The Legend of Min Hong

"What about the resources and items we brought along on this journey…"

Princess Cui asked trying to get back at Min Hong for his harsh mouth, but Min Hong simply smiled;

"There are two ways to solve such problems, and the entire group would decide which one of the two solutions to use…"

"Firstly, I suggest everyone tender the resources they packed over to the R4, and we will both assign resources to everyone in a way that would efficiently strengthen each member of this group…" Min Hong explained;

"For instance, it would be unwise to give someone who is already at the peak of their cultivation stage the same amount of Spirit Stones as those who are either still in the middle or lower level of their cultivation stage…"

"Secondly, when it comes to resources used for comprehending Daos, it would also be foolish to give a flame type material to someone whose Flame Dao had already reached the level capped by their cultivation Realm…"

"An example is with a Spirit Realm cultivation who had already comprehended a Flame Dao to the Peak of Intent Level..."

"Since it's pretty obvious that only people who have reached the Nirvana/Samsara stage could start trying to comprehend Law Level Daos, so giving such a person more Flame type resources would be stupid, and likewise would it be stupid for such a person to keep his or her flame type resources to him or herself…"

"Especially, when there is someone else within the group with a Flame Dao which had yet to reach the Peak of the Intent Level…"

"Furthermore, even if there is no other person comprehending a Flame Dao in the group, it still doesn't mean that they can start comprehending a new Dao, after all, the more Dao one has, the more battle options they would have…"

Min Hong advised and Princess Cui could only bow her head lower in more shame as not only did she lose in this little bout of theirs, but it also showed the difference in the level of experience, wisdom and leadership qualities between herself and Min Hong;

"Secondly, everyone can as well keep their resources, not that it would make any difference since every resources carries the aura, scent and energy of their environment on them at all times…"

"A Spirit Stone of the Dogon Empire can be easily told apart from that of the East Wind Empire, so I believe it must be the case for every other type of resources belonging to different regions…"

Min Hong gave his two solutions to Princess Cui's problem and resumed munching his spirit fruit, as Gong Yi smiled contently, whilst the rest of the group nodded apprehensively to Min Hong's idea… 

"So, everyone in favor of the first solution should raise their hands and-" Gong Yi had not even finished his statement when the entire group, including Princess Cui raised their hands; "Alright… It is decided…"

"The new group rank and roles are now as follows…"

"R5 – Leader – Fei Hong…"

"R4 – Assistant to all ranks – Gong Yi…"

"R3 – Feeding, Healing and Welfare – Ki Ting and Pi Xi…"

"R2 – Security, Patrol and Watch – Xiao Gui, Bai Yi and Tong Tian…"

"Then finally; R1 – Gathering and Scavenging – Princess Cui, Rin Chen and Su San…" Gong Yi added, as he looked to Min Hong and asked;

"What punishments do you propose for anyone who fails in their role, and what benefit should be given to those did perfectly and went the extra mile?"

Everyone once again turned their attention to Min Hong;

"It would be stupid to kick anyone out, since we are already shorthanded, neither can we beat anyone, but I will recommended a certain decrease and increase in the amount of resources given to such people…"

"Everyone else can choose the rate of increment or reduction…"

Min Hong added, but after two minutes of not hearing a single word, Min Hong looked up from the fruit he was admiring in his hands and saw that everyone was once again looking towards him for a sound decision, then he sighed and added;

"Alright… 25 percent deduction for first warning, 50 for second warning and 75 for third, and should the person continue, they would have other duties added to their existing duty and still retain the same 75 percent reduction in resources assigned to their respective ranks…"

"As for those who did great, they would see a 25 percent increment the first time, 50 percent for the second time, 75 percent for the third time, and 100 percent for as long as they can keep it up…"

He said and closed his eyes this time around with the intention of not keeping quiet for the rest of the meeting…

When Gong Yi confirmed that they had no objectives to everything so far, he nodded and flicked his wrist;

Shuala!

