Pursuit of the Truth
chapter-999

Chapter 999: A Chessboard

The appearance of the Fire Spirits instantly caused the world to turn fire red. The seething sea of fire, the high temperature, the ruthless expressions on the Fire Spirits, and the mighty pressure coming from their sheer numbers instantly caused the hearts of all people to tremble!

The corpse of the white-robed teenager with the blood of Ancient Wu fell in the region where the crack had formed on the ground. Almost at the instant the Fire Spirits surged up and their roars reverberated in the air in a shocking manner, his corpse vanished without a trace deep in the crevice.

No one dared to chase after him to search for him. Even the expression Flame Fiends’ Progenitor changed the instant he saw that large number of Fire Spirits. Since he longed greatly for the white-robed teenager’s corpse, he would have gone right after if the Fire Spirits were just normal ones. But among them, there were around a dozen who were nearly Almighties in Mastery Realm. They… were the reason why everyone’s expressions changed.

Roars echoed in the air, Flame Fiends’ Progenitor had his Nascent Divinity shrink. A large amount of flames instantly shot out from it. They enveloped his entire body, and he did not dare move a single inch. Based on his experience, this method was not really effective when there was no one else around him, but if there had been someone, he might escape death.

After all, the element spreading out from his body was also fire.

Su Ming’s eyes shrank. At that moment, he was already like the last embers of a dying flame. There was no way he could hide. The only thing he could do was to use his fastest speed to take a few steps backwards. He swung his arm and put away the severely injured Resentful Wei into his storage bag.

Almost at the instant he finished doing this, the large number of Fire Spirits that had surged out split into two parts. One of them charged towards the body of the supreme treasure, while the other came roaring after Su Ming.

Before the ruthless expressions, ferocious gazes, and endless sea of fire spreading out of their bodies closed in, the ground looked as if it was about to melt from the heat. This was a fire that could burn a world!

During that moment of danger, after Su Ming gritted his teeth and put away the Resentful Wei, he prepared himself to summon the Sand Spirit to neutralize this impending disaster. But suddenly, he saw a scene that caused his gaze to focus and a strange expression to instantly appear on his face.

The Fire Spirits who were charging towards him came to an abrupt halt in midair once he put away the Resentful Wei, as if they had charged towards him because of the black horse. Right then, no traces of the Resentful Wei could be found, so as if they could not see Su Ming, they turned their to look around, then their expressions regained their ruthlessness. As they roared… they rushed towards Flame Fiends’ Progenitor who was enveloped in flames in hopes to pass off as a ball of fire.

The pupils of Flame Fiends’ Progenitor shrank, and he immediately began cursing. He had used this method many times to lie his way through disasters, but this time, much to his grievance, he realized that even though Su Ming was standing in midair, those Fire Spirits… did not even spare him a glance. This matter caused Flame Fiends’ Progenitor to feel aggrieved, but at the same time, he did not have time to think too much about it. In a flash, he turned into a long arc that escaped into the distance.

There was the sound of air being sliced, and a large number of Fire Spirits rushed madly after Flame Fiends’ Progenitor.

After Su Ming had left the body of the supreme treasure, Xuan Shang had become the main soul once more. When the Fire Spirits closed in on him, his heart shuddered, and he instantly had the body of the supreme body to shoot up from the ground. He turned into a long arc and fled into the distance. Like before, a portion of the Fire Spirits split up to chase after him like a swarm of bees.

Su Ming was momentarily stunned, because all of that had happened in the span of a few breaths. The Fire Spirits had surged into the sky and filled it in the start, but in an instant, the land became empty… All the Fire Spirits had split up to chase after Flame Fiends’ Progenitor and the body of the supreme treasure, but they did not come after Su Ming, as if they didn’t care for him at all…

Su Ming blinked. He remembered his previous assumption: It seemed like the Fire Spirits in this land did not harbor any hostility towards him.

A faint glint shone in his eyes, then he looked towards the crack in the distance. He did not act rashly, but instead sat down cross-legged and began circulating his cultivation base to swiftly heal himself.

After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Su Ming opened his eyes. He managed to suppress some of the injuries in his body, and without any hesitation, he charged into the crack on the ground. He did not care about the white-robed teenager’s corpse, but he cared about his storage bag… because the catwoman was clearly in it.

The reason behind why the situation in which either he or the white-robed teenager had to die was in truth caused by the catwoman. Even though she did not have much of a connection with Su Ming, but he had taken over everything that belonged to Dao Kong, and that catwoman had thus become one of his subordinates. Because of that, there was no way he would allow her to be used as a blood source.

The crack was very big, and it was dark inside. The area was incredibly spacious. At full speed, Su Ming charged into the depths. Before long, when he stepped into the bottom most layer of the crack, his pupils constricted, and he began observing the area around him carefully.

This was a secret tunnel, but the crack above it had allowed the Fire Spirits to rush out. When he looked around him, his gaze landed in the distance, where the white-robed teenager’s corpse lay unmoving.

