1195 - 1201
Chapter 1195: Transformation of the Soul
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"If I could have more time, then I could…" The old man shook his head.
He watched the will sweep past the world in front of him. The sky shattered, the ground was reduced to nothingness, revealing that the galaxy beyond the sky had also crumbled. The old man lifted his right hand and struck the young man behind him. The young man immediately fell backwards and was sucked into a huge vortex that appeared out of nowhere.
"MASTER!" The young man's cries were filled with pain and endless sorrow.
"Go. Use the method I left behind. All of you have three-tenths of a chance to escape from the disaster." The vortex behind the old man disappeared. A brilliant light shone in his eyes, and he took a step forward to walk towards the incoming will.
Boom!
The scene ended. There was a sharp stab of pain in Su Ming's head, but at the same time, his cultivation base moved from the initial stage of Life Realm to the middle stage of Life Realm. Soon after, golden light spread out from him. It moved away from his skin and left his cultivation base.
The continuation of his spirit ascension after his Berserker Body reached perfection was the raise in power of his cultivation base. At that moment, this came to an end as well.
Su Ming's body was drenched in sweat. The inheritance should not be painful, but Su Ming had made his cultivation base move in reverse, which was why he was in great pain, but all of this was worth it. Not only had he forcibly made his cultivation base reach the middle stage of Life Realm, he had also seen the disaster!
Su Ming did not know what the will in the disaster was, but its strength caused a boundless sense of danger rise swiftly in Su Ming's heart as it trembled.
He did not dare to think about whether the will in the disaster… would one day descend again and sweep through Arid Triad to kill all lives. At that moment though, Su Ming remembered the secret of the universe he had seen when he was in Heavenly Incense Rune!
It was death. It was destruction. It was the entire Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos reduced to emptiness, filled only with death.
He also understood that the Ancestral Spirit with which he had fused… was the young man named Zhan Bai. The so-called Ancestral Spirits were in truth just cultivators, but they came from a time much earlier than theirs. That era had been destroyed by a disaster. Those remaining built a new era, and they became… the Ancestral Spirits!
They were powerful, but they were just seeds sent out for the sake of passing down their legacy. The true powerful warriors of that era had long since died. Despite reaching an indescribable Realm, they still died in that disaster. Then, the power of that disaster…
Su Ming did not dare think about it. In silence, he welcomed the final stage of the spirit ascension, which was also the critical part of making a Successor Spirit become an Antecedental Spirit—transformation of the soul!
The first one was the transformation of the physical body, then came the transformation of the cultivation base, and the last… was the transformation of the soul!
With the transformation of the soul, one would open up the gates between the categories of life to break free from being a Successor Spirit and become an Antecedental Spirit!
More rays of golden light swiftly descended from the All Spirits Hall. It enveloped Su Ming and rushed into his body. They then swiftly fused with him and merged with his soul.
This made it so that Su Ming could no longer be seen clearly; he became indistinct. The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe in the distance might have remained outwardly calm, but he was paying close attention to the proceedings. He knew that Su Ming had already succeeded in half of his spirit ascension, but if any accidents occurred during the transformation of the soul, everything may still end in failure.
When the golden light fused with Su Ming's body when he reached the stage of the transformation of the soul, the old man enveloped the area with his divine sense. He refused to have anything from the outside world interfere with the process now. He would attack at full force against any power that came to interfere with Su Ming's transformation of the soul.
'You must succeed. You've already gone through half of it. The transformation of the soul during the spirit ascension might be the most difficult to get through and there have been plenty of people who failed during the transformation of the soul, but since you could obtain such a great power even though you are a member of the later generation, you must have gone through many hardships in your life. You must have a will that is inconceivable to a normal person!
'And you are also a seed of Great Berserker Tribe. You are Great Berserker Tribe's hope. Your will must have gone through countless trials. You… will definitely succeed!'
The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe stared at Su Ming with expectation in his eyes. His gaze, though, soon went to search through the area and the sky with killing intent.
'If he fails, it will be the end. But if he succeeds, the Arid Beasts will appear. I can kill them in his place… but if the Arid Disaster comes… The Arid Disaster should not appear. After all, this is the first time this child has his spirit ascend. He should… not attract the Arid Disaster's attention. It should not… Even for me, the Arid Disaster only appeared during the seventh time I went through the spirit ascension…' The old man's expression was grim as he thought through everything.
While the old man was being nervous, the endless golden light turned into glowing spots that fused into Su Ming's soul. He sensed it swelling up and getting stronger at a frightening pace.
It was a comfortable feeling, as if he was being nourished. His soul was continuously getting stronger, as if his life was filled with vitality and getting stronger. In fact, some of the realizations he had while he was practicing his cultivation in the past were magnified endlessly at that instant, causing Su Ming to gain quite a lot of epiphanies.
However, when he reached the middle stage, the strengthening of his soul was no longer comfortable. It brought with it a terrifying feeling. His soul was continuously expanding, and it soon started to pain Su Ming. This sensation was followed by fear. If his soul continued expanding like this, he would definitely explode!
The destruction of his soul would be equivalent to his body and spirit being destroyed. This made Su Ming feel incredibly pressured, but his soul did not stop expanding. It was gradually growing larger, and the pressure grew to an indescribable level as the intense pain slowly became stronger.
Then, right after he the pain increased a lot more, his soul… split up with a bang.
Su Ming's soul did not fall apart, but split up. With intense pain, it did so to divide the power of the golden light, but immediately after, the two souls swelled up again before they split up once more.
During the first split, Su Ming's soul turned into two. During the second split, his soul turned into four, then it split the third time, then the fourth, and the fifth.
It went from four to eight, then to sixteen, and then to thirty-two parts!
The intense pain from the splitting of his soul was no longer anything to Su Ming because what he could not stand even more was the splitting of his mind. It was also splitting up along with his soul. It was divided into thirty-two portions, and it was as if each of them was one individual Su Ming.
This meant thirty-two Su Mings. If any other race experienced this sort of transformation of the soul, they would definitely find it hard to endure for a period of time. Fortunately, Su Ming was an Abyss Builder. One of his inborn abilities was Possession, which was why he could somewhat handle having his mind split into thirty-two parts and locate his origin soul among them.
'He split five times… that should be the end. Five splits, thirty-two souls… This child is from Great Abyss Tribe, so he should have no problems. He won't lose his origin soul, and neither will he have his mind wiped out when the thirty-two souls fuse and devour each other.
'Great Berserker Tribe, as I watch all of you now, I have to say, I am impressed by your choice. The act of choosing someone from Great Abyss Tribe is an incredibly bold choice.' The old man relaxed slightly in his heart, but the next moment, his eyes focused swiftly, and a grave look appeared in his eyes.
'He's… splitting for the sixth time?! Damn it, how could this be? Based on my experiences and memories, when our people go through the transformation of the soul during spirit ascension, only a few handful experience six splittings of the soul. Could this be related to Great Abyss Tribe? Six times… this child should still be able to somewhat bear through it. Let's hope he… This… This is!'
The old man opened his mouth and sucked in a sharp breath. Great shock and disbelief appeared on his face.
'Seven times!'
He personally saw the seventh split at that moment while Su Ming was enveloped by the golden light! This was something which had never happened before as far as he could remember. Even during his era, no one ever experienced seven splittings of their souls during the transformation of the soul in their spirit ascension, no matter to what race they belonged!
'Seven splits… How could this be?! Damn it, this child… That wisp of the foreigner's presence in the child's soul must be the reason!'
The old man had a gloomy expression which soon turned into anguish. He knew that the possibility of Su Ming succeeding in his spirit ascension had become exceedingly low.
"Whether or not you succeed will depend entirely on your luck now. Hah…" The old man sighed quietly.
At that moment, Su Ming was enduring inconceivable pain that came from his soul being split into 128 parts. His mind, too, had split into 128 parts. All of them were him, and it was precisely because of this that it was easy for a person to lose themselves in such a situation. They would forget which among all the many parts had belonged to them since the start.
And this was the first crucial part of the transformation of the soul. It was also known as losing one's way.
