Pursuit of the Truth

Chapter 8: Barrenness!

2

As the cold light appeared, Su Ming could clearly feel a strong wave of heat emitting from his chest and travelling through his entire body quickly. It spread throughout his body in an instant and fused together with the cold brought by the Dark Dragon’s Saliva, permeating into his blood.

A clear roar could be heard from within Su Ming’s body. As he was sitting down trembling furiously, the fourth blood vein manifested itself.

At the same time, a large amount of black filth seeped out of Su Ming’s pores. There was even a terrible stench in the air, but it disappeared along with the wind.

With three blood veins, one could reach the first level of the Blood Solidification Realm. Now, Su Ming had become a Berserker who reached the first level of the Blood Solidification Realm!

Still, he kept his eyes closed. There were no signs of him waking up. As time passed, the solidification of his blood gradually stopped as the fourth blood vein manifested.

When the little monkey returned the next morning while sniffing at its right claw with a pleased look on its face, it was surprised when it saw Su Ming covered entirely in black filth. It scratched its head in confusion then circled Su Ming a few times.

It may have obtained intelligence, but it did not know what was happening then. Curious, it approached Su Ming and reached out a claw, wanting to pat Su Ming.

Just as it was about to touch Su Ming, the light once appeared strongly from within Su Ming’s body. It reached its brightest in an instant and enveloped Su Ming entirely, making the monkey hang its mouth open in shock. Then before its very eyes, Su Ming’s body disappeared.

To the little monkey, Su Ming was taken by the light. This scene made it widen its eyes and let out a piercing screech. It rushed towards where Su Ming disappeared and began searching in frenzy, but it found nothing. It stood there, unmoving and stunned.

Su Ming did not know where he was. He was currently looking at his surroundings in confusion. The place was enveloped in white mist. He could see too far into the distance, but he could see the vague outline of the peak of a mountain before him.

He had just woken up, but he remembered he was in Dark Mountain. He could not understand how he got there.

His gaze slowly turned cautious. He first lowered his gaze and looked at his chest, then felt his heart missing a beat. The strange black piece of debris was missing from his chest.

"It’s gone…" Su Ming was shocked. He looked around at his surroundings, then stood up slowly. His gaze was dark and alert as he started walking towards the mist covered mountaintop.

The mountain was not far away. Within a short amount of time, Su Ming was standing at the foot of the mountain. As he lifted his head, he took in a sharp breath.

It was the peak of a mountain for sure, but there were no plants on it. It was instead a barren land, as if it had been polished smoothly. There were a lot of pictures carved on it, mountains, rivers, strange beasts, the sky… and even words that Su Ming have never seen before. The place gave off a feeling as if it was from ancient times, as if came straight from the stories about the age of the Savages.

At the very moment Su Ming looked at the carvings on the mountaintop, a roaring sound echoed in the air. A crack appeared right in the middle of the mountain, as if it was cut apart by an invisible force.

The crack was narrow, and he could see how far it went down. It stopped under Su Ming’s feet.

Su Ming briefly hesitated then gritted his teeth. He was already here, and he did not know how to get out of the place. He did not even know where he was. Now that there was a path before him, he had to trudge forward.

Somewhere in his mind he felt that this was connected in some way to the black piece of debris, because he remembered clearly the heat emitted by the debris.

Su Ming felt as if he walked for a long time as he went into the mountain following the narrow crack. The road before him gradually grew wider. There were also a lot of weird carvings on the walls around him. Su Ming could not understand it, but there were various plants and herbs on the cravings. There were also some naked people with messy hair surrounding an odd big pot fiddling around with the herbs.

He continued observing the carvings until he caught a glimpse of the end out of the corner of his eyes. There was a door at the end, and Su Ming paused in his footsteps as he stood at the door.

The same carving was on the door. There were give different herbs carved in the drawing. Uneven strings emitting the cold light Su Ming was already familiar with surrounded the drawing of the five herbs and formed a circle, completely covering the door.

Right at the centre of the door were fifteen small holes. They looked as if something could be placed within. The holes formed a circle.

Su Ming frowned then scrutinized the door. He took a look at his surroundings again, then cast his gaze at the five herbs on the door.

"This is… Iron Core Flower. That’s right, it’s the Iron Core Flower!

"This is… it looks like Joyleaf, but it also looks like the Iced Catalpa Plant…"

"This is the Night Glitter Branch! I often collect these."

"What is this…? It looks really familiar…"

"I’ve never seen the last one…" After looking at it for a while, Su Ming hesitated. He did not know whether he should try and push the door open.

