Pursuit of the Truth

1

Su Ming had a calm look on his face as he moved through the meteors. He occasionally cast a look at the tip of his finger. Hidden in it was the God Ascension Nectar. Without the protection from the thirteen warships, the presence of the God Ascension Nectar could no longer be hidden.

Fortunately, once he chased away the Waves of Tears, Su Ming had ceaselessly melted the nectar when he was in his warship, removing a lot of its presence. It might still be around, but if Su Ming used his power to suppress and seal it, he could reduce it to a bare minimum.

However, if he was to bring out his full power, then he would be unable to avoid having the presence of the God Ascension Nectar spreading out from him. However, the thin man had showed him a clue regarding Tian Xie Zi, so if Su Ming had someone else perform the task of tracking him down, he would feel ill at ease, which was why he had chosen to venture out on his own.

At that moment, he had already chased after the man for half a month, and not a single ferocious beast had been lured to this place because of him, so Su Ming gradually relaxed his guard. He wanted to slowly wear down the thin man’s will, and in the end, use a Soul Catcher’s Spell on him to find the clues leading to his Master.

This chase that lasted for half a month went on for another three days. After them, Su Ming left the meteors, and what was revealed in front of him was a vast galaxy. There was endless dust around him, and there were even fragments that looked like they had been left behind after a star had shattered.

Broken land, rotting ancient trees, and damaged, grayish black skeletal frames…

The galaxy looked like an ocean, and the broken objects were a part of it.

The galaxy here was not black but had a gray hue to it. Upon first sight, it seemed extremely ancient.

And it was difficult to erase that sensation.

It was ancient, old, with a hint of a primitive and uncivilized air. Dead silent.

It was boundless. Su Ming could not see its end. The darkness in the distance was hidden in the shades of gray. If anyone looked at them for a prolonged period of time, they would be unable to escape a sense of being oppressed, which would make it difficult to even breathe. Their hearts would gradually beat slower, and they would then rot away with the galaxy.

The galaxy was simply too big, which was why even if a living creature appeared, the silence would be hard to break. In the distance was a shattered rock that was several tens of thousands of feet big. On it was a black creature with the body of a snake and the head of a tiger. It was wrapped around the rock, and in its mouth was a ferocious beast in the shape of a dragon slowly being devoured.

The black creature trained its purple eyes on Su Ming, glaring coldly at the unwelcome guest who had walked out of the meteors.

Su Ming looked around him, sensing the ancient presence crashing straight into his face. This was the periphery of Divine Essence Star Ocean. This place… was an area where cultivators rarely came, and it was labelled as a forbidden ground.

In the distance was a gigantic, broken skeletal frame, and there was a person crouching on it. That person was the thin man that Su Ming had chased to this place. He was crouching down on the skeleton and staring at Su Ming with a cold glare.

A scimitar had appeared in the thin man’s left hand at some unknown point of time. The blade was gray, and it was made of bone.

The man had his right hand pressed against the skeleton beneath him, and he was tapping the skeleton in a bizarre rhythm with all his fingers. Every single time he tapped it, the color on the skeleton would fade a little.

“Divine Essence Star Ocean…” Su Ming mumbled softly and looked around. He suddenly felt that this place did not give him a sense of unfamiliarity, even though it was the first time he saw it.

It did not mean that he had come to this place at some unknown point in time, but because… the uncivilized, ancient, and primitive air here gave him a sense of déjà vu.

Yin Death Region had the same feeling…

“Hiss!”

A sharp sound swiftly tumbled out of the thin man’s mouth. While crouching on the skeleton, he lifted the bone blade horizontally, and when he hissed, the galaxy immediately seemed to have become different.

The broken stones pointed their sharp tips towards Su Ming, and all sorts of poisonous insects that could survive in the galaxy crawled out of the rotting ancient trees during that instant.

The skeletal frames that were floating in the galaxy also seemed to gain some sort of sentience, and a vague, indistinct hostility rose into space. It was one that would not disappear.

The ferocious beast with the body of a snake and the head of a tiger curled around the stone also swallowed the ferocious beast in its mouth in one gulp, and its purple eyes began to shine with animosity.

This was a repulsion. It was the repulsion of the entire Divine Essence Star Ocean against outsiders. This was a power that could not be described with words. If someone said that the entire Divine Essence Star Ocean was a single will, then the aloofness and rejection from this will towards all outsiders would become this force of repulsion.

When outsiders came to this place, they would have to face the hostility from the entire Divine Essence Star Ocean, the galaxy itself and all its life forms. The force of repulsion that was born from this hostility could turn into a curse!

Right then, Su Ming’s arrival was like a light being lit in the dark. It might not seem very strange, but in Divine Essence Star Ocean, that light was incredibly clear and did not fit in.

