Pursuit of the Truth

“Your Grandpa Cra… Er, I don’t want much either, just a spot in the ballad. Just a spot. Even if you want me to call you grandpa, I’ll do it. I just want a spot!” The black crane had an expectant look on its face. As it flapped its wings, it came to the broken ship and appeared in front of Su Ming.

The huge net behind it stretched endlessly. In it were hundreds of thousands of Waves of Tears packed densely together, and none of them were less than a thousand feet big. There were also quite a few that were ten thousand feet large, and there were even a dozen something of those that were one hundred thousand feet.

What caused Su Ming’s heart to tremble was a Wave of Tears that exuded an old presence through its entire body among those captive. Its body was entirely gold, and it was four hundred thousand feet in size. It had its eyes closed and did not move.

“You again, small crane,” an ancient voice speaking in a strange rhythm elegantly tumbled out of the old man’s mouth, in whose body Su Ming currently resided.

The voice was not Su Ming’s though, but that of the old man.

Su Ming might feel that he had become the old man, but in truth, it would be more accurate to say that he was currently observing this scene that once happened and from the old man’s eyes

He looked at the black crane in front of him. There had been some slight uncertainty in his heart, but when he heard its voice and sensed pride and sleaziness within it, he was certain that this black crane was the bald crane.

If he formed his deductions based on this, then this era was incredibly ancient…

‘Nine lives and four races…’ A thought appeared in Su Ming’s head.

‘Ecang and the bald crane are of the same category of life. Could it be that… they are among the nine lives spoken in the ballad?’ This thought made Su Ming’s pupils shrink. At that moment, the old man spoke up once again.

“Whether you can get a spot or not depends on whether the offerings you brought are the things I need.”

The old man shook his head, lifted his right hand, and pointed at the black crane. A Wave of Tears of around two thousand something feet instantly faded away from the net. When it reappeared, it was already in front of the old man.

Once that Wave of Tears left the net, it immediately roared in a piercing tone. A fierce light and a mad glint appeared in its eyes, and it lifted its right claw to close in on the old man.

The old man’s expression remained the same. He only cast a flat glance at the incoming Wave of Tears, and the creature trembled. The fierce light in its eyes disappeared, and at the moment it closed in, its body came to a swift stop. It lowered its head to bow down and worship the old man.

Su Ming saw the old man lifting his right hand, or rather, he felt himself lift his right hand and press it on the top of the Wave of Tears’ head. With it, a gentle wave of power surged into the creature’s body. Once that power circulated through, the Wave of Tears started trembling fiercely. It lifted its head, and its roars shook the heavens. Its eyes were bloodshot, and its body swelled up before his eyes. In the blink of an eye, it was no longer just a ferocious beast that was one thousand feet, but had grown to ten thousand feet.

It was as if the gentle energy from the old man’s hands was a strange power that would stimulate life forms like the Wave of Tears. As the power swam in the body of the Wave of Tears, the full power of the inheritance lying in its blood was brought out.

It was a shocking scene that astonished Su Ming. He did not know what sort of level of cultivation would be needed to enable a person to make a ferocious beast become a superior life form within an instant.

But it wasn’t over yet. Su Ming saw that when the gentle power from the old man’s right hand circulated through the Wave of Tears’ body for the second time, its ten thousand feet body trembled even more furiously. In the blink of an eye, blood gushed out from everywhere. Its flesh and blood started growing in a bizarre manner as its body continued getting larger, and with a pained and crazed roar, the creature… shot up to one hundred thousand feet from the initial ten thousand feet.

The shock Su Ming felt was difficult to describe with words. He stared intently at that Wave of Tears, interested to see what would happen to this creature when the old man’s power circulated through its body for the third time.

In the span of a breath, the power made its third round.

The one hundred thousand feet tall Wave of Tears shuddered. Blood covered every inch of its body, and it swiftly swelled up. Two hundred thousand feet, three hundred thousand feet, four hundred thousand feet… As the size of its body continued increasing exponentially, desire and resolve appeared on the black crane’s face. The Waves of Tears in the boundless net behind it were stunned. They looked at the Wave of Tears that had become seven hundred thousand feet tall, and their bodies trembled before they bowed down to worship it, as if they were paying respect to their king.

However, almost the instant they bowed down to worship that Wave of Tears and it reached nearly nine hundred thousand feet, it let out a shrill scream of pain that shook the universe. With a bang… its body fell apart, unable to withstand the abrupt rise in power to become an even more superior life form. The power then caused it to burst.

“So, old man, how are my offerings this time?” the black crane quickly asked with an anxious look on its face. “Old man, if it still doesn’t work this time, I have no idea what to do anymore. It’s been so many years, and I brought so many offerings for you. It’s just a spot, do you seriously need to be so stingy?!” When the black crane saw that the old man was still not speaking, it instantly became anxious.

“It’s still not enough,” the old man said faintly after some time. “But this time, the offerings can stay.”

