The Legend of Min Hong

"Little Kid. It's enough! Thinking about them would just drown you deeper in grief and you might never recover!"

"Who is it?!" Min Hong was frightened as he asked.

"I'm right here, open your eyes!" The voice rang out once more.

Min Hong didn't know what was going on but he tried to open his eyes. His eyes slowly opened as it tried to adjust itself to its first sight in a little while.

Min Hong eyes completely opened and he found himself in a very familiar place. It was his Sea of Consciousness.

He then stood up [his mental body] and looked around and was shocked by the sight. Everything in his Sea of Consciousness was gone, except for the little body of water which depicted his current mental strength, the altar which was surrounded by a seemingly sturdier energy barrier.

Then there was his futon which was still hovering over the altar. Then there was a little scarlet seed-like thing hovering on one side, though it was somehow dormant by the looks and what his mental sense was telling him. Like it was resting or recovering.

Even the glowing figures were nowhere to be found, neither were the perfected copies of the manuals and scrolls containing the respective martial arts and techniques he had previously perfected.

He turned around and then found an ancient door right behind him. It was slightly open and the slit was somehow radiating a familiar but distant aura. Furthermore, there was golden light spilling out of the opened slit.

"In here! Come in!" the voice sounded once more. This time it was clearer and even though it sounded playful, it was clearly not human or at least it doesn't have any human accent, either from this world or even back on earth where he came from.

Min Hong approached the door, then he opened it as a blinding golden glow of light nearly took his eyesight. He raised his palm to block the golden glow as he tried to adjust his eyesight to its level of radiance.

The moment he stepped into the door, an aura burst forth and blew past him. Brushing his face and caressing his body somehow. The aura was familiar and somewhat comforting as Min Hong basked in the feeling.

This was the first positive and comforting feeling he had experienced in a long while. He took in a huge breath of this aura as different organs in his body seemed to absorb them like a parched desert that just felt the first drop of rain.

His entire body grumbled, creaked and snapped in response to the refreshing breath of ancient air.

"The 'Eye of Myriad Universe' unh… At least you weren't destroyed during my process of Qi Deviation…" Min Hong smiled faintly and weakly as he mumbled to himself.

He looked around the empty space. He sent out his mental energy and they didn't return until about ten minutes later.

"What! How large is this empty space?" Min Hong was shocked by his findings. After all, we were talking about mental sense here. just like modern earth biology confirms that billions of things happen within a second inside the human brain.

Now to talk about a cultivator's brain, that effect would surely be multiplied by several hundred folds. Then to cultivators who were strong enough to split their mind into several sections, its effects would be even more mind-boggling.

Just the sheer speed of that sort of brain would at least move at several lightyears per second.

Even though Min Hong has lost his cultivation base, he didn't lose his soul, its constitution or his mental prowess. Though his mental power is somehow exhausted, meaning the current Min Hong is currently mentally tired which also reflected in the quantity of his Sea of Consciousness.

So, for his mental sense to actually leave for ten good minutes and not return, how large was the space within this ancient dimension?

"Come on, we don't have all day. Use your eye bloodline power and you will be able to see everything hidden in plain sight!" the playful voice jolted Min Hong from his train of thoughts.

Min Hong followed its instructions and activated his 'Eagle's Eye' and everything was laid bare to him.

The dimension that he initially thought was extremely huge, turned out to be no larger than a hundred cubic feet. And it was divided into three.

On the left side, was a seal formation on the ground, with a closed vertical eye hovering above it. The eye had a mysterious ripple radiating from it into the surrounding and when Min Hong gazed at the eye with his 'Eagle's Eye' technique, the ripple intensified subtly.

Right in the centre, was a pathway that led up to a ring-shaped pillar. It was like a huge ring but it was made of a concrete-like material and there were several runes etched all over it. In fact, just looking at those runes gave Min Hong a splitting headache.

Then on the right side, was another extremely complicated seal formation etched on the floor. This formation seemed to be a containment formation and he couldn't really see what was inside as the two formations were covered in a greenish barrier.

"I'm in here!" the playful voice echoed from within the complicated formation.

Min Hong approached the barrier and the moment he entered it; he saw an illusory figure in the distance sitting cross-legged whilst hovering over the ground. Then he heard the figure give an illusory sigh.

"Who are you?" a cold chill ran down Min Hong's spine as he blanched in fright.

He had no cultivation and if an entity that was strong enough to be sealed with the ancient door of the 'Eye of Myriad Universe', it would definitely be someone who could kill him with a snap of his fingers.

The illusory figure landed on the floor and stepped forward. When Min Hong got a clear view of what it was, he was shocked.

"A demon?"

With an astonished look on his face, Min Hong stared at the one-foot-tall human illusory figure with a long tail, two somehow pointy ears and sharp dental formation.

"Despicable! You are the demon!"

When the illusory figure heard Min Hong's form of address, it blew up in rage as he glared indignantly at Min Hong as it shockingly spoke human words.

"A talking demon!" taken aback by this figure, Min Hong stared intently at the little figure with sheer curiosity. This was the first time he had ever seen a demon, and one that could speak human language for that matter.

