Chapter 5: Soaring Cloud Village, Min Family
Chapter 5: Soaring Cloud Village, Min Family
Since his birth, Min Hong had never seen his father. From birth till now, it had always been this graceful woman who was responsible for his upbringing.
As a result, Min Hong followed the surname of his mother.
Min Rou belonged to the Min Family of the Soaring Cloud Village, and she was the youngest daughter of the Min Family Head; Min Tian, who was also Min Hong's grandfather.
The Min Family Head had a total of four sons and a single daughter. Needless to say, she was the apple of his eyes. The Min Family currently had about thirty plus grandchildren, and one could say Min Tian was very contented.
He would always smile genuinely from his heart anytime he saw Min Hong. There were many talented individuals within the two latter generations, so the addition of one more genius or trash didn't really matter to him.
Furthermore, Min Hong was the son of his precious daughter Min Rou, so even if he could not cultivate, as long as he could peacefully and happily live his life, Min Rou would also feel reassured. As such he was very lavish and protective of Min Hong.
The Min Family was the most influential family within a thousand kilometer radius, because of their connections, as well as their secret family martial arts techniques that were passed down from generation to generation.
The Min Family can be considered as the only family that could rival the top three families in Soaring Cloud Village and as a result, no one could afford to make an enemy out of them.
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Outside the Min Family Mansion, there were sheep grazing the fields, there was a large stone road that started from the Mansion and stretched in the distance, splitting the field in two halves.
A field of what seemed like fist size guava was being cultivated on the left side while a deep forest was barely visible on the right in the distance.
It was a beautiful scenery that Min Rou and Min Hong appreciated and this was his new world. Then he shifted his gaze to the sky, and a tiny shadow was visible on the horizon due to the redness of the clouds, as it was currently the sunset.
At first it started out as a small dot that only seemed to get bigger and bigger as it was approaching them. Only then did he realize something was wrong.
The shadow was fast as it drew nearer and nearer. At some point, a loud roar rang through the entire castle wall and it was coming from the figure in the clouds.
A black-winged body dove diagonally from the clouds, speeding towards the grazing flock of sheep outside the castle wall. It was 15 feet long, had black scaled wings that span over 30 feet from end to end, with scale-like feathers covering its entire body.
It was so fast, Min Hong couldn't make out the time difference between when it exited the clouds and when it approached the flock of sheep.
Runes suddenly appeared on the castle walls as bright light spread all the way to the field. The light blurred its eyes and affected the descent of the beast as it tried to halt itself mid-air by spreading its large wings.
But its momentum was so strong, and it fell outside the castle walls, creating a large pit in the process. The moment the golden light touched the massive dragon, smoke rose from the pit as a roar of pain rang out from the dust-filled pit.
The dragon rose again, as fast as lightning and stared at the castle walls with venomous eyes at the mansion. Smoke kept puffing out of its belly like an open wound. Apparently, the golden light had wounded the dragon.
The dragon was utterly enraged as it inhaled, then belched out a stream of scarlet flames towards the castle walls. Min Rou was frozen in fear while Min Hong was so stupefied by what he saw, his logical mind didn't process the Kind of danger he was in.
But before the flames could reach the castle walls, a figure suddenly appeared out of thin air in between them as he raised his hands, and the flames were blocked by what seemed like an invincible barrier.
The flames and barrier corroded each other for a while before the flames was extinguished, and the man who was standing on a flying sword was visible again. It happened to be his grandfather who was currently wearing a blue Chinese robe with large sleeves.
The right sleeve was burnt, showing the man's slim but sturdy arm. The man waved his sleeves and a wind blade accompanied by a tiger's roar lashed out towards the dragon who turned around and fled at high speed in the direction of the deep forest.
After waiting for a while longer and affirming that the beast was gone, he sighed and disappeared. Min Rou was still frozen by fear she didn't realize that she was hugging Min Hong's frail body too tightly.
It was the pain that returned him to reality as his logical reasoning returned, he thought of how helpless he and Min Rou had been a while ago. He recalled how his grandpa had stood in front of them like a hero, with his straight back that looks like he could block the sky even if it fell and vowed to gain power as soon as possible, so that he would be able to protect his loved ones when this kind of thing happens again.
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About three Years later
It was a breezy evening and Min Tian had been in Min Rou's apartment since day break as Min Hong turned three today. They had thrown another banquet as Min Tian loves to lavish Min Hong with love.
Currently, his grandfather; Min Tian, was seated in the front, while his mother was seated to the left. His position was towards the right.
