Pursuit of the Truth 628 Amicable

A roar that sounded like a clap of thunder that filled the entire world spread out, and during that instant, it caused Shen Dong's punch to instantly start slowing down several dozens of feet away from Su Ming. The giant also started trembling, as if it was about to disintegrate.
At that moment, Su Ming was using eight-tenths of all the power in his body!
Those eight-tenths of his power was equivalent to the pinnacle of his strength when he fought against Di Tian in the past. But even though he brought that power out, that fist might have slowed down and looked as if was about to disintegrate, but it still continued moving forward and continued getting closer to Su Ming. The destructive power behind it seemed to be able to destroy Su Ming's physical body and soul if it struck him!
Shen Dong, who was hidden in the giant's body, had veins popping out on his face at that moment. All his power had erupted from his body and turned into the strongest power he could muster within the giant. It was the power that could stand up against the Berserkers' Disaster, and the fist swiftly increased in speed. With a bang, it closed in on Su Ming, as if it had just overpowered his strength of when the pinnacle of his state in the past.
Yet those eight-tenths of the power was just the pinnacle of what Su Ming had in the past. He might not have reached full recovery right then, but he had already recovered almost nine-tenths of his cultivation base, and the additional amount of power was released for the first time at that moment.
An explosive force burst out swiftly from Su Ming's body and fused into his God of Berserkers' roar, causing the wave of sound to suppress all manner of sound within the world, as if taking all of them over. At that moment, that roar exploded forth.
At the instant it reverberated through the air, the huge fist before Su Ming crumbled. As it shattered, inch by inch, the pieces fell backwards. The fog dispersed, and Shen Dong coughed up a mouthful of blood. He staggered ten steps back, and with each one, he would make the air shake, and the distance between each step was equal to ten feet!
After those ten steps, he was pushed a hundred feet backwards!
Su Ming's face was pale. When he finished the roar and when the fog giant Shen Dong had transformed into collapsed, Su Ming also coughed up a mouthful of blood and similarly retreated ten steps before managing to stabilize his body.
His breathing was rapid, and when he lifted his head, he looked at Shen Dong, who also had blood trickling down the corners of his mouth.
The two of them watched each other, just like that. Both of them had clearly held back during their first match, and that was why Shen Dong had put up a slightly less than stellar fight. Yet during their second match, he had brought out all his power, and the strength of it had caused Su Ming to be unable to fend against it even with the pinnacle of his power before he was injured. If he had not possessed hidden strength, then he would have lost this battle.
When he revealed the one-tenth of that power he had gained during his recovery and stirred up a loud bang that surged into the sky, both of them coughed up a mouthful of blood and were pushed back ten steps, a clear sign that they were both equally matched!
Only a completely evenly matched fight could bring forth the greatest amount of satisfaction and delight. The two of them continued watching each other while standing some two hundred feet apart. Neither of them spoke, only their gazes meeting one another.
After some time, a faint smile gradually appeared at the corners of Shen Dong's lips, and Su Ming's reaction was a mirror-copy. A smile curled up his lips, and it slowly grew wider until eventually turning into a loud peal of laughter.
Shen Dong laughed, and Su Ming, too, laughed. In this empty battlefield, the two people who had been fighting just moments ago were both laughing from the bottom of their hearts, and there was, strangely enough, not a hint of discordance in this. Instead, there was a perfect harmony in their laughter born from an appreciation of each other's presence, a respect towards each other, and an acknowledgement as well as affirmation towards the other.
"This battle… is enjoyable indeed!" As Shen Dong laughed, he lifted his right hand and patted his storage bag, and a gourd immediately flew out from within. Once he held it in his hand, he flicked off the cork, and a thick aroma of wine wafted into the air. He threw his head back and drank a mouthful from it.
"Fellow Daoist Oriole, would you like some?"
Once Shen Dong drank that mouthful of wine along with the blood in his mouth, he smiled and looked towards Su Ming. There was a hint of respect within his eyes, one that hadn't appeared once after he came to the Berserkers' world. Even when he was before Evil Sect's Ji An, he only held that man in reverence. It was not the same thing as respect.
"I'm a Berserker." Su Ming was still smiling, but it was gradually tainted with a hint of mixed feelings.
They were born from how this person had gained his respect through due to both his words and actions during this one battle, even though they had not had much contact with each other before this. That sort of appreciation towards each other's presence had not just appeared within Shen Dong's heart. It had also appeared within Su Ming's heart.
But the difference of their races was the final nail in the coffin of their relationship.
"So what? You're the second person I've met among the Berserkers who deserves my respect and admiration. Fellow Daoist Oriole, you are courageous but cautious, and you do things resolutely. Even though you have plenty of Enchanted Treasures and even possess the power of the Undertaker of Evil's Spear, you still chose to not use it...
"You also had the chance to gravely injure me when you pushed me back with that power from your roar, but you chose not to… We might be of different races, but I only know that I enjoyed this fight very much!
"Fellow Daoist Oriole, I will only give those I acknowledge this wine. I'll ask you one more time, do you want it?" Shen Dong looked at Su Ming, and his laughter rang in the air. His honest and straightforward presence revealed itself and instantly chased away all the gloominess about him.
He might be from Evil Sect, but true men also existed within Evil Sect!
Su Ming looked at Shen Dong and lifted his right hand swiftly to seize that gourd through the air. The gourd instantly flew out from Shen Dong's hand and charged towards Su Ming. Once he grabbed it, he looked at Shen Dong and placed the gourd by his lips before he took a big swig from it.
