Pursuit of the Truth

In the seventh layer of Sky Beyond the Sky, the white-robed teenager’s did not look sullen. No one could tell whether he was happy or angry. However, once he let out a soft sigh, a faint smile appeared on his face.

He stood up slowly and cast a glance at the incense stick, which only had three-tenths of its original size. When he lifted his head, his gaze landed on Gu Tai, and he wrapped his fist in his palm to bow slightly to the old man.

“I’ve lost this gamble, but senior, you are an elder… Using such methods in this gamble is just a little… But I am still impressed. I didn’t think that you would use our arrival as the key for the third prince to reach a breakthrough!

“If we didn’t come here, he would have needed several more centuries before he could reach a breakthrough,” the white-robed teenager said with a smile. When he spoke, there were not many changes in emotions in his words, but a dark light did flash in his eyes.

“He might not have needed several centuries, but he would indeed not have reached a breakthrough so soon. We would have to thank you for helping us this time, One Dao Sect,” Gu Tai said flatly, and his expression was as calm as ever. No changes of emotion could be detected, but right then, as he stood there, he made Sen Mu become even more wary of him.

He knew that he had not just lost the gamble with Su Ming, but the entire battle. From the moment they had made first contact, One Dao Sect had completely lost.

One Dao Sect had schemed and plotted everything. They had located Su Ming, predicted that Dao Han would use the Seven Moons Snow Rune… and had Tian He use the weakness of the Rune to sneak into the fifth layer of Sky Beyond the Sky. In fact, they had even planned for Sen Mu’s arrival in Seven Moons Sect and the sealing of the fifth layer. When he looked at them right then, however, they still seemed perfect at first glance, but there were flaws hidden inside.

Their plans had deceived almost every single person in all of Seven Moons Sect, the old Gu Tai had not been among them. However, Gu Tai had not tried to stop them. Instead, he had used the opportunity to achieve his goals and make Su Ming’s process of gaining his Dao Shadow even smoother. He used One Dao Sect’s strength to help Su Ming reach a breakthrough and fuse with his Seven Lives Art and reach Dao Spirit Realm!

Sen Mu could not saying anything about it. If they could plot against Seven Moons Sect, then Seven Moons Sect could naturally plot against them, and the agreement they had made… When Sen Mu looked back and examined it again, he found that it was not an agreement at all, but a trap…

“I’m impressed, truly impressed…”

The white-robed teenager cast a deep glance at the old Gu Tai before him. The old man had made a name for himself many years ago. His reputation in Ancient Zang was great, and with his own strength, he had brought Seven Moons Sect to power. Now, Sen Mu finally understood why some of the people in the sect regarded Seven Moons Sect so seriously.

Who they paid attention to was not Seven Moons Sect… but Gu Tai!

“Since you lost, then I will make you pay for your loss, as per our agreement.”

At the instant Gu Tai said those words flatly, he lifted his right hand and seized the air in the direction of the sky. With it, the entire seventh layer trembled. All the seals in the fifth layer were instantly dissolved.

At the same instant, a huge hand manifested in the snow and wind formed by the Seven Moons Snow Rune Dao Han controlled. The hand did not try to seize anything in any direction, but just clenched its fist.

The wind and snow instantly looked as if they had become still, but the next moment, when the hand unfurled, an even more violent and stronger wave of ice and snow compared to the one before instantly stirred up an unprecedented wave of madness.

Howls resounded through the air. Wherever the snow and wind went, all the cultivators from One Dao Sect were instantly frozen. Their life force was immediately extinguished, and they turned into ice statues.

If anyone looked over, they would find that the ice statues numbered to tens of thousands. As the blizzard swirled in the area, cracking sounds rang out in the air. Cries of surprise and shrill, panicked screams shot up as One Dao Sect cultivators cast their divine abilities. Some of them had pure terror on their faces, some of them were about to retreat, and some of them charged forward ferociously, but no matter what they did, their actions became relics of the past, because at that moment, their bodies… were all frozen into ice statues!

From a distance, it looked like the ground had become a world of snow and ice. All the cultivators in it who were not from Seven Moons Sect… turned into ice statues at that moment!

There were nearly one hundred thousand of them. The sight of it was so shocking that anyone who saw it would feel their hearts tremble.

Only the black-robed old man who had fought against Dao Han previously watched everything in shock. Without any hesitation, he retreated through the blizzard. The sense of death being close instantly filled his heart, but as he moved back, cracking sounds came from his body. Frost covered him. Before he could even take one thousand feet, he was frozen and became an ice statue.

Still, he was a cultivator in Dao Spirit Realm. He screamed shrilly and formed a seal with his hands, which made black smoke surround him. With a bang, one crack was formed in the layer of ice. However, it was enough for the black-robed old man to move and vanish.

Yet the moment he disappeared, a red flash shot out of the blizzard. It was a drop of blood, Dao Han’s blood. The long arc trailing behind the drop of blood instantly crystallized into a sharp shard of ice.

