Pursuit of the Truth

Di Tian’s clone was destroyed, and the servant he placed in the land of the Berserkers to keep track of Su Ming was also captured. All of this caused the fate predetermined for Su Ming to change drastically.

All of this was the source of the old man’s fear. He knew many things, but it was precisely because he knew that he feared. The only thing he could rely on now was that Su Ming had still not found the memories that truly belonged to him.

”I have plenty of patience. If you don’t want to say, it’s fine by me.” Su Ming tapped the old man’s chest once again with two fingers. Immediately, rumbling sounds shot out from the old man’s body, and vortexes could be seen emerging right under his skin.

As those vortexes spun, they started exploding, and whirlwinds shot out from the skin. That sort of pain caused huge beads of sweat to roll down the old man’s skin as he trembled.

”It’s not as if I must learn everything from you alone. What I want is to cause you torment, to bring endless amounts of suffering on you… We didn’t actually have painfully obvious grudges between us in the beginning, but why did you do it?” Su Ming shook his head, lifted his right hand, and flicked his wrist.

Immediately, the whirlwinds in the old man’s body raged even wilder, sweeping by his organs as if they wanted to turn everything inside him into mush. That sort of feeling as if he was being ripped apart caused the old man to let out a shrill scream of pain.

That screaming lasted for most of the night, and it traveled out of the cave abode to appear right under the moonlight, causing most of Fated Kin to be able to hear it clearly.

It only started to slowly become weaker when the sky gradually brightened up. Su Ming looked at the old man who was still trembling before him, then lifted his right hand and formed a seal. Han Mountain Bell immediately appeared and covered the old man within. Bell chimes reverberated in the air.

Other people would only be able to hear the soft bell tolls, but when the old man heard them within the bell, it was deafening. It was as if there were countless people roaring nearby, causing booming sounds to echo in his head. His body started trembling so violently that he felt as if his flesh and blood were about to be ripped apart and his bones crushed.

”I’ll give you ample time to think carefully,” Su Ming said languidly and no longer bothered himself with the old man. Instead, he closed his eyes calmly and immersed himself in nursing his Nascent Divinity.

It had not been long since his Nascent Divinity appeared. If he wanted to bring out the full power of his divine sense, then he needed some time to nurse it back to health.

Time passed as Su Ming nursed his Nascent Divinity. In the blink of an eye, a month was over. During that month, all Fated Kin in the valley would occasionally hear bell chimes, and sometimes, they would hear shrill screams of pain as well.

Su Ming no longer used only strong gusts of wind to bring torment to the old man. He started fusing his attacks with Lightning Arts, Fire Berserker flames, and the Curse.

He did not use them all in a row but added them one by one, slowly and progressively. When the old man was used to the wind tearing at his flesh, he added lightning to pierce through his tendons and flesh, making him go through a hell that felt as if heavenly judgment had fallen on him.

When the old man had gotten used to lightning and wind tearing him apart, Su Ming added Fire Berserker flames to his attacks. The burning from within and outside the body, the destruction of the passages of Qi, the suffering on the flesh and blood caused the old man to suffer a pain that was worse than death.

He wanted to die, but he could not die, because Su Ming had not completely broken the Curse in his body. He left a small part of it within his body, and this Curse could continue making him weaker, could make him be unable to self-destruct, and could make him be unable to die.

The booming sounds from Han Mountain Bell over the days had also caused the old man to feel a pain that he had practically never felt before, a pain that was akin to being submerged in hell.

If Tie Mu had not passed away, then this sort of torment and Su Ming’s continuous nurturing of his Nascent Divinity would have continued; he would not have walked out of his cave abode within a short amount of time.

But in the end, Tie Mu did not manage to escape death. On this day, during dusk, as a light drizzle rained down from the sky, Tie Mu closed his eyes.

Su Ming did try saving him before, but Tie Mu, who was already at the last hours of his life, was already too far gone to be saved.

Rain poured down. It was not rare in the World of Nine Yin, and once it appeared, it would usually last for several months. The entire world turned indistinct under the rain, and no one could see too far ahead.

The hundreds of Fated Kin in the valley walked out of their cave abodes. Right at the bottom of the valley was Tie Mu, who was covered by a sheet by his tribesmen and who laid on the ground as rain poured on him. He had his eyes closed and he looked at peace. He did not seem to be in too much pain, and instead looked as if he had been released.

It was quiet all around the area. Even the sounds of crying were drowned out by the pouring rain.

Su Ming also walked out of his cave abode and stood beside Tie Mu’s corpse. He looked at this familiar face before him and the memories of what happened between them in the past appeared in his head. He might not have had much contact with Tie Mu, but they could still be considered acquaintances.

Su Ming had seen too many deaths, but this time, it was slightly different. When he saw Tie Mu, the scenes of the fight between the both of them came to his mind.

Nan Gong Hen stood beside Su Ming with grief on his face. He had gone through this sort of thing far too many times during the past fifteen years, so he originally thought he would be numb to this, but now, he just realized, he could not. How could he..?

”Senior Tie Mu could originally leave… but he let the other people in his tribe go before him, and in the end, he could no longer follow them, because the Rune was destroyed…

”The other seniors passed away one by one during these fifteen years, eventually, five years ago, senior Tie Mu became the only Latter Shaman left among us. Now… even he has left us,” Nan Gong Hen whispered softly in anguish.