This was the thin man’s plan. He had known that when outsiders arrived in Divine Essence Star Ocean, they would be repelled. This force of repulsion did not exist beyond the group of meteors, and neither would it appear among them, but once a person moved past and stepped into the periphery of Divine Essence Star Ocean, it would instantly appear.

With this repulsion, the thin man could win against those who had higher levels of cultivation than he. In fact, with this method, he had already turned several outsiders’ heads into his possessions.

At that moment, the thin man’s face was cold and dark, but just as he was about to take action…

Su Ming cast him a glance, and their gazes me.

The thin man bared his teeth, and when he did so, a hint of ferociousness was added to his demeanor. But compared to his hostility, Su Ming’s face remained calm, and there was even a faint smile on his face. He could sense the force of repulsion in this place and could also guess the thin man’s thoughts.

He did not say a single word, but lifted his head, and with his right hand, released the tie binding his hair, letting it fall over his shoulders. Ripples spread out from the Sacred Constellation Robe, and it changed to resemble beast skin.

Su Ming’s skin grew tan, and his face was no longer handsome, but gained a determined look. He lifted his right hand and slowly touched his face. Under the thin man’s stupefied gaze, Su Ming slowly drew a bloody line between his nose and eyes with his fingernail!

Blood flowed out from the wound. When Su Ming wiped it off… the scar from when he was in the land of Berserkers appeared on his face.

He raised his head.

At the instant he did so, the thin man’s expression changed drastically. Disbelief appeared on his face, and this time, that disbelief was even greater than when Su Ming had spoken Shaman language previously.

His body trembled violently, because at that moment, Su Ming… no longer gave him the feeling that he was an outsider. In fact, even his presence changed completely, and he gained… an ancient and uncivilized presence, a primitive air. He gained… a presence that might be slightly different from that of Divine Essence Star Ocean, but it was clearly born of the same source!

This was something he could not understand. It was something out of the boundaries of his knowledge, which made him unable to accept what was happening. In fact, if he had not seen it with his own eyes, he would definitely not believe that this person was an outsider.

It did not matter whether it was his appearance or his presence, for even the aura from his soul gave off a strong feeling that it came from the same source as Divine Essence Star Ocean. This change left the thin man in disbelief.

He remembered seeing outsiders disguising themselves with the unique appearances of the cultivators in Divine Essence Star Ocean, but no matter how similar they looked, how well they spoke the language, the unique presence that came from Divine Essence Star Ocean was something that was impossible for them to possess.

This presence was the key to identifying people that lived here.

Yet the presence about Su Ming was even purer than the thin man’s own, who was born in Divine Essence Star Ocean!

The sharp tips of the stones that were aimed towards Su Ming gradually turned downwards, no longer pointing towards him. Instead, they began to drift around the galaxy as usual.

The hostility that came from the poisonous insects that crawled out from the rotting ancient tree disappeared into thin air, too. As long as no one came to provoke them intentionally, they would not venture out. They simply crawled back into the rotten tree and vanished without a trace.

The vague hostility from the broken skeletal frame also disappeared, as if the soul that was gathered there had returned to sleep once more.

As for the ferocious beast that was coiled around the stone, it opened its mouth, and the murderous aura about it dissipated, and the creature’s expression became lackadaisical. The beast lay down on the stone and closed its eyes to digest the food in its stomach.

It was as if it felt that the hostility between Su Ming and the thin man was a conflict born within Divine Essence Star Ocean itself. As long as they did not provoke the creature, it would not interfere with their fight.

The force of repulsion from the galaxy was gone without a trace…

The thin man stared intently at Su Ming, then suddenly shouted out his first words to Su Ming, “Which tribe did you come from?!”

His voice was incredibly cold and dark, just like the presence he gave off, and he was also using the Shaman language.

When Su Ming was about to speak, the thin man’s eyes suddenly darkened, and he leaped forward swiftly. In an instant, he closed in on Su Ming. The blade of the scimitar in his left hand was pointed outwards and drew forth a freezing glare as he swung the blade at Su Ming’s neck.

The blade might have been made of bone, but it traveled so quickly that it produced the sound of air being sliced apart, as if space itself had been cut down. If that blade touched anyone, then even a rather sturdy body would be injured, much less a normal one.

However… when the sharp blade touched Su Ming’s neck, there was the sound of metal crashing against metal.

The thin man’s expression changed drastically. He turned around without any hesitation and appeared behind Su Ming. He no longer held onto the bone blade in his right hand, but with all five fingers positioned straight, he pushed towards his opponent’s back.

“Dark Mountain Tribe.” Su Ming did not falter once when he said these words. As he uttered them faintly, he took a step backwards, and his back crashed into the thin man.

With a bang, the thin man coughed up blood, and the bone blade shattered. His right hand trembled, and as his expression changed, he lifted his head and roared.

As he did so, the space around him immediately distorted, and a gigantic illusory shadow manifested behind him.

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