Pursuit of the Truth

Su Ming’s voice had a strong domineering tone in it. That domineering will was filled with madness and destruction, and there was not a hint of rationality in it. There was only… a madness that screamed, “If you go against me, then I will kill you.”

His voice reverberated in space. The four masked people in the fifth ocean stopped moving. They turned around slowly and their gazes instantly fell on the red-haired Su Ming.

“As you wish.” After a moment, the person with the Mask of Happiness among the four people spoke hoarsely. He raised his right hand and swung his arm. The three people beside him immediately acted the same.

Wind immediately stirred and clouds surged in the fifth ocean. As the world rumbled, it looked as if a wave was rushing to the heavens. It instantly devoured the four of them, and the galaxy above the tumbling fifth ocean had a piercing, brilliant light appear swiftly.

At first sight, this light was a glowing spot. Almost at the instant this glowing spot appeared, from the end of the pillar of light that shot out from the depths of the fifth ocean came another pillar of light, which shot out of the fifth ocean. It charged towards the glowing spot above it and swiftly connected with it. The light from the glowing spot grew bigger, and the third pillar of light shot out from within it, and its direction… was the fifth stone beside Su Ming!

If that pillar of light was connected to the fifth stone, then there would be three pillars of light that existed in the fifth stone. They were connected together and formed a triangle!

The triangle was like a Rune. It would open the path to the fifth True World and send the person in possession of the fifth stone to the fifth True World.

The flow of time seemed as if it had become faster during that instant. A day later, the pillar of light in the sky let out a bang and shot through the endless space before it finally descended at the edge of the fifth ocean. It descended beside Su Ming, on the fifth stone that was shining in the same light.

At the instant the pillar of light crashed into the fifth stone, the Rune which took the form of a triangle on the fifth ocean appeared swiftly. As it did so, booming sounds echoed in all directions. Those loud bangs were deafening to the ears and stirred up the fifth ocean, making it turn into a gigantic whirlpool that began swiftly rotating under that bang.

As it rotated, the originally vertical triangle formed by the pillars of light in this place slowly inclined, as if it was about to be laid flat in space. As it was laid down, a power of Relocation erupted from the fifth stone beside Su Ming. The appearance of this power of Relocation instantly caused the universe to tremble, causing the galaxy to look as if it was about to be torn apart.

During that moment, if anyone looked from the highest spot in the universe, the first thing they would notice would be the whirlpool formed by the fifth ocean. The shape of the whirlpool was round, but within that circle was a triangle!

That triangle was… the complete Rune that was formed once the three pillars of light were laid flat, and it looked as if it was set in the circular whirlpool!

And the spot where Su Ming stood was one of the corners of the triangle. This galaxy was covered in a powerful light at that moment. Under that light, booming sounds surged into the heavens… and the power of Relocation was swiftly activated.

The path of the fifth True World was opened as the Relocation Rune was activated!

Bang!

A power that was great enough to make even the Almighties in Life Realm apprehensive erupted swiftly from the Rune. When it rushed into the heavens, it could be seen that the light that rushed out was also in the shape of a triangle as it charged towards the void in the galaxy.

Su Ming was contained in one of the corners of that triangle. As the power of Relocation rushed out, his body was instantly swept into the Rune and was pushed into the endless void with the pillars of light.

Booming sounds shook the sky and earth. The pillars of light continued pushing forward and looked as if they had turned into pillars that were used to push up the galaxy above them and support it once it was torn apart.

At the instant the three pillars of light forming the triangle appeared, almost all the living beings in Divine Essence Star Ocean could see it.

The statue of the first God of Berserkers, Lie Shan Xiu, had its head risen to stare at the sky while it stood on a cliff in a mountain within Black Ink Planet. No one knew whether it was just a coincidence, but the spot where it was staring at was coincidentally the pillars of light that surged into the heavens and led to the fifth True World, which could be seen even from this place.

Lie Shan Xiu’s statue looked as if it was deep in thought. The meaning Su Ming had deciphered previously was the other message he wished to convey. If he could stand at this spot to look at this scene at that moment, then he would discover in shock that the understanding he gained in the past… was not wrong… but he missed the deepest message Lie Shan Xiu hid in it!

Within Divine Essence Star Ocean was the spot where Ninth Tribe was previously located. It was also the place where Tian Xie Zi had lived for a long time. At that moment, it had turned into wasteland. The statue of Tian Xie Zi built into the wasteland was… also coincidentally staring into the direction where the pillars of light had risen.

His gaze… also contained a message that Su Ming had deciphered incorrectly in the past. However, if he saw it with his own eyes at that moment, his heart would definitely tremble as well.

The pillars of light lasted for about three months. Within those three months, the pillars of light attracted too many people’s gazes. Some of them did not understand what it was, but some of them did.

Time passed. One year… and yet another year…

The Flame Fiends’ Progenitor waited beyond the fifth ocean and stared with eager eyes at the fifth ocean, which had long since become calm once more. He stared at the space where the pillars of light had disappeared, and vaguely, he seemed to still be able to see… Su Ming’s figure in the past.