There was a young man kneeling beside Tie Mu’s corpse. That man’s face was filled with grief, and he was the young boy that Nan Gong Hen had brought with him in the past. He had already lost his right arm, and as he knelt beside Tie Mu, tears trickled down his face.

Nan Gong Hen remained silent for a moment, then said slowly, ”Send senior Tie Mu off!”

When his words were spoken, all Fated Kin around knelt down. Sorrow could be seen on their faces as rain poured down on them. It was freezing, but no one moved away.

Two tribesmen walked out from among the crowd around Tie Mu and lifted him up. Then, they started walking into the distance along the path in the valley.

The young man followed behind him as he cried. Nan Gong Hen cast Su Ming a glance, and followed behind them.

In silence, Su Ming walked towards the deeper parts of the valley as rain poured down his body and as Fated Kin continued kneeling on the ground.

The beast bone altar was located deep within the valley. It was also the place where Fated Kin buried their dead during these fifteen years…

The rain caused the area to be indistinct, making the dense layers of white bones and the stone monuments filled with words to not look so frightening, but instead give off a thick air of misery.

Su Ming was not deeply impacted by that misery, but Nan Gong Hen, whenever he came to this place, he would feel as if his heart was being stabbed.

Once they buried Tie Mu, they erected a stone monument above his grave. They carved his name and his affiliation as a Fated Kin on that monument, as well as all his battle achievements in life. When they were done, Nan Gong Hen kowtowed to the monument silently before he turned around and left, bringing his grief with him.

Su Ming swept his gaze past the altar. The rain was pouring even more heavily, and he could vaguely see through the obscure veil of rain numerous heroic souls returning to their heaven after protecting their tribesmen in the valley during the last fifteen years...

Tie Mu’s passing turned into grief that coiled up in the hearts of all Fated Kin, causing everyone to speak very few words during the next few days.

As time passed, the rain outside poured even harder. The rustling sounds of droplets of water falling on the ground remained a constant. Rain and fog covered the entire area, causing it to become even more indistinct. It was as if the rain and fog had turned into a rain curtain that connected the sky and earth.

Su Ming listened to the sounds of rain outside from within his cave abode. He continued immersing himself in meditation, and did not stop with raining down torment on Di Tian’s servant either.

Tie Mu’s death did not affect him greatly, and it was the same for the grief that filled this place. After all, he had not stayed in this place for fifteen years, and he did not have many memories about this place.

However, for some unknown reason, he was feeling rather depressed.

”When you die, you will want to be buried in your own country, but in the end, your bones are buried in foreign land… Even for Latter Shamans, it is difficult for them to determine where they will die… Tie Mu is still in a better situation. At least he knows where his home is. He also knows the road back to his home.

”But where is my home..? Just... where is Dark Mountain..? Or perhaps… Dark Mountain isn’t even my real hometown…

”Elder once told me to go to Berserker’s Realm Mountain,” Su Ming mumbled, and a lost look appeared in his eyes. The memories of Dark Mountain rose before his eyes, and gradually, they faded away.

Time passed once more, and another month went by slowly. Su Ming’s Nascent Divinity had slowly perfected its condition during these two months of nursing.

When Su Ming finished nursing his Nascent Divinity, his divine sense also reached peak condition. While he might be unable to cover an area of one million lis, but once he spread it out, he would still be able to sense his crimson dragon, his Poison Corpse, and Ji Yun Hai.

On this day, with a serious expression, Su Ming slowly spread his divine sense out as while sitting with his legs crossed. As it stretched in all directions, he placed his focus on the crimson dragon, his puppet, and the Poison Corpse. Gradually, his expression turned dark.

The divine sense covering the entire area allowed Su Ming to spread his will outwards as well, and as he called out to these creatures, a ripple coming from the west first responded to him, albeit slowly.

That wave of ripples was very weak. The instant Su Ming’s divine sense touched it, a blurry scene appeared in his head, and he saw a vague picture flashing right before his eyes.

The picture was of a large palace, and it was built on a mountain. There were eight gigantic statues within the palace, and right in the middle of these statues was a skeleton kneeling on one knee. Its limbs were chained down, and the chains were impaled in the ground.

The statues were not the ones that responded to Su Ming, neither was it that skeleton. It was instead the picture that was drawn on the ground under the skeleton!

That picture protruded off the ground and circled around the area, and it was the greatly shrunken crimson dragon!

However, it was no longer crimson. Its color had become much duller. There was pain on its face, and it did not move. If Su Ming took a closer look, he could discover that the eight statues were stepping on the crimson dragon’s picture as if they were holding it down. As for the skeleton in the center, the spot where the chain was impaled was right where the crimson dragon’s head was!

When that picture flashed through Su Ming’s mind, it disappeared without a trace. Immediately after, a new scene appeared, and that scene was a swamp. Right in the depths of the swamp were a pair of green eyes, and they were flashing in the dark. A low growl seemed to travel forth, and the scene disappeared.

Su Ming opened his eyes swiftly, and a freezing glare appeared within them.

”Spirits of Nine Yin!” He stood up, left a wisp of his divine sense in the valley, took a step out of his cave abode, and in the next instant, disappeared.