Chapter 46: The Battle of the Central Region
In the room, four figures gathered for dinner. This time a bright smile was ever present on Min Tian's face.
He did not care much about any other thing, the only thing that mattered to him was the wellbeing of his daughter and his grandchildren. He could do anything and sacrifice everything for their wellbeing.
"Hong'er, 5 Star King and Qi Sea Stage, 'One with Dao' level in the Willow Leaf Palm, Song of the Wind Spirit, Chaotic Shadow Steps and Eight Vengeful Palms. The progress you have made is indeed utterly terrifying…" Min Rou commented as she gently laid down her chopsticks onto her bowl.
Upon hearing Min Rou's comment, Min Hong's laps involuntarily tightened. It seems his insane training speed had aroused a little suspicion within his mother.
"I only advanced in cultivation when I ventured into the Mist Marshlands. With regards to the Song of the Wind Spirit, that happened when I was battling the Azure Queen Boa. As for the Chaotic Shadow Steps, it happened when I was battling the Aqua Rhino Emperor."
"But as for the Willow Leaf Palm and Eight Vengeful Palms, maybe it was the pressure from the Coming-of-Age Ceremony, I don't truly understand why but I just seem to be able to master these techniques rather quickly." Min Hong replied softly, as he humbly scratched his head whilst frowning.
"Oh?" Min Rou was slightly perplexed. Her brows furrowed as she stared at Min Hong's earnest expression. Some people can indeed master techniques rather quickly. In fact, it was reputed that these gifted geniuses can rapidly learn any form of martial arts taught to them.
Therefore, Min Rou didn't have any problems with that. However, his cultivation base had still progressed too quickly. After all he was only at the 5 Star warrior and Qi Creation stage about two years ago, before he left for training in the Soaring Cloud Forest.
Successively advancing an entire realm on two cultivation paths in just over two years; this kind of speed was extremely remarkable in Soaring Cloud Village, and even in the entire East Wind Kingdom.
"Are you sure you didn't take anything in the past two years?" Min Rou asked. Since the beginning, she had noticed that the rate at which Min Hong absorbed the spiritual energies within medicinal plants and spirit beasts.
"I seem to remember now… about a year ago, when I was in the forest, I did find a completely white fruit and I ate it. At that time, it did not seem to have any effect… maybe it could be due to that…" Min Hong lied with a straight face. He constantly blinked his eyes as if trying to remember something really vague.
Min Rou was rendered speechless while she tried to figure out what kind of fruit exactly it might be. Soon after, she shook her head helplessly and muttered uncertainly; "Perhaps it is as you have said…maybe you were just extremely lucky to have eaten some magical fruit."
Based on her expression, it was clear that Min Rou knew something was wrong with his explanation, but there was no point in pursuing the matter, so she dropped it. After all, it was a good thing that Min Hong's strength was increasing.
Seeing that his mother had stopped pursuing the matter, Min Hong's heart secretly heaved a deep sigh of relief. When the time was right, ha had planned to personally tell Min Rou about the 'Eye of Myriad Universe'. However, right now he did not want to reveal its existence just yet.
"I was completely stunned when you took first place in today's tournament. However, you must stay humble and remember to persist in your training. It will be the end of the year soon, and the Battle for the Central Region would begin.
The younger generation of other families will also be participating. Thus, you must ensure that you do not embarrass the Min Family." Min Tian finally spoke for the first time.
Min Hong naturally knew about the event. When one mentions the Soaring Cloud Village and the Battle of the Central Region, one would also naturally talk about the three major factions in the Soaring Cloud Village; the Zhou Family, the Wang family and the Merchant tribe.
The Zhou Family and Wang Family could be considered as the original Families of the Soaring Cloud Forest. Therefore, after several generations they had laid down deep roots within the village and they could be considered the most well-established factions.
With regards to the Merchant tribe, even though they were only established slightly longer than two decades, they have rapidly caught up in terms of talents and power.
In fact, even the Zhou and the Wang Families knew that the Merchant Tribe's strength was not to be underestimated.
After these three major factions, the Min Family could be considered the next most powerful faction. In fact, ever since Min Rou had the potential to recover her strength, the Min Family would soon be qualified to stand toe to toe with these three major factions.
After all, even the Wang Family which was considered the strongest only had ten Nascent Soul experts. But all these rankings were based on the older generation members. When it comes to the younger generation talents, our Min Family is unrivalled.
We already have five Dan Formation experts at the moment and who knows how many we'll have in the coming years. By the time our next generation talents become adults to run the Family we will most likely have over a dozen Nascent Soul Cultivators.
As for the Battle for the Central Region, it is not like a dueling tournament, it is more like a hunt and at the same time a test for the next generation members of the various factions. Which is also a way for each faction to compete with each other in terms of talents.
Naturally, whoever rose above every other competitor would bring much glory to their family and this is asides the main prize which was the ownership of the Central Region.
The results would be determined based on individual comparisons, and whomever could suppress the rest would emerge as the unofficial victor.
Therefore, every faction in the Soaring Cloud Village placed great emphasis on the 'hunt', and in order to secure a good result, they would send their most elite youngsters to take part.
Due to this, the intensity of the tournament would without a doubt exceed that of today's competition. And those opponents, would definitely be stronger than Min Kong.
This tournament was the real deal!
"I understand grandpa, I will not rest on my laurels."
In the house, Min Hong sorted his thoughts as he lifted his head and a smile appeared on his face. He recalled the Min Family had performed woefully in the last 'Hunt', and as a result were constantly ridiculed for it.
This was the reason why Min Tian had placed a lot of emphasis on it.
"Good…Now you know what's at stake." Min Rou Nodded her head in contentment and said; "The Zhou and Wang Family are both the pioneers this village. Therefore, they often discriminate against the Merchant Tribe and us, the Min Family."
"All these years they have been constantly undermining us as they seek to demonstrate their dominance in this village and forced us to submit some of our territories to them."
At this point, Min Tian involuntarily snorted before adding, "All these years our Min Family has been waiting on the wings. Now that your mother's power is recovering, we no longer need to fear them."
"Thus, you must display a very good performance and secure a decent result for this hunt and restore our Min Family's reputation." Min Rou wrapped up her input.
Upon witnessing this sight, Min Rou gently smiled. She then proceeded to hand over an embroidered brown wooden box and said; "This is the reward from Grandpa. There are four medicinal pills within the box."
"In addition, he had also granted you the permission to enter the Martial Arts Library. In the future, if you want to learn any new martial arts or techniques, you can always enter by yourself to go take a look around."
"Since the highest cultivation manual in our Library is only a Mid-grade Royal Rank technique, that means you have no restrictions whatsoever. So, make good use of your time there." She ended.
As these words entered his ears, Min Hong's eyes immediately sparkled, ever since he was little, he had never had the opportunity to come across a Mid-grade pill of the Qi Trampling pill caliber.
Therefore, he could not bear to wait any longer as he was extremely eager to taste and experience the medicinal efficacy of a pill on that level, After all, they are not the kind one can easily get access to due to the scarcity of a capable alchemist.
"Alright, it's getting late. Go and get some rest. During this period of time your mother would be busy at the blazing manor, and I also have to put a stop to the Zhou Family killings, so you will have to train hard on your own." As he saw Min Hong pick up the box, Min Tian waved his sleeves and instructed.