Against the Gods

Yun Che arrived at Yun Qinghong’s courtyard and saw that he was in front of the arbors which were awash in verdant green. He was sitting on that rather old-fashioned wheelchair, and this wheelchair was being pushed by Yun Xiao. After he saw Yun Che, Yun Xiao hurriedly ran over to welcome him and said in a fervent tone, “Big Brother, for you to wake up so early today, were you disturbed by the noise? Oh right, today is the day of our Yun Family’s Family Competition, and it will start at nine o’clock. Will Big Brother want to go over and take a look later?”

“Of course I want to go have a look, I am very interested in this event. By the way, where is Mother?” Yun Che asked.

“Mother is still in her room.” Yun Xiao replied.

Yun Che nodded his head and said in a mild tone, “Why don’t you go and call for Mother, there are already sounds of fighting coming from the Sacred Cloud Arena, so we should be going over soon. I also have some words I want to tell Father in private.”

After two months of living together, Yun Xiao had practically deified this sworn brother of his within his own heart, so even though he was intensely curious on what Yun Che wanted to tell Yun Qinghong, he did not ask any further as he let go of the wheelchair, “Okay, I’ll go straight away.”

After Yun Xiao left, Yun Che faced forward, took out a small delicate jade tablet, and placed it in front of Yun Qinghong. He said in a whisper, “Father, this is for you.”

“Oh?” Yun Qinghong inclined his head. But after Yun Che opened up his lightly clenched fist and showed that jade tablet that rested within, Yun Qinghong, who was normally as tranquil as water, looked like he had been struck by a bolt of lightning. His eyes instantly widened by several times and he practically grabbed that piece of jade in a fluster. He used both hands to clasp the tiny jade tablet, and felt the presence being emitted by it. His hands began to violently tremble as he stammered, “This… This… This is…”

His head jerked up abruptly, and he gazed straight at Yun Che, “Che’er, this thing… How could it be on your person?! Where did you get it from?!”

Yun Che was not taken aback at all by Yun Qinghong’s violent reaction. If it was anyone else, that person would have completely lost control of their emotions. He calmly told Yun Qinghong, “Father, in less than two hours, the Family Competition will begin. Now is not the time to discuss the origins of this item. If Father can preserve his own position as Patriarch and re-establish your reputation, I will tell you all about its origin, down to the smallest detail.”

Yun Qinghong stared straight at Yun Che, his expression full of unrest. It was only after a long period of time that he finally calmed down and gently nodded his head, “Alright… But when the time comes, you must tell me everything that I wish to know, without withholding anything.”

“I will.” Yun Che nodded his head without hesitation. He looked at Yun Qinghong’s wrist, and asked to confirm, “Father, can the ‘Profound Sealing Buckle’ that you and Mother have, trick everyone?”

“Even though we cannot guarantee that it will be one hundred percent effective, in the eyes of everyone present, I have been a cripple for over twenty years, so they should not deliberately or meticulously examine my current state.” Yun Qinghong replied. “But those years ago, for your mother and I to keep on escaping from our pursuers, the contributions of these two Profound Sealing Buckles cannot be overestimated.”

As Yun Qinghong said this, he pulled on the sleeves of his robe, concealing what he was wearing on his arm.

Today was the day of the Yun Family Competition. Such a huge family event was occurring, but up to this very moment, the courtyard where the family head, Yun Qinghong, was in, was still quiet and lonely, and not even a single junior came to notify them. It could be seen how empty Yun Qinghong’s position of Patriarch was to the rest of the Yun Family. From Yun Che’s expression, Yun Qinghong could tell what he was thinking, so he laughed dully and said, “It doesn’t matter what world it is, profound strength always comes first. Who else would even pay attention to a cripple who is not long for the world, besides his own family and intimate friend. I am cripple, yet I get continue to retain the title of Patriarch for these past twenty odd years. That is solely due to the support of the Mu Family, and even this should be the very limits of what they can do as well.”

“Don’t tell me that they have so easily forgotten who it was that established the Yun Family, and who it was that commanded and guided the Yun Family to the very peak of the Illusory Demon Realm? If not for the bloodline of you Patriarchs, these clan members, could they even possess their current positions and glory?!” Yun Che’s brows sank heavily as he spoke. In the time that he had stayed in the Yun Family, his understanding of the current situation grew all the more clear. All these years, the Yun Family succession has only ever been passed down from the line of the initial Patriarchs. And these initial Patriarchs, in order to eliminate all struggles for succession, six thousand years ago, they set down a rule of sole inheritance through the generations. Each current Patriarch could only have one son, Yun Canghai was the only son and Yun Qinghong was his only son, and at the moment, Yun Qinghong, only had one son as well.

