Pursuit of the Truth

In the easternmost corner of True Morning Dao was Su Ming’s clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole. At that moment, it was bringing nearly one hundred thousand people who had obeyed his will and joined the Ninth Summit. They formed an army of cultivators who had delivered to him the Brands of their souls. At that moment, they stopped at the region near the barrier set between the True Worlds.

In front of them were nine huge incense sticks. Each of them was several thousands of feet thick, and were more than one hundred thousand feet tall. From the distance, they looked like nine huge pillars that stood tall in the galaxy, but no one could tell what they were supporting.

Wisps of smoke rose to the heavens from the nine gigantic incense sticks, which turned the area indistinct.

Six of the nine incense sticks had been extinguished. Only three were still burning, and they looked like they would do so without end, but strangely, no matter how long they burned, their height did not diminish. They still reached up to the heavens and gave off a presence of majesty.

This was… Heavenly Incense!

It was one of the three great mysterious lands in True Morning Dao World—Heavenly Incense Rune!

No one knew who had set it up or when. It was as if they had existed since True Morning Dao World had appeared.

Over the years, countless powerful warriors had come in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of the Heavenly Incense Rune, but no one was able to do so.

In the beginning of time, nine of the incense sticks had burned together, but with the passage of time, only three continued to burn. They had borne witness to the changes, witnessing True Morning Dao World’s birth and its march to glory, then oversaw its fall.

During its most glorious moment, Morning Dao Sect had sent a lot of manpower and resources to research the secrets of the Heavenly Incense Rune, but those people had returned empty-handed.

Even Su Xuan Yi had investigated the place before, but he had not obtained any answers either. The mysterious veil cast over the Heavenly Incense Rune seemed impossible for any cultivator to lift.

It was as if it was waiting for a special someone to unravel its secrets, but up till then, that living being had yet to appear, even as the incense sticks extinguished one after another.

Su Xuan Yi had investigated them before, but he had retreated when he could not solve the mystery. The cultivators who descended from Saint Defier Expanse Cosmos had investigated it as well, but also found no answer. It was as if… it was so ancient that it had existed long before the age of Old Man Extermination…

Su Ming’s clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole stared at the nine Heavenly Incenses in the distant galaxy. He watched the wisps of smoke rising into the heavens as the three incense sticks burned, and uncertainty appeared in his eyes.

“This is Heavenly Incense Rune. It is known as one of the three great mysteries of True Morning Dao World along with Yin Death Region in the territory of the Immortals’ Union and the Sun Sinking Talisman southwest to us. The mystery of the Heavenly Incense Rune stems from the fact that it had definitely not formed naturally. We do not know who set it up, and we do not know what will happen when all nine of the incense sticks extinguish.

“And it is also because… Master, you must have sensed it by now. The closer one gets to the Heavenly Incense Rune, the more their cultivation base will boil, and they will get a vague sense of being near a breakthrough. If you get a little closer, the feeling will become even clearer. When you reach them and have a breakthrough, your level of cultivation will increase exponentially.

“But all of this is fake. You might feel like your level of cultivation had increased, but in truth, it is just an illusion. When you leave the place, everything will return to normal. The cultivators of True Morning Dao World are strangely attracted to this Heavenly Incense Rune. Once they get close to it and experience the feeling of their cultivation bases increasing, they are unable to forget that feeling and constantly want to return to this place…

“However, once a cultivator gets close to this place more than three times, they will never be able to walk out. As if they had lost their intelligence, they will move into the space between the nine incense sticks. The cultivator will fuse into them and have his body as well as spirit destroyed.

“This is the only way to enter the Heavenly Incense Rune, but all those who enter it die, so all cultivators avoid this place unless they have to.

“Only when a cultivator has run into a wall for years and their level of cultivation is stuck in the same place would they come to this place to experience the false breakthrough and gain an epiphany. In conclusion, this Heavenly Incense Rune can be thrice treated as a mirror. It will reflect your own cultivation base so that you can reach a pinnacle in the future,” Miao Feng explained in a low voice while staring at the Heavenly Incense Rune in the distance.

He was forcefully suppressing his urge to walk into the Rune. Thankfully, the Heavenly Incense Rune did not possess a domineering force and was not something that would prevent people from suppressing their own urges. As long as a cultivator’s willpower was firm, they could easily suppress their urges until they left the area. They could recover then, albeit with great difficulty.

