Pursuit of the Truth

Ten years later.

Ten years is not such a long time. In fact, for cultivators, who live for a long time, ten years are just a short period of meditation. They can squander away time wantonly, and it does not matter whether it is ten years, a hundred years, or even more.

This was something that was the source of envy for mortals. It was also something they longed for. Perhaps longevity was the desire that spurred an average person to dream of becoming a cultivator, but it was definitely not the reason for all to become cultivators.

Besides longevity, one of the reasons why a person would dream of becoming a cultivator was because they wanted to not idle away even as they squandered off time.

To an average person, ten years might not be their entire lifetime, but it would become a source of nostalgia. Ten years ago, perhaps there was still a person who kept them company. Ten years ago, that person was perhaps still an undecided young boy full of dreams. Ten years ago, that person perhaps still did not know how to treasure what was beside him. Ten years ago, that person perhaps was still laughing happily and foolishly without worry.

But ten years later...

That person would only look at the blue sky, the white clouds, the sun setting and rising, and he would sigh… In the end, he was still just a normal person.

Ten years could change a mortal, but it could not change too many cultivators. However, it could make a certain set of memories be gradually buried in a cultivator’s heart, and like a zither string, if no hands went to pluck it and cause it to shiver, it would remain still and silent.

The shock within the land with the one hundred thousand stone monuments ten years ago was one such thing. It had turned into a thought buried deep within the hearts of the people there, and one that no one wanted to talk about. However, the thoughts that would gather in their eyes would occasionally make them warily cast their gazes at the stone monument standing erect among the many others in the place… a stone monument that was one million feet tall, and on which Mo Su’s name was carved!

Ten years ago, ten thousand stone monuments out of one hundred thousand had shattered. Ten thousand out of one hundred thousand cultivators died. It shocked the entire foreign land, causing all the people to gasp in astonishment. While those emotions were buried in the depths of their hearts ten years later, Mo Su’s stone monument was the only one that attracted gazes again and again.

Among those gazes were Zhou Kang’s, those who came after Su Ming’s life, and those who were in the land since before Su Ming came.

Perhaps they were not persistently waiting for him to appear. Perhaps they were not really that curious. However, even without any discussions, everyone was certain that the horror of the disaster ten years ago had a connection to Mo Su’s stone monument.

They were instinctively waiting. Waiting for the moment Mo Su would appear after not showing up for ten years. Perhaps at that moment, they would be able to find the reason behind the disaster those years ago.

During the ten years, there were no longer any boundaries between the one hundred thousand galaxies in which the purple Ecang’s bodies resided. They had fused together, but Su Ming’s deep slumber continued, and he showed no signs of waking up.

Another ten years passed. The one hundred thousand galaxies had already fused together completely. The next step was to fuse the one hundred thousand hearts that had been dyed black.

While Su Ming slept for sixty years, the people within the land that now had just ninety thousand stone monuments gradually grew used to his stone monument standing erect by its lonesome. They got used to the master of the stone monument not walking out, used to the lack of the ten thousand monuments that had been destroyed.

In fact, during the sixty years, there were thousands of newcomers who had come to this place, and they did not know about the disaster sixty years ago. The first thing they saw then were the ninety thousand stone monuments, and they thus believed… that there had always been only ninety thousand stone monuments here.

During those years, the one hundred thousand galaxies had completely fused together in Su Ming’s world and created an incredibly great galaxy. The one hundred thousand black hearts were also slowly merging together. They turned… into one single entity that floated within the gigantic galaxy.

However, Su Ming still remained in deep sleep, because what came next was the fusion between the one hundred thousand Ecang trees. The one hundred thousand purple Ecangs would gather together into one gigantic body.

Another sixty years went by. It was already one hundred and twenty years since then.

If ten years could turn something into a mere memory, then a hundred years could turn something into a legend. That was how it would be for a mortal. To cultivators, in this unique and dull land of ninety thousand stone monuments, the event one hundred years ago gradually faded away as they moved into the worlds in their stone monuments repeatedly, growing their stone monuments toward the one million feet.

There was nothing different about the place. Even though the one hundred thousand stone monuments had reduced to only ninety thousand, they still had the one million feet test, along with the trips into memories.

When another sixty years passed, there were only a handful of people that remembered Su Ming.

Zhou Kang was one of the few who did. He could not forget Su Ming, could not forget the person who loved to remain silent and had helped him to take his revenge in exchange for his experience.

When the end of the fourth cycle of sixty years arrived, two hundred and forty years had flowed by. In Su Ming’s world… an incredibly huge tree that towered into the heavens had gathered in the vast galaxy.

The tree occupied most of the galaxy, and there was an ancient, age-old presence exuding from it. That tree was entirely purple, and it had an indescribable mighty pressure coming from it. It was the only true existence in the galaxy at that moment!

If anyone looked closely, a person would be vaguely able to see that there was a golden light within that purple tree. At first glance, it might seem purple, but in truth, it was a fusion between purple and gold.

The purple shade was its foundation, and the gold its essence!

