Pursuit of the Truth

To Abyss Builders… the past was just a jade slip with history recorded in it, and it coincidentally had time fused into it. Perhaps other people would not be able to find or see the jade slip, which was why it would be difficult for them to know about it.

But among the Abyss Builders, who possessed the Art of Time, some of the powerful warriors could see the ancient past.

Su Ming could be said to be the strongest among the Abyss Builders. Without a lead, he could reverse the time to ten thousand years ago, while with a lead, he would have a specific timeline to go to. He could move further down the passage of time and see everything that he wanted to see.

Such as the young man in black robes and… his mother.

She was a woman with a gentle personality. She had waited quietly for Su Ming’s father to return, but before he did, Su Zhan died in battle, and Su Ming vanished with him. Such an event had a great impact on her, and she… stopped smiling.

When she reached the end of her life and she was buried beneath the altar, Su Ming saw in the memories of time that the words on the stone monument had been wiped off by an aged hand!

The Spiritlings were a curious tribe. Their strength did not lie in the living, but in the ancestors who had died. Their ancestors might have passed away, but in truth, due to the uniqueness of the Spiritlings, it would be better to say that they were asleep.

As they slept, they could absorb the beliefs of their people who worshiped them to maintain the strength of their souls so that they could gather together to gain corporeal form, and then, they would wake up…

They believed that they would surely wake up. This was what was unique about the Spiritlings. It was just like Su Ming’s version of Fate Realm among the four Realms. He needed external fate to form his own laws of fate, and the ancestors of the Spiritlings needed a similar form of power to maintain a certain degree of being imperishable.

The worship required the ancestor’s names to be known, which was why the ancestors of the Spiritlings who died all had their names carved onto their tombstones.

The hand that appeared on the tombstone belonging to Su Ming’s mother had wiped off her name, which made it impossible for the descendants of the race to worship her, making the soul of Su Ming’s mother to dissipate!

When the words on the tombstone were wiped off, the current Sacred Lady—Su Ming’s aunt—had witnessed everything with her own eyes. While shivering, she tried to stop the man… but once the owner of the hand cast her a glance, her mind went numb, and she forgot to stop him, allowing him to wipe off all traces of the words on the tombstone.

This was the past. It existed in the passage of time, allowing Su Ming to see it clearly.

He also saw that the hand who wiped off the name on the tombstone belonged to a middle-aged man. He had no aura of flesh and blood, which meant he was a pure soul. Once he wiped off the words on the tombstone, he returned… to his own tomb. The place where he disappeared was the spot where Su Ming had directed his gaze at that moment.

It was… the grave that belonged to the previous Tribe Elder!

At the instant Su Ming looked over, the tombstone let out a piercing rumble. As it did so, a huge crack appeared on the stone monument, as if it could not withstand the rage in Su Ming’s gaze. It was as if everything that Su Ming saw had to be destroyed.

Even the dead would have to die again! Because the person who wanted to kill them was Su Ming!

With a loud bang, the stone monument shattered into pieces. Su Ming took a step forward and raised his right hand to press down on the altar.

With that one push, the world roared. It looked like an invisible hand landed on the altar, and it started shattering, layer by layer, starting from the platform. In an instant, it was reduced to ashes. A huge mark of a hand appeared on the ground!

Beneath it… was a shattered coffin!

It was red in color, just like blood. At the instant it shattered, a hand shot out from its depths. That hand was withered and bony. Its fingernails were black and three feet long. When that arm appeared, a thick aura of death shot up into the sky.

The hand pushed forward, and the coffin fell apart to reveal a thin middle-aged man dressed in a Daoist robe. His hair was graying, and his eyes were long and narrow, but a red light shone in his pupils.

A heinous murderous aura revealed itself, and it immediately caused a disturbance in Spiritling Expanse Cosmos. Endless fluctuations of power appeared in it.

“You…”

The man had a strangely monstrous yet awe-inspiring air that could shock and intimidate all manner of lives. His words were slow, and his presence made him look like a supreme entity. He seemed to have gathered together the most supreme form of power in the world. Even the ghastly air about him seemed to have descended from all of Spiritling Expanse Cosmos.

But he only managed to say one word. Before he could utter a second one, Su Ming appeared before him. He lifted his right hand, and before the middle-aged man could react to the situation, Su Ming seized his neck and squeezed it tightly. A cracking sound shot up into the air, and he threw him violently to the ground.

Su Ming used his full strength in his grip, so the middle-aged man’s neck was completely crushed and his head shattered when it hit the ground. The throw had shaken the whole island. If Su Ming had not wanted the cultivation planet to be destroyed, his throw could have made the cultivation planet crumble.

