Pursuit of the Truth

‘It’s not paying attention to us, but those sealed in the ice…’

Su Ming narrowed his eyes. This was not the moment for him to anger that dark turtle now and forcefully take the black club.

After a moment of pensive silence, a glint appeared in the clone’s eyes. He lifted his right hand and drew a circle on the layer of ice before him. With one press, the circle instantly shattered, and then he took a step outside to walk out of the hole in the ice mountain.

Su Ming stared at the dark turtle and was already prepared to use his Nascent Soul to escape, but the dark turtle only cast a glance at the clone before it ignored him.

‘Could it be that as long as we don’t touch the things that are frozen here, then the turtle won’t bother us..?’

Su Ming gritted his teeth and walked out slowly from within the hole in the ice mountain. Once he completely came out, his heart started racing. He saw the dark turtle turning its head around to cast a freezing glance at him before averting its gaze. Su Ming let out a huge sigh of relief in his heart.

He walked forward slowly, but once he took a few steps, conflict appeared on his face, but it did not last for long. Su Ming did not stop moving, and as he continued moving forward, his clone immediately moved back and crawled into the hole in the ice mountain.

Su Ming was incredibly nervous as he did these series of actions. He continuously observed that dark turtle, and when he saw that it did not give too much of a reaction, he took a few brisk steps forward until he arrived at the frozen Gate to the Void located eight hundred feet away.

Once he stood inside the ice mountain containing the gate, Su Ming immediately came to stand beside it and started dealing with the ice around it to keep the gate open at all times.

When he finished doing all this, he turned his head around and stared at the frightening dark turtle outside, along with his clone inside the hole.

‘Should I snatch it, or should I not..? The turtle is clearly the guardian of this place. All the things that it guards must be extraordinary items. The glacier here is very big too. I have reason to believe… that this turtle is not the only guardian of this place.

‘Besides, when I broke open the ice mountain sealing that green-scaled man last time, that turtle had not appeared. Clearly, the degree of damage I dealt was not big enough. This time, when I almost succeeded, this creature appeared. Now I caught its attention. Even if I come next time when it’s not around, it’ll still be difficult for me to get closer to that item.

‘I’ll take it!’ Su Ming’s face lit up with determination.

Immediately, a glint appeared in the clone’s eyes, who was within the hole of the ice mountain sealing that big man eight hundred feet away. He lifted his right hand and tapped at the thin layer of ice with two of his fingers. Once he tapped at it repeatedly, the layer of ice instantly shattered, revealing the black, spiked club inside!

As if the dark turtle had gone mad, it started roaring, and as it swung its tail back and forth repeatedly, Su Ming’s clone pressed on that black, spiked club, wanting to put it away into his storage bag. However, the club did not budge. He could not put it into his storage bag.

With burning resolution, Su Ming immediately made his clone repeatedly break through the ice with his two fingers. When half of the black spiked club was revealed, the clone took hold of it and tore it out. A loud bang reverberated through the area, and the gigantic black wooden club was dragged out.

The dark turtle roared and blocked the ice mountain’s exit. There was a murderous look in its eyes as it roared, but at that moment, Su Ming took a step forward and rushed out several hundreds of feet.

At that instant, his clone let out a piercing shriek, and as if it was burning, all the power of his cultivation erupted forth, and he used it all in warping. He rushed forth with that black wooden club, and then his body, along with that wooden club, instantly disappeared.

The instant he disappeared, the dark turtle was stunned. At the same time around. five hundred feet away, Su Ming’s clone appeared. He looked as he usually did, but Su Ming’s Nascent Soul inside had already shrunk quite considerably. It also looked rather unstable, as if it was about to dissipate and turn back into a Core.

When the clone appeared, Su Ming caught it and charged forth with a whistle in the water towards the ice mountain containing the Gate to the Void with his absolute fastest speed.

The dark turtle whipped its head around and let out a livid roar. It lifted its right leg and stomped on the ground. Immediately, the glacier shook and ice needles shot up from the ground. They also came from under the ground from all around Su Ming. As he continued charging forth, they shot out with banging sounds, turning into a fence of ice needles trying to block his path.

At the same time, the turtle’s tail swung forth with a whistle in the water, bringing with it a shocking wave. With that one sweep, the seawater parted. All the ice needles that did not manage to block Su Ming were all shattered by the dark turtle’s tail, but it did not slow down at all. Instead, the tail traveled forth even faster towards Su Ming.

The dark turtle’s hatred towards Su Ming had clearly reached incredibly heights. It did not just swing its tail forth but also opened its mouth wide and blew a puff of white air at him. When that puff of white air was let out, booming sounds immediately rang out, and the seawater before the dark turtle instantly turned into ice, and it was rapidly spreading forward.

As Su Ming charged forth dragging his clone behind him, he was blocked in his path by the ice needles that shot through the ground, but he did not stop. At the same time he activated his speed, the Provenance of Wind in his body circulated rapidly, causing his speed to increase exponentially, and he charged out of the blockade.

When he saw that he was less than thirty feet away from the ice mountain containing the Gate to the Void, the whistling sound behind him whipped the seawater so hard that it parted. Su Ming felt his skin crawl. His Divine General Armor materialized on his body, and at the same time, Han Mountain Bell showed itself.

