Pursuit of the Truth

Within One Dao Sect was the world with the three ancient statues. At that moment, the entire sky looked like the surface of a lake. It sparkled and reflected all that happened on the Tree of Dao Verification.

It had shown Su Ming’s ingenious scheme that had led him to once again be in the lead by fifty thousand feet. Everything was transferred in perfect detail.

“That boy… cannot leave alive.”

“Fellow Daoist Lin, once you obtain the Phala, kill him. Then, you will obtain his kismet. Not only will it gather on the first prince, but on One Dao Sect too. It will become an incense that will make One Dao Sect shine in glory,” said a dark and sinister voice.

It entered the ripples on the water in the sky and traveled into the ears of Lin Dong Dong, who was on the ancient Tree of Dao Verification in the third layer right then.

At the instant Su Ming touched the trunk of the ancient Tree of Dao Verification, a sense of danger so great he felt the threat looming over his head rose in his heart. He looked down, and at first glance, he saw the killing intent that appeared briefly in the first prince’s eyes while he was still fifty thousand feet below him.

The killing intent was so strong that once Su Ming saw it, his pupils shrank. He looked at the second prince, who was ten thousand feet below the first prince, and saw the killing intent in his eyes as well.

‘You want to kill me in this land?’

A cold sneer appeared on Su Ming’s lips. As he smiled coldly, a bloodthirsty air could be detected around him. When he turned back, he intended to continue climbing up, but suddenly, a barely discernible chuckle that seemed to have come from a child reached his ears.

It echoed around him, but when Su Ming looked around him, he found nothing.

“I’m here.”

The speaker was no longer chuckling. When he spoke, his voice sounded like it was drifting over from a distance, but at the same time came from somewhere nearby.

Su Ming remained as calm as ever and did not pay too much attention to the voice. While he had not seen many strange things before, but with his experiences, he would naturally not show any hint of surprise. Instead, he continued charging up the tree without any hesitation.

As he did so, the sweet fragrance grew continuously thicker and surged into his pores, which weakened the effect of the mighty pressure, which was getting stronger with each passing moment.

It was as if… the tree had been prepared for him!

“Your presence made me think of my family…” the voice said, speaking up again. While the speaker still sounded like they were a child, there was a hint of melancholy in their voice.

“They left, and I don’t know where they went. I’m the only one left…”

While the voice echoed in the air, Su Ming reached the middle of the Tree of Dao Verification. Yet he was still hundreds of thousands of feet away from the tree crown that replaced the sky.

Behind him, the first prince continued chasing by using the power of the Great Dao Paragon. In terms of speed, he surpassed Su Ming, and the distance between them was already only thirty thousand feet. Behind him was the second prince. He maintained the distance of thousands of feet from the first prince.

“Out of four people behind you, I don’t like the last one. Hmm… it’s not three either. I can’t really describe it. One of them has three souls in his body, and they give me a feeling of closeness, just like you…

“The other one is the headless man. He doesn’t have a soul, but there is a familiar presence in his body… The last one… I like his right eye… but all those people are slightly strange. Only your presence is very pure… Are you… my family?”

When the last sentence echoed in the air, Su Ming came to a swift halt. His pupils constricted. He started charging forward again the next moment, but he had already sent a few words to the speaker through his heart.

“Who are you?”

“Me? I don’t know who I am either. I only remember playing with nine butterflies in the past… I had plenty of other family members, and all of them liked me very much… but one day, a bad person came…” The voice that seemed to belong to a child grew sad as it continued speaking.

When Su Ming heard this, his heart trembled, but he was not certain of the accuracy of the answer that had appeared in his heart at that moment. As he charged forward, he asked another question.

“What… What is your name?”

“Hao Hao. My name is Hao Hao… I was brought to this place by that bad person, but I miss home… That bad person bound my body, forcing me to stay here…

“I feel a sense of closeness to you.” The child’s voice hesitated for a moment, as if he was rather afraid. He then asked the same question again. “Are you… my family?”

Su Ming was just about to speak when the first prince’s eyes shone. He lifted his right hand and pushed his palm against the ancient Tree of Dao Verification. At the same time, his voice echoed in every direction.

“Ancient Zang Dao, One Dao Sect, gather your kismet, change the laws!”

When his words rang out in the air, countless ripples appeared in the third layer of the sky. When they spread out, the first prince’s body instantly became blurry, and he vanished. When he reappeared in the next breath, he was at the spot only five thousand feet behind Su Ming. His body instantly gained corporeal form and he rushed towards Su Ming.

“With just the power of Dao Spirit Realm, it’s impossible for you to make it to the tree crown. You are… destined to be unsuccessful in this fight, and you are also destined to have your body and soul destroyed in this place. This is a fate you cannot change.”

