Against the Gods

A human was far, far inferior to a dragon when it comes to mental strength, much like the amount of energy they possessed. It was easy to defeat a profound practitioner with mental strength but almost impossible against a True Dragon.

However, as a sovereign of all dragons that had existed in the primordial Era of Gods, the shocking effect of the Dragon Soul on a dragon was enormously greater than on a human!

When the Dragon Soul burst and its roar shook the sky, the remnant light in the ancient horned dragon’s eyes disappeared in no time and turned scarlet. Its bloodstained body went stiff in midair and the last bit of its despairing power quickly collapsed and dispersed, as if it had met the onslaught of a gale…

He had reflected back the power of a Divine Master dragon with profound strength at the Divine Origin Realm.

He had intimidated the soul of a Divine Master dragon with mental strength at the Divine Origin Realm.

Yun Che gave it his all to cling onto the last sliver of hope with his insignificant existence.

Although the ancient horned dragon was already falling to its death, it was still a Divine Master dragon. This miraculous stun effect of the Dragon Soul could only be maintained for a maximum of a few instants.

Mu Xuanyin held up Yun Che’s unconscious body and slowly aimed the center of her palm toward the ancient horned dragon as she released the last of the dazzling rays of chilly light.

BANG——

The ancient horned dragon was already losing its vitality even faster than it normally would because it attempted to launch a final counterstrike, staking everything. Under the stun effect of the Dragon Soul, it had lost all its remaining power. When the icy rays of light came into contact with it, its huge body couldn’t put up any resistance at all and ended up acting as a medium to let the cold and condensing power play out its role. In the blink of an eye, its entire body got covered in a layer of ice.

With the power left in the horned dragon, it was simply impossible to struggle free of its predicament.

The last trace of its lifeforce was also turned to nothingness by the cold energy coursing throughout its body… and its eyes finally lost all luster.

And so, both of the two ancient horned dragons had met their deaths.

Mu Xuanyin slowly lowered her arm. With the last of her energy released outside, her long hair turned completely black and there was not the slightest bit of cold energy present on her body… On the contrary, a scorching aura, that she had never possessed in these ten thousand years, was emitting from her at the moment.

Her aura had grown so weak that even she herself was unable to sense it and her arm that was supporting Yun Che felt so heavy that she was incapable of lifting it. Suffering from highly toxic poison, bearing severe injuries, and complete exhaustion of her profound strength… As the life force of the ancient horned dragon perished, her vague consciousness speedily sank into darkness.

“Ah… Where… am I…?”

A moan sounded in the depths of Yun Che’s consciousness, issued by his own soul.

“...No… I can’t pass out… The ancient horned dragon is… still here… Master… will die…”

“Wake… up…”

“Wake up, I said!!”

His consciousness had grown unprecedentedly murky; it was vague as well as experiencing an incomparably intense pain… The pain was on the same level as when he had gone through soul separation in the past, before the Netherworld Udumbara Flower in the Moon Slaughter Devil Nest. However, his eyes suddenly opened, as if he had been pricked by multiple needles simultaneously.

He felt a soft arm moving away from his body. Within his hazy line of sight, he saw a snow-white figure, that was mostly dyed in the red color of blood, falling downward without a sound…

There was a boundless reddish world down below…

The God Burying Inferno Prison!

His mind felt so heavy, as though it was being weighed down by an insurmountable mountain but his palm almost instinctively reached out and grabbed the white figure that had just started to fall down from beside him. Afterwards, he tightly embraced the figure… Its aura was frail to such an extent that one would feel extreme sorrow at its state, but it unexpectedly helped in properly stabilizing his dissociating soul.

He then caught sight of a huge frozen figure in the distance that was falling straight down.

It was the body of the dead ancient horned dragon!

Holding Mu Xuanyin in his arms, Yun Che firmly bit the tip of his tongue. He used his barely existing consciousness to prompt his body to move and flew down in the hazy and disordered world, heading in the direction of the huge figure.

This is the fruit of the effort Master has put in, even at the risk of her life… I absolutely can’t have it disappear in the God Burying Inferno Prison like the one from before!

Even though his consciousness was on the brink of collapse, he still had his profound strength. With his blurred vision fixed on it, he quickly approached the ancient horned dragon. Then, he stretched out his hand and placed it on its body, instantly storing it into the Sky Poison Pearl.

As he felt a bit relaxed in his heart, his consciousness instantly sank into the depths and he immediately lost all control over his body. Carrying Mu Xuanyin along, he fell downward toward the endless Inferno Prison.

