Against the Gods

Chapter 657 – Frozen Cloud’s Bad News (2)

At this moment, the door to the resting chambers was pushed open. Yun Che and Cang Yue walked in side by side. Cang Yue’s eyes were red; obviously she had cried an overwhelming amount earlier. Her face was no longer pale; the slightly red glow on her face gave her some glamor in her noble look, and even her eyes were a much brighter color than before.

They quickly greeted her. Dongfang Xiu asked eagerly, “Your majesty, you’re awake… Are you still uncomfortable anywhere?”

Cang Yue smiled lightly, “I am fine now, there is no need to worry.”

She turned to Number One Under Heaven and the others and said their names correctly, “Big Brother Under Heaven, Xiao Yun, and Seventh Sister, welcome to Blue Wind Nation. You are my husband’s friend, so we should’ve given you the nation’s finest treatment, but instead we let you witness this chaotic scene, we feel deeply apologetic.”

Cang Yue’s temperament had become very different compared to three years ago. Her gestures no longer seemed sweet tempered and delicate, but instead carried an elegance that was authoritative and prestigious. Her emperor’s aura grew rapidly during the three years under heavy pressure and infinite iron-willed decisions, and it gave Number One Under Heaven and the other two an invisible, pressuring feeling. Xiao Yun immediately waved his hand and said, “Empress… uh, sis… sister-in-law, no need to stand on ceremony… If there is anything you need, please just ask us.”

Number Seven Under Heaven pinched Xiao Yun when she saw him this nervous, and then said liberally, “You are certainly Big Brother Yun’s wife, you are indeed very unusual. My husband is right; Sister-in-law doesn’t need to stand on ceremony with us. Blue Wind Nation is in danger right now, so if there is anything that we can help with, please ask us.”

“Brother Yun has done a huge favor for us three. If there are any requests, we will be ready to risk our lives to help,” Number One Under Heaven also said without any hesitation.

Cang Yue smiled slightly, “Thank you everyone… and thank you for taking care of my husband all this time.”

“Yue’er, your body is still weak now, you should rest more. Just leave the rest to me,” Yun Che said worriedly.

Cang Yue shook her head softly, “My body is completely fine. Even though the Divine Phoenix Army was demolished by husband’s martial prowess, the Imperial City’s disaster is still not solved. Divine Phoenix’s side must have been alerted, and within a day, an army will gather once again before the city gate. Our soldiers and citizens also need to be arranged and settled; it is not time for me to rest now.”

“Don’t make it too hard on yourself.”

“With you here, I am not afraid of anything,” Cang Yue said softly. There was no anxiety, darkness, or even any weight in between her eyebrows. All there was left was deep warmth and satisfaction. Because she didn’t lose him, because Yun Che was by her side, she already had the whole world, and she had nothing more to ask or complain anymore.

Cang Yue ordered for troops to be deployed, and Blue Wind Imperial City immediately prepared for war once again.

The sky started dimming slightly, and it was nearly sunset. During this time, Yun Che slowly understood more of the situation of Blue Wind Nation now from Dongfang Xiu and Qin Wushang… It could only be described with the words “suffered unspeakable misery.”

Over ninety percent of the main city was invaded and seized by the Divine Phoenix Nation, and a large area of it was burned and destroyed. Over fifty million of Blue Wind Nation’s citizens died in the war… and this was only a conservative estimate. To take down Blue Wind Nation the fastest way possible, Divine Phoenix Nation was cruel and vicious, its crimes were too numerous to record… Perhaps in the eyes of Divine Phoenix Nation, even though the people of Blue Wind Nation were also human, they were only an inferior form of life that was not worth mentioning.

There were even more people who were left wandering with no home to return to… The Blue Wind Nation that was once peaceful and calm was now on the edge of the abyss of destruction… even lingering on with its last breath of life was hard.

“Divine… Phoenix…” Yun Che said these two words in a low voice, traces of blood almost coming out from the gaps between his tightly gnashed teeth.

“Is there really no any response from Heavenly Sword Villa?” Yun Che asked.

