Chapter 1356: This Grandpa Crane Hasn't Officially Debuted Yet
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The elder left.
He hobbled away while age bore down on his shoulders. He slowly disappeared into the spring of the other riverbank until even his shadow could no longer see be seen. Then, Su Ming's vision became blurry.
That blurriness was not because the figure was gradually leaving into the distance, but because of the tears in Su Ming's eyes. They turned the world before his eyes into a blurry screen of rain. He could no longer see clearly.
Maybe because of that, his memories became sharper, and so did his hopes for the future. They were like the veins of an autumn leaf, and he wanted to count them clearly. He had to do it well.
In the blink of an eye, another ten years passed. Su Ming had already lived through ninety-something years in that world. His appearance became older, and more wrinkles showed up on his face. The ancient air exuding from his body could already be compared to the wooden house.
At that moment, he was an old man sitting under the eaves of an old wooden house while basking in the evening sun.
The four seasons changed one after another. Rain and ice appeared during different periods of time before Su Ming's eyes. Autumn leaves and spring shoots danced about together. Heat and dying wood existed together.
The sun rose, then set. It never changed, as if there was some law in a person's life and the world governing their course. Su Ming watched and felt signs of being close to waking up.
But the time for him to wake up had yet to arrive, and he could not do it just then. There were still people who hadn't arrived, and he had not yet steered his boat enough times.
"The final thirty years…"
Su Ming lifted his old face. On one particular dawn while watching the unchanging lamp before him, he seemed to be able to see his own past in its light.
It seemed that he was destined to a life of loneliness. The difficulties he had to experience were also destined to continue without his knowledge.
When Su Ming looked into his past, he noticed that what he always wished to have was a luxury. It was destined that Dark Mountain would leave him, and it was the same for the ninth summit. His female companions, his brothers, and even Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos and Harmonious Morus Alba seemed to be destined… to leave him.
"I don't believe in fate."
Resolve appeared in Su Ming's eyes. When it showed up in his old eyes, it could make all those who saw Su Ming to instantly forget his age. They would be attracted by his resolute gaze and would feel as if he was a student who had just walked out of his house to explore the world.
He wondered how many people had come to appreciate the short period of darkness before dawn and the final sparks of madness before daylight. Those were words that people often used to describe the moments before dawn arrived, but how many people would know what the darkest moments in the world before dawn were called?
Su Ming did not know their name before either. But he had watched the period of time before dawn for a long time, and he gradually came to an understanding.
The period of time before dawn was called the hour before daybreak.
Daybreak was known as a new beginning and the start of a new cycle of life and death in the world, but in Su Ming's mind, since there were nine hours before daybreak and nine was a limit, the end it represented was perhaps of each day. During an era, it would probably mean the end of that era.
And it was precisely because of the symbolism of that number that daybreak meant the start of a cycle of life and death. At the same time, it gave Su Ming a feeling that it surpassed the meaning of the sun contained in the word… but had instead turned into the source of all darkness.
The hour before daybreak… symbolized the darkest moment in the world. There was no other moment in a day that was darker than that one, and it was just like the epiphany Su Ming had gained in the past. He was the darkness the night in the world could not dye black.
During the hour before daybreak, even the light before Su Ming looked incredibly weak. It was as if in the middle of the darkness in the world, it would struggle to shine, but gradually, it would lose its strength, until it was drowned out by the darkness.
Su Ming smiled, but his expression was full of anguish. As he watched the gradually weakening fire before him, he sighed softly.
'I can extinguish this fire, but I can't extinguish… the dawn that is about to arrive. It's as if I still have to hand over the ownership of light to dawn in the end.'
Su Ming shook his head. At that moment, a huge mouth appeared in the darkness beside the fire and swallowed its light.
Before the light disappeared, Su Ming had seen a huge mouth appear from the darkness, and it had looked like a bird's beak… When the fire was gone, a sound resembling a burp appeared, and a crane showed up before Su Ming's eyes.
It was a bald crane with no feathers on its body. There was a sleazy look on its face. When it cautiously walked out of the darkness, it cast Su Ming a scornful look.
"You scared this mighty Grandpa Crane. So the person here is an old man? Your battle prowess is just a feather on my body, hmph. Dragon, come out now."
The bald crane came to stand before Su Ming with a smug look. It stared at him with a sleazy look, then put on a threatening expression on its face.
Moments later, a huge dog staggered out from behind the bald crane. It stopped beside it and glared at Su Ming fiercely before letting out threatening whines.
The bald crane rolled its eyes, then instinctively lifted its claw to strike the dog's head.
With a whine, the dog immediately lay down flat on the ground and covered its head with its paws, looking at the bald crane as if it had been severely wronged. It did not seem to understand why the bald crane still wanted to hit it.
"What were you doing just now?!" The bald crane glared at the dog.
"I-I was just scaring the old man…" the dog said with an expression that it had been wronged greatly.
"Idiot!" The bald crane lifted its claw while glaring at the dog as if it was about hit it again. The dog lifted its paws over its head helplessly, allowing the bald crane's claw to hit its head again.
"If you want to scare someone, don't whine. Look at me." The bald crane had a stern look on its face, like a master reprimanding his student. With a sway, it turned into a huge black dog, then bared its teeth at Su Ming. It even intentionally drool from the corners of its lips. Its eyes were unfocused, causing others to think it was a mad dog when they saw it…
"You see? Do it this way."
The black dog formed by the bald crane cast a smug look at the huge dog formed by the Abyss Dragon. Under its idolizing gaze, it turned into a bald crane again.
"Hey, old man, you have any silver on you? Or do you have any sparkling stones? I'm telling you, this Grandpa Crane hasn't officially debuted yet. If you dare lie to me… Heh heh."
The bald crane stared at Su Ming with its head held high. Once it finished speaking, it let out a fake cough. The dog next to it immediately glared at Su Ming, bared its teeth, and drooled. Its eyes were unfocused, as if it would pounce on Su Ming the moment the bald crane gave an order.
"No." Su Ming looked at the bald crane, then at the Abyss Dragon, and a smile appeared on his face.
"Oh wow, you're still smiling?" The bald crane immediately put on an enraged expression. It lifted its claw and pointed at Su Ming with a face that said I-am-seriously-very-strong-and-I-will-bully-you-even-if-you-are-an-old-man.
"Heh heh, oh well, this old man might not have anything valuable on him either way. Just treat it as me getting unlucky today… Huh?" As the bald crane spoke, it suddenly saw the boat Su Ming used to cross the River of Forgetfulness.
"That boat is pretty good. Say, old man, you can tell that we're demons, right? You know about demons, right? We eat people, you know? But since you're already old, I won't make things hard for you. We'll be taking this boat. Get us to the other side of the riverbank, and then you have to swim back yourself." As the bald crane spoke, it stepped into the boat. It looked around, then put on a look as if the boat was barely up to its standards.
"We should be able to sell it for some money."
As it mumbled under its breath, the Abyss Dragon rushed to the boat before it turned around and bared its teeth while drooling at Su Ming.
The smile on Su Ming's lips grew brighter. He did not mind how the bald crane and Abyss Dragon acted. When he stood up, he slowly moved to the end of the boat, picked up the oars, and steered the boat to the other side of the River of Forgetfulness.
"Do you see it now? If you follow me, you will be able to fill your belly with food. It's much better than you eating birds in the forest, right? Do you see it now? We've got ourselves money now, right? Heh heh." The bald crane talked to the Abyss Dragon with a smug look at the bow of the boat.
The Abyss Dragon stared at the bald crane with an idolizing gaze and nodded repeatedly. Occasionally, it would turn around and bare its teeth while drooling to tell Su Ming that it was very fierce…
"Once we reach the other side of the river, I'll take you around so that you can eat all sorts of spicy food, and then the name of the Dual Fiends will rise!"
The bald crane looked satisfied with its future success. It lifted its right claw, as it it was showing the Abyss Dragon the ways of the world, causing the Abyss Dragon to idolize the bald crane even more, but after hesitating for a while, the dog could not help but speak.
"Boss… I… I don't like spicy stuff…"
The bald crane fell silent. Its enthusiasm seemed to have been broken at that instant, and it seemed to be angry because of it. It turned around slowly, glared at the innocent looking Abyss Dragon, then suddenly lifted its claw and hit the dog's head without stop while shouting.
"Don't like spicy stuff, you say!
"Just try not listening to my words, and see what I'll do!
"I'm telling you—"
During the entire journey, the smile stayed on Su Ming's face. The conversation between the bald crane and the Abyss Dragon echoed in the air above the River of Forgetfulness. When they reached the other side of the riverbank, the bald crane lifted its claw while gasping, then glared fiercely at the Abyss Dragon.
"Go and see whether there are any dangers in the area. We're demons, get it? Demons, you know? As demons, we have to be constantly alert. We have to have a very high level of wariness, especially in foreign places. The first thing we have to do is to investigate the area.
"Only by doing so will we be able to live up to our status as demons, and when we run into those damned villagers who want to eat us, we can run away immediately."
The bald crane's grave and sincere words caused the Abyss Dragon to immediately nod. It immediately rushed forward, and once it stepped foot on the bank, it looked around with a wary look. It ran several circles before it returned to the bank and spoke happily to the bald crane on the boat.
"Boss, there are no villagers or enemies around, but there's also no Da Hua…" After saying that, the Abyss Dragon sighed.
