Pursuit of the Truth

At that instant, the world lost all light, and darkness replaced everything. When light reappeared and darkness gradually disappeared, the tens of thousands of cultivators who had retreated far away saw that there was no longer any Candle Dragon in the world, and neither was… the golden-robed Di Tian anywhere to be found.

The only thing remaining in midair was Su Ming, who looked exhausted, but whose eyes were shining with a brilliant light.

The Ten Transformations Art might be powerful, and Su Ming might be able to last in that form even longer… but the small snake could not withstand the chance after it had fused with Su Ming’s will.

That was why once he devoured Di Tian, Su Ming gave up on remaining in the form he had gained after casting the Ten Transformations Art. He stood in midair, and at the instant the area around him sank into dead silence, he lifted his head and let out a roar that had been suppressed for a countless amount of years.

All those years ago, Di Tian’s first clone, whose existence had been like the might of heaven itself, had died!

The powerful purple-robed clone who had pushed Su Ming to death’s door on the Dead Sea had been destroyed!

The strongest among the three clones, the golden-robed Di Tian, had burned his own life to bring forth the Soar to the White Sky that was greater than that of the previous two clones… and he was still devoured!

The mountains that had pressed down on Su Ming’s body over the years crumbled at that moment, and a feeling of freedom instantly rose within his heart. But he knew that the ordeal had yet to end. Di Tian had four clones. There was one more remaining.

His roars sounded like he was venting. All his depression and hate towards Di Tian erupted forth. At that moment, his roars reverberated in all directions, and when they fell into the Immortals’ ears in the area, their hearts trembled.

Ji An’s expression was incredibly dark. He had watched Su Ming devour the golden-robed Di Tian right in front of his face, but he had been unable to do anything to stop him. Right then, Su Ming’s Qi was also rising endlessly right before his eyes, and as it did, even more powerful waves of power erupted from his body.

Su Ming could sense it. The signs telling him that he could breakthrough the middle stage of the Berserker Soul Realm had become incredibly strong. He could clearly feel the existence of the cracks in his power signaling his breakthrough, and he could sense the later stage of the Berserker Soul Realm lying right behind a single thought.

He lowered his head, and his gaze fell on the ground… right on the erect coffin that was void of the presence of any cultivators around it.

Almost at the moment Su Ming looked towards the coffin, a muffled boom immediately traveled out from within it, as if there was a fist striking the lid from inside, causing some cracks to appear on it.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

This sound continued ringing, and the cracks on the lid increased with each passing moment. At the same time, a wave of power that surpassed the golden-robed Di Tian’s and could even compare with Ji An’s magical body gradually spread out from that coffin.

’Judging by Di Tian’s expression and his words previously, he originally only had three clones, and the fourth one was created in the land of Berserkers…’

A complicated look appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. He remembered the location where the coffin was and recalled… the near hundred Shaman warrior souls that belonged to his eldest senior brother appearing from Sky Mist Dao.

He could… also sense a hint of familiarity from the presence spreading out from the person in the coffin.

That hint of familiarity caused Su Ming’s heart to tremble, and it made the excitement he felt when he had killed Di Tian’s clones… instantly vanish.

’Is it you..?’

Su Ming closed his eyes. The shivers in his heart turned into sadness and the most extreme form of pain. There was no way he could forget this familiar feeling. This familiarity… came from the ninth summit…

As if he had noticed the fluctuations in Su Ming’s emotions, Ji An no longer fought against the Hidden Execution of Justice. Instead, he narrowed his eyes, and once he cast a glance at Su Ming, his gaze fell swiftly on the coffin on the ground. A dark light appeared in his eyes.

He knew clearly that Di Tian had only sent three clones to this place. That was why this fourth clone had to be quite interesting.

’Controlling him through worlds using your will… Di Tian, oh Di Tian, you have really spent a lot of effort so that you could control Destiny… If this clone dies as well, then even you might have to suffer a grievous injury…

’By Destiny’s expression… He might know this clone personally… Interesting. Very interesting!’ A faint smile appeared at the corners of Ji An’s lips, and it grew wider with each passing moment.

An increasing amount of cultivators in the area saw Su Ming’s abnormal expression at that moment. The silence and grief about him could not be hidden away. There was also an increasing amount of people who saw the complicated look in Su Ming’s eyes as he looked at the coffin.

”The person in the coffin is…”

”It belongs to Great Leaf Immortal Sect… Could it be related to Lord Di Tian?!”

Low-voiced discussions slowly spread out in the silent world. Su Ming’s abnormal behavior had caused most of the people to gather their gazes on the coffin.

Bang. Bang. Bang…

The muffled thuds from the coffin continued without stop. The cracks on its lid spread out even more. With each bang, a large amount of shards would spill everywhere. The cracks spread out, and as they intersected with each other, a fist shot through the coffin’s lid with a bang and appeared right before everyone’s eyes.

They could tell that this was a man’s fist.

Once it shot through the coffin, it slowly retreated back. When the banging sounds appeared once again, the coffin started shaking viciously. This time, two fists shot through the lid.

