Pursuit of the Truth

However, it did not matter whether it was Su Ming or the others, all of them knew clearly that if even they had a way to dodge those red threads or escape from them, then the True Guard who was stronger than they were and who had already reached the middle stage of World Plane Realm would definitely be able to escape.

They would only be able to trap him for a moment. The True Guard would definitely be able to rush out and chase after them soon enough.

Time was precious for them at that moment. They could not afford to waste even a single instant. To protect his life, Sun Kun quickly told Su Ming everything about the path he had found as the other charged forward while holding him.

With Sun Kun guiding the way because he had gone to the core of the seal before, Su Ming moved through the tunnels in the beehive at full speed. Long Li and Tian Lin were heavily wounded, but they gritted their teeth and followed closely behind. After all, if they could not catch up and were left behind, they would end up dead once Jing Nan Zi caught up to them.

The span of time it takes for an incense stick to burn quickly passed. As Su Ming was quickly moving through the tunnels with Sun Kun in hand, a muffled boom reached. Jing Nan Zi’s domineering pressure spread out with a bang from a spot far away.

Su Ming’s expression changed slightly. He became even faster. Long Li and Tian Lin’s expressions turned even darker and paler. They knew that Jing Nan Zi had already gotten out of being trapped by the red threads, and it was most likely that he was already closing in on them.

”The core is right before us! It’s less than five thousand feet to that place if we move along this tunnel!” Sun Kun’s face was void of blood. As he quickly spoke with a sharp voice, Su Ming traveled forward as if he had turned into a gust of wind.

Whoosh!

Su Ming looked as if he had closed that distance of five thousand feet by warping, but in truth, he had simply used that extreme speed of his and shot through the air. Once he rushed over, he appeared in an incredibly large and spacious karst cave.

This place was about several hundreds of thousands of feet in size. There was a pool of purplish black magma at the center, and submerged in that magma was a skeleton with three swords pierced through its skeletal frame.

The moment Su Ming arrived, a wave of suffocating heat crashed into his face. Once he breathed it in, he felt as if his entire body was about to burst into flames.

Su Ming stood in midair and swept his gaze through the area. When his eyes fell on the skeleton in the purplish black lava, Long Li and Tian Lin also rushed out of the tunnel behind him in the form of long arcs. They stood beside Su Ming, and once they saw everything around them, they sucked in a sharp breath.

”Duke of Crimson Flame!”

”That skeleton is definitely the Duke of Crimson Flame, the mighty cultivator from the alien race who has been sealed here for years!”

While Long Li and Tian Lin were looking at the skeleton in the purplish black magma, Su Ming’s pupils constricted and his heart trembled. Ever since he had come to this sealed region, he had sensed a pair of eyes watching him. At the instant he looked towards the skeleton and met its gaze, that feeling as if he was being watched appeared once again.

That feeling was incredibly strong, so strong in fact that Su Ming could tell that the pair of eyes that had been watching him outside belonged to this skeleton. This pair of eyes that met Su Ming’s gaze seemed to possess a vast amount of life force, which caused his heart to shiver, and at the same time, it also made him feel as if he was seeing multiple illusions.

Tian Lin seized his chest. Blood trickled out of his mouth, then said urgently, ”We have to break open all the seals in the mighty cultivator’s body. This is the only way we can fight against Jing Nan Zi!”

Su Ming released Sun Kun from his grasp. At that moment, the power of the World Plane here had restored some of his cultivation base, and he said anxiously, ”But how do we open all the seals in the mighty cultivator’s body?”

”I… know! We just need to take away the World Stone, and the seal here will lose its balance. Then, it’ll completely shatter. It’s a pity that before I could retrieve the World Stone, I was heavily wounded by the True Guard, or else the seal would have shattered a long time ago.

”I remember where the World Stone is, but I’ll need time. If you can hold back Jing Nan Zi for some time, then I’m seven-tenths certain that I’ll be able to shatter the seal.” Long Li panted harshly as he spoke in a hoarse voice.

”Do you mean it when you say that you are seven-tenths certain?” Tian Lin gritted his teeth and whipped his head around to look at Long Li. Even Sun Kun and Su Ming looked towards him in silence.

Long Li sucked in a deep breath and declared in a low voice, ”Things have already progressed to this point. Why would I speak carelessly now? If we don’t kill the True Guard Jing Nan Zi, then we will all die here. I meant what I said before!”

”All right. Brother Su, Brother Sun, we are all people Jing Nan Zi wants to kill. Not a single one of us will be able to escape alone, but I swear that if we do manage to kill Jing Nan Zi, then everything on his person will belong to all of you. I will want none of it.”

While Tian Lin spoke, Jing Nan Zi’s low roar came from a tunnel on the side. Judging by the location from where the voice came, he should not be too far away from them.

Su Ming’s expression was solemn. There was no longer any other method at that moment. This was the only way. He nodded.

As Sun Kun laughed bitterly, he quickly brought out some medicinal cores and placed them in his mouth, seizing every moment that he had to exercise his breathing.

