Against the Gods

Chapter 1196 - All or Nothing

Booom! Boooom!

Before anyone realized it, the entire Conferred God Stage was flooded with Golden Crow flames and turned into a one hundred and fifty kilometer wide golden purgatory. Both Yun Che and Lu Lengchuan were buried under a sea of fire while the Golden Crow image hung majestically up in the sky. It poured down more and more Golden Crow flames to turn the Conferred God Stage into a scarier purgatory.

Although Yun Che was severely injured, his attacks and the Manifest God’s were as frantic as ever.

Before Yun Che had summoned the Manifest God, Lu Lengchuan was able to defend himself perfectly, and Yun Che had to open himself up to massive counterattacks if he wanted any chance of breaking open his Glowing Dragon's Sacred Barrier at all. Moreover, he couldn’t destroy the first layer of the Glowing Dragon's Sacred Barrier in one go even if he struck it with everything he had. Worse, Lu Lengchuan could use the opening to wound him deeply and restore the barrier unhurriedly while Yun Che was down.

But now, Lu Lengchuan no longer had that luxury. Although he was still able to defend himself against Yun Che’s attacks, he couldn’t spare any energy to resist the Golden Crow image’s flames. Not only had Yun Che’s attacks become like a downpour just like before, but he gave Lu Lengchuan no openings to exploit, like the time he tried to break through the Glowing Dragon's Sacred Barrier in one go, not to mention he also had the Moon Splitting Cascade. As a result, Lu Lengchuan couldn’t find even an instant to restore his barrier.

This meant that Lu Lengchuan’s Glowing Dragon's Sacred Barrier was burning all this time. There was only damage and no recovery!

The Golden Crow flame itself was an incredible power on its own. Both the persistent sizzling noise coming from his barrier and the painful cries of the stone dragon scared Lu Lengchuan immensely. He wanted very much to find an opportunity to restore the Glowing Dragon's Sacred Barrier, but Yun Che hadn’t even given him the chance to breathe. If he tried to restore the barrier by force, and Yun Che seized the opportunity to shoot a direct blast, he would only lose his barrier faster.

Lu Lengchuan was completely suppressed, and the aura of the Glowing Dragon's Sacred Barrier was weakening by the second. It was clear to everyone that the barrier would collapse if Lu Lengchuan couldn’t produce a trump card that would overturn this dire situation.

Lu Lengchuan would lose when all three of his barriers had crumbled.

However, that was assuming that Yun Che could hold out that long… It was just as clear to everyone that he was severely injured and deeply exhausted.

Everyone on the Snow Song Realm’s side had long since stood up from their seats. Flame God Realm’s elders and disciples were the same too. In fact, they seemed to be even more excited and tense than the Snow Song Realm was, judging from the fact that they had slightly lost control over their fiery auras.

“Do your best, Yun Che!”

Every one of them were cheering for Yun Che inside their heads. Their eyes were wide open, and they dared not blink even once for a long time. The disciples seemed to be especially agitated, considering that their veins were bulging and their hair was standing on end.

Yun Che was a Snow Song Realm disciple, true.

But the flame burning on his body was without a doubt the Golden Crow flame!

When Huo Poyun was defeated, they thought that the Golden Crow flame would never burn on the Conferred God Stage again. However, not only had it reentered the Conferred God Battle through Yun Che, it was shining like never before!

The Four God Children were undefeated legends of the Eastern Region.

They all desired to see the moment a legend was burned to dust by the Golden Crow flame!

It no longer mattered at all why Yun Che was able to ignite the Golden Crow flame—and such a pure one no less—despite being a Snow Song Realm disciple.

“Yellow… Spring… Ashes!!”

Yun Che’s roar overlapped with the Golden Crow’s cry as two Yellow Spring Ashes erupted at once. The dozens of kilometers long golden flames were so powerful that spectators could clearly sense its world annihilating heat even through the barrier.

Lu Lengchuan’s figure was thrown far away by the highly concentrated flames. However, the Conferred God Stage suddenly turned quiet.

The Golden Crow flames slowly descended and revealed Yun Che and Lu Lengchuan.

