Pursuit of the Truth

‘All Spirits Hall, the place rumored to be the spot where all Ancestral Spirits appeared…’

Su Ming cast his gaze at the skeleton and frowned. There was an ancient air to it, making it clear that it had been there for a countless years.

All Spirits Hall was completely separated from the world beyond. If it was not for the Sun Sinking Talisman, it would have been impossible for Su Ming to step into this place and be trapped in it for four years.

He stared at the skeleton, and the skeleton’s empty eyes seemed to be staring back at him. There seemed to be a hint of derision in that look. He was mocking Su Ming for expecting to leave the place. The skeleton was waiting for him to end up like it in the future, for the day when his blood and flesh will disappear and he will turn into mere bones.

The black color of the bones might be due to time leaving its tracks on the them, but there was also a possibility… that the cultivator had drank even more blood from the ferocious beasts than Su Ming. In time, it not only his turned his blood black, but even his bones.

“Make… the offering…” Su Ming sighed softly.

He still remembered that the Sun Sinking Talisman had been activated for some unknown reason four years ago. Once he was Relocated to this place, a buzzing sound from the Sun Sinking Talisman had reverberated in the area.

‘It said that there is no offering… so the ritual master shall offer himself as an offering…The ritual master it referred to should be me. Based on the situation at that time, some unintentional action of mine had fulfilled a condition for the activation of the Sun Sinking Talisman, which has existed for countless years.

‘But another action of mine after that made me unable to complete the Sun Sinking Talisman’s request, which is why as a punishment, I was sent to this place as an offering.’

In truth, Su Ming had come to understand this a few years ago. There was only one thing that could work as the so-called offering—the soul of the clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole.

Perhaps only this sort of independent will born due to the Heavenly Incense Rune could somewhat fulfil the requirements for the offering and fit the description of the spirit within the All Spirits Hall’s name.

However, Su Ming had put away the clone’s soul, which meant that he removed the offering right before the Sun Sinking Talisman activated, which was why everything after that had happened.

‘Since this skeleton exists here and I could be Relocated to this place, then even if it has been a long time since the last time someone came in, there has to be more skeletons in this place, and in fact, there is a high possibility that there are still living people.’

Locating the survivors could be a method for him to get out. Even if he could not, he could still come to understand this so-called All Spirits Hall.

After a period of silence, Su Ming stared at the white sky beyond the cave abode. He knew it would last for seven days. At that time, the color of the fog would change again, and new types of dangers would appear until the red shade descended on the ground again. This was like a cycle.

Su Ming turned his head and cast a glance at the cave abode again, and a determined expression appeared on his face. He had already stayed in this place for several years, only moving around in the area nearby so that he could rush back when he needed to avoid the bizarre existences in the red fog.

However, this could not be a long-term plan. If he wanted to leave, he had to gain more knowledge of the world outside. At the very least, he had to learn about the origins of the figures in the red fog. Also… he had to be able to step into the gigantic palace which had once appeared in the sky. There was a good chance it was the way to leave.

Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. His eyes shone, and his skin immediately aged. His body slowly turned old, and his hair started graying. An aura of death slowly filled his body. This was the way of existing which required the least amount of his cultivation base. It was something he had found out during the the four years through trial and error. With this method, he could keep his precious cultivation base instead of wasting it.

Once he turned into an old man, Su Ming stood up and walked out of his cave abode. He cast his gaze into the distance, and everything tithing his line of sight was white fog tumbling by the ground. The sky was filled with it as well, so there was only a white shade all around him.

There was no sign of anything breathing either. The place was as silent as a gigantic grave. Su Ming quietly went down the mountain, ignoring the white fog. He quickly headed in the easternmost direction. He did not use his cultivation base, only his legs. This might not be able to compare to his speed when he traveled with his cultivation base, but he was still much faster than mortals.

It was something that Su Ming had been incredibly unused to when he just entered the world of the fog. His speed had become much slower, and the weakness from not using his cultivation base made him feel as if his body could not accept this fact. However, as he drank the beasts’ blood and his own blood changed, his physical constitution went through a gradual change.

Su Ming did not know whether this change was good or bad, but he needed it to survive.

He had already become very familiar with the area around him, and he did not stop along the way. When the fourth day arrived, he stood at the summit of a tall mountain in the easternmost direction. When he turned his head back, he could still locate the cave abode he had lived in for years, even though his vision was obscured by the fog.

The place where he stood was the furthest spot he had ever traveled to during the years he had investigated the area.

