Against the Gods

When Yun Che emerged from the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm, what greeted him wasn’t the cool and calming aura of the Deep Sea Realm. He was assaulted by the thick stench of blood and smoke.

Yun Che calmly surveyed the area around him as the trembling Shui Meiyin gasped in shock.

When he saw Yun Che’s figure appear in front of him, Long Bai’s eyes immediately widened to their greatest extent. Hatred, restlessness, excitement, and agitation raced in his heart… along with several other complex emotions he could not quite put a name to.

He had even dreamed of ripping Yun Che to shreds in his sleep and his dearest wish had been to inflict the most cruel tortures imaginable on Yun Che’s body in the most painful way possible. Everything that he had done today was motivated far more by his desire to vent his hatred on Yun Che than it had been to destroy the devil race.

However, he didn’t immediately launch a wrathful strike now that Yun Che was in front of him. Instead, he took a few steps backward and roared in a thunderous voice, “Stop!”

The bloody and terrible battlefield instantly stilled as the Dragon Monarch’s voice boomed through the air. This was the Dragon Monarch’s command and every word he uttered was reverberating throughout every corner of their souls. No one even thought of defying that command.

All of the Western Region profound practitioners immediately withdrew their energies and the most terrible battle in history, a battle exclusively between those who stood at the very top of the universe, came to a forced stop in just a few minutes of time.

Before everyone could even puzzle out the meaning behind the Dragon Monarch’s words, he was already barking out another order. This order was also a single-word command. “Retreat.”

The state of the Northern Region profound practitioners was so miserable that even the western Divine Masters had started to feel pity for them. As more and more of the northern devils collapsed to injury or death, the already-huge advantage that the Western Divine Region possessed quickly became overwhelming. Given the current situation, they would have been able to exterminate all of the enemy forces before too long.

So this order to retreat was undoubtedly giving their enemy a free chance to rest and catch their breath.

However, no one would dare to defy the Dragon Monarch’s command.

The Divine Masters of the Western Divine Region immediately retreated, but they did not forget to pick up the bodies of their fallen kinsmen and comrades before they left.

The two armies, which had been trying to rip each other’s throats out just a few moments ago, both retreated and stared at each other across the intervening distance.

Even the battles happening in far off places had stopped as the Venerable Withered Dragons, the Qilin Emperor, and the Blue Dragon Emperor stopped fighting once they heard the Dragon Monarch’s command. However, Chi Wuyao and Mu Xuanyin had not stopped moving. They spun around and raced down to Yun Che...

The Dragon Monarch did not say anything, so Long Si and Long Wu did not move to stop them.

“Your Magnificence!”

“Your... Magnificence.”

“Your Magnificence!!”

……..

When Yun Che normally heard these cries, they were always filled with a healthy vigor and an excited pride. Sadly, right now those cries were mixed with choking sobs and most of the voices that called out to him had become hoarse and weak.

Furthermore, he heard far less familiar voices, sensed far less familiar auras.

Yan One and Yan Two did not even bother to catch a quick breath as they rushed toward Yun Che at the fastest speed possible. Their frail and withered bodies were normally only stained with the blood of other people, but right now, they were covered with all sorts of wounds.

This was especially true when it came to their arms. Most of the muscle and skin had been destroyed, displaying the white bone beneath, and even those exposed bones were full nicks and scratches.

He could not imagine just how dreadful their battle must have been and the terrifying pressure they must have had to endure throughout this period of time.

A painful wheezing sound rang through the air as Yan Three just managed to rush back to the battlefield. He immediately dropped to his knees but all four limbs were dripping with blood and he was gasping so hard that he looked like he was about to die from exhaustion. However, he still imposed his body between the enemy and Yun Che like some fierce guardian god.

“How did this happen… How did this happen…” Shui Meiyin muttered in a dazed voice as she observed the bloody battlefield around her. When her gaze came into contact with the city floating in the distance, she whispered, “The World… Dragon City?”