If Su Ming could not find his first soul and got lost among the one hundred something souls and minds, then what awaited him would be a terrifying destruction. He would forever be lost among his souls and could no longer regain his sense of self. Even if he succeeded in the end, the person who opened his eyes might be Su Ming, but he also might no longer be Su Ming.
At that moment, Su Ming was like a lone ship in a raging sea. He instinctively did not want the scattering of his mind to disrupt his heart. He wanted to keep on locking down on his first soul, but while he was trying to do so with great difficulty, his mind roared, and as the golden light continued fusing into him, his 128 souls… experienced the eighth split.
256 souls filled Su Ming's mind, causing his lock on his soul to tremble. It looked like he was already slightly uncertain as to which of the souls was his origin soul!
At that moment, Su Ming did not know that in a place so far away from where he was that it was already beyond Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos was Dark Dawn's camp. Within the ninth World among the 180 Expanse Cosmoses was a black galaxy, and in it was an altar encased in ice.
A middle-aged woman with long hair was sitting on it. There was a sacred, dark will about her. Her eyes had been closed before, but at that moment, she suddenly opened them.
Chapter 1196: Sacred Lady
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When the middle-aged woman opened her eyes, she revealed a dash of blue in her pupils. Her face gradually changed during that instant as if she was forcefully removing time from her body. She no longer looked as a middle-aged woman, but like a young woman.
She had a calm expression. As if she did not feel the ice on the altar, she lifted her head and looked into the distance. The direction of her gaze was the entrance to the ninth Expanse Cosmos of Dark Dawn. Further down was where Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos was located.
In silence, she slowly lifted a pale hand to reveal a blue crystal on her palm. At that moment, there was a faint blue light shining on it. That light was incredibly beautiful. If anyone stared at it for a prolonged period of time, they would feel as if their hearts and souls had been sucked in, and they could not get out.
"This is the first time big sister's Sacred Soul Crystal… shone with such a light in over tens of thousands of years…" the woman mumbled softly. Her voice was incredibly cold.
"The light is pointing towards Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos, and the only thing that could make big sister's soul crystal have this sort of reaction in Arid Triad is the child she gave birth to. She could not forget it till she passed away."
The woman fell silent then. After a long while, a contemplative expression appeared on her aloof face. She swung her left arm at the layer of ice in front of her, and cracking sounds instantly echoed in the air. In just the span of a few breaths, the ice shattered and fell around her.
The next moment, ninety-eight shining planets appeared in the pitch-black galaxy. They seemed to be very far away from where the woman was, but it was precisely because they were far away that it could be seen that they formed a picture.
If there was a line connecting all the planets, they would form the image of a phoenix.
Right then, various figures walked out of thin air around the woman. There were many of them already, but more and more of them appeared, and after a moment, more than tens of thousands of them were in the area.
Their faces could not be seen clearly. It was as if they had fused with space itself, but the aura spreading out from their bodies made it feel as if they could freeze the galaxy in this Expanse Cosmos.
Once these people appeared, they bowed and worshiped the woman.
"Congratulations for your egression, Sacred Lady!"
The woman quietly stared at the tens of thousands of people around her and asked flatly, "What happened in Dark Dawn during the years I was in isolation?"
Swiftly one person stepped forward to share everything that had happened during the past years, including the gap in Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos as well as the great war happening between Dark Dawn and Saint Defier over it.
After some time, the woman closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she took a step forward.
"Do not tell the outside world about my egression. Su Er, take my place and pretend that I am still in isolation. I will be going… to Arid Triad," the woman said flatly.
A woman from the crowd behind her immediately voiced her obedience. Her body gradually changed, and soon, she took the appearance of her Sacred Lady. She then went to the altar and sat down there. A layer of ice slowly appeared and sealed the place again.
…..
In the world within the All Spirits Hall, Su Ming was bathed in golden light. His figure could not be seen clearly. In the distance, the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe had a gloomy expression on his face, and a look of pity appeared in his eyes.
At that moment, while Su Ming appeared the same, the 256 souls and 256 wills in his mind had already made it hard for him to accurately find where his first soul was.
This was what it meant to lose oneself. Even though Su Ming had not completely lost his way, if he stayed in this condition for a prolonged period of time or if any other changes occurred, he would definitely lose his origin soul.
At the instant it became difficult for Su Ming to lock down on his origin soul, his 256 souls suddenly jolted at the same time. The great power contained in the golden light filled all 256 souls, and they became much stronger than Su Ming's soul just moments ago.
At that moment, a bang rumbled loudly in his mind. The ninth split descended upon him.
256 souls shuddered and split up again to turn into 512 souls. Su Ming's mind also split up during that instant to turn into 512 parts from the previous 256.
This caused Su Ming, who already had a hard time locking down on his origin soul, to be completely unable to find his origin soul at that instant. He was lost. All of the souls he saw looked like his original soul, but all of them seemed to not be it as well.
When the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe saw this from the outside world, he let out a long sigh. He understood that Su Ming had already failed his spirit ascension. It was not that there was never anyone who had a comeback while they were lost and eventually succeeded, but most of them only had their souls split three or four times, which was why they would have hope in finding their origin souls while they were lost, but Su Ming's soul had split nine times. The level of difficulty was so high that it was practically impossible.
'His failure has nothing to do with him, but it's due to the presence of the foreign race in his soul. Oh well.'
The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe shook his head with the look of pity and regret. He could already imagine how when the 512 souls became stronger due to the power contained in the golden light, they would start merging and devouring each other.
Only when a person was in control of their origin soul could they guide the fusion during that moment. When all of them become one whole entity… then a soul of an Ancestral Spirit who had fused with all the other souls would appear!
It was also during this moment that the physical body, cultivation base, and soul would go through a metamorphosis at the same time. Only with the soul of the Ancestral Spirit as the seed, the Berserker Body in Death Realm as the roots, and the cultivation base as the leaves could Su Ming truly take the step to change from a Successor Spirit to an Antecedental Spirit.
'It's a pity… but it doesn't necessarily mean that he failed either. It just means that his mind has been wiped out and replaced by another newly born mind. If that's the case, from a certain point of view, he is still himself, and there's still a possibility of me making a deal with him.'
A glint appeared in the old man's eyes before he sighed quietly. This was something no one could help Su Ming with. Even the old man could do nothing about it. He could only watch as Su Ming's face in the golden light filled with deep confusion.
Su Ming was lost. He was lost among the 512 minds and souls. He could not find his origin soul. When the 512 souls were made to gain completion due to the golden light, he could only watch in a daze… as they started devouring and fusing with each other.
A life-threatening sense of danger instantly rose in Su Ming's mind. He had a strong feeling that if he could not find his origin soul and it was devoured by the other souls, it would mean that he would die.
Perhaps the soul which would come on top in the end would also believe itself to be Su Ming, but it would just be like the independent will of the clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole—that person would no longer be truly Su Ming.
The devouration and fusion of the souls had already started. The 512 souls collided against each other, and booming sounds continuously rose in Su Ming's head. As the souls devoured each other, the life-threatening sense of danger arose in all of Su Ming's souls, making it hard for him to differentiate which of them was his real one.
'What should I do?!'
Anxiety filled the minds of all 512 souls at that moment. It was as if all of them were real, but also as if all of them were fake.
When Su Ming saw that some of them had already been devoured during the fusion, he suddenly saw a hint of blue light appear in a soul that was being devoured by three souls at the same time.
The blue light was very faint, but at that moment, it was like a lighthouse in the dark in Su Ming's mind. He had no time to think. At the instant it shone, he sent his entire mind into the soul who was being devoured.
At the instant his mind fused with the soul, Su Ming's heart trembled. He had a strong feeling that this soul was his origin soul. It was his soul from before he was split into 512 parts.
He could not understand why he would have this sort of feeling. The urgency at that moment caused him to be unable to think about anything. He believed wholeheartedly that this was his original soul. Thus, he immediately started devouring and fusing with the souls around him.
Su Ming had long since become numb to the feeling of intense pain. When one of the five hundred something souls was devoured, the soul who devoured it would not be the only one who would become stronger. All the souls would become stronger.
Gradually, the number of souls in Su Ming's mind lessened. When there were only two hundred something left, each of the souls became much stronger than Su Ming's soul before he performed the spirit ascension.
