Against the Gods

“Who are you? And where are you?”

Yun Che stopped in his tracks and began to shout in all directions. The voice that had just appeared had sounded like it was right next to his ear.

The space within the Primordial Profound Ark would only begin to vibrate violently if the Primordial Profound Ark was going to employ its energy field within the hour. Seeing that the space within the Ark was completely still, Yun Che was not in a hurry to leave. During these past six months, he had always wanted to figure out the origins of this incessant voice which only he could hear.

Just like always, it would take very long for him to receive a response once he shouted those words.

Yun Che’s gaze began to sweep across all four corners … Just now, he could clearly hear that the voice had originated from a location very near to his own. And the true voice would weaken as the distance grew greater; spirit sound transmission functioned in the same way. He could almost confirm that the origins of the voice was no further than ten steps from where he was right now.

Yun Che slowly walked to the middle of the stage, his eyes meticulously scanning every corner of the area. At this moment, a weak red light flashed across the corner of his eyes. His gaze froze and landed at portion where the stage leaned against the end of the wall. Yun Che had observed this speck of red light from the first day he had entered the Profound Primordial Ark, and he had even found where the light came from, but at that time, he didn’t have the ability to blast the floor open. Thus, he had to shelve his curiosity and amazement regarding the red light, and even though he had a faint feeling that there was a hidden space underneath the floor, there was nothing he could do to find out at the time.

Yun Che walked over and stood at the location which he had located just now. He bent down and he observed a tiny fissure at his feet. A sliver of red light was pulsing up from the ground through that fissure, the pulses coming intermittently.

Yun Che took a deep breath, and focused profound energy within his fist, and threw a punch towards the tiles at his feet.

Bang!!

Yun Che’s fist was sent flying away, but the feedback Yun Che received from the feel and the sound of that blow proved that the stone tiles were not thick… or at least it was much thinner than the stone door he had used half a year to blast open. He stopped hesitating, sat down and began to concentrate. In the left hand Frozen End energy, in the right Phoenix flames… Yun Che had been repeating the process of fusing both energies near constantly for the last half a year, so the entire process of guiding and controlling the energies came extremely naturally to him.

A short while later, Frozen End and Phoenix flames had merged in Yun Che’s hands to form a blossom of gently swaying icy-blue flames. Yun Che flipped his hands over, allowing the ice flames to gently float downwards and fall on the stone tiles.

To Yun Che’s surprise, the stone tiles below his feet were much thinner than expected. In fact it seemed to be have the thickness of a single sheet of paper. Once the ice flames had fallen on the tiles, the tiles vanished like swiftly melting ice. The ice flames spread and carved out a perfectly round hole that was about a foot wide before extinguishing themselves.

As he gazed into the hole created by the ice flames, Yun Che saw that there was indeed a hidden space underneath, and in the middle of this space, a red light swayed and flickered.

What was hidden beneath here?

Did this mean that voice had been transmitted from this place all along.

A foot-wide gap was just big enough for Yun Che to jump into.

Yun Che hesitated for while but decided to take the plunge after all, and he jumped straight into the gap.

The hidden space beneath the platform was not deep, Yun Che had only descended twenty feet or so before his feet touched the icy, hard surface. There were no dangerous presences that he could sense in his near vicinity, but Yun Che’s nerves became pinched when he directed his gaze forward.

This area was not big, it was not even wider than thirty meters. The space was completely empty and clean, save for the middle of the area, where a ball of red light stood.

The ball was about Yun Che’s height; it appeared to be uniformly round, and the red light it released would wax and wane, but the light was generally gentle and did not contain any attacking power.

This was….

Yun Che strode over to stand directly in front of the ball of light. The red light was not intense, yet it was very thick, and it prevented Yun Che was from seeing past it. But his instincts told him that there was definitely something cocooned within this red light.

What exactly was it?

The Profound Primordial Ark had existed for an extremely long time; using Jasmine’s own words, it was to the extent that “it was ancient beyond your imagination”. Despite having existed since ancient times, this ball of light was still able to emit this red light. This was demonstrated just how unusual it was.

Yun Che extended his arm, experimentally reaching towards the ball of light.

“Do not touch it!”

Jasmine’s voice resounded in his head, and caused him to stop his action hurriedly. He retracted his hand swiftly, and his body retreated with the speed of a lightning bolt.

“Hmph, attempting to touch this thing before you have even figured out your current circumstances. Do you want to die?” Jasmine snorted coldly.

“What exactly is this ball of light?” Yun Che asked. A ball of light that had endured for countless eons; what it contained was surely a power beyond his comprehension. His attempt to touch it with his hand had indeed been risky.

“This is not some ball of light, it is an extremely strong protective barrier.” Jasmine said in a heavy tone, “It may look like it has no ability to attack, but if you had dared to touch it, it would have immediately launched a counterattack… and its weakest counterattack would have been enough to kill you tens of thousands of times over.”

For Jasmine to use the words ‘extremely strong’ as a descriptor sufficiently demonstrated how terrifying this red ball of light really was. And Jasmine’s words that “its weakest counterattack would have been enough to kill you tens of thousands of times over.” was definitely not overstated in the least. Yun Che’s heart skipped a beat and he retreated yet another few steps.

“ You… have… finally… come….”

A voice as light as smoke slowly resounded in this area. This time, it was not a spirit sound transmission, but a real voice. Moreover, it was a voice belonging to a woman. This time even Jasmine could hear this voice clearly.

