Pursuit of the Truth

Su Ming swept his gaze past the area and immediately saw that the three people he had absorbed with Ecang’s true self were not among the ferocious spirits. The one with the tuft of white fur was also not among them. Clearly, those who were absorbed by Ecang and Possessed by Su Ming were in a state of having been truly wiped out. From then on, they were no longer a part of Old Ya Mu’s game.

As the life force from the ferocious spirits in the area turned into thin threads and fused into Su Ming, his body let out a bang. His cultivation base increased exponentially, filling his entire body in an instant.

The life force from the dozens of ferocious spirits around him was the quintessence formed from their cultivation bases. At that moment, all of it gushed out and filled the world.

By then, all the other people in the world had been sucked into the vortex, and Su Ming had no idea in which dimension they had been transferred. At that moment, the only ones present were Su Ming and Xu Hui, who was in his arms.

In the face of the rampaging power from the cultivation bases spreading out from the ferocious spirits, Su Ming’s expression changed.

“My power has already been restored. I can protect myself, so you don’t have to bother about me…” Xu Hui said softly while smiling faintly.

When Su Ming turned his head around to look at her, he saw her wink at him. A sly look appeared in her eyes, and her appearance changed swiftly. Once her body distorted, she turned… into the appearance of the body formed by the supreme treasure!

“You found it rude to snatch this item, but I’m fine with it, so I got it for you,” Xu Hui said with a smile and left Su Ming’s arms. As she retreated, she faced the rampaging power from the place head-on.

Su Ming blinked. He remembered the anguished expression on Xuang Shang’s face when he went to grab Xu Hui just then, but he had no idea what method she had used to threaten Xuan Shang into giving her that supreme treasure.

With the body of the supreme treasure around, Su Ming believed that Xu Hui would have the highest possible protection, so he stopped thinking about how she had obtained it. Instead, he sucked in a sharp breath of the vast life force coming towards him.

With it, Su Ming’s body let out a bang as if he was about to explode. The rampaging life force and power from the cultivation bases spread out from the dozens of ferocious spirits from all directions and surged into Su Ming.

This scene was similar to transferring cultivation bases. Besides a few, the dozens of ferocious spirits… were all Almighties in Mastery Realm. Because of that, the transfer of their cultivation bases was a great serendipity that was unprecedented in the universe.

This serendipity could be gentle so that Su Ming would not have to suffer, but Old Ya Mu did not have the obligation to make this serendipity gentle. His thought process was simple.

‘I’ve given you the serendipity, but as for how much you can absorb will depend entirely on you!’

“If you have the ability, then absorb all of it. If you can’t sustain it and end up with your body bursting, then that will be due to your greed. It won’t have anything to do with me,” Old Ya Mu said flatly as he cast a cold glance at Su Ming absorbing that life force. A brilliant light shone in Su Ming’s eyes.

However, at that moment, he could not speak. The rampaging life force and the power from the cultivation bases forced him to only circulate them rapidly in his body as he absorbed them. Fortunately, Su Ming had some experience with this sort of thing from the God Ascension Nectar, or else, if anyone else had been in his place, they would definitely panic.

This was a serendipity, but also a disaster!

However, Su Ming had the right to choose and give up on this disaster. If he did so, then the serendipity would stop. He could avoid endangering his life, but if he gave up on it so easily… he would not be Su Ming.

Sweat covered his body while booming sounds continuously spread out from it. A large amount of life force surged madly into him through all his pores. The pace at which Su Ming circulated his cultivation base could not catch up to that of the life force and power of those cultivation bases fusing into him.

It was at that moment that Su Ming threw his head back and roared. His cultivation base clone had broken through the later stage of World Plane Realm and attained great completion of World Plane Realm!

“Since this is a serendipity, then I might as well give you more.”

Old Ya Mu cast Su Ming a glance, and a malicious smile appeared on his face. He lifted his right hand and swung his arm forward. Booming sounds immediately surged into the sky, and the dimension shattered.

As the dimension collapsed, space distorted, and the power of essence that had gathered over countless years erupted forth. It then immediately surged into Su Ming’s body, causing it to instantly swell up.

“Absorb it. Remember this, when you can’t absorb it anymore, don’t blame me for not granting you that serendipity. When you can’t sustain it anymore, search for a place to avoid the dimension’s destruction. After that, you can step into the vortex that will form after the dimension fully collapses. That vortex will Relocate you to the core of the fifth kiln.

“Now, I have fulfilled my promise. Boy, it’ll all depend on you for how much you can absorb.” Old Ya Mu smiled faintly. He moved, and his appearance changed. His body turned into an illusion, then he swiftly gained corporeal form, and he transformed into Huang Mei.

He lowered his head to scrutinize his own body. His smile grew wider, and he turned around to take a step into the air. He then disappeared from the crumbling dimension.

“Su Ming!” Xu Hui was still in the rampaging dimension. She immediately cried out anxiously when she saw what was happening, but was continuously forced back by the rampaging power and could not get closer.