As the master of the World Piercer, she had inherited some memory fragments from it, so how could she not recognize the World Dragon City, an artifact which the World Piercer had helped to create?

This was something the Creation God of the Elements had gifted to the dragon god race and it was a profound ship that should have been destroyed in that ancient war.

To think that it would appear in this time and place…

When she laid her eyes on it, Shui Meiyin instantly understood the cause of this hellish calamity.

Her spiritual senses then came into contact with Shui Yingyue’s aura.

“Big Sister!” she screamed in shock. She immediately rushed over to Shui Yingyue’s side, all other thoughts banished from her head.

Shui Yingyue was using her Jade Rivulet Sword to prop herself up and her blue robes were stained in dirt and blood. She stared at the misty-eyed Shui Meiyin as a small smile appeared on her beautiful but pale face. She whispered, “Meiyin, as long as you’re safe… everything is fine…”

Now that her burden was lifted off her shoulders, Shui Yingyue’s entire body immediately grew weak and limp. She was no longer able to hold out any longer as she slumped unconscious into Shui Meiyin’s embrace.

Long Bai stared at Yun Che with indifferent eyes, but Yun Che had not looked at Long Bai even once.

His ice-cold divine senses chaotically swept through the area… The Deep Sea Divine Region was no more and only a devastated bunch of ruins remained.

He then found Caizhi’s aura. She was completely unconscious, but she was also being protected by the Dragon Emperor of Absolute Beginning. He could not sense the aura of the six Star Gods that had answered her call, but he could sense six different threads of Star God divine energy floating in the air around her… However, every single one of these threads of energy was as weak as a faint breeze that felt like they could disappear at any time.

Qianye Ying’er had exhausted all of her energy and even her lifeforce had grown unspeakably weak. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that she was on death’s door. The dormant Devil Emperor blood within her spoke of the resolute decision that she had made… If Qianye Wugu had not unhesitatingly transferred his lifeforce to her and protected her, she would have disappeared from his life before he could even return.

He sensed Mu Xuanyin’s aura next. When he saw her figure and matched gazes with her, elation should have wildly filled his heart… However, he couldn’t even feel a single ripple of joy in his heart right now, because there was something far too heavy weighing on his thoughts and emotions.

The Yama Devils and Moon Eaters had been reduced to four people apiece and the Nine Witches were all seriously injured, Jie Xin and Jie Ling included. There were only three survivors among the Brahma Kings Qianye Ying’er had brought along with her and nearly half of the Dragons of Absolute Beginning had fallen. The Northern Divine Region’s realm kings were the greatest casualties as more than sixty percent of them had died.

This calamity seemed to have happened in the span of a single night to Yun Che. It was as if he had gone to sleep and woken up to this nightmarish reality.

The Western Divine Region had come in full force as all six of their king realms were represented. Seven of the eight Dragon Gods still remained and there were the ancient draconic auras of five incredibly strong beings, beings he had no knowledge of at all.

“Do you feel despair?” Long Bai asked in a flat voice. He was like an exalted emperor who had arrogantly crushed a pitiful peasant underneath his heel. If he simply exerted a bit of force, he would utterly shatter the person beneath him.

He wanted to see shock, astonishment, helplessness, pain, fear, despair on Yun Che’s face… wanted to hear his pained cries, his roars of anger… wanted to witness the frenzied expression on his face as he slowly collapsed into a feral state...

However, as time slowly dripped by, he felt disappointment growing in his heart.

Yun Che’s face still remained cold and impassive even when he saw the dark blood pool around him like a giant lake. In fact, he was abnormally calm.

The only thing that betrayed his emotions was the drops of blood silently falling from his tightly-clenched fists.

“Where is Tianxiao?” Yun Che whispered. He still refused to look at Long Bai, and it was as if he hadn’t even heard his question in the first place.

What answered him was the sound of the surviving Yama Devils and Yama Ghosts grinding their teeth together. It was only after a long pause that Yan Wu finally whispered, “Royal father is tired… He has gone to his rest.”

