Pursuit of the Truth

As the old man in blue robes spread out his power of World Planes, a thought flashed through his mind. ’Since he warped before me and there is no fear on his face, then he must be confident in killing me, or else he would have definitely not done this, judging by rumors about how cunning and ruthless he’s been when he slaughtered those people in Heavenly Treasure Planet.’

Once he spread out the power of World Planes, he lifted his hands, bent his back, and pushed down on the galaxy without any hesitation.

The moment he pushed down, a muffled roar came from many different spots within the blue sea of fog that had spread out over hundreds of thousands of feet.

”A bow from all directions.”

That voice sounded as if there were tens of thousands of people roaring at the same time. At the instant it echoed in the area, obscure figures instantly appeared within the sea of fog that stretched to several hundreds of thousands of feet. Those figures occupied the area all around, and there were hundreds of thousands of them.

There were men and women, the elderly and the young among these people. Their expressions were apathetic, but their eyes were filled with fanatical zeal. Their bodies were illusory, not real, but when they appeared, they lifted their hands, bent their backs, and bowed all together, doing the same posture as the old man in blue robes.

Bang!

A vast and mighty pressure shook the galaxy. Su Ming immediately sensed a power that was like the might of heaven. It descended on him in an invisible manner, and once it locked down all the spots around him, it turned into a power that tried to flatten him. It was as if a huge hand had appeared around him and wanted to crush him alive.

Su Ming let out a cold harrumph. As his words of calling the power of the Rune echoed in space, a circular crimson Rune appeared under his feet. That Rune shone brilliantly. It was only about a hundred feet in size at the moment it appeared.

Yet right away, it started expanding rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, it grew to several tens of thousands of feet. It resisted head on the pressure which was trying to flatten Su Ming from all directions due to that one bow formed from the blue sea of fog by the old man’s power of World Planes.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Cracks appeared in the galaxy. A furious wave of impact erupted from the void. The blood red Rune under Su Ming’s feet swelled up immediately to three hundred thousand feet, crashing continuously into the sea of fog that was formed from the old man’s power of World Planes.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The old man’s expression changed. His sea of fog fell apart when it crashed into Su Ming’s crimson Rune. As the fog fell back, it pushed the old man backwards. Once he was forced ten thousand feet away from where he originally was, a grim expression appeared on his face.

Su Ming also moved back due to the wave of impact, but he only moved a thousand feet. The crimson Rune was under his feet. He might not be a Lord of World Planes, but he had the power of the Rune. As long as he was in the area of this Divinity Incarceration Rune, which covered the entire galaxy, then he could endlessly borrow the Rune’s power.

With this power in his hands, Su Ming could bring out a power that was similar to World Planes. The Rune under his feet began flashing rapidly. Red light surged into the area up ahead. Su Ming lifted his head swiftly, formed a seal with his right hand, then swung his arm in the direction before him.

The galaxy above his head immediately shuddered, and a circular blood-red Rune appeared again. This Rune was positioned vertically, like a wall, and with an extreme speed, it charged towards the old man in blue, who was ten thousand feet away from it.

As it swiftly closed in, the vertical, circular, crimson Rune began expanding nonstop. In the blink of an eye, it grew to a hundred thousand feet. If anyone looked over there from the distance, it would not be shocking, but if they looked from a close up, then that hundred thousand feet Rune would be incredibly huge, and its speed would also be so quick that it could not be described with words. Right away, it closed in on its target.

Disbelief appeared in the old man’s eyes. He might not have reached the middle stage of World Plane Realm, but he was already at the peak of the initial stage. He had seen and experienced many things. When he first saw the crimson Rune under Su Ming’s feet, he had found it somewhat familiar, but he could not remember where he had seen it before. Now that he saw the Rune coming straight towards him, a bang erupted in his head, and he remembered.

”This is impossible. This… This is the Divinity Incarceration Rune! It’s the Rune that only the True Guards from the four Great True Worlds can mobilize. You-you are a True Guard!” This discovery terrified the old man so much that his soul almost left his body. After a myriad of thoughts fleeted through his head, this incredibly absurd notion appeared in his mind.

’Could it be that this so-called bounty is actually a plot? A plot where the four Great True Worlds want to slaughter us all! But this is…’

The old man’s eyes were bloodshot. He roared loudly, and his clothes puffed up. As the sea of fog that was formed by his power of World Planes tumbled behind him, the illusions of the tens of thousands of people manifested behind him, then bowed after wrapping their fists in their palms.

Those at the very end started bowing first, and soon, the ones at the front bowed, too. As they bowed in sequence, they looked like waves that eventually surged towards the old man. He wrapped his fist in his palm, then bowed towards the incoming crimson Rune.

Boom!

The space before the old man shuddered, and a shadow that was several hundreds of thousands of big tall appeared. That shadow was not a person, but a pair of hands wrapped together. Those hands belonged to the old man and all the hundreds of thousands of people behind him.

Once the shadow appeared, the instant the old man bowed in the direction before him, it immediately crashed into the incoming Rune.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The illusory hands shattered inch by inch. As they tumbled backwards, the old man’s hair danced wildly, making it seem as if there was a huge gust of wind crashing into his face. The illusions of the tens of thousands of people shattered and dispersed, and the crimson Rune swiftly rushed over. Once it closed in, it crashed into the old man, and during that instant, the crimson Rune turned into a huge red net that wrapped itself around the old man to suppress him.

At the same time, Su Ming’s body began rapidly withering away. In the blink of an eye, he turned into countless shards that charged forward, shooting through the net that was the crimson Rune. Those shards rushed straight into the old man’s body and began absorbing his memories, devouring his power of World Planes, and sucking away his physical power. After a moment, once the old man’s body disappeared, an endless amount of shards rushed out into the galaxy and gathered there to turn into Su Ming.

