Against the Gods

[Creation Goddess of Life: Li Suo]

[Profound Treasure: Primordial Seal of Life and Death]

[The Creation God who bore the power of realm creation, life creation, and light divine energy. She was a kind, merciful and compassionate soul who possessed the holy power that could save all living and nonliving things in the world, and an outer and inner beauty that transcended the limits of the immortal realm of creation itself.]

[So great was her beauty that it was said that the Ancestral God had bestowed three-tenths of the concept of beauty to the world, and the rest to Li Suo when creating the universe.]

[Stars and moons were but as bright as withered dust before her divine presence.]

“Tch!” Qianye Ying’er snorted disdainfully as she chased Yun Che’s gaze. “Not even the ancient Dragon God Tribe is immune to idolism, it seems. This level of exaggeration is wholly unnecessary.”

Yun Che subconsciously shot Qianye Ying’er’s face a look. If he were to judge by countenance alone, Qianye Ying’er and Shen Xi were without a doubt the most beautiful women in the entire world, the kind that couldn’t be surpassed even in one’s dreams.

While the scribe of Ancient Records of the Dragon God spared no effort in praising the supernatural beauty of the ancient goddess of creation, he didn’t think that the ancient goddess of creation would be able to surpass Qianye Ying’er or Shen Xi in terms of countenance and figure even if she were to reappear in this world.

Probably...

[Both the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor and the Creation God of the Elements were madly in love with Li Suo, but their chase ultimately didn’t bear fruit. In the end, the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor chose duty over love—for his lineage cannot end with him—and made the empress of the Heaven Luo Divine Race his queen. In just ten thousand years, his harem had swelled to a massive thirty thousand concubines.]

[On the other hand, the Creation God of the Elements never gave up, so he never found another partner. It truly was a shame that a god like him was alone until the very end.]

“...” Yun Che sighed inside his head. The truth was, the Creation God of the Elements fell in love with the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor afterward, but their forbidden, no, taboo love was destined never to be known or blessed by the world… their daughter most of all.

Now that he thought about it, the one thing that still triggered the returned Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor hard despite having experienced practically every form of mortal coil, was the fact that the Heretic God used to be deeply in love with Li Suo.

After all, even she was a woman before she was a devil emperor.

[A terrible war broke out, and the universe suffered… to eliminate light divine energy once and for all, the Nine Fiend Devil Emperor stole the Primordial Seal of Life and Death, breached dimensions, descended upon the Divine Palace of Life and scattered the Nine Fiend Devil Poison… the Divine Palace of Life fell… and the divine aura of life was nevermore…]

[All the realms wept and raged at the death of the Creation Goddess of Life. However, the body of the deceased Li Suo was never found… perhaps it was because her body gave off light divine aura, and the Nine Fiend Devil Race destroyed it out of fear…]

If Mo E was the first Creation God to pass away naturally, then Li Suo was the first Creation God to perish unnaturally. After all, her light divine energy was the power the devil race feared the most, but her combat strength was also the weakest of the four Creation Gods and four Devil Emperors.

According to the Ice Phoenix Divine Spirit, Li Suo was the most respected and loved Creation God of all the Creation Gods. The Ice Phoenix Divine Spirit herself was forever proud that she once served under the Creation Goddess of Life.

The realms truly must have wept when news of her death spread far and wide.

[Creation God of the Elements: Ni Xuan]

[Profound Treasure: World Piercer]

This line alone told Yun Che that even the Dragon God Tribe wasn’t aware that the Heretic God and the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor had exchanged their Heavenly Profound Treasures with each other.

[He was the Creation God with complete mastery over the five elements—Water, Fire, Wind, Thunder and Earth—and could transcend even the laws of the elements. He lived for battle and made it his duty to protect everything that he believed was worth protecting. He was open-minded, easy-going, unfettered by customs, and untouched by the arrogance of a Creation God. He enjoyed exploring the realms and spreading his kindness everywhere.]

[He was close friends with every Dragon God to have ever lived, and our tribe owed him a favor that might not be repaid even in ten thousand lifetimes.]

[He was extremely single-minded when it came to love, and his love for the Creation Goddess of Life was absolute. His loyalty never failed to impress the Dragon Gods.]

[... for an unknown reason, the Creation God of the Elements challenged the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor to battle at the heart of Absolute Beginning. Maybe it was because he was furious at the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor’s act of exiling the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor from the universe. It certainly broke the balance between the two races and caused no end of trouble later on.]

[No one had the power to approach the battle, so no one knew the final outcome. After the battle, the Creation God of the Elements discarded his own title and began calling himself the Heretic God. At the same time, he went into seclusion and almost never appeared to the world anymore. Even when the Dragon God tried to pay him a visit, all they got was a request to leave… The Dragon God once said this: “The Heretic God’s sorrow is endless, and his heart is as lightless as dust itself. All that he seeks now is to be forgotten by the world.]

