Against the Gods

“No, this is different.” But Huo Rulie waved his hand and let out a sigh, “I knew that your master hadn’t hurt Ye’er on purpose. In fact, she forced herself to stop after noticing the mistake or Ye’er would’ve been gone without a corpse, much less be alive. So she was right… when she said that Ye’er had brought this all upon himself.”

“But Ye’er is my only son and I completely lost my cool after that terrible blow back then. I just can’t calm down every time I saw Ye’er’s condition.” Huo Rulie shook his head, “Never mind, forget about it. Anyway, I was the bastard who poisoned Mu Bingyun and the fault lies completely on me. Of course, thank goodness she’s fine now and even Ye’er is recovering. When the time comes, I will visit Snow Song Realm personally and let that bi… ahem... I mean your master do whatever she wants with me. As long as she doesn’t kill me, I won’t even retort.”

Since Huo Ye was rescued, Huo Rulie seemed to have turned over a completely new leaf. Just yesterday he was still hating Mu Bingyun’s guts but today he was ready to accept any punishment due to Huo Ye’s recovery. In fact, he had reflected on his own actions of his own accord.

“Your saving of Ye’er is a completely different matter, however.” Huo Rulie hit his own chest once strongly, “I, Huo Rulie, will not take back a word of what I promised you earlier.”

Huo Rulie’s temper truly was unique. Although he was the main sect master of the Golden Crow Sect, he didn’t hesitate to give a mere junior—and one that he didn’t even know much about—such a weighty promise.

“Brother Yun, if you run into any difficult troubles in the future, you absolutely mustn’t be courteous, you hear?” Huo Ye also smiled, “My father has always been such a character. He won’t be able to eat or sleep well if he doesn’t repay this favor.”

“Alright.” Yun Che stopped trying to decline the offer, “In that case, I shan’t be courteous when I request a difficult favor from you, Sect Master Huo.”

“Haha, now that’s more like it.” Huo Rulie was in the middle of a loud laugh when he suddenly stopped himself. Then, he took out a gold colored Sound Transmission Jade before looking excited and pleased.

Huo Poyun hurriedly asked upon seeing this, “Has the ancient horned dragon appeared, Master?”

Huo Rulie clutched the Sound Transmission Jade tight and nodded strongly, “That’s right! The ancient horned dragon has finally shown up and it is only around three thousand five hundred kilometers away from here. Poyun, send a message to all elders supervising the Inferno Prison and tell that the ancient horned dragon has appeared right now. Tell them to retreat as soon as possible!”

“Alright!” Huo Poyun hurriedly took out his Sound Transmission Jade and closed his eyes, transmitting a soul message into the distance.

“I will contact my master immediately.” Yun Che had also grabbed his Ice Phoenix Engraved Jade at the same time but Huo Rulie waved him off and said, “It’s fine, considering your master’s strength she must have been the first person to discover the ancient horned dragon. She doesn’t need anyone to inform her about its appearance. Also, she has probably crushed her Sound Transmission Jade already.”

“She crushed her Sound Transmission Jade? Why?”

“It’s because she needs to focus her full concentration onto the battle when she fights the ancient horned dragon. If someone were to send her a message during the battle, even a split second of distraction may put her in danger. In the past, the first thing your master did before fighting the ancient horned dragon was to crush her Sound Transmission Jade,” Huo Rulie explained.

Yun Che nodded, “I see.”

So she doesn’t want anything to disturb her… it would appear that Master is only a bit stronger than the ancient horned dragon. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have made such a decision.

Let’s hope that everything will turn out as expected.

It was pretty obvious that everyone in the Flame God Realm was feeling pretty optimistic about this time’s horned dragon hunt. In fact, Mu Xuanyin herself was feeling optimistic. Of course, there were a few reasons behind their optimism. One, they had almost succeeded in killing the ancient horned dragon last time. Two, Mu Xuanyin’s profound strength was far greater than it was a thousand years ago. Three, the ancient horned dragon was wounded in its dragon fault.