A cold wind blew across Yun Che’s body as both Chi Wuyao and Mu Xuanyin landed beside him.

When Chi Wuyao first spotted Yun Che emerging from the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm, a scene they had been fervently hoping for since before the battle began, a dream-like ecstasy immediately filled her heart. However, it was quashed as quickly as it had started.

Yun Che’s profound energy aura was still at the tenth level of the Divine Sovereign Realm.

She had always thought that Yun Che would definitely be able to break through to the Divine Master Realm during the three years he had spent in the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm. And if he entered the Divine Master Realm, his power might very well transcend the limits of this current era. It would be enough to kill all of their strong foes and rescue them from their current predicament, no matter how dire things got.

However, he actually hadn’t managed to break through at all during the three years he had spent in the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm!?

“Yun Che,” Chi Wuyao sent a sound transmission to him, her grim voice echoing in his mind. “Prepare to leave this place immediately.”

Mu Xuanyin had already stretched out a hand to grab Yun Che’s arm.

Yun Che didn’t reply. He merely slowly and gently brushed off Mu Xuanyin’s hand with his own, his face still a mask of impassivity.

“Now isn’t the time for you to be wilful!” Mu Xuanyin said in a cold voice.

Chi Wuyao also spoke in a much softer voice, “Long Bai returned to the Dragon God Realm sooner than expected and immediately mobilized all of the Divine Masters of the Western Divine Region with an extremely overbearing command. He also awakened the Venerable Withered Dragons, five extremely powerful members of the dragon god race that had lain hidden until now. Furthermore, that World Dragon City that you see allowed him to move all his forces from the Dragon God Realm to here in the span of two hours.”

Yun Che, “...”

“I managed to discover all of these things in advance thanks to my link with Zhou Xuzi, so all of them had a chance to flee. However, not a single one of them chose to. All just to defend you until you could safely leave the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm… All for this moment!”

Yun Che, “...”

“As long as you live, the Northern Divine Region will still have infinite hope. But if you die… then all of them will have died for nothing!!”

Chi Wuyao’s voice grew harsh as she tightly gripped Yun Che’s ice-cold arm… but she was still slowly and firmly pushed aside by him.

Qianye Wugu descended together with Qianye Ying’er. His aura had grown exceptionally weak and thin and his face had become as white as a sheet of paper, but he still stood as proud as an ancient tree, his old face calm and composed.

Qianye Ying’er had managed to recover some power from Qianye Wugu’s vital energy. She straightened her back with much difficulty, but she did not move toward Yun Che. Instead, she gritted her teeth as an incredibly fierce light flashed through her eyes and she barked out in the harshest and cruelest of voices, “Go… Leave immediately!”

“Your Magnificence… hurry up and leave!” Fen Daoqie groaned.

“Your Magnificence… leave…” Yan Wu struggled to her feet. “Do not let… my royal father’s death… all of their deaths… be in vain…”

“Your Magnificence…”

“Your Magnificence… Please leave!”

………..

The excited cries had turned into anxious pleading. They soon stopped trying to persuade him as they struggled to their feet and started to stir up all of the remaining power in their bodies.

They had already personally experienced how terrifying the Western Divine Region was, and the returned Devil Master’s profound energy aura was still at the Divine Sovereign Realm… He had finally returned after their desperate defense, but he had not brought that anticipated light of hope along with him.

So right now, the only thing they could do was to use their remaining life and power to safely escort him out of this place.

“Leave? Hah, do you really think he can leave?” the White Rainbow Dragon God sneered. “At this point, do you actually still believe that naive daydream of yours?”

They had not attacked due to the Dragon Monarch’s command, but a vast and boundless might had settled on the entire Deep Sea Divine Region. They only needed to act to seal the fate of their enemies. None of them could even dream about escaping from this place alive.

