He walked past mountains and rivers, walked past ruins, looked at dust, and saw deserts …
It was just like how in the previous breath, flowers were blooming like brocade, and in the next breath, all of them had withered. Whose face was not old, whose sighs were still around, and whose past … was not beautiful?
Su Ming sat before the ruins and watched the sun set. He sat beside mountains and rivers and watched dusk arrive. His laughter seemed to have pierced through time and echoed in his ears, causing people to lower their heads and be unable to tell … what sort of karma existed between the beautiful past and the destroyed present, and what sort of cycles of life and death were contained within them. Otherwise … why would everything in the same world change during the time he opened and closed his eyes?
Under the rising sun, Su Ming could be seen at the edge of the desert with the boy in his arms. When the sun rose, Su Ming's shadow was also elongated in the mountains and rivers, as if it would follow him forever. It was as if he had become an existence in the world and was guiding the wind and snow towards them.
He walked through noon, walked through the four seasons …
He moved through the desert, walked past the continents, and continued walking towards the heart at the center. He had no direction, and he did not want to fly either. He walked and walked in the once beautiful world, as if he was walking on his own path of Dao.
One year, two years, three years … until one hundred years passed.
During those one hundred years, Su Ming remained the same. The boy was still in his arms. The two of them did not change, just like how the world did not change. It was the past.
During spring, all manner of things came to life, but in this world, no green could be seen, no flowers could be seen, and there was no time to be broken. During summer, heat filled the air, and the entire land seemed to be distorted by the waves of heat. Only at that moment could people see some figures that had existed in the past through the distortions in the mountains and rivers.
However, those figures were already distorted, and since they could not be straightened, they could only see memories.
During autumn, there was no green in spring, which was why no red could be seen in autumn. Only the colorful clouds that would occasionally appear in the sky seemed to be unable to bear the monotony of the land, which was why they appeared to give people hope.
During winter, snow fell from the sky, and when the cold wind blew, the world turned into a vast expanse. No one could see into the distance. The only things that could be seen were countless snowflakes. As they fell, they seemed to be trying to touch each other, but what decided whether two snowflakes could touch each other was not the snowflakes themselves, but the wind.
But no matter what the will of the wind was, when the snowflakes fell to the ground, they … could still gradually meet. It was just that the faces that met might not be the faces that fell together.
Su Ming held the boy in his arms as he walked through the wind and snow. He walked past the depths of winter and welcomed spring. He sent away summer, and when he saw the red of autumn, it was still a snowy day.
Two hundred years had passed. In this once glorious world, they gradually saw corpses that were either shattered, half-turned into ashes, or still in their former glory.
Most of the corpses had already dried up. Some of them were in the ruins of the city, while others were scattered across the land, mountains, rivers, and deserts.
There were countless corpses, some of them with men and women hugging each other before they died. There were also some mothers who instinctively protected their children, their bodies outlined together as they silently returned to the dust.
In the midst of the boy's grief, Su Ming went with him to bury the corpses. They buried cities after cities, and they buried places after places …
On a drizzling afternoon in the summer of that year, Su Ming held the sleeping boy in his arms and stopped before an incredibly vast city in the distance. He saw a headless figure sitting cross-legged on the city.
It was a gigantic city. It was the third incredibly large city Su Ming had seen on the third continent he had passed through. This … was once the core of the continent, and it was where the capital was located.
It was just like Ancient Zang's royal capital. In truth, the continent in this once glorious world was equivalent to all of Ancient Zang.
As he stared at the figure sitting on the city, a complicated look appeared in Su Ming's eyes. He had already recognized the person who followed the second prince. It was his eldest senior brother from his memories.
However, he was not the first familiar person Su Ming saw in Ancient Zang, but even so, the soft sigh that came from the bottom of his heart still echoed in Su Ming's heart, refusing to disappear even after a long time had passed.
The headless figure did not move. He sat cross-legged on the city and faced Su Ming. There was no sign of life in him, and neither was there any aura of death. It was as if he had been fixed in place and had turned … into a statue.
At the same time, the gate to the city suddenly opened on its own. Groups of soldiers in black armor walked out slowly with an orderly sound that caused the ground to tremble. Each of them had a thick aura of death around them. It was so thick that it instantly threw the sky into chaos, causing the sunlight in the afternoon to turn black.
These people were the people of the land. After they died many years ago, they were refined into corpse puppets and turned into black armor, causing the city to turn from a city of death into a world of corpse puppets.
"Old friend, I am delighted to meet you in a foreign land. Please!" At the instant the city gate was opened, an awe-inspiring voice reverberated in the air from within the palace and spread in all directions, falling into Su Ming's ears.
That voice belonged to the second prince.
Su Ming remained silent for a moment, then with the boy in his arms, he walked past the black-armored corpse puppets and entered the city. He saw an endless amount of people in the city, and all of them were corpse puppets. It was as if the entire city was bustling with activity at first glance, but when he took a closer look, he would find that it was just an illusion.
Su Ming walked past the crowd and arrived outside the palace in the city. He looked at the already opened door to the palace, and his gaze seemed to pass through the halls until he saw the person sitting on the throne in the middle of the palace.