I can’t let that happen… Master won’t be able to… endure the harsh conditions of the Inferno Prison in her current state…

The Primordial Profound Ark!!

The Primordial Profound Ark had been floating in place all this time. It was impossible for it to get damaged even by the power of a Divine Master. Yun Che did his utmost to gather enough soul energy to enter the Primordial Profound Ark…

One breath… two breaths… three breaths…

As his body was about to come into contact with the fire of the Inferno Prison, he succeeded in shaping his will to enter the Primordial Profound Ark. A white streak of light flashed before both Yun Che and Mu Xuanyin disappeared from the vast Inferno Prison.

His field of vision had completely turned white. He was unable to see a thing and his five senses had grown weaker to such an extent that there was barely any difference between them existing or not. He was aware that he had gotten inside the Primordial Profound Ark and vaguely sensed the presence of Mu Xuanyin beside him. Having succeeded in his attempt, his mind relaxed and he passed out in no time.

Following his consciousness totally sinking into stillness, the Primordial Profound Ark began to descend downward due to losing contact with his soul. It fell straight into the vast Inferno Prison and disappeared in the blink of an eye, without leaving a trace behind

After a long while, the seething Inferno Prison finally calmed down in the real sense; much calmer than it would usually be.

“Young Yun!!”

The sound of an urgent shout rapidly drew nearer, as Huo Rulie charged over while burning with impatience. But given the vastness of the Inferno Prison, he was unable to discover any sign of them or sense their auras.

“W-what happened?” Huo Rulie’s gaze swept over the surroundings, with a bewildered and anxious look on his face.

When he had brought Yun Che to three hundred kilometers away from the center of the battle, he had turned around to leave hastily, as Yun Che had told him to at the time. However, the instant he had turned around, he heard a blood-curdling screech of the ancient horned dragon. A burst of remnant energy waves swept in all directions and he was forced nearly a hundred kilometers away from the place. Soon after, he heard a dragon roar once again, one that was clearly issued by some other being, and his ears were shaken so much that they rang for a while. By the time his aura calmed down and he came to himself, he discovered, to his surprise, that he couldn’t sense any aura in the surroundings.

He promptly dashed to his previous location but didn’t see any traces of Mu Xuanyin, Yun Che… or even the ancient horned dragon. The only things present were the still existing remnants of the energy and the extremely dense smell of dragon blood.

“Don’t tell me that… both of them died?” Huo Rulie said in disbelief of his own words. He looked downward, before frowning and rushing into the God Burying Inferno Prison all of a sudden.

Huo Rulie didn’t give up on the search for them inside the Inferno Prison, wishfully hoping to be able to find something in the end. He made his way deep down into the Inferno Prison, as far as his abilities would permit and also traversed the distance of several hundred kilometers horizontally. Unfortunately, it was all for naught.

When he eventually dropped the idea of looking for them and came out of the Inferno Prison, he saw that Yan Wancang, Yang Juehai, as well as all the high level elders had also arrived. Close to hundred people have been staring blankly at the abnormally calm Inferno Prison.

“Sect Master Huo, have you found them?” Yan Wancang asked.

Huo Rulie leaped up in the air while making a heavy sound with his foot and roared at them, “What is going on here? What exactly happened? I just turned around and then, both of them disappeared to some place. Can anyone tell me where Young Yun went?”

“That ancient horned dragon… died,” Yan Juehai replied in quite a hesitant tone.

“How did it die?”

“Hah… you definitely won’t believe my words, unless you saw it yourself.” Yan Wancang let out a sigh. Every time he recalled the scene of Yun Che blowing away the ancient horned dragon with his sword, he would feel his soul quaking intensely. He never thought that there would come a day when someone like him, who was a peak level existence in the Flame God Realm, with respect to both standing and profound strength, would be shocked by a junior who had recently entered into the Divine Way.

“Plainly speaking, its dragon fault was pierced through by the Snow Song Realm King,” Yan Juehai said. “Since its dragon fault was pierced, it was bound to die without a doubt but it launched a counterattack on the verge of death…”

Yan Juehai shook his head as soon as he finished his words.

None of them saw exactly what had happened after the sudden disintegration of the Vermilion Bird projection but it was quite easy to imagine how things unfolded after that. Mu Xuanyin had used up her remaining strength to launch that attack with Snow Princess Sword, so she was no more able to withstand the counterattack of the ancient horned dragon… As such, there was no doubt that both the master and disciple had been killed by its claws, after which all the lifeforce drained from the ancient horned dragon. Afterwards, the bodies of the two people and the dragon fell down into the God Burying Inferno Prison.

