Pursuit of the Truth

1

A glint shone in Su Ming’s eyes. Bai Feng might still be mumbling to herself, but he had saved her because he was feeling sentimental about his past. It was not out of compassion, much less out of love.

From the moment Bai Feng decided to use Su Ming, they were destined to forever be strangers.

As his eyes sparkled, Su Ming looked away from Bai Feng. Black light shone around his body, and the Light of Extreme Darkness swept outwards from his position. It did not spread far, only enough to cover the pit.

At the same moment, Su Ming slowly closed his eyes. Immediately, wisps of black smoke flew out of his body. They instantly turned into the bald crane. It existed in the Light of Extreme Darkness, and as if its body was melting, it looked like it had fused with the Light of Extreme Darkness.

“Mortal Refinement Art. I will surround the supreme treasure with my will, and with my mind as the path, we will enter the cycles of life and death together!”

Su Ming raised both his arms and swung it forward. Immediately, the white ring floated in front of him. It was incredibly big, occupying almost the entirety of the pit.

There was a grim look on Su Ming’s face. He continued forming different seals with his hands in front of himself. Those seals were what the bald crane had taught him, Once they were formed, they sank into the white ring.

However, the ring remained still. It floated in the air, not providing any sort of reaction to the seals.

Gradually, Su Ming’s speed became faster. The seals changed rapidly, and when nearly one hundred breaths had passed, Su Ming’s eyes flew open. He bit the tip of his tongue and coughed up a mouthful of blood. It turned into blood fog and charged towards the white ring. Then, as if it was branding the ring, it carved itself deeply into its side.

The ring shuddered as if the blood Su Ming had offered had transformed under the complicated seals. It seemed to possess some form of strange power that affected the white ring.

However, the shivers only lasted for an instant before the supreme treasure returned to normal. Yet Su Ming’s eyes brightened.

‘This Mortal Refinement Art is indeed useful. This is just the first refinement, and it could already affect this treasure.’

Su Ming’s eyes sparkled. All his attention was directed to his hands.

He changed the seals once more. This time, he lasted nearly two hundred breaths before he coughed up another mouthful of blood. When it touched the white ring, it immediately started shuddering again.

A blood-red thread seemed to want to crawl into the white ring, but soon, the ring started showing signs of recovering. Without any hesitation, Su Ming leaped up and continued moving around the white ring. As he did so, he quickly formed seals with both hands. His speed increased, and more seals were formed. He also occasionally coughed up blood.

If anyone looked carefully, they would find that Su Ming always coughed up blood at the same spot on the white ring. It was the spot where the blood-red thread had almost pushed through previously.

In a short span of time, Su Ming was drenched. Sweat ran down all over him. In fact, even with his cultivation base, he looked like he could not withstand the burden. After all, quite a large amount of his cultivation base was required for every single seal he made. Every single mouthful of blood he coughed up contained a bit of his soul and the blood from his heart.

‘998 seals and eight mouthfuls of blood. I only need one more seal and one mouthful of blood to be able to activate the first refinement!’

Su Ming was panting, but determination appeared on his face. With a single move, he brought his right hand up and formed the 999th seal. At the instant he pushed it at the ring, he opened his mouth and coughed up his ninth mouthful of blood. it instantly caught up to Su Ming’s right hand, about to land on the spot where the blood-red thread had appeared on the ring.

“Bald crane!!” Su Ming immediately sent a thought in his heart.

The bald crane had long since been prepared for this. At that moment, it let out a shrill shriek. Its disappeared body manifested, and it turned into a black needle. It did not stab the white ring, but went straight to the center of Su Ming’s brows. He did not dodge and simply allowed the bright glow of the black needle to close in on him. It stabbed the center of his brows, and once it sank in, it went straight to his brain!

Su Ming immediately sensed sharp stabs of pain that came from a loud roar in his head. It echoed ceaselessly in his mind, growing only louder until it replaced his consciousness.

During that moment, a drop of crimson blood appeared at the center of Su Ming’s brows. It turned into a long arc and charged towards the spot where the blood-red thread had appeared. Once it touched it, the drop of blood was immediately absorbed into the blood-red thread, as if it had been sucked into it. Immediately, the blood-red thread looked like it had received nourishment and began spreading outwards.

Su Ming’s consciousness scattered. His mind instantly turned blank, as if all of his thoughts were cut off at that moment. Soon though, his scattered consciousness gathered together once more. Yet when Su Ming opened his eyes, he no longer saw a planet surrounded by the Light of Extreme Darkness. His body was no longer in the shattered planet either, but had instead appeared in a world which he had never seen before.

“Grandpa, could you give me that fish?”

A lively voice reached Su Ming’s ears. It instantly grounded his confused mind. His gaze focused, and he saw the world around him.

Above was a blue sky filled with white clouds. There were a lot of mountains before Su Ming while was located on a small island beside a lake. Some villagers were moving about nearby.

