Pursuit of the Truth

“Perhaps my Master will tell me the answer when I return to Ancient Zang and go to the city gate in the royal capital,” Su Ming mumbled softly. He remembered his promise with Tian Xie Zi.

“I… will wait for you outside the city gates at that time. At the moment you step inside the city gate… I will teach you your final lesson.”

Su Ming closed his eyes. In his ears, he heard Tian Xie Zi’s words. They accompanied him as he continued walking.

He walked for one hundred years, then two hundred years. When he walked past all nine continents, Su Ming saw the desert that once served as an ocean.

The desert was huge, and there was no end to it, just like to the road under his feet. As long as he walked down it, then he had to persist in finishing the journey, even if he did not know where the end was nor the direction of his future. Even if his heart was filled with anxiety and fear… since he chose that path, he would not turn his head back.

While Su Ming stared at the boundless desert, the boy next to him tugged his sleeve and said softly, “We’re almost there. The center of this ocean is my home…”

Hao Hao’s voice was still as youthful as ever. He had accompanied Su Ming for nine hundred years as they walked through the once glorious world. They had seen shattered mountains, dried-up rivers, corpses, broken skeletons, and right then, Su Ming saw a desert, but perhaps in Hao Hao’s eyes, it was an ocean.

Su Ming lowered his head and cast Hao Hao a glance. He did not speak, but instead brought Hao Hao further into the desert.

There was wind there. Its moans filled the air, and it sounded like the wind was sighing desolately. Gusts swept up the sand to lay a curtain on the world around them. It also hid away the majesty that was once possessed by the place. However, the image of the sand and wind covering the stretch of the sky was similar to the ocean… and if time insisted on it being this way, then sand would turn into an ocean, because it had no other choice.

While holding Hao Hao’s hand in the sand and wind. Su Ming walked until an old ship appeared in the sandstorm that resembled an ocean. That ship sailed through the ocean of sand, and sitting on it was a man. When Su Ming looked at him, his figure became a blur.

Su Ming followed the ship leaving into the distance with his gaze and said softly, “It’s about time that I met him here.”

“Who is he?” Hao Hao lifted his head and looked at Su Ming.

“An old acquaintance.” Su Ming smiled faintly and patted Hao Hao’s head, then brought him further into the sandstorm.

“What’s wrong with him?” Hao Hao asked again.

“He lost his way.” Su Ming shook his head, and his gaze landed on the blurry figure of the ship. When he moved his gaze away, he continued on with Hao Hao.

Once every few months, Su Ming would see the old ship swimming about the sea of sand as if it had lost its way and was continuously trying to find it.

It gave off a feeling that it was trying to continue down its road… but he simply could not find it.

“He’s very pitiful,” Hao Hao said softly.

“Why?”

“Because he doesn’t want to be lost. If he lost his way willingly, he would at least have his happiness, but he is not willing to be lost. Yet on this road, he is lost, and he can’t go back,” Hao Hao said after pondering it for a while.

“But he’s so silly. How could he actually get lost?” Hao Hao laughed. His laughter was clear, like water drops falling on asphalt roads.

Su Ming also laughed. He stared at the ship swimming past them in the distance with a myriad of emotions contained in his smile. He then sighed softly.

Old Man Extermination had gotten lost on the path he had walked all his life. When he fought against Su Ming, there was no distinction between right or wrong between them. There was only one belief: I can walk this path… but you cannot walk before me!

This was the thought that stirred up emotions in Su Ming’s heart, and he had sighed because he did not know whether there would come a day when he would become like Old Man Extermination—lose his way while persisting down his path.

Once he lost his way, he would lose his way in life.

Perhaps there was another possibility…

In silence, Su Ming crouched down and looked at Hao Hao.

“There should be another possibility… Hao Hao, wait for me here,” Su Ming said softly. Hao Hao looked at him, then nodded.

“What other choice? Are you going to point him on his way?”

“No one can point others to their paths.”

Su Ming shook his head. When he turned around, he walked to the place where the ship had disappeared. His figure gradually faded into the sandstorm until he could no longer be seen.

With the sandstorm blowing at the ship, it moved forward through the sea of sand. Old Man Extermination was dressed in the same long robe as the one Su Ming remembered him wearing before. He sat quietly on his ship as if nothing had ever changed. Be it Harmonious Morus Alba or the once glorious world, everything remained the same.

When Su Ming appeared on the lone ship, Old Man Extermination’s eyes instantly flew open. There was firm resolve in his eyes. When he looked at Su Ming, there was not a hint of surprise on his face, as if he knew a long time ago that one day, he would see Su Ming before him.

“Your path is wrong,” Su Ming said calmly.

Old Man Extermination was quiet for a moment before he asked faintly, “How do you define wrong?”

Su Ming smiled and did not continue speaking.

