Pursuit of the Truth

1

Su Ming did not turn his head back. As his right hand fell, a loud, deafening bang instantly came from the ground and drowned out the countless shrill screams of pain that rose into the air. While echo lingered in the air, a shudder ran through the bodies of all the people who were fighting against each other, and as if they had been frozen, they cast their gazes at the ground. All of their jaws then fell slack, and shock on their faces could not be concealed.

On the ground was a huge handprint that had sunk in hundreds of feet deep. It was branded onto the land, and there was an innumerable amount of mangled black beetles in there!

That handprint was incredibly clear, as if a giant had placed his hand on the ground. On the edges of the handprint were the black beetles who had narrowly escaped death. Their bodies trembled, and they lay on the ground, not daring to move even a single inch.

They could sense a terrifying presence that could destroy their entire race coming from that handprint, and it was a mighty pressure that was impossible for them to stand against.

Su Ming watched this scene unfold before his eyes calmly. The heart of the old Hearer behind him was trembling at that moment. He was retreating swiftly, filled with regret and terror. He was regretting that he had come so close to such a scary person!

He was frightened by that palm which contained a will that he could not resist. He had never seen a Master of Fate, Lives, and Death in his life, but he had heard about the divine abilities possessed by the powerful warriors on this Realm. When he saw all that had happened, only the title of a Master of Fate, Lives, and Death echoed in his head; these were the only words that could describe Su Ming.

“Coming to my side is not something that you can do at will, and neither… is leaving,” Su Ming said flatly.

The old Hearer’s expression changed drastically. When he raised his right hand, the rattle drum appeared. As he shook it rapidly, he left in an instant. He had been already scared out of his wits by Su Ming’s palm. If he knew that there was such a powerful existence in the Ninth Tribe, he would have never brought his tribe, no matter what.

This was no longer them hunting down the Ninth Tribe, but the Hearers bringing upon themselves a threat of extermination!

His pupils shrank. As he charged forward, he began fleeing desperately. He wanted to escape from this place. In fact, he could no longer care about the survival of his other tribe members here. He wanted to get back to his tribe as quickly as possible and have it migrate quickly to get as far away as they could from this place. If they slowed down even the slightest bit, then he believed that what would await his tribe would be complete annihilation.

Su Ming lowered his right hand, then struck his storage bag. The gourd immediately appeared and floated above hid palm. Su Ming touched it gently a few times.

“Treasured gourd, please kill him,” Su Ming said faintly, and eyes immediately appeared on the gourd before fixing themselves coldly on the fleeing old Hearer. A multicolored light instantly erupted from within, and a small person with a blade shot out from the gourd, charging over at its target.

After a moment, a shrill scream of pain rang out in the air, resounding swiftly in the battlefield which had fallen silent due to Su Ming’s palm, attracting all of the people’s gazes towards the source.

When the people of the Ninth Tribe looked over, their spirits were immediately lifted, but when the Hearers looked over, their faces turned stark pale. If Su Ming’s palm strike to the ground had scared the Hearers out of their wits, pushed their fighting spirit into the dumps, and gave rise to incredible terror within their hearts, then the sight of the old Hearer being beheaded was like a funeral bell that struck fiercely in all the Hearers’ hearts.

“Elder!”

“Run! Get out of here quickly!”

After being stunned for a moment, a commotion rose among them. All of the Hearers were filled with limitless terror at that moment. Their minds instantly broke down, and all of them started withdrawing. All their minds were focused on only one word – Run!

“All members of the Ninth Tribe, heed my orders! Come with me… and kill them! The Hearers have been slaughtering our people for years, and this time… we will have them pay by several fold!”

Dijiu Mo Sha let out a roar, and monstrous hatred burned in his eyes. As he roared, the gigantic shadow of the black-furred giant manifested behind him, along with… Tian Xie Zi’s figure sitting on its head, which brought Su Ming’s eyes to him once more.

Roars immediately answered his call. It was an outburst that came from all the warriors of the Ninth Tribe after it had been suppressed within them for countless years. Hundreds of people flew out at that moment, turning into long arcs that charged towards the sky before launching a crazed slaughter on the fleeing Hearers, who were now scattered and lacked any unity.

One party was fleeing in desperation, and the other was chasing them down in a frenzy while roaring. Clearly, this battle would not end within a short period of time, and the battle line would be elongated.

Su Ming stood at the summit and watched this scene, then sighed. He had no grudge against the Hearers, and with his principles, as long as they did not provoke him, he would not exterminate an entire tribe without reason.

This day was the first time Su Ming had ran into the Hearers.

However… once he cast his gaze on his Master sitting on the black-furred giant right behind Dijiu Mo Sha, who was chasing down the Hearers in the distance, a determined gaze appeared in his eyes.

He could change his principles for his Master.

‘This is the tribe Master developed in Divine Essence Star Ocean. They were his companions through many lonely years.’

