Chapter 813: Foreign Land!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Several days later, True Sacred Yin World spread the news of the wanted criminal Mo Su stepping into the foreign land. Once the numerous cultivators who were chasing after his life learned about it, their pursuits came to an end.
It did not matter whether it were the cultivators from Western Ring Nebula or those who had come from other galaxies. Once they learned of this news, slightly mixed feelings rose in their hearts. Quite a large number of them went to the peripheral edges of Western Ring Nebula's foreign land, and as they looked at the region, they chose to leave in silence.
It was precisely because they knew of the dangers of the foreign land that even if they had come after Su Ming's life for the rewards, a hint of respect grew in their hearts for that cultivator called Mo Su.
He had caused True Sacred Yin World of the four Great True Worlds to raise arms against him and add an additional bounty over his head. He had also released numerous ferocious beasts in many cultivation planets, breaking open one seal after another, and even forced the four Great True Worlds to shut down the Divinity Incarceration Rune. All of the True Guards of True Sacred Yin World were mobilized, and a Radix Planet had even left its region where the four Great True Worlds stationed themselves to keep a lookout over Sinful Barren Lands.
All of these might sound simple, but in truth, over the endless amount of years, besides the change in Black Ink Planet, only Mo Su alone was able to do this.
In the endless pursuit, not only had this person managed to survive, he had also killed countless pursuers. The difference between a cultivator in the initial stage of World Plane Realm might not be that great from a cultivator in Heaven Cultivation Planet, but no matter what, they were in World Plane Realm. Yet even so, even those in the initial stage of World Plane died when they ran into this Mo Su!
Only those in the middle stage of World Plane Realm could make this person avoid them. However, in the chase after his life, even Heavenly Treasure Planet had been shattered. Zhao Family's Progenitor could not detain him, and his achievements time and again had caused him to become famous. He became a subject that almost no one did not know about in Western Ring Nebula, and the things he did were known to almost all.
This sort of person deserved respect. This was something all the pursuers that had come after him for the rewards and mostly chosen to remain silent beyond the foreign land though.
Several days later, in the area beyond the foreign land, which had become quiet once again, a sigh could be heard. An old man in rags walked out of space with unstable footsteps. There was a pot of wine in his hand. Once he walked out, he drank a mouthful of wine. As he looked at the calm foreign land, a hint of admiration appeared on his face.
'No wonder he became a wanted criminal by the four Great True Worlds and could cause such a stir in Western Ring Nebula. What courage! He actually dared to enter the foreign land to fight for his survival. If this child doesn't die, then in the future, he will surely become a Chosen.' The old man drank quietly. After some time, he shook his head, turned around, and left.
'Mo Su, I'll remember your name. If you manage to come out someday, then I will invite you for a drink.'
Soon after the old man left, an innumerable amount of shattered stones appeared in space from another direction. Right when these shattered stones appeared, they gathered together to form a gigantic human made of stone. That stone human's eyes were cold as he stared at the foreign land. He did not say a word. After some time, he let out a cold harrumph and disappeared into the galaxy.
Seven days later, a young man in white arrived near the quiet foreign land. That young man's expression was icy cold, and there was a hint of loneliness in his gaze. He looked at the foreign land and remained silent for a very long time.
"Su Ming, you can't die here, because the only person who has the right to kill you is me. Only me, Ye Wang! If you die here, then I will no longer have any opponents…" The young man was naturally, Ye Wang. He stood there for several hours before he turned around and left, bringing with him a hint of loneliness.
Time passed. Soon, a month went by.
If the four Great True Worlds had not sent out a new notice, then the matter regarding Mo Su would have come to an end, and this matter would just remain in the hearts of all those who'd heard of it. Perhaps it would have remained there forever, or perhaps it would have disappeared several years later.
However, the new notice caused an uproar that had never been seen before in Western Ring Nebula and the other three galaxies. Even the shock that had been stirred up when the reward of the Kalpa Treasure was offered could not compare to what was happening at this moment. The difference between them was like heaven and earth.
People began to hesitate. In fact, the people who had chosen to leave started shuddering because of this notice as well. Madness appeared in their eyes, along with an intense conflict.
The old monsters who had taken action due to the Kalpa Treasure previously were shocked as well by the four Great True Worlds' notice. They were in disbelief. In fact, they could not imagine the reason why the four Great True Worlds would pay so much attention at this person called Mo Su. The level of attention they paid him even surpassed the amount of attention gained by Black Ink Planet.
The old monsters were not the only ones in disbelief. Even the True Guards from the four Great True Worlds were shocked by the contents of the notice, and they were… even dumbfounded.
This was the nineteenth-tier notice that was sent straight from the main camp. This notice's tier level meant that this was a decision made together by the nineteen powerful True Generals in the main camp. In fact, the orders of the two True Divinities within the main camp were contained in the notice as well, else even the nineteen True Generals would not have been able to offer such a reward.
It could be said that the notice represented the main camp's orders, the forces of power from the four Great True Worlds keeping a lookout over Sinful Barren Lands… and could even be said to represent the will of the four Great True Progenitors from the four Great True Worlds, who were said to no longer care about the matters of the world.
"Those who enter Western Ring Nebula's foreign land and capture Mo Su alive… will be pardoned of all their crimes and will be free return to the four Great True Worlds… They will obtain their freedom!"
This was the content of the notice. There was no mention of World Stones, cultivation planets, or Kalpa Treasure. However, the word 'freedom' was the greatest desire among all the cultivators within the Barren Lands of Divine Essence, and it did not matter what their level of cultivation was. For freedom, they were willing to give up on everything.
Compared to freedom, all treasures were nothing. This was the first time the four Great True Worlds had offered freedom as a bounty for a person within the Barren Lands of Divine Essence.
The shock caused by this notice was difficult to describe with words. Even the old monsters who usually isolated themselves to train and did not come out all year long within the four Great Galaxies were taken aback. In fact, some of the mighty cultivators who possessed the power of Lunar Kalpa Realm were also shaken by this notice. Their desire for freedom was so great that they would even dream of it in their sleep.
With such a reward, someone finally stepped into Western Ring Nebula's foreign land, becoming the second person to enter after Mo Su. Gradually, more and more people entered with hearts that were ready to risk everything so that they could fight for their freedom with everything on the line.
…..
The moon in the sky shone with a gentle, luminous light. The light landed on the snow on the ground and reflected a silvery glow. The boundless snow floating down from the sky was like a beautiful song under the moonlight that echoed in the air.
The ground was filled with thick layers of snow, and although the wind was not strong, it was very cold. There were some trees there as well. The cold season caused their branches to be empty of leaves, so the only things that remained were dead trees with lots of branches.
There was a village in the distance. Under the moonlight were balls of light from the lamps, hidden behind the paper covering windows. Those lights shone with an indistinct glimmering yellow.
This was a village with only a few hundreds of people. In this dark night, the village gave people a feeling of peace and quiet. It might be due to the cold in midwinter, but even some of the mutts that were kept in the houses were hunched in corners. Even if a stranger came, they would not be willing to bark.
Occasionally, the sounds of babies crying could be heard. Soon after, a mother's soft, comforting whispers offering protection would cause the whimpers to slowly fade away.
This was the sight Su Ming saw when he entered the foreign land with a cautious heart and with his cultivation base circulating in his base so that he could bring forth his strongest attack at any time. This was the sight he saw after he was relocated and saw his surroundings.
This serenity, this gentleness, this normalcy, these whimpers of the babies, the mothers' whispers, and this village stunned Su Ming momentarily.
He stood on the snow, and there was plenty of it on his body, too as he looked at the village in the distance. The tranquility in this place made it impossible for him to believe that this was the foreign land.
This was not a place that was filled with dangers, where practically all those who entered died, while the few who survived refused to talk about the things they encountered even after they got out… This was clearly a peaceful place that was like paradise. In fact, when Su Ming spread his Atman outwards, he couldn't sense even a single hint of danger in the area, nor was there any hint of power. All of these things forced Su Ming to believe that this place… was just a normal village. There were no cultivators here, and neither was there any danger.
"How could this be?" Su Ming mumbled. There was a huge disparity between this and the foreign land he imagined. In truth, even if he had ran into a place that was filled with endless dangers and countless ferocious beasts charging at him, he would not have been as bewildered as he was at that moment.
This sort of ordinary peace sent shivers down his spine.
Not only did his guard not lax, it instead became stronger. He looked at the area, and eventually, his gaze fell once again on the village. At that moment, he slowly sat down cross-legged. He did not move forward, but instead looked at the village quietly with a huge, dried-up tree by his side.
'Foreign land…'
In silence, Su Ming grabbed a handful of snow from the ground. He looked at the snow, absorbing the warmth from his hand before it slowly melted away. As he looked at the melted puddle flowing down from his palm and dripping onto the ground to leave small potholes, he frowned.
