Pursuit of the Truth

The one thousand something years was a long time. But if anyone would go back it, then when everyone was on this spot in the past, in the same camp belonging to the forces of power from True Sacred Yin World, in the same vortex of planets, in the same planet with the desert, and in the same hall…

… the cultivator from True Sacred Yin World who once chased down Su Ming would be kneeling on the ground, telling Huo Zhu the story of a person called Mo Su in Western Ring Nebula. He would even tell her that there was a crane by his side.

In the past, Huo Zhu stood in a superior position. Her voice was filled with an awe-inspiring might and could make the person kneeling tremble in respect. With just one sentence, she could decide whether Su Ming would live or die in Western Ring Nebula.

In truth, if anyone was to get to the bottom of things, then in the past, Su Ming had been forced into Western Ring Nebula’s foreign lands… because of that conversation.

One thousand something years had passed since then. Su Ming returned and stood in front of Huo Zhu once more. Echoing by his ears was her quivering voice addressing him as senior. It was a pity that Su Ming did not know of what had happened in the past, or else he would definitely feel a great amount of emotions.

It was a pity that Huo Zhu, too, did not know that the Mo Su whose fate she had decided in the past with just one sentence was standing before her right then, having destroyed her world and the galaxy in which it was situated.

Destiny was that confusing, that troublesome, and would cause the people involved in it to shift places without their knowledge… It was also why it could make people so persistent and addicted to it. It made them struggle and fight against it in an attempt to escape the set ups… but that struggle and resistance was akin to moths trying to avoid flames. In the end, those who could be reborn in the fire would not be those who ran away, but those who were willing to fall in fire—the undying phoenixes.

Su Ming approached the woman. When he lifted his right hand, there was an aloof look on his face. At the instant he seized the air in the direction of the candle flame, a piercing screech came from it.

It was not unpleasant to the ears, sounding like a ballad. Even though Su Ming could not hear the lyrics clearly, all those who heard melody would still know that it was a ballad.

At the same time, the ancient book on the table started unfurling swiftly. As its pages turned, it was as if the flow of time around Su Ming was swiftly flowing away at a pace of thousands of years in an instant.

This was Huo Zhu’s divine ability, the one which allowed her to stay in that place!

Time Is Akin to a Song!

Su Ming’s lifted right hand started withering away rapidly right before his eyes as if one thousand years had passed while he stretched it out. Huo Zhu had executed that divine ability many times in her life. Every single time she used it, an astonishing effect would be seen, but this time…

“A child’s play!”

The instant Su Ming’s right hand began to wither, he let out a cold harrumph. One of the Abyss Builders’ inborn ability was the Art of Time. Perhaps Huo Zhu’s divine ability would be effective when it was used to fight against other outsiders, but when it was used on Su Ming, there would be no effect.

When he let out the cold harrumph, his right hand immediately returned to normal. The power of time around him instantly disappeared in an unseen manner. The ancient book shuddered, and half of its pages were immediately reduced to powder.

At the same time, the candle fire was also mostly extinguished. It struggled with great difficulty. When she saw that Su Ming’s right hand was about to touch it, the woman’s face in it became distorted, and she screeched again.

The ancient book on the table was originally flipping rapidly from left to right, even though half of its pages had been destroyed. However, the instant Huo Zhu let out her screech, the pages immediately started flipping from right to left, in the opposite direction.

At the same time, a power reversing the flow of time swiftly spread out from Su Ming’s body.

“My strongest attack isn’t the passing of time, but the reversal of time. With my life as the price, I will reverse time!”

Huo Zhu’s voice was piercing to the ears. At the instant it rang out, Su Ming’s body immediately seemed to go back in time. His cultivation base and his Nascent Divinity also flowed away from him. The presence of that power caused the cold sneer on Su Ming’s lips to become wider, and he decided to just let go of his control over himself to let that power of time reversal to spread out around him

“Three thousand years!” Huo Zhu roared.

Immediately, Su Ming’s body started shrinking rapidly. In an instant, it seemed as if he had been reduced to nothing, as if he no longer existed. An unsophisticated presence appeared came from him. The reversal of time had brought back the presence he possessed when he was in Dark Mountain back, but soon, all of it disappeared without a trace. Another presence appeared… although one that he also had when he was in Dark Mountain.

“How could this be?!” Huo Zhu eyes went wide, and disbelief appeared in them before she roared again. “Three thousand years!”

The reversal of time continued, but the smile on Su Ming’s lips did not change. When his body turned semi-transparent, he looked as if he was going through cycles of reincarnation, and the presences he possessed the multiple times he was in Dark Mountain surrounded him.

All of this caused Huo Zhu’s expression to change continuously. Disbelief appeared in her eyes, and she roared again while offering up her life.

