Pursuit of the Truth

At the instant Su Ming stepped into the black hole while being swept up by the suction force from the vortex, his vision blurred, but it swiftly passed away. When his eyes became clear, he saw a desolate wasteland.

Countless shattered stones floated in midair, and there were countless cracks on the ground. Some parts of the ground had already crumbled, and the sky was no longer blue, but gray. When Su Ming looked around, he saw no plants in the area, only a thick wave of aura of death. It was continuously spreading over the ground.

The five white dogs beside Su Ming had gone missing, but he still had a connection with them in his heart. They could also sense Su Ming and were swiftly heading towards him.

Right before Su Ming was a floating rock that was about ten thousand feet big. There was a simple altar on it which had nine layers but looked very broken. Atop it was a tree that seemed to have been petrified. If anyone took a closer look, they would see that it had nine branches, and at the end of each branch was a butterfly!

When Su Ming at the altar, his eyes shone, and he instantly charged forward. When he closed in, he landed on the altar and stared at the petrified tree with burning eyes. Most of his attention was on the nine butterflies.

The butterflies were practically the same as the Harmonious Morus Albas Su Ming had seen.

It caused his heart to tremble. Suddenly, he turned his head to the right, for he caught sight of a figure appear out of nowhere there. It belonged to a middle-aged man dressed in a long blue robe. He looked wary, and moments later, his gaze fell on Su Ming and the altar beneath his feet.

When the middle-aged man swept his gaze past Su Ming, he had managed to tell his level of cultivation, which was betrayed by a smile that immediately appeared on his face. He walked to Su Ming while spreading out his cultivation base out of his body. It told Su Ming that the person was a powerful warrior in the fourth level of Dao Spirit Realm.

Su Ming cast a look at the altar. There were about one hundred thousand of them in the first layer. Without saying a word, he turned around, intending to leave. He wanted to observe the strange world a little more, and there was no need for him to stop for a long time for one altar anyway.

When he saw that Su Ming was about to leave, the middle-aged man smiled faintly, but right when he was about to step onto the altar, he narrowed his eyes and took another look at Su Ming, who was leaving the place.

“Your face… You… You are Seven Moons Sect’s third prince!”

The middle-aged man jolted, and crazed delight appeared in his eyes. He no longer paid any attention to the altar, but instead, turned into a long arc that charged towards Su Ming.

“Haha! Today my luck is great! Not only did I find an altar, I also the third prince with a bounty on his head set by One Dao Sect and Asura Clan!

“You are merely in the third level of Dao Spirit Realm. Today, I am destined to receive my serendipity!”

When the middle-aged man’s laughter echoed in the air, his body turned into a long arc that charged towards Su Ming. A light crease appeared on Su Ming’s brow, and his lips curled up in a cold sneer.

He had intended to leave, but since the middle-aged man did not want him to leave… but wished to die instead, if Su Ming did not grant his wish, he would definitely not leave the man satisfied.

“I can try out the Space Whip.”

When Su Ming lifted his right hand, the red thread on his wrist disappeared. The sky immediately roared, and a huge shadow of a whip that seemed to have been formed by stars descended on the ground. When it surrounded Su Ming, the middle-aged man’s expression changed. He came to a swift halt before he began moving backwards. A hint of shock appeared on his face, which had become solemn. He formed a seal with his hands, and an armor appeared on his body. He also called upon ten layers of light screens formed by Runes.

But even so, the instant Su Ming swung his whip, booming sounds rang out in the air. The ten layers of Runes instantly fell apart, and the armor crumbled as well.

The middle-aged man coughed up blood when the whip touched his body. His mind was swiftly thrown into chaos, as if the whip had not just struck his body, but had also entered his mind and throw his thoughts into disarray.

After he coughed up blood, a shrill scream of pain came out of his mouth.

With a single move, Su Ming closed in on the man. When he lifted his right hand, the mark of the crescent moon on his palm shone, and he pushed it at the center of the man’s brow.

At the instant Su Ming’s right hand came into contact with the man’s forehead, a huge suction force erupted from the palm. The middle-aged man’s pained scream immediately reached an incredibly shrill degree, and his body withered in a moment. A large amount of life force and cultivation base surged into the mark on Su Ming’s palm in just the span of a few breaths, and as the shrill screams grew weaker until they disappeared, the middle-aged man was reduced to only an emaciated and withered corpse before Su Ming!

