Pursuit of the Truth

Two hundred thousand years…     

Three hundred thousand years…     

One million years passed. Su Ming continued on quietly in the vast space that was the cycle of life and death formed by the vortex. He used all his cultivation base and turned them into his divine sense, and he did not miss even a single corner. He searched through every spot carefully, for their marks in the cycles of life and death.     

Gradually, in his loneliness and isolation, Su Ming seemed to have forgotten how to speak, had even forgotten how to produce sound. Thick waves of exhaustion filled his body. It was not his body that was tired, because once he reached Boundless Dao Realm, it was difficult for his body to feel weakened. He was tired… in his heart.     

He searched for them nonstop, and was continuously disappointed, but he never gave up, because he knew… that once he let go, then there would no longer be any hope.     

He could only search for them. Even if the universe died and its light of life was extinguished, he still had to continue searching. This was his determination, his path.     

During the first one million years, Su Ming walked in the vast expanse and searched. During the second million years, he still continued searching… He walked past the Harmonious Morus Albas, past multiple vortices that symbolized the cycles of life and death. When the fifth million years passed, the exhaustion in Su Ming's heart turned into depression. When the sadness fused into the depths of his soul, after searching for five million years, he suddenly came to a stop at a spot in the vast universe.     

This was the first time he stopped during those five million years. At the same time he stopped, Su Ming turned his head around slowly and looked towards a continuously tumbling fog to the side in the vast universe. Su Ming saw a fragment. That fragment was broken, and it drifted about in the fog, as if it had been there for an unknown number of years.     

As he stared at the fragment, a brilliant sparkle suddenly appeared in Su Ming's eyes. He brought his right hand up and did a seizing motion in the direction of the fog. With it, the tumbling fog seemed to be enveloped by a will that was greater than the universe. It instantly became still, as if it no longer dared to even move. The fragment inside swayed a little and charged to Su Ming before it gently landed on his palm.     

As he stared at the fragment on his palm, a smile slowly made its way to Su Ming's lips, and it was full of joy. This was the first time Su Ming smiled over the five million years of continuous searching.     

"Ma… Fei…" Su Ming's voice was hoarse. He had been silent for five million years, and he felt as if he had forgotten how to even speak, causing his voice at that moment to be hoarse and indistinct, like the murmurs of an old man who was in his twilight years.     

Most of this fragment was made of stone. It was a fragment formed by a large amount of dust in the vast universe, which was why it could continue to exist in the vortex, because it was in itself a part of dust.     

However… among the great amount of dust in that fragment was a speck of dust… that contained a mark Su Ming was familiar with. It belonged to a girl called Ma Fei, whom Su Ming met in Morning Dao Sect and who had served as Su Ming's guide while he posed as Dao Kong. The mark in the fragment belonged to her.     

This girl might not be the person wanted to meet the most… but the appearance of that fragment gave an unimaginable boost of confidence in Su Ming, and it also strengthened his resolve. It allowed him to understand that his path of searching for the others was correct, and hence, no matter how much time passes, and even if he had to search for countless five million years, he would still resolutely search for them.     

He would persist in determination, all so that they could meet again.     

He held the fragment in his palm gently. Then, when Su Ming unfurled his fist, the fragment disintegrated. The dust impurities were reduced to ash, and only Ma Fei's mark floated above Su Ming's palm like a broken soul fragment. Su Ming kept it away, like it was a precious treasure.     

After a long while, Su Ming lifted his head, and a clear sparkle shone in his eyes, causing the clarity in his eyes to become even greater, just like how a child's eyes would look like. He took a step forward, and with his resolve, he continued onward.     

Time passed. Another one million years went by. He searched, year by year, never holding back on turning all his cultivation base in divine sense to walk through the cycles of life and death in the vast universe…     

Su Ming did not know what he was looking for. Perhaps it would be for an eternity. With the long span of life a cultivator in Boundless Dao Realm had, he continued searching, just like the Xuan Zang in his memories had sat for countless years on the Feng Shui compass.     

When fifty million years passed, Su Ming's expression had practically become numb, and some aura of death had begun appearing on him. That aura of death had not come because his life was about to come to an end, but because the loneliness and isolation he felt in the vast universe caused a deathly stillness to appear in his heart as he continued searching amid his never-ending fatigue.     

Yet even if his heart had become still, it could not stop him from searching. Even if he no longer used his legs to move forward and even if he had been moving forward in the vast universe while sitting on the Feng Shui compass for a long time… he still could not bury the hope in him for meeting his loved ones again.     

He searched, and searched, and continued searching.     

When eighty million years went by, Su Ming found Ye Wang's marks. Just like Ye Wang, his mark shone with a piercing light, and it was slightly blinding to the eyes. He was in the horn located at the head of a ferocious beast in the vast universe.     

That ferocious beast was laying sprawled before Su Ming right then, and he was trembling. It had only sensed a hint of Su Ming's presence, and the presence had nearly terrified it to death.     

He stared at the horn on the creature's head. In his silence, Su Ming lifted his right hand and pointed forward. When he pulled his finger back, Ye Wang's soul fragment appeared on his palm.     

