When faced with Minos' offer, the people of that family, for the first time since fleeing Vogel, had to think about what it would be like to subordinate themselves to this great enemy.
Minos had caused the disgrace of this family, having obviously acted out of self-interest against this family in order to gain power over Vogel.
But now they had to subordinate themselves to him knowing this...
It wasn't easy, but the alternative was certain death, so these people knew they would have to get used to the idea of becoming his subordinates.
Abe's mother clenched her fists angrily while her husband looked at the ground, pondering this possibility.
If it were only him, he would honestly rather die than have to bow to this person.
He understood Minos' side, for Abe had given plausible justifications for this northerner to do all he had done. But that didn't change this man's thoughts about how cruel the Stuart Emperor had been to them because of his own greed.
Minos could have just taken his revenge on Abe and those of his faction without putting a mark of death on all the members of the Vogel family. But he had not done this out of self-interest!
Considering this alone, this man would rather die than bow and accept Minos' orders.
However, he had the lives of dozens of people in this small village in his hands to protect.
If he were selfish, all these people would die, even if some of them would rather serve Minos.
So he clenched his fists and said. "All right, we will serve you as eyes, ears, and messengers. As long as you no longer threaten us and you let us live in peace in this place, we will follow through with this agreement."
"Patriarch!"
"What? Are we really going to do this?"
Some elders who would rather die than join Minos raised their voices, not understanding the decision of the former King Vogel.
Minos said nothing seeing these people opposing, watching the situation resolve itself.
"We have no choice. Our young people have a lot to live for, and we can't decide their fate like this." Patriarch Vogel said firmly. "Plus, if we were all supposed to die here, then why did we run from the church all these years?
Living under the rules of Minos was not our intention, but it is the only option ahead of us. Otherwise, our lineage will disappear from this world, and all the sacrifices of the past decades will have been in vain!"
Those less happy with this decision curled their heads, feeling terrible about it.
But one of them was more unhappy than all the others!
"No! I lost my wife, two children, and grandchildren because of Minos Stuart! I will never bow my head to him!" This elderly woman said as she exuded her level 77 aura, trying to move under the pressure of Minos' presence.
The elders in the surrounding area looked at her and widened their eyes, sensing that she was about to put everything to waste.
"Elder..." The matriarch of that family muttered, sensing the danger of all of them being wiped out by the ill-considered decision of one of them.
But it was too late for her or the other members of that family to try to convince that person otherwise.
By the time they realized what she wanted, she was already activating her sacrifice!
"What a nostalgic sight... How often have I not seen opponents sacrificing themselves before me?" Minos muttered as he appeared behind that woman. "In the past, I would have had to worry, but not now." He murmured into one of her ears. "Without my permission, you can't do that."
With those words, the dark energy about to form in front of that woman disappeared before it even condensed.
A dark vortex appeared at the base of that woman's neck and swallowed up all her cultivation, also taking her vitality as she aged significantly in the blink of an eye.
"Shi..." She tried to say her last word, but before she could finish, her body turned to dust, and she disappeared after a light wave of wind blew towards her.
Everyone saw a sacrifice being stopped for the first time, shocked at what Minos had just done.
He had moved behind that woman so fast that no one there had noticed him moving. But not only that, his movement to stop the sacrifice had contradicted everything they thought they knew about cultivation.
'How? How is that possible?' Someone else thought, feeling that sacrificing himself would really be a mistake.
But Starclaw realized what Minos had just done.
She closed her eyes and reviewed the scene that had just unfolded in front of her.
'Minos teleported behind that woman by a spatial distortion and then sealed the space in her surroundings using her spirit gland. This swallowed all the energy of the sacrifice, but it was not stopped.
The sacrifice was completed. It just didn't harm us at all. That's why she died that way!' She thought, impressed with Minos' abilities.
It seemed simple what he had done, but it was extremely difficult because of the speed with which everything had to be done.
At the same time, how he had degraded all that energy was so impressive that this beast judged that few beings in the entire Spiritual World could do something similar.
'But it is amazing how he can fuse his techniques so quickly...'
While only Starclaw understood what had happened, Minos sighed, feeling the weight of fusing his 7th and 9th techniques to stop this sacrifice from killing everyone else in the surrounding area.
He and Starclaw were in no danger from the sacrifice of a mere level 77 Spiritual Saint, but that could have decimated the people in the surrounding area.
"So? What is your decision? Will you prefer certain death, or will you subordinate yourselves to me?" He asked, not giving those people any more time.
Even those still unhappy at having to bow to Minos had lost their hopes of dying with some honor. If they tried anything, they would only waste their strength and leave their juniors and descendants without support in this cruel world.
Then in a few fractions of a second, everyone in the surroundings bent their knees and said.
"Please give us your orders, Your Majesty!"
Even the young Spiritual Generals and Spiritual Kings came out of the houses they were in to kneel, swearing their eternal loyalty to Minos and the Black Plain Empire.
Minos stopped pressing the people of this village and smiled before using his 9th technique to seal the agreement he had proposed.
...
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