Pursuit of the Truth

The medicinal scent filled the dark room and spread around, causing the people who took a whiff of it to feel refreshed. Su Ming looked at the four medicinal pills in the transparent bottle; they were green. The inside of the bottle seemed like an illusion, as if the four medicinal pills inside did not blend in with the surroundings.

Once the person beside Su Ming brought out the medicinal pills, he stated unhurriedly in his seat, ”These are four second grade Shaman Cores. I’ve already verified their uses myself. They’re used to treat wounds.”

”Shaman Core…”

Su Ming looked calm, but his heart was trembling. This auction had let him get to learn of many items he never knew before. He stared at the transparent jade bottle and remained silent.

”You actually managed to snatch Shaman Cores from Shaman Priests? Interesting. But I don’t really believe that those are second grade Shaman Cores!” a dark voice said. The person who spoke was someone among the people sitting on the other side of the room. While speaking, he lifted his right hand and seized at the air in the direction of the jade bottle.

That bottle instantly charged towards him, and once he held it, he poured one of the medicinal pills into his hand and brought it to his nose to sniff it.

The person beside Su Ming did not stop the other person from doing so. Clearly, doing such a thing was normal in the auction. He was not worried that the Shaman Core would be stolen.

There were also others who grabbed the bottle through the air and took out the medicinal pills inside to inspect them. Usually, they would only look at a pill for a moment before putting it back into the medicine bottle.

Quite a number of people inspected those pills. A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. He waited for a moment, and once he saw that no one else inspected those pills, he lifted his right hand and clutched it in the direction of the medicine bottle. Immediately, that medicine bottle flew to him. He poured out one of them and took a few close looks before also choosing to sniff it.

A medicinal scent wafted into his nose, but there was also a bloody stench contained within it. He stared at the pill, and while Su Ming was certain that this was a medicinal pill, it was not of the few types he knew about.

The quenching process for this pill was also rather crude. It might look as round as a Core, but once Su Ming took a closer look, he could see numerous small holes in the pill. It was not as good as the medicinal pills Su Ming created, which looked natural.

‘When I went to the land of the Shamans, the Patriarch of Lizard Shaman Tribe said that my Spirit Plunder was a Barren Core when he saw it… Now, by the looks of it, the Shamans do indeed have the methods to create medicinal pills, and they are similar to mine.

‘But the products of the quenching process I learned are called medicinal pills, and the Shamans call theirs Shaman Cores… By the looks of these Shaman Cores, they are lacking compared to my medicinal pills.’

Su Ming put the Shaman Core in his hand back into the medicine bottle, then pushed it forward and kept silent.

The Shaman Cores did not incite a large scale competition, but there were some people who negotiated privately with the owner of those Cores while everyone else’s sights were obscured. Then each of them obtained those Shaman Cores in exchange for some item of their own.

The small auction lasted for a long time. Su Ming renounced the chance to bring out anything to be auctioned. He did not have anything that could be sold, anyway. Tian Lan Meng was the same. Another hour passed by before the small auction ended.

This was the first time Su Ming had joined a private auction of such high standards. Most of the items these people brought out were things he had never heard about. As the private auction ended, while Su Ming might not have obtained a lot of things from it, he had gained new knowledge about more valuable items.

If it was not for this chance, he would have needed a long time to slowly accumulate this sort of knowledge. When the private auction ended, the boy waved his arm, and the blurred out figures of the people sitting by either side of the room started turning into illusions and slowly grew invisible before they eventually vanished into thin air.

To enter this place, people would need to step into the golden tent. There were about a dozen golden tents in Western Sea Clan, and it was not necessary for them to enter the dark room through the biggest golden tent located at the center of the tribe.

That was why when the people left the dark room, most of them would be separated, and once they left the golden tent, they would usually quickly leave the place.

Su Ming and Tian Lan Meng walked out. In Su Ming’s hand was a chain with a Fire Ape with dark red fur at its end. When the ape left the tent, it lifted its head to look at the sky. As it watched the snow floating down from the sky, it shuddered.

”Brother Su, this bag of mine can store living things. Quickly, put that Fire Ape in there. We must leave this place immediately.”

The moment they walked out of the golden tent and Zi Che as well as Tian Lan Meng’s followers went back to them, Tian Lan Meng quickly spoke to Su Ming. At the same time, she brought out a small white bag before handing it to him.

Su Ming did not hesitate. He took the small bag and scanned it with his divine sense. Once he did so, he patted the bag gently, and instantly, a mighty and great power of absorption shot out from within it, sweeping away the Fire Ape and sucking it into the bag in an instant.

”Let’s go!”

Tian Lan Meng turned into a long arc and rose into the air. Su Ming took a step and bounded forward. Even if Tian Lan Meng had taken off first and was charging forward, with that one step, Su Ming could stay by her side in midair.

Zi Che and the girl followed behind them while the man with the white mask stayed at the very end of the team. His footsteps were paced moderately and he looked rather relaxed.

They turned into several long arcs in the air and traveled into the distance gradually.

No one spoke on the way. Su Ming was caught in his thoughts. Sometimes, he would lower his head and look at the small white bag. He still did not know how to describe that feeling within himself. The very first moment he saw the Fire Ape, he had been shocked, and mixed feelings had even arisen in his heart.

