Pursuit of the Truth

Long Li’s breathing stilled for a moment when he saw the World Stone in the middle of the nine flags. A brilliant light flickered in his eyes, and after regaining his wits, he began to laugh loudly.

’This is the meaning of everything is predestined so we should live in a carefree manner. I’ve lost the treasured gourd, but I found the World Stone.’

Long Li sighed deeply with emotion, but no matter what, he was a World Paragon. Soon, he quelled his emotions and excitement. With a single move, he approached the Rune. A faint glint appeared in his eyes. He stared at the World Stone, and as he fell into a pensive silence, he brought out an ancient scroll from his bosom.

Once he examined it closely, he formed a seal with his right hand and immediately struck the air in the direction of the entrance to the place, which was located behind him. A dark ray of light instantly shone at the spot where the entrance was. It was then covered by a gigantic diamond-shaped light. After it flashed several times, a screen of light sealed the entrance.

’Based on the ancient scroll’s description, it won’t be easy extracting this World Stone, which is the secondary core of the seal. Not only will I need a lot of skill, I’ll also need to spend some time doing so… During this process, I cannot be interrupted by others.’

Long Li fell into pensive silence, for he found himself still unable to set his mind at ease. He lifted his left hand, formed a seal, and swiftly tapped the center of his brows.

Nine diamond-shaped scales immediately appeared at the center of his brows. Once all of them separated themselves from his flesh and the center of his brows, they circled around the area. As a flickering light shone on them in succession, the light turned into a cocoon that enveloped Long Li within it to turn into the tightest defense possible.

Only then did Long Li relax. His breathing was slightly quick as he stared at the World Stone. When he lifted his right hand, he hesitated for a moment.

’When I extract this secondary core, it’ll loosen large portion of this seal… The stone itself also contains the power of one World. It will exude a power of a World that could put people in a daze, but with my level of cultivation, I should be able to withstand it.’

Long Li no longer hesitated. He lifted his right hand and formed a strange seal. Once he did so, he pointed towards the floating World Stone.

With it, the nine flags on the ground immediately started fluttering in a bizarre manner. A nine-headed, green-faced kirin manifested instantly in the air. As it swam in the area, it let out low roars in Long Li’s direction.

At the same time, a powerful ray of light suddenly erupted from the World Stone. It was as if it had been stirred up by that strange act Long Li had done just now. Long rivers, huge streams, tall mountains, and flatlands immediately manifested on the surface of the World Stone. Then the faces of all manner of life—joy, anger, sadness, happiness, being born, getting old, falling sick, and dying—instantly also did the same. Immediately after, a ripple filled with the power of a World Plane swiftly spread out from within the World Stone.

When the ripple touched the nine-headed, green-faced kirin, it stopped roaring. Instead, it let its eyelids fall until they covered half of its eyes, making it seem as if it had fallen asleep. Long Li was not too far away, and his body was instantly enveloped by the ripple. However, he seemed to have been prepared for it since long time ago. He did not avoid the ripple, but at the instant they closed in on him, he bit the tip of his tongue and coughed up a mouthful of blood. He lifted his right arm and swung it in the area before him, and ten dull black shadows flew out from his sleeve to crawl into his body through his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

The ripple spreading out from the World Stone phased through the defense Long Li had placed, but they did not cause any damage to it. Instead, once they phased through, they started sweeping through the area and reverberating in the air.

The closest to those ripple was naturally Su Ming, who was in the stone wall only ten feet away. The ripple phased through the stone wall and crashed fiercely into his body.

Su Ming was absorbing the physical power contained in the land at the time. Before he could react to the sudden appearance of the ripple filled with the power of one World, they had already swept past his body. The bald crane was also enveloped by the ripple after it was momentarily stunned by their appearance.

If anyone could see through the stone walls from the highest point of the sealed region, they would be able to see a ring-shaped ripple. It was currently spreading outwards from the World Stone through the entire beehive seal.

The spread of those ripple came too suddenly. Forget Su Ming, not even Tian Lin and Sun Kun, who were both cunning and sly old foxes, had predicted this.

After all, the ancient scroll Long Li had obtained were kept as much of a secret as the gourd in his heart.

The ripple closed in on Tian Lin within an instant. At that moment, he was still in the form of a big tree. However, all his branches were shrinking back rapidly, because he already knew the correct path that would lead him straight to the depths of the seal.

However, at the instant he had his branches shrink back, his body, which was in the form of the big tree, shook fiercely. One of his branches had touched the ripple, and a few others also did the same.

Since the branches had spread through an area that was incredible large, even though Tian Lin’s heart had shuddered and he wanted to swiftly return to his human for, most of his branches had by then come in contact with the ripple. The branches sank into a state of deep sleep, causing Tian Lin’s consciousness to almost fade away as well. A sense of great danger erupted in his heart, but it still… was not able to wake him up.

