Pursuit of the Truth

”Black Ink Dao… the kings that hide in the shadows of Black Ink Planet and dominate over all the families here… You had disappeared for tens of thousands of years. Who would have known… that you were supporting the Lie Shan Family.”

As the sigh echoed in the air, eighteen shadows manifested in the sky, which were eighteen black mountains. They stood erect between the sky and earth and descended slowly down to the ground with a mighty pressure that had the ground trembling.

Eighteen old men sat on those mountains. The old men’s faces were dark and sullen, and the words just now had come from one of them.

These eighteen mountains were known as Great Kindness Mountains, and the eighteen men were the Progenitors and the faces of the Tai Ci Family. All of them were at the later stage of World Plane Realm.

When the eighteen mountains appeared, the sky behind them twisted, and hundreds of Great Kindness Palaces appeared in the sky.

At that instant, the entire sky was occupied by the Tai Ci Family. Pressure and aura filled the world, showing off the strength of one of the greatest families in Black Ink Planet!

”Twenty thousand years ago, a Progenitor of our family discovered traces of Black Ink Dao lurking in the shadows of Black Ink Planet. Once we linked the destruction of various families over the course of tens of thousands of years in Black Ink Planet, we deduced your strength. We spared no pains in giving up our base in Black Water City and opened up a dimensional crack, which we then used as the base of our family.

”Many of our family members have cut themselves off from the world, never leaving the dimensional crack. I’d like to see how you people from Black Ink Dao will assimilate these members of the Tai Ci Family to become your people!” stated the old voice coming from one of the eighteen Progenitors in the Tai Ci Family, its power shaking the entire area.

”All members of the Tai Ci Family, hear our orders. Destroy… Black Water City! Kill all the cultivators there… and completely annihilate Lie Shan Family!

”Everyone is allowed to use the Relocation Runes to head to where Lie Shan Family’s base is located, ignoring the cost! You must uproot the Lie Shan Family!

”Notify all families in Black Ink Planet that Black Ink Dao has appeared once again, and that there its people are part of each family. Have them… come and help us! We will use this chance to eradicate Black Ink Dao from Black Ink Planet!

”You must especially tell Mo and Hua Families! Tell them that if our family is destroyed, there will come a day when their families will be destroyed by Black Ink Dao’s hands as well!

”Look at Black Ink Planet’s history! Look at the four greatest families before the rise of our three families! Look at… how they were destroyed! They are… a warning to us!”

As the eighteen Progenitors sent these orders, countless cultivators flew out with a bang from the hundreds of palaces behind them. At first glance, there were tens of thousands of them around. These people were the hidden power of the Tai Ci Family, and it had mobilized almost all of them.

A portion of them had not arrived, but it was because they had already stepped into the Relocation Runes in the dimensional cracks and were headed towards Lie Shan Family’s base.

Yet the moment the members of the Tai Ci Family flew out to charge towards Lie Shan Family’s auction hall, the exact same thing as what happened before… came to be once again!

Among the tens of thousands of members of the Tai Ci Family, almost half of them turned around and attacked their own family in an aloof and merciless manner, without any hint of hesitation.

The sky was enveloped in a state of chaos for a short period of time.

The expressions of the eighteen Progenitors changed drastically, disbelief taking over their faces. The old man who had sent the orders just then looked over with shock. No matter how hard he tried, he could not begin to fathom just how these family members had been drawn into Black Ink Dao.

With a furious roar, he moved, and the seventeen people behind him followed in his steps. The old man turned his head around and cast a look at the seventeen Progenitors of the Tai Ci Family, who shared the same status as he did. As of then, the only people he could trust was them.

He believed that these seventeen would definitely not betray the Tai Ci Family, but at the instant he turned his head around, a deafening boom rang out behind him.

Fourteen of the seventeen people attacked the other three at the same time. As booming sounds echoed in the air, the three old men coughed up blood and fell backwards. The others did not chase after them, but instead rushed towards the old man.

Anguish, grief, confusion, and all kinds of other mixed feelings rose within this person, who was the mightiest among the eighteen Progenitors. Light covered his eyes, and loud booms rang in his ears nonstop.

None of the members of the Lie Shan Family even walked out of their family’s auction hall in Black Water City. They were all watching the screen of light with a dumbfounded gaze; after all, there were some secrets in their family that even they did not know.

Su Ming was silent for a moment, then asked calmly, ”How… did you manage to do this?”

”We’ve been doing these things since the time we served under the First God of Berserkers in the land of Berserkers. How else could we have created the Berserkers’ Dynasty in the middle of all that chaos? How else could we have made the Immortals and all the other races in True Morning Dao World bow down and worship us?

”In fact, even the Kalpa Lord Dao Chen was shocked and attacked us despite his status.” Elder Feng smiled.

Su Ming fell silent once again. He suddenly realized that he had never truly understood Lie Shan Xiu. The Lie Shan Xiu described in the ancient scrolls depicting their history had been extremely mighty and a supreme existence like no other, but everything that he saw at that moment overturned such beliefs.

