Pursuit of the Truth

Bai Lu died. Just like Chi Yang’s, his cultivation base and his spirit scattered. From then on, he would no longer walk the face of the earth. When Bai Lu’s eyes lost their luster, another of the statues in One Dao Sect shattered with a bang, and the entire world shook. Most of One Dao Sect disciples below crumbled while the ground trembled and the mountains shook.

The disciples’ souls and kismet had been extracted by Bai Lu. Right then, the only thing left of them was their body, but when the world shuddered, they were reduced to ashes… Only Sen Mu remained in all of One Dao Sect.

He stood in midair while watching everything around him in silence. Grief showed up on his face, along with an air of resignation and helplessness that came from the bottom of his heart. Su Ming was so strong that he had killed Chi Yang and Bai Lu in succession, and it set his status as the strongest below the ninth level of Dao Gods in stone.

His strength was such that he could even ignore the Emperor’s rule. His act of killing Great Dao Paragons, who were in the same Realm as him, filled Sen Mu with anguish.

“With such a disaster falling on One Dao Sect… this is the end of our good fortune. If that’s the case, then what is the point for me to remain alive?!”

When Sen Mu looked at Su Ming in midair, he laughed forlornly, then lifted his right hand to form a seal before he pushed his palm at the center of his brow. His body immediately let out a bang, and when the air around him distorted, nearly one hundred figures of men and women appeared. They were his one hundred reincarnations.

All one hundred of them were released at once. When they surrounded him, they were just like his clones, but when Su Ming looked at them, he saw that all of the reincarnations had different expressions.

They became clear from their initial blurry states while they were around Sen Mu. Then, they turned vivid and alive, and great sorrow appeared in Sen Mu’s eyes. He turned into a long arc that charged at Su Ming.

The one hundred figures beside him also turned into long arcs and charged at Su Ming.

There was desire for death about Sen Mu.

He was One Dao Sect’s Great Dao Paragon. If One Dao Sect was reduced to such a state, then there was no point to continue living for him, and he had said that out loud. He did not want to live alone, and he also knew… that Su Ming would not let him live.

If that was the case, he would rather die with his sect. Even if his body would be destroyed, his cultivation base scattered, and his soul disintegrated, he wanted to stay by his sect’s side in the underworld. With the desire for death, the long arc, which was Sen Mu, as well as one hundred incarnations charged at Su Ming with a howl.

When they closed in, with a calm expression, Su Ming slowly lifted his right hand. Waves of black light spread out of his third eye and gathered on his right hand, which then was sheathed in piercing dark light. It had the terrifying power that broke the Emperor’s rule.

Su Ming saw Sen Mu’s desire to die. Since he chose it, then Su Ming would just grant him his wish.

There were very few things that could change his desire to destroy One Dao Sect, but the moment he lifted his right hand, his gaze landed on one of the one hundred reincarnations around Sen Mu, and his eyes focused on that figure.

It was a man, which was like a flower. He was handsome, but there was a determined, resolute look on his face. He… was Su Ming’s second senior brother.

There were few things that could change Su Ming’s desire to destroy One Dao Sect… but his second senior brother was one of them! The moment Su Ming saw him among Sen Mu’s one hundred reincarnations, memories of the past rose in his heart.

All his memories regarding his second senior brother flashed in Su Ming’s mind, and he fell silent while staring at his second senior brother. In the end, his gaze landed on Sen Mu, and when he looked at him, Sen Mu and his second senior brother’s figures gradually seemed to fuse into one before Su Ming’s eyes.

He sighed softly, then the piercing dark light in his right hand faded away. Once it was gone, Su Ming lowered his hand, cancelled his divine ability, turned around, and walked into the distance.

A loud bang shot up. The one hundred reincarnations and the long arc formed by Sen Mu landed at the spot where Su Ming had been, making the air shudder. The dimension trembled, causing ripples to spread out. Sen Mu lifted his head and looking into the distance, where Su Ming was gradually walking further away.

“Why?!” he cried out swiftly in a forlorn voice.

He could not think of a reason as to why Su Ming would not attack him. When he arrived, he had said that he would destroy One Dao Sect, and as one of the three Great Dao Paragons of One Dao Sect, it was clear that Sen Mu had to be killed.

Moments earlier, Su Ming had even lifted his right hand and gathered his divine ability on his palm, but for some unknown reason, when Su Ming looked at him, he sighed and chose to give up on attacking. Instead, he turned around to leave, and Sen Mu could not understand it.

“WHY?!”

Sen Mu’s voice rang out in the air again. This time, he was not the only one who spoke. All his one hundred reincarnations bellowed the question at the same time. The wave of sound formed by their voices spread in all directions and fell in Su Ming’s ears.

Su Ming could make himself not care about Sen Mu’s voice, pretending as if he did not even hear it… but right then, second senior brother’s voice was part of the wave of sound that reached his ears. When it resounde in his head, Su Ming paused in his footsteps.

“Because you are a past I am not willing to cut off.”