”Brother Long, when Jing Nan Zi appears later, we will risk our lives to stop him, but you must hurry. We… we can only buy you the time it takes for two incense sticks to burn. This is our limit. If you don’t succeed by then…” Tian Lin stopped speaking.

Long Li sucked in a deep breath and said in a somber voice, ”This amount of time is enough. If I still don’t manage to succeed, then it can only be that the heavens want us to die.”

Su Ming’s heart trembled. He immediately took a few steps backwards, and a loud bang came from the tunnel in the distance. Countless shattered rocks shot out as that bang reverberated in the air. As they charged towards Su Ming and the others, a frightful presence surged forth to devour them like an ancient ferocious beast that had its mouth wide open to eat its prey.

Tian Lin’s expression changed. He gritted his teeth and turned into a big tree. As its branches danced in the air wildly, an endless amount of shadows manifested to charge forward, filling the air and earth.

By the side, Sun Kun bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a blood arrow. At the same time, a part of his blood turned into a blood-colored runic symbol in midair. A thick, bloody stench spread out, and there was a layer of blood fog circling around the symbol. As it rushed forward, Sun Kun let out a sharp whistle. His dwarfish body shuddered, and a large number of small objects were shaken out from all over his body.

Among these small objects were jade pendants, crystal pearls, and several emerald-colored plates. There were even some wooden objects with carvings on them. There were hundreds of these items that fell off Sun Kun’s body, and once he flung them out, they turned into hundreds of long arcs that charged forward.

Su Ming’s eyes sparkled. As he moved backwards, he lifted his right hand, and the killing sword appeared on his palm. His eyes burned brightly as he circulated his cultivation base. A tremendous amount of physical power erupted forth. He turned into a sword light and rushed forward.

Once the three of them attacked simultaneously to resist the murderous presence in the red light, Long Li moved back, then dove into one of the tunnels in the beehive to rush towards the spot where the secondary core was located.

”You managed to make me release the first of my self-imposed seals, you should be proud of yourselves, ants.” A cold voice filled with a chilling tone reached the group as they attacked at the same time.

Soon after, three bloody shadows charged towards Su Ming and the other two from the red light.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Tian Lin was the at the front of the group. When he was touched by the red shadow, he coughed up blood. Half of his body, which had taken the form of a big tree, shattered before he turned into his Nascent Divinity and fell backwards.

The sword in Su Ming’s hand swept against the red shadow, from which a vast power spread out. It contained a destructive presence, and just as it was about to rush into Su Ming’s body, the light from the Five Direction Seal instantly spread out. As it resisted the destructive power, the ordinary robe on Su Ming’s body shuddered and turned into the Sacred Constellation Robe to fight against that destructive power.

These two supreme treasures as well as Su Ming’s own physical power allowed him to maintain his balance even as he coughed up blood and retreated. He swung his arm, and his statue of the God of Berserkers appeared for the first time in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. It lifted its fist and hurled a punch towards that red shadow.

At the instant Sun Kun came into contact with the red shadow, he spared no pains to have all the Enchanted Treasures on his person explode to fight against the ripples spreading out from the red runic symbol. Signs of destruction appeared in the air around him. He swiftly made a move to retreat, but at the moment he began moving backwards, a long red spear shot through the air with a hum and appeared right before him. Right when Sun Kun’s pupils shrank, that long spear pierced the center of his brows, going right through.

Sun Kun trembled, and his body instantly began withering away, as if all his flesh and blood were being absorbed by the long spear. In the span of two breaths, he turned into a mummy.

The red shadows before Su Ming and Tian Lin disappeared. Jing Nan Zi, who was dressed in red armor, walked out of the air before Sun Kun and grabbed the long spear. He pulled it out slowly from other’s head, then looked at Su Ming and Tian Lin.

”One of you is a rat I didn’t kill in the past because I was merciful, and one of you is an unforgivable person who dared to kill my clone. How do you want to die? I’ll let the two of you choose yourselves,” Jing Nan Zi said in a ghastly voice while holding onto the long red spear.

There were red threads spinning around his weapon, and they were crawling into his arm. Those red threads were blood lines that had originally been Sun Kun’s flesh, blood, and essence. Once they entered Jing Nan Zi’s body, his presence increased at a shocking pace. The few injuries he had suffered just now recovered completely.

When his gaze swept past Su Ming’s statue of the God of Berserkers, his pupils shrank, though it was barely noticeable. Clearly, this was something he had never seen before. However, there were far too many criminals in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence, and there were endless divine abilities, which was why he only looked at it for a short moment.

Su Ming’s expression was grim. He leaped up to stand on his statue’s shoulder, staring down at Jing Nan Zi. His grip on the killing sword tightened.

Suddenly, a weak voice spoke up, its words reaching Su Ming’s ears.

”Fellow ally from the sacred Abyss Builders, do you remember the fifth Abyss Pact..? I am the Duke of Crimson Flame of the Surging Indulgers. I am willing to comply to the fifth Abyss Pact… I just hope that you will resurrect the millions of my people who died in battle, leaving behind their Abyss Soul Flags.”

That voice reverberated in the air, but Tian Lin and Jing Nan Zi did not notice it, a telling sign that the words were spoken solely for Su Ming.