Pursuit of the Truth

‘There are plenty of things in the world that are binary opposites of each other, and it’s even more so in this Undying and Imperishable World. This is because the Candle Dragon’s desire is to devour the Nine-Headed Dragon. It is just as it said, since the universe already has the Candle Dragon, then why is there a need for the Nine-Headed Dragon to exist..?

‘This is the legacy of the Candle Dragons…

‘But clearly, this Candle Dragon didn’t manage to devour the Nine-Headed Dragon, that’s why… this Undying and Imperishable World is imperfect. Since the Candle Dragon is dead, even its will was left frozen the moment it opened up this world and sucked me inside. If that is the case, it means that this Undying and Imperishable World is imperfect!

‘There is a great flaw in this place, and this flaw has become the Candle Dragon’s regret. That flaw is this so called fusion that is shown in this place!

‘In truth, there is no such thing as true fusion. It doesn’t matter whether it’s lightness and heaviness, swiftness or slowness, or this pressing down and seizing air. All of this is just the Candle Dragon’s imitation in this Undying and Imperishable World!”

Su Ming’s eyes shone with a brilliant light and he lifted his head to look at the gray sky.

”Fusion is the core of the Undying and Imperishable World. It is also the truth that the Candle Dragon has laid out! It once said that it devoured ninety-seven World Planes, then is it possible to say that the Candle Dragon’s Undying and Imperishable World is formed by all these devoured World Planes? This world is formed so that the Candle Dragon could use it to gain an epiphany, all for the sake of devouring the Nine-Headed Dragon someday, so that it could complete its race’s mission and fulfill its people’s desires over the years…”

”To leave this place, I will have to either obtain a power to break this place and force my way out, or… I will have to find out what true fusion is!”

”But what exactly is my fusion..?” Su Ming mumbled as he looked at the gray sky, his eyes filling with uncertainty.

”Life and death..?” Su Ming’s eyes gradually lit up with a brilliant sparkle.

In the blink of an eye, another thirty years passed. During them, Su Ming sat on the hill without moving an inch, constantly thinking and trying to understand the true meaning behind fusion. He was immersed in a strange situation. A feeling of ages past radiated off his face, and an air of time slowly emerged from his body.

There was an increasing amount of white fog around him, and it was all formed by the undying souls that tried to eat Su Ming over the years.

That white fog continuously attracted more undying souls to the place. However, when these undying souls closed in on Su Ming, they would immediately explode with shrill cries and die, turning into white fog.

Those souls continuously woke up beside Su Ming and died. The process repeated itself incessantly and turned into a ceaseless cycle.

‘The hundreds upon thousands of incarnations is an exchange between death and life. It’s very easy for a person to find the signs that mark life and death during this process, but it doesn’t matter whether it is life or death, in the Undying and Imperishable World, there is no one who is truly alive, and neither is there anyone who is truly dead...

‘No matter how much I go through, this is still just like a dream. When I wake up, everything will remain an illusion… This isn’t my fusion.’ On the day thirty years later, Su Ming opened his eyes and shook his head. He lifted his right hand and casually swung it outward.

With that one swing, the thick white fog immediately spread out and only stopped when it had traveled one hundred thousand feet away from Su Ming. At the same time, distortions began to appear around him, even though he remained seated. If anyone was looking, they would feel that they could see Su Ming with their eyes, but in their perception, the place where he sat was empty.

Before long, reawakened undying souls seeped out of the ground in succession. These undying souls seemed to not have seen Su Ming and did not pounce on him as they normally would have done. Instead, they left the place with a vacant look in their eyes, and gradually, no more undying souls were born in Su Ming’s area.

Even the souls passing by could not discover Su Ming’s existence and simply floated past him.

Another twenty years passed by, and during them, Su Ming never once stopped thinking.

‘Lightness and heaviness… Swiftness and slowness, pressing down and seizing… These things are simply different in terms of their characteristics, and I learned them from others during my numerous incarnations. They don’t belong to me… These binary opposites must have come to be because of the ninety-seven worlds the Candle Dragon devoured… These aren’t my fusions.’

”My fusion has to belong solely to me…” Su Ming mumbled. ”What could it possibly be?”

Su Ming closed his eyes. He had been thinking about this for fifty years, and he still had not obtained his answer. Feeling lost, he gradually immersed himself in his memories and looked through them. The pictures in those memories were unfamiliar to him. After all, he had gone through hundreds of thousands of incarnations here, and many years had gone by during that time.

As he looked through those memories, he saw himself bringing the two youths whose names he had forgotten into the World of Nine Yin, then to the Candle Dragon’s burial ground. He saw himself entering the Candle Dragon’s body and also saw the old man in black robes.

Everything that transpired in the World of Nine Yin flashed by quickly, then he saw a rather familiar mountain range and remembered that it was the location of his cave abode, then he saw Hong Luo, saw Di Tian, and saw… the ninth summit.

