The Legend of Min Hong

The woman suddenly disappeared. Some of the youths in the crowd mistakenly assumed that it was due to her incredible speed.

However, Min Hong could easily tell that it was just an illusion, because the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' easily detected that, her body had no form of any substance to it.

This reminded him of something that his mother once told him;

"Trust not your eyes, nor ears, but your heart."

"Because your senses might be deceived but your instincts can not this is your sixth sense, and it can only be developed through battle experience."

"Remember, only the blind can see the shadows that lurk within the darkness."

When he first heard her say this, he took it with a pinch of salt and thought it was just the senseless ramblings developed by a bored old man.

However, after all the battle and duels he had gone through, he could only wonder if these words contained any deeper and more profound truth than it seems to be.

"Shadows lurking within the dark…" Min Hong thought deeply trying to comprehend any deeper meaning to it but sighed deeply after failing miserably.

Then the gates of the Sect finally opened, and when it did, everyone began to rush in, shoving each other with little regards for courtesy.

Min Hong stood back and waited for them to rush ahead, while Long Sha and Min Qing also did the same since there both understood that there would be no benefit from them being in the front. 

So, the trio leisurely strolled along while admiring from afar, the massive stage where the selection exams would be conducted.

Seeing that they were already splitting according to gender Min Qing slightly tugged Min Hong's sleeves and made him slow down.

Long Sha saw this but thought that they only wanted to have a final conversation before the selection exams, so he didn't bother as he kept on walking ahead.

Min Qing then looked into Min Hong's eyes and began to blush leaving Min Hong stunned at whatever might be going on within her head.

But he got his answer, when she leaned in and gave him a light kiss on the lips, before she shyly scuttled over to the female crowd leaving Min Hong rooted to the spot in shock.

But that was only momentarily as he recovered then looked at her amongst the female crowd before he continued to walk on as he went deep in thought 

The crowd eventually came to a stop when they got to the area around the stage.

Then the man who was standing atop the stage raised his hand as they gradually went quiet. Then he spoke;

"Listen up. I believe you have been told how the proceedings of the selection exams for this year would be."

"So, to wrap things up as soon as possible, the entry exams shall begin immediately."

"Within each crowd, those who cultivate the Qi alone should form a line on the right while those who cultivate the body should for a line to the left."

"If there are some amongst you who cultivate in both paths, you should form a line in the centre."

The moment the man spoke all the boys and girls began to shuffle themselves in accordance to the instructions given and after about five minutes, they were finally done.

The total number of participants who came for this exam were well over ten thousand and about seven thousand of them were all girls whilst the almost four thousand remaining were boys.

Of the seven thousand girls, about twenty of them were those cultivating in the both the body and Qi path.

About a hundred of them were cultivating in the body path alone whilst the rest were all Qi cultivators.

Then within the male crowd, about fifty cultivated both paths, then another five hundred cultivated the body path alone while the rest were all Qi cultivators.

Long Sha looked behind him on the Qi cultivation queue and was shocked not to find Min Hong behind him.

He then gazed over to the body cultivation queue and didn't find him too, then he looked to the body and Qi cultivation queue and was shocked to find them there.

He then smiled bitterly as he thought to himself;

"So you were still holding back during our duel unh?"

Min Hong felt someone's gaze lock onto him, so he turned around to look.

Then when he saw that it was Long Sha, he smiled lightly and gave him a wink, before he turned to look towards the stage once more.

There the man who just addressed them had already brought out the instruments they were going to be using for the selection examination.

But before he could look on for long, he felt two malicious sets of eyes locked onto him once again.

When he looked to see who's they were, he found out that they belonged to the Chi Zheng and Zi Kun duo.

When he saw their darkened expressions, he smiled lightly back at them as the duo nearly exploded with in anger as killing intent began to build within their eyes.

Long Sha noticed Min Hong turn around once again, then he traced the direction of Min Hong's gaze and found the Zi Kun duo.

But contrary to expectation, he didn't bother to interfere as he began to picture the miserable state the duo would end up should they provoke Min Hong or decide to duel with him.

The four of them were all caught up within their different thoughts before they were zapped back to reality by the voice of the Elder on the stage;

"Sixteen years, 4-Star Dan Formation stage. Pass! You might proceed to the other platform." 

The youth who just passed the first test who was a round and fat, pot-bellied boy with black short hair and a height of a little over five feet, was beaming with smiles as he moved over to the second stage where he was going to take the second test.

Then the voice of the Elder sounded once again;

"Sixteen years, 4-Star Emperor stage. Pass! Proceed!" the Elder announced once again. This time, it was a lazy looking boy of about 1.5 metres tall.

Min Hong was looking at the instrument they were using to test the strengths and age of the boys who were currently taking the tests.

There were three instruments; the first was a transparent orb.

It was the instrument used to detect the age of the participants of the entry exam.

The next was a unique instrument that stood about six feet tall with a small cushion attached to it and a scale was also attached to it seemingly to measure one's strength.

The last was a stone pillar that glowed with different lights when used by the participants.

