Pursuit of the Truth

“There is still a will hidden in your body, a weak Antecedental Spirit who was fortunate enough to evade the disaster, but whose spirit has been split countless times. Right now, what remains of him is weak, and he only retains a little of his soul. It is so faint that it is almost gone. He should be an Ancedental Spirit from Earthen Sand Tribe.”

The old man cast an indifferent glance at Su Ming, and it looked like he could see straight through him to discover all his secrets. When his voice echoed in the air, Su Ming’s heart trembled, but he did not show it on his face.

When he saw the face of the mysterious old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe, Su Ming buried his wariness in his heart. It did not matter whether it were his expressions or emotions he had revealed earlier, for he had showed them to let the old man know about them and also because he wanted him to do it.

After all, it was easy to find out whether a person was truly temperamental. It was also very easy for others to be on guard against such people. That was why they needed a disguise and a cover to hide all the changes in their heart.

Su Ming knew who the old man was talking about. It was the Spirit of the Sand Earthlings, a being who had declared himself to be an Ancestral Spirit but who was in truth an Antecedental Spirit. The old man’s words also answered Su Ming’s question about the Predecessor of Dao Ocean.

When he had thought of the Predecessor of Dao Ocean, he had also thought of the Spirit of the Sand Earthlings, which gave him some doubt. But it showed up that the Spirit of the Sand Earthlings was not an Ancestral Spirit as he had declared himself to be, but just an Antecedental Spirit.

It had been constantly asleep, and Su Ming did not summon it because the Seed of Life Extermination had left. He did not know whether something unexpected would happen if he summoned the Antecedental Spirit of the Sand Earthlings.

“Senior, you said before that I have the presence of the foreign races…”

Su Ming knew that he should not take the initiative and ask this question. He should should instead ignore it and did not pay any attention to this matter if the old man did not pursue this line of questioning. This would probably be the right way for him to go about the deal with the old man.

But Su Ming still asked that question. If he did not understand everything, then this so-called great serendipity which would be given to him might turn him into one of the red figures, making him a substandard being who failed in the ascension of his spirit.

“Who might these foreign races be?” Su Ming looked as composed as ever as he stared at the old man.

When he asked this question, a cold, fierce glare shone in the old man’s eyes. He stared at Su Ming and did not say a word for a long time.

Su Ming did not speak either. Instead, he stared at the old man quietly. His level of cultivation might not be equivalent and the old man might be able to kill him with ease, but it did not take away Su Ming’s courage to meet his gaze.

“The foreign races… are naturally those from Dark race and Saint race. To all the tribes in Arid race, they are foreigners!” the old man said in a flat voice after a long while.

A brilliant light shone in Su Ming’s eyes. The old man’s words had given him an incredible amount of information.

“Is Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos called a triad because of this?” he suddenly asked.

The old man stared at Su Ming, and a profound expression appeared on his face. He raised his head and looked up at the top of the cave abode. His expression was full of sentimentality.

“You glimpsed some ancient history, and you want to obtain verification about your thoughts from me, hmm? Very well, agree to our deal, and I will tell you everything. It is a past buried in the passages of time, and stories of things… I had experienced personally,” the old man said calmly.

There was an ancient tone to his voice, and it echoed in the cave abode filled with skeletons, making it sound as if the wind of time was blowing in the cave.

Su Ming was silent. After some time, his eyes flashed, and he slowly nodded.

“I can agree to your request, senior, but I would like to have all my questions answered!”

“Arid Triad is known as a triad because there were three races when the Ancestral Spirits created all lives in the universe during the days of old. These three races were Dark, Saint, and Arid!

“There were plenty of tribes among each race.” There was nostalgia on the old man’s face. His voice was airy, as if it had come from a distant time in the past, though no one could tell the exact year.

“Then Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos’ Ancient Wu, Ancient Shu, Ancient Wei…” Su Ming immediately said.

“I don’t know about this ancient you speak of, but I do know that the Dark race developed in the period of time after the era of the Ancestral Spirits. Under the call of their Ancestral Spirit, all their tribes were uniformly known as… Wu!

“Similarly, the Saint Race also declared themselves as Shu under the orders of their Ancestral Spirit.

“We of the Arid race is the Wei you speak of!”

When the old man’s voice echoed in the air, Su Ming’s expression might have remained calm, but there was a storm raging in his heart. The old man’s words answered his questions and made him recall Sir Tian Wu, the Heavenly Centipede he had met in Divine Essence Star Ocean.

That Almighty might have died in the fifth kiln, but Su Ming would never forget how he had stimulated the so-called blood of Ancient Wu. When he remembered that the man’s real form was that of a huge centipede, Su Ming felt his head instantly become clearer.

