Pursuit of the Truth

1

As the body of the supreme treasure was torn apart, Progenitor Long Hai and Flame Fiends’ Progenitor became the first to be forced out. They turned into two long arcs that landed by the side, and when they fell on the ground, their expressions turned incredibly dark.

Then it was Xu Hui’s turn. She was also flung out in an incredibly pathetic manner. She was followed by Xuan Shang and his group. When they appeared one by one in the area, Su Ming was also forced out of the supreme body.

The next moment, the body of the supreme treasure melted into a palm-sized red jade that floated in midair and did not move.

Xuan Shang’s face immediately turned pale. He realized that he had lost the connection between him and the body of the supreme treasure, which meant that during that instant, for some unknown reason, the supreme treasure became an item without a master!

If he could notice this, the other people could naturally notice it as well.

When the body of the supreme treasure began to be torn apart, Zi Long and Huang Mei turned their heads around to look. They trained their gazes on the numerous people that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Zi Long did not speak. He turned around and continued moving to the summit. Huang Mei’s expression changed, and the ghost of a smile appeared on his lips, along with a hint of derision and anger.

“I see, so it’s a treasure you managed to obtain somewhere. The lot of you grouped together, and only then did you manage to get into the fifth kiln. I’ve been fooled by all of you for a long time. I wonder who among you was the main soul of the supreme treasure.”

There was panic on Xuan Shang and his group’s faces at that moment. Everything had happened too suddenly, so they did not have the time to prepare themselves. When they heard Huang Mei’s words, their hearts trembled, and either intentionally or instinctively, they cast their gazes towards the calm Su Ming.

Due to their actions, Huang Mei’s gaze fell on Su Ming. He cast him a few scrutinizing looks before letting out a cold snort. Derision flashed briefly in his eyes, before a freezing glare replaced it.

He was an Almighty, but he had been deceived by a bunch of puny cultivators. When he remembered how he had lost the bet and had been prepared to pay a certain price to draw them to his side, he felt that this was a form of humiliation!

“It would have been better if you could have lied your way till the end, but you just had to have the bad luck of coming here and your body being torn apart. Useless pieces of trash!” Huang Mei laughed coldly, then turned around and refused to spare another glance for Su Ming. He then continued climbing up towards the peak of the mountain with great difficulty.

By then, Zhu You Cai was in the lead. Zi Long and Huang Mei were behind him, but all three of them were still incredibly far away from the summit. They were also far apart from each other, because they were not walking on the same path.

Zhu You Cai was moving forward in a straight path. As for Zi Long and Huang Mei, due to them plunging down just then when they tried to fly, they were in different places and were walking on different paths.

“You’ve heard the old man’s words. Since the body of the supreme treasure has been torn, there’s no need for us to fuse together again. It’ll depend on our own luck from now on,” Su Ming said, calmly enunciating his words. He then turned his head around to cast a glance at Xu Hui.

She smiled at him, showing that he did not need to worry about her.

Su Ming nodded. He no longer paid any attention to the group and moved forward. The others longed for Mountain Shifter Art, and Su Ming desired it as well. He had already noticed that as his level of cultivation increased, he lacked Enchanted Treasures… but he lacked divine abilities even more!

While he could fight against those who were weaker than him, if he ran into those who were as strong as he was or the old monsters who were stronger, then he would find himself without powerful divine abilities that he could bring to the table.

Those that he had learned previously were either not powerful enough or were abnormally abstruse and not effective within a short period of time. At that moment, he yearned to obtain this one style… This Mountain Shifter, which the old man said could shock even Almighties!

Besides, Su Ming had also recounted the number of people in the area again, and he still found… that one person was missing!

Who was missing? Just where was he? Su Ming believed that he was not the only one thinking about it. The others must surely be wondering about it as well.

Since he could not figure it out, he decided to bury this matter in his heart. He lifted his head to look at the summit and walked towards it. As he continued moving, the mighty pressure from the peak of the mountain became increasingly stronger. It was not the type of power that would make a person break down and collapse, but a power that could disintegrate cultivation bases and turn powerful warriors into mortals.

And it was clearly hard mortals to walk up this mountain.

As time trickled by, the other people behind Su Ming also chose to climb up the mountain. Xuan Shang and his group stuck close to each other and moved forward with great difficulty. Xu Hui was panting while moving forward with gritted teeth as well.

Since Long Hai and Huo Kui were both Nascent Divinities, they had it much easier compared to the others when they moved forward. In fact, the mighty pressure from the mountain was much less to the both of them compared to everyone else.

Because of that, the two of them were much faster than everyone else. Even though they were the last to move, they were already moving side-by-side with Su Ming, and were only hundreds of feet away from Zhu You Cai.

As time continued passing and the group climbed up the mountainside, Huo Kui and Progenitor Long Hai surpassed Zhu You Cai and became the people closest to the summit.

