Against the Gods (Web Novel)

“Sword Master Xuanyuan, this is no laughing matter. Are you sure that this is true?” Huangji Wuyu said in a grave voice, his expression completely changed.

Qu Fengyi’s expression had also become grim as she spoke, “This entire thing sounds completely preposterous! Sword Master Xuanyuan, you had better not be talking nonsense when it comes to something as world-shaking as this!”

“The Little Demon Empress’s new husband… The new Demon Emperor of the Illusory Demon Realm!?” Ye Meixie’s face had become terrifyingly dark and sinister and his eyes bored into Yun Che’s body. The entire thing sounded too outrageous to be true and there was absolutely nothing that linked Yun Che to the “Little Demon Empress” or the “Demon Emperor.” However, the one who was making this claim was Xuanyuan Wentian, if he did not have sufficient confidence in this information, how would dare to make such a shocking claim in front of all the heroes of the realm.

If the three other Sacred Masters had reacted in this way, one could well imagine how everyone else had reacted to that proclamation.

Feng Hengkong’s expression changed yet again and there were no words that could describe the shock in his heart. The expression of every person who was looking at Yun Che right now had changed dramatically as well.

“Brother-in-law, is this… really true?” When Xia Yuanba had uttered these words, his teeth were already starting to chatter. The fact that Yun Che’s status as a “demon” had been exposed had already put him in dire straits but if he had the status of the “Demon Emperor”... that would plunge him into an even more desperate situation than he was already in!

Spiritual Master Ancient Blue would still be able to speak up on his behalf if he was just the son of Yun Qinghong. But if he was really the new “Demon Emperor”, then even if Spiritual Master Ancient Blue was ten thousand times gutsier, he would not dare to say a single word on Yun Che’s behalf… and it was extremely likely that he would immediately view him as an enemy.

The atmosphere around the Sea God Arena changed as Xuanyuan Wentian turned his back on Yun Che and slowly walked back to Xiao Yun’s side. He spoke in a grim and resolute voice, “This affair does not merely concern the identity of a single person, it concerns the safety of the entire Profound Sky Continent. As the master of Mighty Heavenly Sword Region, how would I dare to lie or exaggerate when it comes to something like this!?”

“Xiao Yun, did Yun Che get married to the Little Demon Empress in the Illusory Demon Realm’s Demon Imperial City seven months ago?” Xuanyuan Wentian asked Xiao Yun in a stern tone.

“Yes…” Xiao Yun answered in a daze.

WHOOOA——

Even though it had been a simple one word reply, it confirmed the shocking status that had been ascribed to Yun Che.

Xuanyuan Wentian gave a faint smile as he nodded his head, “Very good. Let me ask this again. Yun Che is not more than twenty three years of age and he was only in the Illusory Demon Realm for a very short period of time, so his status and his age doesn’t not match up at all with the Little Demon Empress. So why then did the Little Demon Empress marry him?”

Xiao Yun answered truthfully yet again, “Yun Che was bestowed with the Demon Emperor’s bloodline... by the Golden Crow Divine Spirit… Thus, he could continue the bloodline of the Demon Emperor Clan… together with the Little Demon Empress…”

“What?” The members of the Sacred Grounds gasped yet again as their faces went even paler. They were naturally aware of what the terms “Golden Crow Divine Spirit” and “Demon Emperor’s bloodline” meant.

Now, Yun Che’s identity as the “Demon Emperor” had been set in stone and it had also been confirmed that he possessed the Golden Crow bloodline of the Demon Emperor Clan… Furthermore the bloodline of the Demon Emperor and his status as the new Demon Emperor had been bestowed upon him by the Illusory Demon Realm’s Golden Crow Divine Spirit!

“So now, do all of you understand the current situation?” Xuanyuan Wentian proclaimed in a booming voice, “Yun Che is not merely a demon of the Illusory Demon Realm, he is also the Young Patriarch of the Twelve Guardian Family’s Yun Family and is one of the two Demon Emperors currently presiding over the Illusory Demon Realm. Furthermore, this status was personally bestowed upon him by the Illusory Demon Realm’s Guardian Divine Spirit!”

“After the Little Demon Empress succeeded the throne of the Demon Emperor, she sent multiple sound transmissions to the Profound Sky Continent. Each and every message was a vow that she would bathe in the blood of the Four Great Sacred Grounds and she would see the Profound Sky Continent run red with blood! This is not something witnessed by me alone! The Saint Emperor, Sovereign of the Seas and Heavenly Monarch can all attest to it as well! Because of this, our Four Great Sacred Grounds had to be on our guard at all times against the Illusory Demon Realm. Furthermore, Yun Che was originally a denizen of the Illusory Demon Realm and he slipped back into the Profound Sky Continent barely one month after getting married to the Little Demon Empress. So it is easy to see what his purpose for returning is!”

