Pursuit of the Truth

1

Su Ming listened to the old man’s words and stared at the two thousand something figures outside the golden hall. His heart trembled at the thought of the devastating fate the tribe members had to face.

There were 881 positions for Ancestral Spirits in the bottom row, and there might only be one of them which is suitable for the blood of a particular race to make offerings and go through the spirit ascension. This would mean that they needed to sacrifice hundreds of people who were worthy of going through the spirit ascension to lay out a path for their spirits to ascend!

And clearly, even though they were all under Wei jurisdiction, since Great Berserker Tribe, Great Abyss Tribe and Heavenly Spirit Tribe were different races, they had to each search for the Ancestral Spirit suitable for their people for fusion.

Due to each race’s differences leading to different choices and results, there were no similarities between them. This meant that the path of spirit ascension was drenched in blood and built on human lives.

And this was just the beginning. Even if they managed to find the position of the Ancestral Spirit suitable for their people at the bottom row, there was still the second to last row, and it would continue until they reached the top. All of those who died would be powerful warriors and people who possessed the right to have their spirits ascend. This would make a tribe gradually walk to ruin. If they could last, then in the end… a true Ancestral Spirit would appear!

But that would require tens of thousands of years, and time did not give any of the races this chance. As the era of tribes came to an end, everything was reduced to nothingness. Even the order of fusing with the positions of the Ancestral Spirits and the numbers, which all the races believed were the most precious to them, had been buried with the dust.

In silence, Su Ming saw the tall Berserker on the platform roar towards the heavens. He rose from the ground and charged into the sky, rushing for the 560th of the illusory Ancestral Spirits on the last row, which was the ninth row if they did not count the row with the one and only golden figure right at the top. When the man stopped there, the countless Berserkers on the ground beneath him roared, but the next moment… the ground fell into dead silence.

With his own eyes, Su Ming saw that when the Berserker touched the 560th illusory Ancestral Spirit, his body shuddered as if an unimaginable pain had erupted in his body at that moment. He brought his right hand up and seized the sky as if he was trying to grab something in the air. Then, he pushed his hand towards the Ancestral Spirit he was fusing with.

“Eternal Creation [1]!”

The man did not say these words, for when he shuddered, he turned into ashes. A red light flew out of his disintegrated body and drifted in the sky, looking lost but also like it wanted to lower its tip to sneak a glance at its people one last time. Yet it could not…

The man’s body was sucked into the Spirit Descension Hall by a strong force. A shrill scream of pain rang out, and everything returned to silence.

The person who had said those two words was the old man. They caused Su Ming to stare at the soul who had turned into a red figure in a daze. He fell silent.

The sky returned to normal. It did not matter whether it was the Spirit Descension Hall or the All Spirits Hall. Everything vanished from the sky. Only the countless Berserkers on the ground remained. They were silent, but there was a thick aura of sadness among them.

“Eternal Creation is an Art unique to Berserkers. Outsiders cannot understand it. This is… Great Berserker Tribe’s strongest Art.

“Even after I’ve gone through eight spirit ascensions, if I face a powerful warrior who is at the same Realm as me casting Eternal Creation, I too will have to avoid its brilliance temporarily.”

The old man’s voice echoed and turned into an unseen ripple that swept in all directions, causing distortions to appear in the world.

When the scene disappeared from Su Ming’s eyes and everything in the area filled with white fog, he felt like he had woken up from the previous era and returned to the current time and age. A soft sigh escaped his lips.

“Next, I will show you the spirit ascension from Great Abyss Tribe,” the old man by Su Ming’s side said calmly after a long time. He swung his arm, and the feeling of the world going in reverse immediately appeared again. When everything became clear, Su Ming was far away from the platform where he had previously stood and was surrounded by a vast expanse of fog.

The fog in the area was incredibly thick. It surrounded them, and when the old man swung his right arm, the fog scattered to reveal a huge, deep pit whose edges could not be seen with the naked eye. In that pit were hundreds of Spirit Ascension Platforms. They were built in circles and stood tall, giving off a feeling as if they were reaching for the clouds.

“Great Berserker Tribe, a tribe I am quite impressed with. The people in this tribe might not be calculative, but their straightforward attitude and their fearlessness towards death is something the other tribes do not possess.

“That includes my own Heavenly Spirit Tribe. In this regard, we cannot compare to Great Berserker Tribe.

“But if we talk about all the tribes under Wei, which includes Great Berserker Tribe, then there is only one tribe which I admire the most… and am in fact, slightly envious of, and that is Great Abyss Tribe,” The old man stood on one of the hundreds of platforms and looked around him while he speaking in a soft voice.

“This place is where Great Abyss Tribe was located. In the past, this was a vast ocean, and it was known as Abyss Ocean, which was also known as Wei’s Forbidden Grounds!

“Great Abyss Tribe is a tribe skilled with the power of time and Possessing all forms of life. They also have the Abyss Gate, which only powerful warriors can open to create their own World… Besides these three inborn abilities, the most frightening aspect about Great Abyss Tribe was that their people’s souls… would not perish!

