Pursuit of the Truth

When the fifth kiln appears in the world, its flames fill the entire Divine Essence Star Ocean. The boundless sea of fire burns all those who try to be disrespectful to it.

Only the powerful warriors who have practically eternal lives can charge through the sea of fire, and only they can head into the fifth kiln in the sea of fire to seek death, serendipities… and the legend of the Fifth True World allegedly existing there in fragmented pieces.

If a person could step into the Fifth True World, then all the resources of a true world, all the World Plane power there could be obtained by that person. Then they could turn the power of ten thousand worlds into the power of Kalpa Realm, and with one single move… become a Master of Fate, Lives, and Death.

This legend was about the fifth True World and the fifth kiln.

Yet since the past, every single time the fifth kiln had appeared, there were few who managed to walk through the sea of fire. To be able to do this, a person needed to have a deep understanding towards the original essence of fire. They would need to turn their bodies into fire… or at the very least, they would need to have a ferocious beast that can dance around with fire. Only then… would that person be able to move through the sea of fire.

Su Ming’s understanding towards fire had not reached the state where he understood its original essence or was deep enough that he knew all the origins of fire and its full structure, neither did he have an understanding great enough that fire would appear out of nowhere when he breathed.

His understanding towards fire was only slightly greater than that of a normal person. After all… he inherited the legacy of the Fire Berserker, but to the current Su Ming, the Fire Berserker’s level was a little too low. This level of understanding towards fire was not enough for him to be able to walk through the sea of fire when the fifth kiln was activated.

That was why he needed a fierce beast that could live even if it was swathed in fire!

This sort of ferocious beast could not be seen anywhere. All the fierce creatures in Su Ming’s memories did not fulfill this requirement… but when he saw the black horse in the world in the vortex, its heroic bearing as it moved forward while stepping on fire had given Su Ming a powerful hunch the moment he saw it.

He had a feeling that this… was the creature that could allow him to move through the sea of fire. This was a ferocious beast that could let him look down on fire in the sea of fire!

That was why he wanted to obtain this creature. Before the fifth kiln was activated the next time, he wanted to make this creature his pet!

It would be incredibly difficult…

However, Su Ming had already made his decision. If this matter only concerned Lie Shan Xiu’s disappearance, then he might hesitate. Even if he came forth to search for clues regarding the First God of Berserkers and guessed that there was a high possibility that he had entered the Fifth True World, Su Ming might still eventually choose to give up and return to True Morning Dao World.

After all, he still had not prepared himself fully.

However, Tian Xie Zi was now added into the mix, and this became incredibly important in Su Ming’s heart. Besides, he also had a mind and heart to return to the Fifth True World and the Abyss Builders’ homeland and have a look.

All of these things caused him to make his decision!

He wanted to wait for the fifth kiln to be activated in Divine Essence Star Ocean and obtain the fifth stone in the fifth kiln, then bring this stone to the fifth ocean in the core of Divine Essence Star Ocean, and from there… step into the Fifth True World.

‘This is my path… a path that was already set for me when I descended into the Barren Lands of Divine Essence’s Crimson Flame Planet… I tried to escape from it, but in the end, my path still led… to the Fifth True World.’ Su Ming walked beside Dijiu Mo Sha and looked at the galaxy in the distance with a calm expression on his face.

‘I could not escape from it not because there was a will that chose this path for me in the dark, but because I had subconsciously chosen this path for myself.’ An ancient presence appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. As he grew older, as he experienced more things, as he… He grew used to thinking, grew used to being alone, and grew used to being lonely.

Perhaps his world was not colorful and full of excitement. However, in this world where the strong preyed on the weak, there was a possibility for a rare peace in a person’s life.

After all, he was only one person.

If the bald crane had not been with him, Su Ming did not know how he would have turned out by this time. Perhaps he would have gone to the extreme, become obsessive, or perhaps when he closed his eyes, he would have gained a presence akin to a blade, and when he opened them, shadows stained with blood would appear before him.

‘Because I am someone from the Fifth True World…’ Su Ming shook his head. He did not acknowledge this, but he could not stop that thought and feeling of wanting to take a look at the Fifth True World.

‘Perhaps it’s because of her…’ Su Ming walked through the galaxy. It was dark all around him, bringing back the memory of the woman who had appeared when he was in Western Ring Nebula’s foreign land. The woman who gave him an unfamiliar yet familiar feeling, who gave him a cold feeling but also one of warmth… his mother.

‘Perhaps it is also for her…’ Su Ming remembered the girl who had long since stopped calling out to him… his younger sister.

He had never experienced true love in his life, be it with Bai Ling or with Yu Xuan. Their figures were like willows in his heart. They drifted about in the wind, never able to fall on the ground, and even if they did… they would soon rise once more due to a passing breeze.

Because they were not the only ones who were willows. Even Su Ming himself was a willow without roots. He drifted about without a home and without a place in which he could stay.

If he had to mention one thing, then the only experience he had with love was the experience of having a crush when he was still ignorant towards love.

