Pursuit of the Truth

Su Ming’s soul spread out of his physical body, and during that instant, his soul resonated with the treasured gourd before him.

This resonance caused the treasured gourd’s eye to become even brighter as it looked at Su Ming. In the end, even a hint of respect appeared there. It was as if the soul within the treasured gourd had acknowledged Su Ming at that time.

Soon after, eight eyes appeared in succession on the gourd, and along with the previous one, there were now nine sparkling eyes, and they were all looking at Su Ming.

During the instant Su Ming’s soul trembled, Long Li, who had his divine sense spread through the tunnel in the beehive as he was searching for the others froze. His expression changed drastically, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood. His face instantly turned pale, and he staggered a few steps backwards before placing a hand on the stone wall by the side to support himself. Only then did he manage to stop himself.

He originally had white hair, but the face of a youthful man. During that instant, he aged several dozens of years, and wrinkles appeared on his face. There was even an instant where a lifeless look showed up in his eyes.

”Haha, I’ve spent an innumerable amount of years to figure out the way to use the gourd and even prepared ten World Paragon souls to control it… but now, the person who stole my gourd has used less than an hour to completely sever my ties with the gourd!”

Long Li laughed loudly. As he laughed, he began to cough violently, and blood trickled out of the corners of his mouth once again. Clearly, once his connection with the gourd was cut off, he had suffered a backlash.

This backlash’s strength would depend on how much he cared about the gourd. Judging by Long Li’s condition, it was evident that the gourd had been his most valued possession.

”You despicable bastard, how dare you steal my treasure… Even if I, Long Li, have to pay an even greater price, I will definitely not allow you to take away my treasure so easily!” Madness showed up in Long Li’s eyes. He lifted his head and let out a crazed howl. His shouts echoed in all directions, traveling through the tunnels in the beehive.

Sun Kun, who was the closest to the depths of the seal, heard a faint echo of the shouts. His footsteps came to a halt as he was moving forward, and a glint appeared in his eyes.

”It’s that old monster’s Long’s voice. Could it be that he lost his gourd? Heh heh, if he really lost the gourd, it’ll be a good thing. I wonder who stole it…” Sun Kun mumbled under his breath, and an expression of regret and pity appeared on his face, because he himself had wanted Long Li’s gourd for a long time.

Further into the distance was Tian Lin. After spending half a year searching, he had now covered most of this beehive seal, which was covered in densely packed holes. He believed that before long, he would be able to cover more than a ninth of this place. At that time, he could search for the shortest path that would lead him to the core of this maze-like seal.

Long Li’s voice had become faint and indistinct when it reached his ears, but the branches from the tree that was Tian Lin had already filled up most of the seal. Each of the branches was his clone, and because of that, Long Li’s voice sounded as if he’d spoken right beside Tian Lin’s ears.

’The person who stole Long Li’s treasure is probably Sun Kun. The two of them won’t have the same goal as me right now, so it’ll be good that they’ll fight each other first. With Sun Kun’s cunning, he won’t die, and he’ll be able to hide until Jing Nan Zi is lured to this place. At that time, they will have no other choice but to have the same goal as I do.’ Tian Lin laughed coldly and closed his eyes. He had the branches from the tree spread out once again to continue covering the sealed region.

Su Ming also heard Long Li’s voice, but he could spare no attention at that moment. The nine eyes were currently staring at him, and as he spread out his soul, the second of the nine eyes gradually grew brighter. Time passed. When the eighth eye also brightened up, the bald crane suddenly sucked in a sharp breath by the side, its eyes going wide.

It could sense that it was about to remember something, but when it tried to recall what it was, it was indistinct. After all, this was the first time it had actively tried to recollect its memories, and it was vastly different from the usual passive recollection, where it would only remember when it came into contact with something familiar.

Just as it was doing its best to remember, it saw the nine eyes on Su Ming’s gourd. All of them were shining brilliantly, but as they sparkled, they would disappear one by one. Eventually, there was only one eye left on the gourd. When it saw the bald crane, the eye suddenly grew sharp, and as if it had turned into a sharp sword, it shot into the bald crane’s eyes.

The bald crane let out a sudden screech, great wave of terror and shock filling its eyes.

A picture emerged in its head at that moment. In that picture, it was not bald, but had a body full of beautiful feathers that made the crane now envied.

It saw itself peeking at something sneakily, but an old man in a wide Dao robe suddenly appeared before it. That old man swung his arm, and the crane was immediately sent several worlds backwards.

Immediately after, the old man brought out a gourd from his bosom with an enraged face. Once that gourd was brought out, nine eyes appeared on it. Within an instant, five of those nine eyes locked onto the crane, and a life-threatening sense of danger rose swiftly in its body. The bald crane saw itself quickly retreating with a screech.

However, a sullen voice containing endless fury reached its ears.

”Treasured gourd, please kill it!”

”Old Daoist Lu Ya, I just stole and ate some of your Dao Cores and watched you create your cores personally, y-y-you… how could you ask the youngster gourd to come out here?”

