Pursuit of the Truth

The ninth summit was surrounded by the light from the setting sun that was reflected off the surface of the sea, giving it a dazzling feeling. Once Su Ming and his second senior brother saw the tall person standing on the mountain, they gradually stopped charging forward and stopped in midair. There were thousands of feet away between them and the ninth summit.

The figure in the distance was so incredibly familiar to them. It was Hu Zi!

Hu Zi, with his thick, powerful back and shoulders as well as his sturdy body was looking at Su Ming and his second senior brother from the mountain. It was as if he had been standing there since a long time ago, waiting all this while, believing that one day Su Ming would return, second senior brother would come home, eldest senior brother’s body would appear before him… and their Master, Tian Xie Zi who loved changing his clothes, would come back to the ninth summit.

”Second senior brother!” Hu Zi’s voice came in loud buzzing tones. As his voice reverberated in the air, he took a step into the air and charged towards Su Ming and his second senior brother like a fierce tiger.

As he took huge strides forward, he closed those thousands of feet within an instant. When a huge gust of wind crashed into everyone’s faces, a gentle smile appeared on second senior brother’s face, and he went up to hug Hu Zi.

Hu Zi’s expression was filled with excitement. He hugged second senior brother tightly with slightly red eyes. The faint traces of tears were from joy that one felt after seeing family members that they had not seen for years.

”Second senior brother, how could you come back only now..?” Hu Zi wept, and just like when he first reunited with Su Ming, he started bawling. His cries spread through the entire area, causing all the other people who were staying on the ninth summit to quickly walk out. They then saw Su Ming and the group in the sky.

Bai Su was also in the crowd. She looked at Su Ming, and a smile appeared on her face. Dressed in a purple gauze dress, she stood on the mountain with her black locks flying in the breeze.

However, very soon, her gaze fell on the woman who was sizing up the crowd with a smile on her face while riding on a yellow mutt behind Su Ming. The two’s eyes met at that moment.

The woman pursed her lips and smiled before nodding towards Bai Su as a sign that she had seen her. Bai Su could not really tell just what was the woman’s relationship with Su Ming, so she only smiled and nodded as well.

She could not tell what the woman was thinking about, and hence did not know that Yu Xuan was sighing in her heart. Yu Xuan cast a sideways glance towards Su Ming. She suddenly felt that there seemed to always be women one way or another involved with the little dummy Su. This was one such woman when they were in Southern Swamp Island, and now there was another in the ninth summit.

Based on the expression of the woman in the purple dress standing on the ninth summit, Yu Xuan could already tell that she had a complicated relationship with Su Ming.

She did not know what had happened to her. Ever since Su Ming’s second senior brother had set up that marriage that was more of a joke than anything, her heart would feel a little uncomfortable every time she saw another woman appear beside Su Ming.

However, she did not choose to take the initiative as she did in Southern Swamp Island. Instead, as she looked into Bai Su’s eyes, not only did she smile, she also lifted her hand and tugged the hair that had been blown before her eyes. That action was filled with feminine beauty, and it served to make her beautiful face stand out, immediately making her beauty become even more eye-catching.

Hu Zi was bawling nearby, his tears almost drenching second senior brother’s robes. Second senior brother was slender, and could not compare to Hu Zi’s burly stature. When Hu Zi hugged him, his entire person was drawn into his younger brother’s embrace. He could hear Hu Zi’s cries in his ears as he patted his back. The smile on his face made Hu Zi cry even harder when he saw it.

”Second senior brother, I’m sorry, when you left, the mountain had been filled with plants, but now that you’re back, there’s nothing left… Those plants and flowers are all gone…”

Su Ming watched this from the side and felt his heart fill with warmth. Hu Zi’s honesty and adorable attitude as well as second senior brother’s gentle demeanor that was akin to the spring wind made the ninth summit regain its past presence, although it was faint.

”Alright now, Hu Zi, don’t cry. The plants may no longer be there, but I can still plant them again,” second senior brother said with a smile, patting Hu Zi’s back.

”Second senior brother, you have to promise that you won’t hold a grudge against me because of these plants.” Hu Zi blinked and cleared out some tears again before starting to bawl again.

”Alright, I won’t hold a grudge against you.” Second senior brother smiled and shook his head, but gradually, a hint of doubt appeared in his heart.

”Really?” Hu Zi immediately stopped crying. His tears also instantaneously disappeared.

”Truly. Hu Zi, did you do something?” The doubt in second senior brother’s heart grew stronger.

”Alright, that’s what you said… When you left, I saw that the plants occupied too much space, so I cleared them out a little…”

”So that’s what happened. It’s fine. I won’t hold a grudge against you for this,” second senior brother said with a smile.

”That’s including the plants outside your house. I thought they looked rather pretty, so I started drinking there and fell asleep, but once I woke up, I discovered that all the plants had died…” Hu Zi let go of his brother’s hands and took a few steps back towards Su Ming.

”What else?” Second senior brother continued smiling. He would not be concerned by this.

