Pursuit of the Truth

1

As a butterfly, Harmonious Morus Alba had been made to stay in the boundless space for all eternity. No one knew just how many worlds had been born and grown to prosperity in it. This matter had been going on for so long that perhaps not even Harmonious Morus Alba itself knew about it.

The repetitions of the aeons, the lives that appeared time and again before they died from disasters were like the snow falling from the sky. Perhaps each snowflake was an aeon and contained all manner of lives. When they landed on the ground, they would be buried in the land, but more would fall from the sky. As there was no end to the snow, there was also no end to all lives.

Even if a person saw one land on the ground with their own eyes, they would never know just how many snowflakes had fallen from the sky in a snowstorm…

It was the same for Harmonious Morus Alba, which was why it did not know how many worlds had prospered on its wings.

There were four eras in the last aeon, and Su Ming was in the fourth era. Perhaps in the future, when people tried to figure out what had happened in the past and looked through the history recordings, they would be able to find some traces of the marks linking to this era. They would contain hints connected to the five Great True Worlds of the fourth era.

The rise and fall of the Fifth True World, the coexistence of the four Great True Worlds, Su Ming’s existence, the return of Dark Dawn and Saint Defier… all of these were the marks of the fourth era.

Before the fourth era was the third era, and Su Ming had found the marks of that era. They were the nine Great True Worlds, Sui Chen Zi, Ecang, and Old Man Extermination.

There were only three marks linked to the second era, and they were Shu, Wei, and Wu! It had been an era filled with tribes and plagued by wars and slaughter. It was also the most prosperous era, when there were still Antecedental Spirits. The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe was the tribe elder of Heavenly Spirit Tribe…

That era had been born due to a disaster, and it ended when Shu and Wu left, becoming Saint Defier and Dark Dawn respectively, and when Wei dissipated, the nine Great True Worlds were formed.

The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe was a person from the second era. He was born at the final days of the first era, and he died… at the final days of the fourth era. It could be said that he had nearly lived through every single era in his aeon.

When he was born, he was in the first era, a world in which the Ancestral Spirits existed. They taught all manner of lives everything they knew. As the Ancestral Spirits formed their own camps and divided themselves into three, the era, which was born due to the disaster that descended on the previous aeon, also ended because of a disaster.

However, the disaster that fell on it was not the disaster of the aeon that affected a huge area. It was what remained of the disaster that had wiped out the entire aeon, and it only affected a small area. It destroyed all the people who did not merge with their other selves from Harmonious Morus Alba Expanse Cosmos from the previous aeon and had managed to escape the Aeonic Disaster with a unique method, since it was regarded as cheating.

They had been wiped out by the remnant of the Aeonic Disaster, and hence, the first era ended. Yet before the people of that time died, they summoned the All Spirits Hall. The legacy of the hall started at that time.

Before that aeon and the first era in which the Ancestral Spirits lived, there were other items that remained for all eternity. They did not fuse with their other selves, but were still not destroyed, possibly because their continued existences were permitted by Harmonious Morus Alba… and there was also a possibility that Arid Triad’s will could not bear to see them disappear.

One of them was… a huge tree that had once lived on a planet many aeons ago. There was once a teenage boy under that tree who talked about his grievances, love, friendships, and everything that happened in his life.

Many years later, the tree grew up with the teenager, and with the teenager’s help, it became an evergreen. One day, the teenager of the past grew into a middle-aged man, and he whispered a few words quietly under the tree, “I’m leaving. If I fail, then there will surely be others who will come searching for my path and continue down this road. If I succeed… then you will never be destroyed. On the day a will is born within you, you will know that I have succeeded.”

That teenager was Arid Triad.

From then on, the tree lived through all Aeonic Disasters and was never destroyed. When its will was born, it watched the sun rise and set, the planets change, the galaxies being replaced, and it knew that the teenager had succeeded, but occasionally, it would remember the past. It would remember the low murmurs of the teenager while sitting against its trunk. When the tree remembered the past, it usually lasted an aeon.

It could sense that the teenager had changed. He had become unfamiliar and terrifying, but his promise that the tree would never be destroyed had never changed.

On that day, while it was reminiscing about the past, the tree suddenly sensed a pair of eyes in the galaxy looking at it. Their gaze made it feel as if it had just seen the teenager of the past, but when it thought about it carefully, it found that this person was not him.

But the two people were very similar. This was not in terms of their spirits, appearances, or their blood. It was… simply a feeling that they were similar.

This familiar feeling came from the two’s powerful conviction to become great and do things that no person in the past had done, which came from the heart and the desire to protect people and things they absolutely had to protect.

Su Ming stared at the tree on the cultivation planet. He could see the ancient air about it. In fact, he could sense the great feeling of age. The heaviness of it made Su Ming instantly realize that the tree… was not born in the last aeon.

With a step forward, he stepped into the planet and appeared above the vast ocean. He stood on the waves on the surface of the sea, right under the huge ancient tree, just like how the teenager from the past had stood a long, long time ago to speak of grievances that he could tell no one else.

While standing there quietly, Su Ming could hear the cheers and laughter from the leaves, which were as large as grass fields, on the ancient tree’s crown. The cheers were very fake, and the laughter filled with an obsequious tone. Each cultivator wore an invisible mask, and it would naturally change based on all the changes in the world.

The masks of some people were very good. When they changed them, no one could tell the difference. Yet some people were still not very good at using them. When they changed their masks, they were not too adept, making mistakes. But to Su Ming, it was all the same—he only saw a marriage of falsehoods.