In every generation, the Yun Family Patriarch had been outstanding beyond compare, and it was this line of Patriarchs that allowed the Yun Family to become head of the Twelve Guardian Families; the very same families which shocked and awed the entire Illusory Demon Realm, to the point where they were an otherworldly existence second only to the Illusory Demon Imperial Family for thousands of years.

But now, in Yun Qinghong’s generation, the title of Patriarch had come to such a frivolous and lowly state.

Yun Qinghong shook his head and gave self-deprecatory laugh, “They will not think of these things. What they will pay attention to are only the things that will be beneficial to their own future… This can be said to be the instincts of a human being.”

“In Yun Family’s ten thousand year tradition of inheritance, the succession of the next Patriarch has never been about profound strength; it has always been decided by blood lineage! Every single member of the Yun Family should be extremely clear that even if you have become a cripple, you are still the only person who has the qualification to assume the mantle of Patriarch. But it seems like everyone has subconsciously forgotten this particular point.” Yun Che gave a cold and faint laugh, “Moreover, not only do they disregard your position as Patriarch because of your crippling, they do not even accord you the most basic respect or the slightest bit of importance. Yun Xiao, as the scion of the current Patriarch, is easily bullied by even common disciples within the Yun Family. And in regards to this huge event that is the Family Competition, in this period of two months, not even one person came to you to discuss it… I do not believe that the Yun Family, which was at its peak for so many years, are such a bunch of selfish and immoral people.”

Yun Qinghong gently closed his eyes and replied in an airy voice, “Regarding this competition, there really wasn’t any need to discuss it with me. Because this so-called Family Competition is only a pretense, the real motive is to get this cripple to relinquish his position. Because in one month’s time, it is the Little Demon Empress’ Hundred Year Reign Ceremony and this grand ceremony is certainly not common in the least. It is extremely likely that it will decide the direction that the entire Illusory Demon Realm will move in from now on. And even more than that, it will definitely decide the fates of the Twelve Guardian Families. The fate of the Yun Family especially, hangs in the balance. So at this critical juncture, for them to want to remove my position as Patriarch due to my crippling, can be said to be within reason. At first, I had already silently accepted this inevitable and impending result, but I never thought that I would meet you.”

Yun Qinghong gave a quiet laugh as his face filled up with melancholy.

Once Yun Xiao and Mu Yurou came out, they did not linger much longer. Soon after, Yun Xiao began to push the wheelchair Yun Qinghong was seated on, and the four of them gradually strolled towards the center of the Yun Family household, which was the venue of the Family Competition.

The true center of the Yun Family was where their ancestral monument, which constantly released a purple profound light, was erected. This ancestral monument was more than one hundred meters tall and the names of the Patriarch belonging to every single generation was engraved on its surface. And amongst these names, the most eye-catching one was ‘Yun Canghai, because to the right of this name were two words, ‘Demon King’, engraved in a fiery scarlet color.

Among the all the Patriarchs of the Yun Family, only Yun Canghai was accorded the rare honor of being called ‘Demon King’. And this was not only the personal glory of Yun Canghai alone, it was also the glory of all the generations of the Yun Family. But this glorious light, which caused the rest of the Guardian Families to feel incomparable jealousy and admiration, had descended into darkness at the speed of a falling star.

In front of the ancestral monument was a giant plaza, and this plaza was filled with seats that were spread out over the entire area. And at the heart of these seats, was a hundred meter tall square dias. This was the Sacred Cloud Arena, which the Yun Family used for their internal competitions. By the time Yun Che’s party of four had arrived, there were two young Yun Family disciples currently battling in the Sacred Cloud Arena.

The Family Competition would only officially begin in slightly more than an hour’s time, but there were a few Yun Family disciples who were unable to contain themselves anymore so they had already began to compete with one another.

Yun Che’s party had actually arrived reasonably early. Even though this place was already full of noise and commotion, most of the crowd came from the young disciples. When these young disciples saw Yun Qinghong and his wife, there were some who would come forward and pay their respects, but there were also some who directly moved away or directed their gaze towards the Sacred Cloud Arena, as if they did not see them at all. Yun Che swept his eyes across these Yun Family disciples and took note of their clothes… Basically they were all the children of the the elders in the Yun Family who held real power. They had never experienced glory days of the Yun Family when they were being led by Yun Canghai, and they did not witness how Yun Qinghong’s formidable might in those days had shocked and awed an entire generation of the Illusory Demon Realm’s outstanding heroes. In their eyes, they only saw a crippled individual who held a hollow title, someone who could not even compare to their seniors… and someone who was about to be stripped of the title of Patriarch. So they naturally did not condescend to pay their respects to Yun Qinghong and his wife.