”The three small blue shrubs outside your room bloomed one day, and they smelled especially nice. So uh, that day… I got hungry and broke them off to eat them while drinking.” Hu Zi took another few steps back and stood beside Su Ming.

”Also, I ate all the seeds kept in the four boxes you hid under your bed…

”There was also a garden you hid behind your house with a series of Runes and seals so that no outsiders would get in there, right? I broke that too and used all the flowers there to make wine… I already finished drinking it.

”There’re also some dried fruits you hid under a big rock at the foot of the mountain. I ate them as well once I found them… They weren’t that good and really dry. I don’t understand why you would change your hiding spot every single day so that I wouldn’t find them.

”And uh… I drank the water you treasured and had placed in a few bottles in Master’s cave because I got thirsty one day and didn’t have any wine with me… It made me suffer through a few days of diarrhea.

”Also, after you left and before the Calamity of the Eastern Wastelands arrived, I thought that very few people in the other mountains besides me knew that you had left, so I invented a Rune that would allow me to transform and changed into your shape, wore your clothes, and went off to peak at quite a few number of people…”

Second senior brother’s expression gradually changed, but there was still a smile on his face as he looked at Hu Zi.

”What else?”

”What else? Erm… Second senior brother, I can promise you that I’ve found every single one of your hiding spots in the mountain. Honestly, those seals of yours may deceive other people, but who am I? I could see through them with just one glance.

”The only thing that was slightly more difficult and took me a long time as well as a huge amount of effort to break was that spot seven steps away from Master’s cave abode where you hid your… Heh heh, second senior brother, I didn’t expect that you had that sort of hobby. You hid some really interesting beast skin scrolls about a man and a woman fighting. Those were really fun to read…”

”Damn it, Master was the one who hid those things there!” Second senior brother glared at him, and his cheeks turned slightly red. He instinctively looked at the crowd in ninth summit, then immediately appeared next to Hu Zi with a single move and seized his neck.

”You said you won’t hold a grudge against me! Youngest junior brother, save me…” Hu Zi shuddered and immediately cried out, but his second senior brother still got him by the neck and flew to the ninth summit, right into Tian Xie Zi’s cave abode.

Shrill screams then came from the cave. A strange look appeared on Su Ming’s face and he let out a fake cough. He remembered that Hu Zi had not been like this when he initially returned to the ninth summit, but he seemed really energetic now.

”Little dummy Su, what’s that beast skin about a man and a woman fighting that your senior brother spoke about? Could it be some sort of divine ability? How could it only describe a man and a woman fighting?” Yu Xuan frowned. After a moment of thought, she asked Su Ming about it, puzzled.

Su Ming was also momentarily stunned. He thought about it carefully for a moment, then shook his head.

He had seen his second senior brother’s expression change once Hu Zi said those words, and he looked as if he was in a hurry to justify himself before he looked at the crowd underneath. After that, he had brought Hu Zi to their Master’s cave abode to teach him a lesson.

”Could it really be some sort of divine ability? One outsiders aren’t supposed to know about it?” Su Ming cast a glance at his Master’s cave abode. He could hear Hu Zi’s pained cries coming from within, so he decided that he should look for a suitable time to ask them just what sort of divine ability it was.

Qian Chen, the bald crane, and the mutt were right beside him. The mutt rolled its eyes and put on a look of disdain. Qian Chen’s face, though, had a vulgar look to it. Only the bald crane was stunned and had a similar expression as Su Ming and Yu Xuan. It scratched its head and started mumbling to itself.

”A man and a woman fighting? It must be some strange divine ability. I’ll have to learn it when I have the chance.”

They were not the only ones who showed a reaction. There were quite a large number of people in the ninth summit at that moment, and most of the men and women there immediately spotted incredibly strange expressions on their faces. They would occasionally look towards the cave abode where the screams were coming from, then look towards Su Ming, who they held in the same amount of respect as they would a deity, thinking hard about it.

Bai Su’s petite face colored red. When Su Ming had gone off to search for his Master several years ago, Hu Zi had restored his cultivation and used a long period of time to break the seal that contained that so called beast skin about a man and a woman fighting.

At that time, she had heard Hu Zi mumbling to himself, seemingly because he had failed several times while he tried to break that Rune. He had only managed to open it a year ago, and in the midst of her curiosity, she had also read that beast skin about a man and a woman fighting by his side.

Most of the people’s expressions in the ninth summit were incredibly odd as they forced down their laughter. Only Su Ming, Yu Xuan, and the bald crane were still out of the loop. Hu Zi’s pained voice echoed in the midst of all the screams from the cave abode.

”Second senior brother, you broke your promise… I just looked at that beast skin scroll you treasured. It’s just about a man and a woman, a man and two women, a man and three women, a man with four women and so on fighting against each other naked… Ah!”

”That’s not mine! It belongs to Master!” Anger appeared in second senior brother’s voice.

”Nonsense, that Rune had your presence! It’s exactly the same presence you left behind on all your other seals. Don’t even think about lying to me. Oh, there’s even one about two women…”

”Master imitated my seals! Damn it all! Hu Zi, I’m definitely going to teach you a lesson today!”