Those from Dark Dawn practiced the cultivation method of cultivating their inner cores. While the people in this camp seemed like cultivators, they were in truth various strange creatures taking the form of humans, and this was completely similar to what Tian Wu had done!

“They are no longer the Dark race and the Saint race. They’ve come to declare themselves as Dark Dawn and Saint Defier…” Once Su Ming said these words, he stopped and looked at the old man.

The old man was silent. After some time, he sighed softly.

“Even the Ancestral Spirits have their camps… or else Wu, Shu, and Wei would not have appeared… but it does not matter which camp they belonged to. In a disaster that suddenly appeared in the past, about which even I did not know, I managed to find some clues regarding that disaster… which is that most of them had perished.

“In the era when all spirits and lives died, we lost our legacy. There were few Antecedental Spirits who rose to power, but the legacy halls were shattered. The massacre brought upon by those who failed in the ascension of their spirits caused a great war between the three races.

“In that war, Wei disappeared. The Arid race, who represented Wei, scattered, but Wu and Shu also paid a devastating price. This war meant the end of the tribal era after the era of the Ancestral Spirits came to an end. It also meant that Arid Triad was no longer suitable for the races to live.

“This was why besides a few people, most of those remaining in Wu and Shu chose to leave in search for a place which they could mold into a home suitable for their survival.

“Many years later, a member of the younger generation barged into this place and did something prohibited. I woke up from my sleep then, and I searched through his memories before he died. There, I came to know that the third era began after the age of tribes. Nine True Worlds appeared, and from his memories, I learned about Dark Dawn and Saint Defier…” When the old man said these words, he looked over.

Su Ming was silent. All of the truths caused his heart to tremble once he learned that many things were as he had thought, but while he had guessed a lot correctly, he did not expect the part about Saint Defier and Dark Dawn. This revelation didn’t allow him to calm down.

“So that’s how it is. No wonder there is such a great disparity in power despite us being on the same Realm. So that’s how it is…” Su Ming sucked in a deep breath, and his eyes suddenly shone. “Was All Spirits Hall created by all the Ancestral Spirits of the three races, or was it..?”

“It was created by Wei’s Ancestral Spirit. There is something similar in Wu and Shu as well,” the old man said languidly.

“Then I have one final question. Regardless of whether it is Wu, Shu, or even Wei, what are the Ancestral Spirits who created all these, and where did they come from? Why… did they come here to create the universe and the three races?!”

When Su Ming asked this question, Dark Mountain appeared in his head. When he was still an ignorant teenager, he had read a sentence written on a beast skin scroll describing the legends of the Berserkers.

“Since the creation of the world and of man, the Berserker Tribe has existed and it still exists to this date…”

“So the legend is not just a legend. That seemingly normal sentence which I thought was just a myth… is real!” Su Ming’s expression changed several times in succession before he looked towards the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe.

“Perhaps… there was another great era before the era of Ancestral Spirits.” The old man was silent for some time before he sighed softly. That sigh held an ancient air that could make a hearer feel like their soul would soon turn to dust as well.

“The cultivation of lives during that era exceeds our imagination. They were unmatched in power, but the entire era had perished in an unknown disaster. Its remnants created Arid Triad, but in the end, they still could not escape fate. They too died.

“I’ve thought of your question before. I didn’t puzzle about where they came from, but thought of myself. I was wondering… If I could live longer and witness the changes between eras until the day came when I would have to watch all of us, be it Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos where we stay, or the Vast Expanse itself, destroyed in a disaster which we cannot fight against…

“If I am still alive by then, what would I do? If you’re alive, what would you do?” the old man mumbled.

“With my abilities, I would create another universe… I would make the legacy continue so that our Brand will never disappear…”

Su Ming’s heart trembled. As he stared at the old man, the old man too stared at him. Su Ming had come to understand that the old man had used these words to give him the answer.

“I’ve answered your questions. Now, it is your turn to fulfill your promise and complete your end of the deal. I will give you a chance to have your spirit ascend, and if… you succeed, use the power of the All Spirits Hall to return to the past and stop me from killing my tribe members. Even if you can’t, you have to plant a zone there so I can return to it countless times!”

An obsessive madness appeared in his eyes which he fixed them on Su Ming. It looked like if he was rejected, then even if Su Ming was a member of the younger generation of his allies, he would still wipe him off the plane of existence.

Su Ming was silent while staring at the old man. Even though he had tried to guess what the old man wanted him to do for the deal and the old man had let him see his face, Su Ming still did not expect that the old man’s thoughts would be so mad.

Changing of the past… Forget whether such a thing was even possible. Even if it was, how could it be achieved so easily? The Ancestral Spirits before the old man would have certainly thought of this, but they still died in the end.