Pursuit of the Truth

That Teardrop All Those Years Ago

Su Ming wanted to kill Dao Yuan, wanted to kill all five of those Dao Slaves, and wanted to kill all the guards Dao Yuan had summoned later on. He wanted to kill everything, even if it was just an illusion. He wanted to let his current powerful self return to the past!

Boom!

A loud bang rang out in Su Ming’s heart. He felt as if his body was about to be torn apart, and an intense pain traveled through his entire body, something which he had not experienced for a long time.

’That’s not right. I’ve already lost my sense of pain…’ The intense pain made Su Ming’s heart tremble, and he tried to open his eyes.

But he could not do so!

The intense pain in his body gradually disappeared, but Su Ming did not know where he was. He could not open his eyes. It was as if his body did not belong to him. He could not control it.

’What’s going on?... Just in which timeline was I thrown?’ Su Ming could sense that the intense pain in his body was rapidly fading away. After a moment, when the pain vanished, he tried opening his eyes again, but he still could not do so, as if he did not possess the strength to do so.

He could sense that his cultivation base was still around, his Atman was also with him, but it could not leave his body, as if it had been restricted and could not spread out.

But this was not the most important thing. The main point was that once the intense pain disappeared, Su Ming sensed warmth. It did not come from the body, but from the heart. It came from his soul, and that sort of warmth was unfamiliar to him, because there was a hint of grief in that unfamiliarity.

In fact, not even he knew why he was sad. However, this sorrow brought with an urge to cry. It caused extreme pain and left him at a loss.

’Why am I sensing warmth..? This warmth feels dear to me, makes me feel as if I’m being protected. Makes me feel… as if it’s something that I cannot lack in my life, something that I must protect… Where… am I..?

’Why does it feel so unfamiliar? Just what timeline does this place belong to in my memories?

’Why… do I feel sad, and have the urge to cry? Why am I in such a state of sorrow, as if I’ve lost the most precious person in my life?’

Time passed. In this warmth and unfamiliarity that was accompanied by sadness, Su Ming gradually calmed down. He immersed himself in this situation and let time pass, until one day, he gradually began to feel that there was something wrong with his body.

In the past, when he circulated his cultivation base over his entire body, he only needed an instant to do so. It didn’t take much time. However, now… the speed of the circulation of his cultivation base had reached a state which put him in disbelief. In the past, he could complete a cycle of his cultivation base in an instant, but now… he could complete a dozen something cycles in that same time!

This sort of speed stunned him momentarily, and a myriad of thoughts raced in his head.

’My level of cultivation did not increase. My cultivation base is still that of Earth Cultivation Realm. If that’s the case, then this isn’t because of my level of cultivation… but because of my body!

’Zhou Kang once mentioned that the world in the stone monument is born from a person’s memories, which means that there was a period of time in the past when my cultivation base could reach this circulation speed.

’Just when was it… It’s not before or after I became the God of Berserkers. I remember that my body was just an illusion that was gathered together. I couldn’t reach this sort of speed back then.

’There’s only one explanation to this - this is… my real body!’ Su Ming’s heart trembled. The conclusion he came to through his analysis caused the circulation speed of his cultivation base to become even faster.

’My real self. Darkness. Could it be… that this is the time when I couldn’t see light and when my body was surrounded by freezing cold, where only Fei Er’s voice accompanied me? The period of time which is indistinct in my mind?

’It should be that timeline. My real body is in the land of Immortals. It’s sealed up and has become something for other people to absorb, but why is there warmth, unfamiliarity, and sadness..?’ Su Ming could not open his eyes. He could not see his surroundings. He was still uncertain about this guess.

’I chose the eye from the Five Illusory Echelons for the Divine Essence test I received this time. Right now, I can’t open my eyes, then does it mean that this time, the success of my test depends on… whether I can open my eyes?!’

Su Ming was no longer the ignorant boy from the past. After receiving the baptism of time and experiencing many things, he had been refined to the point where he possessed a powerful will and wisdom. With a few clues, he could deduce and figure out many things.

’It doesn’t matter whether this is the truth or not, I will have to continue trying to open my eyes.’ Su Ming wanted to do so, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not achieve it. He could not control his own body, and so his eyes remained closed.

He continued trying, and time gradually passed. One month, two months… One year, two years…

Su Ming lost track of how much time passed. He slowly sensed that the timeline he currently resided in was not the one where he was in the land of Immortals, as he had previously guessed.

Otherwise, why would he not sense even a single hint of someone absorbing his power. In fact, he had a vague sensation that his body was moving… or more accurately speaking, he was floating.

’I don’t have any memory of this… I don’t remember myself floating and being unable to open my eyes like this. Just when had this happened?!’

In silence, time continued to pass, until one day, Su Ming suddenly heard a violent boom.

This loud boom immediately made him notice that he could hear. Over the years, this was the first thing he’d heard. In the mid of that booming sound, a loud whistle shot through the air, causing Su Ming to immediately draw a picture in his head.

Within that picture was a long arc that was slicing through the air. The whistles that were stirred up crashed into the invisible space, and that booming sound was created.

