A month and a half later...
After weeks of traveling across the surface of the South Sea in the southeasternmost part of that vast sea, Minos and his crew had finally passed through the territory of the Flooded Dragons.
Two weeks ago, they had left that territory and entered the continental waters of Emlyn's homeland, where they were now sailing, days from the coast of the Nine-Tailed Fox tribe's territory.
Over the past few weeks, the group encountered several problems related to the conflict between the two most powerful races in the world. They had often had to divert their route slightly to avoid the consequences of the battles between the specialists of these two races.
But the route they had chosen for this journey was one of the safest and least chaotic, so even though they had encountered problems, there weren't many, and the group was still in one piece.
Not only was the group whole, it was stronger!
In the past week, one of the human mercenaries Minos had hired in the Marine Empire had reached level 90, while Emlyn had reached level 81.
Minos was already in the last half of level 83, but he still had a long way to go before advancing to level 84. However, he hoped to break through to that level before leaving the Continent of Beasts.
The continent was almost as large as the Central Continent, and it had even more territories and tribal problems than Minos' homeland. Therefore, the journey through this land would not be as quick as a stroll through the lands of the Central Continent. Emperor Stuart expected to spend two to four years in this place!
That was why he wanted to take his family with him when he reached the southern coast of the Continent of Beasts because after he arrived there, it would take some time before he traveled back across the seas to the Divine Continent and then returned to his state.
But while he was preparing to unite his women's group with his own, Minos took some time that day to distribute resources among his crew.
As he had promised everyone, he would cover all the expenses necessary for his group to travel to the North Sea, including providing cultivation opportunities for his people.
As he distributed Saint-grade medicine to the sea creatures in his group, they looked at him with gratitude and curiosity, seeing this situation for the third time on their journey here.
Saint-grade medicines were very valuable to Demigods, especially beasts, but even they couldn't consume too many of them in a short period.
Each medicine of this quality would take up to several weeks to be completely absorbed into the beasts' bodies.
Beasts didn't have the ability to learn cultivation techniques like humans, so they couldn't easily absorb essential medicines into their bodies.
Anyway, some of the beasts that had joined the group at the beginning of Minos' journey had received these resources for the third time, and they looked at the young Sage with gratitude and interest.
'This Black Plain Empire is truly rich.' One of the 9th-stage beasts in the mercenary group thought to herself, already having no doubt in her heart that it would be perfect for her to follow this group to the end of the journey.
If she were lucky, with Minos' help, she would be able to reach level 91 in 5 to 10 years, something she would hardly be able to achieve as a mercenary in normal situations.
"Thank you for this, Minos. You really are doing what you promised." One of the mermaids said to him after picking up her medicine.
Adrina asked. "But tell me one thing. Why do you feed us so much? Don't get me wrong, I'm happy about it, haha. But I'm also curious. Why not keep some for your people?"
Minos heard this and said to all the crew who wanted to know why he invested so much in mere allies. "Because as the catastrophe approaches, it will become more difficult to absorb certain types of resources and make progress.
At the same time, the stronger you are, the better our chances will be in the North Sea expedition in the future."
Minos had other goals. He wanted to establish meaningful relationships with the tribes behind each of the crew members on his ship.
By nurturing these individuals, he might not gain their eternal cooperation. But his chances of making himself and the Black Plain Empire more friendly and interesting to these tribes in the future would be greater.
In the best-case scenario, he could not only gain easier access to these tribes, but he could even bring some of these beings into his state.
In short, Minos had a lot to gain by cultivating them, and his interests were not limited to the disaster that was about to befall the Spiritual World.
But he didn't want to talk to these beings about it, and in a way, his words were true.
When disasters struck the Spiritual World, the laws of nature became weaker and harder to absorb, which could greatly hinder the progress of high-level experts.
By giving some of the resources he had to these beings, Minos could actually use them more effectively on these individuals than if he saved them for some of his men to absorb during the coming calamity era.
Those who knew what the Spiritual World was like in such times believed Minos, while the others imagined that his action made sense since the survival of everyone in the group depended on how strong they were.
If they were to reach the North Sea without at least making any progress, they would be in for a lot of trouble when they entered the area to the north!
With Minos' answer, the most interested would soon put their doubts aside and get on with their plans for the day, some keeping watch, others going to sleep to start absorbing the medicinal powers of these resources.
As they continued their routine of the past few weeks, time would soon pass, and the moment of their arrival on the Continent of Beasts would arrive!
After another 9 days of traveling, the group would finally be able to see a vast landmass in the distance that would grow larger and larger as they approached.
After months of traveling through the waters of the most tranquil sea in the Spiritual World, late one afternoon, the party would finally arrive at Emlyn's motherland and set foot on firm land.
Arriving on this continent, Minos took the initiative while his group hid their ship somewhere and went to a further area where he 'felt' he would find his group of women waiting for him...
