Against the Gods

Unlike Feng Xue’er, the sorry-looking Lin Qingrou cried out, “Master… Master, you’re finally here…”

“...” Feng Xue’er’s eyebrows sank yet again.

Lin Qingrou’s horrific appearance caught all three of her companions off guard. The woman was so desperate that she had even blocked out her burned outfit and her wounds temporarily from her mind, and pointed a finger at Feng Xue’er, “It’s her! It’s that bitch… tear her apart… quickly, tear her apart, Senior Brother Qingshan!”

Surprisingly, her hoarse cry didn’t draw any attention from the trio. When Lin Qingrou turned around, she noticed that everyone including her master was staring straight at Feng Xue’er. The look in their eyes… it was obvious that they were completely dumbfounded by Feng Xue’er’s beauty. In fact, they might not even have noticed her earlier cry.

“Master!” Lin Qingrou gritted her teeth and cried again.

Lin Jun finally returned to himself, but his eyes was still firmly affixed to Feng Xue’er. He smiled, “I wasn’t expecting this little planet to be hiding this many pleasant surprises. To think that someone is able to achieve the divine way in a plane as lowly and dirty as this.”

If someone were to pay attention to his hands right now, they would notice that his fingers were shaking non-stop.

The God Realm possessed the highest level aura in the entire Primal Chaos. It was why it had given birth to countless beauties and lady-killers including magnificent people like the Dragon Goddess or the Lady Goddess themselves. Feng Xue’er was just a woman of a lowly plane, but her beauty had still stunned his several thousand years of life experiences… To him, this was an even bigger “pleasant surprise” than her unusual power.

“Why have you hurt my disciple, little girl?” Lin Jun asked with a smile. He had shot Lin Qingrou’s wounds a look, but nothing more.

There was a saying that goes, “don’t compare, and no one is hurt”. Before today, Lin Qingrou was a beautiful woman he quite liked to have around wherever he went… but now? She was literally a sight for sore eyes compared to this Feng Xue’er.

Feng Xue’er clenched her fists in secret. The middle-aged man’s terrifying aura indicated that he was someone she was no match against. So she exhaled slightly and forced herself to speak in an amiable tone, “Senior, this junior shares no grudge with your disciple whatsoever. In fact, this is the first day we met each other. However, she suddenly attacked and wounded a family member of mine!”

“Nonsense! You—” Lin Qingrou tried to fire back a retort, but Lin Jun stopped her with a raised hand and continued smilingly, “We master and disciple were only passing by this place by accident, and we have no wish to cause any trouble. I don’t know why you were fighting my disciple, or who was right or who was wrong. Frankly, I’m too lazy to care. However, it is a fact that you’ve hurt my disciple rather badly, and as her master it is only right that I demand some compensation from you, don’t you think?”

“...” Feng Xue’er’s eyes cooled as she stretched out her palm, “The two of you truly are master and disciple, you are all cut from the same skin! Very good… You want compensation, is it? Feel free to try and take it from me, if you believe that you can take on my Flame God Realm!”

The group of four froze when they heard the words “Flame God Realm”, and in the next moment Feng Xue’er’s summoned her flames and caused the figure of a phoenix to appear behind her back, tearing the air with a shrill cry.

“Pho… Phoenix flame!” Lin Jun exclaimed in shock as his expression changed drastically.

“W… what!?” The two words were more than enough to stun Lin Qingyu, Lin Qingshan, and Lin Qingrou senseless.

The Phoenix flame was one of the three divine flames of the Era of Gods, and more importantly, it belonged only to the Flame God Realm!

“You… you’re a member of the Flame God Realm?” Lin Jun’s aloof and all-powerful attitude had vanished entirely. In fact, he was clearly stuttering a little.

As profound practitioners of the fiery way, who hadn’t heard of the Flame God Realm? Not to mention that the Flame God Realm was a pretty high level middle star realm.

If she was just a normal disciple of the Flame God Realm, there was at least some reason not to fear her. But the fact that she was able to ignite the Phoenix flames proved that she belonged to the Phoenix Sect, a realm king sect in the Flame God Realm. There was no way they could provoke someone like her!

“I-impossible!” Lin Qingrou’s eyes stretched wide. It looked like she finally understood why Feng Xue’er’s flames were as scary as they were. However, she refused to see the truth and shouted, “She is obviously a bitch of the lower realms! This is a small planet, and the people surrounding her just now were all lower realm mortals… there is no way she can be a member of the Flame God Realm.”

