"As much as I'd like to entertain you Tylia, now isn't exactly the best time. Besides, I pretty much gave you an unlimited budget to go and explore the kingdom, why are you back so soon?"
"I'm bored…" She moaned as she collapsed back in one of his many sofas.
"It's only been a few days, there's no way you've seen everything already."
"Heh, I thought so too at first, but it turns out that the Cat People are pretty boring. Besides fighting and running around, they don't seem to like much else." Tylia complained.
"Hmm, is that so? Then why don't I make you the Minister of Entertainment." Minos suggested.
"Really! That sounds fun!" Tylia exclaimed, jumping up from her lazy position, now filled with passion.
"It's good timing as well. I've long since thought of opening up the Cat Kingdom to tourism, buff the economy a little, not to mention it'll be a good chance to open the people's eyes."
"Then leave it all to me, I'll make this kingdom the funnest place on the Nine Continents." Tylia swore.
"Hahaha, good. Sephra, I want you to create a new ministry with Tylia as the head, the Ministry of Entertainment, as for recruitment, leave it to the Ministry of Work."
"Right away, your Majesty!"
"Very well, you're both dismissed." Minos said, once again getting a moment of peace.
This time it lasted a little longer, likely because the most chaotic elements were dealt with, finally giving Minos the time he needed to blow through these last through files.
Putting aside the last file, Minos got up and let out a satisfied stretch, wanting to take this moment to have a break for himself.
Unfortunately, the king rarely had a moment to themselves, and before long, another knock came at the door.
Without much surprises, it was Suki again, ready to make use of Minos's promise from earlier today.
"Ready?" He asked.
"It doesn't seem like I have much choice. Come on, let's go." Minos smiled, leading the way towards the royal library.
He hadn't actually entered the royal library yet, his first few days of being king having all been occupied with finishing up the work Eumbron had left behind.
Fortunately he had already understood the layout of the palace, so after descending towards the basement and making a few sharp turns, the two arrived in front of an underground gate.
Beside the gate sat an old man, his body slouched over and his eyes shut, seemingly in a deep sleep.
Of course Minos wasn't so naive to believe that, his senses warning him that this old man was incredibly powerful.
As he and Suki moved closer, their movement seemed to awaken the old man, his head suddenly snapping up, his hands rubbing his eyes a few times.
"Oh, you must be the new king. Took you long enough, most kings run down here the second they have a chance." The old man said as he stared down Minos, ignoring Suki completely.
"I was busy with other work, forgive me." Minos replied.
"No need for that, in fact it's a good thing you take your work so seriously, unlike those other lazy bastards who only know how to enjoy the benefit of being a king without carrying any of the responsibility."
"I wouldn't dare call the little I did responsibility, it's only the bare minimum."
"Humble too. Looks like the kingdom is in good hands this time around." The old man smiled, finally turning his attention back to Suki.
"You're here as well boy? How many times are you going to run down here? I've already told you there's no cure to your problem."
"He's with me, and what you just said may not be completely true." Minos replied before Suki had the chance.
"Oh? How interesting… Alright well I hope you can help the boy, heaven knows how desperate he is for a cure." The old man said before turning back to the door.
Clapping his hands once heavily, he seemed to activate some hidden mechanism within the gate, causing the two large doors to slowly grind open.
"Go ahead, and remember, don't break the rules…" The old man said, his voice lacking any threatening intent, yet Minos and Suki were both fully aware of the consequences.
As they stepped inside, the doors slowly grinded back shut, the heavy sound of slamming reminding the two that they were now locked in here.
Taking this chance to look around, Minos couldn't help but be amazed by this place, mostly because it didn't seem to make any sense.
Based on the dimensions of the palace, the royal library should only be a few floors tall and wide, yet it was easily dozens of times that size.
"Amazing, huh? Everyone has that reaction when they first walk in here, it's like walking into another world entirely."
"It is quite spectacular." Minos replied, activating his True Vision at the same time to have a proper look at the place.
After a few sweeps, he noticed the hidden formations engraved on all the walls, formations which were slightly reminiscent to the one's he had seen on the many Teleportation Formation's he had traveled through in the past.
'Spatial formations…? So that's how it works! It seems these formations are artificially expanding this area. Now that I think about it, I saw pretty much the exact same formations in Towery as well.'
'It seems I've really slept on formations in the past, I should focus on them more, especially now that I have excess to a near endless supply of knowledge.'
Waking from his thoughts, Minos followed behind Suki, the two soon arriving at a large shelf filled with thousands of books.
Picking out one at random, Minos quickly read its title, soon realizing this was a low-level Yang-Based technique.
"These are where all the Yang-Based techniques are stored, as for the Yin-Based one's, they're over there." Suki said, pointing towards a shelf that was only slightly smaller than the one they were currently at.
"What a selection. It seems the royal family hasn't been lazy when it comes to collecting." Minos marveled.
"It's natural, after all our kingdom has been around for a couple thousand years now. No one survives that long without amassing quite a collection."
"Makes sense." Minos replied, his attention turning back towards the books at hand.
Looking around, he began collecting all the Mortal Renewal Realm Yang-Based cultivation techniques, piling them up into a small tower before hauling them over to a nearby table.
With that done, he did the same with the Yin-Based techniques, soon having two large towers of material to read through.
"How long do you think this will take you?" Suki asked somewhat anxiously.
"Who knows? Could take a couple days, a couple weeks, a couple months, maybe a couple years." Minos replied.
"Come on now, I need an actual time!" Suki said, his patience running completely dry by this point.
"Relax, I can't give you an honest answer until I understand what I'm working with. Just know that it'll come."
"Besides you've already survived this long, you can handle a few more years in the worst case scenario."
"Bu-"
"No buts, just sit down and breathe. The promises I make, I never break, you can rest assured of that much."
"Fine…" Suki said, taking a seat opposite of Minos.
Smiling, Minos finally took the first book in hand, slowly reading through it much to Suki's annoyance.
What Suki didn't know was that Minos had long since used his True Vision to sweep through all these books, and given they were only at the Mortal Renewal Realm, he had already mastered them.
What he was actually doing was scanning Suki's body, trying to come up with a technique that had as close to perfect compatibility with him as possible.
Such a technique would benefit him much more than a technique with little to no compatibility, even if that technique was also Yin-Yang Based.
Of course he wouldn't make it easy, and while he already had a preliminary technique created after a few hours, he decided not to say.
This was Minos's test to Suki, a test to see whether the wait would break him or make him stronger.
Naturally he'd give him the technique regardless eventually, but whether he made further use of Suki or not was dependent on how he did on this test.
He needed those with unbreakable wills, people who he could trust not to break even under immense pressure, now it was just a question if Suki was one of those people.
"Alright, that's enough for one day." Minos said with a yawn, placing the book back down and getting up for a stretch.
"How is it? How long do you think it'll take?" Suki couldn't help but ask.
"To be honest, I'm not sure yet, but I'm guessing a few months at least, maybe a couple years." Minos replied 'honestly,' causing Suki's face to immediately go sour.