“Sigh, no.” Dongfang Xiu sighed and shook his head, his expression showed sadness, “The previous emperor and her majesty both wrote letters personally nine times to ask Heavenly Sword Villa for assistance, but Heavenly Sword Villa ignored them all, and didn’t even give us an excuse. Divine Phoenix Empire was too powerful, so maybe it was slightly understandable that they were afraid of getting involved and face the doom of their nation themselves… but even to send a few strong practitioners to protect her majesty would be good…”

“Slightly understandable?” Yun Che scoffed, “This not only concerns thousands of years of trust between the Blue Wind Imperial Family and Heavenly Sword Villa… but the doom of a nation! Facing the doom of a nation, anyone who has some courage and uprightness would use everything they have, including their life to resist! Their Heavenly Sword Villa… as the prestigious Blue Wind Nation’s top profound cultivating force, the people who have the strongest resistance in the profound realm, actually gave up their family’s faith, ignored it while their nation is in danger… Every Blue Wind soldier who is guarding Blue Wind Imperial City, heading to the battlefield today, every one of them understood that they would die on the battlefield, but they still proceed without hesitation! Those so-called disciples of Heavenly Sword… could not even be compared to our Blue Wind Nation’s most common soldiers!!”

“Yeah… profound realm, if all gathered, they should’ve been the strongest resistance force, what a shame… what a shame…” Qin Wushang lifted his head, and his voice was desolated as well, “Shame that they have stronger power than normal people, and a longer lifespan… but they also fear death more than normal people. The places that the Divine Phoenix went, there were extremely few people who resisted among those forces and families who tyrannize locally, and they were usually the ones who surrendered first to the Divine Phoenix Army, or even took initiative and use a generous amount of money to bribe them… just for surviving and keeping their family estate. Even the Xiao Sect was like so… The Sect Master and elders of the Xiao Sect who could dominate with a single hand in Blue Wind Nation, when the Divine Phoenix Army arrived… forget resisting, they actually came out of their sect for twenty miles, greet them personally, and bowed and kneeled before the Divine Phoenix Army…”

A disaster of the nation made these forces that normally seemed to be high and noble reveal their disgraceful act. Indeed, they had profound strength stronger than that of normal people, enjoyed the wealth and glory that normal people wouldn’t dare to dream of, and had an even longer lifespan… but they had already lost the courage that should have been flowing in their bones.

“As the strongest sect of the nation, their actions were like this at the crucial times of the nation… It really makes people look down upon them.” Number Seven Under Heaven said in anger.

“Indeed, if that was our clan… even if we survived after the nation was doomed, even I would look down on our own family.” Number One Under Heaven said without any expression.

“Palace Chief Dongfang, is my grandfather and little aunt alright?” Yun Che calmed down and finally asked… this question. When he didn’t see Xiao Lie and Xiao Lingxi at Blue Wind Imperial City, he had been worrying about their well-being, but he didn’t dare to ask, because he was afraid that he would hear an answer that he didn’t want to hear.

Dongfang Xiu smiled casually and said, “Don’t worry. About two years ago, her majesty had already had Palace Chief Qin escort them to Floating Cloud City personally. Floating Cloud City is located in the most easternmost region and is poor and small. It shouldn’t be affected by the war, and it should’ve been the safest location… Only, what we didn’t expect was the Divine Phoenix Army actually sent more than two hundred thousand soldiers to take down Floating Cloud City.”

“What!” Yun Che stood up abruptly, and his expression immediately darkened.

“Hehe, don’t worry.” Yun Che’s reaction was completely within Dongfang Xiu’s expectation, “Floating Cloud City’s mayor followed her majesty’s orders, told their guards to retreat and surrendered themselves. Divine Phoenix Army didn’t kill anyone in Floating Cloud City, even their army didn’t enter the city, but instead was separated and guarded near Floating Cloud City. Her majesty would send a sound transmission every seven days, and they have been safe so far.”

As if a giant rock that weight ten thousand kilograms disappeared from on top of his heart, Yun Che sat down slowly with his whole body already soaked in cold sweat.

Xiao Yun’s expression changed, and he finally couldn’t help it and said, “Big Brother, the grandfather and little aunt that you mentioned just now, are they… they…”

Yun Che turned around and smiled slightly, “That’s right…” He stood up once again, “I will go pick them up to here now, and let your family unite… when your grandfather sees you, he will definitely be… very happy, very excited.”

“Ah… okay, okay…” Xiao Yun nodded blatantly, his hands were shaking nervously. Grandfather… Little Aunt… relatives… His real blood relatives…

Thinking he could see the Grandfather and Little Aunt that he had been missing day and night, and thinking that he could finally do one thing that could bring joy to Grandfather, Yun Che couldn’t control his eager emotions. Even though they were both safe and sound in Floating Cloud City, only with them by his side would he feel relief. He got up in preparation to leave, to find a place to use the Primordial Profound Ark, but when he had just started to move his steps, Dongfang Xiu suddenly called onto him, “Yun Che, there is something that I have been concerned about, and I think it would be better for me to tell you sooner. Or else… the consequences cannot be predicted.”

