Pursuit of the Truth

It was as if time itself froze.

The rumbling sounds coming from the Relocation Rune also disappeared instantly, as if they had just gone static. Su Ming turned his head back swiftly and what he saw made his pupils shrink. He cautiously took a deep breath.

He saw that everything around him had become completely still. The light from the Rune did not move, and neither did the ground. Yet strangely, while Han Mountain still remained in sight, there was no one on the mountain. The three places were still around, but there was no one in them.

Even Fang Cang Lan, Han Fei Zi, and the others who were around the area just now were all gone. It was as if he was the only person left in the world.

… as if the moment that old voice appeared in his ears, the world had changed.

The world he saw before his eyes had just become empty, a world void of life. This drastic change made Su Ming feel shaken.

He could not imagine what sort of power would be required to do this. It was inconceivable in his eyes.

”This is the Void Space I created,” the same voice he heard just now spoke up in his ears once again from the distance. An old man dressed in white robes also appeared sitting on Tranquil East Mountain along with the voice.

The old man held a pot of wine in his hands and took a big gulp from it before he looked at Su Ming.

”Come, let’s talk.”

Su Ming’s heart pounded against his chest. Once he looked at the old man for a few moments, he cast his gaze around him. There were no signs of life on Lake of Colors Mountain. Besides him and the old man, not another soul could be seen in the area.

After hesitating for a moment, Su Ming tried lifting his feet to move out of the Rune. Once he did so, he immediately turned back to look at the Relocation Rune. The light did not move, and the still light made it seem like an illusionary statue.

Once he quelled the shock in his heart, Su Ming slowly rose into the air and walked towards Tranquil East Mountain until he eventually stood 100 feet away from the old man.

”Come, sit by my side.”

The old man put down the wine pot and swept his gaze across Su Ming. A hint of praise appeared on his face.

Su Ming moved closer to him without a word, and once he was by the old man’s side, he decided to just go along with his suggestion and sat down.

”Are you curious?”

The old man gave Su Ming a scrutinizing look then lifted his right hand to point at the space before Su Ming. Immediately, the space before him distorted and a pot of wine appeared.

”What’s a Void Space?”

The moment the wine pot appeared, Su Ming’s heart pounded and he looked towards the old man.

”A Void Space is a power belonging to those in the Bone Sacrifice Realm. Once most of the bones in a Berserker’s body have turned into Berserker Bones, they can communicate with heaven and earth, and from there create their own world.

”Since it’s not real and only an illusion, it’s called a Void, and since it’s formed in the body and is cut off from the world by our flesh and blood, it cannot spread outwards, that’s why it’s called a Space.”

The old man picked up the wine pot and once he took another mouthful, he looked at Su Ming.

”My Void Space is not complete. I can only create the world I see. There’re no living things within. Bringing you in here was already a herculean task.”

Su Ming was silent. This was the first time he had ever heard of Void Spaces.

”Blood Solidification, Transcendence, Bone Sacrifice, Berserker Soul. These are the four great realms among us Berserkers. First, you must understand the connotations behind these four great realms. You must understand why they were divided this way, and only then will you be able to reach these realms,” the old man said with a smile.

”It doesn’t matter whether you will succeed in becoming my disciple. Our meeting in itself is fate. I can guide you. Now, why is there a word ‘blood’ in Blood Solidification Realm?”

The old man looked at Su Ming.

”Because Berserkers inherit powers through blood. Our blood contains the power of the Berserker Tribe. However, it’s very thin, that’s why we need to continuously merge it together, only then will that power erupt forth,” Su Ming replied softly after a slight hesitation.

”Correct. From a broad perspective, this is correct. However, you still don’t understand its connotations.”

The old man lifted his right hand and waved it across the sky.

With that one single wave, a blood vein shining with piercing red light immediately appeared in the sky.

”Look closer, I will only show it to you once. When you finish observing it, tell me your answer. This is my first test for you. If you succeed, then I will consider you my honorary disciple. If you fail, then go back from whence you came.”

The old man cast Su Ming a profound look and waved his right arm in the sky once more.

The moment he waved his arm, the blood vein in the sky shook, and several branches appeared on that blood vein, and those branches branched out once again, until eventually there seemed to be countless blood veins right before Su Ming’s eyes. However, if he took a closer look, he would find that there was really only one blood vein.

The multiple branches that appeared on that one blood vein split up from each other and gathered in the air to form the outline of a person. They shone with a brilliant red light that lit up the entire area.

When he saw this, Su Ming took in a sharp breath, feeling as if thunder rumbled in his mind. The blood veins that he thought had disappeared once they turned into his Berserker Mark appeared once again to cover his entire body.

This strange sight made Su Ming shudder.

”So blood veins… don’t disappear… once we Transcend…”

As Su Ming mumbled under his breath, the figure of the person formed by the blood veins in the sky experienced a change once again.

Those blood veins became entwined with each other and gradually pictures of mountains and rivers, the sun and the moon, the stars, plants, and ferocious beasts appeared around him. Every single time one of them appeared, the person formed by blood veins would experience different changes. The veins would move around as if they were trying to match the illusionary pictures around them.