Lin Jun’s expression wavered unsteadily… his disciple might not recognize the Phoenix flames, but he wasn’t her. He was absolutely certain that it was the Phoenix flames.

Lin Qingyu took a step forward and asked suddenly, “You claim to be a member of the Flame God Realm. In that case… what is your sect master’s name?”

Feng Xue’er answered coldly, “My sect master’s honored name is… Yan Juehai.”

Her answer had frozen their faces yet again.

Yun Che had told them many things about the God Realm while he was here. Although he had never talked about his important experiences, he did tell them about the God Realm’s profound realms, their basic structure and so on.

Feng Xue’er possessed the Phoenix flames, so of course he had told her about the Phoenix Sect at the Flame God Realm.

“I’ve come here to experience the world under my master’s orders, but you lot have interrupted me most rudely.” Feng Xue’er tone grew colder and more imposing with each word, “Retreat immediately and never come to this place ever again, and I can pretend that today’s transgression never happened. Or else, I will report this to my master! My master is infamously bad tempered, and I highly doubt any of you can bear the consequences!”

Feng Xue’er had once heard from Yun Che that the status quo in the God Realm was strict and cruel. What this meant was that a lower star realm could only ever look up to to a middle star realm and crawl beneath their presence. Therefore, a lower star realm elder wouldn’t normally provoke a middle star realm disciple even if they were older and more powerful, especially when said disciple hailed from a realm king sect.

That was why she had come on so forcefully.

“Or maybe, you can try to silence me by killing me!”

Feng Xue’er’s smile was extraordinarily calm despite the very real threat… It was clear that she was informing them wordlessly that her sect had planted a soul crystal inside her. They would surely be exposed if they were take this course of action.

“Master, is… is she really a member of the Flame God Realm?” Lin Qingshan asked. Not only was he picking his words carefully, he did not even dare look to at Feng Xue’er as scrupulously as before.

Almost all lower star realm denizens had the habit of bowing their heads before a middle star realm denizen.

“...” Lin Jun didn’t answer him. His complexion looked very unhealthy.

The Phoenix flame was the Phoenix Sect’s signature power. It was an undeniable fact to all of the God Realm. Moreover, after Yun Che had pushed Luo Changsheng to the brink of defeat with the “World Illuminator Red Lotus” in the Conferred God Battle, the Phoenix flame’s reputation had practically skyrocketed overnight.

That was why Lin Jun had to consider his hand very carefully when his opponent was a core disciple of a middle star realm realm king sect. Forget him, even his sect master would’ve been faced with the exact same dilemma. At this point, killing Feng Xue’er had become completely out of the option. After all, if the Phoenix Sect really had planted a soul crystal inside her, the four of them would be earning the ire of the Phoenix Sect… or even the entire Flame God Realm itself.

But if they were to let her go, and she decided that she would inform her sect about their transgressions after all, a different kind of disaster would befall them all the same. They wouldn’t be able to rest easy for a long time to come.

Therefore, their best course of action was to apologize to her and offer to make amends while the situation was still redeemable. They should be doing everything in their power to quell Feng Xue’er’s anger, even if it meant having Lin Qingrou kneel before the girl.

That was the cruel rule and reality of inequality.

But was that really how things were going to turn out?

Feng Xue’er had used to Phoenix flame to disguise herself as a member of the Flame God Realm, and it was a very smart plan. However, she was still too naive, and she had underestimated how low a human could go.

Lin Jun was still hesitating, and Lin Qingshan and Lin Qingrou looked absolutely terrified. But Lin Qingyu narrowed his eyes before a smile rose to his face, “Master, from what I can see, no one has tried to aid this phoenix fairy even though she fought Junior Sister Qingrou for quite some time. This likely means that she was alone when she came to this lower realm. Moreover, this planet is very far away from the Flame God Realm, so there is no way a sound transmission can be delivered successfully.”

Feng Xue’er, “...??”

The tiny bits of fear lingering in Lin Jun’s eyes swiftly turned into darkness as he shot his disciple a sideway glance, “You are saying?”

“What this disciple means is that we dare not kill someone as noble as our phoenix fairy as a matter of course, but we’ll be put in an extremely disadvantageous situation if we let her go just like this. In that case… why don’t you keep her by your side and cut off her connection to the Flame God Realm forever. That’ll solve our problem nicely, don’t you think?”