By this time, about fifty youths had already passed the first exams while only about twelve had failed with their age to cultivation ratio.

One of the participants who failed was a boy of about sixteen years of age who only had a cultivation base in the Peak Qi Sea stage.

Then about an hour later, it finally got to Min Hong's turn to take the test.

But because he was cultivating in both paths, every other person in the male crowd will have to wait till he is done because he was going to be using the three instruments.

But before he could continue, they heard a shout come from the female crowd where the female Elder who had appeared earlier at the sect gate was overseeing the female entrance selection test.

Though, it was the same sect, the criteria for being selected for the girls were not as harsh as that which was set for the boys, but it wasn't far off either.

Then the female Elder announced; "Thirteen years, 4-Star Dan Formation stage. Pass! Proceed!"

All the female inner court disciples who were watching the selection burst into a massive uproar as they look to the girl who stood only four feet off the ground.

She even attracted many gazes from the male section as even the male Elder was stunned before gazing at the male crowd and murmured to himself;

"I hope I find a monster such as that amongst these group of logs. Don't let me down boy."

Probably because Min Hong was the next person after that little girl's display earlier, the male Elder was somewhat looking at Min Hong with an expectant and hopeful expression.

Min Hong definitely caught a whiff of this, anything can hardly escape the 'Eye of Infinite Dao'.

So he only smiled bitterly at the male Elder before collecting the age measuring orb from him. 

The moment Min Hong touched the age measuring orb, he felt a strange, mysterious but harmless energy flowed through the pores of his palms, into his meridians, then from there into his marrows.

Then after, going through his marrows from head to toe, it finally returned into the orb as the energy formed the character 'twelve' on the surface of the orb.

Min Hong knew the reason why the Desert Sun Sect decided to use this orb to determine their ages. 

After all, no matter what ingredients and cosmetics one might use to alter or keep their appearance young or any technique they might be cultivating to keep their skeletal frame young, one can never alter the age of their bone marrows.

Not now, and not ever, except if one reaches the Immortal stage where one would completely stop ageing.

The moment the male Elder saw the age on the orb, he sighed and his tense expression relaxed slightly only to be replaced by one of anticipation and suspense.

After all, Min Hong has turned out to be the youngest participant so far, despite his six feet height and muscular structure.

So, Min Hong moved on to the instrument which had a cushion on it used to measure the physical strength of the body cultivators.

Then, just like those who have taken the test before him, Min Hong was required to punch the cushion thrice to get an accurate gauge of his physical body cultivation.

So, Min Hong flexed his palms and took a deep breath to relax his muscled, then he folded his palms into a fist as the 100 dragon tattoos roared to life bolting into his left arm in less than the amount of time it takes for a thought to appear within a person's mind.

Then Min Hong smashed his fist into the cushion as the pointer on the scale was smashed into the Peak King stage. Then Min Hong once again smashed his fist into the cushion once again and the pointer once again stopped at the Peak King Stage.

By this time the Elder had already sighed in defeat. This was not because he was disappointed in Min Hong but rather because he believed that those who cultivate in the two paths would always focus on one of the paths. Especially with Min Hong's young age.

Furthermore, of all those who cultivated both paths who have tested before Min Hong, it was either their Qi cultivation was double their body cultivation or vice versa.

So, when he saw Min Hong's first two punch smash the pointer into the Peak King stage, he had already predicted in his mind that the highest Min Hong could go is the Peak of Qi Creation stage, and such combined power can only match that of a 2-Star Dan Formation stage expert at best. 

Min Hong who was about to punch the cushion for a third time suddenly had an epiphany, then he paused and stood still before shutting his eyes, sending his mind to the deepest parts of his body to study the dragon tattoos once again.

He had been having this sensation that the looks and auras of these dragon tattoos didn't match the power output they were giving him.

After all, these weren't just the [Jade Primal Dragon Body] tattoos anymore, but were the tattoos of the [Dragon Maker Codex].

So, if they were still giving the same power output, wouldn't that mean that something was wrong somewhere. So, he had been studying the tattoos until he finally got an epiphany just now.

He noticed that every time he wanted to fight, he had always been thinking of the tattoos as equal and the same. that might be true with their nature but their aura and power was clearly different.

An instance was when he just began to cultivate the [Dragon Maker Codex] and the Chaos Qi dragon tattoos didn't want to mingle with those of the Oblivion Qi.

So now that he wanted to throw his third fist strike, he decided to test his hypothesis. 

If it failed, the pin would just simply reach the Peak King stage once again, but if he was correct then there was bound to be a change in his total power output.

So, instead of urging the dragon tattoos, he seemed to place a certain level of trust and belief in them and allowed the dragon tattoos do as they wished.

The moment this happened, all the dragon tattoos within his body roared explosively as if they had just been set free of their shackles.

Then, they all began to radiate their different natural aura. Ten of the 100 dragons grew larger as they began to radiate the Oblivion aura while the remaining 90 began to radiate the destructive nature of the Chaos aura.

