Against the Gods (Web Novel)

Ding...

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Ding...

The sound of his finger tapping against the jade cup was clearly very soft but for some odd reason, everyone felt as if his finger was pounding on their heartstrings, slowly and repetitively. A heavy and stifling pressure began to build in their chests.

His tapping fingers sounded like a death knell, like the sound of life slipping away.

The great hall fell into a hush as everyone’s eyes grew focused.

The Burning Moon God Emperor’s eyebrows slanted slightly. Yun Che had said those words with an incredible calmness, yet it made him feel an odd sense of danger, especially the words “final hour”. For some odd reason, he felt his heart and soul tensing up involuntarily when he heard those words.

This was undoubtedly his heart and soul warning him of danger… This primal instinct, that screamed when someone was in mortal danger, was something that should be impossible for a god emperor to feel.

In fact, in a world with no Evil Infant or Devil Emperor, nothing in this universe should be able to make a god emperor feel the fear of death.

Furthermore, he was facing a level seven Divine Sovereign… and he was currently surrounded by all of the core pillars of the Burning Moon Realm’s strength.

The look in the Burning Moon God Emperor’s eyes changed. He began to sense that there was something very wrong with this situation… At least, the reason for Yun Che’s sudden lone arrival was radically different from what they had imagined.

“A great gift that you intended to bestow upon the Dragon Monarch?” The Burning Moon God Emperor emphasized the word “bestow” as he spoke. His eyes started to narrow as he said, “Then this king is extremely interested in it.”

“But why do you want to give me this great gift?”

Even though the atmosphere around the Burning Moon God Emperor and his Moon Eaters had clearly changed, the lone Yun Che seemed not to notice at all. His expression was still as cold and calm as ever. He pressed a finger against the table as he said with sunken brows, “Burning Moon God Emperor, you previously said that you really wanted to witness the realm of darkness that lay past the limits of this current world, correct? So, do you believe that this realm of darkness truly exists?”

“No, of course it doesn’t exist.”

Although it was slightly unexpected, the Burning Moon God Emperor did not hesitate at all when he gave his answer. He looked at Yun Che and his god emperor might, which he had been deliberately holding back until now, silently radiated from him. “The realm that exists beyond the limit is the realm of the gods and devils. The Divine Master Realm is the limit living beings of this current era can reach. No matter how hard a person works, no matter how freakish his talent is, he will never be able to become a true god or devil.”

“This is the limit of our race, the limit of the heavenly law, the limit of the Primal Chaos.”

The Burning Moon God Emperor gave a dry chuckle. Everything in this universe seemed so tiny and insignificant under his formless god emperor might. “This king was merely probing the Devil Queen with his words just now. If she had truly transcended the limits, she would not have only come to intimidate us. She would have already swallowed my Burning Moon Realm in a single gulp.

Yun Che raised his head and stared straight at the incredibly haughty and arrogant eyes of the Burning Moon God Emperor. When he spoke, his voice had become as gloomy and dark as a bottomless abyss. “You’re exactly right. You will never ever be able to touch the domain of the ‘gods’, not until the day you die, not even if you could live for ten thousand more generations. Because all of you so-called god emperors are merely mortals in the end.”

“And in front of the power of a True God, you are no more than clay figurines that can be easily swept away.”

The Burning Moon God Emperor’s eyebrows involuntarily twitched. His eyes narrowed into two long slits as he said, “Interesting. Brother Yun is saying something that is truly far too interesting. It can’t be that you’re trying to tell me that you possess a power that will allow you to look down upon this king as if he were a clay figure?”

Yun Che’s lips curved up into an icy grin. “Maybe.”

“Hahahahaha!” The Burning Moon God Emperor started to laugh wildly. Scorn had also entered the Moon Eaters and Burning Moon Divine Envoys’ eyes.

Yun Che did indeed possess the Heretic God’s divine power. He had indeed inherited the power of a devil emperor. He was a unique existence under heaven!

However, his cultivation was still only that of a level seven Divine Sovereign!

Furthermore, the reason he came to the Northern Divine Region in the first place was because he had been chased here by the other three divine regions. He was basically no different from a “defeated dog” who was pathetically fleeing for his life.

If it was not for the fact that he had inherited both the Heretic God divine power and the power of a devil emperor, given his background and circumstances, existences like the Burning Moon God Emperor and his Moon Eaters would not spare him a single glance.

So where did he find the cheek and the shamelessness to utter such a ridiculous joke?

“Heh heh heh heh…” Yun Che also started laughing along with the Burning Moon God Emperor. However, his laughter was incredibly deep and heavy, like the groaning of an evil spirit stuck in a deep and distant abyss.