Yun Qinghong had long ago become accustomed to this type of behavior. At this moment, in the Sacred Cloud Arena, two young Yun Family disciples were dueling. Both of them looked to be a match for each other, the sounds of their swords ringing out while purple lightning roiled about. Two orange Profound Handles closely clashed with one another, and endless waves of shouts and heckling rang out from below. Finally, one of the two duelists grabbed an opportunity and used a beam of lightning to strike down the other. This was followed up by the furious advance of the disciple’s Profound Handle as he knocked his opponent off the Sacred Cloud Arena.

The two disciples that were in the arena were young, but amongst the Yun Family disciples of the same age, they were definitely considered excellent. After he had finished watching the both of them compete, Yun Qinghong covertly shook his head as disappointment flashed across his face. He furtively inclined his head and said, “Xiao’er, go up there.”

“Ah?” Yun Xiao was caught off guard but he nodded his head and replied, “Yes!”

After speaking, Yun Xiao jumped up in one crisp movement and as purple light flashed in midair, he landed on the stage, his hand gripping a long sword which had a purple light coiled around it. This was the Emperor Profound sword that Yun Qinghong had bequeathed to him when he was eleven years old —— Galloping Lightning, and from then on he kept using this sword and it never left his side. Combined with the Yun Family core Profound Art ‘Purple Cloud Art’, it could exhibit an enormous amount of power.

“Brother Yun Qiu, please instruct me!” Yun Xiao tightly gripped Galloping Lightning as his gaze focused on his opponent. His expression was grave and sincere as he blocked out all the chaos and noise from his ears. All these years, as he grew up, the pressure of public opinion he had to bear and the suspicious glances thrown his way had only grown heavier and heavier, more and more numerous. But he had silently endured through all of this. For the sake of trying to bring credit to his parents, for the sake of gaining the strength to protect his parents in the future, he desperately trained… Despite not having a Profound Handle, he made up for it with his effort. Despite not having any resources, he compensated with even more effort.

The result of this was half-step Overlord at the tender age of twenty-two! Among the people his age, even though all the opponents he faced were Yun Family disciples who were innately born with a Profound Handle, he was still among the best. And no one knew how much effort and hardship he had put himself through.

All this time, he had always had his parents’ safety at heart, so he was never willing to compete with anyone. Even if he was bullied and humiliated, he merely endured and swallowed his own words, but today… It was time for him to finally showcase himself before his parents and before everyone else.

Seeing that the person who had suddenly jumped onto the stage and issued a challenge was Yun Xiao, Yun Qiu was taken by surprise. Because normally Yun Xiao would keep such a low-profile that he was no different from dust, and he had never appeared at competition before. His face immediately started to grow grave. Even though Yun Xiao was younger than him and he did not have a Profound Handle, he had heard that Yun Xiao was already half a step into the Tyrant Profound Realm. Moreover, he, like many other Yun Family disciples, had secretly mocked Yun Xiao numerous times regarding the matter of his blood lineage. So if he was defeated in public by someone who, not only did not have a profound handle, but was also universally mocked as well, it would be something that he would find hard to live down.

He immediately let out a low cry and tried to grab the initiative to draw first blood. His arm flashed and a chain of lightning flew out from his sword. At the same time, his Profound Handle materialized as a yellow-colored sharp sword which descended sharply through the air to pierce straight through Yun Xiao.

Yun Xiao’s expression never wavered. The tip of his sword thrust forward and a similar chain of lightning flew through the air. But the chain of lightning which he released was exceptionally solid and concentrated, and it looked like an actual chain. Its surface even released a dense, sparkling purple light. The entire chain looked like it was made of purple crystals.

Just from looking at that chain of lightning alone, anyone could tell with a glance who had a better grasp of the Purple Cloud Art!

Two lightning chains entangled with one another, but within the span of a few breaths, Yun Qiu’s lightning chain broke with a snap. Yun Xiao did not take the opportunity to attack Yun Qiu with his lightning chain. Instead, it soared into the sky and smashed into the Profound Handle with an explosive roar, blasting the Profound Handle far away, after which, it simply disappeared in midair.

Yun Qinghong slowly nodded his head and he wore a quiet smile on his face that displayed his happiness.

Yun Qiu staggered back and forth for a few moments before he plopped to the ground on his buttocks while falling into a daze. His profound strength was not up to par with Yun Xiao’s but it was not far off either. So he had originally believed that, with the advantage of his Profound Handle, he would definitely not be easily defeated. He never expected that the Yun Xiao, who was always timid and cautious, who never dared to offend anyone and was perceived as somewhat cowardly, had cultivated his profound strength and the Purple Cloud Art to such a deep level. In the span of a few breaths, he had been completely suppressed and wiped all over the floor.