Chapter 1389: Seven Lives Art
When Su Ming looked at the Seven Moons Sect at the foot of the mountain, one sect and one clan of the seven sects and twelve clans in Ancient Zang started shuddering and rumbling in an unseen manner.
It was One Dao Sect and Asura Clan!
Legends had it that One Dao Sect was the oldest sect in all of Ancient Zang, with only the royal family claiming a longer heritage. It had a long history, and it was difficult for the other sects to compare with it. There was also very few people who could find it..
An ancient temple stood in the land, and in the temple there were three statues. They had calm expressions and had been placed in the temple an unknown number of years ago.
There were plenty of cracks on them, and they criss-crossed each other to form a picture. Anyone who saw it would find themselves thinking that there was a world contained in the picture formed by the cracks.
One Dao Sect existed in the world formed by the picture made by the intersecting cracks on the three statues!
In fact, more accurately speaking, One Dao Sect was a sect that existed in all cracks in the world. As long as there were places in the world that had cracked, One Dao Sect would exist there.
Its mysteriousness and strangeness made others wary of it…
At that moment, the twelve Great Sect Elders in Seven Moons Sect had woken up. At the instant they set up the Rune, all the regions in Ancient Zang that had cracks in it… let out cracking sounds, and the cracks spread out.
It was especially so for one particular mountain. From a distance, it appeared to be dark red. There were countless cracks on it, but it had not shattered nor broken down. There was a fire lake in the mountain, and its heat was astonis.h.i.+ng. It gave off the feeling that if anyone fell into it, they would instantly be burned to a crisp.
There was a huge rock in the fire lake, and that rock was also covered in cracks. Sitting on it was a half-naked man, who was also covered in cracks. Not a single inch of his skin was undamaged. His hair was crimson red, and it was the same shade as the fire lake.
At that moment, his eyes flew open to reveal his pupils. They were also filled with cracks, and at first glance… they seemed to be blood capillaries.
“My brother… have you also joined a sect? Judging by the fluctuations, it should have come from Seven Moons Sect!” The man grinned, and killing intent showed up in his eyes.
“I wonder if you’ve already woken up, or are you still in a daze… If you’ve woken up, then I wonder how will it feel to be the only one awake while all the people in the world are drunk? If you are still in a daze, then I wonder how it will feel for you to be the only one in a daze while all the other people in the world are awake?
“No matter what, it should be good. It is just like I said before… the battle between us has just started.”
The man laughed loudly. As he did, the red hair that covered about half of his face flew up to reveal his crack-filled face.
If Su Ming was there, he would definitely be able to recognize him at first glance. That person… was like Lei Chen, but he resembled… the younger version of Old Man Extermination even more so!
In the westernmost area of Ancient Zang was a desert. Erected in it was a huge stone monument. There were no words on the stone monument, but if anyone with extraordinary power came over and saw it, their hearts would definitely roar as if they had seen a sea of blood and countless ferocious beasts.
The stone monument was a clan. It was known as Asura Clan, and it led to the place where Asura World was located!
Asura World was a created world, and the strongest sect in it was known as Asura!
At that moment, there was a ferocious beast that was one hundred thousand feet in the dark world. It had the form of a human, but there were three spiral-like horns on its head. It sat cross-legged on the ground, and around it was mud and skeletons…
The young man in a white robe was sitting on top of a huge beast’s head. His expression was calm, and when his black hair fluttered in the wind, he opened his eyes slightly to reveal an aggressive glare.
It could be vaguely seen that there was a figure in his right eye, and it was a man dressed in an Emperor’s robe!
“Three thousand years of trials, I wonder if… you will be different compared to that brother of mine who chose to be foolish for the remainder of his life for friends.h.i.+p…
“If you are as foolish as ever, then perhaps… before three thousand years are up, you will already have been eliminated.”
The young man smiled faintly, but the figure dressed in the Emperor’s robe in his right eye had a mocking look.
The young man’s smile froze at that moment.
“You are me. You are the one I sent in the past to throw the soul Xuan sent for refinement, but now that you returned, you refuse to merge with me!” The young man’s voice was cold, and when he spoke languidly, he sounded as if he was talking to himself.
“How laughable. I am Di Tian, a life born during the 967th aeon in Harmonious Morus Alba. What connection do I have with you? It’s hilarious that you don’t even know about it!”
The person in the young man’s right eye was Di Tian, and the mockery in his sneer was very prominent.
“The age of Harmonious Morus Albas has been gone for countless aeons. They were devoured by us, the Xuannese. Your memories are in reality, fake. I added them in you to disrupt his trial.
“You still don’t understand what is real or fake!” The young man brought his right hand up swiftly and tapped his right eye.
