Pursuit of the Truth

‘It’s about time I took a trip to Han Mountain City’

That morning, Su Ming got out from his meditative state. His face still held the traces of the complex thoughts formed after an entire night of thinking, but he had already made a decision in his heart.

He put away the medicinal pills in a pouch and looked around the cave. He had stayed in this place for two years and had no intention of not returning. He was already familiar with this place, and it was a good location for training.

‘The information provided by Fang Mu about the area around here should be mostly accurate, but I’ll need to take a look at it myself, especially that Puqiang Tribe! Also… since this Han Mountain City is on the path that must be taken when going to the Great Tribe of Freezing Sky in the Land of South Morning, then I might be able to find a map leading me to the Alliance of the Western Region.’

Su Ming’s eyes flashed. He walked out of the cave and stood outside. The wind was moist. It was once again the rainy season, the very season that welcomed him when he first came to this place two years ago.

He touched the broken bag in his bosom. This thing did not change at all during the past two years. The broken parts in the dimension did not spread out, making Su Ming feel more at ease.

Besides the large amount of medicinal pills he put in the bag, it also contained a lot of fur and bones from beasts he had hunted down in the past two years. The information Fang Mu provided allowed Su Ming to understand that the tribes within the Land of South Morning were different from the Alliance of the Western Region. They may also need herbs, but most of what they wanted were taken from wild beasts.

For example, the first time he met Fang Mu. The boy and his people had been hunting that snake to obtain its poison sac and bones to create medicine.

Once he made all the necessary preparations, Su Ming dashed down towards the rainforest at the foot of the mountain.

When night fell, for the very first time, Su Ming walked out of the borders of the rainforest. He wore a long robe as blue as the sky. His black hair danced in the wind. Before him were an endless, grassy plains.

Su Ming lowered his head and averted his gaze before moving forward. The sky and land was huge, but besides him, there was no one else. In truth, few people came to this rainforest. Even if some did, most of them were there only to collect the ingredients to create medicine.

The moon hung in the sky and moonlight shone on the ground. Su Ming moved silently forward. He was so quick it was as if there was a long arc whistling by. However, this arc did not rise into the sky, but stuck closely to the ground while speeding forward.

‘Fang Mu once said that I’ll need to continue for ten days in this direction.’

Su Ming already knew where Han Mountain City was located for a long time from Fang Mu. He also knew the details of this city.

‘It is a very chaotic city, controlled by three tribes at the same time. Because of that, it’s treated as a hub, and that’s why there are a lot of powerful Berserkers there… Those three tribes usually turned a blind eye towards these people, sometimes even choosing some powerful Berserkers to become their guests and inviting them to join with luxurious gifts.’

Su Ming’s eyes flashed and his speed increased.

The Land of South Morning was mostly formed by mountain ranges. This vast land, it would not be an exaggeration to call it the land of mountain ranges, as they numbered tens of thousands.

The tribes here were also built around the mountains in a manner completely different from those in the Alliance of the Western Region .

As there were a lot of tribes in the Land of South Morning, there were also a lot of strange varieties of Berserker Arts. There were also a lot of powerful Berserkers among them. The existence of the Great Tribe of Freezing Sky Tribe, and especially the existence of the Freezing Sky Clan also provided a strong basis for the might of the Land of South Morning.

Freezing Sky Clan was a mysterious place that was completely under the control of the Great Tribe of Freezing Sky. It was not a tribe, but a school! It was a school that belonged to Berserkers. As long as they were Berserkers from the Land of South Morning, it did not matter which tribe they belonged to, if they could pass the test set by Freezing Sky Clan, then they could enrol the school.

In the Land of South Morning, Freezing Sky Clan was famous for being incredibly powerful. There were a lot of rumors about the place. According to legend, 6,000 years ago, the Elder of Freezing Sky Tribe built the clan with the help of some outsiders.

As time passed by, Freezing Sky, which had been a middle sized tribe, slowly became more powerful and turned into one of the two great tribes in South Morning. Only then did Freezing Sky Clan rise up in status.

It was said that there were 100,000 Berserkers at Freezing Sky!

It was the first ever place to break the restrictions between tribes in the entire Land of South Morning and make their Berserker Arts open to public, causing those who had vast potential to obtain a place where they could become powerful Berserkers.

According to legend, the reason why the Great Tribe of Freezing Sky could become the head of South Morning was closely related to this Freezing Sky Clan. There was a rumor about that clan saying that everything within was an imitation of the mysterious other world, where the methods of training and tribes themselves were widely different from those on this one.

Legends said that this other world had no tribes, only schools.

Due to the success of this Freezing Sky Clan, over the past thousand years, the trend of schools became popular in the Land of South Morning. Many tribes started imitating them, especially the Western Sea Tribe, the other big tribe that was of equal standing to Freezing Sky. They built the Western Sea Clan, and with its appearance, conflict arose between these two schools.

Similarly, besides the small tribes, those middle sized tribes with some power would also imitate the big tribes, building their own schools within their tribes.