Yun Che didn’t know how much Mu Xuanyin’s profound strength had grown in the past thousand years and he definitely didn’t know how bad a wound to the dragon fault was to an ancient horned dragon but… for some reason, he didn’t feel as excited or expectant as he should be after hearing of the horned dragon’s appearance. In fact, a sudden feeling of worry and irritation had struck him instead.

Was he worrying over his master’s safety?

Yun Che shook his head strongly so that he could be rid of these illogical thoughts… This wasn’t the first time his master had fought the horned dragon and she had held the upper hand in every battle. Even better, she almost managed to kill it last time, so her chance of victory would only be bigger and her risk of defeat lesser against a horned dragon who was wounded in its dragon fault… Even if she was somehow defeated in combat, she was more than strong enough to retreat without getting hurt.

“Ye’er, rest well while I head over, okay?” Huo Rulie said, “We will definitely succeed this time! That horned dragon is the real reason you’re hurt, so I’m absolutely going to pick its bones apart and cook you some dragon soup this time!”

Huo Ye nodded smilingly. “I too, have a feeling that we won’t fail, father.”

“Hahaha, let’s go!”

Huo Rulie grabbed Yun Che and Huo Poyun and rushed towards the Inferno Prison immediately like thunder.

Right now, the God Burying Inferno Prison that had burned since ancient times was burning even fiercer than before, almost as if a storm had swept over it. Many fiery pillars surged into the air and scorched the sky.

Already, there were dozens of elder level experts from the three great sects of the Flame God Realm standing at the edge of the Inferno Prison. They all wore serious looks on their faces and their red clothes were puffed up because they were enveloped in profound energy. They were keeping the heat surging from the God Burying Inferno Prison from getting past them, so as to protect the younger disciples. They were also there to prevent the shockwaves of the battle from sweeping through the place if the battle shifted northward.

By now, everyone in the three great sects who attended for the ancient horned dragon’s hunt had arrived. They weren’t many but they still numbered almost a thousand people. Despite their differences, the people had all gathered in one place and the person closest to the edge was less than a hundred paces away from the God Burying Inferno Prison.

“Why have they all gathered in one place?” Yun Che asked in surprise.

“Haha, you’ll know in a moment.” Huo Rulie let out a laugh before descending swiftly at the foremost place of the group.

Vermillion Bird Sect Master Yan Wancang and Phoenix Sect Master Yan Juehai were standing shoulder-to-shoulder at Huo Rulie’s chosen landing spot. Behind them, Yun Che saw the familiar face of Yan Zhuo and Yan Mingxuan. Even further back, he could see many elders and disciples standing in orderly fashion and wearing excited looks on their faces. The younger disciples were especially excited considering that this would be the first time they get to witness the legendary ancient horned dragon with their own eyes.

“You’ve come.” Yan Wancang turned around and nodded slowly at the trio.

“Sect Master Yan, the Snow Song Realm King must be close to the ancient horned dragon by now, I believe. Let us begin,” Yan Juehai said.

Yan Wancang nodded and took a couple of step forwards. Vermillion Bird flames burned soundlessly and suddenly from his feet before spreading in the direction of the God Burying Inferno Prison and quickly entering. Very soon, they became connected with the inferno flames.

A fiery line immediately linked Yan Wancang’s body and the God Burying Inferno Prison.

Yan Wancang closed his eyes and the surrounding voices grew quiet at nearly the same time. Some of the younger disciples had even stifled their breathing.

What is he doing? Yun Che thought in astonishment and doubt. Everyone was staring at Yan Wancang right now.

The silence lasted for a very long time. Fifteen full minutes later, Yan Wancang finally opened his eyes and swung his left arm upwards. His palm was pointed sideways and upwards towards the sky as a gigantic profound formation suddenly lit up in midair. The profound formation was covered in compressed flames.

Yan Wancang’s hand made a different gesture and the flames inside the profound formation instantly dissipated. Then, the huge, clear image of a sea of flames appeared clearly inside the formation.

There was a giant beast covered in fire scales floating right at the center of the image!

