Against the Gods (Web Novel)

Partially Edited Chapter - Rubble

They flew for another five kilometers or so before another explosion occurred behind them. Finally, the cracked space shattered completely, and everything within it was ground into a million tiny pieces.

The sudden spatial disaster finally seemed to have come to a stop. The spatial explosions and ensuing turmoil swiftly died down as well.

Still in shock, Jin Xilei slowed down and looked behind her. She saw a strange profound light shooting into the sky and piercing the grayish white sky of the God Realm of Absolute Beginning.

The light itself was strange enough, but even stranger was the fact that it originated… from the Abyss of Nothingness that was supposed to turn everything to nothingness!

"What… is that?" Jun Xilei muttered unconsciously.

Jun Wuming slowly turned around as well, however his eyes were set not on the profound light, but the thick dust and still shuddering space around the Abyss of Nothingness.

The dust gradually settled, and visibility improved. A couple of shadows slowly rose to their feet.

"Where…" a hoarse middle-aged man's voice mixed with a bit of pain and trepidation resounded. "Where is… this?"

"Heh… heheh…" A different man chuckled. "I didn't think we would live through that… but it was still a failure. Dammit! When will we be rid of this damned abyssal dust—huh?"

The voice halted, and all of the figures froze as if time itself had stopped. Then, they started shivering and shouting on top of their lungs,

"It's… it's not abyssal dust…"

"Not abyssal dust… NOT ABYSSAL DUST!!"

The sudden shouts actually caused Jun Xilei to black out for an instant. Her ears went deaf instantly, and her innards churned to the point where she felt like throwing up blood.

RUMBLE!

The person standing at the forefront waved his arm and scattered the dust around his group, instantly revealing seven people.

All seven people were unfamiliar faces. They were all carrying varying degrees of injuries, but instead of pain they wore expressions of utmost joy and excitement.

As for their auras…

Jun Wuming was literally moments away from the end of his life. Soon, his very thoughts would evaporate into nothing. Right now though, his pupils were fully constricted. He looked like he was enduring the greatest shock yet of his fifty thousand years of life.

"We succeeded… we succeeded! There is no abyssal dust here… no abyssal dust! Haha… hahahaha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHA…"

Again, the mad laughter shook Jun Xulei violently and threatened to drop her from the sky.

"Leave… leave now!"

Jun Wuming urged with a trembling voice, but Jun Xilei's soul was too shaken to hear her master. Literally.

In fact, her soul wasn't the only thing that was shaking. The world itself was shaking slightly.

An aura of uneasiness gradually enveloped the entire God Realm of Absolute Beginning.

"Sir knight, we should transmit our will now before the passage is closed! We need to let the priests know that we've succeeded!"

The "sir knight" was a tall and brawny man clad in gray-colored soft armor. His eyes were deeply sunken, but the chilly glint in his eyes could only be described as terrifying.

Unlike the others, he was barely injured at all.

"Hmph. I don't need you to remind me that," said the man while scanning his surroundings slowly. His perfectly controlled speech and expression betrayed a terrifyingly cold and steely determination. "I have already transmitted my will. The 'passage' is probably about to close right about—"

RUMBLE—

The white light that penetrated the abyss and the gray sky abruptly crumbled, and the Abyss of Nothingness finally returned to its usual silence. On the surface, it looked as vast and bottomless as before.

The passage's disappearance failed to impact the strangers' overwhelming excitement in the slightest, however.

"Zhaoguang, Zhaoming. How are your injuries?" The man in silver armor asked. The two men he called immediately moved behind him and answered, "It is nothing considering that we've breached the abyss."

"If the records didn't lie, this place is most likely the God Realm of Absolute Beginning." The man in silver armor raised his arms as if he was attempting to embrace the whole new world. "A world without abyssal dust! How we have longed for this day! Today marks the beginning of a whole new era, and everyone standing here will be forever remembered as its pioneers!"

"In the future, our names shall be recorded in the books for eternity!"

"Even better, it looks like this world really is as fragile as those 'outsiders' claimed." [1]

He curled his fingers a little and did a small cutting motion. Incredibly, the space in front of it split in half almost as if it was made of paper. "A fragile space, fragile laws, and… fragile beings."

He abruptly glanced in Jun Xilei and Jun Wuming's direction.

In that moment, an impossibly tremendous pressure pressed down on the shocked Jun Xilei. It was heavier than any pressure she had ever encountered; greater than what should be possible considering the limits of the current universe. It instantly filled her expression with pain and dropped her to her knees.

She was a middle stage Divine Master and a master of the way of the sword. Not even Yun Che at his full strength could suppress her to this extent with just his aura.

She felt as if the entire world was pressing down on her body. She felt as humble as an ant that was facing a mountain of unfathomable height. She couldn't summon even a shred of her willpower, much less resistance.

Jun Xilei was a middle stage Divine Master and a disciple of the Sword Sovereign. Who could believe or even imagine that there existed a power in this world that could humble her so?

Speaking of Jun Wuming, he was able to remain standing despite the heavy pressure on his body. However, the price of his pride was his bones popping and breaking with each passing instant.

"Divine Master Realm?" The man named "Zhaoguang" narrowed his eyes a little. "According to the outsider, those who ventured deep into the God Realm of Absolute Beginning are basically the highest existences of this world. This does seem to be the case."

Jun Xilei didn't understand what they were talking about. She was trying to gather her profound energy and sword will through sheer unrelenting will, but all the marrow in her bones was quaking with uncontrollable fear.

