Against the Gods

Chapter 1354 - The New Moon God Emperor

Yue Wuya was dead. He had become the first god emperor to perish before the end of his lifespan in the history of the Moon God Realm.

No one knew what he had said during the final moments of his life besides the two people by his side. It had nothing to do with the future of the Moon God Realm or his unfulfilled wish as a god emperor either. Instead, it was about the two people he had loved and hated the most in his life.

The former was Xia Qingyue’s mother, whereas the latter was Xia Qingyue’s father.

The Moon God Realm was in chaos, and knells were rung everywhere. The moonlight hanging high above the sky died out at once, sinking Divine Moon City into unprecedented sadness and depression.

Dazed, Xia Qingyue walked slowly and heavily to the one place where she had stayed longer than any other location in the Moon God Realm. It was also the most quiet.

She pushed open a palace door, passed through an invisible barrier and arrived at an isolated realm that was separate from the outside world. There were elegant mountains and rivers in this place, and birds chirping wonderful melodies into one’s ears. It was like almost a utopia.

A delicate-looking woman in red dress was standing by the edge of a creek. Although she could hear Xia Qingyue’s footsteps slowly growing closer towards her, she didn’t turn around to greet her. She asked quietly, “Is he… gone?”

Her words was very, very soft. A gentle breeze could’ve carried it away.

Xia Qingyue came to a stop. “He is gone.”

“Is that so?” The woman in red dress whispered, but she didn’t display any overt reaction. In fact, her voice was as calm as the stream beneath her feet. “He is the the Moon God Emperor, but he still wasn’t able to escape the clutches of his fated prophecy. Does ‘fate’ really exist in this world?” 

“Mother…” Xia Qingyue spoke softly and slowly as she stared at her mother’s back. “Where will you be going after this? Would you like to come…”

She stopped suddenly. She didn’t finish her sentence.

The woman in red dress turned around to face her, revealing a countenance of unparalleled brightness and beauty despite being burdened with visible languidness and invisible hardships. She said gently while staring at Xia Qingyue, “Qingyue, you’ve inherited his divine power, right?”

Xia Qingyue nodded slightly.

“Then, where will you be going next?”

“I'll go wherever you will go.” Xia Qingyue answered without the slightest hesitation.

Yue Wugou smiled at her and stroked Xia Qingyue’s cheeks gently. She could sense her mother’s fingers shaking slightly. “My good girl, mother is very happy to hear this from you. However, your life has just begun, and you should focus more on planning and carrying out your own path properly.”

Xia Qingyue nodded, “Don’t worry, mother. I will treat myself well.”

Yue Wugou withdrew her hand gently and stared at her daughter, her smile growing warmer with each passing moment, “It has only been a couple of years, but it is clear that he treated you better than any other children he had had. Go… and give him a proper send off. I too wish to have a… moment of peace.”

“Okay.” Her mother’s eyes looked calm, but Xia Qingyue knew that her sorrow must be greater than anyone else’s.

Xia Qingyue turned around to leave, but her mother’s voice reached her just as she was about to step out of the unique realm, “Qingyue, you should learn to live for yourself, get it? You cannot fulfill another person’s dream unless you’re strong enough on your own. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“...” Xia Qingyue turned around and glanced at her mother with a bit of surprise. Then, she nodded. “Yes, mother. Qingyue has memorized all of your words.”

Xia Qingyue left, and Yue Wugou was all that was left inside this peaceful world. The woman raised her hands slowly and pressed them against her heart.

“Qingyue, I hope that your life will not be fraught with indecision, perplexity, and a constant desire to have the best of both worlds… You should live for yourself… Whatever path you choose to walk from hereon, I wish that your footsteps will be firm and certain. Mother will always watch over you… from the other side of the world…”

Yue Wugou whispered with a smile that looked like the morning wind. “Wuya, I’ve failed you during this lifetime… so please allow Wugou… to accompany you… on your long walk… to the Yellow Springs…”

    …………

Xia Qingyue’s heart was as heavy as it was confused as the knell that resounded throughout Divine Moon City accompanied her every step. Moreover, her head wouldn’t stop replaying the somewhat strange words her mother had said to her earlier. Then… she froze like she was thunderstruck before she ran back to her mother like she had gone mad.

Bang!

She pushed open the palace door, and was immediately greeted by a red figure lying on the ground at the exact same position where she was standing before. The water was running, the birds were still singing, but her life signs… were already completely gone.

Xia Qingyue’s entire world suddenly turned white and soundless. In a daze, she walked to Yue Wugou before falling heavily to her knees beside her. She was biting her lip so hard that it was bleeding, but she refused to let out a single sound. Her seemingly fragile body never stopped shaking, however.

Xia Qingyue had no idea how much time had passed when she had finally broken away from the pale white world, but when she stretched out and lifted Yue Wugou with her arms, a circular mirror suddenly fell out of the latter’s sleeve and hit the ground softly.

