The Legend of Min Hong

When the Min Qing trio sensed the abrupt silence and the abnormal stillness of the air, they looked up and saw the two breathless, speechless and gobsmacked faces of Elder Long Jun and Long Sha.

This was how pretty and bewitching Min Qing had become.

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[Thoughts: Elder Long Jun] – "..."

[Long Sha] – "!"

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"I apologize if I have offended you with my selfish request venerable elder, please forgive my being too forward…" Min Qing spoke once more snapping the duo out of their trance.

"Unh! No, it's no trouble at all… Ha ha ha, alright, I will check him out now…" 

Elder Long Jun smiled awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head, before moving over to the part of the carriage where the unconscious Min Hong currently lay, stepping heavily on Long Sha's right foot.

The pain coming from his foot finally snapped Long Sha out of his trance.

"Oh…No, no, it's no problem at all. Leave everything to Elder Jun, he will ensure nothing bad happens to your brother, right?" Long Sha looked at Elder Jun with an inquisitive gaze.

"Ha ha… Yes, I will try the best I can…" He awkwardly replied Long Sha before rapidly placing his palm to feel Min Hong's pulse before he is forced to answer another awkward question.

[Thoughts: Elder Long Jun] – "(Sighs) … It's not like I am a healer, how can young master pin the survival of this boy on me. I guess he has been stung by the beauty of this little girl. I had better do my best, so she can have a good first impression of young master."

"Love truly makes one misbehave. See how docile the heir of a whole Long Super Clan has become, just because of a little girl."

"Haha, this is great, I will use this little kid as a way to loosen his stuck-up mentality. It is always so disheartening to see that the expectations of his father had forced him to become a cultivation maniac without any friend whatsoever."

"If not for the little care he receives from his sister and mother, he would most likely have become completely detached from feelings and relationships."

"If I can at least give you this, then I would be relieved that you will never be alone or lonely anymore in your life…"

"So little kid, I am truly sorry. I don't know if you were truly looking to die, but for the selfish reason of ending the lonely life of my young master, I will have to make sure you live. No matter the cost…"

Elder Long Jun placed a finger on Min Hong's forehead and sent in a strand of Qi. 

His actions were meant to get a full view of Min Hong's internal body condition and map, but the moment his Qi entered Min Hong's forehead, it was greedily sapped dry without any feedback whatsoever.

It was like a stone thrown into a deep well filled with cotton wool.

He tried once again, and just like the first time; his Qi was sapped up without any response.

This seriously left Elder Jun stumped as he tried several more times to no avail. 

Then he moved to Min Hong's wrist and sent another strand of tamed Qi into his meridians.

This time he sighed in relief, because he had finally gotten a feedback.

So, he traced Min Hong's meridian but the sheer thickness and sturdiness of Min Hong's meridians sent another wave of shock through Elder Ning's brain. 

The strand of Qi he had sent into Min Hong's meridian was like a little snake slithering through a train tunnel.

That was how huge and wide Min Hong's meridians were.

But he urged on his snake-like Qi until he got to Min Hong's abdominal area, where his Dan Formally sat.

This time, Elder Jun opened his eyes with a solemn expression etched on his face as he waved his sleeves, sending out a massive amount of spiritual sense outwards, sealing the entire carriage from the outside world, ensuring that whatever they said couldn't be overheard by anyone outside the jade-green carriage.

Then he looked towards the Min Qing trio and asked;

"Tell me everything that happened without excluding the tiniest bit of detail…" 

He solemnly spoke as four miniature nascent souls floated out of his body with a similar expression on their miniature faces.

Two of these four souls were radiating a heavy and extremely sturdy aura of Metal, while the other two had extremely sharp auras as the sound of a sword slicing the wind screamed through the entire carriage.

"Who are you people?" Long Sha also frowned as his 7-Star Dan Formation aura erupted within the carriage, turning the atmosphere extremely stifling and pinning everyone to their seats and Min Qing to her kneeling positions.

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[Mental Transmission: Long Sha] – "Elder Jun, what is the problem? Are they dangerous? Are they here with ill intent?" Long Sha fired several questions successively at Elder Jun. 

