Against the Gods

Right now, Luo Changsheng looked so terrible he looked like he had just crawled out of purgatory. He was bleeding all over his body, his chest was badly mutilated, and his handsome face had swollen to twice its normal size. Blood and rotten flesh looked like they were mashed together to form a paste, and the only part left that made Luo Changsheng recognizable was his dark and hateful eyes.

Had Luo Changsheng been anyone else, they would’ve died three times over after being slashed by the Heaven Smiting Sword more than ten times while their profound energy was falling apart. Right now Luo Changsheng looked worse than a man who was tortured until he died, but he still managed to stand up in the end. Although his aura was chaotic and had become half as strong as before, it still created great pressure on Yun Che.

Yun Che’s heart tightened. For the first time in this battle, he was stunned by Luo Changsheng’s tenacity.

I slashed him fifteen times with the all the phoenix power I possess. Every hit was brutal and accompanied by the sound of shattering bones… so why is he able to stand up after that? And his profound energy is still so strong!

He didn’t know that Luo Shangchen and Luo Guxie, two experts who were regarded as superiors throughout the star realms of the Eastern Divine Region, were at least ten times more shocked than he was.

“Dragon soul… How did Yun Che come by a dragon soul? Where did he get it?” Luo Changsheng muttered to himself in shock.

A dragon was a creature of the highest level in the Primal Chaos, and the same went for its soul. A dragon’s soul could be destroyed or sealed away by force, but never seized!

It couldn’t be inherited either.

In other words, a living being could obtain a dragon’s soul only if the dragon itself had gifted it to them willingly! Moreover, it also couldn’t be passed on to the next generation like a bloodline, much less transferred or forcefully seized by another party.

That was why many people possessed the bloodline of dragons in the Eastern Divine Region—Lu Lengchuan was one such example—but very few actually possessed a dragon soul.

Luo Shangchen was a powerful expert. He easily noticed that Yun Che’s dragon soul was no ordinary dragon soul either. But… why would a dragon with a such a powerful soul grant its very source to a human junior?

“Changsheng’s soul is stronger than even a Divine King’s soul after it was tempered by the Divine Water of Absolute Beginning. There’s no way his soul should’ve lost this easily!” Luo Guxie’s voice was obviously shaking due to Luo Changsheng’s current appearance, “Not even if it was a dragon’s soul!”

“That’s definitely no ordinary True Dragon soul.” Luo Changchen frowned before a possibility entered his mind, “Yun Che’s claim that he hails from a lower realm… may very well be false! Such a powerful dragon soul can only come from a Divine Master dragon at minimum! In fact, Yun Che himself may actually hail from the Western Divine Region, and he’s somehow related to the Dragon God Race, or he wouldn’t have had such a powerful body and soul.”

“...” Luo Guxie’s chest heaved rapidly as her aura occasionally turned cold or chaotic, “How dare he hurt my Changsheng… that little brute!”

Perhaps no one, not even those who had been “Fairy Guxie’s” acquaintance for over ten thousand years, had seen her this out of sorts before today.

Luo Shangchen shot a glance at her and looked like he wanted to say something.

“This dragon soul is quite powerful. It may be the gift of a master dragon.” the Eternal Heaven God Emperor turned to look at Dragon Monarch, “Do you recognize who the soul belongs to, Dragon Monarch?”

Dragon Monarch didn’t nod or shake his head. He answered indifferently, “Yun Che is just a human, but his talent is rare to say the least. It is not surprising that a master dragon of our realm may have decided to break the norm and grant him their soul.”

“Mn.” the Eternal Heaven God Emperor nodded slightly. Dragon Monarch obviously wanted to sidestep this question, so he wasn’t going to prod him further.

The Dragon Monarch didn’t look away from Yun Che even once throughout this series of events. Although the emotions in his eyes had become calm once more, in reality they were still seething deep within his pupils, heart, and soul.

Since a long time ago, he had already noticed that Yun Che possessed both a dragon’s bloodline and soul. He was the Dragon Monarch, the king of all creations and the lord of all dragons after all. He had even arrived at the conclusion that the bloodline and soul Yun Che possessed were of incredibly high level. Although he had never said a word about it, he paid close attention to Yun Che long ago.

