Pursuit of the Truth

“My path goes from death to life, from midwinter to spring, the one in which all lives are resurrected… Right now, where am I on my path?” Su Ming stared at the rain while softly speaking to himself.

“I walked through the four seasons, walked through life and death, and I only ask to have my questions answered. I only wish to pursue the truth…” Su Ming shook his head.

“There are two hundred something years left… a cycle of four sixty years. It’s very short. It’s not long at all. I can’t tell whether we will live or die. The matter of life and death is like the rust on a dagger under the setting sun. I don’t understand it, and perhaps I will never be able to understand it.” Su Ming sighed softly.

“I don’t have the right to help them decide whether they want to live or die. I respect all the decisions made by the people beside me. I have never interfered with their choices and their resolve, because we are all equals, and because I care about them.” Su Ming stared at the rain, and resolve gradually appeared on his face.

“But this time… I will not ask you to choose. Please let me… be selfish for perhaps the last time in my life. Please let me choose this path for you.

“I will not choose the first path, and I cannot choose the second path. As for the third path… if that world truly exists, I, Su Ming, swear that if I am not dead, be it millions of years or a period of time that will seem like an eternity, I will find all of you…

“If you can no longer see me, then please be like the tree Arid Triad knew and please forget me… treat it as if everything had never happened. Treat Harmonious Morus Alba as if it was someone else’s dream. Treat it like a tale written by someone else.

“Pretend… that there has never been a person known as Su Ming in this world,” Su Ming mumbled. As he spoke, the rain showed signs of stopping. The rate at which it poured down slowed down.

“Eldest senior brother, second senior brother, Hu Zi… the ninth summit is ours. It is the spirit our Master left behind for us. Right now, there are millions of disciples in Ninth Summit, but I can’t send them all over. I can only send one hundred thousand and have to… give up on the others.

“Elder, the Berserkers are the continuation of your hope, and I am the God of Berserkers. I will protect the Berserkers’ legacy. I’ll try to send all one hundred thousand Berserkers to that world.

“Chang He, I promised you I would resurrect your wife. I have not forgotten this matter!

“Flame Fiends’ Progenitor, I asked you to follow me while we were in Divine Essence Star Ocean. From the moment you agreed to it, I swore to do my best to not disappoint you.

“Zhu You Cai… I don’t know what your relationship with the bald crane is… but you are you.

“Yu Xuan, should we have another life, and should we be fated to meet again, I will find you.

“Cang Lan, you’ve protected the Berserkers for years, and you are already in my heart. It is very cold, and it beats very slowly, and because of that, there aren’t many faces within it… but you are there.

“Xu Hui… even if something similar to De Shun happens again, I will still do the same thing. Whether you agree to it or not, from the moment you decided to follow me, this was set in stone.

“Elder…” Su Ming shut his eyes.

“Lie Shan Xiu… our choices are different.

“Master… I cannot wait for you until your change of heart ends…”

As Su Ming mumbled, he lifted his right hand, then pushed down swiftly at the stones on the cliff under his feet.

The entire universe shuddered without a sound! The rain completely stopped, and Ninth Summit as well as the whole True Morning Dao World froze alongside it.

Yu Xuan was glaring at Xu Hui while about to to say something, but her expression had frozen like that for all eternity. Xu Hui looked smug, countering whatever Yu Xuan was doing, but similarly, her expression had also turned into an eternal picture.

Cang Lan remained smiling, but it was not directed at Yu Xuan or Xu Hui. Instead, she was looking at Su Ming. There were… tears in her eyes. It seemed like she knew everything due to her special power.

The elder sat by the lake quietly, watching the water. His eyes were closed.

Eldest senior brother sat cross-legged, meditating. No one could say how long he would remain like that. Second senior brother watched the women around him with a smile while shaking his head. He did not notice that there was a Rune shining in a mirror located at the door.

That Rune in the mirror led to Hu Zi, who was drinking wine while sniggering, though there was a cautious look on his face. He continuously watched another mirror on his palm as well.

Everything froze, including Chang He, the Flame Fiends’ Progenitor, Zhu You Cai. Even all the Berserkers and the bald crane had also become still.

The bald crane had its beak clamped down on a crystal while talking about something to the Abyss Dragon beside it. However, at that moment, it did not move.

All of Ninth Summit and True Morning Dao World was like that. Only Su Ming could move right then.

“I believe that the world truly and surely exists.”

As he mumbled to himself, he bit the tip of his tongue and coughed up a mouthful of blood. It instantly turned into blood fog that immediately enveloped all of Ninth Summit.

“Even if it did not exist to begin with, after this, it will surely exist. It is just like creating a world. With my beliefs, my will, and my everything… I will create that place!”

Su Ming swung his arm, and the blood fog immediately surged in the air. It filled the entirety of Ninth Summit, then tumbled in every direction.

“In that world, you will live well. You will not remember me, because I don’t know whether there will be a day when I will appear in front of you…

“You will take with you my blessings. I will complete the most important execution of this Art in my life. For it, I will need a total of two cycles of sixty years to succeed.