"You naïve and shameless punk, this ancestor of yours is an Ancient Heavenly Monkey and not a demon!" Hearing Min Hong continually address him as a demon, made it fly into rage.

"Ancient Heavenly Monkey…" After seeing the demon's infuriated expression, Min Hong's fears subsided as he chuckled lightly and bubbled his head up and down repeatedly. The name was somehow intimidating but its behaviour was rather comical.

"Alright! Alright! ... I don't care if you're an ancient heavenly whatever…jut tell me why you're here and why you were sealed to be precise." Min Hong knew this demon-like monkey ought to be weak, otherwise it wouldn't have been caught and sealed in the first place, with respect to its name of course.

"You Punk! What do you mean by why am I here? I am the principal of this dimension… let's just say, I am what a butler is to a mansion master in this mundane world of yours." The monkey pouted and turned its head away from Min Hong as it replied.

"So, if you're not the owner, then who owns it?" Min Hong curiosity piqued.

"No one… at least no one is capable of owning it…it has never happened in my 250,000 years of being a guardian."

"The thing within that dimension or the portal you see is a being with unfathomable origins." Min Hong could sense the aura of fear, veneration and loyal servitude within the monkey's tone whenever it referred to the entity within the portal.

"So, there's nothing you can tell me about it right? I thought you were supposed to be its butler?" Min Hong was feeling a little disappointed that he couldn't get any more information about this dimension.

"Tsk Tsk…little punk, let me tell you…the scarlet seed you saw on your way in, is a very powerful entity and was also the cause of your misfortune." The monkey changed the topic as its tone took a grave and important volume.

"Since you don't have a Mind Palace yet, I would impart how to create a dimension within one's Sea of Consciousness. Then I will give you three days to create one, so you can seal that Yao demon inside, otherwise if it takes over your soul, it would be the end of us both and your entire mundane world."

"What is with you and the 'mundane world' you keep referring to? What is a Mind Palace and what in Huoyi's beard is a Yao demon…what nonsense are you spouting?" Min Hong curiously fired several questions at the monkey.

"Just complete your first task, once that is done and you're ready to receive your inheritance, I will naturally explain everything to you." The monkey responded.

The monkey then approached Min Hong and tapped his forehead as a stream of information flooded his mind.

"Normally, to your mundane world and its mindset, one can't form a Mind Palace until one reaches the top of the mortal realm...but when you get to understand the way entities [like the one who owns this dimension] thinks, you would then know why I refer to your world as mundane." The monkey spoke as it transferred the technique to Min Hong.

[Heavenly Void Constructs] - Min Hong received his first technique since his cultivation loss. He didn't know what rank it was, but he knew it was definitely a high-level technique that wasn't in any way weaker than an Earth grade one.

Or else the intimidating names and terms he had been hearing since he got here would be a great sham.

Min Hong read the introduction of this technique and was pleasantly surprised. It was indeed as he had thought, this technique was stronger than an Earth grade type.

[Heavenly Void Constructs] – Constructing a Mind Palace that exists in another dimension.

Introduction – this technique enables one to create a Mind Palace that holds a separate spiritual dimension of another plane within it.

It uses the mental energy of its user to construct the Mind Palace. The more detailed the Mind Palace, the stronger it is and the more its capacity.

Mind Palaces could be used for various reasons; from storing one's universal law, to trapping the soul of any entity, also could be used as a storage for inheritances and so on.

Min Hong kept reading everything about the technique and in summary, to Min Hong, it could only be used to trap souls, store the various laws he comprehends and also a fortress for protecting his own soul.

Min Hong gazed towards the monkey and asked the most important question. "Does this entity choose its successor, and if so, who were my seniors and where are they?"

"Urgh! Wait till you obtain the inheritance before you start calling experts in the 'Deva Realm' your seniors… Just form your Mind Palace within three days, I've already warned you about that demon in hibernation. This is no joking matter…"

Min Hong was surprised by the level of seriousness the monkey was using to stress its point. So, he nodded and tried to leave.

"Oi! Little punk, what do you think you're doing…you need to get me out of here…" the Ancient Heavenly monkey hurriedly called out.

"I will let you out when I have formed my Mind Palace, as well as you tell me why you were sealed in the first place." Min Hong walked out of the seal formation and exited the ancient door.

The moment he stepped out he felt somehow lighter and more energetic than when he first entered. Then he stopped and gazed at the scarlet seed hovering dormantly to the side and tried to scrutinize it from a safe distance, but his consciousness seemed to be drawn into the scarlet seed.

"Little Punk! Don't look at that thing for too long, otherwise you can have your soul devoured and you won't even know it!" the monkey's bellow rang out from within the ancient door as it jolted Min Hong from his daze.

Min Hong was shocked when he realized what had just happened.

He was initially observing the scarlet seed from like thirty metres away, and to him; he was still thirty metres away, but after the monkey's voice jolted him awake, he noticed he was only five metres away from the scarlet seed.

This means he had fallen into an illusion and made to walk a 25-metre distance without knowing it.

Moreover, this happened in less than ten breaths since he first gazed at the scarlet seed.

He was now even wondering if he ever stopped walking in the first place.