Cultivation Restored

Finally, ten years later, he led a small team to the bandits camp, slaughtering everyone, unfortunately by that point, his wife and daughter had already been dead for years.

Breaking down, Albon had lost his last and only purpose in life, so with a raised sword, he ended his own life.

Expecting to be met with eternal darkness, Albon instead opened his eyes to Minos's somewhat familiar face, his brain still cloudy and confused.

But after a few seconds, his old memories returned in a rush, his breathing rapid as he looked down at his young hands, no longer those callus filled one's he had spent years training.

"Do you understand now?" Minos said, his words waking him from his reverie.

"W-What did you do to me?" Albon asked, though there was no longer any anger in his voice, just confusion.

"You wanted to know what love was, so I showed you. Love isn't a fickle one way bond, rather it's an unbreakable shared connection, one that inspires people to walk through mountains of knives and seas of fire."

"Something that will make a person dedicate their entire lives to training relentlessly on the mere off-chance that they will be able to once again embrace those who filled them with such warmth."

"Love will make a man do stupid things, like end himself, but similarly, it will inspire him to the impossible."

"I just showed you a small glimpse of true love, and if you don't want what happened in that illusion to ever happen in real life, then you'll train hard, you won't waste your talent, and you'll obtain enough strength to protect those closest to you." Minos said with a sigh, though it seemed these words weren't only for Albon.

Standing up, he slowly walked towards the door, but before he could leave completely, Albon's voice reached him, his words causing a slight smile to form on Minos's face.

"Thank you, I really was stupid before. I won't be like that anymore, I'll be better!"

"I believe in you, and by the way, remind your old man to send what he owes me to the Joyata Clinic." Minos replied, disappearing completely.

"I will!" Albon shouted, running out behind him, but finding that Minos had vanished.

…

Back at the hotel, Mr. Dethwin was sitting at his desk in silence, his eyes peering out of his large window, looking down at the city below.

Seeing the sons and fathers walking together, sharing laughs and smiles, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh, thinking of his own son.

He wasn't quite sure where he went wrong, and maybe he just wasn't meant for this parenting, because he had no idea how to pull his son back to the straight path.

He could only pray that Minos could do something, but his hopes were slim, after all, this wasn't his first time trying such a thing.

He only pulled the Nine-Moon Nux Burst Pill in a final moment of desperation, thinking that only something as valuable as that could employ someone with the skills necessary.

Of course he had no clue how competent Minos was in this regard, but a man who could beat the Chess Grandmaster couldn't be bad.

As he took a sip from his glass, he suddenly heard the elevator opening behind him, causing him to swerve around, wondering who had come up.

"Son?" Mr. Dethwin asked in shock, standing up from his seat and walking towards Albon.

"Dad…"

"What brings you here?"

"I'm sorry…"

"You're what? I don't think I heard you correctly." Mr. Dethwin said, genuinely not believing his son was capable of uttering such words.

"I said I'm sorry. I was acting stupid in the past, but Mr. Minos, he opened my eyes."

"He did? Really?!" Mr. Dethwin asked, still not quite believing.

"He did. I want to train now, properly, not half-assing it like I did in the past, and I also want to learn how to run the family business."

"Great! But forget about the family business, you can learn that later, more importantly, are you finally willing to head to the Water Palace Sect?"

"I'm ready." Albon said firmly.

"Perfect. Trust me son, you won't regret this, even with my connections it was incredibly hard earning a single spot, so you can imagine how exclusive that sect is. Of course you will still have to pass the entry test, but I believe with your talent, it should be no issue."

"Thank you dad." Albon suddenly said, his eyes a little teary.

"What are you thanking me for?" Mr. Dethwin said, somewhat surprised by his son's sudden tears.

"It's just, you never gave up on me, even though I've been such a fool." Albon said, clutching at his face so as to not show his father his appearance.

"How could I ever give up on you? You'll always be my son, no matter what happens." Mr. Dethwin said with a smile, hugging his son tightly, his mind filled with thanks towards Mr. Minos.

…

"Hey Mr. Minos, what were you up to?" Jena asked curiously as Minos walked into the clinic.

"Just re-uniting a father and son." Minos replied, causing Jena to scratch her chin in confusion, not understanding him.

"Is that some sort of saying from your old town? I don't get it."

"You'll get it in time." Minos smiled, walking towards his room.

"Hey come on, just tell me!"

Still smiling, Minos didn't say anything, just heading to his room and relaxing on his bed, Jena still not leaving him alone.

Fortunately, Old Man Joyata noticed her pestering him, and forcibly dragged her out of the room by her ear, finally giving him some silence.

However, the Joyata Clinic seemed to always have something going on, and before he could relax, a loud knock came from the clinic's doors.

After some chattering in the distance, Old Man Joyata knocked on Minos's door, Minos allowing him in.

"Someone sent this for you. I'm not quite sure what it is." Old Man Joyata said, handing a small box to Minos.

"Oh, I didn't think this would arrive so soon, thanks." Minos said, Old Man Joyata not prying too much, just saying goodbye and shutting the door gently behind him, giving Minos his privacy.

Watching him leave, Minos locked the door firmly before sitting cross-legged on the bed, slowly opening the small tightly sealed box.

Immediately a strong medicinal smell assaulted his nose, his mind instantly running through dozen's of ingredients as he put the stench to the herb.

Picking up the pill, Minos looked at it curiously for a moment before popping it down his mouth, running his cultivation technique to absorb its power.

Had it been the Pure Nux Ascension Technique, he likely would have lost out on a lot of the medicinal effects due to not being able to absorb it fully, but the Heaven Forsaken Furnace Technique was different.

While he still didn't have 100% absorption due to his own lack-luster mastery of the technique, his absorption was up to at least 90%, which was incredible considering this was a pill well beyond his cultivation level.

As the Nux was rapantly released within his body, Minos used all his strength to suck it up, slowly absorbing the pill in its entirety.

As he devoured the Nux, the Nux in his Inner Heaven similarly increased, quickly going from the bottom of the Air Cloud Layer to the peak.

Once the mist-like Nux in his Inner Heaven completely filled up the space, Minos used his past experience to quickly compress it down, almost instantly turning the dense mist into a single drop of liquid.

With the transformation complete, Minos continued absorbing the Nux from the pill, once again causing the liquid in his Inner Heaven to expand.

Had he not already gone through these two stages, such fast cultivation would naturally be impossible and prone to error, but since he had firmly mastered these two stages, it was a simple matter.

Finally as the Nux in his Inner Heaven once again reached saturation, Minos compressed it down with all his strength, turning the vast liquid that filled his entire Inner Heaven into a small solid the size of a nail.

By this point the pill's power had been completely absorbed, but Minos was already satisfied, having achieved the best result possible.

Standing up, Minos couldn't help but swing his arms a few times, feeling a new sense of power within him.

While the Inner Heaven Realm wasn't as focused on physical transformation unlike the Mortal Renewal Realm, it still improved the body tremendously.

His previous weakness had completely disappeared at this point, making him feel like he was back to his youth.

Of course his old wrinkled face proved that his feeling was wrong, but at least he was getting closer, and Minos felt that as long as he could break through to the next major realm, he would be able to return to his former age.

There was only one minor realm left in his way, the Fire Cloud Layer, so he was confident the wait wouldn't be a long one.