Pursuit of the Truth

The old man simply allowed his tribe members to pounce on him and tear at him like wild beasts. They bit down chunks of his flesh and swallowed it, which made the presences that seemed like they were about to be born to become stronger. In fact, excitement even appeared on their faces.

Tears fell from the old man’s eyes. He lowered his head and hugged his body. The child biting down on him was a young boy who had naively asked him a few questions during the day, yet now…

The old man threw his head back and let out a roar of extreme grief. His body trembled. A hint of crazed despair and indescribable hate appeared in his eyes. He lifted his right hand and struck the center of his brows swiftly. With it, his gaze immediately became unfocused. His mind scattered due to his power of an Antecedental Spirit, which meant that only instinct remained in his body.

He did this because he could not kill his people while he retained his mind.

When only instinct remained, a dazed look appeared in his eyes. He seized the boy’s neck with his right hand, and with it, he turned around and charged towards the tribe members pouncing on him.

A bloody slaughter began at that moment. With the pain of having lost control of their bodies but not their minds, the members of Heavenly Spirit Tribe watched their elder destroy their souls.

As the tribe members died, as the old man’s robes gradually turned crimson, as blood filled the ground, and as a thick stench of blood filled the air, the red bolt of lightning in the sky and the eight huge faces watched with aloof expressions. But the slaughter did not last for long.

Su Ming was not the last to die, but even though his body no longer breathed, his soul remained in the body. His eyes after remained open, and he could still see all that happened.

When the old man killed the last tribe member, he shuddered as if he had just woken up. While holding the corpse, he threw his head back and roared at the sky. His tortured cries echoed in the air, and soon, the eight huge faces in the sky vanished. The red bolt of lightning then vanished without a trace as well.

Su Ming vision became indistinct at that instant, and everything before him turned into a huge vortex. It swiftly extracted his soul from the dead body, and in an instant, he was swept away.

When Su Ming’s vision cleared up, he felt dizzy, as if the sky and earth had been turned upside down. Everything seemed to have been turned over its head. It did not matter whether it was time, dimensions, or the entire world, everything had turned into a chaotic mess. A huge hand shot out and grabbed his back then. It clutched him tightly, then with a fierce yank, he was forcefully dragged out from the vortex.

The world instantly cleared up when Su Ming’s body was pulled out of the crack by the old man. The feeling of his soul returning to his physical body and his mind still moving between the ancient past and the present caused Su Ming to take a few steps back with a pale face. When he sat down, he immediately mediated to stabilize his mind.

When he opened his eyes after a long while, a wave of dizziness washed over him again, but that level of discomfort was something he could bear. It did not matter that red filled his eyes and blood trickled out of his ears. When he lifted his head, he saw the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe staring at him intently.

“What did you see?” the old man asked the moment he saw Su Ming open his eyes.

His expression might have seemed only slightly grave, but in truth, he was incredibly interested in what had happened. He had been waiting for this day for a long time. Over the countless years, he had always wanted to send someone to observe the past to find out what had happened and why everything had ended up the way it did when he woke up.

He could not remember much of the things that had happened during that time. It was as if those memories had been forcefully cut off from him. He did not know who did it, but he longed to know all the answers.

He had tried to make a deal several times before Su Ming, but every single person that came failed their spirit ascension, preventing him from achieving his goal.

Su Ming’s arrival, thus, finally allowed him to do it, and it filled him with hope.

It was especially so when Su Ming had even returned from the ancient past. Upon seeing him, the old man longed dearly to know the answer.

Su Ming cast the old man a complicated gaze. He was silent for a moment before he spoke in a low whisper. “Han Di…”

At the instant he said that name, the old man shuddered slightly. A powerful light shone in his eyes.

“I remember this name. He was one of the younger members of Heavenly Spirit Tribe. You…”

Su Ming sucked in a deep breath and stared at the old man while starting his recounting. “My body did not enter the ancient past. When my soul was swept inside, it fused into the body of the teenager called Han Di, and I watched you give a lecture about the will of Arid Dao…

“When you finished your lecture about Arid Dao…

“The All Spirits Hall appeared… you fused with the Ancestral Spirit in the eighth row from the bottom…

“A red bolt of lightning… huge faces formed by gigantic Arid Beasts… lightning descended… one hundred thousand tribe members went mad…”

With a calm tone, Su Ming shared everything he had seen in the ancient past without hiding anything. The old man in front of him shuddered while listening quietly. Pain and nostalgia aroe in his eyes, as if he was forming the memories he had cut off based on Su Ming’s words, which resulted in them being connected together to form his past once more.

