Pursuit of the Truth

The tremors were especially felt by the Emperor of Abyss, whose level of cultivation was the highest in the hall. At the moment he stood up, he coughed up a mouthful of blood, and with a swing of his arm, he turned into a long arc that rushed out of the hall.

“What happened?!”

Once he left, the faces of the other cultivators turned pale. Two people even had blood trickle out of the corners of their mouths. The roars of the True World echoing in space had affected their veins, and as their veins trembled, they were injured.

“This… This is the True World’s will roaring in pain!” At the instant the Emperor of Abyss looked towards the galaxy, his face turned pale, and he sucked in a sharp breath.

In the Abyss Paragon Palace lived the Sublime Paragon of the Emperor of Abyss’ True World.

There was a man dressed in a purple long robe there, with his appearance occasionally changing. A breath ago, he was a teenager, and a breath later, he became an old man. In between breaths, he would occasionally turn into a middle-aged man. This man was currently standing respectfully in the palace, and before him was Su Xuan Yi, sitting and meditating with a calm expression on his face.

Dressed in white robes, Su Xuan Yi sat with indifference on his face. He stared at the chess board in front of him while holding a black chess piece in his right hand. Once he placed it down, he looked at the black-robed middle-aged man sitting across from him.

The man had long hair, and it spilled over his shoulders. There was an air of someone who looked down on the world about him, and there was a powerful, mighty pressure spreading out from him, causing the Sublime Paragon, who was behind Su Xuan Yi, to feel his heart tremble slightly. To him, the black-robed man felt like a tiger crouching in its seat while the Sublime Paragon himself had become a mortal.

“Sovereign of Dawn, it’s your turn. Once we finish this round, we should head to my child’s wedding. The preparations there should be about ready now.”

Su Xuan Yi smiled faintly. The black-robed man before him was naturally… the strongest person who had descended from Dark Dawn’s camp—the Sovereign of Dawn Yan Pei!

The person who had been terrified into leaving from Ninth Summit’s premises was his clone. Right then, the one sitting in the palace was his real self, but even so, he knew all about the things that had happened to his clone, and it became the matter he was most wary of in Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos, though it was buried in the depths of his heart.

And it was precisely that matter that made him to choose to stay in the Emperor of Abyss’ True World for a prolonged period of time. Based on what he knew, the terrifying existence in True Morning Dao World only cared about Ninth Summit. As long as he did not provoke Ninth Summit, the terrifying old monster would not come searching for trouble.

Otherwise, his clone would not have been able to escape. Based on this, he could tell that the monster did not want to kill him, but even so, he still felt rather uneasy and anxious. Fortunately, nothing had happened to him over the past few months, and he felt slightly more at ease, but no matter what, he had already made his decision that he absolutely would not return to True Morning Dao World.

Yan Lei smiled. His emotions did not show on his face, and his smile was incredibly faint. He lifted his right hand and placed a white piece on the chess board. Just as he was about to speak, his expression changed.

At that moment, the expression of the Sublime Paragon behind Su Xuan Yi changed. When he raised his head, he suddenly coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood, then stumbled a few steps backwards. He coughed up blood again. His injuries were clearly much worse than the Emperor of Abyss’, because he was the Sublime Paragon of this True World. He was the only Sublime Paragon here, which was why the damage dealt to him by the will of the Emperor of Abyss’ True World when it roared with an unwillingness to admit defeat was the greatest.

As for Su Xuan Yi, he noticed none of this. He was not a member of this True World to begin with. At that moment, he only frowned. He could sense that the True World was trembling, and he had also noticed that the True World’s will was roaring because it had run into some accident.

In silence, he closed his eyes. The moment he did so, his will covered an endless distance and went straight into the depths of the Emperor of Abyss’ True World. In it, there was a layer of fog resembling a vortex tumbling about.

Seated at the center of the vortex was a figure. He was… also Su Xuan Yi. When his eyes flew open, an ancient and freezing look appeared in them. The person here was his real self, and the person who had been playing against Yan Pei had been his clone.

‘The Essence of this True World’s will gathered into this vortex once I readjusted it many years ago. A new will can be born in it… My blood is in the vortex, and once this will is born, it will fuse with my body. Damn it, did some accident happen?’

Su Xuan Yi furrowed his brow. His divine sense spread out and swept through the Emperor of Abyss’ True World, but he did not find any clues. As for Su Ming… Su Xuan Yi could not see him.

He could only see the Emperor of Abyss’ True World roaring and struggling in pain, as if its will was being Possessed, but no matter how Su Xuan Yi searched, he could not find any traces of the True World’s will being Possessed.

‘Could it be that it’s because the will in this vortex formed by its Essence is about to be born? It might have caused the will of the Emperor of Abyss’ True World to struggle…’

Deep in thought, Su Xuan Yi let out a cold harrumph and closed his eyes.

At the instant he did so, his other self from Abyss Paragon Palace opened his eyes.

“Some problems have appeared with this True World’s will,” the Sovereign of Dawn Yan Pei said faintly.

He had already sent his divine sense out to scan the entire True World, but he did not detect anything wrong. However, he could tell that the will of the Emperor of Abyss’ True World was swiftly becoming weaker, as if it was rapidly dying, but even though it was dying quickly, if he factored in time, it would still need around one hundred years before it truly perished.

