Against the Gods

The blood red word slowly spread out on her white dress. It looked terribly grim and mournful.

Xia Qingyue moved her head down slightly and glanced at the bloody word in silence. When she looked away, there still wasn’t a bit of emotion in her eyes. There might never be any reciprocative, unconscious, or uncertain warmth in her eyes ever again.

The word and the bloody hatred within it pierced through everyone’s heart and soul like a poisoned blade...

This man had the unparalleled halo of the messiah in the God Realm, but he had chosen to return to the lower realms with the Evil Infant instead.

He came to the Blue Pole Star despite knowing that there was a near one hundred percent chance he would die. It showed just how important his family was to him… far more important than even his own life.

But Xia Qingyue had annihilated everything right in front of him.

They weren’t Yun Che, but even they could feel the terrible cruelty and suffocation of the act. It was impossible to gauge just how much Yun Che hated Xia Qingyue right now… even though no amount of hatred would be able to reverse time.

The spatial storm slowly subsided. This time, what hit them wasn’t the dust of a crumbling planet, but the chaotic aura of blood and despair.

They were the blood of countless murdered lives, and the sorrowful souls  that hadn’t yet dissipated completely… Everyone had fallen silent for a very long amount of time, and even the god emperors were feeling different degrees of discomfort.

The destruction of an entire planet was a debt of blood that was too big for description… The death toll alone was counted in the trillions.

“Very good.” She stared expressionlessly at Yun Che. “With this, the bond is fully severed.”

    ……

“Have you forgotten, Yun Che? We were already…”

“Going to bring up our torn marriage contract again, aren’t you? I’m telling you it’s useless! Our marriage record is still preserved nicely at Floating Cloud City, and our wedding witnesses are alive and well.”

“According to the laws of Floating Cloud City, you and I are husband and wife unless I’ve divorced you, or if you bring proof of my failure to fulfill my husbandly responsibilities to the court and sit through a convoluted marriage cancellation process! Otherwise, we’ll always be husband and wife! You think tearing up a marriage contract counts as an official cancellation of marriage? Hmph! The new god emperor of the Moon God Realm is so childish.”

    ……

Just two months ago, Yun Che had arched his eyebrows, curled his lips and reminded her about the rules of Floating Cloud City in an admonishing tone… He had told her that the city’s rules should be followed because it was there that they were married, and that the torn the marriage contract didn’t matter. She would always be his wife unless he initiated the divorce.

She hadn’t forgotten about it. He hadn’t forgotten about it either.

Yun Che closed his eyes and stopped talking after that. The world was icy, dark, and dead… He had saved the world. Jasmine had also saved the world. But the same people had turned on them, driving Jasmine out of the Primal Chaos in the name of punishing the Evil Infant, and cornering him into a dead end in the name of punishing a devil person. 

The one who triggered everything was the god emperor he respected and trusted the most, the Eternal Heaven God Emperor. The one who cruelly destroyed everything he had was the one person he was the least guarded against; the woman he had always been most appreciative and grateful for, Qingyue.

Heh...

“Answer me, Yun Che. Do you think that this world is worth my sacrifice...”

“Do you think that this world is worth my sacrifice…”

“Is this world worth my sacrifice…”

Jie Yuan’s words kept reverberating chaotically inside his head… and he could no longer recall his own answer.

“Wuji, please retreat for the moment.”

“Yes.” Yue Wuji backed far, far away, leaving Yun Che and Xia Qingyue alone.

The sword surrounded by purple energy slowly descended towards Yun Che. A single touch could wipe him out in an instant. However, not even its rich purple glow could wash away the deathly grayness of Yun Che’s complexion. Neither hatred nor anger could be felt from him. It was almost like he was a dead person.

Everyone had something they valued the most. It could be power, strength, love, wealth, life, and so on. The man beneath the Purple Pylon Divine Sword hadn’t just lost the most precious thing in his life… he had lost everything he had ever valued.

It was all too ironic and cruel. It was enough to destroy even the most tenacious will. Perhaps death was the best release for Yun Che right now. Living… would be like living in eternal darkness.

“This king supposes that there’s no harm in telling you one thing before you die.”

Xia Qingyue said slowly, “This king told you yesterday that there was something she needed to speak to you about when the time was right, but… it would appear that such a time will never come. In that case, she may as well tell you about it now.”

She leaned forward slightly and lowered her voice until Yun Che was the only one who could hear her. “Shen Xi… is dead.”

“...” Yun Che’s grayish pupils trembled slightly.

“Some time ago, this king went to the Dragon God Realm and discovered that the Forbidden Land of Samsara was completely destroyed. All the plants are dead, no one is around, and its spirit energy is completely spent,” Xia Qingyue said at a volume only Yun Che could hear. “Later on, this king went to the center of the Forbidden Land of Samsara and found a pool of blood in the middle. Although a long time had passed, the blood showed no signs of drying at all… it’s because it had pure light aura in it.”

“Can you guess whose blood it was?”

Yun Che, “...”