'Could it be an illusion?' Su Ming's eyes shone. Gradually, the bright moon appeared in his left eye and the sun in his left. During that instant, his heart became a star.
Illusion of Star, Sun, and Moon. This was the illusion type divine ability that Su Ming had understood on his own. Even those with higher levels of cultivation than his would have their hearts seen through under this illusion. At that moment, Su Ming activated this ability at full force and looked towards the village in the distance.
Yet no matter how he cast the illusion, he could not detect a single hint of change. The village was still the village. Snow was still floating down. Everything was so real that it made Su Ming's breathing become a little rapid.
'Something's not right. The foreign land should not be like this.'
Su Ming swiftly closed his eyes. After he covered the sun and moon in his eyes, he circulated his cultivation base through his body. After a moment, he opened his eyes. A strange light appeared in them, and he looked towards the village once again.
It was still the same.
Su Ming was silent. He felt that the area was filled with a bizarre air, but he did not choose to leave. Instead, with his guard up, he chose to remain still while seated, remaining that way until the sky was no longer dark. Once sunlight shone on the ground and the new day arrived, he still continued to look at the village.
Time passed. One day went by, and another. Su Ming sat there for half a month, but he did not manage to see a single thing that was off. He examined practically every villager of the hundreds present—every man, woman, elderly, and young—but they were all mortals.
It was the night half a month later that Su Ming's expression suddenly changed as he remained seated. He turned his head around to look into the distance, then averted his gaze.
When midnight arrived, the sounds of galloping horses came from the distance. The snow that was sent flying into the air spread out. When bellowing laughter reached Su Ming's ears, he saw… a team of horsemen numbering a hundred, which he had noticed several hours ago.
These people all had ferocious looks on their faces that showed their ruthless and brutal nature. As they laughed, they charged towards the village, and even brought out scimitars and battle axes. By the looks of it, they were clearly going to plunder and slaughter the village.
Chapter 814: Secrets of the Foreign Lands
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
'Just what secrets do the foreign lands have that most of those who enter will die, and those few that leave will not speak of them? Is it because they don't want to say it or because of some other reason?'
Su Ming looked at the bandits getting closer to the village. Once the sounds of horse galloping shook the ground, the dogs in the village that did not want to bark seemed to have noticed danger and started barking almost shrilly, causing the lights that had been extinguished in the village to all be lit up at that moment.
Shocked cries and screams of terror came from a village along with the wails of babies. It was chaos.
'I've been observing this village for the past half a month and found nothing extraordinary. It's just a mortals' village… Since this is not an illusion, then they must be real.
'This village is built in this place. If bandits frequently appear here, then there's no way they would not have any sort of defenses set up, but I did not see even a single fence.
'The bandits' arrival is a little strange as well. Why did I see them..?'
Su Ming narrowed his eyes. As a myriad of thoughts turned in his head, he saw the group of bandits less than a thousand feet away from the village. Dogs were howling there, and children were held by their mothers, and as they shivered, fear and despair appeared in their eyes.
The men in the village took hold of any weapon they could find. They might be afraid, but they did not retreat. Instead, in their despair, they let out roars of madness.
They were ready to give up their lives to protect their families and home.
"Kill them. Destroy the entire village. Kill all the men, elderly, and children. Snatch all their food and women, and hurry up. Once we destroy this village, we have to rush back." The strongest man among the bandits lifted the scimitar in his hand with a ferocious grin. Then, waving the weapon before them and roaring loudly, all the men charged towards the village with crazed laughter.
A thousand feet, eight hundred feet, six hundred feet…
Su Ming looking at this scene from the distance. He watched the bandits come less that three hundred feet away from the village, watched as the villagers became fearful and despairing, watched the fear in the children's innocent eyes, watched how the men refused to take a single step backwards to protect their home, and watched all the women hold onto their children tightly as tears fell from their eyes. Resolve could be seen there.
Su Ming suddenly understood.
"I'm hesitating…" he mumbled.
"When I hesitate, I sink into a situation where I have to make a choice. I can choose to help the villagers or to help the bandits. I can also choose to not do anything and let things happen on their own, or choose to kill everyone here. Perhaps I even have other choices, but...
"This isn't my will. This is the surroundings around me and the development of the situation in this world forcefully dragging me into making a choice. No matter what I do, I will be making a choice.
"This is the foreign land, the foreign land that is rumored to be incredibly dangerous, I understand now!"
Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. He looked at the bandits that were only a hundred feet away from the village, having come to understand the things before him. This was the world and the foreign land setting out the conditions to have him make his first choice.
"It's like this dried up tree. There's only one trunk, but the higher it goes, the more branches there will be. Once I choose a branch, I will be faced with more choices later. When I reach the end, I will realize that the end isn't even the end." Su Ming stood up and looked at the tree beside him. "Choice, huh..?"
A freezing glare appeared in Su Ming's eyes. He lifted his right hand and swung it at the village not too far in the distance. At that moment, the man leading the bandits into village had lifted the scimitar in his hand with a ferocious smile. Right at the instant he swung down at the head of the middle-aged man in front of him, a shudder suddenly ran through his body. The scimitar he had lifted froze in midair. Wind blew past, and the man along with the horse under him turned into ashes.
There was no blood, no torn pieces of flesh. He was simply reduced to ashes and disappeared from the crowd's eyes. While the villagers were stunned, all the other bandits behind the man froze in the mid of their terror, and then… all of them turned into ashes as well.
This strange sight immediately caused the breathing of all the villagers to almost stop. They stared at the ashes spreading out in the snow with dumbfounded gazes and felt that everything that had just happened was surreal. It was as if everything that happened was just a dream.
They remained staring blankly until they saw Su Ming walking towards them through the snow. Then, all of them withdrew while trembling. Su Ming, with his gray hair and long white robes, walked towards them through the snow until he stood before the mortal villagers. He swept his gaze past all of their bodies.
He saw terror, one that was even greater than when these people had ran into the bandits earlier, and it was all shown in their trembling bodies. Su Ming averted his gaze in silence, then turned around. Just as he was about to leave, the wind lifted his hair.
"Le… Sir, you… You're the legend!" a trembling voice suddenly came from the crowd. An old man took a few quick steps forward. His face was covered in wrinkles, and he had the appearance of a person who had one foot in his grave. At that moment, with an excited face, he looked at Su Ming while his body shuddered.
"You are the legend, the legend of our village. There's no mistake to this, I will absolutely not mistake this… I remember your portrait. You are the legend!"
Su Ming was momentarily taken aback, then he turned around and looked at the old mortal.
In his excitement, the old man could not even enunciate his words clearly. His franticness made him unable to explain the situation clearly. He quickly pointed towards one of the buildings in the village.
A glint appeared in Su Ming's eyes when he looked at the building. He walked towards it, and once he pushed open its door, his heart trembled. He did not step in, but stood at the entrance for a long, long time.
That building was an ancestral one. There were plenty of memorial plates there, and they belonged to the deceased villagers, who were placed there to be worshipped by their descendants. On the wall behind those plates was a picture.
There was a man in that picture. He was dressed in a long white robe, and he had long gray hair. His body was positioned sideways in the snow, as if he was turning around. Wind lifted his hair, and this scene… was the exact same as when Su Ming had been about to turn around to leave!
"This is the picture to which we give our offerings all year long. In the past, you…" The old man's quivering and excited voice came from behind Su Ming, but he did not hear his words. This was no longer important.
The important thing was the picture. He looked at his hair dancing in the wind there, at the scattering snow, and he knew that this was not a picture scroll that had existed for many years. Instead… it was the him of just then.
"Foreign lands…" Su Ming mumbled. He lifted his right hand and seized the picture through the air. It rushed at him, and the instant he grabbed it, a vast amount of power spread out from within the scroll and surged straight into his body. Then, an ancient voice appeared in his head.
There was an age-old presence to that voice, as if it had traveled through the passages of time from many, many years ago. Due to its age, even just hearing that voice alone would make someone feel a waning presence.
"I… am Sui Chen Zi."
That voice echoed in Su Ming's mind. The ancient tone brought with it a presence that could make the galaxy freeze all over. At the instant that voice spread out, the snow around Su Ming stopped moving. All the villagers also lost all signs of life. They stood there, still and unmoving.
The buildings around him started disintegrating right before his eyes. Even those people who did not move also started rotting away at that moment.
They were not the only ones. Even the snow on the ground, the wind in the air, and the entire sky started slowly fading away, as if they were also falling into decline.
In fact, even the picture scroll in Su Ming's hands started disintegrating. It was as if it had been immersed in the eternal passages of time that were constantly flowing away.
All the color in the area also faded away at that moment, the only one remaining being gray. Only Su Ming's body alone retained its original color, becoming the only thing that was different in the world.
