Pursuit of the Truth

1

Su Ming’s expression was cold. He held Xu Hui in his arms and lifted his head to look at the gigantic body as well as the pale face in the sky.

A sigh came from the sky. The gigantic person in the sky did not open his eyes, however. He kept them closed, and while he sighed, his words echoed in the air with a boom.

“This is a race I favor… They are my people… Thou… shouldst be buried in the void…”

The fragmented words rang in all directions. They brought with them a great mighty pressure that made it seem as if laws themselves were contained in them. At the instant they spread out, the sand around Su Ming started spinning about swiftly. The gigantic body in the sky then opened his mouth slightly.

An indescribable suction force came out, and the sand on the ground instantly started dancing. It flew up and charged towards the giant’s mouth. The sand vortex around Su Ming turned into a whirlwind, sweeping up his body as if it wanted to devour him.

“You’re just a broken spirit, and you dare to bury me, Su, as a punishment?!” Su Ming laughed coldly. Xu Hui had already fallen unconscious and was completely unaware of everything around her. She lay in Su Ming’s bosom without moving.

Su Ming had his left arm wrapped around Xu Hui. As he raised his right hand, he pushed against the ground, and with it, the ground started rumbling and moving. The vortex around him stopped moving for an instant. At that time, without the suction force moving him, he shot up from the ground and charged towards the giant’s mouth in the sky.

When he was in midair, Su Ming formed a seal with his right hand and pointed forward. Immediately, a mountain appeared in front of him!

Most of the mountain was white, and it looked like clouds. Only the edge near the top was black, and that area had the form of a malicious spirit. That creature was half-sprawled out on the mountain while holding a black bat in its right hand.

Naturally, this was… Dao Avenue Mountain, the one Su Ming had obtained from the Yu Family!

This treasure could be used without any need for Divine Essence, and its might was also extraordinary. At that moment, once Su Ming brought it out and pointed forward, Dao Avenue Mountain started growing bigger endlessly while charging at its target.

The giant in the sky still had his eyes closed, but his act of inhaling had very clearly become slightly faster. Yet even if it had only become slightly faster, the power of Divine Essence which had manifested around him burst forth in a magnitude that was stronger by several folds.

The wind seemed to have become sharp blades. As it roared, it charged towards Dao Avenue Mountain, which was rushing at the giant. While that mountain trembled, Su Ming formed a seal with his right hand and pointed forward again.

A roar instantly came from Dao Avenue Mountain. The malicious spirit looked like it had become alive and separated itself. As it roared, the bat in its right hand let out a piercing screech and shot out, turning into a long arc that charged towards the giant in the sky.

At that moment, the gigantic person in the sky finished inhaling, and just like a mortal who needed to breath out once he breathed in, he started swiftly exhaling.

Violent gusts of wind roared. A large amount of cracks instantly appeared on Dao Avenue Mountain, and it started falling backwards like a kite. Even the malicious spirit could not maintain its form. It looked as if its entire body was about to be blown apart. And the bat could not get close, either.

Su Ming felt violent gusts of wind crashing into his face, as if they wanted to batter him until he was reduced to dust and fused with the void. As his body fell backwards, intense pain shot up his body, and even Xu Hui’s flesh and bones started showing signs of separating from each other.

Su Ming turned around swiftly, using his back as a barrier to fight against the violent gusts. At the same time, he saw the mockery and the smugness on the illusory old man’s face on the ground, and saw the bloodthirst as well as excitement on the faces of the tens of thousands of Sand Earthlings around him.

A bitingly cold glare shone in Su Ming’s eyes. He formed a seal with his right hand and even bit the tip of his tongue to cough up a mouthful of blood. Once the blood fused with the seal, it immediately turned into a layer of blood mist. Through that blood mist, a white mountain rock shot out. This treasure that was Peace Arrives When the Elephant is Here swiftly manifested. The mountain rock which was the size of a palm swelled up, and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a large elephant that could trample the skies.

At the same time, the gigantic scale also took form. A piercing roar reverberated in the air, and the malicious spirit which had appeared previously seized the scale once it saw it.

Su Ming’s hair danced in the air. His robes floated, and the Divine Essence Runic Symbols began to flash with light in his eyes. With each burst, the treasure’s might would grow stronger!

“Malicious spirit!” Su Ming roared.

The malicious spirit instantly turned around with the scale in hand, and its body swelled up limitlessly. The scale in its hand also grew bigger; its size and strength would depend on how much Divine Essence Su Ming possessed. If he possessed a sufficient amount of Divine Essence, then it could grow endlessly!

He formed a seal with his hand and said in a cold voice once again, “Weigh the elephant!”

The malicious spirit roared. As its body grew bigger, it lifted the scale, and with a swing, the elephant landed on the scale pan. Dao Avenue Mountain turned into the weight.

“This elephant… weighs eight maces and seven taels!”

After having this malicious spirit weigh the elephant several times, Su Ming could already figure out some patterns in it. When that spirit weighed the elephant, it would be better if it was heavier, because the weight represented the amount of Divine Essence that had accumulated.

