Pursuit of the Truth

‘This is what it means to be a Master of Fate… There must be detailed categorizations in this great Realm. It can even be said that being able to control fate and being unable to control fate are two different realms, even though they are still Masters of Fate, Lives, and Death!

‘The existence I met in the past acting as a garrison to the four Great True Worlds could cover an endless stretch of galaxy and chase me down until I returned to the foreign land. Clearly, he displayed an unimaginably powerful physical strength.

‘But he did not understand the laws of fate. If that is the case, then I understand it now. The main focus of that Realm is mastery, which is why he could be known as someone who had completed the Mastery Realm.

‘This Heaven Traversers’ Progenitor used that supreme treasure at the center of his brows to forcefully control the fate around him, but his true power is really just in the Mastery Realm, and he’s not as powerful as the one I met in the past either. He had only completed a small part of the Mastery Realm.

‘If I separate it this way, then I can understand what it means to be a Master of Fate, Lives, and Death. The Mastery Realm exists within this state, and this Realm is the pinnacle of physical power. If someone can reach a breakthrough, then they will be able to step into the Fate Realm. To complete this Realm, you would need to control your own fate.

‘Because of that, there is certainly a Life Realm and a final Death Realm as well. Only those who complete the Death Realm could be truly known as… Masters of Fate, Lives, and Death!’ The light of understanding shone in Su Ming’s eyes.

‘It’s worth it… to learn about these and understand the true method of using the Execution of Three Evils!’ Su Ming glanced at Heaven Traversers’ Progenitor, who was taking big strides towards him with a presence as if he was looking down on the world, with a cold glare. He raised his right hand slowly.

‘Now, I want to see just how great the difference is… between me, after I fused with all three of my clones, and you, who has completed a small part of the Mastery Realm, Heaven Traversers’ Progenitor!’ When Su Ming lifted his head, he clenched his right hand into a fist. He did not retreat but instead charged forward, turning into a long arc that rushed towards Heaven Traversers’ Progenitor.

Ecang’s projection manifested behind him. As the galaxy shook violently. A vast aura erupted from Su Ming’s body with a bang, and he drew increasingly closer to Heaven Traversers’ Progenitor. In the blink of an eye, the two of them crashed into each other, and each of them threw a punch forward.

The Progenitor was in Mastery Realm. Without using divine abilities and Arts, he raised his hand, and brought forth a supreme physical power!

Bang!

A loud bang shook the universe and echoed all around. Su Ming coughed up a mouthful of blood and staggered backwards continuously, while the Ecang tree swayed intensely. Even after Su Ming was forced several thousands of feet back, he did not stop, and at that moment, killing intent shone in the eyes of the Heaven Traversers’ Progenitor. With a cold harrumph, he walked forward once more.

He might seem calm, but his heart was filled with shock. He might have only used a fifth of his strength in the punch he threw just then, but that fifth was enough to kill all those in Solar Kalpa Realm.

In fact, it could even break apart all divine abilities cast by those in Solar Kalpa Realm and then kill them without being bothered by them.

However, when the punch landed on Su Ming’s body, it only caused him to cough up blood, shattered his organs, and forced him back. To the Heaven Traversers’ Progenitor, this was something he did not want to accept. The killing intent in his heart grew even stronger. No one would want his own race to have such a powerful enemy lurking around alive.

This was why when the Progenitor took that step forward, he raised his right hand, and this time, he used all his strength, intending to finish this battle with one punch. He was so quick that his attack arrived before Su Ming could even regain his footing. When the Progenitor threw his punch outwards, the universe roared, and an indescribable power erupted from the fist.

The galaxy quivered. In fact, all the cultivation planets in the galaxy trembled at this moment. Even the four cultivators who were a distance away from the place shuddered as they charged forward. They turned their heads around swiftly, and shock appeared on their faces.

If anyone lowered their heads from the highest place in the galaxy to look down at that moment, they would be able to see that the galaxy had turned into a gigantic fist. As it stirred a rumble, it charged towards Su Ming.

All of this might have seemed to have happened over a long period of time, but in truth, the moment Heaven Traversers’ Progenitor threw his fist forward, it closed in on its target.

Su Ming’s pupils shrank. A life-threatening sense of danger instantly filled his entire body. At that moment, the most logical course of action for him was to instantly execute the next part of his plan to avoid this life-threatening crisis.

But Su Ming did not do so. A monstrous fighting spirit rose in his eyes, and his rationality was replaced by impulsiveness, a sight rarely seen on him. This impulsiveness was not recklessness, but a fighting spirit so great that he could not control it.

He wanted to fight. Even if this person was a cultivator in Mastery Realm, he still wanted to fight!

Even if his body and spirit would be destroyed, he had a fighting spirit in him that urged him to throw a punch forward as well, to fight against the punch the Progenitor had thrown towards him. The intensity of that emotion caused Su Ming’s eyes to become bloodshot. It made him lift his head and roar towards the heaven. Something within him was screaming that even if he died, he still had to personally face the Progenitor and learn how strong were the people in Mastery Realm.

‘I already fled once in the face of someone in Mastery Realm… This time, I will not run. I will fight!’ Su Ming clenched his right hand into a fist. The fighting spirit within him grew to a monstrous degree, stimulating the will to never give in within Su Ming.

Death might be frightening, but Su Ming believed that escapism was even more terrifying. He wanted to fight, wanted to throw his fist forward and not think about the consequences or whether he would die. All of these thoughts gathered in his fist. He had a strong feeling that if he could successfully land this punch and not die, then his state of mind would rise once again, and even his soul would become stronger.

