Pursuit of the Truth

Cang San Nu’s face was pale. Cold sweat continued breaking out on his forehead. He was afraid now, completely terrified. It was not that he did not know about Su Ming’s strength, but before this, he had absolute confidence that he could win. He believed that the so-called strongest of this aeon could only turn into a puppet before his supreme treasure.

He did not think that any sort of unforeseen circumstances could ever appear because the fragment had been unbeatable multiple times in the past. This nature of the membrane had brought him indescribable confidence. Regardless of whether it was Dark Dawn, Saint Defier, or even Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos, he did not regard them with any heed.

With the fragment, he stood above all cultivators. If Su Ming had not stepped into Yin Death Vortex and entered Harmonious Morus Alba Expanse Cosmos, then before the fragment, he could only die. It would be virtually impossible for him to escape this disaster.

In fact… even if Su Ming had come out of Yin Death Vortex and had obtained the wills of four Great True Worlds to become the strongest will second only to Arid Triad and Harmonious Morus Alba in this butterfly’s universe, he would still have been unable to subjugate the fragment so easily!

The main reason why he could do it was because Su Ming had used the aura in the stone and cast the Art of Time to return to the past, allowing him to personally witness the black-robed man absorbing the butterfly. Once he saw that shocking scene, Su Ming overcame his fears and launched his strongest strike with his will against the black-robed young man from the past.

Su Ming’s will might have disintegrated because of that strike, but in exchange, he went through a metamorphosis that allowed him to gain a new life. It was born after he overcame his fears and obtained a different mindset. Once he saw a powerful existence who could destroy a butterfly, it was naturally impossible for him to be shocked in any way when he saw a butterfly’s wing fragment.

That was why Su Ming could use his will and fight against the fragment until it acknowledged the presence of Harmonious Morus Alba on him and let itself be subjugated.

All of this might sound simple, but to Su Ming, it had been a great, life-threatening disaster. Once he resolved it, he narrowed his eyes and lifted his head to look in the direction Cang San Nu had left. With one step, he rose into the air to give chase.

With Su Ming’s level of cultivation, it was incredibly easy for him to catch a person, especially since the Expanse Cosmos in this place had already been filled with his will. With one thought, his figure appeared in the galaxy, and not too far away from him was the pale Cang San Nu.

Great regret filled Cang San Nu’s heart. At the instant Su Ming’s figure appeared, he turned his head around, and despair appeared on his face. The regret in his heart was one he had never experienced before in his whole life, and the despair drowned him like an ocean.

Once he was submerged, he could no longer remember anything. Su Ming’s figure grew larger in his eyes until it replaced everything in his mind. A ferocious look appeared on his face, and in desperation, he chose to self-destruct.

Even if he had to die, he would do it by indulging in an act of madness. This was his pride as a cultivator in Avacaniya Realm, but it was insignificant before absolute power. When facing Su Ming, he did not have the right to self-destruct.

Su Ming’s hand pushed down on the top of Cang San Nu’s skull, then with a light tap, the tremor immediately shattered Cang San Nu’s entire cultivation base. At the same time, his soul scattered, and Su Ming’s soul surged into him. He… used his will to perform a Soulseek on Cang San Nu!

As Su Ming searched through his soul, Cang San Nu trembled violently. His face contorted. The pain he felt at that moment was the worst he had felt in his whole life, but he could not fight against it. From the moment he decided to attack Su Ming, his fate had already been sealed.

Su Ming did not show any mercy. He had killed his whole life, and his murderous aura surged to the heavens. He had always been incredibly ruthless against those who came on their own to provoke him.

And it was especially so since Cang San Nu’s memories contained something that perked his interest. Since that was the case, there was even less reason for him to let the man escape.

Time trickled by. When the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn was over, Su Ming lifted his right hand from Cang San Nu’s head, and with a jolt, Cang San Nu’s soul shattered completely. Cracks appeared on his body, and they continued spreading until his body broke apart and he turned into ashes that fell away from Su Ming’s hand.

It was just like how ashes would return to ashes, and how dust would return to dust. All things would eventually return to the embrace of earth, never to return.

If time could reverse and if Cang San Nu knew about it, he would definitely not choose to stand against Su Ming. The truth had also proven that Yan Pei’s actions were correct, and… that Zi Ruo was also correct.

The moment Cang San Nu died, Yan Pei, who was searching for the signs of Tian Xie Zi and the others in a galaxy within Dark Dawn’s camp suddenly shuddered. His expression changed, and he brought his right hand up to pat his storage bag. Immediately, a jade slip appeared on his palm.

That jade slip had cracks on it. At that moment, right when Yan Pei cast a glance at it, the jade slip turned to powder.

Yan Pei was silent. After a long while, he let out a long sigh. The jade slip was Cang San Nu’s Slip of Life. As Sovereigns of Dawn, the three of them each had their own Slips of Life so that they would know whether the others were still alive.

