Pursuit of the Truth

Su Ming’s answer made the boy’s originally bloodless face instantly be filled with red. Soon, a howl filled with anger left his lips.

That howl was piercing to the ears, and it was a show of just how terrified he was in his heart.

In the distance, Wu Duo took in a sharp breath. With a blank stare, he looked at Su Ming calmly ignoring the boy’s struggles and screams as he continued stuffing the herbs into his wounds.

As time passed by, Su Ming’s speed increased. After the burning of half an incense stick, he placed the final herb into the body, and right after, he lifted his right hand and patted the boy’s body in the air. Immediately, strange wiggling bumps appeared bizarrely on the boy’s stomach.

”I won’t forgive you! Even if I die, I will turn into a vengeful spirit and take revenge on you!” The boy’s face was twisted in endless hatred. He glared at Su Ming and let out a piercing shriek.

”You won’t turn into a vengeful spirit, because once I finish refining your body, even if your spirit still exists, you will only exist within my medicine.” As Su Ming retorted coldly, he lifted his right hand and pointed at the sky. Immediately, lightning arcs began swimming in his palm.

As all those plants started growing on the boy’s body, a large amount of aura of death spread from his body and into the area. However, that aura of death was not enough to attract lightning to fall.

Before this, Su Ming had always needed to gather the aura of death to create Spirit Plunder. Even if it was just some time ago, he still needed to ask his second senior brother to bring additional aura of death to aid him. Yet after the last time he created Spirit Plunder and gained some further understanding towards his Origin Lightning, he had mastered a way for him to bring down lightning even without having the aura of death around.

If gathered a large amount of Earthen Lightning on himself, then the invisible Void Lightning would naturally rush towards him. The instant they touched each other, they would turn into a sight of lightning falling on him.

”What if… What if you fail?” Just as Su Ming was about to call upon lightning, Wu Duo, who was standing in the distance, hesitated for a moment before he asked.

”If I fail…” Su Ming lifted his left hand and pressed it against the boy’s head, who was glaring at him ferociously. The boy let out a piercing screech, but his shivers betrayed the indescribable terror in his heart.

The instant Su Ming pressed his hand on the boy’s head, with his body as the center, the Earthen Lightning that existed everywhere on the land abruptly surged towards the boy from all directions in a manner that no one could see.

”Even if he is a Soul Catcher, there’s no possibility of him turning into a vengeful spirit. Because if I fail, his soul would disappear. Everything about him will also be wiped away. It would be better if he was refined into something else.” The instant Su Ming replied, a deafening rumble suddenly came from the sky.

The clear sky was suddenly covered by dark clouds, and the bolts of lightning in them turned into a large number of light dragons. They illuminated the cracks between the clouds, and at the same time, with a loud crackle, a bolt of lightning descended from the sky, straight towards Su Ming, or more accurately, it charged straight towards the boy beside him!

The loud bang sounded as if it had landed straight on Wu Duo’s heart. It made his skin crawl. With his own eyes, he saw the boy trembling violently once he was struck by the lightning. His face instantly shrivelled up. His screams had already turned hoarse, and there was no longer any maliciousness in his eyes, only a monstrous amount of terror. In fact, there was even a faint plea for mercy.

Wu Duo instinctively gulped. His gaze fell on Su Ming, and when he saw how calm he was, a chill rose in his heart.

‘This person is cruel and merciless, and he does things resolutely… and his power is not weak to boot! He has a lot of mysterious treasures, and I’ve never even glimpsed his Arts before. Unless I absolutely have to, I must definitely not bother this sort of person!

‘Even if I am forced to, I still have to avoid him. I cannot face him head on.’

Wu Duo’s attitude had changed multiple times on the way as he saw the things Su Ming did, and now, his impression of him had taken complete form.

The rumbling continued in the sky. The bolts of lightning seemed to be attracted to the earth, and they crackled and sliced through the air, descending on the boy beside Su Ming.

The rumbling lasted for more than an hour. The bolts of lightning became increasingly stronger as they fell, until eventually, the breadth of each bolt of lightning was about the size of a pail. When they struck down, they looked as if the heavens had become angry and were handing out their punishment.

When one particular bolt of lightning fell, Wu Duo became incredibly shocked. He did not hesitate at all and instantly retreated several thousands of feet away, because this time, the bolt of lightning that struck down was purple!

The purple bolt of lightning contained a mighty presence that seemed to scream that it would destroy the sky and earth as it charged towards the boy.

Su Ming still had his head lifted, looking at the sky. At that moment, he frowned and let out a sigh. He knew that this time, he might not be able to succeed with his refinement. Using this method to create Spirit Plunder was much more difficult.

The purple bolt of lightning closed in on the boy. A violent shudder wracked his body, and as the bolt of lightning struck the boy’s chest, his body started crumbling, starting from the chest. The part below it instantly turned into ashes, and the part above was shattering apart, inch by inch.

Just as the cracks reached his neck, Su Ming shook his head. With his left hand, he grabbed the only part that remained of the boy, his head, and his Origin Lightning surged into it through the left hand. As it crashed into the bolts of lightning that were rushing down, cracking sounds rang in the air.

