Pursuit of the Truth

1

“Hello, everyone… my name is De Shun…”

The excited voice seemed to echo in all corners of the world. De Shun had successfully attracted all the cultivators’ attention and successfully promoted the things he wanted to sell. He could already predict that his future business would definitely increase by leaps and bounds due to his performance on this day.

A person who could think of such a method was definitely not someone who was normal. They needed incredible courage and determination as well as readiness to face life-threatening danger. After all, if De Shun had made a wrong judgment, there was a high possibility that he would end up dead on the lotus platform.

That was why even Su Ming could not help but laugh after he recovered from his shock in regards to such a form of promotion which risked De Shun’s own life.

Besides, he had to have quite a powerful background besides being willing to risk his own life, or else causing such a ruckus in the solemn Anointment Ceremony would definitely end up with him punished for wreaking havoc in Morning Dao Sect. If it was light, he would be sent into forced isolation, and if it was heavy, even his cultivation base might be destroyed.

De Shun was clearly not an idiot either, or else he would not have thought about such a method to promote his business. He had to have people supporting him, which was why he did not have to be too worried about provoking the seniors in Morning Dao Sect and bringing huge trouble on his head.

While standing at the center of the lotus platform, the old man in Life Realm stared with eyes burning in anger at De Shun swiftly running away and returning to his own stone platform. With a cold harrumph, he forced down his anger.

“A mere degenerate. If there is anyone else who imitates his actions, do not blame me for punishing you according to the rules of the sect!” With an imposing tone, the words of the old man in Life Realm immediately echoed in all directions.

“He wasn’t punished?” The ten million cultivators in the area might have lowered their heads in an act of obedience, but they could not help but swiftly communicate with each other through their thoughts.

“You don’t know about this, do you? This person called De Shun has a blood connection to Sect Master Bei Bang, the one organizing this ceremony…”

“There’s such a thing? Then it means that this De Shun fellow is a direct descendant, but why would a direct descendant stay in a continent on the third plane?”

“Why else would Sect Master Bei Bang call him a degenerate? I know a little about this matter since I was living in the same continent as De Shun in the past, so I’ve heard about him. He has incredible potential, but he doesn’t like training. He only likes making medicinal cores and spirit talismans to sell. He sneaked to the third plane and chose to stay there permanently, refusing to leave. There are plenty of other things that happened in that period of time, but I don’t know the details.”

The various divine thoughts caused a buzzing in everyone’s heads. Even though Bei Bang knew about it, he only frowned and did not pay too much attention to it. With a sullen expression, he glared at De Shun, who was in the distance and currently busy with talking to the others in an excited manner while occasionally pulling away his outer robe to reveal a large number of medicinal cores and spirit talismans hanging on his inner robe. He then sighed in his heart.

The bald crane was in Su Ming’s storage bag, but through its peculiar divine ability, it could see everything in the world outside. At that moment, it screeched excitedly in Su Ming’s heart.

“Genius! This person’s a genius! Su Ming, why haven’t I thought of this before? Darn it all, I want to go out and be as cool as he is! Go tell the others that I’m buying crystals, a large amount of crystals!” The bald crane had clearly been stimulated by De Shun’s action, and as it made a loud racket, it looked as if it wanted to rush outwards.

“What are you going to use to buy crystals?” Su Ming sent it a divine thought uttered in a flat tone, immediately stunning the bald crane. It did not speak for a long time, clearly mulling over what it should use to buy crystals.

As the bald crane was deep in thought, another figure appeared on Su Ming’s platform, and the repetitious challenges began once more.

Four hundred… five hundred… six hundred. The slaughter continued on Su Ming’s platform. The people who showed up were absolutely not his opponent, and even though he continued with his killing, a crease had slowly started to form between Su Ming’s brows.

He had thought that there was something off previously. Based on logical reasoning, with this sort of slaughter going on, it would be unlikely for the people outside to continue charging towards him like a swarm of bees to challenge him. Yet his situation didn’t change no matter how much time passed.

After a moment of thought, his lips curled up into a cold sneer. Since there were so many people coming to die, they should not blame Su Ming for being ruthless and merciless.

Those outside could not see the slaughter on the lotus platforms, but as time passed, all the challengers who went to Su Ming’s platform died, and this was enough to shock all those outside.

As the end to the challenges of the first day came close to the end, most of the near ten million cultivators in the world outside cast their gazes on Su Ming’s lotus platform. Compared to the others, Su Ming’s platform was drenched in blood and filled with a crimson light. In the clouds and fog which appeared above his platform were two runic symbols which were currently shining.

One of them symbolized the number of challengers, and the other blood red one showed the number of deaths that had occurred on that platform.

The blood-red runic symbol revealed that the number of deaths had surpassed one thousand!

The battles on other lotus platforms were clearly not as intense as on that of Su Ming. At most, they only had four hundred something deaths. The ones who had the least… were the aloof young man and the sickly pale middle-aged man with the gentle face. The two of them had sat on their platforms throughout the day, but no one had challenged them.

