Against the Gods

Million of miles of space were traversed in an instant.

“Waaaah! So this is the inside of the profound ark… it’s so big! It’s even many times bigger than the biggest profound ark in our family!”

Standing at the center of the first layer of the ancient fortress inside the Primordial Profound Ark, Number Seven Under Heaven kept turning her head to look around. Her mouth was wide open, and kept yelling in amazement.

"This is only one of the ancient fortresses in the profound ark; outside of the ancient fortress there is still an incredibly large space… it is absolutely even larger than what you can imagine,” Yun Che said mysteriously. As the master of the Profound Ark, he knew the situation inside of this profound ark at any time. The profound ark had woken up from silence as the power of the Jade of the Nine Suns poured into it, and the law of its world also started to operate. Aside from the ancient fortress, the land that was originally dried up had become luxuriant with countless different kinds of profound beasts wandering around, and there were even more rare flowers and bizarre beasts were growing there.

“With such an enormous profound ark, it is surprising that I can’t even feel any vibration of energy, and I can’t even detect its movement at all.” Number One Under Heaven gasped in admiration, “The world is so large that even things as strange as this treasure actually exists.”

Even though Number One Under Heaven was very impressed and surprised, he didn’t ask Yun Che where it came from, because he understood that it would violate his privacy. But Yun Che said voluntarily, “This profound ark was supposedly passed down from the Primordial Era, and was accidentally acquired by me. It is not a normal profound ark. It has its own world, and it has a unique spiritual consciousness. Now it has identified me as its master, no one would be able to take it away from me… but, I still hope Brother Under Heaven will keep this secret for me. Even though it is impossible for it to be taken away by someone else, if it were targeted by greed, the flies that come and harass from time to time are still very annoying.”

"Haha, Brother Yun don’t worry. You were this honest to me, how could I be a thieving person,” Number One Under Heaven said heartily.

“Big Brother, how long would it take for us to get to Profound Sky Continent?” Xiao Yun asked in excitement.

“Oh, we’re already here,” Yun Che said.

“Huh? We’re already here?” The three of them were all stunned.

“Yeah… We have already arrived by the third breath after we entered the profound ark. We have stopped for a long time already,” Yun Che said calmly… but he was just actually enjoying their exaggerated reactions.

“So… so soon!?” Xiao Yun’s mouth was wide open, and he was even stuttering when he spoke, “Father said that Profound Sky Continent is million miles away from Illusory Demon Realm. Even for dimensional traveling… this speed is too exaggerated! It’s millions of miles!”

“Let’s go out,” Yun Che said. His chest moved up and down slightly: Profound Sky Continent… Blue Wind Nation, I am finally back… No matter what, you all must be safe and sound…

He released his will and scouted the energy consumption of the profound ark, and he was pleasantly surprised by the results. The consumption of the profound ark from instantly traveling through millions of space was less than a fifth! It was a lot less than when he had expected!!

With consumption like this, not to mention going back to Illusory Demon Realm… It should not even be a problem to go back and forth more than ten times!

It was definitely not because Primordial Profound Ark took very little consumption… but it was because the energy of the Jade of the Nine Suns was too enormous! Its capacity absolutely exceeded Yun Che’s knowledge. After all, that was the Divine Jade from the Golden Crow Divine Beast!

Red light shrouded the area, and the view before his eyes changed rapidly. A slightly dry and warm breeze swept by, mixed with dust. There was a vast land and mountains in the surroundings, but the vegetation was withered and all over the place. The trees that could be seen occasionally were all broken and lay fallen on the ground. The air was filled with heavy desolation and solitude.

Yun Che, “...”

“Here… are we in the Profound Sky Continent already?” Number Seven Under Heaven looked around, but there wasn’t anyone in the area; there didn’t even seem to be any trace of profound beasts.

“Seems like we have arrived to a very desolated place,” Xiao Yun was also sizing up the surrounding.

“The density of elements is very weak, so the profound energy level here should be very low.” Number One Under Heaven locked his eyebrows and said, “Brother Yun, is this the ‘Blue Wind Nation’ you were speaking of?”

“...It should be.” Yun Che’s eyebrows knit slightly. He looked at the surrounding, turned to Number One Under Heaven and Number Seven Under Heaven and said, “I am also not sure where this is in Blue Wind Nation. But… Brother Under Heaven, Seventh Sister, do you have any way that you can hide your elf ears and wings? Even though Profound Sky Continent has records of the Elven Clan, they seemed to have not appeared for more than thousand of years.”