As the fusion and devouration continued, there were a few times Su Ming was nearly wiped off, but since his mind was with the soul, it meant that Su Ming was fighting continuously against hundreds of Su Mings. This was an indescribable feeling, but to Su Ming, this was much more dangerous than the battle of Arts he experienced in the world outside.
Gradually, the souls became fewer: 128, 96, 64…
Su Ming did not know how much time had passed. He could not divide his attention to focus on anything else. He could only immerse himself in the devouration and fusion of his souls. When there were only ten souls remaining in his mind, including his own, Su Ming could clearly sense that his current soul had become so strong that it surpassed his previous soul by a lot. It was impossible to compare the two. They were already two completely different life forms.
Booming sounds echoed in Su Ming's mind when the remaining ten souls started a crazed devouration. There would only be one that would last till the end, and the one who was left would control the body. It would become the new Su Ming.
If the soul Su Ming chose was the one who lasted till the end and his origin soul, he would still be Su Ming, but if either of the two did not happen, his mind would be wiped out, and he would be replaced by another mind that would be born from the new soul.
As time trickled by, the number of souls in Su Ming's mind went from ten to eight, then to five. When there were only two left, one of them was Su Ming's, and he fought against the other one.
The two souls were infinitesimally close to becoming an Antecedental Spirit. Their presence and the ripples of power were enough to shake the hearts of all outsiders, but they still had to fuse into one. Only then could they truly transform from a Successor Spirit to an Antecedental Spirit!
Chapter 1197: Antecedental Spirit and Arid Beasts
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe had no idea how much time had passed, but his pupils suddenly shrank, and a grave expression appeared on his face. This was because he saw the golden light around Su Ming grow dimmer. In the span of a few breaths, it disappeared completely.
Su Ming's eyes opened!
At the instant Su Ming he did so, the sky roared, and the ground trembled. A ripple filled with a powerful presence spread out from his body uncontrollably. Wherever it went, the sky would distort.
The fog in the area around him fell back at once, and a feeling of emptiness spread out from Su Ming's body.
At the same time, his eyes became incredibly bright as if stars were contained in them. He seemed different from before, and there was a spiritual air about him. When he stood there, it looked like the sky had to lower itself a little and the ground had to sink a little before him. His existence seemed to be able to make the world tremble.
Su Ming swept his gaze across the ground. When he met the gaze of the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe, a brilliant light shone in Su Ming's eyes. The light in the old man's eyes also reached a piercing degree. Once the two of them exchanged a glance, they sensed that their presences were astonishingly similar.
They did not belong to cultivators, but Antecedental Spirits!
Both of them were nearly the same as the Predecessor of Dao Ocean and the Spirit of the Sand Earthlings. Su Ming felt like he had ascended to a higher plane of existence that was above all lives. It was as if he had taken a huge step forward from being a human to becoming an Antecedental Spirit!
He could change the laws in the world as he pleased. He could see the rules in the universe when he closed his eyes. In fact, Su Ming could even vaguely sense the will of Arid Triad existing in space. That feeling of having ascended to a higher plane of existence was indescribable. It was as if… he had escaped some shackles and become a life form that what he could previously only imagine.
If anyone compared Arid Triad's will to a giant fireball akin to a sun and each person to a glowing spot, then if the flames of Su Ming's life burned, he could destroy all lives. The flames of his life might not be able to compare to Arid Triad's will, but they were much stronger than of all lives.
It was especially so for his soul. Once he devoured all the souls split up from him, he had become so strong that if he sent his soul outwards, he could wipe out a person from existence with just one thought.
He could kill a cultivator with just his mind. Even if that cultivator was an Almighty, it would still be difficult for them to fight against Su Ming's will sweeping past them. There might be some Almighties who could fight against it, but it would intimidate them greatly.
It was as if he was a galaxy in this universe. He could even described as the will of heaven for a certain area. If he wanted a person dead, then they would die, because Su Ming's will could change laws, disturb rules, and crush space.
This was the power of Antecedental Spirits. It was a state of life Successor Spirits could never reach, no matter how hard they practiced cultivation.
This was a strength Su Ming had never possessed before. The feeling as if he had control over other people's lives and deaths made Su Ming sense the madness of existence when he opened his eyes. He sucked in a deep breath and slowly took a step forward.
With that one step, the world distorted. Booming sounds surged into the sky, and a huge vortex appeared. It spun with loud bangs. It seemed like there was an indistinct face in it, but if anyone looked closer, they would find it was just a vortex. Everything seemed to be just an illusion.
"You are…" A barely noticeable glint shone in the eyes of the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe.
"Our deal is still ongoing," Su Ming said calmly.
He did not tell the old man directly whether he was still himself, but he knew that he was still himself. The soul with the blue light spreading out from it was indeed his origin soul. The blue light had guided Su Ming, providing him a way to find himself when he was lost.
In the beginning, Su Ming had not understand what the blue light was, but when he became an Antecedental Spirit, with his great soul and as a life form who could turn into the will of heaven, he understood that this was the power of his mother's race fusing into his soul. It was the power of the foreign race the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe had mentioned existing in him.
The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe narrowed his eyes. Just as he was about to say something, a thought appeared in his mind. He raised his head to look at the vortex that had appeared in the sky. Su Ming lifted his head as well. He might be slightly slower than the old man, but he was only one breath slower.
'As expected, once he experienced nine splits and fused with all of them to become an Antecedental Spirit, he grew incredibly power. This is just his first success…'
While this thought might have entered the old man's mind, he did not have time to analyze it more. Roars came from the vortex in the sky, and right after, dozens of figures manifested from within it.
Those figures did not belong to beasts, but to humans!
They were clearly cultivators. All of them were dressed in different attire, but most of their clothes were damaged. They were cultivators with fierce and murderous looks, but on their faces was bewilderment.
Their presence was incredibly strange. There was an ancient air to them along with a powerful intent for destruction. In fact, there seemed to be a will about their bodies. It seemed to be asleep, and it was not strong. However, it somehow gave off a feeling like it could destroy the entire universe.
At the instant Su Ming saw the cultivators, his heart trembled. He recognized one of them as Zhan Bai's Master, the one he had seen in the picture from the inheritance of the Ancestral Spirit!
The sage-like old man who was originally dressed in long robes and had a head full of white hair was like a wild beast at that moment. When he opened his mouth, there was even saliva dripping down. Upon coming out from the vortex, he looked swiftly towards Su Ming with fierceness in his eyes.
When he looked over, Su Ming sensed his presence of an Antecedental Spirit became chaotic, as if the dozens of figures had an inborn ability to form some kind of restriction on his status as an Antecedental Spirit. Su Ming even had a feeling that his presence was some sort of supplement for them. They would close in on him to devour him without a care for the cost.
"Thirty-six Arid Beasts. Su Ming, I will help you hold them back. You've just become an Antecedental Spirit right now, so you need to stabilize your body, cultivation base, and your soul. This moment is critical for you, but your existence is the best food for these Arid Beasts.
"You must try to restrain your presence. Merge your cultivation base, body, and soul into one and stabilize your status as an Antecedental Spirit. I will buy time for you, but you must hurry!"
As the voice of the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe echoed in the air, he took a step forward. With a swing of his arm, a ripple spread out until it enveloped the thirty-six figures. Once the old man prevented them from moving forward, a chilling glare appeared his eyes, and he fought against the thirty-six figures with loud booming sounds in the air.
A freezing glare appeared in Su Ming's eyes. Without any hesitation, he sat down. When he closed his eyes, he had his soul spread through his body and circulated his cultivation base, quickly fusing the three into one before stabilizing them, just as the old man had told him to do. He continuously retrieved the presence that had spread out from his body, intending to completely lock it in his body.
But his presence was too strong. Even the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe had given him a few attentive glances previously, so it was completely impossible for him to restrain the presence in a short period of time.
Just like that, two hours passed.
During those them, the old man from Heavenly Spirit executed his divine abilities and activated his cultivation base to fight against the Arid Beasts. The cultivators roared like wild beasts. They had no cultivation bases nor any divine abilities. All they relied on was some sort of instinct.
But they could not be wiped out of the plane of existence. Even if the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe had monstrous power, he could only watch helplessly as they manifested again after their bodies crumbled.