A massive animal hide came into view; the type that maps, scrolls, and other books are made from, but the thing is, this one was blank, as the word blank could get…

Gong Yi then placed the map beneath the sunlight and poured water on it, and instantly, a map began to surface on the animal hide as everyone looked in wonder, including Min Hong…

There were three places highlighted in red on this map, and these locations all came together to from some sort of triangular patter on the map…

"This map was made in such a manner, so that, should we get captured, our captors won't know where we are coming from or headed…"

Gong Yi revealed as he waited for the entire map to come to life, and come to life it did…

It was the most detailed map anyone in the group had ever seen, except for Princess Cui…

Every single shred of vegetation, river, lake, creek, island, desert, jungle and even forest were highlighted, and that actually made all their gazes landed on one part of the map that was blank, with no other indication in the area…

Furthermore, one of their missions was there, highlighted in red, making it the only and second thing highlighted in this region of the map, something which not only stunned the entire group including Min Hong, but also made them scared and wary;

These are three different regions an establishment on the level of the Desert Sun Sect had little to no knowledge about…

That was as bad as any of their three missions could get, and what's more, they only had four months to finish the mission, meaning they had a maximum of a month each to finish all their missions, and a single month for their round trip, which was a time frame that was obviously not enough…

It meant that, they would have to carve their travel time out of the amount of time it took them to finish each mission;

"I suggest we start with this mission, located to the South of the Empire…" Gong Yi began as Min Hong also paid attentions;

"But we must be very careful, this region is in between the border of our, Dogon Empire and the East Wind Empire, and both Empires are not on good terms, so we would have to tread carefully…"

"Then from there, we will travel to the region of our second mission, located to the West of the Dogon Empire… Then from there, we will finally head here…"

Gong Yi pointed to the blank part of the map which was actually to the North of the Dogon Empire;

"That is the location of our final mission, and once we are done, we would return to the empire straight from the there…" Gong Yi gave his suggestion;

"Fei Hong, do you have any other additions?"

Everyone once again looked over to Min Hong;

"Not really, moreover, the lesser we plan, the faster it would be to adapt to any changes we encounter in these regions, so I believe everything is perfect for now…" Min Hong spoke after forcefully swallowing his full mouth;

"We will make more accurate and concise plans, as we travel on…"

Min Hong returned to his seat, grabbed a piece of spirit fruit, and continued his munching…

"Alright, you've heard what the leader has said… No more plans for now, we will take everything step by step and as each situation unfolds…"

"These are places we have never been before, so I agree with Fei Hong, the more we plan, the harder it would be to adapt to situations that warrants us to change our approach, because we would have made our plans based on what we know, and we know nothing about where we are headed…" Gong Yi voiced his inclinations before adding;

"But for now, we must eat, drink and be merry, after all, we don't know if we would ever get the chance anymore before we return from this adventure…"

"We should also indulge ourselves for now; break the ice and get along with each other, because we will be depending on each other throughout this journey…"

"Furthermore, it is vital we all understand that, some of us might literally not return from this journey…"

Min Hong added before grabbing a plate full of spirit fruits, a jar of wine, and went straight to his room…

The rest took his advice and when they were all getting tipsy, they began to reveal embarrassing secrets about themselves to one another, and this decreased awkwardness amongst them, and improved the sense of familiarity, and camaraderie amongst them…

After all, their lives would basically be in the hands of the rest of the individuals in this group all through the journey, and like Min Hong had said, should one of them fail to get their job done properly, it will definitely affect the progress of their group…

During this process of acquaintance, Tong Tian and Pi Xi hit it off great right from the start, and as a result, Pi Xi followed him to his room to pass the night, leaving Ki Ting embarrassed and slightly hurt, because she had actually begun to register interest in him…

Then when she turned to look for Rin Chen, she noticed that he had also gone to his room with Su San, leaving Bai Yi who was already love smitten by the princess...

Gong Yi and Xiao Gui were obviously not interested in relationships as she had come to know over the years of them being together...