"When I was born, the world had already been formed. I've trained in the path of cultivation for a long time, and I've forgotten how long I've practiced it… The universe has nine heavens, and I am in exclusive possession of one of them. I've reached the end of the path of cultivation. With one thought, I can destroy the heavens; with one thought, I can give life to the universe.
"With one thought, I can make all lives perish; with one thought, I can give life to all manner of being… There are nine worlds in the universe. When the cosmos was first formed, the heavens were segregated, and I have become one of them. If I die, then the cosmos will be missing one piece to its whole. If I perish, then the cosmos will be incomplete from then on.
"Wherever my will is, another cultivator in Plane Kalpa Realm will be born. So long as I have the thought, a cultivator who has controlled fate will continue walking down the path of cultivation for his entire life. All the lives in the universe, all the lives in my world that practice cultivation are all because I will it to be so.
"However… the cosmos are damaged, and no one can reverse that damage. If the universe wishes for destruction, no power can fight against it… Those eight have all failed and perished. They have turned into Empty Dust, and I alone am left, still struggling.
"There are nine worlds in the universe, and eight have shattered. What use is there even if I struggle?!
"I wish to turn back the universe. If I succeed, I will recreate the cosmos. If I fail… then my dust will appear in the heart of the cosmos. With the Empty Dust of my eight friends as my companions, even if I die, I will have no regrets.
"Before I perish, I will set a law. I, Sui Chen Zi, shall declare this… If this world falls and turns into Empty Dust, then if the fated arrive, they can obtain my Divine Essence.
"Divine Essence is the essence of the nine worlds that were born when the universe was first formed. Only those who have obtained Divine Essence can become one of the nine worlds in the universe. Only then can they reach the end of their path of cultivation, and only then… can they give form to a world!
"Those who are fated, I do not know how long it has been in the universe where you are right now, but the number of Great True Worlds you see will tell you just how many Sublime Paragons like me there are in the universe right then!
"Look at the heart of the universe, find how many Empty Dusts have disappeared, and you will know how many people have become Sublime Paragons!"
Su Ming's heart was in shock. This was the greatest shock he had experienced ever since he became conscious of his own thoughts. It overturned all his understanding of the foreign lands.
"If you wish to obtain my Divine Essence, then there will only be three outcomes. One, you will be destroyed. Two, you will find yourself with not enough right to possess my Divine Essence, but you will be able to leave. However, you will not be allowed to say a word about it, or you will be destroyed. Three… you will fuse with my Divine Essence and walk down the path of becoming the Sublime Paragon!"
It was as if millions of thunderbolts roared in Su Ming's head at the same time. His body trembled. The world around him disintegrated completely during that instant. The buildings fell apart, the people turned into ashes, the sky disappeared, and the earth turned into nothingness. Only Su Ming alone stood in a daze.
The picture scroll in his hand also fell apart at that moment.
Chapter 815: Big Man
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Once the picture scroll disappeared and the world around turned into emptiness, tall, towering stone monuments appeared before Su Ming. Those stone monuments were all of different heights. Some of them were about several hundreds of thousands of feet tall, while others were only twenty or thirty thousand feet tall. Their numbers looked endless when he cast his gaze upon them. There were more than a hundred thousand of them.
Most of their colors were dull. Some of them even had cracks on them. As waves of ancient presences spread out from them, dried up specks of blood could also be found, which had once seeped out of those cracks.
There was a name carved on each of the stone monuments, and because there were more than a hundred thousand of them, it meant that there were more than a hundred thousand names there.
"My Divine Essence can be obtained by all manner of living as long as they are fated to obtain it. However… the law of the jungle is a law that will never perish. That is why I have left behind a hundred thousand stone monuments. Each person who comes will bring death to another. This is what one has to understand if they wish to obtain my Divine Essence.
"Those whose stone monuments go past the hundred thousand feet are the candidates for my Divine Essence. They may leave temporarily, for a thousand years. After that time, they can come to this place again. Once they make their stone monument a million feet tall, they can obtain another a thousand years' time, and this will continue every single time they push a stone monument.
"If they do not come every thousand years, then they will be destroyed. This is the second outcome for those who wish to obtain my Divine Essence.
"Those who can make their stone monument reach ten million feet at first try can obtain my Divine Essence immediately. All the other stone monuments will be completely crushed, and they will scatter away in the form of Empty Dust. This is the third outcome."
As Sui Chen Zi's voice echoed in Su Ming's heart, he saw a stone monument that was eight hundred thousand something feet away from him. It was riddled with cracks, from which fresh blood could be heard continuously flowing down. In fact, Su Ming could even hear shrill screams of pain and roars filled with unwillingness to admit defeat faintly echoing in the air.
"No, I won't accept this! I'm been trapped here for twenty-three thousand years, give me more time, and I'll be able to make this stone reach a million feet! I won't accept this!"
Those roars abruptly fell silent. The stone monument before Su Ming was washed in blood. When that voice disappeared, the name that once existed on the stone monument also disappeared without a trace. It was removed.
At the same time, a gentle light began to shine. When it surrounded the stone monument, it gradually became smaller. It shrank to only twenty thousand feet, then the light on it dissipated. The surface of the stone monument was smooth, like a mirror. When Su Ming looked over, his reflection was reflected on it.
"Leave your name. The inheritance begins now," the old voice stated, resounding once again in Su Ming's mind. Su Ming fell silent. He looked at the one hundred thousand stone monuments around him and understood that he had no room for retreat.
The so called three outcomes were not for people to choose whether they wanted to accept or reject the inheritance before they received it. Instead, right after they stepped into the foreign land and made their first choice, they were destined to tread on the path of inheritance.
Su Ming remained silent.
His heart was filled with apprehension due to Sui Chen Zi's arrangement. He knew that the more irregular things were, the more terrifying they would be. This right of inheritance never gave anyone the chance to choose things on their own. Instead, they were constantly being chosen for them.
Perhaps there were would be only a few people that came here. Then it would mean nothing to these one hundred thousand people. After all, once the choice was made, only one person out of a hundred thousand would die, and the possibility of it falling on them would be very small.
However… this inheritance was open to all. Anyone could enter. In fact, during the eternal passage of time, there must have been many periods of time when numerous cultivators arrived here. If ten thousand people came, then it would no longer be one out of ten thousand who would die, but one out of ten!
If fifty thousand people arrived, then it would one out of every two who would die. Similarly, if one hundred thousand came to this place, then this would turn into a ruthless round of elimination. In an instant, the previous one hundred thousand would all be replaced.
Even if one had just obtained the right and did not have much time to receive the Divine Essence, death would arrive at their doorstep. This was unfair, but in this world, fairness never existed.
Luck was the key to survive in this place!
Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. Once he understood all of this, he knew that he had no way to avoid this. He stared at the stone monument before him, then lifted his right hand to swing it at that stone monument.
It was as if a gust of wind had swept past the land. When it landed on the stone monument, it dispersed, and a name emerged - Mo Su.
At the instant that name appeared, a rumbling sound came from within the stone monument. A picture was gradually drawn on it. After a moment, when that picture was completely revealed, Su Ming saw a village in a world with wind and snow intertwining with each other, and he saw himself standing before those mortals.
This was his initial choice, and it was shown on the stone monument at that moment.
Su Ming stared at it. After a long time, he averted his gaze. When he looked into the distance, he saw that there were a thousand stone monuments that had reached a million feet tall. This meant that there were a thousand people that were fortunate enough to not die after they were trapped for an unknown amount of years, succeeding in making their stone monument grow to one million feet, obtaining the one thousand year period of freedom.
There were five hundred monuments that were two million feet tall. These five hundred stone monuments were erected in different directions, and the names on them were shining with a faint light.
There were three hundred stone monuments that had reached three million feet, and two hundred that were four million feet tall. And as for those that had reached five million feet, Su Ming saw only a hundred of those among the one hundred thousand stone monuments around him.
There were twenty that had reached six million feet tall.
There were ten that had reached seven million feet tall.
Su Ming only saw one stone monument that was eight million feet tall. It was erected far in the distance, but it was the tallest one in the area and so the most eye-catching presence here. Su Ming looked at the stone monument, and he could vaguely see the name on it.
"Yun Shan Zi!"
"If you become a candidate for my Divine Essence, your life span will no longer be numbered. Under the power of my law, you will not perish… but if you cannot continue making the stone monument grow, besides being eternally trapped in here, if other people become candidates, your right will be cancelled." The old voice echoed coldly in Su Ming's heart.
"A merciless round of elimination," Su Ming mumbled. It was clear. It someone managed to make his stone monument reach a million feet, then the one thousand first monument of one million feet would not appear. Instead, from among the previous one thousand stone monuments, one would be killed off so that the numbers would forever remain as one thousand.