“I, Di Tian, know what is real. The world in which I lived was real, and the world in which you live is just a lie. This is a world created when Su Ming Possessed Xuan Zang. This is… a Possession against you!”
Di Tian laughed loudly. Resolve showed up in his eyes when he saw the finger draw close to him, but pain immediately appeared on his face, as if he had just been sealed.
“Su Ming, if you can wake up, then you will be the black-robed man sitting on the Feng Shui compa.s.s. If you lose yourself and believe in this world, then you… will no longer be you!”
Di Tian’s voice slowly became weaker. When the young man pulled his finger back, Di Tian’s figure was no longer around, but had instead been sealed and kept hidden in his body.
“You are already lost. If that’s the case… then be refined in my body. Possession… such an absurd concept. This should be my brother’s idea… Su Ming, so he believes himself to be Su Ming, hmm?” the young man said calmly, and a cold smile appeared on his lips. He closed his eyes.
Within Seven Moons Sect, Su Ming moved his gaze away from the sect below him. To the right of the mountain was a protruding wall of rock at the mountainside. He chose… one of the houses there that seemed uninhabited.
The house was very simple. It did not have any carved railings or jade steps, no exquisite and beautiful pavilions. It looked as ordinary as a wooden house could. Besides a table and a wooden bed, there was no other furniture in it.
It was clean, tidy, and simple. Su Ming swept his gaze across the area, then brought up his right hand and swung outwards. A layer of seals instantly appeared around the area and enveloped the house. Su Ming sat outside the house, just like how he sat alone under the wooden house beside the River of Forgetfulness.
“Seven Lives Art…”
A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. He lowered his head and looked at the blue plate in his hand. His gaze landed on the picture of mountains carved on the plate, and he sank into deep thought.
Time pa.s.sed, and in the blink of an eye, three months went by. During them, no one came to bother Su Ming while he was outside the wooden house, but most of the cultivators on the mountain had come to know of his existence. The people living on the fifth layer of Sky Beyond the Sky were not disciples, but cultivators who did not belong to any faction.
The cultivators who had a status like Lan Lan could be considered part of Seven Moons Sect, but also not part of Seven Moons Part. Su Ming had already noticed that besides Lan Lan, there was another woman in the mountain. She was also the disciple of the middle-aged man in the sky-blue Daoist robe, but she did not live at the top of the mountain. Instead, she was at the foot.
During the three months, Su Ming sat outside the house and kept staring at the plate in his hand. The Seven Lives Art had stirred up quite a large amount of interest in him. It seemed to be a Great Dao Art that could refine his cultivation base.
Before, Su Ming had reached the first level of Dao Divinity Realm, but he had only had a vague idea about such a method to increase his power. Right then, as he continued researching the plate, he slowly gained a bit of an epiphany.
‘Seven Lives Art. It might seem complicated, but in truth, the principles behind it are very simple. Make your own shadow… fade by seven layers and turn them into seven lives… This is different from clones. It’s instead an Art that allows you to use your shadow to exchange for life.’
When another month pa.s.sed, Su Ming’s eyes sparkled. Under the setting sun, he lowered his head to look at his shadow.
After thinking for some time, he lifted his right hand and pointed at his shadow. It immediately twisted and became blurry. Just when Su Ming was about to test the Seven Lives Art that he had come to understand, bell tolls suddenly echoed in the fourth layer of Sky Beyond the Sky.
They came from a distance, and when they reverberated through the mountains, they formed countless echoes. At the instant the whole place trembled, the same bell tolls came from the third layer of Sky Beyond the Sky, and the same happened in the second layer. When the first layer rang with the same bell tolls, Su Ming frowned. He canceled the idea of testing his Art and lifted his head to look into the distance.
Countless runic symbols appeared right above Seven Moons Sect in the distance. They intersected with each other, and when they turned into a circle, they formed a huge Feng Shui compa.s.s!
However, it was slightly indistinct. It was not located in the fifth layer of Sky Beyond the Sky, but in the fourth layer, which meant it appeared indistinct to Su Ming.
He narrowed his eyes slightly. When he looked at the Feng Shui compa.s.s, he saw a long arc charge out from the mountain that practically overlapped with his mountain. That long arc charged to the Feng Shui compa.s.s formed by the runic symbols.
It was Ye Long!
Dressed in white, Ye Long rushed towards the huge Feng Shui compa.s.s formed by runic symbols. Once he swept his gaze across the area, he sat down on the compa.s.s.
Ye Long also appeared indistinct to Su Ming. This was because he existed in a different world. He could not see Su Ming, but Su Ming could see him.
“I, Disciple Ye Long, will challenge Seven Moons Sect’s Dao Divinity Shadow Descension Rune in the fourth layer of Sky Beyond the Sky based on my Master’s orders!”