The pain in his heart and the pain in his body were two different things.
Su Ming grabbed his chest. The stab of pain that came from his heart after he gained a physical body made him feel as if his heart had been twisted together. It made him count the stars in the sky quietly in the quiet night.
"You cut off the pain in my physical body, but … you didn't cut off the pain in my heart …" Su Ming mumbled softly. He did not know that there was another type of pain in the world that surpassed the pain in his physical body and the stab of pain in his heart. It was a pain that came from his soul.
Pain in his soul.
Su Ming had no idea when he had closed his eyes and buried that pain deep in his heart. He engraved this feeling deeply into his mind. He knew that this might be the only memory of his past that he had left.
That stab of pain in his heart was the memory of Yu Xuan closing her eyes and him not being able to hold her hand. There was also the memory of Bai Su turning around and smiling at him before she turned into a white veil so that he could only watch her leave into the distance.
There was also his eldest senior brother waking up, his second senior brother smiling, Hu Zi scratching his head, his Master who loved changing his clothes, and … a lot more.
The moon grew darker, and when the night passed, Su Ming's hair was no longer purple or black, but had turned gray. That gray hair looked as if it had infected his soul and body after he had endured an entire night of heartache, and it had appeared on its own.
Su Ming sat cross-legged in the sky with his gray hair and white robes. When the sun rose from the ends of the world, he lifted his head.
At that moment, there was a strange scene in the sky that looked like a picture. It was the rising sun lifting its head in the distance, the gradually dimming moon in another direction, and a brilliant star that was slowly fading away.
One star, one moon, one sun.
The sun, moon, and stars appeared in the sky at the same time at that instant. This only happened once a year in Crimson Flame Planet, and this time, it lasted for less than an hour.
Only when the sun and moon alternated, when night and day replaced each other, would such a strange celestial phenomenon appear. Only on that day of a lifetime would that dazzling star appear, causing people to unwittingly be attracted to it.
Su Ming looked at it with a dumbfounded expression. At that moment, the strangeness of the world made him seem to have understood something. The first thing he remembered was the fan he had obtained from Si Ma Xin in his storage bag, and the divine ability sealed within it by the second God of Berserkers - Constellation, Sun, and Moon Transformation.
The might of this Art was incredibly great, and it was the second God of Berserkers' divine ability that was carved into the fan. Su Ming had always used the fan in the past, and he did not have much understanding towards this Art.
But at this moment, after seeing the strange star, moon, and sun in the sky, he suddenly seemed to understand some of the uses that he hadn't been very clear about in the past.
However, this epiphany soon disappeared from Su Ming's mind. He looked at the star, sun, and moon in the sky, and what appeared in his head once again was the scene of him looking at a beast skin book in Dark Mountain when he was still a child a long, long time ago. With hope and dreams in his heart, he had recited a sentence from that beast skin book.
"The Berserker Tribe has an ancestor who created the world and created men, and their existence has been passed down to this day … Those who hold the Berserker Mark can fly in the sky, move mountains, and drain oceans … Those with a Berserker Mark can reach the sky, and they can pluck the sun, moon, and stars …
"They can pluck the sun, moon, and stars …" Su Ming mumbled and looked at the sky with a dumbfounded expression.
Time gradually passed by, and the strange phenomenon that would only last for an hour once a year gradually came to an end. When only vague shadows remained of the dazzling stars in the sky, Su Ming shuddered. Even the words on the beast skin book disappeared from his head. His mind was blank, but there was a faint feeling of an epiphany slowly appearing in his head. This was the third epiphany he had gained after seeing the sun, moon, and stars.
However, this third epiphany was very shallow, and it was not clear.
When even the moon became so faint that only its shadow remained, the indistinct epiphany in Su Ming's head became slightly deeper, but he still could not figure it out.
He watched the stars disappear, watched the moon disappear, watched the sun gradually rise into the sky in the distance. Once the strange phenomenon that would only appear once a year disappeared, Su Ming stood there in a daze for a long, long time.
He had a strong feeling that if this third epiphany had appeared clearly in his head, then he would have gained an astonishing harvest.
In fact, even when Yue Hong Bang returned and knelt down on one knee before Su Ming, Su Ming did not notice it. He looked at the spot where the star and moon had originally appeared in the sky, and he knew that he had missed … a deep epiphany.
He did not know what he could have understood from this epiphany. It could have been a divine ability, a state of mind, or even his cultivation base, but he had missed it.
Perhaps it was not that he had missed it, but that the strange phenomenon had disappeared too quickly.
Su Ming sighed and averted his gaze from the sky.
Yue Hong Bang knelt down on one knee before Su Ming quietly with his head lowered. He did not say a single word. He had previously seen that Su Ming seemed to be trying to gain an epiphany towards the strange phenomenon in the sky, and he knew that he absolutely could not disturb him at this moment. Only when he heard Su Ming sigh did he lift his head.
"This strange phenomenon of the sun, moon, and stars appearing in the sky at the same time happens once a year, and it lasts for less than an hour each time … Senior, if you are interested in it, then this will happen every year at this time."
