Against the Gods

“You actually found something?” Qianye Ying’er turned serious as well.

Yun Che said nothing. He stretched out his palm and wreathed it in flames, but after hesitating for a moment he dispelled it and left behind only the purest Heretic God profound energy. Then, he touched the slab.

Chiang!

There was a soft resonance, and the dim slab suddenly glowed a little. Yun Che felt an invisible energy guiding his external profound energy and spreading it across the slab.

The energy turned into patterns, and the patterns turned into rows and rows of distinct script!

“This… is!?” Qianye Ying’er exclaimed in surprise. She didn’t imagine that the seemingly inert slab she had neglected up until now would actually react to Yun Che.

The fact that the slab only manifested words when the Heretic God’s profound energy made contact with it proved that it was engraved by the Heretic God himself!

It wasn’t even written in some foreign or incredibly old script like the Divine Text of Absolute Beginning. It was written in the common language.

Yun Che held his breath as he read the message left behind by the ancient Heretic God:

“The Myriad Tribulations burns my soul, and I will soon cease to be. Thankfully, with my remaining life as the medium, I was able to condense my origin power into a drop of Indestructible Blood.”

“Person of the future, know that from the moment you inherit my power, you and only you will be charged with the great mission of protecting the world from a great calamity. It is up to the heavens to decide if you will succeed or fail.”

If Yun Che had obtained this slab when he first inherited the Heretic God’s divine power, he would never have been able to imagine the kind of calamity the Heretic God was speaking of or the heavy and complicated emotions he must have borne at the time of writing this.

If he were to look at the result alone, he supposed that he had succeeded in accomplishing the “mission” the Heretic God had charged him with. The Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor had left, and the Devil Gods were prevented from returning to the Primal Chaos.

However, he knew that the one who truly saved the world wasn’t him, but the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor.

“The elemental cores have been scattered across the universe. It is up to your fate, your determination and your conviction to reunite them, future Heretic God.”

“My secrets, my care, and the wish my wife and I were ultimately unable to fulfill… How much of the truth will you uncover, future Heretic God? Again, it is up to you to protect, do nothing, or reject them.”

It wasn’t a long paragraph, but it still left Yun Che feeling a myriad of emotions.

He had found out all of the Heretic God’s secrets. He had found both of the Heretic God’s cares, bound them to his life, and protected them as well.

As for the Heretic God and the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor’s unfulfilled wish—the dream that God and Devil would one day be able to live together in harmony—he couldn’t say if uniting the four divine regions and urging its denizens to abandon their prejudices counted toward it.

“I shall put seven seals on the Heretic God Art both to bind and protect you. If you break the seals by force while your strength is still insufficient, you will damage yourself.”

“There will never be another True God in the future. The Hell Monarch Realm will be the absolute limit a mortal can endure. Unlocking the sixth and seventh realm will only destroy you, so I have made the sixth and seventh seals to last for eternity.”

However, the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor had removed those seals.

“My Heretic God Art was derived from a taboo art. Therefore, it is a taboo power that does not belong among the heavenly laws, and it is incomparable to the profound arts of the mortal world. If you are able to collect all of the elemental cores, you will attain the realm known as ‘Divine Master’ by mortals. You are not yet in the realm of a god, but you will be able to unleash the power of one.”

“There are gods and devils no longer, and the old order of the universe has crumbled. However, the loss of divine aura has slowed, and the new order is trending toward stability. If a new god is to be born in this world, it will surely strain the new order and harm the mortals. If you are an evil person, then it will surely be a calamity unto all.”

“Therefore, I have sunk the Earth core into the abyss to eliminate the potential danger once and for all.”

“You who inherited my divine power need not obsess over it.”

That was the end of the Heretic God’s final words. When Yun Che withdrew his hand and his profound energy from the slab, the words disappeared like they were never there.

“I have sunk the Earth core into the abyss…” Qianye Ying’er muttered before knitting her brows abruptly. “The Abyss of Nothingness!?”

