Pursuit of the Truth

It was a night where the moon was absent and the winds raged!

Within the walls of Wind Stream Tribe’s city, winds howled as they rushed by. It was like they were angry. The winds lifted the dust off the land and up into the sky, blurring out the moon.

Several figures ran inside the city of mudstone in the middle of night as though they were looking for something. However, they were in the dark because they had no idea where to start looking. It was not until the first rays of sunlight, which lit up the horizon far into the distance that the people began leaving.

Bei Ling went back to Dark Mountain Tribe’s lodgings fatigued and pale. That night, he lost a large amount of blood between his brows so his body was incredibly weak. He also watched with his own eyes the short but shocking fight!

There was the spear that flew towards them like a thunderbolt and caused the earth to tremble. Wu Sen’s crazed roar in anger also echoed in his ears. To Bei Ling, Wu Sen was Wind Stream Tribe’s blessed child. They may have both been at the sixth level but, Bei Ling knew that he could not win against him. In fact… he did not even dare challenge him.

He did not train in the usual Berserker’s Method. He had worshiped the statue of the God of Berserkers when he was young. Yet apparently, there was a mysterious statue among all the statues of the God of Berserkers within Wind Stream Tribe. Those who received its inheritance needed to use the aura of corpses to train and gather their Berserker Blood to turn into a corpse. If it was successful, the practitioner would practically be invincible.

‘Just who was that person who fought against Wu Sen… I can’t gauge his strength but, if he pushed Wu Sen into a corner, he must also be a well-known Berserker. Could he be from Black Mountain Tribe?’

Bei Ling’s gaze was dark. He was the most powerful Berserker among his peers in Dark Mountain Tribe but he knew that once he left his tribe, he was a nobody.

Bei Ling returned to the lodgings and to his room with these convoluted feelings as well as uncertainty regarding the test in the morning. However the moment he opened the door to his room, his body shook and his pupils shrank. The hairs on his body stood up and he breathed in sharply. There was shock and disbelief on his face.

There was a ball of fresh blood floating on top of the table in his room. There was a light green tint in that sphere of blood and it glowed in an incredibly strange manner. It was the refined blood that Wu Sen forced out of Bei Ling’s entire body when he tapped Bei Ling’s glabella.

He was momentarily stunned. Bei Ling immediately turned and looked behind him. There was only darkness and it was incredibly quiet around him. His heart pounded against his chest. After a moment of silence, he went straight into his room and as he stared at the ball of familiar fresh blood on the table. His emotions were unstable.

‘Who… was that..? Why did he help me..?’

After a long while, Bei Ling grabbed the ball of fresh blood. The moment he touched the blood, it melted into his body and turned into a wave of heat. Bei Ling to quickly sit down with his legs crossed and circulate the blood in his veins.

At the same time, in another room within Dark Mountain Tribe’s lodgings, Su Ming sat with his legs crossed on the floor. His face was pale and there was a trickle of fresh blood at the corner of his lips.

However his eyes were incredibly bright. He lowered his head and looked at the ball of dark green blood in his palm and smiled coldly.

‘So this is the prodigy of Wind Stream Tribe! No one is allowed to surpass him. He is the only one allowed to surpass others! He’s not that great. If I can complete the third burning of my blood along with this spear, even if I can’t kill him, I can still heavily injure him!’

Su Ming lifted one of his hands and wiped away the blood at the corner of his lips. A fierce look flashed briefly in his eyes.

‘I was only lightly injured. I’ll be able to recover if I circulate my Qi. But that Berserker’s Method he adopted is incredibly strange.’

The image of the burning corpses and green fire surfaced in Su Ming’s head.

‘If I can, I’d like to meet the ‘prodigies’! But seeing how crazy Wu Sen was in the tunnel, this item must be incredibly important to him!’

Su Ming looked at the dark green blood in his hands and placed it into a small bottle. After a moment of thought, he raised his hand and grabbed the air. A sliver of moonlight appeared from nowhere and surrounded the small bottle. Then it disappeared.

Once he placed the small bottle in his bosom, Su Ming closed his eyes and circulated the Qi in his body as he waited for morning to arrive.

Time passed by and very soon, the sky was no longer dark. As it turned brighter, morning arrived!

This morning would be different from other mornings because it was the day Wind Stream Tribe held the test that all tribes in the area would partake once every few years!

Besides testing the young Berserkers, it was also a chance for all tribes to show their strength and for their future hopes to display stunning talent. This also decided Wind Stream Tribe’s outlook towards the tribes in the future.

When morning arrived, Lei Chen, Wu La and Bei Ling followed the guide from Wind Stream Tribe along with the elder, Head of the Guards and Shan Hen as they left their lodgings.

Su Ming stood outside the house and watched them leave. He looked at Lei Chen waving at him with a confident look. He looked at Wu La, who had a faint look of disdain on her calm face. He looked at the Bei Ling, who was silent. His face had returned a normal healthy shade of color but he still refused to look at him.

There was also the elder, who was smiling sophisticatedly and nodding at him. The Head of the Guards on the other hand, was looking at him with a regretful expression. Then finally, Su Ming looked at the silent Shan Hen, who had a strange glow in his narrowed eyes. His gaze landed briefly on him.

