The Legend of Min Hong

Chapter 74: Rigorous Preparation

"I know you are definitely not doing this out of goodwill, so what is your deal?" Min Hong asked.

"I just want to return to my clan and loved ones. But in order to achieve that, I will first need to get a physical body and you won't be able to even get close to the ingredients, let alone forge one now." Little Wu responded.

"So, I need to get strong enough to be able to get you what you want right?" Min Hong wanted to be certain.

"In a nutshell" he replied.

"Don't worry, if you don't slack off or do anything that would negatively affect me and my companions, I swear to the seven heavens not slack off in my cultivation either and try my utmost best to forge you a physical body as soon as possible."

The moment Min Hong finished his statement, a rainbow of lightnings flashed across the sky.

Min Hong had just sworn an oath with the heavens as a witness, so that was the heavens method of showing acceptance as well as dishing a reminder to the person making the vow about the tribulations they would face.

According to the old records, when a cultivator swears an oath before the heavens and it gets accepted, seven lightnings would flash in the sky.

Firstly, would be a violet lightning, then followed by an indigo, the a blue one, and so on.

Then as a source of reminder, by manipulating the threads of fate and karma, every decision the oath bearer makes would be judged as either a means of keeping the oath or acting against it.

If the cultivator's decisions contradict the oath, they would face a tribulation every three years and a calamity every seven years. But if it is in favor of the oath, then they would face no such thing.

So, an oath is one of the things cultivators detest the most.

Just the fear of a single lightning descending out of the blue as a tribulation and seven descending as a calamity on someone at no specific time in the day makes everyone use it as a last resort.

Cultivators who swear oath, most times, uses it as a form of showing their true intentions and stance about any given situation or condition.

This was why Min Hong chose to do this, he wanted to show Little Wu his intentions and stance concerning this present-to-future cooperation they were about to forge.

"What in Huoyi's curly beard did you just do?" Little Wu fumed.

"I just wanted you to truly understand that whatever good you do to me would certainly be repaid completely." Min Hong shrugged his shoulders like he didn't care about the tribulations in any way.

"Urgh! You people and this mundane mindset of yours" Little Wu clearly understood what Min Hong was trying to do, but there were other reasons why he was fuming at his decision to do it.

"Anyways, the egg is already broken and there's no use trying to scoop it from the sand. I will just have to make sure you don't offend anyone in the Nirvana stage and above from now on." Sensing Min Hong's honesty, he decided not to pursue the matter.

"To better protect you I will have to connect us with a deeper thread of fate. That way I would be able to sense it if anyone is trying to mess with your karma." Little Wu added before he went on to swear a similar oath to Min Hong.

After swearing a similar oath to that of Min Hong and getting his own flash of rainbow colored lightnings, Little Wu added. "To achieve the goal I have set before you, the first thing to do is to prepare your body, mind and soul."

"To do that, you will have to absorb the ancient aura leaking from the inheritance dimension, it will really help you become more compatible to the entire process and using the ancient Qi within it to cultivate." He added.

"I will help you set up an energy gathering formation within the dimension. It will help you focus the ancient aura around you."

After explaining everything, Min Hong smiled broadly, he was finally going to begin the process to getting back his cultivation and most likely stronger.

So, he once again held Little Wu by his shoulder as they vanished and reappeared within the Ancient dimension.

Little Wu got to work the moment they appeared as he began to set up the energy gathering formation. After about an hour, the formation was already in place.

It was circular in shape with several ancient runes glittering all over the ground. He gestured to Min Hong who entered the formation and sat cross-legged.

Little Wu then waved his hands as golden Qi surged into these runes.

The runes lit up and a vortex spun to life at the center just above Min Hong's head. Seeing this, Min Hong didn't stand on ceremony as he began to absorb the ancient aura accumulating around him.

The moment Min Hong began, ancient aura surged into his body as he devoured it all at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The situation shocked Little Wu to the core. Min Hong was absorbing the aura so crazily that the energy gathering formation could barely keep up with his absorption rate.

"This guy is truly mysterious. How many meridian channels does he have to absorb the ancient aura at this rate?" Little Wu thought internally as he kept watching Min Hong greedily absorb the ancient aura.

As the aura poured into Min Hong, they first filled up every nook and cranny of his soul, nourishing every bit of it as his soul began radiate a primeval and ancient aura.

This went on for about three days before the effects came to a stop. Clearly, that was his limit.

Then the aura began to leak into his sea of consciousness and into his Mind Palace also nourishing it. The first sign was his sea of consciousness which began to alternate between several colors.

When he completely mixed the ancient aura with his mental sea [sea of consciousness], its color became somehow dreamy and high reflective.

It had a somehow illusory effect on anyone who looked at it for too long.

Then the grassland, trees, plants and fruits all began to transform as they all became filled with ancient aura. Then, the gate which was a complete replica of the 'Yuan Wonder Gate' opened as the ancient aura flooded into his Mind Palace.

The Dragon, Tiger, Turtle and Phoenix statues etched into the gates were also washed with this ancient aura as they all became increasingly lifelike. Faint cries and roars subtly reverberated within his Mind Palace as it began to fill up nonstop.

This also went on for another three days [take note this was according to his mental timeline]. When he was done with this, Min Hong opened his eyes as he sensed the changes within him.