When the black crane heard the old man’s first sentence, it became dejected, but when it heard the second sentence, its eyes immediately brightened up. It hadn’t thought that it could get a spot in the ballad in just one go, anyway. As long as the old man accepted its offerings, then as they accumulated over a long period of time, a chance to obtain a spot in the ballad would show up.

The crane beamed with joy, and it immediately turned into a long arc and left. It charged out into the distant galaxy, and in an instant, it disappeared without a trace.

Once the black crane left, Su Ming looked at the hundreds of thousands of Waves of Tears in the net, and a contemplative look appeared on his face. He had no idea why the black stone fragment had sucked his soul into this illusion of something that had clearly happened in an ancient past.

At that moment, he could not help but remember the voice that had echoed in his head when he touched the door inside the mountain within the fragment’s dimension.

“The first spirit you offered is the spirit of the Wave of Tears. There is a flaw in this spirit. Find that flaw, and you can exterminate this race… You have endless time. Go to the place where you offered medicinal pills in the past and create a Decaying Spirit Core that will stimulate the flaw in this spirit. If you give up… you will show that you have not chosen the Wave of Tears’ spirit as your first step to nurture Life Extermination Spirit.”

Su Ming frowned, then was stunned. He had felt before like he had turned into the old man just even if he was just watching the whole thing from his eyes. Yet right then, when he frowned, a thought formed in Su Ming’s head, and a glint appeared in his eyes. He lifted his right hand, lowered his head, and slowly stood up.

Within the vast galaxy, Su Ming stood at the bow of the gigantic ship that was broken and cast his gaze to the area ahead of him. It was pure darkness.

After a moment of mulling over his thoughts, Su Ming suddenly said slowly, “Medicinal pills.”

Almost at the instant he said these words, the space in front of him distorted and medicinal pills of all kinds appeared. They were all the pills that Su Ming had used as an offering to open the mountain doors when he was in the cave in the first mountain within the fragment’s dimension.

As he looked at these medicinal pills, Su Ming seemed to be able to see his past. He recalled the memories of the things that had happened way in the past and were buried deep within his mind.

He sighed softly, then recollected his thoughts. He looked at the medicinal pills floating in front of him, then at the hundreds of thousands of Waves of Tears trapped in the net. Gradually, he came to a realization.

First of all, this was an illusory dimension. Second, medicinal pills as well as hundreds of thousands of Waves of Tears were presented before Su Ming, which would mean that they were test subjects for his experiment.

With the knowledge of the different combinations of these medicinal pills, he needed to go through a secondary stage of creation and create a pill that targeted the flaw within Waves of Tears. This would then allow him to exterminate the entire race, and that pill would be called Decaying Spirit Core!

‘The creation of this Decaying Spirit Core will require numerous tries. I will need a complete understanding of Waves of Tears, a thorough knowledge of their habits, lifestyle, and structure of their bodies before finding a way to target their weakness and create Decaying Spirit Core.

‘Let’s not mention whether I can succeed or not first. Even if I were to create it in the end, I would need an incredibly long time to do so… Based on this, the flow of time in this illusory dimension should not be the same as in the world outside.’

A thought appeared in Su Ming’s head, and he looked towards the net floating ahead of him in space. The hundreds of thousands of Waves of Tears in it were no longer roaring, but maintained their postures, as if they had been frozen in time.

‘In fact, there’s even a possibility… that the time here… has been frozen, because this is something that happened in the past. This is not the present, and there is nothing between these two times that exists together.’

Su Ming’s eyes sparkled. This sort of a dimension was not unfamiliar to him. Black stone fragment’s dimension, Candle Dragon’s world, and Ecang’s world—he had experienced quite a lot of these dimensions in his life.

The flow of time within them was often different from the world outside. In some of them, time flowed slower, while in others it moved at the same as in the world outside. Su Ming had thought about it before, wondering about the reason why the flow of time in these dimensions was different.

However, this sort of thing was too complicated, and he had never really figured it out. At that moment, he looked at the space around him, and after a period of silence, his gaze focused. When he raised his right hand, he pointed at the hundreds of thousands of Waves of Tears in the net.

One spot in the net immediately freed up. The Wave of Tears that had been pointed out disappeared from the net and reappeared beside Su Ming. Its eyes were, and it was staring at Su Ming, but was just like a statue that did not move.

Su Ming looked at the Wave of Tears before him and lifted his right hand to press his palm against the creature. His Atman spread out and fused with the beast’s body, and he began to observe it in detail.

His goal was to understand everything about this creature, and from there, find the flaw that would allow him to exterminate this race, then create the Waves of Tears’ Decaying Spirit Core!

‘When the old man touched the Wave of Tears, he managed to instantly make this creature an superior life form, and it continued becoming greater. It’s clear that during that instant, he had come to completely understand the Wave of Tears’ entire structure of life, which was why he could do this.

‘If he could do it at that time, then he could easily do the same for all other manner of life as well.

‘He only needed an instant, but I will need an endless amount of time, but the direction we’re heading towards is the same. One of these days, I will be able to do it as well.’