Minos began his journey, altering his route slightly as he felt the temperature of the pearl change.
Despite getting deeper into the mountain range, Minos actually seemed to see more people, raising his suspicions.
After another ten minutes of traveling by horse, Minos had completely raised his guard. By now it was quite apparent he wasn't the only person who got his hands on this inheritance.
Though in some ways, this may not actually be a bad thing for Minos. He could hide among the large group of people, so as to act more discreetly.
At this point, he decided to completely abandon his horse. It was too large and would instantly catch the attention of anyone nearby, going against Minos's idea.
He tied it to a tree in hopes that he could reclaim it in the future, of course given the wild beasts that lurked in this area, it was unlikely he'd get it back. After having done so, he began slowly heading towards the inheritance area.
It didn't take long for Minos to notice that the trees were starting to become more rare. And soon enough he could see a large mountain in the distance.
Around the mountain a horde of people gathered. A quick estimate put the crowd at around one hundred people, of course whether more would show up was still unknown.
The mountain at the center had a large cave burrowed out on its side, however one could only look a couple meters inside before the darkness took over.
The people gathered seemed afraid to get closer, and the corpse that was still fresh by the cave entrance made it clear as to why.
Looking at the body, Minos could see an incredibly small hole in the back of the corpse's head. It was clear they got to close before something shot them, ending their lives instantly.
The pearl in Minos's pocket was completely burning at this point, and it even hurt to touch, making it apparent that the inheritance lay within the cave ahead.
It seemed that some event needed to be triggered first, otherwise attempting to enter the cave early would cost your life.
Minos spent this time waiting to analyze the crowd. These people were destined to be his opponents, so he needed to know who to keep an eye out for.
Of everyone in the crowd, Minos was most worried by a small group that stood nearest to the cave. The group all wore matching robes that had a small sword insignia on their right chests.
The swords came in different colors, with white being the most common, after came blue, and finally purple, in which only one person at the head of the group had.
The designs reminded him of the insignia he had seen on the robes of the outer disciples of the Green Barrel Sect, likely referencing what status they had in their sects.
According to their statuses, the person with the purple sword insignia should be the most dangerous, and there was a very high chance he was in the late stages of the Nine Life Lock realm.
A person like that could easily kill Minos, even if he used his talisman. Talisman grades existed for a reason, with low-level talisman being most effective on the low stages of the Nine Life Lock realm.
At most a talisman of that grade could be effective on someone of the middle stages of the Nine Life Lock realm, and even then you'd have to catch them completely off guard.
It also wasn't just one person he was potentially facing, but rather a group. Minos naturally knew he had no chance defeating them, hence he decided to avoid the group as much as possible.
With that decision, Minos kept looking through the crowd, trying to find Venix. But even after ten minutes of searching, he was nowhere in sight.
As Minos had theorized earlier, even if someone wanted to deal with Venix, they'd wait until after he had already arrived at the inheritance site. Given that Venix left at least a few days earlier than Minos, he should be here by now.
But with Venix's nature, it was probable that he decided to remain hidden as well, so for the time being, Minos decided to focus fully on the inheritance.