934 - 940

Chapter 934: Hearers

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Hearers were a small tribe in the periphery of Divine Essence Star Ocean. There were about ten thousand people in the tribe, but only a few thousand of them were warriors.

If those who did not understand the distribution of the powers in Divine Essence Star Ocean saw Hearers for the first time, then perhaps they would think that this was a big tribe. However, those who truly understood Divine Essence Star Ocean would know that there were plenty of tribes like this one in Divine Essence Star Ocean.

They were like Dijiu Mo Sha's Ninth Tribe. Perhaps they were once a big tribe in Divine Essence Star Ocean. However, as time shifted its gaze away from them, they gradually fell into a state of decline until they could no longer survive in the inner parts of Divine Essence Star Ocean and could only shift to the periphery.

Only in this place could they continue growing.

All tribes with history behind them would have a complicated connection to the inner part of Divine Essence Star Ocean. Even though Hearers had already lived in the periphery of Divine Essence Star Ocean for a long period of time, they still had a close connection to several big tribes in Divine Essence Star Ocean. With just one order from those big tribes, they would send out all the warriors in their tribe along with the ferocious beasts they had been rearing for years to launch a siege.

As Su Ming watched this scene, he turned into a long arc that charged forward, as loud bangs erupted in space as he broke through it, drawing the attention of the Hearers to him. Yet when they turned their heads around, they only saw a blood-red shadow passing by them.

This was an arrow!

It was an arrow that had no corporeal form, as if it was formed from space itself. It had appeared in the people's eyes as a crimson shadow because once it had been shot out, it pierced through a dozen something people's chests, and the blood that was brought out from their wounds had dyed it red.

This arrow shot past thousands of Hearers in space and landed at the foot of the mountain, right on a black beetle that was corroding but still rushing forward with its mouth wide open to devour a member of the Ninth Tribe.

With a bang, the black beetle crumbled to pieces. The impact that was stirred up tumbled through the entire area, stirring up fog that pushed the member of the Ninth Tribe hundreds of feet back. After that, not a single living creature could be found in a circular area of one hundred feet around the spot where the arrow had landed.

There was only… a dozen something dead insects whose bodies had shattered due to the vibrations from the force that had wrecked their bodies.

There was also a person who stood with his back straight and his hair dancing in the wind in the area. He was dressed in a sackcloth and held a longbow in his hand. He also had a woman he carried close to his chest. She was incredibly beautiful, but her eyes were shut tight, as if she was deep asleep.

"Take care of her for me," Su Ming said faintly and loosened his grip on her. The woman was then sent to the member of the Ninth Tribe behind him, who had escaped death just moments ago.

This was a member of the Ninth Tribe whose face had turned pale because of how shocked she was by Su Ming's arrival. The danger her tribe faced had forced her to fight for her tribe even though she was a woman. At this moment, she almost instinctively took over the unconscious Xu Hui.

Su Ming's eyes were calm as roars surged through the area. This battle was an incredibly grand sight to others. After all, this was a fight between thousands of people, and there was even a sea of insects composed of tens of thousands of black beetles. However, this sort of situation was really nothing in Su Ming's eyes. Whether it was the war between the Berserkers and the Immortal sects when he was in the land of Berserkers or the recent battle against the Waves of Tears, the scale of those fights far surpassed the scale of this battle.

He stood in place. With his left hand holding onto the Sand Spirit's bow, he raised his right hand, and an arrow shot out. That arrow was still without form. As it sliced through air, it landed in the ground in front of him. Booming sounds reverberated in the air, and an area of one hundred feet shattered once again.

Su Ming did not hesitate and continued to fire arrow after arrow. Each one that he shot could turn an area of thousands of feet into a region of death when it landed on the ground.

For a period of time, booming sounds shot up ceaselessly in the battlefield. At one point, Su Ming leaped up from the ground and appeared at the peak of the mountain behind him. When he stood there, he drew the bow with his right hand, and arrows poured down like rain towards the ground.

He had sufficient cultivation base and a powerful physical body. Because of this, each arrow Su Ming shot felt as if it was a dozen arrows fired at full strength. It could be said that when this bow was in Su Ming's hand, he could bring forth and even more powerful destructive force than the person who had previously held onto it.

Within a short period of time, his arrival and the arrows he shot caused an uproar among those of the Ninth Tribe and the Hearers. Those from the Ninth Tribe had excited expressions, and their fighting spirit had been kindled once again. The strength of Su Ming's arrows made it so that all land belonged to him. The sea of insects that was close to the mountain continuously disintegrated amid the booming sounds every time an arrow landed on the ground.

As the members of the Ninth Tribe in the sky executed their divine abilities, their morale was boosted. Occasionally, they would look at Su Ming who stood on the mountain. The image of that person with the bow was then deeply engraved into their eyes.

To the Hearers, Su Ming's appearance brought a disturbance to the battle, preventing the sea of insects on the ground from moving forward. Fierce, murderous looks appeared on their faces, and they glared at Su Ming with powerful killing intent burning in their eyes.

Dijiu Mo Sha roared, and the centipede which had manifested behind him immediately left his side. Once it grew to several thousands of feet big, it charged towards the thousands of Hearers.

Su Ming remained composed. When he shot out another arrow, the ground rumbled, and a deep pit of one thousand feet appeared. Then, he put down the bow.

If anyone looked down from the sky at that moment, they could clearly see that five thousand feet away from the foot of the mountain was a deep pit. It drew a line between the mountain and the black beetles!

Not a single black beetle could be seen behind the line, only the members of the Ninth Tribe. A dense sea of insects could be seen beyond the line, but not a single one took half a step into that line. They only roared and hissed furiously from beyond.

This line was drawn by Su Ming with his arrows. Within it was the remnants of Su Ming's aloof, murderous aura, along with a ruthless declaration that needed no words but could be felt by all manner of lives that possessed intelligence.

All those who step into the line will die.

Killing this sea of insects and all the Hearers was not difficult for Su Ming. This was a tribe that did not have even a single cultivator in Lunar Kalpa Tribe. The strongest that had appeared in this place was only in the later stage of World Plane Realm.

As for the other Hearers, their levels of cultivation ranged from Earth Cultivation Realm to the middle stage of World Plane Realm. This sort of tribe was completely unable to make Su Ming feel threatened.

He stood at the top of the mountain without saying a single word. However, his existence and his arrows were even more intimidating than words. It could make the sea of insects on the ground not dare to take even a single step forward. The rise in the magnitude of his presence with this action alone caused Su Ming to become an existence that could look down on the world in all the people's eyes.

"ROAR!"

The old man in the later stage of World Plane Realm among the Hearers in space let out a low roar which turned into two waves of impact. One of them landed on the ground, making the sea of insects on the ground even more savage and violent. Some of them then were no longer able to bear with the violence raging in them and the impulse to move past the boundary rose within them.

The other wave turned into a sound that rushed towards the hundreds of members that belonged to the Ninth Tribe standing in the air, as well as Su Ming standing behind them.

At the same time, the thousands of Hearers around the old man charged out. They turned into thousands of long arcs that rushed towards the mountain, the hundreds of members that belonged to the Ninth Tribe.

As they rushed out, the sea of insects on the ground let out a piercing screech stepped onto the line formed by the pit, intending to cross over.

The old Hearer in the later stage of World Plane Realm kept his gaze fixed on Su Ming. Killing intent shone in his eyes. He could tell that Su Ming was only in the middle stage of World Plane Realm, and he had already made a judgment that Su Ming was only this powerful because of that bow.

He believed that if he got close to this stranger, then with his power, he would immediately let him know the outcome of going up against the Hearers.

With a cold harrumph, he took a step forward. When he raised his right hand, a rattle drum the size of his palm appeared on his palm. The drum was white, and it was clear that it was made of bone. With one shake, rattles reverberated in the air. The sounds seemed to be able to permeate through everything. They spread throughout the area and fell into each person's ears. The sounds of the drum was not loud, but even Su Ming could hear it.

Almost at the instant he heard it, the old Hearer let out a ferocious bark of laughter, and with one move, he shifted, even though he was just in the later stage of World Plane Realm!

This was something that was almost impossible, unless he was like Su Ming and had the soul of a powerful warrior in Lunar Kalpa Realm by his side so that he could borrow the power of shifting from that person. Otherwise, it was incredibly difficult for those in the later stage of World Plane Realm to shift.

It was especially weird… since it was impossible to shift in this galaxy. Su Ming had tried it before. Yet now, the old man's body had vanished!

Su Ming's expression remained the same. Not a single hint of change could be detected on him. He watched the sea of insects rushing past the line. As they spread out swiftly, they stirred up a momentum that made it seem as if they wanted to push down the mountain from where it currently stood.

This time, Su Ming did not draw the bow. He raised his right hand, then dipped his head down to look at it for a few moments before pushing his hand towards the ground on the mountain.