Xuanyuan Guxing stood in front of Xiao Yun and pointed a finger at Yun Che as he roared, “Yun Che, you were not content to stay in your Illusory Demon Realm as its Demon Emperor and you chose to come back to the Profound Sky Continent instead! What are you intentions!? Speak!!”

“Hmph! Why do we even need to waste our breath on this foolishness! Our Profound Sky Continent and the Illusory Demon Realm mix as well as fire and water, so he must have returned with ill intentions!” Xuanyuan Guyun yelled in a tense voice, “Who would have guessed that this punk who became notorious in our Profound Sky Continent was actually the emperor of the demons of the Illusory Demon Realm! If not for my Lord Sword Master exposing his identity and his vile plot, the consequences would have been unimaginable!”

“Yun Che, you young punk!” Heavenly Monarch Ye Meixie thundered, his eyes filled with anger, “Ah, no, I should be addressing you as the Demon Emperor of the Illusory Demon Realm! You are truly a man of hidden depths!”

“This is absolutely preposterous!” Sovereign of the Seas Qu Fengyi fumed, her face twisted in rage and murder in her eyes, “To think that the person my Supreme Ocean Palace had specially invited was actually the new Demon Emperor of the Illusory Demon Realm… This has besmirched the name of Supreme Ocean Palace! Yun Che, you wanted to search the hidden grounds of my Supreme Ocean Palace at all costs! Just what were your true motives? Were you plotting some kind of evil scheme!?”

Spiritual Master Ancient Blue only snapped out of his shocked daze at this moment. He looked at Yun Che and Xia Yuanba before letting out a long sigh. After that, he raised his head and did not speak any further.

“Yun Che, speak! What scheme are you trying to foment in the Profound Sky Continent!? If you speak now, we can still grant you a painless death!” Supreme Ocean Palace’s Venerable Purple grated harshly.

Feng Ximing’s voice rang out from where the Divine Phoenix Sect was seated, “Yun Che! Our Divine Phoenix Sect has always treated you with sincerity! In order to resolve the grudge between us, we gave in time and again as we submitted to your demands regardless of the cost… But we never imagine that you were actually a rapacious and wicked demon all along! From this day forth, our Divine Phoenix Sect will be your eternal enemy! We will never be reconciled with you!”

“Shut up!” Feng Ximing’s abrupt shout provoked a furious rebuke from Feng Hengkong, whose mind and heart had still been thrown into disorder. He inhaled deeply but he was not able to stop his body from shaking. His eyes once again glanced at the deathly white face of Feng Xue’er, “Xue’er, just what is… what is…”

“Big Brother Yun… he isn’t a bad person… he can’t be a bad person…” Feng Xue’er mumbled in a lost and dazed tone.

“Yun Che, what do you have to say for yourself now!”

“If not for Sword Master Xuanyuan, we would all still be in the dark, and we would have let the emperor of demons run rampant across the Profound Sky Continent!”

“The Illusory Demon Realm is dreadful land of demons. They have been enemies with our Profound Sky Continent for generations. Yet Yun Che, as the emperor of the Illusory Demon Realm, still came back here. How can he not be scheming something behind our backs!? We should immediately seize this demon and force him to talk… force him to tell us about his schemes and to tell us what the Illusory Demon Realm is plotting!”

“Well said!”

“Demon of the Illusory Demon Realm, Yun Che, your schemes have been exposed to the light and you have nowhere left to run or hide! So why don’t you just surrender without a fight!”

The frenetic noise that came from the crowd bombarded Yun Che from all sides. The moment the labels “demon” and “Demon Emperor” had been stuck on his back, it stoked the crowd’s “anger” to a new high. As this anger burned, a very rarely seen feeling, unity against a common foe, was kindled.

It was as if Yun Che was a wicked and heinous sinner that even the heavens and the earth could not tolerate; a sinner that could not be forgiven by the entire Profound Sky Continent.

It was not because he had done anything that would anger both the gods and men. On the contrary, he had saved the Blue Wind Nation single-handedly, and he had been admired and idolized by countless young profound practitioners across the Profound Sky Continent… But all of this hate was engendered by the simple fact that he was a “demon” and the “Demon Emperor” to boot.

