Pursuit of the Truth

“I have to think about it.” After some time, Su Ming spoke slowly. His expression was incredibly solemn.

“You do indeed need to think about this carefully. Oh well, I will give you a time limit… of one hundred years. If you’ve thought about it and have chosen your answer, you will naturally be able to sense my presence.

“During these one hundred years, you cannot Possess any other True World, or else… I will seal you! And the price for sealing you will be that the disaster will be brought forward by a couple more hundred years.

“If you don’t choose the answer I want… I will seal you as well. I will only wait for you for a hundred years.”

The young man smiled faintly and cast a glance at Su Ming with a thought-provoking look. When he turned around, he walked into the air. His figure possessed natural grace.

When he took his first step, half of his flesh vanished, and that half turned into a skeleton. When he took his second step, the other half of his body was reduced to a skeleton, but he still had a certain amount of life force in him. When he took his third step, it was as if the will gathered in that body had finally left. The skeleton was reduced to ash which disappeared along with the wind.

Su Ming watched Arid Triad leave. He focused his attention to the body of the cultivator Arid Triad had very casually chosen on this cultivation planet so that his will could descend on him. Due to it, all the potential of his life was stimulated so that he could bear the burden. At that moment, when Arid Triad left, the body withered and turned to ash.

As he watched this scene, Su Ming fell silent. Once Arid Triad left, the entire planet returned to normal.

Su Ming’s expression was calm, but a barely noticeable sharp glint appeared in his eyes. When he lowered his head, he cast a deep glance at the ancient tree before him. After a long while… he looked at it again. This time, Su Ming watched it for a long time until he closed his eyes, and when he did, a resolute and firm look appeared beneath his shut eyelids.

The entire talk with Arid Triad to the moment Arid Triad had told him to make his choice might have seemed normal, but only those who had reached Su Ming’s level would be able to sense the dangers lurking within it.

Every single one of Arid Triad’s sentences contained a sharp and fierce intent. If Su Ming was the slightest bit careless, he would not have been offered a choice, but would have started the war between himself and Arid Triad’s will ahead of schedule.

Su Ming’s answers, his comparison of night and day and his words when he spoke about the direction of the sun setting if he chased after it contained his will. He did not show any signs of it being affected or changing when he spoke with Arid Triad, which was why Arid Triad did not attack him.

After all, Su Ming already had the right to Possess Arid Triad, which was why even Arid Triad would find it hard to destroy him. He needed a chance and Su Ming showing a weakness so that his plan to descend during the disaster five hundred years later to search for Harmonious Morus Alba and Possess it would not be disturbed. If Su Ming affected his plan at that time, Arid Triad would end up losing more than he gained.

That was why he had asked Su Ming to make a choice, but this choice was in truth not a choice. It was a very blatant threat, but if Su Ming treated it as a real threat, then Su Ming was bound to be sealed. Even if he chose to work together with Arid Triad… Arid Triad would definitely fulfill his promise. He would just seal Su Ming.

Because this choice was a seed. It was a seed Arid Triad planted in Su Ming’s heart, just like how Su Ming had planted his seed in Arid Triad with his words about day and night.

Nothing exciting seemed to have happened during the encounter, but only Su Ming and Arid Triad knew that both of them had actually started showing signs of wanting to attack just then.

Su Ming opened his eyes. He turned around and walked towards Yu Xuan and Elder Mo Sang, who was watching him with a face filled with worry.

“Who… was he?”

Su Ming’s elder hesitated for a moment before a hint of understanding appeared on his face. The answer to his question had in truth appeared in the elder’s heart between the moment he hesitated to ask the question and when that look of understanding appeared on his face.

“Arid Triad.”

Su Ming smiled faintly. He did not say much. When he stared at his very clearly older elder, he knew that there were far too many secrets within the elder’s mind, and they were related to the elder’s past self as well as Great Berserker Tribe…

“Let’s… go home,” Su Ming said softly.

With Yu Xuan in tow and while Su Ming stayed beside his elder, the three of them turned into long arcs and left the cultivation planet. They entered the galaxy and disappeared from the Emperor of Abyss’ True World.

Disappearing with them was an excited bald crane and an elated Abyss Dragon. One of them… took away all the crystals from the True World, and the other… had fulfilled its ambitions from when it was younger. The Abyss Dragon mentioned not a word of it, but based on how it often seemed to be recounting its experiences, it looked like there was a hint of lust contained in its ambitions, no matter how anyone looked at it…

…..

Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, three years passed. Su Ming had returned to Ninth Summit. During the three years, he did not venture out again. He kept his senior brothers company while Yu Xuan, Cang Lan, and Xu Hui stayed beside him.

The elder had finally returned to the Berserkers. He built a house at the foot of Dark Mountain, and just like a real old man in the mortal world, he watched the sun rise and set. He lived a very peaceful life.

He had plenty of stories. Perhaps they were stories that spanned through the four eras of their aeon, but Su Ming did not ask him about them. Instead, he often came to sit beside his elder and watch the sky with him. Every single time he did so, Su Ming would remember the Dark Mountain. He remembered Xiao Hong, and all the people who were now strangers to him.