Caught by surprise, Xia Qingyue picked up the round mirror and gave it a look. It was made of an incredibly average metal; so average in fact that it was rarely seen in the God Realm. Moreover, the passage of time had clearly taken its toll on the item. 

Subconsciously, Xia Qingyue opened the mirror, and inside she found the profound image of three people.

The first person in the image was a spirited-looking man. The second person in the image was a four year old girl. The final person in the image was a boy who looked healthy and robust despite just being three years old.

Xia Qingyue’s hands started shaking harder and harder as she stared at the profound image. A voice as transient as a dream escaped her lips. “You’ve… never forgotten… after all… we’ve never been abandoned… after all…”

Her shoulders were shaking, her eyes were shut firm, her right hand was clenching the round mirror in a death grip, and… her left hand was holding a warm piece of paper before she realized it.

…It was the marriage contract she had “destroyed” right in front of Yun Che.

A round mirror, a marriage contract… Xia Qingyue finally broke into tears, and she cried like never before inside the isolated realm while clinging to her mother…

    …………

Xia Qingyue walked aimlessly inside Divine Moon City as she held Yue Wugou’s lifeless body in her arms. Her eyes were misty and lightless, and she had no idea where she was, much less where she was going with her mother.

Countless memories passed through her mind chaotically.

For the past few years she had felt like she was living a dream.

Yue Wuya—her foster father—was the first person ever to give her warmth and kindness in the God Realm.

Yue Wugou—her birth mother—had given back the affection she had missed for a very long time, and the obsession for the profound way she had discarded along the way.

And finally, Yun Che—her husband—was the person who had awakened her from this “dream”.

Here in the God Realm, they were undoubtedly the most important people in her life.

However, they had all left her and gone away in just a few days’ time. The God Realm was vast, but the only things it had left for her were coldness and loneliness. She no longer had anyone to depend on, to share companionship with, or to confess to in the God Realm.

    …………

Father’s tears had made me want to find mother and reunite the family since young… but in the end, I had forgiven the man who had “robbed” mother from him in the first place, to the point where I couldn’t even bear seeing them being separated ever again.

I owed my very life to my sect, and they had sent me and only me away in the face of annihilation. Today, I am strong enough to protect them all… and yet, I can never return.

I owed my foster father a kingly favor, but not only have I not returned it in any way, I have even destroyed his wish and face singlehandedly. And after today, I no longer had the chance to repay or fix anything in life...

Mother, the fact that I was able to find you was providential good luck already, but although I’d never complained a word in your presence, I must admit that I had always held a secret grudge in my heart… I had thought that you had completely cut ties with us, and that you’d truly chosen to abandon and forget us after twenty years of complete separation… But you’d never forgotten about us after all… In fact, the pain you were forced to suffer must have exceeded all imagination… And yet, I can do nothing but to watch you leave us forever.

Yun Che… Why didn't you wait for me… 

Heart of Glazed Glass… Exquisite Body… Unprecedented myth. And yet, why did nothing ever go as I wished? Why was I not able to do anything...

Protection of the heavens?

Heh… That is nothing but a joke to deceive others and oneself...

Be it the lower realms or the God Realm, there was one thing that had never changed. If one wishes to dominate their own destiny and others, then… they must possess unparalleled strength and power.

I was the one with unparalleled talent and luck, but why have I only realized this now?... 

The images in her head grew more and more chaotic. They all dissolved into a blur… until a golden figure suddenly passed right before her eyes.

Qianye Ying’er!

Ping...

The blurry world shattered, the images all faded away into nothingness. Xia Qingyue’s footsteps were still slow, but the noise that had accompanied every step was gradually fading away into nothingness. Even the mistiness in her eyes was turning slowly but surely into bone chilling ice.

The chill in her eyes deepened with every step she took, and eventually… it seemed like it was completely bottomless.

“Hmm? Xia Qingyue?”

A voice suddenly rang from ahead. It was a man dressed in purple, and his attire and the moon emblem he wore showed that he was of noble birth.

He was the the Moon God Emperor’s thirty-seventh son, Yue Yan.

The light of obsession and lust instantly flashed across Yue Yan’s eyes when he saw Xia Qingyue. She was familiar with it because more than half of the the Moon God Emperor’s sons and grandsons were staring at her like this all the time, but this time the gaze was unusually fierce and unrestrained… The reason behind it was of course, the death of the the Moon God Emperor. There was no one left who could protect her anymore.

Without the the Moon God Emperor’s protection, it was doubtful if she could even preserve her identity as the god emperor’s “foster daughter”. Moreover, she was only at the Divine Spirit Realm, and there were countless people in the Moon God Realm alone who could toy with her as they pleased.

Xia Qingyue didn’t react to his gaze whatsoever. She continued to trudge ahead in silence.

