Chapter 83: The Ancient Inheritance Dimension
On appearing in front of the ancient portal, Min Hong saw Little Wu who was still absorbing the ancient aura leaking out of the ancient dimension.
"How was the trip?" He asked Min Hong without opening his eyes.
"I met senior apprentice brother…" Min Hong responded looking for some sort of reaction from Little Wu, but couldn't get any obvious one.
"Since you have met master, then I guess everything has been explained to you?" Little Wu spoke once again still sitting on his on his hovering staff with his eyes closed.
"You should stop pretending to be nonchalant towards senior apprentice brother and come help me so that I can get this over with. Once we are done here, I can tell you everything if you want." Min Hong smiled faintly as he exposed Little Wu's ruse.
Hearing this, Little Wu flipped off the staff, towards Min Hong as the hovering staff went after him, repositioning itself to allow him sit once again. Min Hong saw the theatrics and his smile widened.
"See how eager you have become. I guess you cannot ignore your feelings and respect for senior apprentice brother, after all… What a childish behaviour" He thought to himself.
"Wow! What a perfect and seamless fusion you achieved…" Little Wu looked at Min Hong's forehead as he studied the closed 'Eye of Infinite Dao' still radiating a dreamy aura.
"I guess the amount of ancient aura I had previously absorbed helped out a lot. Moreover, there's the help you offered to make me pass the three emotional tests." Min Hong replied.
"What instructions did master give you?" He asked.
"Firstly, he told me a fair bit about the ancient worlds, cultivation realms, techniques and martial arts grades and tiers. He told me about the Primus Dao and the story about it, he also gave me two techniques and told me you would know how to help me get the best out of it."
"He told me to tell you about my companions and he then went on to tell me a tiny bit about the ancient inheritance, and that was when he dissipated with some warnings for me and a few words for you as well." Min Hong summarized.
"What are the names of the two techniques master passed on to you?" Little Wu asked.
"The [Kingmaker Codex] and the [Myriad Path Codex]. He also said you will know what to do from here." Min Hong answered.
"I guess you and Lady Luck truly have something going on, after all. How did you end up getting two Gold Tier techniques with the potential of being Diamond Tiered techniques in less than five days, when I, who had to follow him for many years, had to work to earn my keep?"
"Don't worry little punk. The [Kingmaker Codex] is a godly body cultivation technique, and I, Sun Wukong had long ago showed true obsession for it. So, even if I can't cultivate its true potential due to bloodline compatibility, I will make sure you exceed every of its possible limits."
"So, we have to take things really carefully and get the best materials for you to cultivate it. Moreover, you said master gave you a Qi refining technique to use for the mean time. I guess he is still so paranoid, even in death." Little Wu smiled at Min Hong as he spoke.
"But for the [Myriad Path Codex] also, you have to comprehend a Universal Law before we can begin. so, I guess the inheritance comes first before any other thing. You should settle all matters with your companions before you begin." Little Wu advised.
"This is going to be a life changing experience for you. Mostly for good, but you could also die. But I believe in you, so you are not allowed to fail. Moreover, you have an oath to keep, otherwise, I will just rain daily curses on you, even in death." He encouraged.
"Don't worry, I won't die too easily. Moreover, there is a very bright future in sight for us, and it is my one-way ticket to the peak we're always talking about. I dare not fail." Min Hong was raring to begin his journey into cultivation once again.
"Good. Remember, the only things you can truly rely on are your ambition, conviction and determination. Empty your mind for now, Universal Laws are become exponentially difficult to comprehend, when your mind is filled with mundane ideas."
"Empty your mind and let the Universal Law you choose take you through its own journey. Live this journey and experience it first hand, that is the only true way to apprehend its story and develop an understanding about it."
"Only when you have achieved this, would you be able to comprehend it. One cannot truly fail the 'great creator's test, but one can fail the comprehension test. Should that happen, you will be deemed unworthy and trapped within the Law test dimension forever, never to return."
