Pursuit of the Truth

There was no need to speak about cultivators when even a normal mortal would find five years to not be long. It might not be over for them in the blink of an eye, but usually, they would not even know how many cycles of five years had passed without their knowledge.

The five years, no, since Su Ming had shown his might forty something years ago, it could be said that the fifty years were the quietest period of time that Harmonious Morus Alba had ever enjoyed over the countless one hundred year periods before the disasters of each aeon.

The slaughters of the past did not occur, and neither did the madness that appeared every single period of one hundred years before the disaster. Instead, everything was peaceful. Most of the powerful warriors from the previous aeons were silent. Some of them had even chosen to leave. After all, Su Ming’s existence in that Expanse Cosmos brought a great terror to them, and they were traumatized.

With the threat of him looming over their heads, no matter how crazed they were and how they unleashed their madness, it was impossible for them to maintain themselves for a long period of time. They would always feel uneasy and anxious. To them, the forty something years were boring.

Compared to them, the cultivators who had fled into True Morning Dao World seemed to have found the peace they once had, but the prerequisite was that… if the ripples that were like the waves of an ocean brought forth by the tremors in Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos did not appear in the galaxy.

Over the forty something years, the tremors in Arid Triad had become stronger. The ripples covered the galaxy, making it so that there were no longer any blue in the sky for the last decade. Instead, the sky had become muddled. The sun did not appear, and moonlight had vanished a couple years after it.

Nearly half of the planets and continents had sank into emptiness when Arid Triad trembled. Everyone could only see the shadows of those planets and continents, but not all of them. It was as if the galaxy had been split into two.

One part of the galaxy had the endless ripples, and the other part was the galaxy that seemed to exist under them like a mirror. A mirror was used to describe that part of the galaxy because over the course of the past few years, all those who walked through there could see another world under some planets and continents.

Harmonious Morus Alba’s other wing… had already come close enough that people could see it!

The four wings had been brought so close together that there was only a tiny crack that the naked eye could no longer see between them. Only when someone magnified that crack countless times would they be able to see that the wings had yet to perfectly overlap with each other.

Over the course of the forty something years, Su Ming had opened his eyes three times. The first was during the first decade. His body in All Spirits Hall had completed its final spirit ascension, and his state of being had completely changed. He became an Ancestral Spirit, and as his body, spirit, and cultivation base fused together, he opened his eyes. He saw the unrest as well as the terror of the lives in Harmonious Morus Alba Expanse Cosmos.

He opened his eyes the second time during the second decade, and it was as if he woke up from a deep sleep. He saw Arid Triad, Harmonious Morus Alba, Su Xuan Yi, and Di Tian.

Su Ming could somewhat guess what their plans were. While he might not know them in detail, he still had a vague understanding of them. Most of his attention was directed at the galaxy beneath him. When he almost closed his eyes again, he cast a glance at the galaxy above him in a seemingly casual manner, and a hint of understanding dawned on his face.

Later, he opened his eyes for the third time. There were less than five years left until the disaster descended… and he no longer closed his eyes.

He stared at the world, the galaxy, space, the lives in True Morning Dao World, and there was a reluctance to part in his gaze, along with memories of the past, the happy moments from his childhood in Dark Mountain… as well as a deep sigh in regards to the world that was his home.

He knew that everything was about to end. It was unavoidable. Even if he had reached his level of cultivation, it was impossible for him to change the truth of it. In fact, he even lacked the strength to protect himself. He did not even know whether he could survive through the disaster and whether he had the chance to find his senior brothers as well as Cang Lan, Xu Hui, and Yu Xuan.

While he watched the galaxy, another four years passed. Su Ming never once closed his eyes during that time. It seemed like he wanted to engrave the image of every galaxy, every planet, every continent, and every face into his mind.

He knew that soon, if he wanted to see all of it again… he could only do so in his dreams and his memories.

Not everyone could have the chance to witness the world’s destruction, and not everyone could see the brilliance of it. Similarly, not many people could lament life before destruction arrived.

Su Ming could be said to be lucky, because he could sit and watch the universe’s destruction. He could gaze at every single beautiful thing turn into emptiness in the end. He could see his homeland fade into a dream.

When Su Ming lifted his head and looked at the space above him, he could vaguely see a vortex in the boundless space above him. There was a river known as the River of Forgetfulness within it, and on the other side of the river was a riverbank.

That was the place he sent all his friends and family, and they brought with them his blessings. He hoped that they could avoid the disaster while they were there and avoid the disaster where even he did not have the confidence to survive.

As he watched, a smile appeared on the corners of Su Ming’s lips. In that smile was gratification and satisfaction. He had always valued his relationships. All the people he had sent to the other side of the river were the most precious people in his life.