With it, the world rumbled. The ground started trembling intensely. A gigantic palm appeared in the sky and charged towards the ground with loud a rumbling. The movement was so quick that in the blink of an eye, the palm had already reached the ground.

The entire land trembled. Booming sounds reverberated through the world, shaking the sky and earth at this moment. The black beetles within the sea of insects let out cries of despair, and their infestation immediately fell apart as they started fleeing in all directions in a frenzy.

It was also at this moment that distorted ripples appeared behind Su Ming. The old man who had previously disappeared took a step out of those ripples, and with a ferocious smile on his face, he raised his right hand, intending to strike Su Ming's back. His fingers were pitch black, and wisps of black smoke surrounded his hand, turning into the souls of black beetles. Just as he was about to touch Su Ming, he saw… a palm appear in the sky and saw the sea of insects collapsing. This scene caused his pupils to shrink and his expression to change drastically. It revealed shock and disbelief.

"Master… Master of Fate, Lives, and Death… This is impossible!"

The old man sucked in a sharp breath. In his shock, the thought of injuring Su Ming became the least of his concerns. Instead, as he filled with astonishment, he started moving back, as if the intention of harming Su Ming could not even rise in his heart anymore. The only thought he had was to get out of this place as quickly as possible.

Chapter 935: Malicious Eye

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Su Ming did not turn his head back. As his right hand fell, a loud, deafening bang instantly came from the ground and drowned out the countless shrill screams of pain that rose into the air. While echo lingered in the air, a shudder ran through the bodies of all the people who were fighting against each other, and as if they had been frozen, they cast their gazes at the ground. All of their jaws then fell slack, and shock on their faces could not be concealed.

On the ground was a huge handprint that had sunk in hundreds of feet deep. It was branded onto the land, and there was an innumerable amount of mangled black beetles in there!

That handprint was incredibly clear, as if a giant had placed his hand on the ground. On the edges of the handprint were the black beetles who had narrowly escaped death. Their bodies trembled, and they lay on the ground, not daring to move even a single inch.

They could sense a terrifying presence that could destroy their entire race coming from that handprint, and it was a mighty pressure that was impossible for them to stand against.

Su Ming watched this scene unfold before his eyes calmly. The heart of the old Hearer behind him was trembling at that moment. He was retreating swiftly, filled with regret and terror. He was regretting that he had come so close to such a scary person!

He was frightened by that palm which contained a will that he could not resist. He had never seen a Master of Fate, Lives, and Death in his life, but he had heard about the divine abilities possessed by the powerful warriors on this Realm. When he saw all that had happened, only the title of a Master of Fate, Lives, and Death echoed in his head; these were the only words that could describe Su Ming.

"Coming to my side is not something that you can do at will, and neither… is leaving," Su Ming said flatly.

The old Hearer's expression changed drastically. When he raised his right hand, the rattle drum appeared. As he shook it rapidly, he left in an instant. He had been already scared out of his wits by Su Ming's palm. If he knew that there was such a powerful existence in the Ninth Tribe, he would have never brought his tribe, no matter what.

This was no longer them hunting down the Ninth Tribe, but the Hearers bringing upon themselves a threat of extermination!

His pupils shrank. As he charged forward, he began fleeing desperately. He wanted to escape from this place. In fact, he could no longer care about the survival of his other tribe members here. He wanted to get back to his tribe as quickly as possible and have it migrate quickly to get as far away as they could from this place. If they slowed down even the slightest bit, then he believed that what would await his tribe would be complete annihilation.

Su Ming lowered his right hand, then struck his storage bag. The gourd immediately appeared and floated above hid palm. Su Ming touched it gently a few times.

"Treasured gourd, please kill him," Su Ming said faintly, and eyes immediately appeared on the gourd before fixing themselves coldly on the fleeing old Hearer. A multicolored light instantly erupted from within, and a small person with a blade shot out from the gourd, charging over at its target.

After a moment, a shrill scream of pain rang out in the air, resounding swiftly in the battlefield which had fallen silent due to Su Ming's palm, attracting all of the people's gazes towards the source.

When the people of the Ninth Tribe looked over, their spirits were immediately lifted, but when the Hearers looked over, their faces turned stark pale. If Su Ming's palm strike to the ground had scared the Hearers out of their wits, pushed their fighting spirit into the dumps, and gave rise to incredible terror within their hearts, then the sight of the old Hearer being beheaded was like a funeral bell that struck fiercely in all the Hearers' hearts.

"Elder!"

"Run! Get out of here quickly!"

After being stunned for a moment, a commotion rose among them. All of the Hearers were filled with limitless terror at that moment. Their minds instantly broke down, and all of them started withdrawing. All their minds were focused on only one word – Run!

"All members of the Ninth Tribe, heed my orders! Come with me… and kill them! The Hearers have been slaughtering our people for years, and this time… we will have them pay by several fold!"

Dijiu Mo Sha let out a roar, and monstrous hatred burned in his eyes. As he roared, the gigantic shadow of the black-furred giant manifested behind him, along with… Tian Xie Zi's figure sitting on its head, which brought Su Ming's eyes to him once more.

Roars immediately answered his call. It was an outburst that came from all the warriors of the Ninth Tribe after it had been suppressed within them for countless years. Hundreds of people flew out at that moment, turning into long arcs that charged towards the sky before launching a crazed slaughter on the fleeing Hearers, who were now scattered and lacked any unity.

One party was fleeing in desperation, and the other was chasing them down in a frenzy while roaring. Clearly, this battle would not end within a short period of time, and the battle line would be elongated.

Su Ming stood at the summit and watched this scene, then sighed. He had no grudge against the Hearers, and with his principles, as long as they did not provoke him, he would not exterminate an entire tribe without reason.

This day was the first time Su Ming had ran into the Hearers.

However… once he cast his gaze on his Master sitting on the black-furred giant right behind Dijiu Mo Sha, who was chasing down the Hearers in the distance, a determined gaze appeared in his eyes.

He could change his principles for his Master.

'This is the tribe Master developed in Divine Essence Star Ocean. They were his companions through many lonely years.'

Su Ming raised his right hand. Once he formed a seal, he swung his arm in the air. With it, the totem on his arm that was the Duke of Crimson Flame instantly formed a fire cloud that appeared in an incredibly distant place. That spot was the border to the continent the fleeing Hearers have not managed to get close to just yet.

When they arrived, the Duke of Crimson Flame walked out from the fire cloud. His expression was aloof, and when he spread his arms open, he roared at the sky. With just one roar, a sea of fire spread out around him with loud booms. In an instant, a fire barrier was erected around the land.

This barrier was like a lock that completely cut off any chance of survival for the Hearers!

"No!"

"We're willing to pledge allegiance! We're willing to join the Ninth Tribe!!"

"Please spare us! All of this was the elder's orders, we had to come…"

Pleas for mercy, shouts of madness, and cries of despair instantly echoed in all directions, but all of them turned into pained screams that were drowned out by the enraged roars mixed with the intent for vengeance from those of the Ninth Tribe.

Su Ming closed his eyes and sat down cross-legged on the summit.

He did not want to join in this massacre. Helping the tribe kill the strongest person among their enemies and resolving the threat of the sea of insects' infestation was something Su Ming had done for his Master, but that was also all that he would do.

To Su Ming, who had already grown used to seeing life and death, whether this tribe could continue thriving and growing was of no importance.

Shrill screams of pain rose and fell in his ears. The stench of blood was thick and refused to leave. Once it collided with the sea of fire, it formed an unpleasant smell.

As time passed, the screams grew less in number, but at that moment, Su Ming's eyes suddenly flew open and he swiftly looked into the distance. His gaze was trained on a male Hearer who was fighting for his life against Dijiu Mo Sha once his path to escape was cut off by the sea of fire.

He had outstanding power and seemed to be either in the later or middle stage of World Plane Realm, possessing power of equal level to that of Dijiu Mo Sha. Their divine abilities rang in the air, and when their fight had reached its most intense moment…

Su Ming's expression remained as calm as ever, but he let out a cold harrumph. Dijiu Mo Sha could not see it, and neither could anyone from the Ninth Tribe, but Su Ming could see a fine crack appearing in the air behind that Hearer. It was swiftly tearing open, and in just the span of a few breaths, it would be completely ripped open.

Su Ming's harrumph did not travel too far. It only echoed a hundred something feet in the area, but the fine crack behind that Hearer that no one else could see abruptly stopped moving.

The Divine Essence Runic Symbols in Su Ming's eyes shone, and the world before his eyes seemed to have been frozen, as if it was due to the power of Divine Essence. It did not move, and was turned into a still picture.

