Against the Gods

The Eternal Heaven Tower was right at the center of the Eternal Heaven God Realm. It wasn’t really a true existence, but a projection from the Eternal Heaven Pearl.

It was rumored, since before the Profound God Convention, that one of the rounds of the competition would be held inside the Eternal Heaven Tower. However, all the “heaven chosen children” still found it difficult to suppress their excitement upon hearing the words of Honorable Qu Hui.

Although it was only an illusory tower, it was the highest level and the holiest existence in the entire Eastern Divine Region.

“…Would it be fine to assume that we avoided a calamity?” In the seating area of the Snow Song Realm, Mu Huanzhi and the rest were in no mood to pay attention to the next round of the Profound God Convention. They had initially thought that there was no way out left for them, when things settled down all of a sudden. Mu Huanzhi hadn’t come back to himself even after a long while.

Mu Bingyun shook her head, as she said with a faint sigh, “Elder sister’s concern was indeed right… It’s like he is simply possessed by an evil spirit. He acted the same way when he met her for the first time, and now in the Eternal Heaven God Realm, he did it once again… I suppose that he won’t ever be able to truly restrain himself in his life.”

“No need to worry. Having been ridiculed by God Emperor Shitian, and with the Dragon Monarch stating his opinion, Yun Che will be fine, at least in the Eternal Heaven Realm. However…” Yan Juehai shook his head. “I’m afraid that it is going to be hard for Yun Che to live in the Eastern Divine Region. Once the Profound God Convention ends, you had better quickly take him back to the Snow Song Realm. It’d be for the best if he doesn’t leave the Snow Song Realm before attaining a great achievement in the practice of the profound way.”

Mu Huanzhi considered his words, before nodding with a sigh.

“In the third round of preliminaries, it will be your complete projections still that are going to be sent to the battlefield.”

No one was surprised in the least by the words of Honorable Qu Hui. The true Eternal Heaven Tower was inside the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm, and the one present outside was no more than its enormous projection. Therefore, it was natural that only projections could enter inside it.

“You will be sent to the first floor of the Eternal Heaven Divine Tower, and your aim will be to get to the three hundredth floor!”

“Every floor will have a powerful profound beast and a profound shadow guarding it. With each floor you advance to, the profound beasts and profound shadows that you will have to face, will also increase in number or be even more powerful, making it more difficult for you to advance further.”

“The rule to emerge victorious is very simple. The first thirty-two profound practitioners to reach the three hundredth floor, will be able to enter the final ‘Conferred God Battle!’”

The rule was certainly simple and clear that the winners and losers would be decided by whoever made it to the three hundredth floor first. But, the battlefield in question was the Eternal Heaven Divine Tower, and the ones entering it were the thousand “heaven chosen children.” It was obvious that although getting to the “three hundredth floor” seemed quite simple, it would definitely be absolutely difficult to do.

“Wait a moment,” Honorable Qu Hui had just finished his words when a lazy voice resounded all of a sudden in very impolite manner. God Emperor Shitian said sluggishly, “This king has something to remind you about the third round of preliminaries. It’d be for the best if you mention all the methods that can and cannot be used in this round, in full detail. Otherwise, it would be unsightly if by chance someone won while complying to the rules, and was then unexpectedly killed by some absurd person.”

The Eternal Heaven God Emperor had an angry look on his face, but he didn’t lash out at him.

Honorable Qu Hui slightly lowered his brows. He didn’t reply to God Emperor Shitian, but the tone of his voice became heavier, “You will still be in complete projection state in this round inside the Eternal Heaven Divine Tower! The only rule inside the Eternal Heaven Tower, is that the first thirty-two people to reach the three hundredth floor will be considered the winners. Besides this…”

“There—is—no—other—rule!!”

Qu Hui said the last five words in an extremely heavy voice. It was obvious that they were directed to God Emperor Shitian.

“You can use anything you have on you as you wish, be it any weapon, profound armor, profound items, or profound formation. There is absolutely no restriction on the means. If perhaps you want to use some kind of shameful method, that will be completely fine as well!”

“But, there are a few things that this honored one must warn you about!

Honorable Qu Hui lowered his brows, as he slowly said, “First, the space inside the Eternal Heaven Tower is extremely special, and even a high level spatial profound item will not be able to pierce through it. Such a thing will be completely impossible to do with your own profound strength! I advise you all to at once abandon the thought of using spatial profound items to directly bypass any floors!

“Second, this honored one would suggest you not to dodge the profound beasts and profound shadows, and forcibly make your way up! Because, once the profound beasts and profound shadows sense your auras, they will chase you all the way until you meet your death! Trying to forcibly go up to the next floor by evading the profound beasts, will only get you in a situation where you will be attacked from front and rear, effectively digging your own grave!

