Pursuit of the Truth

The Land of South Morning in front of Sky Mist City was visited by tumbling clouds, bolts of lightning cracking through the air, and rain pouring down from the sky. The appearance of the rain came very strangely. It started several months ago, and had never stopped ever since.

Everything in the world looked indistinct in the rain, causing the people to be unable to see too far into the distance. As rain poured down, a humid scent of the sea filled the entire region.

The magnificent Sky Mist City in the past had turned dead silent. Not a single sound could be heard coming from within, but if anyone took a closer look, they would be able to find that it was slightly different from the past. The walls on the mountain ranges had become much taller, and if anyone lifted their heads to look from under the city walls, they would be able to feel this clearly.

If they looked around, they would see that there was not a single living soul that could be seen on the land of the Shamans, which laid outside Sky Mist City. If anyone looked down to survey the entire South Morning from the highest point in the sky, they would find that raging waves that surged into the sky and vast amounts of rumbling seawater were continuously flooding the land from the edge of the land of the Shamans. The area that was submerged was already boundless, and by the looks of, it would not be long before the water reached Sky Mist City!

Behind the flooded land was a gigantic continent, mostly hidden by the rain pouring down on the Dead Sea. It was coming closer with the seawater. It looked as if it was traveling forth slowly, but in truth, if anyone went closer to the continent, they would find out that the continent was actually moving at an extreme speed.

That dark continent was naturally, the Eastern Wastelands. As it got closer, violent gusts of wind howled in the air, sweeping up the seawater to roar with them. The sounds filled the land of the Shamans and submerged the mountains located at the edge of South Morning, turning large amounts of flatland into an endless expanse of sea.

The Catastrophe of the Eastern Wastelands was unfolding at an intense pace. Before long, when the Eastern Wastelands crashed into South Morning, this catastrophe would unfold completely on the people in the Land of South Morning. The mountains would crumble and the earth would shatter. The whole land would change. Even those with great power of cultivation would find it hard to fight against this disaster.

No one would be able to predict just how many people in the Land of South Morning would be left behind after the disaster was over…

All factions of power were thrown off balance. It did not matter whether it was the Berserkers or the Shamans, when these factions of power collapsed, everything would descend into chaos due to the absence of law, clans, and big tribes!

Chaos would begin after the catastrophe, and it would mark the age of powerful warriors rising up to rule…

There were eight people charging forward at the edge of the land of the Shamans, near the waves that surged into the sky. Among these eight were three women, and the rest were men. The elderly heads were filled with white, and the young were about eighteen or nineteen years old. The eight of them might have come from different tribes, but once they gathered together, all of them cared about the same thing…

Escape!

They were escaping, running away desperately. There were no powerful warriors chasing after them, but their faces were filled with agony and fear.

There might be no powerful warriors after their lives, but there were endless roars coming from the seawater and the surging waves, as well as low growls from the infinite amounts of powerful life forms within the black Dead Sea.

One thousand lis behind them was a mountain. At that moment, that mountain collapsed with a bang. The reason for its destruction was a huge wave sweeping forth and crashing into it. As it shattered, the crushed stones as well as the mountain itself were all submerged by the seawater charging forward, turning into a part of this infinite expanse of sea.

As the clouds tumbled about in the sky and rain poured from the sky, birds could be seen closely packed to each other up in the air. These birds came from the Dead Sea. They were born in the Dead Sea and lived out their lives in the sky. If they had strength, they would return to the Dead Sea near the time of their deaths.

They formed teams, and they were so numerous their numbers could not be counted. It was impossible to count them as they flew in the sky. It was as if they had covered the entire heaven, and wherever they went to, not a single drop of rain would fall on the ground!

These birds completely ignored the ground and all the creatures in the sea. However, they were extremely aggressive towards all life forms in the air that were not of the same species as they were. Once they ran into other types of birds, they would group together and fight these birds to the death!

However, there seemed to be no end to their numbers. Even if many of them died, there would still be a large amount of them rushing out of the sea!

This area was merely a part of the gigantic sea. As of then, areas as dangerous as this were scattered everywhere at the edge of the land of the Shamans in South Morning.

”We can’t fly, onto to move as quickly as we can on the ground… but… how are we supposed to move faster than the Dead Sea behind us?!” a middle-aged man among the eight people charging across the land cried out in anguish.

”Even if we can’t outrun it, we have to try, as long as we reach Lasting Hoop Mountain, we will have a chance at survival!”

”Lasting Hoop Mountain is the closest rescue station to our current location. There is a short distance Relocation Rune in that mountain that will transport us to all other locations in the land of the Shamans. As long as the seawater hasn’t flooded the mountain, we can use that Rune and leave this place, and only like that can we buy the time to leave the land of the Shamans for good!” The person who spoke was a woman among the eight people. Her face was pale as she spoke hastily.

”What’s the point of leaving the land of the Shamans? My tribe is dissolved, and my remaining tribe members are scattered. Even if I go to the land of the Berserkers, I might never meet them again in my life…” There was a teenager who was about eighteen to nineteen years old in the group. He had remained silent till this point, and right then, he spoke with a bitter smile.

As the people conversed, a muffled boom traveled forth abruptly from behind them. The appearance of that sound immediately caused the expressions of the eight people to drastically change. All of them stopped speaking, choosing instead to grit their teeth and increase their speed.