Just as he was hesitating, he saw the strings surrounding the five herbs move and shine so brightly it could blind the eyes. As Su Ming was stunned by the moment, the light floated from the door and sped towards Su Ming.

The light was too quick, and Su Ming had no time to dodge. Within just a moment, he was enveloped by the light.

At the same time, a lot of memories not belonging to Su Ming flooded into his mind. These memories seemed to have been brought along with the light and forced their way into his head. It made Su Ming uncomfortable.

He saw the figure of a person. He was just like the other people in the other drawings, throwing herbs into a big pot. The person’s actions were very fluid. Each time he threw the herbs in, he would take a sniff at the herbs, then his gaze became serious. He waved at the air with his right hand and a wave of fire appeared in the air encircling the big pot.

The process was extremely complicated. Even the size of the fire had to be controlled. Su Ming had never seen this before. It was not as complicated in the tribe either. They would usually just eat the herbs or at most turn them into a concoction to increase the effects.

Su Ming became engrossed with the memories in his head. A long time passed before the person slammed his right hand against the pot.

Immediately, the flame around the pot disappeared. The person opened the lid of the strange pot, and Su Ming immediately saw three green spherical objects the size of nails within the big pot.

Even if they were just memories in his head, Su Ming could still faintly smell the scent of medicinal herbs in the air. When he looked at the three spherical objects, he became completely stunned, as if he was hit by lightning.

He had been making medicine since he was young. With just a glance, he could tell the quality of various medicines. As he was now, he could not even begin imagining the effects of these spherical objects.

The light around his body disappeared and returned to the door, causing the numerous strings that formed the circle on the door to also move.

As the light faded, Su Ming’s sight became clouded. He moved as if he was pushed by an invisible force. When his view cleared, a red blur came screeching towards him in joy.

The red blur was, of course, Xiao Hong. It climbed over Su Ming and jumped happily on his body. When Su Ming disappeared, it had been terrified. Now that it saw Su Ming return, it was happy.

Su Ming was stunned. He immediately looked at his surroundings and found that he had returned to the big rock on the Dark Dragon Mountain. He lowered his head and saw the piece of debris that had disappeared still hanging on his chest.

"All of this must be connected to this thing. Perhaps when I arrived at the first level of in the realm of Blood Solidification, I activated it, and all of that happened. Looking at Xiao Hong’s reaction, I must not have been dreaming, but went physically to that place. Just what is this thing? Why is it here?" Su Ming mumbled softly as he recalled the memories in his head.

"Quenching… the medicinal pills…" After a long while, Su Ming mumbled out the name of the refining process he saw in his head.

"Scattering Dust…" This was the name of the medicinal pill, and it was also one of the many memories that appeared in his head.

Su Ming spoke in a low tone. In his mind he saw the carving on the door. His eyes lightened up gradually. He may not know where the place was, but it was clear that quenching thing he saw had piqued his interest.

In his view, the training to become a Berserker is related to those herbs that increased the blood rate in the body. They needed to consume lots of it to make their bodies stronger. That quenching process he saw in his head might be able to help immensely in his training.

"I’ve never seen a round medicinal pill like this in the tribe, not even the elder has seen one before, or else I would have definitely seen it. But that round medicinal pills seemed to be working pretty well. I wonder how strong the effects of the herbs would be once I finish refining it."

"Then my next step would be to look for those five herbs. Xiao Hong, have you ever seen these two types of herbs." Once Su Ming made his decision, he called out to Xiao Hong and picked up a stone, then drew the two herbs that he was unable to identify on the ground before he looked expectantly at Xiao Hong.

Xiao Hong looked at them with his teeth bared, then gave a nod.

Su Ming felt his spirits lift. He walked around the big rock several times as his mind quickly processed his thoughts.

"I can find the herbs, but making that sort of medicinal pills will be complicated. There’s even fire involved. It’ll be just like cooking rice… Interesting." Once Su Ming had his thoughts sorted out, he frowned.

He remembered that the pot itself was also odd. It was different from the pots used to cook rice in the tribe. As he was searching through the memories in his head, he learned the pot used for the quenching process had an odd name – the Barren Caldron.

"The pots used in the tribe should be useless… I’ll also need fire." Su Ming lifted his head suddenly as he was mumbling. His eyes were bright as he looked at one of the mountains located further away among the five mountains in Dark Dragon Mountain.

That mountain was completely brown in color, and at this moment, there was smoke rolling out from the top of the mountain.

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