The final picture that appeared was of a mountain – a five fingered mountain, Su Ming’s Mountain Mark!

The moment the five fingered mountain appeared, plants appeared on the surface of the mountain. There were trees, earth, and the entire five fingered mountain seemed to have come alive. As it continued to be covered, it gradually looked as if it had turned into a real mountain, and was no longer an illusion.

Once it completely turned into a physical entity, Su Ming once again saw the mountain fusing with the person made of blood veins, and slowly, he saw that the mountain was one with the person, and the person one with the mountain!

The mountain covered every single part of the person made of blood veins, and as if it was a carving on a totem, the mountain seemed to have become the skin for the person made of blood veins!

The moment Su Ming saw this, the blood veins that had appeared once again on his body started circulating with a boom. He started trembling furiously, as if he could not control himself. His face immediately turned pale and blood flowed out of the corner of his lips.

Weariness filled his heart. This feeling stemmed from the sight he saw, which stirred up the Qi within his body.

The old man sitting beside Su Ming looked at him and asked slowly, ”Do you want to continue?”

”Yes!”

Su Ming gritted his teeth.

If anyone said that the person that had fused with the mountain in the air and had the mountain as his skin was a human, then he was a human, but if they said he was a mountain, then he was a mountain as well! A vast and mighty presence spread out from its entire body and turned into a gigantic pressure that covered the entire land.

Soon after, a golden piece of bone appeared within the body. More pieces of bones gradually appeared, and after a moment, a complete spine was formed.

It did not end there. Once the spine appeared, a complete skeletal frame formed in the body as time passed by!

He had the form of a person, a skeleton, flesh, and blood. This was a complete human being.

However, he had no soul, no spirit. This person had his eyes closed and could not seem to open them. Su Ming could sense a void within his body, as if he was in deep sleep and could not wake up.

”If he opens his eyes, then he’ll obtain the Berserker Soul,” the old man stated calmly. He placed his right hand down, and the instant he did so, the person in the sky twisted and blended into nothingness.

”I will wait for your answer here.”

The old man closed his eyes.

Su Ming was looking at the spot where the figure had disappeared in the sky dumbly. The images he saw resurfaced in his mind. After a long while, he closed his eyes.

Time trickled by slowly. The sun, moon, and the stars did not move in the Void Space. It was as if time itself had frozen.

The old man’s eyes remained shut and he did not open them. He had enough patience to wait for Su Ming’s answer. Yet before long, the old man opened his eyes and looked towards Su Ming.

Su Ming remained still, but the blood veins that had previously appeared on his body were shining brilliantly, and among them, two had even fused together.

A surprised look appeared in the old man’s eyes as he watched the two fused blood veins.

‘What great intelligence!’

Once the two blood veins fused together, the fusion speed for the other blood veins abruptly increased and they blended together. After a few hours and under the old man’s praising look, all the blood veins within Su Ming’s body became one.

That one blood vein glowed in a brilliant shade of red and slowly surfaced on Su Ming’s face. Once it turned into the five fingered Mountain Mark, it crept down his neck. Once the old man saw this, he was stunned.

‘His Berserker Mark is the Mountain and he had now truly completed Blood Solidification, so why is it still spreading down…?’

The blood veins were hidden under Su Ming’s robes. They spread towards the blood lines Su Ming had drawn on his body, and once they finally turned into the complete Berserker Mark, the old man widened his eyes in shock. He took a sharp breath and no longer cared about maintaining the appropriate demeanor for his status.

He lifted his right hand and waved it towards Su Ming, and immediately, Su Ming’s robes covering his upper body disappeared, revealing to the old man the complete Berserker Mark he had drawn on his body!

Dark Mountain Tribe!

The moment the old man saw the Berserker Mark, he sucked in a sharp breath and was stunned. He had seen countless Berserker Marks in his life, and among them, some were rather complicated. However, he had never seen a Berserker Mark that was as complex as the one on Su Ming’s body.

”Is this… still a Berserker Mark..? This boy is even crazier than I am…” the old man muttered under his breath, shocked.

”I had thought that he activated the Sound of Soul Creation with his entire Berserker Mark… But by the looks of it, the Mountain Mark that triggered the Sound of Soul Creation is just part of the Berserker Mark!

”This sort of Berserker Mark will either never develop and turn into a mixed Mark, or… it will grow, and its power will shock the entire Berserker Tribe!

”What exactly happened that day after I left…” The old man was in slight disbelief and started regretting leaving so abruptly in disappointment that day.

Regret filled his face, but he immediately noticed it and changed his expression instantly, turning that regretful look into his previous mysterious and smiling expression. He waved his right hand before Su Ming’s body, causing his robes to appear once again, before he let out a fake cough and put on the look of a veteran as he looked at Su Ming.

At that very moment, Su Ming slowly opened his eyes. There was a sharp glint in them, and they showed understanding.