Pursuit of the Truth

Once the old man died and his body was devoured by the Abyss Dragon, it turned back to the big yellow dog and even wagged its tail while winking at the bald crane, which had now resumed the black dogs form as well and was winking back. They were both incredibly pleased with themselves.

”Well? Your Grandpa Crane’s plan was great, right? Heh heh~”

Clearly, the dragon, which had the bald crane’s constant company, had been corrupted…

”That’s… That’s a dragon?”

”That’s not a dog either! That’s a bird!”

”Those two creatures are too despicable! That’s… That is… So they’ve been pretending to be weak all this while!”

”We have to be careful of those two creatures, especially that bird. It’s… it’s too shameless, too brutal, how could it..?”

The cultivators who had been observing this fight in the area found their jaws falling slack from shock when they saw the bald crane and the Abyss Dragon’s transformations. They had never seen ferocious creatures that could be so despicable!

They immediately became cautious and engraved the bald crane as well as the Abyss Dragon’s appearance in their minds. The bald crane’s intrepid act just now had especially horrified them, and they felt the pain the old man must have suffered before he died.

In fact, their wariness towards the bald crane surpassed that which they held for the terrifying creatures that resided in their memories. After all… that intrepid strike was something that would cause all male cultivators’ skins to crawl and their hearts to shudder.

”That bird, I-I saw it take away a storage bag just now and even check it for a while. It didn’t seem too pleased with what it saw.”

”Damn it, if that bird acts this way, then its master is definitely this sort of person as well! We absolutely can’t provoke this person! Absolutely, absolutely can’t provoke him!”

In the mid of the shock and the hubbub created by the cultivators in the area, the black dog which was the bald crane swept its gaze around the area with a fierce and displeased stare. It had a… rather simple personality. That intrepid strike just now had been something it thought of on the spot, but when it saw the terrified expressions, it suddenly felt that… it could use this attack more often.

As it pondered over it, it started cackling foolishly. That expression, those cackles, and that gaze immediately caused all the cultivators which it was looking at to feel their skins crawl again.

Su Ming paid no attention to the dirty acts committed by the bald crane and the Abyss Dragon. With an indifferent expression, he continued ignoring the now pale young man and instead walked towards the other old man who was fighting against Yu Rou and whose apathetic expression made him look like a puppet.

Two of the three old men had died. Their expressions before death made them seem more like real people, but during all other occasions, they only had that apathetic look on their faces.

They were clearly puppets, and it was the type Su Ming was familiar with - a Soul Catcher’s puppet.

He did not move quickly, but each step he took caused the auction hall to tremble. As he stepped in the air, an endless amount of ripples spread out in space, so even the old man who was fighting against Yu Rou had a hint of change in his expression. He gave up on fighting against Yu Rou and without any hesitation began retreating.

Su Ming let out a cold harrumph. If the old man was truly someone in the later stage of World Plane Realm, then Su Ming would have been unable to kill him with just one punch, but this old man was a Soul Catcher’s puppet, and for someone who had mastered the Soul Catchers’ Spells, killing this sort of puppet became a natural act of oppression.

The puppet’s sturdy and invincible body was as frail as a piece of paper to Su Ming. The strange divine abilities it cast were mostly related to a Soul Catcher, and Su Ming was completely unfettered by these Spells.

Everything about the puppet was suppressed by Su Ming, so it was completely impossible for it to fight back. The suppression on its soul prevented it from bringing out its full power.

When Su Ming saw the puppet fleeing, his expression did not change. However, the young man in the distance and Tai Ci Family’s guest, who was fighting against the Duke of Crimson Flame, revealed faint shock.

They understood the three puppets and knew that they did not fear pain. The fluctuations of their emotions were barely noticeable, and they did not know how to be fearful of other manner of beings. However, the moment Su Ming got closer to the puppet, it went fleeing, performing an act that it had never done before. This sort of thing left them in temporary disbelief.

Su Ming walked towards the puppet. He did not do so quickly, but there was a presence of a Soul Catcher radiating faintly around his body at that moment. There was also a profound look in his eyes that looked like vortices. All of these things caused a powerful, suppressive feeling over the puppet.

In fact, at that moment, the small Candle Dragon Su Ming had left behind with the Ecang clone in Western Ring Nebula’s foreign land lifted its head and flicked its tongue. Dark light shone in its eyes. It was a ferocious beast that was connected to Su Ming’s soul, and it could sense the fluctuations in Su Ming’s soul as well as him walking towards a Soul Catcher’s puppet at that moment.

It immediately sensed a faint connection formed between its soul and Su Ming’s soul. It was this connection that created a faint of image of the Candle Dragon to behind Su Ming as the air behind him distorted while he walked over.

At the instant the image appeared, the old puppet shuddered and gave up on fleeing. Then… as it trembled, it kowtowed before Su Ming, not daring to move any longer.

At the instant he kowtowed before Su Ming, the expression of the old Tai Ci Family guest who was fighting against the Duke of Crimson Flame changed drastically, and he coughed up a huge mouthful of blood. When the blood turned into blood fog that exploded in the area, it blocked off the Duke of Crimson Flame’s divine abilities, and the old guest retreated without any hesitation, moving beside the young man who was now so shocked that terror had appeared on his face. The old man grabbed his body and retreated swiftly. At that moment, he also roared at Lie Shan Family for the first time.

