Pursuit of the Truth

On Shan Tai’s broken ship there was a dozen something cultivators in Earth Cultivation Realm. Their faces were stark pale as they looked with a dumbfounded expressions on their faces. They had just witnessed Shan Tai’s death. That unusual manner of death and Su Ming, who had his eyes closed at the moment, became the most terrifying existences in their eyes.

They did not dare move, let alone attempt to escape. Fate had turned her back on them, and they could no longer control their own fates.

After a long while, Su Ming opened his eyes, and a brilliant light shone briefly within them.

”I also obtained this person’s memories… Shan Tai.”

Su Ming remained in pensive silence for a moment before he lifted his right hand and seized the air. Immediately, a storage bag flew out from the area beneath him. Once he held it, he swept his other hand across it and brought out a blood red pearl which he held between two of his fingers.

That pearl shone with a piercing red light between Su Ming’s fingers, as if it wanted to tell all those who could see it that Su Ming was the person wanted by the four Great True Worlds.

’The four Great True Worlds placed a bounty on my head, but they did not mention the reason they wanted me dead. With a World Stone as a reward, they want me either dead or alive…’ Su Ming frowned while looking at the meteor.

Two rays of red light immediately flew out, coming to float before Su Ming. They were the two other red pearls from the two deceased cultivators in Heaven Cultivation Realm.

’Blood Identification Pearl. In Shan Tai’s memories, almost all the cultivators in Heaven Cultivation Realm and World Paragons in most of the Barren Lands of Divine Essence have been given these pearls a hundred years ago. They can use them to find me.

’By the looks of it, the four Great True Worlds placed a gigantic net over the entire Barren Lands of Divine Essence just to find me. Once I show up, I will be immediately discovered, even if I change my appearance.’ Su Ming lowered his head to look at the pearls in his hand, and a freezing light as well as killing intent appeared in his eyes.

”How did the four Great True Worlds create these pearls? They can actually locate me… But it’s within expectations that they placed a bounty over my head. After all… the anomaly in Crimson Flame Planet was enough to make them look at this seriously.” A cold sneer appeared at the corners of Su Ming’s lips.

”Perhaps I can let you know how they managed to locate you,” the Duke of Crimson Flame said. He appeared on the meteor, then arrived next to him with a single step.

The bald man was incredibly big and tall. The wide and loose long robe on his body made him look like he possessed an incredibly curious temperament, while the totem on his bald head made him look daunting.

He stood beside Su Ming and lifted his right hand to take one blood-red pearl. A dark light shone in his eyes. With a gentle squeeze, the blood pearl shattered.

A layer of blood fog appeared.

Several indistinct pictures slowly formed within it. Those pictures appeared in a fleeting manner, reflected in Su Ming’s eyes.

The first picture was a gigantic pit in Crimson Flame Planet, which was filled with blood.

The second picture was an old man dressed in long gray robes. The sign of a crescent moon could be seen at the center of his brows like a third eye. There were several dozens of people exuding the presence of World Plane Realm standing behind him. Further back was a huge army that numbered to tens of thousands, and their numbers were so great that they connected the sky and earth.

There was an old woman kneeling before the old man.

It was Mei Lan.

In the third picture, the old man in gray stood on a mountain. That mountain was the ninth summit Su Ming had created. Wind, sand, and stones moved about, as if time was flowing in reverse there. An endless number of afterimages were fleeting about. In the end, a single one became clear, and it was of Su Ming, who was sitting at the top of the mountain.

In the fourth picture, the old man had his right palm pressed flat against the top of Mei Lan’s head. The air behind her distorted, and Su Ming’s body gradually took shape.

The four pictures disappeared in the blink of an eye. The blood fog before Su Ming thinned out and scattered away.

”By searching through other people’s memories about your appearance, determining your presence from the memories in the mountain, earth, and rivers, then the gathering these two together, they were able to locate you.

”Besides, they also used a unique method to gather blood before they fused your presence and appearance within it, thereby creating these pearls. As long as you are within their area of perception, then no matter what appearance you take, you will be discovered. This is a method used by a person in Lunar Kalpa Realm.

”The anomaly in Crimson Flame Planet actually managed to make a person in Lunar Kalpa Realm take action? This must have shocked the four Great True Worlds. Heh heh, they aren’t shocked by me escaping the seal, but by how I escaped it.

”It’s especially frightening to them since you managed to break the seals of all the ferocious beasts in Crimson Flame Planet. Because of that, it is only natural that they will take you seriously. They aren’t afraid of me… but of you breaking another seal in another cultivation planet.

”I moved the sealed region and left the planet all those years ago, and you hid yourself for a hundred years, never coming out. That’s why they hadn’t managed to find any clues about you. But since you’re out now, then with my understanding towards Lunar Kalpa Realm, this pearl is definitely not as simple as it might seem, just being able to identify someone.

”If my guess is correct, at this moment, in the galaxy where the four Great True Worlds keep watch your presence has already been taken note of… and all the cultivators with these pearls in the area nearby should now know your location,” the Duke of Crimson Flame said in a low voice.

Su Ming stared at the pearl in his hand. After remaining silent for a moment, he let out a cold snort as killing intent filled his eyes.

