5 Messed Up

"Hmph, if you think you can snatch such a treasure trove from me, then you've got another thing coming!"

Daniel heard the man retort with a snort. However, shortly afterwards, the man suddenly began to form some mysterious hand seals, and before Daniel could even register what was happening, the purple colored soul attacked him with the intent to kill.

"You dare!" Daniel bellowed in fury. 

His mind raced as he quickly searched for a way to defend himself. However, after realizing he had arrived with no weapon whatsoever, Daniel suddenly looked towards the only thing he came with; the black chalice.

Remembering the contents of the chalice, Daniel swiftly hurled its entire content toward the purple soul.

Seeing what his adversary held in his hand, the purple soul instantly knew what was coming. His heart trembled and his face sunk into despair, causing his attack to falter.

However, being the expert that he was, the purple soul quickly switched his attack as a purple colored orb appeared in his palm.

Then with a vicious thrust, the duo collided into each other as the purple orb burst apart, releasing a subtle shockwave that smacked the cup straight back at Daniel.

"Oh, Snap!"

That was all Daniel remembered saying before the cup smashed into his soul, but not before its content splashed over them both with the majority ending up smearing the purple soul all over.

In that exact moment, the yellow liquid surged straight into Daniel's mind, and began to erode his memories.

However, before it could destroy too much, the brand within Daniel's soul suddenly flared to life, as it absorbed all the yellow liquid, morph into some sort of seal and then seal off the rest of Daniel's memories.

"What a way to reincarnate!"

The redundant daniel lamented with a sigh as both their souls fell into the little kids body, and his consciousness descend into a world of darkness.

An unknown period of time later, Daniel's soul regained its consciousness, however, everything he could recall had become a jumbled mess.

"Who am I? I am… Min Hong!"

But before he could process what was going on, Sam felt a splitting headache rock his brain like a CA-5 earthquake.

"I look down on the very heavens, the arrogant nine heavens' peerless Shrine Protector - Min Hong? … I am someone who is cheated and bullied by everyone, a spineless, good-for-nothing cripple incapable of cultivating - Min Hong?"

His mind was a whirl of confusion, and at the same time, severe pain wracked his body. Min Hong was unable to make anything of his chaotic train of thoughts as he let out a painful groan

"Hong-er, you're finally awake? Thank god, you've left me worried sick! Even if you want to tell everyone you're no pushover, did you have to go duel with those people!?"

A gentle voice floated into Min Hong's ears. That voice was full of relief and comfort, but also suffused with choked emotions.

Min Hong slowly opened his eyes, as his blurry vision gradually became clearer, and a woman's face appeared in his sight.

The woman appeared to be in her thirties and would have been a drop-dead beauty if not for the deep wrinkles that hung around the corners of her eyes; a phenomenon that had no business associating itself with someone her age.

The woman tearfully stared at Min Hong with eyes shedding tears full of love and compassion, causing Min Hong to feel a wave of warmth flush over his troubled heart.

"Child, you scared your mom to death." As the woman spoke, her eyes became even redder as more tears streamed down her face.

"Mom???"

Min Hong said doubtfully with a face full of confusion, staring at the familiar and yet strange face.

"Child, don't scare your mom! Don't you recognize me?" The woman anxiously blurted as panic began to spread across her face.

At this moment, an elderly man appeared beside the woman. He examined Min Hong for a bit before giving his diagnosis;

"Mrs. Min, Min Hong suffered a blow to the back of his head so it's possible he will need to rest a bit to recover his memories.

Don't be too worried; just now I gave the young master some medicine. The medicinal energy still hasn't completely dissolved, so just let the young master rest for a bit longer."

Mrs. Min worriedly looked at Min Hong before reluctantly nodding her head and seeing the elderly man out of the room.

Min Hong heard the elderly man advising the woman softly in the distance;

"Mrs. Min, the fact that young master Hong managed to return with his life is already infinitely lucky. Don't force it too much."

Min Hong suddenly felt another bout of migraine assault him out of the blue. Trying to massage the back of his head to relieve the pain, he suddenly felt his hand touch some sort of fluid.

He brought down his hand to his face and realized that the fluid was his own blood. 

"Uh? Why am I bleeding?"

"Wait, where am I?"

Daniel [Or rather, Min Hong] who had lost almost 97 percent of his memories looked at his hand, unsure how he got here, or why he was even here.

Mrs. Min's trembling voice floated over from the corridor;

"Master alchemist, are you trying to tell me that my son will…"

The elderly man, who had been called an alchemist, sighed and continued;

"The young master's hindbrain received an acute shock. To tell the truth, being able to wake up is already extremely lucky; however, the repercussions will definitely still be very severe. Losing his memory is quite possible in this situation…"

Despite walking further and further away to prevent Min Hong from hearing their conversation Mrs. Min's muffled sobs still managed to reach Min Hong's ears.

