Against the Gods

Crash—

The blue light dispersed and the world became scarlet once more. Turbulent sea of flames once again dominated the world.

Everyone staring at the Vermillion Bird projection looked like they were shell shocked, however. No one managed to recollect themselves until a long time later.

“Dead… is it dead?” Yan Juehai muttered.

They had witnessed with their own eyes… the shattering… of an ancient horned dragon!!

It wasn’t the dragon that was covered in wounds, but the one who emerged later. It was the dragon that was at full power and almost perfectly unblemished except for the damaged dragon fault from a thousand years ago!

A dragon like this… dead just like that!!??

Although the air here was scorching hot, they felt as if their noses and lungs were full of icy air.

The Flame God Realm had records of the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect’s “Broken Moon Oblivion” from a long time ago but no one had ever seen it with their own eyes. Even then, they had never realized that it was this powerful. Despite having used up most of her profound energy and being in a state of terrible poisoning and grievous wounds, the technique still sealed the Inferno Prison for an instant and shattered a Divine Master ancient horned dragon instantly!

This scene was even more stunning than the appearance of another ancient horned dragon.

The Flame God Realm had dreamed for countless generations about killing the horned dragon and finally their dream had been realized perfectly before their eyes in a way they could never imagine. Yet, not a single person was showing even a trace of happiness...

The ancient horned dragon that was shattered into countless ice bits by the godlike Broken Moon Oblivion fell into the sea of flames and was devoured in an instant. Not a trace of the horned dragon could be seen any longer.

It quickly sank to the bottom of the endless Inferno Prison.

Without a source of power, the shattered dragon corpse was quickly burned into nothingness by the Inferno Prison.

This also meant that they failed to grab even a dragon scale off the ancient horned dragon even though it was killed… they could only watch it burn in the flame sea and do nothing about it.

“Aooo!!!!!”

“AWOOoo!!!!!!!”

A draconic roar filled with infinite anger, pain and sadness awakened everyone’s convulsing soul. The ancient horned dragon that was still alive roared again and again, causing stunning tides to surge towards the sky, “How dare you… how dare you kill him… how dare you kill him!?”

“You despicable human! I will kill you! I will turn you into the pettiest speck of dust! Roar!!”

The ancient horned dragon at its angriest and deepest loathing was almost insane. After an air shredding roar, it pounced toward Mu Xuanyin, surrounded her with dragon flames, and sealed all off her escape routes.

Covered in blood, Mu Xuanyin’s complexion alternated between deathly white and bloody red constantly. When she had executed “Broken Moon Oblivion” in grim determination, she had also spent all of her Ice Phoenix origin blood and a large amount of blood essence… the loss also meant allowing the horned dragon’s poison to invade straight into her soul.

She hadn’t depleted all of her profound strength yet, but it had fallen below ten percent. After her Ice Phoenix origin blood had gone still, the ice powers she unleashed no longer contained the divine power of Ice Phoenix behind them. Now that the might of her attacks had fallen off sharply, her death was all but certain.

Still, she didn’t resign herself to her fate. With eyes still as cold as the abyss, she raised a weak arm and resummoned the Snow Princess Sword back to her hand. With her final strength and spark of her life, she charged towards the rampaging ancient horned dragon.

Ding!!

Ice melted instantly the moment it struck fire. In a flash, Mu Xuanyin was knocked several kilometers away from the point of impact while enveloped in draconic flames. The flames were also burning away the last spark of her life.

Yun Che slowly grew absent minded as he stared blankly at the fight.

Eight years ago, north of the Blue Wind Empire where the Wasteland of Death lies, he and Chu Yuechan once encountered a male and a female flood dragon. Chu Yuechan was cornered into a dead end, so at the price of her profound veins, she unleashed the Frozen Cloud forbidden technique 【Zeroth Aurora】 and killed one of them. After that… she waited quietly for the arrival of her own death.

The scene happening now was so similar to that day.

At the time and just like today, he could do nothing but watch because he was far, far, far too weak to do anything to help. Jasmine was there at that time, so after he begged her to save Chu Yuechan, Jasmine ended the other flood dragon’s life at the price of allowing the devilish poison to spread.

