"I see, so Life Matrices can be used this way."
Understanding appeared in Su Ming"s eyes. The talisman was a treasure. It contained the presence of Life and could be given to others. The Great Patriarch had obtained this talisman and fused it with his body, allowing him to change his own Life to one of the Life of Nine Deaths.
Once Su Ming grabbed the talisman, he yanked it, and as the sound of something tearing shot through the air, a small half of the talisman was immediately torn off. The remaining half disappeared without a trace.
"The Arts regarding Life that others give us can help us increase our levels of cultivation, but this method is the same as hastening growth, and it"s not good… It"s the same case as with Si Ma Xin."
Su Ming gained a deeper level of understanding towards Life Matrix.
As the remaining half of the talisman disappeared in midair, the destructive waves caused by the Great Patriarch"s self-destruction spread out and crashed into Su Ming"s long spear. The impact turned into a loud rumble that shook the sky and earth, sweeping in all directions.
The ground was trembled because of the explosion. Cracks appeared, and a large amount of seawater surged in to submerge the land, causing nearly a fourth of the territory of G.o.d of Shamans Island to be instantly submerged.
Circles continued spreading out nonstop in midair. Some of the Shamans did not manage to dodge in time and were reduced to ashes. The circles spread far and wide before gradually disappearing.
When they were gone, Su Ming moved a step. Not a single hint of injury could be found on him. The moment the middle-aged man exploded, he had stepped into the fragment"s dimension, which he had prepared to do a long time ago.
When he walked out, he looked towards the Shamans" sacred mountain, because during that moment, a wave of power that was even greater than his erupted there.
At the time the waves spread out, a person appeared sitting at the top of that sacred mountain. He was a boy who looked like he was only eighteen to nineteen years old, but there was an ancient air about him. As he sat there, his eyes… were replaced by the light of a crescent moon. Anyone who looked into them would feel as if their souls were captured.
There was half of a yellow piece of paper stuck to the boy"s forehead, and there were runic symbols s.h.i.+ning on it. There were missing parts among those runic symbols, but it could still be seen that those runic symbols actually formed a crescent moon.
The boy looked at Su Ming and said slowly, "I remember who you are now, sir. You were the one who fought against me along with Tian Xie Zi and Guru Li Long all those years ago, Su Ming!
"Sometimes, the moon is dark, and sometimes, it is bright. Sometimes, the moon is round, and sometimes, it is not… If a person dies nine times and lives nine times… he only seeks to obtain perfection. This is… the Life of Nine Deaths, which my Master gave to me."
The boy looked at Su Ming standing thousands of feet away and stood up slowly. He then wrapped his fist in his palm and bowed towards Su Ming.
"But he did not teach me…" When the boy wrapped his fist in his palm, he lifted his head and looked at Su Ming. At that moment, the Great Patriarch"s presence changed a lot, and he seemed like a completely different person.
"The cold of midwinter is akin to the end of life. Winter, autumn, summer, and spring. This is… the Life I have come to understand on my own." Su Ming looked at the boy, who was really the Great Patriarch, and waved his arm, then wrapped his fist in his palm and bowed towards him slightly.
The form of the boy the Great Patriarch had now taken was one that had never appeared before in Su Ming"s memories. He remembered that the Great Patriarch had taken the appearance of a strong man in his thirties when he was revived the ninth time during the last time they fought against each other.
Yet now, he had become a young teenager.
Clearly, the Great Patriarch"s Life of Nine Deaths allowed him to become stronger the younger he was. His current shape was a telling sign that the Great Patriarch had been diligent and improved a lot compared to his past self. He had also obtained a deeper level of understanding towards the Life of Nine Deaths which was bestowed upon him.
"My Master once said that it is very difficult to control the Life that is given to you, and it is also very difficult to harmonize with it perfectly… only when I train to the point where I can turn into an infant during my ninth death will it be possible for me to gain complete mastery and understanding of this Life...
"I have obtained a lot in my battle with you today, sir, and I feel signs of a breakthrough. Please grant me enlightenment by teaching me, and help me achieve this breakthrough. I… will never forget your great kindness."
When the boy heard Su Ming talking about the Life he had understood on his own, his expression filled with excitement, and he bowed once again to Su Ming. His body rose slowly into the air, and when he was a thousand feet above the ground, he lifted his right hand and struck the sacred mountain behind him through the air.
The mountain immediately let out rumbling sounds, and it began to slowly gain corporeal form instead of being an illusion that appeared occasionally. A gigantic crack tore the mountain, and as it roared, the top slowly separated into two halves. A ray of dark light flew out from within and landed before Su Ming.
It was a coffin… a coffin Su Ming had seen in the past.
"When I met you the second time, you cried when you saw this. This item came from the Immortals, and you must corrode the coffin with Yin Death Aura. You should have come here for this. For the enlightenment I have gained from your teachings, I will present this to you as a gift." Determination and zeal was in the boy"s eyes. At that moment, he was like a completely different person compared to the Great Patriarch Su Ming had seen earlier.
He was like a person who sought Life, who could give up everything to find it, to reach a breakthrough in his level of cultivation, and to fuse with his Life of Nine Deaths.
Searching for a person"s own Life Matrix to complete one"s own self—this was what it meant to seek Life.
Su Ming looked into the boy"s eyes carefully, but he could not find a single hint of deceit or nefarious schemes in them. He only saw the determination to search for a breakthrough towards fusing with the Life of Nine Deaths.
This sort of determination was rather similar to Su Ming"s own, in some sense.
