Pursuit of the Truth

Chapter 1446: Ninth Echelon

With his own method, Su Ming swiftly overtook both princes. The moment he was above them and lifted his head, he saw the ninth echelon!

That place could indeed be known as the sky. It was a huge stone platform of a grand total of one million lis. In fact, it was no longer quite appropriate to call it a stone platform. It should be known as a continent, and when those under it lifted their heads to look above, they would naturally treat the continent as the sky!

It was a piece of land serving as the sky!

The ancient tree went right through the center of that land serving as the sky, and then extended right above the continent. Su Ming could not see that place, but he could imagine the size of the ancient tree and its indescribable power. He could... even indirectly sense the tree’s former glory!

It was once a huge tree of the world that reached the sky. It stood above the nine heavens and nourished the world. A butterfly was born on each of the nine branches of that tree, and nine other continents were derived from them to form the complete outline of that world. It was what allowed cultivators of Boundless Dao Realm to appear in that world!

If Emperor Xuan Zang had not entered that world, then perhaps... that world would still be as majestic as before!

Su Ming stared at the land serving as the sky as well as the ancient tree that caused his heart to tremble. At that moment, he remembered the Sacred Wood he had brought out. While the Sacred Wood was found in Harmonious Morus Alba, at its earliest days, it had floated in the endless universe beyond. Su Ming had once thought about its origins, but had never obtained an answer.

It was only at that moment that he suddenly had a very strong feeling... that perhaps, when the world crumbled in the past, some tiny branches had fallen off the tree and scattered into the universe. One of them had then become the Sacred Wood.

It was only Su Ming’s guess, and he did not have concrete proof.

At that moment, he sucked in a deep breath. The Feng Shui compass under his feet shone, and he became even faster. With his advantage of being in the lead, what Su Ming needed to do at that moment was to gain a solid grip of that advantage and then continue expanding it.

The first prince was about tens of thousands of feet behind him, and his expression was incredibly dark. The Dao Spirits of the three old men behind him swiftly rotated, and then, the first prince opened his eyes. He sucked in a deep breath, and at the instant he did so, the entire world moved with a bang, as if the first prince had turned into a huge black hole right then and there. In an instant, he absorbed all the aura in the world, causing the air to distort and ripples to spread out. He then let out a deep roar.

When his roar shook the sky and earth, the first prince’s speed instantly increased exponentially. He moved in a flash and appeared less than one thousand feet behind Su Ming. Right when he appeared, blood trickled out of the corners of his mouth, but judging by the brilliant spark in his eyes, he could execute this sort of shift one more time.

It had to be known that the place around them was a void. It was the area around the ancient tree, and there was a huge repelling force. It could disrupt the power of cultivation bases and lock down the world. All divine abilities would become much weaker there, and it was even more so for shifts, which was a power that allowed people to transport themselves across distances. In that place, Arts like that were completely suppressed.

Which was why even though the first prince had used Dao Spirit Protection and borrowed its power to shift, the task had still been a little difficult for him, and it was especially so since they were getting closer to the ninth echelon. The repelling force only grew stronger near it.

Almost at the same time the first prince shifted, the second prince’s eyes shone in a chilling manner, and a dark, sinister smile suddenly appeared on his lips. He did not cast any Arts in an attempt to seize the position of being the first to step into the ninth echelon. Instead, he just maintained his own speed and watched the events that transpired above him.

‘Big brother is headstrong and self-opinionated, having him deal with my younger brother is the best way for me to gain all benefits for myself while they fight against each other!’

The second prince was a sinister man. At that moment, while he smiled coldly, he had already gone through quite a number of diabolical ideas in his head.

The first prince was about to catch up, but Su Ming’s expression was calm. While he was already close to the ninth echelon, he would not be able to get there within a short period of time. No matter what, he would need the time for half an incense stick to burn to get there.

His speed did not change, but a hint of ferociousness had appeared on his face, as if he wanted to do everything he could to maintain his advantage, but he also seemed to have already reached his limit and unable to speed up any longer. At that moment, the first prince was about one thousand feet behind him.

He then roared again, and the aura in the area swiftly surged into him. He shifted again, and this time, he overtook Su Ming and appeared thousands of feet in front of him. The first prince coughed up blood, but when he lowered his head, a ferocious and smug smirk appeared on his lips.

Su Ming’s expression was dark, but he could no longer speed up, and instead, he became slower. In just about ten breaths, the distance between him and the first prince had already widened to about ten thousand feet. On the other hand, the distance between him and the second prince below him had closed up to less than one thousand feet.

The second prince narrowed his eyes slightly. That was something he did not expect. At that moment, while he was busy wracking his mind to concoct a different plan, his expression suddenly changed, because Su Ming was no longer chasing after the first prince desperately. He started becoming slower with each passing moment and seemed to want to stop the second prince from progressing.

‘Damn it, I overlooked his power. With his current level of cultivation, even if he borrowed external power to help him, it’s impossible for him to maintain that speed for long. He knows that he won’t be able to catch up to our eldest brother and intends to interfere with my movements. His goal is very clear. Even if he can’t be the first to step into the ninth echelon, he will hold me back and make sure that he will step into the ninth echelon with me.