Su Ming was sitting on a fishing platform. He wore a straw hat to provide shade for himself against the sun. Before him was a fishing rod, so it seemed that he was trying to catch fish.

Beside the edge of the wooden fishing platform was a net attached to one of the pillars. The net was submerged in the lake, and it could be seen that there was a fish swimming inside. It wanted to escape, but was unable to do so.

Squatting behind Su Ming was a little girl. With childish naivety, she pointed at the fishing net and pleaded for the fish inside.

Su Ming was momentarily stunned. He lowered his head to stare at himself. He had an old man’s body. His hands were rough, but even though they were old, they weren’t cracked. It was a clear sign of time caused by constant fishing and his constant contact with water.

He stared at the fish, then at the girl, and a hint of understanding appeared in Su Ming’s eyes.

The words the bald crane had said rose in his head. They reminded him about the will of reincarnation of the Mortal Refinement Art.

“You will share the nine reincarnations with the supreme treasure. They might be short, but they can also be incredibly long. During the reincarnations, you will no longer be you, and the supreme treasure will no longer be the supreme treasure.

“It will turn into a will that will fuse into the cycle of life and death. If you form a link of fate with it during these nine cycles of life and death, then once the Mortal Refinement Art comes to an end, this link will turn into the connection between you and the supreme treasure, and it will belong to you.

“This might seem simple, but there are actually quite a lot of difficulties in it. First, you’ll have to find the treasure during the cycles of life and death. Only then would you be able to form a link of fate with it.

“Reincarnations are abstruse and profound. Very few people are able to understand them fully. That’s why searching for the treasure during the cycles of life and death will be the most critical part of this whole process. If you can’t find it or focus on the wrong thing, you won’t be able to form the link of fate, and the Mortal Refinement Art will fail.

“As for how you’re supposed to find it… Well, I don’t know either…”

“Grandpa, that fish is really pitiful. Please don’t eat it and give it to me…”

While the bald crane’s words echoed in Su Ming’s head, the little girl by his side stared at him with a pleading look. Since he didn’t reply, she once again begged him in her youthful voice.

Su Ming lifted his head slightly. The sun was blocked off by the straw hat and could not land on his face. He stared at the girl in front of him, then at the fish in the net before gradually furrowing his brows. He could not tell whether the will formed by the supreme treasure was the little girl… or the fish in the first cycle of life and death!

…..

On the broken planet outside, the bald crane sat in the pit enveloped by Su Ming’s Light of Extreme Darkness. It would occasionally cast its gaze at him, who was sitting cross-legged in the distance while meditating. There was a black thread at the center of Su Ming’s brows, and it was connected to the white ring.

The bald crane yawned and cast a glance at the floating white ring, looking incredibly bored.

“Heh heh, aren’t I just smart? I can’t believe that I managed to remember this powerful Mortal Refinement Art. Looks like I was very powerful in the past. I might even be someone very influential.”

While swathed in boredom, the bald crane started lavishing praise on itself. This manner of boasting was what it loved doing the most. When it started getting bored, it would be very willing to do such a thing.

“Speaking of me… Hmm? I seem to have remembered something. This Mortal Refinement Art seems to have some kind of drawback, and it seems… to be pretty bad?”

The bald crane was momentarily stunned, and it used its talon to scratch its bald head. Then it instinctively started moving about the Light of Extreme Darkness.

“That’s odd. What sort of drawback does it have? Damn it, why can’t I remember it?”

With frustration on its face, the bald crane subconsciously flew out of the Light of Extreme Darkness and appeared beyond the pit. The moment it did so, the bald crane widened its eyes and stared at the spot where Bai Feng had originally sat with a blank gaze. The woman had long since stopped breathing, but there was a black thread at the center of her brows that stretched into the Light of Extreme Darkness.

The bald crane put on a long face and immediately flew into the Light of Extreme Darkness along the black thread. Soon, it saw that her black thread… was also connected to the white ring.

“Damn it, now I remember! When someone uses this Art to refine supreme treasures, having other people around them is the most taboo thing. It’s over! If Su Ming fails, then the reputation of my wisdom will be ruined…”

The bald crane’s face filled with gloom. It had a feeling that it could not cut off the black thread, or else the backlash on Su Ming would be incredibly great. It could cause the refinement to fail straight away.

And once he failed, it would be almost impossible for him to perform the Art a second time. After all, this was like an initial impression. Once it was left behind, it would be incredibly difficult to change it.

The bald crane continuously scratched its bald head with a talon. Then its eyes suddenly lit up. It raised its talon, then started moving them in front of itself as if counting something. In just a few breaths, it relaxed.

“There is a hidden serendipity in this. Heh heh, since there’s a serendipity in this, even if Su Ming fails, he can’t blame me for forgetting to remind him of this. That’s right. That’s how it is. I intentionally did not tell him about this because I wanted him to get a serendipity. That’s right. I’m so smart. Haha!”

The bald crane started laughing smugly before it began lavishing praise on itself again…

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