Against the Gods (Web Novel)

“Why are you resisting the enforcers? Emperor Yun is the savior of the universe, and the enforcers are directly subordinate to Emperor Yun himself! Only they can enforce a region’s order and protect a realm’s peace!”

“You are the ones who are confused and brainwashed by Emperor Yun! He is a devil person, the vilest of them all! He has killed so many people, massacred so many star realms, and exterminated so many clans for the sake of revenge, and now he’s creating these so-called enforcers to control the rest of us! Are you seriously going to defend a tyrant!?”

“Exactly! All these disasters only happened because Emperor Yun was dealt the worst betrayal imaginable in the universe! Did you not see how ugly those king realms he destroyed truly were? Are you going to deny the fact that he saved the Primal Chaos?”

“So you’re saying that he can kill innocents because it’s part of his revenge? He can kill whoever he wants because he saved the universe?”

“There are many star realms who strongly rejected the enforcers at the beginning, but can you name even one who hasn’t submitted to their rule yet? You’re the one who’s being stubborn here! If you’re really so righteous, then I dare you to repeat everything you just said before an enforcer!”

“I… dare not, but I am righteous! No matter how powerful Emperor Yun becomes, I will never allow him to distort my beliefs! There exists karma and retribution in this world. One day, a hero will slay the leader of the devil people and free the three divine regions from their filthy darkness! When that day comes, all of you will be judged as sinners!”

……

This fierce argument had happened between two disciples of the same sect. It had taken place in a middle star realm on the edge of the Southern Divine Region.

This wasn’t the first time Yun Wuxin had witnessed something like this. Her father had a lot of supporters, worshippers and reverers, but the opposite was equally true.

This time, something about the disciple’s argument triggered her and caused her to clench her teeth in anger. “How dare he curse my father! What a vile person!”

Yun Che simply smiled and asked her, “You’ve experienced many things in your journey already, Wuxin. By this world’s standards, do you think I’m a good or bad person?”

Yun Wuxin replied without thinking, “Of course you’re a good person! If it wasn’t for you, this universe would’ve turned into a true hell. All these people who call you a monster are just rotten, pretentious hypocrites who love to lord over others with their faulty logic! If they went through everything you did, they would’ve done much worse! Hmph!”

Still fuming, she glared at the disciple who cursed her father to be slain by a “hero” and said, “If it was me, I… I… I would press his face into the ground for a wash for ten days and nights!”

“Hahahaha!” Yun Che couldn’t help but laugh at Yun Wuxin’s utter inability to be ruthless.

“Aren’t you angry at all, father?” asked Yun Wuxin while puffing out her cheeks.

“Angry? With him?” Yun Che shook his head wryly. “If I were to appear before him right here and now, his knees would buckle, his so-called beliefs would evaporate into nothing, and he might even soil his pants out of sheer terror. If I wished for him to die, I wouldn’t even need to raise a hand or say a word. He could be the sect master’s own son, and his sect would still kill him before groveling at my feet for forgiveness.”

“I would be quite the unsightly great emperor if I allowed such a man to affect me in any way.”

As Yun Wuxin listened to her father’s reply, her anger slowly gave way to thoughtfulness.

“Free speech is free, but it takes real qualifications to assess anything.” Yun Che continued, “There is no such thing as absolute good or evil in this world. They are what they are because someone defined them, and in this universe, there is only one person who can define me as good or evil.”

Yun Wuxin waited patiently and curiously for her father to continue.

“Myself.”

Yun Che declared calmly and evenly.

“If you call yourself good, then you are good? If you call yourself bad, then you are bad?” Yun Wuxin clarified.

“Correct!” Yun Che inclined his head.

“And that’s because…” Yun Wuxin thought for a moment before answering haltingly but understandingly, “… you are the highest authority of them all? You are the victor who defeated everyone and everything?”

“Mn.” Yun Che nodded again. “When the Dragon God Realm was still the sovereign realm, the Dragon Monarch’s order was the mandate of heaven, the Dragon God Realm’s will was the will of heaven itself. All of the God Realm revered, yearned for, worshiped, and praised them for who they were.”

“But today, the Dragon God Realm is known as the Sinned Dragon Realm. Thanks to your Auntie Wuyao machinations, the once untouchable Dragon Monarch and Dragon Gods are reviled and looked down upon, and the crippled descendants of the Dragon Gods are treated with pity and indifference.”

“You would think that this is an impossible transition or at least one that will take a long time to accomplish, but the reality is that it happened in just a couple of years.”

Yun Che lifted his right hand. It was clean, white, and perfectly unblemished. It had also been a while since it was last stained by blood.

“In this world, no one has the right to define me as good or evil, but I have the right to define anyone in the world as anything.”

“The strong control everything, and the weak don’t even have the right to decide their own fate. It’s no profound truth. It is just the most basic rule of survival no matter what world or plane a person hails from.”

Her father’s words entered her ears and nestled inside her heart. When she looked at that disciple who so dared to criticize her father, she no longer felt even a shred of anger toward him.

