Against the Gods (Web Novel)

Yun Che casually inspected his injuries before focusing his mind and striding towards the Netherworld Udumbara Flower.

Those four petals released an extremely bizarre and fantastical purple light. Once Yun Che was within one hundred and fifty meters of it, he could clearly feel his soul being pulled in by formless hands. Yun Che ground to a stop, sucking in a deep breath of air before he spoke in a calm voice, “Jasmine, don’t you worry. I’m not silly as to die because I overestimated my own strength. Besides, my life is still linked with yours. The reason my soul was nearly stolen by the Netherworld Udumbara Flower the first time around was because I had not experienced its true terror yet, so I didn’t prepare myself well enough.”

“However, right now, I roughly know the method it uses to steal one’s soul. This coupled with the fact that it only has four petals left makes the prospect of facing it much less terrifying than before. If I pour all my effort and strength into this attempt, it isn’t guaranteed that I will fail. I also have the Sky Poison Pearl with me, so as long as I can get near it, harvesting it won’t be a problem at all.”

“If the final result ends in complete and utter failure and I see no hope of succeeding, then I will give up.”

“Hmph!” Jasmine sniffed angrily as she replied, “Anyways, I can’t stop you no matter what I say, so I can’t be bothered with you anymore! When you are being tormented to the point where you start begging for death later, don’t blame me for not giving you ample warning!”

“I get it.”

Both of Yun Che’s hands slowly tightened into fists as his brows knit together tightly… In this lifetime, he was convinced that he would never be able to forget just how terrifying the soul stealing ability of the Netherworld Udumbara Flower was. Now that he thought about it again, his entire soul started to shudder uncontrollably as a intense dread was birthed in his heart.

If the thing placed in front of him was something else, even if it was a legendary treasure, a peerless profound artifact or even a mountain of Divine Crystals, he would turn around without a hint of hesitation and leave without even taking another look… because he was definitely not willing to ever experience the pain of his soul being taken from him again.

But what was in front of him was the Netherworld Udumbara Flower… The only Netherworld Udumbara Flower in this world.

“I will definitely succeed!”

“Hah!!”

Yun Che murmured before expelling an explosive shout. His entire body started burning with flames as he rose into the air, rushing with full force towards the Netherworld Udumbara Flower.

The first time he had approached the Netherworld Udumbara Flower and was affected by its soul stealing ability, all of the power in his body instantly dissipated… So this time, he wanted to see if he could use extreme speed to reach the Netherworld Udumbara Flower in an instant.

Ding…

The hellish purple radiance before him expanded and the world suddenly fell completely silent. After that, innumerable icy needles crazily pierced his soul while countless dark hands emerged from the depths of the abyss to tear apart every corner of his soul…

Bang!!

Yun Che was thrown to the ground as he fell from the sky in a heap. All the flames on his body had been completely extinguished. His soul was being twisted and rent and the enormous pain that accompanied it caused his internal organs, limbs and the rest of his body to spasm uncontrollably. Every single hair and cell of his body was twisting and shivering in pain.

He gritted his teeth with all his might, forcefully keeping his cries of pain inside. Under that immense pain, his vision had become blurry but he could still see that bizarrely beautiful purple light clearly. It was roughly fifty meters distant from him.

It was also this purple light which allowed him to doggedly keep his nearly fractured psyche in one piece. He forced himself to his feet and tried to stagger towards the purple light. But right after he had taken a single step in that direction…

It was just one single step closer to the flower… yet in an instant, the thousand needles that had been stabbing at his soul turned into ten thousand blades…

When he had spent half his life delivering the killing blow to the Moon Slaughter Devil Sovereign, leaving his body in tatters, he had not even given voice to a single whimper of pain. But right now, Yun Che was letting out a blood-curdling scream. Just drawing one step closer was like walking through hell and finding another hell inside hell itself. He could feel both his body and soul being rent into tiny bits and pieces. This pain far exceeded any pain that Yun Che had ever known before, it even exceeded Yun Che’s very understanding of pain itself!

Furthermore, this intense pain also gave birth to a frantically blooming terror!

Fear and dread instantly swallowed up all of Yun Che’s remaining will and bravery. His contorted body reacted by itself as it tumbled backwards.

The sensation of his soul being sliced apart and the mind-warping pain dramatically lessened with every inch he retreated. Once his mind had cleared, he naturally regained control over his power and body. Yun Che continued to stagger backwards, stumbling on the ground as he went. He finally stopped when he reached a distance where he could endure the pain. Both of his knees sank to the ground as he used his arms to prop himself up. He gasped heavily for breath and sweat poured down his forehead in torrents. In the blink of an eye, the ground beneath his head had become completely drenched.

“Haah… Haah… Haah…”

His body continued to spasm uncontrollably for more than ten breaths as he took in great gulps of air. At this point, Yun Che felt as if he had endured the cruellest torture in the entire world… No! This pain was far more dreadful than any torture he could ever imagine.

He turned his head, raising his pasty-white face to look towards the position that he had reached previously. That spot was only about forty five meters away from the Netherworld Udumbara Flower. He could sense that that distance was the limit of what he could endure. If he tried to move forward, even if it was a single tiny step… he would be unable to endure the pain from that point on.

