Pursuit of the Truth

Right at the instant the two armies were only one hundred feet away from each other and were ready to start devouring each other madly, the instant they were about to engage each other in a battle to the death, right at the moment madness appeared in Su Ming’s eyes and he forgot about everything except to kill…

Suddenly, a long black arc charged through the gray sky. That long arc was about several thousands of feet long, and at the top of it was a person!

He was dressed in a white robe. His expression was apathetic and his white hair floated in the air. His eyes were filled with gray, causing fear in all those who looked at him. The ripples that were spreading out before him caused the thousands of undying souls to immediately begin trembling the instant he appeared. These two swarms were only one hundred feet away from each other, but no one dared to move from their spot.

The white-haired old man walked over from the sky, and the instant he walked right above the thousands of undying souls, he lifted his right hand, and without even looking down, he pressed down on the ground through the air and seized it!

As the old man pressed down, Su Ming had a distinct feeling as if the old man in white had fused together with the sky. The feeling as if the sky was pressing down with a rumble rose in him. That feeling immediately caused his body to begin crumbling, and all the other undying souls around him also started breaking down!

It was especially prominent among the undying souls who did not have any form of intelligence and were just following the crowd blankly. All of these souls disintegrated right at that instant and turned into the fog that gave birth to them as it seeped out of the ground.

Even the undying souls who had devoured a large number of their companions, just like Su Ming, and had become much stronger were also trembling. They could not even last for a breath before their bodies exploded.

Su Ming was the same!

He watched his own body breaking down and shattering. Once he turned into fog, the white-robed old man in the sky seized at the air with his right hand.

All the undying souls on the ground disintegrated with a bang and turned into a large amount of white fog that charged straight towards the sky. They were all sucked onto the old man’s palm and turned into a ball of fog that was about the size of a fist. He wrapped his fingers around the ball, and it disappeared into his body.

The entire process lasted less than three breaths. The old man did not linger for a single moment and left the place, disappearing without a trace.

The place was empty. All the undying souls had dissipated, including Su Ming…

Time continued passing by once more. Several months later, white wisps of fog started gushing out of the ground. These wisps of fog gathered together and gradually turned into the indistinct shapes of people.

These people might look indistinct, but if there was anyone looking, they would be able to see that these were the undying souls that had died several months ago at this place!

The term undying soul did not mean that they would not die but that after they died, they would be revived, and this cycle would continue endlessly…

There was an indistinct figure that appeared right on the spot where Su Ming had disintegrated that day, and that figure seemed slightly different from the other undying souls…

He was moving his hand, repeatedly pressing down and seizing at the air, repeating this series of strange actions numerous times. As the fog slowly gathered up to form the bodies and as their appearances were revealed, the face of the figure that was performing those actions could be seen, and it was Su Ming!

However, gray had filled the entirety of this Su Ming’s eyes, and his intelligence was showing no signs of waking. He looked at his right hand blankly as he repeated the action of pressing down and seizing at the air.

He did not know his name, did not know who he was, did not know why he was here. In fact, these questions did not exist in his mind. He did not even think about them. In his eyes, nothing in the world was important. The only thing that mattered was the spot he was looking at the moment - his right hand repeatedly performing the movement of pressing down and seizing the air.

He did not know why he kept doing this series of actions. It was as if all of this was due to a natural instinct. As he continued pressing down and seizing at the air, the fog around him gradually gathered together to form the other undying souls. They gradually stopped being indistinct, and slowly… lifted their heads to look at the vast sky.

Only Su Ming had his head lowered and still looked at his right hand. He simply looked at it blankly and repeated the act of pressing down and seizing at the air absentmindedly, even though he had already repeated the act countless times…

Several days later, the sound of the horn rang in the sky, and as that sound came, all the undying souls shuddered and averted their gazes from the sky to look towards the direction where the sound was coming from before they started moving their bodies and walking forward.

Su Ming did not lift his head. Even if he had heard the sound of the horn and even if he was moving along with the other undying souls, he still had his head lowered to look at his right hand as he continued the endless cycle of pressing down and seizing at the air…

It was as if everything else in the world could not stir up his interest when put in comparison with him repeating this action. Press down, seize. As Su Ming moved forward, he continued repeating this set of movements. His existence stood out like a sore thumb among the other undying souls around him.

Slowly, as the thousands of undying souls moved forward, some of the undying souls regained their minds. They let out shrill and biting howls, and when the brutality in their eyes reached a certain extent, they started to madly devour their companions, just like what they did before.

