Pursuit of the Truth

As time trickled by, another month passed. Su Ming remained meditating, quietly trying to gain an epiphany about the laws in the world around him. He also quietly sensed the increasing power of the laws of fate that his two clones absorbed.

The aura of his cultivation base grew every day. It might not be much, but without a doubt, he was getting stronger. In fact, during the past few days, besides trying to understand the laws of fate, he had spent some time to understand Zhang Ji Dao’s memories.

From them, he gained a deeper understanding of Essences and the existence that was Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos.

‘Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos is like the origin of heaven… In the eyes of Saint Defier and Dark Dawn, this is an Expanse Cosmos that was just born… It is just like Dark Dawn and Saint Defier Expanse Cosmos during their early days. In the endless passage of time, they had grown until each of them obtained 180 Expanse Cosmoses.

‘This can be considered a form of wholesomeness. It can be said that their Expanse Cosmoses reached the limit of their growth. If I say that the Expanse Cosmos itself is the mother, then the 180 Expanse Cosmoses in it are her children, and the cultivators as well as the lives in those 180 Expanse Cosmoses are her blood veins.

‘Arid Triad is an Expanse Cosmos which has just been born. It is an origin of an Expanse Cosmos which will have 180 Expanse Cosmoses develop from it if it is given enough time. This is why if Saint Defier or Dark Dawn obtain Arid Triad, they will gain the power to destroy the other party.

‘It is also why from the moment they discovered Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos, they began fighting over it ceaselessly.’ Su Ming opened his eyes and stared at the galaxy, falling silent once more.

Compared to Saint Defier and Dark Dawn, the current Arid Triad was like a child. It was absolutely impossible for it to compare itself to the two ancients. It simply did not possess the power to fight. Whether it was Saint Defier or Dark Dawn, both of them would find it incredibly easy to subjugate Arid Triad.

But unfortunately for them, they were fighting against each other, and neither allowed the other to make the first step. On top of that, Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos might be weak, but it was still an Expanse Cosmos in its early stages of development, which meant that it had a power within it that could suppress external forces. This was an instinctive reaction of Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos. While growing, it would reject all forms of external forces from stepping into it.

Even if someone forced their way in, they would have their level of cultivation suppressed. However, this had changed because of the disaster a year ago. A gigantic gap had opened up, and it could allow those from Saint Defier and Dark Dawn to step in without anything inhibiting them. It was as if a door had been opened, lying Arid Triad bare before anyone who came. It could only quietly await its fate of being gobbled up.

And the cause of all this was Su Xuan Yi!

‘Since I am not Su Xuan Yi’s son, who exactly is his child? Could it be Yu Xuan? But it couldn’t be that simple… That man has incredible intelligence and a great mind for strategy. He also behaves in a manner as if he is nearly mad. His thoughts cannot be predicted nor guessed by a normal person.

‘But no matter what, one of the segments in his plan is definitely built on the idea to destroy the entire Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos to make Saint Defier and Dark Dawn pay a devastating price.

‘This would explain why he opened that gap. It would force the tension between Dark Dawn and Saint Defier to reach its climax… and would bring them over en masse. The best result would be if all their powerful warriors descended. If that happened, then when Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos collapsed, they would face the destructive power of an Expanse Cosmos in the early stages of development collapsing. It would not be something that cultivators could withstand.

‘But what would he gain by doing this? How can he make the Abyss Builders raise to power..? What else is he planning..?’

In silence, Su Ming shook his head. There were some thoughts in his mind, but he did not know whether his analysis was accurate. He could only continue waiting and observing in hopes to obtain a serendipity which would help him survive the disaster.

‘Essence. The foundation of all external matters… Wind, rain, thunder, lightning, all things that exist will have Essences. Steel, wood, water, fire, earth, the cause of the changes in Essences within everything in the universe…

“If I was to master Essences, I would definitely be able to walk down the path of becoming a powerful warrior. The more Essences I understand, the stronger my power will be. Is this the foundation of Saint Defier Expanse Cosmos’ cultivation method? I wonder what is Dark Dawn’s…’

Su Ming remembered the small white ball from before. He fell into a moment of pensive silence. Within the memories of Zhang Ji Dao were some battles with the cultivators from Dark Dawn.

‘Interesting. Those from Dark Dawn are all beings transformed from foreign matter, and they are all different from Saint Defier’s cultivators. They can take human form, but usually they can only bring forth their full power when they are in their original forms.

‘This is the truth based on the cultivator from Dark Dawn’s camp who fought against Zhang Ji Dao in the past. His original form was a three-eyed toad that was thousands of feet big…

‘Compared to the cultivators in Saint Defier referring to themselves as Immortals and Gods, those from Dark Dawn refer to themselves as Demons and Ghosts. They do not practice Essences, but their own cores. Even if their cultivation systems are generally the same, the core of it is completely different.

