Pursuit of the Truth

The final fifty years before the disaster were like the hour before dawn, the rise of darkness and the destruction of all things. To a mortal, fifty years was half of their lives, but to cultivators, it would only be the blink of an eye.

The powerful warriors of the previous aeons did not want the fifty years to only last for the blink of an eye. They wanted to let all the madness that had accumulated in their hearts burst forth and release all of their desires to their hearts’ content until they welcomed the disaster with the world. Then, they would live wilfully for another hundred years in the new world that they believed would appear after the disaster.

Only after that would they fall asleep and wait for the disaster that would arrive countless of years later in the new aeon so that they could wake up again.

That was their lives, and it was a process that repeated itself aeon after aeon. There seemed to be no end to it, and most people actually believed it to be so, but a few knew that the upcoming disaster would not just destroy all lives… but also them!

When a flower blooms, it will eventually wilt. It is destined. The energy used for the petals to bloom is also the desire to make the petals fall. When they land on the ground, how many people remember that the flower had showed off great beauty, attracting an unknown number of butterflies and bees to it, all lingering around it and reluctant to leave?

One cycle of life and death. One Dao!

As time passed. More powerful warriors from the previous aeons surged into Dark Dawn, Saint Defier, and Arid Triad, but no matter how deranged they were, when they were in Dark Dawn and Saint Defier, they seemed to hold themselves a little and never acted completely without inhibitions. At most, they would just be temperamental and kill more.

Those who came into Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos or had woken up in it seemed to be more wilful and crazier. They killed, Possessed, refined, turned into furnaces, and did all sorts of incredibly sinister and evil things to the people there. Their deeds spread through all of Arid Triad.

Their arrogance came from the fact that they believed that no one would be able to kill them. Their madness was due to them being unable to call themselves cultivators anymore, because they had turned into part of the disaster.

Only a small handful of powerful warriors retained their sanity and believed that they were not wild, raving beasts, but cultivators. Such people seldom ventured outwards. They were usually like the boy from the fourth Expanse Cosmos and lived as they did in the past.

Su Ming did not intend to place much attention on the powerful warriors from the previous aeons. Whether they wanted to kill or commit all sorts of heinous crimes, their actions were just the final release in their lives. All the living lived in chaos, and the universe was reduced to an apocalyptic world during the final fifty years. All of that… was in truth just an interlude before the main melody was played.

With Su Ming’s personality, as long as the powerful warriors from the previous aeons did not step into True Morning Dao World and interfered with his preparations to fight against Arid Triad, he would not pay too much attention to the changes they brought to the universe, because in Su Ming’s eyes… they were just like ants.

Their states of being were different, and the disparity in their levels of cultivation caused Su Ming’s view of the world to be vastly different. The powerful warriors from the previous aeons might also be in Avacaniya Realm and might be only one or two stages away from Su Ming… but he had already come to understand Dao while they had given up on the possibility of understanding it.

Su Ming did not stop the people who fled to True Morning Dao World in search of refuge. All lives were searching for a chance to survive, and they chose one near him to quietly spend their final fifty years. It was their choice, and Su Ming would not interfere with it.

However, he had underestimated the madness and arrogance of the powerful warriors of the previous aeons. He thought that once he chased the old man out of True Morning Dao World and destroyed his body as well as his soul, it would serve as a warning. After all… Su Ming had killed many people in his life. Since all lives were bound to die anyway during the disaster, he did not want to snatch too many lives from its hands.

The shrill screams of the old man before he died had indeed brought trepidation to the hearts of the powerful warriors from the previous aeons… They were apprehensive, but a wave of excitement and eagerness had also abruptly risen in their hearts.

They were excited, incredibly excited, and they were eager, so eager that bloodlust had appeared in their eyes. It had been far too long since they had felt like they could die.

If it was a long time since a person had died and their soul had been left wandering in the world, it would long for life, and when a person had lived for a very long time, they would long for death. This did not mean that they wanted to die, but the feeling of having their blood pound while they were caught in a life-threatening situation was infatuating to them.

They had known since a long time ago that there was a powerful existence in True Morning Dao World. That place was its territory, and it would not allow outsiders to step into it. This was something the first batch of powerful warriors from the previous aeons had sensed the moment they arrived in Arid Triad during the start of the one hundred years. They had sensed Su Ming’s divine thought, and they had spread word to those who were the same as them, which was why there had been fifty years of calm.

But once the old man died, that calm was destroyed. Many people became excited, and because of their arrogance, a desire to provoke and defy True Morning Dao World took root in their hearts.

After all, all those who could survive through the disasters aeon after aeon were genii of their respective aeons. They were people who had been blessed with great serendipity. All of them refused to accept that any of the other powerful warriors were stronger than them, and it was even more so when it came to Su Ming. They could not accept that he was stronger, because they had never seen him while he hid in True Morning Dao World.