Su Ming still stood at his place even after they slowly disappeared from his sight. However, his body and face started changing. After a moment, Su Ming had changed into a bulky looking man. His skin was slightly dark and he exuded a tough presence. He looked no different from a normal member of the Berserker Tribe.

The disguise Su Ming wore this time was different from the one he adopted the previous night. The straw hat the elder had placed within his body was truly amazing. He could change his appearance at will.

There was no shred of anxiety within Su Ming as he stood there. Instead, he looked at the sky and waited calmly. He knew that it was an important day for him and it was equally important to the elder.

On this day, Su Ming would either display shocking results or… fall into the depths of despair.

Su Ming was unsure if there was a force that controlled people’s destinies. He looked at the sky. It was very blue and he could not see the end of it.

‘Among all those living on the land, who would be able to see the end of the horizon?’

It was one of the opening lines in the beast skin scroll. When Su Ming first read it, he had been touched but also puzzled.

‘People always speak of heaven and earth but, what is heaven and earth? It means all that is under the sky! If the heavens had a soul, it would be an oppressive one! It is oppressing us, the members of the Berserker Tribe and it wants us to humiliate ourselves…’

These words surfaced in Su Ming’s head.

Sometimes, he would think that the heavens truly possessed a soul but its soul was too cold. If it was not cold, why would there be prodigies and blessed people? Why would there be common people? Why would there be people like the elder, who had unequaled talent yet whose presence dimmed and hair covered in white with time? And what about people like the man in purple, who could climb above all others and reach the Awakening Realm?!

There was Bei Ling’s complicated feelings and then there was Wu Sen, who stole other people’s powers…

‘The oppression of the heavens is invisible. We can only endure it and while we endure it, we must learn to live with it happily… If we do not, are we to fight against heaven?’

This was the last paragraph written in the prologue of the beast skin scroll.

Su Ming never understood it. Even now, he only understood the gist of it. He had asked the elder before and the elder’s answer still remained fresh in his mind.

"This is something very simple but also very complex. Simply put, it means that the heavens oppress us, the Berserker Tribe. Either we choose to bear with it happily or we fight against heaven… But the last phrase was written in the form of a question."

"To my understanding, perhaps this question meant that besides going up against heaven, could there be any other way to fight against destiny… Once you grow up, perhaps you’ll have a deeper understanding of it. If that day truly comes and you have attained the power which allows you to do as the words say, then perhaps you can think of a third way to fight instead of submitting to destiny or rebelling against it."

"After all, the last place I went to was where I obtained this beast skin scroll. It was also the biggest holy land of the Berserker Tribe I’ve ever seen!"

"That place is the Great Yu… The owner of this beast skin scroll is the Court Diviner of Great Yu…"

Su Ming was quiet as he continued watching the blue sky. After a long while, he heard footsteps approaching from afar. A person slowly walked towards him. Su Ming turned his gaze away from the sky and looked towards the person.

The person wore a white robe and had white hair. His face was burdened by the hardships of life but due to that, there was also wisdom in his demeanor. It was Shi Hai!

Shi Hai looked at Su Ming, at the unfamiliar face before him. He did not understand why the Elder, Jing Nan gave him the task to come to this place and bring the person to join the test in secret.

"Follow me." Shi Hai did not find anything strange about Su Ming. After he finished speaking, he turned around and left.

Su Ming’s demeanor was calm as he followed him.

The moment he went out of the door, he saw Shi Hai swinging his sleeve. Immediately, mist spread from his body and surrounded Su Ming. Su Ming’s heart jumped but he did not retreat. He let the mist surround and carry him into the air with Shi Hai. They turned into a rainbow of mist and sped into the distance.

This was the second time Su Ming looked at the land from the sky. He still felt a little nervous but Shi Hai ignored his anxiety. Instead, he increased his speed. Before long, he brought Su Ming away from Wind Stream Tribe and traveled towards a gigantic plain located at the north.

Su Ming looked at the huge plains ahead of them. From the sky, it looked as if it was an endless sea of land but as all the mist gathered towards them at lightning speed, Su Ming felt his body lurch after a moment. It felt like his body had hit an invisible barrier. The moment they went through it, everything started twisting like the ripples on the surface of water. Then he heard Shi Hai’s cold voice by his ears.

"We’ve arrived!"

The plains were no longer there. There was a mountain right before them!

Su Ming had never seen such a big mountain in his life! It was much bigger and taller than Dark Mountain. If they were placed side by side, Dark Mountain would be like a baby and this mountain would be a sturdy, full-grown man!

It looked as if it had already penetrated the clouds. The summit could not be seen and only half of the mountain was in view. The rest of the mountain was covered by numerous white clouds.

The size of the mountain was incredible!

Su Ming could see numerous stairs on the mountain leading upwards until they disappeared into the clouds.

There was a large field in the shape of a circle at the foot of the mountain. There were nine gigantic bird statues placed all around the field. Each of the statues exuded a presence of ancient savagery that made them look especially vicious.

At that moment, there were hundreds of people on the gigantic field. They were all spread out and talking amongst themselves.

Su Ming’s arrival immediately attracted the attention of all the people on the field. However after they glanced at him, they averted their gazes and continued talking with each other.