‘When they cultivate the core in their bodies, it is their souls and their Nascent Divinities as well. It is also the heart of the mark of their lives. The changes in them are unfathomable, and this core can fight against Essences energy from Saint Defier Expanse Cosmos. From this, I can tell that this so-called power of cultivating the core contains the foundation of the universe!’ In silence, Su Ming raised his right hand, and the gray ball immediately appeared on his palm.

There was still life force in the ball, but it was no longer sentient. The near one hundred thousand thin threads in it remained still, as if they were in deep sleep.

‘If that’s the case, then I can be certain that this is from Dark Dawn. Since it appeared in the whirlwind, could it be… that someone from Dark Dawn has already descended?’

Su Ming pondered it for a moment before he spread his divine sense and had it fuse into each of the threads in the small gray ball.

But no matter how Su Ming fused his divine sense or completely enveloped the inner parts of the small gray ball, he could not find a way to leave a Brand of his divine sense. It was as if the small gray ball was transparent.

A fierce light shone in Su Ming’s eyes. He opened his mouth and let out a puff of the breath of his life. Once it surrounded the ball, he sent his divine sense to scan it again, but obtained the same results. The small ball might have seemed to contain countless threads densely packed together, but Su Ming still could not find a spot to leave a Brand.

He let out a cold harrumph. When he lifted his left hand to form a seal, the white ripple around him shone. It spread out before falling back and charging towards Su Ming. In an instant, it turned into a white ring. With Su Ming’s will controlling it, the ring instantly enveloped the small gray ball, and it shrank slightly. The ball let out a cracking sound, and the near one hundred thousand thin threads instantly shuddered.

At the same time, Su Ming sent his divine sense inside once more. Without pausing for even a moment, he left his Brand on the thin threads.

Once he was done, Su Ming unfurled his right hand and tapped the small gray ball. It immediately shattered with a bang. Buzzing sounds soon echoed in space. The gray threads flew out from within the ball and surrounded Su Ming, forming a gray whirlwind.

It consisted of nearly one hundred thousand threads. As they spun, a vague figure could be seen inside. This figure looked like a locust which had been magnified many times, and it exuded a strange demonic presence.

Su Ming closed his eyes. He could sense that his Brand existed on each of the one hundred thousand threads, and he could control all of them. He could also sense that the threads were like babies that had lost their foundation and could no longer keep growing. Before long, they would wither and die.

The moment Su Ming had his divine sense finally Brand the one hundred thousand threads with the power of the white ring and they surrounded Su Ming, forming a whirlwind around him, dozens of cultivators in various places in True Morning Dao World shuddered simultaneously.

A huge hole appeared at the center of their brows, but no blood gushed out. The holes had been made by a white ball of light which had appeared and penetrated their skulls while they were meditating not too long ago. Their presences had disappeared after that, but at that moment, as they shuddered, they opened their eyes simultaneously.

“Someone made a baby of mine manifest itself… This baby isn’t one of those who had split up from me previously. This is… the one I sent out in the beginning. It had latched itself onto the body of a cultivator of this world, but it soon had latched itself onto another person. Someone then took it out and wiped off its consciousness!

“This person has quite the courage. Since he could wipe off the consciousness of my baby and leave his Brand, he cannot be weak, but he is a little too conceited. If my baby had enough nutrients, it could grow to my level.

“But unless it devoured billions of cultivators in Arid Triad, it would have trouble growing up. Still, I don’t need to be worried about it. I’m actually looking forward to its growth. When I meet up with it, I can devour it and shorted my time of recovery.”

These sort of words tumbled out of the mouths of the dozen something cultivators scattered in different places at the same time. Their words and tone were the exact same. In fact, there were also quite a number of cultivators and ferocious beasts who had holes appear at the center of their brows in the other three Great True Worlds as well. They had all spoken the exact same words.

Su Ming stared at the threads spinning around him. He examined the faint image of the locust and narrowed his eyes. When he raised his right hand, he extended his right index finger, and a thin thread immediately shot out to wrap itself around his finger before half of it crawled into him.

Su Ming’s expression remained the same. He sensed the presence of the thread and discovered that the cultivation base in his body was being absorbed swiftly. His cultivation base was fusing into the gray thread, which was visibly becoming thicker. Its life force also increased at that moment, and it no longer looked like it was about to wither.

‘So you absorb cultivation bases, huh? I wonder if this thing will be a huge supplement to you.’

Su Ming fell into a moment of pensive silence before he decided to keep the strange thing from Dark Dawn as his pet to figure Dark Dawn’s strength.

After mulling over it for a moment, he flung his right hand. Once he sent the thread away from his body… a poisonous wasp appeared on his palm!

It was the poisonous wasp which contained the God Ascension Nectar!

Under Su Ming’s control, one drop of the poisonous liquid seeped out of the wasp’s stinger. At the instant the drop appeared, the one hundred thousand threads surrounding Su Ming stopped rotating simultaneously as if they had frozen. Not one of them moved.