After two hours passed, roars came from the vortex once more. This time, hundreds of figures appeared.
The old man's expression became darker. He knew that at that moment, what Su Ming needed the most was time, and he had to be the one to buy it for him. With a cold harrumph, the old man formed a seal with his right hand and pointed at the sky. It instantly roared, and a horsetail whisk appeared next to the old man. When he swung it, illusory shadows appeared in the sky. As rumbling sounds rang out, the fight continued.
All of Su Ming's attention was placed on restraining his presence. By then, he had already managed to keep it to a boundary of only about ten thousand feet. Slowly, it turned to one thousand feet.
When it reached five hundred feet, the vortex in the sky rumbled again. This time, thousands of Arid Beasts appeared.
When they saw that Su Ming's presence was becoming lower due to him restraining it to the point that the five hundred feet had been reduced to one hundred feet, the thousands of Arid Beasts in the sky roared together before suddenly crumbling and turning into countless glowing spots. The old man's expression changed, and the glowing spots swiftly gathered together.
Then, like a long river, they shot through the old man's body and rushed towards Su Ming. When it closed in on him, it turned into a huge, ferocious face that opened its mouth to devour him.
The face was several hundreds of thousands of feet in height, making it look like the sky was sinking. It was also fast enough to instantly reach Su Ming's head. At the instant it opened its mouth wide and was about to devour him, Su Ming opened his eyes. All his presence had been completely restrained in his body.
He lifted his head and with an aloof gaze looked up at the face above him, which was as big as the sky itself. The face came to an abrupt halt at that instant. While being less than one hundred feet away from Su Ming, it stared at him, and Su Ming, too, stared at it.
This lasted for only a few breaths before the ferocious face suddenly smiled. It made the face appear even more ferocious, but the next second it disappeared. At the instant it vanished, a crimson bolt of lightning shot out from the center of its brows and shot up towards the vortex in the sky. Soon after, the vortex faded away among loud booms, and the sky gradually calmed down.
When the old man saw this scene, his expression instantly changed.
"Arid Disaster…"
"What is an Arid Disaster?"
None of Su Ming's emotions could be seen on his face. He slowly stood up and stared at the sky as it returned to normal while he asked this question calmly.
The old man was silent for a moment. A hint of pain appeared on his face when he began to speak slowly.
"Once you succeed in spirit ascension, most of the time, the things that appear are Arid Beasts. If you have help or if you can deal with them on your own, there will be no problems for you in the future, but sometimes, it is the Arid Disaster that appears, though it is very rare…
"The power of the Arid Disaster is strong enough to destroy all wills. I went through it once, and it is the reason why all my people died. Even I don't know how I lived through it, since halfway through it, I lost consciousness.
"When I woke up, the Arid Disaster was gone, but all my people were dead. I also found my hand buried in my grandson's chest…
"The Arid Disaster will not come immediately, but will descend on you within a year…"
Chapter 1198: Created in Antiquity
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe was silent for a moment. When he spoke again, he looked towards Su Ming, and a complicated expression appeared on his face, because he saw that there was the mark of a lightning bolt at the center of Su Ming's brows at that moment. Clearly, it had appeared without Su Ming's knowledge at some point of time.
"The mark of the lightning formed at the center of the Arid Beasts' brows symbolizes the Arid Disaster. It is the same mark you have at the center of your brows right now. This means that you are the next person who will go through the Arid Disaster."
Su Ming remained as calm as ever. He lifted his right hand and touched the center of his brows gently. The skin at that spot seemed to have been burned by some strange power, causing the mark of a lightning bolt to appear without him realizing that anything was off.
"It will descend at some point within a year, hmm?" Su Ming asked faintly after being silent for a moment.
If anyone looked at him then, they would only see that he seemed to have a spiritual air. They would not be able to tell that he had already escaped being a Successor Spirit and become one of the few remaining Antecedental Spirits in Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos.
But once Su Ming released his presence, it would be strong enough to destroy the world. He had become powerful enough to turn into a galaxy's will of heaven.
"It will descend within a year. The Arid Disaster descended on the seventh day of the tenth month after the sign had appeared," the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe said in a low voice.
Su Ming smiled in a relaxed manner. His life was filled with hardships, and the dangers he ran into were countless. The Arid Disaster might be mysterious, but since it was bound to come, being alarmed would be of no help. Facing it with calm composure and wisdom was Su Ming's choice.
"Thank you for protecting me just now, senior. I will not forget the deal we made. But for now, I'm afraid you will need to wait a little longer. When I became an Antecedental Spirit, I suddenly understood plenty of things I had never puzzled out completely. I will need to use this power to refine some of my divine abilities," Su Ming said while staring at the old man.
"That is what you should be doing. Once you become an Antecedental Spirit, the world will fuse with you. It is the moment when you are the closest to Arid Triad's will. Get a good sense of this feeling. During my time, there were quite a few shocking divine abilities and ultimate techniques that were created while we were in that condition." The old man nodded.
Su Ming sat down and closed his eyes. At that moment after the Arid Beasts left and the vortex disappeared, the two thousand something golden figures and the All Spirits Hall above Su Ming slowly turned into illusions as well. After a moment, the Spirit Descension Hall, too, disappeared from the sky to wait for the next time someone summoned it.
Su Ming slowed down his thoughts and recalled the sensation he had when he became an Antecedental Spirit. Gradually, he made this feeling fill his heart. In about an hour, he immersed himself in it while also remaining alert of his surroundings.
Several hours later, when Su Ming's mind had been immersed in the feeling of him becoming an Antecedental Spirit, his mind became clear.
It was a relative state of relaxation where his consciousness left his body to drift around him so that he could gain an understanding of the universe. In this state, two images appeared in Su Ming's mind without his realization. One was Dark Mountain, and the other was him while in the land of Berserkers. In that image, he threw his head back and roarer as countless Berserkers beneath him worshiped him while crying out to him as their God.
This image remained in Su Ming's mind for a long time before it gradually faded away. When his line of vision became clear again, Su Ming felt as if he had returned to the ninth summit. He sat outside his cave with a drawing board before him. He had his right hand lifted and was drawing something. Su Ming knew that this was his first style from the God of Berserkers Transformation—Berserker Obliteration.
"The direction of my epiphany… is the God of Berserkers Transformation," Su Ming mumbled. At the instant his words echoed in his heart, the image in his mind disappeared. When his mind became empty again, Su Ming opened his eyes.
He was still sitting in the world connecting the Sun Sinking Talisman to the All Spirits Hall. He was still sitting on the towering Spirit Ascension Platform in Great Berserker Tribe, but all around him were distortions in the originally ruined Great Berserker Tribe. They made it seem as if the sky and the earth were in disorder, and also as if time was changing.
At that moment, brilliant light shone in the eyes of the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe. He moved back slightly and stared at the entire ruin of Great Berserker Tribe. It was filled with distortions as if a world from another period of time was overlapping somehow with the place at that moment.
It was similar to what he had felt previously. The time of the past… had come over because of Su Ming's appearance and because he had become an Antecedental Spirit.
As the two times overlapped with each other, figures gradually appeared in the distortions, and they all belonged to members of Great Berserker Tribe. Some of them charged through the sky, and some of them were meditating in the area. There were also quite a few children playing in the tribe.
The place seemed to have returned to the past through the distortions, allowing Su Ming to see the people of Great Berserker Tribe who had lived there in ancient past and observe their lives.
Smoke curled in the air, and there were hunting teams going out in groups. Buildings made of stone that had various heights were located all over the tribe. Spirit Ascension Platforms could be found standing tall all around.
There were countless floating stones in the sky. Huge birds Su Ming had never seen before circled above him, occasionally letting out loud and clear screeches. They fed swiftly on the pieces of flesh the Berserkers threw on the ground for them.
The sound of bustling people, laughter born from playing, and the breathing of Berserkers exercising their breathing not too far away filled Su Ming's mind at that instant. He stared at the area and saw that most of the Spirit Ascension Platforms in Great Berserker Tribe were occupied by people meditating on them.
"The creation of Great Berserker Tribe lies within your will!"
When an ancient voice rang from behind Su Ming, the Berserkers meditating on the Spirit Ascension Platforms around the area immediately opened their eyes. They looked at Su Ming, and their eyes filled with reverence and zealousness.
