Pursuit of the Truth

Su Ming paused for a moment before he suddenly spoke.

”Possess me!”

His words were shocking, and they stunned He Feng completely. His jaw fell slack, and he only regained his senses after a moment. Nervousness and terror immediately appeared on his face, and he quickly explained, ”Mas… Master, this… I… I didn’t do anything wrong. I even helped you in your fight before I fell unconscious, I…”

”I’m telling you to Possess me, stop talking so much!”

Su Ming cast a cold glance at He Feng. His gaze may have seemed aloof, but he was in truth subtly observing He Feng’s reaction.

He Feng was still baffled. He smiled wanly as he looked at Su Ming. After a moment of hesitation, he knelt down on the ground. There may have been no tears in his eyes, but they still glistened moistly.

”Master, I’ve done wrong, I truly did. Please forgive me this time. I won’t dare do it again.”

Su Ming’s eyes shone brightly. From the small connection he had with He Feng through their souls, he could sense He Feng’s nervousness and fear. There was no joy within him.

”Master, I can’t Possess you. If I did, then it’d be the same as erasing your existence. If… I… If I erase you, then I won’t be able to survive either. It’s the same as killing myself…”

He Feng had temporarily lost his tongue, he did not know how to explain himself.

”I’m not asking you to perform a complete Possession. When I tell you to stop, then you can stop,” Su Ming said languidly.

This was incredibly important to him. It was a deciding factor on whether he should go in and meet Han Mountain’s ancestor.

He must first become accustomed to the Possession process and see whether he can find a way out, and whether he can obtain a certain amount of certainty to remain safe before he could take the risk.

He had chosen He Feng for this after carefully thinking things through.

”Master, I’ve never Possessed anyone before. I only know the method… You… Are you sure you want to try it?”

He Feng hesitated for a moment. When he saw Su Ming nodding, he gritted his teeth and did not dare oppose him.

His Spirit Body turned into a dim light that charged straight towards the center of Su Ming’s brows. The instant it touched Su Ming’s forehead, the dim light flickered as if it had fused into the body.

A shudder ran through Su Ming’s body and he slowly closed his eyes.

”Master… Master…”

A voice called out to him repeatedly in Su Ming’s head. He opened his eyes, and a world shrouded in fog appeared in his sight.

Only the area 100 feet around him was empty. The other parts were all covered in rolling fog, and muffled booming sounds reverberated from within it.

”This is your mind. It’s also the first place that will appear during the act of Possession.”

He Feng’s careful voice traveled into his ears. Su Ming turned his head around and saw He Feng’s Spirit Body by his side.

There was an intimidating force coming from his Spirit Body that made Su Ming uncomfortable. He lowered his head and looked at his body, becoming stunned as he did so.

At that moment, he no longer had a body. He was only a weak ball of dim light. Yet there was an even dimmer thread coming from the deeper parts of his light which connected him to He Feng’s Spirit Body. It gave Su Ming a feeling that with just one thought, He Feng would immediately die.

Besides this thread, Su Ming also saw something else. There was something that was muddled in his own light. Even he himself had to pay full attention to sense it before he could notice its presence.

‘This is…’

Su Ming turned his attention towards it. Once he did so, he immediately felt as if his divine sense was being absorbed into the dim light, to where the muddled object was.

That thing was a black stone piece. It was hidden away by the dim light around it, which was why it was difficult for people to see it clearly from outside.

‘It’s that stone…’

The moment Su Ming saw that stone piece, he felt shaken to the core, causing the dim light to flicker greatly, which also made He Feng, who maintained by his side, jump in fright.

He Feng was incredibly terrified. He was afraid that Su Ming would accidentally touch that thread in his Spirit Sphere and he would die, because if he did die here, it would only end up as a huge tragedy on his part.

Su Ming observed the stone debris. This item had been with him for many years and he always kept it around his neck. He did not expect to see that thing here.

After a moment of hesitation, Su Ming tried getting closer to it, yet the moment his touched the stone debris…!

”Brother… brother…”

”Brother… I can feel you… Brother…”

That familiar feminine voice echoed strongly within Su Ming’s divine sense, causing him to tremble.

That voice seemed to have been buried in his heart for a long time. It could not be wiped off and would not disappear. In the past, when it appeared in his dreams, he would feel as if it was muddled and coming from somewhere far away, but now, the voice was incredibly loud, as if it was right before him.

Some time passed before Su Ming regained consciousness. He left the stone debris hidden in the dim light and fell into a long period of silence.

”Master…”

He Feng was already shaking in his boots as he spoke in a cautious tone.

”Let’s start,” Su Ming said coolly.

”Yes, Master. This is also the first time I entered someone else’s mind. But Master, your mind seems to be a little different from mine. Why is there so much fog..?”

He Feng looked around him. Afraid that Su Ming would misunderstand him, he hesitated for a moment before he looked at Su Ming.

”Master, Possession is actually very simple. All I need to do is to devour the Spirit Sphere of the person I want to possess... but don’t worry, I won’t dare to devour it, coalescence will create the same effects…”

”Alright.”

Su Ming nodded.

”Pardon me.”

