Pursuit of the Truth

The instant the World Spirit woke up, the few remaining regions in the World of Nine Yin all shuddered and slowly fell apart, as if the ground never existed in the first place. As the ground disappeared, even the altar where Su Ming and the other Fated Kin stood fell apart.

The ground before the hundreds of Fated Kin started collapsing inch by inch, as if there was a gigantic invisible mouth that was devouring the ground, causing the Fated Kin to float in midair. They looked towards where Su Ming was, but they still couldn’t find him in their field of vision. They could only see something blurry in the spot where Su Ming was previously, and there was also a strong distortion there that seemed like it was about to rip through their gazes.

The sky rumbled. The protruding face in the huge vortex had now opened all four of its eyes. Light that reached one hundred thousand feet shone before him, and the gigantic figure made of dried up wood charged towards the human face as if it wanted to fuse with it.

On Su Ming’s side, under that extreme speed of his, he had surpassed all the illusions formed by the Rune. He felt a membrane stopping his body from moving forward in the Rune, but it could not block his gaze.

It pierced through that invisible membrane, and he saw… an endless expanse of black water!

The expanse of water was boundless. There were five huge continents floating on it. And at that moment, among the five continents, the continent at the center and two of the continents at the south were incredibly close to each other. If he did not look closely, he would think that they had fused together!

Yet when he took a closer look, he discovered that these continents were in no way connected to each other. It was clear that the continent to the east was ramming itself against the southern continent at an incredible speed.

‘The world in the mirror…’ A bang went off in Su Ming’s head. He had a feeling as if he had come to understand something. He cast his gaze swiftly to the west, towards the continent on the west. However, he could not see that continent clearly. He could only see the contour of the land, and after that, a huge force shot out from the membrane, and he was instantly ricocheted off.

Almost the instant Su Ming was bounced off, the membrane broke down. The altar which acted as the center of the Rune had collapsed. Su Ming took a few steps back consecutively, and with each step he took, he looked as if he was revealing himself under that extreme speed. When he took the tenth step back, he appeared once again in sight of all the Fated Kin in the area.

It was also at that moment that the human face that had opened his eyes in the vortex finished fusing with the body that was made of dried wood. At the instant they fused together, the vortex exploded abruptly and turned into a powerful wave of air that swept through the land and blew in all directions.

The strength of that wave of air was so great that it turned into a violent gust of wind as it rumbled in the air. As it charged forward, it spread out in a circular form, and it was so quick that it covered the entire region where the Fated Kin were in an instant. If that gust of wind was allowed to blow at will, then a large number of Fated Kin would be blown away and torn apart by the wave of air as if they were autumn leaves.

The faces of the hundreds of Fated Kin changed drastically. Without any hesitation, Nan Gong Hen rushed a few steps forward and stood before his tribesmen. Some of the people who had higher levels of cultivation also gritted their teeth and rushed out, wanting to resist the incoming wave of air and protect the safety of their tribesmen.

Almost the instant these people put up a stance to oppose that wave of air, it came towards them with loud, booming sounds. When it crashed into Nan Gong Hen, he coughed out a mouthful of blood, feeling as if a mountain had rammed into him.

The other Fated Kin beside him not only coughed up blood, but also felt as if their bodies were being torn apart. They moved back against their will, but right behind them were the Fated Kin, their tribesmen. Some of them were just children, and they could not fly on their own. They needed other tribesmen to carry them, and the slightest contact with this wave of air would definitely kill them!

Nan Gong Hen’s eyes turned red. He wanted to stand against this wave of air, but he could not control his own body. As he was continuously forced back, the wave of air charged forward, and right at the instant it was about to flood his tribesmen, suddenly, a white figure arrived and stood right before Nan Gong Hen and all the other Fated Kin.

This person was dressed entirely in white, and he was Su Ming!

He had forced down the shock that arose within him because of the world he saw in the mirror and lifted his right hand to push against the incoming wave of air. As he pressed against it, golden light abruptly spread out from his body, and once the hundreds of Fated Kin behind him were bathed in it, he began resisting that alarming gust of wind.

It was just three breaths, and Su Ming felt himself struggling to endure them. He might have extraordinary power and his body might be incredibly sturdy due to most of his bones, flesh, and bone having turned into Berserker Bones, but it was still difficult for him to last for long in that wave of air.

In truth, the entire reason as to why he could last till now was because of the strength of his physical body. If anyone else had taken his place, they then would have also been like Nan Gong Hen, being pushed back the instant they came into contact with that wave of air, injured.

Fortunately, that massive wave of air was sweeping in all directions and was not directed at Su Ming. That was why after he persevered for three breaths, the wave swept past their region. Although it had pushed Su Ming and all the Fated Kin under his protection several thousands of feet backwards, like a lone boat swept up by a raging wave, no one died, and once the wave of air swept by them, everything returned to normal.

Su Ming panted harshly. He did not make the golden light on his body fade away, but instead lifted his head and looked towards the huge face that had fused with the body of dried wood in the distant sky after the vortex collapsed.