It was a person dressed in an Emperor's robe and had an emperor's crown on his head. However, he was in the dark, and Su Ming could not see him clearly.
In silence, Su Ming walked down the flagged path and the stairs until he walked into the palace at the center. He saw the man sitting on the throne.
He had the exact same face as the second prince, but the feeling he gave Su Ming was no longer one of familiarity.
"Di Tian," Su Ming said softly.
"It is me!" The man in the Emperor's robe smiled when he heard Su Ming's words. He stood up swiftly and walked out of the darkness. His appearance might be different from the Di Tian in Su Ming's memories, but his presence was that of no one else but Di Tian.
There was still a vortex in Di Tian's right eye. It was like a seal, but right then, what was sealed in it was a struggling and roaring soul. That soul belonged to the second prince.
Su Ming did not know how Di Tian had managed to turn the tables over two hundred years, but with Di Tian's experience, his ability to scheme against Su Xuan Yi for ten thousand years, and his ability to connect with Su Ming's Life Matrix after Harmonious Morus Alba was destroyed, it was clear that he … was definitely not someone the second prince could control. As long as he had a chance, he could replace the second prince.
"Su Ming, the most prodigious cultivator over the countless aeons in the seventh Harmonious Morus Alba, the one who personally witnessed Harmonious Morus Alba's destruction, and who still chose to Possess Xuan Zang before him … it has been a long time since we last met." When Di Tian said those words faintly, he took a step forward. His voice echoed in all directions and shook the entire palace. It was as if the world outside had become even more chaotic.
"Because of you, I managed to avoid death. Because of you, I stepped into that illusory world with you. Over the years, I have been suppressed by that laughable second prince, but I have always understood that I am Di Tian. I am definitely not the second prince, because he is just a prince, and I … am the Emperor of the Immortals!" Di Tian took another step forward. When his foot landed, he stood in front of Su Ming and met his gaze.
"Haven't you noticed that the world we are in right now … is different from Ancient Zang? Ancient Zang's world is fake, but this place … is real! " Di Tian swung his arm, and black smoke immediately filled the air. In an instant, it turned into a huge table between him and Su Ming.
There was an endless amount of wine on it, and there were also some Corpse Puppets around it. They sang and danced soundlessly, but their stiff movements, the aura of death filling the air, and the dim light filled the place with a bizarre atmosphere.
"When we meet an old friend in a foreign land, we must treat each other with a feast. Su Ming, do you dare to drink the wine here?" Di Tian smiled faintly. He was as arrogant as ever when he looked at Su Ming.
Su Ming was silent. He held the boy in his arms and stared at Di Tian before him. Grief gradually filled his face. He was sad that the illustrious Di Tian in Harmonious Morus Alba Expanse Cosmos had lost himself in the world.
Perhaps it was because he was willing to lose himself, or else with Di Tian's determination, it would have been difficult for him to lose himself if he did not want to.
"Why … did you do this?" Su Ming sighed softly. To Su Ming, it did not matter whether Di Tian was an enemy or an old friend. Their Life Matrices had been severed when Su Ming let out his nine Dao Spirit Voices, but no matter what … he was the second person besides Bei Qiong who possessed his own will among all the people Su Ming had met. Yet when he saw that Di Tian was lost, Su Ming could only sigh.
He stared at Di Tian, and his gaze eventually landed on the area around the throne behind him. Over there, Su Ming seemed to have found his answer.
"Su Ming, do you dare to drink?!" Di Tian did not answer Su Ming's question. Instead, he spoke with a smile. As a brilliant light shone in his eyes, Su Ming cast him a deep glance, then turned around and walked out of the palace.
Behind him, Di Tian's laughter echoed in the air. It seemed to be sending Su Ming off, and only when he left the palace did the laughter gradually fade away. The singing and dancing continued in the palace, but grief gradually appeared on Di Tian's face.
He turned around quietly and walked to the side of the throne. There was a Rune around it, and at that moment, under the dim light, several corpses could be vaguely seen. Each of the corpses had runic symbols carved in blood on their faces.
Di Tian stood in a daze and stared at the corpses. Gradually, the gloomy look on his face disappeared, replaced by determination.
"I promised you that I would resurrect all of you in the new world … This is my promise," Di Tian mumbled. Di Tian muttered as he slowly sat down on his throne. His figure slowly returned to the darkness … He couldn't see clearly, and he couldn't see anything.
"Only when I believe that this place is real will all of you not suspect that this place is fake once you are resurrected. I will use my own loss in exchange for your existence. Even if … this is wrong, I … will admit to it." Anguish appeared on Di Tian's face. When he looked at the soundless corpse puppets in the darkness, he gradually heard a song, and gradually, the stiff corpse puppets in his eyes regained their spirit, as if they had gained life. However, his soft sigh could not stop the song and dance in his eyes, and neither could it travel out of the palace. No one could hear it.
Between destruction and glory, on the border between reality and being lost, Di Tian was already willing to be lost when he heard the singing and dancing and saw the corpses that looked like real people.
"I will use this chapter to ask for a recommendation vote."
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