The middle-aged man’s soul was shaken by Su Ming’s sudden action. He let out a shrill scream of pain, and his body disappeared with a bang. He turned into fog, then instantly gathered together in the distance. When he looked at Su Ming, shock was in his eyes. The bizarre and monstrous air about him when he just appeared was gone. Instead, his eyes were wide-open with disbelief.

“Who are you?!”

The middle-aged man was the previous Tribe Leader, and he had met the Sovereign of Dawn plenty of times in the past. His level of cultivation was also just below Avanicaya Realm. If it was not because of the uniqueness of the Spiritlings and him being forced to die, there was a high possibility that he would have reached Avacaniya Realm by then. However, since he was forced to die, he had become a soul that no longer had a body.

With the years of nourishment, his soul had become stronger, and he had begun to gather together a shell that possessed some flesh and blood. However, when Su Ming seized him and threw him just then, all the power of worship he had absorbed was immediately crushed to bits. Su Ming’s level of strength made his skin crawl, since it was something he had never encountered in his life.

The anger on Su Ming’s face also made the middle-aged man feel a chill in his heart.

Su Ming did not even bother answering him. Instead, he moved forward, and in an instant, he appeared before the middle-aged man. He lifted his right hand and grabbed him. The Tribe Elder might have died once, but that intense feeling that his life was being threatened instantly rose in his soul again, but he did not dodge. Instead, madness appeared in his eyes.

If Su Ming’s killing intent was not strong, he would definitely find another way to solve this predicament, but he knew that Su Ming was intent on killing him. It was something he would be unable to resolve or neutralize no matter what!

It was because of this that the middle-aged man instantly descended into madness. He did not dare to relax his guard even in the slightest bit since the pressure Su Ming gave him was just too great!

“This is the Spiritlings’ Expanse Cosmos. Ancestors, please protect me!” the middle-aged man immediately roared. At the instant Su Ming came to seize him, the middle-aged man swiftly formed a seal with his arms before him.

The tombstones on all the altars on the islands in the planet shuddered. Countless sleeping souls flew up with their eyes shut. In an instant, they surrounded the middle-aged man’s body.

Those were the ancestors who had fallen asleep over the countless years. Some of them had already woken up, and some of them were still sleeping, but no matter what, the moment the middle-aged man called out to them, they flew out and fused to fight against the great disaster of their race!

They had rushed over not because the middle-aged man had great power, but because this was an inborn ability belonging to all Tribe Elders. They could summon the spirits of their ancestors!

The Tribe Elder of each generation could do this!

When all the souls of the ancestors of the Spiritlings surrounded the middle-aged man and formed a vortex to handle Su Ming’s hand, the world became dark. Countless ripples appeared in the Spiritlings’ Expanse Cosmos. It filled with the Spiritlings’ presence, and it seemed like the place completely transformed into the Spiritlings’ world. In fact… there was even a will in this Expanse Cosmos, and it was the Spiritlings’ will!

“No matter how strong you are, when you are among us Spiritlings, then if you suddenly harbor killing intent against me for no reason, you must die, you mad man!”

While the middle-aged man roared out his words, Su Ming’s hand touched the vortex. As loud bangs rang out in the air, most of the vortex disintegrated and swept up the middle-aged man a hundred thousand feet away. A small portion of his soul immediately dissipated, causing his face to turn pale. The shock on his face became greater, but an air of arrogance also filled him.

“This Expanse Cosmos belongs to us Spiritlings. This is our sacred land. All the souls in this place and all the presences here, be it the past, present, or future, belong to the Spiritlings, and this is how this Expanse Cosmos’ will is formed. Can a mere person like you withstand the will of an Expanse Cosmos?!”

The middle-aged man had a ferocious expression on his face as he glared at Su Ming. There was an intense madness in his voice. In his mind, since Su Ming wanted to kill him, he would completely destroy him, because he believed that Su Ming’s strike could do nothing to him!

Su Ming cast the middle-aged man a cold glance, and when he opened his mouth, his words were like a cold breeze that traveled into every direction.

“Alright. I have never intended for you to compensate for your mistakes alone. If that is the case… then I will use all of the souls of your deceased to write down my mother’s name on her tombstone again!

“Did you say that this Expanse Cosmos belongs to your people?”

At the instant Su Ming spoke, he lifted his right hand and seized the space in the direction of the sky. With a swift yank, the master of the galaxy changed once more!

The will of Spiritling Expanse Cosmos was just like a firefly’s light when compared to Su Ming’s will, which was like a bright sun. When Su Ming grabbed it, it crumbled. With a yank, the entire Expanse Cosmos was instantly filled… with Su Ming’s will!

The middle-aged man was stunned. He was completely dumbstruck as he stared at the sky with a blank expression.