Both combatants were standing quite a distance from each other. Lu Lengchuan couldn’t control his expression because the double Yellow Spring Ashes he suffered earlier had left several cracks that were nearly a meter long on his Glowing Dragon's Sacred Barrier.

Although the cracks were faint, their appearance meant that the Glowing Dragon's Sacred Barrier could be destroyed at an even faster rate than before. But what was puzzling was that Yun Che had stopped trying to pursue his enemy. It wasn’t just him either, the Manifest God simply hung in the air and did nothing for a time.

Lu Lengchuan hurriedly seized the opening to restore his barrier. The cracks that took Yun Che so much to create began healing at a visible rate.

“Yun Che… He’s…” The members of both the Snow Song Realm and the Flame God Realm felt their hearts clenched at once.

Slowly, Yun Che raised a palm and pressed it to his lips. He shook once, and blood poured down his fingers for a very long time.

He had suffered quite a few internal injuries earlier, but not only did he try to suppress them, he even used his full strength and summoned the Manifest God. All these exertions had without a doubt worsened his injuries.

Even worse than his injuries was the physical burden of his body and loss of profound energy.

It was true that Lu Lengchuan had to spend a lot of energy to maintain the Glowing Dragon's Sacred Barrier, but he was also a bona fide rank ten Divine Spirit practitioner. Although the Evil God Arts helped amplified Yun Che’s strength to the point where he was a match for Lu Lengchuan, the amount of profound energy he possessed was overwhelmingly inferior to the latter’s.

If he had another three hundred breaths… no, two hundred breaths’ time, Yun Che was confident that he could break apart all three layers of the Glowing Dragon's Sacred Barrier.

However, he could sustain “Rumbling Heaven” for only a hundred breaths even when he was at his peak. Now that he was gravely wounded, and he had to use Profound Handle: God Manifestation, his time limit was drastically shortened. His body was telling him that ten breaths was his ultimate limit.

He just couldn’t break open the Glowing Dragon's Sacred Barrier in such a short time no matter what.

“Yun Che!” Those from the Snow Song Realm cried out in unison.

The atmosphere lingering around the Conferred God Stage suddenly became greatly subdued. At the beginning, they didn’t believe that Yun Che had any chance of beating Lu Lengchuan at all. But as he showed them one miracle after another, their attitudes began to shift down another direction. By the time the Golden Crow image made its appearance and worked together with Yun Che to suppress Lu Lengchuan completely, almost all of them were rooting for Yun Che to win.

Even the Shrouding Sky Realm’s disciples were waiting for the moment Yun Che achieved victory.

After all, it was everyone’s dream to see legends broken, and new history made.

In the end though, a legend was still a legend. It was no easy feat to overcome them.

“Ah,” Yan Juehai let out a long sigh, “It’s a miracle he made it this far, really. If he had used the God Manifestation Art from the beginning then… this fight may have ended another way.”

Suddenly, his mind turned blank.

Why hadn’t Yun Che used the God Manifestation Art from the beginning?

He had purposely kept this trump card under wraps, and he used it only when he had no other choice… was beating Lu Lengchuan not his ultimate goal?

Slowly, Yun Che lowered his hand. The Heaven Smiting Sword and even the Golden Crow image vanished from view.

Lu Lengchuan, “...”

“Yun Che… Yun Che finally gave up. Sigh.”

“It’s a miracle he managed to make it this far. He may not be a match for Lu Lengchuan right now, but he’ll definitely be Lu Lengchuan’s better in five years’ time at most!”

“To think that a Manifest God would appear on the Conferred God Stage… I guess I really have gotten old. The next generation has arrived earlier than I expected.”

There were sighs everywhere in the spectator’s stand. Although this was their predicted result from the start, their feelings were completely different from before. Still, Yun Che had no doubt become the shiniest star of the Conferred God Battle. Not even Luo Changsheng and Jun Xilei could surpass his glory.

Just when everyone including Lu Lengchuan thought that this battle was over, Yun Che suddenly raised his left arm and summoned the blue profound handle again.

Screee—

A long cry cut through the air, and an icy figure slowly manifested into existence. A sudden chill descended on the still burning Conferred God Stage, followed by an icy might that was just as powerful as the Golden Crow image’s before.

Everyone from the Snow Song Realm jumped out of their seats again. “That’s… that’s the Ice Phoenix!”