As he stared at the concealed cave abode in the white fog, resolve appeared on Su Ming’s face. Hiding was indeed much safer, but being safe meant dying while trapped there. If he remained there, he would turn into a skeleton in the end, just like the other cultivator in the cave.

If Su Ming wanted to leave the damned All Spirits Hall, he needed to leave the cave, which was his safe haven, first. There might be plenty of dangers in the world outside, but this place also held the chance to ever escape.

It was not easy to make this sort of decision with unswerving resolution. After all, it was human nature to refuse leaving a safe place they found in a dangerous land only to be place themselves in danger once more. This sort of act was instinctively rejected by all forms of life.

Most of them would choose to stay in the safe haven. Even if they knew that nothing would change by doing so and they would just end up dead, dying later was still better than dying sooner.

Su Ming had also only made up his mind after staying there for years. At that moment, he cast a deep glance at the cave, and turned his head away to walk along the mountain marking the spot he had moved the furthest in the past. He then dashed into the fog beneath him, stepping where he had never gone to in the past four years.

The fog obscured his vision, making it impossible for him to see even a few inches before his eyes. Every single time he used his divine sense, it used up a bit of his cultivation base again, which was why Su Ming rarely did so. Besides the fact that it would make him spend his cultivation base, he would also attract unnecessary trouble to himself.

This was a lesson, a lesson Su Ming had learned four years ago. The main reason behind why he was chased down by the living creatures in the red fog in the past was because his divine sense had attracted a figure in the red fog to him.

All of the living creatures in this place seemed to be incredibly perceptive to divine senses. They would instantly notice it even if he used just a tiny bit of it.

That was why unless it was absolutely necessary, Su Ming would not use his divine sense. The white fog, however, had the safest white light among all the colors, so Su Ming attempted to use his divine sense to scan the area.

His divine sense was weakened and limited in the fog, which was why even if he used his full strength, it would not reach too far. But if he wanted to leave a Brand of the terrain in his mind, it was still possible, and it would help him to not get lost even if he could not see the area.

Days passed as Su Ming continued moving ceaselessly. Without any time to rest, he walked for seven days. When the fog gradually turned from white to blue, he had already traveled an incredibly long distance. When he saw the blue shade appear in the white fog, Su Ming visibly relaxed a little. His constantly vigilant heart even allowed him to sit down cross-legged and rest for a while.

During the four years, Su Ming could not find the pattern in the fog. He only knew that white would definitely come after red, but it was completely impossible for him to deduce what would come next. There was a possibility that it could be blue, but it could also be green, and even purple. In fact, there was even a possibility that it would turn back to red.

That was why the span of seven days was a limit and a gamble. It was also the reason why Su Ming would never move for more than four days, making it the furthest distance he would travel in the past. He never risked not having enough time to return to his cave abode.

Unless… he went out to hunt.

Caution, vigilance—Su Ming was constantly on alert during the four years he had stayed in this place. Even if the white fog turned blue, Su Ming only relaxed for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before focusing and looking around himself with caution. Then, he slowly walked forward.

He knew that the white fog and the red fog would definitely last for seven days, but the period of time the other-colored fog would last was uncertain. They might last for a day, but they could also stay for seven days. In fact, there was even a possibility that they would remain only for half a day, or even just two hours. Su Ming had personally witnessed this.

While remaining vigilant, he continued running forward without hesitation, using the full speed he could muster at that moment…

‘It’s a pity that I couldn’t Possess my clone, or else I’d be much faster.’

Su Ming sighed in his heart. He had tried multiple times in the past four years to bring out his clone and its soul from his storage bag so that he could Possess and fuse with it, but every single time the clone appeared, the fog in the world outside would instantly turn red. Even if it had been the completely safe white fog previously, it would still change, and a large number of figures would instantly appear.

The amount of time he had was not enough for Su Ming to Possess his clone. If he persevered, he would only find himself drowned out by the existences in the red fog.

The blue fog lasted for three days before it turned orange. Five days after the orange fog, which marked half a month since Su Ming had set out, it turned purple.

The instant Su Ming saw it, an extremely vigilant expression appeared on his face. During the past four years, he had learned that the purple fog was the fog for hunting.

The ferocious beasts which could allow him to recover his cultivation base after he drank their blood would only appear in the purple fog, but Su Ming was not just on guard against these creatures. There was another pattern that he had noticed happen almost every single time during his countless observations.

Red would definitely appear after purple!