Pursuit of the Truth

Chapter 1440: The Second Layer

When Su Ming attacked and the four white dogs delivered their strongest hit, the world around Su Ming looked like it was about to crumble. A large amount of contortions appeared, and Su Ming rushed forth. At that moment, the feeling that the area had been sealed became much weaker, but right when he was about to escape—

The teenager smiled with his expression as calm as ever. He took a step forward, and immediately, the world instantly froze again. The effect quickly enveloped a circular area of nearly one million lis.

“The world in one million lis has been frozen. How… will you escape?”

When the teenager said those words with a smile, there was a hint of derision in his eyes.

“Perhaps you can try to escape, if you like a game of chase, that is.” As the teenager spoke, he did not immediately approach Su Ming. Instead, he took a few steps to the side, opening the path ahead for Su Ming.

“Hey, I’ll give you ten breaths. Ten breaths later, I’ll first kill the white dogs beside you. With each ten breaths, I will kill one of them, and forty breaths later, I will capture you.”

There was still a smile on the teenager’s face, but his aloof tone caused a murderous glare to shine in Su Ming’s eyes.

“One…” The teenager shook his head. At the moment he spoke, the Feng Shui compass appeared under Su Ming’s feet. It grew larger at a very rapid pace, and in the blink of an eye, it grew to be one hundred feet big. The runic symbols on it protruded on the surface and began shining. With one thought from Su Ming, the Feng Shui compass immediately buzzed and shot forward.

The Feng Shui compass’ speed was supposed to be extremely fast, but when the world around it had been frozen, it felt as if countless threads had surrounded it, preventing it from traveling too quickly. Su Ming could still hear the teenager’s voice echo in his ears.

“Two…”

“Three…”

“Four…”

As the Feng Shui compass charged forward, the feeling of being toyed around caused Su Ming’s expression to turn dark. The killing intent in his heart had already become incredibly strong, but the disparity in their strength gave him no way to vent his killing intent, even though it had already become so strong that it was boiling in him.

“Ten!” the voice said.

When Su Ming turned his head around, he saw the teenager appear right behind himself, and his right hand was already around White One’s neck. He shot a smile at Su Ming and squeezed the dog, but right then, madness appeared in White One’s eyes, and it instantly chose to self-destruct.

Booming sounds reverberated through the air and turned into a powerful wave of impact that swept up Su Ming and his Feng Shui compass, immediately pushing them into the distance. It also put the teenager in direct line of fire. His robes fluttered rapidly, but he still remained standing at the spot where the impact was the strongest. A hint of astonishment appeared in his eyes.

“It… can self-destruct? This isn’t a Spirit Beast. This is… a cultivator?”

When the teenager mumbled those words under his breath, his eyes shone swiftly. Clearly, even someone like him had not expected that the white dogs beside Su Ming would be cultivators!

Red appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. He did not say a single word, but his heart was already overflowing with killing intent. White One might have been his enemy in the past, but ever since the old man turned him into a white dog, it has been very respectful to Su Ming. Yet right before Su Ming’s eyes, it was forced to self-destruct.

This scene… would not have affected Su Ming’s heart before, but the feeling of helplessness in the face of the powerful caused him to remember Harmonious Morus Alba, where all the people he cared about had died under Xuan Zang’s single hit.

At that time, he had also been powerless!

Once that feeling rose in him, it caused Su Ming to throw his head back and let out a shrill cry as his Feng Shui compass charged forward.

“One Dao Sect! ONE DAO SECT!”

White One’s self-destruction created a wave of impact that was beyond the teenager’s expectations. While it could not affect him, it pushed Su Ming and the Feng Shui compass out of the sealed world. His speed increased exponentially, and in the blink of an eye, he was already one hundred thousand lis away.

“You sure run fast, but… Hmm?”

The teenager lifted his head and looked at the spot where Su Ming had fled to with a cold glare. His lips curled up into a chilling smile. With one step, he moved, intending to give chase, but suddenly, he came to a stop. Around him, or more accurately speaking in an area of one million lis around him, snowflakes had started floating down.

Once they appeared, a chilling presence immediately filled the entire area. Su Ming had been one hundred thousand lis away as the Feng Shui compass continued charging forward by then, but he too saw the snowflakes drifting down.

“Today, I will repay my debt to you for not going through the door on that day. From now on, we owe each other nothing.”

A woman’s voice rang out in the world, and Su Ming recognized it. It belonged to Immortal Qing Han.

When her voice echoed in the air, the snowflakes in the area of one million lis instantly swept past Su Ming to form a huge wall of ice and snow behind him. At the same time, the seal in the world of one million lis crumbled, allowing the speed of Su Ming’s Feng Shui compass to instantly recover.

“I see, so it’s Immortal Qing Han. It’s been a long while… But you actually stopped me? Could it be that you are somewhat interested in them?”

When the teenager’s voice traveled languidly, Su Ming had fled into the distance on his Feng Shui compass. By his ears, he heard Immortal Qing Han’s faint and aloof voice.

