Pursuit of the Truth

1

The old man was thin and shriveled. His head was slightly big, and he had several locks of hair trailing down from it. There was red in his eyes, and there was also a fierce glare shining in them. Once he appeared, he sprawled down on the ground and did not move.

Only after a moment did he get up and look around himself carefully. He stared at the blade of grass with three leaves on the one thousand feet tall tree, and a brilliant glint shone in his eyes.

He moved, and in an instant, he appeared nearby. He lifted his right hand, then swiftly seized the ground. Immediately, his fingers sank into the earth. When he closed his eyes, Su Ming felt a light shudder traveling through the ground.

Su Ming’s eyes sparkled. The supreme body he controlled at that moment had blended with the area around him. He was confident that he would not be found so easily. After all, this treasure was created by a Sublime Paragon. It was not something that could be seen through by a normal Master of Fate, Lives, and Death.

After a moment, when the tremors in the ground became weaker then completely subsided, Flame Fiends’ Progenitor lifted his fingers from the ground. After licking his lips, he moved and instantly appeared beside the one thousand feet tall tree. He shifted his gaze from the blade of grass with three leaves above the tree’s crown to the four people sitting and meditating below.

The spot in which Su Ming hid allowed him to see Flame Fiends’ Progenitor. He noticed that when the old man swept his gaze past the four people, he placed his attention on Long Hai. The old man licked his lips, and a hint of greed appeared in his eyes.

“What a great body that has been nourished for ten thousand years by the spirit of the tree. The value of this body is even greater than the flower above it,” Flame Fiends’ Progenitor mumbled to himself softly.

“Especially since their souls and their cultivation bases are still around!” The eyes of Flame Fiends’ Progenitor grew brighter. He closed in on the cultivators, but the moment he approached them, the one thousand feet tall tree suddenly swayed.

The world immediately roared. The sky turned from light green to dark green. The change was especially prominent on the ground, which filled with endless blades of grass. At the instant they sprung up, they charged towards Flame Fiends’ Progenitor, as if they wanted to surround him and wrap him up like strands of hair.

Flame Fiends’ Progenitor grinned. The moment he was surrounded by those blades of grass, he stretched his arms out, and immediately, a purple sea of fire erupted from his thin and shriveled body. The sea of fire instantly spread out, and once it crashed into the incoming blades of grass, violent booms rang out.

It stirred up a wave of impact that swept outwards. Su Ming remained still not too far away, watching the actions of Flame Fiends’ Progenitor. He saw the old man rush to one of the cultivators in Solar Kalpa Realm right when the purple flames from his body crashed into the grass.

The Solar Kalpa Realm cultivator had his shoulder seized by Flame Fiends’ Progenitor, and in a flash, Flame Fiends’ Progenitor bit into his neck. With one vicious suck, the cultivator’s body started trembling violently, a telling sign that he was in intense pain, but his expression remained numb, and his eyes were still dazed.

His body started withering away right before their eyes. After a moment, he was reduced to only skin and bones. A large amount of black spots also appeared on his body. These black spots spread out rapidly, and judging by the looks of it, he was not rotting away. Instead, it seemed like a brand left on him after fire had eroded his body. All of this happened in the span of a few breaths. When Flame Fiends’ Progenitor lifted his head from the Solar Kalpa Realm cultivator’s neck, blood still trickled down the corners of his lips, and there was excitement as well as an expression of being revitalized on his face.

As for that cultivator in Solar Kalpa Realm, his entire body was covered in black spots. It had turned black like charcoal. When Flame Fiends’ Progenitor swung his right hand, the cultivator turned into powder.

At that moment, the one thousand feet tall tree seemed to have become angry. It swayed again, and quite a large number of tree leaves fell off to turn into talismans. They shone with a dense, green light and charged towards Flame Fiends’ Progenitor.

The eyes of the old man sparkled. He rushed to another cultivator in Solar Kalpa Realm, and almost at the same time he closed in on him, the talismans reached him. Flame Fiends’ Progenitor lifted his right hand and pushed his palm straight at them.

Loud bangs shot up in the world. A gigantic palm appeared in front of Flame Fiends’ Progenitor. It charged towards those talismans, and at the instant they crashed into each other, booming sounds reverberated in the air. Flame Fiends’ Progenitor used that time to reach another Solar Kalpa Realm cultivator. This time, he did not bite down on his neck. Instead, at the instant he closed in, he seized the cultivator’s chest with his left hand, and what Su Ming saw caused his pupils to shrink.

He saw with his own eyes that the chest of Flame Fiends’ Progenitor tore itself open. It was like a gaping mouth that was filled with flames. With this appearance, he pounced on that cultivator in Solar Kalpa Realm. From the distance, it was as if he was using that mouth on his chest to devour that cultivator.

With just one bite, the head was devoured, and with another bite, the whole body disappeared from the spot. The cultivator was completely eaten by Flame Fiends’ Progenitor.

It was difficult to imagine the thin and shriveled Flame Fiends’ Progenitor to be able to swallow a cultivator whose body was much bigger than his, but it was what had happened. As Su Ming’s eyes sparkled, he watched Flame Fiends’ Progenitor fighting against the tree. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to give up on attacking.