At the instant the purple tree’s body was completely formed, its purple light surged into the heavens. Once it illuminated the entire galaxy, its body… shrank!

This was not a simple shrinking in size, but a form of retraction. It was a rebirth, where the tree withered away, but not entirely. It was as if there was a life that was about to be born within the trunk. This was the birth of this life which needed the tree’s nutrients. It would continuously gather them, and the tree would shrink.

This process lasted for sixty years!

From the time Su Ming fell asleep to this moment, five cycles of sixty years had passed. That was three hundred years. It was enough for all the people in the land with ninety thousand stone monuments to forget the disaster all those years ago, and also enough for the gazes that often landed on Su Ming’s stone monument… to reduce to only one!

That gaze that constantly watched the stone monument belonged to Zhou Kang. During the three hundred years, he had managed to make his stone monument reach nine hundred thousand something feet multiple times. He took the test multiple times, but failed every single time. However, this was no longer the most important thing in his life. At that moment, he was still watching Su Ming’s stone monument… because he wanted to verify whether his deceased wife’s guess all those years ago had been true.

Because once he arrived at the later stage of World Plane Realm, he had long since understood that all the memories within the world of the stone monuments… were fake. It was something that belonged to the passage of time. His wife’s guess… had to be real.

Su Ming was neither his friend nor his relative, but the path Su Ming took was given by Zhou Kang. The path he took was his wife’s guess and her conclusion. Since his wife had died, this was the thing that supported Zhou Kang, the only thing that got him moving forward.

Another ten years went by.

When the three hundred and tenth year was almost completely gone, no one within the world of the ninety thousand stone monuments noticed a change in their worlds.

This change came from Su Ming’s world. He had opened his eyes.

In that vast galaxy within Su Ming’s world, the tree was no longer around. What existed at that moment was a young man with long black hair and black eyes!

His hair reached his feet, and his face was so pale that he looked sick. However, a vast amount of life force that could suffocate others rose up with a bang within the young man’s body.

During the three hundred years, Su Ming had completed the third step of the Abyss Builders’ Possession. He turned something decaying into something astonishing, and from the Ecang tree, he formed a clone that belonged to him!

This would be the first clone in the endless passage of time that was formed after Possessing an entity like Ecang within the entire universe. This clone was not within the laws of the universe. It surpassed them. This was… Su Ming’s strongest clone.

This was Ecang’s clone!

He opened his eyes.

At the instant Su Ming opened his eyes, the entire galaxy trembled, and as if it was submitting to him, an endless amount of cracks spread out. It was as if with just one thought, Su Ming could make this galaxy crumble and shatter.

There was an endless amount of golden light within his eyes, along with overlapping shadows of runic symbols in his right eye. These shadows replaced his pupils and exuded an indescribably mighty pressure. If anyone met his gaze at that moment, then right at that instant, a loud bang would rang out in their hearts, and their minds would be torn to shreds.

At the instant Su Ming’s clone which had mastered a portion of Sui Chen Zi’s Divine Essence and gathered together a portion of the complete Ecang’s body was formed, he possessed a power that surpassed his imagination.

Perhaps more accurately speaking, this was no longer a power, but an instinct that allowed him to control Divine Essence.

”I don’t know how strong this clone is, but I can feel… that I am the master of these one hundred thousand galaxies.

”Now, even those at the peak of the middle stage of World Plane Realm like Zhao Family’s Progenitor appeared, no matter how many of them there were, I would be able to instantly wipe all of them away with this clone of mine.

”Perhaps I could even fight against the ancient wills within Yin Death Region! However, this is only my current self. I can sense it strongly, this body is still like that of a newborn. It is still growing up, and with each breath, it is getting stronger.” As Su Ming whispered to himself, the golden light in his eyes became as bright as the sun.

”From now on, all the ninety thousand stone monuments in the world can never reach ten million feet. Their limit will be nine million feet… because the final one million feet of those ten million feet… shall eternally belong only to me!” A faint smile appeared on Su Ming’s face. He lifted his right hand and swung it before him.

Immediately, a wave of distorted ripples appeared in the galaxy before him. Those ripples spread out swiftly, and after a moment, a body appeared within them that gradually floated towards Su Ming.

This was his Crimson Python Phoenix clone. It was also his first clone that acted as his physical body, which he used to train the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole.

”Ecang’s clone refines Divine Essence.

”The clone that trained in the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole refines my physical body.

”My real self in the land of Immortals refines my soul.

”I need one more clone to refine my epiphany.

”Now, this clone that trained in the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole should get stronger…” Golden light shone in Su Ming’s eyes, and he pointed towards that clone with his right index finger.

”I am the master of this galaxy formed by the fusion of one hundred thousand galaxies. With a single thought, I’ll have… this body become stronger,” Su Ming whispered softly.

At the instant he finished speaking, a set of laws and rules immediately appeared in the vast galaxy, and all of them gathered on Su Ming’s clone that trained in the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole.

When Su Ming’s clone opened his eyes, a burst of powerful presence erupted forth like a tidal wave.