[After the legendary battle, the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor’s lifespan abruptly shortened by a drastic amount. It was suspected that he had used the Ancestral Sword during the battle. If this is true, does this mean that the divine power of the Creation God of the Elements actually exceeded the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor’s?]

[Also, it was a well known fact that unleashing the Ancestral Sword’s power by force came at a massive cost of one’s lifespan. Why did the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor go so far just to defeat the Creation God of the Elements?]

[Surely the title of the “strongest God Emperor” wasn’t worth that much.]

[And so the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor passed away, and the Heretic God secluded himself from the world. The Creation God of Order and the Creation Goddess of Life never spoke even a word regarding the battle. The truth of the matter might very well remain hidden for eternity.]

Yun Che sighed in his head again. The truth of that time was unknown even to the powerful Dragon God Tribe, and yet he, a person of the future, had come to know everything.

In order to destroy a “taboo” that he absolutely couldn’t tolerate, one that was created by the Creation God of the Elements and the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor themselves, the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor had deceived, broken his own principles, and even sacrificed his own lifespan to unleash the Ancestral Sword.

The battle between the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor and the Creation God of the Elements had directly decided the fate of the forbidden existence that was “Ni Jie”. Obviously, the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor couldn’t have imagined that he, the so-called strongest god emperor of the universe, was actually Ni Xuan’s inferior.

As it turned out, the “Devil God Forbidden Tome (The Heretic God Arts)” co-created by the Creation God of the Elements and the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor was a power that transcended even the strongest Creation God in the world. The irony that the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor—the living symbol of the absolute divide between god and devil—must have felt when the realization struck him must have been unbelievable.

After unleashing the Ancestral Sword to defeat the Creation God of the Elements, the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor knew shame and accepted half a compromise. Ni Jie’s devilish soul would be eliminated, but not her divine soul. The truth of her origin would be forever hidden as well.

Thus Ni Jie became Hong’er and You’er.

Ni Xuan entrusted Hong’er to the Sword Spirit God Clan, but couldn’t bring himself to kill You’er no matter what. Thus, he hid her in the darkest abyss of Blue Pole Star… and suffered an unimaginable amount of pain, sorrow, guilt, regret, powerlessness and disappointment everyday. His bitterness ran so deep that he even discarded his title and secluded himself from the world once and for all.

Ni Xuan must’ve visited the now princess of the Sword Spirit God Clan, the eternally happy Ling Wanhu (Hong’er) now and then, but he would never in a million years dare to visit You’er… only he would know the true depths of his pain and sorrow.

Qianye Ying’er said, “According to the current world’s records, the official cause behind the great war between the gods and the devils was because the devil race had taken the masterless Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword for themselves. In reality, the true cause was the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor himself.”

“The fury of the devil race, the collapse of balance between the two races, the passing of one Creation God and the seclusion of another… even if the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword hadn’t become the spark that lit the fire, something else would have. Hmph, how ironic.”

“Even better, this self-proclaimed emperor of the righteous way most likely thought that he had sacrificed himself for the betterment of the world. He would never even consider that he had made a mistake.” Qianye Ying’er snorted coldly. “Zhou Xuzi is but a child before this man.”

The four great Creation Gods recorded by the ancient Dragon God Tribe were without a doubt far more detailed and accurate than the current world was familiar with. Moreover, thanks to certain truths only he knew, he was able to paint a clearer picture of the Creation Gods in his head.

Yun Che wordlessly flipped the ancient record to the fourth page.

Just like before, this page didn’t record the history of the Dragon Gods. It was about the seven great Heavenly Profound Treasures!

Yun Che’s concentration immediately increased several fold compared to before.

The four great Creation Gods were nothing but ancient legends and forgotten dust at this point. The seven great Heavenly Profound Treasures on the other hand were still well and existing in the present day.

Every Heavenly Profound Treasure except the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword had appeared at least once in the current universe.

In fact, he was in possession of four of them right now. The Primordial Seal of Life and Death, the Eternal Heaven Pearl, the Sky Poison Pearl, and the Mirror of Samsara.

The World Piercer was also in Shui Meiyin’s hands.

The Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword had never appeared in this world, and the Evil Infant's Wheel of Myriad Tribulations… was forever lost with Jasmine.

[The First Heavenly Profound Treasure: Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword]

[Birthed from the yang side of the heart of the Primal Chaos, it was the purest, strongest and most sacred divine sword in the entire Primal Chaos Realm. It was the ancestor of all artifacts, and it was said to contain the divine power of the Ancestral God themselves. It was strong enough to violate even the laws of the world.]

[The Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword had never had a true master probably because it contained the Ancestral God’s divine power, meaning that no one in the world was worthy of becoming its master. It allowed only Mo E the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor to carry it because the man had an upright soul. It was also how his title “Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor” came to be.]

