Pursuit of the Truth

”Great Eastern Wasteland Desert Bell… This is Eastern Wastelands’ Sacred Vessel, your people’s vessel…” Bao Qiu hoarse voice reached Su Ming’s ears from behind in bits and pieces.

Her voice was incredibly weak. The illusory statue before her was also trembling faintly at the moment, as if the bell’s appearance had brought such a pressure on it that it would crumble at any moment.

Su Ming’s breathing quickened slightly, and he only managed to calm it down after some time. He had his gaze trained on the huge Eastern Wastelands Bell in the sky, and his eyes were burning with a strong flame!

He finally knew just what it was - that sound that seemed as if something had struck another thing that might be gold. That was… a bell chime that came from the bell in the crack, but due to the crack cutting off its sound and the spiritual aura from the world surging into the crack continuously, the bell chime sounded as if it had changed.

But once he thought about it, that sound was clearly a bell chime!

Almost at the moment Eastern Wastelands Bell descended from the sky, eight women dressed in white appeared within each of the Evil Sects in Eastern Wastelands!

It was the same for Evil Spirit Sect. Eight women dressed in white floated into the sky, and judging by their expressions, they seemed to not be too affected by the pressure created by Eastern Wastelands Bell!

These eight women were all incredibly beautiful, and there was an indescribable presence surrounding them at the moment. They were floating in the sky, and all of them had a small red bottle before them.

A drop of fresh blood swiftly flew out from each of the eight bottles, and these eight drops imprinted themselves on the center of these women’s brows. It looked as though someone had painted a vermilion mark between their brows. At the instant that happened, the eight women closed their eyes, and a piercing blood-red light burst forth from their bodies.

Their white robes seemed to have been dyed in blood under that light. As it filled the air, it completely enveloped Evil Spirit Mountain, but it was not used to cover the Berserkers’ Sky and stop the Eastern Wasteland Bell from detecting the presences of the Immortals who had descended here. The red light was instead used to allow the Sacred Vessel to use its power on these people based on their different levels of cultivation and their limits.

It could be said that the blood-red light was a filter. Each time it changed, it would hide away all the other people’s presences and only reveal one person’s, so that he or she would be able to have a chance to resist the might of Han Mountain Bell alone!

That blood-red light could also change all the presences of those who had revealed their power within it, causing them to be weaker than their true level of cultivation. With this method, the people could go through what could only be considered as a true trial!

Because the divine ability of Eastern Wastelands Bells would release its power based on the different levels of cultivation it detected. It would not waste even a single bit of its power, neither would it release less than what it required.

Yet even so, this Eastern Wastelands Bell was definitely not an ordinary treasure. This was the Sacred Vessel left behind by the first God of Berserkers in Eastern Wastelands, the priceless treasure used to protect the Berserkers!

It had with it a strike that possessed the power to destroy everything. It did not matter what level of cultivation its enemy possessed, it would bring forth a power that was the exact same as its enemy’s level of cultivation, but if its enemy was in a particular level of cultivation, then the bell would show the strongest amount of power possible within that Stage, and it would be so great that it could destroy all those within that same Stage!

Yet even though Evil Sect had already made such preparations and the Berserkers’ Disaster would fall on them once every fifty years, there would still be some who would die under Eastern Wastelands Bell!

This sort of indirect control over Eastern Wastelands Bell and change towards the function of the Celestial Maidens was created by Ji An, the strongest in Evil Sect. This method might be crazy and dangerous, but it could make all those within Evil Sect to not want to waste even a single moment of their time and train in a frenzy so that they could fight against the other Immortal sects, because they could use Enchanted Treasures when they fought against the Berserkers’ Disaster.

The blood-red screen of light that had been altered by Ji An spread out over all four Evil Sects at that instant, and immediately the first person was chosen to go through the trial from the Berserkers’ Disaster, and he was the strongest person in the sect - the Grand Sect Elder Shen Dong!

Su Ming stared at the blood-red screen of light with bright, sparkling eyes. He was looking at the eight women and the blood-red bottles before them. In the midst of his silence, a hint of complicated feelings could be seen on his face.

He remembered the dazed Celestial Maiden that was residing in his storage bag at that moment…

A cold harrumph came from the top of Evil Spirit Mountain. Bao Qiu finally relaxed under the blood-red screen of light, as if all pressure on her had disappeared, but her expression turned even graver, and a deep anxiety could be detected in her bearing. With a pale face, she looked towards Su Ming’s back.

She knew that the true trial was about to start!

The blood-red screen of light caused the person who let out that cold harrumph to be the only person who had his presence revealed. A strong, mighty power erupted forth swiftly at that instant, and it was a wave of power that could shake the sky and earth. It caused Su Ming’s pupils to shrink, and he lifted his head to look towards that direction.

He saw that black smoke rising into the sky. At that moment, it turned into a gigantic shadow. It was about ten thousand feet tall, and its entire body was a little indistinct, as if it would scatter away if wind blew on it, but the truth was that no matter how strong the wind, it would not be able to blow apart that shadow. This was, of course, unless it was a gust of wind brought forth by someone with a level of cultivation that surpassed those who had reached great completion in the Berserker Soul Realm or were above the Immortals who had reached Ascendance.

