The Legend of Min Hong

The Primus Dao then began to gradually convert all the Flame Qi into convert into Chaos Qi, as the divine ability gradually surged in temperature seemingly retaining the hot properties of the Flame Dao.

Then one of his eyes went blurry as the Primus Dao then began to convert the Chaos Qi into Oblivion Qi. 

Then Min Hong threw the technique into the mouth of the volcano, vanished and reappeared a hundred metres away before snapping his fingers then;

Boom!

The ice volcano swelled and then shrunk before exploding into smithereens, blasting shards of ice and tongues of flames, and Chaos Qi into the environments.

Though Min Hong could not be externally hurt by his own Dao, he still had to hide from the ice shards and tongues of flames.

Then Min Hong saw a golden-green seed float out of the crater where the icy volcano formerly stood and hovered on the spot, rippling out a very familiar energy that prompted a similar reaction from the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' who released its own ripple of similar energy infused with a beckoning aura… 

But before long, another stronger gust of wind came as it blew some water and flame from the pool and reversed their flow to solidify and create another icy volcano in less than ten breaths…

Then the two energies rippling out from both the Dao Seed and the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' came into contact with each other as the Dao Seed instantly bolted into it.

Then the entire realm shattered as Min Hong reappeared within the depths of his soul where the Primus Dao seed within the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' entered into the was currently hovering and then, the Primus Dao Seed sent grew two tiny branch which latched onto both the Oblivion and Chaos Dao flower and began to suck them dry as both Dao flowers began to wither away. 

This new development shocked Min Hong to the core, but he knew there was no way the Dao Seed would mean him any harm.

At least, not when the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' didn't show any form of resistance against it.

So, he looked on as the Primus Dao Seed began to germinate and spread its roots within Min Hong's soul as it kept absorbing both Dao flowers to fuel its growth. 

Then the structure of this Primus Dao began to grow bigger and bigger until it grew into a tree of about 200 feet in height.

Then Min Hong could finally see it clearly, it looked exactly like a Rhododendron tree which was about 200 years old.

Then for some unknown and mysterious reason, Min Hong could tell that its age signified; the Second Plane of Intent Level Primus Dao. 

Perhaps, it was because of the 'Eye of Infinite Dao', perhaps not.

But it was of little importance, because he could sense that this tree wasn't done with its growing process, and the moment that happened, the tree swayed slightly.

Then a branch began to grow out and for some reason, it was blurry to the sight, but Min Hong could tell what it was at a single glance. 

This was because the branch was that of a, Bleeding Heart Flower, and it was also radiating Oblivion aura.

Then after another five minutes, it stopped growing at about 20 feet and Min Hong could once again mysteriously tell that, this branch was only 20 years old also signifying the Second Plane Intent Level Oblivion Dao. 

Then a similar process reoccurred, but this time, the branch was pitch-black Rose Flower.

This was obviously the Chaos Dao, which also grew up to 20 feet and was about 20 years old.

Definitely, it was also the Second Plane Intent Level Chaos Dao.

When Min Hong saw this, he was a little awestruck at the nature and mysteriousness of these Daos. 

Then he mumbled to himself;

"If I was to go by the age and the height of these Dao branches, I think it is safe to say that; one's Dao Flower would grow by 1 foot at every Plane in the Concept Level."

"Then it would grow by 10 feet at every Plane of the Intent Level, meaning that it would grow by 100 feet at every Plane of the Law Level." Min Hong deduced accurately. 

Then the tree shook as Min Hong saw several leaves begin to grow on the tree.

At the crown of the Primus Dao Tree, 200 flowers grew out and a single fruit.

On the Chaos Branch, 20 pitch-black Rose flowers grew and there was a spot on the flower that signified that a fruit had been plucked there. 

The same thing happened on the blurry branch, where 20 blurring heart-shaped flowers appeared, along with a part of it which signified that a fruit had been plucked out of it.

Min Hong saw all these and murmured;

"I guess, the reason why the Primus became the Dao Tree was because, I thought of it as the primary base of my Daos. Then since it serves as the link or the point of merger between my Daos, it is only natural that it depicts itself as the stem linking the branches of my two Daos." He also predicted correctly this time. 

The moment this happened, Min Hong's body began to voraciously devour the 'great creator's aura simultaneously as it devoured the ancient Qi.

Then Min Hong's soul and mental power began to rise as his Sea of Consciousness began to rise and roar, smashing into the shores of his Mind Palace.

They also entered his Mind Palace suffusing every part of it with the aura. 

Then his soul also began to gobble up the aura, as the few leaves on the Primus Dao Tree began to rustle as if being blown by a wind which was the aura that was gushing into his soul.

Then after about half an hour, the increase in Min Hong's mental and soul force finally slowed to a stop, solidifying Min Hong's soul and mental force in the Mid-grade Bronze Rank level.

