Pursuit of the Truth

When Arid Triad’s will gathered on him, Su Ming did not choose to move back. Instead, he met Arid Triad’s gaze squarely, and he kept his gaze on him for a long time. He waited for the Antecedental Spirit’s disaster to descend on him, which might or might not happen, but before the disaster arrived, the sleeping Arid Triad’s will gradually disappeared.

A perplexed look appeared on Su Ming’s face. He had never thought to hide himself. Those from Dark Dawn and Saint Defier surely knew about him by then, and it was about time that Arid Triad knew about him as well.

He went back to Ninth Summit, and when another month passed, Su Ming chose to leave. This time, he did not leave quietly, but left with his senior brothers sending him off as well as Fang Cang Lan and Xu Hui quietly watching him as he left. He gradually went into the distance to complete the second thing he wanted to do—resolve the grudge he harbored for one thousand years.

He was also going to break the shadow over his heart brought to him by the scene he saw in the secrets of the universe.

“It’s time to put an end to this. Su Xuan Yi… are you truly not going to try and retrieve the fifth kiln, where your wife sleeps? Are you really going to let me have it?”

Su Ming turned his head around and cast a glance at the crowd from Ninth Summit, then turned around and took a step forward, vanishing into thin air while murmuring to himself under his breath.

When he reappeared, Su Ming was already at the border between True Morning Dao World and the Emperor of Abyss’ True World. Further away from him was a damaged cultivation planet and De Shun.

Su Ming did not care about this person. He stared at the barrier between the Emperor of Abyss’ True World and True Morning Dao World. It was a wall, and behind it was the Emperor of Abyss. It was precisely because of that wall that the four True Worlds had never had any intense battles break out between them.

In the past, Su Ming did not have the right to break the wall, while Yu Xuan had only been able to move from the Emperor of Abyss’ True World to Morning Dao because of her Abyss Dragon. She had used its power to move through True Worlds.

As he stared at the True World, Su Ming swung his right arm, and two long arcs immediately flew out of his storage bag. One of them was the Abyss Dragon, and the other was the bald crane.

The Abyss Dragon had mostly recovered from its injuries. When it appeared, it looked as if it wanted to speak, but it immediately had a wing slapped over its mouth by the bald crane standing by its side.

With a resentful look on its face, the bald crane glared at Su Ming. Its resentful look made it look like a bitter wife, and it was complaining about Su Ming not letting it out of his damn storage bag for a long time.

In the past, as long as it wanted to, the bald crane could come out on its own, but as Su Ming grew stronger and his will grew greater, the bald crane could no longer appear at will. It could only wait passively to be summoned. This sort of feeling caused the bald crane to feel that it had become something like a bitter and resentful wife.

Every single day, it had to live through its life counting crystals, sleeping, and hitting the Abyss Dragon, then it was counting the crystals, sleeping, and hitting the Abyss Dragon again, rinse and repeat. Every. Single. Day…

Gradually, the Abyss Dragon could no longer bear with it, and it began to resist and fight back violently, but it was difficult for it to escape from its predestined fate. At that moment, once it came out, the Abyss Dragon wept, but before it could speak, the bald crane had already slapped a wing on its mouth, and the grievance it felt reached its peak.

“SU MING!!!” the bald crane screeched.

If it had feathers, all of them would have been bristling at that moment. It looked ready to fight while full with strong, resentful, angry energy about it. As it seethed, its aura reflected that anger and served as a background to give the bald crane a sense of size.

“Y-y-you… How many days have you locked me up again this time, huh?! Oh heavens! How many days has it been?! I’ve already forgotten how many days have passed! I can’t see sunlight, I can’t see the stars! I CAN’T SEE OTHER PEOPLE’S CRYSTALS! This is torture! This is the greatest, biggest, most ultimate torture for me!

“Su Ming, you went overboard this time! I accompanied you through your expeditions over the years, went through many dangers by your side, I-I-I… I even saved you who knows how many times, but you… YOU…”

The bald crane was quivering with rage. As it continued shouting in anger, Su Ming touched his nose, and an awkward look appeared on his face. He had indeed… forgotten about the bald crane.

After all, when he was in Harmonious Morus Alba Expanse Cosmos, he had been stunned by the truth he learned. The series of events he experienced were also all connected together, and it caused him to overlook many other things.

Only when he came to this place and saw the Emperor of Abyss’ True World did he remember… that the bald crane… seemed to have been kept in his storage bag for a long time…

“Darn you, you…” While the bald crane continued shouting in rage, Su Ming raised his right hand, and a crystal appeared on his palm.

“… You… Don’t even think about using a crystal to tempt me. I am the great bald crane, I’m not going to yield for just one crystal, I…”

At the instant the bald crane saw the crystal in Su Ming’s hand, its eyes became fixed on it. This was the first crystal it saw in days that belonged to someone else. There might just be one, but it was someone else’s! As long as it was someone else’s crystal, the bald crane would never think that the number was few.

That was why when it shouted, its eyes betrayed it. Its fixated stare made it seem that if Su Ming dared to put away the crystal, the bald crane would rush forward and fight for it with its life.

“You… you bully! One crystal, this crystal…”

As the bald crane spoke, great conflict appeared on its face. Its shouts immediately much weaker, and indecision as well as a look that very obviously said there was chaos going on in its mind appeared in its eyes. It was as if its mind had been divided into two portions, and they were fighting fiercely among themselves.

“I’m going to the Emperor of Abyss’ True World. I promise you that I’ll give you all the crystals in that True World, alright?”

When Su Ming saw that the bald crane was waging war against itself in its mind as if it had not seen another person’s crystal for far too long and was about to start doing something stupid as it was in a conflict with itself, he quickly spoketo distract it.

“You… Dream on—Darn you, what did you say?! Did you just say that you’ll give me an entire True World’s worth of crystals?! I… I… The mighty bald crane will absolutely not yield…”

The bald crane was practically drooling at that point. It took a few instinctive steps forward, and an obsequious look had subconsciously snuck its way on its face, but it forced it down. When it was about to give extra emphasis that it would hold Su Ming’s offer in disdain but would agree to it reluctantly, Su Ming sighed.

Upon hearing it, the bald crane immediately felt its heart let out a thump. It panicked, afraid that Su Ming would go back on his word. Just as it was about to pounce on him, it saw something that it would never, ever forget in its whole life. It was a scene that shocked it more than anything else could.

To a True World’s will, crystals… were objects that could be born from space if it swept through the True World with a divine thought. It was similar to what mortals said about turning stone into gold with a touch. Su Ming could create crystals with his will!

Su Ming only swept his will through the True World, and countless crystals immediately appeared around them. There were so many of them that they covered a large part of the galaxy.

The sparkling crystals stunned the bald crane. It was completely dumbstruck, and it was especially so because it had clearly seen that Su Ming had not brought out the crystals from his storage bag. After all, the bald crane had an even clearer grasp of how many crystals Su Ming had in his storage bag than he did.

“How… How… How did this happen?” the bald crane instinctively asked in a dumbfounded manner.

“I made them.” At the instant Su Ming answered this question, the bald crane screeched and pounced on him to hug his thigh tightly.

“You’re a walking crystal mine! From now on, you’re MY walking crystal mine! Even if you lock me up for ten thousand years, I’ll acknowledge it! I’ll absolutely not grumble even a single bit. Walking crystal mine, give me more crystals, please… Say… Can you turn me into a crystal crane?”