Pursuit of the Truth

“What sound is that?!” The yellow-browed man frowned and stared at the tumbling sea of fire around him coldly. That sound had entered their minds and was reverberating nonstop at the moment.

“Su…” the white-robed man that was the centipede with one thousand feet said faintly, and a barely noticeable glint shone in his eyes.

Flame Fiends’ Progenitor narrowed his eyes while remaining crouched on Zhu You Cai’s body. No one knew what sort of thoughts were in his mind.

Zhu You Cai shuddered lightly. He lowered his head and hid away the hint of complicated emotions that appeared on his face when that voice spoke.

“It is rumored that the master of the fifth kiln is called Su Xuan Yi. This person came from the Fifth True World, and it is said that he ventured out with his wife in the past. From then on, he has never been seen again. Could this voice be the kiln calling out to its master?” the yellow-browed wondered aloud after contemplating it for a moment. When he spoke, he looked towards Reverend Zi Long.

Zi Long remained as calm as ever. He looked at the sea of fire in space and did not say a single word.

No one in the area noticed that Su Ming had also lowered his head at that moment. His eyes were shut, and he looked as if he was meditating, but in truth, he was hiding the hint of grief in his eyes.

‘Even they know about Su Xuan Yi. Looks like the words of Dust Burners’ Progenitor were real.’ After a moment, the vague voice echoed in the area once more.

That single word that the voice spoke lingered for a long time and did not disappear, as if it was truly calling out to its master. There was a deep, ancient air within it, causing those who heard it to be unable to help themselves but to find their hearts growing heavy.

Soon after, the people resumed immersing themselves in exercising their breathing and waited for the sea of fire in space to disperse. They simply allowed that indistinct voice to occasionally ring in their minds.

Su Ming closed his eyes, but his right hand had moved to his storage bag. There was a jade slip on his palm, and its contents appeared in Su Ming’s mind.

The Resentful Wei stood proudly beside him and looked at the area and the people indifferently. It regarded all manner of lives with hostility, and even if Su Ming had already formed an agreement with it, it still found itself to not really be able to get used to it. However, it could sense that Su Ming truly valued it.

Most importantly, it sensed a similar loneliness and grief within Su Ming.

With the Resentful Wei around, Su Ming could be at ease and immerse himself within observing the map in his mind. It had been given to him by Dust Burners’ Progenitor, and within it was a rather detailed description of the fifth kiln.

Inside it, there were ninety-nine balls of fire, and they were the reason why the fifth kiln was known as a kiln!

Each ball of fire contained a supreme treasure, and when all ninety-nine of them were gathered together, they would form the vast power possessed by the fifth kiln.

Over the course of countless years of the fifth kiln being activated continuously and an endless stream of people entering it in hopes of obtaining a serendipity, some people managed to truly obtain a supreme treasure. They extinguished the fire and took away the treasure.

Because of that, the fifth kiln gradually lost its power to move about and could only stay in a single spot in the galaxy. When all of its supreme treasures were taken away, it would dissolve and disappear.

As of then, not even Dust Burners knew how many balls of fire were still within the fifth kiln, how many supreme treasures were yet to be taken away.

Su Ming knew that the Almighties beside him were aiming for the supreme treasures contained within the balls of fire that still remained.

Besides these ninety-nine balls of fire, there were nine hundred and ninety-nine complementary treasures. They formed the structure connecting the ninety-nine supreme treasures, and not even a single one could be missing.

Over the years, these complementary treasures were the ones who were most commonly taken away.

The ninety-nine balls of fire formed ninety-nine big dimensions within the kiln, while the nine hundred and ninety-nine complementary treasures formed nine hundred and ninety-nine small dimensions. Even if the balls of fire were extinguished and the supreme treasure within them taken away, their dimensions would still exist.

Each dimension was a world, and there were ferocious beasts within them to protect the treasure. These ferocious spirits varied in strength, and it was often based on the might of the treasure itself.

A cultivator in Solar Kalpa Realm might be able to win against the spirit protecting an ordinary complementary treasure and obtain it, but if there was an incredibly powerful complementary treasure, the ferocious spirits within its dimension would also be stronger.

If the treasure in the dimension was taken away, the dimension would remain, and so the ferocious spirits within it would also continue to exist. On top of that, because they had lost their treasure, they would become even more ruthless. They would not stop until they killed all lifeforms that entered their dimension!

It was even more so for the beasts defending the supreme treasures. The balls of fire in the dimensions with supreme treasures could not be extinguished by those who were not in Mastery Realm or Fate Realm. Furthermore, these supreme treasures were categorized in different levels. Based on the information Su Ming obtained from Dust Burners’ Progenitor, nine of the ninety-nine supreme treasures were in the core of the fifth kiln.

The level of difficulty in obtaining these nine supreme treasures surpassed all of the others. It was related to a person’s level of cultivation, chance, and also serendipity.

