The Legend of Min Hong

Min Hong knew there were two main methods to give more energy to the 'Eye of Myriad Universe'.

One, was from medicinal plants or medicinal pills, while the other was from Qi which can be either gotten from his cultivation base or spirit stones.

The likelihood of the former was comparatively less. Based on the ability of the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' to perfect even medicinal pills, it did not seem to be interested in the energy within pills or medicinal plants. Therefore, he had to rely on Qi.

As this observation dawned on Min Hong, he hesitated for an instance before he slowly closed his eyes. As he felt the Yuan Qi inside the 'Yuan Wonder Gate', a weak glow suddenly emerged within the night part of his sea of consciousness.

However, the Yuan Qi was unable to slip out of the 'Yuan Wonder Gate'. Afterall, based on his current ability, he had yet to reach the stage where his Yuan Qi can respond to his bidding, this could only be done if he was in the Dan Formation stage.

'Buzz!' However, just as Min Hong frowned, while concentrating on the 'Eye of Myriad Universe', it suddenly jolted and he could feel streams of energy within him being aggressively sucked out by the 'Eye of Myriad Universe'.

Due to the intense suction force, the tiny trace of Yuan Qi simmering within Min Hong's fleshly body was instantly absorbed by the 'Eye of Myriad Universe'.

But the primordial treasure was still not satisfied, so it moved towards his 'Yuan Wonder Gate' and forcefully took the Yuan Qi it so desperately craved.

This sudden change caused Min Hong's face to turn somber. The Yuan Qi within his 'Yuan Wonder Gate' was the result of his labor after discarding hi Qi cultivation base and wasting lots of resources to reach his current stage.

Just as Min Hong began to panic, a sharp pain emerged from the spot between his brows. He quickly turned to look, only to see that the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' was starting to fuse with his eyes!

The rate at which it fussed with Min Hong's eyes quickly sped up. Just as he was about to stop the fusing process, the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' completed its fusion. However, neither the 'Yuan Wonder Gate' nor his eyes were harmed in the process.

As this process neared its end, the suction force became weaker, until it came to a stop.

"This…" Min Hong suppressed his wildly beating heart and looked at his surroundings, only to find a row of faint green ancient symbols.

These symbols looked like they were imprinted on the energy barrier within his sea of consciousness and couldn't be noticed unless someone forcefully searched his soul.

These symbols were not foreign to Min Hong, as they were the same set of symbols he had seen when he was prying out more information about the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' within the glowing ball of light.

As he gazed at these symbols, Min Hong was speechless. He could vividly feel that the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' had completely fused with his eyes.

Perhaps it was because they now shared the same source of energy, Min Hong felt an obvious increase in familiarity with the 'Eye of Myriad Universe'.

As he attempted to interact with it, Min Hong focused within his sea of consciousness and noticed an ancient door just behind him, the door was now shimmering with the same set of engraved ancient symbols he had seen earlier.

This ancient door was tightly shut. There were three seals on it and one was already broken. Min Hong didn't know why, after all the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' was probably older than the entire East Wind Empire.

"As expected, the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' requires an energy source in order to perfect martial arts" Min Hong gently nodded his head in understanding.

He then closed his eyes and retreated from his sea of consciousness. Ever since the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' entered his body, He had finally grasped one of the mysteries behind this ancient artifact.

"The Yuan Qi within my 'Yuan Wonder Gate' is still too weak. Hence, the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' was unable to perfect the mysterious 'Art of Myriad Seals'. I guess this martial art is indeed quite complex…" Min Hong muttered to himself as he curled his fingers into a fist.

"Looks like improving my strength has to come first, and it has to be done as quickly as possible…" Min Hong sighed softly. He had finally realized that the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' required a huge amount of Yuan Qi in order to perfect higher-level martial arts.

Previously, when it encountered lower levelled martial arts like the 'Willow Leaf Palm', it could perfect it effortlessly.

However, now that it had encountered a higher-level martial art, which was furthermore incomplete, it needed the support of vast quantities of Yuan Qi from his body cultivation, 'Yuan Wonder Gate' or spirit stones.

Upon this thoughts, Min Hong decided to temporarily suppress his desire to master the 'Art of Myriad Universe'.

As he sat cross-legged on his bed, he took out the bottle where he had previously stored the rest of the liquid Qi, which he obtained from within the mountain cave.

He obviously didn't use this liquid Qi when he was re-cultivating, as he would have to explain where he got the potent Qi liquid to the already suspicious Min Rou.

He dripped a few drops into his mouth. Soon after, hi body began to absorb the streams of potent liquid Qi as his cultivation base gradually restored itself to its previous state before the incident.

...

In the following months' time, Min Hong decided to seclude himself. He was rarely seen by anyone including Min Qing and Min Rou, when she occasionally came home from her duties. He focused all his time and effort on cultivation and training his martial arts.

Thanks to the help from the perfected medicinal pills of the 'Eye of Myriad Universe' and his continuous and tireless training regimes, he managed to achieve significant progress.

Within two months, Min Hong had reached the 6-Star Qi Sea stage, meaning Min Hong was now a fully fledge 6-Star King and Qi Sea stage expert.