Since there was no pattern, someone would be randomly killed off, making the possibility o being killed for all those within the range to be the same, even if one of them had reached 1,990,000 feet, while the other was just 1,000,010 feet.
One among a thousand would be chosen.
'During the endless passages of time, there must have been plenty of those who came to this place… There is no limitation regarding age here, which means that there is a possibility of there being an extremely ancient existences among the candidates.
'Once someone manages to obtain the Divine Essence, then all the others will die. The Duke of Crimson Flame once said that the ancestor of my people, the ancestor of Abyss Builders, once entered the foreign lands and walked out of the place.
'I might not know into which of the four foreign lands my ancestor had went, but since he managed to move out, then it means that he was a candidate in that foreign land but still died in the end. Was it because… a person who truly obtained the Divine Essence appeared in the foreign land he was part of?' Su Ming's heart trembled, but he quickly rejected that thought.
'The Duke of Crimson Flame said that if one doesn't count Divine Essence Star Ocean, there are only four foreign lands. Now, there are still four of them. This means that no one has managed to obtain that Divine Essence.' A glint appeared in Su Ming's eyes, and a pensive expression appeared on his face.
'Could it be… that my ancestor… has not died?! Instead, due to the time limit of a thousand years, he was forced to return to the foreign land and is still trapped in there?'
Su Ming frowned. There were plenty of clues, but it was difficult for him to find the true reason. Yet no matter what, there might be thousands of connections between the fifth True World's destruction and the foreign lands.
Su Ming sighed. There was only one path laid out before him, and that was to let his stone monument reach one million feet! He sucked in a deep breath, then took a step forward towards the stone monument that represented him. He looked at it and lifted his right hand. He had a faint feeling in his heart that if he just pressed his hand on the stone monument, he could join this sort of death match against the one hundred thousand people.
The moment Su Ming was about to press his hand on the stone monument, a boom suddenly echoed in the air. In the distance, a stone monument that was about three hundred thousand something feet tall shone with a brilliant light. Its height rapidly shot up and reached four hundred thousand feet. At the same time, a person bathed in light walked out from that stone monument.
That person was a big man. His body was incredibly tall and strong, and there was a thick presence of power of World Planes filling him. He had already reached the later stage of World Plane Realm!
At that moment, he walked out with an exhausted and apathetic look on his face. He saw Su Ming, but there was not a single hint of care within him. Instead, he looked towards the other stone monument that was about two hundred thousand feet tall beside him. Hints of gentleness appeared in his exhausted eyes, and it looked as if that stone monument's existence was his only motivation to continue doing this.
Su Ming swept his gaze past the stone monument of the man and saw the name carved there.
Zhou Kang.
Su Ming also saw a Si Ma Yue carved on the stone monument that was two hundred thousand feet tall and at which the man was looking with a gentle gaze.
'Si Ma Yue. That should be a woman's name. These people are either very good friends or lovers.' Su Ming looked at the man now sitting under the stone monument that belonged to himself. He was completely unbothered by Su Ming watching him and simply ignored him. He closed his eyes and did not speak.
In silence, Su Ming did not immediately place his hand on the stone monument. He took a few steps backwards and sat down cross-legged. He did not have too many hints or much experience regarding obtaining the inheritance of this Divine Essence. If he could gleam something from the man, then he would have a little more confidence.
Time passed. Neither Su Ming nor the man spoke. About several hours later, Su Ming suddenly turned around and looked in another direction.
Right before his eyes, he saw a gigantic blood-red crack appear as the air distorted. A booming sound came from the crack, and soon after, a person walked out.
That person was an old man. When he walked out, there was a dazed look on his face. He looked at the area blankly, and there was disbelieving amazement as well as shock amid the confusion on his countenance.
Clearly, this person was the same as Su Ming—it was his first time coming here.
This scene immediately caught Su Ming's attention. In fact, the man also opened his eyes instantly and stared at the old man. His breathing became slightly hurried. The selection of death was about to start. After a moment, someone from among the one hundred thousand people would definitely have the shadow of death fall on them, and both Su Ming and the man could be the unlucky one.
Chapter 816: Revenge for Having Killed His Wife
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"The Sublime Paragon's inheritance… This is… This is the Sublime Paragon's legacy of his Divine Essence! This is the foreign land! So this is what actually lies in the foreign lands!" As the old man cried out in surprise, he suddenly started laughing loudly. Exhilaration and excitement appeared in his eyes.
He had come into Western Ring Nebula's foreign land for freedom, to capture Su Ming alive. However, he did not expect that the foreign land was actually something like this. To him, the chance to receive this legacy was something that he desired even more than freedom.
Yet at the moment his laughter echoed in the air, cracks immediately appeared on one of the one hundred thousand stone monuments. Blood gushed out from those cracks, and wretched cries came out from the stone monument, and it was the usual voice of a person longing for life.
Su Ming looked swiftly at the stone monument from which the wretched were coming. Once he clearly saw which one it was, he was momentarily taken aback, then he instinctively cast his gaze at the man he'd seen before.
He was trembling at that moment, his hands tightly clasped on his legs. His eyes were red and tears were falling down his cheeks, turning into voiceless weeps. The stone monument from which the longing-for-life cries came from was precisely the one with Si Ma Yue's name carved on it. It was the monument that was right beside the man and was only two hundred thousand feet tall.
He watched as more cracks appeared on that stone monument, watched as more blood poured out from it, as his tears fell harder and harder.
"Take care…" a frail feminine voice spoke lightly from within the stone monument. That voice was incredibly weak, and the old man that was laughing long and hard in the distance could not hear it. Even Su Ming could only hear it faintly. The only one who could truly hear it clearly was the man.
That voice belonged to Si Ma Yue. She did not know whether the man waiting for her was still alive, but she knew that no matter whether he could hear it or not, this was farewell.
Her voice gradually faded away. Light then spread out, wiping her name away, and disappeared from that two hundred thousand feet tall stone monument. Eventually, the stone monument went down in size.
When Su Ming saw this scene, his heart trembled. During the instant just then, at the moment the old man appeared and his laughter echoed in the air, Su Ming had felt a chilling will spreading out and covering him and his stone monument. Once it swept past him, it gathered on Si Ma Yue.
Su Ming could well imagine that if that chilling presence had gathered on him, then the one who would have ended up dead would have been him.
"Haha! So this is my stone monument, hmm?" As the old man laughed, he jumped up and appeared before his stone monument. Then, his pupils suddenly narrowed. Clearly, in his exhilaration and excitement, he hadn't noticed that there were other people beside him in the area.
His gaze first fell on the man, but when he looked over, the man's tears had already disappeared. His bloodshot eyes had fallen shut, and not a single hint of his emotions could be seen.
When the old man looked at his surroundings incredulously, a brilliant flash suddenly appeared in his eyes and he stared fixedly at Su Ming, who was sitting in the distance. The sparkle in his eyes grew even brighter, and a hint of greed appeared within them.
"Mo Su!" The old man laughed long and hard, and his power abruptly spread out. A thick presence of World Plane Realm burst forth from his body with a bang. His level of cultivation was the same as Zhao Family's Progenitor. He had also reached the peak in the middle stage of World Plane Realm.
But he did not immediately attack. He was not a fool, since he was able to survive in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence up till now and had reach this level of cultivation. In fact, it could even be said that he was a cunning old fox. In this foreign and strange land, he was not certain whether there was a limitation that prevented fighting and killing. That was why he only had his power erupt forth from his body, but did not move forward. Instead, he stared at Su Ming. After all, Su Ming came to this place earlier than he did, and thus definitely knew much more than him. Based on Su Ming's instinctive reactions, he could be able to discover many things.
A glint appeared in Su Ming's eyes. He had guessed long ago that the old man was definitely one of those that came after his life, since he had come to this place after him. He immediately stood up, intending to push his hand on the stone monument to fuse with it and receive the test of the legacy, which could allow him to avoid being killed by the old man, but a thought suddenly appeared in his heart, and he did not choose to do so. Instead, he took a few steps backwards with a grim and wary expression on his face.
He had chosen not to fuse with the stone monument because of the man. That man might look calm right now, but Su Ming would never forget the gentle look in his eyes when he looked towards Si Ma Yue's stone monument. He would not forget the tears falling from his eyes when the stone monument cracked and blood poured out from it. And even less could he forget the two words that came from Si Ma Yue's stone monument.
'If it were anyone else, they would have definitely attacked and killed this old man, but not only did this man not attack, he hid his tears away and covered his red eyes. Something's wrong here!
'Could it be… that you can't attack each other here?'
Su Ming narrowed his eyes while on guard. He was certain that the old man had not left his name on the stone monument, which was why he did not know that Su Ming could fuse with it once he just placed his hand on it.