Su Ming turned his head around and saw a person sitting behind him. It was an ancient-looking old man with graying hair.
He was dressed in white robes and looked forward as if his gaze could see right through Su Ming.
Su Ming quietly took a few steps back and sat down beside the old man. He had already come to understand that he was watching a scene which had happened an unknown number of years ago.
He stared at the area and at the old man, then began listening in silence.
"Your will is the thoughts of your mind. Creation is the beginning of bringing something into existence. Turn your thoughts into your will, and turn your will into your creations. Then turn your creations into nothingness. This… is the strongest Art of Great Berserker Tribe. You have the will of Eternal Creation, and hence you have the right to practice cultivation on the Spirit Creation Platform, and you also have the right to understand Great Berserker Tribe's Eternal Creation Art.
"This Art is divided into five states. Ten Creations, Hundred Creations, Endless Creations, Eternal Creations, and Created in Antiquity. Over the years we have passed this legacy in Great Berserker Tribe, no one could execute Created in Antiquity. Our limit is Eternal Creations.
"You must understand that the strength of this Art… is as brilliant as the sun. It is one of the reasons why the other races fear us," the old Berserker said languidly. When his voice echoed in the air, the Berserkers on the Spirit Ascension Platforms immediately became spirited, and longing appeared on their faces.
Only had a glint appeared in Su Ming's eyes, however. He had caught a phrase from the old man's words that was unusual.
'Spirit Offering Platforms? Are those Spirit Ascension Platforms?' Su Ming's eyes sparkled, but the old man's subsequent words cleared his confusion.
"This Art is passed down through our legacy. One part of it is contained in our blood, and the other is personally given to us as an inheritance by Great Berserker Tribe's Ancestral Spirits when we worship the heavens!"
When the old man's words echoed in all directions, a thought appeared in Su Ming's heart.
'The world I'm seeing now is a world before the disaster descended. It's the era before the Ancestral Spirits died!' Su Ming immediately lifted his head and looked at the sky.
Its blue shade was as clear as water. White clouds drifted around, causing all those who saw it to feel calm. This sort of sky was one Su Ming could rarely find in the outside world.
"Now, worship the sky and summon the Ancestral Spirits to descend among us!" The old man stood up and swung his arm. Then, he wrapped his fist in his palm and bowed to the sky.
All the people on the platforms in the area stood up and worshiped the sky. A thought appeared in Su Ming's mind, and he stood up as well to bow to the sky. There was a brilliant light in his eyes as he stared above.
Layers of ripples suddenly appeared in the blue sky. Immediately after, as they spread out, they formed a huge face. It sank from the sky, and when it descended, Great Berserker Tribe instantly fell into silence. All the people stared at the sky. Besides respect, there was also sincerity and gratitude on their faces. Not a hint of fear could be found anywhere.
When most of the face had descended, its eyes sparkled, and two pillars of light shot out from them. When they landed on the ground, they became piercingly bright. The bodies of two people slowly manifested from the pillars of light.
They were dressed in long robes, and judging by their looks, they appeared to be in their middle ages. There were no awe-inspiring expressions on their faces, but smiles like the gentle breeze of spring while they stared at the members of Great Berserker Tribe on the ground.
The two people were a man and a woman, and the man asked softly, "My fellow tribesmen, what is your request?"
There was no air of supremacy or arrogance in his words, but genuine emotion. He did not treat the people in Great Berserker Tribe as ants, but as his tribesmen, just as he said.
The woman by his side reacted in the same way. With a glow akin to motherly love in her eyes, she looked at all the people in Great Berserker Tribe. When she looked at the children, her expression brightened with deepest love.
"Ancestral Spirits who protect Great Berserker Tribe, please allow us to inherit the Created in Antiquity Art so that these people can obtain the epiphany and fight for the tribe!" The old man in white robes bowed deeply.
"Created in Antiquity is the strongest divine ability of our race. You have the blood of our race in your bodies, and you were created by us so that our race would grow through the generations. Because of it… this Art will never come to an end. Created in Antiquity…"
The male Ancestral Spirit spoke softly, then raised his right hand to swing it at the ground. Immediately, some glittering sparks spilled out. Each one was a runic symbol, and they landed at the center of the brows of each of the Berserkers on the platforms.
One of them drifted towards Su Ming as well.
Chapter 1199: My Creation
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Su Ming's eyes sparkled. He allowed the runic symbol to approach him and fuse into the center of his brows. At the instant it disappeared into his forehead, Su Ming's mind and soul jolted. His cultivation base instantly started circulating based on a particular trajectory, and only calmed down after a long while. When it did, he saw that the man and the woman in the sky had returned to the huge face and vanished into the air.
"Gain an epiphany from the runic symbol's power, understand your thoughts, and turn them into your will, then with your will, produce your own creations!" The old man in white swept his gaze across the area. Once he spoke in a flat tone, he sat down and remained still.
The people meditating on the platforms in the area immersed themselves in a state of enlightenment.
Su Ming sat in the area as well and closed his eyes to understand what the old man had said so that he could learn Great Berserker Tribe's strongest Art—Created in Antiquity.
"My thoughts are the God of Berserkers' beliefs…" Su Ming murmured. This was when his very first belief appeared. At the moment he became the God of Berserkers, he had already determined his beliefs towards the Berserkers.
At the instant Su Ming affirmed the belief in his heart, he saw time begin to flow. The sun, moon, and stars moved, and some of the people on the platforms left and were replaced by new ones.
He also saw that someone seemed to have mastered the power of Created in Antiquity. A piercing light blasted out from them, but the time kept on passing. The elderly in the tribe died, those in their middle-ages became old, and children grew into young adults. An unknown number of years passed like that. Generations of Berserkers lived and had their offspring. The people on the platforms, too, changed, batch by batch.
As for the old man in white, he reached the end of his life and passed away. Others took his place one after another… and the Ancestral Spirits in the sky appeared time and again to pass down the Created in Antiquity Art.
As this continued, Su Ming noticed that the smiles on the faces of the Ancestral Spirits when they descended slowly disappeared, replaced by sullen looks and panic in their hearts. Their descent was no longer as frequent as in the past as well.
Even so, Su Ming could not count how many times he had inherited the Created in Antiquity Art. Then, one day, he saw the Ancestral Spirits in the sky vanish. He then saw that the growth of Great Berserker Tribe was no longer as swift as before. One day, the sky rumbled, and in the mid of all that ruckus, the sky collapsed…
While it was being torn apart, many Ancestral Spirits watched the ground, Great Berserker Tribe, the other tribes, and all the other races they had created. Su Ming, too, watched them.
Their expressions were gloomy. With a reluctance to leave, they created a huge hall to pass down their legacy in their place. Then, their bodies slowly vanished. Their presence… gradually turned into nothingness, and a red bolt of lightning descended. With just one glance, Su Ming could tell that it was nearly the exact same as the lightning bolt at the center of the brows of the face formed by the Arid Beasts.
The lightning bolt charged towards the hall created by the Ancestral Spirits, and booming sounds surged into the sky. The hall might not have collapsed, but it suffered a heavy blow from which it could not recover…
Su Ming bore witness to all of it.
He saw the races waging war against each other during the era after the death of the Ancestral Spirits. During the war, Su Ming saw the people from Great Berserker Tribe die one after another. He saw them turn the old Spirit Offering Platform to the Spirit Ascension Platform so they could perform the spirit ascension. He watched the Berserkers attempting to search for the order in the All Spirits Hall and witnessed far too many deaths.
He saw the children in the tribe forget how to play and smile in that happy and innocent manner of the past. He also watched the people in the tribe gradually dwindle in number…
"My will is the will to make the Berserkers rise to power."
When he saw all of that, Su Ming mumbled to himself on the Spirit Ascension Platform. The words he spoke were his will. It had always existed within him, but at that moment, it became an incredibly firm resolve.
Su Ming closed his eyes. When he opened them again, quite a lot of time seemed to have passed again. Great Berserker Tribe looked like it was about to turn into an empty wasteland, but a person had come to sit on his platform at some unknown point in time.