Yun Che still didn’t show any reaction. His eyes were very slowly turning dark and grim but his face was so calm that it was terrifying.

“Your... Magnificence…”

A voice that was even weaker than a mosquito’s buzz drifted out along the wind. In fact, if Yun Che’s spiritual senses hadn’t been sharp enough, he wouldn’t even have heard it.

Yun Che finally started to move, his slow and measured steps taking him to Tian Guhu’s side.

He squatted down and planted his palm on Tian Guhu’s chest, causing a pure white light to slowly encase his entire body.

When he saw the light profound energy emanating from Yun Che’s hand, Long Bai immediately clenched his fists so hard that his fingers nearly broke. His features twisted sinisterly and it took a long time before he finally managed to calm himself.

Tian Guhu had lost his arms and both his body and his face had been shattered… Yun Che could barely even bring himself to look at him. Even the white light emanating from his arm couldn’t save Tian Guhu. It could only lessen his pain.

The very fact that he had managed to hold on to his life until now was a miracle that moved Yun Che’s heart.

“Guhu, what do you want to say? I’m listening,” Yun Che softly asked.

Tian Guhu managed to slowly open his mouth with much difficulty, and he took a long time to even croak out in a voice that was as weak as a thin mist. “We… people of the Northern Region… are born in darkness… and bear darkness within ourselves…”

“However, we… are not natural-born sinners… We only want… to live… freely under the light… just like everyone else…”

The world turned unbearably quiet as that extremely weak voice penetrated the hearts of all who were present. In fact, many of the Western Divine Region’s Divine Masters had started looking at Tian Guhu with a complicated expression on their face.

“Your Magnificence… I beg you… Escape from this place… I beg you… Please live… for the sake of the Northern Divine Region…”

Tears rolled down Tian Guhu’s bloody and shattered face. “This is definitely… the most selfish and unreasonable request… in the world… but only you… only you can…”

Tian Guhu’s despairing and pleading voice was violently reverberating through the deepest part of every person from the Northern Divine Region.

They had been condemned to the darkness for a million years, bore the mark of sin for a million years, resigned themselves to their cruel fate for a million years… Even the god emperors of their king realms had completely given up the fight and the Devil Queen, a strange upstart who had risen to the highest echelons of power, had been forced to whole up in her dark domain for a full ten thousand years after she probed the Eastern Divine Region just once.

Only the Devil Master Yun Che had given them the opportunity to overthrow their fate. In the few months that he had led them, he had truly allowed them to touch and hold on to hope.

If the Devil Master lived, hope abounded. If the Devil Master met with calamity, then the Northern Divine Region, whose core strength had already been destroyed today, would be plunged into eternal darkness.

As such, Tian Guhu used his last breath, his last tears, to make this “most selfish and unreasonable” request to Yun Che.

“There’s no need to say anything else.” Yun Che raised a palm and an even more dense light profound energy slowly descended over Tian Guhu… After that, Yun Che quickly used his spiritual senses to sweep the area, but he could not sense the presence of a single aura belonging to the Imperial Heaven bloodline on this devastated battlefield. From the lowest Imperial Heaven Divine Sovereign to the Imperial Heaven Realm King Tian Muyi himself. All of them had died in this place.

“Tian Guhu, listen here.” Yun Che’s face was still impassive as he stared straight into Tian Guhu’s eyes. “On my name Yun Che, on my title as the Devil Master of the North, I vow…”

“That all of the people of the Northern Divine Region will be able to hold their heads up in the light from this day forward. There will no longer be anyone who looks down on you or bullies you. There will no longer be anyone who will dare to view darkness profound energy or dark profound practitioners as the emblem of filth and sin.”

“You and your clansmen will not die in vain! Every drop of blood that you have shed here will not be in vain! The future generations of the Northern Divine Region will forever remember that their new life was bought with the blood that was shed here today! As long as I live, the bloodline of the Imperial Heaven Realm will be forever exalted!”

