Pursuit of the Truth

A layer of red snow landed on Chenxin’s face. It did not melt, but brought with it a hint of cold, just like Su Ming’s words. There was the presence of a stranger within those gentle words as they fell into Chenxin’s ears and entered her heart.

There was still blood flowing down the corners of Chenxin’s lips. The red shade of her blood was the same as the color of snow on her face, making it hard to differentiate what was snow and what was blood.

Perhaps snow was often associated with blood because there was some form of connection between them. [1]

”There is no reason… If there is, then it’s because you are Su Ming. You are… the Su Ming who grew up with me.” Chenxin wiped away the blood at the corners of her mouth and looked at Su Ming. The complicated look on her face disappeared to be replaced by a hint of gentleness and a smile.

Su Ming remained silent. When he lifted his right hand, the killing sword in his hand trembled in excitement, and Su Ming swung it towards the sky. Blood light shone as if a bolt of blood-red lightning had been born in the world out of nowhere, and it charged towards the descending sword in midair.

A circular wave of impact that shook the entire area instantly rose with loud bangs above Su Ming. The descending sword fell to pieces, and the circular wave looked as if it was a boundary line that separated the sky and earth.

”Thank you,” Su Ming whispered softly.

”Su Ming, everything in Dark Mountain is a lie… but there were also some things that were real. Lei Chen was real, the elder was also real… Bai Ling, too… She also has a real side to her.” Chenxin looked at Su Ming. She had a sense that if a person’s entire past became a lie, that feeling of surreal would drown them like a tidal wave. It would make a person subconsciously suspect everything around them, and they would no longer be able to tell just what was real.

”You killed Beiling, so I’m pretty certain that the prodigies from the other sects who had blended into Dark Mountain and grown up with you had also died… But Su Ming, only their Divine Clones died.

”The things that happened in Dark Mountain in the past are things that occurred a long, long time ago. When we woke up from that cycle of life, we obtained quite a lot of epiphanies and serendipities and became the true prodigies of our sects.

”Right now, the ones you killed in the land of Berserkers are just the ones who were used to make sure you went through all those cycles of reincarnation repeatedly. They’re Divine Clones that must exist to make you lost. Their real selves are… still in their sects in the land of Immortals. They aren’t dead yet.” Chenxin looked at Su Ming and told him the truth.

”Then… what about you?” Su Ming asked faintly.

”I am also a Divine Clone. I can sense my real self’s mind. At the moment she saw you, I could sense the complicated feelings within her, as well as… her yearning.” Chenxin’s expression was full of anguish as she shook her head.

”I practiced cultivation since I was young, so the things I went through in Dark Mountain are the most vibrant memories of my life. I truly wished… that I would never wake up from that cycle of life, that I could… just keep on being in Dark Mountain…” Chenxin’s face turned pale as she mumbled in her anguish. It was as if she was not talking to Su Ming, but was talking to herself after years of suppressing her own feelings.

As Chenxin mumbled under her breath, the near ten thousand Great Leaf Immortal Sect disciples in the sky changed their positions rapidly. As they crossed paths with each other, they gave others the feeling that the Sword Rune in the sky had changed once again, and a wave of sword aura that was even stronger than before gathered together with a bang before it charged towards Su Ming from the sky.

”Su Ming… there are some among us who chose to forget you, but there are also some… who still remember you. They remember Dark Mountain, and growing up together within that cycle of life.

”Dark Mountain has already become a thing of the past, but it… is in your heart, and is also in our hearts.” Chenxin lifted her right hand. At the instant she said these words, more blood flowed out of the corners of her lips. Her face swiftly withered away and cracks gradually appeared on her skin.

Her words reverberated in the air. When Su Ming looked at her, he saw her rapidly disappearing. Her body was like ashes at that moment.

”This Divine Clone of mine broke my oath, telling you too many truths in the land of Berserkers. This is the punishment from the oath. My Divine Clone’s soul will scatter into nothingness, but they can’t do anything to my real self. Su Ming… don’t blame Beiling… He’s no longer himself…” Chenxin whispered softly and closed her eyes. Her body turned into ashes and disappeared into the world.

Su Ming fell silent. As a slightly complicated look appeared on his face, the sword above him came charging downwards and crashed into him, but at the instant the sword aura touched Su Ming, he had lifted his left hand and seized it. With a bang, that sword aura shattered, and with Su Ming as the center, the mountain rocks under his feet crumbled as if a storm that could destroy mountains was sweeping through it. When an even more violent bang rang into the air, the remaining half of the mountain under Su Ming’s feet shattered completely.

Su Ming lowered his head and looked at the sword in his hand. It was crimson red, blood covering it completely. He looked at his own clothes and hands. He could even feel an endless amount of forlorn and bitter vengeful souls around him.

They were all the Immortals that had died at his hands.

A deep wave of fatigue washed over Su Ming’s heart and soul. This was not the first time this feeling of fatigue rose in him, but this time it was deeper than before.