“It’s fine. It’s due to something on my side. It isn’t connected with the outside world. Lord Yan Pei, this game… hmm?”

Before Su Xuan Yi could finish speaking, a dark look appeared on his face. He looked into the distance, and his gaze seemed to see through space and into the planet serving as the capital of the Emperor of Abyss’ True World.

All the preparations for the grand wedding were ready and on standby; everyone was just waiting for his arrival. This was an important part in his plan that Su Xuan Yi had been planning for tens of thousands of years. He could not allow any accidents to occur, but right then… something unforeseen appeared.

“I knew… that he would show signs of betraying me on this day!”

When Su Xuan Yi uttered those words in a cold voice, he stood up and wrapped his fist in his palm towards Yan Pei before bowing.

“A disciple of mine betrayed me, and he has followed me for many years too, hah…” Su Xuan Yi shook his head.

“Alright, I understand what you mean, Fellow Daoist Su. I… will help you kill this person. Treat it as a reward for helping Dark Dawn’s camp. As for the Abyss Builders, since I’ve already made my promise to you, I will definitely not go back on my word. We will not stay for long in Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos. It is impossible for us to do so in any case. In the future… this place will only belong to the Abyss Builders.”

“Thank you, Sovereign of Dawn.”

Su Xuan Yi bowed deeply to Yan Pei again, but only he could hear the cold laughter in his own heart. With how ambitious Su Xuan Yi was, there was no way he would be willing to be someone’s subordinate. Using Dark Dawn’s camp was just a temporary measure and only a branch of his plan, which was necessary for him to mend certain things, because his plan had diverged previously.

They were only using each other. This was something Yan Pei knew as well. He watched Su Xuan Yi bow to him, and he laughed coldly in his heart too. The person before him was just a chess piece, and he was the player. No matter how important a chess piece was, it would not be able to stir up a storm in the player’s heart. At most… he would just play another round.

…..

In the planet serving as the capital of the Emperor of Abyss’ True World was an incredibly large cultivation planet formed by using a great divine ability to merge nearly one thousand planets together. Even from a distance, it looked incredibly huge, and if anyone stood on the cultivation planet, the feeling as if there was no end to the sky and earth would cause that person to feel as if the sky had been turned into the land.

On the large cultivation planet was a boundless sea. There was a huge ancient tree growing out from its bottom, and there were more than one million cultivators there to send their blessings for the grand wedding held at the tree.

The ancient tree was so large that each leaf was like a field. From a distance, the tree looked so tall that it touched the sky. In fact, there was even a legend surrounding the ancient tree.

It said that the reason behind the merging of nearly one thousand cultivation planets into a single cultivation planet was the discovery of the ancient tree. It was so old that it did not seem like it belonged to this time, but was from an even earlier age. In fact, there was a rumor saying that the tree… was something from a previous aeon. It had somehow avoided dying from the disaster and had survived until then.

Of course, that rumor was not something an ordinary cultivator would know. Only Almighties who had a vague understanding of some of the history of Arid Triad could know something like that and spread the information around. Most of them also believed that this was close to the truth.

A moment ago, there had been one million cultivators gathered on the ancient tree. They were all from the Emperor of Abyss’ True World’s various families and had come to give their blessings, because the groom in the wedding was the third prince of the Emperor of Abyss’ True World.

It did not matter whether it was because of his appearance, his cultivation base in Mastery Realm, or his status, this person had an incredibly noble status in the Emperor of Abyss’ True World. When all of these factors were lumped together, his presence was enough to make many people envious of him.

Even though the third prince had some flaws, was once very tyrannical, and even had a ruthless and brutal reputation, all of this was in the past. During the past few years, his personality seemed to have changed. He was no longer tyrannical and overbearing, but had instead become level-headed. In fact, his appearance had also slowly changed, and he had gained quite the awe-inspiring air.

It was as if he had grown up. This was something that was incredibly clear to all who saw him, and it caused many people to slowly take note of it during the last couple years.

He might have seemed to be in Mastery Realm, but all the cultivators in Mastery Realm felt their hearts tremble when they were before him, as if they had been suppressed, and even those in Life Realm were affected. In fact, even the family elders of the eight families belonging to the Kings of Abyss felt suppressed when they stood before the third prince, even if they were in Death Realm.

The bride was not someone unknown to the public either. Her name was Yu Xuan, and she was a direct descendant of a King of Abyss whose family was destroyed in the past, the woman who ran from her marriage but still ended up standing before them.

The place was bustling with activity. The sounds of human chatter were loud. Laughter reverberated through the air. Congratulatory words came from each family, and their voices rose and fell as the preparations for the wedding were completed. It was about to start… but that was something from a moment ago.

At that moment, the will of the Emperor of Abyss’ True World roared, causing the hearts of all cultivators in the place to tremble. Then, as if the apocalypse had arrived, everything descended into chaos.

An old man whose face was much older than in the past turned into a long arc without hesitation and charged out while the ancient roar rang in the air. Wherever he went, the world looked as if it was about to be torn apart. He rushed to the center, right where Yu Xuan stood and stared into the distance numbly, like a puppet.

Next to her was the third prince, who watched the chaos around him coldly and whose face was expressionless.