Min Hong gazed blankly at the ceiling above as he felt the severe pains wreak havoc throughout his body; especially the back of his head which was still throbbing and slowly leaking. 

'Just what happened? I'm Min Hong, and so Mrs. Min should be my flesh and blood mother.

If that's the case, how come I feel no sense of familiarity towards her?'

Then whilst he was trying to remember, Min Hong's memories came cascading into his mind, bombarding him with ten solid years worth of torrential information.

'And all these confusing memories, where are they coming from? I can recall being an extremely arrogant, and exceedingly powerful being… but at the same time, my brain also tells me that I'm nothing but an often bullied and extorted bitter trash?'

Then after about one hour, Min Hong was done receiving the new influx of memories, and when he began to examine the new set of information, he could sense [though not clearly] that there was more to him now.

An extraterrestrial language had ingrained itself into his psyche.

Shrine Protector Min Hong? Trash Min Hong? Which is the real me? Am I some Shrine Protector reincarnate? Or am I a fusion of a Shrine Protector and a trash weakling?

Min Hong's mind was full of endless questions.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter. I am Min Hong. Whether I'm a Shrine Protector or a cripple, it doesn't mean anything right now. The most important thing is that I'm still alive.

"I have three sets of memories that have mixed together; there's no way I can even fix such a problem. Instead, what I need to do now is to let myself recover as quickly as possible."

Sensing his body's current condition, he quickly located many fractures. He had three broken ribs, one arm broken in two places, and most severe of all, his hindbrain was injured to the point where a large portion of his scalp had caved in.

He had definitely been victim to an extremely vicious assault.

"Hmm? Though I have no way to condense energy, my soul Qi appears to be extremely powerful. I can actually sense everything within thirty meters of my body."

Min Hong was pleasantly surprised. According to his jumbled memories, soul Qi was invaluable, especially to alchemists!

Profit, profit! Whether he was the reincarnation of a Shrine Protector or not, the present him had definitely greatly profited.

The Shrine Protector had lived an entire lifetime already, and now that allowed him to possess an exceptionally strong soul; just what kind of boon was this?

However, when he carefully examined his body, his expression changed.

"My Spirit Root has been taken away. My Spirit Bone is also missing a piece that appears to have been dug out. And my heart has a gaping hole?

Just who could be this ruthless and take my Spirit Root, Spirit Bone and Bloodline Essence? No wonder I can't cultivate!" Min Hong was completely infuriated.

His current Soul Power was much, much stronger than his old self. It was now strong enough for him to immediately figure out the mystery of why he was a cripple who couldn't cultivate.

The Spirit Root was located in the Qi Foundation; it was the very core of all cultivators. Without the Spirit Root, there was no way to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, let alone cultivate Qi.

Bloodline Essence was something that people were born with; it is like a genetic trait inherited from one's ancestors from the top of one's extended family tree down to their parents, and it was what gave everyone their innate talents.

While everyone were basically born with it, the majority of cultivators know next to nothing about it.

The Spirit Bone was found in the pit of a person's marrows. Not everyone possesses a Spirit Bone. Even amongst cultivators, maybe only one in ten thousand would be born with one, and if they were, they would be labelled a heavenly genius.

However, Min Hong's Spirit Bone was obviously missing a piece and had clear marks of being cracked apart by someone.

Reaching this conclusion, Min Ho0ng's expression sunk as his face became exceedingly unsightly. If his memories were not all mixed up, then how would he not remember a thing about the bastard who did this to him?

Although these three things were precious to him, they wouldn't have any use once they left his body. If they wanted to harm him, why did they have to use such a harsh method? Using this kind of method was practically forcing him to live a life worse than death!

However, he also understood that anger only breeds fury, and since they had already gone missing, being angry isn't going to solve anything

'I better not let me find out who did this.' Min Hong thought to himself as he gnash his teeth in fury.

This was a bad hand he had been dealt and a great blow to his future potential. If his Spirit Bone had been left unharmed, then even if he lacked intelligence, he would have nonetheless been an absolute genius.

But now some despicable bastard had made him a useless thrash who was incapable of cultivating, causing him to be humiliated and receive condescending looks from practically everyone.

Just as Min Hong was stewing in his misfortune, the door of the room was gently pushed open, and a pretty little thirteen-year-old girl walked in. This was Min Hong's personal maid; Qing. 

"Young master, it's time to take some medicine."

"Medicine? What medicine is it?" Min Hong asked as he sniffed the air a few times.

"This is something Mrs. Min paid an enormous price for. It's a Bone Sealing Pill that can quickly seal and heal young master's fractures." Qing replied.

She opened the small, elaborate case in her hand, revealing the medicinal pill inside.

"It is said that this medicinal pill came from grandmaster Sun Yi. The medicinal efficacy is very strong."

Looking at the thing the little girl claimed was a pill and had been created by a man who called himself a grandmaster in the way of alchemy, Min Hong's face couldn't help but turn a bit strange.