Su Ming was momentarily stunned by this sight. When he looked over, the picture was instantly magnified before his eyes, as if it was moving. As it grew ceaselessly bigger, it looked as if Su Ming and the Hearer's distance was being reduced. It continued until Su Ming's gaze seeped through the man's body and landed on the fine crack in the seemingly normal air behind the man.

As Su Ming stared at it, the air was magnified endlessly. Once it grew several hundreds of times bigger, he saw a fine crack.

He magnified it once more, and when it was made several thousands of times bigger, that crack turned into a gigantic ravine. Su Ming's gaze shot through it, and he saw a layer of light.

It moved about in Su Ming's eyes until he saw a black piece of land.

On that land was a black volcano, which was erupting. There was a tribe that was formed of black towers at the foot of the volcano. Within that tribe were men, women, the elderly, and the young, but at that moment, all of them were kneeling on the ground and surrounding a statue.

That statue was an eyeball!

A feeble, frail old man with festering wounds all over his body was gasping as he circled around the eyeball with movements as if he was dancing. His eyes shone with hatred and anxiety, and complicated chants tumbled out endlessly from his mouth, causing a cloudy look to gradually appear in that eyeball, as if wind and clouds over the course of ten thousand years had just flashed past it.

Judging by the appearance of the people who were kneeling on the ground in worship, Su Ming could tell that they were Hearers, and this was clearly where the Hearers' tribe was located. As for that eyeball, it was definitely the God that the Hearers had been worshiping for countless years.

It was clear that they had sensed their tribe members' deaths and were worshiping their God, hoping that it would show them a miracle.

Almost the moment Su Ming's gaze looked towards the eye through the crack, a vertical pupil appeared on the eye that was being worshiped. That pupil was brown, and there seemed to be endless vengeful spirits struggling to rush out from within it, making it seem incredibly wicked.

The pupil turned around and instantly looked at Su Ming.

At the instant their gazes met, the pupil in the eye shrank abruptly, and a piercing screech reverberated in Su Ming's heart. With a bang, he tumbled out of the magnified version of the world before his eyes. The ravine turned into a crack, and when the world he saw was no longer a picture but had regained mobility, the burning of flames reverberated in the air, a bloody stench spread out, and the Hearer continued fighting against Dijiu Mo Sha.

Su Ming moved backwards, as if an invisible force had crashed into him, then a freezing glint shone in his eyes.

Chapter 936: Your Life

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

'A Divine Essence Treasure…' A glint appeared in Su Ming's eyes, and he swiftly stood up.

He clearly knew that he did not possess divine abilities which could make the world turn still and even allow him to magnify what he wanted to see, then be able to see fine details that he would otherwise be unable to see.

Even if he gathered Divine Essence in his eyes, he would still not be able to do this.

He had been stunned when it had happened. When he connected the pieces together at that moment, he knew that this was not his Art, but was due to Divine Essence in his eyes possessing some kind of connection with that eyeball that Su Ming did not understand. It was this connection that resulted in that divine ability, which he thought was incredibly powerful when he recalled it.

Su Ming's eyes shone. At the instant he stood up, he took a swift step forward. He was so quick that he appeared beside Dijiu Mo Sha and the Hearer in the blink of an eye.

Almost at the instant he arrived, a roar that echoed in Su Ming's heart came from behind the Hearer. Su Ming's footsteps faltered, but as the Divine Essence Runic Symbols in his eyes shone, he recovered, and the brilliant light in his eyes grew even brighter. Without even sparing a glance at the man, he walked past him, then seized the air behind with his right hand.

With it, booming sounds surged into the sky, and an endless amount of ripples instantly appeared in the air. Other people could not see it, but Su Ming could faintly sense that the crack in the air was swiftly closing up at that moment.

Immediately after, an even more powerful roar echoed in Su Ming's heart, showing faint signs of fighting against the power of his Divine Essence. When he connected this sound to the roar that reverberated in his heart, it was clear that it wanted to stop him from continuing. When he looked at the crack that was swiftly closing up, he was certain… that the eyeball worshiped by the Hearers… had noticed something terrifying. It sensed the threat Su Ming brought with him, which was why it refused the Hearers that had worshiped it for years, abandoning their tribe members. Instead, it chose to close the crack to prevent Su Ming from coming closer.

Roars that shook the sky shot up from the Hearers' tribe at that moment. All the tribe members surrounding that eyeball had their hands pressed against their ears, and as they screamed in pain, blood poured out of their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Some of them even died straight away.

The old man who was incredibly frail, feeble, and was covered in festering wounds found his expression changing drastically. He did not know what had happened, but he could sense the terror coming from the eyeball.

It was as if the eyeball had sensed an existence that left it uneasy, and at that moment, it was swiftly closing up the tunnel it had opened.

The eyeball's pupil was shrinking. The countless vengeful spirits in it were letting out piercing roars, because of which the Hearers either died instantly or let out pained screams, while Su Ming's heart trembled. Due to that, his body showed signs of stopping.

"Who is it..? Who is it that is terrifying the Malicious Eye!"

With faltering steps, the feeble old man went up to the eyeball and raised his right hand. He pressed it against the creature, intending to sense and see the person who destroyed his tribe's warriors and terrified the Malicious Eye to the point that it would not care about his tribe members' survival, going back against its promise to exterminate the Ninth Tribe.

On Su Ming's side, as his Divine Essence fought against those rumbles, he seized the air with his right hand, then yanked it swiftly outwards. His power erupted with a bang, and the air was immediately torn apart.

At the same time, a violent force erupted from the crack and charged straight towards him. As bangs echoed in the air, he instantly moved backwards, seized Dijiu Mo Sha, and brought him hundreds of feet away from the place. Then, Su Ming lifted his head swiftly to look at the crack he had torn open in the air.

Others would not find anything strange about this crack, but when Su Ming looked at it, he sensed that it was incredibly similar to that eyeball's pupil.

Su Ming's appearance and his subsequent act of seizing Dijiu Mo Sha to retreat stunned the latter momentarily. Soon though, he retreated without question himself as well. He might not know why Su Ming had suddenly come over, but the crack that had appeared behind that Hearer gave rise to a sense of danger within him that caused his heart to shiver. Because of this, he had an idea why Su Ming might have arrived.

As for that Hearer, he looked towards Su Ming with an enraged expression, but he did not move forward. Instead, he moved back swiftly, moving to touch that crack behind him.

Su Ming stood in the air and made no move to stop him. When he saw the man touching that crack and the desire to return to his tribe alive on his face, Su Ming smiled coldly.

At that moment, the man let out a shrill scream of pain. At the instant he touched the crack, he was not Relocated, but had all his vitality and his cultivation base sucked out of him. His body instantly withered away, and in the blink of an eye, he was reduced to skin and bones which soon turned into ashes.

Once the crack sucked out the man's life force, it began to close up right before everyone's eyes, just like how a person's wound would heal. During that process, it also retreated swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, only a fine crack was left of it.

"So… you are afraid of me." Su Ming moved forward and charged towards the rapidly closing crack.

"Let us… not interfere with each other…" A buzzing sound mixed with screeches and an old, ancient air travelled out swiftly from the rapidly closing crack. That sound echoed in the world and stirred up an endless amount of lingering echoes.

"Let us not interfere with each other, heh. If I was not powerful enough, would you still have said those words?" Su Ming asked flatly. He continued closing in on the crack, then raised his right hand and seized the closing crack once again with his fingers.

With a loud rip, the crack was torn open again. This time, Su Ming did not stop. While enduring the roars in his heart and the violent force charging at him from the crack, he rushed inside.

When he stepped into the crack, the roars from the Malicious Eye in the Hearers' tribe reached their most intense state. Under the barrage from that voice, the old man with his right hand on the Malicious Eye became the first whose body instantly dispersed… After him, all the Hearers around the eyeball immediately died wretched deaths. When they fell on the ground, their bodies withered, and they turned into ashes that vanished into the air.

All of their life force was absorbed by the Malicious Eye during that moment. The eyeball flew up swiftly from the now completely silent tribe formed by black towers and fled into the sky.

During that moment, at the spot where the Hearers died in the tribe, a booming sound rang in the area where the Malicious Eye had previously stayed. A huge crack tore through the air, and Su Ming walked out.

The moment he did so, he raised his head and looked at the hastily fleeing Malicious Eye in the sky.

"Become my eye…" Su Ming said calmly. He did not chase after it, but lifted his right hand and seized the air in the direction of the sky. With a loud bang, a huge hand appeared high above.

That hand was several tens of thousands of feet big, and it was swiftly charging towards the Malicious Eye to seize it.

"No!"

A furious roar came from the Malicious Eye. As it reverberated in the air, it stirred up a large amount of ripples. They crashed into the palm coming towards it from the sky. As booming sounds surged into the heavens, the palm crumbled and disintegrated. The Malicious Eye shot through then and left into the distance once more.