It was because he could easily deduce the type and level of Yun Che’s dragon soul the moment he used it.

However, when Yun Che finally unleashed his Dragon Soul Domain in battle, he, the realm king of Dragon God Realm, the indisputable champion who was feared and respected throughout the entire Primal Chaos actually felt fear, shock and even... humility, in that one instant. It was an emotion he had never felt for the past three hundred and fifty thousand years of his existence until now.

Even now, the azure eyes that had opened above Yun Che’s head had left a clear, lingering imprint inside his soul.

He was looking at Yun Che in an entirely new light… he was no longer looking at Yun Che like he was just another human junior.

“Yun… Che!!”

Luo Changsheng’s voice had become completely distorted. At this point, he was so filled with anger, hatred, and mania that he couldn’t even retain full sanity—or at least, he no longer cared for the handsome image he had cultivated for himself one bit—his glowing, purple eyes said that he wanted nothing more than to cut Yun Che into mince meat, grind his bone to dust, and scatter it to the wind.

He took a step forward, blood spraying freely out of his wounds. With both hands, he slowly raised the blood drenched Dragon Compassion Blade and enveloped Yun Che inside a pressure that was unstable, yet still powerful enough to be fatal to him.

Yun Che had to use nearly all of his strength just to raise the Heaven Smiting Sword in front of him. His arms were shaking uncontrollably against his will in the process.

Luo Changsheng might’ve underestimated Yun Che, but Yun Che had underestimated Luo Changsheng as well.

It wasn’t Luo Changsheng’s strength that he had underestimated. It was his unnaturally powerful body.

He had struck Luo Changsheng tens of times until his body was tattered, and his bones were shattered in more than a dozen of places. And yet, Luo Changsheng was still able to summon such tremendous power… His body was practically as tough as his own!

The only reason his body was this tough was because he had the Dragon God’s bloodline, marrow, and he cultivated Great Way of the Buddha… just how on earth did Luo Changsheng cultivate his body!?

Luo Changsheng was a true profound practitioner at the tenth level of the Divine Spirit Realm, so his well of profound energy was countless times greater than Yun Che’s. Because Yun Che failed to incapitate Luo Changsheng completely, this gigantic disadvantage of his was starting to rear its ugly head. Although Yun Che’s wounds were much lighter than Luo Changsheng’s, his profound energy was nothing compared to the latter’s right now.

“... Die!!”

Luo Changsheng let out a hoarse, strange-sounding cry as a gigantic tornado circled around the Dragon Compassion Blade, looking like he would crush Yun Che into mince meat right now.

Yun Che immediately escaped the point of impact with Moon Splitting Cascade, but he had used up so much energy that he couldn’t even deal with the shockwave. He was thrown far, far away as tens of wounds burst open across his chest. His internal organs especially were rolling around and falling apart en masse.

Luckily for him, Luo Changsheng’s wounds were too severe. The attack caused Luo Changsheng’s own injuries inside and outside to worsen at once as five to six mouthfuls of blood forced their way out of his throat. His body wobbled, and he nearly fell to the ground. It was at this moment Yun Che jumped into the air and attacked Luo Changsheng again. Glaring golden light suddenly burst out of his body, and he burned like a sun that would turn everything into nothingness.

“That’s… the Golden Crow blood!” Huo Rulie exclaimed involuntarily.

Yun Che had chosen to burn the nine Golden Crow blood drops after the Phoenix blood.

The sky was covered in flames as the Heaven Smiting Sword charged with the Golden Crow’s divine power was swung down from above. At this point Luo Changsheng couldn’t move his body as he wished and couldn’t dodge out of the way, so instead he roared and summoned yet another storm powerful enough to distort even space.

Boom!!

The resulting golden explosion was as glaring as a falling sun, and for a while countless profound practitioners lost their eyesight. Beneath the fire, the Dragon Compassion Blade and the Heaven Smiting Sword pushed against one another as two equally dark eyes also stared fiercely at each other through the gap.

Booom...

Yun Che abruptly pushed forward, and blood abruptly spilled out of the corner of Luo Changsheng’s lips. Shuddering, Luo Changsheng’s right knee slammed fiercely against the floor and shattered upon impact.

