Pursuit of the Truth

“Nine levels of Dao Divinity… With three, you will reach Dao Divinity Realm; with six, you will reach Dao Immortal Realm; with eight, you will reach the peak and you can be known as a Great Dao Paragon… When you reach nine, only then can you be known as a Dao Divinity.

“There are only three Dao Divinities in the world, and they have been eternal existences since ancient times. These three people have never perished, and the fourth has never appeared either. So, naturally… someone who has truly reached Boundless Dao Realm has never appeared before as well!”

The old man stared at Su Ming, and his voice lingered for a long time in the blizzard, refusing to disappear.

“Never?” Su Ming suddenly asked.

“There has!” The old man suddenly smiled, and there was a hint of old age on his face, as if he had almost reached the end of his life, but when Su Ming stared at him again at the next breath, he looked as if life had just begun for him. He did not continue with this topic, but stared at Su Ming, and pride gradually showed up in his eyes.

“You can now go out and experience the world on your own. You have to change your appearance so you are no longer Xuan. You should have another name and join a sect. No one must know that you are a prince, and six thousand years later…

“Remember… to return to Ancient Zang, and I will wait for you outside the city gates at that time. At the moment you step inside the city gate… I will teach you your final lesson.”

The old man smiled faintly and stood up. He cast Su Ming a deep glance, then turned around with a smile to walk into the blizzard.

Su Ming watched the old man leave into the distance, and when his figure became indistinct, he asked softly, “Master… what is your name in this life?”

“You already have the answer in your heart.” The old man’s voice came from the blizzard, lingering in the wind and refusing to leave.

The answer had already appeared in his head at the very first moment Su Ming had laid eyes on the old man when he had woken up ten years ago.

Tian Xie Zi!

No matter who he was in that life and that world, in Su Ming’s heart, the old man was Tian Xie Zi, the man whose fate was entangled with Mie Sheng due to his interference and because his ninth change of heart had been disrupted. The two of them were connected even until Harmonious Morus Alba was destroyed!

While in the fourth Expanse Cosmos, Su Ming had seen Lie Shan Xiu choose to kill himself while laughing shrilly, he did not see Tian Xie Zi, and neither did he sense Tian Xie Zi’s presence. Right then… Su Ming understood, but when he thought about it in detail, he felt as if he could not understand it.

Whether or not he understood was not important, however. What was important was that his path was under his feet, and he had to continue treading down the it until there came a day when he came to an understanding of all the steps in the process. When he turned his head around, he would be able to see the beauty of pursuing the truth.

Su Ming smiled. He stared at the flames and felt as if he could see the Harmonious Morus Alba in the fire. He saw various scenes, faces, and the fleeting moments that remained in his memories.

“Whether or not this world is true or just an illusion, Master has given me the answer ten years ago…” Su Ming said softly, and in his smile was understanding.

“And I’ve also given him the answer.” Su Ming closed his eyes. He sat in the blizzard, next to the bonfire. The snow was like dust connecting the sky and earth.

It was connected to Su Ming’s heart, and when his heart turned deadly still, Su Ming closed his eyes to hide his determined resolve to pursue the truth.

“This is a Possession. Xuan Zang… I will accompany you! I will take a look at the light shining in your eyes at the final moment you open them, I will know whether it belongs to the death of your Harmonious Morus Alba, or whether it belongs… to my resolve and madness!”

Su Ming’s eyes flew open at that instant, and the snow in the area became still. The wind stopped blowing, and the snow stopped falling.

Su Ming was no longer as handsome as he was ten years ago. His hair had grown longer and gradually covered his shoulders, then reached his waist. Its color was no longer black, but had instead been dyed in Su Ming’s blood… turning into purple with a tint of crimson!

His hair was purple, and his robe was white. His appearance was no longer youthful, but had a hint of ancientness. His body was no longer lanky, but lean and slender.

At that instant, Su Ming… changed back to his appearance in Harmonious Morus Alba. He… had returned!

At the moment he opened his eyes, the third eye slowly opened at the center of his brow. It caused the world to shudder with a bang, because when he opened his third eye… his Dao Divinity also woke up!

“My wills… are you… still there?”

When Su Ming murmured those words, he lifted his right hand. At the moment he focused his gaze, it was as if thousands of years had gone by. When the palm lines of his right hand turned into purple flames, they burned, and the snow in the area turned into fog. It filled the area and made it indistinct to the eye.

In the flames on his palm, Su Ming saw the True Morning Dao World, the Emperor of Abyss’ True World, True Immortal Sect World, and True Sky Hill World!

The four Great True Worlds were born from the flames in Su Ming’s hands at that moment. Perhaps they had been destroyed in the past, but right then, they appeared once more!