"You and I were fated to meet today…" When Su Ming said these words flatly, he still remained unmoving, but the Duke of Crimson Flame walked out of the air right in front of the Malicious Eye with the sea of fire behind him. When he raised his left hand, the sea of fire turned into a gigantic hand that rushed forward to seize the Malicious Eye.

"Damn it, I refuse!"

Within the cloudy and smoky hue of that Malicious Eye's pupil were countless malicious spirits roaring ferociously. Some of them had even rushed out of the eyeball to turn into endless ghosts. Quite a large number of them were Hearers, and they all rushed towards the fire palm the Duke of Crimson Flame had created.

At the instant they touched each other, booming sounds rose into the air. The fire palm fell apart and turned into endless embers in a sea of flame that plunged down to the ground. The Malicious Eye noticed a crack that did not have any flames in the plunging sea of fire, and in a flash, it shot out of there, looking as if it was about to fly out of Su Ming's gaze.

But Su Ming remained as composed as ever.

"… this is your Life," Su Ming uttered the latter half of his sentence calmly and completed what he had intended to say.

At the instant he said these words, a gigantic shadow appeared right in front of the charging Malicious Eye. That shadow was that of a tree, and it was… the projection of Su Ming's Ecang!

The appearance of the Ecang projection brought a presence that filled the world and turned into a suppressive force which made the Malicious Eye to let out a screech filled with despair.

"Ecang! Damn you, Ecang! You killed my original body in the past to offer it to Old Man Extermination in exchange for your eternal life… You ambushed me when I was at my weakest when I segregated my Malicious Eyes! If that was not the case… how could you have been my opponent?!

"I… am the first eye that was born before even the universe was even created! I am the first eye that witnessed the rise and fall of the universe! I… I won't accept defeat!" The roars from the Malicious Eye were filled with an indescribable madness and hatred. It rushed straight towards Ecang's projection.

When it rushed over, it started expanding rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, it grew to be one hundred thousand feet tall and stood erect in the air. With a bang, it crashed into Ecang's projection.

However, at that instant, a hand stretched out of the Ecang's projection. Compared to the gigantic eyeball, this was an incredibly tiny hand. When it crashed into the Malicious Eye, a shrill scream of pain reverberated in all directions.

Booming sounds surged into the sky, but Su Ming stood his ground and remained still.

Once the booms subsided and Ecang's projection disappeared, a handsome, long-haired man dressed in purple stood in the sky with a presence that could allow him to look down on the world. In his hand, he held an eyeball.

The eyeball was currently gray, but there was smoke and clouds surging within it, as if the rise and fall of the universe was contained within its pupil.

Naturally, the purple-haired man was Su Ming's Ecang clone!

This was the first time Su Ming had successfully used his Ecang clone as a tunnel and his soul as a guide in Divine Essence Star Ocean to summon his Ecang clone.

"You are mine. This is… your Life," Su Ming and his Ecang clone said together.

Chapter 937: Her Hair Lifted by the Wind

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

There was nothing in the world that served as the true epitome of fairness. It was just like what Su Ming had said in the Yu Family in the past. He had already seen through this so-called fairness in the world.

Since there was no fairness in the world, then the law of the jungle was an eternal rule. It was no surprise then that the Malicious Eye had been ambushed by Ecang in the past when it was at its weakest and that Ecang had offered its physical body to Old Man Extermination in exchange for his name being added to the ballad, thereby gaining eternal life.

It was no surprise then that one of the eyes of the powerful creature in the past that had managed to escape by a pure stroke of life had returned to Ecang's hand once again. However, this time, the one who had orchestrated this was not Ecang's will, but Su Ming's soul.

His Ecang clone took the Malicious Eye and slowly placed it at the center of his brows. At the instant the eyeball touched his forehead, the world rumbled. Endless lightning bolts appeared out of nowhere and started spreading outwards in all directions from Su Ming's Ecang clone.

The sky looked as if it had been turned into a huge lightning net.

In this net was Su Ming's Ecang clone. When he slowly lowered his right hand, a new eye opened up at center of his brows!

It was a Malicious Eye that shone with a purple light! A Malicious Eye that exuded a strange and wicked presence!

This eye had a vertical pupil. Countless vengeful spirits struggled and roared at the edges of it, and some of them even spread outwards. Because of it, Su Ming's Ecang clone left the impression that he was absolutely not a good person. His appearance and the wicked air around him was enough to give a great impact to all those who saw him.

That impact would give rise to a thought within those who saw him, and it would be that they could not provoke this person for any reason whatsoever. They would also have a vague sense that he was filled with maliciousness.

The aura of it around him was so thick that it was already close to the peak of its density. If it truly reached the peak, then the word 'malicious' would no longer be capable of describing it. Perhaps a new word would then be created by all those who were shocked and intimidated by Su Ming's presence.

The Malicious Eye moved at the center of the Ecang clone's brows. The pupil looked swiftly towards the net of lightning in the sky, and with it, the lightning that filled the sky distorted, as if it was trembling, and within an instant… it vanished!

It was as if with the Malicious Eye, the Ecang clone's existence became a proud sun in the sky that not even the net of heavens could cover. When the lightning in the sky vanished, the Ecang clone lowered his head. Once he met the gaze of Su Ming on the ground, his body gradually disappeared. When not a trace of him could be found any longer in the area, he returned to Western Ring Nebula's foreign land and the one hundred thousand purple galaxies that belonged to him.

Once the Ecang clone left, Su Ming closed his eyes. At the instant he did so, a fine, purple line appeared at the center of his brows. That line was incredibly clear, and its appearance caused the wicked air that had always existed around Su Ming to become as thick as the one possessed by his Ecang clone.

He stood quietly on the ground and did not move as time trickled by. On the third day, Su Ming opened his eyes. He raised his head to look at the sky, and an incredibly peculiar feeling rose in his heart.

The sky was the same as it was three days ago. Nothing had changed. The world in his eyes was as it always was—a gray sky, a boundless galaxy that could be seen at the edge of the horizon in the distance. This unusual phenomenon in the sky was one that could only be seen in Divine Essence Star Ocean.

The ground was dry, and not a single hint of life could be seen on it. When he swept his gaze across the land, he saw only a flatland that gave off an air of stillness.

However, Su Ming could sense that he… was able to see more, and he could… see things that others could not see.

"Malicious Eye," he said calmly.

At the instant he said these words, the thin, purple line at the center of his brows flew open.

This was not a thin line. This was… the projection of the Malicious Eye on Su Ming's cultivation base clone and his clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole. When that eye opened, the vertical pupil and the countless struggling figures of the vengeful spirits were immediately revealed at the center of Su Ming's brows.

Roars that could cast hearts in awe and terror reverberated around Su Ming intensely. However, they did not affect him this time. If there were other cultivators around him at that moment though, then the wave of impact from the piercing roars would definitely affect their hearts and bodies.

Those roars surged into the sky. Su Ming raised his head once more, and when he looked towards the sky, he saw a completely different sight!

He saw nine hundred something different skies. This was a scene that was incredibly difficult to put into words. It was as if there were nine hundred something people lifting their heads to look at the sky at the same moment, and the scenes they saw were all gathered into one person's eyes.

Because of it, it could be said that he saw nine hundred something images of the same sky. However, it was not true. It wasn't the exact same sky.

Soon after, when the nine hundred something skies in his eyes overlapped, the sight before him changed, and it was magnified by one-fold.

But it did not stop there. Once the sight was magnified by one-fold, it continued expanding like flowing water. Only when everything had been magnified by nine times their original size did it stop. At that moment, Su Ming saw endless fine particles in the gray sky. These particles were gray, and they were… the ones which gave the sky its color.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that this was not a sky, but a gray layer of fog.

Su Ming lowered his head and looked towards the ground. He saw endless fine cracks on the seemingly flat ground, many of which were continuously spreading outwards. However, no one else could see it.

This was Su Ming's Malicious Eye. Before it opened, it was a fine, purple line. When it opened, it turned into the first eye that had seen the universe's rise and fall!

Su Ming sucked in a sharp breath. The Malicious Eye at the center of his brows closed up and turned into a fine, purple line once again. A great surge of confidence rose in Su Ming's heart. This confidence did not come from his power, but from control!

Once he came to possess this eye, he was qualified to say that he could control all things.

He could control the battlefield, control all battles of Arts, and control all lives and death!

"There are nine hundred something souls in this eye, which is why it can magnify something up to nine times their original size. If that is the case, then the more vengeful souls this eye absorbs, the more shocking the extent to which the eye would be able to magnify something will become…" Su Ming swung his arm and, with a single move, turned into a long arc and disappeared from the ground.

…..

Several days later.