“This way, we wouldn’t need to incur the wrath of the Flame God Realm, leave behind any trails or… let such a wonderful beauty go to waste. This is a plan that gets us the best of both worlds,” Lin Qingyu explained smilingly without forgetting to flatter his master in the end, “I’m sure Master has already thought of all of this before me.”

Feng Xue’er’s heart turned completely cold. For a moment, she couldn’t believe that her opponents could stoop this low. She smiled icily, “How foolish! Do you think my master would’ve let me come alone considering my current cultivation? The only reason my master hasn’t taken action is because I’m more than capable of dealing with that woman. She doesn’t deserve my master’s wrath at all… So, you really are going to defy the Flame God Realm! Very well… come and attack me all you want! I pray for your sake that you can bear the consequences!”

If the same declaration and expression had come from Yun Che, he would’ve been able to make them reconsider their decision. But Feng Xue’er’s life experience was too shallow, and she was never a good actor to begin with. She was never going to fool an old fox like Lin Jun, so her declaration had only worsened her situation. His fear was now completely swept away, Lin Jun laughed loudly before saying, “Hehehe, in that case, don’t mind if I do!”

“Qingyu, take her down,” Lin Jun narrowed his eyes, “Take care not to hurt her, you hear?”

“Yes, master.”

Lin Jun’s laugh had undoubtedly swept clean the anxiety that had been residing in their hearts. Lin Qingyu stepped forward as his eyes narrowed into dangerous, slimy slits, “Dear phoenix fairy, I don’t know why you would stoop down to such a lowly place, but the lower realms aren’t as safe as you think. Unfortunately for you, it seems that you’ve learned your lesson to late.”

Feng Xue’er was at the third level of the Divine Origin Realm, and she was able to suppress the fifth level Lin Qingrou with the phoenix bloodline and the World Ode of the Phoenix. However, there was no way she could fight against someone at the Divine Soul Realm, let alone a Divine Spirit Realm Lin Jun.

Moreover, Lin Qingyu wasn’t a fool. Despite knowing that there was no resistance in the world that Feng Xue’er could possibly raise against him, he was wary that she might possess some sort of item or technique that would teleport her far away in an instant—she was a middle star realm denizen after all. That was why he had opened his palm and pressured her with his Divine Soul profound strength the second he was finished speaking.

His power hadn’t even made it close to Feng Xue’er, and already she could sense an impossibly powerful pressure that transcended all of her experiences. Her body turned stiff and cold. Feng Xue’er realized in that moment that there was nothing she could do against this power no matter what.

But Feng Xue’er didn’t surrender herself to her fate. Eyes burning with the scarlet flames of deathly determination, she was about to ignite every bit of Phoenix divine blood inside her body...

Suddenly, a person appeared in front of Lin Qingyu like a ghost.

In the next instant, the very sky itself had turned dark.

Every voice in the world had vanished into nothing, and the coiling sea waves had suddenly came to a stop. The entire sea surface was terrifyingly still.

Two fingers appeared around Lin Qingyu’s wrist, and the profound energy he had just unleashed suddenly vanished like it had just been devoured by an invisible black hole. Aura, pressure; nothing.

Everyone fell silent because their bodies suddenly felt a million times heavier than before… Feng Xue’er’s attempt to burn her divine blood had also been stopped by force. When she looked up, she saw a the back of a figure that made her feel like she was in a dream.

“Bug Brother… Yun?” Feng Xue’er called out quietly. She couldn’t believe her own eyes.

She could never mistake his back, not to mention that he was still wearing those tattered clothes filled with holes and blood.

Her cry didn’t draw any reaction from Yun Che, however.

As Feng Xue’er’s eyes grew more and more misty, she noticed the infinite fear that had suddenly spawned in the eyes of that that unbelievably terrifying Lin Jun, Lin Qingrou, Lin Qingshan, and Lin Qingyu. They looked like a devil was holding them by their throats.

“You… damn… BUGS!!”

The low, guttural voice sounded like it had come from hell itself. Every word had been uttered with enough strength to shatter one’s teeth. Although this was the first time they met each other, Yun Che looked like he couldn’t even bear to share the same sky as them. He wouldn’t be appeased even if he were to torment them for another ten lifetimes!