Pursuit of the Truth

“Well? Aren’t you going to formally acknowledge me as your Master?”

The old man stood still for a long time. In the darkness, his back was straight. The release of his presence and the air around him that said he stood supreme in the world would cause many cultivators to find their hearts shaking while their blood boiled.

But… even though his presence had already spread out of his body for the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn, Su Ming remained silent. The old man immediately returned to his original nature and shouted angrily.

“Y-y-you… You just don’t respect the old and love the young! During the rare occasion I decided to use my domineering air, you refuse to even acknowledge me as your Master? Do you want me to die of anger?! Alright, fine! As long as you don’t acknowledge me as your Master, I won’t sleep, won’t eat, won’t sleep, and my health will no longer be good, and I won’t be able to sleep until I wake up naturally, and if I can’t wake up naturally, my health will not be good, and I won’t be able to eat dog meat, and my health will not be good!

“If my health is not good, I won’t be able to eat, and I will die!” The old man went to stand beside Su Ming while shouting loudly.

Su Ming smiled wryly. He watched the old man in front of him, then sighed softly before he stood up. He swung his arm and knelt down in front of the old man.

“I, Su Ming, have only ever acknowledged one Master in my life. Today, I will acknowledge my second Master. Master, please accept my greetings!”

The old man immediately smiled brightly, but he quickly steeled his expressions, trying his best to appear a little sterner. However, the joy on his face was something that could not be hidden. He let out a few dry coughs, then picked up Su Ming while beaming with joy.

He patted his own chest and said loudly, “Alright! If anyone bullies you in the future, just mention my name. Those who know me will immediately be scared out of their wits, and those who don’t… Heh heh, we’ll talk about that later…

“My dear disciple, tell me, what do you want? As long as you mention something, then even if I have to tread through mountains of blades and seas of flames, leap through fire and walk on boiling water, have my blood boiling with anger, or whatever, you know what I’m saying, but no matter what, I will definitely fulfill your request!

“If you tell me you want to eat that white dog tonight, we will make dog meat stew. If you tell me you like that big rump girl, then darn it all, I will grab her and bring her back for you.

“Tell me, what do you want!” The old man swung his arm in a very imposing manner, giving off the air of someone who would definitely do whatever Su Ming requested so long as he said it.

But before Su Ming could say anything, the old man immediately blinked and looked at him awkwardly. “You won’t make any outrageous requests, right? Such as destroying One Dao Sect or massacring Asura Clan or snatching Gu Di’s throne or something? Those are… Ahem…”

Su Ming sat down on the wooden stump again and threw a question back at him.”You can’t do those things?”

“Who said that?! Who did?! Who told you I can’t do it?! Are you looking down on me?! I can do it! If I want to do those things, I can do so with just a flick of my finger! Those are nothing! I’m invincible!” The old man immediately huffed and glared, looking at Su Ming as if he had humiliated him.

“Ahem, since you don’t believe me, we’ll agree to disagree and set this matter aside first. Now… I’ll tell you my divine abilities first. I have two great divine abilities. One of them is to use my axe to cut people. That’s fun, just so you know. I’ve researched it. You can cut their heads, their bodies… You can cut everything you want to cut. The power of this divine ability is so great that there is no one in Ancient Zang whom I cannot cut!

“The second divine ability is to absorb others’ cultivation bases. Hehe, speaking of this divine ability, I created it on my own. When talking about it, I have to talk about myself when I was still a teenager. There were plenty of people who had better potential than I did, lived better than I did, and also had greater levels of cultivation than I did. I got angry, and I started cutting people, and as I did so, I somehow figured out how to snatch their cultivation bases.

“As long as they caught my fancy, I would immediately snatch their cultivation bases, and no one managed to escape!” The old man looked incredibly smug. As he spoke, he squatted down beside Su Ming and whispered to him softly.

“It’s especially so for female cultivators. They’re even better for this. My good disciple, you have to try it when you have the time. Come, I’ll teach you this divine ability right now.”

As the old man spoke, he suddenly grabbed Su Ming’s right hand. With a powerful squeeze, a mark was immediately left on Su Ming’s right palm, like a Brand.

It was the mark of a moon. When it appeared, Su Ming did not feel anything, but when he looked at it closely, he instantly felt like the brand could absorb his gaze.

When he looked at it closely, he noticed that the air in the world around him seemed to be flowing towards him at that instant. Wisps of air was seeping into the brand on his right palm.

“My dear disciple, with this divine ability, you will be invincible!” The old man stared at Su Ming very seriously, then stood up, stretched, turned around, yawned, and walked into his house.

“Continue cutting wood! Since you are now my disciple, the number of wood you will have to cut will double so that we can get more money for wine. Heh heh, or else I will chase you out of my house.” As the old man spoke, he returned to his house.

