Pursuit of the Truth

“What about me?” Su Ming smiled faintly. A faint light shone in his eyes, and when he spoke faintly, he took a step forward.

The old man with the cheeks of a monkey turned incredibly pale. He instinctively stepped back and nearly fell down. He looked as if he had seen a ghost, but as a cultivator, he still had some semblance of self-control. When he moved back, he sucked in a deep breath and quickly forced a smile on his lips, but that smile looked even worse than a crying expression.

“It’s-it’s nothing. I didn’t know that you have descended to this place, senior. I was even trying to sell you all those scrapped medicinal pills just now. Please forgive me, senior. I hope that you will not punish me,” the old man said quickly. At that moment, he seemed to have calmed down, and he sounded as if he was begging for forgiveness.

“Oh?” Su Ming stared at the old man in front of him with the ghost of a smile on his face. When he took a step forward again, the old man’s face changed, and he quickly took a few steps back.

“Did you truly manage to tell that my status of a senior… or do you know me?!”

Su Ming’s eyes instantly shone brilliantly. When he took another step forward, the old man let out a shrill cry, but this time, he did not move back. Instead, he knelt in front of Su Ming with a loud thump.

“Senior, please forgive me, please spare my life, I didn’t know about you before this. I only just… only just realized that you don’t have a shadow under your feet. Only then did I come to understand that you are a senior in the sect who has gained some achievements in terms of practicing the Seven Lives Art,” the old man explained while shuddering.

Su Ming frowned and scrutinized the old man before him. The man’s face and his words when he peddled his medicinal cores caused Su Ming’s memories to surge. He felt as if he had returned to the Wind Stream Tribe and he had just met the old man named Bei Qiong!

Besides his clothes, everything about the old man from his memories matched the person before his eyes. That old man had tried to sell Su Ming some medicinal herbs, and he had even given him a torn storage bag.

Originally, when he had noticed him, Su Ming had not paid him any attention. The old man before him was not the first familiar person he ran into in the rather strange world he inhabited as of right then. Be it Tian Xie Zi, the quite different looking De Shun, or Lan Lan, all of them gave Su Ming a unique feeling.

Because of that, while Su Ming had recognized the old man, he had not shown any signs of it on his face. There were also not many emotions in his heart. He only kept an eye on the matter.

But when the old man had looked at Su Ming for real… he had shown an expression which could not be controlled. This immediately caused Su Ming to show great interest towards him.

After all, Su Ming’s appearance was not his original one, but that of Wang Tao. If the old man knew Wang Tao, he would have let it slide, but even if he knew Wang Tao before this, it was impossible for him to be that shocked upon seeing him.

Unless… he had participated in Wang Tao’s death, but eight years had passed since that matter had transpired. Even if he had truly participated in Wang Tao’s death, with the old man’s level of cultivation, he would not have such a lack of self-control and be so shocked by Su Ming that all blood would drain from his face.

There was one more explanation for it, and it was the one that stirred up the greatest amount of Su Ming’s interest. It was possible… that the old man truly knew him. Not Wang Tao, but Su Ming himself!

With this guess, Su Ming took a few steps forward, and the mighty pressure that spread out from them were all solely directed at the old man. Under that sort of oppression, he wanted to make the old man break down. It would make it more likely that he would tell the truth.

But Su Ming did not expect that under his oppression, the old man had provided a different kind of explanation. It sounded quite plausible, and when he thought about it carefully, it fitted the situation from before quite well.

Which was why Su Ming furrowed his brow.

The old man knelt down with a thud. When he had spoken before, his voice had not been soft, and the scene had caught the attention of the Seven Moons Sect disciples in the area. Many of them looked over, and there were even some people who were already rushing over.

The matter concerned Su Ming’s secret. He did not want to complicate anything, and he could not find any loopholes in the old man’s explanation anyway. Su Ming observed the old man once more, but he only found terror on his face. Besides that, he saw no other emotions.

“You can leave now.” A barely noticeable glint shone in Su Ming’s eyes.

Sweat had broken out on the old man’s forehead. Before Su Ming gave him the permission, he did not dare stand up. But when Su Ming spoke and the mighty pressure on him vanished, he quickly stood up, and respect appeared on his face. His expression spoke that he had just escaped death. There was also a hint of regret on his face, as if he was regretting his act of peddling his medicinal cores to Su Ming just then.

All of his expressions fit what he had said earlier. Once he stood up, he quickly wrapped his fist in his palm and bowed deeply to Su Ming.

“Thank you, senior. Thank you so much.” After he spoke, he turned around and quickly walked away.

Su Ming looked at the old man’s back. When his eyes sparkled in a faint light, he suddenly spoke up. “Bei Qiong.”

The old man did not seem to have heard his words. He did not stop for even a moment. When he was about to leave into the distance, Su Ming smiled faintly.

“I still have your storage bag. It once belonged to you, and even if thousands of years have passed, I still have a way of taking your presence from it. You… can’t leave.”