"Lastly, do not get distracted by your memory reflections within the portal. Just keep calm and go with the flow." Little Wu frantically fired several warnings and advise as Min Hong began to approach the dimension portal.
He stood at the entrance, turned and looked at Little Wu, who seemed more nervous and afraid than he was, smiled and gave an understanding wink before stepping through the portal.
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Min Hong felt something wash through him, as space and time warped for a brief moment before everything abruptly went calm. He felt like he was moving through a viscous liquid at a breakneck speed. So, he opened his eyes and noticed he was within some kind of corridor.
"A force seemed to be pushing him across this corridor with mind-numbing speed. Then, he gazed at the corridor walls and saw different memories flashing across. He smiled as he looked on and began to reminisce as his attention became drawn towards the walls.
Then suddenly, Little Wu's warnings echoed through his mind. His soul jerked and then he regained consciousness, only to find out he was already very close to the corridor wall. His senses began to warn him that, should he touch the wall in any way, that would be the end.
"I really need to find a way of preventing myself from being lured and carried away by things like this. If it continues, it might just be the end of me. I need to really thank Little Wu when i return, his warnings just saved my life." Min Hong sighed as he thought to himself.
After what seemed to be about ten breaths, Min Hong felt another viscous liquid-like energy washed over him once more. But this time, it was more violent, filing him with a sensation of vertigo.
When he got pushed out of the corridor, he bent over and retched, but he was just a soul body, so there was nothing to throw up. But after retching for about three breaths, he could finally inhale some fresh air.
But then he noticed something abnormal about the air here. It didn't seem to exist, but he could clearly breath it in and out. Moreover, it felt pure and extremely revitalizing. Then he began to feel an extremely ancient aura, so he looked up and got the shock of his life.
He found himself standing on a long stony giant bridge. On each side were gullies so deep that he couldn't even see the end due to the clouds that were blocking his sight. From his point on the bridge the clouds were like at least, 1000 feet below him.
The clouds were roiling as several giant silhouettes could be seen within it whenever the occasional lightning flashed across the clouds. The smallest silhouette within the clouds was something that looked like an eye and it was at least about 100 feet in diameter.
Moreover, the reason why he concluded it was an eye was because it blinked. At first, he thought it was just a giant spherical ball of cloud behind another smaller oval-like slit of cloud.
But the moment he thought this, they were abruptly covered by a huge dark blanket.
Afterwards, they were visible again. It was only then, that he became apprehensive of what he had just seen. This was what caused his initial shock, a very huge eye.
If just a single eye of the beast was that huge, what about the entire head? What about its entire body?
Min Hong shivered intensely at the sight. If it wasn't because it was his soul body, he would have perspired at least five gallons of sweat.
He then looked at the bridge he was currently standing on and could clearly notice that they were very ordinary to the eyes.
But he knew anything within this dimension can never be ordinary. He wouldn't believe it, even if he was caught within an illusion.
Even though these stones had an ordinary feel to them, he could clearly sense that, they didn't seem to be made out of something recent.
His senses were telling him these stones were very old from the primordial aura they were giving off. Min Hong knew that these stones would most likely have existed before life itself was first created.
When he thought of this and the eye he just saw, Min Hong was already in awe of this place, even more so for the entity who created and owned it. This dimension to him was somewhere an ant like himself shouldn't even think of entering.
It was like a sacred dimension, a holy ground.
Little by little Min Hong was already unknowingly developing a sense of reverence for this dimension. Everything in front of him was covered in a fog-like substance, then he took a step and began to walk forward.
After walking for about what seemed like forever to his senses. Min Hong saw a very large statue about a hundred metres away from him on the left, and instantly, his heart nearly popped out through his throat. Min Hong was looking at this statue in sheer trepidation.