On the floating continent in which lived the Ninth Tribe was a mountain. In the middle of it was the tribe, and stone houses surrounded the entire mountainside. Nearly a thousand members of the Ninth Tribe were preparing food in the morning in the mid of chimney smoke.

Some children played around. Their naive and young laughter echoed in the morning, bringing rarely seen smiles on the adults' faces when they occasionally looked over.

The women in the tribe put down their weapons to take care of the elderly and the young, as well as to prepare food. The warriors in the tribe sat down and meditated at the foot of the mountain. They were all training there.

There were also a portion of the members in the tribe who went out to hunt. They had yet to return.

The entire tribe was brimming with an air of peace that came to them after the great war, and it was one that had been absent from them for a long time.

A line formed by deep pits thousands of feet away from the foot of the mountain showed how devastating the previous battle had been, and it had by then turned into a barrier.

Xu Hui opened her eyes on this morning and woke up.

When she did so, she looked around her in confusion. The last thing she remembered was a familiar figure. Right when this picture appeared in her head, she saw a figure sitting on a mountain rock outside the house. The sun was shining on him.

She could only see the person's back, but that back had already overlapped with the final scene she recalled.

"You're awake… the porridge in the Ninth Tribe is pretty good. You can eat some of it." When a familiar voice of the familiar figure reached her, Xu Hui lowered her head and looked towards the bowl of porridge that was still steaming hot.

Her face was still slightly pale. She averted her gaze from the porridge and cast her eyes on her own body. When she saw herself, her eyes focused. She saw that her robes had been changed to sackcloth, and she was wearing nothing else beneath.

Her wounds were healing, and her cultivation base was slowly beginning to reassert itself. The injuries she had suffered were too grave. They were enough for her to possibly lose her life. Even if she was currently recuperating, she would be unable to circulate her cultivation base for a short period of time. A sense of feebleness rose in Xu Hui's heart.

This sort of feeling was incredibly strange and unfamiliar to her. It was as if she had become a weak mortal.

She picked up the hot bowl of porridge, took a light sip out of it, licked her lips, then immediately began taking large gulps from it. Soon, the entire bowl was finished.

Her facial color regained a gained a slightly better hue, but the sickly paleness wasn't gone from her face. However, she felt much better than before. She slowly stood up, and her breathing quickened slightly due to that simple action.

With her hand on the stone wall beside her for support, Xu Hui walked out of the stone house and stood under the sunlight. She looked at the sky, then at the ground at the foot of the mountain, and breathed in the refreshing air.

Xu Hui lowered her head to look at Su Ming, who was by her side. She remained silent for a moment before saying softly, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Su Ming answered faintly while sitting on the mountain rock and looking at the sky in the distance.

"You were the one who changed my clothes?" Xu Hui suddenly asked.

"Mhm." Su Ming nodded.

Xu Hui fell silent once more. She did not continue standing, but sat down instead. She, too, looked into the distance. Mountain breeze blew past, lifting a strand of hair, but she caught it with her hand. However, the next moment, the breeze did not just lift up a few strands of her hair. Instead, it blew up most of it up, and she could not catch all of the hair with her hand. It was just like how her heart could not return to her usual, calm state, despite her quiet appearance at that moment.

"You have a nice figure," Su Ming said faintly with his face as calm as ever.

But when his words fell into Xu Hui's ears, she immediately looked towards him. Yet soon, she suddenly smiled elegantly. "Thank you."

Su Ming turned his head sideways to look at Xu Hui. He stared at the elegant smile on her face, and for the first time, he thought that this woman was quite interesting.

"But you have too many moles," he said calmly.

"Can't help it. My parents gave them to me, and I don't want to erase them. You'll just have to be bothered by it," she said lightly. She lowered her right hand, not bothering to continue trying to grab the hair that was lifted by the wind…

Chapter 938: Who Gave Rise to This Obsession?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

It was dusk.

Su Ming watched the sun rise in this continent within Divine Essence Star Ocean, watched the sun set, and also saw evening arrive.

He could not explain this. This was supposed to be a completely pitch-black galaxy and was a continent floating in a galaxy, so where did the sunlight come from, and why was there daylight and nighttime?

However, there was indeed a sun here. Strangely, when he stepped into the galaxy, he did not see the sun, but when he stepped onto a cultivation planet or the continent the Ninth Tribe chose, he could see it.

Su Ming had asked Dijiu Mo Sha about this before.

"That is… the light and heat spreading out of the fifth kiln. Before the fifth kiln appeared, Divine Essence Star Ocean was pitch black. The darkness lasted eternally, and the people there had grown used to it.

"When the fifth kiln arrived, it brought light to Divine Essence Star Ocean. However, while we can see it, we can never find it, unless it appears on its own before us once in a while. Some people say that the fifth kiln's true location is within the world in the void," he had answered.

Su Ming sat on the mountain rock and looked at the sun that was the fifth kiln gradually set in the distance. When he looked at it, he could tell that the sun was indeed not round. Instead, it contained the outline of a kiln.

The afterglow of dusk shone on the ground with the warmth during the day, fusing together with the freezing wind that blew towards him. When it landed on his body, he could not tell whether it was warm or cold.

Su Ming had been sitting on the mountain rock for two days. His heart was calm, a sight rarely seen ever since he came to the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. He could watch the sun rise and the sun set. Perhaps cultivators would not be used to the lifestyle of the tribes here, but to Su Ming, this place was brimming with familiar sights.

Humans always loved to reminiscence about the past when swathed in a familiar feeling that they might have coincidentally ran into. They loved immersing themselves in that feeling to turn their heads back and look at their own lives.

The sounds of children playing brought back the memories of Dark Mountain Tribe. The friendship between the members of the Ninth Tribe made Su Ming remember the ninth summit. Not for the first time, he became aware that this was the tribe his Master had once lived in for many years.

Perhaps his Master's image still remained in these people's memories.

'If eldest senior brother, second senior brother, and Hu Zi learned about Master and came here as well, it would be great…' Su Ming shook his head.

The sun set, and night fell.

The area became quiet. The children's playful laughter turned into even breathing. The elderly slept. The members of the Ninth Tribe started to either meditate or fall into deep sleep one after another, so the mountain became completely silent when night arrived.

Su Ming continued to sit on the mountain rock and look at the dark sky. He could not see the moon, and neither could he see any stars. The only thing he saw was endless darkness, as if he was the only person left in the world at that instant. It was a familiar feeling.

Since he was used to being lonely and knew that this was his grief-laden fate, then why was he still immersed in his memories and unable to free himself from them? Why did he always love to watch the black sky and have the fireworks of those beautiful moments in his memories be set off in his heart?

Since he was already used to walking down the path of his life alone, then if there was such a thing as a person having past lives, he would have definitely reincarnated plenty of times over tens of thousands of years.

Su Ming smiled in the darkness.

No one could tell that this smile was filled with anguish. Only the people who had smiled in this manner before would be able to see the heartache that seemed to have fused into the water when they looked at their own reflection in the lake, and only those who tasted that water before would know just how bitter it was.

"What's wrong..?" a gentle voice asked. It did not interrupt Su Ming's thoughts as he sat in the darkness but fused into the air quietly and surrounded him. A lovely figure dressed in a sackcloth walked out from the house and sat down by his side.

"I miss home," Su Ming replied softly.

"If that is the case, then we can leave tomorrow." Xu Hui looked at Su Ming in the darkness. She could only see the outlines of his face, but she liked watching him in this manner, because she knew that only at this moment was she looking at that person… and not Dao Kong.

She understood what was going on, but she did not want to say it.

"Do you believe in fate?" Su Ming shook his head.

After remaining silent for a moment as a few pictures flashed through her eyes, she gently said, "I do…"

"There are few cultivators who believe in fate." Su Ming looked towards Xu Hui.

"I do believe in fate, or else why would I be here?"

"When your wounds are healed, you can head to the nine old Frail Darknesses. I… still don't want to go home." An ancient air had seeped into Su Ming's voice in the darkness.

"Did you stay here to wait for my wounds to heal?" Xu Hui looked towards Su Ming.

"Sleep. I want to meditate alone here." Su Ming did not answer her, but instead told her to go and rest. There was no longer any ancient quality in his voice, and neither was there any nostalgia.

Xu Hui did not stay beside him. She stood up and walked towards the house, leaving the darkness for him alone.

"Perhaps you miss home, but you miss a person even more," Xu Hui said from the house, her voice drifting into Su Ming's ears.

He fell silent and closed his eyes, immersing himself in the darkness, and quietly meditated. He circulated his cultivation base, and in the freezing wind, he felt as if he had returned to the ninth summit, as if he had returned to the spot outside his cave abode, and was meditating there and watching the sun set and rise as he did in the past.

Cultivators did not dream.

Because dreams would only appear when a person was asleep, and deep sleep could be replaced by meditation for a cultivator. However, on that night, when Su Ming was meditating, he dreamed.