His voice was preternaturally calm. It contained no sorrow, joy, hatred, or mirth. However, every single one of those words had penetrated the ears and hearts of everyone present.

The faces of all the surviving Northern Region profound practitioners froze as their eyes silently misted up. This wasn’t just a vow that Yun Che had made to Tian Guhu. It was a vow he had made to all of them. Even if this vow seemed like an ephemeral shadow that could be scattered by a single ray of light, even if it only lasted for those few fleeting moments, all of them still desperately held on to it and believed those words.

Qianye Ying’er, Chi Wuyao, and Mu Xuanyin all stared at Yun Che dumbly… This was a Yun Che who was completely foreign to them, a Yun Che unlike any of the Yun Ches they had ever seen before.

The corners of Tian Guhu’s lips violently trembled as tears gushed out of his eyes like a waterfall.

“Your... Magnificence… thank... you…”

He used all of his remaining strength… to shout in the loudest voice he could muster. After that, the eyes that he was unwilling to close slowly fluttered shut.

Qing’er… I’m coming… to be with you...

“...” The white light vanished from Yun Che’s hand.

He slowly and gently withdrew his hand from Tian Guhu’s body and the tips of his fingers were tinged with his still-warm blood.

Tian Guhu. The Yama Devil power in his body had been forcibly grafted onto him via Yun Che’s Eternal Calamity of Darkness and he had paid for it by sacrificing much of his lifespan.

He was a tool of vengeance that Yun Che had created using the most merciless and wicked methods, and he had forged him without a single trace of doubt or hesitation.

From the moment he had stepped into the Northern Divine Region, he had decided that all of its power would be used for the sake of his vengeance.

When he had become emperor of the Northern Divine Region and all of their profound practitioners yelled out “Devil Master” and knelt at his feet, they had finally been successfully “transformed” into his tools of vengeance.

During the battle for the Eastern Divine Region, the countless deaths and injuries the Northern Divine Region’s forces had suffered had not moved him in the slightest. He had not even felt the smallest twinge of pain or sorrow… because that was how tools were supposed to be used, that was the fate of anyone who became a tool for someone else.

Before he had found out about the Blue Pole Star’s survival, he had already decided that he would climb over the backs of these corpses during their battle with the Western Divine Region, all just to set the stage for his final vengeance.

…………

But, at this moment...

Why did he feel such an intense pain in his heart?

His fury… was on the verge of boiling over.

…………

“There has never been a realm king or god emperor that has received such worship and reverence before in the history of the God Realm. Big Brother Yun Che, I’m beginning to believe that these people are no longer fighting for the Northern Divine Region alone. Perhaps, they would be equally willing and eager to sacrifice their lives just for your sake alone.”

…………

The words that Shui Meiyin had told him before they left for the Seven Star Realm once again rippled in his heart.

At that time, he had immediately denied it. He just wasn’t willing to admit it.

“That wasn’t such a bad dream,” Long Bai calmly said as he stared at Yun Che. He didn’t see anything else besides Yun Che now that he was finally in front of him. “Yun Che, the Devil Master of the North… It’s been a long time.”

“Heh… Hehe… Hehehehehe…”

Yun Che’s expression finally changed. However, he wasn’t showing any anger or fear; he had started laughing. It was a demented and sinister chuckle that caused everyone’s hair to stand on end.

“Long Bai.” He spoke in a slow and deliberate manner, as if savoring every word that came out of his mouth. “Very good. You’ve done very well.”

“During the last three years I spent in the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm, I focused on repairing my heart and soul, slowly erasing the devilish malice that dwelled in my heart. I even managed to turn myself from seventy percent demon and thirty percent human back to thirty percent demon and seventy percent human.”

Yun Che paused as he slowly raised his hand, the tip of his extended finger glowing with a faint and almost indistinct light. “However, you’ve managed to successfully let out all of the demons that I had barely managed to suppress, in the very first moment I returned to this world.”

“Tell me… How… exactly… should I repay you for this!?”