Pursuit of the Truth
chapter-563

All of this might seem to have happened slowly, but in truth, several breaths had only passed since Su Ming brought out the Welcoming of Deities to the moment it absorbed the soul fragments in the area. Right before his eyes, fog surrounded the the pill, and a large amount of black smoke was still surrounding it, causing his right hand to be enveloped within.

The roars from the second God of Berserkers did not sound as if they came from the surroundings, but were now coming from the Welcoming of Deities. A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes, and without any hesitation, he swallowed the pill!

The instant he did so, Si Ma Xin closed in once again after he was forced to reveal himself. He appeared before Su Ming, and with an apathetic and expressionless face, he hurled his fist straight towards him!

Rumbling sounds echoed in the air. Su Ming retreated seven steps, and when he withdrew, Si Ma Xin followed him, then clenched his fist and struck again.

When Su Ming took his first step backwards, dark light started flickering in his eyes.

When he took his second step, he calmed down, and strangely, his hair grew longer.

At the instant he took his third step, the dark light appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. That flickering light was a peculiar sight to behold.

When he took his fifth, sixth, and seventh steps, his body became slightly thinner. The dark light in his eyes became stronger, and his hair grew to reach his feet. Right when he took his seventh step, a power that did not belong to him erupted from his body.

When that power erupted, Si Ma Xin caught up. Su Ming saw him delivering the same punch as before, straight towards his skull, and at that moment, a dark light flashed in his eyes. He opened his mouth and let out a roar so loud that it shook the sky and earth!

Si Ma Xin’s incoming punch froze, and his flesh was immediately torn apart. Even his body started shattering inch by inch as if a violent gust of wind had swept past him, and at the same time, he started retreating abruptly.

When he did so, his apathetic face changed instantly. His eyes went wide, and shocked disbelief appeared on his face once again. His breathing quickened, his body shuddered, and his disbelief caused him to be overwhelmed by an indefinable shock towards Su Ming!

"God of Berserkers’ roar… This is the God of Berserkers’ roar! This is impossible! This shouldn’t be possible!" Shock was evident in Si Ma Xin’s voice. That attack just then was indeed the God of Berserker’s roar!

Su Ming stood in midair and looked towards Si Ma Xin, the dark light in his eyes shining. At that moment, his head was clear, but he was still a little rusty in controlling his body. It was as if there was another force besides him that was controlling his body and fighting according to his will!

This power came from the Welcoming of Deities, or more accurately… the soul fragments in the world that the pill had absorbed!

In fact, there was a strong feeling raging in Su Ming’s heart. That feeling came from the God of Berserkers’ left hand in the sea, and it was a feeling of a blood bond so strong that it was thicker than water. It was as if this left hand belonged to him!

In truth, he could even sense something calling out to him from the God of Berserkers’ left hand, as if he was connected to it!

However, Su Ming knew that this feeling was not because of him. It came from… the soul fragments within the Welcoming of Deities, which it had absorbed from the world!

Su Ming! Si Ma Xin!

When they had their first battle in Freezing Sky Clan all those years ago, all the people watching had thought that their divine abilities were incredibly similar, and even their temperament was similar. Many people had remembered this feeling in their hearts.

Right now, while there might be no one watching their final battle, but the skills and divine abilities both Su Ming and Si Ma Xin revealed were still… similar!

If Si Ma Xin had received the second God of Berserkers’ inheritance and used the power stored in the God of Berserkers’ arm to boost his combat powers to the max, as well as to let himself gain his current appearance, then the Su Ming now could also be said to have gained the second God of Berserkers’ inheritance!

However, his method was different from the one used by Si Ma Xin. He had absorbed the second God of Berserkers’ soul, had the soul enter his mind, and had that mind fill his whole body!

Si Ma Xin had inherited the God of Berserker’s power, had that power enter his body, then had his body cause his mind to scatter!

They had different inheritances, different manners of manifesting their inheritances, different methods to obtain those inheritances, but what was similar… was the second God of Berserkers!

Su Ming closed his eyes and spread out his will through his body to fuse with the power contained within the Welcoming of Deities. Once he did so, his eyes flew open, and he lifted his right foot to take a step forward.

An illusion immediately appeared on the ice above them. A huge foot appeared with a bang within that illusion.

This… was what Si Ma Xin had cast earlier - the God of Berserkers’ Seven Steps!

As Su Ming executed that Art, Si Ma Xin’s body tumbled backwards. He lifted his right hand and hurled a punch towards the incoming gigantic foot from above. With a loud bang, the footprint collapsed and vanished. At the same time, Si Ma Xin was forced back several hundreds of feet. When he lifted his head, madness appeared in his eyes.

"This is impossible! I’m the one who should be the second God of Berserkers’ scion! I’m the one who should be!"

In his madness, Si Ma Xin lifted his hands swiftly and clasped them together above his head, then with his index finger and thumb, he formed a round mark above his head!

At the same moment, Su Ming’s eyes sparkled. He lifted his hands as well and had four of his fingers connect above his head to form the exact same mark Si Ma Xin had done!