In the blink of an eye, his body recovered from its withered state. A thick presence of World Planes spread out from him, and a brilliant light shone in his eyes.

’If I absorb one more person’s power of World Planes, then I will touch the wall separating me from World Plane Realm. Once the disaster falls on my head and I break through it, my physical body will turn into that of a World Paragon!’

At the same time desire appeared in Su Ming’s eyes, he sensed the might of borrowing the power of the Rune. It was an overwhelming suppression that did not allow anyone to put up even the slightest bit of resistance.

After all, Su Ming could no longer be considered to be the one who attacked during this fight. The one who fought against the old man in blue was not Su Ming, but the Divinity Incarceration Rune that covered the entire galaxy.

He might have only used two-tenths of the Rune’s power, but suppressing a cultivator in the initial stage of World Plane Realm was a piece of cake for the Rune.

Su Ming slowly clenched his fist, and a feeling of power he had never felt before filled his heart. This might not be his own power, but at this moment, it belonged to him.

After Su Ming slowly unfurled his fist and looked at his palm, a bloody battle began in the galaxy. That battle did not last for long, and Su Ming only killed three people before he warped and left the place.

This was because he had already touched the wall in Heaven Cultivation Realm separating him from World Plane Realm. The Art of Swallowing Shadows Whole had reached a complete state of repletion and could no longer absorb the power of World Planes. More importantly, Su Ming could feel that the first disaster from the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole would arrive several days later.

He had fought a swift and clean battle against the three people. He had a short distance warping ability by his side which would allow him to arrive at any spot he wanted to be. Even if someone also used a warp to escape, with the illusory projection locating them, Su Ming would still be able to catch up to them.

The power of the Rune allowed Su Ming to possess a blood-red grid that was akin to the power of World Planes, so his weakest attribute when he faced off against Lords of World Planes was mended completely.

He borrowed the might of the Divinity Incarceration Rune for the Suppression Art and had it sweep through the galaxy. This series of fights were not really fair, since the powerful warriors did not die in Su Ming’s hands. They died because of the Divinity Incarceration Rune.

Once Su Ming killed those three people, he left. He did not appear before the nine ancient bronze swords. Unless he could borrow more of the Rune’s power, he would not easily come into contact with the sword aura that could destroy Heavenly Treasure Planet.

Several days later, Su Ming was seated on one of the meteors charging through the galaxy in a group. The Duke of Crimson Flame was not too far away. With a solemn expression, he protected Su Ming. The bald crane was lying by the side, occasionally grinning foolishly. Clearly, it was thinking about how its crystal count was going to increase, and was feeling incredibly happy.

Su Ming had been sitting there for three days. He had chosen a meteor as his isolation grounds because a meteor was constantly on the move, and it was not slow, either. Because of that, his location would be harder to discover with the Blood Identification Pearls. If he was in a single spot that did not move, then the Art that distorted time and space for seven days would no longer be of any use.

At that moment, his body was squirming about. Veins popped up on his skin, and runic symbols could be seen flashing faintly, as if they existed within his blood. As his blood circulated through his body, it looked as if there was an endless amount of runic symbols that were shining and swimming about his body.

”The first disaster in the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole is the Disaster of Burning Flames. Once you get through this disaster, your physical power will experience a great change. You will fuse with the power of World Planes and your physical body will become that of a World Paragon.

”However, you will need to search for another clone soon, or else when the second state of repletion comes and the second disaster falls on you, then no matter whether you succeed or fail, your soul will fuse completely with this body of yours, and from then onwards, you will not be able to create another clone. Do remember this, and keep it firmly in your mind.” This was the Duke of Crimson Flame’s solemn advice before Su Ming isolated himself for the first disaster.

Time trickled by. The runic symbols swam faster and faster in Su Ming’s body. Faint wisps of flames spread out from all his pores, covering his entire body and burning it. More flames spread out, and gradually, Su Ming’s entire body was enveloped in a sea of flames.

At the same time Su Ming isolated himself on the meteor to get through the disaster, a notice spread out from through the galaxy from which the four Great True Worlds kept a lookout over the barren lands. This notice shook almost all the cultivators, and it was even forcefully sent into the isolation grounds of the old monsters who isolated themselves all year long.

”Those who kill Mo Su will be given a thousand World Stones and a cultivation planet that has not been laid to waste and still contains a complete Essence of the World!”

Once this notice shook Western Ring Nebula, not only did it make the cultivators in Western Ring Nebula move out, all the other cultivators from the other three galaxies rushed to the place as well. The forces of power from the four Great True Worlds keeping a lookout over the barren lands added the number of True Guards from True Sacred Yin World that were sent to chase down Su Ming, too. Newcomers such as Ze Long Shen, Li Huo, and Ji Yun Hai were sent out to search for Mo Su around Western Ring Nebula.

True Morning Dao World and the Emperor of Abyss’ True World also sent out True Guards to join in the chase. Besides the always mysterious fourth True World, three of the four True Worlds moved out.

A long arc was heading towards the main camp from the galaxy were True Sacred Yin World was stationed. There was a young man in that long arc, and he had a dark expression on his face. There was the mark of a peach blossom at the center of his brows.

He had received an order and was heading to the main camp to tell the four Great True Generals about this matter. He was also to check all the ancient scrolls of the past tens of thousands of years to search for Mo Su’s origins and how he was sent to the Barren Lands of Divine Essence, as well as which True World he came from, and what heinous crime he had committed.