The voice seemed even nearer than it was before, it was almost as if it came from directly in front of Yun Che. Yun Che turned his head swiftly to scan all four directions, cautiously asking: ”Who exactly are you?”

As Yun Che’s voice fell, a dim white shadow slowly emerged from the side of the ball of red light… it was the silhouette of a woman dressed in white. Her body was small and slightly bent and half her hair was white as well. All of this indicated that this was an elder who had long ago stepped into her twilight years.

“You… you are? Yun Che said unwittingly as he startled. The silhouette of the elderly lady in front of him seemed blurry. It was blurry to the point that it seemed like a floating column of white smoke that could be blown away by a gust of wind.

From the day he had entered the Primordial Profound Ark, Jasmine had told him that the entity that had called out to him could indeed be a spirit… a spirit body which was exactly the same as Jasmine. But Jasmine’s spirit body could be seen by the naked eye, and it looked no different from that of a real girl’s body. And because she was connected to him, he could even touch her, and it felt no different from touching a real body. But the spirit in front of his eyes was formless and wavering, seeming like a candle in the wind.

“I am a guardian… I am guarding my little mistress…” The old lady said in a light but extremely ancient sounding voice. If she was using spirit sound transmission, it could only be used once in a long time but now that she was talking face to face, she experienced no such obstacles, “I have always been looking for you…. and I have been looking for you…. for so long … so long….”

“You… have been looking for… me?” Yun Che asked, pointing to himself. After which, he eyed his left hand and continued, “Oh is what you were looking for… the Sky Poison Pearl?”

“Correct… I controlled this profound ark… jumping from dimension to dimension… all for the sake of finding the Sky Poison Pearl….”

“Wait a minute!” Yun Che’s expression revealed utter shock, “The profound ark you mentioned, is this huge profound ark that I am in right now? It is under your control?”

“In the beginning… it was indeed under my control… but… at that time I had also been poisoned with a devilish poison… and every breath would erode my life and very soul… In order to retain my awareness so I could continue to guard my little mistress… I gave up my body and eighty percent of my soul… what is left is only a lingering spirit… who is powerless to pilot this profound ark… but the profound ark followed the memory imprint I had left at the beginning… relentlessly travelling through a set cycle of dimensions… repeating endlessly… each cycle lasting three hundred years … the profound ark’s energy… has been continuously depleting… and now… its energy source… has just about dried up….”

“Thank the heavens for being merciful… before my lingering spirit is extinguished… and before the ark’s destruction… you have finally arrived….”

Yun Che’s mouth gaped open as he quickly digested this old lady’s gentle yet exceedingly shocking words. This incomparably big profound ark, was actually controlled by someone.., and the old lady in front of him, actually had the ability to control such an astonishing profound ark! And the reasons for the profound ark’s appearance in the Profound Sky Continent and the reason for it to appear every three hundred years… was also because of this old lady!

“Her spirit is indeed on the brink of dissipation.” Jasmine said in dull voice laced with pity, “It might happen at any moment… in fact, this will happen within the span of one hundred breaths! To be able to finally find the person she has been looking for just as she was about to disappear… perhaps she doesn’t need to be pitied.”

Within one hundred breaths? Yun Che’s heart was given a jolt and as he gazed at the misty form of the old lady, he asked, “Who exactly are you? And why are you looking for the Sky Poison Pearl… What is it that you want me to do?”

The old lady could not detect any evil intent from Yun Che’s person and this was what comforted her the most. She slowly said, “I am only a guardian… my little mistress.. And my race… has long been forgotten by the world… there is no need to mention them anymore… my little mistress… her body has been inflicted with a terrible devilish poison… within all the realms… only the Sky Poison Pearl can cure her… in order to stem the invasion of this devilish poison… our little mistress was sealed into the Coffin of Eternity…..”

“Coffin of Eternity?”

The old lady’s voice grew more and more ethereal, “Chaotic turmoil… the terrible battle of Gods and Devils… the overturning of the sky… the weeping of the Gods and the Heavens… I brought my little mistress with me into the ark to flee…. The ‘Coffin of Eternity’ sealed her body and soul… allowed her presence to disappear into the chaotic space… and allowed her to escape that heaven-destroying calamity… if one day the Sky Poison Pearl can cleanse the devilish poison from her body… and she can once again awaken… and my bitter life will finally come to a happy end….”

Devilish poison… devilish poison!? The words that had been repeated by the old lady caused Jasmine’s breathing to go wild… because the poison she had been inflicted with was also a kind of devilish poison. And it was the deadliest of all devilish poisons —— Absolute God Slaying Poison! And similarly, only the Sky Poison Pearl could fully cleanse this poison.

The old lady’s voice grew dimmer and dimmer and the contents of her message began growing garbled. She didn’t wish to reveal the status and origins of herself or her ‘little mistress’, but she involuntarily revealed fragments of the previous situation. And it was at this time that her already mist-like form began to grow even thinner.

She was a guardian, and in order to fulfill her duties, she willingly abandoned her body and eighty percent of her soul….. To continuously fulfill her duties as a lingering spirit to the point where she dissipated. How could Yun Che not be moved? He looked at the lump of red light and said. “Your ‘little mistress’ is being protected by the ball of light right? The Sky Poison Pearl is indeed on my person, if it can really help to save your ‘little mistress’, and it will not cause any harm to me, I will do all that I can.”