"Honestly, Da Hua is still very pretty. Its fur is very pretty, and I really like it…"
"Damn it, you're a dragon, a DRAGON. Y-y-you… I honestly think Xiao Hua is sexier than Da Hua," the bald crane said and coughed dryly.
Chapter 1357: Step Through the Door
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Da Hua's better."
"Xiao Hua's better!"
"Da Hua's prettier!"
"Xiao Hua's prettier! You haven't heard her voice nor seen her fur and body… Everything about her is perfect!"
The Abyss Dragon cast the bald crane a strange look and could not help but say, "Xiao Hua is a male dog…"
The bald crane fell silent. A hint of melancholy gradually appeared on its face. After a long while, it sighed, and a look as if destiny was toying with it and fate was playing tricks on it appeared on its face.
It shook its head, then walked to the riverbank, but right when it lifted one leg over the boat and was about to step on the bank, it suddenly jolted.
For some unknown reason, right when it was about to leave the boat, its heart suddenly ached. That ache made it feel as if it was about to lose people and memories that it did not want to lose.
In silence and under the Abyss Dragon's strange gaze, the bald crane turned around and stared at Su Ming in a daze. Then, it saw the ancient face beneath the straw hat along with the gentle smile.
That smile seemed to be able to see through time and space, and it held an air that the bald crane could not put into words. The bald crane felt as if lightning had struck it at that moment. It seemed… to have remembered something.
It lowered its head and stared at the River of Forgetfulness. Gradually, it saw a bald crane turn into a Crane God in some tribe in the river, and then, it ran into a young man known as Su Ming.
It saw the bald crane turn into a seven-colored peacock in the sky and then journey into the Barren Lands of Divine Essence with the young man. They went to Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos together, then went to Dark Dawn and Saint Defier together…
The pictures in the water froze at the moment where it was about to take half a step off the boat.
"Boss, what's wrong? Come on, we already agreed that we'll have the world under our feet and enjoy all the good, spicy food here." The Abyss Dragon had noticed its strangeness, and an anxious look appeared on its face.
The bald crane fell silent, as if it did not hear the Abyss Dragon's words. It lifted its gaze from the River of Forgetfulness and fixed it on the old Su Ming and met his eyes.
"Go, take that one step. When you are in the world on the other side of the river, you will be happier than you are here," Su Ming said softly.
The bald crane remained silent.
The Abyss Dragon became even more anxious. It had never seen such a look on the bald crane's face before. It was a reluctance to part, hesitation, and even determination.
The bald crane did not seem to have ever had that serious look before, but right then, the Abyss Dragon… personally saw it.
It was afraid that the bald crane would not come. In its anxiety, it rushed forward, as if it wanted to charge back to the boat, but there seemed to be a barrier it could not see between the riverbank and the boat. When the Abyss Dragon pounced on the boat, the barrier blocked it.
"There were only a few people who were good to me, but there has never been anyone who allowed me to experience friendship…
"You weren't my master, but my friend.
"When I followed you, I didn't have to think about the confusion that constantly appeared in my mind. I even stopped wanting to awaken my memories. I only wanted to live willfully for a long, long time…
"I saw you as the incarnation of crystals. You have a divine ability that allows you to create crystals out of the blue, and it's something I can only dream of… Why should I leave?" The bald crane looked at Su Ming and pulled back its lifted foot, placing it firmly on the boat.
"So what if we'll get destroyed? Darn it all, I'm not leaving! Whatever you say, I'm not leaving!" The bald crane sat down beside Su Ming like a child throwing a tantrum. It even looked as if it was burning in rage.
"I don't care what you're going to say, no matter what, I'm not leaving!"
Su Ming was quiet for a long while before he looked at the bald crane and asked softly, "Are you truly not leaving?"
"Even if it's not true, I'm still not leaving!" the bald crane said angrily while glaring at Su Ming.
He sighed softly and looked at the bald crane. After a long while, he chuckled and nodded.
"Then come and watch the destruction of Harmonious Morus Alba together with me." As Su Ming spoke, he steered the oars, and as the boat left into the distance, the Abyss Dragon on the riverbank looked at them with a sad expression.
"Drago, what are you crying for? It's not as if I'm not coming back. Wait for me. When I come back, we'll loot all the crystals there!" The bald crane stood at the bow of the boat and spoke loudly to the Abyss Dragon at the riverbank, who was gradually becoming more indistinct.
The Abyss Dragon heard the bald crane's voice and stared at it in a daze. It did not notice the woman in white who had appeared at some unknown point of time behind it. The woman stood quietly, like a small white flower.
From then on, besides Su Ming, another figure stayed under the wooden house, but it was never quiet. It would constantly wander about the area. When it was incredibly bored, it would walk a circle around the wooden house, then another, and another, until it was exhausted. Only then would it lay down beside Su Ming. During that time, the bald crane would gain another sort of charm.
Su Ming watched the bald crane and smiled much more than he had in the previous one hundred years. He seemed to be used to the bald crane's company, its obsession with crystals, and this friend of his who would occasionally make him feel resigned.
As time passed, nineteen years of the final twenty years of the one hundred and twenty years passed. On the winter of the final year, the land was still covered by snow and ice, and the final batch of people who Su Ming had been waiting for arrived.
Berserkers!
One hundred thousand Berserkers approached the place quietly through the ice and snow. They were silent and stood quietly outside the wooden house while watching Su Ming.
He was familiar with the people in the lead, especially Nan Gong Hen. In a daze, the leader of the Fated Kin watched Su Ming, who stood under the wooden house, and a hint of loss, as if he did not know what to do, appeared on his face.
"You're all here," Su Ming spoke said and stood up. The moment he did so, all one hundred thousand Berserkers knelt down and worshiped him together.
"Greetings, God of Berserkers!"
Their voices rang through the area and passed over the River of Forgetfulness. Even people on the other side of the river could probably hear them clearly.
As their voices echoed in the air, Su Ming watched them. They were the last batch of people he had been waiting for.
Once he sent them away, he would no longer have any regrets. He would no longer have any sort of worries in Arid Triad and could use every single method at his disposal to fight for a chance of survival.
He swung his arm, and a gentle breeze immediately stirred up. It swept through the area and enveloped all one hundred thousand Berserkers before sending them into Su Ming's sleeve. He lifted his foot and took a step forward to stand in the boat. The bald crane quickly followed him, and almost at the moment it stepped into the boat, it started moving forward on its own.
It felt as if the journey only lasted for the span of a breath, but it also seemed to have lasted for the span of time it takes for winter to turn into spring. The boat approached the riverbank on the other side, and with a swing of Su Ming's arm, one hundred thousand Berserkers appeared on it.
They stared at Su Ming in a daze. No one said a word, but the reluctance to part in their eyes was so great that even spring was dyed in sadness.
"Take care of yourselves in this world."
Su Ming looked at the one hundred thousand Berserkers, then wrapped his fist in his palm and bowed deeply. He used his identity of the God of Berserkers to bow to his people.
With it, the winds of spring calmed down, and the gusts of autumn stirred. Fog soon appeared between the boat and the riverbank.
"Send him off!" Nan Gong Hen suddenly shouted.
"God of Berserkers!"
The one hundred thousand Berserkers knelt down and worshiped him… and it caused Su Ming to lift his head. When his boat left into the distance, he could still see the one hundred thousand Berserkers kneeling on the ground, despite the fog.
The autumn gusts sent the boat away. To Su Ming, he was sending the one hundred thousand Berserkers away, but to the Berserkers, they were sending their God of Berserkers away. They did not need to know who was sending who off, however, because the separation brought by the will of autumn had arrived from the spring of the other side of the river. As the boat left into the distance, Su Ming moved into midwinter.
When they arrived outside the wooden house, the world was still covered in ice and snow. However, this time, when Su Ming walked off the boat and stood on the riverbank with the bald crane, he turned his head around only to find that the boat had already sunk into the River of Forgetfulness. Perhaps, there would come a day in the future when the boat would rise again and Su Ming would become the ferryman again… to bring himself and the bald crane to the other side of the river—the other world.
He smiled in a relaxed manner, then swung his arm gently. The ice in the sky instantly froze, and everything in the world turned silent. There was no longer anyone Su Ming waited for, and it was time for him to wake up.
He walked up the steps of the wooden house, moved under the eaves, and arrived before the door. Over the course of one hundred and twenty years, he had never pushed it open. At that moment, when he pushed it lightly, the door swung open.
He had never crossed the threshold under his feet. At that moment, for the first time ever, Su Ming lifted his foot and crossed it.
There had been hints of sadness on the bald crane's face, but at that moment, it looked as if it had buried that sadness at the bottom of its heart, and the usual carefree expression appeared on its features. It followed Su Ming into the wooden house with a swagger.
The world outside the wooden house was silent, while the world within… was empty.
It was like a vortex, a cycle of life and death. When Su Ming and the bald crane stepped inside and the door of the wooden house slowly fell shut, the world outside turned into an illusion. It gradually became indistinct and disintegrated. When it was reduced to nothingness, a galaxy was formed.
It was… True Morning Dao World!
As for the River of Forgetfulness, it turned into a Milky Way that led through the galaxy. On the other side of it was a huge vortex. It filled up all of True Morning Dao World. At that moment, it was gradually shrinking, closing off the world behind it.