However, a strange dark light slowly appeared in Su Ming’s eye. In held a hint of determination. Su Ming sensed the wills of the four Great True Worlds on his palm… but they only existed in the fire. They could not appear outside it, and Su Ming could not have them fuse with his soul, like he had done in Harmonious Morus Alba.

After all… Harmonious Morus Alba was already dead!

‘But why… can I still sense your dissatisfaction? Why can I sense all of you calling to me? Why can I sense… the signs of your existence in this world?’

The light in Su Ming’s eyes grew stronger. Once he stood up slowly, he brought his right hand up and pushed the flames at the center of his brow.

During that moment, his whole body shuddered. Blurry pictures immediately appeared in his third eye. They flashed past until he saw all of them clearly.

A butterfly was struggling as if it was unwilling to give up. It did not have a body. Su Ming could only see its soul, and it was… Harmonious Morus Alba’s soul!

The Harmonious Morus Alba’s soul gave Su Ming a familiar feeling. In fact, he could even see… a torn gap on its wing!

That Harmonious Morus Alba… was Su Ming’s homeland!

The thing that sealed its soul was the void. It seemed to be endless, but in truth, the void… was just a pearl shining with a strange light!

There were clouds surrounding the pearl, and it contained a universe that sealed the Harmonious Morus Alba. The pearl itself was floating in a huge palace. The light shining from it filled up the entire place.

The palace was built on top of mountains. By its side were numerous other palaces. There was no end to them.

Iron chains connected the mountains as bridges, and if anyone looked from a distance, they would find that the mountains formed an incredibly huge Rune.

Once the Rune as well as the mountains shrank indefinitely in Su Ming’s eyes, they turned into palm lines. When the palm furled into a fist, Su Ming saw the owner of the palm. He was a middle-aged man, who was dressed in a long red robe, sitting and meditating.

There were thousands of cultivators kneeling down and worshiping him below. They were listening to his breathing while he meditated as if they could gain an epiphany of Dao just from that.

All of them were in a huge field. Beyond it was a huge basin surrounded by mountains. There were… countless cultivators in that basin, and when Su Ming saw the basin shrink, a huge stone monument that reached the sky erected on a cliff to the east of the basin came into his view.

Carved into the stone monument were eight words—Seven Moons Sect, Sky Beyond the Sky!

At the instant Su Ming saw the eight words clearly, they distorted and turned into an eye. It swiftly looked through space as if it could see Su Ming’s gaze. At the same time, the red-robed man sitting on the field opened his eyes.

“How preposterous!” he said with a cold harrumph.

When he spoke, an aura that even Su Ming felt was incredibly strong shot through space and crashed in a domineering manner against Su Ming’s gaze.

At the same time, an overlapping shadow walked out of the red-robed man’s body. It moved and turned into his clone. It stepped into the air and with the divine sense Su Ming had used to observe as a clue, it instantly charged towards Su Ming.

As a soundless rumble reverberated through the air, Su Ming’s third eye fell shut. His body shuddered slightly. He took a few steps backwards, and a trickle of blood flowed down the corners of his mouth. He lifted his head swiftly and stared at the sky.

At the moment Su Ming closed his third eye, the red-robe man’s image appeared in the sky far away from Su Ming. The middle-aged man could not find Su Ming’s tracks. He swept his gaze past the land, but he did not find his target.

‘He’s an alert one at least… This one has extraordinary power. He’s already at the first level of Dao Divinity Realm.’

The red-robed man moved his gaze away from the ground. He was in deep thought for a while before he turned around and stepped into the air to disappear into the sky.

‘Third level of Dao Divinity Realm, Dao Spirit Realm!’

Su Ming stared at the sky. He could sense the strength and mighty pressure from the red-robed man he approached in Seven Moons Sect. His mighty pressure surpassed what was possessed by all the living beings Su Ming had ever met, except Xuan Zang.

‘This is a world that is even stronger and bigger than the Harmonious Morus Alba I was in!’

Brilliant light abruptly began shining in Su Ming’s eyes, because Harmonious Morus Alba had only attained great completion in Avacaniya Realm, which was why… in terms of level of cultivation, all the people in its world could not surpass this Realm. Only in its last aeon could a life form that could break this limit appear, such as Su Ming, who had gained his Dao Divinity after he obtained his epiphany of Boundless Dao Realm.

This world he was in right then clearly surpassed the universe of Harmonious Morus Alba, which was why… powerful warriors of whom Su Ming had to be wary appeared. Yet it was precisely because of this that Su Ming might be able to find the path to become stronger.

He was silent. After a long while, a glint appeared in his eyes.

“I must come to repossess my wills. This is clearly the difference between me and the cultivators in this place.”

Su Ming’s eyes sparkled. As he mumbled, he turned into a long arc that charged into the distant sky.

‘Right now, my most important task is to join Seven Moons Sect!’