Pursuit of the Truth 468 Waking Up

The gray sky was like a gray piece of cloth. It was filled with wrinkles and was spread right to the end of sight. There was no sun, no moon, and no stars. There was only the gray that caused depression to rise within a person’s heart.
Its color exuded the air of death, causing the people to feel as if they were lost in that gray shade, and they would even begin to feel confusion boiling in their hearts.
The white ground rose and fell as it stretched into the distance. There was not a single plant there, not any other color. There was only white earth that spread endlessly outwards, leaving the entire place with no boundaries.
If anyone stared at the ground and the gray sky that acted as its contrast for a prolonged period of time, they would become even more lost.
When Su Ming opened his eyes, this was what he saw. After a long time, he lowered his head and saw his own body. He could clearly see that his body had turned into an illusion. He was just a wisp formed by the white fog spreading from the ground. That fog was incredibly weak in the beginning, but soon, it gradually gathered together to turn into a person, which was him.
A large amount of fog seeped out from the white ground around him. As that fog gathered together, more people appeared.
These people looked as if they were newly born. Their eyes were gray, and those gray eyes gave off a feeling of despair and fatigue that stemmed right from the soul. It was as if they had died numerous times already but still had to be newly born only to die again and again. This process would repeat endlessly, turning into a cycle.
Perhaps death was not terrifying at times. What was horrifying was endlessness, an eternity of not being able to die and not being able to perish until the soul itself became numb, until all will was lost, all that made a person, turning him into… an undying soul, Imperishable living corpse…
Not too long ago, at the spot where Su Ming woke up was a war waged between thousands of undying souls. This war might have happened several breaths ago, or it might have happened several days ago, or even several months ago. Su Ming had no idea how long it had been since then.
He only knew that this was what he saw when he woke up.
Su Ming might have woken up, but his heart was still at a loss. His eyes were still gray, and he still did not possess much intelligence. He did not know who he was, neither did he know how he got there. In fact, he did not even think about those things; his mind was simply blank.
He stared at the gray sky blankly, and just continued looking… until his body was gradually filled up by that fog and he turned into a complete person, and until all the other undying souls around him were formed.
All the undying souls were the same as him. They stood there, staring blankly at the sky with their minds vacant.
This continued for an unknown amount of time until one day, the sound of a horn came from the distance and reverberated through this boundless world. That voice was very faint, and nobody had an idea how many regions the sound of that horn had traveled through.
The instant the sound of that horn reached the thousands of undying souls, they immediately shuddered and lowered their lifted heads to look before them, at what lay in the endless distance. They looked at the same direction and slowly lifted their feet before slowly floating forward.
Su Ming was among these undying souls. He also heard that horn, and when that sound landed in his mind, it turned into a voice summoning him, a call that caused ripples in his soul.
He also stopped looking at the sky and looked instead in the direction the sound of the horn had come from. He simply floated forward slowly with the other undying souls by his side.
Su Ming had no idea just how long he floated. He had no concept of time in his mind. There was only the sound of the horn calling to him. The undying souls just drifted forward without an end to their numbers on that white ground.
Gradually, some of the undying souls let out piercing howls from their mouths while drifting forward. As the howls grew in number, on that day, one of the undying souls turned around swiftly and pounced on one of his companions that still had that vacant look in his eyes.
He ripped him apart, devoured him, and fused with him. After a moment, once the victim undying soul disappeared, its attackers body gained a more corporeal form. A hint of intelligence appeared in its gray eyes.
Almost the instant he devoured his companion, quite a number of other undying souls around him did the same thing. There was an undying soul who did that exact same thing right beside Su Ming.
That soul looked like it belonged to an old man. As he roared, he lunged at Su Ming like a wild beast. Once he got closer, he pounced on Su Ming, then opened his mouth and sank his teeth into his body.
Su Ming did not resist. There was still that dazed look in his eyes as he let the undying soul rip apart and devour him. The pain in his soul made Su Ming shudder. That sort of feeling where his body was about to be ripped apart made him suddenly remember that he had gone through the exact same type of pain when he woke up moments ago.
"So, I already died once..?" Su Ming mumbled. Half his body had already been devoured by that old man. By the looks of it, it would not take long before his entire body was devoured.
At that time, everything about Su Ming would disappear without a trace, but he would not die. Instead, after some time, the fog would gather up and turn into him once again in this Undying and Imperishable World so that he would have to go through the same form of death again. He had to continuously experience it, and the cycle would repeat… endlessly...