In his dream, he returned to the land of Berserkers. In his dream, he saw the ninth summit. In his dream… he also saw Dark Mountain. He saw the figures that existed in the forest, which was where his tribe was located when he was younger.

There was Xiao Hong. There was also… a beautiful girl filled with wild beauty standing alone under a big tree in the snow, dressed in a white mink fur coat. She was waiting in the snow alone.

She was waiting for a promise to be fulfilled. A promise of walking in circles with a boy.

Mountains aligned close to each other in the mountain range could be seen in the distance. The cold moon in the sky was indistinct. With the white snow on the ground and the pine tree as her companions, the girl continued standing in place and waited foolishly.

Snow, wind, and dust blew past her. Years went by. Was there ever any regrets within her?

Yet in those clouds were several galaxies and several layers of sky between them. No form of letters in the world could allow them to speak to each other any longer.

Thousands of years had gone by. No traces of anything could be found when water landed in a lake. The pine tree appeared the same every year. No one known whether beauty will eventually subside, and whether… still water will leave no traces behind when it disappears.

"You left me with a promise saying you will fulfill it tomorrow, and I have been waiting for you for a thousand years, but don't make me wait too long. Don't let this silence fade away."

Su Ming opened his eyes, the soft murmurs from the dream still echoing in his ears. He suddenly came to an understanding. Perhaps he was truly not thinking about his home or that one person, but was thinking… about that promise he'd made one thousand years ago.

'If this an obsession of mine, or is this an obsession someone placed in me?' Su Ming watched the sky gradually brighten in the distance and the night be washed away by the streams of time.

'Or else why would I always remember that promise instead of Bai Ling? Why… would I dream while meditating?!' Su Ming's eyes swiftly grew sharp from their previous dazed state. There was a piercing cold look within them, as if an ancient, ferocious beast had woken up from deep sleep and was exuding the presence that allowed no form of transgression against it.

A domineering air spread out from Su Ming's body. With the first rays of sunlight shining on him, he stood up to move to the bottom of the mountain rock. His body was enveloped by sunlight at that moment, and with a turn, Su Ming trained his gaze towards the sky, from where the sun was shining.

The purple line at the center of his brows opened up and turned into the Malicious Eye. The clouds and fog in it turned into ghosts that looked ferociously towards the sky in the direction of Su Ming's gaze.

At this moment, another Su Ming appeared in the sky, but in a way that no one else would notice it. This was his clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole after he had separated it from his body. The Malicious Eye had also appeared at the center of his brows, and he looked at the sky in the same direction as Su Ming's cultivation base clone.

In Western Ring Nebula's foreign lands was Su Ming's Ecang clone, and he was sitting and meditating in the purple galaxy. Wrapped around his arm was the small Candle Dragon. Soon after both of Su Ming's clones looked towards the sky, his Ecang clone's eyes flew open, and the true Malicious Eye also opened at the center of his brows!

Once this happened, Su Ming's Ecang clone turned his head around and fixed his stare at the spot Su Ming was gazing upon.

This was all three of Su Ming's great bodies as he walked down the path of cultivation executing the power of the Malicious Eye at the same time. They let out all of their power at to look towards the boundless space.

Their gazes penetrated through space, as if they were moving through the passages of time. They moved past the area which the four Great True Worlds fended, moved past the entrance to the Barren Lands of Divine Essence, and looked towards True Morning Dao World!

They saw the land that belonged to the Immortals in the gigantic galaxy there. At that moment, a war was raging in that place. It was… a war between Immortals and those from Morning Dao Sect. There were countless cultivators casting endless divine abilities.

Behind the boundless battlefield was a Rune formed by a tremendous amount of fragmented continents. At the center of it was a body made of flesh and blood that was just lying there.

There was a figure dressed entirely in a black robe standing beside that body. That person had his slightly withered right hand lifted and pressed against the top of the lying man's skull. Beside the first figure was another person who was also dressed in a black robe, but based on its shape, it could be seen that this was a woman. She was mumbling softly beside the body, her voice echoing in the area.

"… but don't make me wait too long. Don't let this silence fade away."

The woman's voice was gentle. There was a hint of nostalgia and a hint of grief within her words. At the instant she finished speaking, the tall person in black who had his right hand pressed on the top of the body's skull raised his head swiftly to look towards space.

With a bang, a powerful impact spread out of nowhere. The wind stirred up by the impact did not lift the tall person's robes, but threw off the hood of the woman beside him, revealing a face before Su Ming's eyes.

It was… Bai Ling's face!

Her expression and the grief in her voice were not matched at all. There was only an aloof look on her face, a calm expression that contained no shred of emotion.

Chapter 939: A Sigh That Came Hundreds of Thousands of Years Late

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Su Ming's Ecang clone closed his eyes.

The clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole, too, closed his eyes along with Su Ming's cultivation base clone.

If his soul had eyes, then at that moment he witnessed the aloof expression on Bai Ling's face, they would have closed as well.

That was Bai Ling, not Bai Su. There was no way Su Ming would mistake it.

Cultivators originally did not dream, but Su Ming dreamed. When he woke up, he was in a daze, and he questioned just who was the other's obsession…

Perhaps she was his obsession, but perhaps he had always been her obsession.

He woke up from his dream, but he did not wake up. In a shattered space there was a ballad that sang about time. In the ocean of memories was a lone ship that slowly sailed to the sea in the sky.

'Who is she?' This question did not appear for long in Su Ming's heart before he obtained his answer. When he was still in the land of Berserkers, the three powerful warriors in Lunar Kalpa Realm sealed in Su Ming's soul had provided him with a picture. Within it, he'd seen a woman. She was Bai Ling, Bai Su, and also… the Sacred Lady of True Morning Dao World's Phoenix Sect.

She was also Xu Hui's senior sister.

'So this is the answer…But I am no longer the same person I was back then. The passing of one thousand years has allowed me to understand many things.' Su Ming shook his head. With a calm heart, he realized that his heart did not clench in pain, and he did not experience that feeling of being at a loss as if his heart had been devoured by the void.

It was as if he had been prepared for this answer for a long time. Even if he saw the truth at that moment, he was already used to loneliness, as if the more experience he accumulated, the less things in the world could make his heart feel as if it would be torn apart. By then, there was nothing that could break his heart.

Even if it was the girl filled with wild beauty he met in Dark Mountain during his early days planting an obsession in his heart. This obsession had been deeply rooted in Su Ming's heart for a thousand years, and when he met Bai Su in the ninth summit, it had grown deeper…

It was as if there was always a weak force that would lead him once in a while to remember and think about that white head, as well as make him recall that promise made in the snow.

'Bai Ling in her youth, Bai Su in her adult years… and also Phoenix Sect's Sacred Lady when she has become an ancient presence. What a powerful obsession. With each step, she connected more incarnations together and weaved a net that has lasted for a thousand years.

'I wonder just what it is about me that makes Di Tian and even the Sacred Lady from Phoenix Sect be so obsessed with me.'

Su Ming smiled.

If it was not for the Malicious Eye's presence, perhaps he would have continued lying to himself and refusing to think about the net of lies weaved to last for a thousand years. He had wanted to keep that beautiful and joyous moment in his heart and did not want to have it all be turned into a brutal reality.

He did not want to. He just did not want to…

But he woke up from his dream, just as if he had walked out of a material world.

When people are in materialistic worlds, they remember and yearn for each other, they do not forget each other. They think about each other, learn about each other… but never meet each other.

Once they walk out of that materialistic world, they do not remember, do not think, and do not learn about each other. They forget each other and only meet when they had become strangers.

If that was the case, then it was better to place no importance on separations and reunions. It was better to just smile and face the end that no words could describe, to wake up with a smile, to have less of an obsession and more of a sense of freedom.

If there was a promise, he would fulfill it one day, but he would just fulfill it to complete his life. He would not do so for another person.

Su Ming stood on the mountain with the sunlight on his face. His long hair rose and fell in the mountain breeze. However, that wind only managed to lift his hair and the corners of his robes. It could not move his heart.

It was as if the rising and falling strands of hair were Su Ming's memories. They were gradually scattered away by the wind, and the ones that could not be blown aware were the dust that had been frozen in the sky.

Hence, his heart would also start freezing over, and those layers of ice would envelop him.

He would no longer long for anything good or happy. His expressions would become as cold as frost as his heart became frozen. Only at the bottom of his frozen heart, which no one could see, in an area where no sunlight would shine, he would find that it was not made of ice. It was wet, and as wind would blow past, drops of blood would fall, dyeing all the fallen leaves in the mountain red.

His love was over.

That first love of his, acquired when he was still ignorant of everything, was like a bud that did not come to blossom. In the end, even if it was a choice that came a thousand years late, it still chose to wither.