And the indistinct wooden house slowly turned… into Ninth Summit!
Su Ming opened his eyes.
One hundred and twenty years had passed since he had closed his eyes. He bent his head down. In his left hand were the flames of memories detailing his past life, and in his right hand was the manifestation of the rise and fall of his life before daybreak…
"I'm back…"
Su Ming lifted his head.
Chapter 1358: Return to the Barren Lands of Divine Essence
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Everything ended. The ferryman sent all the people he was familiar with to the other side of the river over one hundred and twenty years. He willingly lowered his head and quietly watched them leave. This was Su Ming's decision for them. It was his first, and also his last.
To Su Ming, the one hundred and twenty years was a very long time period, but also very short. It was short when he sent people he knew over the River of Forgetfulness, and it was long because of the eternity of waiting and not knowing when they would meet again in the future. He had no idea how much time passed like that.
Su Ming was not confident that he would succeed, which was why he wished that it would last longer, but in the end, it had to come to a conclusion, just like how the fireworks in the sky disappear after a short moment, even if they make a permanent place for themselves in a person's mind as a beautiful memory.
Su Ming's eyes gradually gained the spark they should have. Ninth Summit… was quiet. One hundred thousand Berserkers had left, and so had one hundred thousand Ninth Summit disciples. Plenty of people had disappeared, causing the people remaining in Ninth Summit to feel lost.
"Ninth Summit is now empty. If you… want to stay, you can stay, but if you want to leave, you can leave whenever you want," Su Ming said slowly.
His voice echoed through all of Ninth Summit at that moment and landed in each disciple's ears, waking them up from their dazed state.
Su Ming closed his eyes with the bald crane was by his side. It watched the familiar surroundings and did not feel too much sadness. It soon headed to some place, but since Su Ming knew the bald crane, he did not even need to think to know what it was thinking at that moment.
'I'm rich! I'm rich! Haha! This Grandpa Crane is really lucky. Su Ming sent away so many people , and they definitely couldn't take away all of their crystals. Crystals! And especially since they're other people's crystals!'
There was excitement on the bald crane's face. When it thought about what had happened, it could not help the trembled that passed through its body. It began to move even faster then.
Su Ming did not bother about the bald crane's actions. When he closed his eyes, another twenty years passed… He sensed Arid Triad trembling and the descent of the will of the destructive disaster.
By then, Harmonious Morus Alba's wings should have already looked overlapped if anyone saw it with the naked eye, but in truth, there was still a small slit left before the wings touched.
The slit marked the final one hundred years. Su Ming, however, could already sense True Immortal Sect World and feel Harmonious Morus Alba's presence from the other True Worlds in Arid Triad.
The two Expanse Cosmoses were about to overlap with each other.
During the twenty years Su Ming had stayed in Ninth Summit with his eyes closed, most of the cultivators from the sect had left. The majority of them were old or did not have high levels of cultivation. They no longer had any desire to join a large sect and wished for peace more than anything else.
The successor disciples of Ninth Summit had already been chosen by Hu Zi. Those who were left behind were just superfluous additions to what was important, and since the ones important had left, the superfluous additions would naturally choose to bloom elsewhere.
They entered the final one hundred years before the disaster, and the powerful warriors of previous aeons started waking up. The first to wake up was the person who had fought against Su Ming in the capital planet of the Emperor of Abyss' True World. Immediately after, an astonishing presence erupted from several places in Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos.
They spread out from many places in the Emperor of Abyss' True World, True Sacred Yin World, the Fourth True World, and Divine Essence Star Ocean, but there were even more of them coming out from the Expanse Cosmos belonging to Harmonious Morus Alba's fourth wing. Gradually, the powerful warriors began walking the galaxies, and a bloody massacre as well as an oppression of an aeon began.
It was in truth, also a disaster, but it would only come for a short period of time before all lives were destroyed by the disaster.
With Di Tian as their leader, the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors hidden in Yin Death Vortex opened their eyes.
"It's time, the period of one hundred years has finally arrived…"
Low murmurs shot up from the worlds in Yin Death Vortex. Excited and fragmented laughter as well as howls echoed everywhere.
Before Arid Triad's disaster, blood was shed…
Su Ming sighed softly and shifted his gaze away from Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos. He did not care about anything in the world around him, be it Di Tian or Su Xuan Yi. At that moment, he did not want to care about them. Even if those powerful warriors from the previous aeons wrought chaos on the entire universe, it was merely part of the laws of the universe. It was something that should happen before Harmonious Morus Alba's four wings overlapped with one another.
However… Ninth Summit remained as forbidden grounds. If anyone dared to take even half a step into this area, then even the powerful warriors from the previous aeons who were known to be indestructible would know just how brilliant was the disaster of life.
Su Ming had killed many people, and even the powerful warriors of the previous aeons were nothing to him…
But he still remembered that one hundred thousand cultivators were still trapped in the world that once belonged to Ecang in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence.
He had promised them that he would one day bring them out, and Su Ming would fulfill that promise.
"Do you want to go back to the Barren Lands of Divine Essence again?" Su Ming looked to the side, where the bald crane was still counting crystals.
The bald crane lifted its head and thought about Su Ming's words carefully before it spoke very seriously. "I've already looted all the crystals there."
Su Ming smiled.
"Alright, then stay here."
With a shake of his head, Su Ming closed his eyes. The next instant, a figure appeared in a galaxy in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence with barely any spiritual aura. That figure belonged to Su Ming.
He was familiar with everything in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. He had stayed there for many years in the past.
At that moment, everything in that galaxy seemed to be filled with his marks, be it when he was running away or while traveling as a weakling. It was clear that at that time, his path had been arranged by Su Xuan Yi so that he could provide nourishment for the Seed of Life Extermination and do everything that Su Xuan Yi had laid out in secret.
However, when Su Ming turned his head back right then, the resentment and hatred he felt in the past had already faded away. His expression was one of calm. He walked through the galaxy and approached the spot where Ecang had once been.
Su Ming's footsteps came to a halt, as if he had sensed something. There was a cultivation planet not too far away, and on it was a young man. He was sitting at the mountain top and exercising his breathing while meditating.
As he breathed, the ferocious shadow of a huge tree appeared behind him. It was… Ecang.
One of the souls who had escaped from Su Ming's hands in the past had manifested its own version of Ecang. Su Ming stared at him, but he was completely unaware of Su Ming's stare. He continued meditating while occasionally opening his eyes to look at the area cautiously. The aloof and wild look that constantly shone in his eyes made him seem incredibly sullen.
This matched with Ecang's personality. Clearly, during the years since its escape, it had learned quite a bit of a cultivators' way to be cautious and cunning while recovering, which was why it could last for so long in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence.
Perhaps it had always been on guard against Su Ming's arrival. After all, to it, Su Ming's existence was a shadow in its life that even it had to be afraid of. It was afraid of Su Ming, but also longed to devour him so that it would be complete.
If this was the past, then when Su Ming saw it, he would definitely not let it go, but right then, he only cast it a glance before moving his gaze away. Their different states of being and their different worlds caused the animosity between them to turn into a squabble between children.
He did not bother about the figure who had manifested Ecang. Su Ming instead stepped into the world that had once belonged to one hundred thousand Ecangs.
All the stone monuments in the world shuddered with a bang, and all the people who were sitting and meditating lifted their heads. Shock appeared on their faces, and even the cultivators who were immersed in the worlds formed by their memories were forced out. They lifted their heads in shock, and during that moment, the one hundred thousand people… saw Su Ming walking in the sky above them.
Some of them still remembered Su Ming, and some of them had already forgotten him. There were also some who had never experienced the shocking things that occurred during his time, and at that moment, there was confusion on their faces.
"This place has existed for far too long. I promised all of you in the past that there would come a day when the seal would break. I have come today to break it. I will release the binds on all of you and return your souls to you. From now on… you… are free!"
Su Ming swept his gaze past the people. It lingered a little longer on those he was familiar with until it landed on the middle-aged man who had once helped him.
At first glance, he looked to be a middle-aged man, but when Su Ming took a closer look, he saw that the man had already become old. The passing of his wife seemed to have become a constant pain in his heart. He could have left before, but had been reluctant to do so. Instead, he immersed himself in his memories so that he could accompany his wife.
After Su Ming spoke, loud bangs rang out. The stone monuments shattered, and the borders of the space in the area splintered, layer by layer. In just the span of a few breaths, only one stone monument remained standing. It was before the middle-aged man.
"Only you have the right to shatter this stone monument… I will not interfere with your decision."
Su Ming cast a profound look at the middle-aged man. When he turned away from him, he swept his gaze over the other people. He did not see happiness, only a dazed look. It was as if these people could not get used to the sudden change.
But in the end, they would have to get used to it. Su Ming cast a glance at the world that once held one hundred thousand stone monuments. He remembered Sui Chen Zi and shook his head. When he turned around, he had already stepped into space.
He arrived in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. Besides releasing the seal in the world of the one hundred thousand stone monuments, he also wanted to go to Husband Gazing Mountain to take a look at the figure at the top of the mountain. Then, he wanted to go to the Sand Earthlings to fulfill the wish of the Sand Earthling's Antecedental Spirit. He also wanted… to go to Black Ink Planet and send Tian Xie Zi's disciple in name to the other side of the river.
