Pursuit of the Truth

Chapter 1385: The Figure in the Dark

The blood moon hung high in the air. In the world in the canyon, the moon around Su Ming had grown to nearly five hundred feet. It looked incredibly huge, and a thick, bloody presence filled the area.

As Su Ming moved through the land, gazes filled with respect were directed at him. They came from the hidden disciples as well as the cultivators whose greed had long ago been suppressed by their fear. In just a few short hours, Su Ming’s figure was deeply ingrained in their minds.

Before then, Wang Tao had held no fame!

After the trial, his name would ring through all the outer sect. After all, some of the cultivators who survived knew the name of the body Su Ming Possessed. As the blood moon moved around, his name… rose up.

The clear tinkling sounds from the one hundred something spirit plates in Su Ming’s hand knocking against each other drifted about with a strange, sinister tone that had a murderous air. All the outer sect disciples of Seven Moons Sect who heard it felt their hearts tremble.

None of them dared to offend their owner.

Su Ming eventually stopped on top of a mountain and sat down on the summit. From a distance, no one could see his figure. They could only see an incredibly brilliant blood moon at the top of the mountain.

That mountain and the land around it turned into a forbidden area. Even if the Seven Moons Sect disciples nearby continued fighting against each other and snatching each other’s spirit plates, no one dared to take even half a step towards the mountain.

Su Ming remained seated and no longer ventured outwards. He had enough spirit plates and had no plans to get more of them. At that moment, he sat on the mountain quietly with a calm expression and waited for the game—to him—to end.

There was not much time left.

All the sect elders on the field saw Su Ming sitting on the mountain. They stared at his side profile, the blood moon, the one hundred something spirit plates in his hand, and gradually, the deductions of his life matrix by Sect Elder Lan rose up in their heads again. For some unknown reason, even though the sect elders believed that they had reached the peak of their cultivation, a feeling that they could not put to words slowly appeared at the bottom of their hearts. That feeling was akin to a chill.

A surprised glint appeared on the red-robed man’s face. He watching Su Ming in the picture while thinking about Sect Elder Lan’s words. After a long while, a confident smile appeared at the corners of his lips.

‘This boy’s life matrix clashes with mine… and I show signs of dying? Interesting, I’d like to see just how I’d die!’ A brilliant light shone in the red-robed man’s eyes before he closed them.

Across from him was the incredibly beautiful Sect Elder Lan. She stared at Su Ming’s figure in the picture with a hint of confusion in the depths of her eyes.

‘Why… is this person’s destiny entangled with mine in such a manner? The marks of entanglement are not in my body… but in my life matrix.

‘Why..?’

When the people in the field fell silent, a figure slowly approached from the distance to the invisible forbidden area that was the mountain where Su Ming sat.

The figure was lean and had a handsome face. The person was dressed in white while his long black hair danced in the air, giving him a strange type of charm. However, his calm demeanor was more prominent that his charm.

His calm was different though. Su Ming’s calmness was due to the peace in his heart bringing about the calmness on his face, but that person… treated himself as supreme, so he had to appear calm.

His calmness symbolized supremacy and arrogance. They lay at the bottom of his heart, however, and were not shown externally.

The man, too, had plenty of spirit plates. Based on their numbers, he had a total of one hundred of them in his hand.

He stopped before Su Ming’s invisible forbidden area. When he lifted his head, he looked at Su Ming meditating in the blood moon not too far away from him. He did not say a single word. He stopped in his tracks, but he did not move back. His gaze was fully focused on Su Ming.

Time slowly passed. When only the time it takes for an incense stick to burn was left before the trial’s end, the white-robed boy still remained staring at Su Ming beyond the invisible barrier.

His gaze seemed to contain fighting spirit. It was like fire burning in his eyes.

“Ye Long!” After a long while, he suddenly spoke. His voice shot up and traveled into Su Ming’s invisible forbidden area, then into Su Ming’s ears. “My name is Ye Long!” the white-robed boy said again.

Su Ming opened his eyes and directed his gaze on the white-robed boy’s face. At the moment he saw him, a dazed look appeared in his eyes, and he felt as if he was not looking at Ye Long… but a prodigy from the past in the field beyond Wind Stream Mountain in Wind Stream Tribe—Ye Wang.

He had the same expression, the same determination, the same tone, and the hidden feeling of supremacy in his heart.

Su Ming did not speak. He only closed his eyes again.

The fighting spirit in Ye Long’s eyes might have become stronger, but he never took the step forward. At the instant the trial ended, he lifted his foot, and took a step backwards instead. When he turned around, the entire world suddenly turned dark, and shrill roars rang out.

Hordes of ferocious beasts appeared in the clouds and fog in the sky, though more accurately speaking, they were not creatures, but spirits, because their bodies were illusions formed by fog. At the moment they appeared, they charged towards the ground.