‘I went through this feeling before… I don’t want to go through it again!’ Su Ming’s will gradually faded away, but a brutality suddenly burned in his eyes, and he turned around swiftly to start devouring that old man.
The two undying souls began devouring each other. This meant the world to them, but to the thousands of undying souls around them, it was nothing, and it did not incite even the slightest bit of attention from them.
Time passed by slowly. Once the undying souls that clearly had a hint of intelligence on their faces ate their companions, they seemed to have become full, and their bodies clearly gained more substance. They lifted their heads to the sky and let out piercing howls.
The howls reverberated incessantly through the empty land, as if the souls were using their voices to announce that they had just been born again! The number of roars increased, and by the end, there were twenty-seven souls from among the thousands that roared nonstop to announce their new lives.
As they roared, the undying souls around them started trembling and fear appeared on their faces, as if these twenty-seven souls had surpassed them in terms of rank. It made them feel oppressed and afraid, no matter how numb they were to their surroundings.
As for Su Ming and the old man, they continued devouring each other. The old man started roaring madly and continued fighting against Su Ming to win in this brutal match to devour each other. Gradually, as Su Ming ate him, the old man grew weaker slowly, and eventually, his entire soul turned into Su Ming’s nutrients for him to become stronger.
Once Su Ming devoured his first undying soul, he started shivering slightly. He could feel a wave of power swelling within him. This power rammed against his body until it crashed into his mind, causing a sign of struggle to appear in his eyes. A pain as if he was being ripped apart filled his mind, and it did not go away.
The feeling as if he was being torn apart was too great, and Su Ming began to feel as if his mind was about to crumble. As his mind collapsed, some memories returned to his empty head.
"What is… my name..?" Su Ming lifted his head swiftly and let out a roar towards the sky. That roar was the twenty-eighth roar of a newly born life!
His roar reflected off the other roars from the twenty-seven souls. Their roars gradually fused together and shook the sky and earth in that small area, causing the other undying souls to kneel down on the ground, trembling. The only souls that remained standing were those twenty-eight souls, and among them was Su Ming!
At first glance, all of them looked incredibly similar to each other, but as they continued eating the other souls, they would slowly begin to change and differences would appear. Gradually, they would regain all their memories…
At that moment, the sound of the horn resounded once again from the world in the distance. As that mournful hoot reverberated in the air, Su Ming gradually stopped roaring. The other twenty-seven souls also calmed down slowly, and they started floating forward at a much faster speed compared to that of normal souls.
Su Ming’s eyes were still gray, and when he calmed down, he also flew forward with the other twenty- seven souls, bringing along the thousands of Souls behind him, as if they were floating forward for some sort of mission.
Time slowly trickled by. Su Ming had no idea how long had passed. Besides thinking about what his own name was, he did not have any other thoughts. Only the sound of the horn made him move towards its direction slowly, calling out to guide him.
During that process, he devoured several other undying souls in succession. Similarly, some of the other undying souls also seemed to have regained some semblance of intelligence as they moved forward and started devouring each other.
Each time Su Ming ate another soul, his body would gain more substance. When he devoured about eight undying souls, besides his legs, his entire body was no longer in a semi-transparent state, and he now looked as if he possessed flesh and blood.
His long, black hair floated behind his head. His eyes might still be gray, but there was intelligence within them, along with a hint of indifference.
There were already nearly fifty undying souls like him in this swarm of souls that numbered to several thousands, and they were still moving towards the direction of the sound of the horn…
Until one day, in this world where day and night could not be differentiated, Su Ming saw a swarm of other undying souls before him. When these two swarms of undying souls saw each other, the figures who were clearly much stronger than the normal souls let out shrill and biting howls!
Another war started!
Su Ming saw the swarm of undying souls charging towards him. The pain in his head as if he was being ripped apart grew stronger. He suddenly remembered. He had gone through something like this before...
He remembered now. He had died in the previous war and someone had devoured him whole, and then… he woke up again.
Killing intent appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. He did not want to die. He had a feeling in his heart that with each time he died, he would lose a little bit of something, and even though he did not know the details of what it was, his natural instincts were telling him that he could not die!
Roaring reverberated in the air in this place. The two swarms of undying souls were closing in on each other madly. Five thousand feet, three thousand feet, two thousand feet… and then, five hundred feet, two hundred feet...