Mask of Cessation
Mask of Cessation
His gaze was calm. When he looked at his mother's statue, he sighed softly.
'I only managed to see my mother's statue here because I saw my mother before… I never met Su Xuan Yi, that's why his statue is headless. I never met Abyss Builders' Progenitor either, that's why… his statue is also headless.' Su Ming stood up and looked at Abyss Vessel Planet.
"The planet is exactly as I imagined it… This true world is also the same as I imagined it…' Su Ming shook his head. He took a step towards the air, and in an instant, he appeared in the galaxy.
"That year, I imagined that the planet was near, and Abyss Vessel Planet appeared. Now, I will have this thought: The Fifth Abyss River is in front of me…" Su Ming mumbled. He lowered his head, and when he lifted his head again, the Fifth Abyss River appeared in front of him.
He saw the corpses in the river. All of them had their backs to him, their faces not shown.
'This is also because I have never met you, that's why I can't imagine the different appearances for all of you,'
Su Ming shook his head, then walked towards the galaxy.
'I might not want to believe it, but during the past hundred years, I have already understood what I guessed the moment I saw the statue… This isn't the Fifth True World. There is no Abyss Vessel Planet here.'
"The real Fifth True World isn't here as well. What a lie, what an outrageous lie!" A fierce glare appeared in Su Ming's eyes.
At the instant he spoke, the universe around him trembled. All the shattered stones in it vanished, and all the air around him distorted and turned into an arc.
That arc was formed after the whole galaxy had been twisted out of shape. As it slowly spun in front of Su Ming, it turned to face him, and when it did, its appearance caused Su Ming's heart to shake.
Because he saw… a gigantic mask appear in front of him once the galaxy distorted!
The white Abyss River was a line between the eyes, and the two voids at the two ends, which looked like eyes to him in the past… were the blank eyes of the mask.
Su Ming could never forget its appearance. That mask… was the one forced on him when he was in Yin Death Region. It was the mask that cut off all seven emotions and six desires within him… the Mask of Cessation!
Due to that mask, Su Ming came to Divine Source Star Ocean. At that moment, more than one thousand years later, he saw the mask again, and understanding bloomed in Su Ming's heart.
'The so-called task of searching for your king that you told me about in the past, and the rumors in the worlds outside about the Fifth True World's entrance being located here is a lie! You didn't just lie to me, you also… lied to the First God of Berserkers, Lie Shan Xiu!'
A brilliant light shone in Su Ming's eyes. At that moment, he had come to completely understand everything.
'This is a legacy… A legacy that is similar to that of the four guardians with the masks in the fifth ocean. If my guess is correct, then there should have been not four masked people here, but five!
'After happiness, anger, grief, and resentment comes the Mask of Cessation that cuts off the seven emotions and six desires. The moment you made me wear the mask to come to Divine Source Star Ocean, you didn't want me to search for your king or the entrance to the Fifth True World. You wanted to make me the fifth guardian!
'I now understand the complicated emotions and the confusion within Lie Shan Xiu's statue in the past… because at that time, he might have already noticed the hints… but in the end, he still stepped into your fraud.
'One of the four masked people… is Lie Shan Xiu!'
A brilliant light shone in Su Ming's eyes. At that moment, his understanding cleared his mind.
And his heart trembled, for he remembered his Master, Tian Xie Zi, and he was almost certain that if Tian Xie Zi was still alive, then one of the four masked people… was also Tian Xie Zi!
It did not matter whether it was Lie Shan Xiu, Tian Zie Zi, or Su Ming. The three of them had one similarity, and that was… the three of them came from Yin Death Region!
When Su Ming looked at it that way, his heart was in shock again. Who… exactly was the third and fourth people among the four?!
"Wear the mask and become the fifth guardian of Dark Dawn Ocean, Envoy of Cessation… Once you do, you will know everything that you wish to know. You will know all the secrets regarding Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos, the Fifth True World, and Abyss Builders.
"Become the Envoy of Cessation, and you will never have any worries or uncertainties… and you will be given eternal life as well!
"This is your life. You cannot fight against it. From the moment you put on the mask and was sent to Divine Source Star Ocean, your path had already been decided. No matter how hard you will try to change it, you cannot escape from it… Your fate is to become the bearer of the Mask of Cessation in Dark Dawn Ocean!" an ancient voice with cold detachment and a supreme mighty pressure tumbled out in roaring waves from the mouth of the gigantic galactical mask.
There was no way Su Ming could have forgotten that voice. It belonged to the ancient will from Yin Death Region, the one that had threatened him with his senior brothers' lives and forced him to wear the mask!
"You are unable to refuse, you cannot refuse… and neither do you have the right to refuse. You were chosen… to become my Envoy of Cessation!" The voice echoed and shook space. The mask formed by the gigantic galaxy rushed forward swiftly to cover Su Ming with a loud bang.