“Heh!” Not only had Yue Yan discarded all of his usual grace and modesty, he didn’t even look remotely sad that the the Moon God Emperor had passed away. As he let out a low chuckle and walked towards Xia Qingyue with a smile on his face, he saw who the dead woman Xia Qingyue was holding and blurted, “Yue Wugou? How did she… Oh! So, the bitch who brought shame to our Moon God Realm is finally dead!”

Xia Qingyue suddenly came to a stop and turned her head slowly. Her purple tinged eyes then fell on Yue Yan.

In that instant, Yue Yan’s expression suddenly froze like someone had cast a spell on him. To his shock, Xia Qingyue’s normally exquisite eyes were filled with bottomless darkness, and he felt they were devouring his body and soul without mercy. Light faded swiftly from his vision, and a bone chilling, soul rending cold suddenly spread throughout his body.

Crack...

Ice quickly covered the surface of his entire body. His eyes were colorless, and his mouth was agape. His body slowly slid down the wall behind him as bone chilling fear sprouted inside his heart and spread like wild grass.

Crack...

“You…” Everything including his own existence had vanished into nothingness. The only thing he could feel was ice and cold. At this point, his pupils had shrunk so much that it was barely visible, and his voice had frozen over so much that he couldn’t even make a cry for mercy.

Crack... Crack...

The ice around him grew thicker and thicker… both his body and soul were frozen inside an abyss of fear...

Bang!

Xia Qingyue looked away from Yue Yan, and when she turned around the ice suddenly shattered and dissolved into nothingness. Yue Yan collapsed on the floor with a greenish purple look, and he was hugging his own shoulders and shaking like mad. His pupils remained pale and shivering, and he might not be able to wipe away this moment of fear and trauma from his mind for eternity.

A terrible stench spread out from beneath his body...

Another person appeared right in front of Xia Qingyue. It was the Golden Moon God, Yue Wuji. He had been attracted by Xia Qingyue’s aura, and when he showed up in a hurry and saw the woman in her arms, he turned pale and said, “The God Empress… she… she…”

No one knew better than him about the hundred-year relationship between Yue Wuya and Yue Wugou. Although many years had passed since then, he had never stopped calling Yue Wugou his God Empress. It was because he knew that there would be no other empresses in Yue Wuya’s life.

“Wuji,” Xia Qingyue said calmly, “give me the Imperial Moon Glazed Pearl and the Zi Que Divine Sword.”

The way Xia Qingyue had addressed him caught Yue Wuji by surprise. She had called him “Wuji” instead of the usual “Uncle Wuji”.

Worse, her tone had been cold, intimidating, and entirely forceful.

Stunned, Yue Wuji was about to say something when Xia Qingyue suddenly extended her arm in front of herself. In the next instant, a rainbow light and a purple light escaped his possession and flew into Xia Qingyue’s hand.

It was the Imperial Moon Glazed Pearl and Zi Que Divine Sword!

It surprised Yue Wuji so much that his words had gotten stuck in his throat.

He wasn’t too surprised that Qingyue was able to forcefully summon the Zi Que Divine Sword. After all, the weapon was her lifebound artifact.

However, the Imperial Moon Glazed Pearl was the twelve Moon Gods’ origin core. It wasn’t that it was impossible to summon the Imperial Moon Glazed Pearl by force, but only under the condition that the summoner was the strongest Moon God!

The Imperial Moon Glazed Pearl belonged only to the strongest Moon God, and only the holder of the Imperial Moon Glazed Pearl had the right to become emperor of the Moon God Realm.

But… but how was that possible? Xia Qingyue had only just inherited the divine power of Zi Que today!

How had she become the strongest Moon God all of a sudden!?

But what had happened right before eyes was undoubtedly reality. 

Was the rumored Nine Profound Exquisite Body really that amazing? Was this why the Moon God Emperor desired so much to pass down the divine power of Zi Que to her?

Clang!

The color of purple dazzled the sky as the Zi Que Divine Sword glowed suddenly, and it took him only a glance to identify that its purple moonlight was richer than it had ever been in Yue Wuya’s possession.

Then, the Imperial Moon Glazed Pearl and Zi Que Divine Sword vanished from Xia Qingyue’s hands, and she turned away while still holding her mother’s corpse, “Wuji, I will be burying my mother. Please take care of foster father’s burial ceremony, will you?”

“Yes…” Yue Wuji answered while not looking entirely himself.

It wasn’t until Xia Qingyue had walked away and vanished entirely from his gaze that Yue Wuji realize that his back was almost fully bent, and he himself wasn’t conscious of it at all until after the fact… it almost seemed like the action had been born out of pure physical and mental instinct.

“Go well… new Moon God Emperor,” he said half-consciously.

    ————

Author's Note:

[The last chapter blasted so many tycoons out of their holes that my liver shook! ⊙﹏⊙∥]

[For now, the God Realm chapters have come to an end. The next time we return will be many years from now.]