Pursuit of the Truth

Su Ming had almost forgotten about that voice. It had been a long time since that voice last appeared in his memories.

Yet at that moment, when that voice appeared, Su Ming’s body was not the only thing about him that shuddered, his soul was also shaken.

That voice came closer, then went into the distance again. It drifted from place to place, just like when he heard it in the past, but there was also something different about it. That difference lay in the anxiety in that voice. That anxious voice sounded as if she was crying.

”Big brother… it’s almost too late now… Big brother…”

”Big brother, hurry up and wake up… wake up…”

”Big brother… he’s stopping…”

”Big brother…”

Su Ming opened his eyes swiftly, cold sweat having broken out all over his body. The moment he opened his eyes, all the voices he previously heard returned - the Fire Ape’s roars, Wu Duo’s words, and the boy’s eerie chuckles.

The world in his vision that had previously shattered rapidly recovered right before his eyes. Voices reached his ears, and when he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the Fire Ape rapidly retreating right before his eyes. Before it was an illusionary ball…

...belonging to a head with a person’s face but a snake’s body. That head was red and about one hundred feet in size. It had its mouth wide open, and a ball of fire could be seen burning within its body, which was illusionary, but it made the Fire Ape continuously retreat, howling.

The Fire Ape’s fire red fur was rapidly losing its shine, and there was also a large amount of its fur that fell off. It looked as if it was already very difficult for it to continue fighting, and even the blade of the battle axe in its hands was swiftly melting away as it blocked the human-faced, snake-bodied creature’s attacks.

Wu Duo was also fighting against a head of the same composition. Wu Duo’s expression was grim, and an innumerable amount of ice swirled around his body swirled, stirring up wind. As the freezing wind whistled, Wu Duo lifted his right hand and made a strange seal.

The instant he made it, all the hair on his right hand fell off at the same time.

”Lives return to earth!”

Wu Duo let out a low growl, and the entire ground rumbled. The grass on the endless mass of land under his feet was instantly blown apart by the wind, and a large ring shape appeared on the land. As blue light shone, an invisible energy erupted forth from below.

When that energy first appeared, it manifested in an incredibly large area, but as it rose into the air, it started shrinking, until it eventually shrank into an entirely blue light that was only about one hundred feet in size. From the distance, it looked like a blue light-pillar shooting off from the ground and penetrating the human-faced, snake-bodied head.

The instant the strange creature’s head was destroyed, the boy’s head let out a piercing scream and started rapidly withering away.

All of this happened in an instant, and it was the first thing Su Ming saw once he opened his eyes.

The Fire Ape was already unable to continue fighting. Su Ming knew that the slave-turned-bracelet his eldest senior brother had given him would only protect him and not the Fire Ape, while He Feng shared a mutual hate with it. Besides, Su Ming was not in any form of danger, he had ample reason not to attack.

Without any hesitation, Su Ming took a step forward. The moment his foot landed, he had already appeared before the Fire Ape. He fell back slightly, and a gentle energy was transferred into the ape once his back touched it. That energy pushed the Fire Ape backwards, and during that moment, the strange creature’s head roared and charged towards Su Ming.

A murderous look appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. Once again, he gained a deep understanding of the bizarre nature of the Shaman Tribe’s divine abilities. Almost the moment the strange creature pounced on him, Su Ming lifted his right and drew a line at the creature!

That one line was created by Su Ming. It had a beautiful name - Berserker Obliteration!

The moment he casted Berserker Obliteration, the human-faced, snake-bodied head turned into a sheet of paper for him to draw. Su Ming cut apart the creature’s body as if he was just normally drawing. With that one line, the weather changed, the wind and clouds tumbled backwards, and the strange creature shuddered violently before letting out a piercing howl.

When the head reached Su Ming, it split into half right before him. Those two parts whistled past him and turned into red gusts of smoke before disappearing into nothing.

Right as the creature died, Su Ming’s pupils shrank. He noticed that the body might have disappeared, but one wisp of red smoke had rushed toward him at an incredible speed. It seeped into the strange rod insect-snake hybrid, which Su Ming was keeping and refining, resting within Han Mountain Bell. The insect-snake hybrid sucked in a sharp breath and breathed in the wisp of red smoke before a delighted and excited expression appeared on its face.

A thought appeared in Su Ming’s mind, but this was not the moment for him to think further into things. Right when the strange creature died, the boy’s head floating in midair let out a piercing scream once again and the speed at which it withered away increased.

This was especially so for his eyes. Black blood flowed out from them. They were now completely destroyed by Su Ming and Wu Duo using different methods.

As the boy’s head screamed, he retreated quickly. At the same time, his body, which had fallen to the ground, abruptly stood up and charged into midair as if it wanted to run into the head and fuse with it once again.

”The Twelve Undying Ancestral Lunar Shamans, let the power of the Candle Dragon, which lasted 180 years, scatter!” As the boy’s head retreated and was about to get closer to his body, these words came from his mouth.

”180 years? I was wondering why he was so powerful, so he’s a Fledgeling Shaman who has arrived at the peak. He has suppressed 180 years of his life to attempt turning into a Medial Soul Catcher!

”He has even turned himself into a puppet so that he could be an Undying. This is a forbidden Spell among the Soul Catchers!”

Wu Duo moved to stand by Su Ming’s side, and as lifted his right hand, freezing air immediately spread from his palm. That air instantly turned into numerous ice layers that covered his whole body. Rumbling sounds echoed in the air and those ice layers left Wu Duo’s body, spreading rapidly as a single entity to charge towards the boy’s head.