The sorrow on Su Ming’s face grew even stronger. He stared at the fists in the coffin with a blank expression, and the sense of familiarity grew even stronger within him, so much so that it made his heart hurt even more.

A muffled bang instantly shot out at that moment. With it, the coffin’s lid shattered, and a large amount of fog spilled out from inside. A powerful wave of power swiftly spread out into all directions.

As it did so, a murderous aura shot up into the sky and surged through the universe. With the coffin as its center, a gigantic vortex swept through the area.

A tall person gradually walked out from within the vortex. His body was hidden within the fog and his face could not be seen clearly, but the instant Su Ming saw his silhouette, even though he had already formed a guess in his heart, he still felt as if a mountain had crashed on his body. He staggered a few steps back, and his eyes turned bloodshot. His face filled with grief, and he looked as if he was about to descend into madness.

At that moment, his hatred towards Di Tian became even stronger than before, so much so that it already surpassed the level where he could not bear to be under the same sky as Di Tian.

He stared at the person gradually walking out of the fog, his figure slowly becoming clearer, and he… cried.

Su Ming rarely cried. In fact, it could even be said that besides weeping silently in the unfamiliar South Morning after he left Dark Mountain, he had never cried.

Because his elder had once told him that boys could bleed but could not cry. These were words his elder had told him kindly when he was still very young.

And he always remembered them.

Yet on this day, when he saw this person, Su Ming cried. However, those tears were only in his heart. They did not fall on his face, so no one could see him crying.

”Eldest senior brother…”

Su Ming stared at the clear figure, and everything in his world disappeared. The only thing that remained was the tall, big figure standing on the ground and lifting his head to look at him.

He was half-naked, revealing his powerful torso to the world. There was an incredibly complicated runic symbol on his body, covering most of his exposed skin.

The color of his skin was purple.

There were a large amount of scars on his body. They might have already closed up, but there were many of those that ran through his entire body, and Su Ming could tell that even if they had closed up, they had just been inflicted on him recently. They did not seem to have been left on him a long time ago.

At the instant Su Ming saw the scars, he seemed to have seen his eldest senior brother searching for his Master and his junior brothers, again and again, in Eastern Wastelands. He saw the madness and desperation within him as he searched for his family from the ninth summit.

His eldest senior brother stood on the sand with bare feet. His back was straight. He was not bending his back in the slightest, making it seem as if it represented his will.

He no longer had any hair. He was bald, and there were nine steel needles in his skull...

His face was no longer as it was in Su Ming’s memories. There was now an ancient air to his face, along with a cross-shaped scar. That scar went through the center of the eldest senior brother’s brows and his ears.

Su Ming could clearly tell that this was not a scar he sustained in battle. This was inflicted on him by someone carving it on him bit by bit. Then, so that it would not recover, that person had used some unknown method to make purple smoke fill that scar, which in return fused together with the runic symbol on the eldest senior brother’s body.

It caused Su Ming’s eldest senior brother to no longer be the gentle person from his memories.

There was a large hook attached to his right arm, because his right hand was already gone. That hook was now his hand.

His left arm was still there, but there were popped veins on it, and they were squirming about, as if there was some foreign objects in his body.

Su Ming looked at his eldest senior brother. Then, in the midst of his grief and sadness, he let out a shrill roar that shook the sky and earth. Blood slowly trickled out of his eyes. He could not cry tears, but he could have blood flow out in place of tears!

Su Ming knew that his eldest senior brother was not a very expressive and eloquent person. He was even a little slow. He always showed his concern in an unseen manner and did not ask for anything in return. That was why even though others might not be able to detect it or feel it deeply within them, his concern was always around.

When Su Ming had just arrived to the ninth summit and had cleared his mind for the first time, Zi Che had arrived at that moment. Even though his second senior brother had been the one who attacked, his eldest senior brother’s gaze had gathered on Zi Che. He would not allow any outsider to hurt his junior brother. Only when second senior brother attacked did he avert his gaze.

During the battle against Phantom Dais Tribe, the entire ninth summit had traveled out together. Eldest senior brother had been worried and sent one of his Shaman Souls to go with them. He had even given that person the order to protect his junior brothers even if he had to die in the process.

The ninth summit was Su Ming’s home, and his eldest senior brother… was his older brother.

”Eldest senior brother…”

Su Ming shuddered, and a crazed wave of emotions erupted from his body.

”Fourth, you just came to the mountain. It’s a pity that I can’t come out of isolation just yet. I can only do so after a few years. How about this? I’ll give this to you, use it to protect yourself.” That was the first time Su Ming had seen his eldest senior brother with his own eyes. His gentle gaze and kindly words were things that he would never forget.

”Youngest junior brother… Your journey to the land of the Shamans will be perilous. I’ll give you a slave of mine… Her name is Fa Zang…” These were his eldest senior brother’s words before Su Ming left the ninth summit to the battlefield between the Berserkers and Shamans, and there was no way Su Ming could ever forget the concern in his voice.