Pursuit of the Truth

The bald crane looked like it was so angry that it could no longer contain its rage. It was about to let out a piercing screech and charge back into the crowd of women, which it thought had humiliated it, when Zi Ruo voiced her obedience while standing in front of Su Ming. She turned into a long arc to lead the way.

With a calm expression on his face, Su Ming went after Zi Ruo and walked towards the distant galaxy. Yan Pei immediately followed suit. When the bald crane saw all of them leave, it immediately stopped halfway through its charge. It threw a fierce glare at the group of women, and as they chuckled while looking as charming as ever, the bald crane’s anger drained from its body. It could not even throw harsh words at them. When it turned around, it mustered its fastest speed and left the place as if it was fleeing.

The pink galaxy in Heavenly Fox Expanse Cosmos had a unique beauty to it. After they walked for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Zi Ruo suddenly stopped. The color of the galaxy before them changed. It was no longer pink, but had turned black. That black shade was like a vortex, but it did not rotate. Instead, it looked like it had been frozen in time.

The black hue and the pink color around it formed a stark contrast. The frozen black vortex might not have been rotating, but it still gave others a feeling as if it could devour everything.

In fact, if someone cast their gaze at that place, they would feel as if they were about to be sucked inside. Distortions would appear in the black frozen vortex, but in truth, the vortex did not distort. What was distorted was the people’s gazes.

A faint presence filled the vortex, but neither Zi Ruo nor Yan Pei could detect it. Only Su Ming could immediately notice the presence’s existence at the instant he saw the vortex.

‘As I expected…’ Su Ming’s pupils shrank in a barely noticeable manner. The presence was incredibly unique. It did not belong to Harmonious Morus Alba, but… to the Vast Expanse beyond!

The presence came from the Vast Expanse beyond!

‘This vortex has the presence of the Vast Expanse beyond. So what is its purpose?’ Su Ming scrutinized the vortex and frowned. He could not tell what its use was, but he was certain that it was definitely not Old Man Extermination’s tomb.

“There are four of these tombs around?” Su Ming asked Zi Ruo, who was next to him, while staring at the vortex.

“There are indeed four of them, but for some reason, two of them have disappeared from their Expanse Cosmoses. One of the two remaining tombs is here, and the other one is in Tiger Cagers’ Expanse Cosmos,” Zi Ruo quickly said.

Su Ming was silent for a moment. He moved forward, but just as he was about to step into the vortex and investigate it, Zi Ruo grit her teeth and immediately took a few steps forward.

“Senior Su, please wait. Old Man Extermination’s tomb lays in our Expanse Cosmos, so even though he might be a legendary figure, our people could not help but go in there to investigate it. Over the years, we have come to understand it very well. If you have anything you need, I can serve as a guide for you.”

Once Zi Ruo finished speaking, she looked at Su Ming.

He pondered over her words for a moment before he turned his head around to cast a glance at Zi Ruo. He saw a strange glow in her eyes, then nodded.

“Lead the way.” As Su Ming spoke, he walked towards the vortex.

Zi Ruo immediately felt her spirits lift. A smile appeared on her face, and she flew forward to lead the way.

As for the bald crane, a thought appeared in its mind. Just as it was about to follow Su Ming, Yan Pei brought his hand up and caught the bald crane. It flew up in rage, believing that Yan Pei was humiliating it again, but just when its rage was about to reach boiling point, Yan Pei sighed.

“Oh well, since you can’t appreciate an expression of goodwill and want to go with them, I will not stop you.”

The bald crane was momentarily stunned. It blinked, then asked with a cold harrumph, “Huh? What do you mean?”

“Can’t you tell that Zi Ruo volunteered to follow master?” Yan Pei asked in a profound manner while staring at the bald crane.

“So what? If she wants to follow him, then let her. Why can she be the only one who follows him? I’m telling you, young Yan Zi, there might be plenty of crystals hidden in the tomb!” the bald crane said in contempt while laughing coldly.

But just when it was about to turn around and follow Su Ming, Yan Pei sighed long and hard again. His sigh immediately caused the bald crane to feel goosebumps on its skin. It turned around again and glared at Yan Pei.

“Damn it, why do you keep sighing?! If you have something to say, then get straight to the point! I don’t have time to indulge myself in flights of fancy!”

Yan Pei sighed in his heart and explained things in detail. “Zi Ruo is a beautiful woman. She volunteered to follow master on her own, and master did not refuse her. So… don’t you think there is…”

“You mean, passionate love?” the bald crane immediately continued the sentence, then lifted its claw and scratched its head.

While it thought it over, Su Ming and Zi Ruo stepped into the black vortex and disappeared without a trace. When they were about to step in, Su Ming turned his head back to cast a glance at the bald crane. When he saw that it did not come with him, he did not bother about it either. The bald crane’s safety was guaranteed in Dark Dawn’s camp.

Besides, with the bald crane’s cunning, it would usually come up with astonishing schemes when its life was in danger, or else it would have been impossible for it to have led such a good life before meeting Su Ming.