[The divine power of the Ancestral God could only be wielded by the Ancestral God themselves. Even if the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword acknowledged Mo E as its carrier, he couldn’t use it without grave consequences.]

[Using the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword by force would cost a Creation God thirty percent of their lifespan, ninety percent for a God, and immediate annihilation for a mortal.]

“...” Yun Che was shocked.

A Creation God was, to put it bluntly, almost immortal.

And yet, it still cost them thirty percent of their lifespan to unleash the power of the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword just once!

Mo E had used the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword twice in his life. Once to exile the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor and the nine hundred Devil Gods from the Primal Chaos, and once more to defeat the Creation God of the Elements who successfully cultivated the Heretic God Forbidden Tome.

That was sixty percent of his lifespan gone just like that.

It was no wonder that he, the strongest Creation God of that time, died sooner than anybody else.

The cost only grew worse from there. A True God would lose ninety percent of their lifespan if they were to use the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword. Even an unusually young True God would be near death upon using it.

The Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword could slay any enemy, but the wielder would be near death as well. It was a true double-edged sword.

After the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor had died, the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword had vanished for a time.

[... when the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword suddenly reappeared at the heart of the Primal Chaos, the realms trembled, and the devil race shook… the Ancestral Sword must not fall into the devils’ hands, so the divine races who once served the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor mobilized all their forces to protect the sword… but the devil race’s assault turned out to be ten times more frantic than expected, and the resulting war was so terrible that universe itself was almost destroyed.]

[The terrible war between the gods and the devils was lit by the emergence of the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword, but… the Dragon God said that it was but one of the many, many other sparks that could have lit the fuse. At that point, the devil race’s hatred and resentment had deepened to the point where anything would have sparked the war.]

……

[… our entire tribe had to participate in the war. Countless realms died, and blood dyed the skies red… the Heaven Punishing God Race entrusted the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword to us so that they may fight without worry… when will the apocalypse end?]

……

[... in the end, the devil race discovered that we were hiding the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword. Countless devils emerged to battle our realms… devilish poisons devoured countless lives, the sky turned black with devilish energy, and the stench of death was as thick as the abyss… the despair was unspeakable…]

[... the Dragon God was grievously wounded, his kin has perished, and despair encroaches ever so closer. The princess took injuries that almost claimed her life, and even worse a devilish poison invaded her soul. The Dragon God wept like a babe until suddenly, he shattered the Dragon God Seal and released the wisp of Ancestral God divine energy contained within it. But instead of using it to slay the devils, he used it as a medium to seal the princess’ dying body into the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword and toss it into the Well of Samsara.]

[However, to reclaim the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword, the crazed devils actually attacked the Well of Samsara until it was completely destroyed…]

[And so the cycle of rebirth came to an eternal end.]

[Not even fate knows where the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword and the princess have gone.]

The line marked the end of the records regarding the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword. In fact, the latter paragraphs of the text—especially the last couple of lines—grew increasingly weak and disorderly until they were almost unrecognizable.

Yun Che didn’t need to be there to know that the divine dragon who transcribed the ancient record was near death at the time.

Unintentionally, the shadow of the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword cast a pall over the end of the Era of Gods and Devils.

And so the cycle of rebirth came to an eternal end… Yun Che stared at the line for a very, very long time.

As it turned out, the legend of Samsara wasn’t a legend after all. The cycle of rebirth was actually a real thing during the ancient times, and its medium, the Well of Samsara was guarded by none other than the Dragon God Tribe.

The Well of Samsara had been destroyed during the War of Gods and Devils and turned into a dead well. Since then, the cycle of rebirth was no more in this world.

Yun Che had come into contact with a fake cycle of rebirth once while he was still on the Profound Sky Continent. Masterminded by Xuanyuan Wentian, Fen Juechen had been forced to experience a millenium-long “Samsara of Eternal Night”.

However, Yun Che later discovered while reading the Illusory Devil Tome of Eternal Night that the so-called forbidden art of “Samsara” was really just a taboo way of sealing and grafting one’s vitality and soul onto a chosen person. Not only did the cruel process violate the natural order, its chosen host would always be missing some parts of their vitality and soul. It was why Fen Juechen became extremely manic, and why his life only seemed to be filled with tragedy. Even if he somehow survived one death, another would claim him all too soon.

However...

Yun Che had experienced a rebirth despite living in a world where the Well of Samsara was supposedly dead.

It was even a special kind of rebirth that was completely different from the memories, records, and even the legends of Samsara.

The Well of Samsara...

The Mirror of Samsara...

……

Right now, the well in the Forbidden Land of Samsara was none other than the ancient Well of Samsara itself. However, it seemed to be a dead well that could never be resurrected by any power.