Pursuit of the Truth

Yin Death Vortex was located in True Morning Dao World, but it was a region completely separated from it. Even when True Morning Dao World’s will was at its strongest, it could not interfere too much with Yin Death Vortex.

This could be said to be a world completely different from the world outside. Cultivators could enter this place, but most of them would have their cultivation bases suppressed. There were also other unnamed dangers in it.

But it was not like there were no life forms who tried to get out of Yin Death Vortex either. However, they were rare and few in between over the course of countless years. The level of difficulty could be seen from how hard it had been for Su Ming to get out in the past.

Since Yin Death Region was part of the Immortals’ territory, the Immortals’ sects were the ones who understood the land the most. The first God of Berserkers who had walked out of Yin Death Region many years ago had had the galaxy at his beck and call while he enslaved the Immortals. Because of that, Yin Death Region gained a veil of mystery.

What level of cultivation did the first God of Berserkers possess and what sort of method did he use to leave the place? Such things had long become history…

While in the galaxy, Su Ming stared at Yin Death Region, which was right before him. In silence, he ignored the bald crane’s excited howls. There was a slightly complicated expression on his face, along with nostalgia.

Yin Death Region was the land of Berserkers, and there were some people Su Ming was familiar with in that place. Fang Cang Lan [1], the Shamans, Lei Chen [2], who Su Ming had never managed to find, and some other acquaintances. They had been separated from each other for more than a thousand years, and he wondered whether the land was still the same, whether the people he knew were still around, and whether neither the land nor the people he knew were around anymore…

In silence, Su Ming shook his head. He had left Yin Death Vortex for a long time, so long that his memories of certain things had become muddled, but as he stared at the place, those muddled memories gradually surfaced in his head.

There were still signs of a Rune beyond Yin Death Region. It was the Great Yin Sealing Rune that the Immortals had laid down after pouring a large amount of blood, sweat, and tears into it.

Hu Zi was the incarnation of the Rune Spirit, and he had been separated from it when he was born, which was why even though the Rune had been destroyed by the whirlwind spilling out from Arid Triad’s gap to the point that only its frame remained, Hu Zi was not affected in the slightest bit.

With a soft sigh, Su Ming took a step forward and turned into a long arc that charged at Yin Death Vortex.

He had left for more than a thousand years, and now… it was time he returned.

Su Ming instantly fused with Yin Death Vortex. The bald crane followed closely behind him. As for the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe, he naturally had his own way to follow. Su Ming did not need to pay much attention to him.

At the moment he stepped into Yin Death Vortex, a vast amount of aura of death surged out from the vortex and filled the area. Due to its thickness, it turned into fog. It swam around Su Ming while being strong enough to corrode the bodies of all the living, turning them into dead people.

But this aura of death not only not make Su Ming uncomfortable, it gave him a sense of familiarity, as if he had found a place where he belonged. After all… he had fused with this thick aura of death in the past. He had done it so well that he did not even notice the existence of aura of death in Yin Death Region. It was as if he had been a cube of ice that had melted when he fell into the water and could not be differentiated from the water he had melted into.

But it had manifested in the form of corrosion when he was in the face of Bright Yang. It had caused him great pain and injured him gravely when he tried to leave, because at that time, he had already become a part of Yin Death Aura.

“Yin Death Vortex is like a mirror. Beyond the mirror is Morning Dao and Arid Triad, and within the mirror… is Yin Death Region,” Su Ming murmured.

He continued onward through the vortex. Gradually, the aura of death in the place grew thicker, and eventually, when Su Ming was completely enveloped within it, his presence suddenly changed.

Su Ming allowed this change. He was an Antecedental Spirit, he possessed a True World clone, and was someone who had walked out of Yin Death Vortex, which was why he was not averse to this change. He simply allowed his body and even his presence to fuse with the aura of death. Once he the change was complete, a feeling of his body being as light as a feather filled him.

This feeling grew stronger, reminding Su Ming of his previous existence in Yin Death Region. The vortex continued spinning while growing deeper. It was as if a person could fall for years through it and still have a hard time reaching its depths.

Su Ming quietly swam in the vortex. There was a suction force contained in it that ensured that he didn’t have to spend a lot of energy to move on his own. He simply chose to go forward towards the Berserkers’ world located among a myriad of dimensions based on what he could remember.

Around him, the vortex spun with loud rumbles. Dimensional cracks manifested and intersected with each other. Each crack in the vortex was a world. As the vortex spun, the cracks symbolizing the entrances to various dimensions grew in number. If anyone else was in Su Ming’s place, perhaps it would be difficult for them to accurately locate the land of Berserkers from the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dimensions.

But Su Ming had left Yin Death Vortex twice with his divine sense in the past. He had the experience of rushing out of the vortex, which was why he could remember where the land of Berserkers was located. At that moment, he quietly rushed in the direction where the land of Berserkers was located in his memories and drew increasingly closer to the place.