“You knew a long time ago that something must have happened to her, but you never really worried because you thought that there was no one in the world who could hurt her. As for the one who could, you thought that they were the last person in the world who would hurt her. In reality though… you had completely underestimated how low a person can stoop!”

“You are far more experienced than your peers, and you thought you had figured out humanity after all the years you spent in the lower realms. But that isn’t true, is it? Did you forget that you have only lived for decades at most, while these people have lived for millennia, if not tens of millennia?... Do you really think you’ve seen all their faces? Do you really think you figured out the God Realm’s laws of survival!?”

“...” Yun Che didn’t react to her words at all.

Xia Qingyue finally stopped talking and projected an aura of disdain. “Will you turn into a crying wraith, or a vengeful devil god in the hell of afterlife?... This king very much looks forward to that day. Now… die!”

The Purple Pylon Divine Sword finally dropped toward Yun Che… Last time, the enthralled Qianye Ying’er had interfered with her execution attempt. This time though, absolutely no one could stop her any longer. With this swing, Yun Che would vanish completely from this world, and with it the world’s memory of him.

But...

Once again, something had happened during the last possible moment. A cold, blue glint accompanied by a terrible killing intent appeared out of nowhere and moved straight for Xia Qingyue’s throat.

This murderous chill had been suppressed for far too long. All the space thousands of kilometers away from it was instantly frozen.

All thirteen god emperors of the three divine regions were present, but no one had seen this coming.

Shocked, Xia Qingyue instantly backed off from the attacker and flung Yun Che away to the back.

Everyone watching from the sidelines was shocked by this unexpected turn of events. The icy glint had come from a flawless, white sword covered in a bluish glow, and it was wielded by a blue-haired woman who looked like an ice fairy from a dream.

Everyone’s eyes focused on her at the same time… they had never seen such a cold pair of eyes, cold enough to freeze the entire world into a frozen hell.

“Snow Song… Realm King!” the Eternal Heaven God Emperor blurted.

Literally everyone was wearing an expression of shock on their faces. Even the god emperors were no exception!

That attack from space had been less than sixty meters away from Xia Qingyue… and yet not one of them had noticed it until it was already too late!

They might not be at their most attentive because Yun Che was completely harmless to them, but there were thirteen god emperors, dozens of Brahma Kings and Guardians, and hundreds of higher realm kings present in the area, and not one of them had noticed the assassin hiding just sixty meters away from Xia Qingyue!

It was simply unbelievable!

Moreover, that attack had been aimed at the throat. Had Xia Qingyue been anyone else, had it been a weaker Divine Master, the attack would’ve critically wounded the target or even killed them outright.

Xia Qingyue looked at the icy blue figure after she had dodged out of harm’s way… but she could no longer see any trust or peace in those icy eyes. There was only coldness and hatred.

The attacker was none other than Mu Xuanyin herself!

Yun Che was thrown far into the distance. His colorless pupils regained their focus almost immediately when the familiar figure became reflected in his pupils. In that moment, he felt like he had fallen deeper into the dreamscape as he cried out in a daze, “Mas…ter…?”

Sploosh!!

Hair dancing, Mu Xuanyin pointed the Snow Princess Sword toward the front and summoned the image of an ice phoenix. It looked solid enough to be real, but it exploded immediately and froze everything within several million kilometers into an icy hell.

The stunned crowd was shocked yet again by the display of power. Everyone knew that the Blue Dragon Emperor of the Western Divine Region was the strongest water profound practitioner, so her shock was the greatest out of everyone else present. She blurted without thinking, “Since when did the God Realm have someone like her!?”

It was clearly at the level of god emperors!

The power of ice no less!

“The Eastern Divine Region’s Snow Song Realm King… I can’t believe that the rumors are actually true.” Beside her, the Qilin Emperor was just as surprised.

Meanwhile, the Eternal Heaven God Emperor did a double take after crying out the title “Snow Song Realm King”. Dashing madly towards Mu Xuanyin, he sealed the space where Mu Xuanyin and Yun Che were while shouting, “Yun Che has a Void Illusory Stone!”

His shout instantly brought all the god emperors back to the present. Five god emperor auras erupted in unison and shattered the space of this area immediately.

At the front, the Eternal Heaven God Emperor charged toward Yun Che instead of bothering with Mu Xuanyin. The distance between him and Yun Che was instantly shortened.

Yun Che might possess the body of the Dragon God, but even he would be crushed if the Eternal Heaven God Emperor managed to catch him with his power.

On the other side, the Brahma Heaven God Emperor moved almost immediately after the Eternal Heaven God Emperor. However, he was charging toward Mu Xuanyin.

Who in the world could bear the might of two god emperors at once?

Xia Qingyue stayed where she was without moving a muscle.

This made it twice that she was interrupted at the last moment before she could kill Yun Che.

Qianye Ying’er had interrupted her the first time, and Mu Xuanyin the second. Both times something completely unexpected had foiled her execution attempts without being detected by the god emperors.

“Is this fate?” She looked at her sword covered in purple aura and let out a sigh.