Su Ming smiled. There was no anguish in that smile, only a faint sigh that held a hint of an ancient air. No words were spoken.

He suddenly came to a realization. He had thought that the sigh he heard in the wind and snow in the past had come from none other than himself, but that wasn't fully correct. The sigh had indeed come from himself, but it had not come from him at that time. Instead… it had come from him at this very moment.

"So… even the sigh arrived hundreds of thousands of years late." As Su Ming smiled, he gradually began laughing until he was roaring. His laughter echoed between the sky and earth, filling the morning with peals of his laughter.

This laughter stunned the members of the Ninth Tribe, and they looked towards him. It also attracted Xu Hui's attention, and she cast him a sideways glance from the house.

"Fifth, do you have wine?!" Su Ming's voice traveled outwards with his laughter and landed in Dijiu Mo Sha's ears at the foot of the mountain. He was first taken aback, because this was the first time Su Ming had called him 'fifth'.

There was no way Su Ming would not understand the meaning behind that word. Dijiu Mo Sha shuddered, and excitement appeared on his face. He had been waiting for this day for far too long.

"Yes!" he shouted out loudly, and with a single move, he rushed up the mountain. Then, he turned into a long arc to instantly appear beside Su Ming. With a swing of his right hand, several pots of wine appeared beside them.

Su Ming picked up a pot, patted off the soil crust, and without even using a bowl to drink, he placed the pot to his lips and took a big gulp.

This wine was brewed by those in Divine Essence Star Ocean, and it was quite different from the ones drunk by the cultivators. The spiciness in it was like a hot wave that erupted swiftly in his body before it rushed straight to his brain.

However, it would not knock out a person, but would just affect their mind.

Dijiu Mo Sha also picked up a pot of wine and drank with Su Ming.

"If only life was as beautiful as it seems at first sight…" Su Ming put down the pot of wine and leaned against the mountain rock. His long hair spilled over his shoulders, and there was an expression of indulgence on his face. Once he said these words with a smile, he took another big swig from the pot.

"Fourth senior brother, what does that mean?" Dijiu Mo Sha was momentarily stunned. He mulled over these words carefully in his heart, and the more he thought about them, the more he believed that there was something ancient to those words. They were heavy, so heavy that they brought a sense a depression with them.

"You won't understand it." The one who answered was not Su Ming, but Xu Hui, who walked out of the house with a pale face that gave an air of weakness. Her footsteps were light, though, and sunlight shone on her face, emphasizing her beauty that was like that of rainbow.

In that beauty was purity, age, and a form of gentleness.

"'If only life was as beautiful as it seems at first sight.' I've heard plenty of people say these words before, but no one had the tone as profound as I heard just now." Xu Hui looked towards Su Ming and saw him drinking under the sunlight. Wine spilled out of the corners of his mouth, causing people to be unable to tell whether he was drinking wine, or whether he was treating that wine as anguish.

"When you've gone through the vicissitudes of life, experienced the changes in a person's heart, lived through everything that you do not wish to face in your life, then you will sigh in when you are old and have walked through the path of your life.

"If all people and all things could return to their earliest moments when we first met them, then how good would that be? Because the beautiful moments in your earliest days will be memories that you can no longer live through again once you have been baptized by time.

"If only life was as beautiful as it seems at first sight…" Xu Hui mumbled and shook her head.

"You still have plenty of things you need to do in the tribe. you should go and do those things. I'll stay and accompany… your fourth senior brother." Xu Hui moved beside Su Ming and sat down. Dressed in a sackcloth, she took the empty pot of wine from Su Ming's hand, then brought out another pot. She wiped off the soil crust on it, then placed the pot in Su Ming's hand.

Dijiu Mo Sha fell silent. Once he wrapped his fist in his palm and bowed to Su Ming, he turned around quietly and left. When he did that, there was a look of recollection on his face. In his head were Su Ming's words.

"If you want to drink, then I'll drink with you." Xu Hui picked up a pot of wine as well. With a gaze that could make a person calm down, she met Su Ming eyes when he turned his head towards her.

"I've already drunk one pot." Su Ming stared at Xu Hui with an unruly look in his eyes.

Xu Hui smiled. Her smile was incredibly elegant, and there was a resplendent air to it. She looked at Su Ming and lifted the pot of wine with her hand. Once she took a gulp from it, she quickly lowered the pot and furrowed her dainty brows. Clearly, the spiciness of the wine was beyond her expectations. A red flush appeared on her pale face, and she only recovered after some time. However, when she picked it up again, she drained the entire pot in one go.

Once she finished drinking, she placed the pot of wine by the side and lifted her head to look at Su Ming. There was a slight, watery look in her eyes.

"I caught up."

Su Ming stared at Xu Hui for a moment and lifted up the pot of wine to his mouth. Xu Hui sucked in a deep breath by the side, then picked up a pot of wine filled with wine again, as if she wanted to compete with him. Once she picked it up, she started taking large gulps.

She drank at an incredibly fast pace, and before long, she had already finished the entire pot. There was a smug look on her face, and when she looked at Su Ming, her expression immediately froze on her face. There was even hostility and slight anger in her eyes.

Su Ming lowered the pot of wine. He had only drunk a small half of it.

"We're done for the day. Let's drink on another day," he said faintly.

"No! I've already drunk two pots!" Xu Hui stood up in anger.

Su Ming cast a look at Xu Hui and retorted calmly, "I didn't ask you to drink it."

"You're not drinking, huh?" Xu Hui glared at Su Ming and nodded before she picked up another pot, and right in front of him, she finished another pot with loud, noisy gulps.

"… I don't drink with people with a lot of moles."

Su Ming's eyelid twitched. He turned his head around and put down the pot of wine. The wine was too spicy, and when Xu Hui arrived, for some reason, her presence calmed his heart, and he no longer felt tipsy.

"Su Ming!"

Anger raged in Xu Hui's eyes. With a single move, she picked up an empty pot and hurled it against the floor. The pot shattered with a loud crash. At that moment, she could not circulate her cultivation base, and as a woman, drinking three pots of wine from a tribe in Divine Essence Star Ocean had resulted in her… getting drunk.

"What did you say?" Su Ming looked towards Xu Hui.

"I might have been unconscious, but I could still hear. I, Xu Hui, do not care whether you are Su Ming or Dao Kong. What I care is that you asked to drink wine, but you can't outdrink me! Now, drink!" A hint of scorn appeared on Xu Hui's face. She picked up a pot of wine and shoved it in Su Ming's face.

"You're drunk…" Su Ming rubbed the center of his brows.

"Are you going to drink or not?!" Xu Hui glared at him. Her body swayed, and a misty look appeared in her eyes. Yet she continued holding herself straight so that she would not fall.

"Let's drink on another date." Su Ming sighed.

"I drank THREE POTS!" Xu Hui shouted loudly.

Chapter 940: Change in True Morning Dao World

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Su Ming had never seen a woman with such a personality before.

She was usually elegant with a hint of aloofness in her, as if she was a noble, solitary presence. Once she learned that Su Ming had changed her clothes, her expression had only changed momentarily before she quickly regained her composure. The lack of concern about the matter from her had made even Su Ming think about it carefully for a moment before he could tell whether it was genuine.

This was still nothing, though. Once she drank, the change of personality in her was so great that it stunned him.

Xu Hui's voice was incredibly loud. Her words echoed in the area, and when most of the members of Ninth Tribe heard it, they raised their heads and looked over. Dijiu Mo Sha sucked in a breath and felt fortunate that he had left beforehand. He did not expect that this woman would become so unreasonable once she started drinking.

"Fellow Daoist Xu, good job!" a woman's voice said from Ninth Tribe. There was a merry lilt to it, and once it was heard by many, other voices immediately started echoing in the air as well.

"Fellow Daoist Xu, you're a warrior among women to be able to drink three pots of our tribe's wine!"

"Savior, your wife has already drunk three pots, how can you not drink?!"

"That's right, drink it! Drink three pots!"

"Three pots won't do! She drank three pots and she's a woman. Savior, you'll have to drink nine pots!"

"That's right, savior! We can't lose to women! Drink nine pots for her! Savior, drink it!"

Most of the members of Ninth Tribe had learned from Dijiu Mo Sha that Xu Hui was a cultivator from beyond Divine Essence Star Ocean. Su Ming did not bother hiding it, since there was no need for him to lie about it.

The gratitude Ninth Tribe felt towards him could be seen from the respect they had showed him during the past few days. They had also showed great concern for Xu Hui. Based on Dijiu Mo Sha's words, they had also deduced that Xu Hui and their savior were a couple; otherwise, why would they stay together?

Su Ming laughed wryly.

