More accurately speaking, the rays of purple light that spread out from Su Ming’s Ecang clone did not number ten thousand but 9,999. The one remaining ray of light was from Su Ming’s stone monument.

　　As the number of stone monuments became the complete number of one hundred thousand once more and as the near ninety thousand people were in the midst of shock and deathly silence, more people noticed a vortex before Su Ming’s stone monument and the powerful light that was gradually spreading out from within there. That light illuminated the entire world, causing all the people there to be unable to look away from it.

　　During that moment several tens of thousands of people had their gazes trained on the stone monument with Mo Su’s name carved on it, Su Ming walked out, catching everyone’s eyes.

　　His expression was indifferent as he walked out from the vortex in the stone monument. When he completely moved out, the vortex behind him disappeared, and Su Ming looked at the familiar land of the stone monuments. Hundreds of years had gone by in the blink of an eye to him, and he could only let out a sentimental sigh. Three hundred something years ago, he had brought with him an indomitable resolve in search for a serendipity, and several hundreds of years later, he returned, bringing with him a great serendipity and a miracle that changed his entire life.

　　Tens of thousands of gazes were trained on him, but they did not cause any fluctuation or any sort of emotion within Su Ming’s heart. He swept his gaze across the area, the last spot being his own stone monument.

　　It was now one million feet tall as it stood erect among others of its kind. It looked normal, but in Su Ming’s eyes, he could see Sui Chen Zi’s law in the place. He could see the shadow formed by Sui Chen Zi’s law in the air above the stone monument, and that shadow… was bowing to Su Ming at that moment.

　　He seemed to be congratulating him and waiting to be given orders. That action was one of obedience. He was obeying Sui Chen Zi’s last order – to submit to the person who was chosen by the Art created by his one thought.

　　“What is the law set by Sui Chen Zi?” Su Ming sent his thoughts to the shadow.

　　“The first rule remains supreme. When not contradicting the first law, the law will protect and wipe out the people here. It will protect the people from being killed by Ecang’s soul, and wipe out all those who go against the law.” Sui Chen Zi’s ancient voice traveled into Su Ming’s mind.

　　“The first rule?” Su Ming seemed to have come to understand something.

　　“The first rule is that Ecang can use its Divine Essence as a price, and I will help it kill the people here. However, if the person it wants to kill is someone who had failed to Possess it, then no matter what price it wants to pay, it will not be allowed. The rule will allow this person to leave in his own way.”

　　Su Ming nodded. He could discover some clues about this from how the purple Ecang had been unable to kill him previously. If there had been no rule, the purple Ecang could have had its will descend in this place and kill him off. It would not have needed to wait so passively.

　　He no longer inquired about Sui Chen Zi’s laws, but instead looked at his stone monument. In his eyes, the monument was made of purple crystals, but since the surface was rough, no one could see it.

　　In fact, even if they used their divine essence to check it, they would be unable to find any hints about it. Only he, who had control over Divine Essence and had obtained an Ecang clone, becoming one of the people who could gain a share of the benefits here, could see the secrets of the stone monument at that moment.

　　“Is… that person… Mo Su?”

　　“He’s the person we came here to capture alive. This is… He…” A buzzing gradually rose from the ninety thousand something people talking in the area.

　　“What happened just now? Why were we suddenly forced out of the world in the stone monument? Damn it, I was just about to reach a breakthrough! I was just one step away from it!”

　　“Three hundred years ago, a similar thing had happened. At that time, he was the only one who did not come out. Three hundred years later, the same thing repeats, but this time he emerges right after. I absolutely refuse to believe that he has no connection to this.”

　　“Just what did this Mo Su do in the world of the stone monuments… He could make ten thousand stone monuments disappear, and could also make those ten thousand stone monuments appear again.” The volume of discussions gradually increased, but Su Ming looked as if he could not hear any of it. He looked at his own stone monument and saw a purple leaf within the depths of it.

　　At the instant he the leaf, he understood. He shifted his gaze away and looked at the near ten thousand stone monuments that had just appeared in the area, and he saw that each of them were made of purple crystals, and there was a purple leaf within each one.