At that moment, the sea was surging into the sky with a howl hundreds of lis behind them. The waves rose high in the air, as if there was a powerful force pushing them from behind, and all the places they passed through would turn into a part of the sea.

There was a gigantic head popping its head up to reveal its eyes on the surface of the sea, and those eyes were coldly staring at the eight people hundreds of lis away. The mercilessness and aloofness in those eyes sent chills running down the eight people’s spines, even though not one person turned their head back.

”Dead Sea Giant!”

The eight people who were running away felt their hearts tremble. As they charged forward, the seawater behind them rushed towards them even more quickly. The head on the surface of the sea sank down slowly. It might have seemed to disappear, but soon, a hundred lis away, right on the surface of the sea that was much closer to these eight people, the head emerged.

The spread of the seawater caused the sea to edge closer and closer to the eight people. It had been hundreds of lis away previously, but after a while, the sea became only a hundred lis away. The roars and the smell of the ocean made it seem as if the sea was right beside those eight people.

The instant another wave surged into the sky and fell down, causing the sea to spread even faster, the woman who mentioned Lasting Hoop Mountain previously gritted her teeth and leaped up, choosing to no longer remain at low altitude. Instead, once she flew up to midair, she coughed out a mouthful of blood, and her body immediately turned into blood fog that allowed her to charge into the distance.

In the midst of hesitation, the remaining seven people started doing the same. They turned into seven long arcs and charged through the sky. About hundreds of lis away from them was a mountain towering into the sky.

That mountain was part of a mountain range, and as the mountains connected together, they formed a hoop. The top of the mountains were not sharp either, but were instead flat like platforms, and anyone who looked at either of the mountains would find that they were in the shape of a hoop as well. The front one was the Lasting Hoop Mountain the group had mentioned!

The eight people in the sky no longer cared about staying together. Each of them charged forth with their fastest speed towards the mountain. Yet almost the moment they flew up, numerous birds shot towards them with a sharp whistle and closed in on them from all directions.

The birds’ speed far surpassed that of the escapees, and they looked as if they had turned into a huge hand sweeping past the air and charging straight towards the eight. Almost the instant these birds closed in, the eight activated their divine abilities. Rays of light of various colors flashed, and as rumbling sounds roared in the air, four among the eight broke out of the birds’ circle, but the remaining four would forever remain among the bird mob. As shrill screams of pain rang in the air, they were ripped apart, and their torn remains sank into the numerous birds’ stomachs.

The four people who had done everything they could to eventually charge out heard their companions’ screams of pain. Their faces turned even paler, and in terror, they did not stop for even a single moment. They charged straight towards the mountain. They were not far away from the mountain to begin with, and soon were less than thousands of feet away from the mountain. At that moment, the seawater beneath them was less than ten thousand feet away!

At that moment, more birds charged forth once again. Soon, one from the surviving four was surrounded by the birds, unable to break free. When he died among the birds, the remaining three finally managed to land on the mountain.

The three of them were two men and one woman. The woman was the one who had previously mentioned Lasting Hoop Mountain. As for the two men, one of them was a middle-aged man, and the other an old man.

”I know how to activate this Rune, defend me!” The woman immediately took a few brisk steps forward and stepped into an area where a Rune was carved onto the ground at the top of the mountain.

Just as she was fiddling with the Rune, trying to activate it, the seawater closed in on the foot of the mountain. It crashed into the mountain with a bang, and all those standing at the top of the mountain could see that everything below an area less than a hundred something feet beneath them turned into part of the endless surface of the sea.

The mountain trembled and cracks tore through its walls, as if it could not withstand the sea ramming into it and was about to crumble. At that moment, that gigantic head popped out of the surface of the sea next to the mountain. As the sea charged forth, a huge black hand shot out from the depths of the sea to grab the three people on the mountain.

From the distance, it was as if there was a giant in the sea that was lifting his hand to destroy everything.

The woman was not affected, but shock appeared on the faces of the old man and the middle-aged man as their hearts were shaken to the core. The old man immediately took a step towards the middle-aged man and lifted his right hand to push the other towards the hand that was coming to seize them to dodge the disaster that was coming towards him. But just as he was about to do this, the middle-aged man took a step to the side, then lifted his right hand to seize the old man, thinking about doing the same thing to him as well.

The instant they started plotting against each other, a sinister sneer appeared on the woman’s lips as she stood in the Rune. Bright light suddenly burst forth from under her feet, and a propelling force blasted outward. It pushed both the old man and the middle-aged man off the mountain, straight towards the giant hand that came to seize them.

”You bitch! You…” The expressions of the old man and the middle-aged man changed drastically, but before they managed to say anything, their words turned into screams of pain. They were seized by the palm and crushed, turning into minced meat.

The hand then charged straight towards the Rune in the mountain while still in the form of a fist.

”Thank you, the both of you.”

The woman smiled coldly. The Rune was already operating, and her body was disappearing quickly, but right at the instant her body vanished, she suddenly reappeared, and the cold sneer on her lips turned into a gasp of shock. She turned around swiftly, and the first thing she saw was another person appearing beside her as the Rune continued with its operations!

It was a person dressed in white with a full head of black hair framing a pale and downcast face. It… was Su Ming!