He Feng gritted his teeth and his Spirit Body charged towards Su Ming, but that respectful look on his face made it seem as if he was not here to possess Su Ming. The moment He Feng’s Spirit Body approached Su Ming, they touched each other swiftly. He Feng trembled, while Su Ming’s divine sense shuddered.

He felt as if there was thunder rumbling in his mind, and that was quickly followed by the fog around him suddenly tumbling backwards violently. The booming sounds echoing within were so loud they shook the heavens and earth.

As the fog tumbled backwards, Su Ming and He Feng’s Spirit Bodies quickly fused together. This was not an act of devouring, but coalescence. Their minds would fuse together and become one. If this continued, then there would eventually be an entity that was neither He Feng nor Su Ming, but one that had both of their divine senses merged together.

Su Ming could feel himself weakening during the coalescence as if he was going to disappear at any moment, yet he paid no mind to any of these. He only stared at the fog outside.

He could clearly see the fog outside tumbling backwards ceaselessly. Some part of it began thinning out, and gradually, a large portion of the thin fog dissipated, revealing memories in the form of moving pictures that were previously hidden under the fog.

He saw himself walking into the secret tunnel with Nan Tian and the others. He saw himself walking up the mountain of Tranquil East Tribe. He saw himself falling asleep on the desolate mountain with the blood moon in the sky.

His memories moved like flowing water as they flowed in reverse before Su Ming bit by bit.

He saw himself transforming He Feng into the medicinal cauldron. He saw himself fighting against Han Fei Zi. He saw himself noticing He Feng and Xuan Lun closing in as they fought against each other while he was meditating in peace.

He saw Han Mountain City along with the Chains of Han Mountain. He saw Fang Mu delivering herbs to him. He saw himself kidnapping Fang Mu once he recovered from his injuries…

His memories continued playing out in reverse until some of those moving pictures eventually had Su Ming sitting still in the mountain cave recovering from his injuries, then they stopped moving.

”Master… I can’t hold on anymore… If we continue like this, we’ll really merge together into one!” He Feng’s distressed voice echoed within Su Ming’s mind.

”Also, Master, what’s in your Spirit Sphere?! The more I fuse together with it, the more it rejects me. What… What is this..? It… It’s sucking me in… Ah…!”

Terror suddenly appeared in He Feng’s voice, as if he had just encountered something unbelievable and shocking.

Tremors started in Su Ming’s mind. He could feel He Feng’s terror. This was also the first time he realized that an increasingly stronger absorption force was coming from the stone debris in his Spirit Sphere, and it was not trying to absorb him, but He Feng, who was trying to fuse with him!

He separated a part of his divine sense to suppress the absorption force coming from the stone debris, then his faint but determined voice was sent into He Feng’s Spirit Body.

”Continue.”

”Master… I… This is…”

”Continue!”

He Feng no longer spoke. Instead, in the midst of his terror, he continued with the coalescence, trembling. He was feeling incredibly regretful at the moment, and also incredibly terrified. He did not know what was within Su Ming’s Spirit Sphere, but the thing within made him feel a wave of terror that he had never experienced before. He had a feeling that if he continued with this, he would completely lose everything without Su Ming even needing to kill him.

Su Ming looked at the fog outside. The memories that appeared once the fog thinned out started changing once again, and the scenes where he meditated were replaced by something new.

It was daytime. The sky was covered by lightning and rain. Several vultures circled in the air. There was a person lying on the mountainside as if he was dead. The vultures hesitated for a long moment before one of them dove down and landed on the person. When all the other vultures landed on him, that seemingly dead person suddenly grabbed a vulture’s throat.

He opened his eyes.

The scene changed once again. This time, the sky was still covered by lightning and rain, but it was no longer day. It was night. Bolts of lightning struck in the sky. Suddenly, a gigantic crack appeared in midair.

The crack was like a wide opened mouth that exuded a ghastly presence. Its appearance made the rain falling from the sky freeze midair in an instant. Even the bolts of lightning flashing in the sky came to a still, and they hung in the sky unmoving.

Su Ming grew nervous. He had forgotten about everything around him. The only thing that mattered was the scene before him!

A person struggled out from within the dark crack. He was covered in blood. The moment he appeared, Su Ming saw this person clearly with the light from the bolts of lightning that had frozen up in the sky. The person had his eyes wide opened, and the light in his eyes revealed his sadness.

He was laughing hollowly before he fell from the sky and rolled down the mountaintop until he was stopped by a big rock on the mountainside. He fell to the side, unmoving.

That person was Su Ming…

”Master, I… I… can’t last any longer!”

The scenes in the fog changed once again. This time, it was completely black, as if it was showing neither earth nor sky.

Yet at that moment, He Feng let out a shrill cry, and the thin fog before Su Ming’s eyes instantly thickened. The scenes disappeared.

The empty space of 100 feet had expanded to an area of 150 feet. He Feng was curled up by the side incredibly weakened. He looked at Su Ming in a pitiful state, terror shining from his eyes.

‘If I continued on, then I’d have died… Thank goodness I was only performing coalescence, not devouring him, or else…’ He Feng thought and shuddered. He looked at Su Ming and did not know what to say to him.

Su Ming fell into momentary pensive silence before he nodded towards He Feng.

”Thank you. Let’s… go out.”