Pursuit of the Truth

With a presence that shocked the sky and earth, the shooting stars from Sky Mist City stirred up a huge gust of wind and brought with them a deafening rumble as they traveled through the sky. This happened while the nine continents of Heaven Gate continued moving, Frozen Sky, the primary killing tool of the three greatest treasures of Freezing Sky Clan, had not fully revealed itself, and the moment when all the people had their gazes trained on the treasure.

The blue and red lights criss-crossed each other in the nine shooting stars in the sky. When they flew over, the sky seemed to be tremble as if it could not withstand the pressure of the nine shooting stars flying on its body.

They also left behind nine long scars that seemed endless. An intense murderous aura spread towards the earth from the nine shooting stars.

Su Ming was stunned. Zi Che was stunned. Almost everyone within Freezing Sky Clan were stunned at that instant. Even the disciples from Heaven Gate were also stunned.

The nine shooting stars appeared too suddenly, and no one was prepared for it. More importantly, Su Ming saw Tian Xie Zi going towards them, saw long arcs flying out from the other summits at shocking speed, and even saw a dozen people quickly walking out of Heaven Gate.

He might not be able to see these people’s faces clearly, but when they appeared, an indescribable pressure swiftly enveloped the world around them. Ripples spread out and distorted the space around them. It was as if the sky had turned into the sea and there were huge and fierce waves rocking the sea as of then.

Once the nine shooting stars got closer to Freezing Sky Clan, they came to an abrupt halt, causing ripples to spread through the sky. They floated around Freezing Sky Clan’s Heaven Gate. It was as if they had formed a strange, interconnected Rune; the blue and red lights continued shining brilliantly.

Su Ming lifted his head, his eyes were glued to the shooting stars. He had a bad feeling about this. In truth, he was not the only one with that feeling. Almost all the Freezing Sky Clan disciples who were looking at the sky at that moment had the same feeling.

”Nine shooting stars..? Why did they appear? What do they mean..?” Su Ming mumbled and immediately looked towards the seventh summit. He could faintly see Tian Lan Meng over there.

”Perhaps she knows…” Su Ming fell silent.

Yet at that moment, a shrill sound came once again from the sky in the distance, attracting all the eyes of the people,

A rarely seen grim look appeared on Tian Xie Zi’s face. Around him, the people who originally had dark expressions on their faces when they arrived became terrified and shocked when they heard that shrill sound.

That shrill sound from the sky in the distance… came from a shooting star!

It was yet another shooting star with red and blue lights criss-crossing each other as it traveled forth. It was… the tenth shooting star!

The instant the tenth shooting star appeared, Tian Lan Meng’s face turned stark white where she stood on the seventh summit. Horror gradually appeared on her face. It was an expression that was rarely seen on her, the polar opposite compared to her usual grace. She shuddered as if she could not stand properly. There was terror on her face, and sorrow too appeared in her eyes.

”Ten…” Tian Lan Meng staggered a few steps backwards, then gritted her teeth and flew up, then charged towards the sky.

The moment she flew into the sky, the tenth shooting star had already arrived and joined together with the previous nine shooting stars to form a gigantic circle.

Soon after that shooting star completed the picture of the circle, a deep voice spoke from within the ten shooting stars as if it came through time and space itself.

”Sky…”

The ancient voice echoed in the air. That voice might only have uttered one word, but that one word alone caused the ice on the ground to rumble and the sky to distort. It made Su Ming’s ears buzz, and besides that one word, he could hear nothing else.

Su Ming was not the only one who could not hear anything else. Zi Che, who was standing by his side, was the same, even Hu Zi, who was in the ninth summit at that moment, could not hear anything else as well. Their ears were filled with only buzzing sounds.

That buzzing reverberated incessantly in the air. Almost no one from the eighth summit, the seventh summit, and all the nine summits on the Great Frozen Plains could hear anything else after the first word was spoken clearly. All they could hear was the buzzing in their ears.

This was not limited to the disciples in Great Frozen Plains. Those within Heaven Gate were the same. All of the disciples could only hear buzzing sounds and could not hear any other sound clearly. That was a type of subjugation done using the power of cultivation. It was a mystical ability that was used intentionally.

That mystical ability was not harmful. Its only use was to allow only those who were qualified to hear it, and those who were not qualified could not hear the voice!

Those who wanted to hear the voice carried within the ten shooting stars had to be at least at the Berserker Soul Realm. From that alone, it was clear that the message in that voice was an incredibly shocking secret.

There were only around a few dozens of people who could hear that voice in the entire Freezing Sky Clan, and almost all of them were the true powerful Berserkers in Freezing Sky Clan!

Su Ming’s ears rang incessantly. He could hear nothing else around him, but his mind was clear. He looked at the dozen people standing around the ten shooting stars and watched as their expressions changed rapidly. Among them was Tian Lan Meng, who was shivering; she was so pale her face was bloodless.

Su Ming knew that something shocking must have happened… A glint appeared in his eyes. Even if his ears could not hear, but perhaps if he used his divine sense, he could.

