Pursuit of the Truth

Yu Xuan was stunned. She had never seen Su Ming put on such a gentle expression throughout the whole journey, and neither had she ever heard him use such a gentle voice. All of this happened too suddenly, and there was an indefinable strangeness to it. This caused Yu Xuan to suddenly remember something.

But before she managed to retreat, Su Ming had already arrived next to her at the brief instant she was stunned and lifted his right hand to naturally place it on her dark locks.

All of this might seem to have happened over a long period of time, but in truth, it had happened instantaneously. Yu Xuan’s expression changed swiftly, but by the time she moved back, Su Ming had already taken a dark strand of hair from her head.

With a flip of his right hand, that hair immediately disappeared from his palm.

”Since you’ve been following me all this while, then you must surely know what will happen if I am in control of someone’s hair!” The gentle look on Su Ming’s face disappeared, and the gentle tone in his voice also turned icy cold. His whole demeanor returned to how it was previously.

Qian Chen saw all of this as he stood at the back, and a shudder ran through his body. He remembered the days of misfortune that had fallen on his head when he was still in Evil Spirit Mountain, and when he looked at Su Ming, fear appeared in his eyes. He suddenly realized that even Su Ming was abnormal. Each person around him was more evil than the next.

How evil must a person be to be able to turn a strand of hair into a small humanoid so that he could curse whoever that hair belongs to. Qian Chen imagined Su Ming crouching in a corner and chuckling darkly while turning that strand of hair into a person so that he could lay a Curse. His body trembled even more viciously.

The bald crane widened its eyes and looked at Yu Xuan with a bewildered gaze. It saw that her expression had changed, but it could not wrap its head around it, thinking that it was just a strand of hair and would be able to do nothing.

Su Ming’s second senior brother was momentarily stunned as well, but based on the changes in Yu Xuan’s expression, he could tell that Yu Xuan was feeling incredibly terrible at that moment, and he could not help but smile.

Even the mutt looked as if it had seen a ghost once it saw Su Ming taking one of Yu Xuan’s hair. It quickly moved back slightly. It had seen Su Ming use this method multiple times to lay a Curse, and while it might not know the origins of this Art, memories towards the terrors of that Art were fresh in its mind.

After all, Su Ming had disappeared after his battle against Di Tian in the Dead Sea. When Yu Xuan found Su Ming again, he was already in Evil Spirit Sect, and no one knew about the things regarding Ugly Little Thing and her family.

Yu Xuan glared at Su Ming. She had always been intelligent and had always been the one who had the upper hand. She was rarely the one who would be deceived and suffer losses. Even when it came to Su Ming’s second senior brother, they were both mutually exploiting each other.

She could naturally tell that second senior brother had been able to find some clues from her or the mutt, but she had used this to follow Su Ming in plain sight. In fact, all of this was more of a fun pastime for her, and there was absolutely no need for her to use too much of her head.

The act of using medicinal cores in exchange for asking questions had seemed like a joke, but in truth, she had wanted to do so. The injuries Su Ming’s second senior brother had sustained might not seem to be consequential, but in truth, his foundation had been injured. If he did not heal it as soon as possible, it would have a huge effect.

But that second senior brother refused to say a single word about it, and that little dummy Su was a real idiot, because he had been unable to see it. When second senior brother had circulated his cultivation base before that statue in an attempt to awaken it, this had worsened his injuries even more

That was why she used this method to tease Su Ming and help his second senior brother to heal. In her eyes, she was the one helping Su Ming, and besides, she had been very happy all along the way. After all, she could tell that second senior brother did not harbor any ill intentions towards her. This matter about them mutually exploiting each other would naturally depend on their individual skills.

As for Su Ming, Yu Xuan had only thought that he had quite the potential, and his status as an Abyss Builder could net her a good price. She had not paid much attention to his intelligence, and that matter about marriage was also treated as a joke.

Yet at this moment, she was glaring at Su Ming, becoming serious for the first time. The reason for it was because she had just suffered a very huge loss due to him.

This was something that she had not expected. If she had been schemed against in this manner by second senior brother, she would not have felt so indignant. After all, it was difficult to predict just how he would act with how unpredictable he was.

But… but she was manipulated this way by Su Ming, and this made her very angry.

She glared at Su Ming, and he looked at her flatly. Their gazes met, and there seemed to be sparks flying in the air, but those sparks were not due to the birth of any sort of feelings… It was due to two opponents standing off against each other.

After some time, Yu Xuan let out a harrumph and turned her head around to ignore Su Ming. As she sat on the mutt, she started tugging at the fur at the top of its head, ignoring the mutt’s grievances and its helpless anger. Her beautiful eyes sparkled, and no one could know just how many ideas to punish Su Ming had fleeted through her mind.

Su Ming was indifferent, completely unbothered by how many schemes she would come up with. At the very least, he had obtained the peace and quiet that had been absent from his life for a long time now. The voice that almost brought him to a mental breakdown was no longer around, and in the midst of this quiet, the group turned into several long arcs that charged towards the island where Zi Yan was.

