Against the Gods

Honorable Tai Yu’s all-or-nothing strike, the reappearance of the Eternal Heaven Great Ancestor. The final brilliant glow of their lives had not only not managed to grab a ray of hope for the Eternal Heaven God Realm, it had also shown just how terrifying the devil people of the Northern Region were.

Even the bitter and tragic final act of the Eternal Heaven Great Ancestor, when she tried to detonate her own profound veins, had been reduced to an ineffectual joke under the strength of the Three Yama Ancestors.

Yan One, Yan Two, and Yan Three… These three terrifying elders had practically rendered the Eternal Heaven helpless. They had taken a legend of the Eastern Divine Region and rubbed her into the ground. From today onward, they would appear in countless profound practitioner’s nightmares.

Zhou Xuzi slowly got to his feet outside the Eternal Heaven Realm. He had not reacted very violently to the passing of his great ancestor. Everything that had happened today had already left his heart filled with bitter ashes.

“Royal father!”

As that sorrowful cry rang in the air, Zhou Qingfeng hurried over to his side. The other three Guardians were right beside him, thirty Eternal Heaven elders and a bunch of Adjudicators trailed behind them.

This was, without a shadow of doubt, still an enormous amount of strength. It represented half of the Eternal Heaven Realm’s core strength. Especially since… the Eternal Heaven God Emperor and his future crown prince were still around.

However, the Eternal Heaven Realm had already been conquered by the devils and the Eternal Heaven Pearl had been seized by the devils. They were still alive, but their foundation and their spirit had been crushed and buried.

“My lord, do we still… rush back to Eternal Heaven?” a Guardian asked him.

When he said those words, there was no fight left in them. There was only a muted sorrow… and a tinge of despair.

Their clansmen, their family, their descendants...

“Why did Brahma Monarch, Moon God, Star God, and Holy Eaves not send anyone to reinforce us!? Did the devil people also invade them!?” Zhou Qingfeng exclaimed in a voice filled with resentment and dread.

There were great projection formations set up within the Eternal Heaven Realm and that was why everyone in the Eastern Divine Region could witness their plight.

Could it be that the other king realms had also been pushed into such dire straits? If that was truly the case, then just how dreadful were these devil people?

“Let’s go.” Zhou Xuzi looked into the distance with lifeless eyes.

“Where are we going to go?” Zhou Qingfeng asked.

As he stared into the distance, a distance that spanned more than a few star realms, Zhou Xuzi’s lips trembled before he whispered, “The Dragon God Realm.”

“We will go to the Western Divine Region. The Dragon God Realm,” Zhou Xuzi slowly said as he cast his eyes toward the west.

They could no longer return to the Eternal Heaven Realm. This was the best option he could think of in his despair… He did not sense his will being interfered with at all, not the slightest bit.

“No matter how strong the devils are, they won’t dare to touch the Western Divine Region. The Dragon Monarch and I have always gotten along, so that is the best place for us to recover,” Zhou Xuzi said with a long and deep sigh.

Once a person’s sorrow, hatred and pain had reached its limits, the only thing left was dispirited emptiness.

“Relying on someone else’s charity, is… is…” The Guardian who had spoken up broke off his sentence mid-way and turned his face to the side. He could not bear to continue.

Just the day before, they were still Guardians who were standing at the pinnacle of power. But today… they actually had to abandon their ancestral home and rely on the charity of another realm?

Furthermore, a disaster was assailing the Eastern Divine Region, so they would definitely be treated as sinners if they simply left, even though it was to preserve what was left of them.

Given these circumstances, they would rather rush back to Eternal Heaven and put their bodies and powers on the line as they fought to the bitter end against these devil people.

“Heh…” A miserable laugh leaked out of Zhou Xuzi’s mouth. He said, “Our ancestral homeland and the Eternal Heaven Pearl are gone, so what do we even have left? If even we die in this struggle, then Eternal Heaven will truly have been destroyed.”

“Even if we have to rely on the charity of others, even if we are cursed by the rest of the world… the only way we will ever rise up again and take our revenge is if we survive!”

Once he finished saying those words, a strange light flashed in his eyes… It was not the calm divine light that his eyes normally emitted, but a startlingly dark one.

“Qingfeng.” He raised an arm to pat Zhou Qingfeng on the shoulder as he said, “It is far better for us to live with this pain and humiliation than to indiscriminately burn up our lives for nothing. It isn’t the former option that is a sign of cowardice, it is the latter… Do you understand?”

Zhou Qingfeng’s hands balled into tight fists and a long period of time passed before he could finally muster up the willpower to nod his head. His eyes had turned resolute and determined. “Yes… This child is willing to follow royal father to the Western Region’s Dragon God Realm. When we finally do return, we will definitely take back Eternal Heaven and wash away today’s humiliation in blood!”

