"In that place, my ancestors spent a few hundred thousand years living in seclusion, hiding from ancient enemies, fighting against natives in search of the family's second home.
This caused us to lose some of our talents again, leading the family to the continued weakening we still face today.
After the then patriarch Longus of the last generation in that place realized that we would not recover there, he decided to venture to the Divine Continent.
Here he hoped to find more opportunities and ways for our family to become stronger.
In a way, he wasn't wrong in thinking so, and as soon as they arrived in the Divine Continent, his group managed to settle in a remote area where they were able to strengthen again for a short time.
But this was a strengthening of people who had already lost their best moment of cultivation. It was not something that was stimulating for the younger ones.
Our talents weren't so good back then, and without the emergence of someone outstanding, the improvement of the elders wouldn't have much effect.
Most of them were already very old, and when they died, that short improvement had been lost, and once again, we were weakened." That man solemnly said as he moved in front of Minos and Starclaw.
In a way, the problem of this group that had migrated from the Central Continent to this place was the same as that of the ancient population of the northern region of the Central Continent in the current era.
The former leaders of that region, on the examples of the former sovereigns of the Snow Kingdom, Kingdom of End, and Stone Island, even as the region improved and opportunities arose, they were not improving as much as others could.
They had aged at the end of the 6th stage, and even after reaching the 7th stage, they could no longer go much further than that.
In a way, they were stuck in bottlenecks that people with their other characteristics didn't normally face.
Something similar had happened to the Longus family. Although several of their members had grown stronger upon arriving on this continent, as most of them had already missed the best moment of cultivation, they were never able to truly develop.
Even the younger ones didn't grow as much, as their talents were no longer as promising.
As already said, talent and Physique grades were not things that were guaranteed. After millions of years of being weakened, the people in this family, who mostly had Golden-grade talents, ended up being downgraded.
When they arrived in the Divine Continent, the only ones with Golden grade talent were the elder elders. At the same time, everyone else had Silver-grade talent.
With worse talents, even though some of them were young enough to take advantage of opportunities, they could not go any further than their stronger relatives.
The result had been obvious!
Once the elders perished upon reaching their age limit, the family had been more weakened.
"At that time, my ancestors finally accomplished lineage mixing with beast races that were powerful and also friendly to us.
This brought new talents to the family after a few generations. Still, a war for a Divine-grade medicine that arose near our residence 180,000 years ago eliminated almost half of our family..." He sighed as he said that. "After that, nothing else worked, and the family has weakened to the current present, where our leader is a level 91 Demigod."
After listening to that man's story, Minos and Starclaw finally understood how the heirs of a God had weakened so much that some of them betrayed their ancestor's confidence.
"That was a tortuous journey..." Starclaw commented.
"So you really committed yourselves to live in the shadows for so long... I hadn't thought that you did that." Minos commented. "When Henricus Longus left you, he tried to predict what would happen in the future. Unfortunately, his abilities were not so simple.
He could see things from the distant future, but it was out of his control. Normally he had these visions when asleep and had no control over them.
What he could decide to see for himself didn't go far beyond his time. At most, he could use his ability to predict a few thousand years into the future. Beyond that, he could only see by luck.
So he thought that at some point, the family would stop keeping themselves in seclusion and would venture out into the world.
They would continue with the purpose of facing a threat to this world but would use their own means to strengthen themselves.
He wasn't against that, so he didn't make his descendants swear they would live in seclusion forever."
"It seems they were more loyal to his advice to stay in seclusion than he had thought," Starclaw commented on Minos' speech, somewhat impressed.
Upon hearing this, Nino looked back with a strange expression and asked. "So we weren't supposed to live in seclusion all that time?"
"You were, and you weren't. There was no way your ancestor could make you do that. He, at most, managed to make your people take the threat that would eventually come as a priority." Minos said.
Starclaw thought of something and asked. "But if he couldn't force them to follow everything he wanted, why did he tell his relatives about his heir?
Wouldn't that put him at risk, as you currently are?"
Minos understood Starclaw's question and said as she and Nino watched him, "Henricus Longus knew that there was a chance that his family members would not stay in seclusion, which he thought was best for the family, so he advised them to do so. But there was also the possibility that they would betray him and turn against me.
However, he had still informed them that one day I would appear. Why did he do this? Because he was able to force his desire for his descendants to fight against the threat he had foreseen.
Because of this, he thought that making these people aware of my existence would help more than hinder me.
If the family continued to exist when I sought them out, then at least I would have people who cared about this threat. Even if they were not favorable to me, as he wished, they would at least work against this common enemy."
Minos took a deep breath and said. "Henricus Longus was a God.
He wanted to prepare us for the worst so that we would not die without at least having the means to protect ourselves and fight. But if we didn't help ourselves, it would be our problem.
He did more than he should have done. He acted millions of years in advance for something that would never hit him. How would the threat of a rebellion worry him?
If that happened, his very lineage would be erased, and he honestly wouldn't care about any of this anymore!"
That was the mentality of a God!
As someone who had grown up in the Longus family, Henricus had done his best to prepare his household and ensure they had help from the best candidate he could find to become his representative.
But it was up to that representative and his descendants to work harmoniously. If they would not do this, then he could only regret it from beyond.
His duty was to warn and give them the 'weapons' they would use. Beyond that, his divine conscience couldn't care less!