When Su Ming’s voice echoed in the air, it held a hint of melancholy and weariness. When it spread in every direction, he slowly left into the distance until he disappeared from One Dao Sect’s world.

Sen Mu stood still in a daze. Su Ming’s voice seemed to still be echoing in his ears, but the meaning contained in it left him dazed. He should have not understood it, but once he heard Su Ming’s words, he had come to understand something.

However, when he mulled over Su Ming’s words in detail, he discovered nothing. It caused him to fall silent. In the silent world belonging to One Dao Sect, he slowly sat down cross-legged on the only remaining statue’s head and closed his eyes.

When Su Ming left One Dao Sect, his figure appeared in the broken temple. He did not turn his head around to cast a glance at the statue behind him. Fully composed, he calmly walked forward. When he walked out of the temple, a loud bang shot up, and the temple behind him collapsed into ashes and disappeared, as if it had instantly lived through millions of years.

The one point connecting One Dao Sect and Ancient Zang disappeared at that moment. The reason for its disappearance was that One Dao Sect no longer had enough kismet to maintain the existence of the temple!

The instant One Dao Sect’s temple vanished, all the cultivators who were Great Dao Paragons in Ancient Zang sensed it in their hearts. A few days later, when a Great Dao Paragon who sensed its collapse personally arrived near there and saw that the temple was no longer around, the news of One Dao Sect’s destruction immediately spread throughout the country!

The matter had a great impact on all the sects and clans in Ancient Zang, because One Dao Sect was practically the strongest among one of the seven sects and twelve clans!

If Dao God Tian Xiu Luo was not part of Asura Clan, then even they would not have been able to stand against One Dao Sect, but even with Tian Xiu Luo around, One Dao Sect still lived up to the reputation of being the strongest sect.

After all, Tian Xiu Luo’s existence only served as an intimidation. As a Dao God, he was an existence that transcended the existences of all other people, causing no one to dare provoke Asura Clan, but if people of Ancient Zang were to speak of a sect which acted arrogantly and in an overbearing fashion, then it would be One Dao Sect.

Yet someone had destroyed One Dao Sect’s kismet. No one might know what happened in the sect itself, but the disintegration of the kismet proved the fact that One Dao Sect had experienced a major catastrophe!

Just who had destroyed One Dao Sect’s kismet?!

And what was the situation of One Dao Sect right then?!

Those questions appeared in the hearts of the powerful in each sect and clan when news of One Dao Sect’s kismet being destroyed traveled through Ancient Zang.

To every single person, the only people who could do this were the three ninth level Dao Gods, but… all the sects and clans knew that the three ninth level Dao Gods had been sitting in Ancient Zang’s royal capital for two thousand years.

Very seldom did they gather together at the same time. They meditated in the royal capital for two thousand years and never took even half a step out. Because of it, it was clear that the three ninth level Dao Gods were not the ones who destroyed One Dao Sect.

Then, who was it who did it? That question rang prominently in people’s minds, and the fourteen Great Dao Paragons from the other sects and clans gathered together near the spot where One Dao Sect’s temple disappeared and cast a divine ability known as Enquiring the Abyss.

More than ten Great Dao Paragons were required to cast that divine ability for it to take effect. They intended to ask those who died in One Dao Sect about what had transpired. They wanted to ask the souls that had disappeared about… just who had destroyed One Dao Sect’s kismet.

The casting of that Art meant that all the sects and clans in Ancient Zang placed incredible importance on the matter. Only… Seven Moons Sect’s Dao Han immediately knew that all of that was related to Su Ming once he heard what had happened to One Dao Sect.

Under the attention of many sects and clans, the fourteen Great Dao Paragons cast the Art, and several days later, in the area where One Dao Sect’s temple had been reduced to ash, they summoned the first deceased soul… and it was Chi Yang!

Chi Yang’s appearance immediately shocked the fourteen Great Dao Paragons. They might have guessed that One Dao Sect’s kismet had disintegrated, but they had never expected that a Great Dao Paragon of One Dao Sect would have also died. To them, the possibility of Chi Yang and the others being sealed was higher.

When Chi Yang’s soul appeared, the fourteen Great Dao Paragons instantly felt their hearts let out a thump.

“It’s the third prince! He broke the Emperor’s rule and killed us, Great Dao Paragons!” Chi Yang’s soul let out a shrill roar as his soul gradually faded away before he disappeared from the people’s eyes.

The area fell into silence. The mention of the third prince immediately caused all the sects and clans to remember everything that had happened two thousand something years ago, and they realized that he had returned. He had become a Great Dao Paragon… and had the power to kill Great Dao Paragons, who were at the same level of cultivation as him!

It was clear that he could break the Emperor’s rule because Chi Yang had died!

When all the sects and clans were in an uproar because of the third prince, Su Ming, dressed in a black robe and with his purple hair fluttering in the wind, walked on the main road to Ancient Zang’s royal capital, heading for the city.

“Three thousand years are over.”

He still remembered his Master, who looked exactly like Tian Xie Zi, telling him that he would wait at the city gate three thousand years later to give him his final lesson.