Most of his presence had already turned into the aura of death. The remaining portions was also swiftly changing. It was as if before long, he would completely turn into a body belonging to Yin Death Region.

While Su Ming was charging through the vortex, a figure suddenly appeared in a crack of a dimension below him. The figure resembled a human, but it had two heads. At the instant they appeared, they roared at the same time.

The next moment, the figure bent its knees while standing by the entrance. Red light shone in all four of its eyes, and it glared at Su Ming.

At the moment Su Ming shot past its side, the two-headed figure let out a low growl and rushed out, but at the moment it did so, it looked like it had rammed against an invisible wall and was bounced back. It let out a shrill scream of pain.

While Su Ming was descending, his body came to a swift halt. He levitated in the large, spinning vortex and cast a cold glance at the strange, two-headed person who had been bounced back by the invisible barrier.

“You can get into Yin Death Region… but you can’t get out,” Su Ming mumbled. When he swept his gaze past that figure, he suddenly narrowed his eyes, because his gaze had not just landed on the strange person, but had also landed on the dimension where the person resided. He could vaguely see the world there.

It was a world with a yellow sky and black earth. On the land, there were more than one hundred thousand two-headed people who were the same as the figure. They were roaring at the sky, but most of them had black chains binding their bodies. Their roars were incredibly forlorn.

Su Ming swept his gaze past the place, then moved forward, not bothering with anything in the world. Instead, he continued charging down Yin Death Vortex. Based on his memories, the dimension where the Berserkers were was no longer far away from him.

Ten breaths later, Su Ming was far away from the dimension where the two-headed person was, but it was precisely at that moment that a huge and ferocious dragon head crawled out of the tumbling fog within Yin Death Vortex, right beyond the dimension where the two-headed person was. A powerful breath came out of its nostrils. Its red eyes were unfocused, as if they were rotten. They stared intently in the direction Su Ming had left.

Most of the dragon’s head had already rotted away. A thick aura of death spread out from it. When the creature moved, it shot down like a black bolt of lightning.

When the time it takes for a small portion of an incense stick to burn had passed, Su Ming came to a swift halt in the seemingly endless Yin Death Vortex. He then looked to his right where he could see another crack.

A faint and weak presence spread out from the vortex, but it was this faint presence that made Su Ming sense the Berserkers’ existence. That place… was the entrance to the Berserkers’ world in his memories.

Before the whirlwind, when the Rune beyond Yin Death Vortex still existed, he would not have needed to search for Yin Death Region in such a manner. He could just use the Rune and descend straight away among the Berserkers, since the Rune was in some sense connected to the land of Berserkers.

But now, the Rune was reduced to just a frame, which was why Su Ming had to search for his land in this way.

Su Ming stared at the entrance to the Berserkers’ world. Above him, the aura of death squirmed around without a sound. With a calm expression, Su Ming suddenly lifted his right hand and pointed above him, at an area in Yin Death Vortex filled with a large amount of aura of death.

Booming sounds immediately reverberated through the air like muffled thunder. The aura of death tumbled backwards to reveal the rotten dragon head that was quietly approaching him.

The dragon head was only a thousand feet away from Su Ming at that moment. As the aura of death was swept back and the dragon head showed up, a small portion of a skeletal body attached to its head behind it was also revealed.

The dragon’s eyes might have been unfocused, but a fierce glare was shining in them. It immediately roared at Su Ming and moved. Yet when it wanted to pounce on him, Su Ming lifted his head with an aloof expression on his face, and with a gaze like lightning, he looked at the dragon head.

“Get lost!”

The moment he spoke, the dragon shuddered. The head that had rushed out forcefully stopped three hundred feet away from Su Ming. A fearful look very rarely seen on the dragon appeared instantly in its eyes. The two words from Su Ming made the dragon feel as if its soul had experienced a storm. It was so strong that the dragon felt that if Su Ming wanted to kill it, he could do so with a single thought.

Its whole body trembled. The mighty pressure from Su Ming’s words and his aloof glare caused the dragon to shake in terror, and a feeling as if it could not fight against Su Ming arose in it.

Despite Su Ming looking weaker than him on appearance, it seemed like he was in truth an ancient being which could easily crush him. No one was allowed to offend that will and mighty pressure. The dragon felt that it was as weak as an ant, and it was the exact same feeling it had when it looked at True Morning Dao World when it was at the topmost layer of the vortex, at a spot closest to the world outside.

With another shudder, the dragon wailed and slowly moved back. The terror in its eyes grew stronger. When its body was hidden in the aura of death once again and Su Ming’s figure was covered by the fog, it swiftly left the place.

As one of the strange beings living in Yin Death Vortex, it had seen far too many powerful warriors in its life… but Su Ming terrified him like none of them had. In fact, even though it had already died, it felt death creeping on it again.

Translator’s Note:

Fang Cang Lan: Woman who tried to help Su Ming discover his past.

Lei Chen: Still Su Ming’s HUMAN best friend.