As the entire Eastern Divine Region witnessed the miserable slaughter of the Eternal Heaven Realm, no one was aware that the Eternal Heaven God Emperor and many of the elites of the realm had quietly changed their destination. They were no longer racing back to Eternal Heaven. Instead, they concealed their bodies and auras and headed toward the Western Divine Region, eluding the senses and eyes of the devil people and profound practitioners in the Eastern Divine Region.

In another location, Chi Wuyao slowly raised her head as a strange and mysterious light flashed in the depths of her eyes.

At this time, she received a sound transmission from one of her Witches. “Master, the situation in the Snow Song Realm has changed.”

Chi Wuyao was not surprised by this message at all. She replied, “There’s no need for you to bother with the other regions in the Snow Song Realm, but for the abode of the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect, the Ice Phoenix Realm… you must not let a single person enter it!”

Witch Chanyi put away her sound transmission devil jade as she hovered in the air above the Ice Phoenix Realm. Her divine sense had completely covered the gigantic star realm.

When the devil people of the Northern Region had launched their all-out assault on the Eastern Divine Region. She had been given a rather special mission, and this was the only mission that had been assigned to her...

Protect the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect!

Because Chi Wuyao knew that this was the only place in the Eastern Divine Region that Yun Che still regarded as a “pure land”. He certainly would not allow it to be trampled.

————

The slaughter continued unabated in the Eternal Heaven Realm, but the projection profound formations continued to shine.

Reports on the battles taking place in other star realms continued to stream in, but Yun Che did not take any action. In fact, it seemed like he was waiting for something.

“Qianying,” Yun Che suddenly said, “has there been any movement from the Dragon God Realm?”

“...No.” Qianye Ying’er shook her head as she shot him a sideways glance.

“...” Yun Che did not respond, but his eyebrows started to knit together tightly.

Given the Dragon Monarch’s abnormal obsession with Shen Xi, Yun Che had thought that he would definitely drop everything and rush over to the Eastern Divine Region to bare his fangs at him the moment he made an appearance.

Shen Xi was the only person who could cause the Dragon Monarch to act irrationally.

But the current circumstances were not as he imagined they would be.

“However, we did hear an unverifiable rumor from the Western Divine Region,” Qianye Ying’er continued. “The Dragon Monarch hasn’t been seen in the Dragon God Domain for quite some time and the whispers say that he’s gone into seclusion.”

“Seclusion?” Yun Che said with a contemptuous sneer. His voice was dark and cold as he continued, “Does he still even need to do that?”

Fen Daoqi’s figure flashed into existence behind Yun Che. He knelt down before him and said, “Your Magnificence, we will soon sweep this place clean off all the dogs of Eternal Heaven, but there are quite a few of them who have escaped. Do we split off some of our forces to deal with them?”

“Now isn’t the time to divide our strength,” Yun Che replied in a heavy voice. “However, once the situation has stabilized, we must get rid of all the remnants of Eternal Heaven! This especially applies to the relatives and descendants of the Eternal Heaven God Emperor! Not a single one is to be spared! I don’t want to create another Fen Juechen.”

“...!?” Fen Daoqi’s head jerked upwards, shock and astonishment apparent on his face.

Fen… Juechen?

His brain churned as it swiftly did a search of the genealogy of the Burning Moon bloodline, all eighteen generations of it, and all of the people with the Fen surname in the Burning Moon Royal City. After his mind sped past the last baby with the surname Fen, someone who even lived outside the royal capital, he still could not recall anyone with the name “Fen Juechen”.

Panic suddenly filled his heart as he said in a cautious voice, “I don’t know who this Fen Juechen is… so I beseech Your Magnificence to explain it to me.”

Yun Che flicked a glance toward him as he said, “There are people besides your Burning Moon bloodline who possess the surname ‘Fen’ in this universe! It’s not something you should concern yourself over! After you finish cleaning up, immediately gather up all of Eternal Heaven’s resources. The quicker you can get this done, the better!”

“Yes! This Daoqi takes his leave.” Fen Daoqi immediately breathed a long sigh of relief before retreating as fast as he could.

A black light flashed in Yun Che’s eyes at this moment. The sound transmission he had been eagerly waiting for had finally arrived.

“Your Magnificence, I’ve finished the ‘mission’ you gave me in the Moon God Realm.”

Witch Hua Jin was in a star region far away. She was currently located right outside the Moon God Realm and her body had melded with the darkness. When she made that sound transmission to Yun Che, she raised her left hand. A special barrier that was both invisibile and auraless immediately floated up from her hand.

An Immaculate Barrier!

When Yun Che and Qianye Ying’er had discovered the Untamed Divine Marrow, it had also been hidden inside an Immaculate Barrier.

Absolute isolation and a complete lack of aura… If not for the Sky Poison Pearl, Yun Che would never have been able to discover the existence of that Untamed Divine Marrow.

It was undoubtedly extremely hard to form this perfect barrier. However, if the Clear Sky God Realm could create one back in the day, the Soul Stealing Realm naturally had the means to create one as well.