It was an old man dressed in long robes. Before him was the spine of a ferocious beast. He stared at the sky with an unfocused gaze. In his right hand he held a stone piece, and he was scraping it against the spine. Cracking sounds came from it.
The sound echoed in the air, causing all those who heard it to feel sharp stabs of pain in their hearts, but at that moment, Su Ming only felt his heart tremble violently. He stared at the old man, and his vision became slightly blurry. The old man was blind. His appearance was the exact same as that of the blind xun maker Su Ming had seen in the land of Berserkers, but when he stared at him again, he looked exactly as his elder!
This scene caused Su Ming to remember… the Berserker's Realm Mountain about which the elder had talked to him.
Su Ming sensed a powerful ripple from the old man. It signified his level of cultivation, and it was strong enough to even make Su Ming apprehensive.
His pupils contracted. It was not because of the connection this old man had with his elder or the blind old man in the land of Berserkers, but because he could sense the presence of an Antecedental Spirit on him.
Su Ming saw a broken smile appear on the old man's face. When he lifted his left hand, he patted the Spirit Ascension Platform, and it immediately trembled. The entire ground also trembled. At the instant the sky trembled as well, the entire world changed.
The bright sky turned into dusk, and snow fell from the sky. The entire ground became unfamiliar. Even the Spirit Ascension Platform turned into towering altars. Under them were hundreds of thousands of Berserkers dressed in black robes. All of them were kneeling quietly.
Su Ming could even see a huge palace in the distance…
At the instant he noticed it, his body shuddered slightly. He was familiar with all of this. It was… the Great Yu Palace he had seen when he was in the land of Berserkers!!
"Kala, kala…"
The sound echoed in the area. It drifted in the snow and wind, lingering for a long time and refusing to leave. Yet the blizzard grew stronger. Snow was swept up by the wind, and it surrounded the area.
"Is there still hope? Is there?" an ancient voice asked indignantly in the blizzard. There was a hint of grief in it along with a cry filled with the reluctance to admit defeat. That voice had tumbled out of the mouth of the old man next to Su Ming.
The blizzard wailed as if in answer to the old man's question. At the same time, it caused his voice to be fragmented before it was drowned out by the snow.
"If there's still hope then where is it? If there is no hope then why do you let me see it?!" The old man looked as if he had sunken into a state of madness, and he sounded hysterical. As his roars echoed in all nine heavens, Su Ming stared in a daze and did not say a single word.
The snow began to fall harder.
"If you've let me seen it then there must be hope, but where is it?!"
"Today is the day the Emperor returns, the day the gates to the Three Lands open, the day the blizzard arrives, and the day all was created. I will predict the Berserker Day once again!"
When the old man lifted his left hand and formed a seal, Su Ming saw the blizzard instantly gather before him and turn into a dragon that roared at the heavens before it charged at the sky.
But the moment the dragon of snow and wind rushed above, it seemed to crash into an invisible barrier. It was as if a will had descended on it, and the dragon collapsed.
The old man threw his head back and roared. He bit down on the tip of his tongue and coughed up a mouthful of blood. At the same time, the hundreds of thousands of Berserkers under the altar bit the tips of their tongues while kneeling so that their blood would charge to the sky together with the old man's blood.
Once it fused with the crumbling blizzard dragon, it turned into a blood dragon that looked like it was drenched in blood. It bore the weight of the roars and thoughts of the hundreds of thousands of Berserkers and rushed at the sky again.
Booming sounds reverberated through the air. The blood dragon broke the invisible barrier and went even higher, but at that moment, its body suddenly froze…
At that moment, it looked like it saw the universe beyond the barrier and a picture contained within that place.
There was only one object in that picture… It was a butterfly, a butterfly flying beyond the universe…
Boom!
The blood dragon's body collapsed while it cried out shrilly. It fell apart as blood-red snow that fell down from the sky. During that instant, however, the dragon let out a sound completely different from its roars!
"Death…"
When the voice echoed in the air, Su Ming's heart trembled. Blood trickled down corner of the old man's lips, and he mumbled that one word.
"Death…"
He placed the stone piece he held in his right hand on the thirteenth vertebrae of the beast's spine and left it there.
"You cannot see the world that I see… You… cannot see… Hope…" the old man mumbled in anguish. With the stone piece in his right hand, he started scraping against the beast bone, making cracking sounds once more.
There was a desolate air about him. It fused with his voice, and a grief-filled loneliness as well as a bleak air surrounded him.
"Hope… is not here, but in the future…" the old man murmured.
Su Ming closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the world had already changed. An unknown number of years had passed since what he had seen last.
The world roared at that moment, and fog filled the entire area. Forlorn cries made by people before they died filled the area. Su Ming stared at the land being reduced to a wasteland under a disaster. Gradually, when the area returned to dead silence, Su Ming stood up quietly. He looked around and found himself before countless souls.
They seemed to have been staring at him quietly since the time Su Ming chose to gain his epiphany, since the ancient world appeared before his eyes, and even since he had begun performing his spirit ascension. They seemed to have been there from the very start, but only at that moment had Su Ming seen them.
The souls were countless. Their numbers went past a hundred million, and they were all people from Great Berserker Tribe. The might have died, but they appeared because of Su Ming, existing only due to him. They witnessed him gaining his epiphany and watched as he became an Antecedental Spirit…
Su Ming stared at them quietly. After a long while, he murmured to them in a slightly hoarse voice.
"My creation will be to rebuild Great Berserker Tribe so that all of your souls will find rest! This is my creation, the creation of the God of Berserkers!"
When he finished speaking, all the souls in the area bowed to him.
Chapter 1200: Su Ming's Intelligence
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At the instant these souls bowed to him, Su Ming lifted his right hand and stared at it. After a period of silence, he slowly drew a line in front of himself.
He drew it slowly. and it looked like ordinary trail. The spot where he started was the Dark Mountain located in the land of Berserkers from his memories; the path in the middle went through the hardships he experienced throughout his life; and the end held the old man on the altar who had appeared in his mind when he muttered those words.
That path was Su Ming's whole life. It could also be said that it was the life of the current era's God of Berserkers.
"With the God of Berserkers' thoughts, I will turn it into the will to make the Berserkers rise to power, and I will create a new version of Berserkers. This… will be my very own Created in Antiquity!"
At the instant Su Ming spoke after he finished drawing, the hundred million souls in the area shuddered. When all of them lifted their heads, they turned into a gust of cold wind that howled as it charged towards Su Ming from all directions. The souls fused into the path Su Ming had drawn in front of himself so that the illusory path would become real.
It turned into a seemingly simple line, but contained within it were more than a hundred million souls which belonged to people from Great Berserker Tribe. It also contained the years that slipped by Great Berserker Tribe which acted as the intersection point between the ancient past and the present.
"This will be the first style of my God of Berserkers Transformation that will reach perfection. My Berserker Obliteration might not have reached the level of Created in Antiquity, but it can reach the majesty of Eternal Creation," Su Ming mumbled.
He swiftly brought his right hand down, and the world immediately roared. The sky distorted. At the instant an incredibly terrifying presence appeared, Su Ming clenched his right hand into a fist and gathered all of the power in it.
He could sense that once he executed the perfected first style of his God of Berserkers Transformation at full strength, he could change the universe in which he stood into an ancient era. The power of Eternal Creation would gather together the souls of more than one hundred million Berserkers from Great Berserker Tribe, and they would attack together to bring forth the greatest divine ability of Great Berserker Tribe.
'Turning the universe into that belonging to Great Berserker Tribe… Time will overlap to turn the present into ancient times. One hundred million souls will then gather on him. Eternal Creation…'
The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe in the distance witnessed the entire process. He might not have been able to see the world Su Ming saw, but after his spirit had ascended eight times, he could guess what was going on based on just a few clues.
At that moment, his pupils shrank slightly, and a grave look appeared in his eyes when he looked at Su Ming.
Eternal Creation was a divine ability which made the old man slightly apprehensive. Even though it could not be of a threat to him, if Su Ming could have his spirit successfully ascend two or three times in the future, its strength would allow the youth to stand proudly at the top of the universe.
'If he can have his spirit ascend five times and obtain that greatest serendipity of the fifth ascension, there is a high possibility that he will become the strongest person in the current era, as long as the others are not Ancestral Spirits!' The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe cast Su Ming a deep glance.
