Pursuit of the Truth

“Dynast Dao Lin has already killed seven lost souls!”

“Dynast Dao Han has killed three people.”

“Dynasts Dao Kui and Dao Hua have both killed two people respectively.”

At the first plane of Morning Dao Sect where the Anointment Ceremony had taken place were five golden names. They were floating above the largest lotus platform, right in front of the ten million cultivators.

The five names were arranged in order, and each one had a different number of light pillars by their side. Dao Lin had seven while the others had differing numbers from three to two.

Dao Kong’s name was ranked last, and he only had one light pillar.

Most of the gazes in the area were fixed on his name. However, even after a long period of time has passed, besides that one light pillar which appeared at the start, no others showed up.

After a moment, when the tenth light pillar appeared for Dao Lin, golden light shone beside his name. As it spread out, it turned into a huge vortex. It rumbled, and distorted sights could be seen within it. When they faded away, what appeared before the gazes of the ten million people in the area was a scene that was rather familiar to some of them.

It was a battlefield from seven hundred years ago where tens of thousands of people had fought from the Immortals’ Union and Morning Dao Sect.

The scene in the vortex immediately attracted the cultivators’ attention. When about a quarter of an hour had passed since then, only Dao Kong was still behind. The other three names had turned into vortices as well, and different battlefields had appeared in them.

The four Dynasts looked incredibly insignificant in their own battlefields, but the trials required them to use their own power to change the results of the battle.

Those who were in battles where Morning Dao Sect had lost had make it so that they win. If they couldn’t manage that, they had to at least reduce the number of casualties. If that was impossible as well, they had to make the Immortals’ Union pay a bigger price.

As for those in battles where Morning Dao Sect won, they had to amplify the results of the battle and make it so that they achieved an even more perfect victory.

Finally, a second light pillar appeared beside Dao Kong’s name. His slow pace gradually led to all sorts of speculations from the cultivators in the area, but no one really knew the truth.

Su Ming slowly extracted the Life Inequity Spear from a corpse while he was at the periphery of Dao Ocean. Before him was a big man with a muscular frame. His dark red, lustreless eyes were wide open. Even after his death, he still stared at Su Ming. Based on the aura remaining on his corpse, it could be deduced that before his death… he had power that was nearly equal to those in Mastery Realm.

Su Ming put away the Life Inequity Spear and turned around with a calm expression. He stepped into the fog to continue moving into the distance. Roars came from the area around him, and barely discernible figures flashed past him, but Su Ming only cast them one glance before turning a blind eye on them. These lost souls did not have sufficient power and would not help him achieve what he wanted.

‘Only after killing ten lost souls will I be sent to a random battlefield, but they are differentiated by their sizes and their might. They are most likely determined by the levels of cultivation from the ten people we kill.’

A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. Besides the first person he killed being in the later stage of World Plane Realm, he was prepared to kill only Almighties to make up his remaining kills.

After all, based on Su Ming’s judgement, the battlefield he wanted to go to was definitely not something ordinary. First of all, it involved millions of cultivators, but this was not the main point. The main point was that the Immortals’ Union had sent that black-robed person. The strength of the Art that made it seem like he could extract a moon from a well was able to determine the direction of a battle. It had forced Morning Dao Sect to send Progenitor Tai Shan to handle him.

However, Su Ming had a feeling that besides Progenitor Tai Shan, there were surely some other powerful warriors from Morning Dao Sect lurking around in that battlefield. Su Ming felt great curiosity towards this.

As he moved about in the fog, after about the time taken for an incense stick to burn, his eyes focused on the spot in front of him. There he saw a figure whose ripples of power belonged to those in Mastery Realm.

Without any hesitation, Su Ming charged towards that figure.

Time trickled by like this. Several hours later, the ten million cultivators in the area beyond saw seven light pillars next to Dao Kong’s name. The increase was incredibly slow, but for some unknown reason, the crowd felt that there was an oppressive feeling in the seven light pillars, as if… besides the first one, the other six were vastly different from those belonging to the other four Dynasts.

Yet they could not tell what exactly was the difference.

They could not see it, but Bei Bang, the tanned old man, and the other two sect masters knew exactly what it was.

‘He’s killing the Almighties among the lost souls…’ There was a sullen expression on the tanned old man’s face, and his eyes were filled with hatred.

Bei Bang stared at the seven light pillars above Dao Kong’s name and thought quietly to himself. ‘What sharp wit. He found the key for the different battlefields so quickly, and he also found the method to get the battlefield he wants.’

When another four hours passed, Dao Lin as well as the other three Dynasts obtained a certain amount of results in their respective battlefields. It was especially so for Dao Lin. He might have looked like an ordinary cultivator, but based on the number of people he killed by himself, he became a small faction leader. There were already hundreds of people by his side.