If it was possible, Su Ming also wanted to go to the fifth ocean to check whether the entrance to the fifth True World truly existed. He wanted to go to there and see… the place where Su Zhan died and where Su Xuan Yi had gathered his soul together.
"One hundred years is enough," Su Ming mumbled softly and left into the distance.
At that moment, a bloody storm swept through many tribes in Divine Essence Star Ocean. It was due to a thin old man. A skeleton stuck to his back, and there was a numb look on his face.
Wherever he went, he brought death with him.
Chapter 1359: Old Friends in Black Ink Planet
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Black Ink Planet was a planet that Su Ming once found familiar. He had in fact even found some semblance of home in it. The first God of Berserkers Lie Shan Xiu's past was recorded there, and it could be said that if Lie Shan Xiu was not around, Black Ink Planet would not exist.
While standing in the galaxy, Su Ming stared at Black Ink Planet in the distance. His gaze gradually gathered on Divine Essence Star Ocean, which was even further away, and the things that happened in the past slowly surfaced in his mind.
He still remembered the fifth kiln's flames burning all of Divine Essence Star Ocean, Su Xuan Yi's wife inside the kiln, and how he had thought that he had found his mother. Perhaps there was a deep wave of regret contained in the woman's motherly love, and it was something that Su Xuan Yi and Lei Chen would never come to know…
Su Ming had spared Su Xuan Yi while he was in the capital planet of the Emperor of Abyss' True World. Even though he had seen through Su Xuan Yi's plans of using him again to release himself from some harmful situation, Su Ming still did not kill him.
A part of it was because of Lei Chen, but a larger reason was because… of the woman lying in the fifth kiln, who he once thought was his mother.
Because of her, Su Ming chose to give up on his hate for Su Xuan Yi. The woman had chosen to hold him in her arms while he was still a baby and provide him warmth, even though she had closed her eyes permanently in the empty galaxy. This was something Su Ming would never forget.
She was not his mother, but in Su Ming's heart, she was his mother. Even though she might have done it out of guilt or because she wanted to provide a path of survival for her real son, Su Ming had experienced the warmth, and he would never forget it.
That was why he had only returned the fifth kiln to Su Xuan Yi and ended that particular period of his life with a sigh. When he turned around, he sealed everything related to them beneath a layer of dust.
At that moment, when he returned to the place where he once rose to power, Su Ming shook his head and walked towards Black Ink Planet. The families in the planet had went through a change during the one thousand something years. Those who once stood in glory had faded away, and those who once did not stand out had become the most powerful at that moment.
Su Ming through Black Ink Planet, passing cities and families. He continued until he arrived in the city that once belonged to the Berserkers. He stood outside an inn, on a street bustling with activity, and watched the cultivators in the area.
He seemed to have relocated some of the emotions he had felt in the past regarding this place.
At some point in time, he raised his head, and sun fell into his eyes. The light breeze lifted his long hair, and his robes fluttered gently. At that moment, Su Ming did not look huge. Instead, he gained the air of a scholar. It was a form of elegance, otherworldliness, a proud and aloof air that would allow him to not fit with the world if he so wanted to.
But right then, as Su Ming stared at the name of an inn under the sun, his footsteps came to a halt, and nostalgia appeared in his eyes.
One thousand years ago…
There were only three simple words serving as the inn's name. The words on the signboard had a hint of time on them, as if to show their ancient air and how authentic they were.
Su Ming smiled faintly and walked into the inn. When he entered it, the manager immediately walked forward quickly. Perhaps it was due to the otherworldly air, but the manager did not dare to be inattentive to Su Ming. He led him to a table near the window, gave him a pot of wine and a few side dishes, then when he saw that Su Ming still did not speak, he moved back to serve the other customers.
Su Ming sat at the table and savored the wine as if he had returned to the period of time one thousand years ago.
After noon, when the sun changed positions in the sky and shone through the window, it illuminated Su Ming's face, as if it wanted to make Su Ming fuse into it. When others saw him, they could only see a gentle light, but not his face.
"Coming!"
"Haha, it's time, manager. Bring Sir Chen over. All of us do dote on that old man."
"That's right, bring Senior Chen over. He spoke of the Dual Fiends who appeared one thousand something years ago last time, and we still don't know what happened to them in the end."
When more customers appeared in the inn, their voices slowly rose into a clamor.
The manager quickly made a bow with his hands folded in front. Once he voiced his obedience, he strode into the inner section of the inn, and before long, an old man with a head full of white hair slowly walked out. He was dressed in a white robe.
When the old man walked out, all noise disappeared from the inn. Almost all the people's gazes looked on the old man.
A smart worker brought a chair over and let the old man sit on it. He coughed a few times, then with an ancient look in his eyes, he swept his gaze past the crowd. When it landed on Su Ming, he seemed to stare at him for a while, but he soon turned away.
The old man touched the cup the worker placed next to him and asked with a smile, "At what point did I stop last time?" He seemed to be filled with energy, but when he spoke, his voice sounded hoarse.
"Senior Chen, don't pretend to be forgetful now. Last time, the Dual Fiends: the Black and the Yellow enraged many families by using marriage scams, and they even had bounties placed on their heads."
"Black and the Yellow? It's the Crane and the Black."
"No matter what their names are, Senior Chen, that's where you stopped last time." The inn rose to a clamor again, and quite a number of people spoke with laughter.
"The Dual Fiends might have been chased by many families, but they were never bothered by it. That crane was especially skilled in the art of disguise. It would turn into an old man in many of the cities belonging to various families…" the old man said slowly while stroking his beard.
He spoke slowly, but his descriptions were incredibly vivid, and soon, everyone's attention was attracted. Sometimes, someone would even laugh.
"That's right, my Master once told me that he was scammed into buying a few bottles of fake medicinal pills by an old sage."
"Yeah, I heard about this as well, but I heard that the Dual Fiends has someone very powerful supporting them."
Su Ming was drinking while listening to the old man slowly recount his tale. Gradually, a smile appeared at the corners of his lips.
The old man picked up his cup and took a sip of his water before he speaking again with a smile. "Just like that, the last person to chase after the Dual Fiends was in truth, their master. In fear, they ran day and night, but in the end, they did not manage to escape."
"Who is the master of the Dual Fiends?"
"This is the first time I heard about this. How did you learn about it, Senior Chen?"
When the old man finished speaking, a clamor rose in the inn again. But once the old man lifted his hand to give a sign for silence, the noise slowly died down.
"I'll tell you more today. You should have heard of the Dual Fiends' master. There was one person who came out of Divine Essence Star Ocean in the past. He rose to power in this galaxy, took away the fifth kiln, made the kiln's flames spread out, burning the entire galaxy, and fought against various races beyond the fifth ocean. There were plenty of Almighties who died in his hands.
"Even the Almighties in Mastery Realm perished, and even the more powerful ones in Fate Realm were not his opponent…"
"Is it Dao Kong? Senior, are you talking about Dao Kong?" someone immediately said in the inn.
A nostalgic look appeared on Su Ming's face. That name had already been buried in his memories. When he remembered it then, he felt like too much time had already passed.
"It's Dao Kong, but also not Dao Kong. Very few people know what his true name is. Even I only know that his family name was Su. It is said that he was an Abyss Builder from the fifth True World!
"He Possessed Dao Kong and went to Divine Essence Star Ocean with the Dual Fiends by his side. He swept through the galaxy, stirred up the fires of the kiln, subjugated various foreign races, killed countless people, and when he left Divine Essence Star Ocean, he left behind a legend.
"It is said that he went to True Morning Dao World!" When the old man spoke, the inn was silent.
The crowd had heard about everything that happened in True Morning Dao World. The former Morning Dao Sect was destroyed, and a gap had appeared in Arid Triad. In fact, the cultivators from Dark Dawn and Saint Defier had even slaughtered their way into the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. If it was not because it was so incredibly impoverished, it might have also burned with the flames of war.
When the largest batch of cultivators descended from Dark Dawn and Saint Defier, a sect known as Ninth Summit rose to power in True Morning Dao World. This matter had happened a long time ago, and news about it had naturally traveled over.
"It's said that the strongest person in Ninth Summit also has Su as his family name!" When the old man said that, he coughed. The worker by his side quickly came up to support him, and the old man smiled with an apologetic look at the crowd.
"My apologies, everyone, but my injuries are acting up again. I can't speak for too long. Thank you for coming here and serving as a great audience. I will continue to tell all of you the tale that happened one thousand something years ago two days later."
When the old man stood up, a smile appeared at the corners of his lips. It reminded Su Ming of one person.
'I shouldn't get reacquainted with old friends…'
Su Ming put down his wine cup and stood up to walk towards the door. At the moment he did so, the old man was smiling apologetically at the crowd, and by pure coincidence, he saw Su Ming's back. This time, there was no sun shining on him, so he could see Su Ming's full appearance.
The old man shuddered, and disbelief filled him. Even his face changed, and he looked… not like an old man, but an old woman with white hair.
But due to some reason, she could only appear as an old man to others.
"A beauty turned pale, and memories worth a thousand years… To gather the will to live, and to practice cultivation due to that will to live; to stay by switching the sun, the moon, and deities, but alas, this will not last…"
Su Ming's voice, filled with a myriad of emotions, traveled into the old woman's ears. As he left into the distance and the old woman looked at the table where he had sat previously, she saw a medicinal pill placed beside his wine cup.