This time there was no breakthrough tribulation, since he did not break through using the natural energies.

But Min Hong would never know where or when the next breakthrough will happen.

If lucky, it would happen within the formation whilst he is cultivating.

But if unlucky, it would happen outside the formation and inevitably face the invincible lightning tribulation.

-------------------------------------

After the breakthrough process finished, Min Hong floated 200 feet upwards to the top of the Primus Dao Tree, as he gazed at the dreamy, golden-green coloured fruit.

Then he touched it, and instantly, the fruit began to rot and then its rotten carcass of the fruit fell on the Primus Dao Tree which also began to rot.

Then came the Chaos branch and then the Oblivion branch. 

This rotting process continued until the entire tree, leaves and fruits were no more, then one piece of these rotten leaves landed on Min Hong's consciousness as it began to rot.

Min Hong quickly dusted off the rotten leaf but the rot had already spread onto his consciousness.

Min Hong was petrified as he disappeared and reappeared atop his gold embroidered white futon. 

But the moment that happened, the rot spread onto the futon disintegrating it in the process, as Min Hong found out that he had lost connection with his physical body, soul and the 'Realm of Creation'.

Min Hong gasped in shock as immense fear gripped every fibre of his mental body.

He tried to take away anything that was yet to rot, but that only sped up the rotting rate. 

Min Hong then stopped and watched everything he had built begin to rot away, right in front of him.

He began to lose connections with everything that had rotted away, as a deep and potent aura of sorrow began to wash over Min Hong who began to weep bitterly.

He knelt on the floor as he used his half-rotten hands to pack the dust of his futon and he began to wonder; 

He wondered why the Primus Dao Tree would bear such a disastrous fruit.

He wondered why the 'Eye of infinite Dao' never alerted him to the dangers of plucking the fruit he even began to regret comprehending the Primus Dao in the first place.

He felt if he had been content with just the Oblivion and Chaos Dao, this wouldn't have happened. 

He wanted to believe everything was an illusion, but as he continually lost connections with everything he owned and everyone he knew, he began to believe that this wasn't an illusion.

He held hope that probably when everything rots away, he will finally awaken and everything would be restored, so he stopped his weeping, sat and waited for the rotting process to end. 

Then after a brief ten minutes, everything had completely rotted into dust and was blown into his mental sea like industrial wastes on the surface of a beach.

Then Min Hong's entire Sea of Consciousness and Mind Palace became extremely silent, lonely and desolate, but Min Hong kept waiting as time obliviously began to trickle by like drops of water from a closed tap. 

Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours, then hours into days, as Min Hong's hopelessness was renewed.

Grief returned, as numerous negative emotions began to bloom within him as his mental body continually disintegrated.

After a whole year of mopping, sobbing and wallowing in his sorrows, Min Hong finally stood up and began to walk around.

He walked all over the place remembering everything that was formerly within this dimension. 

He remembered his flame nascent soul and the Yao demon soul which had once attempted to sit atop his futon.

He kept walking around looking at different areas of the area and got to the main hall of his Mind Palace where his statue formerly stood, including the shelf of techniques and martial arts and then walked away.

But just as he turned around to leave, he saw a white glow underneath the rubbles of his collapsed statue. 

Then he began to hear silent whispers coming from that area, as he lethargically walked over and cleared the rubbles and dust.

Then, he got the shock of his life and also discovered a final glimmer of hope.

What Min Hong discovered was the Peak-grade Black Rank soul cultivation technique he obtained from the Pagoda of Ascension; the [Chant of the Cherubs]. 

But what gave him hope was that, when he touched the book with his hands, the rotten parted of it was instantly restored, and when he removed his one of his hand, it became rotten once more.

Seeing this, Min Hong quickly sat on that same spot as he began to cultivate the soul technique which actually begins with purifying the soul. 

Min Hong then read the purifying part in hopes of preventing his mental body from rotting out of existence, because should that happen, his physical body and its cultivation would instantly become an empty husk; a puppet.

After memorizing this part, Min Hong then began to recite this ancient and divine chant.

He continued to recite for almost an hour before he abruptly jolted in shock. Somehow in a way, he had unknowingly sensed his connection with Little Ming, then he smiled weakly and dryly and mumbled; "So it was an illusion all along unh…"

Then he abruptly opened his eyes and everything around him shattered like glass. 

Then he found himself still standing within his soul realm in front of the Primus Dao Tree.

But now, there was no fruit on it any longer and Min Hong then touched the tree and sensed that it was still absorbing the ancient aura and funnelling it into the Chaos and Oblivion branch as well as sending it to every part of the tree and its leaves. 

