Pursuit of the Truth

Everything ended. The ferryman sent all the people he was familiar with to the other side of the river over one hundred and twenty years. He willingly lowered his head and quietly watched them leave. This was Su Ming’s decision for them. It was his first, and also his last.

To Su Ming, the one hundred and twenty years was a very long time period, but also very short. It was short when he sent people he knew over the River of Forgetfulness, and it was long because of the eternity of waiting and not knowing when they would meet again in the future. He had no idea how much time passed like that.

Su Ming was not confident that he would succeed, which was why he wished that it would last longer, but in the end, it had to come to a conclusion, just like how the fireworks in the sky disappear after a short moment, even if they make a permanent place for themselves in a person’s mind as a beautiful memory.

Su Ming’s eyes gradually gained the spark they should have. Ninth Summit… was quiet. One hundred thousand Berserkers had left, and so had one hundred thousand Ninth Summit disciples. Plenty of people had disappeared, causing the people remaining in Ninth Summit to feel lost.

“Ninth Summit is now empty. If you… want to stay, you can stay, but if you want to leave, you can leave whenever you want,” Su Ming said slowly.

His voice echoed through all of Ninth Summit at that moment and landed in each disciple’s ears, waking them up from their dazed state.

Su Ming closed his eyes with the bald crane was by his side. It watched the familiar surroundings and did not feel too much sadness. It soon headed to some place, but since Su Ming knew the bald crane, he did not even need to think to know what it was thinking at that moment.

‘I’m rich! I’m rich! Haha! This Grandpa Crane is really lucky. Su Ming sent away so many people , and they definitely couldn’t take away all of their crystals. Crystals! And especially since they’re other people’s crystals!’

There was excitement on the bald crane’s face. When it thought about what had happened, it could not help the trembled that passed through its body. It began to move even faster then.

Su Ming did not bother about the bald crane’s actions. When he closed his eyes, another twenty years passed… He sensed Arid Triad trembling and the descent of the will of the destructive disaster.

By then, Harmonious Morus Alba’s wings should have already looked overlapped if anyone saw it with the naked eye, but in truth, there was still a small slit left before the wings touched.

The slit marked the final one hundred years. Su Ming, however, could already sense True Immortal Sect World and feel Harmonious Morus Alba’s presence from the other True Worlds in Arid Triad.

The two Expanse Cosmoses were about to overlap with each other.

During the twenty years Su Ming had stayed in Ninth Summit with his eyes closed, most of the cultivators from the sect had left. The majority of them were old or did not have high levels of cultivation. They no longer had any desire to join a large sect and wished for peace more than anything else.

The successor disciples of Ninth Summit had already been chosen by Hu Zi. Those who were left behind were just superfluous additions to what was important, and since the ones important had left, the superfluous additions would naturally choose to bloom elsewhere.

They entered the final one hundred years before the disaster, and the powerful warriors of previous aeons started waking up. The first to wake up was the person who had fought against Su Ming in the capital planet of the Emperor of Abyss’ True World. Immediately after, an astonishing presence erupted from several places in Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos.

They spread out from many places in the Emperor of Abyss’ True World, True Sacred Yin World, the Fourth True World, and Divine Essence Star Ocean, but there were even more of them coming out from the Expanse Cosmos belonging to Harmonious Morus Alba’s fourth wing. Gradually, the powerful warriors began walking the galaxies, and a bloody massacre as well as an oppression of an aeon began.

It was in truth, also a disaster, but it would only come for a short period of time before all lives were destroyed by the disaster.

With Di Tian as their leader, the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors hidden in Yin Death Vortex opened their eyes.

“It’s time, the period of one hundred years has finally arrived…”

Low murmurs shot up from the worlds in Yin Death Vortex. Excited and fragmented laughter as well as howls echoed everywhere.

Before Arid Triad’s disaster, blood was shed…

Su Ming sighed softly and shifted his gaze away from Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos. He did not care about anything in the world around him, be it Di Tian or Su Xuan Yi. At that moment, he did not want to care about them. Even if those powerful warriors from the previous aeons wrought chaos on the entire universe, it was merely part of the laws of the universe. It was something that should happen before Harmonious Morus Alba’s four wings overlapped with one another.

However… Ninth Summit remained as forbidden grounds. If anyone dared to take even half a step into this area, then even the powerful warriors from the previous aeons who were known to be indestructible would know just how brilliant was the disaster of life.

Su Ming had killed many people, and even the powerful warriors of the previous aeons were nothing to him…

But he still remembered that one hundred thousand cultivators were still trapped in the world that once belonged to Ecang in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence.

He had promised them that he would one day bring them out, and Su Ming would fulfill that promise.

“Do you want to go back to the Barren Lands of Divine Essence again?” Su Ming looked to the side, where the bald crane was still counting crystals.