Who…

Are… these… people…

This… power…

Roar—

Suddenly, an imposing and soul-stunning roar rang from the distance. The gray sky darkened slightly, and a gigantic dragon with wings large enough to blot out a large majority of the sky itself appeared. It looked down on the seven figures standing in front of the Abyss of Nothingness.

"Who dares bring harm to the God Realm of Absolute Beginning!?"

The deafening commotion, the collapsing space, and the extremely unusual auras had fully alarmed the king of the God Realm of Absolute Beginning, the Dragon Emperor of Absolute Beginning. As a result, it had come to investigate the commotion.

Its body was huge, and its pressure as great as the heaven itself. However, not a single one of the strangers looked surprised by its appearance at all.

As if he was delivering a heavenly mandate, the man in silver armor slowly raised his arm and spoke in an indifferent but prideful voice, "My name is Mo Beichen, and I am an Abyssal Knight who serves the Abyssal Monarch and his priests. I am also one of the pioneers who breached the Abyss."

"The three of you have been blessed with the fortune to become the first to the summons of the Abyss! Very fortunate indeed. Starting now, this world shall fall under the Abyss' jurisdiction. As the denizens of this universe, you have but two choices…"

"You either submit to the Abyss… or die!"

Mo Beichen was a name no one had ever heard before.

There had never been a supreme expert with the surname "Mo" inside or outside the God Realm of Absolute Beginning.

"The… Abyss…" The Dragon Emperor of Absolute Beginning mouthed the words slowly.

It had lived for a very, very long time, but it had never felt such a strange and ominous aura before.

No power was in effect, but the space wouldn't stop shaking. It was as if the world itself was trembling in fear of something. The normally tranquil and peaceful atmosphere of the God Realm of Absolute Beginning had now changed into something more… sinister.

The dragon emperor slowly touched all seven people with his spiritual perception.

The four profound practitioners at the back were covered in wounds and looked as if they had just survived a close brush with death, but the profound energy they emanated was still powerful enough to stun the entire God Realm.

Despite their injuries, the pressure they emanated was equal to Long Bai in his prime!

Long Bai was strong because he was a dragon who inherited the thin blood of the Dragon God! His upper limit naturally transcended all other races!

However, these four men… were just humans!

There was only one such human in the current universe, and he was the untouchable Emperor Yun. Now, four such people had sprouted out of seemingly nowhere!

As for the two people standing before them, its draconic soul couldn't sense anything. Its draconic soul was halted as if it had encountered an impenetrable barrier.

Finally, standing at the forefront was the silver-armored man who called himself "Mo Beichen". The moment its soul made contact with his aura, it immediately jerked away the way you would imagine a lowly insect that accidentally made contact with a heaven-devouring python would.

The probing couldn't have taken more than a couple of breaths, but it filled the Dragon Emperor of Absolute Beginning from so much shock that it could barely keep its soul together.

"Are you outsiders?" The Dragon Emperor of Absolute Beginning glanced at the Abyss of Nothingness and arrived at a conclusion immediately. It then said the only words it could say, "This is not the world you belong to. Return whence you came from, and this world shall remember your peaceful choice."

"Hehehe. Hahahaha." Mo Beichen laughed. It wasn't a deafening, mad laughter like before, but it was one that pierced every corner of the God Realm of Absolute Beginning and awakened countless slumbering creatures. "Outsiders? On the contrary, we are travelers who finally returned home after a long… long journey."

He spread his arms wide again and repeated the same embracing motion from before. His expression was one of drunkenness… and a pinch of indescribable pain. "A world without abyssal dust… is such a pure and peaceful world."

Whoosh!

A gust of wind blew, and Mo Beichen's voice suddenly became much harsher and more violent than before. "This world should've belonged to us! Do you have any idea how much pain and suffering we had to endure to make it back!?"

"You people who got to enjoy a world without abyssal dust, you dare to address us as outsiders? Hehahahahaha!"

Each word sounded like a thunderclap loud enough to shatter one's soul. It shook Jun Wuming greatly, but he remained proudly standing. He glanced sideways and looked at the crimson jadestone Yun Che had personally affixed to Jun Xilei's waist.

He moved his finger slightly… but was unable to unleash even a wisp of sword energy.

Meanwhile, the Dragon Emperor of Absolute Beginning was swaying uncontrollably like it had been struck by a typhoon. Unable to maintain its calm and dignity any longer, it asked, "Who are you? Where do you come from? What are you planning to do!?"

"So noisy." Mo Beichen looked up. "This is a world that is unable to birth gods, and Divine Master Realm is your absolute ceiling. If I have to guess, you are probably its supreme emperor, aren't you?… hehehehe."

"It is about time your era is coming to an end. Starting now, the Abyss shall be taking over this world. As for you, lowly king… allow me to grant you the honor of becoming the first sacrifice of the new era!"

He struck out. The world turned upside down, and space itself split like the sea.

"ROAR~~~~!!"

A terrible roar filled the air instantly. The man's power actually twisted the Dragon Emperor of Absolute Beginning's powerful body into an indescribable shape and spilled its blood like a downpour. Even worse was the sound of its bones snapping loud enough to surpass the thunderclap of a profound thunder of the nine heavens.

Dragon scales scattered everywhere, and the Dragon Emperor's grayish body was quickly dyed red. Somehow, it was able to struggle out of the spatial vortex it had been struck with, but instead of running away it charged straight toward the seven figures that were many times smaller than it was, but scarier than even the Abyss of Nothingness itself.

"You will resist?" Mo Beichen's lips curled into a pitying, scornful sneer. "Oh pitiful mortals. How could you have forgotten the true scales of the gods?"

"Be eternally buried in god's favor!"

1. (T/N: amnesiac heroine trope intensifies) ?