Pursuit of the Truth

This feast went from morning till night, then from night to morning. They finished pot after pot in big gulps. When dawn arrived but the world was still engulfed in darkness, Lei Chen became drunk. He picked up his pot, drank a mouthful from it, and when he put it down, he closed his eyes.

Su Ming also put down his pot of wine and looked at the Dark Mountain Tribe around him. He watched the lights from the lamps, but there was a barrier between him and that place. However… Su Ming knew that if he tore through that barrier, he would be able to become one with the place.

Yet… he sighed softly. At the instant Su Ming began tracing the rim of the pot, he closed his eyes.

“Lei Chen, we were brothers in our previous life. In this life… I will finish drinking this pot of wine with you,” he murmured.

When he opened his eyes again, Lei Chen was still in front of him, and he seemed to be drunk. However, the tribe was nowhere to be seen. There was now a thick layer of snow on the ground. In the distance, Dark Mountain was a blurry sight.

Hao Hao had showed up beside him, holding onto his sleeve. He was staring at him nervously. When he saw the clarity in Su Ming’s eyes, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Su Ming stared at Lei Chen. When he lowered his head, he found that his pot was still empty. After a long while… he stood up. He did not speak, but just simply picked up Hao Hao, and with the snow and wind blowing against his face walked into the distance.

It was Lei Chen’s choice. He chose the same path as Di Tian, to get lost. Di Tian wanted to resurrect the people beside him and willingly became lost so that they would believe that the place was real, while Lei Chen…

It was just as he said: He was tired and exhausted. He did not want to continue down the path because he carried too much anguish on his shoulders.

Su Ming’s sigh echoed in the snow and wind. The howls of the wind seemed to turn into a ravine that formed a barrier, blocking him from Lei Chen, who was behind him.

But it did not just block the path between the two of them. It also blocked off their two worlds…

In Lei Chen’s world, to satisfy his brother’s desire to drink with him, Su Ming chose to temporarily lose himself. After drinking, Su Ming chose to leave, because he had his own path, which Di Tian did not manage to complete and on which Lei Chen did not choose to continue. But Su Ming… would go on.

As he left into the distance, the seemingly drunk Lei Chen slowly lifted his head while the snow blocked the path between the two of them. He stared at Su Ming leave into the distance, and a melancholic look appeared on his face.

“Our relationship as brothers in our previous life allowed us to drink in this life. Su Ming… I hope that you… will be safe in your journey.” When Lei Chen mumbled those words, laughter reached his ears from behind.

“Lei Chen, didn’t you agree to drink with us today? Come on, I didn’t get to win against you last time, but this time, I will definitely outdrink you.”

When Lei Chen turned his head around, he saw his version of Su Ming, and there was a girl standing beside him. She was Bai Ling.

Lei Chen smiled. When he tried to sneak a glance at Su Ming who was retreating into the distance, he found that Su Ming had already disappeared into the wind and snow and could no longer to be found.

“What are you looking at?” a woman asked.

When Lei Chen turned his head in the direction of the voice, he saw the built woman who his past self had liked because she had a figure fit for a Berserker. That woman, whose name he had forgotten, seemed to have become prettier when he looked at her at that moment.

“Haha, I’m not looking at anything. I just thought there was a figure over there which looked like Su Ming. Come on, let’s drink.”

When Lei Chen said tossed words out, he smiled. Next to him was Su Ming, who was standing with Bai Ling. He was momentarily stunned, then he looked at the spot in the snow where Lei Chen had glanced over, but saw nothing.

“You won’t be able to see him, because you are in the world that I see, not in the world that he sees.” Lei Chen shook his head. While speaking, he picked his pot and took a big swig from it.

The wind blew harder, more snow fell, and the world became blurry. It turned the Dark Mountain Tribe as well as all the people around Lei Chen indistinct.

However, it was just as he said, the world in his eyes…

The boy next to Su Ming, who was already very far away in the distance, turned his head around at that moment. At the very end of what he could see in the wind and snow, he could vaguely see Lei Chen’s desolate figure sitting alone.

Time gradually passed with each step Su Ming took. Another century went by. and Su Ming left the black continent and arrived at the eighth continent.

He walked through the endless sea of a desert. During the seven hundredth year, he remembered a promise while he was in an ancient city at the center of the eighth continent. It was a promise between the three ninth level Dao Gods in Ancient Zang, a promise that they would fight in the royal capital after one of them had entered isolated training for one thousand years.

“I can’t see it anymore…” Su Ming mumbled softly.

He walked past the city, and in the west of the land, he saw a tower. There was a person meditating in it.

The man’s face was unfamiliar, and he looked like a corpse that would no longer rot. The moment Su Ming looked over, the corpse’s eyes flew open to reveal a brilliant sparkle.

“I’ve calculated for six hundred years, and I’ve finally managed to figure out that you would walk past this place on this day at this date… Third prince, you are the reason why I fell to this state. It’s because of you that I got sealed in this world, and I have waited for you for one hundred years in this place…

“You will die now!” the corpse said slowly. Its voice held indescribable resentment.

