Pursuit of the Truth

The voice of Harmonious Morus Alba’s will was filled with complicated emotions when it reached Su Ming’s ears. It seemed to contain a deeply rooted hatred, but there also seemed to be a hint of respect contained within it.

‘Arid Triad…”

Su Ming’s heart trembled. He was so shocked that a storm stirred in his soul, and it was no less stronger than the shock he felt when he saw the disaster formed by the butterfly’s wings when they overlapped with each other.

It was also during this moment that Su Ming came to a swift understanding. Perhaps Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos did not have a name at the earliest point of time… until this person appeared, and only then was Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos… known as Arid Triad!

Su Ming forced down the tremors in his heart. His eyes burned brightly. When he focused his attention on that person, he saw the man who was Arid Triad become complete when he fused with his other self in the right wing.

When he became complete, he chose to sit down cross-legged in the galaxy and became quiet, as if he had fallen asleep to wait… for the day the wings would overlap. Su Ming watched this person, and he felt as if he could sense the unwillingness to give in and the madness coming from his divine thoughts.

He was unwilling to accept that he would be destroyed by the disaster. That was why he gained a crazed thought. He wanted… to Possess the butterfly’s two Expanse Cosmoses. He wanted to become Harmonious Morus Alba, and he wanted to make this Harmonious Morus Alba… transform into Arid Triad!

The butterfly’s wings overlapped with each other. When the disaster of the aeon descended, the person opened his eyes, and for the first time ever in history, he tried to Possessed Harmonious Morus Alba!

All lives were destroyed. He… succeeded, but also failed.

Harmonious Morus Alba’s counterattack, the life and death Possession. He succeeded because he obtained one of the Expanse Cosmoses during his Possession. He completely occupied Harmonious Morus Alba’s left wing, turning that place into Arid Triad!

He also chased away Harmonious Morus Alba’s will from Yin Death Vortex, which existed between the wings, causing the vortex to truly become a vortex from then on, a tunnel that connected the two Expanse Cosmoses together.

When he chased Harmonious Morus Alba out, he completely suppressed Harmonious Morus Alba’s will in the right wing. This made it unable to venture outwards, so it could only fight against him in a passive manner.

They might have seemed to be on equal grounds, but in truth, since the man was the one who took the initiative to Possess Harmonious Morus Alba, he could be considered to have succeeded and have gained the upper hand.

But he had also failed, because he did not manage to replace Harmonious Morus Alba’s will completely. He had only managed to complete half of his plan.

A new aeon began, and the wings split apart. Arid Triad sank into deep slumber, waiting… for the next time the wings would overlap.

New lives appeared in his Expanse Cosmos, but they no longer belonged to Harmonious Morus Alba… but to Arid Triad.

When that aeon was over, the butterfly’s wings gradually overlapped again. Arid Triad, who had waited for an entire aeon, woke up from his slumber. In each aeon, the two Expanse Cosmoses would only overlap once, and he only had one chance. Hence, he seized that chance to Possess the butterfly’s right wing and Harmonious Morus Alba’s will again.

One aeon, and another… and many more aeons passed. Every time Harmonious Morus Alba’s wings overlapped, their wills would come face to face with a difficult test. In the beginning, Harmonious Morus Alba’s will would fight back with full force, but in the end, it would have to hide itself. It did not want to be Possessed and devoured. That was why every single time its wings overlapped with each other, it would instinctively hide itself.

It had hid itself up to that moment. As the aeons passed, it became a guess mentioned by the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe. He guessed that Arid Triad seemed to be searching for something, and during that moment, his guess was verified by Su Ming.

Arid Triad was searching for the hidden Harmonious Morus Alba to complete the Possession he did not manage to complete in the past.

Perhaps, after so many aeons, Arid Triad, once a cultivator, had long since forgotten his previous life and that he had gained the crazy thought of Possessing Harmonious Morus Alba because he did not want to be destroyed by the disaster. He had… forgotten all of this.

Instead, he had grown used to being the will of an Expanse Cosmos. When the wings split apart, he fell asleep, and when the wings overlapped with each other, he woke up, destroyed the world, and searched for Harmonious Morus Alba.

“This is the truth you want.”

Harmonious Morus Alba’s muffled voice echoed in Su Ming’s ears once more. There was a sigh contained within them. When it echoed in Su Ming’s ears, the world he saw became an illusion. When the view before his eyes became clear again, he found himself back in Harmonious Morus Alba Expanse Cosmos. He was still in True Sky Hill World’s galaxy. The area around him was still empty, and the entire Expanse Cosmos was in a state of silence that seemed to last for eternity.

Su Ming was silent. All sorts of thoughts appeared in his head. Everything he saw just then gave him deeply complicated feelings. He had never thought that Arid Triad was once a cultivator!

He had tried to Possess Harmonious Morus Alba and succeeded halfway, occupying its left wing and becoming Arid Triad’s will.

Su Ming had also never expected that the world in which he lived was actually a butterfly’s wing, and it was born in the vast galaxy. The butterfly was a life form that was difficult to describe. It exceeded Su Ming’s imagination, and it caused him to fall silent.

‘So… Arid Triad is indeed asleep, and he was once a cultivator.

