The Legend of Min Hong

Chapter 18: The Secrets of The Mysterious Cottage

After the Min Tian duo left, Min Hong wanted to gain deeper understanding of the two techniques, so he went to the bath to soak. It was midnight, and the Qi mist surrounding the cottage was thick. But instead of thinking about both techniques, Min Hong found himself thinking about the mysterious cottage located just in front of the waterfall.

"It's a restricted area and you don't even know if it's dangerous. But grandpa also said I should always seize every available opportunity to increase my strength, and if the environment here could make me unlock my 8 great meridians, who knows how many meridians I might end up unlocking in that cottage."

"Moreover, with great reward comes great risk, and also fortune only favours the bold. I might really end up running mad if that cottage was actually as good as I think it is, and someone else reaped its benefits."

"If I can't even get into a cottage located in an area where my uncles and several elders of our family are, how can I have the courage to search for inheritances in unknown and dangerous locations in the future." Min Hong's mind was in utter chaos, as a battle between the thought of being wise and keeping one's life clashed against being brave and reaping rewards.

"If that place was dangerous, grandpa and the rest won't make this courtyard a spot for seclusion. Moreover, I fail to believe that the elders and uncles would continue their seclusion and let something bad happen to a family member." Min Hong reassured himself as his common sense lost to his curiosity and thirst for power.

As the battle in his mind concluded, Min Hong took a deep breath to calm his racing heartbeat. If anything goes wrong on this hunt, he might not even have enough time for regrets before he loses his poor little life.

Min Hong quietly stepped out of the family head cottage; he didn't want to attract anyone's attention lest his exploration ends before it can even begin. He gradually lost sight of everything around him as he approached the cottage as the thickness of the mist completely obstructed his vision.

Relying solely on his sense of hearing, Min Hong approached the waterfall. He knew he would at least get to the cottage first before he could reach the waterfall. Moreover, his target was the cottage and not the waterfall.

After walking for about a minute, Min Hong felt his foot hit something that seemed to be a log of wood. Bending to feel what it was, he found out that it was a staircase that leads to the front balcony of the cottage. Taking few easy steps, Min Hong arrived at the door and was stupefied at what he saw.

The door was currently slightly opened; peeping through the small aperture, he could only make out a praying mat and many motes of light which seemed to light up the room. After waiting for about 20 breaths to ensure there was no movement or sound within the room, Min Hong slowly and carefully opened the door and stepped in.

He made sure to leave the door opened as it would at least ensure an easy escape route should he be lucky enough to make it to the door. Min Hong could now clearly make out the contents of the entire room since there were many motes of light illuminating it.

Inside this room, there was a praying mat, a bath filled with the stream water and a little stone table at the back of the room.

Sighing in relief at the absence of danger, Min Hong began to inspect the room; starting with the bath which was filled with pure and glittering stream water, followed by the praying mat which looked extremely ordinary no matter which angle he inspected it from and finally the stone table.

This stone table had some carvings on it that looked like runes which all gathered together to make a sort of formation. Min Hong tried to inspect this formation, only for his eyes to become blurry, followed by a sharp pain that threatened to split his head into two.

Recalling what he had read about formations, Min Hong scooped some stream water from the bath whilst inhaling a deep breath of dense Qi mist.

He approached the stone table again and poured out the stream water on it before exhaling all the Qi mist he had inhaled earlier on the table, but nothing happened. He had read once before that most formations require Qi to activate, whilst others required elemental energies, blood and other unique materials.

Getting no result from his earlier experiment, Min Hong wasn't deterred; instead he bit his tongue and spat a mouthful of blood on the formation.

This time around there was a reaction, Min Hong's blood split into two directions and traced the lines on the formation starting from the middle whilst spreading outward. When the two blood lines met at the edge of the formation, a rumbling sound rang out, before a glowing stone slab was ejected like a drawer.

On this stone slab was a deep palm print which looked more like a slot where one should place his palm. Min Hong was finally getting scared as this cottage was getting creepier by the minute, but that still didn't stop him from placing his hands in the palm slot.

The first thing he felt, was a soothing energy that washed through his entire body, making him feel safe and extremely relaxed. This energy then made its way to his head, soothing his frightened mind as he gradually lost his guard.

Immediately that happened, a rapid and strong suction force erupted from the stone slab, as Min Hong lost control of his body before it was sucked into the stone slab. He felt a splitting pain all over his body, the pain was so great that it approached Min Hong's endurance limit in a flash; and two breaths later, he fainted.

After a long time, which felt like an hour, Min Hong finally opened his eyes and was shocked to find out that he was within a passageway filled with extremely dense Qi mist and this passageway was lit by many motes of light.

Inspecting his surroundings, he found out that he was currently standing in the middle of a circular formation which was very similar to the one on the stone table within the cottage.

A narrow path that led to an unknown location was currently ahead of him, but at this point; Min Hong only wanted to return to the courtyard. He was now completely terrified of this place and was already cursing himself for not following his earlier thought of being safe.

He even tried spitting a mouthful of blood on the formation, but he was bound to be disappointed as nothing happened. His face sunk as he cursed himself once again.