The bald crane saw all of its feathers growing in size as it screamed. However, once the old Daoist said those words, the five eyes on the gourd that had locked onto it immediately blinked together, and a wisp of green smoke flew out of the gourd. There was a small boy the size of a palm in that smoke, and it held an even smaller sword in his hand, but it was rushing towards the crane at an indefinable speed.

Pain. Pain that could not be described with words. That was what the bald crane felt when that memory ended.

”I remember now. This-this is old Daoist Lu Ya’s Immortal Slaying Gourd! But I remember that this gourd should have been destroyed. When Lu Ya was fighting against Tai Xing Su, who was one of the four Great True Progenitors, Tai Xing Su destroyed it!” As the bald crane screamed, it immediately retreated.

A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. At that moment, he had only formed a connection with the gourd, but he did not obtain the method to control it. When he saw the bald crane’s intense reaction, he, who had noticed many instances of something being off about the bald crane since they arrived in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence, suddenly asked, ”How do you use this thing?”

”I don’t know how to use it either, but I do remember seeing Lu Ya saying these words to that damnable gourd - Treasured gourd, please kill it.”

he bald crane had no feathers on its body at that moment, else they would have definitely been standing on end. When it heard Su Ming’s question, it instinctively answered, but once it finished answering, it immediately regretted its actions.

Because once Su Ming heard the sentence, he echoed the bald crane’s words.

”Treasured gourd, please…”

When Su Ming begun speaking, a presence that made even his heart tremble in trepidation suddenly spread out from the gourd. As that happened, the eye on the gourd suddenly showed signs that it wanted to blink. By the looks of it, that gourd would kill as soon as Su Ming finished speaking the last word!

At the same time, an apathetic and indifferent voice began speaking in Su Ming’s mind.

”There is not enough energy stored. Eight-tenths of the real body have been destroyed. It needs to be replenished as soon as possible. Locking down on enemy…”

Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. Since the bald crane was scared so terribly that its soul had almost left its body, he did not say the last word. Instead, he had his soul return to his physical body. He stood up then, lifted his right hand, and seized the gourd to put it away into his storage bag.

Su Ming’s eyes shone. Confidence filled him at that moment. This sort of confidence was what he possessed when he became the God of Berserkers in the land of Berserkers in the past. Now, in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence, that confidence rose once again within him.

’With this gourd and the poisonous wasp with me, as well as the large number of blue stones containing physical power in this place, along with the God Ascension Nectar contained in the wasp’s body, which I can extract at any time I want… it won’t be impossible for me to be the strongest in this region of the Barren Lands of Divine Essence! It’s a pity that the spirit body in the gourd has been damaged heavily. But this thing is rather peculiar. It actually reminded me to replenish its energy. Right now, an eight-tenths of its body have been damaged, but it can still bring out such a shocking power. If I could replenish all of its power and make it whole, it would definitely be something that could overturn the world!’

Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. He did not have a suitable vessel to store the God Ascension Nectar, and he did not know how long he would need to absorb that God Ascension Nectar either, which was why he did not choose to absorb it even now.

He wanted to search for a suitable place to quietly refine that nectar once he left this place. So that no accidents happened, he had left a divine thought for the wasp, forbidding it from absorbing the nectar in its body, only allowing it to store it.

Su Ming put away the gourd. The bald crane had by then began to calm its heart, which had nearly gone still from fear. The bird watched Su Ming with anxious eyes. Su Ming cast it a glance, then brought out another handful of crystals from his storage bag and gave them over.

When the bald crane received its consolation, it became satisfied.

Su Ming closed his eyes and forced down the restlessness in his mind to continue immersing himself in absorbing the physical power in this place. Time passed. Two months went by in the blink of an eye.

During that time, Su Ming’s speed as he absorbed the stones became faster. He also continued slowly moving forward and got closer to the spot where the World Stone lay. On the day two months later, the stone wall between him and the World Stone was less than ten feet thick.

Long Li, who had been searching for the person who had snatched his gourd for two months, was weaving in and out of the beehive seal at random with messy hair. Perhaps fate truly existed, for when he was previously searching for the World Stone, he had not been able to find the entrance to the place. Yet when he lost his gourd and was searching for the thief in a craze, he had walked out of a random tunnel to see nine flag, along with… the stone containing the power of the one World floating in the air in the middle of the Rune!

At the same time, Sun Kun walked out of another tunnel with an excited look on his face, a vast mass of empty land before him. At the center of that empty land was a layer of purplish black magma, and he also saw the Duke of Crimson Flame’s white bones within that magma!

The density of aura of a World Plane in this place filled Sun Kun with excitement that was close to ecstasy. His breathing quickened, but he did not immediately move forward. Instead, he chose to swiftly sit down cross-legged in a corner and exercise his breathing to absorb the aura.

He had never thought about saving the member of the alien race and letting him out. His main goal was the thick power of the World Plane in this place. If it was possible, he wanted to use a Secret Art to devour that alien race creature’s bones and soul to make himself even more complete.