A smug look appeared on Xu Hui's face, and she placed a pot of wine in Su Ming's bosom. Once she did so, she turned around and wrapped her fist in her palm towards the members of Ninth Tribe at the foot of the mountain. She was beautiful to begin with, and once she became drunk, her act of wrapping her fist in her palm gained a heroic air. It was a bearing that could not be seen on her on normal occasions.

"Thank you, my friends from Ninth Tribe. I've drunk a little too much today, but I can still continue drinking. Still, I am unhappy, because even though I've already drunk three pots as a woman, your savior has stopped drinking after only half a pot," she said loudly.

"It's one and a half…" Su Ming was just about to explain himself when his voice was drowned out merry cheers from Ninth Tribe.

Su Ming shook his head. As he watched Xu Hui's heroic bearing as well as the smug look on her face, a smile gradually appeared on his face. The sadness that had previously lingered in his heart disappeared without his knowledge, and the wound left in him due to seeing Bai Ling with his Malicious Eye slowly closed up.

"If only life is as beautiful as it seems at first sight…"

With a faint smile, Su Ming stood up and moved to stand at the foot of the mountain rock. Amid the merry cheers from the members of Ninth Tribe, he picked up the pot of wine, placed it beside his mouth, and started drinking.

The sounds of him gulping down wine echoed in the air. Soon, when he emptied an entire pot of wine, he wiped the corners of his lips with his sleeve, then raised his head and let out a long roar towards the sky.

His roar echoed in all directions. At that moment, in the morning sun, Su Ming seemed like a great dragon looking down at the world from the mountain while roaring at the sky.

When Xu Hui saw his figure, she started laughing as well. Her laughter echoed along with that of the other members of the Ninth Tribe.

"Another!" Su Ming shouted loudly.

Someone from the Ninth Tribe swiftly brought out more pots of wine and placed them around Su Ming, who picked up one of them, patted off the soil crust, and placed the mouth of the pot to his lips.

The wine was spicy and seemed to have turned into a ball of raging fire in his stomach. Some of the wine trickled down the corners of Su Ming's lips and drenched his hair, giving him a domineering air.

"Another!" Su Ming put down the pot of wine and picked up another.

The fourth, the fifth, the sixth… and once Su Ming downed nine pots, his body swayed. As he laughed with his head thrown back, he fell to the ground with a thump.

He was drunk.

Xu Hui was also drunk, and her eyes gradually fell shut.

Su Ming could become drunk without worry, because he had the Duke of Crimson Flame's totem on his arm. Besides, while his cultivation base clone was drunk, he still had his clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole in him as well as his Ecang clone protecting everything and the Malicious Eye keeping an eye on the area.

Which was why he could become drunk, and he needed to be drunk. If anything dangerous happened in the meantime, he could have his clone hold the threat back until he bought enough time.

Dijiu Mo Sha watched Su Ming and Xu Hui fall to the ground and shook his head with a smile. He personally carried Su Ming, then arranged another woman from the tribe to carry Xu Hui and sent the both of them into the house before placing them… on a bed.

Time trickled by. Su Ming and Xu Hui slept deeply in the house on the mountain that belonged to the Ninth Tribe. During that time, Su Ming felt that he had another dream.

In his dream, he felt that he saw his physical body, Di Tian, and also Bai Ling, whose hood was lifted, revealing her face.

He also saw the battle between the Immortals and those from Morning Dao Sect in True Morning Dao World. During it, he heard shrill roars as well as the booms from the execution of divine abilities, but those sounds seemed to be very far away from him.

Gradually, those pictures faded away. However, there was a woman who seemed to be in his bosom. She was very warm and delicate, and subconsciously, he wrapped his arms around her.

He forgot everything after that.

When the morning sun of the next day shone in the house, Su Ming opened his eyes.

He was first stunned, then when he moved his head to the side to look over, he found that he was the only person on the bed, but he did see a long strand of hair by his side. It did not belong to him. It was Xu Hui's.

Su Ming rubbed the center of his brows. Once he circulated his cultivation base, his mind instantly gained full wakefulness. He saw Xu Hui with her back turned towards him, and she was sitting on the mountain rock where he had previously sat outside the house while looking into the distance.

He could not see her face. The only thing he could see was the refreshing breeze lifting up her hair, making it dance and curve, drawing beautiful arcs in the air, just like the graceful lines of Xu Hui's back.

All of this was an incredibly beautiful sight under the sun.

Su Ming got up and walked out of the house. The tranquility during the past few days was a period of serenity that was rare in his life. There were no dangers, no killings, no deaths, no shrill screams of pain. All of this made Su Ming feel as if he had found the life he wanted to live the most.

In fact, a desire to live in this peace and quiet permanently rose in the depths of his heart. However, this desire could not stay in the wind. It did not matter whether that desire was willing or unwilling, the mountain breeze that blew towards it took it away without stopping for even a single moment.

This was something he had no control over. There were still plenty of things he had to do, plenty of regrets he still had not resolved, plenty of people, plenty of things… that Su Ming worried over, preventing him from finding a place in which he could… live in permanent peace.

"May I see your true face?" Xu Hui did not turn her head. She had her back facing Su Ming when she said those words softly.

Su Ming remained silent for a moment. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his face had changed. His clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole had replaced his cultivation base clone, allowing him to transform into a face that was completely different from Dao Kong's. It was… Su Ming's face.

Xu Hui seemed to have noticed it. She turned her head around slowly and looked at him in a daze. Then, a faint smile appeared on the corners of her lips. The=at smile was incredibly beautiful in the refreshing breeze.

"I know you. You are Su Ming and also Mo Su. One thousand years ago, you were a wanted criminal by the forces of power from the four Great True Worlds. When you appeared again, you caused a huge ruckus in the area where True Sacred Yin World was stationed and caused a Progenitor who is a Master of Fate, Lives, and Death to personally go after your life.

"But in the end… even he did not manage to kill you. Instead, he canceled the bounty over your head and tacitly acknowledged your existence.

"Su Ming, your name rings far and wide in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence, and you are the person who gathered the most attention over the past thousand years. You are also the one person who Dao Kong wanted to bring to his side more than Ye Wang.

"I didn't expect…" Xu Hui shook her head and smiled.

"I didn't expect that you would have such influence in Black Ink Planet and turn something that is decaying into something amazing. You flipped the universe over its head and Possessed Dao Kong… the main organizer behind-the-scenes for Black Ink Auction was you, am I right?!

"You are the master of Black Ink Planet. You control everything within Black Ink Planet, along with the auction, so you had them put that Sacred Constellation Robe on auction to lure Dao Kong into your trap!

"I'm curious. How is it that not only the nine old Frail Darknesses didn't notice that you Possesssed Dao Kong, but there wasn't even a single change in behavior among the fearless warriors Dao Kong controls with his soul?

"In fact, nothing changed within the soul link formed by Morning Dao's Progenitor between Dao Kong and me. If it was not because there are simply too many things that are different between you and Dao Kong, and if it was not because of us having this chance to be alone, I would have only been able to suspect but not obtain even a single proof to serve as evidence that you are not Dao Kong," she said while looking at him.

"I still remember that there is a seal on Dao Kong that prevents the direct descendants of the Dao Family in Morning Dao Sect from being Possessed. This mark would attract the attention of the powerful warriors in Morning Dao Sect, since they want to be sure that none of their family gets Possessed.

"But you… How did you avoid being detected? In fact, that seal… is still in you. How… did you do it?" There was disbelief on Xu Hui's face. This was a question that she could not find an answer for in the depths of her heart.

"You will not want to know," Su Ming said flatly as he sat down on the mountain rock.

"Are you afraid that I will expose you after I learn of it?" Xu Hui suddenly asked.

"It doesn't matter to me." Su Ming smiled faintly.

Xu Hui fell silent. She knew that Su Ming truly did not care about it, because it did not matter whether it was his blood or his soul, everything about him showed that he was indeed Dao Kong. In this situation, no matter what she said, she would not be able to bring about an effect, and there were no benefits for her in this either.

Su Ming remained silent for a moment before he asked calmly, "What happened yesterday night?"

"You won't want to know!" Xu Hui glared at Su Ming and turned her head around.

Su Ming frowned before his expression suddenly changed. He lowered his head swiftly. The sackcloth on his body changed instantly and returned to the appearance of the Sacred Constellation Robe. Once it did so, a great ripple of power spread out.

Xu Hui turned around swiftly. There was surprise on her face, along with a solemn expression.

"This is the interworld voice transmission for the direct descendants of the Dao Family in Morning Dao Sect!"

Right when Xu Hui finished saying this, a loud bang immediately came from Su Ming's body, and a powerful ray of light that surged into the sky erupted from him. This powerful light spread out from his Sacred Constellation Robe. As it did so, an ancient voice began speaking.

"Dao Kong… the Immortals have revolted and broken ties with Morning Dao Sect… Make haste and hurry back from the Barren Lands of Divine Essence!"