Pursuit of the Truth

Bang!

Su Ming coughed up a mouthful of blood and removed his right fist from his chest. The punch he had just thrown was aimed against his own body. The intense pain coursing through his body cleared up his mind, but even if it did, everything around him was still around.

The entire house of Yu Family had become empty, and the area was filled with dead silence.

Su Ming did not know how many people he had killed, and neither did he know how many people had their life force absorbed when they got close to him.

He stood on the ground, just outside Dao Avenue Mountain. There was no one alive around him. The sky was gradually turning darker, but the hideous expression of the malicious ghost on Dao Avenue Mountain was incredibly clear.

Su Ming’s expression was filled with anguish. He could not tell whether everything around him was just an illusion and he was truly in this current condition or whether this was fake.

”As long as you believe it, it will exist.” Yu Chen Hai’s reminder echoed in Su Ming’s ears.

”I’ve never believed in it, so could it be that all of this is true..?” As Su Ming mumbled this under his breath, his eyes sparkled.

’I’ll know whether this is real or fake if I go to see other places in Black Ink Planet!’

Su Ming moved, becoming a long arc. But just as he was about to leave the grounds, which had become silent, his body trembled.

Strong light then shone in his eyes. His breathing quickened. As he remained in the sky, he turned his head around slowly and stared fixedly at Dao Avenue Mountain.

He remembered now. It was not true that he had not believed in this since the start to the end. At the instant he walked out of the palm and looked towards Yu Chen Hai as well as the five old men on the ground, he smiled.

That might have seemed like a simple smile, but it showed that Su Ming believed what he saw at that instant.

When he looked towards Yu Chen Hai and the others, he had thought that he had cleared the first gate.

It was wrong. It was also at that moment that everything had began. It was precisely because he had believed during that moment that everything changed.

Su Ming fell silent. After a long moment, he sucked in a deep breath and returned to the ground. When he sat down, a dark light appeared in his eyes, showing off his sullen mood.

’What a powerful Illusory Art. No wonder it’s rare for anyone to pass this test even though the members of the Yu Family know of the secrets in the Art.’

Su Ming slowly closed his eyes. At the instant he did so, he lifted his right hand. The power of the Art of Time from the Abyss Builders was contained in his right hand, and he was ready to have his finger tap the center of his brows. Once that happened, the power of time would immediately spread out.

Then, he could change the flow of time and allow this place to return to the time before the change happened.

’Let’s see whether your race’s Illusory Art is stronger or whether the Abyss Builders’ divine ability is stronger!’

At the instant Su Ming was about to touch the center of his brows with his right index finger, his finger suddenly froze. He opened his eyes, and a bright sparkle shone within them.

”That’s wrong…” He remained silent for a long time before he put his finger down. ”If I use the Abyss Builders’ Art of Time to fight against this, then it means that I believe in this illusion. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an illusion or whether it’s the truth, as long as I believe it, it will exist.

”There are plenty of ways to understand this sentence…” Su Ming whispered softly to himself. After a moment, he did not use any other method and instead chose to just sit quietly. Once he closed his eyes, he let his heart sink into a state of calmness.

Shrill screams of pain gradually rang in his ears, but he did not open his eyes.

After those screams of pain came countless pleas for mercy, but he did not open his eyes.

Time passed, but Su Ming continued sit with his eyes closed. No matter what he heard, his heart remained unshaken, and in the mid of this state of calmness, he did not think of anything.

”Su Ming…” a faint voice said into his ears. It was Bai Ling’s [1] voice. Su Ming trembled. He looked as if he was about to open his eyes, but after a moment, he calmed down.

”Su Ming… you grew up…” When the elder’s voice reached his ears, he remained silent.

”Are you… my son..? Are you the baby I held in my arms in the past..?” a faint woman’s voice said with a tone that felt familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time to Su Ming.

”Su Ming, I’m Lei Chen [2]. What’re you doing, sitting here? Aren’t we supposed to go to the mountain to pick herbs?” This was Lei Chen’s voice.

”My dear disciple, I’ll let you see what is the sky and what is the earth!” said Tian Xie Zi’s voice.

After that came second senior brother, eldest senior brother, Hu Zi, and all the other people from his memories. Their voices reached him one after another.

Then, Su Ming opened his eyes.

At the instant he did so, he saw many people, many sights, and many scenes from the past he could no longer see.

He simply watched all of these silently, allowing himself to see it all as time continued to pass for his friends, family, and for these scenes, until an unknown amount of time had went by.

”As long as you believe it, it will exist.”

”I don’t believe it.” Su Ming stood up and moved forward. The old friends he came into contact with all disintegrated, and the ground he moved past gradually faded in color.

The land behind him tumbled about. The layers of earth rolled around like the layers of skin that fell off from a snake as it shed it. As they disseminated in succession, the ground… was still the land that had the shape of a palm.

His old friends, family, and the familiar sights were calling to him from behind him, but as Su Ming moved into the distance, they slowly turned into emptiness. However, even after he had already traveled very far, the sky remained as boundless as ever, and the ground was still in the shape of the palm.