However, while some of the undying souls that woke up this time were the same souls that woke up last time, there were also different souls as well…

When the undying souls around Su Ming started eating each other, he stood there with his head lowered and repeated those series of actions. There were no undying souls that had woken up beside him, so he was safe for the moment. The others who were devouring their companions did not notice Su Ming. After the umpteenth time he pressed down and seized the air, a faint wave of ripples gradually appeared before him. The ripples were faint, but they truly existed.

Su Ming did not look at the ripples. He just continued watching his right hand and maintained that endless cycle of pressing down and seizing the air.

A long time passed by. After some of the undying souls died, roars signifying newly born lives spread through the sky and earth. This time, thirty-two strong undying souls appeared. As their roars reverberated in the air, all the other undying souls trembled and fear appeared on their faces, except…

Su Ming!

Su Ming still had his head lowered and kept repeating those series of actions without stopping or changing. The faint wave of ripples before him increased.

No one took any notice of Su Ming, including the strong undying souls. After roaring, they brought the thousands of souls and floated quickly towards the direction where the sound of the horn came from...

Along the way, more undying souls woke up. Usually, after a hint of intelligence emerged in their eyes, they would immediately choose to devour their companions by their side so that they would become stronger.

On the way, there was once when an undying soul beside Su Ming woke up. He growled and closed in on Su Ming in an instant, but Su Ming did not lift his head. He did not even spare that soul a glance, simply continuing with his action of pressing down and seizing the air...

Yet the instant the soul closed in, Su Ming pressed down, and the undying soul that was lunging at him shivered. Fear appeared beside the little spark of intelligence in his eyes, and before he could even get closer, he immediately started disintegrating, and as he broke down, Su Ming’s right hand turned to seize the air.

Once he seized the air, white fog immediately appeared from the spots where the undying soul had started breaking down. That white fog charged towards Su Ming’s right hand and turned into a weak ball of fog before it disappeared into his palm.

The undying soul immediately retreated in terror. His body had become much weaker, and as he moved back, another awakened undying soul immediately pounced on him. As shrill howls rang through the air, the soul was devoured.

Su Ming never lifted his head during that entire while, neither did he stop performing those series of actions. However, the ripples before him were growing in number, and gradually, the area around him started distorting faintly, and it was an incredibly distinct sight.

The distorted ripples caused the undying souls around him to instinctively back off. They did not dare to get closer to Su Ming. The undying souls who devoured their companions to get stronger looked towards Su Ming, and in their eyes were confusion… along with wariness.

They could sense a power that terrified them surrounding Su Ming, and they did not dare get closer to him.

Slowly, the swarm of undying souls moved once again. In the Undying and Imperishable World, besides the souls’ repeated cycles of life and death, everything else also seemed to have turned into a cycle and would repeat itself when the time came.

After the swarm of undying souls moved for several months… a swarm of undying souls of a similar number and who were also led by nearly a hundred of strong undying souls appeared before them on the white land.

It was the same as last time. When the two swarms of undying souls saw each other, they let out shrill howls at the same time and charged towards the other madly. Su Ming did not lift his head and simply continued pressing down and seizing at the air as he moved forward.

When the two swarms of undying souls ran into each other and started devouring each other madly with roars echoing in the air, both sides began a struggle for survival. Two undying souls instantly lunged towards Su Ming, but right at the moment they arrived by his side, their bodies disintegrated, turning into white fog that was absorbed into Su Ming’s palm when he seized the air.

Su Ming’s actions became faster and the number of ripples before him increased. The distortions became more and more distinct, and after a moment, all of the undying souls that closed in on him would let out shrill screams of pain and their bodies would break down to turn into white fog that was all absorbed into his palm.

Su Ming stood there and continued doing the same actions. Slowly, as he became faster in repeating this series of actions and as the ripples continued spreading outward, all the undying souls around him noticed the terror coming from Su Ming’s spot, and the instant all of them stopped devouring each other and turned their gazes towards him…

...Su Ming’s right hand suddenly froze, after never once having stopped for an unknown number of days.

Once he stopped, his right hand slowly pressed down! Immediately, rumbling sounds reverberated in the air, and with Su Ming as its center, a mighty force swept through the area. Then, all the thousands of souls in the area disintegrated right when that force touched them…

After pressing down, Su Ming slowly formed his hand into a fist and seized the air, and a large amount of white fog spun around him like a lake of fog before charging straight towards his right hand…

The area was silent. Su Ming stood in the midst of that large amount of fog, and his right hand absorbed that fog. He lifted his head slowly, and the gray hue in his eyes began fading away rapidly as his intelligence increased exponentially!

”I… am Su Ming…”