Luo Changsheng’s eyes looked so dark and fierce that it was scary. His arms were shaking violently under pressure, his broken muscles were bulging to their limits, and his joints were creaking non-stop.

“Aaaaaah… AAAHHH!!!”

Luo Changsheng let out an animalistic roar as purple patterns abruptly flashed across his body, knocking Yun Che into the air with a sudden, tremendous burst of strength. Luo Changsheng stumbled after he got back on his feet, but rather than steadying himself, he chose to pounce at Yun Che like a crazed animal.

Just the same, with total disregard to his own injuries Yun Che flipped around in midair and charged straight toward Luo Changsheng. The Heaven Smiting Sword burning with golden flames and pale white blade covered by a storm clashed again so deafeningly that the blue sky itself threatened to split in half.

It was as if a profound thunder storm had suddenly visited the Conferred God Stage.

Both Yun Che and Luo Changsheng’s aura were far weaker than before, but the ferocity and violence of the battle had escalated all the way to the other end of the spectrum. Fire burned away the wind, the wind tore away the fire; the sword shattered the blade, the blade devoured the sword. The two blood drenched combatants attacked one another in the sky of the Conferred God Stage madly while roaring at each other like wild animals.

Not a single sound could be heard from the spectator stands, and all eyes were opened to their widest. Luo Changsheng’s body was horrifically mutiliated, and Yun Che’s was burning his divine blood just to keep fighting… they all believed that this fight would be entertaining beyond compare, but none of them had predicted the depths of desperation it had descended to.

“Brother Yun… do your best!” Huo Poyun’s hands were so tightly clenched that his joints turned pale white.

“Yun Che… you have to win… you have to win!” Every Snow Song Realm and Flame God Realm disciple was shouting madly in their hearts too.

Yun Che’s enemy was Luo Changsheng, and the latter was forced to use the Heart Burning Lightning and Dragon Compassion Blade. Even if Yun Che lost this battle, his name would still spread throughout the entire Eastern Divine Region. But at this point, who could fail to notice Yun Che’s indescribable thirst for victory?

That was why they threw the words “glorious defeat” to the back of their mind. Instead, they shouted with all their mind hoping that Yun Che would win.

“Yun Che… you must hang on!” Huo Rulie’s body was completely tense, and he didn’t even notice that his fingernails were digging deeply into his palm. He knew very well that the only reason Yun Che was still in the fight was because he had burned all of the Golden Crow divine blood. The second the burst of divine power ran out, defeat was all but certain.

Right now, Yun Che’s only hope was that Luo Changsheng would suffer a wound so deep that he crumbled under pressure before the Golden Crow divine blood ran out.

Most people didn’t realize that the diminishing Golden Crow divine blood wasn’t Yun Che’s only crisis, however.

He had been using Rumbling Heaven all this time, and the burden it placed on his body was only ever increasing. Right now, he was on the verge of breaking apart.

Yun Che’s arms were bloodied and tattered, but he could barely feel any pain at all, and he had no idea how many veins he had broken as a result. Every time he swung his sword, he was losing more and more feeling in his arms...

No… if this continues… I won’t be able to win...

Yun Che’s eyes suddenly widened with suicidal determination and ruthlessness.

One step… I’m just one step away… no one… no one is allowed to stop me!

Hold on… my body...

You must hold on!!

The wind blew gently outside the Conferred God Stage. Hidden inside a puff of distant cloud, a pair of scarlet eyes stared quietly at the bloody battle happening on the Conferred God Stage. Suddenly, a needling pain suddenly jolted in her heart and soul, and a terrible premonition caused her entire body to tremble. She let out a fearful shout, “NO!!”

“HAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!”

At the same time, Yun Che suddenly shouted on top of his lungs.

BOOM

An impossibly dull rumble started inside Yun Che’s profound veins, and his Evil God profound vein suddenly grew several times larger than normal. His remaining profound energy suddenly turned chaotic as if they were dragged into the wildest of hurricanes.

Having activated Evil Soul, Burning Heart, Purgatory, and Rumbling Heaven yet still failing to defeat Luo Changsheng with all he had, Yun Che finally decided to activate the fifth Evil God Gate.

It was as if a Devil God was roused from its long slumber.

Hades, the fifth Evil God Gate had awakened!!