Number One Under Heaven immediately understood Yun Che, nodded and said, “Not a problem.”

He circulated his profound energy, his transparent, delicate wings immediately folded and hid among his clothes. His pointy, long ears were shrouded by a green light, when the green light disappeared, they became like normal human ears… This wasn’t a true transformation, but it was a cover under profound energy. Without a profound energy higher than his and close inspection while focusing one’s mind, it usually wouldn’t be noticed.

Number Seven Under Heaven also used the same method to cover her delicate wings and her ears.

“Big Brother, your expression… seem very serious. Is there… a problem?” Xiao Yun asked in a probing manner. Recently, the thing that Yun Che looked forward the most was to return to Profound Sky Continent. When they were in the profound ark, he was able to feel the exciting emotion coming from Yun Che very clearly. Now that they were on the land of Profound Sky Continent, he should be so excited that he should be beaming with delight… but now, he had his eyebrows locked tightly, and there was no trace of joy on his face.

Yun Che looked ahead, his eyebrows moved and said, “Nothing… I just feel like there is something. Let me go up and confirm our location.”

When he was done talking, Yun Che jumped up with strength up into the air. Before his body touched the layer of clouds, a large-scale city appeared in his line of sight far in the west. He stopped in the air, looked at the figure of that city, and a name appeared in his mind.

That’s… New Moon City!!

Even though New Moon City was not a large city, it was one of Blue Wind Nation’s main cities. Especially since its location was right in the middle area of Blue Wind Nation's domain; it was the hub of Blue Wind Nation. The flow of visitors every day was very large and extremely lively. It was in the morning now, when there was supposed to be a large amount of people who stayed at New Moon City leaving. From Yun Che’s location, whether it was east, west, south, north of the city, it should have all been filled with the shadows of people…

But glancing at it, he wasn’t able to see any sign of anyone there. Right now, the central city of Blue Wind Nation gave Yun Che a lifeless feeling… and looking from far away, it seemed to be covered within a dim mist.

Based on the location of New Moon City, Yun Che suddenly remembered where the place under his foot was. At first when he left the Floating Cloud City to New Moon City while cultivating on the way, he passed by this place, and had stayed overnight here… but in his memory, this place was supposed to be covered with green grass and trees, filled with life, and inhabited by a lot of low-level profound beasts. But now, it was uncultivated and messy, as if it was burned with a sea of flames and then stomped over by thousands and thousands of soldiers and horses.

What happened?

What exactly happened to New Moon City?

A strong unsettling feeling emerged from the bottom of Yun Che’s heart. He landed quickly, lowered his eyebrows and said, “Let’s go! Let us hurry to New Moon City… The situation here doesn’t seem right.”

“Ah, New Moon City?” Xiao Yun was just about to ask when Number Seven Under Heaven dragged him and said, “Don’t ask too much now, let’s hurry first!!”

They all saw Yun Che’s unusual expression. Even when he was facing the force of Duke Huai Palace single-handedly, he was in high spirits and laughed uproariously… But Yun Che’s expression now was so dark that it was scary. Once Yun Che finished speaking, he hurried towards the west, and the three of them followed immediately.

“The land here seemed to have suffered a large-scale destruction. And the atmosphere here seems to be to desolated.” Number One Under Heaven said calmly, “Brother Yun, is the New Moon City that you mentioned earlier your birth place?”

“No.” Yun Che locked his eyebrows tightly, and his flying speed was getting faster, “The time that I spent in New Moon City wasn’t long, but that was the place that changed my destiny. It is one of the most lively cities in Blue Wind Nation, aside from the imperial city. But now the feeling that it gives is lifeless. The place that we are at now was definitely not like this back then… What exactly happened here!”

Yun Che gnashed his teeth slightly, and tried not to make guesses that grew increasingly scarier. At this moment, he suddenly felt a wave of a weak profound energy from a few miles away in front of him. His eyes flickered, his speed decreased, and flew towards the location of the wave of the profound energy.

