Pursuit of the Truth

At that moment, Xuan Shang, Yun You, Nian Yin, and Hua Yu, who were in the body of the supreme treasure Su Ming controlled, felt shock in their hearts. They could vaguely sense a presence that suffocated them rising from Su Ming.

This presence caused them to feel that their hearts and minds had been greatly limited, as if ten thousand mountains had fallen on their heads, as if it had become difficult for even form any thoughts in their heads.

This was not the first time they sensed this. In truth, when the sea of fire had erupted beyond the fifth kiln and Su Ming was in the process of taming the Resentful Wei in the vortex in the world, they had sensed the same thing.

However, the feeling at that time was much more inferior to the one they felt now. At this moment, the madness, dominance, wildness, and the endless malice spreading out from Su Ming’s body caused Xuan Shang, Yun You, Nian Yin, and Hua Yu’s minds to tremble. Their souls were greatly suppressed.

In fact, they had a feeling in them that refused to disappear: If Su Ming wanted to destroy them, they would have no way of fighting back at all. They would be instantly devoured!

This was a form of powerlessness akin to them running into their mortal enemy, as if… they had become ants before Su Ming, and he was a universe that devoured ants to live!

The feeling Xu Hui had was slightly weaker than what Xuan Shang, Yun You, Nian Yin, and Hua Yu felt, but she was similarly shocked, but terror did not appear in her heart. Instead, there was only great wave of submission within her.

Submitting to a powerful warrior to the point that not a single desire to fight back could rise in her. This was the state of Xu Hui’s heart at that moment.

However, only they, who were in the body of the supreme treasure Su Ming controlled, could sense it. If there was anyone else in the dimension at that moment, they would see that Su Ming’s hair was dancing while he stood in space, the presence and mighty pressure spreading out from his body forming endless distortions around him. Those distortions spread through the sky and earth, filling the entire dimension.

When all of this landed in the tree’s eyes, it saw a whole different thing. It experienced shock and disbelief that it had never felt before.

In its eyes, in the endless distortions surrounding Su Ming was a gigantic shadow. This shadow was like a tree – a tree that brought with it pride, arrogance, and a madness as if it was proclaiming that it was above all in the universe.

As for the malice that filled the dimension, in the tree’s eyes, it was endless branches that had no end. And during that moment, it was shocked to see the entire world replaced by that vast tree.

All of this caused the tree’s body to shudder, all one thousand feet of it. It swayed about violently. A monstrously huge wave rose in its heart, as if a storm raged there. It caused its mind to almost break down from disbelief.

It had always believed that it was the ancestor of all trees in the universe. This was something it believed without a doubt, but in the depths of its heart, it knew that if there was a tree that could surpass it in the universe, it was an existence that it longed to become and it was…

The legendary, true ancestor of all trees… and also the only existence that could call it a shoot!

“Ecang!” The shocked voice from the one thousand feet tall tree instantly reverberated in all directions. Its body swayed, and the leaves on its crown drifted down as it watched the scene before itself in shock.

“You’re just a tiny little shoot, how dare you call yourself the ancestor of trees before me?!” Killing intent shone in Su Ming’s eyes. He took a step forward, and with it, the world roared, and his presence pressed down on the tree with viciousness.

It was just a simple step, but to the one thousand feet tall tree, this was a vast tree that occupied the entire universe roaring at it. That roar brought forth a suppression to its soul, along with terror.

“How dare you act presumptuously?”

Su Ming took another step forward. When he raised his right hand, he slashed at the tree, and with it, the power of the Execution of Three Evils filled the air. When he cut down at the tree, the ground beneath the tree crumbled and was disassembled while shuddering, turning into nothingness.

This tree was formed by the tree’s laws of fate, and if one slash from Su Ming’s Execution of Three Evils could cut the fate of Heaven Traversers’ Progenitor, there was no way the ground formed by the laws of fate by the small shoot would not crumble! His strike was the arch nemesis for all forms of fate that did not originate from a person.

“How dare you not worship me?!”

Su Ming took his third step forward. When he did so, he executed the third slash of the Execution of Three Evils, and the area around the one thousand feet tall shoot instantly turned into nothing. This was Su Ming cutting away all the laws of fate on the ground, causing it to be segregated from the dimension around it so that it could no longer use its ability that belonged to the Fate Realm.

With a bang, the one thousand feet tall tree shuddered, and almost all of its leaves fell. It also looked as if its whole body was about to explode. This was because it had its fate cut off, when Su Ming forcefully suppressed it!

This was not a suppression on its power. This was a suppression on its soul and its presence, based on a suppression from similar life forms—trees!

If it was any other cultivator, then only if their power was greater than this tree would they be able to use this method to suppress the tree. If they did not have a greater level of cultivation than the tree, they would definitely be unable to suppress it till it was trembling, even if they were at the same level of cultivation.

