Against the Gods

No one’s power was the Dragon Monarch’s equal… especially when he had attacked in a fit of mania.

It was just a dragon-shaped profound blast, but it was enough to turn the entire Forbidden Land of Samsara black in an instant. Space, sound, light, everything had been devoured alive by the terrifying power. Worse, the profound blast was directed at Shen Xi’s stomach where her and Yun Che’s child lay.

No one knew better about the Dragon Monarch’s obsession than Shen Xi herself.

No one knew his life’s footsteps and his temperament better than her either.

Long Bai possessed the highest talent out of anyone in the Dragon God Race, and he was ambitious and righteous enough to stay true to his own heart even after he had become the Dragon Monarch. He possessed the greatest power in the entire world, and he sat at the highest plane of them all. However, he had never abused his power, and he had never shirked his responsibility when something of great importance had happened in the God Realm.

His character was one of the main reasons why Shen Xi had been willing to teach him and guide him throughout the years. It was because the Dragon Monarch was the way he was that the Dragon God Race was able to stand above all other races in both strength and reputation.

The second reason the Dragon God Race was strong was because Shen Xi had supplied the Dragon God Race with a drop of Divine Water of Life and Dragon God Jade Nectar for hundreds of millennia continuously. It was why the Dragon God Race’s geniuses were unsurpassed by any other race across every generation.

However…

There was no one in the world who could fully understand another person completely, just as there was no one in the world who could fully understand themselves. No one knew how terrible a person they might become if the darkness inside their hearts was to surface in full.

Shen Xi had known that the Dragon Monarch would lose himself after hearing the whole truth. Although his reaction had been so intense that it was almost mindless, she wasn’t really surprised by it. She was even feeling a bit guilty amidst her disappointment… After all, she had accepted the title “Dragon Queen” back then. If she hadn’t, the psychological impact he received might not have been as severe as it was.

However, not even in her dreams did she imagine that the Dragon Monarch would attack her.

Her aura was already weaker than normal because she was pregnant. She was also completely defenseless. Worse, she was only a dozen or so steps away from him… At his level, this distance might as well be nothing at all.

Shen Xi’s expression changed… and the Dragon God profound blast struck her stomach before she even had time to unleash her light profound energy.

Boom!

In an instant, every plant and animal in the entire Forbidden Land of Samsara… all the way down to Yun Che and Shen Xi’s bamboo house was reduced to the tiniest of dust.

Every space within sight had collapsed on the spot, and even the ground itself was lifted several dozen meters into the air. It didn’t fall back down to the earth, however. Instead, it vanished into nothingness just like that.

Pfft——

Shen Xi stood at the center of the collapsed space, her white aura gone, her face as pale as paper. A jet of blood escaped her lips as she flew far, far away like a powerless white butterfly in a storm.

“Ugh… Ah…” The biggest forbidden land in Dragon God Realm—the entire God Realm even—and the purest place in the entire Primal Chaos had been reduced to rubble just like that. The Dragon Monarch was frozen in place amidst the rippling space and dancing dust while shaking like a leaf in the wind. His pupils had shrunk to the size of needles while darting madly like the eyes of a madman.

He stared at his own trembling hands. He couldn’t believe what he had done just now.

“I… What have I done… What have I done…” He muttered in confusion like his soul was being wrung, “No… No… It wasn’t me… It wasn’t me…”

Shen Xi slowly got up to her feet. Her white clothes had been mostly drenched in blood, and a strange white light had covered her beautiful eyes. She didn’t pay attention to her own wounds, however. The first thing she did after she had regained her consciousness was to press a hand to her stomach as quick as lightning. Then, her white pupils became colored by the biggest fear and confusion she had ever felt in her life.

“Xi’er? Xi’er… Xi’er… Xi’er!!”

Her voice had lost all of her former indifference and gentleness. It was shaking ever so slightly, “Xi’er… please talk to me… please talk to me… you must be sleeping, aren’t you… wake up… please wake up… please answer me…”

Drip...

A teardrop fell on top of her blood drenched clothes. Then, it gave way and started pouring like a broken dam, “Xi’er… please don’t scare your mother, okay… Xi’er… Xi’er…”

Her once beautiful voice had turned, sad, shrill, and full of despair. Every time she spoke, the Dragon Monarch felt like a thousand blades had pierced his heart. His features twisting, he took a step forward and actually stumbled onto the ground. He crawled his way toward Shen Xi while begging, “Shen Xi… It wasn’t on purpose… It wasn’t on purpose…”

“Don’t come near me!!”

The four shrill words were filled with blood… and heart freezing hatred.

Yes, hatred… He had known Shen Xi for three hundred millennia, and this was the first time he had ever seen her cry or sensed an emotion like “hatred” from her. It was utterly bone chilling… and it was directed at him.

He froze on the spot and knelt slowly on his knees. His eyes were completely out of focus, “Alright… I… I’ll stay right here… Shen Xi… It really wasn’t on purpose, I… I was possessed by a devil just now… I really was just possessed by a devil just now… let… let me help you… your child will be fine… I… I can find a way to save her… the Dragon God Realm must have a way to save her…”

It was the most terrified words the Dragon Monarch had ever uttered in his life, but Shen Xi wasn’t reacting to them at all. She was pressing her hand to where her child was supposed to be, but she could neither sense her aura nor hear her voice any longer… it was a kind of pain and despair she hadn’t even imagined possible until now.