Dust Burners had a record of them, and they knew through a unique method of theirs that many years ago, when the kiln was activated, there were nine people who had stepped into a dimension.

It was difficult for people to take even an inch forward there, but they saw a sight which drove them mad. There was a prime flame in the sky of the dimension. This meant that this was one of the ninety-nine dimensions with a supreme treasure, but this was just secondary in importance. The most important thing was that there was a blade contained within the ball of fire that the nine people saw!

At the instant they took note of this, the blade’s voice reached their minds, telling them that its name was Life Envying Blade.

A supreme treasure that would tell its own name to others was one of the nine treasures within the core of the fifth kiln – a supreme treasure which would come to them only by luck!

It was that blade that caused all of the nine people to die in the end, and among the nine, seven of them were Masters of Fate, Lives, and Death. These seven people had come from the forces of power from the four Great True Worlds stationed to keep watch over the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. It was also due to the deaths of these seven people that the four Great True Worlds gave up on their plan to occupy the Divine Essence Star Ocean in one go, which they had been preparing for at that time. Instead, they simply decided to keep watch over it.

It could be seen from this alone that the nine supreme treasures in the core contained incredible temptation and power. When Su Ming saw this, questions rose in his heart.

Why did Su Xuan Yi not take the fifth kiln with him when he ventured out in the past? If he had taken it, then perhaps he would not have suffered such a tragic fate in True Morning Dao World.

Su Ming could not understand this. It caused him to be momentarily silent before continued to read through the introductions in the map in regards to the fifth kiln.

There were lifeforms existing in the space between the many dimensions in the fifth kiln, and they were known as Fire Spirits.

They were created by Abyss Builders and given the task of refining the supreme treasures as well as protecting the kiln. Over the course of countless years, intelligence was born within some of them and they chose to leave to become Dust Burners.

However, the price for leaving was the loss of the powerful offensive power they possessed as Fire Spirits. There were quite a large number of Fire Spirits who chose freedom despite that, but many chose to stay even if intelligence had been born within them. Instead, they continued carrying out their mission within the fifth kiln.

There were also plenty of Fire Spirits who did not possess intelligence and just drifted in a daze between the dimensions of the fifth kiln. They killed all lifeforms which did not belong to the place and maintained the normal operations of the fifth kiln.

Time slowly passed as Su Ming investigated the information regarding the fifth kiln. When the seventh day of the black flames of destruction erupting passed, the heinous sea of fire that had lasted for nearly a month within Divine Essence Star Ocean disappeared in an instant.

Not a single flame could be seen any longer. Only ruins were left behind, as well as worlds that no longer had any traces of green within them. Far too many planets were reduced to ashes by the sea of fire, and far too many floating continents had disappeared along with it. None of them would exist in Divine Essence Star Ocean any longer.

There were also far too many ferocious beasts who had died in the sea of fire. The ones remaining would exist in a period of emptiness within Divine Essence Star Ocean, but even so, the hidden forces would remain strong. If powerful ferocious beasts and various races could survive here, then they naturally find ways to avoid the sea of fire until they even got used to the eruptions from the fifth kiln.

Their existences were the foundation of Divine Essence Star Ocean.

When the sea of fire in the world outside disappeared, the flames that existed in space in the area around the group on the platform started dimming one by one. Yet as they became dimmer, all the people, including Su Ming, instantly saw… figures that had their eyes closed and were sleeping in the extinguished flames,

They… were Fire Spirits!

When the sea of fire from the fifth kiln erupted, they fell asleep, but when it disappeared, they would gradually wake up and carry out their mission – to kill all those who did not belong in this place.

At the instant Huang Mei and Reverend Zi Long saw the Fire Spirits, their faces turned grim. They did not say a single word, because there were far too many Fire Spirits around. They were so densely packed together that their numbers could not be counted.

They might be sleeping, but the mighty pressure spreading out from their bodies was enough to make all people’s skin crawl. These Fire Spirits’ levels of cultivation varied, but even the weakest among them were at Lunar Kalpa Realm!

The strongest among them were existences akin to Masters of Fate, Lives, and Death. However, they had not reached that Realm and were just exuding the mighty pressure and offensive power that belonged to those in that Realm.

Thankfully… most of them did not possess intelligence.

However, it could be seen that some of their eyelids were shuddering, as if they were about to wake up, and it gave a sense of oppression to people.

“Fellow Daoists, if you could come to this place, then you must surely have your own understanding regarding the fifth kiln. There are six of us here, if all goes well, we can occupy six Spirit Trudging Platforms. At that time… heh heh,” The yellow-browed man lifted his head to look at the Fire Spirits.

Right at the instant he finished speaking, nine huge light screens appeared around the platform on which they stood. At the instant light shone from them, piercing roars reverberated through the kiln. Those shrill cries came from the Fire Spirits who had opened their eyes from their deep slumber and let out that sound once they saw the six intruders.