It became louder in Su Ming’s ears with each passing moment, seemingly endless. Once it became deafening, his heart trembled. He realized that his theory had been wrong. The thing was not a long arc… but a gigantic longship!

’That sound means that the longship is traveling at an incredibly fast speed, and this speed… is impossible within a cultivation planet. Could it be… that this is the galaxy?’

Su Ming’s mind immediately wiped off the previous picture, and he replaced it with a gigantic longship. The background was a galaxy.

The longship was charging closer with a piercing sound in its wake, like a sharp sword that sliced through space. This sort of sound was familiar to Su Ming. He remembered that he had heard something like this before.

’A sword! This is the sound of a sword slicing through space! This is a sword, an ancient bronze sword. It’s the sound of a gigantic ancient bronze sword of True Sacred Yin World when it charges through the galaxy!’ If Su Ming could breathe at that moment, it would have definitely quickened. The picture in his head had already become complete, and many speculations rose in his mind.

In the vast galaxy, a gigantic ancient bronze sword was traveling. Right in front of it, within the endless galaxy, was dust, and in that dust there was a corpse floating about.

”There is a corpse here. There’s no mistaking this. This is the corpse that’s been spreading those waves of mighty power. We’re lucky today, we actually managed to find a powerful warrior’s corpse.”

An awe-inspiring voice reached Su Ming’s ears. It was rather familiar, and Su Ming almost immediately managed to recognize its owner. At that instant, a loud bang rang out in his heart and mind.

’This is the voice of the Spirits of Nine Yin’s Progenitor [1]. Corpse, ancient bronze sword… This is the time when the Spirits of Nine Yin were ordered to look for corpses of powerful warriors and managed to find a baby in the galaxy!

’That baby… is me!’

The booming sounds in Su Ming’s mind were like thunderbolts striking and echoing in the air. His heart trembled, but the next few words that reached his ears caused Su Ming’s heart to almost break during that instant.

”Hmm? There’s not just one corpse, but two!” When the voice that belonged to the Spirits of Nine Yin’s Progenitor reached his ears, several powerful divine senses immediately swept towards him and gathered on his body.

”There’s a baby held in the corpse’s arms… It’s a pity, but the baby is dead, too. By the looks of it, he hasn’t been born for long. This woman should be his mother.

”Seems like she wanted to protect the child even as she died, hoping to use her body to protect him. It’s an instinctive act of not wanting her child to be injured.

”This woman must have been incredibly powerful when she was alive. Look at her tears, they’re frozen on her face. Even those that have fallen on the baby’s body are also frozen. Only the tears of powerful existences can possess the power of Plane Kalpa, gaining the ability to become eternal teardrops. Those teardrops are treasures. If we refine them into Enchanted Treasures, their might will be incredibly great.

”All right, separate the two corpses and store them separately. Once we find a few other, we’ll be able to go home.”

A loud bang rang out in Su Ming’s heart. This time, that bang could no longer be described as the sound that would be heard when thunder struck the ground. This was the greatest sound Su Ming had heard in his life. The loud bang made him tremble, and it was not his heart that trembled, but his body!

He could not describe what he was feeling now. His mind was blank. Only the voice of the Spirits of Nine Yin’s Progenitor continued echoing in his head, and it became increasingly louder. Due to it, Su Ming begun shivering even more, until it became a powerful craze that urged him to open his eyes.

He understood why he felt warm now. That was because he was in the woman’s embrace.

He also understood why he had that sense of unfamiliarity. That was because he had never met this woman before, he had never seen her…

He, too, understood why he was sad. That sorrow that came from his soul was due to the woman’s tears having frozen on his body.

’Mother…’

Su Ming’s heart was torn. Boundless grief brought extreme pain with it. If he did not learn who this woman was right now, then he would be a failure of a son!

He wanted to open his eyes, not for anything else, but to simply catch a glimpse of his mother who had protected him even during the final moments of her life, with tears falling from her eyes even though he was a stillborn.

He wanted to open his eyes and see her face, then use his entire life to remember her, protect her in his memories.

His body trembled. His heart roared. His soul grieved. All of these things gathered together into a power that shook the sky and earth during that instant, causing Su Ming’s body to continuously tremble and gather together the power that would allow him to open his eyes. At that instant, his eyes flew open!

He then saw the ancient bronze sword and the Spirits of Nine Yin’s Progenitor along with a few people behind him walking over. He also saw… a pair of warm arms holding onto him.

Su Ming turned his head around, finally seeing a beautiful woman. Her eyes were closed, as if she was asleep, but there was reluctance to part and an expression of love on her face as well as frozen crystalline teardrops on her cheeks. All of these things etched themselves into Su Ming’s mind. His body trembled, and tears fell from his eyes.

Boom!

Everything before Su Ming’s eyes vanished. He wanted to lift up his hands and seize it, but the only thing that he managed to catch was emptiness. There were only endless stone monuments around him. The one that belonged to him let out a booming sound, and at that moment, from twenty thousand feet, it shot up to one hundred thousand feet.

Translator’s Note:

1. Spirits of Nine Yin’s Progenitor: The one who was a skeleton in the temple in the World of Nine Yin and asked Su Ming for Lie Shan Xiu’s power. He then helped Su Ming and Fated Kin escape from the World of Nine Yin.