“All of this is because I need to be sure that I will succeed. I have to ensure your success. You… will truly enter that world, and for that, I must believe… that the world truly exists!

“I don’t know its name nor have I seen the universe where it exists, but I believe it exists. Its name… will surely be related to dust, because Harmonious Morus Alba will turn to dust soon. You will all be sent into that world by my hands. You will not decay. You are all… my family!” Su Ming declared calmly with deep love contained in his eyes. He then sat down an closed his eyes again.

When he did so, he made his yearning for everyone scatter, turning it into memories that repeated themselves in his mind, but they became stranded in his head.

When he closed his eyes, the repeating memories faded away, and his mind became quiet, but he felt as if someone was knocking at his mind in the wind, forcing him to remember.

When he closed his eyes, he found that… he could not forget all the things that had happened to him. His resignation could not win against the mortal sky, and in the end, it would just fade away. Everything in the world changed, and all the living had to bear the corrosion of time.

“I will use one hundred and twenty years to watch the version of myself hidden behind the Three-Life Stone [1] while he quietly depicts a normal life in words… In that life, I will be Su Ming, a disciple of the ninth summit, a member of Dark Mountain. I will be the loneliness you see.

“During that one life of one hundred and twenty years, I will be… your ferryman.” Su Ming bowed his head. When he did so, wind blew through the silent Ninth Summit…

The wind formed a whirlwind that turned everything indistinct, then changed it into the one cycle of life that would last for one hundred and twenty years in Su Ming’s world, because Su Ming could not just send everyone over just like that. He had to make sure he would succeed, which was why… he needed that much time. He needed an entire cycle of a mortal’s life to do so… and for his will to turn into an illusory world where they could bid their final farewell.

In that world, the sky was clear and the wind gentle. It had no disaster nor any cultivators. It was a mortals’ world, a blessing in the form of peace.

‘The laws of fate I cultivated in my previous life have gathered on me for thousands of years, which is why I can personally row the boat for you and take you across the river known as the River of Forgetfulness. I can steer the boat… and bring you to the other side.’

The river rustled while an old boat was tied to its bank. Beside it was a wooden house with a teenage boy. He sat quietly and watched the sun rise and set. He watched the four seasons change and waited for people to come.

Spring, summer, autumn, winter. In the spring, the boy raised his head. He heard the sound of a horse galloping forward and saw a person in white on a white horse. It was a woman. She had a graceful and beautiful face, and her expression was gentle.

Her eyes were very beautiful, and the emotions contained within them were even more beautiful. When she stared at a person, they would forget the world. They would to stare into her eyes for all eternity.

‘I’ve waited for seven seasons, and the first person to cross the river has arrived. It is Cang Lan.’ The boy watched the approaching woman, and a smile bloomed on his face.

“Ferryman, what is this river?” The woman stopped by the river. Her beautiful eyes first examined the river before coming to the boy.

“The River of Forgetfulness.”

The woman blinked and asked from her white horse, “And where does the other side of the river lead to?”

“I’ve never gone there before.”

“Nonsense. If you’ve never gone there before, how can you steer your boat?”

The woman chuckled. She turned her horse and was about to leave, but then it seemed like she had thought of something, and she got off her horse.

“Oh well, let’s see what’s on the other side.” As she spoke, she took a few steps forward and got onto the boat. She then looked at the boy.

He entered the boat too and began to row. The sound of rustling water could be heard. Under the setting sun, he slowly rowed the boat towards the other side of the river. During the entire journey, the boy sat at the end of the boat and did not speak. The woman, too, was silent. She sat at the bow of the boat and stared at the waters of the River of Forgetfulness. Gradually, anguish appeared on her face.

It was as if a wave of sorrow and grief she could not put to words had surged into her heart. It was as if the trip across the river had made her finish her previous life’s journey. Its emotions gently dabbed her heart moist and turned into clear drops of tears that fell from her eyes, making her thin clothes wet.

The teardrops seemed to contain the yearning of her previous life, and it turned into waves of cold air that came crashing into her face. She woke up to the world, but those emotions fell gently into her heart again to turn into bits and pieces of sorrow. She wanted to wash them away, but they became light waves of sadness in her eyes that she could never wash away.

When they reached the other side of the river, the setting sun turned into a crescent moon. It was reflected on the River of Forgetfulness. The woman sat on the boat for a long time… She then turned her head around and looked at the boy. When she did so, she saw that the boy had grown up into a young man. He was Su Ming.

“We’re here,” Su Ming said softly while looking at the woman before him. A reluctance to part and deep affection was in his gaze.

“I know, but I feel… that I should be waiting for someone…” the woman whispered.

“He will come, if he can also get on my boat.” Su Ming sighed softly.

The woman lowered her head. After a long while, she stood up, and at the moment she stepped off the boat, she turned around and stared at it leaving into the distance as well as the waters of the River of Forgetfulness.

“I’ll wait for you…”

Her soft whisper reached Su Ming’s ears. He heard it clearly.

In which year did the moon above the river first shine on the people? Who was the first person to see the moon above a river?

‘In our previous life, our fates were tied together. But in this life, who will be the ferryman?’