Su Ming lowered his head to stare at his right hand. In silence, he slowly unfurled his hand, and a fierce glare appeared in his eyes.
'The name of the second style of my God of Berserkers Transformation was given by my second senior brother. It was known as Phantom Flash. It was an Art I often cast to travel at extreme speeds, but as my power increased, the speed provided by the second style gradually lost its usefulness…
'Right now, with the perfection of my first style, the second style will also reach completion.'
Su Ming formed a seal with his right hand and pointed at the air. A strange thing happened then. Countless afterimages appeared behind his palm, and they did not disappear. All of them remained as if Su Ming had multiple right hands.
'The figures moving back from the ancient past to the current world will no longer be limited to shifts, and neither will they be limited by the changes in dimensions. Instead, they will be able to move through time. Due to their indistinct figures, their bizarreness, and the difficulty of restricting them with Runes and seals… is why they will be known as Phantom Flash!'
Su Ming took a step forward, and in an instant, his body disappeared. When he reappeared, he was already hundreds of feet away. This action seemed quite normal, like something a slightly more powerful cultivator would be able to do with a shift, but Su Ming had not shifted, and neither had he used an extreme speed to move.
Instead, during that instant, he had used his power of an Antecedental Spirit. With his will as his driving force and the epiphany of turning the universe into the Great Berserkers, he moved as if he was moving through time. This was time moving. It was a divine ability of a higher level compared to a normal shift or warp.
The trajectory of a normal warp or shift could be detected, but Su Ming's Phantom Flash lived up to its name. It could come and go without a trace.
With Phantom Flash, Su Ming could leave as he pleased even if he ran into people who were stronger than him.
"With this Art, I can be faster than others when it comes to casting divine abilities," Su Ming whispered softly to himself, then slowly closed his eyes.
He had just perfected the first two styles, but there was no way he would stop. He wanted to create the third style for the God of Berserkers Transformation, an even stronger divine ability.
"The name for the third style… will be the God of Berserkers Transformation!"
At those words, Su Ming's eyes flew open. When he raised his right hand, a hint of dark light appeared clearly in his eyes.
A large number of souls immediately appeared around his right hand. Fifteen million of them surrounded his right hand, and each of them were Progenitors from Great Berserker Tribe. As they screamed soundlessly, they instantly seeped into Su Ming's right hand due to his will of a God of Berserkers.
Intense pain that made him feel as if he was being torn apart shot through his body, and his right hand swelled up. The feeling of great power then surged into his mind.
Su Ming lifted his left hand, and another fifteen million Berserker souls appeared. They fused into his arm, and in great pain, Su Ming jumped into the air. When he was airborne, he threw his head back and roared. Thirty million Berserker souls then appeared around his feet. Each of them had sincerity, zealousness, respect, and hope in their hearts as they seeped into Su Ming's feet.
Then, the air around him distorted. As he became indistinct, forty million souls manifested to charge at Su Ming's body. They fused into him, and the instant his body bore the weight of more than one hundred million souls, it transformed with a loud bang that surged into the heavens.
Su Ming's body became more than hundreds of feet tall, and it looked like a hill standing in the sky. It was filled with an indescribably terrifying power and the presence of an Antecedental Spirit. Once it fused with his Berserker Body, it caused the world to tremble and the weather to change, and Su Ming let out another roar at the sky.
That roar seemed to replace the rules in the universe and seemed to have turned into the will of heaven. Su Ming's power swiftly increased exponentially once he cast the God of Berserkers Transformation. His level of cultivation surpassed Death Realm and reached a state far above even if he had yet to reach Avanicaya Realm.
Yet he could not use God of Berserkers Transformation for long. Su Ming was a little fuzzy about the details, so he lowered his head and cast a glance at the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe in the distance.
The old man saw the current Su Ming as well, and his eyes sparkled. When he met Su Ming's gaze, he saw the fighting spirit in Su Ming's eyes. A faint smile appeared on his lips, and he nodded. He lifted his right foot and took a step into the air. The world immediately roared. Su Ming swiftly moved and executed Phantom Flash while under the effect of the God of Berserkers Transformation.
Once Phantom Flash was activated, he appeared out of nowhere in front of the old man without a single sound and without any ripples stirring up due to his movements, in a manner similar to shifting but was at the same time not. He lifted his fist and punched forward.
The old man's gaze focused. He straightened his right hand, formed a seal, and pointed at Su Ming's fist. A loud boom tore through the air, and a huge crack in the air ripped the space between the two men. The old man froze for a moment, but he did not retreat. A joyful look appeared on his face.
"As expected of the Great Berserkers of Wei, whose physical bodies can fight against Shu's Gods!"
Su Ming took six consecutive steps back before he lifted his head. When he rushed forward again, he was so quick that he instantly reached the old man with Phantom Flash.
The two people fought in the sky. When about seven breaths passed, the loudest rumble yet rang out.
Su Ming was forced back. He then lifted his right hand and swiftly drew a line at the old man. With it, the sky distorted to turn into the sky of the ancient past. The ground shattered to turn into the land that belonged to the Berserkers. Countless Berserker souls left Su Ming's body to fuse into the line, and it turned into… Eternal Creation.
The old man's eyes immediately shrank, and his heart trembled. At that moment, he actually sensed danger from Su Ming's Eternal Creation Art while the youth was under the effects of the God of Berserkers Transformation.
That feeling of danger might have been just a tiny spark, but he was a person who had succeeded eight times in spirit ascension, so he was similar to a peerless warrior in Avacaniya Realm. He might not have used his full strength against Su Ming just then, but if he could sense a hint of danger, it was enough to tell him just how powerful Su Ming had become.
He saw the slash created by Su Ming's Eternal Creation charging at him. Not only did it contain more than one hundred million Berserker souls, it also pulled the world to him, as if the slash had turned into a black hole that could devour everything.
It was especially dangerous because it contained Su Ming's will. It was the will of an Antecedental Spirit with a power equivalent to the will of heaven. When it descended, it instantly charged towards the old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe.
A glint appeared in the old man's eyes. But just when he was about to take action, his expression suddenly changed. He had seen Eternal Creation Art being executed before and faced more powerful versions of it, but Su Ming's version was slightly strange. It gave the old man a feeling that the world in which he stood had turned into a still picture and that the incoming slash was a line drawn on that picture. It was also one that could completely destroy the whole picture.
When he saw that Su Ming's Berserker Obliteration was about to land, the old man closed his eyes before opening them the next instant. When he did so, both his eyes had three pupils in them.
He lifted his right hand and pointed casually before himself, sending a force to crash against Su Ming's Berserker Obliteration. Booming sounds surged into the sky, and dust filled the area. The old man stood in his place without moving as he stared at Su Ming who was walking out languidly from the fog and who had returned to normal from his God of Berserkers Transformation.
When Su Ming walked out of the fog, he looked at the old man and spoke flatly with a calm expression on his face. "As I thought, you have indeed provided me with extra care when those Arid Beasts appeared, senior. That is why the Arid Beasts turned into the Arid Disaster in the end."
Chapter 1201: The Ancient Heavenly Spirit Tribe
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"With your power, you might not have even brought five-tenths of your true strength, even now. With that great power, while you might not have been able to completely kill those Arid Beasts due to their strangeness, but with a flick of your finger, you could have easily made them dissipate for a while," Su Ming said languidly after walking out. His expression was calm. Not a hint of anger could be seen in it.
The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe cast Su Ming a glance, then the extra pupils in his eyes disappeared. He returned to normal and smiled slightly.
"The people of Great Abyss Tribe are skilled in scheming. This is something about them that is different from Great Berserker Tribe's straightforward and bold attitude. With the fact that I didn't attack at full force as a clue, you guessed that I intentionally led the Arid Disaster to you. This temperament of yours fits with those from Great Abyss Tribe."
The old man's words were calm and unhurried. It was as if he was completely unbothered by Su Ming's words.
"Since you like guessing, then why don't we play another game? If you're certain that I intentionally made you receive the Arid Disaster, then tell me, what benefit does it bring me?" The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe spoke languidly and looked at Su Ming with the ghost of a smile.
