"I can understand that, but how strong are these Hell Beasts, and can they handle them?" Minos said, asking the most important question.
"Rest assured, Hell Beasts are usually around the Inner Heaven Realm, a rare few reaching the Aperture Opening Realm, but only the early stage at best, nothing we can't handle."
"Are you certain?"
"Absolutely! The path we're going to take has already been trekked by dozens of other groups, and the threats have been thoroughly investigated, so your worries are unnecessary."
Opening his Omniscient Eyes, Minos checked to make sure Hyth was being truthful with him this time.
"Fine, but if things really get dangerous, I have no plans of staying behind." Minos said after a quick investigation.
"Naturally, now rest easy and enjoy the views. This journey would normally take a few years, but with my Fire-Hoofed Horses, it'll only take a couple months."
Nodding, Minos reclined back in his seat, his eyes peering out the window, enjoying the vast lakes and rivers of the Blue Line Continent.
After a few days, as beautiful as the sights were, they got boring, Hyth recommending chess to liven their moods.
But after crushing him a couple dozen times, Minos got bored of that as well, his eyes suddenly peering towards his spatial ring as he thought for a moment.
Tapping it, he pulled out a familiar flute that had been studded with all sorts of small shiny gems, his murky eyes slightly misty as he looked upon it.
'Soon…' Minos thought, putting the flute to his lips as he played the first song he had created for Tinka.
Hyth looked at this with interest, having not taken Minos as the musical type, but being interested nonetheless.
While he wasn't expecting much, he was shocked to find that Minos was incredibly good, better than the masters he had listened to in the past.
More than that, Minos's music had emotion behind it. It was hard to explain, but when he listened to Minos's flute, he could feel himself floating off into a different world.
From sunny beach side paradises, to frozen uninhabitable tundras, he was thrown all over the place.
From the greatest joys, to the deepest depressions, his emotions were like a rollercoaster, constantly going through ups and downs.
Before he even knew it, the music came to a stop, his daydreaming collapsing as he was pulled back to the real world.
"Amazing… It's hard enough for a man to master one thing in their lifetime, yet you've seemed to master two." Hyth said, naturally referring to his chess skills as his first mastery.
"Just an old skill I picked up in the past." Minos said, looking at his flute with a smile before tucking it back into his spatial ring.
This was pretty much the only thing he had left from his past, and in a way, it was the last connection he shared with Tinka.
Because of that, he didn't like touching it too much, afraid he might break it and sever the last bond he had with Tinka.
But as he understood his Path, his mind changed, still protective of the flute, but no longer considering it his only connection to Tinka.
He knew that Tinka would forever live on in his heart and memories, and more than that, she would be eternalized in their daughter Rinka.
Of course, beyond anything else, Minos was convinced of bringing her back, which had he been a mortal, he wouldn't even consider, but he was a cultivator.
He knew this world was massive, filled with all sorts of tremendous things, so as untouchable as death felt, maybe there was a way to control it as well?
Of course that was impossible now, but what if he became an Emperor? And if it was impossible even then, then he would just have to go further.
He would keep going until he had the strength to break through death itself, or at the very least, he would die trying.
…
The next few months passed in a flash, the carriage having traveled an unknown yet massive amount of miles.
Despite that, the sights were still relatively the same as the beginning, and it was clear despite all the travel, they were still in the Blue Line Continent.
This was a bit surprising, after all, at the same speed Minos could have likely traveled across the entire Alephora Continent, and yet here it wasn't even enough to travel one.
And from what Hyth had told him, the two of them had only traveled across a quarter of the continent at most, meaning even with the most general estimate, the Blue Line Continent alone was around 4x bigger than the Alephora Continent.
"Look! We've finally arrived." Hyth suddenly said excitedly, pointing out into the distance.
Poking his head out of the carriage window, Minos noticed the sprawling kingdom in the distance.
Unlike the Aleph Empire, this kingdom had no walls, the buildings just spread across the massive plains.
"So this is the Blue Cross Kingdom? I expected walls."
"Walls? For what? The Blue Cross Kingdom often expands, so walls would just get in the way."
"Besides, what's the need for walls when you've already encircled your entire kingdom with a massive formation?" Hyth said.
"Formation?" Minos said curiously, applying some Nux to his eyes, causing his vision to slightly morph.
The invisible Nux quickly came into sight with his application of Nux, allowing him to see a massive, near-transparent, formation bubble surrounding the massive kingdom.
"Extraordinary! I wonder how much it cost to build such a massive formation?"
"That's a mystery, but I'd venture that the number would start in the tens of billions…"
Not replying, Minos just kept looking at the formation with astonishment. Using his own knowledge, he could make out a few of this grand formation's functions.
The most basic of which was a flight-ban, but beyond that, it also had extremely strong defensive properties, which was likely the main goal.
"Without a Blue Cross Card, entry would be impossible, but fortunately I've already acquired one a long time ago." Hyth said.
"Blue Cross Card?"
"It's akin to a citizenship ID, but not quite the same. Normally acquiring one of these would take months if not years, but I was lucky enough to get one in the past."
Soon enough, the two's carriage pulled up Blue Cross Kingdom's entry point, a long stack of carriages already piling up by the entrance.
Despite not having a wall, one still had to pass through these entry points or else they'd risk being arrested.
After waiting patiently, the two's turn finally arrived, the guard asking for identification and receiving Hyth's Blue Cross Card in exchange.
With a quick scan, he nodded, allowing the two into the kingdom without any further hassling, which wasn't the case for most people.
As the carriage slowly marched through the street, Minos looked around in interest, once again absorbing this new kingdom's atmosphere.
After a journey that lasted nearly half a day, the two arrived at the center of the Blue Cross Kingdom, a massive palace surrounded by other palaces of similar quality highlighting this place's importance.
After traveling a bit further, the two came up to a large building, the words 'Teleportation Formations' written on top.
"Here it is. Let's not waste any more time, the others have already waited long enough." Hyth said, handing his coachman a large bag of money before sending him off.
Entering the building, Minos watched in silence as Hyth talked to the receptionist, paying a large fee before receiving two tickets.
Taking the tickets, him and Minos headed further into the building, soon arriving at another room that was heavily guarded.
Showing the guards the tickets, they were allowed in, stepping into a large room with a massive formation engraved on its floor.
"Just you two?" The formation operator at the front asked.
"That's right."
"Very well, stand in the center of the formation, and stay absolutely still."
Nodding, the two stepped inside, the formation operator activating the formation, causing it to whirl into action.
Minos was already used to this operation, having activated a teleportation formation of his own in the past, so it wasn't to surprising.
Of course experiencing teleportation first hand vs teleporting someone else was completely different, a strange feeling suddenly traveling over his body.
As if gravity itself disappeared, Minos suddenly found himself floating, the entire world constantly shifting between light and dark, causing his vision to go blurry.
Before he even knew it, the feeling of weightlessness disappeared, his feet colliding back onto the floor as his vision settled.
"Pretty weird, huh?" Hyth asked with a laugh, enjoying Minos's befuddled face.
"Very weird."