“The power of the gods is not something this mortal frame can endure. If we were to simply touch it, we would instantly crumble to ash. We would be deader than dead.”

Even in the face of the Burning Moon God Emperor’s laughter, the collective scorn of the people around him and the aura that was gradually pressing down on him, Yun Che slowly spoke in a low voice, “I can’t allow myself to die just yet, so I guess that I have no choice but to sacrifice something else.”

Yun Che slowly extended his hand and rays of multicolored light shone in everyone’s eyes.

The great laughter abruptly came to a halt as everyone’s gaze was drawn to the object in Yun Che’s hand. When they saw what it was, their pupils started to shrink.

That was a wheel that shone with an ephemeral and unworldly light.

The wheel was not even a foot wide. Twelve different lights formed a shimmering ring within it. Four of those twelve lights were exceptionally dense and bright, as if a candle was burning within them.

As he stared at the wheel in Yun Che’s hand, the Burning Moon God Emperor’s eyes grew sharp and focused. Those four abnormally bright clusters of starlight were very small, but with his god emperor might, he instantly felt as if he had fallen into a world of boundless starlight the moment his eyes made contact with them.

“Divine origin power!” The Burning Moon God Emperor yelled in a deep voice.

“That’s right.” Yun Che hefted the wheel in his hand and slowly rose to his feet. His lips curled, revealing bone-white teeth. “It’s called the Star God Wheel.”

A look of deep astonishment flashed past the Burning Moon God Emperor’s face. “The Star God Realm’s divine origin power! Why is it in your hands!?”

A king realm’s strength rested upon that very divine origin power that could never be extinguished or diminished, a divine origin power that could be passed from generation to generation. Thus, the Burning Moon God Emperor instantly recognized the aura radiating from that wheel. It was an aura given off by a divine origin power!

This divine origin power was the most important, core divine artifact of any king realm. It was always in the possession of the god emperor of that king realm; they would not discard it even if they died.

Because if they lost their source of divine origin power, their king realm’s legacy would be cut off! If they could not find it again, their king realm was doomed to collapse!

However, the divine origin power of the Eastern Divine Region’s Star God Realm was actually in Yun Che’s hands and it had now appeared in front of them.

The Star God Wheel was the medium which held the divine origin powers of the Star God Realm’s Twelve Star Gods. This was something that the crippled Star God Emperor Xing Juekong had passed to Yun Che. He had begged Yun Che to pass it to Caizhi, in the hope that it would return to the Star God Realm once more.

He had taken the Star God Wheel from Xing Juekong, but there was no way that Yun Che would follow Xing Juekong’s wishes!

Yun Che did not reply. He slowly raised up the Star God Wheel in front of the astonished eyes of the Burning Moon God Emperor and his Moon Eaters. At this time, those four shining clusters of starlight shot out from the Star God Wheel and slowly flew toward Yun Che.

The bluish-green Heavenly Poison starlight (Heavenly Poison Star God Moon Flower) alighted on Yun Che’s chest.

The grayish-white Heavenly Origin starlight (Heavenly Origin Star God Tumi) alighted on Yun Che’s left shoulder.

The dark bronze Heavenly Strength starlight (Heavenly Strength Star God Shenhu) alighted on Yun Che’s back.

The grayish-golden Heavenly Chief starlight (Star God Emperor Xing Juekong) alighted on Yun Che’s right leg.

The moment those four clusters of light came to rest on Yun Che’s body, these four divine origin powers slowly started to merge with… Yun Che’s own aura.

“!!?” The Burning Moon God Emperor took a sudden step forward. The pupils of his eyes had shrunk into pinpricks and his eyelids were twitching furiously.

As the Burning Moon God Emperor, the person who controlled the devil origin power of the Burning Moon Realm, he should have been one of the people who best understood this sort of ancient origin power.

As the indestructible power left behind by the True Gods, it could be passed down from generation to generation but there was no way to control it or master it. The ones who came to possess this power had to have a compatible bloodline that allowed them to inherit it. But there was a condition that was even more important than that. The divine origin power had to recognize and approve of the person who inherited its power.

That also meant that if the divine origin power of every king realm were to fall into the hands of an outsider, it would be nothing more than useless trash to that person. There was no way that this person could use any of the divine origin power from that king realm.

However, Yun Che was actually controlling the origin power of the Star God Realm and merging it with his own aura!

He was actually merging with four of those origin powers at the same time!

This sort of thing had never appeared in the history of any divine region. It was a bizarre oddity that simply could not appear!

“You… How did you…”

There were far too few things in this world that could strike a god emperor dumb. But this had already happened a few times today. First, it had been the Eternal Calamity of Darkness. Now it was because he saw Yun Che controlling the Star God divine power.

