Pursuit of the Truth

This was not a simple God of Berserkers’ Art. It was an Art that was cast after Su Ming had fused the Illusion of Stars, Sun, and Moon in it, along with the mysterious power that would exist as long as he believed in it.

It could be said that only Su Ming alone could cast this divine ability in the universe. This Art might have started with the base of Second God of Berserkers’ Palm, but even the Second God of Berserkers would find it impossible to cast this divine ability to this extent.

This was… Su Ming’s Palm!

He believed his palm could break through space. He believed that his palm could destroy all those arrows, and he also believed… that his palm was a barrier that could not be shattered in this battlefield.

The palm grew larger. With a bang, it crashed into the thousand arrows. Booming sounds rose up, shaking the sky and earth. The small human from the gourd had turned into a long arc to charge towards the person with the bow, whose expression changed and who retreated swiftly. He had also seen the scene in the sky, and his heart trembled. He could not help but shout a word, “Transform!”

Right when this word was said, the thousand arrows immediately turned, and an even sharper penetrating force erupted from them. They gathered together with the other one hundred arrows, and all of them turned into one arrow!

Its might exploded, and it was several times greater than before. At this moment, Su Ming smiled.

The power that would exist if he believed in it was fused into Su Ming’s divine ability. Its form was derived from the God of Berserkers’ Palm, its spirit was from the Illusion of Stars, Sun, and Moon, and its power… was the Art that would exist as long as he believed in it.

However, even if Su Ming believed in the Art, he would only have executed half of the Art… The other half of the Art could only be completed when another person believed in it as well. Only then would it truly become Su Ming’s unique divine ability.

And at that moment when the person with the bow spoke, it was clear… that he believed.

Because of that, Su Ming’s gigantic illusory palm was no longer an illusion. It swiftly gained corporeal form, and with a bang, it crashed into the arrow.

Booming sounds surged into the sky. Loud bangs resounded in all directions, causing the empty air to tremble. In the mid of those bangs, an impact that was as great as a windstorm tumbled swiftly through the area before surging backwards.

The one arrow formed by one thousand and one hundred arrows… was disassembled in the sky. Once the arrows separated, they crumbled and exploded, unable to stop Su Ming’s palm for even a moment!

The person with the bow on the ground no longer had any time to think. He retreated swiftly, but no matter what, he could not avoid the small person from the gourd slashing his neck!

The treasured gourd murdered a person. It was a murderous gourd!

Blood poured out from the neck of the person with the bow. He staggered, lifted his hands to press on the wound on his neck, but he could not do so… With just one slash from the gourd, his head flew up!

Sand rushed towards him swiftly from the area, as if it wanted to connect his head back to his body. Even with this sort of injury, the person with the bow was still not completely destroyed in terms of body and spirit. There was sand swiftly gathering on his empty neck, and he seemed as if he was about to recover in a moment. His body shrank swiftly, as if he was using the reduction of his body size in exchange for the recovery of his wound.

“I am the Malicious Sand Spirit Warrior! I am a spirit of the sand! I am the 3,691st scion of the Sand Spirits! I will not die here!” The head that had flown up let out a roar that shook the skies.

However, that roar was suppressed by Su Ming’s gigantic palm in the sky. That palm had turned several hundreds of thousands of feet big from its initial tens of thousands, and it was fiercely pressing down on the ground, the roaring head, and the now headless person with the bow.

There were nearly ten thousand Sand Earthlings besides the person with the bow in that area of one hundred thousand feet. Their feeble bodies started trembling at that moment, and in the mid of their fear, they started fleeing in all directions.

They were afraid. They believed that the palm that seemed to be able to replace the sky could crush their bodies to pieces. As they believed in it, that palm grew increasingly stronger and more corporeal.

“Don’t run! It’s fake! Don’t run! The more you believe in it, the stronger it will become!” The person’s head fell on the ground and started roaring. If he still could not understand how Su Ming’s Art worked, then he would have been unworthy of possessing power of Lunar Kalpa Realm!

Further into the distance was the illusory old man. At that moment, his Art had reached its crucial moment. He wanted to warn his people, but he also knew that his warnings in this life-and-death situation would be useless with how terrified his people were and how feeble their hearts were at that moment. That was why his eyes gained a cold edge, and his incantations grew even louder. He raised his arms and started calling to the sky.

The muffled booming sounds in the sky grew increasingly clearer.

“The color of the sand has become slightly duller,” Su Ming said softly as he stood in midair.

Bang!

A loud bang reverberated in the air. The ground trembled. Once Su Ming’s palm disappeared, a gigantic palm print was left on the ground. The sand chains around Xu Hui’s body were gone, and she lay on the ground quietly, completely uninjured, but around her… were nearly ten thousand Sand Earthlings who were reduced to bloody mess. Their bones were completely crushed, and a bloody stench spread out. Their blood dyed the sand, making its color much more brilliant.

Right at the center was the person with the bow. His body had completely shattered, and it was the same for his head. His body and spirit had been destroyed.

Only the gigantic bow remained by his side. It was buried in the sand, with only its tip peeking out. As it quivered, it let out mournful whines.

Su Ming looked at his right index finger. Faint waves of fragrance that belonged to God Ascension Nectar spread out. This was due to him being unable to suppress the nectar with the seal once he brought out all his power into play.

