Pursuit of the Truth

When the starlight drew out the outline of the face, everyone present saw that the person had his eyes closed. In the air, the person in black robes let out a low growl and withdrew in one swift move. He charged towards Bi Tu and grabbed him, as if he was about to leave the place with him.

He could feel a presence that made him horrified, coming from the unfamiliar sky. The presence made all the hairs on his body rise. That feeling was one he had not experienced for many years.

At that moment, he no longer had any desire to catch Su Ming. There was only one thought in his head—he had to quickly get out of this place!

Yet the moment he grabbed Bi Tu and was about to leave, the person formed by the light coming from the replaced stars in the sky opened his eyes. His gaze held an oppressive might and aloofness. It was just one glance, and a boom sounded in Bi Tu’s head. That look that came from the person in the sky gave him a feeling that the person had already surpassed the northern Fallen God of Berserkers he had summoned by sacrificing his life!

”Who is he?!”

The person in black robes was petrified. The fear in him made him not care about anything else. A large amount of black mist appeared from underneath his feet. He grabbed Bi Tu and they hastily disappeared into the air.

The moment the person in black robes tried to disappear with Bi Tu, the person that looked rather similar to Su Ming in the sky raised his right hand. He did not clench his fist, but closed his fingers together and pushed down towards the earth.

The moment he pressed his palm, a wind that blew downwards stirred up. That wind blew past the place where the person in black robes disappeared with Bi Tu. Immediately, that space in the air started twisting, and the person in black robes and Bi Tu were forcefully dragged back from their escape. The very instant they were dragged out, Bi Tu let out a scream, and his arms were torn into pieces of flesh and blood.

The person in black robes stood in front of Bi Tu and coughed out blood. His face, which was hidden under the black robe, was filled with terror and panic.

‘What is with his power?! This has far surpassed the Bone Sacrifice Realm… This person from another world… could he be at the Berserker Soul Realm?’

The palm strike coming from the sky may have seemed slow, but in reality, it traveled down really quickly in the direction where the person in black robes and Bi Tu were. Booming sounds reverberated in the air. The moment the palm pressed down, the person in black robes let out a shrill cry. He grabbed Bi Tu, who was standing behind him, and once he infused some power into him, threw him towards the incoming palm.

Bi Tu could not even resist. The moment his body touched the palm, the power that was infused into him by the person in black robes exploded, causing his entire body to burst apart with a bang. A strong force came forth and shook the entire area, but…

The palm did not stop for even a moment. It was as if that force was nothing. It went through the force caused by Bi Tu’s explosion and rushed toward the person in black robes.

The eyes of the person in black robes were bloodshot. He could not escape. As he lifted his arms quickly, the 13th piece of his spine let out a great power that fused into his arms. He pushed at the palm coming towards him.

A booming sound echoed once again in the sky. The person in black robes let out a sharp and pained cry. His arms, hidden under those black sleeves, were immediately ripped into pieces. Even his black robe was torn apart, revealing the face he had kept hidden.

It was an old man with a black picture on his body. That picture looked like an eye, and on his back, an old and aged presence came from the 13th piece of his spine.

‘I can tell… that is a will that has been left on that instrument for many years… It is just a thought, and yet it is already this strong… That person… He must be an incredibly powerful Berserker in the other world!’

The old man coughed out blood. As his arms trembled, they were torn into bloody ribbons. He knew that death was hanging right over his head. As his body tumbled backwards, he struggled to lift up his right hand and grab at the air. A beast skin appeared out of nowhere in his hand.

There was silver fur on that beast skin; it looked incredibly valuable. At that moment, the old man took the beast skin and wore it. At the same time, he also started making signs with his hands, drawing out a blood-red picture on his body with his ten bloodied fingers. That picture was the same as the Berserker Mark on his body. It was an eye!

”Beast Form Transformation!”

As the old man growled, silver light shone brilliantly on his body. In an instant, an incredibly strange change happened to his body.

After the beast skin was placed on his body, it started spreading to cover its entirety under that silver light. Right before Su Ming’s eyes, he turned into a ferocious silver beast!

That ferocious beast was like a bull, but it only had one eye. Its entire body was covered in silver fur. There was lightning flashing on the two horns on its head. At the moment, all the power from the Bone Sacrifice Realm was fused into the 13th piece of the beast’s spine under the silver beast skin.

The beast let out a roar and crashed into the incoming palm.

The palm’s incoming assault caused the beast to tremble when it touched the silver bull beast. The two horns on its head immediately shattered, and the silver fur on its body fell away from its body as if it was shaved away. When all of its fur was scraped off, a layer of the beast’s skin was torn away from its body. A light flashed, and the bull disappeared. The old man’s body materialized once again. His face was pale, and his eyes showed despair. As he coughed out blood, the palm pressed on his body.

