Pursuit of the Truth

It was quiet all around. Kong Huan’s body trembled as he looked at Su Ming with fear. The three hundred cultivators in black armor on the ancient bronze armor did not dare to get closer to him at that moment.

Their bodies might have seemed to be full of a still presence, but their minds were normal. They had practiced the same skill, so they possessed the same presence. This sort of skill could make their hearts almost stop and make them cold and unfeeling.

However… the instant Su Ming’s Divine Essence Runic Symbols covered the entire area, a great, mighty pressure instantly descended on their bodies. That mighty pressure crushed their cold attitude, and fear took form within them.

It was especially so when he had, with one punch, nearly killed the middle-aged man, and with another, the old man in white nearly died. Su Ming had clearly done this intentionally, or else, the both of them would have definitely died.

Those in the later stage of World Plane Realm could suppress all the cultivators beneath their level. This sort of strength brought despair to the hearts of all the people in the area.

Space had been sealed off, and even the ancient bronze sword was covered in runic symbols. Due to it, the sword lost its usefulness and could no longer be controlled. What lay before these cultivators seemed to be only the path to death.

”Either you die or you step into the foreign land,” Su Ming said flatly. He swept his gaze across the three hundred cultivators in black armor. All those who met his gaze felt their hearts tremble, and they instinctively lowered their heads.

There were a few who gritted their teeth after a moment of hesitation and charged into the cracks leading to the foreign land with a single move. With someone taking the lead, the others turned into long arcs under the threat of death looming over their heads. In the span of a breath, the three hundred people in black armor went through the cracks leading to the foreign lands and disappeared without a trace.

Su Ming and Kong Huan were the only ones left in this place. Kong Huan, who had one of the green wisps fused into the center of his brows, had a ferocious look. Veins popped up on his face, but the terror in his eyes was even more prominent. However, he could not control himself and let out a low roar.

As he roared, a green mark gradually appeared at the center of his brows. That mark looked like a peacock spreading its tail feathers, and the image of a gigantic peacock manifested behind him as the space there distorted.

The peacock could not be seen clearly and looked as if it was incredibly weak, but at the instant it manifested, Kong Huan’s power rapidly rose. However, as it rose, his face turned from that of a teenage boy to that of a middle-aged man, then he rapidly changed into an old man. His hair also transformed from black to gray before eventually turning white.

It was as if his life was being burned and turned into the nutrients for the explosive increase in his power, becoming the source of energy for the peacock. Red filled his eyes, and there was even a hint of madness within them. It was a madness that no longer possessed any form of intelligence.

Su Ming watched Kong Huan’s transformation quietly. He had a question lying in his heart. The green sword might not have discovered him just now, but had instead… discovered his storage bag.

Perhaps more accurately speaking, it had discovered some form of living creature or item in his storage bag.

’Could it be..?’ An answer rose in Su Ming’s mind, and sadness showed up in his eyes.

He was never a kind and generous person to begin with. The four Great True Worlds chased after his life all those years ago and the rewards they promised had forced him into the foreign land. Su Ming… had sworn in the past that he would repay them back by several fold for all that was done to him.

However… he still had more important things to do. They were even more important than taking revenge on the four Great True Worlds, much more important, which was why he had previously decided to ignore Kong Huan and the other two.

Su Ming gently touched the storage bag. Within it was the slumbering bald crane.

It… was slowly dispersing, as if this was a transformation that could not be reversed. This transformation had not been very clear in the foreign land, but once he walked out of there, the process had become much faster.

Su Ming did not know the reason for this, but he knew that if the bald crane had not been there to help him, it would not have been reduced to this state. If it was not to help him succeed in his Possession, the bald crane wouldn’t have burnt its soul and been left in a near death state.

In truth, Su Ming did not even dare to take the bald crane out of his storage bag. He was worried… that at the instant he brought it out, it would instantly disappear, and from then on, the bald crane would no longer exist in the universe. The bald crane that loved money as much as it loved its own life but had accompanied Su Ming to the Barren Lands of Divine Essence and the one that possessed a great deal of secrets would no longer be around.

’Looks like there are also different goals among the forces of power from the four Great True Worlds. Some of them are after me, and some… are after it.’

The sadness in Su Ming’s eyes was replaced by killing intent. He had always been a person who was fiercely protective of those close to him. At that moment, as he looked at Kong Huan, Su Ming let out a cold harrumph.

At that moment, Kong Huan lifted his head and roared. He had completely lost his intelligence. When he opened his mouth, a large amount of saliva flowed down the corners of his lips. He came charging towards Su Ming while roaring, and his arrival was like that of a crazed peacock.

”Your level of cultivation rose to nearly the peak of the middle stage of World Plane Realm… but you’re still lacking.” Su Ming lifted his right hand and swung it before himself. With it, the ten thousand runic symbols around him immediately charged over from all directions at Kong Huan. While the other was still several hundreds of feet away, the symbols completely filled the entire area around him, turning into an existence that was akin to a grave.

”I will form a script under the ground, and that will… become a grave.”

Boom!