"Since I can't return, I guess I can only proceed forward and pray there is an exit formation ahead." He consoled himself while his face turned solemn, before executing the "chaotic shadow steps". He thought that since he didn't know what was up ahead, it would be foolish for him to walk in a straight line and make himself an easy target for any sneak attack.

After walking for about ten breaths, he could vaguely hear the sound of flowing waters echo out from around the corner. On getting to the source of the sound, Min Hong saw a wide area with a large pit that was at least fifty meters wide at the center. Glittering water continuously poured out of the pit before streaming towards the deeper part of this place.

There was a stone door by his right which seemed to be the entrance to a cave room. Asides that, he noticed all the Qi mists in this area was being generated by the water in this huge pit. Furthermore, these mists and motes of light seem to be seeping into the room covered with a stone door.

Seeing that there was nothing else worth noting, He approached the stone door. After praying to all the gods and ancestors he knew about, seeking protection from them, Min Hong finally rolled away the stone door. Instantly, a wave of potent Qi gushed towards him, but this time he did not dare to lose his guard again.

He entered the room and noticed that there was a fairly large formation on one side of the room. This formation was about ten feet wide, and all the Qi mist in the surrounding was gathering towards it before condensing underneath to form a pool full of Qi. This Qi in this pool was so dense it had turned liquid, and a simple white futon was gently floating atop the formation.

On the other side of the room was a tiny formation of about a foot wide which was currently gathering all the motes of light in the room, and they seem to be fusing with a slightly bigger ball of light which was gently hovering above the formation.

Although he knew this place was dangerous, Min Hong still couldn't help but approach the formation out of sheer curiosity. He knelt by the formation to get a perfect view of this ball of light and was mystified by what he saw.

Within the formation, the motes of light will first rotate around this ball of light like a planet revolving around the sun, before they are absorbed by the ball of light. Furthermore, the ball of light seemed to grow a bit brighter each time a mote of light was absorbed.

Min Hong was instantly mystified by this sight as he stared at the ball of light with heated gaze. As if it sensed Min Hong's fanatical gaze, the ball of light instantly shot into the spot between Min Hong's brows before he could even snap out of his stupor.

Min Hong's eyes instantly went dark due to the sharp pain that suddenly erupted from the point of entry of the ball of light, before it spread into his mind along with flashes of unknown information. This information seemed to be sealed within ball of light, and the only thing Min Hong could make-out from the occasional flashes of information, was a set of words that read;

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The flashes continued for about five minutes before it gradually came to a stop along with the pain. Min Hong was currently covered in sweat as the pain he felt was utterly overbearing.

Just as he sat down to rest a bit, all the remaining motes of light suddenly darted towards him, seeking to bore through the same point of entry as the ball of light.

Min Hong was momentarily startled; he then took several erratic steps backwards, whist trying to dodge these lights in the process, but one of them managed to slip past his defenses and shot through his forehead.

The shocking thing was that; the pain Min Hong anticipated didn't appear, instead he felt a warm energy spread through his mind, furtherly soothing the extreme pain it just suffered.

Next, he felt his thinking speed increase significantly and when saw that the situation at the stone table didn't repeat itself, he finally stopped resisting and allowed the rest motes of light flood into his head in an unrestrained manner.

This process went on for about ten minutes, before Min Hong heard a loud "bang" in his head. It was like something just broke apart in his mind, then he suddenly felt his mental capacity begin to swell at an extremely rapid rate whilst lots of mental energy were simultaneously flooding into his mind.

Immediately, his reaction speed increased to a brand-new level. All his fears were suppressed and he felt extremely calm and collected. Also, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, and he could clearly sense all that was happening around him within a hundred meter radius.

"It seems I am currently within the Min Family mountain, the source of the waterfall to be precise." His senses were extremely sharp as his surroundings was laid bare before him, and he could even see the exit point of the streaming water.

"Since my mental energy just increased to another level, I should seize this opportunity to learn more about this so-called "Primordial Chaos Treasure". Min Hong thought to himself as he immediately sat cross-legged and closed his eyes, trying to pry out a little information from the ball of light

"The Eye of Myriad Universe. That sounds really cool." Min Hong was impressed by the name of the treasure, before he continued to pry out more information.

After about one percent of the information stored in the ball of light was pried out, Min Hong suddenly felt his mental energy being sucked towards the ball of light. He immediately ceased his prying as his mental energy ceased to deplete.

Min Hong's scalp tingled at the thought of having his mental energy, which he had gone through so much trouble to obtain get sucked away by this somewhat greedy ball of light. He then turned his attention to the little information he had just pried out of the light ball.

"The Eye of Myriad Universe Possesses heaven defying properties as well as its own unique dimension?!" "let's see if we can find anything the current me can use in there." Min Hong thought to himself, before he eagerly shut his eyes.

According to what he read about the "Eye of Myriad Universe", he only needed to focus on the spot between his brows to find the mysterious ball of light, and then touch it with his mental energy, then he would be able to enter this unique dimension.

Min Hong then settled his anxious mind, before he focused on a spot on his forehead.

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