When the first prince’s voice echoed in the air, they reached Su Ming’s ears.

His eyes sparkled. The four great wills instantly filled his body, and the light from the Feng Shui compass under his feet reached far and wide, bursting forth with the power of Su Ming’s cultivation base. While maintaining the speed of his charge, he rushed upwards.

He was getting close to the tree crown that replaced the sky. There were only two hundred thousand feet left. Because of that, an astonishing power also erupted from the headless figure beneath the second prince. Its speed increased by a large margin, and the headless man swiftly covered a lot of distance.

However, the disparity between Su Ming’s level of cultivation was too great compared to that of Great Dao Paragons. Even though the mighty pressure was incredibly great and Su Ming had the fragrance that continuously helped him to recover, the distance of five thousand feet between him and the first prince was still slowly closing. When they were one hundred thousand feet away from the tree crown, the first prince was already less than two thousand feet behind Su Ming.

“Do you… want to go to the tree crown? Do you… want to come to my homeland? If you go home, can you bring me along?

“I want to go home…”

When the child spoke, an idea appeared in Su Ming’s heart. “Can you bring me to the tree crown?”

“Yup.”

Once the child said that, the part of the Tree of Dao Verification Su Ming came into contact with became limp, then instantly turned into a vortex that dragged him inside it.

It happened so quickly that the first prince was left stunned, and even the pupils of the second prince shrank.

The next moment, Su Ming appeared at a spot thirty thousand feet away from the tree crown as if he had walked out of the ancient tree. Once he saw where he was, a shocked expression appeared on Su Ming’s face.

“That’s all I can do. You have to hurry up, I’ll be waiting for you up there. Let’s go home together… You want the two fruits, right? That’s okay, I’ll give them to you as well.”

Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. The fragrance was so strong around him that when he took a whiff of it, the fifth Dao Spirit in his third eye became more distinct as if its power had grown.

When he lifted his head, he stared at the tree crown thirty thousand feet away from him. He could already see the two two fruits from where he was. When he moved, he maintained the speed of his charge and headed for the tree crown.

Tens of thousands of feet below him was Lin Dong Dong, who had temporarily Possessed the first prince. A monstrous killing intent appeared in his eyes. He had not expected that Su Ming would still have such a trick up his sleeve and instantly widen the distance between them. It caused him to roar, and loud, banging sounds instantly came from his body. When he lifted his right hand, he pointed at the air.

“My fellow Daoists from One Dao Sect, how long are you going to wait to change the laws?!”

When he spoke, the cultivators in the world with the three statues in One Dao Sect who happened to be the ones leading the plan were shocked by the sight of Su Ming moving up the ancient tree. When Lin Dong Dong’s voice shot up from the surface of water into the sky, the three pairs of eyes on the three ancient statues opened, and dark light shone in them.

The six rays of dark light turned into six long arcs that charged to the water. When they sank into it, a large amount of ripples appeared on Lin Dong Dong’s lifted right hand. When they spread out, the world turned dark from the laws being changed. At the same moment, the mighty pressure from the Tree of Dao Verification lessened. Lin Dong Dong roared, and his speed increased several times as he charged straight for Su Ming.

He was so quick that he swiftly closed the distance between him and Su Ming. The next moment, the world around him let out an astonishing boom, and countless illusory nets took shape. When they appeared in the world, they seemed to be filled with dark light. If anyone took a closer look, they would be able to see that those nets… were being weakened at that moment, and there were even some parts on them that were being torn apart!

The headless figure by the second prince’s side shuddered as if some power burned in his headless body. As it burned in invisible flames, his speed instantly increased exponentially, and he charged to the tree crown.

It was already the final charge. Be it Su Ming or the other two princes, all of them summoned their full speed at that instant. They turned into three long arcs that rushed towards the tree crown.

Thirty thousand feet was not a great distance for Su Ming, but the other two behind him charged forth at a speed which disregarded all costs to their body, and it caused the advantage Su Ming had over them to swiftly disappear.

Su Ming’s eyes sparkled brilliantly. When the first prince and second prince caught up to him, he rose into the air like a shooting star and stepped into the Tree of Dao Verification’s tree crown!

Su Ming immediately charged towards the smaller Phala while the first prince’s goal was the bigger Phala. Their targets were different, but their direction was the same.

“You’re just asking for death!”

The killing intent in the first prince’s eyes shone brightly. When he lifted his right hand, he flung his arm, and the great power belonging to Great Dao Paragons immediately rushed at Su Ming.

“I’ll help you…”

Right then, the child’s voice spoke again, and the ancient Tree of Dao Verification that had stood motionless for countless years started swaying violently.