The bride had a numb expression on her face, and her entire body was covered in seals. The groom had an aloof face, but there was a complicated expression in his eyes that seemed to be filled with anguish.

The Emperor of Abyss, who was the prince’s father, could not even join the wedding. He had to watch quietly from a distance, and the sigh he could not let out turned into a sigh filled with various emotions in his heart.

Even the Sublime Paragon no longer had the dignity of a powerful person. He had willingly lowered his head to become a witness to the absurdity. The father was no longer the father, and the son no longer the son. There was also the Sovereign of Dawn who was watching all of it with a cold, derisive sneer. To Su Ming… all of this was an incredibly hilarious joke.

Only the Elder Mo Sang was a color in the absurd situation that caused Su Ming to feel gentleness in his heart.

Su Ming lifted his right hand and pressed it on the ancient tree. At the instant he came into contact with it, an old voice appeared in his mind. It spoke slowly, with long pauses between each word, which dissolved into lingering echoes in the air.

“What… is… your… name?”

Su Ming was silent for a moment before he said softly, “Su Ming.”

“Su Ming… you… give me a feeling… that you are the same as him…” The ancient tree sighed as its murmurs echoed in Su Ming’s mind. “He is… Arid Triad… He told me… that when my will is born, I will know… that he has succeeded…”

Su Ming was silent as he looked at the ancient tree. In truth, he had already somewhat guessed its identity before he even came near it. There was definitely a reason behind why the tree could exist for all eternity in Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos. This reason was clearly not because the tree had fused with its other self, since all such existences were still asleep for the time being. Even if they could temporarily awaken using certain methods, it would be difficult for them to remain awake for all eternity.

It was just like…

Su Ming had been very puzzled in the past as to why Di Tian wanted to hide in Yin Death Vortex and did not come out from it. However, once he learned that there was a certain group of people in the world who had fused with their other selves, which made them indestructible in the face of the disaster but put them to sleep for all time besides a total of two hundred years—one hundred years before the disaster and one hundred years after the disaster that would signal the end of an aeon—Su Ming obtained his answer.

Clearly, Di Tian was not Di Tian, and neither was he the Sublime Paragon of True Morning Dao World. Perhaps a Sublime Paragon was indeed involved in this, but he had been reduced to a soul fragment after he fought against Su Xuan Yi. And that soul fragment might have satisfied certain conditions… which had allowed it become a clone formed by the Di Tian who was not Di Tian.

“Yin Death Vortex is a good place to sleep,” Su Ming had said when he turned his head back and cast a scrutinizing glance at Yin Death Vortex before he left it behind and headed to Ninth Summit.

“If… you have the chance to meet him, please remember to tell him… to come and see me… It’s been… a long time since… I met him.”

The ancient voice of the tree rose and fell in Su Ming’s heart as it revealed the sigh hidden within the words.

“He can hear you. Perhaps… before long, he will appear,” Su Ming said softly after staying quiet for a moment. He patted the ancient tree and raised his head before taking a step forward to walk towards the wedding on the tree crown.

No one could see his arrival, be it Su Xuan Yi or the Sovereign of Dawn Yan Pei. If Su Ming did not want them to, no one could notice Su Ming’s arrival.

Except… for the third prince.

As the Sublime Paragon of this True World’s congratulatory words for the wedding echoed in the air and he laughed, the third prince suddenly lifted his head and stared into the distance. Standing there… he saw Su Ming.

There was a complicated and conflicted look on the third prince’s face. When he looked at Su Ming, Su Ming also looked at him.

“Is the Seed of Life Extermination really that important?”

When Su Ming looked at the third prince, he could no longer see the good-for-nothing young man of the past. Instead, he saw a familiar figure. Su Ming was not surprised by that person’s existence. He had already learned of everything when he was in Harmonious Morus Alba Expanse Cosmos.

Before him was his childhood friend, his best friend when he was a teenager… his companion who patted his chest and told Su Ming loudly that he would protect Su Ming his entire life!

Su Ming’s voice echoed in the air, but it did not enter other people’s ears. Only the third prince could hear him. He was silent, speechless, and filled with mixed emotions, which made him… not know how to answer Su Ming.

After a long while, Lei Chen shook his head and mumbled softly, “You don’t understand…”

“I now declare that all the families in the Emperor of Abyss’ True World will bear witness to the greatest wedding in our True World. It will also be witnessed by the True World’s will…”

The Sublime Paragon of the True World could not see Su Ming, and he was still saying all the congratulatory words with a smile. The one million cultivators present one the leaves could not see Su Ming either, and they were still cheering and laughing. Su Xuan Yi could not see Su Ming, and he was still watching the man and woman before him with an affectionate look on his face.

The man was Su Xuan Yi’s son, and the woman was the partner he had chosen for his son. It was… a state of completion when the Seed of Life Extermination received all its nourishment!

The Sovereign of Dawn Yan Pei, too, could not see Su Ming. When he smiled, there was contempt in his heart. He lifted his right hand and was about to place it on top of Mo Sang’s head to kill him so that red would appear in the wedding, just like how red would always be used in joyous occasions.

But at that moment…

“I will not bear witness to this.”

Su Ming’s words echoed in the ears of all the living beings on the tree. His voice was faint, but at the instant it was heard, everyone felt like thunder had roared in their hearts, for it was a voice like the will of heaven.

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