The heat was like fire to paper, and Minos's life lock that had been sitting there stubborn, began to slowly dissolve.
As the life lock shattered completely, Minos felt a majestic power travel through his body, strengthening every cell it touched.
After the energy baptized Minos's body, it became weaker and weaker. Eventually when it reached the very tip of his hand, having purified Minos's last cell, it completely dissipated.
He could help but clench his fist as he felt the new shocking power that had suddenly appeared within his body. The Second Life Lock layer granted 200 pounds of strength, coupled with Minos's original strength of 250, his power had nearly doubled in a single go.
The crowd watched as Minos sat there unaffected by the Blood Wine Honey. In fact, he actually seemed much stronger than a moment ago based on the power he had slightly exploded when initially broke through and couldn't control himself.
Quickly controlling his strength, he converged it back inside his body, once again becoming a completely unassuming young man.
Yet he had no plans of stopping there. Grabbing the second glass, he downed the Blood Wine Honey once more, but this time the effect was noticeably weaker.
Still, it managed to leave cracks all over Minos's Third Life Lock before dissipating. One more glass and he'd be able to break through again.
Under the crowds further astonishment, Minos downed his third glass, and this time his Third Life Lock competently shattered, baptizing his body with a majestic energy once more.
This time his strength had skyrocketed by 300 pounds, going from 450 to 750, three quarters of the way to having half a ton's strength.
After another moment spent to settle down his new strength, Minos once again went back to normal, but this time the crowd was glaring at him with open eyes.
The other five people couldn't help but look at their own glasses, feeling like death wasn't far from them. At this point, everyone assumed all the safe glasses were on Minos's side.
Just as Minos was about to gulp down his fourth glass, the purple sword cultivator quickly shouted out to stop him.
"Wait a second kid, don't be so quick to drink. I'm willing to trade glasses!" He said with some urgency in his tone.
He was the only one left of the five people who actually didn't have a poisoned glass, but naturally he didn't know that.
In fact Minos left him until the end on purpose. While he hadn't interacted with the man much, he already had a general idea around how he would behave.
Based on the fact that he had questioned Minos' right as he entered the palace initially, Minos could tell he was a brash person, who often did things before thinking.
But since he was also willing to admit guilt to the strange man immediately after he reprimanded him, it also meant he had patience, and knew when to hold his head low.
Coupled with him having a safe glass, Minos knew he'd be the perfect person to pass Venix's poison wine to, all he had to wait was for his patience to run out, and that brash nature to expose itself.
Without a moment's hesitation, Minos accepted the deal, giving away Venix's glass. At this point, even an idiot would realize something was wrong, but since they both did everything according to the rules, the purple sword cultivator couldn't retract his decision.
Just like that, the final second came to a close. Minos now had two glasses in front of him, and there was always the slight probability that his previous predictions were wrong, making him pay the ultimate price.
But rather than being afraid, he was actually excited. It was these moments when death came closest that Minos felt most alive, with nothing being sweeter than just barely avoiding the grip of death.
With a flicker, the strange man reappeared in the room, tapping his glass to draw attention once more.
"Well everyone, time's up. I wonder who will make it to round three?" He said with a light smile.