Pursuit of the Truth

1

A few moments before the Five-Faced Beast Deity had the Curse descend on Fei Hua, then spread to Xiao Song, causing it to trigger the backlash formed by the Curse in Xuan Jiu’s body, thereby causing the bone to shatter and the pink liquid to evaporate…

The strongest attack Su Ming formed by assembling his will, cultivation base, life. and his soul in the flesh tunnel landed on the young man formed by Arid Triad when he turned his head around.

Arid Triad could not dodge it. In fact, he could not even strike back, because Su Ming had already gained the initiative and the upper hand by delivering his attack right when Arid Triad attempted to stop the Five-Faced Beast Deity.

However, while Arid Triad had miscalculated the Five-Faced Beast Deity’s ability, had he also miscalculated Su Ming’s strength? That question rose in Arid Triad’s mind at the instant Su Ming’s divine ability approached him.

A loud bang shook the sky and earth when Su Ming’s attack landed on Arid Triad’s body in its full form and force.

From the distance, Su Ming’s strongest attack, born from the accumulation of his entire existence, seemed to have a vast force. However, if anyone looked at it closely, they would find… that the attack was concentrated on one finger of Su Ming’s right hand!

It was a tiny little finger, but gathered on it was the terrifying power that caused Arid Triad’s eyes to shrink, and it landed at the spot between Arid Triad’s eyebrows when he turned around!

When the two came into direct combat, there was no sound. The entire world froze at that instant. The fog in the area no longer tumbled about, the flesh tunnel no longer let out loud booms, and everything in the world outside became quiet. Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos jolted, and Dark Dawn as well as Saint Defier jolted as well.

Su Ming’s True Morning Dao World, the Emperor of Abyss’ True World, the withered True Immortal Sect World, and True Sky Hill World… also entered a relative stillness.

The lives in the Expanse Cosmoses could not sense that stillness. In fact, even the Five-Faced Beast Deity could not sense it while moving through Expanse Cosmoses. Only Su Ming and Arid Triad could sense it, since they could be considered to be the same type of life forms…

There were two more life forms who could sense the stillness. One of them was Harmonious Morus Alba’s will in Harmonious Morus Alba Expanse Cosmos. It clearly sensed the fight erupting between Su Ming and Arid Triad at the moment it happened, and it left it Harmonious Morus Alba nervous, but also expectant.

The last to notice it… was Old Man Extermination, who was sitting beside the gap in the fourth universe contained in Harmonious Morus Alba’s fourth wing and who had vanished from the naked eye while meditating on the ancient ship.

He cast his eyes into the distance, and a profound look appeared in his eyes. He could clearly sense the stillness on the entire butterfly.

“In my former home, there is a saying: If the heavens want you to die, they will definitely make you mad first… This sentence is very logical. Harmonious Morus Alba will soon walk down the path of my homeland. That is why… madness has now appeared. One of them is an unparalleled Chosen who Possessed Harmonious Morus Alba aeons ago, and the other is one who was destined to be the strongest of his aeon, the final aeon before Harmonious Morus Alba is destroyed.

“I look forward to their looks of regret when they learn of the truth… Will they be like me in the past?” Old Man Extermination mumbled. After a long while, he sighed softly, and resolve appeared in his eyes when he lifted his head.

“I’m not doing this for myself, but for my homeland. Even if I have to sacrifice all the Harmonious Morus Albas, to me… it will be worth it!”

When Old Man Extermination’s voice echoed in the air, Su Ming and the young man’s eyes met in the flesh tunnel. Su Ming’s right index finger was placed at the center of Arid Triad’s brow. The two of them did not move, and it looked as if they would remain in this position for eternity.

“I lost…” Arid Triad did not open his lips, but his words could still be heard. They were followed by a sigh. “I miscalculated the Five-Faced Beast Deity resistance, and I also miscalculated the strength of your strongest attack… Saint Defier’s camp no longer has any support. You’ve already resolved… the plot I set up in this place.”

Su Ming did not speak. There was only a hint of aloofness in his indifferent expression.

“We can now call off the promise we made to meet one hundred years later…” Arid Triad’s voice now sounded much older. When it echoed in the air, Su Ming spoke faintly.

“Even if you didn’t call it off, I would still have fought against you one hundred years later.”

“Aren’t you going to think about the possibility of working with me?”

“The ancient tree growing on the ocean in the capital planet of the Emperor of Abyss’ True World is just a soul fragment. The real tree… has already withered a long time ago. It died aeons ago.

“Perhaps you remembered your promise to it at some point in time and created that tree, but you couldn’t change its determination to withhold its promise to wait for you.

“There is no way I will work together with someone like you,” Su Ming said faintly.

Arid Triad was silent.

It was as if the flesh tunnel where the two of them were had turned into the ancient tree of the past, and the fog the boundless ocean. It looked just like in the capital planet, where on the vast sea, beside the ancient tree, the shades of green and blue seemed to be connected with the sky…

“I have two questions.” After a long while, Arid Triad’s old voice appeared again.