When Su Ming left into the distance, the old woman—who still looked like an old man—stared at the door of the inn in a daze. After a long while, a complicated look appeared on her face. She sighed softly, and when she brought up her right hand, the medicinal pill flew towards her and landed on her palm.
At that moment, the crowd in the inn also seemed to have gradually come to realize something. They looked towards the old man curiously.
"Senior Chen, who is that fellow Daoist just now?" someone quickly asked.
"He is the person I was talking about just now…"
The old woman [1] in the disguise of an old man sighed softly. The things in the past rose to the forefront of her mind. Back then, she had been the prime of her life and had beauty, but right then, her old friend looked as good as new, while she… had already become old.
Chapter 1360: Regret
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Su Ming was on the mountain where Lie Shan Xiu once stared into the distance in Black Ink Planet. One thousand something years had passed since Su Ming had come there for the first time. When he stood there once more and stared into the distance, he felt as if he saw himself.
After a long while, he took a step forward with a calm expression and walked into the air, disappearing from Black Ink Planet. He stepped into the galaxy and entered Divine Essence Star Ocean.
It still looked the same as always. Everything in the galaxy operated as it usually did. Perhaps they were not something that would never change for all eternity, but the span of one thousand something years, which was somewhat long to Su Ming, was just a short period of time in its life.
Su Ming moved past Flame Fiends' Progenitor's nest and various habitats belonging to ferocious beasts until he arrived at the continent that once belonged to Tian Xie Zi's disciple-in-name.
While the continent remained, there was no longer anyone in it. When Su Ming looked over, he found that the continent had become a wasteland, and he could not tell how long it had been abandoned.
Dijiu Mo Sha was no longer around. Perhaps his people were also no longer around. The signs that they had been there had long since been wiped away by time. After all, it was Divine Essence Star Ocean. The brutality and the slaughter that happened in it were something brought forth by the races living there and were a regular occurrence.
Su Ming was silent for a long period of time before turning around and leaving towards Husband Gazing Mountain one step at a time.
He walked past the place belonging to the Sand Earthlings and passed the huge head of the statue floating in the galaxy.
Su Ming arrived at the summit of Husband Gazing Mountain and saw a mountain rock in the shape of a woman standing tall at the summit. The stone seemed to have formed naturally, and from far away, it looked exactly like a woman staring into the distance while waiting for her husband's return.
When Su Ming saw it, he remembered Zhu You Cai, who came from the Husband Gazing Mountain. He also remembered the bald crane's complicated expression while it was in this place. When he scrutinized the mountain rock, Su Ming suddenly had a feeling that the woman's figure formed by the rock… seemed to share features with the woman beside the lake that the bald crane had watched for one hundred years.
But it was just a feeling. Su Ming fell silent, and as he stared at the mountain rock resembling a woman's figure, he seemed to hear a soft murmur that came from the passage of time.
"The moonlight is dim, and during that time, who will remember it?
"You stare at the end of the world, yearning for your husband and longing for your home."
After looking at the mountain rock, Su Ming left. The mountain had its own story, which had happened a long time ago. The stone woman's gaze as she stared into the distance would only last for another one hundred years.
Su Ming walked to the region of the Sand Earthlings and grabbed a handful of sand from the desert. He once promised the Antecedental Spirit of the Sand Earthlings that he would grant him eternal life, just like how all the lives written into Old Man Extermination's ballad would obtain eternal life in that aeon.
With the sand on his palm as a lead, Su Ming closed his eyes. The sand in his hand trembled before it rose above his hand. It swirled there, then turned into the figure of a Sand Earthling. When Su Ming opened his eyes, the figure wrapped his fist in his palm and bowed deeply towards him while above his palm.
Then, he flew up. Su Ming swung his right hand at the sky, and a vortex appeared out of nowhere. The figure turned into a long arc and charged inside it, where he disappeared without a trace.
Su Ming watched the figure leaving into the distance up to the moment the vortex disappeared. He had completed another one of the promises he had made in the past.
He walked through the trail he once took and saw swarms of creatures that he found dangerous in the past. He continued walking. Since he was there, he wanted to head to the fifth ocean to see whether there was truly a path that led to the broken fifth True World.
The wish he had in the past was not gone. The only thing he had yet to accomplish was locating his junior brother—Tian Xie Zi's disciple-in-name. This was a regret in his heart, but Su Ming did not force himself to search for him. In truth, when he saw the wastelands, he could already sense that… his youngest junior brother had already returned to the embrace of earth.
When an old friend leaves the world, it is difficult for the two people to meet again. This was destiny, and Su Ming could do nothing about it, but perhaps… he was destined to be able to find a way to settle this regret, because when he was walking forward in Divine Essence Star Ocean, Su Ming suddenly came to a halt.
Once he stopped, he slowly turned his head around, and when he looked into the distance, a dark look appeared on his face. It was full of killing intent.
Since Su Ming had he returned from the fourth wing's Expanse Cosmos, killing intent had never showed up in his gaze. At that moment, it was the first time.
Su Ming saw a floating continent not too far away. The lives there were in utter misery at that moment. Their blood flowed in streams, and they were all slaughtered by an expressionless thin old man. He seemed to be killing everyone to absorb their fear and the life force. Slowly, the thin old man's aura became stronger.
There was a corpse on the old man's back. Its flesh was squirming at that moment, and the more people were killed, the more the more the corpse recovered. Flesh grew on its bones, covering certain parts of the bone.
That scene reminded Su Ming of one of Su Xuan Yi's clones. It had been trapped in a certain region in Divine Essence Star Ocean and was reduced to a host to a skeleton on its back.
The corpse was that skeleton, but the host was no longer Su Xuan Yi's clone. Instead, the host had become… Tian Xie Zi's disciple-in-name, Su Ming's junior brother, the person Su Ming had not been able to find.
When he noticed it, Su Ming fell silent. He could not overlook this. The presence spreading out from the corpse made it clear that he was a powerful warrior from one of the past aeons. Su Ming would ignore him no matter how much he killed or absorbed, since this was a part of the laws before the disaster and Su Ming did not want to interfere with them.
However, that person… should not have used Tian Xie Zi's disciple-in-name as his host.
The people of the past said that those who did not know of the laws could not be considered to have committed a crime if they broke a law, but this saying did not stand for Su Ming. Regardless of whether he knew or did not know, once a person did certain things, they had to pay the equivalent price, such as the powerful warrior from one of the previous aeons…
Su Ming lifted his right hand and pointed at the distant galaxy. With it, the galaxy immediately distorted. Without a single sound, an illusion appeared in front of Su Ming. It was the illusion of his finger. It instantly looked as if it had become real, and when it grew to be one thousand feet long, it charged into the distance.
As it moved forward, it grew, and it turned into a finger that was about ten thousand feet long. It sliced through space, and in an instant, it appeared in the sky to press down on the corpse that was absorbing all the life force from the recently killed.
The continent trembled violently at that moment, as if it could not withstand the indescribable destructive will contained in Su Ming's finger when it descended. The corpse's had been closed before, but at that moment, they flew open to reveal yellow pupils. They shrank swiftly in astonishment.
"Who is attacking me? Fellow Daoist, if you value this continent, then I immediately apologize and am willing to deliver all the life force I absorbed to you. I am even willing to give you a supreme treasure as an apology!" the corpse said quickly, but Su Ming's finger in the sky did not stop for even an instant. It replaced the sky and descended.
The ground shuddered. In fact, the edges of the continent started cracking and crumbling, unable to withstand the mighty pressure. This caused the corpse's expression to change again. Without any hesitation, it opened its mouth and sucked in a sharp breath. With it, the old man carrying him was reduced to skin and bones, turning into a mummy. It looked like all of his flesh and blood had been instantly sucked out by the corpse.
When the mummy who had long since died and was turned into a puppet fell to the ground, flesh and blood swiftly grew on his body. It turned into a middle-aged man with a sinister face. He threw his head back and roared. Then, he formed a seal with his hands before pushing at the finger coming at him from the sky.
The moment he attacked, a huge shadow appeared on the middle-aged man's body. It was a huge black beast that was decaying. It had nine heads, and when it grew larger, it reached to be thousands of feet tall. It let out an indignant howl, leapt up, and charged towards Su Ming's finger.
"Damn it, no matter who you are, you can't kill me. This is a part of the laws in the universe. Since you can't kill me, why must you interfere with my actions?!"
When the middle-aged man roared, Su Ming's finger crashed against his body. Loud booms spread out, shaking the sky and earth. Hidden amid them was the middle-aged man's shrill scream of pain.
From a distance, it looked like Su Ming's finger replaced the sky and the universe. Only the tip of the finger might have descended, but it covered nearly two-tenths of the continent. When it touched the huge beast the old man had manifest, it did not stop moving. It pushed the middle-aged man's figure and pressed him against the continent that was void of life.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground shuddered, and cracks instantly filled the continent. In the span of a few breaths, the land shattered, but it did not crumble straight away. Instead, when it crumbled layer by layer, it exploded and turned into ash…
The middle-aged man's body and soul were destroyed by the finger formed by Su Ming's will even before that!
"I cannot bring you to the other side of river… Since you have already passed away, the only thing I can do for you is to have this person die with you, and with this lifeless continent, I will build a grave for you."
Su Ming sighed softly. He brought his right hand up and swung his arm. Immediately, the continent that had been reduced to dust gathered together in space to form a tomb that floated in the galaxy.