　　When he looked at the purple leaf, a feeling that he could blend perfectly with it rose within his heart, as if he only needed one thought, and those near ten thousand stone monuments would disappear. With one thought, he could also make those near ten thousand stone monuments reach one million feet.

　　In fact, when he closed his eyes, the near ten thousand stone monuments would become his eyes.

　　“I see, so it’s like this,” Su Ming whispered softly to himself. When he swept his gaze across the other ninety thousand stone monuments in the area, he nodded.

　　When he looked at the other ninety thousand stone monuments, he saw nine different colors. The number of stone monuments that belonged to each color was ten thousand. These stone monuments were all formed by crystals made by their respective colors, and within them was a leaf of the same color. [1]

　　When Su Ming saw all the stone monuments and swept his gaze past those tree leaves, wills that repelled his presence immediately spread out, blocking his gaze from looking at them. There were nine wills in total, and they all belonged to the nine different colored groups of stone monuments and their leaves.

　　A smile appeared on Su Ming’s face. When he had Possessed the purple Ecang, he had always had a question in his heart as to why he was Possessing the purple Ecang.

　　Based on his understanding, the purple Ecang had the one hundred thousand stone monuments in this place. It was a test when they wanted to make their stone monuments reach one million feet. With this kind of understanding, he pondered over it for a long time, but could not find his answer.

　　As he came to the end of his train of thought, Su Ming realized that if this was the truly the case, then the purple Ecang was definitely the strongest among the ten souls, because it controlled the growth of all the stone monuments. Among the one hundred thousand people, there were about ninety thousand who were in its control.

　　When he was Possessing the purple Ecang, he saw it summon nearly ten thousand rays of purple light. Once he Possessed it, those scrambled memories surged into his mind. As he saw what really happened, he understood something.

　　His assumption before had been wrong.

　　The purple Ecang did not control the initial growth of those one hundred thousand stone monuments. In truth, it only controlled ten thousand. Ecang had ten souls, and each soul possessed ten thousand stone monuments. Only then could balance be maintained.

　　When Sui Chen Zi’s law chose his stone monument for him, it was already purple. That was why… on the first day he arrived in the land of the stone monuments, he naturally became one of the ten thousand stone monuments the purple Ecang had.

　　Su Ming also realized that besides his, there was not a single stone monument that had surpassed one million feet in the area that was purple. Perhaps it was due to all ten thousand of the former purple stone monuments shattering three hundred something years ago, but Su Ming could remember clearly all the locations and names of the stone monuments which had surpassed one million feet when he first arrived in this place.

　　When he looked at them at the moment, he found that all of them were there, with not a single one added to the pile, and not a single one missing.

　　This gave rise to a question: Why had there not been a single person who had managed to make the purple stone monuments surpass one million feet since the time he had come to this place? Su Ming found his answer within the memories of his Ecang clone as well.

　　The person whose name was carved on the last purple stone monument that had surpassed one million feet had suddenly died in the world outside two thousand years ago, causing the stone monument to return to several tens of thousands of feet.

　　‘By the looks of it… the purple Ecang had intentionally caused around a hundred stone monuments to reach nine hundred thousand something feet in one go that year to receive the test. It… must have panicked because no stone monument of one million feet had appeared, that was why it had intentionally made things easier.’ Su Ming remembered the people whose stone monuments had grown to nine hundred thousand something feet during that time. Most of them should have been purple.

　　However, clearly, Zhou Kang’s stone monument was not.

　　‘These one hundred thousand stone monuments are divided into ten. The stone monuments of each color can reach up to ten million feet. Before I Possessed Ecang, I thought that there would no longer be any stone monuments that would reach ten million feet, because I alone have earned the right to ten million feet, but by the looks of it, my understanding was wrong.’

　　Su Ming shook his head. The memories within his Ecang clone were incredibly jumbled up, and he would need time until they fully fused into his mind. That was why he did not immediately seek to find his answers within.

　　‘But this is even better. My Ecang clone will become even stronger with the help of the power of the ten thousand people, and I will kill all those whose stone monuments have surpassed one million feet in the world outside.

