Pursuit of the Truth

Su Ming turned his head sideways to cast a glance at Lie Shan Xiu’s statue. Then, he sighed softly.

He understood now, and it could even be said that he understood everything completely. This was Lie Shan Xiu giving him… No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he was giving all the Gods of Berserkers who would come to this place from their homeland a choice that was not a choice.

Su Ming was number one, and Lie Shan Xiu was also number one.

This was… a competition between the Gods of Berserkers. The victor could obtain the legacies of all Berserker Seeds to obtain a form of supremacy in the level of cultivation and from there lead all the Berserkers to rise to power.

This competition might not seem brutal, since there was no fight in it, let alone a battle to the death, just a search.

If Su Ming found Lie Shan Xiu, then he would win. If he could not, then he would lose.

As for the time limit… it was ten thousand years. However, eight thousand years had already passed since then, so there were only two thousand years left.

’The First God of Berserkers, Lie Shan Xiu… hesitated in the past because of the brutality of this competition between the Gods of Berserkers, and it’s not something he wants… That’s why he gave a time limit of ten thousand years. If a God of Berserkers from his homeland arrived during the ten thousand years, then that God of Berserkers would have a chance to win in this choice that is not really a choice.

’However, if no God of Berserkers arrived during the ten thousand years… then he would take the place of the Berserkers in Yin Death Region and bring upon… a windstorm with which the Berserkers would rise to power.

’Then what… reason could it have made Lie Shan Xiu believe that there would only be one God of Berserkers from the land of Berserkers? What reason could have pushed him to leave this path for his descendants? There is no reason for this, but he still did it.’ Su Ming closed his eyes, and the memory of the grief about Lie Shan Xiu’s statue appeared in his head.

’Perhaps there are plenty of answers hidden within that grief.’ Su Ming opened his eyes. He had already obtained his own answer. ’I will not compete against you, and neither will I search for you. I have my own path to take.’

Su Ming swung his arm and walked towards Elder Feng and the others. When he came over, the near one hundred Berserkers, including Elder Feng, stood up and looked at him with a complicated gaze. They were waiting for him to make his choice.

”I…” Su Ming looked at these Berserkers and at the old Elder Feng as well as Elder Yu. The moment he said that one word, his body suddenly froze, because he had suddenly thought of a possibility.

This possibility made his words come to an abrupt halt. His pupils constricted before he turned around slowly to look at Lie Shan Xiu’s statue.

’Grief, hesitation, looking at the sky, contemplation… a choice that does not follow the conventions of logic. Are all of these… truly that simple..?

’The First God of Berserkers, Lie Shan Xiu, stood here in the past for three years… Berserker Seed number one…’

As the near one hundred Berserkers waited for Su Ming to make his choice, he once again looked at Lie Shan Xiu’s statue. He slowly walked towards it again and looked at it in rapt concentration.

He saw hesitation, grief, and contemplation, but when these three emotions were fused together, his heart trembled, because what he saw then was that Lie Shan Xiu’s expression seemed to contain… a faint hint of anguish that was hidden incredibly deeply within him!

Su Ming remained silent as he stood beside Lie Shan Xiu’s statue once again. He lifted his head and looked towards the sky. As time trickled by, seven days went past, and hesitation appeared on Su Ming’s face.

This hesitation was one he intentionally brought about on himself. He was recollecting all his memories and fusing all instances when he hesitated in the past before having that emotion reflect on his face.

Another ten days passed, and in the mid of that hesitation, grief appeared. Once that wave of sadness fused together with the hesitation, Su Ming’s expression looked incredibly complicated.

Another half a month went by. Besides hesitation and grief, a third emotion appeared on Su Ming’s face. It was… contemplation.

Only at that moment did he lift his head. When he looked at the sky, his voice could be heard for the first time after he had remained silent for a little over a month.

”Yu Rou, tell me. What is the first word that comes to your mind when you look at my face now?”

When said that, Yu Rou, who had been accompanying him all this while silently standing by his side, quietly and elegantly looked at his face. After a moment, she said softly, ”Anguish and conflict.”

Su Min’s heart trembled. His eyes might have played tricks with him previously, which was why he had asked Yu Rou to verify for him, and with it, he that the hint of anguish he saw on Lie Shan Xiu’s face was not a figment of his imagination!

There was an expression of internal struggle within that anguish, but this expression was incredibly easy to understand. It could be understood as Lie Shan Xiu not wanting the competition between the Gods of Berserkers to occur, but he had to do so, which was why they was anguish and conflict within him.

However… there could also be another explanation to this. Perhaps there was another form of truth hidden within that back filled with anguish, and it was what Lie Shan Xiu had wanted to convey to him in a not so straightforward manner.

Su Ming fell silent. As his pupils constricted, he made sure his expression remained the same when he lifted his head to look at the sky.

’First God of Berserkers Lie Shan Xiu, what is it that you want to tell me? Let me see it.’

Su Ming continued looking at the sky as he allowed time to pass, allowed wind and rain to fall on him, and allowed the clouds in the sky to continue disappearing and reappearing ceaselessly as the world changed with the passage of time.

One day, two days, three days…

One month, two months, three months…

The near one hundred Berserkers behind him had also discovered this strange aspect, especially Elder Feng and Elder Yu. The both of them cast a glance at each other, and their expressions turned incredibly solemn.

Ever since the Duke of Crimson Flame had acknowledged Su Ming as his young master, he never let his side. At that moment, he stood by him, on guard against the people of Lie Shan Xiu. He would not allow anyone to be of a threat to Su Ming.