“It’s fine, I can last!”

As Su Ming’s body swelled up, he threw his head back and roared. Immediately, he expanded even more, and his cultivation base stirred up a storm.

The storm might have been instantly suppressed, but Su Ming’s cultivation base had reached a breakthrough during that instant!

A moon appeared behind him!

It was a gray moon, and a boundless, strange and enchanting air spread out from it, along with a thick aura of death. In that crumbling dimension, the appearance of the moon caused the rampaging power to surge towards it.

Booming sounds reverberated in the air. It came from some of the dozens of ferocious spirits around Su Ming transferring their cultivation bases to him. When some of their bodies reached an extremely shriveled state, they exploded. Old Ya Mu’s Art prevented these former cultivators from wasting even a single bit of their existence even after they had delivered all of their cultivation bases to him. At the time, they actually had to make their souls explode and turn into quintessence after they were reduced to ashes. If Su Ming could absorb it, then he should. If he could not, then he was not to blame Ya Mu for not giving him that serendipity.

‘Your serendipity is right there. You can see it, but I’m going to make you unable to absorb it, since it’ll be over your limit.’

This was a form of counterattack from Ya Mu to Su Xuan Yi. However, that counterattack was reflected on Su Ming.

‘Without understanding them, cultivation bases that are forcefully gathered together are just empty.’ Old Ya Mu, who had now taken Huang Mei’s appearance, walked out of the distortions that manifested in the galaxy beyond the fifth kiln. He turned his head around to cast a glance at the fifth kiln, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.

In the collapsing dimension within the fifth kiln, Su Ming sensed great danger. Forget the turbulent source after the dimension crumbled, just the dozens of ferocious spirits around him already made it hard for Su Ming to continue absorbing them.

Even though he broke through great completion in World Plane Realm and stepped into Lunar Kalpa Realm, the moon that appeared for Su Ming… was a dead moon!

‘The scattered life force and cultivation bases in this place and the essence from this dimension will allow my cultivation base to increase by leaps and bounds if I can absorb all of it… but it’ll just be a simple increase in my cultivation base. Without an epiphany, everything will be insubstantial… In the end, I will have great strength, but I won’t be able to control it with my mind. I’ll have power in me, but I won’t be able to use it even a single bit.

‘I have to absorb this serendipity exceptionally quickly, which prevents me from gaining an epiphany. This is that Old Ya Mu’s goal.’ A glint shone in Su Ming’s eyes.

‘But I’ll… be taking this serendipity!’ Su Ming’s eyes fell shut the next moment, and an incredibly thick aura of death surrounded him!

Once this happened, waves of cold air spread out through the area from Su Ming, freezing the collapsing dimension. Snow began to fall and swirled in all directions, and not a single bit of warmth remained in Su Ming’s body. He was cold, just like a dead person.

He opened his eyes at that moment, and his eyes were gray and dull.

Su Ming did not have the epiphany that would allow him to reach Lunar Kalpa Realm, but he had… the epiphany about his own life—the path of life that would allow him to walk from winter to spring, to move from death to regaining consciousness, from Yin Death to Bright Yang.

The gray moon meant that Su Ming had died. It symbolized the midwinter of his life!

As the aura of death erupted from Su Ming’s body, a cloudy film appeared on the gray moon behind him. A large amount of life force, the essence of the dimension, and the rampaging cultivation bases surged into Su Ming’s body before flowing out of it to turn into the power to form the moon of Lunar Kalpa Realm.

Su Ming stood with his long hair dancing in the air and was filled with an incredibly cold air. As he stood in midair, his body swiftly returned to normal from its swollen state. The gray moon behind him shone with the light of death.

At the same time, a fierce light flashed in Su Ming’s eyes. He brought his right hand up and struck the center of his brows. With a bang, overlapping shadows appeared on his body. That was… the clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole moving out and standing to Su Ming’s right.

At the instant that clone appeared, the life force and rampaging power split up and surged into the clone, causing him to immediately collapse with a bang. But while he collapsed, the blood and flesh that spread out from him tumbled backwards swiftly, as if they were being regrouped. As they were forced apart, they gathered together again and again, and each time they were forced apart before they subsequently gathered together, the body would become stronger and tougher.

Gradually, as the clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole continued regrouping and reforming, a moon appeared behind him!

That moon’s color was red. It was a shade of red that was akin to blood, and a strange, enchanting color that was similar to that of autumn leaves!

The gray moon symbolized death and midwinter, while the red moon symbolized the autumn red that marked his struggles in death and his desire to dye the sky in blood!

During that moment, with a bang, Su Ming’s Ecang clone appeared above his cultivation base clone and his clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole. His three clones formed three spots at that instant, and they formed the mark of a mountain!

It was a towering mountain. The unmoving, rudimentary heavens!

Bang!

The dimension shuddered violently, and Old Ya Mu’s footsteps came to an abrupt halt while he was walking through the galaxy beyond the fifth kiln with a composed expression. When he swiftly turned his head around, his expression changed.