Su Ming’s words reached only the old man’s ears. At the instant he heard them, he staggered slightly. Even though he instantly recovered his footing, his expression had already changed. He knew that at the instant he staggered, he had already exposed himself, and just when he hesitated…

“As I thought, it’s you!” Su Ming growled.

With it, the old man looked like a startled bird. He instinctively began to run, wanting to quickly flee, but Su Ming did not rush after him. When he saw the old man fleeing hastily, a cold sneer appeared on his lips.

Su Ming took a step forward, but right then, several figures swiftly appeared from the towers before the old man. No one could fly in the sect, so they could only walk briskly. The person in the lead was a black-robed old man, and there were eight cultivators following behind him.

“How preposterous! Who would dare to insult my disciple!”

The black-robed old man laughed coldly. With a swing of his arm, he charged towards the land. Clearly, someone had told him about Bei Qiong kneeling down before someone. When he approached, Bei Qiong quickly cried out for help.

“Master, please save me! Please save me! This person… This scoundrel wants to snatch my medicinal cores!”

The old man did not react to the plea, but the people following behind him had strange expressions.

Everyone in the first layer of Seven Moons Sect knew of Bei Qiong’s personality. If there was truly a scoundrel around, then Bei Qiong was the most deserving of that title.

“I’d like to see just which disciple has the guts to commit such acts of violence in the sect! This is an offense against the laws of the sect, and you must be chased out of the sect!”

While the old man spoke with a cold sneer, he walked out of a jade pavement beside a tower in the sect, then looked at Su Ming.

After that first glance, his expression changed drastically. He sucked in a sharp breath and took a few staggering steps backwards. Even the people behind him had stunned expressions on their faces. They did not know Su Ming. Their stunned expressions were due to the black-robed old man’s change in expression and his instinctive reaction.

The old man groaned in his heart. Before, he had been striding forward from the jade pavement between the towers, which was why he did not see Su Ming. He had only thought that Su Ming was just a conceited disciple who did not know how things worked and had decided to bully his disciple.

Yet when he walked out while burning with rage and saw Su Ming, his heart let out a heavy thump. Other people might not recognize Su Ming, but there was no way he would forget him.

The old man was naturally Old Chen who had guided Wang Tao in the past, the boy Su Ming Possessed!

Since Su Ming stepped into the inner sect, the old man had harbored a grudge for the first few years, and his heart had been filled with uneasiness and anxiety. He was afraid that Su Ming would return to cause him trouble. Even though there was a huge difference between their levels of cultivation, Su Ming had become an inner sect disciple, so was different. There were plenty of methods for Su Ming to make the old man’s life miserable…

But quite a few years had passed since then. When he saw that nothing happened to him, his old arrogance returned. It was especially so as of right then, after eight years had passed. Due to Su Ming forgetting the matter, the old man had also almost completely forgotten about it.

But it had never stopped being a thorn in his side. It constantly caused him to feel anxious, and it was especially so when he heard that Su Ming seemed to have come under the tutelage of some sect elder when he went around asking for information. It had even left him to be terrified for some time.

However, there had been no news about Su Ming for eight years, and gradually, he buried his fears at the bottom of his heart.

When he saw Su Ming again, everything that transpired eight years ago instantly appeared in his head, and his raging heart filled with nervousness. He might not be afraid of Su Ming based on his level of cultivation, but he held incredible respect for the sect elder behind Su Ming. With a sect elder that he could not figure out no matter how he asked about, the old man had grown extremely nervous.

When Su Ming’s gaze landed on Old Chen, he spoke flatly. “You’re the one who wants to chase me out of the sect?”

Old Chen’s expression changed. Before he could speak, a middle-aged man from the eight people beside him laughed coldly. He pointed at Su Ming and shouted.

“How dare you not kneel down and greet Attendant Chen when you see him? Whose disciple are you? Call the attendant in charge of you. We have to settle this matter, or else—”

That man was clearly used to being arrogant. His expression was ferocious, but before he could finish speaking, Old Chen turned back to slap him, pushing the man one hundred something feet backwards.

“Damn it, how dare you?! Is it your place to speak?!” the old man shouted in exasperation. When he looked at Su Ming, he quickly forced a smile on his face, then wrapped his fist in his palm and bowed to him.

“So it’s Brother Wang. Haha, it’s been eight years since we last met, and your elegance is greater than before. Haha, I didn’t manage to recognize at first. I hope you do not mind.”

As Old Chen spoke, he bowed again with his fist in his palm.

This action and his words immediately stunned the people in the area. They all looked at Su Ming simultaneously. After all, Old Chen was incredibly domineering in the outer sect. It was especially so after Wang Tao was chosen to join the inner sect.

The old man had been promoted to chief attendant based on the rules of the sect. After that, there was rarely anyone who dared to provoke him in the outer sect.

Yet right then… he was acting as if everything was not like that, and all the disciples in the area began making assumptions towards Su Ming’s identity.