“Once you die, although you will be able to revive, the place of your revival will be ten floors below the one where you died! Furthermore, all the profound beasts and profound shadows of these ten floors will revive when you do!

“As for preventing yourselves from being sensed by the profound beasts and profound shadows, humph! That is indeed a good idea… but it’s a pity that the terrain of every floor inside the Eternal Heaven Tower has nothing in common with the others, and is extremely complicated. It’s basically a pipe dream to wish to not be sensed before finding the exit to go to the next floor!

“Third…” The chilly gaze of Honorable Qu Hui clearly stabbed through Yun Che. “Don’t dream of having someone else lend their strength. Each of you will be sent to a completely separate space inside the projection of the Eternal Heaven Tower!

“In other words, your battlefields will be completely isolated from each other’s! No one can interfere with anyone else! You can solely rely on yourself!”

It became noisy on the Conferred God Stage. Some were discussing the third round, others were extremely astonished, and there were even those who were secretly nodding their heads.

The first and second round of preliminaries were quite affected by luck and randomness because of the special rules of those rounds—even Yun Che cheating in the manner he did wasn’t truly considered a violation of rules, in the end.

But the third round of preliminaries, as clearly stated by Honorable Qu Hui, was a fierce competition in the truest sense, which would assess the true strength of the participants.

They had to kill all the profound beasts they would come across while ascending the Eternal Heaven Tower, and forcibly attempting to flee from them would be equivalent to courting death. They were unable to use any spatial items, either. Moreover, the “battlefield” of every person would be completely separated from the others. No one could interfere with anyone else, or seek their help.

It was evident that the safest way to reach the three hundredth floor, or to be exact, the sole method to do so, was to completely kill the profound beasts and profound shadows on every floor… and with the fastest speed possible.

It was only absolute strength that could accomplish such a thing.

There was simply no possibility of cheating in this round!

That was also the reason for Honorable Qu Hui to directly roar out the words “there is no other rule,” without any hesitation.

What can you actually do, even if we allow you to employ any methods?

The gazes of many people, consciously or unconsciously, swept past Yun Che. There was no one who wasn’t laughing in their heart, thinking about his meager profound strength of the first level of Divine Tribulation Realm… There were a total of three hundred floors, and the difficulty to pass through would increase with every floor. The first few floors should be the easiest ones, and they were all basically guaranteed to make it through them.

But given Yun Che’s profound strength of just the first level of Divine Tribulation Realm, it was unknown whether he could even pass through the first few easy floors. His results were obviously going to be the worst in the third round of preliminaries, with him ranking at the bottom of the list.

Others would certainly go through extremely fierce fights and obtain a rare experience, even if they weren’t able to enter the Conferred God Stage. But in Yun Che’s case, he could only manage to become a joke.

After all, only those with true powerful strength would have the qualifications to enter the Conferred God Battle, which was going to be held in the end.

In the competition inside the Eternal Heaven Tower, Yun Che was bound to be a laughingstock. But the people from Snow Song Realm didn’t have the composure to care about it. Mu Bingyun, in particular, was hoping for the third round to end as soon as possible, and then, at once leave the Eternal Heaven Realm with Yun Che and return to Snow Song… She had no interest in the Conferred God Battle, the highlight of the Profound God Convention, at this time,

She could already imagine how furious Mu Xuanyin would be.

She would be angry that Yun Che forcibly passed two rounds of preliminaries, and exposed himself to the eyes of all the topnotch experts of the Eastern Divine Region; she would be angry that Mu Bingyun didn’t watch over Yun Che in a proper manner.

Before they left Snow Song, Mu Xuanyin had again instructed her to watch over Yun Che the whole time after his elimination, and not to let him leave her sight. It was precisely because she wanted others to pay as little attention to him as possible… because Yun Che had secrets that absolutely couldn’t be exposed to anyone.

But no one thought that on hearing the rule that “the loser would be expelled from the Eternal Heaven Realm,” Yun Che would have no choice but to successively pass two rounds, consequently becoming a “heaven chosen child,” and causing a great disturbance at the Profound God Convention. Not only did he expose himself to others, he also nearly became the greatest focus.

Mu Bingyun could only pray earnestly that they would not have to face the worst outcome.

“Do you have any doubts?” Honorable Qu Hui scanned over everyone. Seeing that no one had anything to say, he waved his palm. White light descended from the sky all of a sudden, and enveloped all the “heaven chosen children.”

“Your real bodies will stay here. Your consciousness and everything you have on you will be projected inside the Eternal Heaven Tower. The winners will enter the Conferred God Battle, and the losers will watch their battles from the Conferred God Stage.”

“Also, everything you do inside the Eternal Heaven Tower, will also be completely projected here!”

