Pursuit of the Truth

The loud bang that lasted for about twenty breaths slowly faded away. The distortions formed in the air due to the impact also gradually dissipated.

The mountain remained as the mountain. Not a single part of it was damaged. The two circles of light were still around, and they were shining with a brilliant light.

Su Ming… disappeared, or rather, his body had disappeared, but there was a lot of blood on the ground. The blood-red Rune was also still around.

The cube formed by the six square Runes shone with a crimson light. The skeletal hand in it had already disappeared without a trace and turned into… the ferocious spirit with the tuft of white hair. He was on one knee in the Rune, unmoving.

He closed his eyes, with fatigue on his face. Not a single ripple of his presence spread out, as if he was a dead person.

Time went by quickly. In just the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn, the ferocious spirit’s eyes flew open. A brilliant light shone in them as the man lowered his head to look at his body.

After a long while, when he lifted his head, he raised his right hand and pushed it against the ground. His body immediately trembled viciously. All the blood in the Rune rose up in the air and charged into his body. When it fused into him, the ferocious spirit’s body started changing swiftly.

It slowly shrank. The shriveled boils contracted, and a large amount of black smoke spread out. His hair gradually grew longer, until all the blood around him merged into his body. Once it happened, he became the size of a normal person. His body recovered completely, losing that hideous appearance of before.

He was dressed in a white robe. When he lifted his head again… what was revealed was Su Ming’s face!

Old Ya Mu above the fog did not reveal any surprise on his face. Clearly, he had long since predicted this outcome, but his expression was dark, and no one could say what he was thinking.

Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. He did not completely Possess that ferocious spirit with the tuft of white fur, but once he obtained the memories regarding the Seven Seals Rune, he devoured his soul and gave up on the body.

He borrowed it to form his own again.

The power of the Seven Seals Rune was so great that Su Ming’s heart pounded with lingering fear even after the incident. This was why he had been so eager to obtain that Art, and the only way to do so was to devour the ferocious spirit’s memories during Possession.

This was Abyss Builders’ inborn ability. However, if Su Ming’s previous words had not opened a crack in the heart and mind of the ferocious spirit, he would have definitely needed to go through a considerable amount of difficulty during the Possession.

At that moment, Su Ming exhaled and looked at his right palm. He lifted it and pushed it against the blood-red Rune in front of him. At the instant he touched it, the Rune shone before gradually turning dark. When it disappeared without a trace, Su Ming lifted his head again and looked at the fog above.

It obscured the view, making it impossible for him to see what was there, but during that instant, a crack appeared at the center of Su Ming’s brows. The Malicious Eye manifested swiftly in the crack, and immediately, the fog in the sky was magnified endlessly. He looked through layers upon layers, and in the span of a few breaths, Su Ming saw Old Ya Mu in the fog. He also saw the dark expression on his face.

Su Ming stared at the old man, and the old man also stared at Su Ming. Their gazes met each other through the fog.

“I won,” Su Ming declared flatly.

Old Ya Mu was silent. After a moment, he lifted his right hand and swung his arm forward. The mountain below him immediately roared. It started swaying violently, and Su Ming quickly lowered his head to see that a gigantic vortex had appeared at the top of the inverted mountain. That vortex rotated with loud bangs as it continued growing bigger.

It lasted only for the span of a breath before a mountain appeared underneath the vortex!

It was a mountain that was the exact same as the one on which Su Ming was standing!

It stood in the vortex in a normal manner, so its summit touched the summit of the mountain on which Su Ming stood, forming a picture that was like an hourglass. Su Ming saw Zhu You Cai at the forefront on the mountain beneath the vortex. He also saw Reverend Zi Long and Huang Mei following closely behind him.

Besides these three, Su Ming also saw Flame Fiends’ Progenitor, Progenitor Long Hai, Xuan Shang, Yun You, Hua Yu… and Xu Hui!

The moment Su Ming saw the crowd, the people also saw an inverted mountain appear before their eyes in the vortex which trembled viciously while the world roared. They also saw… Su Ming!

“He didn’t die!” Xuan Shang, Hua Yu, and Yun You immediately sucked in a sharp breath. At the instant they saw Su Ming, their hearts trembled.

Tears flowed down from Xu Hui’s eyes. She stared blankly at Su Ming, who appeared in the inverted mountain above her, as if that one look would last an eternity for her.

Progenitor Long Hai’s expression remained as calm as ever, but his heart let out a loud thump. He had mulled over it in his head and believed that even if he did not help him, Su Ming would not take any action against him. After all, with his level of cultivation, he would definitely value him highly. When he thought about this, even though his heart remained slightly anxious, not a single change appeared on his face.

The eyes of Flame Fiends’ Progenitor shone, for he was very nervous. He knew Su Ming better than Long Hai, and because of that, he could not help but start regretting.

When Zi Long saw Su Ming, his expression remained the same, but his pupils shrank slightly, because he noticed that Su Ming… was the closest person to the summits of the two mountains!

When Zhu You Cai saw Su Ming, a hint of a smile appeared on his face before it disappeared, and he returned to that ugly appearance of his.