“Go on,” Su Ming said calmly.

“With your will, it should have been impossible for you to form this attack… The strength of this attack does not rely on your will, not the rise and decline of your life, not the strength of your cultivation base, and not the weight of your soul…

“The main strength of your attack lay in your determination to not even consider your own survival when trapped where you will surely die, and I could sense your previous fear and struggles in that attack. This should be the strongest attack of your life after you were intimidated by some existence and knew you were gonna die. You created this attack because you were unwilling to accept such a destiny…

“And I can also sense that… you haven’t completely finished executing this attack. I want to know where you first launched it, and who made you form it.”

When Arid Triad’s ancient voice landed in Su Ming’s ears, he fell silent.

“An existence who you previously refused to believe exists. He was dressed in a long black robe and had black hair. He held a string of strange pearls in his right hand… and sat on a huge Feng Shui compass. I personally saw this person… devour a Harmonious Morus Alba.”

Su Ming’s answer caused Arid Triad to fall silent.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about… but after I Possessed Harmonious Morus Alba, I could sense that figure in its memories. It gave off a cordial feeling to Harmonious Morus Alba.

“So… no matter what you saw, there is a high chance you don’t need to be worried about it.” Arid Triad’s voice echoed in the air with a hint of certainty, but when Su Ming heard it, he shook his head.

He believed in what he saw and what he understood from it. He did not believe in Arid Triad’s words.

“My second question is about Old Man Extermination you spoke about just now. I… know about him. But where exactly do your worries about him lie?” Arid Triad’s voice sounded as ancient as ever, and there was even a hint of fatigue to it.

“He is a person who fled when a Harmonious Morus Alba was destroyed. He fled to our world and is planning something we do not know. Tell me… what exactly am I worried about?” Su Ming asked coldly. Arid Triad was too confident, and in Su Ming’s eyes, that confidence could bring the destruction.

“You don’t need to worry. He arrived in this aeon, and four hundred something years later, when the four wings of Harmonious Morus Alba overlap and this aeon is destroyed, he will be wiped off.”

Arid Triad’s voice contained the same confidence that caused Su Ming’s brows to furrow.

“What if… there will no longer be another aeon?” Su Ming asked slowly.

“Impossible!” Arid Triad said without hesitation. When he spoke, the young man cast Su Ming a deep look. “We will meet again in the disaster four hundred something years later… Now, you can finish the execution of that divine ability of yours.” When Arid Triad said those words, his voice gradually became weaker until it faded away.

“Spirit!”

A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. He said one final word, and it was the key to his strongest divine ability. It was the word he had uttered when his will shattered after going up against the black-robed young man when he returned to the past with the Art of Time!

At the instant the word tumbled out of Su Ming’s mouth, the young man’s body jolted, but he did not dissipate. Instead, a shadow appeared and overlapped with him. That shadow split into ten, then one hundred, and continued splitting until it reached tens of thousands… The number of overlapping shadows was so great that it surpassed what a cultivator could calculate with his naked eye. After all, the overlapping shadows simply could not be seen clearly.

Only Su Ming knew that during that short instance, one hundred thousand overlapping shadows had appeared on the young man who did not disintegrate.

At the moment they overlapped with one another, cracking sounds rang out, and cracks spread out from the spot where Su Ming’s finger touched the center of Arid Triad’s brow until they covered his entire body. Then… with a bang, the young man’s body shattered to pieces, which were reduced to ashes that dissipated into the air. Vanishing along with it were the one hundred thousand overlapping shadows.

This meant that all one hundred thousand of Arid Triad’s manifestations… were destroyed at that instant!

Since Arid Triad did not have a body, it was a heavy blow to him. This sort of grave injury caused him to no longer be able to summon the strength to fight against Su Ming… but Su Ming did not have the confidence to give chase and kill him either, because the time had not yet arrived. Only when the disaster appeared and the four wings overlapped with each other could he… have the chance to Possess him.

The instant Arid Triad’s body vanished, the fog formed by the poisonous aphrodisiac no longer increased in density and even gradually showed signs of vanishing. Only at that moment did exhaustion appear on Su Ming’s face. His gaze was no longer fierce, and his mind became muddled. The poisonous aphrodisiac he had been suppressing all that time boiled in his body at that moment.

Fortunately, the amount of the poisonous aphrodisiac around him no longer increased and even showed signs of dissipating. Su Ming sat down without hesitation and circulated his cultivation base, restraining his will in his body to continue suppressing the poisonous aphrodisiac.

If there was no stimulation from the external world, then before long, when the fog in the flesh tunnel dissipated, Su Ming would return to normal and no longer be affected.

However… he forgot about Zi Ruo.

Not long after Su Ming sat down, a moan came from the fog, and a naked body rushed out to embrace him.

At the instant Zi Ruo reached him, the poisonous aphrodisiac in Su Ming’s body seemed to be stimulated, and it instantly erupted in him…