When Su Ming spoke of lightning creeping into the one hundred thousand tribe members, making all of them charge at the old man, the old man quietly lifted his head to stare at the sky. Tears fell from his eyes. At that moment, he was no longer a powerful cultivator who had successfully had his spirit ascend eight times. Instead, he had become a pitiful old man who had lost his tribe members and family.

“They became part of the Arid Disaster when it descended. I… attacked and killed them, because if they did not die, then when their bodies withered, they would give birth to Arid Beasts…” the old man mumbled under his breath when Su Ming finished speaking. There was grief in his voice, along with great sorrow.

“They had already lost their minds. They were no longer themselves… so I killed them. Before I attacked, I scattered my own mind. I intentionally made myself forget all that happened at that time.” The old man’s murmurs gradually turned into loud laughter. It was full of grief and madness, along with indescribable grief and despair.

“It’s as I expected. It’s almost identical to the version of the truth I came up with from my deductions over the years. It’s as I expected, or else why would I have had to go through the eighth spirit ascension again ? I knew that this had happened since a long time ago!”

The old man had nearly descended into pure madness. As he mumbled under his breath, Su Ming sighed in his heart.

He did not tell the old man that the tribe members he killed had not lost their minds, but could see and understand that the elder they respected killed all of them.

“It’s just as I expected. This is the answer I wanted verified after searching for it for so many years. The Arid Disaster took the form of the All Spirits Hall and lured me into performing the spirit ascension. It planted the Arid Shadow on me and changed my will. What ingenious Arid Disaster!”

The old man threw his head back and laughed in a voice full of madness. When tears streamed down his cheeks, Su Ming understood that the old man had clearly understood everything over the years.

He only needed to verify his own conclusion. He might have already had the answer, but he had wanted to verify it, because he did not want to believe it.

Yet what Su Ming said when he returned completely crushed the last hint of doubt in the old man’s heart, proving to him that the answer had always been in his own heart.

As Su Ming stared at the old man, he suddenly understood why the old man had intentionally brought the Arid Disaster on Su Ming. It was because… he wanted to take revenge. He was a person who wanted to challenge the Arid Disaster for his people.

“I will leave this place with you. When your Arid Disaster descends, I will help you fight against it!”

The old man swung his arm and hid away the madness in his eyes. With a hint of resolution and determination, he stared at Su Ming.

The world roared, and a huge vortex appeared in the world in the All Spirits Hall as the old man’s words echoed in the air. The vortex spun with loud rumbles. Su Ming could tell that there was a runic symbol in it which he recognized at first glance. It was the Sun Sinking Talisman.

However, Su Ming only saw the back of the runic symbol. Clearly, the front of it faced True Morning Dao World.

If he stepped into the vortex and moved through the runic symbol, he would return to True Morning Dao World from the world in the All Spirits Hall!

Su Ming swept his gaze past the vortex and stared at the old man.

“Senior, why do you do this? You have already successfully had your spirit ascend eight times. With just one more time, you can become an Ancestral Spirit. This is…”

“This is a mental block. Even if I successfully have my spirit ascend nine times, I will not become Wei’s Ancestral Spirit, but a spirit belonging to the Arid Disaster. You have not had your spirit ascend many times yet, so you will understand it in the future.

“Whether I end up living or dying because of it, I won’t be able to advance until I break this mental block! This is also why I intentionally brought the Arid Disaster on your head.”

The old man was silent for a moment before he shook his head and said slowly, “This is unfair to you, but my assistance when fending against the Arid Disaster is an experience you will find incredibly difficult to encounter elsewhere. It will be incredibly helpful to you in the future.”

“Let’s go. This will be the first time I leave this place in many years!”

The old man cast Su Ming a glance. Su Ming was silent for a moment, then chose to not say a word. Instead, he charged at the vortex in the sky. In an instant, he stepped into it and went towards the Sun Sinking Talisman.

He entered it swiftly and felt as if he had broken through the surface of water. When everything before his eyes became clear, he saw the familiar galaxy of true Morning Dao World!

Moments later, the space beside him distorted. For the first time, the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe who had never walked out of the world in the All Spirits Hall since the ancient past stepped into the outside world.

“So this is your era? The power of the world is thin, and the will of all lives has degenerated. It is also filled with the presence of Great Abyss Tribe’s will to make the Abyss grow.”

The old man cast a glance at his surroundings before looking at the galaxy in the distance. “There is a war going on over in that direction.”

A glint shone in Su Ming’s eyes, and he looked in the direction the old man was looking. A cold, fierce glare instantly appeared in his eyes, and a ruthless, murderous look showed up on his face.