Pursuit of the Truth

At the instant the three of them looked towards the crystal mirror, Su Ming, who had been sitting and meditating for nearly a century on the Abyss Vessel Planet in the fifth True World, opened his eyes.

His gaze was calm. When he looked at his mother’s statue, Su Ming sighed softly.

‘I only managed to see my mother’s statue here because I saw my mother before… I never met Su Xuan Yi, that’s why his statue is headless. I never met the Abyss Builders’ Progenitor either, that’s why… his statue is also headless.’ Su Ming stood up and looked towards the entire Abyss Vessel Planet.

“The planet is the exact same as I imagined…

“This true world is also the same as I imagined…’ Su Ming shook his head. He took a step towards the air, and within an instant, he appeared in the galaxy.

“That year, I imagined that the planet was near, and then Abyss Vessel Planet appeared. Now, I will have this thought: The fifth Abyss River is in front of me…” Su Ming mumbled. He lowered his head, and when he lifted his head again, the fifth Abyss River appeared in front of him.

He saw the corpses in the river. All of them only had their backs revealed before him. Their faces were not shown.

‘This is also because I have never met you, that’s why I can’t imagine different appearances for all of you,’

Su Ming shook his head, then walked towards the galaxy.

‘I might not want to believe it, but during the past hundred years, I already guessed at the moment I saw the statue… this isn’t the fifth True World. There is no Abyss Vessel Planet here.’

“The real fifth True World isn’t here as well. What a lie, what an outrageous lie!” A fierce glare appeared in Su Ming’s eyes.

At the instant Su Ming spoke, the universe around him suddenly trembled. All the shattered stones in it vanished. All the air around him swiftly distorted and turned into an arc.

This arc was formed after the entire galaxy was distorted. As it slowly spun in front of Su Ming, its turned to face him, and when it did, it’s appearance caused Su Ming’s heart to shake.

Because he saw… a gigantic mask appear in front of him once the galaxy distorted!

The white Abyss River was a line between the eyes on the mask, and the two voids at the two ends of the Abyss River which looked like eyes to him in the past… were now the blank eyes on the mask.

Su Ming would never forget that mask. That mask… was the one forced on him when he was in Yin Death Region. The mask that cut off all seven emotions and six desires within him… the Mask of Cessation!!

Due to this mask, Su Ming came to Divine Essence Star Ocean. Now, more than one thousand years later, he saw the mask again, and understanding rose swiftly in Su Ming’s heart.

‘That so-called searching for your king you told me in the past and the rumors in the worlds outside about the fifth True World’s entrance being located here is a lie! You didn’t just lie to me, you also… lied to the first God of Berserkers, Lie Shan Xiu!!’ A brilliant light shone in Su Ming’s eyes. At that moment, he had come to completely understand everything.

‘This is a legacy… A legacy that is similar to that of the four guardians with the masks in the fifth ocean. If my guess is correct, then there should not be originally four masked people here, but five!

‘And after happiness, anger, grief, and resentment comes the Mask of Cessation that cuts off the seven emotions and six desires. At the moment you made me wear the mask to come to Divine Essence Star Ocean, you didn’t want me to search for your king or search for the entrance to the fifth True World. You wanted to make me the fifth guardian in this place!!

‘I now understand the complicated emotions and the confusion on Lie Shan Xiu’s statue in the past as well… because at that time, he might have already noticed the hints… but in the end, he still stepped into your fraud.

‘One of the four masked people… is Lie Shan Xiu!!’ A brilliant light shone swiftly in Su Ming’s eyes. At that moment, his understanding caused his mind to suddenly be clear.

Su Ming’s heart trembled, because he remembered his Master, Tian Xie Zi, and he was almost certain that if Tian Xie Zi was still alive, then one of the four masked people… was Tian Xie Zi!!

It did not matter whether it was Lie Shan Xiu, Tian Zie Zi, or Su Ming. The three of them all had one similarity, and that was… the three of them… came from Yin Death Region!

When he looked at it this way, Su Ming’s heart was in shock again. Who… exactly was the third and fourth person among the four?!

“Wear the mask and become the fifth guardian of Dark Dawn Ocean. Envoy of Cessation… you will know everything that you wish to know. You will know all the secrets regarding Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos, the fifth True World, and the Abyss Builders.

“Become the Envoy of Cessation and you will never have any worries as well as uncertainties… and you will be given eternal life as well!!

“This is your life. You cannot fight back against it. From the moment you wore the mask and was sent into Divine Essence Star Ocean, your path in your life has already been decided. No matter how hard you try to change it, you cannot escape from it… Your fate is to become the bearer of the Mask of Cessation in Dark Dawn Ocean!” An ancient voice with a cold detachment and a supreme mighty pressure tumbled out in roaring waves from the mouth of the gigantic galactical mask.

There was in no way Su Ming would forget that voice. That voice belonged to the ancient will from Yin Death Region, the one that had threatened him with his senior brothers’ lives and forced him to wear the mask!!

“You are unable to refuse, you cannot refuse… and neither do you have the right to refuse. You are chosen… to become my Envoy of Cessation!” That voice echoed and shook space. The mask formed by the gigantic galaxy rushed forward swiftly to cover Su Ming with a loud bang.