This kind of cultivation base could defeat at least a 2-Star Dan Formation stage expert and hold its own against a 3-Star Dan Formation expert, all other things being equal.

As for the 'Art of Myriad Seals', Min Hong had been restlessly practicing it during this period of time. Hence, he had become more and more proficient, and could now better use the 'Art of Myriad Seals' with his Yuan Qi together.

However, with regards to the second chapter of the 'Art of Myriad Seals', regardless of how aggressively he trained, he was still unable to merge his Yuan Qi with the hand seal methods. Perhaps, his strength was still too weak.

Either ways, his hard work over these two months has indeed paid off in terms of his Yuan Qi cultivation base.

...….

In the training ground, atop the mountain located just beside the Min Family Castle, Min Hong sat atop a stone in the resting area with his eyes tightly shut. Heavy traces of sweat were visible on his body, indicating that he had just undergone an aggressive and rigorous period of training.

As Min Hong sat with his eyes shut, traces of Yuan Qi whistling in the air in a vortex, they were constantly flowing into his body in response to his cultivation technique and were nourishing every single cell within his body.

Of course, the feeble Yuan Qi vortex was unable to satisfy Min Hong's demands. So, he then popped the second perfected Qi Gathering pill into his mouth

As the pill entered his body, an extremely potent medicinal energy exploded within his body causing Min Hong to feel ecstatic and elated.

As these medicinal energies coursed through his body, it was refined by the 'Yuan Wonder Gate' and transformed into Yuan Qi which was then stored within it.

"Buzz…buzz…" As more and more Yuan Qi flowed into the 'Yuan Wonder Gate', a new island started to from within it. However, just as this new island formed halfway through, Min Hong popped the other perfected Qi Trampling into his mouth.

But, since he was cultivating his Qi this time around, the pressure blasted the half-formed island into potent Yuan Qi which attached itself to the previously formed six islands.

The Yuan Qi solidified these six islands perfectly before washing over the 'Yuan Wonder Gate' itself which was then absorbed by the ancient beasts, making the gate very much sturdier and the ancient beasts more life-like.

After all these was done, including the intense pain felt by Min Hong, he slowly opened his eyes. As he exhaled deeply, a look of excitement flooded his face. He had finally used all the pills he got from the Coming-of-Age Ceremony to solidify his cultivation base.

He was now extremely stable in the 6-Star King and Qi Sea stage, and he could now defeat even a 3-Star Dan Formation stage expert and hold his own against a 4-Star Dan Formation foe.

"This fully solidified cultivation stage of both my body and Qi shows that even if I am injured or exhaust my entire Qi reserves, I would not fall below my current stage of cultivation. This also mean that whatever Qi I absorb from now henceforth would only increase my cultivation base faster since my foundations are as stable as they can be…" Min Hong murmured to himself.

When the cultivation base is solidified to its extremes, this was a major sign that one was about to advance to the next stage of cultivation.

However, based on his normal training schedule and the fact that he had now exhausted his all his medicinal pills, it would still take some time before he can breakthrough to the next stage.

Nonetheless, progressing from one stage to another, especially in higher level cultivation realm, requires at least double the time one used to cultivate the entire nine stages of the previous cultivation realm.

So normally, if it takes two years to cultivate from One Star Qi Sea stage to Nine Star Qi Sea stage, it would take at least four years to move from One Star Dan Formation stage to Two Star Dan Formation stage.

This only shows why cultivation is an extremely difficult path, and why experts always look for medicinal pills, artifacts, inheritances or other potent sources of cultivation to increase their strength.

As he stood up from hi cross-legged sitting position, Min Hong straightened his body. He had a feeling of fullness, most especially in his cultivation.

Thus, with a strange expression flashing across his face, he began to initiate some extremely complicated hand seals.

The moment these hand seals were initiated, a unique aura swept forth from within his body and filled an entire two-mile radius from where he was standing.

Min Hong's hand seals swiftly changed within a short period of time. Following these changes, the 'Yuan Wonder Gate' within his body began to leak streams of Yuan Qi, which rapidly flowed to his palms.

"Hyah!" as the green glow on his palms became brighter to its peak, he suddenly roared as he slammed his palm onto one of the thick steel bars his mother had setup for training the 'Chaotic Shadow Steps'.

"Boom!" upon making contact with the steel bar, the steel bar exploded into smitherings. Yes! The steel bars truly exploded into dusts, so one can only imagine what that attack Min Hong just executed would to a human being.

Panting aggressively, a flushed Min Hong stared at the absolutely demolished steel bar powder scattered all over the training area. A look of uncontrollable delight in his eyes.

He was finally able to execute the First Seal of the mysterious 'Art of Myriad Seal' martial technique.

He knew that the reason why he could execute this First Seal of the 'Art of Myriad Seals' was because of his current stabilized cultivation base which could actually rival a Four-Star Dan Formation expert…

This aggressively overwhelming might outshined even the Willow Leaf Palm, which was the strongest martial art technique he was currently cultivating.

Higher level Royal Rank martial art techniques are surely in another league of their own!