Pursuit of the Truth

While in that state of spiritual quietness, Su Ming did not think about anything complicated. In fact, he did not think even about Ancient Zang. In that spiritual quietness and calmness in his mind, he silently let time pass.

If he did think about something, then it was about what sort of road he pursued.

He immersed himself in the state of spiritual quietness, the Tree of Dao Verification’s growth, and the transformation of the world. Those experiences were something that no cultivator had ever obtained.

Be it in Ancient Zang or this world in the past, there had never been a cultivator who could sense a world’s transformation like Su Ming—by fusing with the Tree of Dao Verification’s will and personally witnessing everything.

The Tree of Dao Verification… its namesake meant to verify Daos, and right then, what Su Ming did was akin to… verifying Daos as well!

The seasons passed one after another. Soon, the ocean returned to its former glory. When the Tree of Dao Verification grew from one hundred thousand feet to one million feet, its trunk occupied a small part of the ocean and it stood tall at the center…

However, the tree crown had already grown to the point where it covered the entire ocean and reached the sky.

Green life gradually appeared in the nine continents surrounding the ocean. It filled the lands, and the nine continents slowly gained complete mountain ranges. Rivers began to flow, and more lives slowly appeared in the world.

Su Ming experienced all of it personally. It was just as Hao Hao had said… if Su Ming helped him, Hao Hao would help him in return. Over the years, Hao Hao used his actions to explain what he meant by those words.

To Su Ming, such a serendipity surpassed the limits of what any cultivator could ever know. The value and rarity of such an experience was never felt by anyone in the past, and Su Ming could say with certainty that in the future, it would also be difficult for anyone else to obtain it.

He saw the transformation of a world and the Tree of Dao Verification growing to reach the skies and cover the world from a seed. Being able to witness and experience this personally was Su Ming’s greatest serendipity in life.

While experiencing that growth, Su Ming gradually gained his epiphany. As time went by, it slowly became clearer. When another hundred years passed. Su Ming had already been in the world for one thousand seven hundred years… In the state of spiritual quietness, his eighth overlapping Dao Paragon in his third eye became clear from its initial blurry form. It slowly manifested until it gained complete form…

As it gained complete form, the power Hao Hao had given Su Ming before slowly merged with him. In truth, Su Ming had only been able to reach his level of cultivation because of the Phala as well as all that Hao Hao had given him.

What Hao Hao gave him was all the life force in the former Tree of Dao Verification. The strength of it was enough to transform Su Ming’s level of cultivation, and while he bore testimony to the Tree of Dao Verification’s continuous growth from a seed to its current height, the epiphany resulted in the metamorphosis of his cultivation base.

After fusing with the life force Hao Hao provided for one thousand something years, Su Ming’s eighth Dao Paragon was fully formed, but even then, Su Ming did not open his eyes. However, the eighth Dao Paragon in his third eye had already reached a certain level, and he needed to fuse it with something before he could break through Dao Immortal Realm and become one of the Great Dao Paragons.

However, that fusion was not simple. If any accidents occurred, then everything would end up in vain. But Su Ming did not pay any attention to it or spare it any thought. He just meditated quietly.

Changes happened every year in the world outside. As the mountains and rivers were restored in the nine continents, as green filled the lands, as the final one hundred years of Su Ming’s second millennium passed, the nine continents returned to their former glory.

When Su Ming looked over, spiritual aura was within the land, and a hint of spirituality appeared in the seawater. Besides still having no living creatures in it, the world was completely different from before.

The roots of the Tree of Dao Verification had already filled half of the ocean while the tree crown had already surpassed the surface of the ocean and even covered a small part of the nine continents.

The tree was nearly ten million feet tall. When Su Ming looked over, he could not see the sky. The only thing he saw was the endless Tree of Dao Verification.

The spot where Su Ming sat could be considered the deep parts of the Tree of Dao Verification, but there was always a path laid out before him that stretched far into the world beyond. From the distance, the road was like a crack. It was the path the Tree of Dao Verification had left for Su Ming.

When three centuries of the third millennium went by, the sky in the world outside could no longer be seen from the ground. The only thing that could be seen was the Tree of Dao Verification’s crown, which had replaced the sky!

The sky was not blue, but green, and the green sky… was the one that truly belonged to that world! The tree crown no longer just covered a small part of the nine continents. Instead, with the central sea as the center, it had continuously spread out for one thousand something years and completely covered all of the nine continents. It did not stop there though and continued to spread to the end of the world.