“Thirty thousand years!” At that time, she gave up everything. As she roared, the power of time caused thirty thousand years to reverse for Su Ming. Huo Zhu let out a sigh of relief, but then suddenly screamed shrilly in pain.

Su Ming’s body remained semi-transparent, but the inside of his body was as empty as a black hole. This was time returning to the point when he had not been born… when the power of the curse had surrounded him in his mother’s womb.

The instant Huo Zhu touched the curse via her divine ability, it immediately spread out and invaded her soul. Her scream reverberated only for an instant before the ancient book shattered, and the candle flame… was extinguished.

Su Ming’s expression remained as calm as ever. He had been able to tell that this would happen from the start, or else he would not have put up no resistance. In truth, he had wanted to use that chance to verify just how strong was the curse.

The moment Huo Zhu’s life was extinguished, the candlestick crumbled with a bang to reveal… a corpse hidden in the dimension within it!

It was a woman’s corpse. It was old and rotting away swiftly, its stench filling the area in no time. Su Ming lifted his right hand and seized the air in the direction of the storage bag on the carcass. Immediately,it landed on his hand. When he struck it, it instantly crumbled, and a black coffin fell to the ground.

A powerful mighty pressure spread out. The strength of it caused Su Ming’s heart to tremble at the instant he sensed it. His pupils shrank. This presence… surpassed all that Su Ming had ever sensed in his life.

In fact… the only presence that could compare to this was the one whom Su Ming had seen in the pictures provided by the fifth kiln—Chang He’s Master, the Sublime Paragon from True Sacred Yin World!

At the instant the coffin appeared, the bald crane flew out of Su Ming’s storage bag. Shivering, it stared at the coffin… and the carcass within it.

Based on it, one could see that it was a ferocious beast. However, by then it was a bloody mess. The blood might have dried long ago, but it was impossible for anyone to tell how the creature had looked like in the past. Yet the presence spreading out from the carcass was astonishingly similar to that of the bald crane.

It shuddered while staring at the carcass in the coffin with a stupefied expression. It mumbled to itself, or maybe it was to Su Ming. “What a strange feeling… Darn it all, this was my physical body in the past?

“I have a strong feeling that once I fuse with it, most of my memories will return. I’ll remember plenty of things I’ve forgotten… my origins, my identity, and how I became an entity that has a soul as a body.

“I’ll also be able to remember… Darn it all, I’ll know just who it was that nearly caused my soul to scatter…” The bald crane shuddered. It raised its right claw, but just as it was about to touch the carcass, it suddenly shuddered.

“I also have a strong feeling that once I remember all that… I-I will no longer be me. I will no longer be the bald crane, and I will no longer be Su Ming’s companion… Who… Who will I be then?” The bald crane trembled even more fiercely, and conflict appeared on its face.

“I will turn into another person, or rather, I will become my past self, and then I will no longer exist… but I will become stronger… much stronger!” The bald crane’s mind was a little muddled. It threw its head swiftly and roared with struggle and conflict on its face.

Su Ming saw this, but chose to remain silent. He had helped the bald crane retrieve its physical body not because it was a pet to him… but a friend.

Even though this friend was a little unreliable and very avaricious… a friend was a friend.

However, Su Ming could not help it choose. It would have to choose how it wanted to walk down its path.

“Darn it all, why do I feel like I despise my past self very much… Once I fuse with it, I will become it, but… but I want to fuse with it very much. I want to remember everything. I want to know… what I lost in my life… why I would cry when I stare at Husband Gazing Mountain, why I would feel horrible when I stare at the galaxy, and why I would remember a certain group of people during certain times…” As the bald crane struggled with itself, its eyes turned bloodshot and it turned around to stare at Su Ming.

“Darn it all, I’m living a merry life right now. I won’t fuse with it, but I’ll help you keep it. When you’ll collect all of my physical body in the future, then I’ll fuse with it; it won’t be too late by then, anyway,” the bald crane said through gritted teeth while putting on an unconcerned expression for Su Ming.

He cast the bald crane a glance, respecting its decision. When he lifted his right hand, he swung his arm, and the coffin exuding the presence that caused him to shudder was instantly put away into his storage bag. Soon after, the mighty pressure in the land vanished.

The bald crane slumped down. There was still a hint of a reluctance to part in its eyes, but it soon turned into determination. As Su Ming turned around, the bald crane transformed into a long arc with Su Ming and left the planet.

Everything ended. When Su Ming left the vortex, he released the seal from the fifth kiln placed on the galaxy that was previously the camp for the forces of power from True Sacred Yin World. The Almighty from Life Realm cast Su Ming a deep glance before turning around and disappearing. He left the galaxy. The other five people in the distance also disappeared to flee… from all the wreckage.