Pursuit of the Truth

The young man’s head was thrown by Su Ming’s side. White Five let out a whine that Xu Hui could not understand, but the other four white dogs could.

“I’m also a Dao Paragon!” This was what White Five had said.

“I’m also a Dao Paragon!”

“Darn it all, if you lot are Dao Paragons, then I’m a Dao Paragon as well!”

All five white dogs whined at that moment, then laid down on their stomachs beside Su Ming and fiddled with the young man’s head.

Xu Hui sucked in a sharp breath, and her face turned even paler. When she looked at Su Ming, her gaze was filled with indescribable terror. The life and death pursuit she thought would certainly kill her had been easily resolved by Su Ming, but more importantly, he had not even attacked. The white dogs alone had done everything.

Xu Hui had been able to recognize the four old men beside the young man. They were sect elders from Cloud Sieve Sect, and their cultivation bases were practically over the roof. They were in Dao Divinity Realm, the stage that surpassed Avacaniya Realm!

Xu Hui did not know their precise level of cultivation, but to her, those four old men were powerful entities equivalent to the will of heaven. If she knew that they had been there since the beginning, she probably would have lost the courage to flee. However, those four were sent to protect the young man and would not bother to deal with her.

Yet those powerful warriors had been easily ripped apart by the white dogs of the person before her. Even the men’s souls were destroyed, which filled Xu Hui’s heart with indescribable fear.

“S-Senior…” Xu Hui trembled. Only when she spoke did she notice that she had regained mobility.

Su Ming sat down on a mountain rock. When he lifted his right hand, a few pots of wine appeared in front of him. They were all what he had prepared for the old man. At that moment, when he brought them out, he raised his head to look at the woman who had the exact same face as the woman in his memories.

“Drink.” Su Ming picked up a pot of wine and stared at the woman before him in a daze before he took a big swig.

Xu Hui’s face was pale, and she felt her skin crawl slightly from how Su Ming looked at her. He had such a high level of cultivation that he was the strongest person she had ever seen in her life… but his personality was very strange. He had actually asked her to drink wine.

Also, there seemed to be a hint of sadness in his eyes, and that sadness made her think that he was thinking of someone else when he looked at her. Xu Hui, thus, gritted her teeth, picked up a pot of wine, and drank a mouthful as well.

With it, a dash of red instantly appeared on her pale cheeks. When she put the pot of wine down, she quickly spoke.

“Senior, I can’t drink too much, I—”

“Drink!” Su Ming laughed while looking at Xu Hui before he picked up his pot and took a large gulp from it again.

‘Damn it… damn it! He might be a senior with unfathomable strength and have quite the pleasant face, but no matter what, he’s an old monster. Could it be that h-h-he… wants to make me drunk… and then use me as a furnace?!’

Xu Hui felt conflicted in her heart, but she did not dare to refuse to drink. She quickly forced herself to smile, then gritted her teeth and drank another mouthful.

With it, Xu Hi immediately felt a little tipsy. She might have quite a few urges when she practiced Dao, but she seldom drank. At that moment, she instinctively wanted to circulate her cultivation base, but when she saw that Su Ming did not do so, she became worried that once she did, it would cause the other to do something weird, what with his strange personality. A pitiful expression appeared on her face from the conflict in her heart.

Su Ming also took another mouthful of wine from his pot. His gaze was fixated on Xu Hui. In his mind, he saw the times when he drank with Xu Hui in Divine Essence Star Ocean.

Back then, his level of cultivation had not been as high, and his knowledge of the world was still incomplete; he still struggled against the forces of the world. But when he looked back, at that time, he was blessed, because everything that belonged to him was still around, and he was only separated from them by distance, unlike…

Su Ming lowered his head, and anguish from remembering the past appeared in his eyes. He raised his winepot and drank again.

“Xu Hui, this time, I’ll play fair and square …” Su Ming mumbled.

He had said those words softly, and the conflicted Xu Hui could not hear them. The pot of wine was still in her hands, and she did not know whether to put it down or continue holding it. An urge to throw all caution to the wind stirred in her, and she was about to tell Su Ming loudly that she did not drink when she caught sight of the five white dogs toying with the human head.

That one glance instantly stole her courage, and she had a vague feeling that if she refused to drink, there was a high possibility that the five white dogs would get to play with two human heads.

When Xu Hui thought of that, she felt indignant and decided to just raise her pot of wine and take a big swig from it.

Once she finished drinking, she put down her pot and suddenly notice Su Ming sway as if he could no longer handle the alcohol. This discovery immediately caused an idea to pop up in Xu Hui’s head, and her spirits lifted.

‘Heh heh, I’ll give it my all!’ she thought in her heart and immediately put on a charming expression before picking up a pot of wine to deliver it to Su Ming.

“Senior, thank you for saving my life! This is a toast of gratitude from me!” Xu Hui said. She took a big gulp first, and her petite face grew even redder.