Furthermore, the Immaculate Barrier in Hua Jin’s hands was more than a hundred times larger than the one which had hidden the Untamed Divine Marrow.

The Soul Stealing Realm had undoubtedly paid an enormous price to construct such a gigantic Immaculate Barrier.

And this Immaculate Barrier was not spiritually connected to Chi Wuyao, it was connected to Yun Che.

“Very good.” A faint smile appeared on Yun Che’s face but his voice was deep and heavy. He immediately looked toward Qianye Ying’er. “Qianying, go lure the Moon God Emperor out.”

Qianye Ying’er was the person the Moon God Emperor hated the most in her life, so there was no better bait than her.

“Should I bring them along?” Qianye Ying’er glanced at Yan One, Yan Two, and Yan Three

“There’s no need to!”

Perhaps it was because he had to be the one who plunged the blade into Xia Qingyue’s chest, or perhaps there was some other complicated reason, but Yun Che did not explain himself. His body was already rising into the air when he gave that blunt refusal and he was soon flying towards the vast star region.

————

As the Eastern Divine Region descended into chaos, no one was aware that another sort of chaos was also descending upon the Holy Eaves Realm.

BOOOM!!

An earth-shaking explosion shook the air without any warning as the roof of the Holy Eaves Sect’s great hall burst apart. Two people shot through the hole they had created. The energies of two incredibly powerful Divine Masters clashed in the air, the shockwaves nearly toppling the gigantic sect building.

The entire sect had been shaken up and countless people gathered to witness the commotion.

In the air high above them, Fairy Guxie—the strongest person in the Eastern Divine Region who did not belong to a king realm, looked as calm as water. Her eyes were cold and flinty, but a complicated light flickered within them.

Shockingly enough, she was actually facing off against her own older brother, Holy Eaves Realm King Luo Shangchen.

As he stared at Luo Guxie, Luo Shangchen’s face was startlingly dark and his eyes had turned a shocking and conspicuous scarlet red… They were currently radiating a darkness and killing intent that no one had ever seen before

His arms, no, his entire body was trembling mightily, and his aura was also extremely agitated and disordered.

The person in front of him was clearly his younger sister, the Holy Eaves Realm’s pillar of stability and strength, the person who had made Luo Changsheng the man he was today, Luo Guxie! Yet he seemed to be staring at an archenemy he could never reconcile with.

“This… This is…”

At first, everyone had thought that devil people had invaded the Holy Eaves Realm, but when they saw what was happening, all of them were left completely dumbfounded.

The malice and killing intent that filled the air shocked their hearts and chilled their spines. The Holy Eaves Great Elder put on a brave face and stepped forward as he spoke in as calm a voice as he could muster, “Sect Master, Fairy Guxie, could… could this be some sort of misunderstanding?”

“KILL!!!”

However, the Holy Eaves Great Elder’s words provoked a shrill, bloodcurdling scream from Luo Shangchen. He pointed his finger at Luo Guxie and every single part of it shuddered violently as he yelled, “Kill her! Kill her! KILL HER!!!”

“Heh, kill me? Hahahaha!” Luo Guxie laughed wildly. She flung out the sleeve of her robe and sent all the Holy Eaves disciples that were approaching them flying. She stared at Luo Shangchen’s scarlet eyes as she sneered, “A useless piece of trash like you wants to kill me? Hah! That will only ever be a pipedream for someone like you!”

The Holy Eaves Great Elder’s jaw dropped open as his eyes widened to the size of saucers. He was at a complete loss as to what to do. In fact, all of the Holy Eaves Realm’s disciples who were present were absolutely dumbfounded by this scene.

What was going on!? Just what exactly was going on here!?

They had held a great sect meeting just the day before as they discussed whether they should journey north to suppress the plague of devils and boost the Holy Eaves reputation, so why did they suddenly start fighting today...

They were still blood siblings in the end, so there should not be any unresolvable grudge that existed between them. But the noble Holy Eaves Realm King seemed to be losing his mind right before their very eyes.

At this time, an aura that everyone was intimately familiar with swiftly approached.

Luo Changsheng.

When he arrived and saw the malice and killing intent crazily swirling around Luo Shangchen and Luo Guxie, his very first response was not to go forward to stop them, ask them what was happening, or dissuade them. Instead, he suddenly froze in place.

His eyes, which were normally as gentle as the moon and as calm as water, were actually trembling and the trembling was only growing more and more violent.

“Changsheng, you’ve come!” The great elder of the Holy Eaves Realm looked as if he had seen his savior. He hurriedly said, “Come quickly! Come quickly and advise your royal father and mas… ter…?”

As he spoke, he suddenly realized Luo Changsheng’s extremely abnormal mien.

Luo Shangchen’s hoarse and blood-choked voice rang out behind him, filled with a deep pain and sorrow, “He isn’t Changsheng… HE ISN’T CHANGSHENG!!”