Pursuit of the Truth

”Just who are you?!” The old End Shaman whose face was filled with brown patches coughed up blood. As he retreated, he shouted loudly. His eyes were filled with red, and the shock in his heart could no longer be described with words.

’With just his pressure alone, he managed to force all four of us backwards and made our Qi run wild, injuring us. We can’t even attack. He… Just what level of cultivation does he have?!’

The other three people’s faces were pale, and the same thoughts were running through their heads. In their eyes, Su Ming had already far surpassed them in terms of level of cultivation. In fact, they did not even possess the right to retaliate under the pressure of just standing before him.

”Him? He’s called Su Ming. He’s the God of Berserkers. Can’t you tell?” Yu Xuan said in a lively voice from the side. She had followed Su Ming to this place to play. At that moment, when she saw the Shamans’ expressions, she felt incredibly elated.

Almost at the instant Yu Xuan said those words, the four End Shamans’ expressions changed completely, and even the thousands of Shamans behind them cried out in surprise.

The four End Shamans completely gave up on resisting. God of Shamans Island was not completely isolated from the world. They would occasionally venture out, and they already knew what had happened in Eastern Wastelands a year ago.

A God of Berserkers was born in the place where the Immortals landed. Then, Eastern Wastelands Tower shone with blood light that reached ten thousand lis. After that, Hidden Dragon Sect was destroyed, Sky Mist Dao was destroyed, three sects of Evil Sect were destroyed, and Great Leaf Immortal Sect was completely wiped off Eastern Wastelands.

There was no way they could put up a fight against this sort of enemy. Besides, they had no doubt about Yu Xuan’s words. This was the only plausible explanation for how Su Ming’s power could be so great they wouldn’t even have the chance to retaliate.

Su Ming frowned, then took a step forward before he disappeared. When he reappeared, he was already behind the thousands of Shamans and was moving in the direction of the Shamans’ sacred mountain. His actions might seem slow, but in truth, he was crossing ten thousand feet with each step he took.

Yu Xuan did not follow when Su Ming moved into the distance. Instead, she lifted her chin before the thousands of Shamans, then kicked the mutt that was baring its teeth while casting sideways glances at the black dog which had ran to the ground at some point in time and was currently searching through the personal items of the unconscious people.

”Do you know that you’ve offended someone?! Someone offered ten thousand crystals to buy all of your heads!” Yu Xuan let out a fake cough and pretended to be experienced and mature when she spoke.

”But our Lord God of Berserkers is a kind man and harbors no grudges against you, so he doesn’t want to make things too hard for all of you. How about this? Bring out all the things you have and put them together to see how much they are worth. As long as the difference isn’t too big, we can let this slide.

”But… heh heh, if you dare hide anything and not give it up, then don’t blame me for being vicious.”

While Yu Xuan was speaking and pretending to be very mature and experienced, the black dog that was the bald crane was on the ground biting off a pendant from an unconscious Shaman’s neck. When it heard Yu Xuan’s words, it was momentarily stunned. It then blinked, showing a face of someone who had gained an epiphany.

’Darn, and here I was, working so hard. So you can actually rob someone like this? That’s right, why should I search for these treasures myself? I should make them hand them over on their own.’ The bald crane nodded gravely, thinking to itself that it had learned a new skill.

Su Ming did not bother himself with Yu Xuan’s actions. There were no longer any Shamans blocking his way as he walked in midair. The ground underneath was covered by a forest, and at the end he could see the sacred mountain occasionally appearing. When Su Ming approached the place, a faintly discernible sound of a heartbeat came forth from the sacred mountain.

Badump, badump…

This sound became stronger as Su Ming got closer.

At the instant he was ten thousand feet away from the sacred mountain, a low roar came from the occasionally appearing sacred mountain. That low roar shook the sky and earth, and at the instant it rang out, it caused the entire God of Shamans Island to tremble.

It also caused the thousands of Shamans before Yu Xuan to turn their heads swiftly. There was no longer any panic on their faces, only zealousness.

Yu Xuan blinked. She kicked the mutt, then lifted her head and looked over.

The low roar reverberated in the air, bringing with it an intimidating presence that turned into a wave of impact full of banging sounds as it charged towards Su Ming from all directions in the island. As the ground trembled, the sand let out sloshing sounds, and the leaves in the forest fell as if a violent gust of wind had swept past them. Su Ming senses that the roar came from the sacred mountain, but also from all the directions in the island. As it surrounded him, it was as if there was no end to the sound.

Almost at the same time the roar reverberated in the air, a person appeared out of thin air outside the sacred mountain. That person had unkempt hair and was half-naked, only the lower half of his body covered by beast skins. In his hand he held a gigantic bone staff, and on top of that bone staff were three small crimson snakes that were intertwined with each other. Their gazes were ghastly, and they were flicking out their forked tongues while letting out hissing sounds.

The person took a step towards Su Ming and disappeared only to reappear several thousands of feet away from Su Ming. He disappeared again, but still reappeared thousands of feet away from Su Ming. When he disappeared a third time, a strange, sinister laughter that was unpleasant to the ears rose swiftly behind Su Ming and echoed in the air. Then, the person appeared behind Su Ming and lifted his dried up left hand. All five of his fingernails were sharp and black, and they were all charging forward to seize Su Ming’s heart.