All of this thinking might have seemed to have taken a lot of time, but in reality, this lasted only for a brief moment. Su Ming swiftly showed panic on his face, and as his expression changed drastically, he charged backwards.
Su Ming's expression, his act of retreating, and that look of panic were all seen clearly by the old man. When he took note of his swift retreat and looked to be about to escape, some of the old man's doubts faded away, but he still remained cautious. Before he knew clearly whether he could kill others in this place, he would not attack easily.
When he took a step forward and killing intent shone in his eyes, looking as if he was about to attack, he kept the man in his peripheral vision. Perhaps he would be able to see some clues from that man.
Yet at the instant he swept his gaze towards the man, the other opened his eyes. They were no longer bloodshot, but calm, with a hint of obstinance and unruliness in them.
"If you want to kill someone, go do so by the side. Don't bother me while I train. Get lost." The man let out a cold harrumph. When he spoke, he lifted his right hand and swung his arm at the old man.
With it, a vast power of World Planes erupted forth with a bang from his body. As he swung his arm, the man's power in the later stage of World Plane Realm instantly turned into a gust of violent wind that charged towards the old man.
The wind traveled incredibly quickly. If the old man did not dodge, even if he did not die, he would be injured badly. This was the difference between the peak of those in the middle stage and those in the later stage of World Plane Realm. There was no way he would be able to withstand it.
The old man's expression changed drastically. He had long since noticed that the man's power ran so deep that he could not tell what level of cultivation he possessed. By his guesses, the man should be at the later stage of World Plane Realm. But since he had been hesitant about whether he could attack, that was why he had decided to use himself to test this, but he did not expect that the man would be so unruly as to attack. By the looks of it, it was clear that if he had been just slightly slower, he would've been wounded heavily.
Besides, when the man attacked, the old man could tell that he was absolutely not faking it, but the old man still forced his body to stop evading and made himself freeze for a moment on the spot.
He fixed his gaze on the man. He wanted to test one more time whether this person was truly attacking him or just faking it. When he saw that the violent gust of wind had closed in and the destructive power came crashing towards him with a bang, about to ram into him, he took note that the man still looked as he did before - cold, indifferent, and with an air of unruliness about him.
'You can kill here!'
The old man's expression changed. There was no longer any doubt in his heart. Almost at the instant that destructive gust of wind arrived, he retreated and brought out a jade slip. Right at the moment the gust of wind almost touched him, he crushed the jade slip.
Once it shattered, the old man disappeared. When the gust of wind charged past, he appeared thousands of feet away, not too far from Su Ming.
'This person is incredibly powerful. I can't provoke him. Besides, he might not know that I have a jade slip that allows me to shift and avoid being locked by World Paragons in the later stage of World Plane Realm. Then… Mo Su, you can't escape!'
The old man turned around swiftly and locked his gaze on Su Ming, who was swiftly running away. As the old man laughed ferociously, his power in World Plane Realm erupted and spread out. He lifted his right hand and let out a low shout, and an endless number of runic symbols instantly appeared out of nowhere. They gathered in midair and formed a horsetail whisk. As it swept through the air, it instantly appeared in front of Su Ming and flung itself fiercely in his direction.
Su Ming paused in his footsteps and turned around swiftly. He did not dodge, but stared at the old man. In fact, he simply let that horsetail whisk close in. He was confident that this strike could injure him, but not heavily so. With him being heavily injured as the bet, he gambled on the mystery of the land. When Su Ming thought of the things he had analyzed previously, he was certain by eight-tenths he would win.
The man's attack just now had especially made Su Ming certain of his actions.
'His actions aren't fake. The red and grief in his eyes are incredibly real. This person trembling when that voice told him to take care also explain everything.
'He might look as if he was attacking, but in truth, I'm certain that this person went to seek death. He will either be successful in his revenge, or he will die. He is using his eventual death as a price to make the old man believe that… you can attack in this place!'
Su Ming stopped moving. The horsetail whisk arrived in an instant. This scene made a glint appear in the man's eyes and the old man's expression to change. Within an instant, the horsetail whisk touched Su Ming's body. He was prepared to be heavily wounded, but when it touched him, it disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed.
This scene caused the old man's expression change drastically, and fear appeared on his face. He knew that he had fallen into a trap, but before shock could register in his heart, a chilling will immediately swept past his body. Then, without any sound, his body instantly disintegrated into ashes.
He died! His body and soul were destroyed!
The entire area was in dead silence. Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. His expression was as calm as usual. He walked slowly towards his stone monument and sat down cross-legged once again. His gaze fell on that man, who also looked at him at that moment. Their gazes met in midair.
After some time, the man said softly, "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Su Ming replied lightly.
The man fell silent. He no longer looked at Su Ming, but instead looked at the stone monument that had once belonged to Si Ma Yue. Tears fell from his eyes once more, and the grief on his face was incredibly great.
It was as if he saw how he and Si Ma Yue had come to this place many years ago and what had happened after that. She was his everything, and he was also her everything. Yet now, he was the only one left.
"I will never owe anyone any debt of kindness. You are a newcomer as well, so you definitely have questions. Ask away… I will tell you all that I know and experienced. Think of it as me repaying you for helping me take revenge on that man for killing my wife just now," Zhou Kang said lightly.
Chapter 817: Five Echelon
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Su Ming's face turned stern as he looked at Zhou Kang. He had helped him not just because he had wanted to test the mysteries of this place, but more importantly because he wanted to obtain some information about this place from Zhou Kang.
This sort of thing was incredibly useful to him. At the very least, it would help him to walk fewer circles, and that would mean that he would be making his stone monument grow to a million feet at the fastest speed possible, being able to move before the others.
However, unless there was some sort of unique situation, no one would be willing to tell another this sort of information based on personal experience. After all, if someone else succeeded, it would mean that their chances of dying would increase. This Divine Essence's legacy was in truth a competition.
No one would tell someone completely unrelated to them their experiences and let that person gradually walk ahead of themselves. More importantly, those experiences could be said to have been bought with an endless amount of time. They were what the people here have obtained after making numerous circles and walking into various dead ends. The value of these experiences was, in a way, incredibly valuable.
Su Ming needed this knowledge because he clearly knew that if one person had appeared in the foreign land to come after his life, then the forces of power from the four Great True Worlds keeping a lookout over the Barren Lands of Divine Essence must have certainly increased his bounty. While he did not know what sort of reward was offered this time, it was clearly enough for a person to dare to enter the foreign land at the risk of their life.
And if a single person was willing to come here, then it meant that the reward by the four Great True Worlds would definitely bring more people, and as more and more of them entered, the shadow of death would fall on Su Ming's head again and again.
'If a person comes, then the possibility of me dying will be one out of one hundred thousand. If one hundred thousand come... I might not certainly die. After all, every single time the selection comes, it will choose between one hundred thousand people, and since it doesn't have any sort of pattern, even those who had just obtained their stone monuments might be chosen.
'But by that time the threat of death will reach an incredibly terrifying rate. The only way out of this… is to use the shortest amount of time possible to make my stone monument one million feet tall. Only by doing so will I have the greatest possibility of avoiding being selected.'
Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. He knew that he had made the right bet. With his actions, he would show his sincerity in order to obtain Zhou Kang's experience. This was a trade.
"What are the details of the inheritance's test in this place? How can I make my stone monument reach one million feet tall at the shortest amount of time possible?" Su Ming asked languidly, his voice relaxed, not showing a single hint of his thoughts and emotions.
Zhou Kang did not speak right away. He only looked at the stone monument that had once belonged to Si Ma Yue. After a long while, as if he was mumbling to himself, he softly spoke up.
"Three thousand years ago, I was just a cultivator in the middle stage of World Plane Realm. Since her father entered a foreign land and never came out, that's why… I accompanied her to this place.
"Int the blink of an eye, three thousand years passed. During this time, we were constantly struggling here. but it wasn't for that stupid inheritance. Those who obtain the Divine Essence can become a Sublime Paragon, but I don't care about that. I only wanted to get out of this place alive with her.
"We worked hard continuously. My wife, Yue Er, her potential was far greater than mine, but in this place, potential is meaningless… Over the period of three thousand years, she had only managed to make her stone monument reach two hundred thousand feet… I didn't want her to be alone in this place, hence I gave up three chances of making my stone monument reach one million feet, so that I could be with her.
"Because even if I managed to make my monument reach one million feet, if I was the only who managed to get out, what use would there be even if I was given a thousand years of freedom? It'd be completely useless… I gave up those three chances and stayed here with her instead." Zhou Kang did not answer Su Ming's question, but continued mumbling to himself.
Su Ming listened to him and did not interrupt. He could feel that Zhou Kang's love for Si Ma Yue had already surpassed the love for his own life. He was also shocked that Zhou Kang had three chances of making his stone monument reach one million feet, and it had only been… three thousand years since he started.