A powerful, mighty pressure gathered swiftly on Su Ming’s body, causing Su Ming to instantly be unable to move even a single inch. However, at the instant that mighty pressure descended on him and Su Ming felt that he could not move… a power that swiftly allowed him to regain his mobility travelled out rapidly from his cultivation base clone—Dao Kong’s original body.

Or rather, this was not a power. It was an aura!

That aura was long-lasting and similarly brought with it a supreme will that crashed head-on against the incoming mask with a bang.

Su Ming could sense that aura. That was… an aura from True Morning Dao World. That was… the power of kismet! That was the kismet from the entire True Morning Dao World, and it was forcibly interfering with everything, because Dao Kong’s body was something loved dearly by True Morning Dao World’s kismet, and now, it was clear that there was a power from a world beyond clashing fiercely against that kismet.

“Su Xuan Yi, even if you have already calculated all of this and specifically delivered a physical body so that this child will possess kismet, I have also long since predicted this. There is no way I will let you succeed!” As the mask charged forward, that ancient and cold voice echoed in the air with a loud bang.

At the instant the voice echoed in the air, that gigantic mask instantly turned around and had its back facing Su Ming. Countless white threads also crawled out swiftly from within it. As they squirmed around, they spread out, making them look incredibly terrifying, and during that time, those white threads intersected with each other to form a gigantic face.

That face was ancient, and its expression was numb. It looked like a piece of human skin, and it was filled with those white threads from within. At the same time it rushed towards Su Ming, it immediately crashed into that invisible kismet.

When booming sounds echoed in the air, that ancient voice from the mask spread out again.

“To deal with that kismet from True Morning Dao World, I’ve been preparing for tens upon thousands of years and gathered together the Face of Misfortune from True Morning Dao World to break the kismet you brought to this place. Now, scatter!”

When he said these words, booming sounds shook the universe and made the space in all directions tremble. The kismet from True Morning Dao World gathered on Su Ming’s cultivation base clone immediately tumbled backwards in the midst of those booming sounds and collapsed.

Without the kismet from True Morning Dao World, that face where the interior was filled with thin threads also spread out to turn into countless squirming thin threads again. At the instant it charged towards Su Ming, the mask in the galaxy shrank swiftly, but at the moment it closed in on Su Ming, Ecang’s presence erupted swiftly with a bang from Su Ming’s body, and Ecang’s body appeared behind him.

“Puny little Ecang, if you were at the peak of your strength, you would still have some abilities that would pose as a threat. After all, you were one of the lives in Old Man Extermination’s ballad… but for your current self, shatter!” That cold voice echoed in space again. With a bang, Su Ming’s entire body was covered in blood. The Ecang behind him was swiftly torn to shreds before it crumbled.

“This is your fate, the fate you cannot avoid. You… are my Envoy of Cessation!” The cold voice was emotionally wrought up, and the mask formed by the galaxy continuously shrank before it turned into a normal size. It instantly covered Su Ming’s face and countless white threads crawled swiftly into Su Ming’s skin and flesh in a frenzied pace. They connected tightly with his flesh and blood, intending to forcefully make Su Ming wear the mask again.

“From now on, you will no longer have a name. You will only have one title… Cessation!” As the old man’s voice echoed in space, Su Ming’s entire body shuddered. The mask covered his face, and intense pain rose in his entire body. At that moment, madness appeared in his eyes.

‘Black stone fragment, Seed of Life Extermination, take off this mask for me, find its flaw!’ When Su Ming roared in his heart, the Seed of Life Extermination in his soul shone swiftly with a powerful light. Once that light spread out rapidly from Su Ming’s soul, it shot out of his body and erupted quickly from within him.

That light was made of an intersection of nine colors. When Su Ming’s body was enveloped in that light, it was as if another figure had appeared faintly on his body. That was an old man, an existence dressed in a white robe and stood above all lives.

That was… the Old Man Extermination.

However, in the Old Man Extermination’s eyes was Su Ming’s madness. He lifted his right hand slowly and pushed his palm on the mask over his face. At the moment his right hand touched the mask, it let out a shrill scream of pain as if it possessed life. As it screamed in pain, it changed swiftly under Su Ming’s right hand, as if all the structures within it were being rapidly disassembled.

It was also during this moment that the old voice, which might have come from the mask or space itself, had astonishment appear in his voice for the first time ever, and his voice echoed swiftly in space.

“This… this is… the Old Man Extermination. You are the Extermination of this generation. This is impossible, this is…” For the first time ever, there was panic in that voice, and there was also a great amount of shock that had never appeared before in his tone. As it reverberated in space, the mask immediately melted at the instant Su Ming’s right hand touched it. It disappeared layer by layer until Su Ming’s face was shown.

The mask disintegrated with a bang. During that instant, the space around him completely crumbled. As it shattered layer by layer, everything in this place was crushed. As it was pulverized, the old man’s voice from space let out a roar that showed he was unwilling to accept defeat.

“Dark Mountain… Xiao Hong… the fragment… Seed of Life Extermination… Su Xuan Yi, so your counterattack is here! I won’t accept this! I can’t accept this!!”

Bang!

The space completely collapsed to reveal the fifth ocean, along with the blue crystal mirror that had been reduced to shards and was sweeping to the entire area. The strongest ever wind storm also stirred up to rage and sweep through the entire fifth ocean.

End of Arc Four.