Their expressions were different, but both had excitement in their hearts. They continued climbing upwards as if they could see the iron scroll on the stone platform waiting for their arrival.

Zi Long’s expression was dark, but he persevered with gritted teeth. Zhu You Cai frowned for a moment, but after a bit of hesitation, he shook his head and chose not to speak. As for Huang Mei, a cold sneer appeared at the corners of his lips.

He did not believe that there would be such a loophole in this place that would allow Nascent Divinities to move with greater ease.

At that moment, the mountain shuddered. It looked as if the whole place had started swaying, and a powerful rebound spread out.

Su Ming’s body swayed. At that moment, he had a strong feeling that the mountain he was climbing was not in fact a mountain, but a living ferocious beast. When it moved, he felt as if he was about to be flung off.

His expression changing, Su Ming gripped tightly onto a mountain rock. His fingers had already turned white, but his grip was very steady. Even though he had lost his cultivation base and become similar to a mortal… Su Ming was not unfamiliar with climbing mountains.

He grew up in Dark Mountain Tribe when he was young, and before he practiced the Ways of the Berserkers, the mountains in that place were his playground, which was why his reaction was incredibly quick. Once he seized the rock, he pressed his body tightly against the mountain wall and simply allowed that mountain to move about while remaining still.

If he could do this, then the others could do the same, but the expressions of Long Hai and Huo Kui at the forefront changed drastically. They noticed that when the mountain began swaying, their Nascent Divinities began swiftly withering away. This discovery immediately made them let go of the rocks they were gripping onto, and their bodies plummeted to the ground. In an instant, they became the last. Only when the mountain stopped swaying did they continue climbing upwards with a touch of hesitation.

However, this was just the first wave of tremors!

After about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the second wave of tremors arrived. They were several times stronger than before. The mountain swayed, and muffled booming sounds echoed in the air. All those climbing instantly stopped. With ashen complexions, they gripped onto rocks and only continued climbing when the swaying stopped after several breaths.

If this was all there was and they continued like this, the mountain… would not be that hard to climb.

However… when the group managed to conquer about three-tenths of the mountain’s height, the ground below them suddenly changed. It disappeared. Booming sounds echoed in the air, causing all the people to lower their heads and fix their gazes at the spot below them. Their pupils shrank at the same time, and it was especially so for Xuan Shang and his group. Their expressions changed drastically.

There was no longer any land beneath them, only a pitch black canyon, which was filled with the aura of death. There was also a vortex that rotated with loud booming sounds. It looked incredibly terrifying.

If they still possessed their cultivation bases, they would not be bothered, but right then, their cultivation bases were gone, leaving them no different from mortals. If they slipped…

As the crowd fell into pensive silence, the third wave of tremors arrived.

They were much stronger than the previous two times, and they did not last for just several breaths, but nearly twenty. Within Xuan Shang’s group, Nian Yin was the one who suffered the worst luck. The mountain rock he held onto shattered, and he plunged into the vortex below.

His face was pale. When shrill screams escaped from his mouth, his body sank into the pitch black vortex. The sound of chewing and screams of pain came from within, and then, they abruptly became silent.

This scene not only caused Su Ming to feel a chill down his spine, even Zi Long and Huang Mei immediately felt their skins crawl as they stared at the canyon below them.

“Eleven left,” an ancient voice stated from the distant summit, filled with endless indifference.

“Senior, you previously mentioned that no one managed to come here before, so it’s only obvious that coming to this dimension requires luck and chance. If we die here in the canyon, then who will learn your Mountain Shifter Art?! You’ll also need to wait for another eternity!” Huang Mei immediately shouted.

“Did I say that? Then I must have remembered incorrectly. Before you, there were also some others who came to this place… but they were not fated for this Art,” the old man said calmly from the summit.

Huang Mei found himself speechless for a long period of time after that.

He was not the only one, the others also fell silent. The old man’s words and a cultivator’s death all turned into a dark shadow that loomed over the entire mountain and shrouded each of their hearts.

In silence, Zhu You Cai quietly lifted his hand and continued climbing. Zi Long and Huang Mei also continued heading towards the peak in silence. This was their only goal.

At that moment, Xu Hui was already ahead of Xuan Shang and his group. With gritted teeth, she continued moving upwards bit by bit. The disappearance of her cultivation base and the feeling of becoming mortal made her remember all that had happened to her during her childhood.

Suddenly, the fourth wave of tremors arrived with a bang and an intensity that far surpassed the previous few waves. It was also at that instant that Xu Hui had lifted her right hand in preparation to grab a mountain rock ahead of herself.

However, the swaying of the mountain caused her to seize empty air, and her body was flung outwards, into the vortex below her that had caught Nian Yin as well.

Below her were Xuan Shang, Hua Yu, and Yun You. If Xuan Shang extended his hand, he would have had the chance of catching her, but he hesitated for a moment, and Xu Hui passed by him.

Her expression was calm. She looked at Su Ming on the mountain, sighed softly, then closed her eyes.

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