It was a phoenix with feathers of ice. Dreamy mist and dazzling light trailed its body like smoke. It was none other than the Ice Phoenix of the three ancient Supreme Water Attribute Beasts!

Just like the Golden Crow image from before, it was a mighty being with perfect life presence and soul presence!

“Ice… another Manifest God? I…”

“Two Manifest Gods? This… this can’t be real, can it?”

“He can summon the Golden Crow Manifest God and the Ice Phoenix Manifest God? Hmm… you can do this with the God Manifestation Art?” God Emperor Shitian half-stared, and half-narrowed his eyes at Yun Che for a long time.

“Unheard… of. Never... seen,” the Brahma Heaven God Emperor said very, very slowly.

“The God Manifestation Art is one and only, and it has to be powered by a Divine Master. This is common sense among all Divine Masters,” the Dragon Monarch explained, “Therefore, Yun Che’s technique cannot possibly be the God Manifestation Art.”

“The fact that we have no idea how Yun Che managed to do what he did probably means that it is a power that he had created and learned by himself… that’s the scariest part of all this.”

The Dragon Monarch’s words caught all god emperors off guard.

“A young man who’s less than fifty years has invented a power that’s comparable to that of the God Manifestation Art… do you understand how significant that is?”

The god emperors fell silent. They weren’t able to say anything for a very long time.

“What’s Yun Che trying to do?” Mu Huanzhi looked confused. Destructive power wise, the ice phoenix was absolutely inferior to the Golden Crow. Yun Che was also grievously wounded, deeply exhausted, and now without a weapon because he had put away his sword. By all accounts, he looked like he was going to give up the fight, but if that was the case why had he summoned the Ice Phoenix’s image?

Was he trying to show to the world that he was a Divine Ice Phoenix Sect disciple during his last moments on the stage?

The Ice Phoenix didn’t attack Lu Lengchuan after it appeared. It simply hovered quietly above Yun Che’s head.

Yun Che slowly moved his hands towards his chest and closed his eyes. His fingers were curled, and his palms were facing each other. A tiny, golden spark burned in between his hands.

The moment the tiny spark appeared, Yun Che’s body suddenly burned wildly with fire. A Golden Crow image appeared around Yun Che and let out a proud cry.

In an instant, the very air of the Conferred God Stage seemed to screech to a halt as a deadly heat like never before spread to the surroundings. At the same time, light suddenly underwent a bizarre transformation and painted the world red without a sound. By the time the people returned to earth, the world became even redder until dreamy gold suddenly joined the palette as well.

Lu Lengchuan’s face was contorting drastically on the Conferred God Stage. He could sense the air temperature rising and rising and rising at an unbelievable rate.

“Look… look up there!!”

Everyone at the spectator’s stand subconsciously looked up to the sky. They finally discovered the source of the red and gold color.

The pale white sky had turned completely red.

A golden sun had appeared at the center!

“It’s… it’s…”

“Nine Suns Heaven’s Fury!!” Mu Huanzhi, Huo Rulie, and Yan Juehai roared in unison.

“Yun… Yun… Yun Che can use Nine Suns Heaven’s Fury!?” Mu Huanzhi was so shocked he could barely articulate himself.

“...” Huo Rulie’s feeling was only more turbulent that his.

Nine Suns Heaven’s Fury was the tenth stage of the Golden Crow’s Record of the Burning World, the ultimate flame that not even he, the sect master of Golden Crow Sect, was able to cultivate! It was why Huo Poyun’s successful cultivation of Nine Suns Heaven’s Fury was a historical moment to them.

But Huo Poyun was clearly not the only one who could do it, because Yun Che was gathering the flames of Nine Suns Heaven’s Fury right before his eyes!

Still, his rationality made him clench his teeth. “It won’t work! Nine Suns Heaven’s Fury is the ultimate divine flame of the Golden Crow’s Record of the Burning World. The cultivator must concentrate fully when circulating the laws, and spend a long time to gather the flames. They also can’t be interrupted at any point while the technique is channeled. Lu Lengchuan can easily cut it off before it forms completely… there’s no way he can activate Nine Suns Heaven’s Fury by force this way!”