”Is this how you greet an old friend?” Su Ming asked flatly. He did not dodge, but took a step backwards and had his back crash into the old man’s left hand as he tried to seize his heart.

A muffled bang rang through the air, and blood trickled out of the person with the unkempt hair’s mouth as he was forced backwards. When he lifted his head, he revealed a face full of wrinkles from underneath the messy hair.

It was an incredibly old face, and its owner looked as if he had just crawled out of a coffin. However, his eyes were incredibly bright, and there was even the shadow of a crescent moon shining in them.

His left hand was trembling slightly at that moment, for all five of those black fingernails had cracked open. There was blood flowing out from those cracks.

Su Ming turned around at a moderate pace and looked at the old man.

His gaze met the old man’s, and Su Ming’s calmness as well as the old man’s ancient air made it seem as if the world around them had stopped moving for a moment.

”I’ve lived for many years and seen far too many people. You didn’t really leave much of an impression on me, boy… But I remember now. When we were beyond Sky Mist Barrier and I sent out one of my clones to battle, you were one of the young Berserkers who were by the sidelines.”

The old man was naturally the Shamans’ Great Patriarch, the man who practiced the Art of Nine Deaths. His voice was so raspy that it sounded like bones scraping against each other, and that sound was incredibly unpleasant to the ears. As he spoke, he even grinned, revealing an incomplete set of teeth that were yellowing and darkening.

”I originally intended to go to sleep. Now, I will devour your flesh and blood before I sleep, that should let me be able to have an even better rest.”

The old man licked his lips and swung the bone staff in his hand before him. A ball of black fog instantly spread out from the bone staff, and as that fog tumbled about while contorting, it turned into a gigantic python that charged towards Su Ming as it roared.

The old man swung the bone staff once again, and a dozen something balls of fog appeared in succession. They turned into a dozen something gigantic pythons that swept up the sky and earth while charging towards Su Ming from all directions with low roars and black fog in their midst.

Once he finished this, the old man bit the tip of his tongue and coughed up a mouthful of blood. His blood was black and even had a rotten stench. Once he coughed it up, it instantly exploded and turned into nearly a thousand blood red worms that made it seem as if a layer of red clouds had spread over the sky.

That was not the end. Once the old man finished doing this, he lifted his left hand and quickly formed a few seals before himself. Every single time two of his fingers on his shriveled left hand touched each other, the sky would rumble, and in the midst of all those rumbling sounds, bolts of lightning sliced through the sky in the form of long arcs, but they did not descend on the ground. Instead, they started flashing in the sky as if they had been frozen there.

In the blink of an eye, more than a hundred bolts of lightning froze up as they cracked in midair, as if they had been forced to stop. As those bolts of lightning connected and intersected with each other, they outlined a gigantic battle axe.

That battle axe was several thousands of feet big and formed by the bolts of lightning in midair. When the old man lifted his left hand and pointed towards the sky, it immediately rushed towards Su Ming with a bang.

”Don’t you remember me?”

With an indifferent expression, Su Ming walked slowly towards the place where the old man was, and as he moved forward, the dozen something pythons made of black fog from all around him roared and rushed towards him. Yet at the instant they closed in on Su Ming, cracking sounds instantly rose from their bodies and all of them turned into ice statues. As those statues shivered, they broke down and shattered into pieces.

When Su Ming’s foot landed, the blood worms formed from the old man’s blood that numbered to nearly a thousand closed in on him with a sharp whistle. Those blood worms were all incredibly sharp, and when they were about to touch Su Ming, he took a step forward and moved past them. Once he did so, the blood worms instantly started contorting and turned into ice that fell to the ground.

All of this took Su Ming less than the span of three breaths. Almost at the instant he finished speaking, he was already standing in front of the old man.

The old man’s expression changed and his pupils shrank. Right at the instant he was about to retreat, Su Ming lifted his left hand and seized his throat.

”Now, do you remember me?”

Su Ming’s voice was flat. When he spoke, the sky roared, and the lightning battle axe came charging down with a bang, but at the instant it closed in, the killing sword appeared in Su Ming’s right hand, and he sliced with it diagonally in the direction behind him, right where the battle axe was. A bang shot up into the air, and the lightning battle axe swiftly broke down.

At the same time, Su Ming tightened his grip around the old man’s throat.

”This is the first death.” When Su Ming spoke in his flat and disinterested voice, a destructive power surged from his body into the old man’s, shattering his body.

Almost at the moment the Great Patriarch’s body shattered and turned into dust, an even more powerful presence erupted from the spot where he died. Then, out of nowhere, the old man’s body appeared once again, but this time, he was not as old as he was previously.

”It doesn’t matter who you are…”

But before the Great Patriarch could even finish his sentence, Su Ming swiftly slashed with his killing sword, and as the killing sword let out an excited and bloodthirsty sword whistle, it cut straight through the old man’s neck. His head flew up, and the old man’s body crumbled once again.

”This is the second death,” Su Ming said calmly.