Its safety was especially guaranteed when it had the divine ability which allowed it to seem to be indescribably powerful when it was cast. It had also allowed the bald crane to deceive others and empty their pockets of crystals.

Once Su Ming stepped into the frozen vortex, his eyes shone as he looked around him.

“There are three layers to Old Man Extermination’s tomb. Based on the investigations the Heavenly Foxes have conducted over the years, they are an imitation of the layers of heaven, earth, and man. The first layer is heaven. It is filled with a never-ending stretch of sky. All sorts of sky exist here, and it makes it impossible for people to find the entrance to the next layer.

“The second layer is earth. That place is filled with boundless land. Different sorts of terrain are connected together to form a hell without bounds.

“The last layer is the layer of man. Since ancient times, only one person from our people has managed to step into that place successfully. After he left behind a jade slip in the second layer, we lost all contact with this ancestor of ours,” Zi Ruo explained.

Su Ming looked around him and found that they were surrounded by a stretch of blue sky.

Every direction around him was a part of the sky. There were white clouds amid the endless blue sky, and he felt as if he was standing in the sky. In fact, when Su Ming sent his divine sense across the area, he found that he could not figure out whether there was land beneath the stretch of sky despite the strength of his divine sense.

He could not see it!

This sort of matter was impossible, because the strength of Su Ming’s divine sense came from his will, but it did happen, which meant that there was only one possibility. There was some sort of seal Su Ming could not understand in this place, and it was precisely because it that the sky appeared endless.

If he tried to search for the depths, he might end up walking in circles and walk through a spot repeatedly without even noticing it.

“Since you can’t find the entrance to the second layer, how did your people manage to enter it?” Su Ming asked calmly.

Zi Ruo chuckled softly. She turned her head to look at Su Ming while standing beside him. Her faint makeup made it look as if spring itself was contained in her eyes. They twinkled brightly with intelligence. Her cherry pink lips were red even without lipstick and delicate like water droplets. The two locks of hair by her cheeks gently caressed her face as wind blew against her, adding a tempting charm to her.

She twirled her hair. In her long pink dress, her waist looked as if it would snap if anyone exerted force on it, and when she moved, she looked like a dazzling picture that was so beautiful it had no flaws and seemed like it came from another world.

Zi Ruo knew just how beautiful she was and just when and how she was supposed to present her beauty, such as at that moment. There was wind in the sky right then, and her hair was lifted by it. She used it to present her beauty to Su Ming.

‘Hehe, even if you are an old monster with an unfathomable level of cultivation, I won’t believe that you won’t be tempted.’ Zi Ruo looked at Su Ming with a charming smile, but as she stared at him, she saw him frown.

“I asked you a question,” he said. The woman before him was indeed beautiful, but to Su Ming, she seemed to be slightly slow in her mind.

Su Ming’s words immediately caused Zi Ruo’s intention of showing off her beauty like a peacock spreading its tail feathers to instantly shatter. All her previous actions as well as her covert temptations to instantly crack and crumble.

“… That is because there are some strange gusts in the first layer. Once they form a whirlwind, it will create an invisible path leading to the entrance to the second layer, and it will suck us in it.

“But not all people can be sucked into it. There are some who can enter the second layer smoothly, and some who get rejected. There are even some who die.

“There are some type of Air Spirits in the first layer. They are invisible, but they can absorb your Qi and blood. The longer you stay here, the weaker you will get.

“The sky here is different as well. Right now, it is clear where we are, but if we move forward, soon, we will be able to see the sky in other forms, such as thunderstorms, a cloudy sky, a fog shrouded sky, a snowing sky, a rainy day… Different spirits exist in different pieces of sky. They also differ in terms of strength. The weak ones will not be able to even withstand a single blow, and the powerful ones are creatures that even those in Avacaniya Realm will find difficult to handle.

“But in the end, the first layer isn’t that dangerous. The true danger lies in the second layer.”

Zi Ruo felt a ball of frustration well up in her heart, but she could not show it. Hence, in her gloomy mood, she told Su Ming everything she knew in one go.

When Su Ming was in the first layer of Old Man Extermination’s tomb, there were three figures standing in a Rune in the vast layer known as the Layer of Man, which was the third layer of Old Man Extermination’s tomb. They were waiting for the activation of the Rune.

Naturally, those three people were the black-robed men Su Ming had been unable to detect!

Several breaths later, the Rune shone with a brilliant light, and the three figures disappeared. When they reappeared, they were already in another world…

It was a world filled with booming sounds. Over the countless years, it had always been filled with those loud bangs, making it seem like it was a world belonging to sound.

The galaxy trembled, and ripples spread out. When the booming sounds filled the area, the three black-robed men appeared before a huge ship.

That ship had an ancient air about it, as if it had come from ancient times. It floated in the galaxy, and behind it… was a huge gap.

The gap looked like it was made by someone tearing the galaxy open… and the Vast Expanse could be seen beyond it!