As Su Ming looked at the coffin before him, his expression gradually softened, and a hint of melancholy as well as nostalgia appeared on his face. Once he put away the coffin, he said, "I did not just come here for the coffin. I also came here for your physical body"s blood of Nine Yin.".
The boy fell silent, but after a moment, he smiled in a free and unbothered manner, then lifted his hands to clap them together. With it, light immediately started s.h.i.+ning at his palm lines, and as they changed, a transparent coffin appeared before him.
That coffin was not huge, and due to its transparent state, Su Ming could see a dried-up corpse lying inside.
As he looked at the corpse, the boy lifted his right hand and tapped the center of the corpse"s brows. A trail of purple blood exuding a thick Shamanic presence flew out, and as the boy swung his arm, that blood charged towards Su Ming.
Su Ming seized the air with his left hand, and a jade bottle instantly appeared on his palm. Once he put the blood into the bottle, the bottle instantly turned purple.
"I have devoured all of the previous Nine Li Shaman Lords" blood and refined it into nine drops of Shaman Source Blood in my body. I originally thought that this blood could help me reach a breakthrough, but it has served no purpose for me during the past years… I will give you four drops as a present. Please enlighten me with your teachings!" The boy struck the coffin, and it immediately landed on the ground.
When it did so, a powerful ray of light appeared in the boy"s eyes. He lifted his right hand and pointed towards the half of the talisman at the center of his brows.
A gentle ray of light immediately began s.h.i.+ning there. Once it enveloped his entire body, the boy started aging rapidly, as if time was flowing several times faster for his body. His hair gradually grew longer, his skin started giving off a feeling of time and age, his body slowly grew larger and stronger, and he turned into a young man of twenty-five or twenty-six years from that of a young teenager.
Overlapping shadows suddenly appeared on his body when he turned into that young man, and a person walked out from those shadows. It was the boy, and he was pointing at his twenty-six-year-old self while looking at Su Ming.
"This is my eighth life, and it is my life of a young man!"
At the instant he said these words, a glint appeared in the young man"s eyes, and time began moving for his body once again. In the blink of an eye, he turned into a man in his thirties, and those overlapping shadows appeared once more. This time, the young man walked out from the overlapping shadows on the man in his thirties. He stood beside the young teenager and pointed at his thirty-something-year-old self while looking at Su Ming.
"This is my seventh life, my life as I was in my prime!"
This strange sight brought a glint to Su Ming"s eyes.
He saw the strong man in his thirties age once again, and when he was around his forties, there was another stop.
"This is my sixth life, and it is my life as a middle-aged man!"
"This is my fifth life, and it is my life when I am fifty!"
"This is my fourth life, and it is my life as I begin to decline!"
At that moment, there were five Great Patriarchs of different ages ranging from a young man to an old man with graying temples standing beside the young teenager.
Time was still flowing from the body of the old man with graying temples…
"This is my third life, and it is my life as I am in old age!"
"This is my second life, and it is my life as I am in my twilight years!"
"This is my first life, and it is my life as I am nearing the last of my days!"
The last person to appear beside the young teenager was the Great Patriarch who had first appeared before Su Ming. His face was full of wrinkles, his body filled with an aura of death, his yellowing teeth almost all gone, while his eyes still contained that crescent moon. He stood beside the boy.
"And I am the ninth life." The boy looked at his eight differently aged selves. As he whispered, he looked at Su Ming, and determination appeared in his eyes. "This is my Life of Nine Deaths. Fellow Daoist Su, please grant me enlightenment with your teachings."
Su Ming remained silent for a moment, then looked at the boy and at the eight Great Patriarchs of different ages. After a long while, he pointed at the coffin on the ground.
"What number is he?"
The boy was momentarily stunned. When he lowered his head to look at the coffin on the ground, he suddenly began trembling. A spark of understanding gradually appeared in his eyes, but it was still clouded.
"Moving from a man in the final days of his life to a crying infant means to move from death to being newly born. This path of Life is rather similar to what I have come to understand, but it is also different." After a moment of pensive silence, Su Ming lifted his left hand as he spoke. Flecks of snow instantly appeared on his palm, and the chilling air that spread out from the snow filled the area.
"This is my Life…" Su Ming looked at the snow floating on his palm. As he spoke, the snow gradually changed color. It was no longer white, but turned red. However, the color was not crimson… it was the color of autumn.
A faint life force was mixed with the cold of midwinter, turning into the will of autumn.
"Do you understand now?" Su Ming swung his left hand, and the snow containing the will of autumn faded away from his hand.
The boy trembled. A confused and dazed look appeared in his eyes, along with understanding, though it was still muddled by a lack of enlightenment. He had a faint feeling that he had come to understand something, but he could not yet see the path clearly.
"Moving from death to life requires you to be truly dead… You know that you won"t die, and the Life of Nine Deaths makes you feel that you will not die, but in truth… this knowledge that you will not die has made you lose your desire towards life. Can you even talk about living in this situation?" Su Ming asked faintly.
A shudder wrecked the boy"s body. When he lifted his head, he looked at Su Ming with a blank stare. After a long moment, resolve appeared on his face, and he lifted his right hand to strike the coffin containing his physical body through the air.
The coffin shattered with a bang. The physical body inside shattered and broke apart. The remaining five drops of Shaman Source Blood flew out, and with a wave of an arm, they were pushed towards Su Ming.
"I will remember your great kindness!" The boy wrapped his fist in his palm and bowed deeply towards Su Ming.