A string of words gradually appeared on the tombstone above it.
Ninth Summit, Grave of Mo Sha.
Dijiu Mo Sha. This disciple-in-name of Tian Xie Zi would now sleep for eternity in his grave. Su Ming might not have had a lot of interactions with him, but he would never forgot that junior brother of his. However, in terms of feelings, he could not help but find that this person was not as close to him as his senior brothers. In fact, perhaps even Tian Xie Zi had already forgotten that there was once a teenager who was determined to become his disciple…
But no matter what… he was Su Ming's junior brother.
Even if his tomb would only last for one hundred years, the regret that rose in Su Ming's heart was given voice when he carved Ninth Summit into Dijiu Mo Sha's tombstone…
Chapter 1361: Before Arid Triad's Disaster, My Name Will Sound Through the Universe (1)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
There was no longer any fog in the space beyond the fifth ocean. Su Ming stood there and stared in front of him for a long while before he raised his foot and walked into it.
One year later…
Su Ming did not return from the fifth ocean, because there was no longer any need for him to do so. The body which was meditating in True Morning Dao World simply opened his eyes. If anyone took a close look at the picture lingering in his eyes, they would find that it was a wrecked galaxy.
It was the fifth True World.
Su Ming went to Divine Essence Star Ocean, and he also found the entrance to the fifth True World. In the wreckage that had been sealed in dust for a long time, he found the place where Su Zhan had died. Once he walked through the entire land, Su Ming's eyes gradually became calm, and the quiet Ninth Summit was reflected in his eyes again.
"The final one hundred years…" Su Ming said softly and closed his eyes. He had to make preparations for his final battle against Arid Triad.
No enmity would be involved in the battle of Possession one hundred years later. Be it Harmonious Morus Alba or Arid Triad, all of them had to fight so that they could continue existing.
"There is no longer any meaning to how many True Worlds we have in our possession. The main focus of this battle will be in wills and our determination to live…" Su Ming lifted his head and cast a glance at space before he gradually closed his eyes.
The next moment, his figure appeared in the world within All Spirits Hall in True Morning Dao World. In the spot once belonging to Great Berserker Tribe, Su Ming sat down and began his spirit ascension that would last for one hundred years. This time, Su Ming would become an Ancestral Spirit.
All of this was to prepare for the moment Arid Triad's disaster arrived one hundred years later and before it could destroy everything.
Time passed, and one year went by, then another. The tremors in Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos grew stronger. There were quite a number of regions in the universe where the galaxy even looked to have become thinner. All the cultivators could vaguely see that there was another world under the galaxy, and it was slowly approaching them.
Countless lives were in a state of terror. Many plants withered. All sentient creatures were also terrified, having already noticed that they were nearing the end of their lives and the world was about to be destroyed.
The spiritual aura erupted in an exponential rate in Arid Triad at that time, as if this was a form of release, but also like the final burst of strength a dying man would have before he breathed his last. When the spiritual aura released, various lives withered, and a large number of powerful warriors from the previous aeons surged forth, the world sank into a state of chaos.
Lives were no longer worth anything. They became so frail that they could not withstand even a single hit. Everyone was switching with each other between states of living and dying, which turned all of them numb to death. The powerful warriors from past aeons who woke up brought with them their brutality and distasteful interests and released them to their hearts' content. They wanted to vent all of the loneliness they suffered while they were sleeping during the short hundred years.
All of Arid Triad fell into chaos. There was no longer order, mercy, and to survive, all people had to give up on their dignity. For a single medicinal pill, they could give up everything. The powerful warriors from the previous aeons even constantly fought against each other, causing Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos to become even more chaotic.
Each year, many lives faded away. When some planets began disappearing into the galaxy and the distortions in space turned into ripples, the chaos and madness grew even stronger.
Arid Triad was not the only one in this state. Dark Dawn and Saint Defier were the same. With Yan Pei, Zi Ruo, and Fei Hua's levels of cultivation, it was impossible for them to prevent it from happening. They could only watch it all unfold: how Dark Dawn and Saint Defier sank into endless chaos.
Only True Morning Dao World—the True World belonging to Su Ming—was mostly free of such happenings. Because of it, numerous cultivators surge into his True Morning Dao World when nearly three-tenths of the one hundred years had passed.
Those cultivators had been fleeing in search of refuge. Their homes and sects had already been destroyed, and their lives were no longer in their control.
Some people had then suddenly found that the powerful warriors who came after their lives showed hesitancy once they entered True Morning Dao World. They did not continue chasing after the refugees, and because of that, True Morning Dao World became a paradise in the apocalyptic world.
Gradually, more cultivators surged into True Morning Dao World. They found their own places to live in the True World and discovered that True Morning Dao World was as peaceful as it had been in the past despite the sudden chaos in the whole universe. There was no slaughter nor threats of death. Everything in there place was the same as in their memories.
They did not know the reason for it, but as time passed and half of one hundred years went by, the rumor that True Morning Dao World was a paradise became known to many people. The cultivators who were safe in True Morning Dao World used various methods to notify their friends and family, telling them to do whatever they could to hurry over.
After all, it was the safest place in the chaotic universe.
One day, a man and a woman were traveling swiftly through the galaxy of True Sacred Yin World near True Morning Dao World. There was a little girl on the woman's back. She was about five or six years old, and there was terror on her face, but she did not cry.
The woman was injured, but she only gritted her teeth and persevered. The man beside her was the girl's father and her husband. The two of them were silent all along the way while using their fastest speed to rush forward. Even if they continuously swallowed medicinal pills, they kept moving at a constant speed towards True Morning Dao World.
"We're almost there. In just a bit, we'll enter True Morning Dao World. My senior brother is waiting for us there. As long as we reach that place, we'll be safe."
The man looked at his wife, then at his daughter, and determination appeared on his face. He continued whispering to himself that he absolutely had to bring his family into True Morning Dao World.
The woman's face was pale, but she continued smiling gently and holding the man's hand. The two of them saw the determination on each other's faces and moved even faster.
In truth, they could rush even faster, but the girl on the woman's back was too young. They needed to spread their cultivation bases outwards to protect her, which was why they could not use their best speed.
Time passed, and several hours passed by. When two family could see the broken barrier leading to True Morning Dao World ahead of them, they saw a middle-aged man waiting for them anxiously. Once he saw them, the man immediately wept in joy.
The barrier was heavily damaged, and it could even be said that it no longer existed. Anyone could enter at will.
The couple felt their spirits lift the instant they approached the barrier. In a flash, they left True Sacred Yin World and entered True Morning Dao World, uniting with the middle-aged man who had come to receive them.
"Haha! You're safe now. Once you're here, you're safe. Come, I'll bring you to meet our Master. He missed you dearly while you weren't around."
When the middle-aged man spoke happily, a dark snigger suddenly spread through the galaxy. Once it appeared, the joy that was originally on the couple's faces disappeared.
A figure walked out of thin air. It was an old man in black holding a black flag in his hand. His appearance not only made the couple's expressions change, but even the middle-aged man paled instantly.
"You sure run fast. Oh well, I won't make things hard for you today. Leave the child behind, and you can leave."
When the old man spoke, he got closer to True Morning Dao World. The three met each other's eyes and immediately turned into three long arcs that ran into the distance.
"Don't worry. Once we're here, that person won't chase us. This place is safe!" the middle-aged man said resolutely. The three people left in a hurry.
The old man beyond the barrier snorted coldly, but was slightly hesitant about his next action. However, once he let out another snort, he stepped into True Morning Dao World.
Even though there was a warning circulating among the powerful warriors of the previous aeons aurally telling all of them not to take even half a step into True Morning Dao World and they had been careful over the years, fifty years had passed since then. When they saw that a large number of cultivators had surged into True Morning Dao World, their caution gradually dwindled. It was no longer as great as before.
'Once I step in, I'll immediately kill those three and go back. It shouldn't take me a lot of time to do so. I should be fine!'
The moment the old man stepped into True Morning Dao World, he lifted his right hand and pointed forward. The woman in front of him immediately jolted. As she shuddered, she found that she could not move. Tears fell from her eyes, and the eyes of the man next to her turned red. He howled, but when the old man pointed at him, he also felt as if he had been bound.
The middle-aged man also froze. Then, it looked like he and the couple had been seized by a hand in space and yanked backwards.
"Did you think you'll be safe once you fled here? There is no place where you will be safe in this world!"
The old man spoke with arrogance and clenched his right hand.
Despair appeared on the trio's faces. He was about to crush them and extract their souls, but right when he was about to crush the girl, who he needed so that he could refine her into the soul of his flag…
"Uncle…" The girl on the woman's back suddenly looked towards the galaxy with a smile.
Her voice was very clear and crisp. When she spoke, the fear on her face disappeared, and her lips curled up into an innocent smile.
Su Ming stood behind the old man and smiled faintly while staring at the little girl.
The entire world stopped moving when he smiled, and the old man still had the arrogant look on his face. Su Ming lifted his right hand and swung his arm, and the old man's body jolted. He instantly tumbled backwards, turning into a long arc that was swept out of True Morning Dao World. When a loud bang spread out in every direction within True Sacred Yin World, his body and soul were destroyed, and even when he died, he still had that arrogant look on his face…
Once he did that, Su Ming vanished, and the world returned to normal. The power binding the trio had already disappeared, allowing them to regain their mobility, and their expressions changed drastically. They stared around themselves in a daze. They did not see Su Ming and did not know what had happened, but the old man who had brought terrified them was already gone.