The first ancient horned dragon had already gotten killed by Mu Xuanyin’s forbidden formation and buried in the God Burying Inferno Prison and the second one also ended up meeting the same end…

Both of the ancient horned dragons had died… but there was nothing for them to obtain.

Huo Rulie remained silent for a long while, before he said in a low tone, “So that’s what happened… I just went down to look for them in the Inferno Prison but didn’t discover anything in the end; not even the corpse of that ancient horned dragon. It seems that they have fallen down to a very deep place inside the Inferno Prison and their bodies will entirely disappear in a short while.”

“This is what we call fate, huh,” a Golden Crow Sect Elder said with a sigh.

“At present, we need to first think of how to explain this matter to the Snow Song Realm,” Yan Wancang said in a heavy voice.

They didn’t imagine even in their dreams that such an unforeseen situation would arise during the horned dragon hunting.

Two horned dragons appeared in the God Burying Inferno Prison… and eventually, both of them had perished. However, not only did they not obtain even a single dragon scale from them, they also had to witness the death of Mu Xuanyin, Realm King of the Snow Song Ream, and her direct disciple, Yun Che.

“I’m afraid that the incident this time will make us the mortal enemies of the Snow Song Realm,” a Vermilion Bird Sect Elder said as he smiled bitterly.

Mu Xuanyin had visited the Flame God Realm to assist them in hunting the horned dragon but finally died in the God Burying Inferno Prison. Given her standing and reputation in the Snow Song Realm, it went without saying that if the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect were to know of her death, they would be extremely grieved and enraged.

This matter didn’t only involve Mu Xuanyin… If Yun Che was all right, with his talent in elements, it was extremely likely for someone as strong as Mu Xuanyin to appear in the Snow Song Realm, under the full-blown support of the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect but now, even Yun Che had…

Even though the dream of their Flame God Realm had fallen through, they hadn’t sufferer the slightest actual loss on their side.

“What is there to fear about the Snow Song Realm without the presence of Mu Xuanyin?” a Phoenix Sect Elder asked.

“It’s not an issue of the threat they pose,” Yan Juehai said powerlessly. “The greatest reason that caused the Snow Song Realm King and her disciple met such a tragic fate, was our unwillingness to believe Yun Che. If back then… we had so much as contacted her with sound transmission to warn her in advance, we could have avoided such an outcome. Hah…”

Yan Wancang, "…”

“We… we can’t be blamed for it. Who would have… believed those words at the time?” the Phoenix Sect Elder justified in a diffident tone.

“I feel that there is no need to be worry over it,” a Golden Crow Sect Elder said. “Without Mu Xuanyin, the Snow Song Realm basically doesn’t deserve to be placed on par with our Flame God Realm. They might not even have the guts to call us to account for it. If anyone truly dares to ask for an explanation, we’ll just shoo them away back to their realm. Although we failed to get our hands on the horned dragon, Mu Xuanyin’s death is absolutely not a bad thing for us.”

“Nonsense!!” Hearing his words, Huo Rulie raised his brows in anger. “When did we of the Flame God Realm stoop down to the level of those base and shameless people!? No matter what resentments we harbored against them earlier, it is a fact that she came here and died because of us. Hence, we must give a proper explanation to the Snow Song Realm! I, Huo Rulie, still have a sense of shame!”

“Yes… it was a slip of tongue of this old man.” the Golden Crow Sect Elder immediately lowered his head, as he muttered in his heart: Sect Master hated the Snow Song Realm before… and especially hated Mu Xuanyin with a passion. How come he seems to have changed in these two days?

“The fall of a Divine Master is major matter for the entire God Realm. Therefore, it won’t take long for the news to spread around,” Yan Wancang said. “If we don’t give an explanation to the Snow Song Realm, we will possibly be looked upon with contempt by all the realms of the Divine Region.”

“Sect Master, what should we do now? Do you want to… contact the Snow Song Realm with sound transmission, at once?” a Vermilion Bird Sect Elder asked while sighing.

Yan Wancang pondered for a good long while, before shaking his head, “Let’s keep what happened today a secret for the time being. After coming up with a good response to the anger of the Snow Song Realm over the next few days, we will then let them know about it through sound transmission.”

Yan Juehai nodded his head and Huo Rulie didn’t object to it, either.

These topmost people of the Flame God Realm left the God Burying Inferno Prison with incomparably complicated emotions in their hearts. When he came out of the Inferno Prison region, Yan Wancang suddenly stopped in his tracks and sighed heavily, “No wonder the Dragon God Realm can become the sovereign of all realms. It’s better… to not provoke the anger of the dragon race.”