Pursuit of the Truth

’Just what secrets do the foreign lands have that most of those who enter will die, and those few that leave will not speak of them? Is it because they don’t want to say it or because of some other reason?’

Su Ming looked at the bandits getting closer to the village. Once the sounds of horse galloping shook the ground, the dogs in the village that did not want to bark seemed to have noticed danger and started barking almost shrilly, causing the lights that had been extinguished in the village to all be lit up at that moment.

Shocked cries and screams of terror came from a village along with the wails of babies. It was chaos.

’I’ve been observing this village for the past half a month and found nothing extraordinary. It’s just a mortals’ village… Since this is not an illusion, then they must be real.

’This village is built in this place. If bandits frequently appear here, then there’s no way they would not have any sort of defenses set up, but I did not see even a single fence.

’The bandits’ arrival is a little strange as well. Why did I see them..?’

Su Ming narrowed his eyes. As a myriad of thoughts turned in his head, he saw the group of bandits less than a thousand feet away from the village. Dogs were howling there, and children were held by their mothers, and as they shivered, fear and despair appeared in their eyes.

The men in the village took hold of any weapon they could find. They might be afraid, but they did not retreat. Instead, in their despair, they let out roars of madness.

They were ready to give up their lives to protect their families and home.

”Kill them. Destroy the entire village. Kill all the men, elderly, and children. Snatch all their food and women, and hurry up. Once we destroy this village, we have to rush back.” The strongest man among the bandits lifted the scimitar in his hand with a ferocious grin. Then, waving the weapon before them and roaring loudly, all the men charged towards the village with crazed laughter.

A thousand feet, eight hundred feet, six hundred feet…

Su Ming looking at this scene from the distance. He watched the bandits come less that three hundred feet away from the village, watched as the villagers became fearful and despairing, watched the fear in the children’s innocent eyes, watched how the men refused to take a single step backwards to protect their home, and watched all the women hold onto their children tightly as tears fell from their eyes. Resolve could be seen there.

Su Ming suddenly understood.

”I’m hesitating…” he mumbled.

”When I hesitate, I sink into a situation where I have to make a choice. I can choose to help the villagers or to help the bandits. I can also choose to not do anything and let things happen on their own, or choose to kill everyone here. Perhaps I even have other choices, but...

”This isn’t my will. This is the surroundings around me and the development of the situation in this world forcefully dragging me into making a choice. No matter what I do, I will be making a choice.

”This is the foreign land, the foreign land that is rumored to be incredibly dangerous, I understand now!”

Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. He looked at the bandits that were only a hundred feet away from the village, having come to understand the things before him. This was the world and the foreign land setting out the conditions to have him make his first choice.

”It’s like this dried up tree. There’s only one trunk, but the higher it goes, the more branches there will be. Once I choose a branch, I will be faced with more choices later. When I reach the end, I will realize that the end isn’t even the end.” Su Ming stood up and looked at the tree beside him. ”Choice, huh..?”

A freezing glare appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. He lifted his right hand and swung it at the village not too far in the distance. At that moment, the man leading the bandits into village had lifted the scimitar in his hand with a ferocious smile. Right at the instant he swung down at the head of the middle-aged man in front of him, a shudder suddenly ran through his body. The scimitar he had lifted froze in midair. Wind blew past, and the man along with the horse under him turned into ashes.

There was no blood, no torn pieces of flesh. He was simply reduced to ashes and disappeared from the crowd’s eyes. While the villagers were stunned, all the other bandits behind the man froze in the mid of their terror, and then… all of them turned into ashes as well.

This strange sight immediately caused the breathing of all the villagers to almost stop. They stared at the ashes spreading out in the snow with dumbfounded gazes and felt that everything that had just happened was surreal. It was as if everything that happened was just a dream.

They remained staring blankly until they saw Su Ming walking towards them through the snow. Then, all of them withdrew while trembling. Su Ming, with his gray hair and long white robes, walked towards them through the snow until he stood before the mortal villagers. He swept his gaze past all of their bodies.

He saw terror, one that was even greater than when these people had ran into the bandits earlier, and it was all shown in their trembling bodies. Su Ming averted his gaze in silence, then turned around. Just as he was about to leave, the wind lifted his hair.

”Le… Sir, you… You’re the legend!” a trembling voice suddenly came from the crowd. An old man took a few quick steps forward. His face was covered in wrinkles, and he had the appearance of a person who had one foot in his grave. At that moment, with an excited face, he looked at Su Ming while his body shuddered.

”You are the legend, the legend of our village. There’s no mistake to this, I will absolutely not mistake this… I remember your portrait. You are the legend!”

Su Ming was momentarily taken aback, then he turned around and looked at the old mortal.

In his excitement, the old man could not even enunciate his words clearly. His franticness made him unable to explain the situation clearly. He quickly pointed towards one of the buildings in the village.

