Pursuit of the Truth

Starlight scattered on the ground. Stars decorated the night sky and sparkled as if they were watching the ground. While in the village, Su Ming stood in the courtyard and cut wood. His expression was calm, and the cut firewood was placed neatly by the side. There was a clear distinction between his pile and the messy pile the old man had cut earlier.

The old man’s firewood differed in size and breadth. Once he finished cutting, there were wood scraps all over the place. However, when Su Ming finished cutting all the wood, the size and breadth of all his firewood did not have much of a difference.

In fact, even the sound when he cut wood was very systematic. It was something different from the old man’s. When midnight arrived, the door to the house behind Su Ming let out a creek. The old man walked out while wearing a jacket and his hands behind his back. He stood beside Su Ming and cast a glance at the wood Su Ming had finished cutting with the help of moonlight. He frowned then.

“You’re cutting the wood all wrong.”

Su Ming put down the axe, lifted his head, and looked at the old man.

“What’s wrong with it?” This was the first time Su Ming said anything in the courtyard.

“EVERYTHING. You’re not cutting wood, you’re cutting people. Oh well, the sound you make when you cut wood is so loud I can’t sleep. Come, I’ll teach you how to cut wood.”

The old man had a chiding tone. He went up and touched Su Ming, signaling for him to move back.

Once Su Ming did so, the old man sat down on the stump, picked up the axe, a log of wood, and a loud thud shot up. The axe got stuck in the log. He rammed it into the log a few times, and only then did a clack appear. The wood was split into two halves of different sizes. They fell carelessly to the side, and the old man lifted his head to cast a glance at Su Ming.

“Do you understand it now?”

“No.” Su Ming shook his head.

“Ah, boy, your comprehension level is too low. Look closely. I’ll show you one more time.” The old man picked up another log of wood, swung the axe up, then split the log of wood into two halves with a bang again.

“Do you understand now?” The old man looked at Su Ming with an expectant expression.

“No.” Su Ming furrowed his brow and still shook his head.

“Y-you… Ah, fine, I’ll show you one more time.” The old man spat into his palms, picked up another log of wood, then cut into it again.

“Get it now?”

“No.”

“Surely you understand it this time?”

“I’m still a bit off…”

Just like that, time passed. In the blink of an eye, two hours passed. The old man continuously cut wood, and Su Ming continuously shook his head. When only one log remained in the courtyard, the old man rolled his eyes.

“You brat, you’re doing this intentionally to rile me up, right?!”

The old man threw the axe in his hand on the ground, then glared at Su Ming with his eyes blazing while he rubbed his wrists. The two hours of continuous wood cutting looked to have made the old man rather tired.

“I understand it this time. Thank you for your guidance, senior.”

Su Ming’s expression was calm and contemplative. He looked at the old man, then nodded solemnly, wrapped his fist in his palm, and bowed deeply to him.

“You understand? What do you understand?” the old man asked with exasperation in his voice while glaring at Su Ming.

“The wood I cut is very neat and has a pattern, but this neatness and pattern is intentional. Even if I didn’t do it consciously, it still happened naturally.

“And when you cut wood, every single log that you cut is very natural. I cannot find any that share the same breaking line or size. It’s just like life… there are no two people who are the exact same. At most, they are only similar.

“Senior, you’re not cutting wood, you’re cutting life,” Su Ming said slowly.

His words resounded through the night sky, causing the old man to fall silent for a long while before he slowly lifted his head and cast Su Ming a deep glance.

“I’m just cutting wood, and you managed to turn it into some sort of long winded philosophical thingamajig. I’m telling you, I cut my wood this way because only by doing so, it’s easy for me to burn it! Get it? GET IT?!

“The wood you cut is not easy to burn!” The old man stood up with a huff while glaring at Su Ming.

“The only thing I do not know is what period of time in your life you want to cut away, considering your level of cultivation and your status, and why do you want to cut it? Also… why is that even if you have cut at that period of time for so many years… you still have not managed to cut it off?”

Su Ming looked at the old man. He did not bother with what the old man had just said, but instead spoke what he was thinking about.

“What nonsense are you yammering this time? I’m going to sleep! Hey, you… Ah, boy! You’re sleeping outside in the future. You’re not allowed in the house!” The old man harrumphed, turned around, and was just about to walk into the house when Su Ming spoke again.

“Or rather, you’re not trying to cut away your life, but a burden that entered your heart at that period of time. You have to cut it away so that Dao will appear under your feet, huh?

“Senior, you haven’t managed to cut through that burden after all this time. Could it be that you are hesitating? You don’t know whether to cut or not cut it?”

When Su Ming said those words, the old man did not even turn his head. He went to the door to his house, but just as he was about to lift his foot and step in, the light of understanding shone on Su Ming’s face.

“Could it be… that you are hesitating whether to cut the burden because you are uncertain whether that burden is real? You’re afraid of making the wrong judgment, so you can’t make the decision, and that’s why… when you cut wood, you have to clear your heart. Instead of asking yourself that question, it would be better to ask the Dao of heaven!”