Without a hint of hesitation, Su Ming spread out his divine sense and shaped it into a thin thread before he stretched it out towards the sky. During the process of him extending his divine sense, Su Ming shuddered. He felt a strong force repelling his divine sense, causing it to be unable to stretch out any further once he arrived at a certain distance.

Nonetheless, even so, he could still hear some faint murmurs in his head.

”...This thing… 3,000 years… Observe…”

The voice was very faint, but Su Ming could indeed hear it. He lifted his right hand quickly and grabbed a few golden stone coins from his bosom before clenching his fist. Those stone coins were immediately crushed, and as they scattered into the wind as dust, a vast amount of spiritual aura surged into the opened path within Su Ming’s body. Once he circulated that spiritual aura in his body, his divine sense rushed forth and went further, closer to the stars.

”Others… Will be terrified… But… Alarm…”

Su Ming saw that the expressions of the people in the sky changed once again. Tian Xie Zi’s robes even started showing signs of changing. Su Ming’s heart trembled, and he quickly brought out more golden stone coins.

No one noticed his actions at that moment. All those who could hear the words were paying full attention to the voice, and those who could not hear had their minds turning blank as their ears continued ringing.

Su Ming brought out a large amount of stone coins, and once he crushed all of them, spiritual aura surged into his body, causing his divine sense to stretch out madly until it got closer to the area covered by the ten shooting stars.

”Western Sea… Freezing Sky… 100 years… Suffering… Land…”

Every single time he heard new words, the uneasiness within Su Ming’s heart would grow stronger. He wanted to know the truth! So he lifted his hands, and immediately, a large number of stone coins flew out and surrounded his body. Once they all crumbled into dust, a powerful force was gathered onto Su Ming’s divine sense. With a bang, it stretched right into the territory surrounded by the ten shooting stars!

At that instant, for the first time, the ancient voice appeared within Su Ming’s mind in its complete form without stopping and without sounding muddled.

”This is the catastrophe of the Land of South Morning, and the only ones who need to know about it are those in the Berserker Soul Realm. The others should remain in the dark about this for their own good… once the ten shooting stars disappear, I will go forth to the land of Shamans for one final check. If it’s truly the Catastrophe of the Eastern Wastelands… then you must all quickly decide on whether you are going to move…”

Once that ancient voice spoke the last word, it let out a long sigh. Once it sighed, the ten shooting stars shuddered and shattered into dust before they rushed above the ninth heaven and disappeared without a trace.

Once they disappeared, the buzzing sounds no longer rang in the disciples’ ears. Their hearing returned to normal, and all of them looked at the sky confused.

Tian Xie Zi walked back from the sky and went straight back to the top of the ninth summit. The others returned to their own mountains and to Heaven Gate with dark expressions on their faces.

Tian Lan Meng staggered back to the seventh summit with a pale face.

At the same time, an old voice came from Heaven Gate and reverberated in all the ears of Freezing Sky Clan’s disciples.

”There is a change within the Shaman Tribe. We will march out before the scheduled date… That was the reason why Sky Mist City sounded the alarm. This is nothing major, do not panic… All those who want to enter the battle, hear me! By tomorrow morning, gather at Frozen Sky, and we will move immediately to defend Sky Mist City!”

That old voice was very calm. As if it contained a calming effect, when the voice spread out and landed in the disciples’ ears, it made all of them recover from their shock and stop making assumptions so that they would not think too much.

”The Berserkers have fought many times against the Shaman Tribe. This sort of thing has happened quite a few times in the past. Marching out before the scheduled date is not an uncommon thing during the great battle that only occurs once a century. That is why, all of you who are going forth, you must be careful… You must prevent all the actions of the Shamans, because the land of the Berserkers lies behind you…”

As the old man’s voice echoed in the air, the disciples of Freezing Sky Clan fell silent. They were no longer running wild with their thoughts in paranoia, their battle spirits were instead ignited.

”Tomorrow morning, we will go to war!”

Once that old voice shouted out his last words, all those within Freezing Sky Clan who wanted to fight bowed towards the sky together and roared with their strongest voices.

”To war!”

”To war!”

The voices came one after another and turned into a wave of sound that reverberated through Freezing Sky Clan.

Su Ming stood there with a pale face. He might not have heard all the words contained within the ten shooting stars, but he had indeed heard of some secrets here and there. Because of that, he knew that the voice from Heaven Gate was lying!

Or perhaps more accurately, that person was not dwelling on the crux of the matter. He did not tell them the true problem.

”The Catastrophe of the Eastern Wastelands… what does it mean..?”

Passionate shouts resounded in Su Ming’s ears as he looked towards the seventh summit, then at the top of the ninth summit. In his silence, he took a few steps back and returned to his cave abode.

”If Master refuses to say it, he won’t tell me even if I go and ask him… Besides, Master is not the only one who can tell me about it. There’s also Tian Lan Meng.”

Su Ming sat down in his cave. The passionate shouts ringing in his ears had died down somewhat.

”Are we about to go to war now..? But I still have something important I haven’t done.”

He closed his eyes.