Pursuit of the Truth

“O Lord Essence of Light, please spare me, and you can be my grandson… This is just nonsense, what am I saying? Spare me, please, take pity on me. I have a wife and children, y-you… Damn it, you stupid Essence of Light, you’re not sentient, so there’s no use for me to even bother begging for mercy!”

As the bald crane screamed, its body shuddered. It was enveloped by a large ball made of the Light of Extreme Darkness. As Su Ming moved forward, the bald crane’s voice continued echoing around him.

“Damn it, why was there an Essence of Light here? I avoided all of them so carefully, and I even sensed that the closest one was very far away from me just moments ago. The region in which I was should have had no origins of light!

“Little Boy Su, you seriously came to be the death of me. My crystals, farewell! I’m such a pitiful crane, I haven’t even collected enough of you. I only have such a small amount. I’m such a pitiful crane for not fulfilling my grand wish to buy an entire True World…”

While the bald crane wailed, Su Ming reached the spot where the soul thread was. He saw it at first glance. The soul thread had attached itself to a ray of milky white light which was a little strange. It was not harmful, and instead nourished Nascent Divinities, which was why the soul thread was only dissipating. Otherwise, it would have disintegrated a long time ago.

Clearly, the soul thread knew about the milky white light, which was why it had thought of such a method to prolong its life.

As he stared at the soul thread, surprise appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. He lifted his right hand and pointed at the milky white light. Immediately, a memory rose in his mind; it came from the milky white light. In it, Su Ming saw the soul thread appear a month ago.

It had arrived at the exact same time as Su Ming.

“Huh? You’re just an Essence of Light, so what are you doing? You know how to lift your hand? Ah! I understand now, you can move freely! You intentionally appeared in front of me! This is impossible, origins of light are not sentient! How could they move?”

The bald crane stared at Su Ming’s figure from the envelopment of the Light of Extreme Darkness. The person before it looked incredibly bizarre, and the bald crane shouted out in surprise and disbelief.

Su Ming lifted his right hand and flicked the space in front of him. Immediately, the milky white light started twisting, bouncing off the soul thread, and Su Ming caught it.

“You… You… You have an arm! You are sentient! Oh heavens, you are sentient!” the bald crane shouted out and began rambling on. When Su Ming seized the soul thread with his right hand, he sent over a crystal with a fling of his left hand.

The bald crane caught it on instinct and placed it in its beak to bit down hard. Its expression lit up the next moment. In fact, both its bald tail and butt were shaken several times.

Su Ming gripped the soul thread. It struggled feebly in his hand, but under the Light of Extreme Darkness, its struggles were futile. A divine sense possessing Su Ming’s Light of Extreme Darkness fused swiftly into that soul thread, and when it could no longer resist him, he sent it straight into its core.

During that instant, Su Ming saw a memory from the soul thread, and several pictures immediately appeared in his mind.

The first picture was of an unfamiliar universe. A black-robed man took a step from a tall mountain and plunged down. As his body scrapped against air, he disappeared without a trace.

The second picture was of the same black-robed man standing beyond a gigantic pillar of light. By his side was Bai Feng, whose existence still made Su Ming’s heart clench in pain, along with an old man whom Su Ming could recognize at first glance. It was the old Di Tian.

In fact, Su Ming could even hear most of their conversation.

The third picture was of the black-robed man sitting cross-legged in the pillar of light and executing the replacement plan. It was due to him that the Ancient God had self-destructed out of nowhere.

Once the pictures disappeared, the soul thread shattered in Su Ming’s hand.

‘A replacement plan… This soul thread was prepared for Possession. If I hadn’t stepped into the world beyond the universe, then once the Ancient God self-destructed, it would have crawled into my body and Possessed me.’ A hint of contempt appeared in Su Ming’s eyes.

‘If that’s the case, then the three Hidden Dynasts, Dao Hua, and Dao Lin should have been successfully Possessed and become part of the Immortals’ Union. This soul thread… was a portion of the black-robed man’s soul.

‘If he could do this with a portion of his soul, then it’s clear just how powerful his real strength is.

‘Sublime Paragon Di Tian… so he wants to cast the Life Changing Art on my real physical body. He wants to borrow my real physical body to change everything about himself with the help of the Saint Defiers and become an Abyss Builder!’ A freezing glare shone in Su Ming’s eyes.

‘Three months, huh? I’ve been here for about a month. I should be able to make it back!’ Su Ming closed his eyes, and a myriad of thoughts flashed through his head. It was a chance… a chance for him to seize his real physical body back!

While Su Ming thought, the bald crane put away the crystal and stared cautiously at him while completely enveloped by black light. It was feeling slightly anxious. At that moment, it let out a dry cough and put on an obsequious expression.

“Um… o one and only sentient Lord Essence of Light in this ocean of light, do you need a handsome, smart, all-knowing, efficient, intelligent, wise, and kind great bald crane?