The grave formed by runic symbols buried Kong Huan. At the moment they turned into a stone monument and scattered, a green wisp flew out, but before it could fly too far away, it was seized by Su Ming. Another green wisp also appeared in his palm. That green wisp was the one that had tried to flee into the distance just now, but had been blocked by Su Ming’s runic symbols and had been seized by him.

The two green wisps struggled in Su Ming’s hand as if they wanted to fly out, but could not escape from the restrictions placed on them by the Divine Essence Runic Symbols around them. Su Ming looked at the two green wisps with a glint in his eyes, and pulled his fingers into a fist.

Banging sounds came from his palm, and when Su Ming unfurled his fist and straightened his palm, the green wisps were gone. Only a green feather remained. A faint light spread out from it. There was a dried speck of blood on the feather, and it was exuding an ancient presence.

At the instant Su Ming noticed this presence, his heart trembled.

’This is… the bald crane’s presence!’ A crease gradually appeared between Su Ming’s brows, and a pensive look appeared on his face.

”Just what is the goal of the person who made Kong Huan bring the feather to this place? One of the two green wisps was clearly supposed to send a message. Since I stopped it, that person should not learn about what happened here within a short period of time.

”But what is this person thinking about? If he is thinking about harming the bald crane, why did they hand me this feather? If that person is thinking of returning it, why attack me?” Su Ming fell silent.

After a moment, his right eye shone, and each of the runic symbols that contain the power of Divine Essence enveloped his body. Within an instant, they fused into his skin and entered his body.

Su Ming closed his eyes. After a moment, there was no longer any light around him, and even his presence disappeared, as if he had vanished from the galaxy.

However, the situation in his body right then was akin to a raging sea. All the runic symbols in him were like a giant net. As it contracted and expanded swiftly, Su Ming’s body seemed to have turned into a sea, and Divine Essence Runic Symbols were a huge net that covered the entire place.

It was contracting and expanding in his body, like how an ordinary fisherman would hunt for fish. However, Su Ming was not catching fish… but memories.

Those memories were the scenes from when he was in Crimson Flame Planet.

’Let the Divine Essence Runic Symbols be seals… and seal my memories within Crimson Flame Planet!’ As Su Ming opened and closed his eyes, the runic symbols in his body immediately turned into a seal, sealing up all of his memories from Crimson Flame Planet layer by layer.

At the instant his memories were sealed, a dark light shone in Su Ming’s eyes. He could sense that an invisible thread was broken at the moment his memories were sealed.

’The source of the reason behind why the four Great True Worlds could find me all those years ago was because they had used someone’s memories from Crimson Flame Planet and turned it into those Blood Identification Pearls after executing a mysterious divine ability.

’I could not understand it in the past and could not grasp the concept clearly, but now, with my Divine Essence… the Blood Identification Pearl will temporarily lose its effect. If I wanted to truly make it lose its effect, then I would need to wipe off the memories of that person from Crimson Flame Planet.

’If I did that, the four Great True Worlds would not be able to know my whereabouts, and would not be able to know… that I’ve come out of Western Ring Nebula’s foreign land.’

When Su Ming walked out of the land with the hundred thousand stone monuments, he had cast this Sealing Art on himself and wiped off his traces. Now that he had come out, he had executed it once again, forming a complete seal, and his mind was set completely at ease.

Once he finished doing all this, Su Ming lowered his head and looked at his storage bag. After a moment, a resolute look appeared on his face. He lifted his right hand to reveal the totem that the Duke of Crimson Flame had turned into on his arm, then sent his power to rush into it.

The totem on his right arm immediately started shining. As it shone with a dark light, it slowly disappeared from Su Ming’s arm, and the Duke of Crimson Flame’s body appeared out of thin air. As if the old man was opening his eyes for the first time from a deep slumber that lasted for one thousand years, he looked at Su Ming, dazed.

However, after several breaths, that dazed expression turned into shock. The Duke of Crimson Flame looked at Su Ming, dumbfounded. He had noticed that the number of disasters from the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole within Su Ming’s body had reached five!

His level of cultivation had also reached a level that was almost the peak of the middle stage of World Plane Realm. This was still nothing, however. Most importantly, he sensed a strong, threatening presence from Su Ming’s body. This sense of danger came from a presence that dominated over all forms of life. It might still be weak, but even so, the Duke of Crimson Flame was apprehensive. If Su Ming could grow, then perhaps with just one thought, the Duke of Crimson Flame would be reduced to ashes. This feeling caused his heart to tremble.

However, he was still wrong. If the presence of Divine Essence within Su Ming’s body truly grew, then with just one thought, the Duke of Crimson Flame would not be the only one who would turn into ashes… the entire universe would turn into ashes as well.

This was what it meant to be able to destroy the heavens with one thought.

”You… just how much time has passed?” The Duke of Crimson Flame was, after all, an old monster that had lived for countless years. He might be shocked, but the very first question he threw out hit straight on the point.

If Su Ming told him that one hundred thousand years or even more time had passed, then he would have obtained all his answers. On the other hand, if only several hundreds or thousands of years had passed, then it would definitely mean that Su Ming had obtained an unimaginably great serendipity during this period of time.

”I’ll tell you about this later, senior. Now, please answer me something first. Just what are the origins of the bald crane?”