In the darkness of his emotions, it was a fleeting rainbow. It was akin to a sigh when snow fell from the sky and wind blew past, like snow that could not make a person’s hair completely white even if the person continued walking under it… like how he had been unable to fulfill his promise in the past.

Some of his memories were now covered in a light layer of dust from the passage of time, and they were fragmented, no longer connected to each other.

‘I… don’t understand love, and neither do I… understand affection.’

Su Ming sighed softly. It turned into faint ripples in the galaxy, and sadness was contained in them. They were a blossoming flower that no one could understand as it revealed its loneliness in the quiet darkness.

Su Ming looked at the galaxy. He realized that as he grew older and gained more experience, he always subconsciously immersed himself in his memories, constantly turning his head back to look at all the things he regretted in his life.

“I’m old now… because I always think back on the things that happened when I was young. My young La Su, when a person is old, he starts to feel sentimental about his life, and only then does he start counting all the exciting things that had happened in the past.”

In Su Ming’s ears, his Elder’s words echoed, brimming with mirth, but he had already forgotten the year and the season his elder had said them.

Time trickled by. Four hours later, six piercing whistles came from Dijiu Mo Sha’s body, interrupting Su Ming’s thoughts.

Those whistles were shrill and piercing to the ear, sounding like a shrill, pained scream. Dijiu Mo Sha’s expression changed, and because Su Ming couldn’t understanding anything, Dijiu Mo Sha immediately brought out a medicinal core from his bosom. That core was pitch black, but when it appeared in his hand, it instantly started moving.

This was not a medicinal core. It was a black centipede that resembled the shape of a medicinal core after it had curled unto itself. A resolute look appeared in Dijiu Mo Sha’s eyes, and with gritted teeth, he swallowed that centipede.

Once he did so, black smoke immediately rose from his face. The faint mark of a centipede appeared on his face, causing him to look incredibly ferocious.

“I’ll be rushing forward and burning my life. The tribe is in grave danger. Once you walk past this galaxy, you will see a floating continent. That place… is where my tribe lies.” Once he finished saying these words, black smoke immediately spread out from Dijiu Mo Sha’s entire body. He lifted his head and roared, then with a speed he had never shown before, he vanished.

Su Ming’s eyes focused. He had tried shifting before, but there was something incredibly strange about this galaxy at this particular moment. He could not shift. It was as if there was a natural barrier placed in this area.

At the instant Dijiu Mo Sha disappeared, Su Ming took a step forward and sliced through the galaxy like a bolt of lightning to charge into the distance. Right when he had traveled for about a dozen something breaths, he heard a barely discernible sound from the area in front of him – the seventh whistle!

He did not stop moving but traveled even faster. After the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn, he saw a floating continent in the distant galaxy.

There were uneven cracks on that continent, a telling sign that it had been separated from a planet after it had collapsed. On the fragment, he could see shattered mountains, dried up ground, and countless withered and yellowing plants.

He also saw… hundreds of ferocious beasts with blades growing out of their backs floating in the galaxy. They were hundreds of feet tall and had armor. On their backs were tall and lean figures whose earlobes drooped down to their shoulders.

There were thousands of people who had the same appearance around the beasts. There were also a large number of black insects of several dozens of feet big moving about in all directions. They had already formed a sea of insects that was rapidly spreading outwards.

Roars and booming sounds echoed in all directions. This sea of insects was spreading towards a mountain. Around the edge of that mountain were hundreds of people, and on their faces were despair. However, they did not back down and were continuously killing the insects in that sea.

There were also hundreds of people in midair who were casting divine abilities against their enemies in the sky, causing loud bangs.

Old people, young children, as well as sick and disabled could be seen on the mountainside. They were watching the sky and earth in silence with the expressions of people who knew they were about to die.

A loud bang echoed in the area. A crack appeared in the sky, as if it had been torn apart. Dijiu Mo Sha walked out of that crack in one swift step. Black smoke surrounded his body, and it turned into a gigantic ferocious centipede behind him. As it twisted its body, it opened its mouth wide against the sea of insects on the ground, and a vast amount of black fog instantly shot out of its mouth.

As that poisonous fog came out of its body, Dijiu Mo Sha’s body immediately withered, but there was not a single change in his expression. The only thing that changed on him was that the killing intent in his eyes had grown stronger.

His appearance immediately caught the attention of the people standing on the ferocious beasts’ backs in the distance. Compared to the usual practice of cultivators speaking to each other before they fought, this alien race that survived in Divine Essence Star Ocean did not speak even a single word when they saw Dijiu Mo Sha and recognized him. However, seven people did fly out, and with murderous intent, they charged towards him.

At the same time, the thousands of people in space lifted their hands. As they formed a seal, an innumerable number of black beetles from the sea of insects on the ground went mad. With a purple tint to their bodies, they rushed forward as if they had descended into madness, not caring about the poison fog corroding their bodies.

This scene was reflected in Su Ming’s pupils in the form of a miniature image. He moved forward and closed in on the continent.