"Do treat it as me just being crude and rash. It doesn't matter whether it does or does not bring you benefits. The matter is already done. There is no meaning to it. I still have to thank you for helping me just now," Su Ming said faintly. His gaze landed on the old man, and he wrapped his fist in his palm to thank him.
"I can now go and fulfill my end of the deal with you."
Su Ming did attempt a second ascension. He might know the order of the six spirit ascensions, but his body had already reached its limit. If he tried another spirit ascension, only his soul would increase in power, and it would become very difficult for him to improve in all other aspects.
He needed some time to stabilize his first spirit ascension. Only then could he continue. Besides, Su Ming had another thought that had been echoing constantly in his head.
'Since I possess the presence of Great Berserker Tribe, Great Abyss Tribe, and Dark Dawn, then I wonder if I can have my spirit ascend on a Great Abyss Tribe's Spirit Ascension Platform as well. I wonder, is possible for the souls of Dark Dawn to have their spirits ascend too? This is something I'll need to think carefully about.'
Su Ming lifted his head to stare at the sky. The world was still shrouded in fog, but he had a feeling that if he wanted to leave, he just needed to take a step into the air, and he would be able to leave the world in All Spirits Hall.
This was because he was already an Antecedental Spirit. He had obtained his serendipity in All Spirits Hall, and he had become an existence which could come and go as he pleased in this place. To him, be it the red figures or the mummies with bone spears in their hands, none of them would be able to pose a threat to him.
He did not leave immediately, however, since he wanted to fulfill his end of the promise and complete the deal. As for the Arid Disaster, there was no need for him to talk any further.
It did not matter even if the old man gave him a promise, since the Arid Disaster would descend no matter what. Su Ming was also certain of his own judgment, which was why he did not bother wasting his breath and saying everything on his mind.
In this brutal world, it was crucial for a person to be wary of others. This was a truth Su Ming had learned after experiencing far too many things.
The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe cast Su Ming a deep glance. He was slightly stunned by the youth's unwillingness to continue guessing. Then, he sighed in his heart.
"I do indeed want to use you, but you are Great Berserker Tribe's seed, and you have also become an Antecedental Spirit like me. You just need to know that I will not harm you.
"With my power, I can make it so that you can stay for around two days when you return to the ancient past. During them, search for the reason why I lost my consciousness when I went through the Arid Disaster and why I slaughtered my people.
"Even if you can't find it, share everything you learn truthfully and in detail when you return. And you must remember one thing, I might be exceedingly powerful, but sending you back to the ancient past isn't a small feat. You cannot get too far away from Heavenly Spirit Tribe, so you mustn't go to Great Berserker Tribe, Great Abyss Tribe, or any other tribe!
"Otherwise, I will lose a large amount of my cultivation base, and I will not be able to let you stay in the past for two days. In fact, the instant you leave for the other tribes, there is a high possibility that I will die from the inability to bear the burden of the backlash, and if I die…
"You will also be lost forever in the ancient past. Remember this well. Also, the method which you will use to return to the past will be one in which your soul will fuse into one of my people's bodies. Thus, you will exist in the ancient world!
"Do not do anything while you are there. If you do anything out of line, you will change history, and Arid Triad's will will instantly notice it. The history will return to its original path, and both of us will be wiped out. Do not tell what happened in the future to the past me either, or else the results will be like I just described.
"You need to remember that you are just a pair of eyes. All that I'm asking of you is to observe."
The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe stared at Su Ming with a solemn expression. When he saw Su Ming nod, he sucked in a deep breath of air. He then sat down and lifted his right hand to strike the center of his brows. With it, eight pupils appeared in each of his eyes, making him look incredibly strange. A mighty pressure and presence that caused Su Ming's heart to tremble instantly came from the old man's body.
Soon after it spread out, it shrank, and several complicated and difficult to understand syllables tumbled out of the old man's mouth. He lifted his left hand and slashed the air in front of him. Immediately after, the air rumbled. A crack that was not too big swiftly appeared in the air. There were countless vortices within it, and when they spun around, moaning sounds could be heard.
When he stared at the crack, Su Ming felt as if he saw the sun, moon, stars, the universe, the galaxy, and the process of something beginning and coming to an end. This was due to the swift flow of time.
Just tearing apart the seemingly normal gap caused the old man's face to turn slightly pale. He swiftly lifted his head to look at Su Ming.
"Now, have your soul enter!"
A focused look appeared on Su Ming's face, and he no longer hesitated. This was his deal with the old man. Forget the moral principles, the old man's strength alone was something Su Ming could not fight against. He had to step into the gap.
However, this did not mean that Su Ming was not wary. A glint appeared in his eyes, and he decided to be resolute. He did not have his soul leave his body and enter the ancient past, as the old man had asked of him. Instead, he took a step forward and had his body move into the crack. Immediately, he was swept inside by a huge force and disappeared without a trace.
The old man from Heavenly Spirit Tribe remained silent. He did not stop Su Ming, but instead shook his head and closed his eyes to maintain the crack while he waited for the two days to end.
When Su Ming stepped into the crack, he felt a huge force sweep up his body. The sun, moon, and stars charged about around him. The rise and fall of the universe moved about before his eyes. He saw the four Great True Worlds in the universe as time moved in reverse. They became smaller right before Su Ming's eyes until they turned into five glowing dots.
They were becoming smaller and smaller. In the end, two of the glowing spots fused together to turn into four glowing dots, and then, they turned into a brilliant, blinding light.
There were not just four of these lights. Another five appeared beside them, and a total of nine glowing spots moved in a circle in the universe. When they brightened up, Su Ming saw nine huge True Worlds.
He saw a lone ship traveling among them. It left into the distance, and as it did, the nine huge True Worlds formed by the glowing spots became smaller. When they fused together, they gathered into a ball of light.
And it wasn't alone! There were two equally huge balls of light near it.
'The four glowing spots that appeared in the beginning showed the birth of the four Great True Worlds. The fifth glowing spot appeared because one of the four of True Worlds separated from one of those spots. The connection between the Emperor of Abyss' True World and the Fifth True World could be used to explain this.
'The nine glowing spots that appeared later are the nine Great True Worlds from the previous era. That was the time of Sui Chen Zi, and the lone ship leaving into the distance… clearly belonged to the Old Man Extermination!
'In a period of time long before the nine glowing spots, they had formed one ball of light, and if my guess is correct… that ball of light… is the missing Wei!
'The other two balls of light are clearly Wu and Shu!'
As all of it dawned on Su Ming because of the old man's divine ability, he gained more epiphanies in regards to his inborn ability to reverse time that came from the Great Abyss Tribe, and he felt faint signs of a breakthrough.
Su Ming had no idea how much time had passed when he sensed a huge suction force catch him and drag him towards the ball of light formed by the nine glowing spots. When he approached it, a loud bang rang out in his mind.
With his consciousness still clear, he shut his eyes. The next moment, he smelled the fragrance of grass in the air. His ears filled with the joyful laughter of playing children along with all the sounds of a tribe in the morning.
Su Ming opened his eyes and saw a blue sky, gentle sunlight, a huge tribe, and all the people within it.
He was in the ancient past.
"Han Di, what are you doing here? Everyone's looking for you," someone said in a gentle voice behind Su Ming and patted his head.
Su Ming turned his head around and found himself looking at a young man who was staring at him with a smile.
"Let's go, you clumsy idiot." The young man pulled up Su Ming, then walked forward. "Today is a great day. Before the elder has his spirit ascend, he will speak of the will of the Arid Dao to all the people in the tribe. Don't be naughty now. You have to listen carefully," the young man said while rubbing Su Ming's head with a smile.
Su Ming stared at the young man blankly. In silence, he lowered his head to look at his own body and found a teenager's body.
He was dragged by the young man to a huge field. At the center of it was a tall platform. At that moment, there was an old man sitting on it. He had a kindly look on his face and was staring at his people in the area.
There were thousands of them. Most of them were teenagers, and all of them were staring at the old man with idolization on their faces. They were waiting for him to speak of the Arid Dao.
"Han Di's here. Where did you run off to again?"
The old man directed his gaze at the approaching duo when the young man dragged Su Ming over. When he saw Su Ming, his smile filled with even more kindness.