”Lie Shan Family, this is your auction hall! Why are you still not showing yourselves and attacking?! If anything happens to the young master, then all of you will have to die with him!”

The old man’s words swiftly reminded the pale young man of his status. As he was brought backwards, he immediately shouted shrilly, ”Lie Shan Family, I order you to kill this person!”

As the two of them retreated while shouting, booming sounds rose from around the auction hall, and the shadows of people appeared. Needless to say, they belonged to the members of the Lie Shan Family.

In fact, even Song Qing, the member of Lie Shan Family who hosted the auction and Lie Shan Kang Jiu were among these people, and they had the auction hall surrounded.

Their appearance immediately caused the cultivators in the area to let out a sigh of relief, because they knew that Lie Shan Family had finally decided to intervene. After all, this was Lie Shan Family’s auction hall. They would not allow any sort of battles in here, much less allow the death of a member of the Tai Ci Family.

This was something obvious, and it was a thought shared by all the cultivators.

It was also what the young man and the Tai Ci Family guest thought. At the same time the two of them let out sighs of relief, they swiftly retreated, intending to leave this place. Once they left, what would come next would be extreme revenge dealt to the Yu Family.

The young man could even imagine it while cruelty boiled in his heart. Once he left the place, he would cry and plead for the members of the older generation in his family to attack. He would have them crush all of Su Ming’s bones, but also make sure that he did not die. He would have Su Ming watch how he would violate and torture the maidservant. In fact, as he laughed coldly, he cast Su Ming a look, because the other’s handsome looks had caused another licentious thought to appear in the young man’s head. Besides violating the maidservant, he could also force himself on Su Ming.

As he thought about this, the young man began laughing in a lecherous manner. However, his laughter frozen several breaths later, because a loud bang had cut it off. Just as they were about to leave the auction hall, his they were both blocked by an invisible barrier, which bounced them back.

This was Lie Shan Family’s protective screen of light. It was the Rune that protected the entire auction hall, and it was definitely not something that could be broken in a short period of time. The old Tai Ci Family guest’s expression changed, and a hint of disbelief as well as fear appeared in his eyes.

”Lie Shan Family, what is the meaning of this..?” the old man asked strenuously. A feeling as if something terrible was about to happen rose in his heart. He did not believe that the Lie Shan Family would do such a thing, but the truth before his eyes forced him to believe it. In fact, he could see all the members of Lie Shan Family not attacking Su Ming and his group once they appeared. They just stood there, still and unmoving.

The old man instinctively cast a glance at one of the Lie Shan Family members that stood close to him, but that person avoided his gaze, and the Tai Ci Family’s guest instantly felt his heart sink.

No one answered his question. Instead, a chuckle that sounded as if it came from an old person came from the area above the auction hall. Once it resounded, an old man walked out.

That old man had an ancient look that told everyone that he had lived for a long period of time, though no one knew precisely how many years that meant. When he walked forward, wind howled around him, shattering space all around. In fact, there seemed to be the eye of a typhoon at the spot where the wind was coming from behind the old man.

That eye of the typhoon was round… and it looked like a sun!

At the instant Yun Long Hu saw the old man, shock appeared on his face. He staggered a few steps backwards, and his face turned pale. The young man beside him was also trembling so badly that he could not even say a single word. A mighty pressure that almost suffocated him descended on the entire auction hall once the old man appeared.

”Greetings, Elder Feng!” All members of the Lie Shan Family immediately bowed towards the old man.

Right when these words were spoken, the thousands of cultivators in the auction hall lowered their heads and paid their respects to the old man as their bodies trembled under the mighty pressure. Their hearts were filled with shock, because they had heard of this man called Elder Feng before. He was an existence that was a legend in Lie Shan Family.

The Duke of Crimson Flame’s expression was incredibly grim. With a flash, he appeared beside Su Ming. He could also sense the pressure coming from Elder Feng’s body, and even if it was him, under this pressure, he felt restricted, as if he was enveloped by mud.

”Young master, this person… is at the very least at Solar Kalpa Realm!”

As Yu Rou’s veil fluttered, she trembled. The mighty pressure coming from Elder Feng was something she could not bear, and it was even more so for Yu Chen Hai. He had already lowered his head to bow to this man.

Even the big yellow dog that was the Abyss Dragon did not dare to move as it trembled. Only… the black dog that was the bald crane was still wagging its tail in the air, with a look that said ’I-am-the-mighty-Grandpa-Crane-what-can-you-do-to-me-huh?’

Once the entire auction hall had fallen into dead silence due to Elder Feng’s appearance, Elder Feng spoke slowly towards Su Ming with a smile on his face. ”What is your name?”

Due to his smile and his slow speech, all the members of Lie Shan Family who knew him immediately had countless speculations.

”This member of the younger generation is named Su Ming. Greetings… Master who taught me my craft.” Su Ming looked at Elder Feng, and after some time, a smile appeared on his face and he wrapped his fist in his palm to bow to the old man.

Elder Feng’s eyes lit up and he laughed in joy.