Pursuit of the Truth

The fight and subsequent killing between life forms of the same level is known as robbing another’s life. It is murder. The oppression of the strong towards the weak is something the strong bring with a presence that can change weather with just a flip of their hands. Their killing of the weak is known as granting others death.

As for… those that had surpassed the categories of life, their killing would be the will of heaven gathering its attention on ants. That could no longer be known as murder, not could it be known as granting someone death. This was purely wiping off someone’s existence from the face of the world.

It was like how an artist drew on a drawing board. Within the picture were lives, and when the artist swiped their hand across the drawing board, the picture would be wiped off, and along with it, all the lives within it.

At that moment, the lingering cries from those who had already died still echoed in the ears of everyone within the land of the one hundred thousand stone monuments. Once they witnessed how Su Ming had casually swung his arm and caused the deaths of nearly a hundred people, the idea of these people being wiped off rose in all their heads.

Fear, anxiety, panic, shock, and various other emotions turned into a suffocating feeling, causing the world of the one hundred thousand stone monument to turn deathly silent at that instant. Almost all the people instinctively looked towards Su Ming, including Zhou Kang, and their gazes were filled with deep reverence.

How could they not be able to tell that the laws of Sui Chen Zi in this land were obeying Su Ming?

How could they not be able to tell that not only were Sui Chen Zi’s laws obeying him, it could even be said that there was a special connection between them?

If someone had control over the laws in the world of the one hundred thousand stone monuments, then that person would be someone that no one dared to provoke, because he could determine a person’s life and death.

In fact, if Su Ming wanted to, he could make Sui Chen Zi’s law immediately kill all the people here. However, by doing so, he would completely break ties with the nine Ecang souls. From then on, they would be greatly averse to his presence, and the nine souls would also be wary of him. If Su Ming wanted to devour them in the future, it would be incredibly difficult.

Besides, if Su Ming wiped off the existences of all the people here, then there was a possibility that the nine Ecang souls would even work together to resist him. There would be more losses compared to benefits in this matter. That was why even if the temptation was incredibly great, Su Ming did not choose such an extreme method.

Furthermore, the law in the land was set to protect people, not only kill them. If Su Ming brought up this kind of request, perhaps the law would remain silent. After all, Sui Chen Zi’s law was obeying Su Ming because what he was doing was within what was allowed. Until… Su Ming’s power could set a new law in this place.

Su Ming remained calm. Taking away nearly a hundred people’s lives seemed to be completely insignificant to him. He did not bother about whether these people had truly died. To him, this was not important.

What was important was that these people whose existences were wiped off had come to this place to kill him because of the rewards offered by the four Great True Worlds. But besides that, they had cursed him.

Because of that, they lost the right to continue living and obtained freedom, the kind Su Ming gave to them. They no longer needed to eternally sink into the worlds within the stone monuments in the land.

As the people around looked at Su Ming with respect in their eyes, he lifted his head and swept his gaze past them. All those who met his gaze would feel their hearts shudder. It did not matter what level of cultivation they had, as long as they were a person in this land, they would instinctively lower their heads, not daring to meet Su Ming’s gaze, to incite his wrath.

Su Ming swept his gaze around the area, and paused for a moment on Zhou Kang. He had previously seen that Zhou Kang’s stone monument was blue.

In the end, Su Ming’s gaze landed on the man who was still twitching on the ground. This person only had a breath left in his body, and his body was already as thin as a skeleton, even though he was not screaming in pain.

This man was the first person who had attacked Su Ming, and his stone monument was purple. If Su Ming wanted to kill him, he did not need to make any sort of explanations to the nine Ecang souls, because this man was Su Ming’s tribute.

”Since you must have experienced a lot of difficulties in walking down the path of cultivation and you are my tribute, I will spare you,” Su Ming said flatly and swung his right hand. Immediately, the man who had been shivering and twitching on the ground stopped trembling. Once he recovered his consciousness, he stood up with great difficulty. His fear towards Su Ming reached extreme heights, and he quickly wrapped his fist in his palm to bow deeply towards Su Ming.

The word tribute fell into his ears and also entered the minds of all the others in the area, turning into surprise and bewilderment.

”The hundreds of you are all my tributes.” As Su Ming spoke flatly, he walked forward. When he arrived next to the man, the person put on a look of reverence and followed after.

When Su Ming arrived before the hundreds of newcomers, he did not stop, but a mighty pressure that only those hundreds of people could notice spread out from his body.

This mighty pressure was like the might of heaven itself to these hundreds of cultivators. At the instant they sensed it, their hearts trembled furiously, and a feeling as if Su Ming controlled their lives and deaths rose strongly in their hearts.

This feeling was incredibly real, and they discovered to their shock that their heartbeats were beating at the same rate, and this heartbeat belonged to Su Ming.

If Su Ming’s heart beat once, then their hearts would also beat once. This strange event caused the hundreds of people to move back altogether as Su Ming walked towards them. In fact, a few dozen of them even had loud booming sounds ringing in their minds as their faces turned pale. The mighty pressure spreading out from Su Ming’s soul caused their minds to feel as if they were about to break. It was as if there was a powerful will in their minds at that moment, and it was forcing them to kneel towards Su Ming, who was walking over.