His arms burst apart, and his legs too, disappeared. His torso was the only thing left, but on his back, the 13th piece of his spine jolted, and with a boom, it shattered. When the bone shattered, the old man let out an ear-shattering cry of pain. There was also despair in his voice. He knew that that his Berserker Bone was crushed by this hand. From now on, even if he survived, he would no longer be a powerful Berserker in the Bone Sacrifice Realm.

‘It’s just a thought, but it’s so strong…’

He smiled brokenly and closed his eyes. Yet the moment he did so, their world, which had experienced the string of battles, started to become unstable. Now, as the palm pushed down, the space around the old man started cracking. These cracks started spreading outwards quickly, and in an instant, they shattered like a mirror that fell to the ground!

This was the shattering of space!

There was space between the sky and earth, but it was invisible and no one could see it. Yet if it was to suffer an incredibly strong attack, then the shattering of space would appear for an instance, though it would rapidly recover on its own afterwards.

However, the moment it shattered, a void that swallowed everything would be formed. That void had incredibly powerful absorbing powers that could suck in everything around it.

At that moment, as the space shattered above Dark Mountain, a void appeared!

It was a black vortex. The moment it appeared, the person in black robes was the first to be forcefully taken in, causing him to avoid that palm strike that made him fall into despair.

At the same moment, a large amount of gravel fell from all the mountains nearby. Dried up plants, black snow, and all the other things flew up and were sucked into the void.

Su Ming could no longer move. When that strong absorbing power appeared, his body was pulled towards the void. He was sucked into the void along with the gravel and plants. The moment he was sucked in, he saw the elder lying on the other summit. He had his eyes closed, and there was no way of knowing whether he was alive. He was also sucked into the void.

That was the last scene Su Ming saw. After that, darkness fell upon his eyes. He lost consciousness…

The void only appeared for the span of a few breaths before it closed up and disappeared. The world returned to normal. The starry sky from the other world in the sky also gradually disappeared. The gigantic person, too, slowly faded away. Cracking sounds reverberated through the air, and the black flag pole turned rapidly back to yellow before turning into ashes that were blown away by the wind.

A thunderous boom reverberated through the land, and cracks appeared on the ground. All of the remaining black snow disappeared.

A gigantic outline of a palm appeared on the land. As the thunderous booms echoed in the air, one of the five summits on Dark Mountain crumbled, and its dust scattered into the air.

Everything gradually returned to silence.

In a patch of forest that was not affected, a small monkey dashed forward with anxiety. It climbed up Dark Dragon Mountain, where Su Ming was taken in by the void. On the summit, it looked at the sky and let out screeches that sounded as if they were calling out to him.

The screeches lasted for a long time until the little monkey looked at the land in the distance with a bitter face. It could see the other side of the mountain. In its memories, Su Ming had once mentioned that he wanted to see what the other side looked like.

Gradually, the little monkey climbed down the mountain. From then onwards, no one saw a flash of red running around the forest ever again.

The night of the blood-red moon that appeared once every few years also never appeared again, and neither did the Wings of the Moon.

After the battle, Dark Mountain, which had five summits, now looked as if someone had sliced off one of its five fingers cleanly, turning it into a mountain with only four summits. Black Flame Mountain was also missing its peak.

It ended…

Wind Stream Tribe was in a state of disarray. When Jing Nan and Wen Yan returned, these two powerful Berserkers of the Transcendence Realm chose to isolate themselves to train. They kept their lips sealed tight about the things that had happened in Wind Stream Mountain.

All the matters within the tribe, no matter great or small, were handed over to Shi Hai and the others. Even the training of Ye Wang and the others were set aside. Their injuries were too grave. If it were not because their enemy had seemed to be holding back due to fear of something, the two of them would not have been able to return.

Dark Mountain Tribe became an affiliated tribe of Wind Stream, and the seventh tribe located outside the mudstone city. It was also the weakest tribe. The only Berserkers within the tribe were the tribe leader, Bei Ling, and the handicapped Head of the Guards.

The elder did not come back. Lei Chen did not come back. Su Ming too, did not come back…

Amid their sadness, Dark Mountain Tribe sent some people back to Dark Mountain after a few days had passed. They found the corpses of their people, Nan Song, and Shan Hen, and relayed what they saw regarding the four summits of Dark Mountain to their tribe members waiting back home. Surrounded by grief, they held a funeral for their deceased tribe members, which coincidentally fell on the same day as the promise made between Su Ming and Bai Ling.

They did not know about Shan Hen’s betrayal. He was buried together with his other tribe members.

On the day of the funeral, rain fell together with snow from the sky. It was very cold.

Standing outside Dark Mountain Tribe in the freezing snow and rain was a girl in white. She stood there quietly, and touched the bone earrings hanging off her ears. It was unknown whether there were tears falling as snow and rain trickled down her face.

End of Arc One.