What Elder Jun just did, will only occur whenever a Nascent Soul expert is about to use his full and complete abilities.

The most valuable and precious thing to a Nascent Soul expert are his nascent souls.

They are just as fragile as they are powerful. 

They have nothing to defend them from attacks, which is why you will never see any expert reveal his nascent souls unless he had been pushed to the wall or is extremely desperate.

But that was exactly what Elder Jun had just done, which is why Long Sha reacted in such an aggressive manner and asked such questions from Elder Long Jun.

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[Elder Long Jun] – "Young master, its nothing dangerous. I just lost my composure for a second there. From the feedback I just got by mapping out the internal meridian network of this bot, his Dan area shows me that, this boy right here had once had cultivation before…"

[Long Sha] – "(Stunned silly) … What? How is that even possible?"

[Elder Long Jun] – "I also don't know. I don't think his cultivation was crippled, because there is no trace of any fractured Dan or shattered nascent soul. But I am very sure he once had Qi."

"Furthermore, judging by the thickness and strength of his meridians, these aren't meridians that any Dan Formation expert can have, but I also doubt he could be a nascent soul expert, after all, he is only this young."

"But one way or the other, this boy had immense strength before, even far more than you at the same age. Lastly, the two mysterious Daos he used earlier were already in Intent level. That was the only reason he could hold on for that long when he was battling Chi Ning earlier."

"He must have been a very promising and talented heir from whichever clan he came from, and if you look at the reactions of the rest in his group, it's very easy to deduce that he is no ordinary young master to them, more like they are serving him."

[Long Sha] – "To have two Magic beasts; one in nascent Soul stage, the other in the Dan Formation stage, just who is he? Moreover, I don't think they will want to reveal anything to us, at least until he wakes up… Do you plan to force a response out of them?" 

[Elder Long Jun] – "That wouldn't be a good idea. You still need him, remember. What do you think will happen if he wakes and learns that we have forcefully pried out information about him while he was unconscious? I only lost myself for a bit, you should reign in your aura…"

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Elder Jun recalled his nascent souls while Long Sha also dispersed his aura as they looked at the Min Qing trio who had a frown etched on each of their faces, very much displeased with their action.

Even Little Ming and Elder Yun were already ready to battle in a moment's notice.

Seeing that he had caused a slight misunderstanding, Elder Long Jun sighed awkwardly as he explained;

"I'm sorry, I noticed that he had once had cultivation before and would have been a peerless genius wherever you all came from. But I could also tell that his cultivation wasn't crippled, and it was the mysterious disappearance of his cultivation that made me lose my cool a bit."

"Hmph! You call that losing your cool…Stupid!" Little Ming was the first to blow up in rage.

"You lost your cool and released your nascent soul auras in the presence of a little kid with no cultivation, if that had continued a little longer, do you know what damages you could have caused to my young master?"

Elder Yun was a bit calmer as she voiced her displeasure.

"Since this is a misunderstanding and to show our good intentions, we will assume it never happened… So, can you please carry on with your examination?"

Min Qing brought their attention back to the most important thing, but everyone within the carriage could tell from her tone, expression and body language that the high regard and respect that was present earlier had vanished completely.

Elder Jun continued with his examination, as his thread of Qi within Min Hong's Dan area split and entered his Eight Great Meridians, but as they approached where Min Hong's Twelve Principal Meridians were, the Qi vanished into thin air, shocking Elder Jun once again.

But this time, he made sure to restrain himself as he began to frown at the mysterious incident of Qi disappearance happening within Min Hong.

It didn't seem like Min Hong was absorbing his Qi, rather it was more like they were just entering a bottomless pit, not to ever see the light of day again.

Elder Jun began to feel frustrated by this phenomenon.

[Thoughts: Elder Long Jun] – "If I can't even scan your internal system for injuries, how can I know where to treat… Furthermore, I can't face these guys and tell them that I can't help their young master anymore. They will most definitely take it wrongly…"

"(Sighs mentally) What do I do? … Alright, since you really want to absorb Qi that much, I will give you what you want…." 

Elder Jun retreated from Min Hong's body as he flicked his finger as a small wooden box appeared in his hand.