　　‘If that is the case, I can prevent the growth of the stone monuments of the other colors, so only the ones that are purple will continuously become stronger, making it much easier for my Ecang clone to devour the other nine souls when the time comes.’

　　“Mo-Mo Su?”

　　While Su Ming was deep in thought, a voice tinged with uncertainty reached his ears.

　　At the sound of it, Su Ming looked over and saw Zhou Kang not too far in the distance. They had not seen each other for three hundred years. Zhou Kang did not look too different from before… but the ancient air around him was even stronger. When he saw Su Ming, excitement appeared on his face. This excitement was not due to him having a deep friendship with Su Ming, but because he obtained an answer – an answer that verified what his wife had said was right.

　　“Big brother Zhou.” A smile appeared on Su Ming’s face as he spoke amiably towards Zhou Kang.

　　“What happened? You… Why didn’t you appear from the world in your stone monument for hundreds of years? Were the two abnormalities before and after because of you?

　　“Was-was my wife’s guess correct?” Zhou Kang asked in excitement, his voice quivering. He longed to learn the answer. Even if that answer could not bring him freedom, it was the thing that had puzzled his wife all those years ago. Even if his wife had died, he still wanted to know.

　　Su Ming looked at Zhou Kang. If he had not told him of his experience in the past and his wife’s guess, then there was a high possibility that Su Ming would not have taken the path of the Five Illusory Echelons.

　　If that had happened, then while Su Ming might still have chosen to Possess Ecang, the difficulty of the Possession would have been so high that it was very likely that he would have failed with the slightest mistake. In fact, if Su Ming was to Possess Ecang again, he was not entirely certain he would succeed.

　　Just as Su Ming was about to answer Zhou Kang’s question, he suddenly frowned and lifted his head to look at the air above him.

　　At that moment, after a series of guesses and considerations, plenty of people from the ninety thousand something of those in the area became aware of who he was.

　　“You’re Mo Su! The one who is wanted by the four Great True Worlds!”

　　“Damn it, it’s you! If you didn’t provoke the forces of power from the four Great True Worlds keeping a lookout on this place and had them place a bounty on your head, why would we come to this accursed place and lose our freedom?”

　　“Bastard, I might be unable to kill you here, but you also lost your freedom and can’t go out. You will also have to face the possibility of being selected to die. I’d like to see just who among us will die first.”

　　Sinister words instantly rose into the air. The cultivators who said these words were the ones who came to this place during the past three hundred years, and they knew that there was a rule here that forbade them from attacking. However, the grievances they had suffered during the past three hundred years made them immediately throw out scathing words once they recognized Su Ming.

　　Almost the moment those sinister words were spoken, booming sounds came from the air above. Hundreds of figures appeared at the same time, and as they descended to the place, their faces filled with different expressions of confusion, uncertainty, surprised delight, shock, and many other types of emotions.

　　These were newcomers, but Su Ming was not looking at them. He was still looking at the air.

　　Translator’s Notes:

　　1. The matter of numbers: I wonder if any of you were confused as I was by the numbers when you first saw it and went back to compare with the final ‘Ecang as His Clone’ chapter. In any case, this is how I understand it. Ecang was split up into one million parts. It has 10 colors. Each color has 100,000 parts.

　　There are 10 foreign lands. 4 are in Sinful Barren Lands. The remaining 6 should be in Divine Essence Star Ocean. In each foreign land, there are 100,000 stone monuments. 10,000 belong to one color, so 10 colors x 10,000 stone monuments = 100,000. 100,000 stone monuments x 10 foreign lands = 1,000,000 stone monuments. By extension, it also means that 10,000 stone monuments of 1 color x 10 foreign lands = 100,000 stone monuments of 1 color.

　　I made this because I originally had the misconception that 1 foreign land belongs to just one Ecang of a single color, hence all 100,000 stone monuments belong to it, which is wrong.

　　And so, the 100,000 galaxies, planets, Ecang trees, venous pathways, and golden hearts from before were not from one foreign land, but was 10,000 worlds each from all 10 foreign lands.

　　Do keep in mind that this is my interpretation at the point I translated this chapter, and I might be wrong. I’m welcome to hear different views to the numbers.