“The Law of Nothingness…” As he was being bathed in the colors of the four different Star God lights, Yun Che’s eyes began to shine with four different colors. “This is also something that… you will not ever be able to touch even if you had ten thousand more generations to live. A domain that you’re not qualified to reach.”

The faint sense of danger that had assailed him suddenly grew much greater and profound energy began vibrating around the Burning Moon God Emperor’s body.

The Twelve Moon Eaters got to their feet, their bodies wound as tight as a spring, profound energy leaking from their bodies.

He clearly only had the aura of a level seven Divine Sovereign, he was clearly by himself… However, an icy-cold sense of danger fiercely assaulted their hearts and their souls.

The Burning Moon God Emperor suddenly raised a hand and Fen Hehuang, who was the closest to Yun Che, was moved far away from him. He took a step forward, his eyebrows tightly knitted together, “What… exactly are you planning on doing!?”

He could clearly sense the faint trembling in his own words.

Yes, he was afraid… It was an instinctive and primal fear that exceeded his own will!

What was going on? Why was he feeling such terror!?

Yun Che slowly raised both arms as the Burning Moon God Emperor's slightly twisted face was reflected in his eyes. “This is still the origin power of a True God after all, if I extinguish them to activate this ability, I should be able to hold on for a few breaths...”

“Although it’s a bit of waste…”

“YOU… DESERVE… TO DIE!!”

The Burning Moon God Emperor’s pupils shrank even further as he gave an explosive yell, “Capture him!!”

Everyone’s nerves had been wound taut as they watched the events unfold before them and the Burning Moon God Emperor’s furious yell snapped them out of their trance. The Twelve Moon Eaters took action at nearly the exact same instant as they rushed toward Yun Che in unison.

There was no fear on Yun Che’s face. For a single instant… a sinister smile that was more dreadful and cruel than an actual demon’s appeared on his face.

He spread his arms wide and the moment he tilted his head backwards, he let out a hoarse and blood-curdling scream with all of his might!

“UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!”

BOOOM————

An incredibly deep and muffled explosion rang out in the world of Yun Che’s profound veins. The Heretic God’s Profound Veins explosively swelled up in a single instant, and the energy within them went into such a violent frenzy that it seemed like millions of universe-destroying storms were wildly rampaging within his veins.

The First Gate, Heretic Soul… The Second Gate, Burning Heart… The Third Gate, Purgatory… The Fourth Gate, Rumbling Heaven… The Fifth Gate, Hell Monarch...

All of them opened in the same instant...

And this was followed by the opening of that forbidden...

Sixth Gate!

Blood-colored profound light exploded violently from Yun Che’s body. His hair rose above his head, dyed in the dense color of blood, and all of the clothes on his body were ripped to shreds.

When that peerlessly dreadful energy wave battered them, the Moon Eaters that were rushing toward Yun Che… all twelve of them, felt as if their bodies had been smashed by a gigantic hammer. All of them let out cries of misery as they plummeted down like falling stars...

Twelve startling and garish arrows of bright blood trailed behind them before they were completely destroyed in the next instant.

In a single instant, all twelve Moon Eaters had been injured by a mere energy wave that had exploded out of Yun Che’s body!

Even though everyone watched this scene unfold before their very eyes, they could scarcely believe the terrifying reality of the situation.

Rumble!!

The Burning Moon Main Hall, a structure that was supported by dozens of strong profound formations, a building that had not even been scratched when Divine Masters were dueling within it… collapsed with an explosive boom.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

The shrill scream that ripped from Yun Che’s throat eradicated all the other sounds in the world. Countless blood-red marks spread across his body and covered every inch of his skin. It even covered his eyes and spread into the distorted space around him.

The four Star God origin powers within his body released ten times... a hundred times... a thousand times more starlight than they had before! However, these wildly shining star god lights were filled with sadness and despair, as if they were struggling to live before death.

RUMBLEEEEE...

Burning Moon Royal City was shaking… the enormous Burning Moon Realm itself was shaking… the vast star region that housed the Burning Moon Realm was shaking… This dim and dark star region was instantly swathed in a boundless sea of black clouds.

Crack!

Lightning fell like rain and the dome of the heavens trembled… This was the terrified shaking of the heavenly laws themselves.

The Evil Infant had reappeared in this world using its own strength.

Jie Yuan’s return had been due to an aberration that had occurred outside of the Primal Chaos.

However...

In this world that had lost its gods a long time ago, a world that should no longer have any gods at all, something incredible was happening. At this very moment, in a king realm in the Northern Divine Region known as the Burning Moon Realm...

A power that reached the domain of the gods was born!