"This battle is indeed enjoyable! But this wine is even more enjoyable!" The wine in Su Ming's mouth turned into a burning wave of heat that spread through his body as if it had drawn up a line of fire, and it actually managed to make a hint of his cultivation base recover.
It might be just a hint, but it was enough to show just how precious this wine was!
"If you like it, then this humble Shen will give you that gourd in your hands as a gift!" Shen Dong laughed, and a delighted expression appeared on his face. This was an incredibly rare expression on his face, which was usually schooled to a gloomy look.
However, Su Ming could tell based on his experience that there was not a hint of deceit in that expression. Shen Dong was sincere.
"I came to the land of Berserkers to break out of Ascendant Stage and a chance to reach the second step. Fellow Daoist Oriole, your Berserker cultivation method is very unique. You must have also reached a critical stage. If we can both reach a breakthrough, I'd like to fight against you again!" Shen Dong looked at Su Ming and brought out another gourd from his storage bag before he started drinking huge mouthfuls from it.
"We still haven't exchanged our third blow. Do you still want to fight?" Shen placed the gourd down and started laughing heartily.
"Of course!" Su Ming, too, laughed heartily. As they met each other's gazes, they could no longer find any hate in each other's eyes, but a glint screaming of a refusal to admit defeat was shining in both their eyes.
"I will be casting a divine ability I obtained purely by coincidence when I was in the land of Immortals. This Art was left behind by the Immortals of the past. I've been practicing it for many years, but I still haven't mastered it completely. This Art… is called… Seven Abyssal Yin Death Seal!
"With my current level of cultivation, I can only bring forth the power of one seal. Fellow Daoist Oriole, please have a look!"
Once Shen Dong finished speaking, he suddenly bit the tip of his tongue and coughed up a blood arrow. It abruptly exploded, and when it scattered into the air, seven indistinct shadows manifested. Once they appeared, an incredibly thick and great aura of death instantly surged in from all directions. Once the shadows absorbed all that aura, they swiftly became more corporeal.
All seven of these people wore crowns and were dressed in robes with the sky embroidered on it. Their faces could not be seen clearly, but a mighty pressure that made Su Ming's heart tremble came from those people.
Immediately after, the seven shadows dressed with the sky patterned robes lifted their right hands, and with a swing of their arms, the weather changed, and the land in all directions changed. The sky disappeared as well, covered by a layer of green fog.
At the same time, the seven shadows dressed in sky patterned robes also disappeared, but right at the moment they vanished, a great wave of danger came crashing towards Su Ming from below him.
When he whipped his head downwards, his pupils shrank. He saw that the ground that had been replaced by the green fog had now turned into a gigantic seal.
It was green in color, and it was spreading out the pressure that was causing Su Ming's heart to tremble. It looked as if it was about to begin operating at any moment to bring forth the destructive power that belonged to the Seven Abyssal Sinister Yin Seal. One that could destroy the world.
However, this gigantic seal was not centered on Su Ming. He was only located at the edge of of it. At the instant he looked over, Shen Dong let out a low growl that reverberated in the air.
Immediately, a piercing green light erupted from the green fog seal, and it covered everything within it. No rumbling sounds could be heard, and neither did any sort of ripples that shook the sky appear. When the light disappeared, Su Ming was still standing on the ground, and Shen Dong was standing in the distance with a pale face.
The green fog disappeared, and the Seven Abyssal Sinister Yin Seal vanished with it.
However… there was an empty space about several thousands of feet away from this place at that moment. It was a hundred lis in size, and a gigantic pit seemed to have appeared over there, because the ground there had disappeared. The sky there had also become an indistinct mess. In fact, there was a gigantic pit at the top of the sky that was slowly closing up at that moment.
Su Ming fell silent.
Shen Dong's breathing was quick. After some time, he looked towards Su Ming, and a smile appeared on his face.
"Fellow Daoist Oriole, there might just be one seal in the Art I cast just now, but what do you think of its might?"
Su Ming closed his eyes, then reopened them several breaths later before he wrapped his fist in his palm towards Shen Dong and bowed towards him. He did not answer the Immortal's question, but chose to lift his right hand with the back of his hand turned towards the sky and his palm turned towards the ground.
"If my hand symbolizes time, then one side represents the past, and the other represents the future…" Su Ming mumbled softly. For the first time, the black dye in his hair that Ugly Little Thing's family had used to cover him up faded away, revealing a startling combination of white and purple!
At the same time, the shocking sight of time flowing back appeared when Su Ming said those words and waved his hand.
Shen Dong's eyes went wide, and disbelieving shock as well as astonishment appeared within them. He stared at the time on the ground and sky swiftly flowing back with a dumbfounded expression. The pit in the ground in the distance disappeared, the hole in the sky vanished, then, when he saw the gigantic Verdant Abyssal Seal appearing once again between the sky and earth, he sucked in a sharp breath.
'What divine ability is this?!' Shen Dong's heart trembled, and he suddenly felt fortunate that he had not thought about killing Su Ming with the Verdant Abyssal Seal, or else...
Su Ming looked at the restored Verdant Abyssal Seal in the world, and a sparkle of curiosity appeared in his eyes, so he started looking at it carefully.
He looked as if he was copying it, using his heart as his drawing board and his soul as his pen...