Su Ming looked at the screen of light and said in a low voice, ”Since Tai Ci Family managed to become one of the greatest families in the planet, it’s impossible for them to only have these few powerful warriors.”

”That’s right. The ones who appeared are just the strength of what the Tai Ci Family wants to show us,” Elder Feng said with a smile.

As he said these words, a violent boom reverberated intensely in the now chaotic sky above Black Water City. That booming sound spread in all directions, replacing all the other sounds that in existence. The sky trembled, and a gigantic crack of several tens of thousands of lis long appeared in the sky!

That crack was the one which the Tai Ci Family used to enter the dimension in which their family was located. Once it showed up, the shadows of people swiftly shot out to form groups that stood in the four directions!

Their appearance immediately brought the four of the eighteen old men who were being attacked in an encirclement a boost in their morale. The other members of the Tai Ci Family in the area also became excited.

Red, blue, white, black!

There were four different colored groups of armor, and there were three thousand people for each armor group. This troop that stood in four directions… was the secret force of the Tai Ci Family. Red symbolized bloodthirst, blue symbolized overflowing vitality, white symbolized endless age, while as for black… it was pure destruction.

They numbered to twelve thousand people. Yet at the instant this troop appeared and got ready to fight against the Lie Shan Family, chaos broke out among them. Internal strife… did not escape them either.

Despair rose in all the members of the Tai Ci Family who were fighting back against their own family members.

”Black Ink Dao, just how much power have you hidden among our numbers?! Shadow kings of Black Ink Planet… why must you destroy our Tai Ci Family?!” the old Progenitor who was being attacked by the familiar faces of his own family members shouted out in a shrill voice.

”Because you’ve offended someone you should not have offended,” Elder Feng answered him, his voice echoing in Black Water City.

”Who?! Who have we offended?! Tell me! Who… have we offended?!

”You too! You are all members of the Tai Ci Family, the blood of the Tai Ci Family flows in your veins! Why did you betray us?!”

The old man had already descended into madness. Under those intense questions, most of the traitors of the Tai Ci Family snorted coldly and attacked even more ruthlessly.

One of the traitors that besieged the old man licked the blood at the corner of his lips before they curled up into a cold sneer. A hint of derision appeared on his face.

”Tai Ci Family’s blood? It’s been a long time since we were those people. The blood of Black Ink Dao’s Progenitor flows in our bodies. We are… Berserkers!”

The old man laughed brokenly and retreated continuously. He saw that the four armored groups that had been hidden by the Tai Ci Family were fighting furiously against each other and all the members of the Tai Ci Family were dying and getting injured. During all of this, not a single member of the Lie Shan Family appeared. All of this turned into a joke - a joke in which the Tai Ci Family was torn apart by internal strife.

This made him remember that quite a number of families throughout the history of Black Ink Planet had been destroyed by internal strife. By the looks of it now, all of this… was laughably ridiculous.

”Grand Ancestor, I… have done my best!” The old man closed his eyes.

At the instant he did so, three presences descended abruptly from the crack in the sky, and three suns manifested in the sky. The mighty pressure spreading out from those suns revealed a great power that belonged to those in Solar Kalpa Realm, and in an instant, all the people who were fighting below stopped and looked towards the sky in shock.

There were three ancient figures in the three suns, and they were… the ancestors that isolated themselves all year long within the Tai Ci Family. They were all powerful warriors in Solar Kalpa Realm.

”Those three old coots have finally appeared… but their strongest, the one who discovered us while we lurked around in the shadows… has not appeared.” Elder Feng smiled faintly, formed a seal with his right hand, and pointed at the screen of light.

”Nie Li, based on the promise we made to each other in the past, it is time for you to attack.”

At the instant Elder Feng said these words, Su Ming felt the ground trembling. Black Water City shuddered, and in the screen of light, he could clearly see that the gigantic swamp in which the city was built… was surging about as the water in it boiled.

Roars that did not belong to a cultivator shot through the swamp and rushed up to the nine heavens. At that instant, Su Ming saw a colossal dragon head charge out of the swamp water with a bang, rushing straight above.

That dragon head was ten thousand feet big, and it was an incredibly monstrous sight. When it rushed out, it brought with it a large amount of swamp water, and as if it had turned the universe upside down, the water made the clear sky rain. When the dragon head appeared, it rose up and roared, and its roars shook the world so much that endless cracks appeared in the planet.

Soon after, another dragon head shot out of the swamp, and a third rose with a roar after it. Three dragon heads that were ten thousand feet big and one hundred thousand feet tall swept through the sky and charged towards the three Tai Ci Family Progenitors who were in Solar Kalpa Realm.

”Nine-Headed Dragon!” Su Ming’s pupils constricted as he sucked in a deep breath. He had been able to recognize with just one glance that the ferocious creature hidden in the swamp… was a living Nine-Headed Dragon!

Elder Feng pondered over it for a moment before he smiled. ”You know this creature? Then I believe you must have inherited the bell we left in the land of Berserkers.”

As the three dragon heads roared, muffled words could be heard in their voice.

”Nine… Headed… Dragon…”