Gray was a color. It represented gray, which was close to white. Perhaps it was a little inappropriate, because that color would usually give off a heavy, almost desolate feeling when people looked at it.
It was a color, but also desolation.
As for Vast, it represented indistinctness and limitless vastness … When it fused with Gray, it turned into … a boundless Vast Expanse World.
Just how many worlds were there in the Vast Expanse? Just how many sorrows and joys were there? Just how many partings and reunions were there, and whether the flow of time could be counted?
No one knew.
In the Vast Expanse that seemed to have not changed since ancient times was a figure sitting on a huge Feng Shui compass. He was dressed in a long black robe, and his long hair fell over his shoulders. His head was lowered, and a thick aura of death spread out from his body. He … was Xuan Zang!
He sat there and meditated. As the aura of death filled his body, there was an ancient air about him. It was as if he had forgotten how much time had passed and the Dao he had practiced while he was still alive …
At that moment, a sigh tumbled out of Xuan Zang's mouth. When it echoed in the vast universe, he … slowly lifted his head. His eyes, which had been shut all this time, seemed to have never been opened for a very long time … but at that moment, they slowly opened!
At the instant he opened his eyes, endless rumbles echoed through the entire Vast Expanse World. It was as if the entire Vast Expanse had been shocked by Xuan Zang's act of opening his eyes, and the presence spreading out from his eyes had shaken it!
Fog tumbled about and spun around Xuan Zang. Once it turned into a vortex, it swept up the entire Vast Expanse. As the boundless vortex rotated with loud booming sounds, Xuan Zang's eyes opened completely!
A brilliant light that could shake the Vast Expanse was revealed in his eyes. That brilliant light only lasted for an instant before it dissipated and turned calm … Those were not Xuan Zang's eyes, but … Su Ming's!
At the moment Su Ming stepped out of the thirty-third Sky and into the center of Xuan Zang's brow, he … succeeded!
"I succeeded." At the instant Su Ming Possessed Xuan Zang's body opened his eyes, he stared at the familiar Vast Expanse and the vortex in front of him.
When his murmurs echoed in the air, Su Ming lowered his head and looked at the black feather in his opened palm. The bald crane's presence spread out faintly from the feather and filled Su Ming's heart.
"I am … Su Ming." Su Ming closed his eyes. He sensed the body before him and sensed that there was an ancient world in it.
Just like how there was a world in Harmonious Morus Alba's wings, Su Ming also saw a world in the body he had successfully Possessed.
"Xuan Zang didn't fail either." Su Ming stared at the world in his body, and his sigh was ancient. It echoed in the Vast Expanse and the world in his body.
It was … a world that had been dead for an unknown number of years. In it, Su Ming saw Ancient Zang and various sects. However, they had already been reduced to ruins and wreckage. There was not a single living being in them.
It was as if everything had withered away when Xuan Zang closed his eyes in the past and the aura of death filled his body.
"The three thousand years I went through was a Possession. The world of those three thousand years was … Be it Ancient Zang or Xuan Zang, they were all his … memories before he died.
"In these memories, I have become him. Based on this, I have succeeded … but if I stand in his perspective, his goal is to be resurrected, and he will do everything in his power to be resurrected. Right now … he has indeed been resurrected, but he has been resurrected with my will," Su Ming mumbled softly as he stared at the dead world in his body.
Su Ming slowly fell silent until he stopped mumbling. However, time continued passing in the Vast Expanse. It was as if one single change in his thoughts could make one thousand years pass …
When Su Ming lifted his head and put away the feather in his palm, he … slowly stood up on the Feng Shui compass!
At the instant he stood up, the vortex in the Vast Expanse let out a monstrous roar. Its rotation caused the Vast Expanse to look as if it had turned into a boundless raging sea, and Su Ming … stood on the Feng Shui compass. At that moment, he looked like the master of that raging sea.
"This is Boundless Dao," Su Ming whispered to himself. However, there was a bleak tone in his voice, along with loneliness. It was a loneliness that came from him being the only person in the entire Vast Expanse.
"It's just like how a person becomes a god, and from a god … he becomes a sole ruler." Su Ming stood on the Feng Shui compass for a long, long time. Then, he sat down cross-legged again and closed his eyes in the Vast Expanse.
'I've already reached the peak of my Dao …' With his eyes closed, Su Ming sighed in his heart and sucked in a deep breath. Almost at the instant he sucked in a breath, the rotating vortex around him started tumbling with loud rumbles and charged towards him. In an instant, it surged into him from all parts of his body.
As the vortex tumbled about, it continuously crashed into the dead world in Su Ming's body. Gradually, the endless vortex in the Vast Expanse gathered into a single point at the center of the dead world, which was the capital city of Ancient Zang.
That dot was like a seed. In this moment … it was buried deep into the world.
Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, one thousand years passed … and a tree appeared in the originally dead world. It was … the Tree of Dao Verification!
The tree's roots spread through the ground, and with the Vast Expanse as its nutrients, it slowly grew. Just like how Hao Hao had changed a world in the past, Su Ming was using the same method to change the world in his body.
He had an endless amount of time and unimaginable patience to complete the process step by step.
One thousand years later, the Tree of Dao Verification reached the sky and covered the entire world. There were no longer any ruins in the world in Su Ming's body, and neither were there any wreckages. Everything seemed to have returned to its original state. He could see mountain ranges, rivers, and everything in Ancient Zang during the three thousand years in Su Ming's memories.
Perhaps there was some sort of power in the dark that allowed Su Ming to experience three thousand years of Possession, so when he changed the world, it slowly returned to how it was in his memories.
Perhaps the power in the dark belonged to Xuan Zang.
But no matter what, all of that was no longer important. When the Tree of Dao Verification reached the sky in Su Ming's body and its crown replaced the sky, Su Ming opened his eyes while sitting cross-legged.
"There was midwinter in my life, and that was why there was winter in this world. It was like the autumn sun, like the summer rain, and like the abundance of spring. This is my life, and it is also my world," Su Ming mumbled softly. From then on, the world in his body had four seasons.
The Feng Shui compass under Su Ming continued moving forward during the thousands of years, causing Su Ming's body to continuously absorb the power from the Vast Expanse to nourish the world in his body and change the death in the past. Even if the world had already taken form and possessed the four seasons, Su Ming still did not stop moving forward.
As time passed, time also appeared in the world in Su Ming's body. It was as if the world had become a complete entity, and the only thing it lacked … was life.
'I will search for their traces in the cycles of life and death and in the Vast Expanse. When I find all of them … it will be time for me to open the Abyss Gate. It will be the first time I open the Abyss Gate in my life, and it will also be … the last time.' While sitting on the Feng Shui compass, Su Ming stared at the Vast Expanse in the distance and sensed the loneliness of thousands of years. He sensed the loneliness of being alone in all directions, and he knew that this loneliness would last for eternity. There was no end to it.
"This is Boundless Dao," Su Ming said softly. He took off the pearls on his wrist and stared at them for a moment. Then, he swung his left hand at the Vast Expanse. It tumbled about, and an endless amount of power gathered on it. Once it fused into the pearls, Su Ming kept the seventh pearl. When he swung his arm, six of the pearls seemed to possess life. They turned into butterflies and flew into the distance until they disappeared before his eyes.
Only the seventh pearl remained in Su Ming's palm.
"From now on, there will only be eight butterflies in the Vast Expanse. They will be my hope in searching for their traces …" Su Ming mumbled. The Harmonious Morus Alba in the Vast Expanse was born on the Tree of Dao Verification. They had the same name and the same life force. In fact, it could be said that they were originally one.
When the Tree of Dao Verification crumbled in the past, they could only dance about in the Vast Expanse, becoming wanderers who could not find their home … Since their origins were the same, Su Ming believed that if eldest senior brother, second senior brother, Hu Zi, Yu Xuan, Cang Lan, and the others could be born on the seventh Harmonious Morus Alba's wings, then the other Harmonious Morus Alba's wings would definitely have traces of them.
If he gathered all of them together, he would need to open the Abyss Gate.
However, all of this was just Su Ming's speculation. Perhaps he would succeed, but perhaps … it was just his wishful thinking. No matter what, Su Ming had to try. Even if he could not succeed, he would not give up. He would continue searching for other methods. This was his Dao.
With the seventh pearl in his hand, Su Ming slowly closed his eyes. The pearl in his palm could not turn into a butterfly, because … the bald crane's Reversed Spirit was not in it.
Time passed. The Feng Shui compass on which Su Ming stood continued moving forward in the Vast Expanse. Su Ming was already used to being alone, and he could only get used to it. He was alone for one thousand years, and then for ten thousand years … When thirty thousand years passed …
A huge butterfly appeared in the Vast Expanse before Su Ming. It was a Harmonious Morus Alba, a butterfly that Su Ming had not given life to and left thirty thousand years ago. Instead, it was a butterfly that had not been destroyed by Xuan Zang.
There was not a lot of aura of death on the butterfly. There were countless lives on its four wings. Perhaps there were some who knew that the Expanse Cosmos they were in was Harmonious Morus Alba's wings, and perhaps there were some who tried to struggle against it, like Arid Triad, but there was no doubt … that they were still blessed.
Because the person they ran into was not the Xuan Zang of the past, but Su Ming.
Su Ming sat on the Feng Shui compass and stared at the Harmonious Morus Alba in the distance quietly. Almost at the instant Su Ming approached it, the butterfly shuddered, and its presence was filled with fear.
"I won't wipe you off. I will only take away … some traces."
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