Su Ming wanted to close his eyes, but he could not. His expression changed drastically. The fatigue in his eyes also disappeared at that moment. His breathing quickened, because... at the instant the mountain fell apart, he sensed… his second senior brother’s presence!

Without any hesitation, Su Ming lifted his left hand, formed a seal, and swung his arm forward. A violent gust of wind charged forward and swept up all the crushed stones in the area to make them fall backwards. All the dust that had appeared due to the collapse scattered away, and the ground was revealed.

This was originally where Great Leaf Immortal Sect was supposed to be. At that moment, there was a ball of light that was several dozens of feet big on the ground.

The ball of light shone with five brilliant colors. There was a thin layer of fog by its edges, and within the ball of light was a black, distorted figure. The figure’s face could not be seen clearly, because he no longer had a face. It was a black shadow tuft gathered together by wisps of black smoke.

There were six giant chains inside and outside the ball of light. Those six chains pierced through the ball of light and connected with the black shadow as if they had fused into his soul and were acting like something akin to a seal.

The other ends of the six chains were buried in the ground. There was a gigantic Rune on the ground. It was an incredibly complicated one, and its use was unknown, but Su Ming could tell that one of the functions of the Rune was to suppress.

It was suppressing the black shadow in the ball of light, and it even needed Great Leaf Immortal Sect’s entire mountain to do so. This allowed the Rune to be able to make this ball of light contain all its presence hidden on normal days.

When Great Leaf Immortal Sect’s mountain collapsed, the ball of light was revealed.

Almost at the moment anger rose in Su Ming’s eyes because he saw the Rune on the ground and the ball of light, he also saw the black shadow almost collapsing as it distorted. Six wisps of black smoke with the air of death spread out from the black shadow and charged towards the Rune through the chains. This was clearly not something the black shadow was doing willingly. Those chains were absorbing it forcefully.

When those six wisps of black smoke fused into the Rune on the ground, they changed into a vast amount from spiritual aura of the world in the blink of an eye and spread out...

Su Ming let out a crazed roar towards the sky. As anger raged in his eyes, blood flowed out from them, making him look as if he was crying tears of blood. He should have been able to see earlier that the spiritual aura from the world in the region of Great Leaf Immortal Sect was much denser compared to the other regions, but he had not paid too much attention to it previously.

He did not expect that Great Leaf Immortal Sect would do something that would drive him so mad.

This was a Rune that could change a form of life into the spiritual aura in the world. Those six chains were the tubes that absorbed that form of life, and it… was the black shadow in the ball of light.

That ball of light was a seal, and the black shadow inside was the source of the familiarity Su Ming sensed. It was the reason that drove him mad.

”Second senior brother!” Su Ming’s roar was hoarse from his rage and madness. Chenxin’s words had originally made fatigue appear in Su Ming’s heart, and he had even stopped slaughtering Great Leaf Immortal Sect’s disciples.

However, when he saw his second senior brother and how he was so weakened that he was going to disappear at any moment, his killing intent surged up once again.

”Great Leaf Immortal Sect. Immortals…” Su Ming took a swift step forward and charged towards the ground. He approached the Rune on the ground in the span of a breath and lifted the sword in his right hand. The world roared from his swing, and his killing sword cut down one of the chains.

A huge rebound shot back and surged into Su Ming’s body, tearing the web of his thumb. Blood filled his hand, and he took three steps backwards.

Su Ming might be moving backwards, but the chain let out a cracking sound and shattered right from its center. That chain was definitely not something ordinary. If Su Ming was not holding onto the killing sword, it would be difficult for him to destroy it.

Once one of the six chains was broken, the near ten thousand Great Leaf Immortal Sect disciples in the sky cut down again, and their slashes charged down towards Su Ming. In fact, each of the disciples bit the tip of their tongues and coughed up blood that turned into a small blood-red sword due to the Sword Rune. These near ten thousand small blood-red swords were like blades raining down from the sky, and they came charging towards Su Ming while blotting out the sky behind the gigantic sword aura.

It was also at that moment that the chain broke off, and a weak voice came from the ball of light. The distorted black shadow looked as if the limits set on him had reduced slightly, and he slightly gathered together, the tuft of fog to gradually showing the shape of a body. It might still look like an illusion, but his face had become much clearer, and he showed… a pale but smiling face.

It was… Su Ming’s second senior brother’s face.

He seemed to have gone through inconceivable pain. That pale face was something that Su Ming had never seen on his second senior brother, yet the smile was still as gentle as it was in his memories. Second senior brother still kept his head held high as if he wanted to have sunlight shine on the side of his face. As he smiled, he looked at Su Ming.

”Youngest junior brother.”

Translator’s Note:

1. Snow and blood: Case of lost-in-translation. 雪 (xue3) and 血 (xue4) sound similar in Mandarin, as you can see in the brackets. So what you see is that Chenxin’s blood has already fused with the snow on her face, but there are still some that hasn’t, so it makes it hard to distinguish between the two, and Su Ming muses that there must be a connection between them since they sound so similar.