Pursuit of the Truth

’It’s him!’

Su Ming froze for a moment and his breathing quickened. His gaze was fixed on the bald shadow. He could see the empty look in his eyes, as if he had lost his soul. Right then, he was only a walking corpse.

However, the presence that belonged to a Shaman had not diminished on him. Instead, it had become stronger. He seemed to have reached the Bone Sacrifice Realm, but there was something different about him as well, and that difference caused Su Ming to immediately look at the shadows around the bald man.

Each of those shadows was similar. They were filled with the presence of Shamans, which was incredibly thick, and because of it attracted a large amount of attention from those in the battlefield. It was like a stone had been thrown into a lake, bringing up a large amount of splashes and ripples in its wake.

’All of these are eldest senior brothers three hundred Shaman Souls… By the looks of it, their minds are being controlled now… If that is the case, then eldest senior brother is…’ In silence, Su Ming whipped his head towards Sky Mist Dao, and killing intent shone in his eyes.

This was an incredibly important clue to Su Ming, a clue that would help him find his eldest senior brother!

Almost at the instant the ninety-nine Shamans appeared, their presence erupted from their bodies and they charged into the distance. They did not seem to possess any corporeal form as they moved forward and looked rather indistinct, just like illusions. This made all the Shaman shadows… to possess undying and imperishable forms, even though their power was only that of the Bone Sacrifice Realm!

Su Ming saw these Shamans fighting against people from the Evil Sect, and even when they shattered under divine abilities, their crumbled bodies would immediately merge back into one after a moment.

But that was not all. In truth, every single time they merged back, the waves of power coming from their bodies… would also become stronger!

Right at that moment, a shocking roar suddenly came from Evil Dust Sect. A sandstorm abruptly appeared in its location and swept out in all directions. It might not be able to move the black fog on the land, but it managed to gather up a large amount of dust and earth to form three huge Dark Turtles!

These three Dark Turtles were the color of earth. Once they appeared, they let out roaring sounds and charged forward.

There was a person standing on each of the three Dark Turtle’s heads. These three people wore yellowish brown long robes, and their bodies swayed along with their rides’ movements. Almost at the moment the Dark Turtles leaped up from the ground, the three people immediately formed seals with their right hands and lifted their left hands and swung them in the air before themselves.

With it, nine yellow pieces of paper were immediately tossed out. There were no runic symbols drawn on these yellow papers, but they had instead nine young boys drawn on them!

”Let the Emperor clear the path, let Heaven’s Howler [1] destroy everything, let the Dust Stallions become the steads… to bring forth the bodies for the nine beings!”

Once the strange words tumbled out of the mouths of the three people, the nine yellow pieces of paper immediately started burning. As they burned, piercing howls came from the fires, and nine boys appeared, tearing through the flames to emerge in to the world.

Once they came out, they immediately let out a shrill scream towards the sky and charged towards the Shaman warrior souls.

The entire battlefield was immersed in the battle between Enchanted Treasures. All of the sects possessed incredibly destructive Enchanted Treasures. As they continued fighting against each other, they started bringing all these items to the table.

Su Ming still remained silent in midair. Most of the time, his gaze would go over towards the Shaman warrior souls, and during those times, he would have to suppress his urge to save them.

Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. He had more important things to do at the moment, and that was to kill Di Tian. Before he managed to do this, he could not attack too frequently, or else he would attract the attention of Di Tians in the sky, and then he would have to pay with his life.

The number of deaths on the ground continued increasing. The ninety-nine Shaman souls and the nine paper boys were engaged in an intense battle with each other on the battlefield. The three Dark Turtles also split into three different directions and trapped the Shaman souls within as if locking them up in a cage.

Not too far away, the nine remaining Yin Dragons were fighting against the three Galactic Warrior Immortals, with booming sounds ringing in the air.

In all the other directions around Su Ming, the people from Evil Sect and the Immortal sects had already descended into a killing frenzy. Blood filled the ground under their feet, and torn limbs as well as mangled corpses could be found everywhere.

This battle would have originally not accelerated to this point so quickly. By the leaders’ plans, they should have held back a little. After all, the main role of this battle did not lie with them, the ones of the ground did not have too much of a deciding factor towards the end result. The real deciding factor was in the sky.

However, for some unknown reason, this battle had accelerated with such an explosive force that it had exceeded everyone’s expectations.

It seemed as if there was an invisible hand that was slowly pushing everyone forward, causing the number of deaths to increase exponentially… That hand, was Su Ming!

He was standing in midair at the moment, all while watching the ground and looking at the massacre he had personally caused. His eyes were aloof, and the green light on his left hand shone brighter than before. The power of the Curse in his right hand also grew stronger.

”Kill them. The more you kill, the greater my chances to kill Di Tian will be,” Su Ming mumbled.

However, not all of the people had lost their rationale. At that moment, when the intensity of the battle had exceeded the expectations of both armies, the powerful warriors in Ascendance who were fighting against each other spotted changes in their expressions. Shrill screams of pain were traveling continuously into their ears, each one possibly belonging to the members of their own sect.

The battle should not be like this!

The person fighting against Evil Dust Sect’s Grand Sect Elder, Shihai, who was one of the three Apogees of the three inferior sects, was Jingnan, the Sect Master of Hidden Dragon Sect. These two people had already reached the great circle stage in Ascendance. At that moment, both of them were attacking each other, and their divine abilities were clashing against each other nonstop. A long series of crashes and rumbles rose into the air. The spot in which they had chosen to fight was closer to the center, and they were the first to notice that a change that could not be controlled had happened in the battlefield.