A few giant rocks that were as tall as a human appeared in his line of sight. Behind the shattered rocks, were seventeen auras of profound energy with different levels in strength. The strongest aura was at the seventh level of the Spirit Profound Realm, and the weakest one had just entered the True Profound Realm. They hid behind the giant rocks and tried really hard to suppress their aura… but how could they hide it from Yun Che’s spiritual sense?

Yun Che slowed down and approached the giant rock. When he was about ten steps away, a person in grayish-white clothes suddenly charged out from behind the giant rock. His profound energy exploded all over his body, and charged towards Yun Che holding a shimmering long sword while yelled in a tone filled with hatred, “Traitorous dog of Divine Phoenix, meet your death!!”

The person who rushed out first was the strongest of these seventeen people. But his profound energy was only at the seventh level of the Spirit Profound Realm, how could he be a threat to Yun Che. Yun Che didn’t move, and waved his palm at the person attacking him… but it was also at this moment when he saw the person’s face clearly. His expression changed, tried really hard to retrieve the profound energy that he had released, and at the same time he reached out his other arm to block Number One Under Heaven who had charged towards them, “Don’t attack!!”

Even though Yun Che’s palm only swung out in a casual manner and he had reduced over ninety percent of his profound energy, his profound energy now was overbearing. An attack that was not even worth mentioning to him was absolutely not an attack that the person on the other side could bear. The longsword in his hand instantly cracked and dropped from his hand, and his whole body flipped and crashed on a huge rock behind him… His face became pale, sat on the floor without moving, and his body was twitching violently from the pain, but the determination and hatred in his eyes did not reduce at all.

“Instructor!!”

“Instructor Sikong!!”

The people who were behind the giant rock waiting for a chance to attack all panicked, gathered beside the person, and checked his injuries anxiously. Yun Che walked forward a few steps, looked at the person who were on the ground from his attack, “Senior Brother… Sikong?”

The person in front of him was very different from in his memory. His dashing long hair was gone, replaced with scattered short hair. The robe on him was not luxurious at all, but it was worn, damaged, and there were light and deep blood stains on it. The face in his memory was bright and clean like a jade… but now it was covered with many scars that were hard to look at… there was even one scar that almost hit his eye.

The expression of his eyes had changed a lot… there was no gentleness in it, but only the vicious look of a desperate wolf.

But his contour… was obviously the person who had helped him when he first entered Blue Wind Profound Palace, and gave him a lot of guidance, Sikong Du!

When he yelled out “Senior Brother Sikong,” that person looked at him as well. At that instant, his body froze up, he couldn’t look away for a long time, and his pupils even enlarged intensely, “Yun… Yun Che?”

The name “Yun Che” made everyone surrounding him looked towards Yun Che with a stunned face.

“Senior Brother Sikong just called him… Yun Che? Which… which Yun Che?”

“He… he looks so much like the Yun Che in the painting in the Profound Palace… no, they look exactly the same!”

“Impossible! Yun Che died three years ago already, how could it be him! Besides, he’s wearing… uh? That seemed to… not be the Phoenix?” A young man looked at the Golden Crow pattern stitched on Yun Che’s chest and mumbled.

Yun Che had just entered the Demon Emperor’s clan, and he was newly wedded for not even a month, so his clothing were mostly printed with the patterns of the Golden Crow and flames. The reason they were ambushed by these people was because… from afar, they vaguely saw the Golden Crow and golden flames on Yun Che’s clothing, and thought it was the pattern of the Phoenix and the Phoenix’s flames.

Yun Che walked in front of Sikong Du quickly and said eagerly, “Senior Brother Sikong, it’s me! You all must have thought that I died three years ago… but I am back alive! Back then in Blue Wind Profound Palace, you were the one who took me to the Sky Weapon Pavilion, and watched me pick my Emperor Profound heavy sword! You were also the one who took me to the Supreme Profound Hall and the Inner Palace… Back then, when I wanted to go to the Burning Heaven Clan, you were also the one who directed me to its location!”

Yun Che’s words made the expression in Sikong Du’s eyes waver intensely. He grabbed Yun Che’s arms abruptly and his whole body was trembling in excitement, “Yun Che… it really is you… You didn’t die… I can’t believe you didn’t die!”

“Yes! I didn’t die!” Yun Che nodded his head heavily, “Senior Brother Sikong, what exactly happened? What happened to New Moon City? Weren’t you the instructor of New Moon Profound Palace? How did you become like this? What happened… tell me quickly!”

This Chapter's Teaser