"I know… all the divine abilities you inherited!" Su Ming declared languidly. Dark light shone in his eyes, and at that moment, he had let go of his control over his body, allowing the power of the Welcoming of Deities to control it to fight!

"God of Berserkers’ alteration towards the stars, sun, and moon. First Alteration… Disaster of the Stars!" Si Ma Xin shouted, and his hands parted swiftly from the top of his head before he swung his arms towards the sky. With it, a large amount of the ice above them immediately crumbled and shattered away to reveal an illusionary shadow above.

The illusion was of a sky with numerous stars glittering in it. As they moved and shone, they grouped together to form a huge arm. It looked as if it stretched out of the sky and was swiftly descending on Su Ming.

The same words tumbled out of Su Ming’s mouth in whispers. With a swing of his arm, another piece of sky filled with stars appeared above them. However, this one was completely different from the one Si Ma Xin had brought up!

It was an unfamiliar sky to the people of South Morning. This was the night that belonged to Su Ming’s memories - Dark Mountain’s night sky!

As the stars shone in the sky, they also formed an arm. Once the two arms made appeared, they crashed into each other with a bang. A power strong enough to cause the sky to crumble and the earth to shatter erupted swiftly at that instant.

The skies filled with stars were torn apart, and the ice above them crumbled completely. A large amount of seawater charged in madly, causing the space within the ice to be filled rapidly the sea. By the looks of it, before long, this place would truly become a part of the seabed!

Si Ma Xin coughed up blood and took several steps back. Just as he wanted to go and absorb the power from the God of Berserkers’ left hand so that he could recover his vitality, he discovered, much to his shock, that he could no longer absorb any more power from it!

It was as if there was a will contained within the God of Berserker’s arm that stopped him from absorbing his inheritance!

"Si Ma Xin, it’s my turn to attack now," Su Mint stated calmly. As he stood in midair, he lifted his right hand and bent his body slightly, making it look as if he had taken the form of a crescent moon!

Right as he did so, a string of words that made Si Ma Xin sink into despair fell out of his mouth.

"God of Berserkers’ alteration towards the stars, sun, and moon, Second Alteration… Shift in the Moon!"

Once those words were spoken, an intense dark light spread out from Su Ming’s body. As it shone, his entire body turned into a crescent moon. Moonlight shone through the entire area, and wherever it went, the place would be filled with a cold and murderous air!

Almost the instant he activated his divine ability, an illusion of a moon immediately appeared around Si Ma Xin’s body. That illusion covered his entire body, and a true life-threatening sense of death rose in his heart.

With Si Ma Xin’s inheritance and his current level of cultivation, he could execute the Disaster of the Stars from the alteration towards the stars, sun, and moon. As for the other two styles that came later, he could not execute them. At that moment, when he saw Su Ming executing the stronger Shift in the Moon, he lifted his right hand and struck his chest viciously in despair.

From that one strike, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. The Berserker Bones in his body were crushed, the foundation he built in the Awakening Realm collapsed, his thoughts as a Berserker Soul shattered, and all the cultivation bases in his body became a muddled mess.

This sort of chaos would definitely kill him if he did not have any life force providing nourishment to him! However, Si Ma Xin knew that if he did not do this, then he would definitely die. It would be better if he did something crazy instead. Before his death, he would drag Su Ming to hell with him!

"You’re… dying together with me!" Blood trickled out of the corners of Si Ma Xin’s lips. A ferocious expression twisted his face. As he roared, he lifted his right hand and positioned himself in the exact same pose as Su Ming.

"God of Berserkers’ alteration towards the stars, sun, and moon, Second Alteration… Shift in the Moon!" As Si Ma Xin roared, his body became the same as Su Ming’s. He, too, turned into a crescent moon in the depths of the sea!

If he did not cause his cultivation bases to fall into a muddled mess, did not cause them to completely shatter and explode, then he would have been unable to execute the second Alteration from the the alteration of the stars, sun, and moon. At that moment, he could no longer care about anything. With death as the consequence, he executed this Art, and immediately, the illusion of a crescent moon also appeared around Su Ming!

"Moon Slaughter!"

"Moon Slaughter!"

Two voices shouting the exact same words exploded from the world in the depths of the sea. At the instant they erupted forth, the dark shadows of the crescent moon around Su Ming and Si Ma Xin shattered and crumbled at the same time. Booming sounds came from their bodies, which seemed to have fused together with the shadows.

Su Ming coughed up a huge mouthful of blood straight from his heart. He was sent tumbling backwards until he reached a thousand feet away, and when he coughed up blood once again, he lifted his head swiftly.

Si Ma Xin’s right arm exploded and his right leg shattered. His body was flung out and blood filled the water. The right arm and leg he lost did not recover as it did in the past, but… was gone for real instead!

"I can’t accept this! I can’t accept this!" Si Ma Xin cried out shrilly. He could feel his life force fading away, and at that moment, he was already heading straight towards death, but he… could not accept this!

"This is not my fate! It absolutely isn’t!"