In front of him was a black, marble table with three big bowls on it. One contained steaming, aromatic meat, another had thick yet soft pastries, while the last bowl contained hot water.
This was his breakfast. If this kind of breakfast was prepared on earth, it would be enough for four adults to eat. But in this world every child could floor tremendous heap of food and Min Hong was no different.
"Mmm, this tastes great." Min Hong grabbed a chunk of meat from the first bowl and wolfed it. Despite having an earthly sense of taste, he still felt the food was delicious. Min Hong knew that because he was born with an average body type, ever since he stopped breastfeeding, he had been fed special food.
The meat he ate wasn't from ordinary beasts; it was meat from magical, monstrous beasts.
In the Soaring Cloud Village, magic beast meat was extremely rare and valuable, but Min Tian makes sure Min Hong was able to eat it twice, every single day.
It had the special effect of making one's body stronger and Min Tian lavishly fed them all to Min Hong, because he believes even if odds are against Min Hong cultivating, he would want the little one to at least try, so as to prevent him from having regrets.
"I'm done eating!" Min Hong ate so fast it could only be termed; "wolfing the food down", and then drank the hot water like a parched desert land absorbing rainwater after which he ran out towards the geographical section of the Min Family library.
Min Rou watched her son run away and laughed "Although Min Hong was feeble and weak when he was born, His potential was still very high and this was because he could eat so much monster meat. "His body will definitely grow stronger." She said.
Min Tian nodded as well. Magic beasts weren't like ordinary animals, because they absorb natural energy of the world, and their flesh contains these energies as well. Normally, children won't be hungry for three days if they ate it just once, but Min Hong was able to eat it twice a day.
Although, he could only absorb bits of these energies due to this feeble body, the rest were definitely stored and hidden in some parts of his body for future use.
Since Min Hong started to walk, he primarily does two things
The first thing was improving his ability to multitask.
He had been blessed with a Universal Soul by Qing Yama and the things he noticed was that his soul was extremely strong and sturdy, to the point where he had photographic memory. Just half a month ago he could already divide his soul into three.
What does this signify; For instance, he could tell stories, use his left hand to write an essay and use his right hand to paint perfectly, simultaneously and without interfering with each other.
Actually, this wasn't particularly miraculous. According to the books, those who embark on the path to become immortals could use their minds to do multiple things at once. They could utilize several methods to attack at once.
The monstrosity of the Universal Soul was that Min Hong could already accomplish this since he was two years old.
The second thing he did was to read.
Six months after his birth, Min Hong had been able to speak some words, he hugged a book and pointed at some scribblings that look like words, looking at mom with an expectant face, Min Rou happily taught him how to identify those words.
Then began his reading. Even though he was eager to cultivate, Min Hong knew that sometimes haste makes for ineffectiveness. So, he spent more time learning all he could about this world he was in. He would also read more about what it meant to become a cultivator, what types of cultivators there were and their specific paths, etc.
Only after understanding these things would he be able to build a strong foundation and make the best choice for himself. After reading a lot of books, Min Hong came to know that, the Min Family was once part of the inner circle of the Ancient Min Clan which was one of the four Hegemon Clans of the Tiandou Kingdom.
And after gleaning some information from his mother; Min Rou, he learnt that they were banished from the main clan because his grandfather; Min Tian, failed in a mission which cost the Min Clan to suffer a huge loss, and as a result, he was expelled and banished to Soaring Cloud Village.
Here, he established the small Min Family and over the years, he had tried all he could to return to the Min Clan, but nothing he could do was comparable to the huge and overbearing Min Clan. Therefore, he could only turn his attention to the Clan Gathering ceremony of the Min Clan.
This was also the most important event of the Min Clan and also an extremely famous event in the Tiandou Kingdom. Held every ten years, and thrice for each generation, each gathering gave the perfect opportunity for the younger generation members to make a name for themselves.
Moreover, the prizes for this competition were so generous that they draw countless covetous gazes. Yet, the most appealing to Min Tian was that, as long as one could enter the top ten in this gathering, even if you were a branch family to the clan, you will be promoted to the inner circle of the clan with no obstructions and gain unparalleled honor.
Thus, the clan gathering had become the hope of Min Tian. But because of the age limit, he couldn't participate. Thus, he turned his attention to his four children from different mothers. Despite all preparations and efforts Min Tian's children failed to enter the top ten thrice in a row before they were bound by the age limit of the competition, so now he could only turn his attention to his thirty plus grandchildren who seemed more talented than their parents when they were of same age.
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