Pursuit of the Truth

“If I could have more time, then I could…” The old man shook his head.

He watched the will sweep past the world in front of him. The sky shattered, the ground was reduced to nothingness, revealing that the galaxy beyond the sky had also crumbled. The old man lifted his right hand and struck the young man behind him. The young man immediately fell backwards and was sucked into a huge vortex that appeared out of nowhere.

“MASTER!” The young man’s cries were filled with pain and endless sorrow.

“Go. Use the method I left behind. All of you have three-tenths of a chance to escape from the disaster.” The vortex behind the old man disappeared. A brilliant light shone in his eyes, and he took a step forward to walk towards the incoming will.

Boom!

The scene ended. There was a sharp stab of pain in Su Ming’s head, but at the same time, his cultivation base moved from the initial stage of Life Realm to the middle stage of Life Realm. Soon after, golden light spread out from him. It moved away from his skin and left his cultivation base.

The continuation of his spirit ascension after his Berserker Body reached perfection was the raise in power of his cultivation base. At that moment, this came to an end as well.

Su Ming’s body was drenched in sweat. The inheritance should not be painful, but Su Ming had made his cultivation base move in reverse, which was why he was in great pain, but all of this was worth it. Not only had he forcibly made his cultivation base reach the middle stage of Life Realm, he had also seen the disaster!

Su Ming did not know what the will in the disaster was, but its strength caused a boundless sense of danger rise swiftly in Su Ming’s heart as it trembled.

He did not dare to think about whether the will in the disaster… would one day descend again and sweep through Arid Triad to kill all lives. At that moment though, Su Ming remembered the secret of the universe he had seen when he was in Heavenly Incense Rune!

It was death. It was destruction. It was the entire Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos reduced to emptiness, filled only with death.

He also understood that the Ancestral Spirit with which he had fused… was the young man named Zhan Bai. The so-called Ancestral Spirits were in truth just cultivators, but they came from a time much earlier than theirs. That era had been destroyed by a disaster. Those remaining built a new era, and they became… the Ancestral Spirits!

They were powerful, but they were just seeds sent out for the sake of passing down their legacy. The true powerful warriors of that era had long since died. Despite reaching an indescribable Realm, they still died in that disaster. Then, the power of that disaster…

Su Ming did not dare think about it. In silence, he welcomed the final stage of the spirit ascension, which was also the critical part of making a Successor Spirit become an Antecedental Spirit—transformation of the soul!

The first one was the transformation of the physical body, then came the transformation of the cultivation base, and the last… was the transformation of the soul!

With the transformation of the soul, one would open up the gates between the categories of life to break free from being a Successor Spirit and become an Antecedental Spirit!

More rays of golden light swiftly descended from the All Spirits Hall. It enveloped Su Ming and rushed into his body. They then swiftly fused with him and merged with his soul.

This made it so that Su Ming could no longer be seen clearly; he became indistinct. The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe in the distance might have remained outwardly calm, but he was paying close attention to the proceedings. He knew that Su Ming had already succeeded in half of his spirit ascension, but if any accidents occurred during the transformation of the soul, everything may still end in failure.

When the golden light fused with Su Ming’s body when he reached the stage of the transformation of the soul, the old man enveloped the area with his divine sense. He refused to have anything from the outside world interfere with the process now. He would attack at full force against any power that came to interfere with Su Ming’s transformation of the soul.

‘You must succeed. You’ve already gone through half of it. The transformation of the soul during the spirit ascension might be the most difficult to get through and there have been plenty of people who failed during the transformation of the soul, but since you could obtain such a great power even though you are a member of the later generation, you must have gone through many hardships in your life. You must have a will that is inconceivable to a normal person!

‘And you are also a seed of Great Berserker Tribe. You are Great Berserker Tribe’s hope. Your will must have gone through countless trials. You… will definitely succeed!’

The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe stared at Su Ming with expectation in his eyes. His gaze, though, soon went to search through the area and the sky with killing intent.

‘If he fails, it will be the end. But if he succeeds, the Arid Beasts will appear. I can kill them in his place… but if the Arid Disaster comes… The Arid Disaster should not appear. After all, this is the first time this child has his spirit ascend. He should… not attract the Arid Disaster’s attention. It should not… Even for me, the Arid Disaster only appeared during the seventh time I went through the spirit ascension…’ The old man’s expression was grim as he thought through everything.

While the old man was being nervous, the endless golden light turned into glowing spots that fused into Su Ming’s soul. He sensed it swelling up and getting stronger at a frightening pace.