The shadow seemed like a man, but due to its indistinct appearance, its face could not be seen clearly. However, the presence spreading out from that shadow caused Su Ming’s pupils to shrink.

The feeling he gained from this person’s level of cultivation was similar to the one when he faced off against Si Ma Xin after he had inherited the legacy from the second God of Berserkers and had mastered his numerous divine abilities!

Right at that moment, the illusory shadow seeped through the blood-red screen of light, and at the instant he revealed itself in the world, the Eastern Wastelands Bell let out a deafening chime in the sky. That bell did not even cast any sort of divine ability as that chime echoed in the air. It only used its gigantic body and pressed down on the ground.

The bell descended ten feet, and as it sank, a wave that looked like ripples spread out throughout the land. The ground let out a loud bang, and even Evil Spirit Mountain trembled because of it. A large amount of crushed stones fell from the mountain, and cracks appeared on the ground that started spreading rapidly in all directions.

At the same time, the huge, indistinct figure lifted its arms, as if it wanted to push against the sky so that it could hold up the pressure and resist the power of Eastern Wastelands Bell.

A low roar reverberated in the air, and it sounded as if someone had been holding onto their breath for a long time before finally letting it out. As that sound spread out like the muffled roars of thunder, the indistinct figure looked as if it could no longer bear with the pressure. Its arms exploded with a bang, as if they could no longer handle the pressure, and right before Su Ming’s eyes, its body shattered completely like a broken bottle as that roar continued echoing in the air.

However, as it broke down, another person could be seen within the crumbling black shadow. It was a middle-aged man dressed in a blue robe with rather long hair. There was an eerie glint in the man’s eyes as he shouted at the sky.

”Is this the limit of the power for late Ascendant Stage?! It’s still not enough to destroy me!” The middle-aged man was naturally Shen Dong. As he spoke, he flew up and charged towards the bell!

’He’s at the equivalent of great completion of the Berserker Soul Realm… the great circle of the Immortal’s Ascendant Stage!’ Su Ming’s eyes sparkled as these thoughts echoed in his heart while he looked at Shen Dong’s figure.

’But the presence he showed is not that of a person who has reached the great circle. It’s instead at a level below that. He’s just showing the power for Late Ascendant Stage. This should be related to the Celestial Maidens’ screen of light…’

Su Ming narrowed his eyes. He could already guess the method Evil Sect used to resist the Berserkers’ Disaster, and from this, he could also guess that the bell was displaying the limit of the power for a single Stage.

As he sank into his thoughts, he lifted his head and watched with sparkling eyes as Shen Dong got increasingly closer to Eastern Wastelands Bell in the sky. At the instant he was about to close in on it, a wave of ripples appeared from the Sacred Vessel, and that wave turned into an illusory river flowing down a mountain!

At first glance, that river and mountain still were clearly illusions, but they quickly gained physical form, so it soon looked as if there was a river and a mountain in the sky!

The mountain and river were, naturally, the things carved on the bell, and its original form was nine mountains, nine rivers, and nine deserts!

At that moment, what had appeared in midair was a mountain and a river, but no desert! At the instant the mountain and river appeared, Su Ming immediately saw Shen Dong’s expression turning incredibly grave. When the river descended, it looked as if it had turned into a long dragon. Sweeping down, it charged towards Shen Dong. At the same time, the mountain let out a loud bang and warped above Shen Dong, crushing down on him.

This might have seemed to have happened over a long period of time, but in truth, only the span of a few breaths had passed since the mountain and river appeared. As rumbling sounds reverberated in the air, the mountain and river disappeared, and Shen Dong coughed up a large mouthful of blood, but he retreated with a loud laugh.

The eight Celestial Maidens changed their footsteps, and the blood-red screen of light over Evil Spirit Sect immediately changed and covered Shen Dong’s presence before revealing the wave of power from another person. The appearance of the Berserkers’ Disaster in Eastern Wastelands on different individuals made Su Ming see the Immortals and the Berserkers who had changed their blood inheritance appear one by one, as the blood-red screen of light changed each time. The people revealed would either make it through the attack successfully… or die in the process.

Shrill screams of pain echoed in the air…

”This is the ninth person…” Bao Qiu said from behind Su Ming. With a pale face, she looked at the sky outside the window.

Su Ming did not speak. Sorrow gradually appeared on his face. He was not sad for the Immortals who descended to this land or the Berserkers who had changed their blood inheritance. He was sad for the persistence of Eastern Wastelands’ Sacred Vessel, which had not changed since ancient times…

Even if that persistence was being used by Evil Sect in this time and age for it to become the Berserkers’ Disaster that served as a trial for the people in its sect, it still did not change.

Su Ming watched Eastern Wastelands Bell trying to kill all the outsiders, who had revealed themselves by spreading the presence of their cultivation base, and bringing its might on them to fulfill its mission on this day that would only come once every fifty years. He saw its persistence, despite knowing that it would be increasingly more difficult as time passed.

Su Ming closed his eyes. Soon after, a cold chill suddenly surrounded the building where he was. At the same time, the Berserkers’ Disaster for Bao Qiu arrived!

A powerful pressure swiftly descended on the building and landed on Bao Qiu’s body. She shivered and gritted her teeth to resist it.

Su Ming still stood with his eyes closed.