Pursuit of the Truth

Su Ming did not pay any attention to the actions of the four cultivators. If they wanted to live, then they had to show their sincerity. If they did not want to offend Heaven Traversers but did not want to provoke Su Ming as well, then he alone would decide whether they would live or die.

If they wanted to complain, then the only thing they could blame was that they had terrible luck. They should not have entered this place at this moment, but since they were here, then it was no longer up to them to struggle against Su Ming’s control. They had to make a choice.

The screams from the Nascent Divinity of the man with the water moon fell into Su Ming’s ears. He thus knew of the four cultivators’ choice, but he did not look towards them. Instead, with one move, he charged towards the two with the fire moon and flower moon.

This was a massacre where the parties involved had a great disparity in their levels of cultivation. Ecang’s presence spread out from Su Ming, and Ecang’s power circulated in his body, allowing him to possess the offensive power equivalent to those in Solar Kalpa Realm.

Even though he only possessed power equivalent to them and was not truly in Solar Kalpa Realm, it was enough to make him the strongest person among all those below Solar Kalpa Realm.

As he watched the male and female Heaven Traverser rushing towards him, Su Ming narrowed his eyes. He did not retreat, but charged forward, and during that moment, he raised his right hand, formed a seal, and touched the center of his brows before pointing towards the fire moon since it was closer.

“The Life Matrix of midwinter is the beginning of my life.”

With it, moaning gusts of chilling wind immediately rose within the world covered in black clouds. In the mid of these cold winds, snow appeared, as if the world had been frozen, but the snow was not white—it was black!

The black snow floated in the world, turning the black rain into ice that filled the whole space. A piercing cold will froze the area, and the incoming fire moon started letting out cracking sounds when Su Ming pointed towards it before freezing mid-move.

The man with the fire moon who was glaring at Su Ming while charging towards him was also frozen.

He struggled while shouting angrily. In fact, at the instant he was frozen, he brought out a large amount of Enchanted Treasures and even executed his divine abilities to fight against the ice, but all of them were instantly frozen in midwinter.

This was the Art brought by Su Ming’s Life Matrix—the power of midwinter!

“After winter, crimson will be the ruler of the world. This red symbolizes autumn… and it is the pinnacle of autumn’s red!” Su Ming said flatly, then pointed towards the flower moon with his right hand.

The flower moon formed by countless petals immediately turned yellow and withered when Su Ming pointed at it. In the blink of an eye, a red hue that was similar to autumn appeared on it, causing the expression of the woman behind it to change. Her face became pale.

This was a divine ability she could not hope to fight against. It was a transformation of an Art she had never seen before. Midwinter and the crimson red of autumn should be the changes of the four seasons in the world, but when Su Ming executed them, the woman felt as if he were the four seasons in the universe.

The transformations of the four seasons were at his fingertips, but there was nothing strange about it, as if… the world had always be like this, as if the four seasons had always… always been changed at will by this man in front of her.

‘I Possessed Ecang, my cultivation base clone is in the later stage of World Plane Realm, and the physical body of my clone that practices the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole has become complete. All of this… is like the light summer during the beginning of autumn. As it continues being brewed like wine and accumulates power in the process, it would erupt forth with flames rife with life, which would only appear during the scorching summer.

‘This fire is still not strong right now. There is only one ball of flame, but this fire of life is the burning sun I lit up when I burned the universe as I walked out of midwinter!’

Su Ming raised his head. When he lifted it, his long hair swayed in the wind, looking like flickering flames. His body also looked as if it had been lit aflame at that instant!

These were the flames of his life. He had obtained them after he moved from winter to autumn, then from autumn to summer. When these flames burned at their brightest, Su Ming move into the summer of his life!

When that time came, what would await Su Ming would be the final step in his life – spring, where all manner of living was resurrected!

The resurrection of all lives also symbolized a rise in power, as well as… rebirth!

When that moment came, it would be the time for Su Ming’s rebirth and a burst of power in upon having reached the pinnacle. This step… was no longer far away!

At the instant the light flames of summer burned on Su Ming’s body, he formed a seal with his hands and flung them outwards. A sea of fire erupted from his body and tumbled outwards. In the blink an eye, it devoured the frozen fire moon, surrounded the withered, red flower moon, and enveloped the male and female Heaven Traversers.

There were no shrill screams of pain, no shocking booms, just the burning sea of fire in the black snow that filled the entire world with red. Yet the scene brought forth by winter, autumn, and summer fusing together brought an even greater impact than any loud bang or shrill scream, and it caused the breathing of the four cultivators in the distance to quicken and their hearts to tremble.

When the sea of fire disappeared, Su Ming stood in midair with a calm expression. There was no longer any fire moon or flower moon before him, and no traces of the man and woman.

These two had already been burned to ashes by Su Ming’s flames of life.

The cultivation planet was filled with silence at that moment. After a long time, when Su Ming turned his gaze towards the four cultivators, they immediately bowed to him with respect on their faces.

“Tell me your names,” Su Ming said flatly.

They were stunned and terrified by Su Ming’s divine ability, and their will to fight ha been suppressed by Su Ming’s mighty display of power. At that moment, after they lowered their heads to bow to him, they quickly told him their names.

“I am Xuan Shang. Greetings, senior.”

“I am Hua Yu. Greetings, senior.”

“I am Yun You. Greetings, senior.”

“I am Nian Yin. Greetings, senior.”