When the dark clouds in the sky cleared out after a while, Su Ming stood in midair with a head in his left hand. That head belonged to the boy, and there was a burnt area around its throat. There was also a bag made of straw in Su Ming’s hands. That item had belonged to the boy. Su Ming had picked it beforehand so that it would not be destroyed.

He did not open the straw bag, instead putting it away into his bosom. He turned around and threw the head to the Fire Ape standing by his side, then he looked towards Wu Duo.

”Pity, I failed.”

Wu Duo laughed wryly, then looked at Su Ming’s bosom. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but eventually chose not to speak. There was an array of mixed feelings and doubts within his heart at that moment.

When he casted the Shaman Tribe’s divine ability previously, he had thought that Su Ming was dead for sure, that was why he risked revealing his identity and used the Shaman Tribe’s Spell to dissolve the power of the Candle Dragon.

He did not know whether Su Ming had noticed this, but his merciless actions and unknown battle power had increased Wu Duo’s wariness of him.

The Fire Ape played around with the boy’s head before it tied it around his waist. In fact, just now, even though it looked rather shrivelled up, but it still did not forget to go to the destroyed corpse of the man who had previously fought against Su Ming. Once it found that remaining half of the man’s head, it tied the remains around its waist. When it turned around, those five heads whirled around along with its movements, making it look rather frightening.

”Brother Wu, where are the next batch of Shamans?” Su Ming asked Wu Duo calmly, putting away his Spirit Plunders. Green light shone at the center of his brows, and the small sword returned to him.

Wu Duo was silent for a moment. He was originally a rather ambitious person to begin with, so when he heard it, a resolute look appeared on his face. He did not try to hide anything anymore and simply pointed into the distance.

”There are still Shamans about 2,000 lis away from this place. From the information I have, there should be two people there, but perhaps there will also be unexpected situations occurring.”

”Then, should we go?” Su Ming smiled faintly.

Wu Duo nodded and wrapped his fist in his palm as a salute towards Su Ming. He traveled before him, and Su Ming followed behind as usual. As for the Fire Ape, it simply continued following behind with the battle axe across its shoulders.

However, its battle axe had already largely melted away when used to block the human-faced, snake-bodied creature’s attack just now. Currently, the battle axe’s blade was rough and uneven. The staff-shaped handle, however, remained completely unscathed, though no one knew what it was made of.

The Fire Ape followed behind Su Ming. While charging forward, it would occasionally lift up the battle axe and sweep it across its fur as if it was scratching his skin.

At one point, it looked like it was struck by an unknown thought and grabbed the broken axe, biting down on it. The blade seemed to have hurt its teeth slightly. Once the Fire Ape relaxed its bite and lifted its claw, it broke off the blade from the handle, then threw it to the ground. When it did so, it started swinging around the axe handle that was now without a blade.

Thankfully, the axe handle was very long, making it look like a long staff. As the Fire Ape swung it around, it looked like a hero. The staff let out humming sounds as it was swung around, and the ape immediately smiled joyfully because of it. It swung the handle across its shoulders and flew towards Su Ming.

The two men and the ape flew in the sky, and when evening arrived, they were several thousands of lis away. After a brief pause, a thunderous boom accompanied by a shrill scream came from that place. When Su Ming and Wu Duo left, two extra bloody heads were on the Fire Ape’s waist.

This continued all along the way. Su Ming and Wu Duo each had their own needs in this trip, and their coordination became increasingly better. Ten days later, with the Fire Ape’s help and He Feng’s occasional aid, more than twenty heads now hung off the Fire Ape’s body.

No one knew how it managed to do it, but none of the heads fell off its body, making it seem as if it was wearing a shirt made of human heads.

Wu Duo was not weak to begin with, and along with Su Ming’s battle prowess that surpassed his level of cultivation, their coordination could be said to have stirred up a storm of blood within the area belonging to Sky Mist City.

Eventually, their efficiency reached such a high level that when Wu Duo went out to search, he would also go out of his way to lure the Shamans’ attention. Then Su Ming would abruptly charge forward with a speed that made even Wu Duo shocked. At the same time, Wu Duo would also attack.

Most of the time, through this process, one out of a team of three Shamans would die, while the other two would be heavily injured. There were also cases where two would die while the last one got injured. The ones remaining could not even hope to fight back against Su Ming and Wu Duo.

This massacre only stopped half a month later, because Sky Mist City was already not too far away from them.

Su Ming stood on a low hill. If he looked into the distance from that spot, he could see a majestic and awe inspiring wall that spanned from the earth to the sky. That aside, there was also… a magnificent city that would make anyone’s breathing quicken the first time they saw it!

”Brother Mo, it has been really delightful working with you during these past few days. We didn’t get off to a good start, but I hope that you won’t mind.” Wu Duo stood with quite a large number of dried up blood patches on his face. He looked rather tired, but his eyes were bright.

”We’re now at Sky Mist City. With your speed, you should be able to get there in no time. I still have some things I need to do, so please excuse…”

As Wu Duo spoke, a thrumming suddenly came from Sky Mist City’s direction. There was a desolate quality to it, but it also made their hearts race, as if there was a strange power contained within that voice.

Su Ming was rather familiar with that voice…

Wu Duo’s expression changed.