Because of that, their platforms became incredibly distinct among the others, and only Su Ming’s was as radiant as theirs. The first two attracted attention because no one dared to challenge them, and the other was because of the heinous slaughter. Besides that person called De Shun, all those who had dared to challenge Su Ming had died.

Sometimes, a person’s reputation was built through slaughter, such as with Su Ming. There was a grim look in the eyes of the cultivators in the area as they stared at his platform.

Killing more than one thousand cultivators could only be done with a certain amount of power, but even more importantly, Su Ming had not once activated the Flourishing Lotus on his robe to absorb life force so that he could recover his strength.

Compared to the other Dynasts who had been challenged throughout the day, besides the aloof young man and the gentle middle-aged man, all the others had restored their cultivation bases at least once. Some even several times.

However, even so, the judgments could not be made easily, since all lotus platforms were shielded by a screen of light. No one could tell what was going on inside, so they did not know whether there had been powerful warriors among the challengers.

Yet no matter what, the shock brought by the fact of someone being able to kill more than one thousand cultivators in a day was like a mighty pressure that gradually enveloped the hearts of all those in the area.

When the first day of challenges ended and the screens of light from the lotus platforms disappeared, the figures of all ten Dynasts were revealed. Su Ming’s expression was dark. Over the course of the day, he had grown annoyed by all the slaughter. What he wanted was to fight against a true powerful warrior, not partake in such meaningless slaughter.

Su Ming’s questions had also grown. Through the battles over the course of the day, especially the hundreds of people in the latter half, quite a large number of them had been taken aback when they saw him before they attacked.

He would have passed it off as insignificant if it was just one person, but when hundreds of people did the same thing, Su Ming was forced to think more on it.

It was clear that those cultivators had not come to challenge him, but for some unknown reason, they had been sent to his platform.

“The challenges for the first day are over, but us cultivators do not need long to rest. Two hours later, the challenges will continue,” Bei Bang said flatly after sweeping his gaze across Su Ming and the others.

No one raised any opposition to his words. A glint shone in Su Ming’s eyes, then for the first time during the Anointment Ceremony, right in front of ten million cultivators, his calm voice rose into the air.

“I have a question.” His voice echoed in the air. When it traveled in all directions, he immediately attracted the gazes from all the cultivators around him. Even the other nine Dynasts cast their gazes towards him.

When they looked at him, most of the Dynasts had calm expressions on their faces, so no one could tell what they felt at that moment.

“Speak,” Bei Bang commanded flatly. A light shone in the eyes of the tanned old man who stood among the three Sect Masters behind him, and he started laughing coldly in his heart.

“There were clearly quite a large number of people who did not intend to challenge me today among my challengers, so why were they sent to my platform?” Su Ming asked slowly while staring at the old man in Life Realm.

When his words were heard by the crowd, the ten million cultivators in the area were stunned before some of them soon seemed to have understood what was going on. They immediately chuckled, and when that noise fused together, it turned into loud laughter that echoed among the cultivators.

It was rather grating to the ears, as if the whole world was laughing at Su Ming for his ignorance.

In fact, even the tanned old man began laughing. Besides the aloof young man and the gentle middle-aged man among the other Dynasts, the remaining seven also laughed, and there was a hint of derision in their laughter.

“How many lands and stages have you cleared in the Striking Lands?” Bei Bang frowned and looked towards Su Ming amid the laughter emitted by the ten million people around him.

Su Ming frowned as well.

“I remember this. Dao Kong, you only went to the first land and cleared the sixth stage in the Striking Lands,” a young man with long hair and long, narrow eyes said with a laugh. He was one of the Dynasts.

“You’re wrong. It’s not the sixth stage anymore. Dynast Dao Kong has not returned for a thousand-odd years, so his rank has automatically been reduced. I remember taking a glance at it three months ago. He has already been reduced to the first stage,” a middle-aged man with a distinct birthmark on his neck said with a hint of a smile on his lips. He was clearly another Dynast since he stood beside the young man with the long, narrow eyes.

“Great Sect Master Bei Bang, you do not need to trouble yourself to make explanations for this. I can provide answers for your question, Dao Kong. Your rank in the Striking Lands is too low while all of us have already cleared the first Striking Lands a long time ago. In fact, Dao Lin and Dao Fa are powerful warriors who have cleared the second Striking Lands. There are also far too many people among our fellow Daoists around us whose rank surpasses yours. That’s why even if they challenge us, they are sent to your platform because their rank in the Striking Lands is not high enough,” another young man who was a Dynast by the side said with a laugh.

Bei Bang cast Su Ming a glance, then asked flatly in an unconcerned manner, “Do you understand now?”

As everyone spoke, the ten million people’s laughter grew louder and even more grating to the ears, causing the faces of direct descendants and the disciples from the other races who were good friends with Dao Kong to turn incredibly sour.

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