However, these schools were centered around the tribe’s own Berserkers. They could not dispel their aversion towards outsiders. Most of them would only allow part of their Berserker Arts to be inherited to attract powerful guests from all around the place to join them and increase the tribe’s strength. The schools and the guests were mostly only using each other, and they would always be wary of the other.

Su Ming had gotten to understand all this over the past half a year while talking with Fang Mu.

He was not too taken aback by the strangeness of South Morning. After all, he might have come from the Alliance of the Western Region, but since young, he had only been around the area of Dark Mountain. His understanding of the Alliance of the Western Region was not as great as his knowledge about the Land of South Morning at this moment.

Han Mountain City, more accurately speaking, was built in this environment. It had been around for 2,000 years, but it had only been taken over by Puqiang, Lake of Colors, and Tranquil East for less than 400 years.

Fang Mu mentioned before that their bamboo slips in their tribes recorded the great battle 400 years ago. At that time, Han Mountain City was ruled by an incredibly powerful middle sized tribe called Han Tribe. When it started weakening, the three tribes that were under its rule took over. Once they killed all the tribe members of Han Tribe, they successfully took Han Mountain City under their rule.

They wanted to conquer that city because whoever ruled it obtained the right to communicate with Freezing Sky Clan. Besides, whoever conquered Han Mountain City also became the lord of the area. The ruling tribes could enjoy some special privileges that Fang Mu did not know about.

The powers of the three tribes were about the same, and they did not have any strength left to fight, or else Han Mountain City might once again experience a change in its ruler. This was why the leaders of the three tribes decided to form a treaty – all three tribes would control the city at the same time.

However, the city was not controlled by the tribes, but by the school created by the three tribes.

The information Fang Mu provided rose up in Su Ming’s mind. After a few days, as Su Ming stood at the summit of a mountain, he saw a tall mountain not far away from him. It was dusk by then.

There were no plants growing there, but there was a city built on it. The entire mountain was made of rocks. It was incredibly sturdy. Wind Stream Tribe’s mudstone city could not even hope to compare to this. This was the most magnificent city Su Ming had ever seen in his life.

He stood at the summit and stared at the city on the mountain for a long time before he took a deep, long breath. There was a bright light in his eyes. He could somewhat understand why the elder left Dark Mountain multiple times when he was younger to travel around the world now. Only when a person had seen more and experienced the true world could he be said to have truly grown.

If not, then only his body would grow, not his soul.

Su Ming did not go immediately. He sat down cross-legged instead, the mountain breeze blowing in his face and lifting his long hair. He could feel that the many Wings of the Moon within his body were growing restless when he got closer to this place. He closed his eyes as he sat down, but soon reopened them. The shadow of the blood-red moon appeared in his pupils.

The shadow of the blood-red moon was faint, and no one else could see it. Yet at that moment, the world changed in Su Ming’s eyes!

He saw three bundles of mist floating above the city.

The three bundles of mist were red, black, and white in color!

There were also three tall mountains surrounding the city at the corner of his eyes. There were also three bundles of mist of three different colors floating above the summits of those three mountains. They looked magnificent, as if they were afraid no one would know just how strange and mysterious this place was.

The bundle of mist on the mountain to the far left was red. Su Ming could see the faint outlines of a woman’s face in that red mist. Her face was cold and dark, making all those who saw her face feel their hearts tremble.

To the right of Han Mountain City was another summit. The bundle of mist above it was white and looked like holy clouds surrounding the mountain. As the mist gathered together, there was also a cold and desolate air to it. The contours of a gigantic white scorpion would occasionally appear in the white mist. There seemed to be a black bell hanging off the scorpion’s tail.

The final summit was behind Han Mountain City. This mountain was surrounded by black mist that exuded an air of death. It looked eerie and gloomy, and there was also the faint outline of a black skeleton sitting cross-legged inside the mist.

”The black mist belongs to Puqiang Tribe, the red mist to Lake of Colors Tribe, and the white mist belongs to Tranquil East Tribe!” Su Ming mumbled under his breath, and the shadow of the blood red moon in his eyes disappeared.

The three mountains may have been surrounding the mountain where Han Mountain City was built and did not seem too far away, but in truth, if a normal tribe member were to walk from Han Mountain City to one of the mountains, they would need to take a few days to do so.

There were three seemingly fine chains connecting the mountain of Han Mountain City to the three mountains where the three tribes were. Underneath these chains were canyons that reached hundreds of thousands of feet downwards. Unless a person was at the Transcendence Realm, then he would surely die if he fell.

The three chains swayed in the mountain breeze, as if because they were hung too high up in the sky.

The chains connected to the three mountains went past them and continued into the distance. Yet those places were all covered by a fog. No one could see clearly what lay ahead.

‘It’s clear that these three tribes scattered out to spread their might over Han Mountain City so that they could show off their power. Not only does it allow them to inspire awe and fear in other people, they can also attract powerful Berserkers to become their guests.’

Su Ming’s eyes flashed, and he looked at the mountain surrounded by black mist behind Han Mountain City. That was where Puqiang Tribe was located.