Learning New Techniques

"Hey, aren't you afraid he'll betray you after awakening his physique?"

"No." Minos said, shaking his head.

"Why are you so confident?"

"As powerful as his physique is, it'll still take years before he can manage to match my strength, not to mention he'd still need to be even stronger than that before he dared say a word against me."

"Huh, why wouldn't he?"

"What do you think a Sky-Grade Physique would mean to his brothers?"

"... Competition!"

"Exactly, with a Sky-Grade Physique, it's pretty much a guarantee he'll eventually be stronger than them, and even if one of them can become king before then, who would want an unstable factor like that hanging above their heads?"

"You're right! Then I guess in the short-term, he should be no threat, but what about the long-term?"

"Shouldn't you know best? What does his 'stock' look like?"

"Amazing, the highest I've ever seen…" Tylia replied.

"Then if he remains an ally, it's to our benefit, if not, we may have to pull out our investment, as much money as it may lose us." Minos smiled.

"Hey, aren't you afraid I'll betray you? After all, wouldn't it make more sense for me to follow him considering his value?" Tylia couldn't help but ask.

"It does make sense, but you won't." Minos replied confidently.

"What makes you so certain?"

"Because an unknown future is much more exciting then a known one." Minos laughed, Tylia's eyes shining as she looked up to him, her face blushed and heart rushing, the more time she spent with Minos, the more clear she was that he was a special man.

…

"So this is the library, huh? It's quite nice." Minos said as the two entered inside the massive library.

He had been through plenty of libraries in his lifetime, and yet this was the best one so far, despite not even being a 'true' library in a sense.

Rare information that one would fight to the death for in the outside world seemed to be common commodities over here, such as Seven, Eight, sometimes even Nine-Moon tier knowledge.

Compared to the Talisman Guild where Seven-Moon tier knowledge was already scarce, the difference between the two worlds went without saying.

One could only imagine what kind of riches the royal library held if just a personal library was already so extensive.

Minos naturally wouldn't waste such a chance to expand his knowledge reserves, so with a single thought, he summoned his Soul Form and split out into a hundred different duplicates.

Each duplicate found their own section before activating their Omniscient Eyes collectively, hundreds of streams of knowledge assaulting Minos's soul and mind at once.

Fortunately he was more than strong enough to handle it, shifting through and filing away all the information accordingly.

Hence, what would take a normal man multiple lifetimes, Minos finished in a few minutes, his Soul Form quickly regathering into one before stepping back into his physical body.

"What was that?" Tylia asked with shock, having never seen a move quite like it.

While she had seen a few moves that would allow one to create phantom copies of themselves to confuse their enemies, those phantoms were illusions at best, whereas Minos's 'phantoms' seemed to be alive.

Smiling, Minos didn't say anything, just taking a seat back in a cushioned chair as he fully 'digested' everything.

"Secret? And here I thought we were partners who trusted each other 100%!" Tylia said with a pout, unfortunately her tactic proved ineffective.

"Hmph, fine, I didn't really want to know anyways." Tylia said, ignoring Minos as she also took her chance to look through the library.

While her family was quite affluent, it was nothing compared to the Cat Kingdom, so she naturally wouldn't miss this chance to learn.

With Tylia busy reading, Minos finally got some peace, his eyes shutting as he internally ran through all his new knowledge.

The knowledge he was most interested in were actually the combat techniques, since he'd always fallen behind quite hard in that regard.

He seemed to always get by via strategy and outwitting his opponents, but as one's cultivation got stronger, so did the techniques they had access to.

By the Aperture Opening Realm, the difference between those who mastered a relevant combat technique versus those who didn't was massive.

If one thought they could get by in the Aperture Opening Realm just by their overwhelming Nux, they'd be in for a rude awakening.

This was just another one of the many reasons why those with a power behind them tended to crush casual cultivators so overwhelming.

Of course Minos was yet to actually reach the Aperture Opening Realm, but it was only a matter of time, so this was a good chance to further enhance his skillset.

Right now he had two core elements to his combat style, his Abyss Flame and his Soul Form.

On that basis, Minos ran through all the techniques he had learnt and kept only the ones that would synergize with his core, of course that wasn't to say he wouldn't learn the others, but instead that he'd focus on the valuable ones first.

By the end of it, Minos had ten techniques in total, the Six-Moon Tempest Sword, Six-Moon Flame Steps, Six-Moon Fire Storm.

Seven-Moon Hell Wings, Seven-Moon Burning Bow, Seven-Moon Magma Whip, Seven-Moon Internal Combustion.

Eight-Moon Blazing Eyes, Eight-Moon Fire Brigade, and finally, the only Nine-Moon fire-based technique he could find, Infernal Giant.

The reason why he chose all fire-based moves went without saying, with his Eternal Flame Aptus, his control and power using flames was massively improved.

Not to mention he could replace the regular fire in these techniques with his Abyss Flame, allowing them to undergo another surge in strength.

With his moveset decided, it was only a matter of mastering these moves, which shouldn't take much time.

Sneaking out of the library while Tylia was busy reading, Minos entered the estate's massive backyard.

Summoning his Soul Form, he once again split a hundred times before beginning his practice.

Splitting his attention three ways, Minos had 33 Soul Forms train the Tempest Sword Technique, 33 train the Flame Step Technique, and the last 34 train the Fire Storm Technique.

As for his physical body? He had the luxury to just sit back and watch the practice unfold.

With so many Soul Forms training at once, the entire estate's temperature rapidly rose, even Tylia feeling the heat from inside the library, causing her to look around curiously.

While the heat was rising, Minos's Nux was also running out rapidly, and after only a few minutes, he was completely run dry.

Minos had already expected as much, but unfortunately he didn't have any means to recover his Nux rapidly at the moment.

But that didn't mean he had to stop, instead he replaced his Nux-Fire with his Abyss Flame, whose eternal properties allowed it to burn without his help.

Of course without Nux powering it, Minos could only use it in its smallest and weakest form, forcing him to cut back down to only ten Soul Forms.

But that was good enough for the time being, and even with his efficiency slashed by ten, Minos's proficiency was still rising rapidly in all three techniques.

Standing still, Minos reached his hand out as he gathered his Abyss Flame, causing it to rapidly morph into the shape of a sword.

With a few swings, the fire sword seemed to become firmer and firmer, and by the last slash, it was more solid than steel.

Reaching his other hand out, Minos tried his best to break the sword in two, but he failed.

With another surge of his Abyss Flame, the Tempest Sword rapidly expanded in size until it was nearly ten-meters long.

Spotting a tree in the distance, Minos swung towards it, his massive Tempest Sword cutting through it like it was made of butter.

At the same time as the Abyss Flame came in contact with it, it rapidly spread, turning what was left of the tree into ash.

Satisfied, Minos released the sword, causing it to break into flames that flickered back into his body.

Turning his focus to the Flame-Step Technique, Minos gathered the Abyss Flame under his soles before he began moving, his speed increasing with each step.

Soon enough he was like a phantom, here one second, gone the next, the only proof of his existence seeming to be the heat he left behind.

In what looked like the blink of an eye, Minos ran around the large backyard a dozen times before coming to a halt, the Flame-Step Technique thoroughly mastered, only leaving behind the Fire Storm Technique.