”Don’t take any chances. The four Great True Worlds don’t care whether they get you alive or dead. They only want one answer. Even with just your corpse alone, they’ll be able to determine your origins,” the Duke of Crimson Flame said slowly.

”If they want to kill me, then they will have to pay a price.”

Su Ming turned around, and the vambrace as well as the rerebrace instantly melted from his right arm to cover his entire body. At the same time, the bald crane flew out from the meteor, a clear sign that it had been summoned by Su Ming. Once it flew over, it crawled into his storage bag.

At that moment, Su Ming’s entire body was filled with flowing streams of crimson light, which gradually turned into a red coffin. There was a large amount of shining bumps on the coffin that were runic symbols. They let out an ancient presence.

”Let’s go!” Su Ming stated from the coffin. The Duke of Crimson Flame took a step forward before his body vanished. He turned into the totem on his head and etched himself on the coffin, filled it with a bizarre air.

With a whoosh, the coffin changed its direction and charged into the galaxy in the distance.

”Su Ming, let me control the direction. We’ll head into the depths of the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. There are plenty of primeval cultivation planets there, and also plenty of living creatures which you can choose for your clone…” The Duke of Crimson Flame’s voice reverberated in space before gradually dispersing.

At that moment, when the dozen something people on Shan Tai’s ship saw Su Ming leaving into the distance, they all breathed sighs of relief. Their hearts trembled, and all of them felt that they had just survived a disaster. They were just about to cautiously control the ship and leave when a powerful presence suddenly descended this part of the galaxy.

Rip!

A crack was torn through the galaxy, and a person walked out from it instantly. That person was dressed like a savage. His hair was incredibly long, and his clothes were shabby, but there was an extremely powerful presence about the person.

”It’s here. That person wanted by the four Great True Worlds sure runs fast.” There was a blood red pearl in the man’s hands, and it was shining with a brilliant light.

The instant Su Ming’s presence had appeared upon him encountering Shan Tai, all the pearls held by the cultivators in Heaven Cultivation Realm or above started flashing with a brilliant blood red light, no matter what their owners were doing and where they were, be it in the galaxy or on some cultivation planet.

Right then, a clear will came from each of these pearls. This will was like a guide that could allow the people holding the Blood Identification Pearls to sense Su Ming’s location.

”Kill this person and put his soul into the Blood Identification Pearl! You will be rewarded with three World Stones!”

There was an ancient voice contained in that will. With the help of the blood red pearl, it could be said that the voice echoed in the ears of all the cultivators within that small portion of the galaxy.

”They offered a World Stone a hundred years ago, and now, it’s three of them! We can now kill this person!”

”Three World Stones will be enough for me to use the power of World Planes as I please several times, and I won’t have to worry about the problem of restoring my cultivation base. This is a good deal!”

”Being wanted by the forces of power that are suppressing the four Great True Worlds isn’t rare, but this is the first time a bounty was offered over the past ten thousand years. I should join in the fun.”

The people on numerous cultivation planets began to burn with excitement due to the will in the blood-red pearls. Long arcs flew up and out to charge towards the spot where Su Ming was according to their senses.

At the same time, one of the nineteen Radix Planets floating in the galaxy where the forces of power from the four Great True Worlds keeping watch over the Barren Lands of Divine Essence started shining with a brilliant light.

The light flickered, and in between varying degrees of brightness, it illuminated all directions. The ripples spreading out were sensed by all people from the four Great True Worlds keeping watch over.

”The person wanted by the four Great True Worlds, the source of the anomaly in Crimson Flame Planet, the person who has a high suspicion of being a member of the alien race and who seems to possess a power that can break seals has appeared in the south-east region of Western Ring Nebula… With this sort of criminal, you should first try to capture him alive, if you can’t, then kill him.” A cold and emotionless voice reverberated in the galaxy where the forces of power from the four Great True Worlds keeping watch over the Barren Lands of Divine Essence were.

After a moment, a layer of ripples sliced through the galaxy. An ancient bronze sword about a hundred thousand feet long manifested in the air. There were thousands of armored warriors standing on it, while three people were sitting and meditating at the tip.

At the same time this ancient bronze sword left into the distance, seven other ancient bronze swords that were the same as the previous one appeared faintly and indistinctly. With loud whistles, they sliced through the barren galaxy in the direction Su Ming’s presence was coming from.

At that moment, long arcs filled the galaxy of Western Ring Nebula. Those long arcs were all heading in the same direction at full speed. There was even numerous transportation Enchanted Vessels filling the area. Not one of them was moving in a different direction than others.

The red coffin Su Ming was using traveled forth in the galaxy. The runic symbols on the coffin shone, and a chilling killing intent was spreading out from within before circling around the area.

”Su Ming, there are six World Paragon presences around us and thirty something of those that belong to cultivators in Heaven Cultivation Realm chasing after us. These people are the closest to us. There are plenty more behind,” the Duke of Crimson Flame said to Su Ming, passing the words into his mind.

Su Ming remained silent for a moment, then asked coldly, ”Where is the closest cultivation planet?”

”It’s about six hours away, going straight ahead.”