The Legend of Min Hong

Min Hong opened his eyes and waved off the obstruction formation that Min Qing had set up earlier. But what greeted him was the snuggling feeling of Little Ming on his left arm. Then there was Min Qing, who was looking at him like he was some kind of alien specimen.

"What happened while I was away?" Min Hong smiled as he inquired. He obviously didn't know anything about the aura absorption competition these people were going through.

"Nothing out of the ordinary. Just some flying beasts looking to cause us trouble. But Elder Yun easily dispatched some of them and scare off the others." Min Qing responded and for some reasons decided not to ask the questions she's been brooding on.

But at the moment, after three days of flying with only a few rests, Elder Yun was already closer to the border of the East Wind Empire. So, she reduced her speed to preserve her energy, since they didn't want to remain in the Empire for even a second longer.

Moreover, they were already far away from any search the Soaring Cloud Alliance could possibly muster. Furthermore, as a natural flying beast, her speed would definitely be greater than an expert from the same realm.

Moreover, since Lu Chen (the royal guard) couldn't possibly afford to send several Nascent Soul experts after them, it was almost certain that none of the experts tasked with the search would be able to catch up with them.

"It has been four days since I last saw you guys and your cultivation hasn't advanced one bit. You know we have to increase our strength significantly before we enter an unknown empire?" Min Hong was slightly displeased when he noticed that their cultivation had not increase even one bit.

"Little kid, though our cultivation base has not increased one bit, but the amount of ancient aura you have released over this period, which we were busy absorbing has guaranteed that only a handful of experts of the same stage can withstand us in battle." Elder Yun explained.

"That is true Hong-ge, the aura that was leaking out of your body during your cultivation was really beneficial to us, and that was why we were busy tempering our cultivation rather than increasing it." Min Qing added.

"I guess I would have to release more ancient aura for them to absorb. At least, if they use the ancient aura to temper their cultivation to the peak, they will truly be invincible within the same cultivation stage." Min Hong thought to himself

Coming to this conclusion, Min Hong returned into the dimension and sat in the middle of the energy gathering formation. But this time, all of the aura he absorbed were released outwards, since he couldn't contain any more of it in the first place.

The moment he stepped into the formation the ancient aura burst into the environment as Elder Yun, the Min Qing duo and Little Ming were bathed in it. They began to greedily absorb this aura as Min Qing's cultivation began to become purer and purer with time.

Then the beasts also saw increase in the purity of their bloodlines. The moment Elder Yun sensed the surge in the amount of ancient aura, she descended into the jungle they were currently passing over.

She then carved a ten-meter area to themselves as they quietly began to cultivate. Using the ancient aura to temper their physical body and purify their bloodline.

Whilst this went on, Min Hong who abruptly appeared in front of Little Wu explained the situation happening outside, and since Little Wu didn't flag any disadvantage to it, he calmly sat and listen to Little Wu explain the ancient path of cultivation to him.

"Firstly, there are three major paths to cultivation. We have the body cultivation path; these are experts who possess heaven defying physical strength, they can shatter the planet's core with just a fist strike and rearrange the orientations different galaxies."

"Secondly, there are those who embark on the Qi cultivation path. When experts on this path reach the peak, they can create brand new universal laws and mess with others fate or karma. These sorts of experts can manipulate other's oaths and tribulations to kill them."

"Then lastly we have the mental cultivation path; experts who major in this area are the most difficult to deal with as they can render other experts with higher cultivation useless by attacking their soul directly."

"They eventually become the Alchemists, Beast tamers, Rune masters and Blacksmiths we all know today. They can also develop different runes and control several tribulation flames with their mind…"

"You have to understand the fact that, 99 percent of all experts currently in existence do not cultivate in these three paths. In fact, it is very hard and rare to find anyone who cultivates in two of these paths."

"But since you possess extreme compatibility with this ancient aura and you also possess a rare soul constitution, you have a higher tendency of successfully cultivating in the three paths."

"Moreover, the stronger you become, the easier it would be to obtain the ingredients required for me to form a physical body, and the faster I can return home." Little Wu summarized.

"So, what is the difference the physical body cultivation path of the ancient realms to that of ours?" Min Hong asked.

"Firstly, in the ancient realms, there are only five levels of cultivation. The first being the Mortal Realm, which according to your mundane standards would be from the Warrior stage to the Emperor stage."

"Then there is the Bloodline Realm which would be the Awakening and the Ancestral Realm of this world." Little Wu explained.

"Then we have the Ancient Realm which according to your universe would be the Primal and Chaos Realm respectively."

"That would then be followed by, the God Realm, which is referred to as the Demi-god and the God Realm in this mundane universe."

"The last and the strongest amongst the list would then be the Autarch Realm." Little Wu identified the body cultivation realms of the ancient path.

"Every attribute of each of these realms are similar to what you already know in this mundane world, except for the concept of the beast core absorbed and their functions…" Little Wu added.

"Even in our 'Mundane' world, we already understand the fact that an expert can always absorb the core of any beast in every three cultivation realms, thereby inheriting any of the beast's unique bloodline abilities." Min Hong jeered.

"Haha Haha! Whilst that might be true, do you think there is nothing really separating the understanding of the ancient path to that of your mundane path?" Little Wu responded in a likewise manner.

"Stop trying to sound mysterious. I already have a rough idea of how the rest of the cultivation rules or differences pan out…" Min Hong replied confidently.