A part of them charged towards Su Ming, but at the instant they drew close to him, the spirit plates in his hand let out a brilliant light. It covered a boundless distance, frightening the ferocious spirits who wanted to pounce on him. Just as they were about to move back, their bodies were sucked towards him against their control. The spirit plates acting in a manner of a seal, yanking the spirits inside themselves.

One spirit plate could seal one ferocious spirit. Su Ming simply sat there, and in just the span of a few breaths, all one hundred something of his spirit plates contained a spirit.

With the spirits, the spirit plates appeared the same, but there were faint streaks of light flowing through them, as if to show that they were no longer ordinary.

This happened not just to Su Ming, but to Ye Long as well. All the people with spirit plates in the trial grounds saw the same scene. Each of the plates sealed a ferocious spirit, and once it was done, the owners of the plates were no longer attacked.

As for the Seven Moon Sects disciples who did not obtain any spirit plates, they began screaming shrilly in pain. The sounds of their bodies being torn apart rose and fell in the trial grounds…

Destructive spirits continued appearing in the trial grounds for an hour before they disappeared, and a huge vortex formed in the sky. It spun with a bang, and an old voice traveled out from inside it.

“The outer sect promotion trial for Seven Moons Sect ends now. Congratulations to all of you… for becoming the disciples of the inner sect!”

When the voice echoed in the air, a suction force rose up in the area, and the figures on the ground turned into long arcs that charged towards the vortex.

There were boys and girls among those figures. Some of them had excitement on their faces and some had respect. Their expressions were different, and it was related to their actions in the trial grounds. The excited ones were those who avoided the disaster, and the respectful ones were those who barely escaped death.

There were also quite a few who had complicated expressions on their faces. When they looked at each other, they could see the killing intent and the will to fight in each other’s eyes. Those people were clearly ones who had formed grudges between them due to the fights for spirit plates during the trial.

The moment the disciples flew up towards the vortex, a long arc shot through the sky like a white dragon. It charged from the ground, and wherever it went, no matter which disciple it was, their expressions would change, and they would avoid it. When they looked at the figure in the white light, their gazes were filled with respect.

It was Ye Long.

Ye Long’s face was calm. Wherever he went, no one even thought of getting in his way. He charged straight towards the vortex in the sky.

Su Ming stood up at that moment. When he took a step forward, he did not make the blood moon disappear, so he looked like a blood moon turning into a long arc. The world rumbled when he walked towards the vortex serving as the exit.

The moment Su Ming’s blood moon appeared in the eyes of the disciples who were also heading towards the vortex, surprised and terrified cries filled the air. Compared to everyone moving away from Ye Long to make a path for him, Su Ming’s entrance was even grander. The moment he approached the exit, the expressions of the disciples in the area filled with shock as well as alarm. They instantly spread out, and when they looked back at Su Ming, their eyes showed great fear.

With Su Ming around, they did not dare to continue flying. Instead, they levitated in midair. No one knew who was the first to wrap their fists in their palms, but soon, everyone in the area wrapped their fists in their palms and bowed simultaneously towards him.

“Greetings, Eldest Senior Brother Wang Tao.” In the beginning, the voices were rather scattered, but soon, they gathered together to turn into a single voice that echoed in the air.

The person who was ranked first among the outer sect disciples would naturally be given the title of eldest senior brother. In their hearts, this was the only title for Su Ming.

The youthful voices echoed in the air and spread in every direction. They also reached the ears of the ten something sect elders. They watched what was happening, but no one spoke. They only felt pity towards Ye Long standing in the corner of the picture.

If Su Ming had not been around, all of this would have belonged to him!

Ye Long was silent. He stared at Su Ming, then after a long while, he lowered his head, wrapped his fist in his palm, and also bowed.

Su Ming came to a stop. The blood moon around him gradually disappeared, then with a swing of his arm, it turned into blood rain. When it poured down on the ground, he took a step forward, and was the first… to step into the vortex in the sky.

Behind him was Ye Long, and after him were the other people. When all the disciples entered the vortex, the trial grounds sank into darkness as if they had been sealed.

The countless ferocious spirits in the darkness roared. Their voices were filled with forlornness and madness, but they could not escape the seal. They could only wait for the next disaster of Seven Moons, for only then they could devour flesh and blood.

Gradually, the shrill roars faded away, and suddenly… a figure appeared beneath the stone monument Su Ming had observed. It was a man in a black robe. He stood quietly in the depths of the dark underground and silently stared at the words on the stone monument. After a long while, he sighed softly.

There was an ancient tone in that sight, and a hint of nostalgia that others might not be able to hear, but one that Su Ming would definitely understand if he was there.