“This… is an unparalleled power which can only be understood by those who have activated all three of Great Abyss Tribe’s inborn abilities. Once they come to understand them, their souls can last for nearly an eternity without perishing. No matter how many cycles of life and death they go through, their souls will remain. This is something that brings out envy in others, but they are also helpless against it.”

When the old man sighed deeply over this, he raised his right hand and swung it. Immediately, the world roared. The sky shattered, and countless fragments were swept aside before they regrouped. A ripple swept outwards after that.

The world changed because of it as if a curtain had lifted, stirring up dust. Brilliant colors were revealed, and when the ripple vanished, Su Ming saw… a world belonging to Great Abyss Tribe.

It was a black ocean. The waves rose and splashed down as they tumbled about. Hundreds of platforms stood tall in the seawater, and they looked like they wanted to reach the sky. At that moment, most of the stone platforms were occupied by sitting figures.

Most of them were middle-aged man dressed in long, black robes which had shades of gray, making them resemble specters. They were sitting quietly with the seawater around them. None of them made a single sound.

Besides the sound of waves, it could be said that this place was completely silent.

“Great Abyss Tribe is a very quiet tribe, but they are also incredibly terrifying. If we talk about combat abilities, they might not be as skilled in battle as us in Heavenly Spirit Tribe, but their ability to survive is so great that it’s frightening.

“In fact, there was a saying going among us that even if a disaster fell, while the other tribes might perish, Great Abyss Tribe would definitely not be destroyed. This was a race of people who could raise back to power even if only one of them remained,” the old man said as he stared at the black ocean

Su Ming was silent while watching the people from Great Abyss Tribe. Upon seeing them, he felt another sense of familiarity, but it was different from the familiarity he had sensed from the Berserkers. This was a familiarity in his soul.

“Spirit ascension!”

When Su Ming looked over, he saw the people on the platforms speak up. Nearly one hundred people were performing spirit ascension at the same time!

“This is also something the other tribes cannot do. Since they can change time and they have clones, Great Abyss Tribe has a great advantage over the others when they perform spirit ascension. They can have multiple people perform spirit ascension at the same time, and from there, they can find the order hidden among the positions of the Ancestral Spirits.”

As the old man’s voice echoed by Su Ming’s side, the All Spirits Hall appeared again. Golden light covered one hundred thousand feet, and the two thousand something figures appeared.

Soon after, nearly one hundred people flew out from the platforms to charge towards their positions. Su Ming watched it without blinking. He saw the people from Great Abyss Tribe turn into red figures and watch the sky in a daze. Then, one person among the near one hundred shone with a golden light that reached a piercing degree. He… had successfully fused with one of the Ancestral Spirits and threw his head back to roar.

His roar was loud and had an indescribable presence to it. That was not the presence of a cultivator, but the presence of an Antecedental Spirit!

The waves roared and surged into the heavens. A brilliant light shone in the eyes of all the people from Great Abyss Tribe. They stared at the only person who had succeeded after all the other members of their race had failed. Then, they slowly stood up and bowed together towards him.

“With Great Abyss Tribe’s talent, they should have been the first among us to have a person who could succeed in all nine spirit ascensions, but the Great Destruction arrived, and it did not give them or us that chance…”

The old man sighed softly. He lifted his right hand and seized the air. The scene in front of Su Ming was torn to pieces and returned to the original world of fog.

“With my level of cultivation, I can only hide from Arid Triad’s will only one more time and extract another of its memories for you to copy. This is the last time, so I will give you the chance to choose.

“You can pick the Spirit Ascension Platforms from either Great Berserker Tribe, Great Abyss Tribe, or Heavenly Spirit Tribe to have your spirit ascend!”

The old man cast a glance at Su Ming. He swung his right arm, and when the world roared, the world looked like it had started shrinking. When Su Ming’s vision became clear, he had returned outside the cave where he had met the old man and saw a white mountain standing tall in the fog.

He also saw a stone platform which had appeared at some unknown point of time at the top of the mountain. There were ripples spreading out from it. When it surrounded the area, he could vaguely see an old figure sitting on the stone platform.

“There’s no need to look,” Su Ming suddenly said. “I’m not from Heavenly Spirit Tribe, so it’s useless no matter how many times I try to copy it. Senior, you can save your power. There’s no need for you to waste it.”

A hint of resolution appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. This was something that would not necessarily bring him more benefits the more he watched it. If he witnessed too many of these scenes where the people turned into red figures after they failed, his own confidence would be affected.

The old man’s right hand came to a halt midway up to being raised. A surprised glint appeared in his eyes when he looked towards Su Ming.

“Then which tribe’s Spirit Ascension Platform will you choose, Great Abyss Tribe or Great Berserker Tribe’s?”

“I choose Great Berserker Tribe’s Spirit Ascension Platform!” Su Ming said with firmness.

Translator’s Note:

1. Eternal Creation: Call back to ‘Wine, Water’.

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