The Nascent Soul in his clone coughed out a mouthful of essence and warped once again, causing Su Ming to disappear without a trace the instant the dark turtle’s tail rammed into his body.

When they reappeared, they were already beside the Gate to the Void. Su Ming coughed out a mouthful of blood. Han Mountain Bell hummed and shrank back into his body. The Divine General Armor also shattered, but the crisis was not over.

The instant Su Ming reappeared and pulled his clone to step into the Gate to the Void, the dark turtle behind him blew out a white puff of air, and the frozen seawater came towards him in the span of a breath, causing Su Ming’s body to be filled with chills. His face instantly turned pale, but his body did not stop. He dragged his clone, and along with the black wooden club his clone held onto, they moved into the Gate to the Void.

The instant Su Ming disappeared, ice instantly covered the ice mountain with the Gate to the Void, causing the ice mountain to instantly become larger by several fold. Once it was frozen in many new, thick layers, the dark turtle floated up and let out mad roars, swishing its tail back and forth as if it was absolutely livid.

Eventually, it decided that it might as well lay there and fix its gaze on the frozen Gate to the Void. It continued staring at it.

The other end of the Gate to the Void located outside the cave abode in the mountain range in the Land of South Morning started flickering with a dark light, then Su Ming and his clone rushed out from within.

Once they charged out, Su Ming’s clone fell to the side. The Nascent Soul was already in a state where it had almost completely vanished. The Nascent Soul had his eyes shut tightly in the clone and was silently circulating his Qi to recover.

Su Ming’s face was pale. He turned his head around and cast a glance at the Gate to the Void, and fear could be seen lingering on his face. When he remembered what he had just done, Su Ming thought that his actions were a little too crazy.

He sucked in a deep breath and immediately sat down cross-legged on the ground. He did not have time to be bothered with the small snake and the Fire Ape that came towards him, quickly meditating to recover his Qi.

A few days later, Su Ming opened his eyes, and his face regained a slightly healthier color. He let out a long breath and immediately turned his head around to look at the gigantic, black wooden club beside his clone. The nine teeth stuck on that club where letting out rays of freezing light.

The black wooden club was Su Ming’s height and it was filled with a savage air. Su Ming stood up and went beside it. After dipping his head down to look at it for a moment, he lifted his right hand and grabbed the wooden club, then a frown appeared between his brows. He sucked in a light breath and lifted that wooden club.

‘I wonder what this thing is made of. It’s so heavy. It’d be great if it was a little lighter.’

Su Ming gave it a few simple swings, and once those swings brought up whooshing sounds from the movements, he went on to place the wooden club down, but his body suddenly jolted and he widened his eyes to stare at weapon in his hands. He lifted it up once again, then swung it around himself once. Astonishment surfaced in his eyes.

‘It grew lighter?

‘Become lighter… Just a little lighter still…’

With that gigantic black wooden club in hand, Su Ming continued swinging it about on the spot, and its weight became increasingly lighter. Eventually, Su Ming practically could not feel its weight at all. Once he lifted it up, he leaped into the air and rammed the club against the ground.

The instant the gigantic wooden club crashed onto the ground, the ground trembled with a boom, and a powerful backlash spread from that wooden club straight up through Su Ming’s right hand and into his body, making him lurch forward, and he was forced to let go of the club. He took a few steps back, and his face was a mix of red and white. He only recovered after a long while.

‘If it just becomes lighter, then the value of this thing doesn’t match up to the risk I took earlier…’

Su Ming took a few steps forward and picked up the wooden club once again. Looking at the nine teeth, he hesitated for a moment before he swung it again. He did not leap up this time, but instead, once he started swinging it and the instant he readied himself to smash it towards the ground…

”Heavier!”

That word fell out of his mouth when the wooden club crashed against the ground. Its weight increased exponentially, and the instant it fell, a shocking boom abruptly resounded in the air. Soon after, the ground trembled, and a large crack started spreading on the surface with rumbling sounds, stretching into the distance. It shot through the seal Hong Luo had placed and appeared in the land beyond. The crack stretched out so far that it was several tens of thousands of feet long.

Blood trickled down the corners of Su Ming’s lips. He could not keep a tight grip on the wooden club in his hands, causing it to be flung out from the rebound and fall on the ground beside him. Another boom reverberated in the air.

Su Ming’s breathing was quick. He looked at the wooden club in the distance, then at the giant crack on the ground. He suddenly laughed, and his laughter grew louder at each passing moment.

”I, Patriarch of White Bull Tribe, wish to see you, Sir Soul Catcher. Sir, you still remember me? I’m the guy who prepared the three virgins for you in the tribe.”

As Su Ming laughed, a weak and complaisant voice came from within the crack on the ground.

The voice might have come from within the crack, but in truth, it came from the spot above the ground outside the seal. The monkey-faced old man from White Bull Tribe looked at the crack that suddenly appeared thirty feet away from him with a pale face, and cold sweat trickled down his body.

‘Damn it all! Which bloody idiot is it that made this crack suddenly appear?! He scared the heck out of me!’

The old man wiped his sweat.