Pursuit of the Truth

Su Ming stared at the fog beneath him spreading outwards to reveal that so-called gate to enter the earth. With a sparkle in his eyes, he asked flatly, “What serendipity?”

“A great serendipity that will let this clone of yours enter Mastery Realm!” A strange light shone in the old man’s eyes. As he laughed long and hard, his words resulted in a loud bang. A brilliant light shone in Su Ming’s eyes when he heard it.

He did not continue asking about it. With one step, he walked into the entrance of the fog, and his body entered the gate to the earth.

Once he entered it, the world turned upside down. A powerful light covered his eyes. A loud bang reverberated beside him, and he had the feeling as if he was moving through water.

After a moment, when this feeling disappeared along with the powerful light in front of Su Ming’s eyes, he saw everything around him clearly. He found himself standing… on an inverted mountain.

But he was standing at the highest part of the mountain, where the foot of the mountain was located.

Right away, he could see the ferocious spirits formed by the ten cultivators at the mountain beneath him. They were charging forward, their goal being the summit at the lowest part of the mountain!

A freezing glare shone in Su Ming’s eyes. At that moment, he might look hideous, but his cultivation base had been completely restored. With one move, he charged downwards, and he was so fast that even though he was the last one, he was closed in on everyone in no time.

In the span of around a dozen breaths, the mountain suddenly began swaying violently. The intensity of these tremors was one that would bother Su Ming if his cultivation base had disappeared, but at that moment, they were completely insignificant.

With a leap, he charged forward, as if he was plunging downwards.

But after the tremors lasted for several breaths, circles of light appeared in nine spots on the mountain. There were nine spots, but there were eleven ferocious spirits formed by cultivators that were on the mountain.

Su Ming was the last among them. He immediately saw the ten ferocious beasts beneath him acting as if they had gone mad at the instant the circles of light appeared. They charged towards the nine circles right away, and some of the more powerful ferocious spirits could completely occupy one in an instant. However, the slightly weaker ones began fighting among themselves in a frenzy.

Booming sounds echoed in all directions. While Su Ming continued charging down, he saw Nian Yin fighting against another cultivator for a circle of light. At the same time, a powerful sense of danger rose swiftly in Su Ming’s heart.

It was as if the mountain on which he stood was sending a divine thought signaling danger to all the living creatures on it at that moment. With this divine thought around, the light from all nine circles of light swiftly began to fade. At that moment, Su Ming had a powerful epiphany that when the light from those circles faded away completely, those who did not manage to enter them… would have their right to be in the mountain this time canceled. Their memories would be extracted to become the price for desiring the legacy.

The moment Su Ming approached the circle of light, the ferocious spirit that was Nian Yin let out a shrill scream of pain. His head had been gobbled up by another ferocious spirit. While chewing his head, that person stood in the circle of light and began howling.

When Su Ming saw that the nine circles of light were swiftly fading away, the sense of danger in his heart grew even stronger. He did not have much time to think about it. With one step, he charged at the circle of light that was the closest to him.

There was a ferocious spirit that was about one hundred feet tall in that circle of light. Many of the boils on his body had burst, and some of them had already dried up. His eyes were bloodshot, and there was confusion and madness in them. Clearly, he had failed several times before, and an unknown amount of years’ worth of memories had been extracted from him.

However, no matter how little memories remained in him, a faint will from his soul still existed. He knew that he could not have someone else snatch the circle of light in which hewe as standing and that he could not be forced out of his circle of light, or else the pain of having his memories extracted as well as his seven emotions and six desires taken away from him would come upon him again. That pain was an unimaginable nightmare to all people, no matter who they were.

At the instant Su Ming closed in, the ferocious spirit roared. He lifted his swollen right hand and formed a seal before pointing swiftly at Su Ming. With it, the world roared, and a powerful gust of wind appeared out of thin air. It surrounded the area and gathered on the ferocious spirit’s finger. Then, it turned into a long arc that seemed to be able to rip apart space and shot towards the incoming Su Ming.

Killing intent shone in Su Ming’s eyes. He did not move back, but instead charged forward even faster. With a leap, he headed downwards and lifted his right hand. The purple-black ring on his thumb shone, and the Life Inequity Spear appeared. Once Su Ming held it in his hand and the instant the circle of light was about to completely fade away, he turned into an afterimage that crashed straight into the incoming long arc.

Booming sounds echoed in the air. Su Ming shot through the long arc and stepped straight into the circle of light. He was so quick that it was impossible to describe his speed with words. When the other ferocious spirits in the area looked over, they only saw a piercing light and heard loud booms surge into the sky.

When the powerful light dissipated and the loud bangs faded away, what appeared before the other ferocious spirits’ eyes was Su Ming standing in the circle of light. Beyond it was a twitching corpse whose right eye had been stabbed by a long spear!

With an indifferent expression, Su Ming slowly pulled out that long spear before he looked around him with a cold glare.