Su Ming stared at her as if he was looking at the past and quietly drank.

“Senior, meeting is fate itself. Come, let’s drink again!”

“Senior, I have to thank you for saving me! One more toast!”

“Senior, I thank you for saving me again!”

“Senior, urk… let’s not say anything else, let’s just drink!”

“Senior, I still don’t know your name…”

The two of them drank mouthful after mouthful, and gradually, four pots of wine were emptied by them. Xu Hui was already drunk, but she found that even when she was drunk, she could still drink more. Instead, the senior who had a strange personality and harbored malicious intent became even drunker than her.

This filled her with confidence. When Su Ming brought out another four pots of wine, the two of them continued drinking. At the time the sky gradually turned dark and was adorned by glittering stars, Xu Hui stared at Su Ming with a silly smile.

“Drink up! Why aren’t you drinking?!”

Su Ming was drunk. He had always been a lightweight, and he did not want to use his cultivation base to get rid of the effects of alcohol. On top of that, this time, he wanted to become drunk. He did not want to cheat. Under the moonlight, he stared at Xu Hui, and his vision seemed to have become blurry, causing him to be unable to tell whether they were in Divine Essence Star Ocean or Ancient Zang.

“I’ll drink. Last time, I didn’t, but Xu Hui, this time… I will drink with you,” Su Ming mumbled. He picked up a pot of wine and drank a huge mouthful from it. At that moment, Xu Hui finally became certain that the strange senior did really treat her as someone else.

But she was curious why the senior named Su Ming would call out her own name even though he was seeing someone else through her.

‘Could it be that his old friend is also called Xu Hui?’ When that thought appeared in her head, she spoke softly while feeling tipsy.

“Yeah, you didn’t drink with me last time. I was the only one drinking, but you cheated. This time, you have to get drunk.”

When Su Ming heard it, he laughed.

“Dijiu Mo Sha, bring more wine here!” Su Ming shouted with a laugh, but no one answered his call. The mountain where they sat was not the mountain in Divine Essence Star Ocean. There was… no person called Dijiu Mo Sha there.

Su Ming fell silent and shook his head in anguish. He then brought out a few pots of wine himself and placed them by his side. When he did so, he sighed softly.

“If only life was as beautiful as it is in the beginning…”

This time, Xu Hui did hear his soft murmurs, and she stared at the senior who had been strange in her eyes. She saw sadness and grief in his eyes and how he seemed to be reminiscing about the past. She suddenly felt that the senior before her did not harbor any malicious thoughts. He only thought that she resembled his old friend after he saw her, which was why he had felt sentimental and asked her to drink with him.

Perhaps there had been a woman whom she resembled at some point in the passage of time who also sat on a mountain and drank with him under the night sky. That time… he cheated and did not drink too much.

Perhaps there was also a person called Dijiu Mo Sha by his side at that time, which was why he called out to him.

Xu Hui stared at Su Ming, and she gradually felt that he was a very pitiful man. She sighed softly.

‘He saved me, so I will… be his old friend for a while.’ When she thought of this, Xu Hui looked at Su Ming again, and a gentle look appeared in her eyes.

“Su Ming…” she said softly.

When she said those words, Su Ming’s hand, which had picked up a pot of wine in anguish, came to a swift halt. He stared at her in a daze.

“Don’t keep thinking about the past, please…” Xu Hui said softly and looked at Su Ming gently.

He stared back at her. At that instant, he could not quite tell who the person before him was. He slowly lifted his hand and touched the woman’s face.

“You didn’t finish drinking with me last time. This time, you did it. Don’t keep reminiscing about the past and making yourself sad. If you do… I will be sad as well…” Xu Hui said gently while looking at Su Ming.

She did not know why, but her heart suddenly ached in pain,. It was the first time she ever felt such pain in her life.

Su Ming’s hand swept past Xu Hui’s face. When his hand fell, he closed his eyes.

Time trickled by, an when the time it takes for one incense stick to burn passed, Su Ming opened his eyes, and when he looked at Xu Hui, a smile appeared on his face.

“Thank you, but you… are not her.”

Xu Hui bit her bottom lip. Her original intent was to pretend to be Su Ming’s old friend, but he had already woken up from his drunken stupor. Yet for a reason she did not understand herself, the pain in her heart had only grown stronger.

“I…” Xu Hui was about to say something, but she did not know what to say or even where to begin.

“Thank you for drinking with me… Where is Cloud Sieve Sect? Take me there, and I will help you get rid of your problems,” Su Ming said softly while standing up.

Xu Hui rose after him in a daze.

When Su Ming looked over, he lifted his right hand, intending to help her dispel her drunkenness, but Xu Hui took a few steps backwards and shook her head.

“Cloud Sieve Sect is about seven days south from this place…”

Once she said that, she closed her eyes. Her body became limp, and she fell.