When he sensed this, Min Hong finally let out a deep and heavy sigh of relief as he praised;

"That was a very convincing and petrifying illusion… But also, a very potent technique. I shall call you the 'Nightmare Aberration'."

He named the technique as he quickly vanished away from his soul realm seemingly a little still scarred from his earlier experience. 

He emerged within his Mind Palace and inspected every inch of it, before darting into the Castle, looking through everything.

He saw his statue and then returned the soul technique to the shelf.

He then entered his room and finally saw the Yao demon soul still wandering about and his flame nascent soul which was still sitting cross-legged atop his white futon.

Now he could relax. He weakly walked over to his gold-embroidered white futon, rubbed his hands across its surface, before sitting on it.

Then moment he did so, the calming effect of the futon went to walk as a relieved smiled climbed onto his lips.

Then he left and opened his eyes in the outside world and saw Little Ming and Elder Yun looking at him with a very worried face.

"What happened just now, I really felt our connection sever?" Little Ming anxiously blurted.

"Sshhh… Are you trying to awaken young mistress and have her start worrying about this?"

Elder Yun smacked Little Ming at the back of her head as she furiously chastised in a low voice. 

"Did everything truly happen or was the illusion that powerful that everything connected to me was actually affected?"

Min Hong thought before Little Wu's concerned voice echoed in his mind;

"What was that about… I thought you died there. Can you try not to scare us to death over here?" there was a tinge of fury perceptible from his tone.

"Were you three affected also?" Min Hong responded.

"I don't think so. After all, young mistress would not still be cultivating calmly if she was affected..." 

"Absolutely! You nearly made your old man die of a heartbreak…"

Little Wu and Elder Yun replied simultaneously as Min Hong realized that he had actually voiced out the question he just mentally transmitted over to Little Wu. 

"I am truly sorry to have made you guys worry so much. I was just comprehending my third Dao. How long has it been?"

Min Hong played on as he voiced out and simultaneously transmitted the first part of his response. But directed the last part to Elder Yun and Little Ming.

"It has been about three months within this formation, meaning that over a month and the half had passed outside of it." Elder Yun replied as Little Ming nodded her head in confirmation. 

"This means we have just about ten days till we exit seclusion. You all should return to cultivation. I expect you to impress me with the result of your cultivation by the time we exit this cultivation seclusion."

Min Hong instructed solemnly, prompting them to instantly return to cultivation. Then he also shut his eyes as he went back to cultivation. 

He had a Peak of Warrior and Qi Creation stage cultivation base with a combined battle power equivalent to a 7-Star Qi Sea Stage expert before he entered the Pagoda of Ascension, and after enduring the 9-Star Qi Sea stage pressure and coming out, it was further increased to the 8-Star Qi Sea power.

But he still looking to achieve at least a 5-Star Dan Formation power. 

But for someone of Min Hong's nature who never wanted anything other than the best, was aiming for an actual 5-Star Dan Formation cultivation base.

But he was not going to strain himself and harm his foundation in the process.

Moreover, he still needed to challenge the third and fourth level of the Pagoda of Ascension and obtain its rewards before the deadline. 

So, without standing on much ceremony, he shut his eyes and resumed his body cultivation from where he had halted it…

Min Hong resumed the absorption and conversion of the ancient Qi into Chaos Qi.

The Chaos Qi surged into Min Hong as several seedlike energies appeared in some of his meridians and erupted with massive suction force.

Then as the Chaos Qi gathered around them, they began to swell in size.

About ten minutes later, they developed into several pitch-black eggs. 

Then after a little more absorption, something began to squirm within these eggs, before a roar echoed out from within these eggs and then;

Boom!

Tiny little pitch-black dragons broke out of the eggs and swam out of his meridians boring through his muscles and then etching themselves onto his bones as they went dormant to be called upon.

This process moved into other meridians as new pitch-black dragon began to form and etch onto his bones as his aura began to climb;

2-Star King stage…

3-Star King stage…

4-Star… 5-Star… 6-Star and it continued.

Then after about half a day, the 99th pitch-black dragon finally formed as the Chaos Leaf finally disintegrated.

Then Min Hong's body erupted with the aura of a 9-Star King stage expert, followed by the surging of a dragon's aura. 

After about ten breaths, Min Hong reigned in his aura as he began cultivating his Qi.

He shut his eyes for about three breaths, then they snapped open once again but this time they were both pitch-black as the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' also opened up, sending Primus aura into every one of Min Hong's meridians. 

Then just like the [Dragon Maker Codex], the [Codex of Myriad Path] merged together with the [Yuan Wonder Gate] cultivation technique, but this time instead of appearing one of the two Dao branches, it appeared directly on the Primus Dao Tree.

Then Min Hong looked at this new technique and smilingly mumbled;

"Just like your partner, from today till the end of time, you shall be called the [Wonder Gate Codex]."