Hence, nearly one hundred powerful warriors from the previous aeons… stepped into True Morning Dao world en masse three years after the old man had died. They were led by three old monsters who had lived the longest among them.

Nearly one hundred powerful warriors meant nearly one hundred cultivators in the middle stage of Avacaniya Realm. As for the three old men, they were nearly at the peak of the middle stage of Avacaniya Realm. They all stepped into True Morning Dao World through the spot where the old man had died, which was near True Sacred Yin World.

There might only be one hundred people who had stepped in, but in truth, most of the powerful warriors from the previous aeons in Arid Triad watched the event through various methods. They had even started a gambling pool, completely treating it as as the best show in their lives, a moment that might turn into a beautiful memory in the brief period of time they could remain awake.

When nearly one hundred powerful warriors stepped into True Morning Dao World, ripples with the intensity of violent gusts stirred up in the entire True World. Those ripples spread out swiftly. When they swept through all of True Morning Dao World, the cultivators who had come to seek refuge felt their hearts shudder. Fear and despair appeared on their faces. They did not know whether they could still treat the place as a safe haven.

Ripples formed by the nearly one hundred powerful presences turned into a violent storm that swept outwards. It became stronger with each passing moment, and strange roars filled with malicious intentions and arrogance shook the skies.

Su Ming opened his eyes in Ninth Summit’s sect.

“Baldy, take this with you and wipe off all of those people.”

When Su Ming spoke, the bald crane, who was already incredibly bored while staying by his side, immediately felt its spirits lift. It howled, and its brightly burning eyes betrayed its excitement.

“Crystals! Crystals! Those people have lived for a long time! They will definitely have a lot of crystals!”

The bald crane’s eyes sparkled in excitement. When it saw Su Ming swing his arm, a log the size of a fist floated up in front of the bald crane.

“What is this?”

The bald crane was stunned. It thought that Su Ming would bring out a treasure that would shock the world, but when it looked at the log, it found it to be incredibly normal. There was nothing special about it.

“You only need to strike a person with it, and that person will be wiped off.”

After speaking, Su Ming closed his eyes again to immerse himself in gaining an epiphany of his cultivation base. He had to make sure that he could be at the peak condition fifty years later to face everything the disaster and destruction had to offer.

“Alright!”

The bald crane was full of excitement. It grabbed the log, then turned into a long arc that left into the distance while sniggering. It sliced through the air and entered the galaxy.

To the powerful warriors of the previous aeons, their actions were a game, and to the bald crane, it was also a game. Once it cleared it, it would gain a large number of crystals. Such a reward was enough for the bald crane to go mad.

It made strange cries all along the way while holding itself with arrogance. It moved so quickly that it surpassed its limit once again, or rather, the limit had never existed for the bald crane before. Giving it a sufficient number of crystals would always make it burst out with strength that was near unlimited.

There were not many planets in True Morning Dao World. Most of them were floating continents. At that moment, the near one hundred long arcs formed by the powerful warriors charged through the galaxy beyond one continent.

“There are quite a lot of people here. Haha! Don’t even think about snatching them from my hands. This place is mine. I want to refine the continent and all of the living people in it into my Enchanted Treasure!”

An old man laughed. With a single move, he charged towards the continent. When he brought his right hand up, white flames appeared on his palm. They were so bright it seemed like they could even melt the galaxy. When the old man flung his arm, the flames charged towards the continent below him and spread out.

The people around him watched with a smile; no one tried to fight him for the continent. The old man could already imagine the countless shrill screams of pain in the next breath when the continent turned into a component for his Enchanted Treasure after it was refined.

Yet right when the flames were about to descend and the cultivators on the continent sank into despair, the bald crane stepped out of the space under the fire. It had its head held high and looked incredibly arrogant. Right when it appeared, it lifted its claw, and a log flew out at the flames.

There were no loud noise when the log crashed into the flames, but they immediately shuddered and disintegrated. The log did not stop moving, however. It shot through the flames and came at the old man. His face twisted in shock, then it touched his body lightly.

After that one touch, the galaxy fell silent.

The old man’s body was instantly reduced to minced meat. It simply broke down, his soul already destroyed.

The bald crane was also shocked by the log’s strength, but soon, it recovered. It thought for a moment, then quickly transformed into a sagely-looking old man.

There was an arrogant smile on its face when it said indifferently, “I am the bald crane, and I heard that the cultivators in this continent are willing to offer one million crystals to avoid the disaster. I wonder if this is true?”

When it spoke, the bald crane lowered its head and cast a glance at the cultivators on the continent with an aloof expression.