When the tenth year arrived, the Flame Fiends’ Progenitor sighed and chose to leave. Even if Su Ming had yet to release the seal in his body, all of this was no longer important to the Flame Fiends’ Progenitor.

He slightly reluctant to part with Su Ming just like that. It was as if that thought had risen in him while they were acquainted with each other through the series of events that happened between them. His animosity towards Su Ming had turned into wariness before it changed into a strange form of trust, and right then, it had turned into a form of nostalgia.

With that nostalgia in him, he left the fifth ocean and moved through the galaxy to return to his homeland, and in that burning planet, he continued… to be the Progenitor his people worshipped.

However, when it was night and it was quiet, he would also lift his head to look at the dazzling, starry sky, and all the things that happened during the period of time when he was in the fifth kiln and the edge of the fifth ocean would appear in his head.

‘He will come back.’ The Flame Fiends’ Progenitor closed his eyes. His body blended with the lava before he turned back into a statue and fell into deep sleep, remaining still and unmoving.

On the 72nd year after the Flame Fiends’ Progenitor left, Zhu You Cai also chose to leave the edge of the fifth ocean. Even though Su Ming still had yet to tell him how to resurrect his wife, Su Ming’s declaration that he was an Abyss Builder had already given Zhu You Cai endless hope.

Even though… during the past seventy something years, he fell into deep thought pondering over his Master’s Dao of Longevity and the Dao of Life Inequity he declared for himself in the midst of his confusion and wondered about their similarities and differences. Even though these thoughts caused his heart to ache in more pain and caused him to be increasingly agitated, he still persistently believed… that Su Ming would return!

When he returned, he would tell Zhu You Cai… how to resurrect his wife.

With that persistence in him, Zhu You Cai left quietly and returned to the mountain to rest in his cave. Beside his ears were the woman’s faint hums coming indistinctly from the summit. He closed his eyes, tears fell, and in his hand he always held… a medicinal core.

One hundred years passed in Divine Essence Star Ocean. Everything had long since regained their original peace. Many people no longer paid any attention to the scene from one hundred years ago. The eternity in the sun, moon, and stars, as well as the change in the state of affairs for all things was always a continuous dream. After one of it happened, another would arrive.

However, there were some people who would always remember that one hundred years ago, a cultivator stirred up… a storm that caused Divine Essence Star Ocean to tremble within this galaxy.

Xu Hui had long since reunited with the nine old Frail Darknesses. She sat on the warship, and with the three thousand fearless warriors and all the people from Morning Dao Sect who belonged to Dao Kong, she left Divine Essence Star Ocean and returned to the region in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence where the forces of power from True Morning Dao World were stationed. Over there, she waited quietly for the day of Su Ming’s return.

Xuan Shang was still struggling in the fifth kiln and did not have a way out.

Dijiu Mo Sha was still expanding his tribe and continuously fighting against the other races all for the sake of finding a place for his tribe where they would stay permanently.

Everything went on their course. Without Su Ming, Divine Essence Star Ocean continued as it did in the past. This gigantic galaxy would never tilt because of a single person’s will, and neither would anything change because a person was missing from the galaxy.

The past glories, the rise to power that seemed to go against the laws of heavens, the endless disasters were like fleeting clouds. Perhaps they would be remembered, but perhaps they would also be forgotten. Compared to this eternal galaxy, these tiny, insignificant lives were still as tiny and as insignificant as ever…

However, the legends regarding Su Ming were slowly remembered by plenty of people, since he did not leave behind his life. They remembered that there was once a period of time where a person had talents that shone brilliantly for thousands of feet in Divine Essence Star Ocean, but had appeared only briefly like a queen of the night.

From the barren lands to Western Ring Nebula, then from the foreign lands to Black Ink Planet, before he moved from Divine Essence Star Ocean to the kiln, and from Divine Essence Star Ocean to the fifth kiln… Wherever Su Ming went to, he took away his shadow and left behind… his legend.

…..

When Su Ming woke up, he saw a dazzling universe. This universe was incredibly unfamiliar to him, and it did not belong to Divine Essence Star Ocean.

This place was filled with dead silence. There was not a single sound in the place, and it was so quiet that it gave off a terrifying feeling. When he looked at it from the distance, the galaxy was not empty. There were plenty of shattered stones floating in it, and it was a dishevelled mess, making it seem as if war had wreaked havoc in this place for an eternity and left behind the wreckages caused by the war.

All of this was the exact same as the image of the fifth kiln Su Ming projected in his mind based on the analysis he made from other people’s words.

All of this was also… the exact same as the appearance he believed the fifth True World should take based on his speculations in his mind.

There were no discrepancies, no differences. It was as if Su Ming had come here before. At first glance, it was unfamiliar, but when he glanced at it again, it was familiar.

This familiarity came from the effect of the image of the fifth True World in his mind. It was like someone imagining their future lover in their minds, and when they truly saw that person, he would realize… that she or he was exactly as they imagined.

Su Ming fell silent. As he stared at the fifth True World before his eyes, a glint appeared in his eyes and he charged into the distance. When he lifted his right hand, a jade slip appeared on his palm.