“Then what about the Sun Sinking Talisman you spoke about previously?” Su Ming’s clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole said faintly.

“Sun Sinking Talisman is slightly more mysterious. It is a talisman that has been placed in the southwestern part of True Morning Dao World for countless years. Once every hundred years, it will shine once. This does not affect the cultivation planets which are experiencing night time, but those who have daylight will instantly will become dark. Their suns would forcefully be sent to set.

“This is why the mysterious talisman is known as the Sun Sinking Talisman. Besides this, it can absorb all the light around it. All objects which can have light will lose it and turn dark.

“But compared to the Heavenly Incense Rune, the talisman is easier to approach. As long as they can walk through the darkness, they can get close to the talisman and investigate as well as copy it as they like. In fact, they can even use all sorts of methods to try and bring it under their control, but over the course of countless years, it has never been heard that anyone had managed to do so.

“No matter how much time passes and how the universe changes, no matter whether disaster falls on us or whether we are in an age of glory, it still exists in the southwest, as if it is an eternal existence.

“The third mystery would be Yin Death Region, which is in the Immortals’ Union. It is a vast vortex, and it is rumored that it leads to another world. That is a world where the dead live,” Miao Feng said, sharing all he knew.

Su Ming’s clone stared at the nine incense sticks. The ripples in his body made him feel as if his physical body was becoming stronger, but it was a faint feeling. He felt like there were countless ants crawling inside his body, causing him to feel itchy inside out, but he could not scratch it. He could only endure this increasingly stronger urge formed by the numb itchiness.

The urge even agitated the portion of the soul in the clone, causing ripples of power to manifest around it as well, but it was not impossible for Su Ming to suppress them. Soon, he did so, and with a sullen look, he cast a glance at the incense sticks in the distance, then turned around, intending to leave.

However, at the instant Su Ming’s clone was about to leave, one of the three incense sticks which were still burning among the nine Heavenly Incenses… suddenly extinguished!

The nine Heavenly Incenses which had been burning since an eternity ago extinguished one after another as time passed. Only three of them remained burning, but at that moment, another one of them stopped, leaving only two sticks still burning.

At the instant one of the three incense sticks extinguished, a powerful ripple that was even stronger than before spread out through the area in an unseen manner. In an instant, it touched Su Ming’s clone and the one hundred thousand cultivators behind him.

Su Ming’s clone trembled furiously. The feeling that he was getting stronger erupted within him… and it overpowered the portion of Su Ming’s soul, causing him to throw his head back and roar. In an instant, he charged towards the Heavenly Incense Stick.

The clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole originally belonged to the portion of Su Ming’s soul, but now, it left its control. This sort of thing was something that had never happened in the history of Abyss Builders, since their inborn ability made it so all their clones were not too different from their originally bodies. Possessing one soul and several bodies had always been a form of perfection for the Abyss Builders.

Yet at that moment, Su Ming lost control over the clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole. If Su Ming knew this, his heart would definitely tremble in shock.

At the same time, the one hundred thousand cultivators behind him, including Miao Feng, looked like they had lost their intelligence and descended into madness. They only knew that they had to get closer to the Heavenly Incenses, because the closer they got to them, the faster their cultivation bases would increase. Delight curled their lips upwards, but hidden under those ecstatic expressions were confusion.

…..

Ten hours before Su Ming’s portion of the soul in the clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole was overpowered beyond the Heavenly Incense Rune and he lost control over it, Su Ming smiled while being drunk. Excitement was on his face. His eldest senior brother was by his side, and they at the whirlwind in the galaxy beyond the ripples. There, they could see a lone ship that was charging forward at an incredible speed.

The ship was originally not headed towards them and was supposed to pass by, but when Su Ming saw them with his divine sense, they too noticed their eldest senior brother’s presence.

It acted like a guidance that caused the ship to change direction and charge in their direction.

As the ship drew closer and shot out from the whirlwind, it touched the white ripple, then rushed inside. At that instant, Su Ming saw the people on the ship with his eyes.

His gaze automatically ignored all the other people besides the two men on the deck. One of them was as gentle as a flower, and the other was as built as a tiger. He stared at them with a smile full of happiness that had rarely seen on his face over the last one thousand years.

