Pursuit of the Truth

1

Black Ink Planet was a planet that Su Ming once found familiar. He had in fact even found some semblance of home in it. The first God of Berserkers Lie Shan Xiu’s past was recorded there, and it could be said that if Lie Shan Xiu was not around, Black Ink Planet would not exist.

While standing in the galaxy, Su Ming stared at Black Ink Planet in the distance. His gaze gradually gathered on Divine Essence Star Ocean, which was even further away, and the things that happened in the past slowly surfaced in his mind.

He still remembered the fifth kiln’s flames burning all of Divine Essence Star Ocean, Su Xuan Yi’s wife inside the kiln, and how he had thought that he had found his mother. Perhaps there was a deep wave of regret contained in the woman’s motherly love, and it was something that Su Xuan Yi and Lei Chen would never come to know…

Su Ming had spared Su Xuan Yi while he was in the capital planet of the Emperor of Abyss’ True World. Even though he had seen through Su Xuan Yi’s plans of using him again to release himself from some harmful situation, Su Ming still did not kill him.

A part of it was because of Lei Chen, but a larger reason was because… of the woman lying in the fifth kiln, who he once thought was his mother.

Because of her, Su Ming chose to give up on his hate for Su Xuan Yi. The woman had chosen to hold him in her arms while he was still a baby and provide him warmth, even though she had closed her eyes permanently in the empty galaxy. This was something Su Ming would never forget.

She was not his mother, but in Su Ming’s heart, she was his mother. Even though she might have done it out of guilt or because she wanted to provide a path of survival for her real son, Su Ming had experienced the warmth, and he would never forget it.

That was why he had only returned the fifth kiln to Su Xuan Yi and ended that particular period of his life with a sigh. When he turned around, he sealed everything related to them beneath a layer of dust.

At that moment, when he returned to the place where he once rose to power, Su Ming shook his head and walked towards Black Ink Planet. The families in the planet had went through a change during the one thousand something years. Those who once stood in glory had faded away, and those who once did not stand out had become the most powerful at that moment.

Su Ming through Black Ink Planet, passing cities and families. He continued until he arrived in the city that once belonged to the Berserkers. He stood outside an inn, on a street bustling with activity, and watched the cultivators in the area.

He seemed to have relocated some of the emotions he had felt in the past regarding this place.

At some point in time, he raised his head, and sun fell into his eyes. The light breeze lifted his long hair, and his robes fluttered gently. At that moment, Su Ming did not look huge. Instead, he gained the air of a scholar. It was a form of elegance, otherworldliness, a proud and aloof air that would allow him to not fit with the world if he so wanted to.

But right then, as Su Ming stared at the name of an inn under the sun, his footsteps came to a halt, and nostalgia appeared in his eyes.

One thousand years ago…

There were only three simple words serving as the inn’s name. The words on the signboard had a hint of time on them, as if to show their ancient air and how authentic they were.

Su Ming smiled faintly and walked into the inn. When he entered it, the manager immediately walked forward quickly. Perhaps it was due to the otherworldly air, but the manager did not dare to be inattentive to Su Ming. He led him to a table near the window, gave him a pot of wine and a few side dishes, then when he saw that Su Ming still did not speak, he moved back to serve the other customers.

Su Ming sat at the table and savored the wine as if he had returned to the period of time one thousand years ago.

After noon, when the sun changed positions in the sky and shone through the window, it illuminated Su Ming’s face, as if it wanted to make Su Ming fuse into it. When others saw him, they could only see a gentle light, but not his face.

“Coming!”

“Haha, it’s time, manager. Bring Sir Chen over. All of us do dote on that old man.”

“That’s right, bring Senior Chen over. He spoke of the Dual Fiends who appeared one thousand something years ago last time, and we still don’t know what happened to them in the end.”

When more customers appeared in the inn, their voices slowly rose into a clamor.

The manager quickly made a bow with his hands folded in front. Once he voiced his obedience, he strode into the inner section of the inn, and before long, an old man with a head full of white hair slowly walked out. He was dressed in a white robe.

When the old man walked out, all noise disappeared from the inn. Almost all the people’s gazes looked on the old man.

A smart worker brought a chair over and let the old man sit on it. He coughed a few times, then with an ancient look in his eyes, he swept his gaze past the crowd. When it landed on Su Ming, he seemed to stare at him for a while, but he soon turned away.

The old man touched the cup the worker placed next to him and asked with a smile, “At what point did I stop last time?” He seemed to be filled with energy, but when he spoke, his voice sounded hoarse.

“Senior Chen, don’t pretend to be forgetful now. Last time, the Dual Fiends: the Black and the Yellow enraged many families by using marriage scams, and they even had bounties placed on their heads.”

“Black and the Yellow? It’s the Crane and the Black.”

“No matter what their names are, Senior Chen, that’s where you stopped last time.” The inn rose to a clamor again, and quite a number of people spoke with laughter.