To sink anything into the Abyss of Nothingness was to return it to nothingness. This meant that Yun Che would never find the Heretic God’s Earth Seed, and that the current universe would never see the Heretic God’s earth powers.

“I see.” Yun Che felt a bit disappointed knowing that the Heretic God’s Earth Seed was forever lost to the world, but he recovered from it in no time.

“You don’t seem too surprised?” Qianye Ying’er shot Yun Che a glance.

Yun Che replied, “Thanks to the Heretic God Profound Veins, I’ve never encountered a bottleneck in my cultivation be it during the Nine Mortal Realms or the Seven Divine Realms. As long as I’ve accumulated enough power, I could easily break to the next realm.”

“However, before the final battle against the Western Divine Region, during the few years Meiyin and I were cultivating inside the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm, I was unable to achieve a breakthrough no matter what despite having reached the peak of Divine Sovereign Realm.”

“In that moment, I had a feeling that the Heretic God had probably set up some sort of special restrictions that prevented his inheritor from ever advancing into the Divine Master Realm… for the same reason just as he had set up the Sixth and Seventh Gates.”

“As it turns out, my guess wasn’t too far from the truth.”

“So, the reason he set up these restrictions is to prevent a power that exceeds the world’s limits from appearing and triggering the collapse of the mortal order?” Qianye Ying’er snorted a little as if she was dissatisfied with the Heretic God’s decision. “He really should’ve named himself the Holy God instead.”

Yun Che rolled his eyes at her. “Nearly everything the Heretic God did during his remaining life was to protect the future generations. Without him, forget the peace we’re enjoying right now, the Primal Chaos itself may have ceased to exist already.”

“...” That Qianye Ying’er couldn’t deny, especially since she knew everything now.

“The loss of divine aura has slowed…” repeated one of the lines on the slab before humming to himself. “It looks like the Primal Chaos was still losing vast amounts of spirit energy long after the gods and devils had perished under Myriad Tribulations. It wasn’t until the Heretic God was about to perish that it finally slowed to a stop.”

“The new law and order of the Primal Chaos became stable as a result, but the extinction of the gods and devils and the loss of all that spirit energy severely lowered the level of this new world, and weakened it considerably. Therefore, a True God can no longer be born in this new world.”

“However, the Heretic God knew exactly how taboo and powerful the Devil God Forbidden Tome he and the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor created together was. If it was cultivated to completion, even a mortal may manifest the realm and power of a god.”

“For a god to appear in this godless, ‘fragile’ world may very well strain the new law and order to their limits. It may even trigger a collapse.”

The calamities that happened across all realms before and after the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor returned, the massive earthquake that shook over half of the Northern Divine Region after he activated God Ash by force at the Burning Moon God Realm, and the terrifying phenomena that took place while the Southern Sea God Realm was firing the Titanic Sea God Cannon...

They all supported the Heretic God’s theory.

“It was out of this consideration that the Heretic God removed one of his seeds permanently.”

It was a comment made out of deep respect and admiration, not regret.

The Earth Seed was a power that had accompanied the Heretic God his whole life.

He would rather his powers be forever incomplete than to leave behind the possibility of a world-ending crisis.

Yun Che looked at his palms and said, “It looks like I’ll never become a Divine Master. That’s fine though. At least now I know that there’s no point looking for the last Heretic God Seed anymore.” [1]

It was a shame that he would never be more than peak Divine Sovereign, but he was already unrivaled in the entire universe due to the Heretic God’s divine power. It wasn’t necessary to get to the Divine Master Realm.

“I have two questions,” Qianye Ying’er said suddenly.

“Hmm?”

“First question. Where did all the spirit energy go? It can’t possibly have seeped out of the Primal Chaos through the Wall, right?”

“...” Yun Che didn’t give her a reply.

The same question had puzzled the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor, and he wasn’t expecting to find the answer any time soon.

“Second question. You said that loss of spirit energy has slowed to a stop, but has it really?” Qianye Ying’er narrowed her eyes. “The Northern Divine Region is still shrinking to this day, you know.”

“Who knows?” Yun Che replied seemingly casually.