"Eeh! I seem to have come across an ancient cultivator in this realm." Little Wu gazed amusedly at Min Hong with his tone radiating enough sarcasm to stifle even Min Hong himself.

"Well. I guess you know that the specific level in the food chain of whatever beast core an expert absorbs determines the strength of its ability, and that the age of the specific beast also play an important role in determining the type of bloodline ability the expert obtains."

"So, in a nutshell, an expert who absorbs the b=core of a dog type beast doesn't necessarily have to be weaker than another who absorbed the core of a lion beast. If the dog type beast was about 200,000 years old and the lion type beast was about 1000 years old the dog type core expert would still defeat the lion type expert." Little Wu explained.

Min Hong was mind blown by this new turn of events. So, he curiously asked. "How can one determine the age of a beast core and the bloodline ability one can obtain?"

"Good question…" Little Wu straightened his back as his aura transformed into that of a master who was about to leave a deep secret to his student.

"The color of the beast core would determine that." he said. "A blue core signifies a beast between 1 – 100 years, while a Yellow core signifies a beast core within 100 – 1,000 years."

"A red beast core would signify an age of 1,000 – 10,000 years, a white beast core would be within the range of 10,000 – 100,000 years, while the strongest of them all the black beast core would signify a beast with the age within the 100,000 – 1,000,000 years."

"So generally, if an expert with a 100,000-year-old dog type bloodline ability battles another expert with a 100-year-old lion type bloodline ability, with all other conditions being equal, the dog type expert would utterly defeat the lion type expert."

"But, if their beast bloodline abilities are both equal, then the lion type expert would utterly defeat the dog type expert." Little Wu explained fully to Min Hong who was now looking at him with slack jaws.

Min Hong only knew that, generally, at every three stages of the body cultivation path, one would be able to absorb a beast core and gain one of the beast's bloodline abilities.

He had never heard of such exclusive exceptions. Not even from the Min Family archives.

"Wow! That was truly an eye opener!" Min Hong couldn't help but concede to the level of difference in the cultivation path of the ancient worlds and that of this world.

"So, if that was the body cultivation path of the ancient realm, what is then the Qi refining path of the ancient world?" Min Hong honestly asked. After the initial eye opener Little Wu had given him, he was now attentive to whatever Little Wu furtherly had to say.

"For the Qi refining path, we have the; Mortal, Spirit, Divine, God and Aeon realms. Here the Mortal Realm refers to the; Qi Creation, Qi Sea and Dan Formation stages."

"Then, we have the Spirit Realm which consists of the; Nascent Soul, Saint and Nirvana stage of cultivation. After this, we one would then ascend to the Divine Realm which refers to the Immortal and Celestial stages respectively."

"What follows is then the; Divine Realm. This is the class of the experts who have reached the Immortal and Celestial Stage. After that comes the God Realm also, which similarly consists of the Demi-god and the God stage cultivators."

"Then lastly for the Qi Refining path is the Aeon Realm, this stage and the Autarch stage is most likely unknown to experts in this universe." Little Wu paused a bit after this statement as he waited for Min Hong to digest the massive amount of information.

"So which realm do you belong to?" Min Hong poked.

"You can say that, I am currently in the Spirit Realm of both cultivation paths, as for the details, that is pretty much confidential." Little Wu generalized.

"Wow! If at your current weakened state, you still belong to the spirit realm, then I think it wouldn't be exaggerating to think that at your peak, you would be in the Ancient or Divine realm, or both." Min Hong pressed on.

"Hmph! Why don't you just go straight to the point and ask, rather than shamelessly merry-go-round?" Little Wu sneered at Min Hong.

"But, since we are already in this together, I guess there is no harm in telling you that, your train of thought is correct, to some extent." Little Wu wanted his exact cultivation stage be unknown, even to Min Hong.

"if so, then, are there other things I need to know about the Body and Qi cultivation paths of the ancient worlds?" Min Hong changed the topic.

"There is definitely more information about them. But for your current, level it is best you don't know about them yet, rather I will tell you when the time is ripe." Little Wu replied.

After about ten good minutes of silent contemplation and eventually apprehension, Min Hong finally digested the entire information and asked his next question.

"That was truly a very different view of the cultivation path." He mumbled. "But, what about the last cultivation path?" He added.

"This path of cultivation is the only path that hasn't been fully comprehended, since it was a path that doesn't have anything to do with Qi or other known forms of natural energy."

"The very few information known even to the ancient world is that, to progress in this cultivation path, there are several factors that could influence it. They range from Enlightenment to Runes that are stronger than one's mental power."

"There are even some rare and mysterious medicinal pills and plants that could also cause one's breakthrough in this cultivation path. But generally, the ancient worlds ranked these cultivation paths in nine different planes."

"They range from the first plane to the ninth plane. Then the first three planes are regarded as the Concept Realm, then the fourth to sixth plane was termed as the Intent Realm, and finally the seventh to the ninth realm is termed the Universal Realm." Little Wu explained.

"But despite these rankings, there was a rumor in the ancient worlds that there was a final tenth plane which was regarded as the Dao Realm. But this is only a hearsay or myth, since an expert on such a level does not exist. At least, not known to even experts within the ancient worlds." Little Wu's voice carried a fanatic and reverent tone to it at this point.

From his tone, Min Hong could tell that he really thought such a realm exists and even most likely daydream of reaching such a high realm.

But to Min Hong, even though experts in such realm weren't known, he still felt that it wasn't something he couldn't achieve.