‘If this tree was only this powerful, it’d have been impossible for it to trap an Almighty like Progenitor Long Hai. Judging by the looks of it, the tree has yet to execute its full strength…

‘Then the reason why it did this…’ Su Ming’s eyes focused and he cast Flame Fiends’ Progenitor a glance. Clearly, if he could think about this, it was impossible that the old man did not guess it as well.

‘That’s why he chose those three cultivators in Solar Kalpa Realm.’

The one thousand feet tall tree swayed furiously. A large amount of leaves fell off, and as they floated down, they turned into talismans to charge towards Flame Fiends’ Progenitor, who laughed loudly and moved. He did not bother himself with the arrival of those talismans and pounced on the last remaining cultivator in Solar Kalpa Realm.

The talismans were so quick that they touched the old man’s body the moment he pounced on the last Solar Kalpa Realm cultivator. As booming sounds rose in the air again, the last of the trio died in Flame Fiends’ Progenitor’s mouth.

As for the old man, he swayed and was forced back a few steps, but a cold glare appeared in his eyes.

At that moment, a pair of eyes suddenly appeared on the tree’s trunk. Those eyes were yellow. They shone with a merciless light and were staring at the Flame Fiend coldly.

“Are you done eating them?”

A loud, buzzing sound came from the tree and echoed in the world, turning into booms which sounded like thunder. They swept through the land in all directions.

“I’d have to thank you for intentionally letting me devour those three cultivators. Now, I just lack one more,” Flame Fiends’ Progenitor said in a ghastly manner while laughing and licking his lips. His body shook with his mirth, and it filled him with a bizarre air.

When Su Ming heard this, he did not move. In fact, even his eyes remained still. Everything was just as he had guessed previously. The tree was the only ferocious spirit in this land. Everything just then might have made the situation seem intense, but in truth, it was just for show. The tree had intentionally let Flame Fiends’ Progenitor devour the three cultivators.

With it, it could make the blood and essence of Flame Fiends’ Progenitor become even more robust, and it could turn him into a puppet like Long Hai.

“I lack a member of an alien race like you under me. Stay.” As the tree spoke with a buzzing sound, Progenitor Long Hai’s eyes opened. A sharp and fierce glare appeared in his eyes, and at the same time, he stood up slowly. His body started floating.

It could be seen clearly that branches which had crawled out from the ground had fused into Long Hai’s feet, making him look like a puppet which was held up by strings.

The moment the tree finished speaking, Long Hai’s eyes shone. He lifted his right hand, and the shadow of a green dragon appeared on his palm. That green dragon threw its head back and roared, then rushed towards Flame Fiends’ Progenitor. At the same time, Long Hai flew forward as well.

The one thousand feet tall tree swayed, and cracking sounds rang out. One thousand leaves fell off and turned into one thousand talismans. Then, another thousand leaves went down. When they did, they began burning on their own. As they did so, there was no smoke, but a thick wave of resentment rose up

When it spread out, another thousand leaves drifted down. They turned into human faces that belonged to all sorts of living beings. Piercing roars reverberated in the air, and the three thousand leaves rushed towards Flame Fiends’ Progenitor.

“I am the ancestor of all trees. I have existed since the world was created. These three thousand leaves and the three thousand Great Daos in the world. You… how dare you still not submit to me?!” That buzzing sound was like thunder. The three thousand leaves turned into a gigantic battle axe in midair and swung down at Flame Fiends’ Progenitor.

When he saw this, a hint of surprise appeared on his face. He sensed the mighty pressure of those in Mastery Realm from the tree, but if it could trap an Almighty in Mastery Realm, so it was clearly impossible for it to be weak.

When Flame Fiends’ Progenitor saw the attacks, his pupils contracted, but not a single hint of fear could be detected on him. Instead, he grinned. Without even looking at the incoming Long Hai and the axe formed by the three thousand tree leaves, he pushed his hands against the ground.

After that, he lifted his head and let out a shrill roar towards the sky. A purple sea of fire that surged into the sky instantly erupted from the Flame Fiend’s body and rushed down into the ground through his arms.

“So what if you can trap an Almighty in Mastery Realm? If you were a person, I might be wary of you, but you are a tree, and trees… are dependent on the ground. I will burn the ground which serves as your foundation and turn this world into nothingness. I’d like to see how exactly you will make things hard for me when your foundation is gone!” As the Flame Fiend shouted, the ground burned, and a dense sea of fire filled the entire world.

While the ground burned, it started disappearing swiftly. The layers in the sky turned into nothingness. Flame Fiends’ Progenitor’s flames were his Origin Flames. He was a life form different from Dust Burners, but like them he had emerged from flames as well.

In the blink of an eye, the earth turned into ashes and disappeared. The sky was devoured by emptiness. Within an instant, there was no longer a sky or earth in the world, only a tree that was one thousand feet tall floating around.

The tree had countless roots. Due to the lack of soil, they all started twisting.

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