"Yue Er was more intelligent than I am, and she had greater knowledge than me regarding this place. During the first five hundred years, we examined our experiences within each of our worlds in the stone monument. Each of us gradually figured out the things that all the seniors of this place valued like treasure and spoke not a word of. The all delighted in watching those who came later to tread the long and winding paths they had taken themselves in the past.
"We discovered that what we experienced in our worlds was different… but the answer we obtained in the end was the same. This so called Divine Essence inheritance is in truth divided into ten stages due to a person's body," Zhou Kang mumbled softly, and Su Ming immediately began listening even more attentively.
"Yue Er and I weren't clear what Divine Essence was. We only knew that it could grant a person the possibility to become a Sublime Paragon. The eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and heart are the Five Illusory Echelons.
"The limbs and torso are known as the Five Corporeal Echelons.
"When you add all of them together, you will have the complete ten stages. With the completion of each echelon, you will be able to make your stone monument grow to one million feet…" Zhou Kang's voice echoed in the air. When it fell into Su Ming's ears, his heart trembled.
"Almost all those who come here will receive a vague notice that they need to use their hands to touch the stone monument. Only then can they activate the training from the legacy. Yue Er and I started like this as well.
"It was only five hundred years later that we noticed something off, but it was already too late. We could no longer turn back and could only continue moving down that path.
"Because we used our hands to touch the stone monument, that's why… the first Five Echelon path we chose became the Five Corporeal Echelons. We used our right hand to touch the stone monument, that's why the first thing we had to train was our bodies' right hand, then it would be our left hand, and then it would be our entire body… Only once we did that would our stone monument reach five million feet.
"But our guess was that the people who came here didn't necessarily need to first tread the Five Corporeal Echelons, because this path was too hard. It did not contain any form of consciousness, and we could only use our bodies to feel our way through. The difficulty of this path is something those who have not experienced it do not understand.
"It's different for the Five Illusory Echelons. They need understanding and a form of epiphany. It might seem even harder compared to the other path, but in truth, if you want to receive a great serendipity, then you must first walk down the path of Five Illusory Echelons. After that, you will possess a conscious will of things, and you'll move faster down your path."
Zhou Kang's words caused Su Ming's pupils to constrict, and he suddenly said, "Senior Zhou Kang, do you mean that if my body first touches the stone monument, then it will be the first to receive the refinement of Divine Essence? It'll have to get used to this Divine Essence or at least come to remember it, then with the body as foundation, I will have to slowly understand the Five Illusory Echelons, and from then… eventually make my stone monument reach ten million feet?
"And if I don't take this path, I'll be using my consciousness and my soul to get used to the Divine Essence first? And once I remember that feeling, it'll have to spread to my entire body?
"This makes it two different paths: In one, a person trains from the outside of their bodies to the internal parts, and the other one is where they train from the internal parts to the external ones."
Zhou Kang fell silent. After a moment, he averted his gaze from the stone monument that once belonged to Si Ma Yue and moved it to Su Ming.
"This was the guess of my wife and me, and it remained so until two thousand years ago. At that time, a person sat down before his stone monument and meditated for three hundred years, then with his own comprehensive abilities, he understood this. His name… is Xing Yu. Right now, his stone monument has reached two million feet.
"Don't use your body to touch the stone monument. Use your eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and heart to form a faint connection with it. This will make you move in fewer circles, and it will also… make your chance of success greater.
"You might not be very quick, and there is even a possibility that you will be slow… but based on our observations, there were quite a few people who had arrived during these two thousand something years, and there were quite a few of them who made their stone monuments reach a million feet. During this, it is only natural that some people died, but Xing Yu is still around.
"That's why Yue Er believed that those who walk down the path of Five Illusory Echelons will have a much lower possibility of death compared to other people. This is only a guess, because only a short time has passed and those who train in the path of Five Illusory Echelons are too few in number, so we couldn't contain too much proof.
"You can choose to believe me or not," Zhou Kang said calmly. His voice echoed in the area.
"This is what we experienced. Also, no matter what sort of method you use to touch the stone monument, you will still need to fuse with the world there. That is an illusory world… in which everyone's experiences are different. It's born based on your memories...
"In fact, some of the memories that even you don't know of will be revealed. Based on what I experienced, if you fix your mind on a certain period of time the moment you begin to fuse with the monument, then there will be a high possibility to see the world that belongs to that time."
Nostalgia appeared in Zhou Kang's eyes at those words. He lifted his right hand and slowly pressed it against the stone monument. Su Ming might not know the details of the things the man saw, but he could guess that here was definitely a woman in those memories, and her name was Si Ma Yue.
"All of these are my experiences. I've told you everything... You… take care of yourself." As Zhou Kang spoke softly, his body gradually faded away, and a vortex appeared on his stone monument. A hand suddenly reached out from there and grabbed Zhou Kang's right hand, yanking him inside.
"The last thing... is a guess Yue Er made four hundred years ago. Perhaps it's also the reason for her death… She told me that she suspected that the foreign land was a great scam!"
Zhou Kang disappeared, but his voice still reverberated in the air. Su Ming sat there with a dumbfounded expression. He looked at Zhou Kang's stone monument, and after a long moment, he sucked in a deep breath.
The area returned to silence. However, Zhou Kang's voice still echoed in Su Ming's head. A long while later, a brilliant light shone in his eyes, and his gaze slowly landed on his stone monument, which was right before him.
This stone monument was only twenty thousand feet tall. Compared to the others, it was really insignificant.
'No matter what, I still have to walk down this path. I can't believe Zhou Kang's words completely, but there should be some truth to them… Five Illusory Echelons, huh..?'
Su Ming did not choose to use his hands to touch the monument. Instead, he just sat there and stared at it. Aside from using his eyes to look, his heart did not think, his body did not move. All his sensory organs besides his eyes did not do anything.
'If it's the Five Illusory Echelon, then I will start with my eyes!' Su Ming sat down and meditated quietly. Time passed slowly.
One day, two day, three days… In the blink of an eye, another month passed by. During it, Su Ming rarely blinked. He just stared at the stone monument. His entire mind and body were focused on that sight, and he ignored everything else around him.
When he even forgot about time, he saw a vortex appear on the stone monument. He saw a great suction force within it, and once it sucked in his gaze, an eye appeared within the vortex. The moment this eye looked at Su Ming, his body became indistinct.
"Time, after I became the God of Berserkers. Location, ninth summit… when Morning Dao Sect's Dao Yuan arrived!" At the instant Su Ming became indistinct, a bloodcurdling murderous intent appeared in his eyes.
As his voice echoed in the air, he disappeared!
Chapter 818: The Teardrop All Those Years Ago
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
That Teardrop All Those Years Ago
Su Ming wanted to kill Dao Yuan, wanted to kill all five of those Dao Slaves, and wanted to kill all the guards Dao Yuan had summoned later on. He wanted to kill everything, even if it was just an illusion. He wanted to let his current powerful self return to the past!
Boom!
A loud bang rang out in Su Ming's heart. He felt as if his body was about to be torn apart, and an intense pain traveled through his entire body, something which he had not experienced for a long time.
'That's not right. I've already lost my sense of pain…' The intense pain made Su Ming's heart tremble, and he tried to open his eyes.
But he could not do so!
The intense pain in his body gradually disappeared, but Su Ming did not know where he was. He could not open his eyes. It was as if his body did not belong to him. He could not control it.
'What's going on?... Just in which timeline was I thrown?' Su Ming could sense that the intense pain in his body was rapidly fading away. After a moment, when the pain vanished, he tried opening his eyes again, but he still could not do so, as if he did not possess the strength to do so.
He could sense that his cultivation base was still around, his Atman was also with him, but it could not leave his body, as if it had been restricted and could not spread out.
But this was not the most important thing. The main point was that once the intense pain disappeared, Su Ming sensed warmth. It did not come from the body, but from the heart. It came from his soul, and that sort of warmth was unfamiliar to him, because there was a hint of grief in that unfamiliarity.
In fact, not even he knew why he was sad. However, this sorrow brought with an urge to cry. It caused extreme pain and left him at a loss.
'Why am I sensing warmth..? This warmth feels dear to me, makes me feel as if I'm being protected. Makes me feel… as if it's something that I cannot lack in my life, something that I must protect… Where… am I..?
'Why does it feel so unfamiliar? Just what timeline does this place belong to in my memories?
'Why… do I feel sad, and have the urge to cry? Why am I in such a state of sorrow, as if I've lost the most precious person in my life?'
Time passed. In this warmth and unfamiliarity that was accompanied by sadness, Su Ming gradually calmed down. He immersed himself in this situation and let time pass, until one day, he gradually began to feel that there was something wrong with his body.