He had hoped that the ape was Xiao Hong but found it hard to accept the possibility of it being the truth. When he saw that the ape was not Xiao Hong, his heart was filled with melancholy and longing for him.

With those complicated feelings in his heart, Su Ming flew silently with Tian Lan Meng. When the sky started becoming bright and they were some distance away from the temporary tribe built by Western Sea Clan, Tian Lan Meng turned around and gave Su Ming a look.

”The thing you used in exchange for the Fire Ape was also a type of Shaman Core.” Tian Lan Meng’s voice was gentle and no one else could hear it, because it appeared in Su Ming’s mind.

Su Ming was on the receiving end of this method of communication before in the private auction. It had been a very strange experience.

”This is a simple Art belonging to the Immortals. It’s easy to describe it, but it’s difficult for Berserkers to master it.” Tian Lan Meng smiled at Su Ming. She could tell that Su Ming was baffled by this sort of Art that could transmit sound.

”You don’t need to tell me. I don’t know whether you know its origins. If you know, it’s fine, but if you didn’t, well, now you do.

”But that Shaman Core of yours was very special. It was very different from the ones I’ve seen before. If it wasn’t because I had seen plenty of Shaman Cores in my life, it would have been difficult for me to identify it. The boy from Western Sea Clan thinks he’s very knowledgeable, but he still didn’t manage to discern the origins of that thing at first glance.”

Tian Lan Meng’s smile was very beautiful. As she smiled, her eyes turned into the shape of a crescent moon, and it added a charm to her that would make people’s hearts flutter.

Su Ming carefully sensed the way Tian Lan Meng’s voice echoed in his mind. By using his divine sense to observe it, he could tell somewhat that the voice was transmitted through an aura. This aura was not the power of Qi that was contained in the flesh and blood, but it was another sort of power that was contained in the world.

It would have been difficult for other people to notice this aura, but it was not so for Su Ming. There was another path that had been opened up within his body, and that same aura was contained within that path!

He had sensed it before and given it a name himself - Aura Refinement Art.

After a moment of deep thought, a gust of aura started circulating within the opened path in Su Ming’s body. The instant it surged out, it fused together with his divine sense. When his divine sense spread out and the instant it touched Tian Lan Meng, Su Ming gained an epiphany, and a smile appeared on his face.

”Perhaps it’s not so.” Su Ming did not use his mouth to say those words. His voice had instead traveled directly into Tian Lan Meng’s mind.

”Oh? ...Eh?”

Tian Lan Meng had originally not discovered that he was talking to her without using his mouth, but very soon, she was stunned. She widened her eyes and turned around swiftly to look at Su Ming, and on her face was shock and disbelief.

”You… were you speaking just now?” Tian Lan Meng asked after a moment of hesitation.

”That’s right, I said ‘perhaps it’s not so’.” Su Ming sent his voice into her head.

”...You learn too quickly…” There was a strange look on Tian Lan Meng’s face when she glanced at him before continued moving forward.

After a long while, Tian Lan Meng finally could not help it and asked, ”How did you do it?”

”I did it just the way you did it. It wasn’t anything difficult to begin with. Once I got the gist of it, it was easy,” Su Ming answered, smiling.

”Oh well, it’s fine if you don’t want to say it. But it’s a good thing for us if you can speak with your mind. Su Ming, I need your help during Sky Mist Shaman Hunt.” A stern look appeared on Tian Lan Meng’s face.

”Details.” Su Ming sighed internally. There was no way he could refuse this now. After all, the things that happened during the auction had turned her into his creditor…

Tian Lan Meng looked at Su Ming and said after a moment of hesitation, ”I can’t tell you the details now. This isn’t a good place to talk. When Sky Mist Shaman Hunt begins, I’ll tell you everything in detail. Once you help me, not only will you not owe me stone coins, but I’ll also reward you greatly in other ways.”

”Alright, but I’ll say this beforehand. I don’t care how dangerous this is, if it exceeds my abilities and endangers my life, then I will choose to give up. I’ll think of another way to return the stone coins I owe you,” Su Ming said in a low tone.

”Alright.” Tian Lan Meng smiled and nodded towards him.

Time trickled by as the two of them talked to each other with their minds, and it lasted until evening. They arrived back in Freezing Sky Clan without running into any danger. As Tian Lan Meng looked at the nine summits on the ground, she brought out a deep-blue ice bottle from her bosom, then poured a drop of the blue liquid in there into another ice bottle.

”I’ll take one of the three drops of Sea Marrow as an interest, and I’ll return the other two drops to you. This item is very valuable. Once you take in one drop, it’ll produce a large life force within you. It’s a life saver,” Tian Lan Meng said and gave the ice bottle containing the two drops of Sea Marrow to Su Ming.

”With this thing around, our chances of survival during Sky Mist Shaman Hunt will increase.” As she spoke, Tian Lan Meng smiled once again before she flew back to the seventh summit in a long arc. The girl followed behind her. The man with the white mask had already gone somewhere else.

Su Ming looked at Tian Lan Meng’s departing figure, lowered his head to look at the ice bottle in his hands, turned around, and flew back to the ninth summit with Zi Che.

There were now less than two months until Sky Mist Shaman Hunt began...