Because of it, the nine continents and the world looked like they were protected beneath the Tree of Dao Verification’s crown…

This scene caused Su Ming’s epiphany to become clearer. A great, majestic presence appeared around him while he meditated, and when it spread out, it caused Su Ming to slowly open his eyes. However, his eyes no longer held the quiet emptiness born from spiritual quietness. It was as if when he opened his eyes, he did not see the area around him, but the world outside, and when he closed his eyes again, his epiphany was kept in his heart.

Before him was the world that had amazed the Emperor of Ancient Zang when he first stepped into it once he tore through space after he reached Boundless Dao Realm.

It was also the reason why he placed such a high value on the Tree of Dao Verification. It was… a tree that served as the guardian of an entire world!

At the start of the third century in the third millennium since Su Ming came to that place, the Tree of Dao Verification’s crown replaced the sky, and lives appeared on the land.

Trees appeared, living creatures appeared… and all of them created the cycle of life for a world. Su Ming watched all of it from the beginning to the end. Like that, seven hundred years of the third millennium went by.

Two thousand seven hundred years had passed since Su Ming stepped into that world. To a mortal, this amount of time was perhaps enough for several dynasties to come and go, for living through several cycles of life and death. Even a cultivator would feel like it’s a long time if they had to live through it.

Su Ming opened his eyes at that moment. He had been silent for a long time. When he slowly stood up, it was the first time in nearly two thousand years. Once he got up, he walked forward, down the path left for him by the Tree of Dao Verification. The roots behind him slowly closed up, destroying the path he walked.

When Su Ming walked out of the path made from the roots of the Tree of Dao Verification and the ocean, he walked into the sky. He stood in the air, and when he looked over, he saw that the green sky was the tree crown, and the blue beneath him was the ocean. It surrounded the nine continents filled with in abundance with lives. The world… had been completely changed.

Its former glory had returned, and whether or not brilliant flowers would bloom again would depend on the living beings who were born in the place to personally create them in the future.

A smile appeared on Su Ming’s lips. When he swept his gaze past the land, his third eye opened… to reveal his power of an eighth level Great Dao Paragon!

It was a white light. It filled Su Ming’s third eye, causing others to be unable to see the Great Dao Paragons contained in his pupil. What they saw was only the endless white.

When he used his third eye to glance at the earth, Su Ming saw Di Tian’s city and several figures around him. At that moment, the smile on Di Tian’s face was one that Su Ming had never seen before.

After watching him for a long time, Su Ming shifted his gaze away and looked at Lei Chen, Dark Mountain, the tribe under the mountain, and heard the cheers and laughter filling that tribe. It was enveloped in joy.

Be it Di Tian or Lei Chen, they had chosen that place and chosen to lose their way. Yet no matter what, since they had chosen to be lost right there, they would naturally be affected by the changes in the world.

However, they could not see the effects themselves, just like how Lin Dong Dong could not. He was on the sixth continent at that moment. His eyes were bloodshot, and his hair was a mess. He looked like a mad man, and he was still searching for Su Ming’s ‘real body’. He believed that once he killed him, he could rob him of his kismet and go back to Ancient Zang.

After a long while, Su Ming closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he looked at the Tree of Dao Verification. It had provided him with a great amount of cultivation base and given him the serendipity of being able to see a world’s transformation.

Because of that, Su Ming wrapped his fist in his palm and bowed deeply to the Tree of Dao Verification.

That bow immediately caused the Tree of Dao Verification to rumble and shake. As it shook, a gap appeared in the green tree crown serving as the sky. It grew wider, and the sunlight from the sky beyond spilled through the gap and shone on Su Ming.

When he lifted his head, he saw the gap that had appeared in the green sky and knew that Hao Hao… had opened a path for him to return to Ancient Zang.

In silence, Su Ming cast a glance around him again to remember everything about that place. Then, he turned into a long arc that charged to the gap in the sky. When he moved through it, he saw a huge vortex in the sky. The center of it was a black hole, and there was a powerful suction force coming out of it at that moment. It enveloped Su Ming, drawing him closer to it.

Su Ming’s expression was calm, and when he approached the black hole, he lowered his head. Then, he saw a boy of about five years old standing on the tree crown beneath him. He was staring at him with an innocent smile on his face and… waving.

“Big brother, bye bye… Remember me, okay?”

When Su Ming looked at the boy, a gentle smile appeared on his face, and he too waved at him until he disappeared into the black hole.