In the past, when he circulated his cultivation base over his entire body, he only needed an instant to do so. It didn't take much time. However, now… the speed of the circulation of his cultivation base had reached a state which put him in disbelief. In the past, he could complete a cycle of his cultivation base in an instant, but now… he could complete a dozen something cycles in that same time!
This sort of speed stunned him momentarily, and a myriad of thoughts raced in his head.
'My level of cultivation did not increase. My cultivation base is still that of Earth Cultivation Realm. If that's the case, then this isn't because of my level of cultivation… but because of my body!
'Zhou Kang once mentioned that the world in the stone monument is born from a person's memories, which means that there was a period of time in the past when my cultivation base could reach this circulation speed.
'Just when was it… It's not before or after I became the God of Berserkers. I remember that my body was just an illusion that was gathered together. I couldn't reach this sort of speed back then.
'There's only one explanation to this - this is… my real body!' Su Ming's heart trembled. The conclusion he came to through his analysis caused the circulation speed of his cultivation base to become even faster.
'My real self. Darkness. Could it be… that this is the time when I couldn't see light and when my body was surrounded by freezing cold, where only Fei Er's voice accompanied me? The period of time which is indistinct in my mind?
'It should be that timeline. My real body is in the land of Immortals. It's sealed up and has become something for other people to absorb, but why is there warmth, unfamiliarity, and sadness..?' Su Ming could not open his eyes. He could not see his surroundings. He was still uncertain about this guess.
'I chose the eye from the Five Illusory Echelons for the Divine Essence test I received this time. Right now, I can't open my eyes, then does it mean that this time, the success of my test depends on… whether I can open my eyes?!'
Su Ming was no longer the ignorant boy from the past. After receiving the baptism of time and experiencing many things, he had been refined to the point where he possessed a powerful will and wisdom. With a few clues, he could deduce and figure out many things.
'It doesn't matter whether this is the truth or not, I will have to continue trying to open my eyes.' Su Ming wanted to do so, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not achieve it. He could not control his own body, and so his eyes remained closed.
He continued trying, and time gradually passed. One month, two months… One year, two years…
Su Ming lost track of how much time passed. He slowly sensed that the timeline he currently resided in was not the one where he was in the land of Immortals, as he had previously guessed.
Otherwise, why would he not sense even a single hint of someone absorbing his power. In fact, he had a vague sensation that his body was moving… or more accurately speaking, he was floating.
'I don't have any memory of this… I don't remember myself floating and being unable to open my eyes like this. Just when had this happened?!'
In silence, time continued to pass, until one day, Su Ming suddenly heard a violent boom.
This loud boom immediately made him notice that he could hear. Over the years, this was the first thing he'd heard. In the mid of that booming sound, a loud whistle shot through the air, causing Su Ming to immediately draw a picture in his head.
Within that picture was a long arc that was slicing through the air. The whistles that were stirred up crashed into the invisible space, and that booming sound was created.
It became louder in Su Ming's ears with each passing moment, seemingly endless. Once it became deafening, his heart trembled. He realized that his theory had been wrong. The thing was not a long arc… but a gigantic longship!
'That sound means that the longship is traveling at an incredibly fast speed, and this speed… is impossible within a cultivation planet. Could it be… that this is the galaxy?'
Su Ming's mind immediately wiped off the previous picture, and he replaced it with a gigantic longship. The background was a galaxy.
The longship was charging closer with a piercing sound in its wake, like a sharp sword that sliced through space. This sort of sound was familiar to Su Ming. He remembered that he had heard something like this before.
'A sword! This is the sound of a sword slicing through space! This is a sword, an ancient bronze sword. It's the sound of a gigantic ancient bronze sword of True Sacred Yin World when it charges through the galaxy!' If Su Ming could breathe at that moment, it would have definitely quickened. The picture in his head had already become complete, and many speculations rose in his mind.
In the vast galaxy, a gigantic ancient bronze sword was traveling. Right in front of it, within the endless galaxy, was dust, and in that dust there was a corpse floating about.
"There is a corpse here. There's no mistaking this. This is the corpse that's been spreading those waves of mighty power. We're lucky today, we actually managed to find a powerful warrior's corpse."
An awe-inspiring voice reached Su Ming's ears. It was rather familiar, and Su Ming almost immediately managed to recognize its owner. At that instant, a loud bang rang out in his heart and mind.
'This is the voice of the Spirits of Nine Yin's Progenitor [1]. Corpse, ancient bronze sword… This is the time when the Spirits of Nine Yin were ordered to look for corpses of powerful warriors and managed to find a baby in the galaxy!
'That baby… is me!'
The booming sounds in Su Ming's mind were like thunderbolts striking and echoing in the air. His heart trembled, but the next few words that reached his ears caused Su Ming's heart to almost break during that instant.
"Hmm? There's not just one corpse, but two!" When the voice that belonged to the Spirits of Nine Yin's Progenitor reached his ears, several powerful divine senses immediately swept towards him and gathered on his body.
"There's a baby held in the corpse's arms… It's a pity, but the baby is dead, too. By the looks of it, he hasn't been born for long. This woman should be his mother.
"Seems like she wanted to protect the child even as she died, hoping to use her body to protect him. It's an instinctive act of not wanting her child to be injured.
"This woman must have been incredibly powerful when she was alive. Look at her tears, they're frozen on her face. Even those that have fallen on the baby's body are also frozen. Only the tears of powerful existences can possess the power of Plane Kalpa, gaining the ability to become eternal teardrops. Those teardrops are treasures. If we refine them into Enchanted Treasures, their might will be incredibly great.
"All right, separate the two corpses and store them separately. Once we find a few other, we'll be able to go home."
A loud bang rang out in Su Ming's heart. This time, that bang could no longer be described as the sound that would be heard when thunder struck the ground. This was the greatest sound Su Ming had heard in his life. The loud bang made him tremble, and it was not his heart that trembled, but his body!
He could not describe what he was feeling now. His mind was blank. Only the voice of the Spirits of Nine Yin's Progenitor continued echoing in his head, and it became increasingly louder. Due to it, Su Ming begun shivering even more, until it became a powerful craze that urged him to open his eyes.
He understood why he felt warm now. That was because he was in the woman's embrace.
He also understood why he had that sense of unfamiliarity. That was because he had never met this woman before, he had never seen her…
He, too, understood why he was sad. That sorrow that came from his soul was due to the woman's tears having frozen on his body.
'Mother…'
Su Ming's heart was torn. Boundless grief brought extreme pain with it. If he did not learn who this woman was right now, then he would be a failure of a son!
He wanted to open his eyes, not for anything else, but to simply catch a glimpse of his mother who had protected him even during the final moments of her life, with tears falling from her eyes even though he was a stillborn.
He wanted to open his eyes and see her face, then use his entire life to remember her, protect her in his memories.
His body trembled. His heart roared. His soul grieved. All of these things gathered together into a power that shook the sky and earth during that instant, causing Su Ming's body to continuously tremble and gather together the power that would allow him to open his eyes. At that instant, his eyes flew open!
He then saw the ancient bronze sword and the Spirits of Nine Yin's Progenitor along with a few people behind him walking over. He also saw… a pair of warm arms holding onto him.
Su Ming turned his head around, finally seeing a beautiful woman. Her eyes were closed, as if she was asleep, but there was reluctance to part and an expression of love on her face as well as frozen crystalline teardrops on her cheeks. All of these things etched themselves into Su Ming's mind. His body trembled, and tears fell from his eyes.
Boom!
Everything before Su Ming's eyes vanished. He wanted to lift up his hands and seize it, but the only thing that he managed to catch was emptiness. There were only endless stone monuments around him. The one that belonged to him let out a booming sound, and at that moment, from twenty thousand feet, it shot up to one hundred thousand feet.
Translator's Note:
1. Spirits of Nine Yin's Progenitor: The one who was a skeleton in the temple in the World of Nine Yin and asked Su Ming for Lie Shan Xiu's power. He then helped Su Ming and Fated Kin escape from the World of Nine Yin.
Chapter 819: Cherishment
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Even though the one thousand feet stone monument stood tall before Su Ming, there was no joy in his heart, much less a hint of emotion that was stirred due to the gigantic size of the stone monument. He sat in front of it with a blank gaze, tears falling soundlessly down his cheeks.
There was no expression in his eyes, but if anyone looked closely, they would be able to see a hint of light flickering with sudden flashes of brightness and darkness in his right eye. That light belonged to a runic symbol that was swiftly forming at that moment.
If someone extracted that runic symbol from his eye, then anyone who looked at it would sense an ancient presence. It seemed to only exist in the endless passage of time, almost impossible to find in the current day and age.
Before Su Ming had fused with the stone monument, that runic symbol did not exist. It instead naturally appeared once he did that and his stone monument rose to one hundred thousand feet.