Her tears fell to the ground while mixed in blood… Her child and come to her and Yun Che as a complete coincidence, she had never thought that there would be a day where she became a mother. But when she finally realized it, she… she never knew that such a wonderful coincidence could exist until that very moment.

Since then, the color of her life, the color of her world had changed completely.

But today, everything had turned into despairing gray at the hands of her most trusted clansman.

“...It’s… it’s mother’s fault…” She said tearfully and heart-wrenchingly, “If mother… hadn’t saved him… If mother… hadn’t made him into the Dragon Monarch… you wouldn’t have… It’s mother’s fault…”

Her body trembled violently again as her heart’s blood suddenly flowed backward and spilled out of her pale lips soundlessly.

She stared forward in a daze… This was the first time she had been a mother, the first time she had lost her child, and the first time she had felt such pain and despair.

Suddenly, her pupils shook violently with remembrance.

“Well of Transmigration… The Well of Transmigration…” She muttered in a daze before she abruptly lifted her head. It was as if she had spotted a ray of hope amidst a blanket of darkness. She hurriedly turned around, pressed a hand to the ground and caused an unusual white flash. A moment later, a white whirlpool appeared right in front of her.

The whirlpool glowed pure and white, but the center of the whirlpool was filled with bottomless darkness.

“...” His mind in shambles, the Dragon Monarch could do nothing but stare at the white whirlpool blankly. He didn’t even have enough thought power left to identify what the object before him was.

Shen Xi’s eyes turned cold and determined as she stared at the white whirlpool in front of her. She the turned to the Dragon Monarch and uttered hatefully, “Listen, Long Bai… If anything… anything… were to happen to Xi’er…”

“I will give up the light… turn into a devil… and make you suffer through every torture that exists in the world!”

“I will spill your blood and scatter your ashes… to every corner of this God Realm… so that you will be stepped on by every living creature in the world for all eternity!!”

She wielded the light profound energy, and she possessed the one and only sacred heart and sacred body in the entire world. She was the least likely person to feel hatred or wickedness.

And yet in this moment, she was undoubtedly directing her greatest hatred and swearing the most malicious curse at the Dragon Monarch.

After that, she jumped into the strange whirlpool and vanished with it in an instant.

“Shen Xi… Shen Xi!?” Dragon Monarch shouted before he lunged forward in panic. All he caught in his hands was air, however.

His figure and the white whirlpool had vanished entirely. Even her aura had disappeared completely from the world. The only traces of her left in this cold, broken land were some droplets of blood, and tears.

“Shen… Xi…”

Thump… The Dragon Monarch collapsed to his knees before extending his right hand slowly before him, shaking. It was this hand that had suddenly attacked his…

“What… have… I… done…”

Suddenly, he balled up his fist and slammed it heavily at his own heart.

Boom!!

There was a loud bang that seemed to have shattered the world itself, and his chest abruptly crumpled inward as a jet of blood escaped his throat. But not only could he not feel any pain whatsoever, he collapsed to the floor and slammed his head—the head that no one had any right to make submit—onto the ground. Then, he cried loudly like never before…

…………

“Ugh!!”

Yun Che exclaimed and curled up into a ball all of a sudden. At the same time, he was clutching his heart as if he was having a heart attack.

“Ah!” Yun Wuxin was completely caught off guard by his sudden reaction. She hurriedly tossed her fishing rod aside before running to Yun Che, “Daddy, you… what’s wrong?”

The father and daughter were currently sitting on a small boat at Profound Sky Southern Ocean, fishing “competitively”.

Yun Che stopped shivering before looking up suddenly and sticking his tongue out at Yun Wuxin. He beamed, “Hehe, I got you again, didn’t I! How many times have I told you that you must be more still than the water beneath you when you’re fishing? You mustn’t be distracted easily, or you’ll… Ouch!”

“Hmph!” Yun Wuxin pinched Yun Che heavily on the arm before pursing her lips, returning to her seat and grabbing her fishing rod once more. She even turned her face away and ignored him, “Daddy is lying to me again. Why do you still act like a child when you’re already an adult?”

“Also, please don’t tell me you used the same method to woo all my aunts, daddy,” Yun Wuxin pursed her lips together even harder than before… Yun Che’s reaction had really frightened her earlier.

“Er…” Yun Che turned a little red, “Daddy will talk with you about this when you’re older.”

“Bleh!” Yun Wuxin stuck her tongue out at him, “I haven’t been a child for a long time, okay? Hmph.”

“...” Yun Che didn’t say anything. It seemed like he had no retort to offer.

Yun Wuxin didn’t notice that Yun Che’s chest was moving up and down rapidly even though he was all smiles.

“Master…” He Ling’s worried voice resounded inside his heart, “What’s wrong? Your heartbeat is way off…”

“I’m fine,” Yun Che replied.

That was what he said, but his eyebrows were still shaking, and his hands were tightening around his fishing rod unconsciously.

What’s going on…

Why did my heart hurt so much just now… It was almost like someone had pierced it with a knife…

He sneakily shot a glance at Yun Wuxin’s cheek. It took him a while before he finally regained his cool.

He muttered to himself in his mind: Whatever happens in the future, whatever disaster or tribulation that is to come… I will accept and deal with everything that’s thrown at me. But I will never, ever allow anything to hurt my daughter ever again!