Pursuit of the Truth

The universe had a color. It was gray that was nearly white, but perhaps that description was not too appropriate as well, because when others looked at it, they would feel as if something was pressing heavily against their hearts, and it was a feeling that was near desolation.

It was a color, but also desolation.

And boundlessness meant that something was indistinct and could not be seen clearly. It meant a size that was endlessly big… Once this word was combined with space, it would turn into… a vast universe that had no end.

In the vast universe, just how many worlds existed? How many planets were there? And how many people parted in grief or met in happiness? How many of those meetings and partings flowed in the river of time that had so many years contained in it that no one would know whether they could be counted?

No one knew the answer.

There was one thing in the universe which had not changed since an eternity ago. It was a man sitting on a huge Feng Shui compass. He was dressed in a long black robe, and his long hair fell over his shoulders. He had his head lowered, and thick aura of death seeped out of his body. It was… Xuan Zang!

He sat meditating with the aura of death surrounding him. There was also an ancient air about him, as if he had already forgotten how many years had passed since he sat down, as if he had already forgotten the Dao of his previous life…

At that moment, a sigh tumbled out of Xuan Zang’s mouth. When it echoed in the vast universe… he slowly lifted his head. His eyes had been closed since forever ago, but right then… slowly, but surely, he opened his eyes!

The moment he opened his eyes, loud, endless booming sounds reverberated through the vast universe. When those booms tumbled about, it was as if the entire universe was shocked by Xuan Zang’s act of opening his eyes. The presence that spread out from hi when he opened his eyes caused the universe to stir!

Fog tumbled about, and it spread out swiftly from around Xuan Zang to form a vortex. It swept up the vast universe, and as the vortex rotated with loud booming sounds, Xuan Zang completely opened his eyes!

A brilliant spark that could cause the vast universe to shake appeared in his gaze. That brilliant spark disappeared after an instant and calm returned… But those were not Xuan Zang’s eyes. They belonged… to Su Ming!

The moment Su Ming stepped into the thirty-third Sky and the center of Xuan Zang’s brow, he… succeeded in his Possession!

“I made it.”

Once Su Ming Possessed Xuan Zang’s body and opened his eyes, he looked at the familiar universe, then at the vortex before him.

When his murmurs echoed in space, he lowered his head and looked at the black feather on his open palm. The bald crane’s presence was spreading out of that feather weakly, and it filled Su Ming’s heart.

“I am… Su Ming.”

He closed his eyes and went to gain a sense of the body as well as the ancient world contained within it.

Just like how a world existed in Harmonious Morus Alba’s wings, Su Ming also saw a world in the body he had successfully Possessed.

“Xuan Zang didn’t fail either.”

When Su Ming looked at the world in his body, the sigh he breathed out held an ancient tone. It echoed in space as well as the world in his body.

It was… a world that had died for an unknown number of years. Su Ming saw Ancient Zang, the sects and clans, but they had already been reduced to ruin. They had become debris, and not a single living being could be found.

Everything seemed to have withered away when Xuan Zang closed his eyes in the past and the aura of death filled his body.

“The three thousand years I lived through were a Possession. The world during those three thousand years… could be the Emperor of Ancient Zang’s memories, or it could also have been Xuan Zang’s memories… Either way, that world was the recollection of the world before it died.

“In that recollection, I became him. Based on this, I succeeded… but from his point of view, his goal was to be revived. He was ready to do anything to be revived, and right now… he has indeed been revived. He was resurrected with my will,” Su Ming said softly, murmuring to himself while he stared at the dead world in his body.

Su Ming slowly fell silent. When he stopped mumbling to himself, time continued passing in the vast universe. Each time his thoughts changed, one thousand years seemed to change…

When Su Ming lifted his head and put away the feather on his palm… he slowly stood up on the Feng Shui compass.

At the instant he stood up, the booming sounds from the vortex in the vast universe reached a monstrous degree. The vortex’s rotations caused the vast universe to look as if it had turned into a boundless raging sea… and while Su Ming stood on the Feng Shui compass, he seemed like the master of the raging sea.

“This is what it means to reach Boundless Dao Realm,” Su Ming mumbled under his breath. However, there was a bleak tone to his voice as well as loneliness. It was a loneliness only he possessed in the entire vast universe.

“It is like how a person becomes a god, and then from a god… the master who stands supreme to all.”

Su Ming stood on the Feng Shui compass for a long, long time before he sat down again, and while alone in the vast universe, he closed his eyes.

“I’ve already reached the limit of my Dao…”

With his eyes shut, Su Ming sighed in his heart before he sucked in a deep breath. The moment he did so, the rotating vortex charged at Su Ming and entered him through every part of his body. Eventually, all of it was within Su Ming’s body.

While the vortex in Su Ming’s body tumbled about, it crashed against the dead world in him. Gradually, the endless vortex from the vast universe gathered in one spot in Ancient Zang’s royal capital, which was the heart of the dead world.

That spot was like a seed, and at that moment… it was buried deep in the world.

Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, one thousand years went by… In that time, a tree grew in the originally dead world, and it was… the Tree of Dao Verification!

The tree’s roots spread through the earth, using the vast universe as its nutrients. It grew up slowly, just like how Hao Hao had done in the past, since Su Ming was using the same method to change the world in his body.

He had an endless amount of time and unimaginable patience to complete all the steps necessary to change the world.

Thousands of years passed, and the Tree of Dao Verification reached the sky. When it covered the world, Su Ming could no longer see any wastelands in his world, and neither was there any wreckage. Everything returned to the beginning. Mountain ranges, rivers, and everything Su Ming could remember about Ancient Zang from the three thousand years he lived in it returned to how they looked then.

Perhaps there was some form of power that caused Su Ming to live three thousand years in Ancient Zang during the process of him Possessing Xuan Zang, because it allowed him to return it to how it looked like before.

Perhaps that vague power belonged to Xuan Zang.

But no matter what, all of that was no longer important. When the Tree of Dao Verification’s crown replaced the sky in Su Ming’s body, he opened his eyes while still seated.

“There is midwinter in my Life Matrix, and hence, there is winter in this world, just like the autumn sun, summer rain, and an abundance of life like spring. This is life, and it is also my world,” Su Ming murmured softly, and the four seasons appeared in the world within his body.

During the thousands of years the tree grew, the Feng Shui compass beneath Su Ming kept moving forward, allowing Su Ming to continuously absorb the power from the vast universe to nourish the world in him and change all that which had died. Even if the world had already taken form and had the four seasons, Su Ming still continued moving forward and did not stop.

As time passed, the passage of time also became part of the world in Su Ming’s body. That world seemed to have become a complete entity, but it was still lacking… true life.

‘I will search for them in the cycles of life and death as well as in the vast universe until I find them, and then… it will be time for me to open the Abyss Gate. It will be the first time I open the Abyss Gate in my life, and it will… also be my last.’

While Su Ming sat on the Feng Shui compass, he stared at the vast universe in the distance and mulled over the loneliness he felt during the past thousands of years. He pondered over the isolation he felt by being the only person there and how it would stay with him for life. His isolation would never come to an end.

“This is what it means to be in Boundless Dao Realm,” Su Ming said softly. He took off the string of pearls from his right wrist, and after staring at them for a moment, he flung them into the vast universe with his left hand. The universe immediately tumbled about, and an endless amount of power swiftly gathered in the pearls. Once they were filled, Su Ming retained the seventh while throwing away the rest. Six of the pearls contained lives. They turned into butterflies and flew into the distance until all of them vanished from sight.

Only the seventh remained in Su Ming’s palm, and he held it tight.

“From now on, there will be eight butterflies which will possess life in the vast universe, and they will be the hope for me to find their tracks…” Su Ming mumbled.

The Harmonious Morus Albas in the vast universe were born on the Tree of Dao Verification. All of them had the same name, the same life, and in fact, it could be said that they were originally one.

When the Tree of Dao Verification had crumbled, they could only flutter and fly about in the Vast Expanse, becoming wanderers who could not find their home… but because their origin essence was the same, Su Ming firmly believed that since his eldest senior brother, second senior brother, Hu Zi, Yu Xuan, Cang Lan, Xu Hui, and the others could be born in the seventh Harmonious Morus Alba’s wings, then he could definitely find their traces in the other butterflies’ wings.

He would gather all their traces together, and then he would form the key to activate his Abyss Gate.

However, those were just his assumptions. Perhaps he would succeed, but it could also… just be wishful thinking. Yet no matter what, Su Ming had to try. Even if he could not succeed, he would absolutely not give up. He would continue searching for other methods. That was his Dao.

With the seventh pearl, Su Ming slowly closed his eyes. The pearl on his palm could not turn into a butterfly… because the bald crane’s Reversed Spirit was not contained in it.

Time passed as the Feng Shui compass on which Su Ming ast continued moving forward through the vast universe. The feeling of loneliness and isolation was something Su Ming was already accustomed to, and he had no choice but to get used to it. He was alone for one thousand years, for ten thousand years… and then thirty thousand years…

A huge butterfly appeared before Su Ming in the vast universe. It was a Harmonious Morus Alba, but not one of those that Su Ming had bestowed life upon thirty thousand years ago. It was a butterfly which Xuan Zang had not killed.

The aura of death was not heavy about that butterfly, and there were countless lives on the four wings. Perhaps there were also people who learned that the world they lived in was actually Harmonious Morus Alba’s wings there as well, and perhaps there were also people like Arid Triad who tried to struggle against the fate of being wiped off, but there was no doubt… that they still lived a blessed life.

After all, the person they met was not Xuan Zang, but Su Ming.

While sitting on the Feng Shui compass, he looked quietly at the Harmonious Morus Alba in the distance. When he drew close, the butterfly shuddered visibly, and an air of fear leaked out of its body.

“I will not wipe you off. I only want… to take away some marks of certain people from you.”