Eldest senior brother stood beside him. He had no head, but the murderous aura spreading out from his body had long disappeared and was replaced by joy. Perhaps it would be difficult for other people to notice it, but Su Ming could see this clearly.

The ship drew closer, and the man who was like a flower stared at the two figures in front of him in a daze—the large figure without a head and the man by his side, who appeared rather thin and frail, and who had an unfamiliar appearance. But the excitement in his eyes and the faint bond existing between brothers caused the man who was like a flower to shudder.

Behind him, Hu Zi fixed his stare on Su Ming, and soon, he laughed loudly. As he did so, tears streamed down his face. With a single move, he rushed out of the ship and charged straight towards Su Ming.

Hu Zi had always been the one who was the least capable of hiding his emotions in the ninth summit. When he wanted to cry, he would cry, and when he wanted to laugh, he would laugh. No matter how much he had changed due to his experiences, his honest personality was part of his nature that would never change.

Perhaps he had learned how to hide his emotions before other people. Perhaps he had learned how to laugh heartily before others while hiding killing intent in his heart. However, all of that seemed to have melted away before his senior brothers and junior brother. All of it was gone without a trace.

He took huge strides forward, and with the fastest speed he could muster, he appeared in front of Su Ming. Once he cast a careful glance at him, he swiftly hugged his youngest junior brother with tears in his eyes. The man before him was a little unfamiliar to his eyes and divine sense, but his instincts told him that he was certainly his junior brother who had been separated from him for years and who he had missed dearly in his dreams.

He might have changed his face, but that smile belonged to youngest junior brother. He might have changed his eyes, but the excitement in them was real, and it was definitely not something an outsider could fake.

If they did not share the ninth summit between them, then that smile and gaze would definitely not be present. With this similarity, even if his appearance had changed, Hu Zi believed that he would definitely not mistake his youngest junior brother.

“Youngest junior brother!”

Hu Zi could not stop his tears. He remembered the ninth summit he had protected alone while he was in the land of Berserkers. While he waited in endless pain brought by the torture of the outsiders, he believed that he had to protect his home. He protected that place because there would surely be a day when his senior brothers and his junior brother would return home. He had to protect it so they would have a home to return to. He could not let his senior brothers and junior brother not have a place to gather once they returned.

In his heart, he was afraid that once they no longer had the ninth summit, he would not be able to see his fellow brothers scattered in the universe.

He also remembered the excitement he felt when he saw Su Ming return to the ninth summit all those years ago and how he had bawled. Compared to his two senior brothers, even if his mindset was still like that of a child, he still remembered that he was Su Ming’s senior brother and that Su Ming was his junior brother. He also remembered the principles of the ninth summit!

He hugged Su Ming and bawled.

“Youngest junior brother, it’s your senior brother Hu Zi’s fault! If I was strong enough in the past, I would have pummeled those damn ancient wills who forced you into the Barren Lands of Divine Essence!

“After you left, I trained madly, but… but no matter how much I trained, I still missed you. When I think that you were all alone in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence, I felt so horrid. I was about to go mad, and I wanted to kill…”

Hu Zi was slightly rambling. His voice was thunderous, but his words did not travel too far. The people who should not hear him could not hear him

Su Ming stared at Hu Zi hugging him. This was his third senior brother, Hu Zi, who had walked up to him after he entered the ninth summit and patted his own chest before he let out a loud roar, declaring that he would protect Su Ming. This honest and straightforward man could give up his life for the ninth summit as well as his senior brothers and his junior brother. Hu Zi was the senior brother who had always remained in Su Ming’s thoughts.

Compared to his respect for his eldest senior brother and his feelings of resignation towards his second senior brother, the brother Su Ming had been the most worried about when he left was Hu Zi, who was hugging him right then. The man didn’t seem capable of growing up.

There were times when Su Ming felt that he was Hu Zi’s senior brother and not his junior brother…

With a smile on his face, Su Ming hugged Hu Zi back and said softly, “Hu Zi, don’t cry…”

He had said the same sentence many years ago. When they had reunited back then, the same words had left Su Ming’s mouth, and now it caused more tears to flow from Hu Zi’s eyes. It made him so excited that he hit Su Ming’s body.