When the world around them let out a bang, the color of the sky changed. The ground rose, and a large amount of fog filled the land. The fog twisted in the air, then rose to the sky. A huge mark made of fog formed above the figure!

It was not a mark though, but a huge seal that covered a huge area!

The runic symbol shone, and when its surface became uneven, a brilliant, dark light spread out from it to form a screen of light that instantly fell on the land as if it wanted to cover the sky.

The corpse shouted then, and its voice spread through the entire continent in thunderous roars.

Lin Dong Dong!

He was the Great Dao Paragon of One Dao Sect, a powerful warrior who had inherited the Dao of Kismet. Just as Lei Chen had said, in the formerly glorious world, the wills within the first prince had spread out to become Lei Chen, Lin Dong Dong… and Old Man Extermination.

The mysterious aspects of the world they were in right then had separated them. Lei Chen chose to get lost, Su Ming had yet to meet Old Man Extermination, and Lin Dong Dong had clearly chosen to kill Su Ming!

“I will kill you and rob you of your kismet, and then, I might be able to take a step further in my level of cultivation and become a ninth level Dao God. If I’m able to do that, I will have a way to leave this accursed place!”

Murderous intent burned in Lin Dong Dong’s eyes. When he lifted his right hand, he pointed at Su Ming. The sky immediately roared. The huge fog seal started rotating swiftly and appeared above Su Ming to push down on him. It stirred up loud booms in the process.

With it, the ground under Su Ming’s feet began to tremble violently. Cracks instantly spread through it as if it was about to sink. The signs of its imminent destruction were clear.

Su Ming’s expression remained the same. He had not paid any attention to what level of cultivation he had reached during the seven hundred years he wandered through the land, but at that moment, when he looked at the fog seal descend from the sky, he did not sense much pressure from it. It was as if… he could make it disappear with a swing of his hand.

Su Ming did not sense much of a threat from Lin Dong Dong either. Once he focused his attention on the situation at hand, he saw all that was going on.

Lin Dong Dong had been weakened, to the point that he was at the verge of being reduced from a Great Dao Paragon to a Dao Paragon. It almost seemed like his existence was unwelcome in the world.

And while he had weakened, Su Ming had become stronger. In silence, he brought his right hand up and pointed at the sky.

With it, the huge fog seal that was descending let out an astonishing roar and stopped one thousand feet above Su Ming as if there was a barrier that could not be seen beneath it.

“All manner of reality and falsehoods, all glory and destruction are just words spoken by the people after us, and they only exist in the passage of time… Do you understand?” Su Ming asked softly.

He swung his right arm, and immediately, the huge fog seal started trembling. It gradually became indistinct. In just a few breaths, it disappeared like the wind…

Su Ming’s composure caused Lin Dong Dong’s expression to change while he was on the tower. His pupils shrank, and he swiftly focused his attention on Su Ming, but he only discovered that he could not tell just what level of cultivation Su Ming possessed!

‘That’s impossible! With my level of cultivation, it’s impossible for me to be unable to tell just how high anyone’s level of cultivation is!’

When Lin Dong Dong’s pupils shrank, he quickly stood up from the tower. He took a step in Su Ming’s direction and left behind an afterimage in his wake. Once he went forward, he appeared right in front of Su Ming and seized the air with his right hand.

With it, the sky immediately roared. Its color changed, and a crimson sun appeared in the sky. The ground rumbled with Su Ming at the center, and cracks below him connected in the picture of a moon.

“The sun and moon will shine together, forming the brightest light in the world!”

Lin Dong Dong’s voice boomed in the air like thunder and covered the entire land. Immediately, the crimson sun in the sky exuded an indescribable wave of hot air. Then, as if it was plunging from the sky, it charged towards Su Ming with loud bangs.

At the same time, the mark of the moon under Su Ming’s feet started rotating as well. The whole ground seemed to be moving. Waves of silver light instantly rose into the air and enveloped Su Ming within them.

“Gather together the threads of kismet in the world, and with the power of all lives, your kismet shall leave you and descend on me!”

Lin Dong Dong’s eyes were bloodshot. At the instant he spoke his last word, the sun in the sky descended with a bang. The silver light on the ground turned into countless silver threads of law which charged at Su Ming to kill him.

Each of those silver threads contained all of Lin Dong Dong’s kismet. He turned his kismet into a will containing his killing intent, and it was strong enough to even destroy the world. His entire fortune was gathered in the threads, and it was as if One Dao Sect’s Dao of Kismet had descended.

“You will die now!”

Lin Dong Dong was incredibly confident in his attack. Even though he had been weakened considerably, it was his greatest killing move, and he was certain that Su Ming would definitely die, unless he possessed the power of a Great Dao Paragon!

While surrounded by the silver threads and the setting sun, Su Ming sighed softly.

“Do you still not understand?”