“Go now! Heaven chosen children, display the utmost limit of your strength to your heart’s content! Prove that you have the qualifications to be conferred the title of God!”

CLANK!!

The gazes of the “heaven chosen children,” who were covered in white light, suddenly became several times more serious. The figures of all of them were completely engulfed in the white light, making it impossible to get a clear view of them. At the same time, a thousand streaks of starlight soared into the sky, as they carried the projections of all the “heaven chosen children” and flew into the Eternal Heaven Tower.

Rays of light faintly flashed on the Eternal Heaven Tower. In a split second, a thousand more streaks of light fell from the sky, and dropped onto the Conferred God Stage with equal distance between them, like a rapidly falling meteor, before transforming into images.

These images had the same background, and the only thing different about them was the human figures standing at the center of the images… These human figures were none other than the thousand heaven chosen children. They were now present inside the Eternal Heaven Tower.

The images were displaying the starting point inside the Eternal Heaven Tower, Floor 0.

——————————————————

As the battle inside the Eternal Heaven Tower began, Jasmine’s gaze also shifted away at this time. Afterwards, she unexpectedly turned around quietly.

“Caizhi, follow me.”

Leaving behind a few cold words, her figure had flown far into the distance. Caizhi bit her lip before fearfully following after her.

Jasmine was in the front and Caizhi behind her. They left the region of the Eternal Heaven Realm, and continued to fly until they reached very far away. It was only then that Jasmine finally stopped in her tracks. Her back was facing Caizhi, as she remained standing still.

“Big Sis…” Caizhi stood behind Jasmine, as her hands tightly clenched the corners of her skirt.

RIP!!

A metallic sound rang out, as an enormous sound isolation barrier covered them. It was at this time that Jasmine turned around, and looked straight at Caizhi with a surprisingly angry expression on her face… Her scarlet pupils quivered faintly, as they emitted a chilliness that was completely unfamiliar to Caizhi.

“Big… Big Sis…” Caizhi unconsciously retreated a step backwards. The tip of her nose was wrinkled and she was on the verge of tears. She didn’t understand it at all, why was her elder sister so angry?

“Caizhi…” Jasmine’s chest moved up and down. She was doing her best to suppress her emotions, but her voice still trembled a bit. “Tell me honestly… Just where… and when did you meet him!?”

“I… I… More than two years ago… when Big Sis started secluded cultivation last time all of a sudden… I was bored and all alone… so I went out to play… then… accidentally… bumped into him…”

Caizhi was someone who wasn’t afraid of anything in the world, except for her elder sister… Jasmine was the only one whom she considered family, within her heart. She had never before seen her looking like this.

Started secluded cultivation last time… Two years ago…

With countless torrents rising up and falling down in her heart, Jasmine was left speechless for a while. A long time later, she finally said in a heavy voice, “How did you met him… and everything… you know about him, tell me all of it… Do not hide anything from me!”

Caizhi repeatedly nodded like a chick pecking rice, “I’ll tell you everything… I’ll tell Big Sis everything.”

In front of the unusually angry Jasmine, Caizhi didn’t dare to pull the wool over her eyes. She told her each and every thing that happened… Arriving at the Darkya Realm by chance and being “rescued” by the meddling of Yun Che. Afterwards, her paying attention to him upon finding that he could use “Heavenly Wolf Slash,” and could also control ice and fire at the same time. Then, she gradually confirmed his identity, and got to know a little about his objectives… Witnessing the hateful relationship between Yun Che and Black Soul Divine Sect… Extorting the Divine Nine Star Buddha Jade from Wu Guike… Following Yun Che on his journey to obtain the Immortal Emperor Grass…

And so on…

She told Jasmine everything in full detail.

Jasmine was quietly listening to her, without uttering a word, until Caizhi anxiously finished telling her everything that she knew about Yun Che. It was then that her emotions erupted, “Caizhi, you… you clearly know it all… so… why did you hide it from me all this time!!?”

“I… I didn’t do it on purpose.” There was sobbing in her voice. “It’s because… because Big Sis said that you wouldn’t see him ever again in this life, and even if someday he arrived in the God Realm, you’d still definitely not go to meet him. That’s why, I… kept it a secret…”

“Since you know that I won’t meet him, no matter what, why did you help him come to the Eternal Heaven Realm? Why did you bring me to this place!?”

“Because… because I knew all along that Big Sis, actually, misses him a lot, and really, really wants to meet him again.” Caizhi raised her head. Her eyes were brimming with glistening teardrops, “Big Sis always calls out his name, whenever you are having a dream!”

Immediately, Jasmine’s eyes became misty, but she shook her head in pain. “Then do you know why I resolved not to meet him again, no matter what…? Do you know the gravity of the trouble you have caused!?”