"A man dropped by just now," the girl lying on her mother's back said crisply.
Chapter 1362: Before Arid Triad's Disaster, My Name Will Sound Through the Universe (2)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The final fifty years before the disaster were like the hour before dawn, the rise of darkness and the destruction of all things. To a mortal, fifty years was half of their lives, but to cultivators, it would only be the blink of an eye.
The powerful warriors of the previous aeons did not want the fifty years to only last for the blink of an eye. They wanted to let all the madness that had accumulated in their hearts burst forth and release all of their desires to their hearts' content until they welcomed the disaster with the world. Then, they would live wilfully for another hundred years in the new world that they believed would appear after the disaster.
Only after that would they fall asleep and wait for the disaster that would arrive countless of years later in the new aeon so that they could wake up again.
That was their lives, and it was a process that repeated itself aeon after aeon. There seemed to be no end to it, and most people actually believed it to be so, but a few knew that the upcoming disaster would not just destroy all lives… but also them!
When a flower blooms, it will eventually wilt. It is destined. The energy used for the petals to bloom is also the desire to make the petals fall. When they land on the ground, how many people remember that the flower had showed off great beauty, attracting an unknown number of butterflies and bees to it, all lingering around it and reluctant to leave?
One cycle of life and death. One Dao!
As time passed. More powerful warriors from the previous aeons surged into Dark Dawn, Saint Defier, and Arid Triad, but no matter how deranged they were, when they were in Dark Dawn and Saint Defier, they seemed to hold themselves a little and never acted completely without inhibitions. At most, they would just be temperamental and kill more.
Those who came into Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos or had woken up in it seemed to be more wilful and crazier. They killed, Possessed, refined, turned into furnaces, and did all sorts of incredibly sinister and evil things to the people there. Their deeds spread through all of Arid Triad.
Their arrogance came from the fact that they believed that no one would be able to kill them. Their madness was due to them being unable to call themselves cultivators anymore, because they had turned into part of the disaster.
Only a small handful of powerful warriors retained their sanity and believed that they were not wild, raving beasts, but cultivators. Such people seldom ventured outwards. They were usually like the boy from the fourth Expanse Cosmos and lived as they did in the past.
Su Ming did not intend to place much attention on the powerful warriors from the previous aeons. Whether they wanted to kill or commit all sorts of heinous crimes, their actions were just the final release in their lives. All the living lived in chaos, and the universe was reduced to an apocalyptic world during the final fifty years. All of that… was in truth just an interlude before the main melody was played.
With Su Ming's personality, as long as the powerful warriors from the previous aeons did not step into True Morning Dao World and interfered with his preparations to fight against Arid Triad, he would not pay too much attention to the changes they brought to the universe, because in Su Ming's eyes… they were just like ants.
Their states of being were different, and the disparity in their levels of cultivation caused Su Ming's view of the world to be vastly different. The powerful warriors from the previous aeons might also be in Avacaniya Realm and might be only one or two stages away from Su Ming… but he had already come to understand Dao while they had given up on the possibility of understanding it.
Su Ming did not stop the people who fled to True Morning Dao World in search of refuge. All lives were searching for a chance to survive, and they chose one near him to quietly spend their final fifty years. It was their choice, and Su Ming would not interfere with it.
However, he had underestimated the madness and arrogance of the powerful warriors of the previous aeons. He thought that once he chased the old man out of True Morning Dao World and destroyed his body as well as his soul, it would serve as a warning. After all… Su Ming had killed many people in his life. Since all lives were bound to die anyway during the disaster, he did not want to snatch too many lives from its hands.
The shrill screams of the old man before he died had indeed brought trepidation to the hearts of the powerful warriors from the previous aeons… They were apprehensive, but a wave of excitement and eagerness had also abruptly risen in their hearts.
They were excited, incredibly excited, and they were eager, so eager that bloodlust had appeared in their eyes. It had been far too long since they had felt like they could die.
If it was a long time since a person had died and their soul had been left wandering in the world, it would long for life, and when a person had lived for a very long time, they would long for death. This did not mean that they wanted to die, but the feeling of having their blood pound while they were caught in a life-threatening situation was infatuating to them.
They had known since a long time ago that there was a powerful existence in True Morning Dao World. That place was its territory, and it would not allow outsiders to step into it. This was something the first batch of powerful warriors from the previous aeons had sensed the moment they arrived in Arid Triad during the start of the one hundred years. They had sensed Su Ming's divine thought, and they had spread word to those who were the same as them, which was why there had been fifty years of calm.
But once the old man died, that calm was destroyed. Many people became excited, and because of their arrogance, a desire to provoke and defy True Morning Dao World took root in their hearts.
After all, all those who could survive through the disasters aeon after aeon were genii of their respective aeons. They were people who had been blessed with great serendipity. All of them refused to accept that any of the other powerful warriors were stronger than them, and it was even more so when it came to Su Ming. They could not accept that he was stronger, because they had never seen him while he hid in True Morning Dao World.
Hence, nearly one hundred powerful warriors from the previous aeons… stepped into True Morning Dao world en masse three years after the old man had died. They were led by three old monsters who had lived the longest among them.
Nearly one hundred powerful warriors meant nearly one hundred cultivators in the middle stage of Avacaniya Realm. As for the three old men, they were nearly at the peak of the middle stage of Avacaniya Realm. They all stepped into True Morning Dao World through the spot where the old man had died, which was near True Sacred Yin World.
There might only be one hundred people who had stepped in, but in truth, most of the powerful warriors from the previous aeons in Arid Triad watched the event through various methods. They had even started a gambling pool, completely treating it as as the best show in their lives, a moment that might turn into a beautiful memory in the brief period of time they could remain awake.
When nearly one hundred powerful warriors stepped into True Morning Dao World, ripples with the intensity of violent gusts stirred up in the entire True World. Those ripples spread out swiftly. When they swept through all of True Morning Dao World, the cultivators who had come to seek refuge felt their hearts shudder. Fear and despair appeared on their faces. They did not know whether they could still treat the place as a safe haven.
Ripples formed by the nearly one hundred powerful presences turned into a violent storm that swept outwards. It became stronger with each passing moment, and strange roars filled with malicious intentions and arrogance shook the skies.
Su Ming opened his eyes in Ninth Summit's sect.
"Baldy, take this with you and wipe off all of those people."
When Su Ming spoke, the bald crane, who was already incredibly bored while staying by his side, immediately felt its spirits lift. It howled, and its brightly burning eyes betrayed its excitement.
"Crystals! Crystals! Those people have lived for a long time! They will definitely have a lot of crystals!"
The bald crane's eyes sparkled in excitement. When it saw Su Ming swing his arm, a log the size of a fist floated up in front of the bald crane.
"What is this?"
The bald crane was stunned. It thought that Su Ming would bring out a treasure that would shock the world, but when it looked at the log, it found it to be incredibly normal. There was nothing special about it.
"You only need to strike a person with it, and that person will be wiped off."
After speaking, Su Ming closed his eyes again to immerse himself in gaining an epiphany of his cultivation base. He had to make sure that he could be at the peak condition fifty years later to face everything the disaster and destruction had to offer.
"Alright!"
The bald crane was full of excitement. It grabbed the log, then turned into a long arc that left into the distance while sniggering. It sliced through the air and entered the galaxy.
To the powerful warriors of the previous aeons, their actions were a game, and to the bald crane, it was also a game. Once it cleared it, it would gain a large number of crystals. Such a reward was enough for the bald crane to go mad.
It made strange cries all along the way while holding itself with arrogance. It moved so quickly that it surpassed its limit once again, or rather, the limit had never existed for the bald crane before. Giving it a sufficient number of crystals would always make it burst out with strength that was near unlimited.
There were not many planets in True Morning Dao World. Most of them were floating continents. At that moment, the near one hundred long arcs formed by the powerful warriors charged through the galaxy beyond one continent.
"There are quite a lot of people here. Haha! Don't even think about snatching them from my hands. This place is mine. I want to refine the continent and all of the living people in it into my Enchanted Treasure!"
An old man laughed. With a single move, he charged towards the continent. When he brought his right hand up, white flames appeared on his palm. They were so bright it seemed like they could even melt the galaxy. When the old man flung his arm, the flames charged towards the continent below him and spread out.
The people around him watched with a smile; no one tried to fight him for the continent. The old man could already imagine the countless shrill screams of pain in the next breath when the continent turned into a component for his Enchanted Treasure after it was refined.
Yet right when the flames were about to descend and the cultivators on the continent sank into despair, the bald crane stepped out of the space under the fire. It had its head held high and looked incredibly arrogant. Right when it appeared, it lifted its claw, and a log flew out at the flames.
There were no loud noise when the log crashed into the flames, but they immediately shuddered and disintegrated. The log did not stop moving, however. It shot through the flames and came at the old man. His face twisted in shock, then it touched his body lightly.
After that one touch, the galaxy fell silent.
The old man's body was instantly reduced to minced meat. It simply broke down, his soul already destroyed.
The bald crane was also shocked by the log's strength, but soon, it recovered. It thought for a moment, then quickly transformed into a sagely-looking old man.