At the same moment Su Ming looked towards him, the four eyes on that face also looked towards him.

”The midsection of the fourth eye is where the Rune is… I will never forget the help you gave us…”

An ancient voice reverberated through the world and fused together with the booming sounds in the air. Soon after, the huge face swelled up swiftly right before Su Ming’s eyes, and in the blink of an eye, he had become ten times, a hundred times, then one thousand times larger. Not only did he replace the entire sky, he also caused the dark shades of twilight from the sky to disappear as he covered the sky, replacing it with a bronze light.

It felt as if there was a veil that had covered the sky previously. That veil was in the color of the sky, which was why it had been in the shade of twilight whenever someone looked at it. Yet now, as the human face spread out and covered it, it was as if the veil was lifted and its true colors were revealed!

The sky was not even a sky!

Bronze light shone brilliantly. The entire sky looked like the surface of a huge Enchanted Vessel. People could sense an ancient and unsophisticated air coming from it, and Su Ming could even see the sky seemingly turning into a huge metal piece when that bronze hue started shining above. There were numerous densely packed small holes on that metal piece!

In fact, there were even a large amount of complex runic symbols shining on it!

Su Ming might have already had some form of mental preparation for this, but once he saw it truly happen, he was still shocked, and if he was behaving in this manner, it was even more so for Nan Gong Hen and the other Fated Kin.

Their shock was reflected clearly in their quickened breathing.

”What is that..?”

”By the looks of it, it seems like some sort of Enchanted Vessel…”

”This… is the true sky of the World of Nine Yin? Could it be that the sky we saw was fake, the ground we stood upon was also just an illusion, and this is the real thing?”

After the people recovered from their shock, a buzzing arose among hundreds of people. They were in disbelief of what they saw.

As the veil in the sky was lifted and as the true sky that looked like bronze was revealed, nine big runic symbols in the shape of moons emerged and caught Su Ming’s attention!

The nine runic symbols were aligned with the others and were placed right above the surface of the bronze Enchanted Vessel. They flashed brilliantly, and when he looked at them, Su Ming was reminded of the nine moons in the World of Nine Yin!

At the moment his pupils shrank due to the shock that was brought by the change in the World of Nine Yin, suddenly, the fourth eye at the center of the gigantic human face’s brows overlapped with a certain spot on the bronze sky.

The instant that happened, booming sounds immediately traveled forth from that spot, and as if the sky was moving, a gap appeared. Light spilled forth from that gap. It might not be big, but it gave off a feeling that it was in decline. The gap was right above Su Ming, and looked as if it had been torn open on purpose.

”I can only last for ten breaths with my power. Enter with haste!”

The ancient voice from the old Spirit of Nine Yin instantly reverberated through the air. At the moment it spoke, the swelled up gigantic face froze for a moment, looking as if its action of growing larger had been forcefully halted, causing the gap that had formed because the fourth eye had overlapped with the bronze sky to not disappear.

A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes, and he charged straight towards the sky. The other Fated Kin behind him followed suit, but they were too slow and could not hope to compare with Su Ming. That was why when Su Ming took that first step, golden light shone on his entire body once again and swept up all the hundreds of Fated Kin behind him, and they charged towards the sky with a loud whistle.

The gap that had been opened specifically for Su Ming was shining nonstop at the moment. Its appearance was due to the overlapping between the human face and the bronze sky. The gap should have disappeared in an instant when the face moved away from that spot in the sky, but the old Spirit of Nine Yin had forcefully halted its actions. Making it stop in this manner was akin to stopping the activation of this Enchanted Vessel that could move between True Worlds. The level of difficulty for this was incredibly high, and with the old man’s abilities, he could only make this last for ten breaths.

Su Ming charged forth with the Fated Kin, and from the distance, they looked like a golden shooting star that was rushing closer and closer towards the sky. By the fourth breath, they had already closed in on the gap in the bronze sky.

Yet at that very moment, the gap started trembling viciously, and the tremors grew increasingly more intense with each passing moment. Rumbling sounds reverberated in the air, and very clearly, right before Su Ming’s eyes as he stood outside the gap, the human face that had originally been frozen started to move slowly and began expanding once more. The time… it was not even ten breaths yet!

”Hurry! I can no longer last…” The old Spirit of Nine Yin’s voice gained an anxious edge.

The gap was about to close up because of the World Spirit’s movements. The golden light on Su Ming’s entire body grew exponentially brighter. All the Fated Kin behind him also charged forth with their fastest speed, rushing straight towards the gap. Due to the World Spirit recovering its movements, the face was also sweeping past that gap, but the instant the gap disappeared, Su Ming charged into it!

Most of the Fated Kin also entered with him, but there were nine Fated Kin who did not make it into the gap. Once the gap closed up, they were blocked off outside…

Among the nine was the man who had been taking care of Tie Mu for years and who had lost his right arm when Su Ming met him as a boy!

With a loud bang, the gap closed up. Su Ming and all the Fated Kin who had stepped into the gap would never know what happened to those that were left in the World of Nine Yin. As of then, they were in a huge tunnel.