As for Huang Mei, he let out a cold harrumph and moved faster, facing the mighty pressure in the place head-on, climbing to the summit with gritted teeth.

A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. All the various expressions on these people’s faces allowed him to see all sorts of things. The deliverance of that chain earlier had originally been to bring him and Xu Hui upwards at the same time, but an accident had occurred on their way up.

During it they had heard Zhu You Cai’s voice, and in his words, he mentioned Huang Mei. Because of it, Su Ming had already guessed everything that had happened. Zhu You Cai had tried to save them, while and Huang Mei used some sort of unknown method to stop him.

Su Ming’s expression remained the same. He cast a cold glance at Huang Mei, and the aloof look in his eyes was the same as when he previously stared at the white-robed teenager.

Su Ming did not speak. With one step, he charged towards the summit, and he was so fast that the crowd who had lost their power could not compare. They could only watch helplessly as he turned into a long arc and charged for the summit.

He was so quick that in just an instant, Su Ming had already stepped onto the spot where the two mountains connected – at the two summits!

Su Ming might have seemed calm from the outside, but he was prepared for a vicious battle. After all, Old Ya Mu had a hostile expression on his face just then. It wasn’t beyond that person to dispel the mighty pressure on the other people’s bodies an intense battle.

However, even when Su Ming reached the stone platform on the summit, the other people were still climbing slowly. The seal on their cultivation bases did not show any signs of being released. They could only stare at him going to the stone platform helplessly.

Zhu You Cai sighed and gave up on moving forward. Reverend Zi Long frowned and cast Su Ming a profound look, then also chose to give up.

A great refusal to accept defeat appeared on Huang Mei’s face, but he was still hundreds of feet away from the summit. He was too far away to catch up.

“Hmph, I am not the sort of person who goes against his own word. Since I promised you that if you reach the summit, you will become my scion, I will not interfere with you,” Old Ya Mu’s said in Su Ming’s heart.

“These two mountains are complete opposites. One of them is in the sky, and the other is in the ground. Understanding one of them will not make the Art complete. Only when you will understand them at the same time will you be able to obtain the real Mountain Shifter!

“I did not create this Art on my own, but inherited it from Mountain Shifter Expanse Cosmos, which is also part of Dark Dawn Union. This Art is the supreme Art in Mountain Shifter Expanses Cosmos that governs the changes in the world. It is equal in terms of power to Abyss Builders’ Nine Heavenly Abyss Sword Styles. They are both naturally born Arts.

“Learn it. I will send you to the core of the fifth kiln, but before that, I will give you the serendipity I promised you. I will definitely not go back on my word!” Old Ya Mu’s voice echoed in Su Ming’s heart, but as Su Ming continued listening to it, his words were filled with a peculiar air.

It was as if… Old Ya Mu was not saying those words to him, but were saying them for someone else, but that voice was clearly echoing in his heart. The people who Su Ming could see around him did not seem to be somebodies who were worthy of Old Ya Mu explaining himself in such a manner.

“Nine Heavenly Abyss Sword Style?” Su Ming’s eyes sparkled. This was the first time he heard of this Art.

“It is an Art your Progenitor created after he gained an epiphany about the change in the universe within Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos. He declared that there were nine heavenly changes, but at most, I saw only seven. Even that Progenitor of yours believed that the remaining ones could only be achieved in theory.

“You’ll learn about this in the future. Now hurry up and learn that Mountain Shifter Art of mine. Once you learn it, I’ll have fulfilled my promise, and my projection will be free to leave the fifth kiln.”

As Old Ya Mu’s voice echoed in Su Ming’s heart, his eyes shone, and he swept his gaze past the two stone platforms. One of them was above him, and the other beneath him. A single iron scroll was on each of them.

When Su Ming looked over, light shone in his eyes. After a period of pensive silence, he lifted his right hand and placed it on the stone platform above him. At the instant he did so, the inverted mountain started trembling viciously. Cracks appeared on it, and in the blink of an eye, the mountain started showing signs of crumbling.

At the same time, a loud bang rang out in Su Ming’s head. An epiphany towards the universe, the world, and the entire cosmos surged into his consciousness. It filled his whole mind and turned into countless memory fragments that stirred up a storm in his head.

In the storm of those memory fragments, Su Ming saw mountains. Among them were Dark Mountain, the ninth summit, and all the mountains he had seen, traversed, or touched in his life.

All of them had differing heights, but they swiftly overlapped with each other, and a vague epiphany gradually formed in his heart.

In the other people’s eyes, Su Ming’s hair danced in the air. The air beside him distorted, and mountains manifested. As they changed, more cracks appeared on the inverted mountain above, and the signs of its crumbling became even greater.

A powerful, mighty pressure that had never appeared before on Su Ming’s body manifested with a bang, shaking everyone’s hearts.

It was especially so for Huang Mei. Intense jealousy showed up in his eyes, and as his face distorted, veins popped up.

“It won’t be that easy for you to obtain such a powerful divine ability!” Huang Mei gritted his teeth, then struck the gourd behind his back with his right hand. He then shouted out, “Treasured gourd, please kill him!”