It was at that instant that the circle of light beneath his feet disappeared, and immediately after, circles of light appeared some distance below everyone. This time, there was no longer nine, but seven of them!

Almost the instant the seven circles of light appeared below the eight remaining ferocious spirits besides Su Ming rushed out at their full speed. They intended to snatch at least one spot for themselves.

Su Ming did not say a single word. He did not think about snatching a circle of light from another ferocious spirit, but chose a circle and fixed his gaze on it. Whoever tried to snatch it from him, he would kill them!

When the ferocious spirits were still cultivators, none of them were weaklings. They might have become even more driven by insanity after staying in this place for so many years and losing their memories as well as their seven emotions and six desires through failure after failure, but their strength was definitely no longer comparable to that of their past selves.

‘This is a game for that old Ya Mu. Over the years, none among these people have managed to succeed. This alone is enough proof that Ya Mu doesn’t want anyone to succeed.

‘So there is definitely some other form of obstruction in the final fight.’ A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. As he moved forward, he stared at the first circle of light among the seven. ‘I’ll choose that one.’

Roars reverberated in the air. The ferocious spirits in the mountain spread out and charged towards the seven circles of light. After a moment, when Su Ming drew close to his target, another ferocious spirit came, having also chosen that circle.

That ferocious spirit was nearly two hundred feet tall. As he strode forward, he arrived almost at the same time as Su Ming. With a roar, he swung his right fist forward, stirring up a thunderous boom and sending a punch straight in Su Ming’s direction.

Su Ming positioned the Life Inequity Spear horizontally in front of himself. Once he blocked the attack, booming sounds rose into the air, and he immediately pressed his left hand on his right before swiftly pushing forward.

With a loud bang, Su Ming was forced back three steps and stopped at the edge of the circle of light. As for that ferocious spirit, it staggered back four steps. It stepped out of the circle of light, then opened its mouth wide to roar at Su Ming. As it did, killing intent shone in Su Ming’s eyes, and before the ferocious spirit even finished opening his mouth, Su Ming roared first.

This was the first time Su Ming had roared after transforming into his current hideous appearance. A murderous aura that surged into the sky erupted from his body with a bang. It swept through the area, causing the air to distort, and the ferocious spirit instinctively took a few steps back. As his pupils shrank, he moved and avoided the circle of light where Su Ming was and rushed to another one.

The brutal slaughter that surrounded the seven circles of light instantly reached its most intense state. After a moment, with the price of two ferocious spirits dying, one ferocious spirit stood in each of the seven circles of light.

What caught Su Ming’s attention was a ferocious spirit that was about seventy or eighty feet tall standing in the seventh circle of light. All the boils on his body had dried up. His eyes were drooping, and there was a tuft of white fur on his forehead.

An ancient air would occasionally appear about his body. His eyes might have seemed bloodshot, but Su Ming noticed that there was a clear look hidden beneath it.

This was a ferocious spirit that possessed intelligence.

What interested Su Ming was that once he occupied a circle of light, no other ferocious spirits would try fighting for it. While he mulled over this, he figured out what was going on.

The creature seemed to have noticed his gaze and turned his head to cast Su Ming a glance.

Above the fog beyond the mountain was the old Ya Mu watching the scene with a smile. A bright light shone in his eyes.

“Not bad, not bad at all. The murderous aura around him is very thick. He’s not the type that has never gone through hardships before. If this lad can obtain my legacy, then I will definitely not hold back in providing him with his serendipity.

“An Abyss Builder who Possessed Ecang. Interesting, how very interesting! But I’ll have to make this fight even more intense, only then will I be able to see more.” The old man licked his lips. Coupled with his smile, his expression made that strange, wicked air on him become even stronger. There was even an endless wave of wicked air coming from his body.

He lifted his right hand and pointed at the mountain beneath the fog.

At that instant, the circles of light on the mountain immediately faded away. Once they disappeared, new circles of light appeared further down the mountain, but this time… there were only two!

Seven circles of light were instantly reduced to only two, and it almost immediately caused this competition over the legacy to reach a frenzied state.

Su Ming lifted his head and looked at the fog above him. He could vaguely see the old Ya Mu’s figure.

Once the two circles of light appeared below, the remaining six ferocious spirits besides Su Ming let out intense roars, and with bloodshot eyes, they madly charged forward at full speed.

Two circles of light. It meant that five out of the seven would fail!

“Is this the rules you set?” Su Ming ignored the six ferocious spirits that rushed out. He lifted his head to look at the indistinct old man in the fog above him. A piercing, cold glare appeared in his eyes.

“You’ll choose two among the seven, and then you’ll have them fight in a manner that will please you. Whether or not the person who eventually emerges victorious will obtain your legacy will depend on your mood. If you are not willing, then you will make him fail, or perhaps you will not extract his memories as a reward.

“I believe that’s what you have been doing over the years. But those are your rules, not mine!” Su Ming turned his head around and looked at the six charging ferocious spirits before closing his eyes.