It was also the day he and Chu Yuechan became completely involved in an “ill-fated relationship”.

“Sect Master Huo…”

Yun Che opened his mouth weakly but Sect Master Huo was already shaking his head and sighing before he could finish. “I’m sorry but we cannot save her. Although that horned dragon is doing poorly and covered in wounds, it still is… a Divine Master death match. Forget you, even I would die for sure if I got close to that battlefield. As for saving her, that is nothing more than a pipe dream.”

Yan Juehai also shook his head helplessly and said, “If there was even a sliver of hope to save your master, we absolutely wouldn’t stand by and do nothing about it. But… there simply is no hope at all. Even if everyone of us were to join the battle right now, we cannot do anything to save her life. We will only be sacrificing our own lives for nothing.”

Yun Che couldn’t understand the power difference between Divine Sovereign Realm and Divine Master Realm but there was no lie behind Huo Rulie and Yan Juehai’s words.

Yun Che stopped talking. His eyes reflected the swaying scene of the Vermillion Bird projection.

The Snow Princess Sword was still being swung even though the blue light was growing weaker and weaker. He could smell the scent of death coming from Mu Xuanyin even through the projection but still she didn’t stop slashing at the draconic flames surrounding her...

Master… hasn’t given up yet!

Even now, she hasn’t given up and resigned herself to her fate!

That’s right. Master’s pride wouldn’t allow her to accept death while doing nothing if she had even one breath left in her body. She would fight bitterly to the end even when knowing that her death was certain.

Yun Che bit down on the tip of his tongue strongly. Intense pain and blood stench filled his mouth and sent shivers down his soul.

I cannot do nothing! My master is fighting with all she has, even when she is down to her last bit of life and energy, so how can I, her disciple, watch from the sidelines and do nothing to help her!?

The only one who could sacrifice everything to save master out of everyone here is me and me alone! No one else is dependable no matter how high their strength or status… I can only depend on myself!

Calm down… calm down now! Master is still alive, so there must be hope! There must be a way!

On faith alone, I have created many miracles that even Jasmine thought impossible, so...

There must be a way!!

Yun Che’s breathing slowly returned to normal. His confused mind did its best to calm itself down. He even closed his own eyes and sealed his own ears so that the only thing he could hear was his own heaving breathing and heartbeat.

Think carefully… recall everything that I have...

There must be a way… Even the tiniest possibility or hope may potentially save my master!

So I have to find it… I must find it!!

In just a few breaths’ time, Yun Che’s mind went from total disorder to perfect clarity.

The Flame God Realm had stood for hundreds of thousands of years but its Divine King and Sovereign Realm experts could do nothing but tremble helplessly before the God Burying Inferno Prison they were most familiar with.

Meanwhile, Yun Che, someone at the Divine Origin Realm who sat at the bottom of the power level and hadn’t arrived at the god realm for more than a year, was searching for a way to rescue Mu Xuanyin from a Divine Master level entity...

No one would think that his efforts amounted to anything more than a joke.

No one would believe that he could find any hope… just like they wouldn't believe that a speck of sand could bury a sea.

Still, Yun Che was still searching with all his willpower and soul for a way to save Mu Xuanyin.

He was staking all of his willpower and soul just like that day he plucked that Netherworld Udumbara Flower for Jasmine.

Everywhere around him, the people of the Flame God Realm were absorbed in sadness, pain, or regret. They could never forget the moment heaven and hell switched places before their eyes. All of the beautiful dreams they had shaped in their minds were popped like a bubble in that one moment.

Worse, the Snow Song Realm King was going to lose her life for this endeavor… they had no doubt that Snow Song Realm would become their sworn enemy from this day onwards.

“The Profound God Convention is right around the corner, Poyun. You don’t need to push yourself too much anymore. Haah,” Huo Rulie sighed heavily with bone deep helplessness behind his tone. “This is fate.”

