The Legend of Min Hong

A muffled explosion rang out as they eye opened and a massive amount of dreamy energy spilled out.

The homing sound reached a crescendo and the energy ripples increased in magnitude to the extent that Min Hong's robe began to flutter.

After about two minutes, the eye finally absorbed Min Hong's few drops of blood. Then all its activities gradually reduced to a stop.

After all its activities stopped, the eye then turned slightly illusory as it shot into the spot between Min Hong's brows.

The moment it entered into Min Hong's forehead; a vortex spun to life just in front of the skin of his forehead.

The moment this happened, the ancient portal leading to the inheritance ground rippled as the runes around the portal began to lit up one at a time.

When all the runes completely lit up, a portal in the form of a spinning vortex opened and thick, potent and fearsome ancient aura burst forth from the dimension on the other side.

The moment this aura appeared, it weighed down on everything within Min Hong's sea of consciousness and Mind Palace, but the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' released a gentle, dreamy aura which rippled outwards, covering Min Hong's entire soul.

The moment this gentle and dreamy aura from the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' come in contact with the potent aura from the inheritance dimension, the potent aura became instantly tamed as the vortex in front of Min Hong's forehead began to gobble them up.

Meanwhile, the moment the potent aura touched Little Wu, it weighed down so much on him that he felt someone had stockpiled about one hundred massive mountains over him.

He instantly fell to his knees as sweat perspired from every part of his body.

His staff was completely grounded as Little Wu's illusory body began to flicker violently. Immediately he bowed and bellowed.

"An ant has been graced with your presence, oh great creator, have mercy on this insignificant soul." Little Wu's trembling bellow rang across this ancient dimension as the pressure waned and vanished instantly.

The moment the pressure vanished, the aura washed over Little Wu's soul caressing and strengthening it. His soul's features became more detailed as its glow brightened significantly.

The moment this happened, Little Wu went down on both knees and kowtowed in gratitude. "This little ant boundlessly thanks 'the great creator' for the mercy and favor you have bestowed upon me." Little Wu's voice rang out once again.

Min Hong calmly and leisurely watched everything unfold in front of him in shock as he was unaffected by the pressure due to the influence of the 'Eye of Infinite Dao'.

He couldn't possibly fathom the level of pressure Little Wu was currently experiencing, but he was well aware that for an expert of Little Wu's strength to be forced to his knees and beg for mercy, the potency of the aura must have been extremely strong.

Whilst all of this happened to Min Hong and Little Wu, the pressure began to fall on the scarlet seed.

But unlike Little Wu, the demon king; Yao Ming, put up an aggressive resistance as he transformed into the same handsome figure Min Hong saw earlier.

But this time, his face was distorted in anger as he bellowed. "Hmph! How dare you try to pressure this great king. I, Yao Ming, have only ever been subservient to the great Demon Emperor. Who do you think you are to become this impetuous?" He snorted in anger.

The very fact that anyone other than the guardian, Sun Wukong could ever think of even looking him in the eye, not to talk of actually using their aura to pressure him left Yao Ming utterly dissatisfied and enraged.

To him, just because he had been reduced and weakened to this level, doesn't mean anyone could climb over his head.

Even someone like Sun Wukong had to leave him be, so which entity within Min Hong's sea of consciousness had the balls to pull this stunt.

Though one's thought were good, reality was different.

As if in response to his resistance, the aura's strength increased over a dozen fold as it descended upon Yao Ming like a heavenly retribution.

The aura attacked Yao Ming's soul but didn't destroy it. Instead, it did something worse, it wiped out Yao Ming's memory completely, instantly turning him to a dunce.

The moment this happened, the Yao Ming whose face was previously distorted in anger went blank, as he began to look around and wander about lost.

There was no memory within his mind at all, he was as blank as a white plain sheet of paper.

Back at the Ancient dimension…

The ancient aura kept flooding towards the vortex in front of Min Hong which was now about ten feet wide. It kept gobbling up the ancient aura as the portal leading into the inheritance dimension gradually grew more stable.

"Oi! Little Wu, what is going on?" Min Hong inquired seemingly anxious. He had just seen multiple strange things occur sequentially, so he turned to his only source of explanation.

Little Wu, who had now returned to sit on his staff, which could now hover once more, was busy absorbing bits of the ancient aura, when Min Hong's voice barged into his ears. He then opened his eyes and gazed at Min Hong before explaining.

"The 'Eye of Infinite Dao' would initially remain in a state of dormancy, and would only fully acknowledge you as its new master, after you have passed the three emotional trials. The trials are very complicated since they are based on its own perspective and perception."

"The trials are split into three forms; the conviction, the ambition and the determination."

"You swore an oath to help me forge a physical body in the nearest future, and since you swore the oath within this dimension, the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' used the Law of Karma to perceive and confirm the conviction behind the oath you swore, that was the first test."

"Then, the level of ambition within the goal which you just set and the conviction with which you set it was also sensed by the 'Eye of Myriad Dao'. Thus, you had passed two of its three tests."

"Then lastly was your level of determination, this had been under review since the moment you inherited the 'Eye of Myriad Universe'. This means that, the level of determination behind every action you took since then had been evaluated also. Thus, for it to actually respond to you meant that, you would have passed that trial also." Little Wu explained.

"If that was the truth, then that means it was the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' who stimulated my successive breakthroughs when I was battling the Aqua Rhino Emperor and the Azure Queen Boa respectively…" Min Hong reminisced as he dug through his past experiences.

"If it is so, then I guess the determination aspect was the first trial I passed. Then now, I managed to pass both the conviction and the ambition aspect of the trial simultaneously."