There was an arrogant smile on its face when it said indifferently, "I am the bald crane, and I heard that the cultivators in this continent are willing to offer one million crystals to avoid the disaster. I wonder if this is true?"
When it spoke, the bald crane lowered its head and cast a glance at the cultivators on the continent with an aloof expression.
Chapter 1363: Before Arid Triad's Disaster, My Name Will Sound Through the Universe (3)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"It's true! We're willing to give you five million crystals. Senior, please help us!" One of the cultivators on the continent immediately realized what was going on and shouted their answer loudly.
Upon hearing his words, the other cultivators snapped out of their shock and quickly spoke as well.
With the sagely look, the bald crane acted like it treated crystals like turd. It shook its head and sighed.
"Oh well, I do not care about such worldly possessions. I have practiced cultivation long before Arid Triad himself, so why would I care for these crystals. But since all of you are so sincere, I will help you this once."
When the bald crane said those words, it was so excited that it wanted to immediately see those five million crystals. However, it did not show even a single bit of it on its face. It silently stared at the powerful warriors from the previous aeons who had fallen silent after the old man's death.
"Sir, are you the master of True Morning Dao World?" an old man asked slowly. He had a red face, was dressed in a purple robe, and was one of the three leaders of the one hundred powerful warriors from the previous aeons.
"With each question, I will attack once."
The bald crane swung its arm with an incredibly arrogant expression. Its heart was filled with excitement. It had always been very envious when Su Ming did this, but the time had finally arrived for it to be able to act in such an arrogant manner too.
'It's a pity that the Abyss Dragon isn't around, or else it'd definitely idolize me.'
The bald crane lifted its chin and looked incredibly sagely… While it was intoxicated with its own delusions, it did not forget to swing its right hand. The log immediately flashed and disappeared. When a shrill scream of pain rang out, the log returned to the bald crane's side, and another powerful warrior from the previous aeons was reduced to a bloody mess. Even his soul was destroyed.
"Ahem, I can only be somewhat considered the master of True Morning Dao World." The bald crane stroked its beard, trying to make itself look very indifferent.
The near one hundred powerful warriors fell silent while staring at the bald crane. Some of them had already began moving back. Even the three people leading the group fell silent and did not speak again.
The bald crane's appearance was nothing, but the strength of the log had brought apprehension to their hearts. That treasure might appear to be a normal piece of wood, but when it touched one of them, their bodies and souls were destroyed.
With how observant they were, it was only natural for them to be able to tell at first glance just how extraordinary that item was. Soon, greed took root in some of their hearts.
When the bald crane saw that everyone had fallen silent and did not intend to go along with its flow, it immediately became displeased, but since they did not ask, it would not say anything. However, this made it incredibly dissatisfied. It could not say the words it had prepared in its mind, so it glared at them.
"Oh well, I'm in a pretty good mood today. I'll tell you this. I have practiced cultivation even before Arid Triad, and that boy once knelt for one hundred years before my cave abode before I was willing to meet him and direct him in his path.
"In fact, when I began practicing cultivation, this universe was still empty. One day, when I was travelling in the void, I felt bored, and so I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I created this world. A long time has passed since then…"
As the bald crane spoke, the form of the old man it had taken began to exude an ancient presence. Nostalgia appeared on the bald crane's face, as if it was recalling things from a long gone time.
Its voice echoed in space, and the expressions of the cultivators on the continent became strange. Even the powerful warriors of the previous aeons before the bald crane had not expected for the old man to say such things.
"In the past, Arid Triad wanted to have me as his Master. Heh heh, I saw his sincerity, and so I didn't refuse him. However, I told him that unless he did something shocking, I would refuse taking him in as my disciple.
"In the past, the world was created when I swung my arm, and then, all lives were created…
"In the past…"
When the bald crane started speaking, it began chattering nonstop. As it yammered on, it had a radiant look on its face. In fact, it looked like it was gradually coming to believe in its own words. Its presence became even more ancient, and it became even more excited in its heart.
"Attack together!"
While the bald crane was immersed in its own delusions, the three people leading the powerful warriors of the previous aeons spoke as one. At the instant they did, the one hundred people immediately turned into long arcs. They cast their divine abilities and charged at the bald crane.
They split up and instantly surrounded the area, as if they had formed some Rune, intending to trap the log. The others immediately appeared in front of the bald crane. With endless divine abilities, they attacked together.
The bald crane was so surprised it shuddered in fear. It was still immersed in its own delusions, so when it saw so many people pouncing on it, it instinctively retreated. It began swearing up a storm, forgetting to maintain its sagely air.
"Damn it! Damn it! You're all just asking for death! Bah! Since you're all so pitiful, I won't make things hard for you—"
Before the bald crane could even finish speaking, a monstrous ball of fire charged at it. The bald crane shrieked and pointed at the log.
The sixty powerful warriors from the previous aeons surrounding the log roared simultaneously at that moment. With it, the galaxy howled. Their cultivation bases instantly gathered together to form an ancient Rune in the form of an illusory net that went to suppress the log.
A sigh came from space then. Once the bald crane heard it, its spirits immediately lifted, and the panic on its face disappeared, turning into arrogance. The bald crane pointed at the powerful warriors and instantly shouted.
"You're dead! How dare you attack the mighty bald crane?! Damn it, you're all well and truly dead!"
The bald crane moved at that moment and turned into its original form. When it put on a fierce face, it looked like it would definitely achieve what it had set out to do.
When the sigh echoed in space, it also reached the ears of the one hundred people, and their hearts roared. Their expressions changed simultaneously.
Su Ming walked out from the distance. When he took his first step, he appeared beside the bald crane, and when he took his second step, he had already stepped into the Rune formed by the sixty people and landed next to the log.
"Get bigger," Su Ming said flatly and lifted his right hand to seize the log. It immediately grew to become dozens of feet tall.
"Get bigger." When he declared it the second time, the log grew to nearly one thousand feet, and it gradually revealed its original form.
"Get bigger." When he said it the third time, the log grew to ten thousand feet. Everyone saw at that moment that it… was not a log, but the Sacred Wood of the fourth Expanse Cosmos!
"This is…"
"The Sacred Wood! This is the Sacred Wood!"
"He… He's the person who took the Sacred Wood!"
Some of the hundred cultivators had come from the fourth Expanse Cosmos, and there were even a few who had personally seen Su Ming in the past. At that moment, shock which had never appeared on their faces before showed up. To them, this was no longer a game. The scene of Su Ming taking away the Sacred Wood all those years ago had long since become the most shocking they had ever seen.
Su Ming's expression was calm. He lifted his right hand and seized space. An illusory hand instantly appeared in front of him. It seized the ten thousand foot long Sacred Wood, then with it in its grasp, swung it across the area.
With that swing, the galaxy roared. Just the howl that stirred up caused the hundred powerful warriors to cough up blood. When they retreated swiftly in fear, Su Ming spoke faintly.
"Get bigger."
It was the fourth declaration. When Su Ming made it, the ten thousand feet long Sacred Wood grew to one hundred thousand feet. It swept sideways and drew an arc that formed half of a circle!
Booming sounds had rang out, but they were immediately deafened by the astonishing howl. Not one of the hundred people managed to flee. Their bodies turned into a bloody mess and exploded, when the Sacred Wood touched them, and their souls were destroyed.
Even the three old men in the lead could not survive it. When the Sacred Wood swept past the area, the galaxy fell into dead silence. None of the near one hundred cultivators from the previous aeons survived!
This scene shocked all the cultivators on the continent, and their faces turned pale. No one knew who was the first to kneel, but soon, all the cultivators on the continent who had been watching the fight knelt down and shivered while worshiping Su Ming.
The bald crane quickly flew next to Su Ming with a smug face, then stared at the Sacred Wood in envy before it quickly spoke.
"Master, you have endless strength and are the epithet of heroism and wisdom. There is none before you, and none after you. You are like the prideful sun in the sky whose light reaches endless distances, the bright moon in the night sky that causes the stars to be dim, that is truly…"
Su Ming smiled and looked at the bald crane. His gentle gaze caused the bald crane to scratch its bald head awkwardly. It did not continue speaking.
Su Ming turned his head around to cast a glance at the continent. His gaze swept past all the cultivators on it before eventually landing on a little girl. He smiled gently. The girl seemed to have been unable to see him before, but right then, she saw him, and she opened her tiny mouth with surprise in her eyes.
"During these fifty years, let Arid Triad be slightly peaceful."
Su Ming turned his head around and looked towards space. As he mumbled, he took a step forward, and the bald crane immediately followed after him. It had even noticed that it lived a better life when it followed Su Ming, because when he was beside it, it could be even more arrogant and willful.
There was a man and a woman among the many cultivators worshiping Su Ming on the continent. A nine year old girl was by their side. She grabbed her mother's sleeve and whispered, "Mama, it's that man. He's the one who chased away that bad man before."
***
In the world where Di Tian lay in Yin Death Vortex was his coffin. There was no longer any lid on it, and the figure originally sleeping in it was no longer around.
There was a mountain in that world, and Di Tian, in an emperor's robe and crown, stood there. Behind him were seven figures caught between a state of illusion and reality.
"It's almost time, my seven fellow Daoists. Have you made up your mind?"
After a long while, Di Tian turned around and looked at the seven with an aloof expression. His gaze contained the galaxy, and when he looked over, it looked like there was cold-blooded soul contained in his body.