“Let me be your follower… I…”

When the bald crane began to speak anxiously, Su Ming opened his eyes. With a smile that the bald crane could not see, he sized it up.

“Kind?” he asked languidly. Through the Light of Extreme Darkness, his voice held a chilling tone in the bald crane’s ears. It caused its body to shudder, but its spirit was immediately lifted.

“That’s right, I’m a kind soul. When I see people in need, I will lend a hand. When I see people dead, I will shed tears for them and bury them. When I see children, I will be happy. I—” the bald crane quickly said.

“You lend yourself a hand to their storage bags to see how many crystals they have. You loot the corpses for their crystals, and since children are gullible in your eyes, you scam them for their crystals,” Su Ming said flatly.

These words momentarily stunned the bald crane.

“Um… do we know each other? Y-Y-You… Are you..?”

Su Ming smiled. The Light of Extreme Darkness surrounding him vanished to reveal his Nascent Divinity, and he stared at the bald crane with a smile.

The bald crane placed its wing over its chest and let out a pained scream. It took a few steps back with anger overtaking its features. It raised its claw and pointed at Su Ming as extreme sadness showed up on its face.

“SU MING!!! All of my hardships were in vain! I was walking at death’s door and was even prepared to die! I sacrificed a large number of crystals and spent tens of thousands, no, hundreds of thousands of years worth of my life to find you, and you… y-y-you… how could you, just now… Oh! I am sad, I am too sad! I’ve been scammed! Darn you! I’ve been bullied!”

The bald crane started wailing, then decided to fall down and start rolling about.

Su Ming brought his right hand up and flicked a crystal towards the bald crane. Once it caught it, it immediately beamed, but then immediately suppressed the smile and started screaming again.

“Do you think you can compensate me with just one crystal?! This is a humiliation to me! I, the great bald crane, will definitely not bend over for just one crystal, I—”

With a tinkle, another crystal fell. The bald crane watched dumbly as the crystal fell in front of it. A brilliant smile appeared on its face. This time, no matter how hard it tried, it could not suppress the excitement on its face.

Especially when…

With another tinkle, the third crystal landed. It was followed by the fourth crystal and the fifth. The bald crane immediately stopped rolling around and grabbed all of the crystals, then coughed dryly.

“Alright, I forgive—”

With a tinkle, the sixth crystal landed.

“You’re completely right! Darn it all, Lord Su, everything you did was right—”

With another tinkle, the seventh crystal fell.

“Again! Should we do something like this again?!” The bald crane was so excited that its whole body trembled, and it made a suggestion the mere thought of which made it happy.

Su Ming stared at the bald crane, and a smile appeared on his face. He had long since treated the bald crane as his friend, but it was a friend whom he could not let become too conceited, or else the things which had happened in Black Ink Planet would repeat without end.

“Alright, we should leave now. There are important things we need to do.” Su Ming raised his head to stare at the endless ocean of light, and a dark glint shone in his eyes. With a swing of his arm, he swept up the bald crane and charged into the distance.

…

Several days later, space distorted in an area in Morning Daro Sect which belonged to the Immortals’ Union and was near the core of their territory. It was an empty galaxy in which a ball of black light suddenly shone.

When Su Ming and the bald crane walked out of the black light, it scattered away, revealing the black-haired Su Ming dressed in black robes. Standing with a profound gaze, he looked like he had been reborn. The aura he exuded might still belong to those in Mastery Realm, but he, who could now turn into the origin of the Light of Extreme Darkness and had created the Ocean Remover Art, had become much stronger than before.

“Even the world under space and beyond the universe cannot stop me from returning to this place. I… am back,” Su Ming mumbled. At that moment, he no longer appeared as Dao Kong, but had instead gained an unfamiliar appearance.

This was because he currently did not have a physical body and only possessed a Nascent Divinity.

Yet even if he was only a Nascent Divinity, he could still bring forth a power that could shock others.

“Do you want to seize back that real physical body of yours that you mentioned was in the Immortals’ Union? Darn it all, let’s go! Let’s go seize back your physical body! I’ll go loot crystals.” The bald crane spoke with excitement. While doing so, it started shuddering, and the loud racket it created resounded in space.

“The chances of success for entering the Immortals’ Union and snatching back my physical body with my current level of cultivation are not high,” Su Ming said faintly.

“Then what should we do?” The bald crane was taken aback.

“We will let those from the Immortals’ Union and Saint Defier, or even Di Tian himself, personally bring us in.” A wicked smile appeared on Su Ming’s lips.

The bald crane scrutinized him in surprise before starting to mumble in its heart. It wondered if Su Ming had gone mad after he became the origin of the Light of Extreme Darkness.

It suddenly became slightly worried about what would happen to the now crazy man…

While the bald crane was busy being worried, dark light shone in Su Ming’s eyes, and the Light of Extreme Darkness surrounded him. It became stronger and stronger before covering the whole area in that part of the galaxy.

‘The Light of Extreme Darkness… It is a light with incredibly powerful might, so all those who see it will feel tempted…’