The moment this wooden box appeared, a thick wave of Qi washed over the entire carriage, as the bodies of the battle-worn Min Qing trio greedily absorbed it all.

"Elder Jun! Is that?" Long Sha lost his composure at the sight of this wooden box.

"Don't tell me you plan on…? You might not find another one again in this…" He was cut short by a wave of Elder Jun's sleeves. 

"It's nothing… compared to the value of our friendship, this peak-grade spirit stone is like a worthless piece of scrap metal in a junkyard."

Though Elder Jun downplayed the value of this spirit stone, his pained eyes easily revealed just how valuable the spirit stone was to him.

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[Mental transmission: Little Ming] – "Yun Yun, that spirit stone is definitely very valuable to this old man. I don't think anyone can be good enough to use such a valuable resource without wanting anything in return."

[Elder Yun] – "I understand. Whatever they are looking to get out of it obviously involves young master. But I trust young master would also know this, so there is no need to worry too much."

"Moreover, our goal here is to find a strong backing, and from what just transpired earlier, these guys are definitely a backing we can use for now." 

[Little Ming] – "True. I don't think they know that we are also looking to use them, so it would boil down to who can use who the most. Ha ha, let the game of exploiting begin…"

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Elder Jun opened this wooden box, a thick smoke of blue coloured Qi flowed out of the box as the Min Qing trio began to absorb it.

But when the smoke of pure Qi reached Min Hong and touched his forehead, the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' trembled as it began to absorb the smoke at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In fact, it even robbed the Min Qing trio from every bit of the Qi.

Seeing this Elder Long Jun murmured; "I guess the problem should be able to be resolved with a little bit of Qi." Then he placed the peak-grade spirit stone directly on the forehead of Min Hong. 

Swoosh!

Being in such a close proximity with the spirit stone, the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' began to suck the life out of it, as the spirit stone began to disintegrate gradually.

After about five minutes, the spirit stone finally depleted, then Min Hong's eyes snapped open.

Fwoom!

A light shockwave rippled within the carriage, slamming everyone within it into their seats. Then Min Hong coughed up a huge mouthful of blood that contained tiny shards of wood splinters.

"Young master!"

"Hong-ge!" 

The Min Qing trio screamed with concern written all over their faces.

Seeing this, Min Hong sat up with great difficulty as he looked around and when he saw found himself within a strange carriage with two strange faces looking at him with an expression of sheer curiosity, he spoke;

"Min Qing, where are we?" 

"Elder Yun, what happened?" Min Hong fired two successive questions as the Min Qing trio approached him.

Little Ming instantly returned to her usual position, coiling around Min Hong's arms, while Elder Yun simply floated to his side and sat beside him.

But Min Qing jumped at Min Hong, embracing him tightly as she began to sob lightly into his chest with a quavering voice. 

"I thought I had lost you there. Never do that to me again…" she buried her face into his chest while Min Hong simply caressed her flowing sky-blue hair as he allowed her to vent.

Then he closed his eyes and tried to recall everything that happened earlier.

Whilst all that was happening, the carriage had already passed the entrance, and they have entered the Sunfire City.

They didn't pay any gate fee because, even though it is not known to the public that the Long Clan had a Guest Clan status, the guards who were in charge of the gate would at least have an idea.

So as a result, Elder Jun had already commanded the tamed beast to lead them to the city square, where they can rent a residence for their temporal stay within the Sunfire City. 

But back within the carriage, Elder Jun and Long Sha were yet to recover from their stumped expression of Min Qing's actions.

Usually, girls who were in Min Qing's level of beauty most often than not, possess a reserved nature.

They do not usually blurt out their emotions like the way Min Qing just did, not even when amongst their own family members. 

Most especially Long Sha, who for some reason was a little uncomfortable with their actions.

Perhaps, it was due to his stuck-up nature, or maybe he was jealous, no one knew and no one will ever know, because even Long Sha himself could not sort his thoughts at this moment. 

After a while, Min Hong opened his eyes, but he still couldn't remember meeting any of these two strange figures in front of him, and the trio who were supposed to tell him about it were currently caught up in their feelings.

So, he consoled them with a slight chuckle;

"It's alright, it's alright. I have told you before, I am not going to die so easily."