"But, why didn't you tell me this before…what if I had failed the test?" Min Hong thought for a while as he frowned upon realization that Little Wu had almost cost him his future.

"Hmph! Like it is my fault that you're stupid, oblivious and naïve." Little Wu snorted smugly as he folded his arms and looked away from Min Hong.

Hearing this Min Hong was so pissed, he was almost on the verge of bursting forth in rage. He felt like giving this monkey a beating of its life.

Then, he remembered Little Wu calling himself intolerable earlier, and couldn't help but bottle up his fury, calm down and speak.

"What do you mean by saying I am oblivious and naïve?" Min Hong tried to sound as calm as possible.

"Firstly, why did you think I took the time and stress of explaining everything about the ancient path of cultivation to you and showing your little mind the difference between the ancient world and your mundane world?"

"Hmph! Weren't you just trying to improve my perspectives about cult…!" Min Hong snorted derisively as he tried to expose Little Wu's façade. But his last word stuck to his throat.

"Wait, did you do all that so I could simply increase my sense of ambition and therefore set a new goal?" Min Hong was severely perplexed and awestruck at the realization of what Little Wu had indirectly done for him.

"So, you made me pass the second trial myself by indirectly interfering." Min Hong smiled as he mocked himself for being so small-minded. It was just as Little Wu just said, he was truly oblivious and naïve.

"Moreover, if I had told you before now, it would have resulted in utter failure. This is because the sincerity in your emotions, intentions and actions would have been faked. Then, the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' would have easily sensed that and disqualified you." Little Wu explained.

"Furthermore, the reason why you didn't feel the pressure of the 'Great Creator' earlier was mainly due to the 'Eye of Myriad Dao', but the fact that you have been absorbing and tempering your body with the ancient aura for a while also helped out." He added.

"I truly am naïve and oblivious. I was too rash earlier, and for that I apologize." Min Hong sincerely apologized to little Wu before adding, "I will think things thoroughly before speaking from now on."

"As long as you understand that, it's okay." Little Wu replied before continuing his aura absorption process.

Meanwhile, whilst the short conversation between Min Hong and Little Wu were going on the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' still kept gobbling up the ancient aura pouring out of the ancient inheritance dimension.

It was only after about thirty minutes, did the 'Eye of infinite Dao' showed signs of slowing down. And in just five breaths time, it stopped entirely.

Then, Min Hong was hit with a splitting migraine at his forehead before it split apart and an eye with a golden iris and white pupil opened up and glowed so brightly, the entire dimension was bathed in golden light and ancient aura.

"Sit and connect to the eye, it is time for you to start the familiarity and merging process." Little Wu urged.

Hearing this, Min Hong's soul sat cross-legged as it began to focus on the spot in between his brows.

Then, a tiny bit of his soul broke apart from the whole body, transformed into a thin thread of soul energy as it approached the eye and flowed into it.

The moment this happened, Min Hong's sea of consciousness trembled slightly as he disappeared from the spot.

By the time he reappeared, he was already far up in past the clouds of his sea of consciousness.

Min Hong opened his eyes and noticed he was hovering atop a patch of roiling cloud, he instantly understood where he was. "So, this is what Little Wu refers to as my emotions…" he mumbled to himself.

"It is called your cloud of emotions…" A vibrant voice echoed from behind as Min Hong's body jolted in fright.

The moment he became frightened, the patch of cloud he was currently hovering atop exploded with a muffled boom and dispersed.

Min Hong stiffly turned around towards the source of the voice and saw a middle-aged man also hovering over another patch of clouds.

The man looked to be around forty years old. He was good looking and mildly muscular, but what shocked Min Hong the most about his appearance, was that he had three eyes.

The man's left eye was made up of a green iris and a faded grey pupil, while his right eye was made up of purple iris and red pupils.

Furthermore, the purple iris had concentric circular red lines also. [See rinnengan in Naruto Shippuden.]

Then the third eye was extremely familiar to Min Hong, it was the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' with its golden iris and green pupil. These three eyes were radiating unfathomable mysteries.

Min Hong could clearly tell that, the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' on this man's forehead was not the original one.

In fact, the man himself looked very illusory and was slightly flickering like a candle within a wind that was gradually increasing in momentum.

"Are you done scrutinizing my appearance? if so, let's get down to business. There's a lot of information about the 'Eye of Myriad Dao' that I need to pass on to you, but my divine sense is about to disperse, so we don't have much time." The middle-aged man smilingly spoke.

"I will only explain the major things you need to know and since Little Sun had served me for a long time, sparred and fought many battles with me, he has enough knowledge about the 'Eye of Infinite Dao' to fill in the gaps I leave behind."

"I never imagined it would take this long for someone to find its clone. But you must be very lucky to have it acknowledge you as its master after so little time, or else my divine sense would have dispersed along with all the valuable information about it."

"I sensed it, the moment the divine sense I left within the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' disperse. At that point, I knew a lucky someone had become fated with the 'Eye of Infinite Dao."

"I had thought it would take a long time for you to get acknowledged, but fate often play games with people's destinies and life." The man kept speaking without giving Min Hong any time to ask his own questions.

But eventually, Min Hong cut him short as he blurted out his first question. "Who are you?"

"…!" The middle-aged man was cut short as he sighed. "I didn't have much time, so I was hoping to give you all the information I know about the 'Eye of Infinite Dao'." He spoke.

"Oh really! So, of all the stories you have been rambling since you got here which part of it is related to the functions and abilities of the 'Eye of Infinite Dao'?" Min Hong inquired with a reproving expression.