Pursuit of the Truth

The five heads out of the Nine-Headed Dragon roared, and their voices rumbled like thunder. The monkey-faced old Shaman could no longer withstand the pressure and had fallen unconscious.

The rod snake let out a piercing cry in the cave abode. Judging by its looks, it was facing a great enemy, and looked about to rush out at any moment. However, due to the Brand Su Ming had left in its body and the fact that he owned the five heads of the Nine Headed Dragon, which it regarded hostilely, it forced down its urge to kill.

The old Berserker in the stone chamber still had his eyes shut tightly. His body had also started trembling even more viciously. When the roars from the sky reached him, he looked as if he had reached his limit in his current condition.

Su Ming sat in the hall in his cave abode and continued making the hand seals. The power of the world surged forward and fused with his divine sense to charge into Han Mountain Bell.

There was a ring of spirit stone dust around Su Ming. It was fortunate that he had quite a lot of this currency, which was why he could afford to spend them like this. He continuously brought out large amounts of spirit stones, and once he absorbed the spiritual power in them, he would bring out another similar amount.

With this method, gradually, the power he pushed into Han Mountain Bell became greater. As the five heads continued howling, slowly, the sixth head of the nine-headed beast started trembling.

As it trembled, Su Ming felt the barrier within Han Mountain Bell once again. He knew clearly that once he broke through it, then he could make the sixth head open its eyes and wake up.

However, with the experience of waking up the fifth head, he knew that breaking through was too difficult, but he did not give up. Instead, he used his spirit stones to support himself and guided the power of the world around to start his repeated assault against the barrier.

He rammed into the barrier with his divine sense five times, and with each crash, that invisible barrier would look as if it was trembling. As it trembled, what would happen outside was that the sixth head would shiver. Its tightly shut eyes would show signs of opening.

However, as long as the invisible barrier did not break, that sixth head would not wake up. Su Ming’s eyes sparkled. He formed the hand seals with both of his hands and pushed them forward once again.

"Open!"

A booming sound went off in his head. The barrier within Han Mountain Bell was attacked once again. The sixth head trembled viciously, but it still did not wake up.

Once he tried it eight times, Su Ming understood that if he used the standard procedure, waking the fifth head was the current limit of his power. Clearly, trying to wake up each of the heads after the first four heads in Han Mountain Bell required a vast amount of power as support. It would not be as easy as it was for the previous four heads.

With his current level of power, he only needed a tiny thread of power more to make that sixth head wake up, but that tiny thread was like the distance between two sides of a ravine. He could not cross over it.

‘By the looks of it, I’ll have to borrow external power!’

A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. He no longer made any seals with his hands but got up and took a few steps backward to arrive at the deepest part of the cave that contained the numerous cracks on its walls, which allowed the mountain range to start breathing.

The instant Su Ming reached that room, he lifted his hands and pressed his palms flat on the wall. The stone wall immediately started trembling and new cracks appeared. Under the power of Su Ming’s palm strike, once they connected with the previous cracks, they went through the stone and connected with the outside world.

Due to the increase of those cracks, the originally weak human like breathing in the mountain suddenly became much stronger. At that moment, the entire mountain range’s breathing instantly became greater, and due to it, the power of the world also charged forth in a much greater quantity, causing a large whirlpool to once again appear.

That whirlpool was formed due to the power of the world gathering together. Once it appeared, it followed Su Ming’s divine sense and started a barrage on Han Mountain Bell.

The barrier within let out a series of cracking noises in Su Ming’s head, as if it was about to shatter. The sixth head also slowly lifted up its body, trembling viciously, and it opened its eyes a small slit.

‘The method is correct. With the help of the pattern in this place, I can break through the limit of that one thread. I just need to persevere through another few breaths and I’ll succeed.’

Yet at that very moment, Su Ming’s face turned pale. That power of the world was too great and his divine sense was like a boat trapped in a raging sea. It was difficult for him to guide it. After all, his level of cultivation was not high enough.

That vast power of the world was about to break through his hold like a wild horse and scatter all around him. Red appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. Once the power of the world spread out, even if he could gather it together once again, if he could not use it to wake the sixth head in one shot like he did with the fifth, then if he wanted to try it again, unless he raised his level of cultivation, it would be impossible for him to try again and succeed within a short period of time.

If that was the result he had to face, then Su Ming had to persevere!

He bit his tongue and coughed out a mouthful of blood. As that blood spilled out, the four Berserker Bones in Su Ming’s body started trembling, sending out the entirety of his power of the Bone Sacrifice Realm with an explosive force.

At the same time, the power of the Refined Aura that had already turned into liquid in the opened path within Su Ming’s body started circulating rapidly and became thinner until it eventually seemed as if it had disappeared. The disappeared Refined Aura had already completely surged into Su Ming’s divine sense, forcing it to be able to control the power of the world when it was just about to crumble.

One breath, two breaths… After two breaths, the vast power of the world started showing signs of scattering away again. Su Ming lifted his right hand, and with lightning speed, jabbed his finger on several spots on his body. All those spots where the parts connecting the opened path into one single whole.