‘Cang San Nu… died. The only person who could kill him… is Su Ming. I gave him a warning, but Camg San Nu’s character…’

Yan Pei shook his head and no longer thought about it. Instead, he raised his chin up to complete Su Ming’s orders even more enthusiastically than before.

If Yan Pei could sense Cang San Nu’s death, then the only woman among the three Sovereigns of Dawn in Dark Dawn’s camp, Zi Ruo of the Heavenly Foxes, naturally sensed it as well. She was sitting at the center of a complicated Rune on the altar belonging to the Heavenly Foxes. Before her was a swirling pink fog. Her beautiful face was very peaceful, but suddenly, she opened her eyes with a hint of shock.

Because of it, she appeared even more striking than before. It was enough for the hearts of all those who saw her to be tempted, regardless of whether they were men or women.

This sort of beauty surpassed all other forms of beauty in the universe. In fact, it would cause people to have the urge to keep this woman hidden after they saw her. If they did not have this beauty in their possession, they would be committing a slight against themselves!

She bit her bottom lip and stood up gently. There was a piece of silk gauze draped over her body so that no one could see her skin, but they could see her willow-like petite figure. It was enough to gather all gazes on her. It almost seemed like the woman had collected all beauty to herself.

She lowered her head, and when she lifted her hand, a cracked jade slip appeared on her palm. As she watched the jade slip turn into ash, Zi Ruo sighed softly.

“Why did you have to do this? Even if you had absolute confidence, you should not have done this. It’s impossible for Yan Pei to have lied about that person’s strength. Even if he lied, he would belittle that person instead. He would not exaggerate his strength.

“But since he clearly did not belittle that person’s strength nor exaggerate it, then based on our understanding of Yan Pei, that person must have surely subdued him and filled him with admiration to the point that he was willing to return to his past self, which was obsequious to others to curry their favor.” When Zi Ruo sighed, and a strange, brilliant light instantly appeared in her eyes.

“This is what it means to be the strongest person. Looks like I’ll have to be faster with my plan. If I can push him down…” As Zi Ruo mumbled, a faint red hue dusted her cheeks, but the resolve on her face grew firmer.

With a calm expression, Su Ming watched Cang San Nu’s body turn into nothingness. Then, he lifted his head and stared into the distant galaxy.

‘Viridian Gods… a tribe that loved going to all the strange places in the universe when the three ancient kingdoms were still around. The people of this tribe ventured out in search of all sorts of ruins once they became of age…

‘As for the fragment, a Viridian God obtained it at some unknown place and brought it back to his people…

‘Viridian Gods were eventually killed by Cang San Nu, and he obtained this item by chance.’

Su Ming thought back on the scenes he saw in Cang San Nu’s memories. After a moment of pensive silence, he moved and disappeared into the air.

When he reappeared, he had already left Spiritling Expanse Cosmos. He moved through Expanse Cosmoses, and when he went to each, he would spread his will through it without hesitation. In an instant, the weak wills that had just been born in each Expanse Cosmos were absorbed, and as he walked past them, Su Ming’s own will became stronger, but he did not attract Arid Triad’s attention.

This was because Su Ming did not Possess them, and neither did he occupy the Expanse Cosmos. He instead devoured the wills and made them fuse with him to complete himself.

However, even after Su Ming had obtained the butterfly’s wing fragment, he did not notice that every single time he walked past an Expanse Cosmos and devoured its will, the three black-robed men would split themselves to appear before each powerful warrior there, telling them in the name of Life Extermination Hall that the spirit of their Expanse Cosmos had been devoured, that their levels of cultivation would no longer increase, their lives would wither away, and all of it was because of a person called Su Ming.

If Su Ming was not sealed, they would surely die, and a disaster would definitely fall on their heads. There was only one way to solve this predicament—they had to work together to seal the evil Su Ming.

Every Expanse Cosmos Su Ming walked past filled with rumor. A hatred towards Su Ming gradually grew in many cultivators’ hearts. They believed in Life Extermination Hall, and they believed even more so in their divine senses, which told them, when they sent them sweeping through their Expanse Cosmoses, that it had become much more withered than before.

When one or two people hated a person, that power would not be strong. If hundreds or thousands hated one person, they could no longer be underestimated. If ten thousand or one hundred thousand people hated a person, then the force of their hatred would begin to take shape…

If one million, ten million, or more people hated a person… then no matter what that person did, it was evil. Even if he was doing good, it would still be evil!

And at that moment, every single time Su Ming walked past an Expanse Cosmos, this sort of seeds would be scattered, and they were slowly showing signs of growing… but Su Ming did not notice the three black-robed men. They simply did not exist within the area covered by his will.

In fact, he was not the only one who did not notice them, for even Arid Triad did not notice them. Harmonious Morus Alba could not do it either. Unless it possessed its complete body once more, it would be unable to notice them.

The main reason for all of this was because someone had placed a drop of fresh blood on the three black-robed men’s foreheads, and that blood could deceive heaven itself!

That blood was the Heaven Deceiver Blood.