Dongfang Xiu’s serious tone made Yun Che stop his steps. He looked at Dongfang Xiu, and said discreetly, “Palace Chief Dongfang, please speak.”

“It’s about Frozen Cloud Asgard.”

“Frozen Cloud Asgard? What about Frozen Cloud Asgard? Were they also involved in the war?” Yun Che slightly locked his eyebrows. He didn’t forget that he was still the disciple of Frozen Cloud Asgard.

Dongfang Xiu shook his head slowly and said, “During this three years, the Frozen Cloud Asgard has not sent anyone to fight the Divine Phoenix Army, but they gave us their resources that were accumulated for a thousand years like an unending stream, including spirit herbs, offensive profound artifacts, profound crystals, profound formations… they gave us an extremely strong assistance. The fact that we were able to hold the Divine Phoenix Army for three whole months at Heavenly Pass was reliant upon the thousands of profound crystals that contained magical profound formations given by Frozen Cloud Asgard. We couldn’t even dream that when we were suffering from national disaster, it was Frozen Cloud Asgard, which we were usually the least unaligned with, that did everything they could, used all of their resources, and even used their foundations to help us.”

“…What exactly happened there?” Yun Che asked. He indistinctly felt that the reason Frozen Cloud Asgard did their utmost to help was because of Xia Qingyue.

“Six month ago, Fairy of Frozen Moon Xia Qingyue sent a sound transmission to her majesty. It was only a few sentences, but the content of the sound transmission was that Frozen Cloud Asgard suddenly encountered a great calamity, they could not assist the Imperial Family anymore, and told her majesty to look out for herself…”

“What?” Yun Che’s heart tightened, he hurried forward, “What happened then? What exactly did the Frozen Cloud Asgard encounter!”

“No one knows.” Dongfang Xiu shook his head, “After that, no matter what method her majesty used, she couldn’t contact anyone from Frozen Cloud Asgard. On top of that, there was frequent emergency from the battlefield, Blue Wind Nation was in imminent danger, so her majesty didn’t have the time to worry about other things… We don’t know how Frozen Cloud Asgard is now at all.”

“Would it be that they suffered from the attack of Divine Phoenix Army?” Xiao Yun immediately said.

“No, impossible.” Yun Che shook his head right away, “Frozen Cloud Asgard’s location is in Snow Region of Extreme Ice. It is always in extremely cold, and it is covered with ice and snow, which makes it absolutely not suitable for an army to set foot in, especially the Divine Phoenix Army that fears the cold. Besides Frozen Cloud Asgard there, forget about a city, there aren’t any citizens, so the Divine Phoenix has no reason to attack there.”

Thousand Year Calamity?

Yun Che suddenly remembered the three words that Grand Asgard Mistress Feng Qianhui had told him back then, and these weren’t just merely three words, it was a thousand-year fortune which concerned Frozen Cloud Asgard’s survival. Feng Qianhui was also straightforward with him before when he entered Frozen Cloud Asgard as a male disciple, and it was completely to counter the fortune of “Thousand-Year Calamity.”

What happened to Frozen Cloud Asgard… Did the fortune of “Thousand Year Calamity” really happened?!

And six months had passed from when Xia Qingyue sent a sound transmission mentioning they “suddenly encountered a great calamity”… a full six months!

A thick layer of shadow covered Yun Che’s heart at this moment. Today was the first day that he had returned to Profound Sky Continent, but what he received wasn’t tearful reunions; instead it was news that was heavier than the previous.

“I must go to Frozen Cloud Asgard right away!” Yun Che locked his eyebrows and said. At least Xiao Lie and Xiao Lingxi would be safe in Floating Cloud City, but Frozen Cloud Asgard… if he didn’t go and see what happened right away, he wouldn’t feel settled at all.

“There will be Divine Phoenix Army arriving within today. When that happens, make sure to send sound transmission to me immediately. I have the profound ark with me, I will be able to return in an instant!”

“You can go without worrying. They have us here, nothing will happen.” Number One Under Heaven said as he lowered his brows while nodding.

Yun Che couldn’t wait any longer, and he immediately sent a profound energy sound transmission to Cang Yue, who was in the main hall, personally deploying the troops. He rushed out of the room, flashed high into the sky, and called out the Primordial Profound Ark. After pinpointing the estimate direction and distance towards Frozen Cloud Asgard, he then disappeared with the Primordial Profound Ark in the midst of space hissing.