‘So… the disaster that occurs once Arid Triad wakes up was once Harmonious Morus Alba instinctively destroying everything, but later on, it became a chance for Arid Triad to search for Harmonious Morus Alba…

‘So this is what is happening…’

Harmonious Morus Alba’s will was silent for a moment, then it asked slowly, “How… will you choose?”

Su Ming was still silent. He understood what Harmonious Morus Alba’s will meant by its question. It wanted him to choose a position… but emotionally, Su Ming leaned more towards Arid Triad, because Arid Triad was once a cultivator as well. He was unwilling to be destroyed by the disaster, which was why he wanted to Possess Harmonious Morus Alba, and this was something similar between them.

But while Arid Triad had succeeded in half of his plan, he was still Arid Triad’s will. He did not choose to stop the disasters. The overlapping of the wings and the subsequent destruction was exactly the same as before he Possessed Arid Triad.

The disasters still remained. The destructions still remained. However, from then onwards, Harmonious Morus Alba was not alone. Arid Triad was added into the mix.

“The overlaps and destructions aren’t something I can control with my will. To me, the lives in the Expanse Cosmoses in my wings, their existences and their eventual passing are all in the process of my wings splitting up and overlapping. They are just another form of life born on my body.

“Perhaps this is my mission from when I was born in this vast galaxy… but I have also pondered over a question for a long time…

“Since you are all lives born on my body… then on whose body am I born? When my wings split up and eventually overlap, you will die. This isn’t my will, but my wings’ instincts. Unless I die, it’s impossible for my wings to stop moving… and if I die, all of you will cease to exist.

“Then will I… disappear when another entity instinctively breathes, and it is an action that it cannot control?

“This is how all things began, whether it is your life, my life, or how all lives began.”

Harmonious Morus Alba’s voice was ancient and sentimental. It spread out and traveled into Su Ming’s ears, causing him to fall silent, and understanding mixed with further confusion appeared in his mind.

“Arid Triad is the first person to fuse his two selves from the two Expanse Cosmoses together. He became a complete entity, and there were others after him who managed to do the same.

“But no one was able to compare to him, because they cannot Possess me and Arid Triad at the same time, which is why they were bound to fail, and it is also why they did not dare to do such a thing.

“Even after I gradually grew to have my own consciousness and started choosing lives who can communicate with me in my Expanse Cosmos and naming them the Children of Morus Alba, none of them were up to my expectations.

“Until… you appeared. I saw hope. You could Possess Arid Triad’s True Morning Dao World because your other self was a Child of Morus Alba in Harmonious Morus Alba Expanse Cosmos.

“The other selves of the other Children of Morus Alba in Arid Triad were unable to do what you did either… That is why you… are different. You are the only one who can help me threaten Arid Triad.

“Help me. I don’t want to continue staying here. I… want to go home. I want to search for my companions. I’ve stayed here for far too long, I want to find them…

“Help me… Possess Arid Triad and… tear down my left wing… Let me leave… The torn left wing will be my gift to you. Help me, or else… when the wings overlap, all of your friends… will be reduced to ash under this disaster!

“You might have become complete after you fused with your other self and became an existence the disaster will not be able to destroy, but your friends, your family, and everything belonging to you will become a relic of the past.

“If you help me, you will also be helping yourself, because even after you’ve become complete and will no longer be affected by the disaster, you will sink into slumber so deep it will seem as if it will last for eternity. You can only wake up one hundred years before the wings overlap every time. Then one hundred years after the wings part, you must fall asleep again.

“You will only have two hundred years of wakefulness in each aeon. For the rest of the time, you will have to be asleep, or else, you will be unable to withstand your own body waning in health every single time the aeons switch places.

“Even if you remain awake, you will no longer have any semblance of humanity. Living that way… is no different than being dead. In fact, it is even worse. Then, you will choose death, because you will not want to live like that.”

As Harmonious Morus Alba’s will’s words echoed in the air, Su Ming’s heart trembled, and he lifted his head.

This was the first time he had heard that. A huge storm raged in his heart, and it instantly caused a myriad of thoughts to appear in his head.

He had never thought that he would be indestructible under the disaster after he fused with his other self. By the looks of it, there were… a number of powerful warriors who fused with their other selves in Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos and Harmonious Morus Alba Expanse Cosmos. They struggled to live under each disaster, but they could only wake up one hundred years before the disaster!

In fact, during that instant, amid all those thoughts in his mind, Su Ming suddenly remembered the scene he saw in the secrets of the universe…

In that scene, all the people beside him had died. Only he remained standing in the galaxy filled with countless corpses as he roared at the heavens in grief…

“You cannot take away any person from this place either. Even if they used a unique method to enter the vortex… they would never be able to step foot in Arid Triad. Once they went there, Arid Triad would send a disaster on them, because their wills were different!

“Even you will not be able to withstand that disaster!

“If the same two people from two different Expanse Cosmoses appear in the world in the vortex, those two people… will be instantly wiped off at the same time. This is the law in the world in the vortex. It is also Arid Triad’s will. With a strength greater than mine, he set down this eternal law.” Harmonious Morus Alba’s voice caused Su Ming to fall silent.

After a long while, Su Ming’s eyes sparkled swiftly. His voice was ghastly when he spoke.

“How can I help you?!”