast Movement Tome I taught you and Rinka, just using the Forward Fist." Minos suddenly said, standing back up from his kneeling position.

Without even questioning Minos, the two nodded, getting into the deep red pond and performing as Minos asked.

While they were doing so, Minos activated his Omniscient Eyes, watching their bodies closely to make sure nothing bad happened.

As they exercised, Minos watched the red liquid slowly being absorbed by their bodies, not only increasing their strength rapidly, but also seemingly 'evolving' their bodies.

Shocked at what he was seeing, Minos focused even more, as if to make sure what he was watching wasn't an illusion.

But the more he concentrated, the more clear it became that this red liquid was far from as simple as he initially expected.

At first, he only thought it would increase their strength, but right now, it seems to be transforming their bodies from the root, changing their mortal bodies into something else.

Minos couldn't help but scratch his chin because such an effect didn't appear at all in his body, but thinking about it, he assumed it was because he simply didn't have this potential.

It seemed very possible that both Tinka and Rinka had special physiques that simply hadn't been activated due to the lack of energy, but now that their bodies were being supplied in full, their true potentials were finally being revealed.

Of course this was all just a guess at the moment, but Minos felt quite confident, so he didn't bother to think about it anymore.

Back in the red pond, the liquid was rapidly dwindling as both Rinka and Tinka's bodies rapidly consumed it.

From reaching all the way to Rinka's shoulder, the pool had already fallen down to her waist, and it hadn't stopped.

Minos couldn't help but get a little worried, scared that if the energy wasn't enough this time, the two would fail to awaken their physiques, wasting the energy completely.

Fortunately, just as the pool was consumed completely, the two froze in place, their movements stopping completely.

Running into the pond, Minos helped the two into a seated position, watching carefully as they both began their changes.

Tinka's body started to shine with a soft blue light, her skin filling rapidly with cracks, each crack filled with a blue flame that gave off an eerily coldness that even Minos felt threatened by.

As the cracks spread across her body, they finally shattered completely, revealing a new layer of skin that was as smooth as jade, clear of any blemishes.

The blue light then began sinking slowly back into Tinka's flesh, slowly gathering towards her forward, causing a strange tattoo to slowly form.

With his breath held, Minos watched the tattoo form, eventually coming together to create a dark blue butterfly that seemed to hold a special power.

Just as the butterfly formed, Tinka opened her eyes, causing it to disappear, but by then Minos was focused on Tinka's eyes, which had become a dark-icy blue.

Her eyes seemed to be filled with flames, but Tinka didn't seem to notice it all, just looking at Minos as if to ask why he was staring.

Shaking his head slightly, Minos was about to speak, but before he could, he noticed Rinka had finally begun her change as well, causing both of them to focus on her.

Rinka's change was completely different from Tinka's, her power seemingly being of a completely different nature.

Rather than her body changing like Tinka's did, a phantom of light slowly appeared behind her, its figure becoming clearer with each passing second.

Looking closely, both Tinka and Minos watched as the phantom slowly came to form, revealing a twelve-winged angelic creature.

The creature's face was covered with a veil, making its appearance unknownable, but the halo levitating above its head as well as its twelve wings filled it with a divine charm, as if it had come directly from the heavens.

However, the phantom only formed for a split second, before shattering back into thousands of shards of light, as if Rinka wasn't yet powerful enough to maintain its appearance.

With the phantom shattering, Rinka opened her tightly sealed eyes, looking around with confusion, not sure what had just happened.

"How do you feel?" Minos asked, helping his daughter up from the floor.

"Weird, but also, strong!" Rinka said, clenching her fists as if to feel her newfound power.

"How about you?" Minos said, turning to Tinka.

"The same, but I also feel like I have a new ability, but…" Tinka paused.

"But what?"

"But it's like I'm not strong enough to use it." She explained.

"It's probably because you're still a mortal, but once you breakthrough, hopefully you'll be able to use it." Minos explained.

"You're probably right." Tinka said, looking down at her hands for a moment before getting up and patting the dust off her bottom.

"By the way, you've changed in more than just strength." Minos laughed, pulling a small mirror from his spatial ring and pointing it towards Tinka.

"What do you me- What the heck! What happened to my eyes?" Tinka asked with shock, looking into the icy-blue eyes that greeted her.

"It must be your new powers. Don't worry, the change doesn't seem to be bad, just a minor difference." Minos smiled.

"Hmph, but I liked my green-eyes, they're my mother's eyes!" Tinka complained, not pleased by the change.

"Don't worry, once you master your powers, you'll probably be able to change them back." Minos said, though whether this was true or not was a complete mystery.

But the answer still seemed to satisfy Tinka, so she put the change behind her for the moment, instead joining her daughter as the two talked about their changes.

Meanwhile, back at the pond, Minos couldn't help but look down at the empty hole with some heartache.

He never expected the two to absorb everything, so it seemed his dream of improving his cultivation would have to be put on the backburner for the moment.

Of course even if he knew he wouldn't have changed anything, after all, this change was a massive one for Tinka and Rinka, and would change both their futures completely.

Minos always knew the two were talented, but for both of them to awaken strange physiques was just the ultimate confirmation, and he couldn't help but feel extremely relieved knowing that they wouldn't have to struggle like he had.

Just as Minos was about to turn back from the pond and rejoin his family, a small faery flew over to him, a glimmering rainbow gem-stone held in its hands.

Flying around Minos a few times, the faery dropped the stone, forcing Minos to catch it just in time.

"For me?" Minos couldn't help but ask, causing the faery to nod its head while letting out a joyful hum.

"Thank you." Minos said with a smile, assuming that the stone was just a fancy rock that the faeries gathered.

However, as he held it in his hand, he felt a strange power slowly transfer from it into his body, causing his stagnated cultivation to rapidly skyrocket.