At the instant Su Ming said those words, the old man came to a halt just as he was about to cross the threshold. He had one foot outside the house, and the other inside the house. He turned his head around slowly and looked at Su Ming. A hint of emotion that seemed quite different from his usual ones showed up on his face.

It seemed to be slightly solemn, and the old man seemed to have narrowed his eyes slightly. When he looked over, even Su Ming could sense that the old man seemed to have become different at that moment.

But he could not pinpoint what exactly about him was different.

“You…” Once the old man whispered this one word, he paused for a moment. “Do you snore at night?”

At the instant the question was voiced, even Su Ming was stunned.

“If you snore, I’m going to kick you out as well.” When the old man said that, he turned around and walked into the house.

Su Ming stood still for a while before a smile appeared on his face.

‘With Gu Tai’s level of cultivation, his act of respecting this person so much is an answer in itself. One of the three ninth level Dao Gods is Tian Xiu Luo of Asura Clan, the second is the emperor in the royal capital, and the third… is someone whom few know of…’

Su Ming lifted his head and looked at the house, now dark because the light had been extinguished. He slowly sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes.

When morning arrived and Su Ming opened his eyes, he suddenly narrowed them. He saw the logs he had cut during the night having fused together as if time had reversed on them.

“Why are you daydreaming there? Go and cut wood!”

A voice that seemed to be tinged with anger shot up. Then, the door to the house was pushed open. Dressed in another jacket and with a smoking pipe, the old man walked out into the courtyard.

Su Ming fell into contemplative silence for a moment. Without saying a word, he walked to the stump, picked up the axe, looked at the logs, and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the fierce glare belonging to cultivators was no longer in his eyes. Not a hint of the presence belonging to cultivators could be detected on him either. It was as if he was no longer a cultivator at that moment, but had turned into a young man in the mortal world.

He then casually brought the axe down. The log was split in half, and the cut was not uniform, so the sizes of the split wood were different.

As he watched the two halves of the log, Su Ming had a feeling that he was not looking at logs, but was creating some form of life. It was as if… the two logs had never existed before, but because of him, they had appeared.

This feeling came quickly, and it also disappeared without being seen. The moment he wanted to think about it carefully, he would not be able to find that feeling. It was clearly different from when he cut wood the day before.

In silence, Su Ming picked up the second log and continued cutting. One down, another one… When an entire day went by, Su Ming looked as if he had forgotten about the passage of time. When evening arrived, he looked around him in a daze and found that there was not a single complete log around him.

The old man sat on the threshold and smoked his pipe. He patted the set of clothes he had prepared for Su Ming at some unknown point in time and spoke with the air of superiority some elders would have just because they were older.

“Hmm? You did pretty good cutting wood today? Alright then, I’ll allow you to rest a bit. How about this? Change into another set of clothes, pick up those logs of wood and head to Zhang at the western side of the village. He’s the carpenter. Go and exchange the logs for some food. I haven’t eaten for an entire day, and I’m practically starving to death.”

Su Ming walked over slowly. He did not wrap his fist in his palm and bow to the old man as he did the day before. Instead, he picked up the clothes and changed in the courtyard. The clothes were made of sackcloth, and there were even some patches here and there. They looked incredibly simple.

Once Su Ming changed, he bound all the logs in the courtyard and put them on his back before walking out. Under the setting sun, his shadow was lengthened, and it fell into the eyes of the old man smoking in the courtyard. He watched Su Ming leave into the distance and slowly put down his smoking pipe. A hint of melancholy appeared on his face.

“Am I old now? Even a young un like him managed to read my thoughts… I can’t not cut it, but I can’t bear to cut it either… Is… this world real or fake?” the old man murmured, and anguish as well as confusion appeared on his face.

Days passed in a rarely found peaceful life. Soon, three months were gone. During them, Su Ming continued cutting wood, and every single time he did so, he gained a different understanding, but he always felt that there was something lacking…

Throughout the months, Su Ming had also become part of the village and was accepted by the villagers. All of them knew that the old man in the east of the village had adopted a son, and the boy had a pleasant name—Su Ming.

The peaceful life lasted until a rainy night half a year later…

Thunder roared in the sky, and lightning sliced through the air. Su Ming lay in the shed in the courtyard. During the half a year, he stayed in there. Even though it was pouring outside, no rain fell into the shed. As Su Ming lay there, he found it to be quite comfortable.

During the night, light sliced through the night sky beyond the village. At that moment, two figures walked out of the forest. They belonged to a plump and thin man, and they were dressed in gray Daoist robes. When they stood there, an invisible barrier seemed to be around them, which prevented the rain from touching them.

It seemed like the place where they stood was the peak of the world, and if any cultivator noticed their levels of cultivation, they would definitely be shocked… because they were two Dao Paragons in Dao Immortal Realm!

“The great sect elder read the patterns of the world, calculated the entire universe of Ancient Zang, and finally managed to deduce where this person was. We didn’t expect that he was hiding in a mortal village!” the skinny cultivator said coolly. His voice was rather piercing to the ears.

“Of course he had to hide. But since we managed to find him today, he won’t be able to hide anymore.