While walking closer, Su Ming stared at the white-robed teenager, whose eyes were still open, but had long become dull and lifeless, and who had died without peace. A cold sneer curled up on his lips.

“You are the first Almighty I killed, but you definitely won’t be the last.”

Su Ming swung his right hand, and the white-robed teenager’s storage bag flew out to him. Once he caught it, he scanned it with his Atman. Due to the white-robed teenager’s death, his storage bag had become an item without an owner. With his Atman, Su Ming immediately saw the catwoman sealed inside. She was unconscious at the moment. There was a mark of a centipede at the center of her brows, which was slowly fading away.

Su Ming stared at it, then his eyes shone suddenly. Without batting an eyelid, he patted the white-robed teenager’s corpse with his right hand, and immediately, he put away his corpse. Only once he finished doing this did he stand up. Almost at the instant he did that, his left index finger pointed behind him as his body moved.

However, the gust of wind from his finger formed by his divine ability did not shoot outwards. Not too far away behind him was a Fire Spirit that was clearly a baby. It had its eyes wide open and was gawking at Su Ming.

This Fire Spirit was very small and did not even reach Su Ming’s knees. It was crouching on the ground, without a hint of malice on its face. Instead, it was filled with curiosity.

When Su Ming looked towards it, the baby Fire Spirit looked as if it had been scared by him and immediately took a few steps back. At the same time, interest appeared on its face. This hen caused it to move forward slightly. When it looked at Su Ming, its expression gradually grew gentle. There was no fear on it, only a look of ease and comfort.

This comfortable feeling allowed it to get closer to Su Ming. When it was only dozens of feet away, it moved in a flash and charged towards Su Ming. A fierce look appeared in Su Ming’s eyes, but he did not dodge. He wanted to verify his guess, and so allowed the Fire Spirit to come towards him. When he saw the small Fire Spirit lying by his feet with a delighted expression on its face while hugging onto his calf and refusing to let go, a thought rose in his heart.

‘Could it be that the Fire Spirits are also like the one thousand feet tall tree?’

As Su Ming contemplated it, he moved, intending to leave the crack, but the moment he moved, the baby Fire Spirit let go and swiftly returned to the spot it had been crouching in earlier. Then once it beckoned for Su Ming to come over, it moved in a flash and disappeared without a trace into the tunnel.

A pensive look appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. The meaning behind the young Fire Spirit’s actions was clear. It wanted him to enter the tunnel. After he pondered over it silently for a moment, Su Ming took a step forward and walked into the tunnel. When he stepped inside, he saw the small Fire Spirit waiting for him at a fork in the distance. When it saw him following, it immediately grinned and ran forward again.

Like this, Su Ming followed after the baby Fire Spirit in a place that was filled with tunnels which created a complicated maze. He continued moving as time trickled by. After about an hour, when the Fire Spirit had allowed Su Ming to approach it, he saw an incredibly large and spacious underground cave!

This was a place that was several tens of thousands of feet tall. It was dark in the area, Su Ming could clearly see hollowed pits all over the ground; there were countless caves on the walls. If he was to describe this underground world as a maze, then this was surely its core.

In silence, Su Ming stared at a skeleton leaning against the wall of the cave on the ground beneath him. Only half of that skeleton remained, but Su Ming saw… a long spear that the skeleton held in its hand!

The spear was purple at first, but when he took a few closer looks, he saw it turn black, as if it was occasionally changing between black and purple.

Near the skeleton were two old Fire Spirits. They were clearly very old and were sitting cross-legged like cultivators. Between them was a chessboard with a couple chess pieces on it. The two Fire Spirits… were clearly playing chess!

The baby Fire Spirit was crouching beside the chessboard and beckoning Su Ming to come to its side.

Su Ming focused. As he pondered over it, he moved. Since he had already come to this place, then he might as well get to the bottom of it. When he approached the chessboard between the two old Fire Spirits, his gaze first swept past the creatures, but they did not seem to have noticed his arrival. They did not even lift their heads, but continued moving the chess pieces about the chessboard while contemplating their next moves.

This scene was incredibly bizarre. In silence, Su Ming looked over the chessboard.

This was a board game he had never seen before. There were only ten chess pieces scattered over it. Five of them were gray, and four of them were white. There was only one that was black.

No matter how he looked at it, that black chess piece looked as if it had appeared out of nowhere and gave off an incredibly discordant feeling. After all, nine was the peak of all numbers, so the additional black piece gave the entire chessboard a feeling as if a powerful sense of slaughter was contained within it.

Four white chess pieces looked as if they had surrounded the black piece so that they could kill it in order to restore harmony to the chessboard.

Su Ming stared at it. When his gaze landed on the black piece, he frowned.

Time trickled by slowly, and after a long moment, the old Fire Spirit on the right side of the chessboard let out a sigh filled with an ancient air.