Fortunately, this fragrance only filled the area around him and did not spread out.

With one move, Su Ming landed onto the ground. He passed the places with all the bloody puddles of Sand Earthlings. When he walked up to the place where the bow was buried, he stomped on the ground with his right foot, and the bow shot up from beneath the ground. Su Ming caught it.

At the instant he caught the bow, it started shrinking rapidly. Once it turned into a size Su Ming could use, the whines and shivers from the bow gained a submissive tone.

Su Ming put away the bow and walked towards Xu Hui. He gently picked her up from the ground, with one arm around her waist while letting her head rest against his chest. Waves of faint fragrance from Xu Hui’s body wafted into Su Ming’s nose, and he sent his life force into her body so that she could recover faster.

“Dao Kong…” Her voice was incredibly faint and weak as she struggled to open her eyes to look at Su Ming.

“Rest well. I’m here,” he said softly and raised his head to look at the illusory old man, who was amid the tens of thousands of scattered Sand Earthlings, and who had his arms spread open, looking as if he was summoning something from the sky.

The old man’s hair danced in the air, and his body shone as he shouted loudly towards the sky, “Hong Lashen, Suiyun Zhen Changlin [1]!”

As his voice echoed in the air, a roar came from the sky. That roar spread through the entire desert. During that instant, every single grain of sand in the endless desert started trembling.

Near the end of the desert was Dijiu Mo Sha, and he was rushing forward swiftly. He could already see the end and the area beyond the edge of the desert. That was a tranquil galaxy, but at that instant, his expression changed swiftly. He dipped his head down to look at the sand in the desert, and a solemn expression appeared on his face. Once he turned his head around to look back into the distance, he gritted his teeth to charge out of the desert even faster.

He could sense a wave of madness and murderous intent coming from the sand. In fact, as he moved forward, the sand under his feet started moving like flowing water.

He had always been able to move quickly, and at that moment, he even bit the tip of his tongue to cough up a mouthful of blood. His body turned into a blood shadow and he left into the distance. He could sense that the sand in the region was not the only one that moved. Instead, all the sand in the desert had started moving. As it tumbled about, it stirred up a great windstorm. The booming sounds caused by the storm were mixed with moans, and that sound was reverberating through the entire desert.

After a moment, he finally rushed out of the desert and stepped into the tranquil galaxy beyond. Then, he turned his head around to look back… and saw a scene that caused his heart to tremble uncontrollably, because he saw a scene that he would never forget in his life.

He saw… a gigantic face in the sky above the desert!

That face looked as if someone was lying in the sky. At that moment, that someone’s body started sinking. After the face, the body also appeared, and that body… was the size of the entire desert!

The hundred thousand feet statue started shivering in the desert. When it started showing signs of rousing from slumber, the old man at the top of its head sat down and meditated on it without moving a single inch. Meanwhile, the black skull he held in his bosom shone with a black light that could bring fear to people’s hearts.

“Who… summoned me…?” a voice that reverberated through the entire desert came from the sky.

Su Ming lifted his head swiftly, and his pupils shrank. He saw a huge body in the sky as well as a boundless face. That face belonged to a man whose eyes were shut. A long scar ran from the center of his brows to his neck. There were parts in that scar that had yet to close up completely, and those remaining wounds were ghastly white.

A mighty pressure Su Ming had never sensed before descended from that body at that moment, and Su Ming could sense… that this pressure even surpassed that possessed by the Masters of Fate, Lives, and Death!

This pressure might be unable to compare to Ecang when it was at the peak of its condition, but it was incredibly close to it! This pressure was only slightly weaker than Sui Chen Zi’s, but it gave Su Ming a feeling that this person was… a powerful warrior who was in the same Realm as Sui Chen Zi!

The hair of the person who was descending danced in the air, and they looked like dragons moving about the Heavenly Spirits [2]. His skin was incredibly fair, making it look as if he had snow for skin, so all those who saw him will definitely not be unable to forget him.

At the spot where the center of his brows was torn was a cracked and broken mark. That mark… was of a desert, and it was exuding waves of power of Divine Essence that caused Su Ming’s heart to tremble!

‘Ancestral Spirit? Antecedental Spirit?’ His pupils shrank.

“It is I, Long Di, the leader of the Sand Earthlings who have received your protection. I have disturbed your slumber because the Sand Earthlings are facing extermination… This person… this person has killed more than ten thousand of our people. He killed the spirit which you have bestowed upon us!” the illusory old man shouted out in a shrill voice. He had already knelt down on the ground, since the moment the person who was like a God had appeared in the sky.

All the other Sand Earthlings around him had prostrated themselves on the ground as well. The fervent zeal on their faces made it seem as if they were ready to burn their own souls.

Translator’s Note:

1. Hong Lashen, Suiyun Zhen Changlin: Just a chant, no meaning. The second part is a name, though, so I like to think of it as “Come forth, Suiyun Zhen Changlin!”

2. Heavenly Spirits (天罡, tian1 gang1): These are actually planets. In Shui Hu Zhuan/Water Margin, there is a thing called 108 Stars of Destiny, and it is believed that a person’s destiny is tied to a Star of Destiny. These Stars of Destiny are divided into two groups: 36 Heavenly Spirits and 72 Earthly Fiends.