He put away the soul fragment very carefully, and Su Ming closed his eyes to continue searching.     

Time flowed. Su Ming continued searching. No one knew how many epochs had passed. The eight butterflies in the vast universe had also overlapped their wings countless times, though no one knew the precise number.     

When around two hundred and fifty million years passed, Su Ming shuddered while he was in the vast universe. His eyes flew open, and the brightest sparkle over the course of countless years since he began searching appeared in his eyes. The light was so strong that it instantly caused the vast universe to tremble and rumble. The eight butterflies too, shivered, and they did not dare move even an inch.     

An excitement that had never appeared on Su Ming's face lit up on him. He slowly stood up, and when he took a step forward, his foot had even begun trembling. His eyes were fixed on a ball of fog before him, and growing in it… was a white flower.     

That fog was like rain, and when the small white flower was within it, it was like a flower in the rain. She looked weak, but she had her own brand of determination. It was as if she was also waiting for the person she waited for to arrive.     

She waited… for two hundred and fifty million something years. She waited for the ferryman who protected her from the rain when they were at the River of Forgetfulness all those years ago, and who eventually carried her to his boat.     

Tears fell from Su Ming's eyes, but a happy smile appeared on his face. He slowly approached the small white flower in the fog and gazed at her deeply. He opened his mouth, looking as if he wanted to say something, but no sound came out of his mouth.     

Because he had already forgotten how to speak.     

But these were none of his concern. He laughed happily. While his laughter was silent, the appearance of his smile seemed to have caused ripples to appear in the vast universe. As those ripples spread out, Su Ming lifted his hand gently and tenderly raised the small white flower from the fog, cradling her in his hand.     

His tears fell from the corners of his eyes and slid down his cheeks. One of them fell on the small white flower like a dewdrop, causing her to seem to extend her leaves, and making her seem to be… smiling sweetly, so sweetly that it caused Su Ming to be caught in a daze.     

That leaf touched Su Ming's palm, and that gentle touch was just as beautiful as it was in Su Ming's memories.     

He stared at the small white flower on his palm, and Su Ming's happy smile dyed the cycles of life and death in the vast universe in its color. He… found Yu Xuan.     

He put the small white flower into the world in his world gently, then turning his feelings of cherishing her into something precious so that that feeling could stay with him, just like how the flower had quietly accompanied him all those years ago beside the River of Forgetfulness, under the eaves beside a lonely figure in a straw cape while rain poured around them.     

The small white flower in the rain was a daylily. There was no sadness about her. To Su Ming, she was part of his determination and what he cared for, and it was also as if she had brought sunlight to his life, causing Su Ming to be able to find mark after mark in the cycles of life and death in the vast universe in the future.     

Even though those marks did not contain the faces that had brought about Su Ming's determination, but the bits and pieces of their existences in his memories marked their roles in his life as people who had originally appeared in his life as guests, and who then left into the distance. These people might once be his enemies, or strangers who moved past him after they brushed their shoulders against his, but Su Ming took those marks with him while treating them as valuable treasures. At that moment, he no longer held any hostility to any of those lives.     

He found Su Xuan Yi, found all the people in the land of Berserkers, found the people in Divine Source Star Ocean, found Morning Dao Sect's De Shun, found his old friends from Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos, and found the people who drove him to madness in Dark Dawn and Saint Defier.     

He continued on in the cycles of life and death in the vast universe, and then, Su Ming found Change He, but what caused Su Ming's gaze to linger was the mark of an unfamiliar woman beside Chang He's mark.     

That woman leaned against Chang He's mark, and it was the mark belonging to his wife, who had passed away for many years. As he watched her, Su Ming discovered that Chang He's wife had always been by his side… but he had never discovered her presence while he was alive.     

He found more marks. As he walked in the cycles of life and death and walked in the passage of time, when millions of years passed, Su Ming found his eldest senior brother…     

His eldest senior brother's mark was not a speck of dust, but a fighting spirit. It was a vision, and it existed among a pride of beasts in the fog within the vast universe, becoming the source for their fighting spirit to always be at its peak.     

To fight for eternity!     

With the marks he found, with hope, and with determination, Su Ming walked past the fog, and when he left the area, the fog surrounded him, becoming unwilling to leave, as if it did not want Su Ming to leave as well. There was a murmur in the fog, as if it was trying to say something.     

Su Ming stopped. He lowered his head and looked at the fog beside him. After a long, long while, his gaze focused, and deep love appeared in his eyes.     

He found Fang Cang Lan. She was the fog... or rather, Fang Cang Lan found him.     

He took the fog with him, took Fang Cang Lan away with him. The hope in Su Ming's heart grew stronger, but even with that hope, Su Ming knew long ago… that when he brought the world back into existence, when he turned all these marks into Brands of life and made them return, on that day…     

He would only be able to watch them quietly by the side.     

This was not a destiny that had been set in stone since his birth. This was the price for Su Ming's Dao. This was the path he chose, and it was different… from Mie Sheng's.