Su Ming raised his right hand. Once he formed a seal, he swung his arm in the air. With it, the totem on his arm that was the Duke of Crimson Flame instantly formed a fire cloud that appeared in an incredibly distant place. That spot was the border to the continent the fleeing Hearers have not managed to get close to just yet.

When they arrived, the Duke of Crimson Flame walked out from the fire cloud. His expression was aloof, and when he spread his arms open, he roared at the sky. With just one roar, a sea of fire spread out around him with loud booms. In an instant, a fire barrier was erected around the land.

This barrier was like a lock that completely cut off any chance of survival for the Hearers!

“No!”

“We’re willing to pledge allegiance! We’re willing to join the Ninth Tribe!!”

“Please spare us! All of this was the elder’s orders, we had to come…”

Pleas for mercy, shouts of madness, and cries of despair instantly echoed in all directions, but all of them turned into pained screams that were drowned out by the enraged roars mixed with the intent for vengeance from those of the Ninth Tribe.

Su Ming closed his eyes and sat down cross-legged on the summit.

He did not want to join in this massacre. Helping the tribe kill the strongest person among their enemies and resolving the threat of the sea of insects’ infestation was something Su Ming had done for his Master, but that was also all that he would do.

To Su Ming, who had already grown used to seeing life and death, whether this tribe could continue thriving and growing was of no importance.

Shrill screams of pain rose and fell in his ears. The stench of blood was thick and refused to leave. Once it collided with the sea of fire, it formed an unpleasant smell.

As time passed, the screams grew less in number, but at that moment, Su Ming’s eyes suddenly flew open and he swiftly looked into the distance. His gaze was trained on a male Hearer who was fighting for his life against Dijiu Mo Sha once his path to escape was cut off by the sea of fire.

He had outstanding power and seemed to be either in the later or middle stage of World Plane Realm, possessing power of equal level to that of Dijiu Mo Sha. Their divine abilities rang in the air, and when their fight had reached its most intense moment…

Su Ming’s expression remained as calm as ever, but he let out a cold harrumph. Dijiu Mo Sha could not see it, and neither could anyone from the Ninth Tribe, but Su Ming could see a fine crack appearing in the air behind that Hearer. It was swiftly tearing open, and in just the span of a few breaths, it would be completely ripped open.

Su Ming’s harrumph did not travel too far. It only echoed a hundred something feet in the area, but the fine crack behind that Hearer that no one else could see abruptly stopped moving.

The Divine Essence Runic Symbols in Su Ming’s eyes shone, and the world before his eyes seemed to have been frozen, as if it was due to the power of Divine Essence. It did not move, and was turned into a still picture.

Su Ming was momentarily stunned by this sight. When he looked over, the picture was instantly magnified before his eyes, as if it was moving. As it grew ceaselessly bigger, it looked as if Su Ming and the Hearer’s distance was being reduced. It continued until Su Ming’s gaze seeped through the man’s body and landed on the fine crack in the seemingly normal air behind the man.

As Su Ming stared at it, the air was magnified endlessly. Once it grew several hundreds of times bigger, he saw a fine crack.

He magnified it once more, and when it was made several thousands of times bigger, that crack turned into a gigantic ravine. Su Ming’s gaze shot through it, and he saw a layer of light.

It moved about in Su Ming’s eyes until he saw a black piece of land.

On that land was a black volcano, which was erupting. There was a tribe that was formed of black towers at the foot of the volcano. Within that tribe were men, women, the elderly, and the young, but at that moment, all of them were kneeling on the ground and surrounding a statue.

That statue was an eyeball!

A feeble, frail old man with festering wounds all over his body was gasping as he circled around the eyeball with movements as if he was dancing. His eyes shone with hatred and anxiety, and complicated chants tumbled out endlessly from his mouth, causing a cloudy look to gradually appear in that eyeball, as if wind and clouds over the course of ten thousand years had just flashed past it.

Judging by the appearance of the people who were kneeling on the ground in worship, Su Ming could tell that they were Hearers, and this was clearly where the Hearers’ tribe was located. As for that eyeball, it was definitely the God that the Hearers had been worshiping for countless years.

It was clear that they had sensed their tribe members’ deaths and were worshiping their God, hoping that it would show them a miracle.

Almost the moment Su Ming’s gaze looked towards the eye through the crack, a vertical pupil appeared on the eye that was being worshiped. That pupil was brown, and there seemed to be endless vengeful spirits struggling to rush out from within it, making it seem incredibly wicked.

The pupil turned around and instantly looked at Su Ming.

At the instant their gazes met, the pupil in the eye shrank abruptly, and a piercing screech reverberated in Su Ming’s heart. With a bang, he tumbled out of the magnified version of the world before his eyes. The ravine turned into a crack, and when the world he saw was no longer a picture but had regained mobility, the burning of flames reverberated in the air, a bloody stench spread out, and the Hearer continued fighting against Dijiu Mo Sha.

Su Ming moved backwards, as if an invisible force had crashed into him, then a freezing glint shone in his eyes.

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