Pursuit of the Truth

”Speaking of which, it’s all thanks to your people in Shamanic Bat Tribe, or else we wouldn’t have been able to sneak into Sky Mist Barrier.” The man placed the battle axe by the side and brought out some medicinal salve before he smeared it on the wounds on his body. There were a lot of blood stains on his body.

”You’re indeed a merciless one to have sacrificed hundreds of your tribesmen for this one chance.” The man smiled.

”If we don’t enter the land of the Berserkers, we will definitely die when the Catastrophe of the Eastern Wastelands arrives. To survive, this is nothing, especially compared to you pretending you died to escape.”

The man with the bat tattoo on his face let out a cold snort.

”We should be the first batch of people using this method to escape into this place. It’s a pity… that the risk for this method is very high, and only three to five people at most can come in, or else, if we presented this method to the Temple of the God of Shamans, we would be able to obtain quite a large amount of rewards.” The man frowned, then avoided the topic of just now.

”It’s useless even if you hand it to the God of Shamans Temple. Do you think they don’t know about this method? With the strength and how terrifying Sky Mist City is, they must have seen through this as well, but they didn’t seal the wall off. There’s a very ‘profound’ reason for this.” The person with the bat tattoo laughed coldly.

”Oh? I thought that Wu Duo was the one who first discovered this method. He has already disappeared for more than a decade and has been living among the Berserkers. I wonder what is his level of cultivation now.” The man lowered his head, his eyes sparkling.

As the two people chatted with each other, they would occasionally look around them carefully. If there was even a hint of movement around them, even the slightly rustle of grass, they would attack immediately. After all, to them, this was the land of the Berserkers, and all the people in this land were their enemies.

Even with their levels of cultivation that were equivalent to the initial stage of the Bone Sacrifice Realm, they still did not dare venture too deeply into the land of Berserkers. They had already paid a large price to be able to enter this place, and they could no longer return to the Shaman Tribe. Right now, they only wanted to find a small Berserker Tribe, hide their identity, then follow the tribe as they migrated, which would allow their chances of surviving through the catastrophe to become higher. They did not want to die in battle.

At that moment, there was a shadow slicing through the forest around 20,000 feet away from the two people. That incredibly fast thing was the woman of the three people patrolling the area. She was searching through the forest incessantly, and gradually, she came to be at a spot that was less than 30,000 feet away from Su Ming. With her speed, even if she was patrolling through the area while going in a circle, she would still discover him within less than the time taken for an incense stick to burn.

Once she ran into Su Ming, a Berserker, when they had yet to conceal their identities as Shamans, they would be engaged in another battle to the death.

Su Ming was leaning against a big tree with his eyes closed. There was nostalgia on his face, and in his hands, he held the bone xun while he played that soundless song. If anyone took a closer look, they would be able to vaguely see that there were some faint and barely indistinct ripples around Su Ming. The ripples spread out around him and echoed in a circular area of several hundreds of feet.

”Xuns have souls, that’s why they can produce sound… What I blew in is wind, but what comes out is the notes produced by the soul…” Su Ming mumbled and opened his eyes to look at the bone xun in his hands. After a long, long time, he closed his eyes once again and immersed himself in the soundless song.

Gradually, once he managed to forget everything on the way to this place, he forgot about himself holding that bone xun under the big tree during the dark night. He no longer tried to see whether the xun could produce any sound but started searching for the feeling of home as he listened to the song in his memories.

On his face, Dark Mountain Mark gradually appeared. The trees and plants in Dark Mountain Tribe gradually surfaced on his chest hidden under his robes, and falling snow slowly appeared around that tribe, causing his closed right eye to turn red, little by little.

The ripples around him became stronger, causing the area of about hundreds of feet around to become distorted. Even as his presence was hidden away as he stood within the area.

It was as if Su Ming no longer existed.

He was immersed in the song, in his memories, and he leaned against the big tree unmoving.

Time trickled by, and soon, the time for an incense stick to burn passed by. A shadow dashed past an area that was 3,000 feet away from Su Ming. That shadow stopped, revealing a petite figure, and the Shaman woman appeared on the spot. She swept her gaze around the area, then disappeared in a flash.

Time continued trickling by, and in a manner not even Su Ming himself noticed, the distorted ripples around him started rising and falling like waves. As they reverberated in the air, they started spreading out, and once those ripples reached an area of nearly 500 feet, suddenly, a mournful song begun in the silent night!

The sound of the xun was originally rather weak and sounded like the first whimpers of a baby, but soon, that sound gradually stabilized and turned into a mournful sound that contained an endless amount of sorrow. It filled the air in the area, and even spread out further into the distance.

Su Ming’s eyes were still closed. He was leaning against the big tree with the xun held beside his mouth, still, unmoving. Yet the moment the xun produced its very first sounds available for others to hear, a white storage bag that was tied to Su Ming’s robes suddenly let out a red glare. That red glare flew out from the bag, then right before Su Ming and amidst the large amount of distorted ripples, the Fire Ape appeared.

It squatted on the ground with a curious glint in its eyes as it stared at Su Ming. In truth, that storage bag could not hope to keep it locked within. If it wanted to, it could come out at anytime it desired. This was what Su Ming promised it, that was why he never sealed the bag tightly.

It stared at Su Ming blankly. That sorrowful sound within the song made it feel horrible, but it continued squatting and listening in silence.