The beast’s head was huge and its long, three pronged horns were alight with soaring flames. Although it looked both fierce and fiendish, the dragon’s head was still recognizable at first glance! Its torso and claws were far longer and thicker than any fire dragon Yun Che had seen in the past and its tail was similar to a giant python’s in that it was far longer than its torso. Its entire body was covered in scarlet scales and burning light was reflecting from every one of them.

An intimidating aura was transmitted from the image of the profound formation. It turned every younger disciple pale with shock.

“So this is… an ancient horned dragon!” Huo Poyun’s eyes turned wide as he muttered under his breath, “It is as Master has described. Still, it is a lot scarier than the description would suggest.”

This giant beast was none other than an ancient horned dragon. More accurately speaking, it was the ancient horned dragon that Mu Xuanyin was about to fight!

Yun Che was shocked beyond words. What’s going on? Is it a refraction of spiritual perception? Yan Wancang was at the Divine Sovereign Realm, so he was incredibly powerful. Still, this ancient horned dragon was an entire three thousand five hundred kilometers away from where they were right now. No matter how powerful he was, it just sounded impossible to stretch one’s spiritual perception to three thousand five hundred kilometers… not to mention visualizing to such an extent.

“Sect Master Yan’s spiritual perception is this powerful?” Yun Che couldn’t help but whisper.

Huo Poyun came back to himself and shook his head in explanation, “That isn’t the case. You may not know this, brother Yun but this is in fact a special will projection Sect Master Yan has created with the flame power of the Vermillion Bird.”

“Special… will projection?” Yun Che looked even more confused.

“This is a special soul ability that only those who possess the flame power and soul of the Vermillion Bird can use. The flames allow a cultivator to extend their ‘Vermillion Bird will’ to any place that has fire, so as long as there is fire, the cultivator’s will is everywhere.”

Huo Poyun pointed at the burning line between Yan Wancang and the God Burying Inferno Prison, “If you observe that burning line, you will notice that it is the connection that transmits Sect Master Yan’s ‘Vermillion Bird will’ all the way to the God Burying Inferno Prison. The fire of the God Burying Inferno Prison then returns and reflects everything that is happening at the ancient horned dragon’s place. In fact, the technique doesn’t project images only. It can even project voices and roughly, auras.”

“...” Yun Che nodded slightly after pondering for a moment. He was starting to understand how the technique functioned. To put it simply, the ‘Vermillion Bird will’ was conducted through fire and it could reach anywhere as long as fire was present… it was characteristically similar to the conduction of electricity.

Since the God Burying Inferno Prison was full of fire, one could theoretically “conduct” their willpower anywhere in the place as long as they possessed sufficient mental strength.

“Unfortunately, the depths of the God Burying Inferno Prison are too terrible. Even with Sect Master Yan’s strength, his power and his mental strength would be burned into nothingness instantly if he probed any deeper than three kilometers. Otherwise, not only would we be able to detect the ancient horned dragon sooner, we would be able to learn the secrets that lie at the bottom of the Inferno Prison too.” Huo Poyun sighed a little regretfully.

Yun Che’s eyebrows moved once… The Vermillion Bird’s Will Projection, an ability that was unique to the Vermillion Bird flame was an extremely scary ability. If a sea of flames were to erupt during combat, the Vermillion Bird’s will could be spread out to sense every enemy’s position, aura and action as long as they were hanging inside the sea of flames.

This meant that the entire burning zone could be the cultivator’s eyes!

The Vermillion Bird flame...

“I heard from my master that this ability depletes mental strength pretty quickly. Considering how far the battle is, the rate of consumption must be incredibly huge. I doubt that Sect Master Yan can hold out for long,” Huo Poyun said softly.

It was at this moment something changed in the aura projected from the screen.

An azure colored spatial rift was suddenly torn open from the sky and a white figure descended like a dream.

“Master!” Yun Che blurted and looked up in a hurry after sensing her aura.

Mu Xuanyin looked down at the ancient horned dragon with icy eyes. Her figure looked incredibly small compared to the ancient horned dragon but the moment she appeared a power that enveloped even the sky instantly and fully suppressed her enemy’s fiendish aura. The boiling sea of flames all around her actually subsided and turned completely quiet, almost as if the blue sky had fallen on them.