“I owe this person a debt of kindness. Fellow Daoist Lin, I hope you do not mind to please step down.”

Su Ming could not hear the subsequent conversation. The Feng Shui compass charged through the world and left into the distance. While sitting on it, Su Ming remained silent, but the madness and killing intent had become so strong that it filled his entire body. His murderous aura reached a monstrous degree.

‘I will definitely obtain the Phala, and once I eat it, I will obtain the power of a Dao Paragon… and will never have to feel this powerless again!

‘One Dao Sect… One Dao Sect! Until the day I will destroy you, I will not rest even if I die. I cannot hope to stand against Great Dao Paragons, but when I’m in the second and third layers, I will definitely make One Dao Sect pay!

‘Once I become a Dao Paragon, I will go and find Lin Dong Dong, and I will… make him suffer the consequences!’

The killing intent in Su Ming’s was astonishing. When he thought about those things in his heart, he saw the gathering spot for Seven Moons Sect in the distance.

There were only eighty thousand out of the two hundred thousand cultivators from Seven Moons Sect at that spot. Gu Tai was also there. When everyone saw the Feng Shui compass with Su Ming, their gazes immediately gathered on it. Immediately after, Gu Tai sensed the incredible killing intent surging around Su Ming.

He did not ask Su Ming about it. All sorts of things happened in the chaotic first layer. It was not a bad matter either, since only when it happened could a person’s bloodlust be triggered.

When Su Ming approached Seven Moons Sect’s gathering spot, the Feng Shui compass under his body vanished, and he charged to the people of Seven Moons Sect. Once he drew close to them, he did not speak, but instead chose to sit down on the ground with his eyes closed to suppress the murderous intent that was on the verge of explosion in his heart.

As time trickled by, Gu Tai and all the great sect elders of Seven Moons Sect would occasionally lead some people to venture outwards. Gu Tai’s jade slip flashed nonstop, sending his messages to the sects and clans which had formed a union with Seven Moons Sect.

With the strength of the union gathered together, Seven Moons Sect was guaranteed to smoothly enter the second layer. In the blink of an eye, twenty something hours passed. The limit of seventy-two hours was fast approaching. Gu Tai’s expression became more solemn, and the Seven Moons Sect disciples in the area continued coming in and leaving without stop. Sometimes, there would be about one hundred thousand something people in the gathering spot, and at other times, there would only be thousands of them.

When the final two hours arrived, the number of disciples in Seven Moons Sect had already dwindled to less than one hundred thousand. More than half of them had died. Even though their bodies could not be seen, but based on the other people’s expressions, it was easy to tell that the battles had been incredibly devastating.

It could be said that the one hundred thousand pillars of light in the world were changing ownership every half an hour, yet no sect or clan managed to have fifty thousand altars in their possession. Once the final, most critical two hours passed, the one hundred thousand pillars of light in the first layer swayed. Moments later, a huge vortex formed in the sky.

When it rotated with loud bangs, a huge black hole appeared within it. Right after, nearly thirty thousand of the one hundred thousand pillars of light instantly extinguished. At the same time, a powerful suction force came out from the black hole. It did not descend onto the ground, but only to the region where One Dao Sect was, bringing all the cultivators from One Dao Sect into the black hole in the vortex.

Then, another thirty thousand pillars of light extinguished. Asura Clan became the second clan who had the right to step into the second layer. Once the cultivators from Asura Clan flew into the black hole, the third sect who had the right to enter was revealed. It was… Seven Moons Sect!

More than ten thousand pillars of light lost their light, and Seven Moons Sect, including Su Ming, immediately sensed the suction force from the vortex in the sky. Their bodies instantly flew up and headed to the black hole.

There were only thirty thousand something pillars of light left after Seven Moons Sect was gone, and there was no longer any sect or clan who had more than ten thousand pillars of light in their possession. This was not because their sects or clans did not have enough power, but because this time, due to the existence of the three camps in the battle of Dao Verification and the competition between successors, which led to the exchange of mutual benefits, those sects and clans had given up on the chance to participate in the battle.

Or else, with how much One Dao Sect and Asura Clan were trying to stop Seven Moons Sect, it would have been very difficult for Seven Moons Sect to earn the right to enter the second layer.

At that moment, only One Dao Sect, Asura Clan, and Seven Moons Sect were in the second layer. They would launch a crazed battle there, and from then on… the disciples of the sect or clan who won the battle would become the first to enter the third layer!

After all, the disciples who became the first to enter the third layer would have a much greater chance to obtain the Phala. It would mean that they had gained the initiative. If they could turn that initiative into an advantage step by step, then they would naturally be successful in seizing the Phala!

‘One Dao Sect!’

Once nearly four hundred thousand cultivators from the sects and clan stepped into the second layer, they were split up like in the first layer.

Killing intent flashed in Su Ming’s eyes. When he looked around himself, he saw that the second layer was no longer a vast empty wasteland like the first layer. Instead, there were countless rocks floating in the sky.

Those floating stones seemed to be connected to the sky, and there was no end to them. Clearly, everyone had to step on the stones to charge to the sky.