The bald crane lifted its head and thought about Su Ming’s words carefully before it spoke very seriously. “I’ve already looted all the crystals there.”

Su Ming smiled.

“Alright, then stay here.”

With a shake of his head, Su Ming closed his eyes. The next instant, a figure appeared in a galaxy in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence with barely any spiritual aura. That figure belonged to Su Ming.

He was familiar with everything in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. He had stayed there for many years in the past.

At that moment, everything in that galaxy seemed to be filled with his marks, be it when he was running away or while traveling as a weakling. It was clear that at that time, his path had been arranged by Su Xuan Yi so that he could provide nourishment for the Seed of Life Extermination and do everything that Su Xuan Yi had laid out in secret.

However, when Su Ming turned his head back right then, the resentment and hatred he felt in the past had already faded away. His expression was one of calm. He walked through the galaxy and approached the spot where Ecang had once been.

Su Ming’s footsteps came to a halt, as if he had sensed something. There was a cultivation planet not too far away, and on it was a young man. He was sitting at the mountain top and exercising his breathing while meditating.

As he breathed, the ferocious shadow of a huge tree appeared behind him. It was… Ecang.

One of the souls who had escaped from Su Ming’s hands in the past had manifested its own version of Ecang. Su Ming stared at him, but he was completely unaware of Su Ming’s stare. He continued meditating while occasionally opening his eyes to look at the area cautiously. The aloof and wild look that constantly shone in his eyes made him seem incredibly sullen.

This matched with Ecang’s personality. Clearly, during the years since its escape, it had learned quite a bit of a cultivators’ way to be cautious and cunning while recovering, which was why it could last for so long in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence.

Perhaps it had always been on guard against Su Ming’s arrival. After all, to it, Su Ming’s existence was a shadow in its life that even it had to be afraid of. It was afraid of Su Ming, but also longed to devour him so that it would be complete.

If this was the past, then when Su Ming saw it, he would definitely not let it go, but right then, he only cast it a glance before moving his gaze away. Their different states of being and their different worlds caused the animosity between them to turn into a squabble between children.

He did not bother about the figure who had manifested Ecang. Su Ming instead stepped into the world that had once belonged to one hundred thousand Ecangs.

All the stone monuments in the world shuddered with a bang, and all the people who were sitting and meditating lifted their heads. Shock appeared on their faces, and even the cultivators who were immersed in the worlds formed by their memories were forced out. They lifted their heads in shock, and during that moment, the one hundred thousand people… saw Su Ming walking in the sky above them.

Some of them still remembered Su Ming, and some of them had already forgotten him. There were also some who had never experienced the shocking things that occurred during his time, and at that moment, there was confusion on their faces.

“This place has existed for far too long. I promised all of you in the past that there would come a day when the seal would break. I have come today to break it. I will release the binds on all of you and return your souls to you. From now on… you… are free!”

Su Ming swept his gaze past the people. It lingered a little longer on those he was familiar with until it landed on the middle-aged man who had once helped him.

At first glance, he looked to be a middle-aged man, but when Su Ming took a closer look, he saw that the man had already become old. The passing of his wife seemed to have become a constant pain in his heart. He could have left before, but had been reluctant to do so. Instead, he immersed himself in his memories so that he could accompany his wife.

After Su Ming spoke, loud bangs rang out. The stone monuments shattered, and the borders of the space in the area splintered, layer by layer. In just the span of a few breaths, only one stone monument remained standing. It was before the middle-aged man.

“Only you have the right to shatter this stone monument… I will not interfere with your decision.”

Su Ming cast a profound look at the middle-aged man. When he turned away from him, he swept his gaze over the other people. He did not see happiness, only a dazed look. It was as if these people could not get used to the sudden change.

But in the end, they would have to get used to it. Su Ming cast a glance at the world that once held one hundred thousand stone monuments. He remembered Sui Chen Zi and shook his head. When he turned around, he had already stepped into space.

He arrived in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. Besides releasing the seal in the world of the one hundred thousand stone monuments, he also wanted to go to Husband Gazing Mountain to take a look at the figure at the top of the mountain. Then, he wanted to go to the Sand Earthlings to fulfill the wish of the Sand Earthling’s Antecedental Spirit. He also wanted… to go to Black Ink Planet and send Tian Xie Zi’s disciple in name to the other side of the river.

If it was possible, Su Ming also wanted to go to the fifth ocean to check whether the entrance to the fifth True World truly existed. He wanted to go to there and see… the place where Su Zhan died and where Su Xuan Yi had gathered his soul together.

“One hundred years is enough,” Su Ming mumbled softly and left into the distance.

At that moment, a bloody storm swept through many tribes in Divine Essence Star Ocean. It was due to a thin old man. A skeleton stuck to his back, and there was a numb look on his face.

Wherever he went, he brought death with him.