Once he pressed on those spots, he seemed to have forced out the remaining power of the Refined Aura in his body. Along with the help of the power of his Berserker Bones, he finally managed to buy the time for two more breaths before the power of the world started crumbling once again.

It was during the span of these four breaths that the invisible barrier in Han Mountain Bell was completely broken through. As it crumbled, the sixth head opened its eyes, and gray light shone from within. The sixth head had awakened!

It lifted its head to let out a low roar, howling together with the other five heads. Their voices shook the sky and earth, and as they spread in all directions, the old Berserker who was gravely wounded in Su Ming’s cave abode could no longer fight back and a large amount of blood mist burst out from his body. He immediately sank into unconsciousness, and it was one where his mind had fallen into a comatose state!

In the sky, Su Ming’s shadow appeared in the pupils of the awakened sixth head. As the heads roared together, the might coming from it was shocking. It was a pity that not many people saw it. This place was considered a rather remote spot in the land of the Shamans, or else those who were observant would have noticed.

The Nine-Headed Dragon looked like a sacred beast of the Shaman Tribe. Anyone who saw it would find it hard not to feel fear.

Su Ming sat in the cave abode with a pale face, but his eyes were shining with excitement. He wanted to try opening the eyes of the seventh head, but his body was already very weakened, and he had also wasted a large amount of spirit stones. Besides, he knew that with his current level of cultivation, it was utterly impossible for him to wake the seventh head.

In his silence, he chose to give up on continue trying. Instead, he made some hand seals and pointed above him with his right hand.

"Nine-Headed Dragon, Southern Emperor, Absolute Genocide, gather!" Su Ming said in a low voice. As he pointed with his finger, the gigantic body of the Nine Headed Body in the sky quickly turned indistinct, and in the blink of an eye, it became invisible and disappeared.

The huge Han Mountain Bell also shrank in an instant and turned into a ray of dark light that charged towards the mountain range, crawling through a small hole in the ceiling to come and float before Su Ming.

Han Mountain Bell now looked like simple and old looking small bell. It gave off an ancient feeling. When Su Ming looked towards it, he had a feeling as if this thing had become a part of him. Even if he closed his eyes, he could still feel the presence of the bell. With a single thought, he could control this treasure and make it transform.

‘The divine ability I gained after waking up sixth head… is this..?’

With his eyes closed, Su Ming went on to sense the change in Han Mountain Bell once the sixth head had awakened. After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes, and there was a stunned look on his face.

He frowned and brought out some medicinal pills. Once he swallowed them, he did not circulate his Qi. Instead, he stood up and paced up and down his cave abode, as if he was hesitating over a difficult decision.

‘By the looks of it, even if my level of cultivation has reached a certain state, it’s still quite impossible for me to wake the seventh head… but once I wake the seventh head, the change that will occur will reach a terrifying state…

‘If my guess is correct, that is if what I deduced from the Art I gained from the sixth head is right, once the seventh head wakes up, there’s a high chance that it will allow a wisp of the Nine-Headed Dragon’s True Spirit to descend…’

Su Ming’s footsteps came to a halt and determination appeared in his eyes.

‘There’s no need for me to hesitate over this anymore. The land of the Shamans is filled with dangers, and it’ll be difficult for me to avoid being killed. If that’s the case…’ Su Ming looked at the floating Han Mountain Bell by his side and a complicated look appeared on his face.

‘I’ll fulfill the requirements needed to wake up the seventh head!’ With a swing of his arm, Han Mountain Bell immediately flew towards him and disappeared once it fused into his body.

‘This bell is indeed a priceless treasure, but why did no one try taking it away after it was placed in Han Mountain City so long ago? Why is it that only Si Ma Xin and I could fight over it..?

‘There are plenty of powerful warriors in the Berserker Tribe, and there’s also the fact about the Immortals coming to our place. Why did they ignore Han Mountain Bell..? Unless… they don’t have a method to take it away, or maybe it’s because they can’t take it away, or perhaps… they don’t dare to?’ Su Ming had thought about this question before, but he had never obtained a real answer.

He shook his head and decided to not think about it anymore. Instead, he sat down cross-legged and started exercising his breathing. Three days passed by in the blink of an eye.

At that time, the unconscious old Shaman outside the mountain range opened his eyes. He cast his eyes around, before he got up quietly, and checked his surroundings, then slowly retreated.

"Are you going to leave just like that?"

The instant he started retreating, Su Ming’s cold voice spoke languidly from the mountain range. When those words fell in the old man’s ears, he immediately froze and forced out a smile.

"If there’s nothing else, then I won’t stay here anymore. It’s been a few days since I went back, and there’re plenty of things waiting for me back at my tribe. This mountain’s yours," said the old man quickly. Right up till the end, he did not manage to see Su Ming’s body, and a great sense of wariness towards this Medial Soul Catcher rose within his heart.

The sight he saw before he fainted also terrified him. He no longer had any desire to fight against him.

"Thirty thousand feet around this area…" Su Ming said slowly, but before he could finish his sentence, that old Shaman was already nodding his head furiously.

"Gotcha. No one comes within thirty thousand feet of the place. I’ll go tell my people in the tribe to absolutely not come around. Um… if there’s nothing else, I’ll be off first."