However, what flashed through his mind was that strange, indescribable and untraceable feeling he felt every time he entered or exited the God Realm of Absolute Beginning.

…………

After Yun Che and Yun Wuxin left the Brahma Monarch God Realm, they were finally able to explore the Eastern Divine Region properly.

They went to the razed Eternal Heaven God Realm… the broken Star God Realm… Shui Meiyin’s Glazed Light Realm… the half-desert world that was the Shrouding Sky Realm… the Darkya Realm where he met Caizhi for the first time...

As they continued northward, they came closer and closer to the Snow Song Realm.

However, instead of taking Yun Wuxin to the Snow Song Realm when they arrived in the northern space of the Eastern Divine Region, Yun Che made way for the neighboring Flame God Realm instead.

Yun Wuxin’s main profound art was the World Ode of the Phoenix, so of course he wanted her to visit the star realm that bore its inheritance… he especially wanted her to visit the Ancient God Burying Inferno Prison where the phoenix’s remnant spirit used to reside.

Yun Wuxin let out a long cry of astonishment when the Ancient God Burying Inferno Prison that stretched for hundreds of thousands of kilometers finally entered her sight. Yun Che himself became lost in thoughts for a very long time.

This place was very meaningful to him because it was where his relationship with Mu Xuanyin (Chi Wuyao) had changed fundamentally. Every time he recalled that memory, he would laugh at his younger self and especially reflect upon those fantastical moments.

“Father, you’re wearing a very…” it took Yun Wuxin a while to find the gentlest word she could think of, “strange smile on your face.”

“Ahem hem.” Yun Che hurriedly schooled his face into a serious expression before saying, “I was recalling that time I rescued your Auntie Xuanyin when I was just a Divine Origin profound practitioner. You might say that that was my first great act after I stepped into the divine way.”

“...” Yun Wuxin was highly doubtful that was the case considering the absolutely vulgar smile he was wearing a moment ago, but she let it go and said, “Is that how Auntie Xuanyin came to fall in love with you?”

“But of course!” Yun Che declared with his head held high.

Or at least, I think so?

Suddenly, he noticed something and turned his gaze.

While concealing his and Yun Wuxin’s presence with the Hidden Flowing Lightning [2], Yun Che carried Yun Wuxin to the west and said, “Let’s go visit an… old friend.”

To the west of the Ancient God Burying Inferno Prison where a huge crimson barrier lay.

All three Flame God Sect Masters—Yan Wancang, Yan Juehai and Huo Rulie—were present, and standing in front of them was none other than the Flame God Realm King, Huo Poyun himself.  

Something very important must be happening for the four most important persons in the Flame God Realm to gather here.

As Huo Poyun approached the fiery barrier, it seemed to react to his presence and grew increasingly unstable.

An inferno of unbridled fury… this was a barrier forged from the Golden Crow Divine Flames.

“My apologies, but please handle all the happenings of the Flame God Realm while I’m gone.”

Huo Poyun stretched out his hand toward the barrier after saying this.

“Great Realm King, please… please think this over,” Yan Wancang beseeched in a painful but helpless tone. Clearly, they had already tried to dissuade Huo Poyun countless times to no avail.

“Great Realm King, we neither wield the power nor the ability to stop you, but… can you please delay your decision for another three months?” Yan Juehai was begging at this point. “If your determination remains firm after three months, then we will not stop you any longer.”

“I appreciate your persuasion attempts.” Huo Poyun’s long hair danced erratically to the hot wind. Unlike the three dejected sect masters, his expression was calm and determined. “But I have already made up my mind.”

His palm finally touched the barrier.

“Hmm?” In the sky, Yun Che watched the scene in puzzlement… What was Huo Poyun doing?

1. (T/N: Now then, remember the Eternal Heaven Pearl and that seemingly “useless” ability where you speed up time inside it? Wanna bet that it’s used to grow a new Earth Seed to unlock his final powers?)

2. (T/N: low key the Heretic God Art of mortal arts btw, usable even by divine way profound practitioners)