Su Ming remained silent for a moment before he asked softly, "What sort of star is that?"
Yue Hong Bang was momentarily stunned, then he understood that the star Su Ming was asking about was definitely the brilliant star from last night. It was the star that would shine with a brilliance that was comparable to the sun and moon once a year.
"No one knows what sort of star it is. There were once some powerful warriors in Crimson Flame Planet who wanted to search for it, but they never found an answer … As time went by, a legend appeared in Crimson Flame Planet. The people compared the brilliant star that shines once a year to an intimate couple," Yue Hong Bang said in a low voice.
Su Ming looked at the sky, and after a long while, he shook his head. He did not speak, but instead maintained this posture, even if there were no longer any stars or moon in the sky, only the sun was left.
Yue Hong Bang remained silent for a moment before he gradually left. He looked at Su Ming from the distance, and after a moment of pensive silence, he chose to sit down cross-legged and protect him quietly. He did not allow anyone to step into this place. Even the people from the northern region who had brought over blue stones were all stopped by Yue Hong Bang. He placed the blue stones by the side and did not let them get close to Su Ming.
Su Ming continued looking at the sky, watching the blue sky gradually turn dark and the moon gradually appear. One day, another day, and another day …
Su Ming did not know just how long he had been staring at the sky. He had forgotten about the flow of time and had even forgotten to absorb the blue stones. He just sat there cross-legged and looked at the sky.
The Crimson Python Phoenix remained by his side. Time was just the blink of an eye to it, and it was already used to this sort of peace. The bald crane would occasionally return, but it was very active. Usually, not long after it returned, it would go out again, busy with something.
Yue Hong Bang continued protecting Su Ming from the distance. He could tell that Su Ming should be immersed in a strange state at that moment. This sort of state was something that cultivators could only hope for, but not seek.
In fact, Su Ming did not even know that his cultivation base had practically come to a halt while he was in this state. As his body slowly shrank, it was as if he was in deep sleep. In this deep sleep, only his heart was pounding slowly.
Only his soul was looking at the sky after it had fused with his eyes.
What he did not know was that while his heart was beating and his soul was looking at the sky, his third change of heart had arrived without his knowledge.
Time passed, and a year gradually went by.
During that year, most of the people in the northern region knew that their leader had isolated himself outside Qi Bei Shan's cave abode. All of them were forbidden to go within a circular area of a hundred lis, and they were not allowed to step into that area.
One night a year later, besides the bright moon in the sky, the other star that had appeared a year ago shone brilliantly once again. Su Ming's body, which had not moved for an entire year, suddenly shuddered. He looked at the star. To him, the past year had passed by incredibly quickly. It was as if he had just been thinking about something and had gained a brief epiphany.
At that moment, as he looked at the star, the epiphany he had gained a year ago surfaced in his head once again, and it continued growing deeper in his mind. Gradually, the night disappeared. When the sky became indistinct and the morning sun appeared, the strange sight of the star, sun, and moon shining together finally appeared in Su Ming's eyes.
When he saw this, booming sounds rang out in Su Ming's head. His body trembled, and real tears fell from his eyes. Suddenly, he came to an understanding.
He understood why he was so attached to the star, and why he had gained an epiphany when the sun, moon, and stars appeared at the same time.
"The bright sun that appears every single day is a cruel reality. It reminds me that this is the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. This is a cruel world, and it makes me see unfamiliar places where its light shines …
"The bright moon that appears every single night is an illusory dream. It makes me forget the unfamiliarity around me, forget where I am, and let the darkness come from my deceit to give birth to a form of pursuit and hope.
"And the brilliant star that appears in the sky every single year … is … my home," Su Ming mumbled.
"The sun that represents reality, the moon that represents hope, and the star that represents my home. This is … the determination of a wanderer who has left his home …" Su Ming looked at the star, sun, and moon in the sky. During that instant, he seemed to have seen the star, sun, and moon shining with a powerful light. That light gathered on his body, causing a loud bang to ring in Su Ming's head. Intense pain shot through his heart, and it was a pain formed by his longing for his home.
In the eyes of the other people in Crimson Flame Planet, the sun, moon, and stars in the sky did not shine with the same powerful light that Su Ming had seen. The stars and moon were still gradually fading away as the sky brightened. All of this seemed to be just Su Ming's imagination and an illusion.
However, in Su Ming's eyes, the shadow of the bright sun gradually appeared in his left eye at that instant, and in his right eye, the moon looked as if it was reflected in his eyes.
At that instant, his heart, which was aching with pain, seemed to contain the stars.
This was Su Ming's epiphany. Due to this epiphany, even if the sun, moon, and stars had either faded away or shone brightly, they … were carved deeply into Su Ming's mind with his memories and his epiphany as the carving knife.
'Third change of heart, huh..? 'Su Ming grabbed his heart. He could sense the unique change in his emotions that had occurred when he had gone through his first change of heart. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian.Com and vote for me. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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