Then feeling the new change and surge in power, Min Hong was about to punch the cushion when tiny strands of the 'Dawn Sovereign' bloodline blood flowed into his body before finally accumulating to form a very tiny dragon tattoo. 

This dragon tattoo was about a tenth the size of the others, but the strength it was radiating was over ten times that of the Oblivion dragons.

Instantly, atop the stage, Min Hong's robes began to flutter without any wind as the band he used for his hair snapped and his hair floated in the air instead of falling over his shoulders.

Then he opened his eyes as a brutal and domineering aura surged out of his body weighing down on everyone around both the male and female examination stage.

Even some inner and outer court disciples who were cheering felt the heaviness of this aura.

The male Elder who was very close to Min Hong was the one who was fully experiencing the effects.

It was as if he was standing in the presence of an aggressive and angry divine dragon that was threatening to shred him to pieces should he make any unnecessary movements. 

The female Elder then looked over to the male stage as she squinted her eyes to get a clear view of Min Hong whose aura was now acting like a shimmering barrier of water that made his appearance blurry from afar.

Clearly, this was the effects of the Oblivion Qi whilst the brutality emitting from his aura depicted the wild nature of the Chaos Qi.

Then Min Hong folded his palms and punched out one last time. Then; 

Boom!

The pointer sped up the scale blasting through the Peak King stage point into the Emperor stage before stabilizing itself at the 4-Star Emperor stage level.

When Min Hong saw this, he smiled lightly. Min Hong was about to move on to the third test when he was called back by the male Elder before he was told to repeat the test in that state.

As Min Hong was about to retake the test, the male Elder received a mental transmission from the female Elder;

"I guess the Sect Leaders and Grand Elders must have sensed that aura just now."

Then the male Elder replied;

"Un. It was the Sect Leader who told me to have him retake the test in that state."

Then they both looked to Min Hong and whilst a look of joy was prominent on the face of the male Elder, that of the female Elder was just pure envy.

This was because, it was general knowledge amongst the Elders of the Sect that anyone who found a gem amongst the participants of the selection exams would receive a generous reward from the Sect Leaders. 

Then Min Hong entered that state once again, but this time he did it with just a thought.

Then he clenched his left palm into a fist as he smashed the cushion again.

This time the pointer went to rest on the 4-Star Emperor stage at first, then the 5-Star Emperor stage and then finally the 4-Star Emperor stage once again, putting a wide grin on the both his face and that of the male Elder.

Then he moved on to the third instrument then placed his palm into it and sent a burst of his Qi into the stone pillar and the stone glowed nine times with a yellow light, stunning the entire crowd on both sides once again.

For the stone pillar, a red light signifies Qi Creation stage, while a yellow light signifies the Qi Sea stage and finally a blue light signifies the Dan Formation stage.

The number of times the light appears signifies the number of stars pertaining to each cultivation stage with respect to the strength of the participant.

So, the nine yellow lights, signified that Min Hong was in the Peak Qi Sea stage. 

The male Elder was the first to recover and he almost burst out in a wild laughter as he announced;

"Twelve years, 4-Star Emperor stage and Peak Qi Sea stage. Pass! Proceed!"

Then Min Hong went to the second platform where the second stage of the entry selection would be made.

But everyone in the area still had their eyes glued on Min Hong who just leisurely stood there with his index finger on a new quest to dig out another massive treasure from the depths of his left nostrils.

Then one of the inner court disciples who could no longer hold it in anymore screamed from his seat; "Monster!"

It was only then that the rest of them recovered and returned to watch the remaining selection tests.

Some people noticed that no one cheered for Min Hong, whilst most of them thought it was because they didn't like Min Hong, some very perceptive ones only knew that they were just as speechless as a dork who had his fantasy crush kiss him in the front of a massive crowd. 

The selection exams continued and some were cheered for their talent, but the vibes and intent behind the cheers of the crowd had significantly died down.

These boys and girls knew that it was because Min Hong had stolen the show and set an unbreachable mammoth-like bar for them which they can never surpass.

But they were still some among them who only had the flames of their competitive spirits stoked by this outcome. 

This furtherly pleased both the male and the female Elders.

This only showed that there were still some potential seedlings amongst the current batch of participants who were worth investing the Sects resources upon.

After about another hour, it was finally Min Qing's turn, so she gracefully walked up the stage and instantly the crowd both the inner and outer court disciples as well as those who were about to take the tests themselves burst into a massive uproar. 

Min Hong looked over and saw who the source of the massive uproar was and smiled to himself as his finger continued to venture deep into the terrifying maze-like tunnel within his left nostril;

"She has not even taken the test yet, but has already caused such a massive commotion."

"Truly a beauty that can topple an entire Empire." Long Sha thought to himself as he shook his head with a bitter smile.

Then looked over to Min Hong who seemed unbothered by the commotion;

"What a mysterious and strange guy. I wonder who you truly are?"

Obviously long Sha didn't believe everything Min Hong told him, especially his name.

After all, he knew that no one who is escaping from an enemy the size of the one Min Hong told him about will ever reveal his true identity to an outsider he just met.