Su Ming’s shadow casted under the moonlight started swaying. A pair of red eyes appeared at the shadow’s eyes, and within those eyes was bafflement.

Almost the moment the first notes of the song came out from the xun, the female Shaman who disappeared from the spot 2,000 feet away from Su Ming suddenly appeared as if she had just walked out of thin air. A wary look appeared on her face as she stared in the direction where Su Ming was, which was also the direction where the song was coming from.

Murderous intent appeared in her gaze, but she hesitated for a moment and decided not to act rashly. Instead, she chose to gradually move backwards.

The sound of the xun started spreading out to an even wider area, and lingered in the air even as the notes resounded in a circular area of several thousands of feet. In fact, some lingering notes from the song even spread out to further distances in the quiet night.

The melody of the song sang of sorrow and solemness, making those who heard it feel their emotions stirring within them. It was as if there was some sort of strange power within those notes and they could touch souls.

Several tens of thousands of feet away in the forest, the two Shamans who had sunk into silence after their short exchange lifted their heads at almost the same time and wary looks appeared on their faces.

”Did you hear that?” That brawny man tightened his grip around the battle axe, and murderous intent appeared in his eyes.

”The sound of a xun…” The man with the bat tattoo on his face stood up grimly.

”This is already night time, and to the Berserkers, this place should be quite far away as well. There aren’t any Berserker Tribes around this place, and the sounds from a xun suddenly appeared…” At the same time the murderous look appeared in the man’s eyes, anxiety bubbled within him as well.

The man hesitated for a moment before he asked softly, ”Could it be Wu Duo?”

Before the man with the bat tattoo on his face could answer, an aloof voice belonging to a woman came from the patch of forest beside them.

”No, he’s a Berserker.” Along with that voice came the female Shaman, who had been at the spot 2,000 feet away from Su Ming just a moment ago and had now returned to her companions.

”What is his level of cultivation?” the man with the bat tattoo on his face immediately asked.

”He didn’t seem strong to me. Besides that song of his, which was a little strange… this person’s level of cultivation should not even be at the Bone Sacrifice Realm,” stated the woman coldly.

”Not even the Bone Sacrifice Realm?” The man with the battle axe let out a sigh of relief, then started laughing ominously.

Yet the man with the bat tattoo on his face frowned and turned his gaze towards the female Shaman.

”Since he’s not even in the Bone Sacrifice Realm, why didn’t you kill him off?”

”This is the land of Berserkers. If we’re going to attack, then we’re doing it together. I’m not doing it alone.” The woman’s voice was still as aloof and indifferent as ever.

”Wu Duo is about to be here. Come on, we’ll finish off this person quickly, and once we kill him, we need to search the area and see whether there are any other Berserkers around, or else there’ll be trouble.” The man with the bat tattoo on his face charged into the forest with a glint in his eyes.

The female Shaman followed behind him. When she moved, her body was like a wisp of smoke, making her seem as if she was drifting through the air.

”Since he’s not even in the Bone Sacrifice Realm, I’ll rip his skin off and see whether I can wear it on myself.” That brawny man licked his lips in a bloodthirsty and cruel manner as he followed closely behind them.

The three of them could be said to be moving incredibly cautiously. Even if they were about to fight against a Berserker who had not even reached the Bone Sacrifice Realm, they still chose to act together. From this alone, it could be seen that they did not have even the slightest feeling of safety within the land of Berserkers.

”Ying Huan, you’re fast. Launch the first strike later, but don’t kill him. Keep him alive. There’s something off about him, and I have some questions to ask that Berserker.” The man with the bat tattoo on his face instructed the female Shaman by his side as they dashed forward.

The three of them traveled incredibly quickly, and before long, as they ran in a straight line over those 50,000 feet, they arrived at a spot not too far away from Su Ming. Yet as they got closer, the mournful song became clearer, and in that silent night, that song made them feel incredibly uneasy.

When Ying Huan heard his words, she nodded. She too thought that there was something odd about that Berserker.

3,000 feet, 2,000 feet, 1,000 feet, 500 feet, 300 feet… Like long arcs, the trio stirred up piercing whistling sounds in the air as they traveled at full speed. When they arrived at the spot 300 feet beside him, they saw Su Ming leaning against the big tree, still and unmoving. They also saw a Fire Ape with fiery red fur squatting down before him.

Almost the moment these three people arrived, the Fire Ape turned around abruptly and bared its teeth while glaring at them. Right then, the woman, who excelled in speed among the trio, charged forward suddenly. She was originally 300 feet away from Su Ming, but in the next breath, she appeared right beside him. A cold glare appeared in the woman’s eyes and she lifted her right hand. Five black needles could be seen in her hand, and she thrust them towards Su Ming’s jugular notch.

Yet the moment this woman was about to swing her lifted right hand down, she suddenly let out a shrill, pained cry and started trembling while coughing out blood. On her face was shock and disbelief.

”There’s something on my back!” The woman’s shocked scream was filled with utmost terror, and her body started withering away rapidly, as if her flesh was going to be instantly devoured.

The man with the battle axe widened his eyes, and terror could be seen within them. By his side, the man with the bat tattoo sucked in a sharp breath. He just saw clearly that there was a black shadow that looked like a layer of skin behind Ying Huan. It was stuck to her, rapidly spreading all over her as if it wanted to envelop the woman’s body within.