Roars of rage, venomous curses, furious rebukes, harsh and barking questions… these sounds engulfed him like a gigantic tsunami. Perhaps if it was someone else, even if that person was a Monarch, his will would have crumbled due to this and he would have become completely disheartened. But Yun Che did not feel that way in the slightest. His eyes remained clear and calm and even his heart was still beating regularly. It was as if he was merely a bystander witnessing these events, rather than the one who was in the proverbial eye of the storm.

He remembered his life in the Azure Cloud Continent. He had been recognized as the public enemy of the entire continent and every force within the land had been baying after his blood… He had been warped from a virtuous doctor who saved lives as his mission into a devil who was able to poison ten thousand people to death instantly without flinching.

It seemed as if that fate was abruptly cycling back to him right now.

“Yun Che, your continued silence will only be taken as tacit agreement.”

Compared to the others, Huangji Wuyu was clearly much more calm and composed. He silently observed the changes in Yun Che’s expression and Yun Che’s preternatural calm caused him to be profoundly shocked in his heart. “Besides your identity, I am deeply curious about one other thing. Just how did you travel from the Illusory Demon Realm to the Profound Sky Continent? And how were you able to catch us unawares? Could it be that you relied on the power of your master ‘Old Man Duotian’?”

The four words “Old Man Duotian” caused the surrounding noise to instantly abate. They suddenly remembered that Yun Che’s master was “Old Man Duotian”, the person who was rumored to have the ability to transcend the heavens.

“Brother Huangji, that was an excellent question indeed!” Just as Huangji Wuyu had finished speaking, Xuanyuan Wentian immediately spoke up. He did not continue immediately but he instead turned towards Heavenly Monarch Ye Meixie first, “Brother Ye, a few months ago, your honored Divine Hall’s Fifteenth Elder Ye Shi had died at the hands of a black-robed man correct? Furthermore, he had been killed by an extremely tiny cluster of flames. That black-robed man addressed himself as Yun Che’s master and introduced himself as ‘Duotian’. Because of this, you were immediately deterred from taking any further action, so the famed Sun Moon Divine Hall had no choice but to retreat in defeat and not press the issue any further. It was after that instance where it was rumored that it was extremely likely for Yun Che’s master to be the ‘Old Man Duotian’ who had lorded over the heavens and earth ten thousand years ago and must have attained divinity by now…. Did I get that right?”

“That’s correct.” Ye Meixie said with a faint nod of his head.

“Hahahahaha.” Xuanyuan Wentian raised his head to the sky as he roared with laughter, “Sun Moon Divine Hall is one of the Four Great Sacred Grounds that has lorded over the Profound Sky Continent for ten thousand years. Yet you have been utterly tricked and led around by your noses by this scoundrel from the Illusory Demon Realm. You even lost an elder and many protectorates for nothing. This is simply a huge joke and tragedy wrapped up in one… Did you know that this so-called ‘Old Man Duotian’ doesn’t even exist? It was something that Yun Che created from thin air to deceive all the people of the realm. A trick that he had used to protect himself!”

“What?” Ye Meixie’s expression changed and the expressions of all the elders of Sun Moon Divine Hall also changed as well, “Sword Master Xuanyuan, is what you’re saying true?”

“Of course it’s true!” Xuanyuan Wentian extended his palm and directly pulled Xiao Yun who was standing ten paces away from him right by his side, “Xiao Yun, you tell Hall Master Ye of Sun Moon Divine Hall this. Six months ago, in the Snow Region of Extreme Ice located in the northern part of Blue Wind Nation, who exactly was the black-robed man that killed the Sun Moon Divine Hall’s Fifteenth Elder Ye Shi and called himself ‘Duotian’?”

Xiao Yun’s lips moved once more. “It was… Yun Che…”

In that instant, the entire crowd was sent into an uproar while Ye Meixie’s brow instantly sunk. Within Sun Moon Divine Hall, the Ninth Elder Ye Guying suddenly shouted, “That’s not right! When this old one was there at that time, that black-robed man had stood by Yun Che’s side constantly since he made his appearance. So how is it possible…”

“Heh heh, Elder Guying, there’s no need to be anxious.” Xuanyuan Wentian said with a tepid laugh, “How could a man as honest and upright as you recognize Yun Che’s cunning and treachery? Xiao Yun, let me ask you this again. What was the identity of the ‘Yun Che’ who was standing beside the black-robed man at that time?”