After a moment, Tian Lin, who was in a half-human, half-tree state, closed his eyes as if he had fallen into deep sleep and lost himself in the ripple from the World Stone.

The last to be affected was Sun Kun, who was in the depths of the sealed region, at the place where the Duke of Crimson Flame was in the purplish black magma. Sun Kun had been sitting there cross-legged while excitedly absorbing the dense power of the World Plane in the area.

His fall into unconsciousness happened without him realizing anything. In fact, it could even be said that he did not even realize that he had fainted. When the ripple swept past his body, he was still immersed in the excitement of absorbing the power of the World Plane.

It took less than ten breaths for the ripple to spread from the World Stone to the entire sealed region. Ten breaths later, it disappeared, and the sealed region fell into silence.

However, this silence did not last for long, for cracking sounds begun to echo all around. Each time the noise came, it would sound as if there was something shattering.

As those sounds echoed in the air, the dark light in the eyes of the skeleton in the purplish black magma within the depths of the seal shone even brighter. The sword at the top of his skull started loosening once again, and it looked as if it was about to be forced out.

Flesh and blood grew once again on the skeleton’s body. This was followed by the appearance of numerous white threads. Clearly, a new round of slicing was about to start… but this time, nearly eight-tenths of those white threads had been damaged.

Even after they swept past the skeleton’s body several times, a few pieces of flesh still remained on the skeleton’s face. This was impossible under normal circumstances, but now, it had happened.

The skeleton opened his mouth, as if he was letting out a voiceless, hearty laughter. His face was recovering swiftly, and it was the same for his entire body. The white threads around him continued to sweep past his body nonstop, forming a certain kind of battle between the two.

However… the widespread damage to the white threads had caused them to be unable to slice away all the skeleton’s flesh and blood like they’d done in the past. Every single time they swept past his body, a few pieces of flesh would remain. Even if there was only a little left, if a large amount of these pieces of flesh accumulated together, it would be a shocking sight that could fill one with hope

If this continued, it would take a very long time before the skeleton could truly restore all his flesh and blood on his body, but it would happen. Su Ming and the others would remain asleep in the meantime, with no one bothering them.

Their act of breaking into the sealed region would also stop because of this matter. No one could tell whether this would have been a good or a bad thing, but things did not proceed this way. On the second day after the ripple’s passing, in the empty space where Tian Lin remained in his half-human, half-tree state, one of the branches started cracking, which might be happening due to Tian Lin losing control over his body once he lost consciousness.

Slowly, a drop of green liquid fell from the crack in that branch.

That drop of liquid fell with a plop to the ground, but it did not scatter. Instead, it stood erect on the ground. The inside of that drop of liquid gained a muddy hue before slowly turning into a layer of green fog.

The fog rose into the air, and once it occupied an area of five feet, it started shrinking inwards swiftly. As it shrank, a human the size of a palm manifested in the fog. As that fog began to shrink faster, the small human’s figure became more distinct.

In the blink of an eye, all the fog was absorbed into the small human, and his complete form was revealed. He was Ye Shen Tong!

There was confusion on his face. As he floated in midair, he looked around himself, but that only made him feel even more bewildered.

After some time, the small human that was Ye Shen Tong seemed to have remembered something. ”Offer up the clone and tell master everything about this place…”As he mumbled this under his breath, he moved and charged towards the world outside.

This was something Tian Lin had not expected. He had previously incarcerated Ye Shen Tong, planning to let him go when the time was ripe so that he would summon Jing Nan Zi to this place. That was why he had left behind some illusions in Ye Shen Tong’s consciousness so that he could complete this particular act of sacrificing himself once he woke up without his real self noticing anything off.

Tian Lin had made preparations for this for many years. However, due the ripple from the World Stone and his loss of consciousness, the plan… had been hastened.

As the small Ye Shen Tong quickly left for the world outside, he appeared on the surface of Crimson Flame Planet several hours later with his entire body burning. With a unique method, he arranged a Rune for three days before sending out the last shreds of his will outwards. During that instant, this clone died.

In a distance not too far away from Crimson Flame Planet was the region where the four True Great Worlds had a large number of cultivation planets filled with life force and spiritual energy. In this place, there were many powerful warriors from the four True Great Realms.

When they weren’t carrying out their tasks, most of them would choose to isolate themselves and train. At that moment, there a blood-red mountain stood on a brownish yellow cultivation planet within the vast galaxy.

That mountain was dyed by a brilliant red color because of the blood-red rain pouring down from the sky. Sitting at the top of the mountain was a man whose upper body was naked. He had very long hair that fluttered in the wind, and there was a red helmet along with an equally red armor by his side.

He just sat there, half-naked, and allowed the rain that contained a bloody stench to pour on his body. Drops of fresh blood fell on his chest, but he did not mind. With eyes closed, he breathed slowly, and each time he breathed, he would cause the bloody world to roar. This man… was Jing Nan Zi!