“To me, my path is not wrong. The only thing that is wrong is the person walking on that path, and my mistake is that I lost to you in Harmonious Morus Alba…” Old Man Extermination spoke slowly, and when his words traveled languidly through the air, it was as if his memories had been stirred up.

“That was my first mistake, and my second… was losing to you a second time in Ancient Zang’s world.” Old Man Extermination’s expression was the same as before, but a hint of regret had appeared in his eyes.

“I didn’t win.”

“Then why did you say that my path is wrong?” A brilliant sparkle appeared in Old Man Extermination’s eyes.

“Is your path the one that is definitely correct? You think that my path is wrong, but I too think that you are walking down the wrong path. Who is right, and who is wrong? Be it you or me, neither of us has the right to say it.

“Let’s look at the end results. The path we chose is the same. You will do everything it takes to resurrect all the familiar faces in your life, and I will reach Boundless Dao Realm. I will turn time back and return to the past, to the point of time before Xuan Zang arrived in our world.

“At that time, I will do whatever it takes to kill Xuan Zang. Even if I have to lose everything, I will give it up to kill him!”

Killing intent filled Old Man Extermination’s eyes, and he stared at Su Ming coldly.

Su Ming was silent. After a long while, he said slowly, “If you continue down that path, you will be the only person left in the entire universe.”

Old Man Extermination was quiet for a long time. A complicated look gradually appeared on his face, and when he looked at Su Ming, that complicated look became even more prominent,

“Then, what about your path? If you continue down it, then you will be the one who will disappear from the universe!”

Su Ming fell silent, and Old Man Extermination also chose to be silent. The two of them stayed on the ship. One of them was standing, and the other sat meditating. The ship continued moving forward and did not stop. It did not matter whether its path forward was right or wrong. It continued moving and would never stop.

“Then, this will be the third battle between us!”

After a long time had passed, a faint smile appeared on Su Ming’s face, and he looked at Old Man Extermination.

“This should be what made you choose to come to me, right?” Old Man Extermination’s eyes shone brilliantly while he spoke slowly.

“You’ve waited for me for such a long time in this place as well, didn’t you?” Su Ming smiled faintly.

“It is as you said!”

The brilliant sparkle in Old Man Extermination’s eyes turned into fighting spirit. It did not drive him to attack with his divine abilities or attempt to kill Su Ming with his Arts, however. Instead, they would engage each other in their final battle using their Daos and their paths. Since they did not agree to each other’s paths, they would verify their own paths, which would conclude their final battle!

“If you lose, could you bury my Dao in your world, because in the universe where I live, I will no longer see you.” Old Man Extermination enunciated his words clearly, and his voice was firm.

“If I win, you owe me a promise.”

When Su Ming’s calm voice traveled into the air, his tone was not as agitated as Old Man Extermination’s and ready to fight. His words were calm, and not a single hint of emotion could be detected in his voice. He no longer stared at Old Man Extermination. Instead, he turned around and walked towards the vast space beyond the ship to disappear into the wind and sand.

Old Man Extermination watched Su Ming’s retreating figure, and then, his eyes sparkled while he mumbled under his breath, “There is never any right or wrong in our paths, but you insist that one of us is right, and the other is wrong… The third battle, huh? I’m already indignant with my two defeats, and this… is better!”

After a long while, Old Man Extermination slowly closed his eyes. He immersed himself in his meditation while sitting on his ship that traveled into the distance.

Su Ming walked quietly through the sandstorm without turning his head back. There was a strange glint in his eyes, but it disappeared very soon.

Su Ming walked up to the waiting Hao Hao in the sea of sand. When Hao Hao saw him, he immediately flashed him an innocent smile.

“I’ve thought about it. What you said then was wrong, he isn’t lost.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because there is never any path to begin with. The path is right under your feet. The places you arrive are part of your path. They can be the end of your path, but also places along your path. If you insist on whether the path you take is right or wrong, you will be treading down the wrong path. Am I right?”

Hao Hao tugged Su Ming’s sleeve with a smile. There was a slightly smug look on his face, as if he was very happy that he understood this logic, which Su Ming seemed to not have understood.

While smiling, Su Ming patted Hao Hao’s head. There was a gentle look on his face, and he nodded.

“You’re right. There has never been a path set for any person in the world, so it’s only natural that there is no right or wrong, and we should not care about these things, or else the right and wrong paths will truly appear,” Su Ming said with a smile. With Hao Hao in hand, he walked into the distance.

They gradually walked further and further away, and while their voices were rather muffled, they still traveled faintly through the air.

“Then why did you say that he walked down the wrong path?”

“Because I hope that he will walk down the wrong path.”

“Oh… so you left just now to tell him that he’s going the wrong way?”

“There is no right or wrong for any paths, but once I mentioned it, there now exists right and wrong paths. This is the other possibility. He will continue walking down the wrong path until he owes me a promise.”

Their figures slowly disappeared into the sandstorm, and even their voices gradually faded away. Their words were also slowly drowned out by the wind.