If someone were to stand in front of Min Hong, they would think they were standing in front of an ancient existence. Like a deity of some sort, and just like Min Qing, a sort of reverent emotion would flood through their soul and mind.

In fact, depending on the level of the person's mental and soul strength, weaker experts might unconsciously bow and dare not to even fight him just out of sheer reverence, and while other stronger experts might not bow, they would at least be slightly affected by it.

"You must possess a really unique and spectacular soul constitution to show this level of compatibility with the ancient aura." Little Wu remarked.

"I guess I am just very lucky" Min Hong replied. He was definitely not going to tell anyone about his 900+ meridian channels or his reincarnation and lifechanging encounter with King Yama.

Little Wu obviously didn't believe his response. After all, to him, if it was based solely on luck, would he have waited this long for someone to inherit the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' and come unseal him?

Or was Min Hong the only person who has good luck. Or was he lady luck's illicit partner? But, since he wasn't willing to share, there was no point in dwelling on the matter.

Afterwards, Min Hong returned to his absorption process as he began to temper his meridians, tissues, muscles, bones and skin.

The moment he began to absorb this aura, in the outside world, Elder Yun, Min Qing and Little Ming all felt the ancient aura very clearly as the competition amongst who could absorb more ancient aura intensified.

"What a potent aura?" Min Qing who just felt the surged ancient aura was utterly shocked as she gazed towards Min Hong. She could clearly feel the same situation she was in when Min Hong raised his voice at her repeat itself.

But sensing the changes the ancient aura was causing within her, she understood that somehow the aura was beneficial to her. Putting the matter to the back of her mind and bottling her curiosity till latter time, she began to absorb the aura to temper herself.

The moment she began to this, the rate of absorption around her area peaked since that made her an additional absorption competitor. Elder Yun was also surprised when she saw this.

But Little Ming wasn't even bothered one bit, she just snuggled on and lazily absorbed her fill with a vertigo-like expression on her face and ecstatic grin on her snaky lips.

"Where and how did this little kid encounter an ancient aura such as this?" Elder Yun was also absorbing the ancient aura as she soared and thought to herself.

Meanwhile, Min Hong who was at the source of the aura was already sensing shocking changes within his body.

Firstly, was his blood that was now taking on a golden shade to it as every single blood cell within it drank their fill of the ancient aura.

Then was his muscles and tissues. They didn't grow bigger at all, rather they were getting denser and tougher.

In fact, the sheer toughness of his muscles and tissues at this point would be almost as strong as Min Qing's whose body strength was equivalent to a 3 Star King stage expert.

Furthermore, his meridians were also growing more resilient as they absorbed and pumped ancient aura into Min Hong's body like a broken dam.

Their quality had increased so much that Little Wu could vaguely hear how the ancient aura was whistling within them.

But amongst them all, the organ that saw the most notable change was his skeletal system. All his bones were already much denser and were radiating a true aura of strength.

In fact, at this point, several golden lines were being etched on his skin as they formed different ancient characters on them. These characters wiggled constantly and glowed in irregular intervals.

After about three days in the outside world, Min Hong's tempering process came to an end. He then stood up with a satisfied grin on his face.

His entire being was currently giving a dangerous vibe and stifling strength with a distinct sense of ancient times.

"Do you know why I mentioned to you earlier that your misfortune might have been a blessing in disguise?" Little Wu asked.

"You have yet to explain that to me" Min Hong stepped out of the formation as he walked towards Little Wu who was still sitting atop his hovering golden staff.

"Since you completely lost all your cultivation, including your body cultivation, you also lost their respective foundations. So, you're currently similar to a record that was now wiped clean. Like a book filled with blank pages."

"That made it very easy for the ancient aura to set up its own roots within you. With a cultivation foundation formed from a source of such ancient origins, it wouldn't be farfetched to say, you currently have the most stable cultivation foundation in the entire multiverse." Little Wu spoke as he gazed at Min Hong with slight envy in his eyes.

"Even stronger than yours?" Min Hong didn't believe what he was hearing. After all, there were other experts who had also obtained the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' before him and have also went on to obtain the inheritance.

"Firstly, of all the experts I have been told to have obtained the 'Eye of Myriad Universe', only my master, its previous owner, had successfully passed the inheritance trial. The rest of them had gone into the trial grounds never to return."

"Secondly, just like the previous you, my master had also begun his cultivation before coming in contact with the 'Eye of Myriad Universe'. Thus, he already possessed a stable foundation based on his mode and method of cultivation, and as a result, he showed very little compatibility with the ancient aura."

"But for you, now that your cultivation foundation is based on its aura, your compatibility with the inheritance, should you get lucky enough to obtain it, would be perfect and everything within the inheritance would fit you seamlessly."

"Then finally, even though my cultivation foundation is based on a very ancient world, the level of ours can't be in any way compared to the level of this inheritance. It would be like comparing the radiance of a firefly to a full moon." Little Wu explained.

"So that's how it is unh?" Min Hong smiled happily at the thought that his future would definitely be better now than before he lost his cultivation.

"So now that we have gotten over the preparation process, can we begin the process of obtaining the true 'Eye of Myriad Universe'?" Min Hong anxiously inquired.

"Steady does it. Don't rush things, it is always preferable to be in a right state of mind and physical condition before advancing in cultivation or even doing anything else. Instead, you should return to your companion and let me explain the ancient path of cultivation to you."

"After three days rest, we can begin." Little Wu poured cold water over his anxious mind.