It was a comfortable feeling, as if he was being nourished. His soul was continuously getting stronger, as if his life was filled with vitality and getting stronger. In fact, some of the realizations he had while he was practicing his cultivation in the past were magnified endlessly at that instant, causing Su Ming to gain quite a lot of epiphanies.

However, when he reached the middle stage, the strengthening of his soul was no longer comfortable. It brought with it a terrifying feeling. His soul was continuously expanding, and it soon started to pain Su Ming. This sensation was followed by fear. If his soul continued expanding like this, he would definitely explode!

The destruction of his soul would be equivalent to his body and spirit being destroyed. This made Su Ming feel incredibly pressured, but his soul did not stop expanding. It was gradually growing larger, and the pressure grew to an indescribable level as the intense pain slowly became stronger.

Then, right after he the pain increased a lot more, his soul… split up with a bang.

Su Ming’s soul did not fall apart, but split up. With intense pain, it did so to divide the power of the golden light, but immediately after, the two souls swelled up again before they split up once more.

During the first split, Su Ming’s soul turned into two. During the second split, his soul turned into four, then it split the third time, then the fourth, and the fifth.

It went from four to eight, then to sixteen, and then to thirty-two parts!

The intense pain from the splitting of his soul was no longer anything to Su Ming because what he could not stand even more was the splitting of his mind. It was also splitting up along with his soul. It was divided into thirty-two portions, and it was as if each of them was one individual Su Ming.

This meant thirty-two Su Mings. If any other race experienced this sort of transformation of the soul, they would definitely find it hard to endure for a period of time. Fortunately, Su Ming was an Abyss Builder. One of his inborn abilities was Possession, which was why he could somewhat handle having his mind split into thirty-two parts and locate his origin soul among them.

‘He split five times… that should be the end. Five splits, thirty-two souls… This child is from Great Abyss Tribe, so he should have no problems. He won’t lose his origin soul, and neither will he have his mind wiped out when the thirty-two souls fuse and devour each other.

‘Great Berserker Tribe, as I watch all of you now, I have to say, I am impressed by your choice. The act of choosing someone from Great Abyss Tribe is an incredibly bold choice.’ The old man relaxed slightly in his heart, but the next moment, his eyes focused swiftly, and a grave look appeared in his eyes.

‘He’s… splitting for the sixth time?! Damn it, how could this be? Based on my experiences and memories, when our people go through the transformation of the soul during spirit ascension, only a few handful experience six splittings of the soul. Could this be related to Great Abyss Tribe? Six times… this child should still be able to somewhat bear through it. Let’s hope he… This… This is!’

The old man opened his mouth and sucked in a sharp breath. Great shock and disbelief appeared on his face.

‘Seven times!’

He personally saw the seventh split at that moment while Su Ming was enveloped by the golden light! This was something which had never happened before as far as he could remember. Even during his era, no one ever experienced seven splittings of their souls during the transformation of the soul in their spirit ascension, no matter to what race they belonged!

‘Seven splits… How could this be?! Damn it, this child… That wisp of the foreigner’s presence in the child’s soul must be the reason!’

The old man had a gloomy expression which soon turned into anguish. He knew that the possibility of Su Ming succeeding in his spirit ascension had become exceedingly low.

“Whether or not you succeed will depend entirely on your luck now. Hah…” The old man sighed quietly.

At that moment, Su Ming was enduring inconceivable pain that came from his soul being split into 128 parts. His mind, too, had split into 128 parts. All of them were him, and it was precisely because of this that it was easy for a person to lose themselves in such a situation. They would forget which among all the many parts had belonged to them since the start.

And this was the first crucial part of the transformation of the soul. It was also known as losing one’s way.

If Su Ming could not find his first soul and got lost among the one hundred something souls and minds, then what awaited him would be a terrifying destruction. He would forever be lost among his souls and could no longer regain his sense of self. Even if he succeeded in the end, the person who opened his eyes might be Su Ming, but he also might no longer be Su Ming.

At that moment, Su Ming was like a lone ship in a raging sea. He instinctively did not want the scattering of his mind to disrupt his heart. He wanted to keep on locking down on his first soul, but while he was trying to do so with great difficulty, his mind roared, and as the golden light continued fusing into him, his 128 souls… experienced the eighth split.

256 souls filled Su Ming’s mind, causing his lock on his soul to tremble. It looked like he was already slightly uncertain as to which of the souls was his origin soul!

At that moment, Su Ming did not know that in a place so far away from where he was that it was already beyond Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos was Dark Dawn’s camp. Within the ninth World among the 180 Expanse Cosmoses was a black galaxy, and in it was an altar encased in ice.

A middle-aged woman with long hair was sitting on it. There was a sacred, dark will about her. Her eyes had been closed before, but at that moment, she suddenly opened them.