“The Dual Fiends might have been chased by many families, but they were never bothered by it. That crane was especially skilled in the art of disguise. It would turn into an old man in many of the cities belonging to various families…” the old man said slowly while stroking his beard.

He spoke slowly, but his descriptions were incredibly vivid, and soon, everyone’s attention was attracted. Sometimes, someone would even laugh.

“That’s right, my Master once told me that he was scammed into buying a few bottles of fake medicinal pills by an old sage.”

“Yeah, I heard about this as well, but I heard that the Dual Fiends has someone very powerful supporting them.”

Su Ming was drinking while listening to the old man slowly recount his tale. Gradually, a smile appeared at the corners of his lips.

The old man picked up his cup and took a sip of his water before he speaking again with a smile. “Just like that, the last person to chase after the Dual Fiends was in truth, their master. In fear, they ran day and night, but in the end, they did not manage to escape.”

“Who is the master of the Dual Fiends?”

“This is the first time I heard about this. How did you learn about it, Senior Chen?”

When the old man finished speaking, a clamor rose in the inn again. But once the old man lifted his hand to give a sign for silence, the noise slowly died down.

“I’ll tell you more today. You should have heard of the Dual Fiends’ master. There was one person who came out of Divine Essence Star Ocean in the past. He rose to power in this galaxy, took away the fifth kiln, made the kiln’s flames spread out, burning the entire galaxy, and fought against various races beyond the fifth ocean. There were plenty of Almighties who died in his hands.

“Even the Almighties in Mastery Realm perished, and even the more powerful ones in Fate Realm were not his opponent…”

“Is it Dao Kong? Senior, are you talking about Dao Kong?” someone immediately said in the inn.

A nostalgic look appeared on Su Ming’s face. That name had already been buried in his memories. When he remembered it then, he felt like too much time had already passed.

“It’s Dao Kong, but also not Dao Kong. Very few people know what his true name is. Even I only know that his family name was Su. It is said that he was an Abyss Builder from the fifth True World!

“He Possessed Dao Kong and went to Divine Essence Star Ocean with the Dual Fiends by his side. He swept through the galaxy, stirred up the fires of the kiln, subjugated various foreign races, killed countless people, and when he left Divine Essence Star Ocean, he left behind a legend.

“It is said that he went to True Morning Dao World!” When the old man spoke, the inn was silent.

The crowd had heard about everything that happened in True Morning Dao World. The former Morning Dao Sect was destroyed, and a gap had appeared in Arid Triad. In fact, the cultivators from Dark Dawn and Saint Defier had even slaughtered their way into the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. If it was not because it was so incredibly impoverished, it might have also burned with the flames of war.

When the largest batch of cultivators descended from Dark Dawn and Saint Defier, a sect known as Ninth Summit rose to power in True Morning Dao World. This matter had happened a long time ago, and news about it had naturally traveled over.

“It’s said that the strongest person in Ninth Summit also has Su as his family name!” When the old man said that, he coughed. The worker by his side quickly came up to support him, and the old man smiled with an apologetic look at the crowd.

“My apologies, everyone, but my injuries are acting up again. I can’t speak for too long. Thank you for coming here and serving as a great audience. I will continue to tell all of you the tale that happened one thousand something years ago two days later.”

When the old man stood up, a smile appeared at the corners of his lips. It reminded Su Ming of one person.

‘I shouldn’t get reacquainted with old friends…’

Su Ming put down his wine cup and stood up to walk towards the door. At the moment he did so, the old man was smiling apologetically at the crowd, and by pure coincidence, he saw Su Ming’s back. This time, there was no sun shining on him, so he could see Su Ming’s full appearance.

The old man shuddered, and disbelief filled him. Even his face changed, and he looked… not like an old man, but an old woman with white hair.

But due to some reason, she could only appear as an old man to others.

“A beauty turned pale, and memories worth a thousand years… To gather the will to live, and to practice cultivation due to that will to live; to stay by switching the sun, the moon, and deities, but alas, this will not last…”

Su Ming’s voice, filled with a myriad of emotions, traveled into the old woman’s ears. As he left into the distance and the old woman looked at the table where he had sat previously, she saw a medicinal pill placed beside his wine cup.

When Su Ming left into the distance, the old woman—who still looked like an old man—stared at the door of the inn in a daze. After a long while, a complicated look appeared on her face. She sighed softly, and when she brought up her right hand, the medicinal pill flew towards her and landed on her palm.

At that moment, the crowd in the inn also seemed to have gradually come to realize something. They looked towards the old man curiously.

“Senior Chen, who is that fellow Daoist just now?” someone quickly asked.

“He is the person I was talking about just now…”

The old woman [1] in the disguise of an old man sighed softly. The things in the past rose to the forefront of her mind. Back then, she had been the prime of her life and had beauty, but right then, her old friend looked as good as new, while she… had already become old.