’There’s something wrong…’

Shihai’s eyes shone, and once he formed a seal with his right hand, he pushed his palm forward so that the seal he formed would crash against Jingnan’s divine ability. As booming sounds rose into the air, he took a few steps backwards and formed a long series of seals with his left hand before he seized the air. Immediately, a jade slip appeared on his hand, and once he threw it backwards, that slip charged straight into the fog.

Jingnan, too, frowned, but he was still somewhat uncertain in his heart. With a cold harrumph, he also chose to throw out a jade slip before he reengaged Shihai in battle.

Questions had also formed in Shihai’s heart. He could not tell just what was the reason that had caused both sides to lose control over the battle and whether the Immortal sects truly wanted to destroy Evil Sect.

Despite their uncertainty, the duo did not stop attacking each other. After all, their power was too great, and even if they had a feeling that something had happened to the battlefield, they could not personally check the situation. Their presences would easily incite more chaos. That was why they chose to throw out those jade slips.

In the midst of the rumbling sounds, their jade slips went in the same direction. There, two cultivators in the early stage of Ascendance were fighting against each other. One of these cultivators came from Evil Dust Sect, and the other was from Hidden Dragon Sect.

When the two jade slips charged towards them, the two people began retreating while still fighting. Once they grabbed those jade slips, they swept past their contents with their divine senses at the same time, and their expressions immediately changed. These two people cast each other a glance that was still filled with killing intent, and without exchanging a single word, they stopped attacking and swiftly left in two different directions.

Su Ming saw this scene clearly from the sky. A freezing glare shone in his eyes, and he disappeared without a single sound, turning into a dark shadow that charged through the fog.

His target was that Hidden Dragon Sect cultivator in the early stage of Ascendance. That person was incredibly quick, and he was rushing towards the Immortal sects’ base. He had received Jingnan’s orders to check what was wrong within the battlefield.

Yet before that person managed to close in on the base, his pupils shrank and he came to an abrupt halt. Right before his eyes, Su Ming walked out from the fog in front of him, then turned into a shadow that closed in on him in an instant.

Booming sounds immediately rose within the fog. They were incredibly powerful but lasted for only ten breaths before Su Ming walked out. In his hand he held a head, and right behind him, the headless corpse of that cultivator in the early stage in Ascendance was slowly falling down. Su Ming seized it through the air and it flew up on its own, following him.

Su Ming’s expression was cold and dark. While holding the head, he moved into the fog. This time, his target was the Ascendance cultivator from Evil Sect, but before that, Su Ming had his own plans. With a single move, he disappeared into the fog.

Chenchong, the prodigy of Hidden Dragon Sect, leading nearly a hundred Hidden Dragon Sect disciples, was fighting against the disciples from Evil Sect in the fog covered battlefield. He did not notice that there was a shadow flashing past him in the fog around him.

That shadow was Su Ming. With his speed, he had located that Evil Dust Sect cultivator in the early stage in Ascendance in the blink of an eye. While charging forward, Su Ming swiftly closed in on him, about to launch an ambush.

Yet at the moment he neared him, that Evil Dust Sect cultivator in Ascendance swiftly turned around, positioned two of his fingers into the form of a sword, and slashed towards the fog behind him resolutely.

A muffled groan came from there, and a shadow appeared, staggering a few steps forward before he rushed deeper into the fog in an attempt to flee. The Evil Dust Sect Ascendance cultivator’s eyes shone, and he let out a cold harrumph as he gave chase.

The two of them charged forth, one after another. After pursuing him for some distance, the Evil Dust Sect cultivator in Ascendance immediately noticed the shadow before him disappearing. At the same time, a strong gust of wind with the ripples of an Art contained it within came crashing towards him.

That Evil Dust Sect cultivator smiled coldly. He lifted his right hand, positioned his palm vertically into the shape of a blade, and swiftly cut towards that wind!

A scream of pain came from the fog, and Su Ming’s body disappeared without a trace. Yet when the Evil Dust Sect cultivator in Ascendance looked over, he saw a headless corpse and a head falling down before it landed by his feet.

When he saw the head’s face clearly, his expression immediately changed drastically. He well-knew that there was no way that the slash he delivered just now would have been able to bring about such an effect. There was no way he would be able to kill a person with the same level of cultivation in an instant.

Someone had definitely orchestrated this scene before his eyes secretly! A chill rose from the depths of his heart, and at the same time, his gaze suddenly fell on the storage bag that was exposed on the dead Hidden Dragon Sect cultivator’s body.

Right at that moment, Chenchong brought the Hidden Dragon Sect disciples and showed up in the fog before that Evil Dust Sect cultivator!

Then, as if everything was just a coincidence, Chenchong saw the corpse of the Great Sect Elder from Hidden Dragon Sect who was second only to Shihai, along with the Evil Dust Sect cultivator in Ascendance who was standing beside the corpse and was clearly looking at the Grand Sect Elder’s storage bag after he had killed him.

Translator’s Notes:

1. Heaven’s Howler, otherwise formally known as Tianwu, 天吴 (tian1 wu2): A legendary water deity in Shan Hai Jing/Classic/Guideways of Mountains and Seas, in Classic of Regions Beyond the Seas: East, and also Classic of the Great Wilderness: East. This is a creature with eight human heads, eight feet, eight tails, and the body of a tiger. The hair on its back is green flecked with some bits of yellow. Tian meaning heavenly/sky, and Wu is later used as a surname/family name/land name, but its very original meaning, as listed here: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%A4%A9%E5%90%B4/10946233 (all in Chinese, by the way), means a person running and hollering while looking back at the same time. Now, I could just use Tianwu, as is with everyone else translating this, but then… I quite like translating everything besides human names and unless there is absolutely no other way for me to translate the word because it is just a surname. Since I found the original name for this word, I thought I could give it a spin and call it Heaven’s Howler. Absolutely NOT discrediting anyone’s previous work.