Su Ming lowered his head and smiled wryly. No matter what, this Master was a little unreliable, but perhaps it was precisely because of this that Su Ming was reminded… of Tian Xie Zi.

After a long while, he picked up the axe and continued chopping wood on the dark night.

Days passed just like that. The old man would skip out of his house every single morning, shout a few words talking about how his health was good. If he was in a good mood, he would start chasing the two white dogs in the courtyard, occasionally cackling strangely and saying things like how he would eat the dog he caught that night. In terror, the two white dogs would play with him to his heart’s content.

As for Su Ming, he remained by the side and continued cutting wood. Right then, he had already learned how to not intentionally bring down his axe, but have it naturally swing down to split the log of wood into half. His actions became more natural, and he no longer needed to think about anything. He could even occasionally turn his head sideways to look at the skipping old man and the two white dogs.

Once a long time had passed, the two white dogs looked as if they were about to forget that they were once cultivators while being chased around. They gradually discovered that the old man was all bark and no bite, and he did not truly seem to want to eat them. Hence, after a few months, the two white dogs also knew how to handle his antics.

Then… one day, the old man was livid, and he shouted a few words that caused the two white dogs to shudder. With a howl, they immediately ran at full strength.

“You two thugs, did you think that I wouldn’t notice that you two were slacking off during the past few months?! Fine! My darling disciple won’t let me eat you, but I can f*ck you! Darn it all, whoever I catch today will have to sleep with me in the house!”

The old man’s words were so fierce and intense that not only did the two white dogs shudder, even Su Ming, who had already grown used to the old man’s occasional shocking words, could not help but be stunned.

He suddenly realized that he could never underestimate his Master, because when he thought that he had already understood him, he always discovered that… the old man had many habits that he could not imagine.

Such as… right then. White Three was howling shrilly. It was just about to be caught by the old man…

Su Ming quickly turned around and continued cutting wood.

In the blink of an eye, Su Ming had already spent a year with the old man. It had been relatively calm, though the number of white dogs in the courtyard had increased from two to five.

One of the new dogs was White Four, another was White Five, and there was one more who was called White Three as well. Hence, every single Su Ming called out to White Three, two large white dogs would immediately run towards him.

One of the new dogs was from One Dao Sect, and the other two… from Asura Clan.

When another half a year gradually went by, Su Ming received a letter from Gu Tai. They had discovered the approximate region where the Space Whip was, and they should be able to locate its precise spot within another month. They wanted Su Ming to make preparations to be Relocated to that place at any moment.

Su Ming thought that he could live out that one month calmly, but on the fifth day before he had to leave and the sun shone brightly at noon, someone knocked on the door to the courtyard.

The next moment, the old man who was chasing down White Five frowned slightly. Su Ming had already stood up and walked to the door to the courtyard.

“The son of a btch is here! Open the door for the son of a btch!” the old man shouted before snorting.

Su Ming’s expression remained the same, but his eyes focused slightly. When he opened the door, he saw a man standing on the other side.

He was middle-aged and appeared to be calm while dressed in long white robe. His hair was black and danced in the air. When he stood there, he gave off an air that made others instantly ignore everything around them to focus on him the moment they saw him. His figure alone seemed to be left in the entire world.

When Su Ming observed the middle-aged man before him, the man also examined him. His eyes were clear, and not a single hint of emotion was contained in them. He smiled softly.

Su Ming’s expression remained the same as always. He did not speak, but instead turned around and walked to the stump. He sat down on it, picked up the axe and continued chopping wood. With a smile on his face, the middle-aged man stepped into the courtyard, but the instant his foot landed, even though not a single wisp of his aura spread out from him, the courtyard seemed to have distorted. It instantly became duller, and even the light in the sky disappeared. It was as if only the middle-aged man alone truly remained in the whole world.

This was… a domineering air that was not distinct and not strong, but incredibly great!

If it was revealed outside, it would not seem strong, but when it was kept within a person, it gave the person an extreme state of domineeringness. And that was what the middle-aged man had.

He walked into the courtyard, but did not speak. Once he swept his gaze past the five white dogs, he did not look at the old man. Instead, he went next to Su Ming and watched him bring the axe up before swinging it down to chop wood.

“Not bad. Remove yourself from the competition between the successors, and I will make sure you will not die, or else you will have a hard time, I will have a hard time, and he will have a hard time,” the man in white said faintly.

He did not release his domineering presence outwards, but his words were like a thunderclap. They rumbled in Su Ming’s heart as if they had replaced every single thought in his mind. They charged straight for his will, forming invisible rumbles with the wills belonging to the four Great True Worlds.

Su Ming’s hand froze while holding the axe. He slowly lifted his head and looked at the man in white coldly before he asked flatly, “You’re looking down on me?”