However, when it weighed their enemies, it would be better the lighter they weighed, because the weight represented how much of his opponent’s strength he could reduce!

At that moment as the malicious spirit weighed the elephant and said those words, the gigantic elephant raised its head and let out a roar. It shot up and, with an indescribable speed, charged towards the giant in the sky.

It was fast. While wind blew against its face, it crashed into the gigantic body with a bang.

Booming sounds shot into the sky, and rumbles echoed in all directions. A large amount of ripples fell backwards in the sky. Su Ming coughed up blood. He fell backwards, and a brilliant light shone in his eyes.

“Divine Essence…” a booming sound said flatly. “Thou art a Succeeding Spirit… Still, thou wilst be buried in the void.”

When the giant opened his mouth, while he still did not open his eyes, he lifted his right hand slowly and pushed it swiftly towards Su Ming. It rushed through the air towards him, and his fingers were so big that they gave Su Ming the feeling that he was facing off against a Master of Fate, Lives, and Death!

‘Ecang!’

In the face of this life-threatening crisis, Su Ming summoned his Ecang clone without hesitation. He lifted his right hand and swung it forward. As he said that word in his heart, the world immediately roared, and a gigantic shadow manifested behind him.

It was a tree, the projection of Su Ming’s Ecang clone!

Once the tree appeared, Su Ming’s power increased exponentially. At the same time, the hand of the giant in the sky froze and stopped in midair.

“Ecang!” The giant opened one of his eyes in an instant.

It was a yellow eye with a vertical pupil. Its edge was burning in flames, and the giant glared at Ecang’s illusory form behind Su Ming!

Su Ming did not speak. If he wanted to summon the Ecang clone to this place, then he had to first form the clone’s projection. Only when the projection appeared could he use his soul as a guide to open a tunnel in space and allow his Ecang clone to come to this place.

At that moment, his projection was swiftly gathering together, but he still needed a dozen something breaths before he could open the tunnel in space.

“Ecang, an Ancestral Spirit who was fortunate enough to obtain eternal life in the ancient ballad… You… have also become so weak… The legend is true… Could it be that the legend is true..?” the giant’s left eye stared at Su Ming’s Ecang shadow.

“Every single time the cycle of an aeon ends, Old Man Extermination [1] reactivates the power of reincarnation and creates the ballad for all lives once more… In that ballad, the slots for eternal life are given again… All manner of lives in the universe have the possibility of being added to the ballad… They will be sent to the Heavenly Ship and head to the vast sky. Then, when the cycle of an aeon ends… they will not be destroyed.

“You are so weak, and you have existed for much longer… Now… you have reached the end of your life.” The gigantic figure in the sky suddenly started laughing loudly. His voice was like thunder, and the right hand which had come to a pause in midair suddenly increased in speed to charge down.

Su Ming’s pupils shrank. When he lifted his right hand, he sucked in a deep breath. His Ecang clone needed several more breaths before he could arrive, and the arm of the person in the sky would definitely reach him beforehand.

Su Ming had already made preparations to enter the dimension in the fragment. With the dimension helping him, his Ecang clone could move through space and arrive in this area on time.

The black stone fragment’s presence spread out in his soul, faint black ripples traveling out. Right at the instant Su Ming was about to step into the dimension in the fragment, a change suddenly occurred!

At the instant there were ten thousand feet between Su Ming and the right hand, the hand froze once again. In fact, it even shuddered. The giant’s right eye flew open to reveal a crimson pupil with windstorms raging around it.

This was the first time he opened both eyes!

Disbelief appeared in these two completely different eyes. The giant’s right arm was not the only thing that trembled. His entire body shivered as well, and as it did so, the entire sky seemed to quiver. Ripples traveled outwards, and an excitement that had never appeared on the giant’s face before showed up.

“I can sense… Not just Ecang’s power… In your body… This is… This is… the Seed of Life Extermination’s presence! There is no mistaking this. I have gone to Old Man Extermination around thirty thousand times in the past and offered numerous offerings… but I never obtained a chance for my name to be written in the ballad…

“You are not Ecang… You are the precedent to reactivate Old Man Extermination!” As the giant in the sky trembled, excitement that could not be hidden showed up in his eyes. He pulled back his right hand quickly, and he swiftly turned his body in the sky so that he was no longer lying down, but standing up!

As he stood up, the sky roared. If anyone stood by his feet, they would be unable to tell just how tall he was, because no end of him could be seen… However, he did not stand up completely. Instead, he bent his body slowly… and knelt down before Su Ming to worship him!

“Please forgive my offense. Please give me the right to obtain eternal life once more… Please write down my name in the ballad you will reactivate. I am the Antecedental Spirit of Sand Earthlings, Suiyun Zhen Changlin.”

Su Ming was momentarily stunned. He quickly recalled the other name of the black fragment – Seed of Life Extermination. He also remembered the old and broken ship in the galaxy, along with the old man sitting on it, as well as everything he witnessed in the past.

“An ancient ballad…” An old voice seemed to echo in Su Ming’s ears.

Translator’s Note:

1. Old Man Extermination: Someone who already appeared in ISSTH and RI.

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