It felt like if they did not kneel and worship him, they would be destroyed. If they did not worship him, their souls would no longer be in their control. One of the young men fell down to his knees with a thump as his body shivered, becoming the second person after the big man who had attacked Su Ming just now to kneel and worship him.

Soon after, the second, third, fourth… When Su Ming walked over, these hundreds of people fell to their knees and worshiped him. When Su Ming arrived before Zhao Family’s Progenitor, the hundreds of people around the purple stone were all kneeling.

Zhao Family’s Progenitor had long since averted his gaze from the air above him and focused his attention on Su Ming. As Su Ming walked over and the hundreds of people knelt down to worship him, the mighty pressure pressing down on his mind caused his breathing to quicken, the veins on his face to pop up, and sweat cover his entire body.

He was fighting against the will in his body, fighting against his own soul. As Zhao Family’s Progenitor, he would definitely not kneel down to anyone, but the strength of the will in his body was a form of suppression that was born from the soul, not from cultivation bases, so Zhao Family’s Progenitor could only tremble furiously while letting out low roars.

”We meet again,” Su Ming said calmly, coming to a stop before Zhao Family’s Progenitor.

Zhao Family’s Progenitor did not say a single word, because he could not speak at that moment. All his strength was used to fight against the power in his soul. The moment he laxed his guard, he would immediately be unable to control his body and he would kneel.

This was only secondary though, because even if Su Ming made him kneel, he was only making his body kneel. What truly made Zhao Family’s Progenitor afraid and had him regretting stepping into the foreign land in order to avoid being killed was because he could sense that he fought against his own soul. He discovered that not only his mind and spirit were afraid of Su Ming, but he also respected him. In fact, there was even an intention within him to submit to him, and it was one he could not fight against.

This was not just a feeling from his body, but something that came from his soul and his mind. It was as if after he stepped into the foreign land, a person had showed up to take control of his life, and he now had a master.

Su Ming did not speak again. He simply stood before Zhao Family’s Progenitor quietly. The hundreds of people worshiping him around caused the tens of thousands of people standing at the edges of the group to find their jaws falling slack in shock once they witnessed this.

At that moment, the one word Su Ming said just now rose in their heads.

”Tribute.”

’Just what serendipity did he receive in the stone monument’s world? How can he… How can he be so strong?!’

’Even the laws are obeying him. The land of the stone monuments also experienced two abnormalities. This must be the reason why he could become so strong!’

’Just what did he do? What did he receive? Why are those hundreds of people worshiping him… Could it be… that he became the law?’

’Even if his stone monument reached one million feet and he gained control of a portion of Divine Essence’s power, I don’t remember anyone who could compare to him among all the people who made their stone monuments reach one million feet over the course of time.

’In fact, forget one million feet. Even those who made their stone monuments reach two, three or even more million feet could not do this.’

There was no buzz of discussion, but these thoughts were part of everyone as expressions of respect appeared on their faces. As they kept thinking about it, their minds turned into windstorms of various thoughts and feelings.

Zhao Family’s Progenitor’s body was drenched in sweat. He shivered even more violently, and blood capillaries filled the whites of his eyes. As despair appeared on his face, he… slowly knelt down. When his knees touched the ground, he worshiped Su Ming, just like all the others around him.

Almost at the instant Zhao Family’s Progenitor knelt down and worshiped Su Ming, loud bangs rang out above, and a large crack tore through the air. A long string of laughter echoed in the air, and a person walked out from the crack.

”A thousand years have passed, and I’ve returned to this place. Zhao Tian Gang, you old bastard, did you think that if you escaped here, you’d find the reason why I became stronger?! I’ll tell you the truth, my real goal was to force you into this land!

”I will cause you to sink endlessly into nothingness. I will make you suffer the pain I endured after you forced me into this place. I’ve already granted death to thousands of those in your family. Don’t worry. When my stone monument reaches two million feet, I will venture out for a thousand years again, and I will slaughter the rest of your family.” As the long string of laughter echoed in the air, all the people noticed an old man in a long blue robe walking out from the air.

”A person with a stone monument of one million feet! This person… is Gong Sun Yin!”

”It’s him. It’s Gong Sun Yin. He left this place a thousand years ago, and now he’s back.” Some of the people in the area immediately recognized the old man.

The old man was ugly, and his hair was a mess, but he had reached the later stage of World Plane Realm. He was walking forward with an arrogant look on his face, but when he saw Zhao Family’s Progenitor kneeling before Su Ming, his voice died away, and a surprised look appeared on his face.

Zhao Family’s Progenitor remained silent. The long string of laughter and the voice in his ears made him lower his head. A wave of complicated feelings he could not describe turned into desolation and anguish in his heart.

He did not lift his head to look at his enemy who had killed most of his family members and forced him to step into the foreign land to hide, because at the moment he knelt down, he had already sunk into despair.

Su Ming lifted his head.

”Only I alone am allowed to rebuke my tributes, who do you think you are?” Su Ming said flatly.