A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes when he looked at the building. He walked towards it, and once he pushed open its door, his heart trembled. He did not step in, but stood at the entrance for a long, long time.

That building was an ancestral one. There were plenty of memorial plates there, and they belonged to the deceased villagers, who were placed there to be worshipped by their descendants. On the wall behind those plates was a picture.

There was a man in that picture. He was dressed in a long white robe, and he had long gray hair. His body was positioned sideways in the snow, as if he was turning around. Wind lifted his hair, and this scene… was the exact same as when Su Ming had been about to turn around to leave!

”This is the picture to which we give our offerings all year long. In the past, you…” The old man’s quivering and excited voice came from behind Su Ming, but he did not hear his words. This was no longer important.

The important thing was the picture. He looked at his hair dancing in the wind there, at the scattering snow, and he knew that this was not a picture scroll that had existed for many years. Instead… it was the him of just then.

”Foreign lands…” Su Ming mumbled. He lifted his right hand and seized the picture through the air. It rushed at him, and the instant he grabbed it, a vast amount of power spread out from within the scroll and surged straight into his body. Then, an ancient voice appeared in his head.

There was an age-old presence to that voice, as if it had traveled through the passages of time from many, many years ago. Due to its age, even just hearing that voice alone would make someone feel a waning presence.

”I… am Sui Chen Zi.”

That voice echoed in Su Ming’s mind. The ancient tone brought with it a presence that could make the galaxy freeze all over. At the instant that voice spread out, the snow around Su Ming stopped moving. All the villagers also lost all signs of life. They stood there, still and unmoving.

The buildings around him started disintegrating right before his eyes. Even those people who did not move also started rotting away at that moment.

They were not the only ones. Even the snow on the ground, the wind in the air, and the entire sky started slowly fading away, as if they were also falling into decline.

In fact, even the picture scroll in Su Ming’s hands started disintegrating. It was as if it had been immersed in the eternal passages of time that were constantly flowing away.

All the color in the area also faded away at that moment, the only one remaining being gray. Only Su Ming’s body alone retained its original color, becoming the only thing that was different in the world.

”When I was born, the world had already been formed. I’ve trained in the path of cultivation for a long time, and I’ve forgotten how long I’ve practiced it… The universe has nine heavens, and I am in exclusive possession of one of them. I’ve reached the end of the path of cultivation. With one thought, I can destroy the heavens; with one thought, I can give life to the universe.

”With one thought, I can make all lives perish; with one thought, I can give life to all manner of being… There are nine worlds in the universe. When the cosmos was first formed, the heavens were segregated, and I have become one of them. If I die, then the cosmos will be missing one piece to its whole. If I perish, then the cosmos will be incomplete from then on.

”Wherever my will is, another cultivator in Plane Kalpa Realm will be born. So long as I have the thought, a cultivator who has controlled fate will continue walking down the path of cultivation for his entire life. All the lives in the universe, all the lives in my world that practice cultivation are all because I will it to be so.

”However… the cosmos are damaged, and no one can reverse that damage. If the universe wishes for destruction, no power can fight against it… Those eight have all failed and perished. They have turned into Empty Dust, and I alone am left, still struggling.

”There are nine worlds in the universe, and eight have shattered. What use is there even if I struggle?!

”I wish to turn back the universe. If I succeed, I will recreate the cosmos. If I fail… then my dust will appear in the heart of the cosmos. With the Empty Dust of my eight friends as my companions, even if I die, I will have no regrets.

”Before I perish, I will set a law. I, Sui Chen Zi, shall declare this… If this world falls and turns into Empty Dust, then if the fated arrive, they can obtain my Divine Essence.

”Divine Essence is the essence of the nine worlds that were born when the universe was first formed. Only those who have obtained Divine Essence can become one of the nine worlds in the universe. Only then can they reach the end of their path of cultivation, and only then… can they give form to a world!

”Those who are fated, I do not know how long it has been in the universe where you are right now, but the number of Great True Worlds you see will tell you just how many Sublime Paragons like me there are in the universe right then!

”Look at the heart of the universe, find how many Empty Dusts have disappeared, and you will know how many people have become Sublime Paragons!”

Su Ming’s heart was in shock. This was the greatest shock he had experienced ever since he became conscious of his own thoughts. It overturned all his understanding of the foreign lands.

”If you wish to obtain my Divine Essence, then there will only be three outcomes. One, you will be destroyed. Two, you will find yourself with not enough right to possess my Divine Essence, but you will be able to leave. However, you will not be allowed to say a word about it, or you will be destroyed. Three… you will fuse with my Divine Essence and walk down the path of becoming the Sublime Paragon!”

It was as if millions of thunderbolts roared in Su Ming’s head at the same time. His body trembled. The world around him disintegrated completely during that instant. The buildings fell apart, the people turned into ashes, the sky disappeared, and the earth turned into nothingness. Only Su Ming alone stood in a daze.

The picture scroll in his hand also fell apart at that moment.