“It was me… Yun Che had disguised my features and made my appearance into his…”

Ye Guying was stunned speechless after hearing those words.

“Then what about the fire that killed Elder Ye Shi? Can you explain that as well?” Xuanyuan Wentian continued to ask.

“It was a unique kind of flame… that Yun Che had prepared four hours in advance… He is only able to use it once… within a short period of time…” This was the casual explanation that Yun Che had given Xiao Yun regarding the ice flames. The controlled Xiao Yun now recited them nearly verbatim.

“How dare you!” Ye Meixie roared in anger as he was instantly seized by the urge to murder Yun Che, he could barely hold himself back from personally rushing over to smite him to death. An elder of his Sun Moon Divine Hall had died a terrible death, but they could only grit their teeth and endure it on account of “Old Man Duotian”. It could be said to be the most shameful and insulting thing to ever happen to Sun Moon Divine Hall in the past ten thousand years. But no one had imagined that all of this was all a scam… and his famed Sun Moon Divine Hall had been completely hoodwinked by Yun Che!

Sun Moon Divine Hall’s Young Master Ye Xinghan was even more enraged as he gnashed his teeth in fury. He felt like his chest was about to explode as he roared in a hoarse voice, “Great Elder, quickly capture this animal! This young master wants to kill him myself!!”

“Young Hall Master, please keep calm. There is no need for anger.” Xuanyuan Wentian said with a bland smile, “It was not only your Sun Moon Divine Hall that had been taken in by his trickery. Practically the entire profound world of the Profound Sky Continent believed him as well. But now, this scoundrel from the Illusory Demon Realm has been completely exposed and his so-called master whom he relied on turned out to be a complete lie. With all of the experts of the Profound Sky gathered here today, he can forget about escaping from our grasp, so there is no need for the Young Hall Master to be so angry.”

“And as for the method he used to travel from the Profound Sky Continent to the Illusory Demon Realm…” Xuanyuan Wentian glanced at Yun Che indifferently before continuing, “Naturally he used the same method that Yun Qinghong and his wife had used twenty six years ago. He used a forbidden spatial artifact that belonged to the Illusory Demon Realm’s Yun Family called the ‘Space Splitting Ring’!”

“The Space Splitting Ring? Ah so that is the case.” Huangji Wuyu gave a faint nod of his head but he still seemed to harbor some of his own suspicions, “He is the Yun Family’s Young Patriarch and the new Demon Emperor of the Illusory Demon Realm. So it is definitely reasonable for him to have used the forbidden artifact that Yun Qinghong and his wife had used all those years ago.”

Yun Che, “...?”

“Now that you think about it, this entire affair has been rather bizarre.” Xuanyuan Wentian said in an unhurried manner, “Since Yun Che’s so-called master was fake all along, then how did he survive when he had been trapped in the Primordial Profound Ark all those years ago? I asked Xiao Yun the exact same question and I found out that after the Primordial Profound Ark had disappeared all those years ago, for some odd reason, it ended up in the Illusory Demon Realm. So this allowed Yun Che to be reunited with his family in the Illusory Demon Realm and he even performed many deeds of great merit and valor for the Illusory Demon Imperial Family. After that, the Illusory Demon Realm’s Guardian Divine Spirit bestowed upon him the Demon Emperor’s bloodline and he also became the new emperor of the Illusory Demon Realm… Tsk tsk, this little thief chose not to stay in the Illusory Demon Realm to continue acting as the Demon Emperor but instead borrowed the power of the Space Splitting Ring to return to the Profound Sky Continent! So if he were to say that he did not harbor any ill intent or scheme when he returned, I’m afraid even a three year old child would not believe those words!”

“But now that everything has been exposed and he has fallen into our hands, how can we let him return alive!?”

Yun Che did not utter a single word as he coldly observed the performance Xuanyuan Wentian was putting on, his eyebrows furrowing slightly… It was strange! Xiao Yun was one of the very few people who knew about the existence of the Primordial Profound Ark, so logically speaking, Xuanyuan Wentian should definitely already know that the Primordial Profound Ark was in Yun Che’s possession. But why did he keep it concealed and lie that he had used the “Space Splitting Ring” instead?

Could it be…

Yun Che’s brows violently jumped as his eyes instantly grew dark and gloomy. In this moment, he suddenly understood why Xuanyuan Wentian did not choose to try to wrest the Mirror of Samsara from him in secret while concealing this matter from the other Sacred Grounds. He finally understood why he had chosen to “sanction” him in front of all the heroes of the realm…

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