It would be as if he had broken some sort of seal, some sort limit. That would be… a metamorphosis in his state of life [1].

“I want to fight!”

Su Ming raised his right hand. His expression was ferocious, and his eyes were bloodshot.

“I want to fight!”

He swung his right fist forward, and the Ecang projection behind him swiftly gained corporeal form, as if a formless vortex had appeared on Su Ming’s right hand, guiding the gigantic Ecang projection behind him into it.

“I WANT TO FIGHT!!!”

Su Ming threw his head back and roared. At the instant he threw his fist forward, his body disappeared, replaced by a gigantic tree. This was a tree with a size that was unmatched by anyone, and it was currently twisting about. All of its branches tangled with each other and turned into a huge fist, crashing in an instant against the galactical punch that was the Progenitor’s attack.

Bang! Bang!

A deafening sound that could not be described with words echoed in the galaxy and throughout all the hundred something cultivation planets within it. It reverberated through the entire Divine Essence Star Ocean in this area and caused the blood to pour out of the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth of the four cultivators in the distance. Their bodies shook so much that their organs were in intense pain.

The Ecang tree disintegrated…

It turned into countless wooden splinters that crumbled apart. As they did so, Su Ming was revealed within. Overlapping shadows appeared on his body, and his cultivation base clone was the first to be expelled from him while falling backwards.

Soon after, his clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole also separated from him as the overlapping shadows appeared around his body, and he fell a hundred thousand feet backwards.

Under the Progenitor’s full power strike, the fusion of the three clones was broken, and they were forced apart. All three of Su Ming’s clones coughed up a large mouthful of blood at the same time, and as their faces turned pale, they staggered.

But… he did not die!

Because most of the impact of the force was canceled by his Ecang clone, and Ecang was a life form written in the ballad. It was an eternal being. This sort of grievous injury was not enough to kill it.

The Progenitor’s face turned dark. He stood in his place and did not even sway, but only he knew that the little finger on his right hand had become numb for a single breath when his punch collided against Su Ming’s fist.

It might have been just one breath, but in his understanding, this was impossible. He was almighty in Mastery Realm, and the Mastery Realm was the symbol of supreme physical power in the universe, a wall that was impossible to be shaken by cultivators who were weaker than him.

However… the numb sensation during that moment just then was real. It was as if a crack had appeared on a sturdy wall, and Progenitor’s killing intent grew even stronger when he looked at Su Ming.

“Today, you are going to die!”

The eyes of Heaven Traversers’ Progenitor shone with killing intent, and he took a step once more. This time, he executed power that surpassed the full force of what he could muster. It was the first time he brought forth this strongest power within him after he became a Master of Fate, Lives, and Death.

As he moved forward, the galaxy cracked and shattered, a sign that it could no longer bear his existence.

Su Ming smiled. He wiped the blood off the corners of his mouth, and the three clones instantly fused together once more. This time, he did not continue fighting but instead immediately retreated.

His action fell into the eyes of Heaven Traversers’ Progenitor, and he laughed coldly in his heart. If there was someone he wanted to kill in Divine Essence Star Ocean, that person would not be able to escape.

However, Su Ming’s subsequent action made the Progenitor’s pupils shrink.

Su Ming raised his right hand and swung it forward.

“Sand Spirit, my first request for you is to kill this person! If you can’t kill him, then trap him for a month!”

When he said these words, the Progenitor’s expression changed drastically. He sensed a vast power surging forward from the galaxy all around him. He was rather familiar with this power, and it made him think of far too many things.

As his expression changed, he took a step forward and instantly disappeared. When he reappeared, he was already behind Su Ming. He raised his right hand, intending to immediately kill him.

However, just as he was about to throw his fist against Su Ming’s back, who did not even attempt to dodge, a layer of thin sand appeared between his fist and Su Ming’s body.

The Progenitor’s fist landed on the fine sand with a bang. It rose into space and reverberated continuously. During that moment, the thin sand behind Su Ming turned into a gigantic palm made of sand.

The galaxy trembled, and a gigantic face appeared in space. This face… was that of the Ancestral Spirit of the Sand Earthlings who had destroyed his own kin so that he could obtain a promise to be entered into the ballad!

“The first request… This is an existence who has reached the middle stage of the Mastery Realm. If I was at the peak of my condition, I could kill him, but now… I can only trap him. One month… is possible!”

A muffled hum echoed in the galaxy. The Sand Spirit’s gigantic spirit existed in the galaxy, and its boundless body formed an indescribable wave of shock that was powerful enough to tremble the hearts of all those who saw it.

“Ancestral Spirit of the Sand Earthlings! You-you-you were someone who completed the Fate Realm in the past! You haven’t died?! I know, you are already half a step into Life Realm, that’s why you’ve obtained a part of eternal life!” The expression of Heaven Traversers’ Progenitor instantly changed drastically.

Translator’s Note:

State of life: This is derived from the Buddhists’ Ten Worlds, also known as ten conditions or states of life. It is believed that a person moves from one to another through the experiences he/she gains in the world. The Ten Worlds are Hell, Hunger, Animality, Anger, Humanity, Heaven, Learning, Realization, Bodhisattva and Buddhahood.

For those interested to know more, you can go on ahead to this website: http://www.sgi.org/resources/introductory-materials/ten-worlds.html