‘Once he holds me back and stops me from progressing, he will also gain an upper hand. It’ll still be better for him than to be last!’

At the instant that thought appeared in the second prince’s head, Su Ming closed in on him. He lifted his right hand and formed a seal, and the light from his divine ability immediately surged into the sky. Booming sounds echoed in the air, and he engaged in a fight against the second prince.

“DAMN IT!!”

The second prince’s expression became even darker. He originally wanted to watch Su Ming and the first prince get entangled in a fight so that he could be the one who would benefit from the situation, but right then, his actions had helped the first prince, and this caused a tidal wave to immediately go on a rampage in his heart.

While fighting against Su Ming, he could no longer think about any other plans. When he saw that the first prince was getting closer to the ninth echelon, the second prince swiftly lifted his right hand and struck his chest. A loud bang shot up, and at the instant he drew close to Su Ming, his body broke down on its own.

When Su Ming phased through it, he turned his head around only to see the second prince’s body turn into a large amount of fog that contorted into a humanoid beast with a pair of horns on its head. With a burst of speed that far surpassed his previous speed, he instantly charged upwards.

In the blink of an eye, he widened the distance between him and Su Ming and charged towards the first prince. In his eyes, due to his level of cultivation, it was already decided that Su Ming would be the last. Right then, what he needed to do was to fight for the advantage of being the first to enter the ninth echelon against the first prince.

At that moment, the second prince no longer held anything back. He instantly closed the distance between him and the second prince, and when he drew closer, killing intent shone in the eldest prince’s eyes. He had been paying attention to the fight between the second prince and Su Ming, and he also saw how Su Ming’s speed had been slowing down, so he could tell that Su Ming had used his full strength earlier.

“Second, do you truly insist on fighting against me in this place?” the first prince immediately said, and his voice thundered in every direction.

“This is...”

Just when the second prince was about to speak, the first prince’s eyes shone, and he no longer charged forward. Instead, he turned around and lifted his right hand to throw a punch at the second prince. Immediately, the three guardian spirits around him charged to attack.

A smile appeared at the corners of the second prince’s lips. He was not at all surprised by the turn of events. When the first prince’s divine ability closed in on him, he lifted his hands and pushed his palms flat at the air in front of him.

A huge shadow, which was about one thousand feet tall, appeared around him. It was a huge humanoid beast with a pair of horns and used its body to crash against the first prince’s divine ability.

Booming sounds echoed in the world, which caused the ancient tree to tremble. The first prince and the second prince continuously clashed with their divine abilities while they still maintained their speed of going upwards.

Su Ming was about ten thousand feet beneath the two of them. He watched the scene coldly with a hint of a cold sneer at the corners of his lips. He had indeed used all his power to activate the Feng Shui compass beneath him; however... he had yet to activate his four wills. The power of those wills surpassed divine sense, and they were Su Ming’s final trump card.

While he maintained the distance of ten thousand feet away from the others, Su Ming kept his attention on his distance to the ninth echelon. Later, to make sure that the first and second princes were no longer wary of him, he made sure that he gradually slowed down, and by then, he was already twenty thousand feet away from them.

The first and second princes’ fight reached its most crucial point. The two of them fought against each other and brought forth their full power, trying to outdo the other and become the first to step into the ninth echelon.

They were three hundred thousand feet away from the ninth echelon... then two hundred thousand feet... and then, one hundred thousand feet... Booming sounds rang out in the area.

When they were fifty thousand feet away from the ninth echelon, intense rumbles resounded through the air. The guardian spirits around the first prince shrank swiftly, and when he sucked in a breath, he swallowed everything around him. A large number of runic symbols were reflected off his pupils. He shifted and launched his final charge.

The second prince let out a cold harrumph. All the fog on him instantly expanded with a bang. As he continued moving forward, his body also instantly grew bigger. With these two methods, his speed became on par with that of the first prince. While the first prince shifted and the second prince’s charged forward, they were forced to attack each other to interfere with the other’s movements once more.

Right then, when they were merely tens of thousands of feet away from the ninth echelon, Su Ming had his four wills erupt from his body with a bang. They fused into the Feng Shui compass beneath his feet. His hair moved without wind, and when his robes fluttered swiftly, Su Ming looked to have turned into a shooting star that instantly charged forward.

He was so fast that his speed was difficult to describe with words. The four great wills surrounded him, and his power grew by a lot. Right then, he was fifty thousand feet from the top, thirty thousand, ten thousand...

Like a sharp arrow fired from below, he tore through space!

In an instant, a loud howl that shook the sky stunned the two fighting opponents. The first prince and second prince were only thousands of feet away from the ninth echelon right then. When the two of them lowered their heads, their expressions changed.

With a loud bang, Su Ming moved past them on the side, and in the next breath... he reached the ninth echelon while moving along the ancient tree. Then... he appeared right in the ninth echelon!