It could be said that he was interfering with the results of the battle in the most simple and straightforward manner.

At that moment, the tenth light pillar finally appeared beside Dao Kong’s name. At the same instant, golden light spread out and reached a piercing degree. That light was much brighter than what Dao Lin and the others had possessed. It caused the ten million cultivators in the area to let out cries of surprise.

For not only was the golden light much brighter, the vortex that was formed was also several times larger. Its presence was incredibly striking in the air, and it was nearly ten thousand feet long.

Booming sounds reverberated in the air. The vortex started spinning, and as it did, one of the cultivators in the area immediately voiced their puzzlement.

“Why is Dynast Dao Kong’s vortex so much bigger? All of them killed ten lost souls, so why is the disparity so great?!”

“That’s right, could it be that someone helped him in the shadows? Or else why would the difference be so great?”

As the discussions reverberated in the air, Bei Bang spoke with dignity and age. With just a few words, he instantly suppressed all the speakers.

“They might have killed the same number of people, but besides the first person Dao Kong killed, the other nine… were all lost souls who were Almighties in Mastery Realm!”

As the cultivators in the area fell silent, Su Ming raised his right hand from a corpse. The body immediately withered and turned into ashes.

‘A unique structure. He seems to have been modified by someone before…’

A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. He was using the power from the Seed of Life Extermination to analyze why the lost souls had become like that. While he was mulling over his thoughts, a gigantic vortex appeared around him. As it spun around with loud, booming sounds, a layer of ripples similar to those of water appeared beneath Su Ming’s feet, making him look as if he was standing on a lake. When he lowered his head, he saw a scene on the water.

It portrayed a battlefield, and it was a large-scale battle with nearly five million people involved in it. He swept his gaze across it, then frowned. This was not the battlefield he wanted.

After a brief period of pensive silence, Su Ming took a step backwards and moved out of the vortex. At the instant he left it, the vortex disappeared, and everything returned to normal. Su Ming’s eyes sparkled. He fell into deep thought for some time, then turned around and disappeared into the fog.

In the area beyond Dao Ocean, the vortex formed by Dao Kong’s name vanished to show his name once more, but the light pillars above it had all disappeared. It seemed like he was redoing the test.

As an uproar raged outside, Su Ming swam at full speed through Dao Ocean. Time trickled by, and several hours later, when he killed another ten people, another vortex appeared beneath his feet. This time, the sound coming from the rotations was even louder. After a moment, the instant ripples appeared on the surface of the water, Su Ming’s pupils constricted.

This was a battlefield with more than ten million cultivators participating in it, and at first glance, Su Ming saw a huge figure on the Immortals’ Union’s side—a colossal figure which was incomparably large. It wasn’t one hundred feet tall, but nearly one million feet tall.

When this figure stood in the galaxy, the cultivators beneath his feet were like ants. The giant had his arms crossed over his chest while staring at the million cultivators by his feet with an aloof gaze. There was cold sneer on his lips, and he surrounded by the air of those who saw themselves as supreme.

At the center of his brows were seven stars forming a circle, and it was shining with a bizarre, dark light.

Floating among the cultivators from the Immortals’ Union by the giant’s side was a seemingly insignificant person dressed in black robes and his face covered. This person was floating silently, not doing anything. It might have been impossible to see his face, but the instant Su Ming saw that figure, the memory of the person in black robes who had appeared near their tribe when he was in Dark Mountain surfaced in his mind.

He had the exact same feeling, but this person was clearly much stronger than the person in black robes which Su Ming had met in the past. The difference between them was like heaven and earth.

‘It’s this battlefield… No!’

Su Ming’s pupils shrank. He felt that something was off. Based on what he remembered, the black-robed person and the giant with the stars at the center of his brows had not once appeared at the same time.

Yet now, they were together. There was only one explanation for that, and it was that this battle… was not the one with which everyone was familiar. Progenitor Tai Shan would not be in it!

Su Ming quickly swept his gaze past the crowd in the scene, and just as he expected, he did not see Progenitor Tai Shan.

He narrowed his eyes. After a moment of hesitation, he took a step forward. But just as he was about to step into the water, his body came to a sudden halt, and he even shuddered for a moment. A ray of excitement that had never appeared before showed up in his eyes, and he stared straight at a large man in the water who stood among the people belonging to the Immortals’ Union. He had thrown his head back to roar at the sky, wore a look of nonchalance on his face, and had quite a large number of cultivators by his side acting as his followers!

This man had an honest and straightforward appearance, but at that moment, he had a ferocious look that made him seem as if he was spitting fire from his eyes which were narrowed into a glare. While shouting loudly nonstop, he rushed swiftly into the crowd before retreating just as swiftly, and a presence that no one could stop him began to form around him.

‘Hu Zi!’

Excitement appeared in Su Ming’s eyes.