His memories continued running backwards, and from the ninth summit, he returned to Han Mountain City, and then from Han Mountain City, he returned… to Dark Mountain.

The things that happened in Dark Mountain were things that he would never forget. His elder, Bei Ling, Wu La, Lei Chen, Shan Hen, and also… Bai Ling.

”All of this is my past.” As Su Ming recollected his past, grief rose in his heart, but a soul could not cry. If it could, then tears would have fallen out of Su Ming’s eyes.

”The most precious things in my life are Dark Mountain, the ninth summit, and my past… What I want to protect are also Dark Mountain, the ninth summit, and my past…” Su Ming whispered softly.

”I cannot change anything in the past. It is buried in my memories, along with all the years I have lived. The past is in my hands, and I will never forget anyone… This is one side of my life!”

Su Ming opened his eyes. They were dull but looked profound, as if the universe itself was contained within them.

”One side of this binary opposite is what has been set in stone after it has happened, and the other side is continual changes that would occur for what has not happened. If my past is one side of my life, then the other side… would be my future!”

Su Ming fell silent for a moment and his gaze fell on the endless world in the distance. A faint look of absentmindedness appeared in his eyes.

As his mind wandered, he seemed to see himself tied up by multiple chains in a black swamp located in an abyss in the ground. There were nine black dragons blowing black fog at him, and there were several people in the sky above him, looking at him warily and coldly. They did not say a word, merely looked at him silently.

The scene changed, and he saw himself with purple hair standing at the highest spot in the sky as he looked at the earth with an aloof gaze. An innumerable amount of lives knelt down and worshipped him on the ground.

The scene changed once again, and he saw himself lying on an altar with golden needles stabbing his entire body. A large amount of smoke spread out from his body and it was all absorbed by the thousands of people sitting cross-legged around him. When they absorbed that smoke, delight would show on their faces, and it was a stark contrast compared to his face, twisted in pain.

The pictures had not ended. They changed once again, and it was difficult for Su Ming to know whether this was just an illusion or whether it truly happened before.

He saw himself once again. This time, he had long red hair, and he was dressed in a white long robe. There was a hint of loneliness in his eyes and a touch of grief on his face. His hands, stained with blood, were filled with a murderous aura that surged into the skies, as if hundreds upon millions of lives had been crushed by his hands.

He stood in a world where the stars sparkled in the dark. There were… an endless amount of corpses around him… He was the only person standing there, and he roared towards the sky, a shrill roar that caused the world Su Ming saw shatter into millions of pieces.

That roar was filled with an indescribable grief and a burning rage that could destroy the sky and earth!

At that moment, as Su Ming sat on the hill, his vision crumbled and fell apart with a bang, turning into wisps of gray fog that scattered away. His world shattered and disappeared in an instant.

It was as if his eyes could not withstand all that he saw in that strange condition. At the instant his vision shattered, Su Ming lifted his head. His eyes were empty, and the world before him was black, just darkness that stretched endlessly.

He should originally not be able to see anything in that darkness, but at that moment, he saw…

He saw a frail infant with no life force remaining within him. His entire body was filled with the air of death. He saw a man with purple hair standing there with exhaustion and grief seeping out of his entire body as he let out a silent roar towards the skies.

He saw the entire world and all of heaven crumble as that silent roar tumbled out of the man’s lips…

He saw the man with purple hair walking towards the baby. He saw them slowly fusing together the instant they got closer to each other. It was as if the man filled with grief wanted to protect the baby while holding him in his arms, just like how Su Ming protected his past.

He saw…

”No one can see the world that I see…” These words came out of Su Ming’s mouth in a whisper.

There was a pair of hands in a wanderer’s eyes that symbolized his deeply rooted longing ache for his home.

There was a pair of hands in the eyes of a pair of lovers who stayed together despite times of hardship that symbolized an eternity of being together.

There was a pair of hands in a lonely person’s eyes that simply meant an addition of palm lines as time went by.

There was a pair of hands in a child’s eyes that symbolized an unforgettable attachment.

There was a pair of hands whose palms symbolized the past, and the back of which symbolized the future. If one did not want to, then the memories in his palms would forever be protected in his grasp. If he did not want to, then no one could see his palm lines and see his past… The only thing anyone could see was the back of that person’s hands, forever and ever.

There was a pair of hands where the left symbolized infancy, and the right symbolized old age. The changeable distance between these two hands symbolized his life.

‘My fusion is the fusion between the past and the future. With my past, I will urge my future self to be stronger, then with the strength of my future self, I will protect my past…

‘When I was born, I couldn’t control my own fate. Once I grow up, I will step on fate itself… When the past and future fuse together, they will become the present.’ Su Ming opened his eyes, and the emptiness caused by the shattering of his vision turned into calmness.

’This is my fusion, and I will call it…’ The shadow of a cold sneer appeared on Su Ming’s lips.

”I will call it… Destiny!”