Su Ming watched all of that for half a year until he felt the rumbles from Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos surpassing all the other sounds. The entire Expanse Cosmos began to sway, and the ripples became stronger.

From it, Su Ming knew that… the disaster had begun.

Yet when he moved his gaze away from the river and was about to prepare himself for the most important battle in his life, his body suddenly shuddered.

His pupils instantly shrank. He stared at the end of the space above him, at the riverbank on the other side of the river, and he could clearly see that the waters in the River of Forgetfulness… had started flowing backwards!

This scene instantly disappeared, and when Su Ming looked at the river again, he saw the River of Forgetfulness flowing in its usual manner, but that instant where it had flowed backwards had caused a great change in Su Ming’s heart.

He stood up swiftly, and a grim look that had never appeared on his face showed up. The brief instant when the waters flowed backwards was definitely not a trivial matter. If the River of Forgetfulness could flow backwards… then it meant that the people on the other side of the river could move back as well. If he described the river as the passage of time, then perhaps someone had cast an Art… to cast out all the people Su Ming had sent to the other side, making them return!

Fortunately, the reversal of the water’s flow disappeared after an instant. With his blessings and his divine ability, Su Ming could fight the invisible battle of Arts and maintain the River of Forgetfulness’ flow so that not a single accident could happen to the people he sent out.

A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. He lifted his right hand and pushed his palm at the center of his brow, then he opened his mouth and coughed up blood. Once it landed in his left hand, he clenched his fist, but he did not fling it at the boundless space above him. Instead… he flung it at the galaxy below. His blood immediately turned into nine blood-red runic symbols that fused with the galaxy beneath him.

“Seal all Arts that reverse time!”

At the instant Su Ming spoke, his third eye turned blood-red. Space roared and let out a loud bang that shook the heavens.

The people who he sent to the other side of the river were all Su Ming’s taboo, and even if there was just the slightest possibility for anyone to harm them… there was no way Su Ming would allow it.

When he got up, a chilling and murderous look that had not appeared on his face for years showed up, causing the freezing aura that spread out from his body to make the galaxy show signs of being frozen over. The first place he looked at was the fourth Expanse Cosmos. Only the Old Man Extermination was qualified enough to violate his taboo.

However, when he cast his gaze there… he did not find the Old Man Extermination, and neither did he notice the signs of anyone casting the Art to reverse time.

Su Ming scowled. He narrowed his eyes, and a contemplative look appeared on his face. Suddenly, a loud bang that sounded like the one which had appeared when the galaxy was initially created resounded.

The echoes of the sound filled Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos and affected Divine Essence Star Ocean. It spread to Dark Dawn and Saint Defier, echoed in the fourth Expanse Cosmos, and reached the outer pace outside Harmonious Morus Alba Expanse Cosmos!

It sounded like the bell signalling the disaster. It did not feel like a bang either. Instead, it was like the sigh that would come from a person who was about to die breathing his last!

The cultivators from the previous aeons who were experienced with it fell silent at that moment. They had a certain melancholy on their faces as they stayed in their spots and stared at the galaxy. This was not the first time they heard that sound, and they knew that at the moment it appeared… it meant that the disaster had descended!

When it echoed in space, the ripples in the galaxy of Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos disappeared without a trace… The galaxy looked as if it had become invisible, causing the people to be able to see another galaxy underneath it!

Waves of something shattering spread out nonstop during that instant. The presence of destruction and the power of the disaster… descended in all the Expanse Cosmoses in Harmonious Morus Alba.

Boom!

The second loud bang shot up. The echoes of the sound felt like the funeral song that had come forth to harvest souls. At the instant it spread out, the expressions of most of the cultivators in Arid Triad turned blank. No matter what they were doing, smiles showed up on their faces, and while smiling, they turned into ashes.

“The disaster, this is the legendary funeral bell when the disaster arrives… The disaster… Haha…” An old man laughed madly while sitting on a mountain. He pointed at the sky, and his laughter was shrill and forlorn.

Thousands of cultivators in a sect were sitting cross-legged and meditating at that moment, but right then, with smiles on their faces, they turned into ash, becoming the tears flowing down from their Sect Master’s eyes, who was sitting in front of them.

Scenes like these appeared all over the four True Worlds in Arid Triad. The races and tribes in Divine Essence Star Ocean were also destroyed. Shrill roars filled the galaxy, but they always abruptly fell silent, meaning the complete disintegration of a race.

The powerful warriors from the previous aeons watched it happen in many regions of Arid Triad and remembered the sadness they felt when their own aeons fell into the hands of the disaster. They no longer seemed to have the inhuman maliciousness at that moment, but were back to being cultivators again. The rumbles that sounded like bell tolls had caused them to truly wake up.