The moment the black-robed old man vanished, it followed him, and a muffled groan could be heard from the crack in the ice. That groan was very faint, but it sounded like the owner had been injured badly.

Clearly, even though the black-robed old man had managed to escape, he had paid a devastating price for it.

But it had not ended just yet. Once all the One Dao Sect cultivators on the ground turned into ice statues, the cracks on the ground and all the shattered regions in the area were covered by snow and wind. Ice that looked like a mirror covered the ground. If anyone looked from a distance, they would not see any cracks beyond Seven Moons Sect.

Moments later, the blizzard shot up towards the sky. The outline of one of One Dao Sect’s statues formed by the cracks in the sky was swiftly dissipating, wanting to leave before the blizzard could touch it, but it was still a step too slow. At the moment it was about to disappear, cracking sounds shot out from it, and the outline formed by the cracks was instantly frozen in the sky. The ice swiftly spread out, and before long, it turned the outline into an ice statue!

“Progenitor Sen Mu, save me!”

An anxious cry of surprise rang out in the air, but the white-robed teenager’s face remained as calm as ever while he was in the seventh layer of Sky Beyond the Sky. He remained smiling as he stared at the old Gu Tai before him, but an icy look had appeared in his dark glare.

He did not move, however. It was part of their bet. With his status and his level of cultivation, he could do shameless acts, but he could not break his promises.

The incense stick continued burning, but there were only two-tenths of it left. However, after Su Ming wrapped his fist in his palm and bowed to the seventh layer while he was in the fifth layer, he spoke slowly.

“Sect Elder, please don’t freeze all of them. These people schemed against me, but I only managed to kill one of them. It’ll be difficult for me to be at peace with myself if that happens.”

While saying that, Su Ming took a step forward and left the fifth layer of Sky Beyond the Sky to arrive in the blizzard-ridden world in the first layer of Sky Beyond the Sky. He swept his gaze across the ground and saw the near one hundred thousand ice statues. Then, he lifted his head and looked at the outline of the statue being frozen. With a single move, he turned into a black long arc that charged at the right eye of the statue’s outline.

“Oh?”

In the seventh layer of Sky Beyond the Sky, the old Gu Tai’s eyes brightened up. A faint smile appeared on his lips, and there was a hint of praise in his gaze.

The old Gu Tai had not expected that Su Ming would make such a decision. At that moment, when he shook his head with a smile, an aggressive and overbearing look appeared in his eyes, and he looked at the white-robed teenager.

Sen Mu remained silent. He did not speak. Instead, he turned around, and his gaze seemed to see through Seven Moons Sect at where Su Ming was moving. His pupils shrank slightly.

“Indeed, the members of the royal family are not people whom we can humiliate at will.”

While the white-robed teenager spoke softly, Su Ming charged into the right eye of the statue’s outline in a long black arc.

At the instant he stepped inside, he appeared above the lake in the world within the right eye. The lake had already turned into ice by then. In truth, the entire world had already been covered by ice and snow. Only… the pavilion at the center of the lake remained untouched, and it was the only other color besides the slew of white in the world.

There were two middle-aged scholars sitting and meditating in the pavilion right then. It looked like they were using all of their cultivation base to fight against being frozen.

If any outsider saw it right then, they would definitely find the scene somewhat familiar. It was similar to when Tian He had approached Su Ming, who had been meditating at that time. However, right then, their positions had been reversed. The two scholars were meditating, and Su Ming had come with the intent to kill.

Su Ming would naturally not waste time with nonsense and idle chit chat, like Tian He. The moment he appeared, he closed in on the two scholars. The middle-aged men opened their eyes together, revealing their eyes that were nearly frozen.

To others, those two people would be incredibly powerful, but Su Mingcould tell that one of them was in the second level of Dao Divinity Realm, and the other was in the first level of Dao Divinity Realm. By the time they opened their eyes, Su Ming had closed in on them, lifted his right hand, and pointed forward.

The scholar who was in the second level of Dao Divinity Realm immediately growled. He coughed up blood, and his blood instantly turned into a blood-red screen of light. It should have blocked Su Ming, but the moment his body touched the blood-red screen of light, it disappeared.

The pupils of the scholar in the second level of Dao Divinity Realm shrank. The moment he wanted to dodge the attack, Su Ming’s right index finger penetrated the back of his head, and the scholar jolted. He instantly turned black, and his body and soul were destroyed.

“You were the one who orchestrated this plot?”

Su Ming pulled his right hand back. When he turned around, he looked at the other scholar. That scholar’s face was pale. He remained seated, but when he looked at Su Ming coldly, his face turned red. The power of self-destruction spread out of his body with a bang. An arrogant sneer appeared on his lips, and it held the pride of someone who would rather die by their own hand instead of being killed by someone else.

“It’s not that easy seeking death,” Su Ming said faintly.