“Do you want me to work harder and become someone who can control their own fate, father? Someone who cannot be defined by others as good or evil?” Yun Wuxin asked.

“No.” But Yun Che shook his head and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You do not need to, for you are my daughter.”

“If you wish to strive to become a powerful person, I will cheer for you and provide you with any help you need. If you simply want to become an ordinary person and lead a normal life, I will cheer for you all the same.”

Yun Wuxin: “…”

“I have had enough pain, loss, terror, loss of control and more to last many lifetimes. The reason I crawled to a peak I don’t even like is because I want my loved ones to be able to choose freely and lead whatever life they wish to lead. If you want something, take it. If you dislike something, reject it. You may even choose to hesitate on something for evermore, for I am here to give you that choice, forever.”

Yun Wuxin’s lips parted slightly. A long time later, she said with a bit of mistiness in her eyes, “Father, I’m going to be a bad girl if you keep coddling me like this.”

“Hahahaha! If you want to become a bad girl, you may take some lessons from your Auntie Qianye!” Yun Che half-joked while guffawing.

……

They arrived at another middle star realm with an excessive amount of lightning element in the air. As a result of the environment, most of the profound practitioners of this realm cultivated a lightning profound art.

However, a couple of dark auras were surging beneath the unstable thunderclouds today.

“You are going too far, friends from the northern region! This mine may be small, but it has belonged to us Purple Profound Clan for three hundred years! Every sect and profound practitioners in this vast thunder domain can prove it!”

The old man in purple robes was fuming, but it was obvious that his words were restrained. He was accompanied by a hundred or so profound practitioners wearing the same color. Standing on the opposite side were thirteen men in black clothing and emanating a black, foggy aura.

Although the Purple Profound Clan profound practitioners vastly outnumbered the dark profound practitioners, the latter were all Divine Kings… there was no way the former could do anything against them.

“We broke our own rules to let you in because you are friends from the northern region, and Emperor Yun has decreed that all profound practitioners are to interact amiably with northern profound practitioners. However, nowhere in the decree is it stated that you are allowed to rob us blind for your own rapacious designs! Aren’t you afraid that—”

“Afraid? Afraid of what?” The leader of the dark profound practitioners interrupted the old man rudely before lifting his arm. While admiring the dark fog surrounding his palm, he said, “Did you forget that Emperor Yun was the great Devil Master of the Northern Divine Region before he was the great emperor? His protection is as eternal as darkness itself!”

“On the other hand, you people are simply the losers of the war against the Devil Master and us!”

“You’ve tormented us for a million years, and now you want to live in peace with us after we’ve won? Could YOU accept this were you in our position!?”

“You can keep the mine,” said the dark profound practitioner to his leader’s right arrogantly. “Instead, you will submit three thousand tonnes of Purple Crystals as tribute after the thirteen of us have founded our sect here.”

“This is our final offer. If you don’t learn your place soon, there will be one less Purple Profound Clan in this world!”

“You!” The purple-robed old man grew even more furious, and his facial muscles looked like they would tear themselves apart. However, the enemy was far too strong for them to overcome. He simply couldn’t bear to take that last, irreversible step.

Emperor Yun was formerly the Devil Master, and the Devil Master had risen to power from the Northern Divine Region. Together, they had crushed the other three Divine Regions beneath their feet. There was no one who didn’t know about this.

Following that logic, it was perfectly natural for Emperor Yun to take the dark profound practitioners’ side and protect them.

The purple-robed old man sucked in another deep breath to restrain his bursting anger. “Don’t forget that the sects of the Great Wilderness Thunder Domain are as one! If you rip us off, our allies will take action against you!”

“Is that so? You can try.” All the dark profound practitioners snorted as if they had heard a joke. “I can’t believe everyone on this Great Wilderness Thunder Domain is as blind and stupid as you lot though!”

“You!”

The purple-robed old man was going to say something more when a middle-aged man behind him let out a pained sigh. “That’s enough, senior uncle. Just give them the mine so we can protect the sect.”

“Emperor Yun rose to power because of the devil people. He himself is a devil person. How can he not defend his own kind? Sigh.”

“Master,” a youngster interrupted in a small voice, “our clansmen have reported this to the newly established enforcer bureau. The enforcers may yet stop this.”

“It’s no use.” The middle-aged man shook his head pessimistically. “Their commander is also a dark profound practitioner. Why else do you think these devil people are this fearless?”

Right as he finished his sentence, a shout that sounded like a thunderclap suddenly boomed through the air:

“Who dares to disobey the law within the jurisdiction of the enforcer bureau!”

The shout was imbued with the power of a Divine Sovereign. It shook everyone’s heart and threatened to shatter their eardrums.

They looked up. A dozen or so people were flying toward them at high speed, and the leader of the group had a chiseled face, fiendish eyes, wore a set of black clothes and billowed a black aura that could only belong to a dark profound practitioner.

The man’s name was Sikong Hanzhao, and he was the commander of the enforcer bureau and a Divine Sovereign of an upper star realm of the Northern Divine Region. He had been tasked to command the enforcer bureau of this star realm.