“Why did you come to Divine Essence Star Ocean?” Su Ming’s tone was flat. When he swept his gaze past the four, he fixed his eyes on Xuan Shang, who had previously brought out the authentication token from Dust Burners’ tribe leader.

Xuan Shang hesitated for a moment before lowering his head and saying, “We were invited by the tribe leader of Dust Burners to head to their tribe because of some personal matters…” Since the moment he saw Su Ming, he never once thought of him as a cultivator, and even now, he still believed that Su Ming was a powerful warrior from some tribe in Divine Essence Star Ocean.

Even the three people beside him believed the same. After all, Su Ming’s clothes, bearing, and that indescribable presence on him was not that different from the locals they saw in Divine Essence Star Ocean.

If he was a cultivator, then he would have the same vague presence they had because they were unable to fuse with Divine Essence Star Ocean, making them seem as if they were solitary existences in this place. Even if there were some methods that would help them cover this presence, anyone who had the intention to find them would still be able to detect it. However, they found none of this presence on Su Ming.

“Oh?”

Su Ming smiled. When they saw his smile, they immediately felt their skin crawl. There was nothing eerie about that smile, but when Su Ming smiled, the purple line at the center of his brows seemed to squirm slightly, as if a tiny crack had opened up. A feeling as if they were being watched instantly rose in their hearts, and they felt as if they had been stripped naked in an instant. They could hide none of their secrets, and the small slit at the center of his brows could see all of them clearly.

In fact, they had a strong feeling that… there was an eye in the slit between Su Ming’s brows!

“I was also planning to visit Dust Burners. I wonder if it would be troubling for you if I asked to join you?” There seemed to be a ghost of a smile on Su Ming’s lips, but the piercing cold glare in his eyes made the hearts of all who saw it to tighten in fear.

How would they dare say that it was troublesome? Even if they were extremely unwilling, they had to smile and nod.

“Senior, it would be great if you joined us. With you around, we would be much safer. It is our honor. I, Xuan Shang, thank you for joining us, senior.” Bitterness rose in Xuan Shang’s heart, but he did not dare to show even a single hint of it. Instead, he put on a delighted face and quickly wrapped his fist in his palm to thank Su Ming.

“Alright, you can leave now. Search for any random place and wait for me. Once I settle matters with Heaven Traversers, I will naturally come find you,” Su Ming said flatly.

The four immediately experienced shock and bewilderment in their hearts, but did not show a single hint of their emotions on their faces. Instead, they wrapped their fists in their palms towards Su Ming, then turned into long arcs and intended to quickly leave the planet they now regretted coming entering.

But the black clouds in the sky were still around and continued to seal the place…

“You’re leaving just like that?” Su Ming landed on the ground, then sat down with his legs crossed.

The four people in the sky were momentarily stunned, then Hua Yu’s expression changed. When he lowered his head, he raised his right hand, and a crack appeared on his palm. The Nascent Divinity of the man with the water moon had his eyes closed and was unconscious. Once Hua Yu flung him out, he drifted towards Su Ming.

At the same time, black clouds tumbled about in the sky to open up a tunnel. They stepped into it swiftly, and with the fastest speed they could muster, they quickly left the dead planet.

“Fellow Daoist Xuan, we…”

“Don’t say anything else. We have to leave in a hurry. That malicious person is far too audacious. He actually dared to kill Heaven Traversers. This should be Heaven Traversers’ territory, and powerful warriors are bound to arrive soon! We must leave in haste!” Xuan Shang immediately said. He bit the tip of his tongue and coughed up a mouthful of blood to activate Fleeing Blood – an Art common among cultivators, but rarely used.

The other three did the same thing. Their blood red shadows left into the distance within an instant.

After a moment, they had fled into an area far away from the planet, but Xuan Shang did not stop moving. Only when he had flown very far into the distance did he turn his head around to look back at the now distant planet with fear lingering in his heart.

“Just what level of cultivation does he possess? He easily killed those in Lunar Kalpa Realm… so could he be a monster in Solar Kalpa Realm?”

“Fellow Daoist Yun, you might still have underestimated that person. I observed him and realized just how casually he killed those three Heaven Traversers in Lunar Kalpa Realm. This sort of person is definitely stronger than an average cultivator in Solar Kalpa Realm!”

“He can fight against a Master of Fate, Lives, and Death!” The person who said these words so adamantly was Hua Yu, the person with the divine ability to seal another’s soul. His expression was dark, and when his words left his mouth, they immediately made the other three fall silent.

“There’s something really bizarre about that person. For some reason, when I see him, I feel goosebumps all over my skin. Honestly, I’ve seen plenty of people in my life, but none of them were like this person. That malicious aura about him is just indescribable.”

“Hmm? I had that feeling too. It’s as if there’s an evil about him that can suffocate others!”

“Looks like everyone had the same feeling. I felt the same thing as well… and since he actually dared to stay in that cultivation planet, it means that he is definitely in possession of power that allows him to not be afraid of Heaven Traversers’ Master of Fate, Lives, and Death.”

“He asked to go with us to Dust Burners. Should we wait?”

The four fell silent again, and the three looked towards Xuan Shang, which was a telling sign that he was the leader in the group.

Xuan Shang’s expression changed. After a moment, he gritted his teeth. Just as he was about to speak, a loud bang came from the distant galaxy, and it was so loud that even they could hear it. In this galaxy, such a bang could only mean one thing…

A planet had collapsed!

The group’s expressions changed drastically, and they immediately fixed their stares towards the source of that bang. Then, they saw the impact formed by a planet self-destructing and the brilliant light that was difficult to put into words in the distance.