As they did so, Wu Duo lifted his head and let out a roar. A large amount of hair fell off his body simultaneously, and even some fine hairs from his brows also joined in.

As his hair was detached from his body, the ice layer that was stretching towards the boy instantly grew bigger by more than ten fold. It also became faster, and the instant the boy’s head fused together with the body, a dim light shining from the tear to make it seem as if they were going to be sewn together, the ice layer caught up with them. Rumbling that shook the skies echoed through the air, and the boy’s body was instantly covered by the ice, turning him into an ice statue floating in midair.

”Brother Mo, I can only seal him with my ice for a quarter of an hour. Once he fuses his body together once again, he will disperse the power he has stored for 180 years to turn into a Medial Shaman and use it to work with his Undying body, then it’ll be very difficult for us to kill him!

”If we let our guard down for even a moment, we will definitely be heavily injured. Even if we kill him, we gain nothing. Why don’t we leave this place and search for other Shamans to kill? It’ll be much easier and much more efficient!”

The idea of retreat had already appeared within Wu Duo’s head. He knew clearly that if they did not give up on some treasures, it would be very difficult for them to kill the Soul Catchers of the Shaman Tribe. In his mind, the value of this was rather low.

As Wu Duo spoke, rumbling sounds rang in the air, and he noticed that cracks had appeared on the ice sealing the boy inside. The boy in the ice slowly lifted his head. His strangely enticing eyes shone with a gray light as he stared at Su Ming and Wu Duo. Hatred appeared on his face, as if he wanted to burn the image of these two people in his head.

”Let’s go!” Wu Duo frowned. He was just about to leave the place, but Su Ming did not move. He stared at the boy in the ice and a murderous intent appeared in his eyes.

The Fire Ape was behind Su Ming. Its fur was dull and looked rather shrivelled up. This was something Su Ming could not accept.

”Wait!” Su Ming called out. He just remembered the scene when the man died under the hands of his Spirit Plunder, and he quickly brought out three Spirit Plunders from his bosom with his right hand. He threw them forward at full force, and they rushed quickly towards the ice that had sealed the boy inside.

The three Spirit Plunders let out an explosive boom as they whipped through the air faster than sound. In the blink of an eye, they had already reached the ice and formed an equilateral triangle around the boy’s ice sculpture.

The moment those Spirit Plunders appeared, in the distance, Wu Duo’s pupils shrank and even his breathing quickened. He stared at them with a look of disbelief on his face.

The other person whose expression changed was the boy in the ice. His face shifted drastically, and he opened his mouth as if a scream was about to escape from his lips, but no sound came out. However, a hint of fear had appeared within his expression and his eyes. From that alone, it could be seen that he recognized what Spirit Plunder was and was terrified of it.

Su Ming could deduce what the boy was thinking after testing it out that he could kill the man with his Spirit Plunder. Once he tested the boy as well by throwing out the pills, he lifted his right hand and pointed at them. Immediately, the three Spirit Plunders let out a powerful dark light. That dark light instantly seeped through the ice and charged towards the boy sealed inside.

The boy started struggling. His face was filled with terror, and as he struggled, the cracks on the ice increased. Muffled rumbling sounds reverberated through the air, and some of the cracks connected with each other, causing the ice to begin crumbling apart.

Yet as violently as the boy struggled, the black mist rushing in from the three Spirit Plunders into the ice was even faster. In a moment, it touched the boy inside and seeped into his body. The boy’s expression became twisted, as if he was screaming. He trembled, and a large amount of gray mist started uncontrollably crawling out of his body towards the three Spirit Plunders.

The boy seemed to be in great pain, and with one violent shudder, his body finally could not withstand the burden of the gray mist being torn out from him and most of it exploded, which resulted in only a small portion of his body to remain nearby.

There was no longer any ice left in front of the boy, but the three Spirit Plunders continued floating there, unmoving, causing the boy to let out piercing screams and struggle violently. Yet judging by his looks, the boy’s body seemed to be restricted. Despair appeared on his face, along with disbelief and incomprehensibility. It was as if Su Ming bringing out the Spirit Plunders had left him in horrified shock.

”Soul Catcher Pearl?! The Soul Catcher Pearl that only End Shamans can create?!” The boy’s voice was shrill but raspy, and the instant it reverberated through the air, Su Ming took a step forward.

His gaze was chilling, and the moment he got closer to the boy, a green light appeared in his hand. The small virescent sword sliced through the boy’s chest, causing a huge gash to appear on his chest.

Meanwhile, Wu Duo’s face had also turned pale where he stood in the distance. There was confusion on his face. The scene he saw was something he would never forget, and it was also one that made him no longer harbor any malicious thoughts towards Su Ming.

He saw the person called Mo Su slicing apart the frozen boy’s chest with a dark expression, and once he cut through the boy who could only struggle but not move, he brought out a large amount of medicinal herbs from his bosom, picked out a few of them, and stuffed them into the boy’s wounds. Judging by how smooth his movements were, this was not the first time he did such a thing...

‘What… what is he doing…?’

Wu Duo’s heart pounded against his chest while Su Ming stuffed the herbs into the boy’s wound. Once each of those herbs were placed inside, they would immediately start growing in a bizarre but enticing manner. After a moment, Mo Su brought out a bone with some herbs growing on it, then plucked out those herbs and placed them into the boy’s body.

The other person who was similarly terrified was the boy. He was watching Su Ming do all this without a hint of an expression on his face, and as he did so, despair filled with utmost terror appeared on the boy’s face.

”You… What are you doing?!” the boy screamed in a shivering voice.

”Creating medicine,” Su Ming answered coldly.