A powerful, mighty pressure gathered swiftly on Su Ming's body, causing him to instantly be unable to move even a single inch. However, at the instant the mighty pressure descended on him… a power that allowed him to regain his mobility came from his cultivation base clone—Dao Kong's original body.
Or rather, it was not a power, but an aura!
It was long-lasting and brought with it a supreme will that crashed head-on against the incoming mask with a bang.
Su Ming could sense that aura. It came… from True Morning Dao World, and it was the power of kismet! It was the kismet of the whole True Morning Dao World, and it was forcibly interfering with everything, because Dao Kong's body was something loved dearly by it. Yet right then there was a power from a world trying to get in its way.
"Su Xuan Yi, even if you calculated all of this and specifically delivered that physical body so this child will possess the kismet, I have long since predicted this. There is no way I will let you succeed!" As the mask charged forward, the ancient and cold voice echoed in the air with a loud bang.
At that instant, the gigantic mask turned around and had its back face Su Ming. Countless white threads crawled out from within it. As they squirmed around, they spread out, looking incredibly terrifying. Soon, those white threads intersected with each other to form a gigantic face.
It looked ancient, and its expression was numb. Filled with white threads, it looked akin to a piece of human skin. The next moment, it rushed towards Su Ming and immediately crashed into the invisible kismet.
When booming sounds echoed in the air, the ancient voice from the mask spoke again.
"I've been preparing for tens of thousands of years to deal with that kismet from True Morning Dao World and gathered together the Face of Misfortune from True Morning Dao World. It would break the kismet that you brought to this place. So, scatter!"
When he said those words, booming sounds shook the universe and made the space in all directions tremble. The kismet from True Morning Dao World gathered on Su Ming's cultivation base clone immediately tumbled backwards in the company of the booming sounds and collapsed.
Without the kismet, the face whose inside was filled with thin threads spread out to turn into countless squirming thin threads again. At the instant they charged towards Su Ming, the mask in the galaxy shrank swiftly. But the moment it closed in on Su Ming, Ecang's presence erupted with a bang, and Ecang's body appeared behind him.
"Puny little Ecang, if you were at the peak of your strength, you would still have some chance to pose a threat. After all, you were one of the lives in Old Mie Sheng's ballad… but what concerns your current self, shatter!"
The cold voice echoed in space again, and Su Ming's body was covered in blood. The Ecang behind him was torn to shreds.
"This is your fate, the fate you cannot avoid. You… are my Envoy of Cessation!"
The cold voice was emotionally wrought up, and the mask formed by the galaxy continuously shrank, until it became of normal size. It then covered Su Ming's face, and countless white threads crawled into his skin and flesh at a frenzied pace. They connected with his flesh and blood, intending to forcefully make him wear the mask again.
"From now on, you will no longer have a name. You will only have a title… Cessation!"
As the old man's voice echoed in space, Su Ming's body shuddered. The mask covered his face, and intense pain surged through him. At that moment, madness appeared in his eyes.
'Black stone fragment, Seed of Life Extermination, take off this mask for me, find its flaw!'
When Su Ming roared in his heart, the Seed of Life Extermination in his soul shone with a powerful light. Once it spread out from Su Ming's soul, it shot out of his body and erupted.
Its light was made of nine intersecting colors. When Su Ming's body was enveloped by them, it was as if another figure had appeared faintly over his body. It was an old man, an existence dressed in a white robe that stood above all lives.
It was… Old Mie Sheng.
However, in Old Mie Sheng's eyes was Su Ming's madness. He lifted his right hand and pushed his palm at the mask on his face. The moment the two touched, the mask let out a shrill scream of pain as if it possessed life. As it screamed, it changed under Su Ming's right hand, as if its structure was being rapidly disassembled.
It was at that moment that the old voice, which might have come from the mask or space itself, revealed astonishment for the first time ever. It echoed swiftly in space.
"This-this is… Old Mie Sheng. You are the Mie Sheng of this generation. This is impossible, this is…"
For the first time ever, there was panic in the voice, and there was also a great amount of shock that had never before appeared in his tone. As it reverberated in space, the mask melted at the instant it came into contact with the hand. It disappeared layer by layer until Su Ming's face was could be seen again.
The mask disintegrated with a bang. At that instant, the space around Su Ming crumbled. As it shattered layer by layer, everything in the place was crushed. As it was pulverized, the old man's voice from space let out a roar that showed his unwillingness to accept defeat.
"Dark Mountain… Xiao Hong… the fragment… Seed of Life Extermination… Su Xuan Yi, so your counterattack is this! I won't accept it! I can't accept it!"
Bang!
The space collapsed to reveal the fifth ocean, along with the blue crystal mirror that had been reduced to shards. The strongest ever windstorm was stirred up to rage and sweep through the entire fifth ocean.
End of Arc Four.