Yu Rou had always been an elegant person. Time continued passing, but she continued sitting quietly by the side as she looked at the sun rising and setting.

As for the bald crane and the Abyss Dragon, the two of them had taken the forms of two big dogs. They had originally been lying about, but the bald crane had lost its patience and was able to convince the Abyss Dragon to run away with it a month ago. As of then, no one knew where they were, nor how the bald crane had managed to convince the dragon.

In the blink of an eye, half a year passed as Su Ming continued standing beside Lie Shan Xiu’s statue in the mid of wind and rain. Even when the weather became cold and snow fell, he continued to stay unmoving, immersed in a state in which his mind was almost completely void of all thoughts as he looked at the sky and the clouds.

When winter slowly passed and spring arrived to allow all manner of lives to come back to life, the clouds in the sky slowly increased in number, and Su Ming’s body suddenly shuddered.

He had been standing there for almost ten months, and only at that moment did he tremble. As he did so, the Berserkers behind him immediately cast their gazes on him.

In fact, Elder Feng even lifted his head to look at the sky, but all he saw was clouds. There was nothing else besides that.

Su Ming had his gaze trained on the sky. He could see clearly that at the instant the clouds in the sky intersected with each other, some changes occurred among them.

It was as if they were trying to show something, but in the end… there was nothing.

The shivers in his body gradually calmed down. He continued looking at the sky quietly, and time passed once again. In the blink of an eye… a little over a year passed, which meant that Su Ming had already stood beside Lie Shan Xiu’s statue on the mountain for two full years.

During these two years, the Yu Family became the master of Black Water City and the strongest family in the planet, even though… they had no Masters of Fate, Lives, and Death in the family. Even so, they still managed to become one of the three greatest families in the planet.

During the course of these two years, Black Ink Planet organized plenty of auctions, and as people came and went, the planet bustled with activity. However, the area around Su Ming seemed to have been locked down since not a single person passed through during all that time.

It was as if this place… had turned into the forbidden grounds within Black Ink Planet!

The third year arrived, and it went by with spring, summer, autumn, and winter passing in sequence. When the sequence was over, it marked the third year that Su Ming had stood on the mountain!

On that day, Su Ming shuddered once again as the sun set. He moved with anguish and conflict on his face. He had been standing on the mountain and had never once blinked, just like what Lie Shan Xiu had done.

As of then, three full years had passed. He had not been able to see anything, but he had a feeling as if he had seen something. That feeling turned into the shivers when he closed his eyes.

At the instant he closed his eyes, all the movements of the clouds rising and falling he had seen for the past three years appeared in his mind like fleeting smoke. He seemed to be seeing the same piece of sky in his head, but there were slight differences in terms of the changes in the clouds, and these slight differences were rapidly connected together in his head as they swiftly flashed through his memory...

They formed six words!

These six words had existed in the sky since the start, but three years were required to form them as the clouds in the sky continued changing!

There was only one method to see these six words, and that was by watching the sky intently, just like what Su Ming had done. His stare had been focused intently on the clouds, branding all their changes into his mind. But only at the instant he closed his eyes would the words appear.

”Divine Essence Star Ocean, save me…”

Su Ming’s heart trembled and he opened his eyes. Needless to say, what the six words said was a plea for help that was hidden behind Lie Shan Xiu’s back, which was filled with anguish and internal struggle!

This plea for help was clearly something that no one else was supposed to know. In fact, it could be said that no one could not know about it, or else Lie Shan Xiu would not have delivered his message in such a cryptic manner and spent three years to slowly change the clouds in the sky with his divine sense so the changes in the sky would form a message that would allow the person who lifted his head to look at the sky for three years to discover his cry for help.

It was a distress call that came from eight thousand years ago. As Su Ming’s heart trembled, he gained a new understanding towards the competition between the Gods of Berserkers Lie Shan Xiu had mentioned.

”Before me, was there anyone else who came to this place and stood here for three years?” Su Ming suddenly asked and turned around to look at Elder Feng and the near one hundred Berserkers behind him.

”No.” Elder Feng shook his head.

”Prepare a map of Divine Essence Star Ocean for me; the more comprehensive it is, the better.”

Su Ming was silent for a moment after, then after a long while, he sighed softly and said, ”I cannot ignore the First God of Berserkers’ cry for help for no other reason than respect towards him for the glorious life he led.”

”This isn’t difficult. We have always had an incredibly detailed map of Divine Essence Star Ocean, but there are plenty of changes within that galaxy, so there are always differences in the maps regarding that galaxy once every few hundred years. Still, Black Ink Auction, which is an auction held by various families working together once every few hundred of years will be held one month later. At that time, the alien races from Divine Essence Star Ocean will come, and they will have with them a map that is even more detailed and has the changes within Divine Essence Star Ocean that have occurred over the past hundreds of years,” Elder Feng said in a low voice after he cast Su Ming a deep look.

”Black Ink Auction?” Su Ming’s eyes sparkled. ”Will the people from the forces of power keeping an eye over this place come here?”

”Since the past, the forces of power from the four Great True Worlds have sent someone to attend Black Ink Auction,” Elder Feng answered.

”If Lie Shan Family’s forces could discover the details of my bounty, then could they… find the list of those with incredibly great potential in the path of cultivation from the forces of power from the four Great True Worlds?” Su Ming asked languidly.