“Even if I’m not destined to enter the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm now, there is still the future, Master! Poyun will work hard and reach the Divine Master Realm for sure; it’s just going to take longer than expected, that’s all!” Huo Poyun’s eyes were still clear and determined.

“Good boy.” A strained smile appeared on Huo Rulie’s face. Right now, this was the only solace he could find. He then shifted his eyes away from the Vermillion Bird projection, because Mu Xuanyin’s final struggle was growing unbearably weak. Her wounds seemed to be worsening with every passing breath.

For a thousand years, he hated Mu Xuanyin to the bone and couldn’t contain himself. If this had happened before Huo Ye was saved, he might have taken some joy in her suffering but Huo Ye was saved and he was saved by Mu Xuanyin’s disciple, Yun Che, no less. He was already regretting his loss of sanity and ambush of Mu Bingyun back then and now he sincerely didn’t wish to see Mu Xuanyin perish underneath the horned dragon’s claws.

Aoooo!!

AOOOo!!

The ancient horned dragon’s furious roars shook the very sky. By now it had succumbed to complete madness over its companion’s horrific death and the Inferno Prison around it had been transformed into a literal calamity by its power.

Boom boom boom boom boom——

Mu Xuanyin was knocked horizontally away by the ancient horned dragon and she barely covered herself in a layer of ice when she hit a corner of the Inferno Prison. By the time she flew swiftly across the licking flames and flew up suddenly to escape another burst of dragon flame, the ice had already shattered completely. Mu Xuanyin spat out three mouthfuls of dirty blood in a row and morning red dots were starting to cover every part of her body… Even her long hair had lost its ice blue color.

The inheritors of the Ice Phoenix’s divine blood weren’t born with ice blue hair. It was a state of profound strength and life that appeared after they reached an extremely high realm.

Right now, her ice-colored hair had turned completely dim. Almost half of it had turned back to the pitch black color she once possessed at the beginning of her life...

It wasn’t just a countdown of her remaining profound strength but also a countdown of her remaining life… the moment her hair turned fully black was also the time of her death.

“The poison has completely entered her body,” Yan Juehai said absentmindedly. He turned around to look at Yan Wancang. “Sect Master Yan… is there anything we can do at all?”

Yan Wancang didn’t move, almost as if he hadn’t heard Yan Juehai’s voice. A while later, he muttered seemingly to himself, “The Snow Song Realm King is truly unfathomably powerful. She is covered in serious wounds… she has burned all of her divine blood… she has used up most of her blood essences… and yet she is still able to hold on to this moment…”

“Still, this means that she will fight until the last drop of energy. Even if a miracle were to happen and allow her to escape… she would still be dead. Haah.”

It was at this moment Yun Che suddenly opened his eyes. A flash of fiery red fleeted across his incredibly wakeful eyes.

“I need a favor from you, Sect Master Huo,” Yun Che said in a low tone while staring ahead of him.

“What is it?” Huo Rulie turned around.

“Please send me to my master’s side, Sect Master Huo.” Yun Che sounded unusually indifferent, as thought he was saying something trivial.

“What did you say!?” His words shocked Huo Rulie greatly, “Have you gone insane!? I repeat, your puny body will be burned to literal nothing before you even got five hundred… no, one thousand kilometers away from the battle site. Get close, you say? That’s absolutely impossible!”

“I know.” Yun Che nodded. “That’s why I need you to protect me.”

“I can’t do it!” Huo Rulie turned around and said unhesitatingly, “I cannot do it either. Forget you, if I get that close even I will perish for sure… I don’t have to tell you in the case I have to split my powers and protect you, right?”

“Also, what can you do if you did get close? Are you planning to die along with your master!?”

He could never forget the day his son, Huo Ye turned stupid and sneaked close to the battle site, hoping to feel a divine profound level battle with his own body a thousand years ago… and when he was about five hundred kilometers away from the battle site, he was struck by the shockwave of Mu Xuanyin’s frost power...

At the time, Huo Ye had just gone through a heavenly tribulation and was at the first level of the Divine Spirit Realm… The breakthrough and massive increase in profound strength had also boosted his confidence to the point of arrogance, ultimately causing that tragedy.