Su Ming’s hair danced in the air. With the calmness in his heart and the relaxed manner in his gait, he continued walking forward. The sky gradually darkened, but in the mid of that darkness, a bright entrance appeared in front of him. He got closer to it, and when he walked out, the darkness was no longer around. He saw a bright piece of sky and the Yu Family’s square. He saw Yu Chen Hai and the five old men on the square, along with hundreds of other people. He also saw a middle-aged man standing right in front of the crowd.

When the members of the Yu Family on the entire square saw Su Ming, buzzing instantly rose into the air. It mattered little whether one considered the members of the family or the guests, it had been a long time since someone had managed to clear the first gate!

Yet at that moment, they had witnessed a success. They also saw the bat from the palm that belonged to the malicious ghost that was Dao Avenue Mountain letting out a brilliant light at the instant Su Ming walked out. As it spread out in all directions, a hazy feeling was created.

”Fellow Daoist, congratulations on clearing the first gate of the Three Gates of Heavenly Dao!” The middle-aged Third Family Elder in the crowd put on a smile, then wrapped his fist in his palm towards Su Ming as a greeting.

Yu Chen Hai was looking at Su Ming with an excited expression as he stood by Third Family Elder’s side. The hope and excitement in his eyes could not be described with words. He knew that the moment Su Ming had walked out of the first gate, his status in the family had risen by a huge margin.

As the light from the bat spread out, more people from the Yu Family rushed into the square from all directions. This was an incredibly important matter to the entire Yu Family.

When Su Ming walked out of Dao Avenue Mountain, he looked at the crowd beneath him. Then, with a calm expression, he wrapped his fist in his palm to greet the middle-aged man.

He did not speak, because at the instant he walked out, the bat on the palm that belonged to the malicious ghost shone with a boundless light, and booming sounds instantly rose into the air above Dao Avenue Mountain.

As they spread through the entire Yu Family and shook the sky, distortions appeared in a large portion of the sky, and two gigantic mountains manifested in the area of the distorted sky.

Instead of saying that they were two mountains, it would be more accurate to say that they were two huge statues. One of them was entirely black and had a ferocious expression on its face. It was holding loosely onto a red sun in its right hand.

The other statue was shining with moonlight, and it had a more indifferent expression on its face. It looked like a woman, and on her right hand was a moon. It was shining with a gentle light that illuminated the ground.

”The Sun and Moon Shine Together!”

”We finally saw the phenomenon of the sun and moon shining together. This is the second gate of the Three Gates of Heavenly Dao, and it will only appear when the first gate has been cleared.”

”Since ancient times, this gate has only appeared a few times. It’s the first time I’ve seen it in my life, I feel truly fortunate to see it.”

”The Sun and Moon Shine Together is even stronger than Dao Avenue Mountain. My dear guest, I wonder if you will be able to clear this gate!”

The buzzing of the crowd rose in the square. Once the mountains appeared, more members of the Yu Family rushed towards the square from all directions. There were even a large number of those who had previously not been interested in this rushing over.

There was even a long arc with an indescribably domineering air arriving from the distance, which then turned into an old man with crimson hair. He stopped beside Third Family Elder.

At the moment he arrived, all the members of the family around the area felt their hearts tremble, as if this man’s arrival could make the ground shiver.

”Greetings, Second Family Elder!” All the members of the family besides the Third Family Elder bowed respectfully towards the old man with crimson hair.

Yu Chen Hai’s expression became even more excited as he, too, bowed down and worshiped the old man.

As for the five old men who had previously deliberately made things difficult for Su Ming, they showed unceasing reverence on their faces as well, even if they were as white as sheets of paper.

The old man with crimson hair ignored the members of the family around him worshiping him and looked at Su Ming standing outside Dao Avenue Mountain, then asked languidly with sparkling eyes, ”Who brought this guest to our house?”

”This young boy from Yu Mai’s lineage brought him here.” The Third Family Elder smiled faintly by the side and cast a glance at the excited Yu Chen Hai.

The old man with crimson hair turned his head around and looked at Yu Chen Hai. A faint smile appeared on his face. Once he nodded, he looked at Su Ming, who had his head lifted to look at the statues of the Sun and Moon Shine Together while standing in the sky. Then, he wrapped his fist in his palm in a greeting and spoke to Su Ming.

”Fellow Daoist, since you cleared the first gate, then from now on, you are the guest of the Yu Family. You can make any requests you want of us; we have always valued our guests highly in the Yu Family.

”If you manage to clear the second gate, then you will become our guest elder, and you will have an incomparably respected status. You will be equal to the two of us!”

As he spoke, the two statues of the Sun and Moon Shine Together shone with a light that reached the ends of earth. A loud boom drowned out all other sounds. When it traveled in all directions, Su Ming lifted his foot and walked toward the Sun and Moon Shine Together.

He could choose not to challenge the second gate, but Su Ming had his own thoughts. When he was in the first gate, he had sensed the strange power contained within it.

That power was a strange force that he had never seen before. As long as he believed in it, it would exist.

This was an illusion, but was also not an illusion. Su Ming wanted to understand how this power worked, and even wanted to be in control of this power to fuse it into his own Illusion of the Stars, Sun, and Moon. Once he managed to do so, his Illusion of the Stars, Sun, and Moon would become incredibly powerful.

Translator’s Notes:

1. Bai Ling: Su Ming’s first love.

2. Lei Chen: Su Ming’s best friend.