Hours after the death of the supreme elder Edwardstone, Minos and his family arrived in the capital of the Flaming Empire along with the body of this old expert.
Upon arriving at the local wormhole port, Minos' group appeared at that place where several members of the Edwardstone family forces were already waiting for them on the outskirts.
There, imperial guards, members of the imperial lineage, and the emperor himself were already profiled, awaiting the arrival of this procession that had departed from Dry City moments ago.
When they saw six men from the Black Plain Army walking with a golden and silver coffin on their shoulders, the people in the surrounding area were silent as they noticed that there was no mistake in the information.
Some still had expectations that it was all just a bad dream. In contrast, others hoped there had been some miscommunication, even though they knew the low probability of that happening.
But seeing the coffin containing the body of the supreme elder of the imperial family, everyone in the surrounding area sighed sadly, with the last hopes of some fading from their minds.
Amid this, Minos and his family walked behind those men carrying the coffin, all dressed in black, with neutral expressions on some faces and sad expressions on others.
The coffin-carrying men walked up to one of the imperial family's guard groups, which was to take the body of the supreme elder to the burial site.
As these men of Minos delivered the coffin to the imperial family, he and his family approached Emperor Edwardstone and the rest of the imperial family.
"Harold, I am sorry for your loss," Minos said as Isabella cried once again, already embraced by her mother.
Minos looked in the direction of the coffin and said. "He and I were not friends, and we had some problems over the years. But I sincerely wished the best for him.
Until a few days ago, I believed he would advance to the 9th stage... Unfortunately, it didn't happen."
Harold nodded positively with his head to Minos as he sighed. "I thank you for your words and for bringing him back. He really had a negative history with you, but I assure you that he regretted many things at the end of his life."
As the two talked, Oswald and Patience were already giving their regrets to old acquaintances in the surrounding area, while Isabella and her harem sisters were near the empress and second wife of the emperor.
"It's all right, dear. He lived long and left cultivating, not in a war or murdered." Isabella's mother consoled her while Gloria spoke to the empress.
"I am so sorry for your loss, Your Majesty. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do to help him."
"I know... But thank you for caring and coming here from Dry City. I'm sure the supreme elder would greatly appreciate the gesture if he knew about it."
Conversations continued in the surrounding area until the funeral procession began, departing from that wormhole port to the imperial palace.
At the imperial palace, the supreme elder's body would be on hand for the next few hours for family members, allies, friends, and acquaintances to stop by to say goodbye to him.
Minos and his family would attend this event alongside the Edwardstone family, avoiding conversations regarding his state and business with the sect masters who would come to the event, focusing only on the present situation.
The next day, the supreme elder's funeral would end after thousands of local experts had seen his body and sighed at the end of someone so powerful.
By local standards, level 79 was the peak for more than 99.9% of people, so the death of someone at that level was sad and reminded everyone of their mortality.
Even powerful experts would die one day!
When the funeral was over, once again, the local imperial family would move that man's body, this time taking it to the family tomb, where only experts and members of the main lineage could be buried.
In that place, the old supreme elder would be reunited with his dead family members, finally being left in peace by the living two days after his death.
This would not end the ceremonies in memory of this man, something that would last a whole week, with those who had not been able to attend the event joining the one still mourning the death of this expert.
In the meantime, Minos and his family would return to the Black Plain, with Isabella much less bad off than before but interested in participating more in the affairs of her new state to occupy her mind.
Minos and the rest of the family would help her as best they could while they returned their attention to the empire, which had many points to evolve in the current peace.
...
While some were still mourning the death of the supreme elder Edwardstone and others were beginning to move on, Lorelei Stone was on the high seas along with a large group at this very moment.
After months of working for the future of the Black Plain Empire's maritime expansion, this woman's group had finished building the foundations of the first submarine outpost of Minos' forces!
At a point further northeast in the Ancestral Sea, an underwater base capable of hosting up to a thousand humans was already operating 20 kilometers deep in the first of the three underwater zones.
But in this area, there weren't any beast groups around, so even if these people sent by Minos wanted to, they could set up posts in the zone of darkness or even on the ocean floor.
There wasn't even a single beast for tens of thousands of cubic kilometers!
With so much space to be explored without worry, the group already settled in this underwater base was starting their mineral extraction operations.
But they continued to expand their area of control daily, as new groups came in from the mainland bringing more people to work on the construction of Minos' marine empire.
Amid this, the great shark that had been serving Minos was serving as the group's chief explorer in its spare time and as a security guard for these groups most of the time.
It lived in fear of the proximity of this place to the North Sea, but with no options in front of it, it had been doing its job as best it could.
Luckily, more and more people were joining it and its group, which gradually made it less fearful about this area.
In any case, this place was just beginning its operations after months of preparation and would soon become an important outpost for the entire Black Plain Empire!