From his position, the statue was actually fifty feet tall with two fearsomely thick arms that were about thirty feet long. The statue's hands had six feet long, razor-sharp claws that glittered from afar. It was slightly hunched with two pointy ears.
It had a pair of fear inducing demonic eyes. Two horns were protruding from his forehead [see Hell boy]. It was dressed in a black heavy-looking, but light to the senses type of armour and with two, one-foot-long fangs protruding out of its mouth.
As Min Hong walked towards the statue, his surroundings began to ripple as they gradually began to change in a very subtle manner. When he eventually got to the spot where the demonic statue was, he could finally see it clearly.
There were several ancient runes all over its skins and now that Min Hong could clearly see it, it radiated a bloodthirsty and wicked aura. It was like the evil twin of elves. The statue had an aggressive stance to it with an expression that seemed repulsive and really pissed off.
Min Hong then turned to look at what this statue seem to hate so much that it was even depicted on its expression. When he looked over, he saw another statue which was about the same height as the first one.
But unlike the first one which was radiating a murderous, evil and bloodthirsty aura, this one felt noble, valiant and there was also an assuring aura to it. It felt secure, good and it also seemed to calm Min Hong's fearful mind.
It was about the same height as its evil even twin, it also had pointy ears and it wore a solemn and heroic expression. It was also in an advancing stance with a long, thin sword in its hand.
Min Hong knew without explanation that; this must have been a feud between the two of them. So, he moved on and saw another statue. This statue was basically that of a true demon as every little detail about it derailed from that of a normal human.
"What is all these statues all about?" Min Hong rhetorically soliloquized.
On the left was the statue of a pure demon and on the right was the statue of a seraph, with the wings and the praying expression and body language. As Min Hong looked on, he found out that these statues had a pattern to them.
On the left would be the evil twin of the statues on the right. By the time he saw the last statue along the way which surprisingly was his, his mind got short-circuited as he didn't understand in any way how his statue was ever going to be here.
Not to talk of the fact that he actually had both an evil version and a good version. But he kept on walking either ways.
When he got to the end of the bridge, he saw a Gi-normous [author came up with this; Gigantic + Enormous = Gi-normous...] gate.
This gate was about a hundred feet tall and fifty feet wide. On its pillars were the statues of the four symbols of feng-shui etched. There was the jade dragon, the black turtle, the white tiger and lastly, the fiery-red phoenix.
When Min Hong saw this, he knew he had reached his destination. This was because, the moment he reached this massive gate, it opened by itself, like it had been expecting him. By the time he passed the last statue, which was that of a dragon. He saw a battlefield.
When he got to last statue, he noticed that all the statues he had seen which had been a variety of every humanoid species, to that of animals and beasts, and finally plants had been portrayed in twos… both their evil versions and good versions.
Before he knew it, he was already totally submerged within the vision of the battlefield. Here he saw the statue of a withered ancient dragon… on the other side was the statue of an ancient Asian divine dragon.
They were also in repulsive, aggressive and attacking stances.
When he saw the last statue, he was suddenly transported into a battlefield. Within this battlefield, every specie of the entire creation was battling one another.
On one side were the bloodthirsty, evil and scary version of the same species, while on the other side was their good and heroic versions.
Within this battle, there were two supernatural entities. These entities were supernatural even by the standards of the ancient worlds. Of the two entities, one was demonic in nature, while the other was true, innocent and honourable in nature.
The first entity radiated the aura of these demonic statues, while the other statue radiated that of the good and heroic ones. But from the illusions Min Hong was seeing, there was an apocalyptic battle raging amongst both parties.
But these two entities weren't participating, it was more like they were both spectating something insignificant.
Moreover, it seemed like the evil entity had handicapped the good entity, because whilst it was going about corrupting several creations with its sweet promises. The good entity was just there watching the battle pan out.
It was more like it was hoping these creations will look up to it and beg for intervention rather than to battle themselves.
So, as a result, the good creations were utterly losing the battle.