However, Su Ming was different. He was not suppressing the tree’s power, but was using his Ecang clone’s presence, life form status, and might as the ancestor of all trees, which would make all trees in the universe shudder and obey him.

Compared to Su Ming’s Ecang clone, the one hundred thousand feet tall tree was just a small shoot!

As it trembled, Su Ming closed in on it with three steps, and the one hundred thousand feet tall tree gave up on all forms of resistance. It had to give up. All the laws of fate had already been cut off. The suppression on its soul caused it to be unable to struggle and fight back, and the respect it harbored in its heart towards a legendary existence like Ecang caused its mind to almost break down.

It did not expect that it would run into the true ancestor of trees as well as the existence it longed the most to become—Ecang!

It was like a cat had thought itself to have become a tiger, but when it ran into a real tiger, it would lose all of its will to fight back due to the great shock.

“I, Treant Ta Luo, greet… Progenitor Ecang!”

All the leaves from the one thousand feet tall tree fell off. Only the three-leafed grass remained on the tree’s crown. At the same time it shone with a green light, the branches from the one thousand feet tree twisted about and slanted downwards. A red branch also swiftly crawled out from the trunk. This branch stretched out, and a red leaf quickly grew on it. This could be said to be the highest form of worship for a Treant.

The fall of leaves symbolized the tree prostrating itself and showing complete submission. The trunk bending over symbolized an unparalleled respect, and that red branch that stretched out was the manifestation of the tree’s soul. As for the red tree leaf that grew out of the branch… that was the true form of the tree’s soul!

It brought its soul out, and it even lifted up the red leaf before Su Ming. From the distance, if anyone likened this tree to a person, then it would like a man kneeling down in front of Su Ming respectfully, his right hand lifted while he lowered his head. His palm was facing upwards, as if this was a strange ceremony and he was waiting for something.

Su Ming’s expression was calm. He could sense the tree’s submission. This was the embodiment of being suppressed by Ecang. When he walked closer, the will from his Ecang clone and the ancient memories existing in Ecang’s soul caused him to instantly understand what the one thousand feet tall tree was waiting for with this ceremony.

He lifted his right hand and placed it gently on the red leaf.

At the instant he touched it, Su Ming sensed the tree’s soul, and the tree’s soul also sensed the pure Ecang presence from Su Ming. It also sensed a ripple of power hidden under the presence that caused its expression to change drastically. It was this ripple that made the one thousand feet tree shudder again. It straightened its trunk swiftly, and when it looked at Su Ming, there was a great wave of terror and a shock that surpassed what it had previously revealed in its eyes.

“You… You…” While the one thousand feet tall tree shuddered, its trunk quickly twisted and started changing ceaselessly in front of Su Ming. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a man and bowed deeply at Su Ming. He raised his hands and brought up the three-leafed grass to respectfully hand it over to him.

“I, Treant Ta Luo, have been protecting this treasure for ages, and I have been waiting for your arrival. You have finally come! I will obey the will of the fifth kiln’s previous master, and whatever your will shall be, it will be the driving force for our lives!”

A glint shone in Su Ming’s eyes, and he stared at the man formed by the shoot in front of him coldly.

“What have you noticed?” Su Ming asked faintly.

“You are Progenitor Ecang, but you are also not Progenitor Ecang. You are… the master of the fifth kiln!”

Terror appeared on the man’s face, but there was also zealousness. His gaze made it seem as if with just one sentence from Su Ming, he could be driven into a frenzy.

The words he said caused the brilliant light in Su Ming’s eyes to become even brighter.

Even though he was already prepared for it, he still lifted his head and looked up. Echoing in his mind were the words from Dust Burners’ Progenitor.

Su Xuan Yi was the previous master of the fifth kiln, and only his cursed son would have the right to become the new master of the fifth kiln.

Su Ming stared at the air in silence for a long, long time, then sighed in his heart, but soon, once he sighed, his eyes focused. Once he pondered over the man’s words carefully, a fierce look appeared in his eyes.

“Did you just say that you have been waiting for me, and I have finally come?”

“It is not just me. All the living creatures in the fifth kiln have been waiting for you, for the scion of the previous master to become the new master of the fifth kiln.” The man lifted his head and looked at Su Ming with fervent zeal.

“Who told you that I would come?” Su Ming asked calmly, but in that calm voice was a thought that had never appeared before in his head. This thought caused his breathing to quicken, and he seemed to have understood everything within an instant.

“When our old master came to the kiln the final time, fatigued, he delivered his will to all the existences in the kiln and told us… to continue waiting. His child will come to the fifth kiln many years later!”

A loud bang rang out in Su Ming’s head. His body trembled faintly, and his eyes sparkled.

‘He… isn’t dead?’ That thought that caused his breathing to quicken formed into three words when the bang rumbled in his head, and those words echoed ceaselessly in his mind.