A rarely seen quiet filled the air within the group. Su Ming’s second senior brother still had the gentle smile on his face while his thoughts remained hidden from others. The mutt looked as if it was suffering more with each passing moment and was wincing in pain, because the woman had a steely expression on her face as she continued wrestling with the fur on its head.

The bald crane blinked and immediately did not dare to even breathe loudly. It had a feeling that a violent storm was about to arrive and knew that it should not make itself known at that moment, or else it would be all too easy to get dragged into the mess.

Qian Chen behaved in the same way. He lowered his head and acted his part of the bald crane’s stead, afraid that he would get dragged into the mess.

The group was not too far away from the islands around South Morning to begin with, so as they charged forward in silence, an island appeared before long at the surface of the Dead Sea.

The island looked barren, and there was nothing unusual about it, but when Su Ming approached it and lifted his right hand to form a seal before striking his palm forward in the direction, the island remained the same for the span of ten breaths before a layer of blue light surrounded it. That screen of light was faintly blue in the beginning, but it instantly turned dark blue, and long tunnels appeared on its surface.

Fang Cang Lan, who looked a somewhat delicate while dressed in white, walked forth with light footsteps. She did not look at anyone else besides Su Ming. As she watched him, a gentle smile appeared on her face.

An ethereal air spread out from Fang Cang Lan’s body, acting as a background against the dark blue screen of light around her. It made her dream-like beauty increase even more.

There were a dozen something people behind her. All of them were residents of the island, and they knew Su Ming. At that moment, they wrapped their fists in their palms and bowed towards him with respectful expressions.

Among them was Zi Yan… and Ya Mu. Zi Yan, who was dressed in the manner of a married woman, was about to bow with the crowd, but at that moment, her body suddenly started trembling viciously. She looked at the man standing beside Su Ming, the gentle man who had a slightly pale face but was still wearing a faint smile that was so familiar to her.

At the instant she saw him, all the people in her vision disappeared, and the only one left was the man who was as gentle as a flower and who had sunlight shining on the side of his face.

It was a scene from her memories. It was a memory that was buried deep within the recesses of her mind. He was the man who had blocked off her path when she was heading to the ninth summit, the man who had kept his side profile directed to the sun and who believed that his actions were very elegant.

It was… a beautiful moment that existed in the past. Perhaps it could be considered not just a beautiful moment but a budding romance, yet it… existed in the past.

Ya Mu was silent. He noticed Zi Yan’s strange behavior and could tell that the reason for her behavior was the man beside Su Ming, and anguish rose in Ya Mu’s heart. He gradually lowered his head and slowly took a few steps back, making it so that he was behind Zi Yan instead of standing by her side.

’Zi Yan, as long as you’re happy, I can give up everything for you. I know that you don’t like me. I know that…’ Ya Mu lowered his head and chose to give up.

Among the crowd was Zong Ze, who had clearly entered old age and whose body was exuding a thick bleak air. He looked like an ordinary old man, and with a pretty woman supporting him, he looked at Su Ming with a smile.

Su Ming knew that woman who was supporting him. She was… Autumn Sea Tribe’s Sacred Lady - Wan Qiu. She must have reached Southern Swamp Island after Su Ming left all those years ago and reunited with Zong Ze.

Southern Swamp Island was flourishing behind the dark blue screen of light. The layer of green that covered the land, the city moat that was of quite the sizable scale, the buildings on the mountains all around the place, and everything else had turned this place into a paradise.

The fragrance of grass and flowers filled the area within the screen of light, and that scent had the power to creep into one’s heart and stay there. Su Ming stood on a cliff and looked into the distance. He could see the blue sky and white clouds from where he stood, and they were real.

The sky above South Morning had originally been filled with thick clouds, but the fight between Su Ming and the Immortals at the place where they descend had stirred up the power of the world, allowing even the sky of South Morning to return to its original color.

The seawater struck the reefs underneath and stirred up splashes from waves as well as black bubbles. Fang Cang Lan stood beside Su Ming. She had become even more quiet than before, and there was an air of gracefulness and restraint in her gentle demeanor.

She was smoothing out the wrinkles in Su Ming’s clothes by his side. The elegance of her face allowed others to sense her gentleness in the midst of all that peace and quiet.

Wan Qiu stood in the distance and watched this scene without a word.

If anyone cast their gaze about, they would be able to see two other people standing on another mountain not too far away from Su Ming and Fang Cang Lan. Those two were… second senior brother and Zi Yan.

Yu Xuan was also glaring furiously at the spot where Su Ming was from another mountain, but her gaze found itself on Fang Cang Lan more often than not.

The mutt lay by the side and looked at Yu Xuan, then at Su Ming in the distance, and eventually at Fang Cang Lan. It suddenly shuddered. It could sense a chilling air spreading out from Yu Xuan, and when it cast a sideways glance at her, it saw an expression similar to those Abyss Dragon Consorts wore when they were sizing each other up.