His soul and everything about him had left his body.

Su Ming’s expression was calm. He had the old man’s divine ability, the mark, the Space Whip, the wills of the four Great True Worlds, and even his level of cultivation was just slightly weaker than that of the middle-aged man. If he could only win after fighting against him for a while, he would not be Su Ming.

He pulled his right hand back, and when the red thread appeared on his wrist, he took a step and returned to the altar he just left. When he stood on it, he lifted his left hand, and a jade slip appeared in his hand, which he pushed against the trunk of the petrified tree. The jade slip immediately shone, and the petrified tree on the altar looked life force had returned to its body; it started to gradually resurrect.

When it returned to life, a mild fragrance spread out. Su Ming took a sniff of it, and his eyes immediately shone. He noticed that once he took a whiff of that fragrance, his level of cultivation had increased a little bit.

With that fragrance around, his Dao Spirit in his third eye felt very comfortable. His fourth overlapping Dao Spirit had manifested a little more as well.

Gu Tai had never talked about this before, but based on logic, it was impossible for him not to mention that the altars could increase their levels of cultivation. After all, even if he did not say it, Su Ming would notice it.

Because of that, there could only be one explanation for the unexpected situation.

A brilliant sparkle immediately appeared in Su Ming’s eyes.

‘Could it be that this fragrance doesn’t help other people’s level of cultivation?’

Su Ming’s eyes shone. When about twenty breaths passed, the petrified tree on the altar returned returned to its best state. A pillar of light then shot into the sky.

It could be seen even from the distance… since the moment it appeared, Su Ming saw quite a few others charge into the sky.

Those pillars of light meant that there were quite a few altars that had been activated at that moment!

The pillars of light would exist eternally. However, they could be replaced by other sects and clans at any time, so once they appeared, they were like beacons of light to people from the other sects and clans.

Su Ming sank into a brief period of pensive silence, thinking about the fragrance appeared when the altar was activated. He then charged into the distance, checking the jade slip along the way to head to the gathering spot for the cultivators of Seven Moons Sect based on the guide, and on the way, he searched for altars.

After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, an altar that had been activated showed up ahead of Su Ming. There was a young man who had a jade slip pressed against a petrified tree, which was already partially resurrected. There were four other cultivators beside him—dressed in the same manner as him—who were fighting to the death against four others, preventing them from interfering with the young man’s actions.

Once Su Ming saw this, his eyes sparkled, and he turned into a long arc that charged to the ground. He traveled so fast that in just the span of a few breaths, he arrived among the eight people fighting against each other.

His level of cultivation surpassed theirs by a lot, and the moment he closed in, their expressions changed. It was especially so for the young man who was activating the altar, for even his pupils shrank in fear.

Booming sounds echoed in the air. Su Ming’s arrival had stirred up a huge gust of wind that blew away all eight of the dueling cultivators. His body seemed to have turned into an afterimage when he appeared on the altar. He lifted his right hand, swung it, and immediately, the young man, who was already halfway into activating the altar, coughed up blood. He moved back swiftly without hesitation, and when he glared at Su Ming with a hateful gaze, he saw Su Ming standing on the altar with a jade slip on his left hand. He pushed it against the tree.

The eight people who were blown off turned their heads around and left in silence, not bothering to stay back. Even the young man with the hateful look did not say anything, choosing to leave immediately.

When the twenty breaths were over, a pillar of light appeared on the altar where Su Ming was. It shot into the sky, and when the sweet-smelling fragrance spread out, Su Ming sensed his cultivation base change again. A fierce glare appeared in his eyes, and when the fragrance disappeared, he turned into a long arc that charged into the distance.

An hour later, Su Ming had passed multiple altars in the first layer. He tried to leave Seven Moons Sect’s Brand on the altars which had been activated with his jade slip, but while he had managed to change the pillar of light’s color, no fragrance spread out, and it made Su Ming understand that the altars would only release it during the initial activation.

It seemed like a wave of spiritual aura had accumulated over a long period of time in the altar and was released once it was activated. That spiritual aura was useless to others, but to Su Ming, it was an incredibly valuable supplement!

He made some detailed calculations in his head. If he could activate all one hundred thousand altars, then the aura he could absorb would be enough for his cultivation to increase by a level!

But that was quite impossible. However… they were still in the first layer. There was also the second and third layers…

A brilliant sparkle shone in Su Ming’s eye, and his heart had already become invigorated.