As time passed, the runic symbol became clearer in Su Ming's right eye, until it completely replaced his pupil. Right then, if anyone looked at him at that moment, they would definitely be shocked by the sight of his right eye. It seemed as if the changes of the universe's law and the supreme truth that no words could describe were contained within the runic symbol that had replaced the pupil.
However, Su Ming paid no attention to all of these, not caring for it one bit. He stared at the stone monument in front of him blankly while tears trailed down his cheeks before falling on his robes, but they could not seep into it. Instead, they trailed down, and eventually… fell on the ground.
The sound of tears falling on the ground could only be heard if someone listened with their heart. This sound was soft, and it echoed in Su Ming's heart before turning into warmth, unfamiliarity, and grief. It did not fade away even after a long time had passed.
Su Ming had always thought that the baby had floated alone in the galaxy until he was taken away by the Spirits of Nine Yin. Yet now, he realized that the truth was quite different… It quite different. He did not float alone in the galaxy in the past, but instead was a child held in his mother's arms. Even though both mother and son had died, her warmth and tears now etched themselves into Su Ming's mind for all eternity.
Sharp stabs of pain that intertwined with each other shot up his heart. His face turned pale, and he immersed himself in sensing this pain. His face was filled with anguish as he remembered the scenes within the Spirits of Nine Yin's ancient bronze sword.
"So she was… that close to me at that time… Ma…" Su Ming mumbled. His eyes gradually filled with red, and a trickle of blood flowed down the corners of his mouth. This was the blood from his heart. It was blood that flowed out of a person's body when their emotions were rife and when great waves of happiness as well or sadness had injured their heart and soul.
Those droplets of blood were the symbol of that face that would remain eternally within Su Ming's memories.
A crazed ball of fire alighted in his eyes. He clenched his hands tightly into fists. This might be the first time he saw his mother, and that familial love between them might be unfamiliar…
But his mother's tears, her action of protecting his infant self before she died, and everything else brought a warmth that Su Ming had never experienced.
He remembered the story second senior brother had told him, one that had happened many, many years ago. He recalled a married couple and all the things that had happened to them in True Morning Dao World.
"This world… shall be built for Abyss…" Killing intent shone in Su Ming's eyes.
His hate towards True Morning Dao World was originally one that could not be resolved, and right then, another great layer was added to that hatred. Su Ming would definitely not rest until he took his revenge.
"True Morning Dao World!"
Su Ming sucked in a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes. After a long while, he forced down the emotions in his heart. When he opened his eyes once again, the sadness was hidden in their deep recesses. No one could see it. Only when he was lonely and missed his family would he experience that past grief that was thicker than blood once again.
The parental love was greater than anything else in the world. It might come suddenly and be unfamiliar, but once it entered one's soul, how could they forget or cast it aside simply because it was unfamiliar to them?
Su Ming sat quietly before his stone monument, looking at it. The monument was no longer an icy cold presence in his eyes, no longer something that forced others to inherit its legacy, and killed at random, but had become a path for him to regain his lost memories.
Compared to retrieving the lost memories, making this stone monument reach one million feet was no longer important. Su Ming looked at it while the time slowly passed around him.
He lost track of it soon. Then, a booming sound echoed around him, and three huge cracks appeared in the empty air in the distance. Three people charged out.
Once those three people appeared, their faces were filled with shock and confusion. At the same time, three of the one hundred thousand stone monuments began shining with an intense light. As that light shone, shrill screams filled with an unwillingness to admit defeat rang out before quickly fading away.
The three new people had arrived and taken the right of their predecessors.
Almost the moment the three people appeared, a vortex emerged from the stone monument before Su Ming. An eye protruded out of the vortex, and it met his gaze.
Su Ming's body slowly faded away until he completely disappeared, fusing with the stone monument and vanishing without a trace.
This time, there was no darkness before Su Ming's eyes. He saw a dim piece of sky, blue waves on the sea, breathed in the air of the land of Berserkers, and felt the familiar waves of power.
He lowered his head and saw a pretty young woman with a face that was unforgettable. This woman was grabbing onto a big yellow mutt beside her as if she was angry and was scolding it nonstop.
That big yellow dog had a look of suffering on its face. Its head drooped down as it simply allowed the woman to hold onto its fur. Occasionally, it would let out a few moans.
As Su Ming looked at the woman, a gentle expression gradually appeared on his face.
"Yu Xuan…" Su Ming whispered.
The woman turned her head around and looked at him in surprise.
"Hmm? Little dummy Su, what did you say? Ah! You actually spoke to me on your own accord? You called my name of your own free will? You-you…" The woman was momentarily stunned, and disbelief appeared on her face. She no longer bothered with the big yellow dog and went up to Su Ming's side, lifting up her hand to touch his forehead.
Su Ming's expression was gentle. He did not dodge, but simply allowed the woman to place her hand on his forehead.
The woman saw his expression and saw him not evading her actions. Her expression instantly turned strange and she instinctively took a few steps back with a dubious and disbelieving expression.
She remembered how Su Ming had been cold towards her just moments ago, with an expression of impatience as he spoke with her. Yet now, this sort of change had appeared, and it immediately caused her heart to be on guard.
It was especially due to Su Ming's gentle expression. The woman was absolutely unused to it. She quickly took a couple more steps back, and when she saw him standing up from his seated position, she quickly spoke up.
"Er… You know, you shouldn't treat the marriage your second senior brother spoke about seriously, you… Your expression is really weird, you know… Ack..!" Before Yu Xuan could finish speaking, her mouth fell open. She was too stunned to speak, as if her body had been frozen. She looked at Su Ming with a stupid look on her face.
This was because the instant he stood up, he took a step forward and appeared right next to her and gave her a hug. Yu Xuan was completely dumbfounded by this action. Her heart thumped loudly against her chest; she was too stunned to move. She simply let Su Ming hold onto her, while her mind was completely blank.
She was not the only one feeling this. Even the big yellow dog beside her was stunned, unable to grasp what was happening even after a long time had passed. The bald crane that was peeking from not too far away also blinked a couple times, disbelief evident on its face.
"Yu Xuan, thank you."
"Who are you?!" she instinctively cried out. She had a feeling that the person in front of her was no longer the person she liked to tease.
Su Ming just shook his head, his gaze moving to his second senior brother, who was sitting and meditating not too far away. He also saw Hu Zi, who was snoring on the ground, as well as his eldest senior brother, who had turned into a statue.
This was the ninth summit. As he looked at the scenery around him, Su Ming found that he was brought to the place where he had wanted to be previously - the time before Dao Yuan appeared.
"I can't change what has already happened, but I can change what happens now. Even if it's futile, I will still change it," Su Ming mumbled. He did not know just what exactly the test of the Five Illusory Echelon within the stone monument was, but if he could return to the past in his memories, then he wanted things to no longer be like what had truly happened in reality.
Su Ming's gaze moved into the distance, a woman dressed in white looking at him quietly. She was Bai Su, and she had a smile on her face as she looked back at him.
Su Ming had understood the meaning of that smile in the past, but he had chosen to avoid it. Yet now, when he saw that it again, the memory of him being unable to catch that piece of cloth when Bai Su had died all those years ago resurfaced in his mind. It was almost symbolic. Since he had chosen to avoid, he could not catch her in the end, only able to let that piece of cloth dance in the air as it left into the distance.
'I'm truly happy to be able to see all of you again…' Su Ming hid away his sadness regarding his mother and let happiness into his heart. It wasn't fake either. This was the happiness that came straight from the depths of his heart when he saw his old friends and family once more.
There are two ways to cherish something in this world. One of them is when a person never places any importance on a certain thing at first. Only once they lose it do they begin to value it more as they think back on it during the endless passage of time.
The other is when the person always values a certain thing, and even after losing it, they still persistently care about it. As time passes, this kind of cherishing gathers together and becomes greater, until it reaches an extreme state and turns into nostalgia, making the person treasure the thing even more than they did in the past.
Su Ming was the latter.
He looked at those familiar faces, at ninth summit, at his home, at the people in the distance, who chose to stay in the ninth summit in the past and who spared no pains and chose to self-destruct just to save Su Ming during danger. His smile was incredibly happy and joyful as he looked at all of them.
He smiled faintly, even if that smile made Yu Xuan skeptical, stunned Bai Su, and even surprised the yellow dog that was the Abyss Dragon. They simply did not understand.
Bang!
As Su Ming smiled, a muffled booming came from the distance, followed by the ripples of the Rune in this area being torn apart. Su Ming had sensed these ripples in the past, and now… when he sensed them again, he slowly turned his body around. Gradually, his smile faded away. Gradually, a heinous intent of murderousness appeared in his eyes.
"Dao Yuan, I've waited for you… for an entire cycle of life and death!"
Not much explanation was required for this sort of hate. Perhaps some people would understand, but it was just as likely that… no one would.