He was also unable to imagine what kind of terrible hell awaited him if he continued to take yet another step forward. He could also scarcely imagine what kind of horrific world awaited him when he was within a single step of the Netherworld Udumbara Flower.

Forty five meters… To him, that normally would be a pitifully short distance.

But in this place, it seemed even farther and more despair-inducing than a gap that spanned millions of kilometers.

One step was a step into an abyss.... One step was clearing a natural chasm!

"Are you... alright?" Jasmine asked in a voice laced with worry. But the moment she noticed the worry in her voice, she immediately turned frosty, “Hmph! This is the result of you overestimating your own strength! I will say this once more! The Netherworld Udumbara Flower isn’t something a person from your plane can get close to! As for that soul-stealing pain, you have now experienced it a second time! To be honest, the fact that you haven’t collapsed is commendable in and of itself! Because this kind of pain, even if it is I… even if it is a god from the legends, it would still be very hard to bear! Much less someone like you!”

By the time Jasmine had finished speaking, Yun Che had gotten to his feet once more. After that he turned around and faced the Netherworld Udumbara Flower yet again. But this time, the unwavering determination in his eyes had long since disappeared and a thick fear had replaced it instead.

In the past few years, Yun Che had not feared anything—whether it was unbearable might, the approach of death, or a natural force that he could not resist…

This was the first time he had ever experienced fear due to “pain.”

Crack!

He squeezed his left hand so hard that he had cracked the bones on two of his fingers… but his pale face did not even flinch. Because it was not even an ant bite when compared to the pain he had experienced when his soul was being stolen.

His feet started moving as he began to walk towards the Netherworld Udumbara Flower yet again.

“What are you doing?” His actions shocked Jasmine. She knew very clearly what kind of pain Yun Che had just endured and she had also felt the dread that it had brought to him. So she had thought that Yun Che would never even try to approach the Netherworld Udumbara Flower ever again… and perhaps, he might not even dare to glance at it anymore but he was actually… trying to approach it yet again!

“I still… haven’t… failed yet!!” Yun Che said huskily. But the words that he had spat still quivered due to his remaining fear.

“You… Have you really not given up!? Will you truly only weep once you’ve seen your own grave!?” Jasmine shouted angrily.

“This Netherworld Udumbara Flower… it’s right in front of me! It’s only a short sixty meters away right now! If I lost all heart to continue due to this small obstacle, then where… will I find the face to see you next time!?”

“Me!?” Jasmine yelled in surprise, “...What small obstacle!? How in this world is that a small obstacle to you!? The pain your body is feeling will seep into your soul and the pain of the soul is not something that mere physical pain can compare to.” Jasmine had felt true soul searing pain once in her life before. It was when she inherited the profound strength legacy of the Heaven Slaughter Star God. So she had a very clear understanding about this kind of pain! Even someone as powerful as her would tremble in fear every time she remembered that experience. And to this day, she still would not have to courage to go through that experience a second time!

But for the sake of an incomplete Netherworld Udumbara Flower, Yun Che was willing to face that pain for a third time!!

Yun Che did not wait for Jasmine’s response. With a loud roar, he rushed towards the Netherworld Udumbara Flower again while Jasmine was still stunned.

Forty five meters…

This distance proved to be the bottleneck yet again. Once more, Yun Che felt all of the strength in his body dissipating as he fell to the ground in pain. He forcefully opened his eyes so wide that they seemed like they would explode and he bit down so hard that his teeth nearly broke as he bounded a huge step forward.

“UWAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!”

A soul-rending cry of pain resounded through every corner of the Moon Slaughter Devil Nest. It was so shrill and sharp that even the pebbles on the ground started to tremble. This instant of soul searing pain was something that Yun Che could not even describe with words and the terrifying notion of committing suicide to escape this pain surfaced in his head.

The only thing that filled his body and remaining will was the instinct to “run away”... to flee at all costs! As his shrill cries continued to rend the air, Yun Che’s body was rolling and tumbling backwards… By the time he had recovered some semblance of clarity, he had already tumbled sixty meters away.

Yun Che’s face had gone even paler than before and his entire body was twitching and trembling like an insect that was going through its death spasms. Streams of cold sweat rolled down his body. He tightly gritted his teeth… This time, it took an entire thirty breaths before his body finally stopped trembling.

“That’s enough, don’t try that again. How many time do I have to tell you, it’s impossible for you to succeed! You’re only suffering for nothing!” This time, Jasmine did not scold him and one could hear a faint trembling in her voice. At first, she was completely convinced that no matter how strong a person’s will was, the moment that person experienced the pain of one’s soul being stolen, it would leave an eternal dark memory and that person would not even have the courage to think about the experience. But Yun Che… had thrown himself into the fray time and time again.

His desperate actions were so extreme that it was akin to forcefully jumping into a deep abyss, which even the gods would fear, repeatedly. It was not even to fulfill his own selfish desires… it was all for her!!

When Yun Che had endured those spatial storms within the Primordial Profound Ark, what he had experienced was the most extreme physical pain. Jasmine admired his ability to endure all of it, but she was not too surprised by the end result. But comparing physical pain to pain of the soul… it was on an entirely different level!!

Forcefully flensing the soul from the body… it was a process that was millions of times more painful than removing every single bone and blood vessel from one’s body!

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