He might not have asked his elder about his secrets, but with Su Ming’s level of cultivation, he could already tell some of what was going on. He could see the signs of repeated cycles of life on his elder. With those cycles, the Elder of Great Berserker Tribe had preserved his soul. During them, he might have been searching for the scene he saw when he predicted the Berserker Day but which no one else could see.

It was a butterfly that gave Great Berserker Tribe their future…

The elder lifted his head and looked at Su Ming, who had already left into the distance after he had spent the entire day with him. Under the moonlight, he mumbled softly under his breath, “That butterfly isn’t Harmonious Morus Alba… That butterfly is you… my La Su.”

As he murmured those words, a sparkle of expectation appeared in his eyes. He would never forget the scene he saw when he predicted the Berserker Day… He had gone through countless cycles of life and death all so that he could wait for Su Ming and protect this child. He had him get in touch with the Berserkers and had him acknowledge them…

During the three years, with his outstanding abilities, second senior brother finally extended Ninth Summit’s influence to all areas in True Morning Dao World after Su Ming had stunned and intimidated Dark Dawn and Saint Defier, causing Ninth Summit to live up to their name of being the only sect in True Morning Dao World.

Eldest senior brother also had increased his power every single day. As for Hu Zi, his personality prevented him from staying in one place quietly for too long, so he often ventured out to sweep through the entire True World and pass through the other True Worlds as if displaying Ninth Summit’s strength.

Due to Su Ming’s existence and the Sovereign of Dawn Yan Pei’s fear towards him, the cultivators from Dark Dawn and Saint Defier were forced to retreat when Ninth Summit passed by. This also caused the battles where the other True Worlds were clearly in a disadvantage to be unable to continue the moment Hu Zi appeared.

And most of the time, when Hu Zi saw fighting, he would immediately shout, “Ninth Summit has beautiful mountains and clear waters. When Dark Dawn and Saint Defier see Ninth Summit, they have to make a detour! My youngest junior brother is the strongest person in all of Arid Triad, and he is in Ninth Summit. Those who want to join the Ninth Summit, immediately shout. I’d like to see which of these brats from Dark Dawn and Saint Defier would dare to attack you.”

It was the truth of the situation as well. As long as Hu Zi was in the battlefield and as long as there were people who shouted that they wanted to join Ninth Summit, even if that person was about to be killed by the cultivators from Dark Dawn and Saint Defier, they would immediately be released. No one had the courage to attack people that belonged to Ninth Summit, and they would not even care about the backlash of their divine abilities because they had stopped attacking.

They could only nurse their grievances, because the Sovereign of Dawn Yan Pei had already told all the cultivators… that Ninth Summit was not to be provoked. But the Sovereign of Dawn was not the only one who reacted this way… It was an order that would bring death to all who went against it, for it was an order that unanimously came from all three Sovereigns of Dawn from Dark Dawn and the three Lords from Saint Defier.

In fact, every single time there were new cultivators who descended from Dark Dawn and Saint Defier in True Morning Dao World, they would first go near Ninth Summit and bow to it before leaving.

Su Ming’s name had spread through all of Arid Triad during the three years, and because of it, Ninth Summit’s influence became stronger. The number of cultivators who joined it increased by multiple fold. Those were cultivators who had once belonged to other True Worlds. For whatever reason, they chose to become Ninth Summit’s disciple. Branch sects had appeared in Ninth Summit, and eldest senior brother and Hu Zi were stationed in the two sects to intimidate the world around them.

Time passed, and another three years went by. During them, some huge incidents happened, such as Su Xuan Yi and Lei Chen disappearing from the Emperor of Abyss’ True World, the Emperor of Abyss’ True World surrendering to Dark Dawn, and the Sublime Paragon of that True World who had avoided being killed by Su Ming in the past choosing to become Ninth Summit’s disciple.

After persevering for five years, True Sacred Yin World was occupied by Dark Dawn and Saint Defier during the sixth year when their True World Protection Rune crumbled. The living beings in there suffered miserably, and the number of deaths was devastating…

Su Ming did not care about any of that. He was not a saint. His heart would only be gentle towards the people he cared about. As for the others… to him, who had already become the strongest will in this Expanse Cosmos second only to Arid Triad, they were all just a part of the rise and fall of life.

It did not matter whether it was Dark Dawn or Saint Defier, for Su Ming had understood a long time ago that the true reason behind why they caused the war. It was an offering…

When the third period of three years arrived and ended, a change of tides appeared in the war that Su Ming paid no attention to. He had predicted the change in tide, because an offering… would require sacrifice from both sides, not just one side, or else it would be a massacre and not an offering.

The change in tide came from the Fourth True World. The Antecedental Spirits who were suppressed in there during the fourth era seemed to have had all the seals suppressing them released in an instant. When they ventured outwards, they waged an intense war against Dark Dawn and Saint Defier.

Their war even affected Ninth Summit. The madness and arrogance of the Antecedental Spirits who were released caused the four True Worlds in Arid Triad to look as if they had descended into an age of chaos. Only at that moment did Su Ming lift his right hand and put down the chess piece he was about to use to play against his elder. He lifted his head and looked in the direction of the Fourth True World.

“We should… give those Antecedental Spirits a lesson. This Expanse Cosmos can descend into chaos, but there must be in order in chaos, not chaos as of such.”

When Su Ming spoke faintly, his elder smiled kindly. He did not speak, but lowered his head to look at the chessboard.