Against the Gods

“Flirting with your sister?” Yun Che immediately laughed. He rolled her face in his hands like he was rolling a pile of dough and said, “What sort of silliness are you spouting? This is your sister we’re talking about! We’re about to take part in a great battle, so there’s no way I would have such strange thoughts right now.”

“Hmph, hmph.” Shui Meiyin gave a playful snort. “Even if your thoughts aren’t honest, your actions and your words certainly were.”

Yun Che: (HUUUH!?)

“Over the last two months, I made sure to mention you at least once a day in front of my sister,” Shui Meiyin said with a devious twinkle in her eyes. Her voice dropped to a mysterious hush as she continued, “I’ve also ‘secretly’ let her know that you’ve always had improper thoughts about her and you’d often peek at her back when she wasn’t looking. I even told her that you asked me to ask her if she wanted to be one of your wives.”

“~！@#￥%…” Yun Che’s eyes widened dramatically and his scalp instantly went numb. “I… When did I ever say such a thing?”

“You never did,” Shui Meiyin said as she shot him an obvious wink.

A hiss could be heard as Yun Che sucked in a cold breath of air.

No wonder Shui Yingyue had reacted to his words in such a strange way!

“I don’t care,” Shui Meiyin said as her starry eyes sparkled and her tender and moist lips curved up into an adorable and mischievous smile. “Big sister is the most beautiful and perfect angel in the whole wide world! I refuse to let any man touch her unless it’s Big Brother Yun Che!”

Yun Che, “...”

“If worst comes to worst, I’ll just use my Divine Stainless Soul to knock her unconscious one day. Then I’ll take off all her clothes and deposit her in Big Brother Yun Che’s bed! Since Big Brother Yun Che’s a super huge pervert, he definitely won’t be able to let such an ‘opportunity’ pass him by. Hee hee hee.”

It sounded as if she was merely talking about this childish prank as a hypothetical scenario, but Yun Che actually saw a resolute determination… and eagerness flash through her eyes!

He also hadn’t heard the words “super huge pervert”... in a very long time.

“Let’s talk about it next time. Next time, okay?” Yun Che groaned, plaintive and helpless.

However, his heart, which had been burdened by a mountain’s worth of pressure over the last few days, had subconsciously started relaxing.

Shui Meiyin suddenly whirled around and hugged Yun Che’s arm with both of hers. The soft bulge of her chest pressed into his arm as she said, “This is the first time I’ve ever come to the Southern Divine Region, but I’ve heard many things about it since I was very young. This is all Ninety-ninth Brother’s fault! He kept telling me stories about the Southern Divine Region and he always said that if I ever had a chance to visit, I definitely needed to go to a place called the【Seven Star Realm】no matter what.”

“The Seven Star Realm?” Yun Che immediately started to search through all the knowledge he had regarding the Southern Divine Region but he simply couldn’t recall that name.

“It’s a very small lower star realm, so Big Brother Yun Che has probably never heard of it,” Shui Meiyin said in an entrancingly musical voice. “According to the coordinates that Ninety-ninth Brother gave me, it isn’t very near the Ten Directions Deep Sea Realm, but it isn’t very far either. If we go fast, we should be able to reach it in ten to twelve hours.”

“Can we go there together? Please?”

“Right now?” Yun Che asked as his left eyebrow twitched in surprise.

“That’s right! Ninety-ninth Brother told me about the place way too many times, so now that I’ve finally come to the Southern Divine Region, the first thing I want to do is visit the Seven Star Realm.” Shui Meiyin looked at him, the stars in her eyes sparkling with expectant joy. It was clear that she had wanted to visit this small star realm for a very long time.

“...” Yun Che thought that she was joking at first, but his second thought was to reject her.

This trip would take at least ten hours, even given their speed, so it was definitely a rather long trip to make.

The entire process of going there, taking in the sights and sounds, and coming back would take at least a day. There were only seven days left before they launched their attack on the Dragon God Realm, and as the real core of the Northern Divine Region’s forces, there was no way that he could waste any time doing such a thing during such a critical period.

“Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go now, okay? Okay~~”

Her voice was soft and cottony as she shook Yun Che’s arm like an eager puppy. Her eyes were filled with such hope that Yun Che swallowed the words of rejection he was just about to say.

“What’s so special about this Seven Star Realm anyway? What makes you so eager to go?” Yun Che asked.

“Wuuuu…” She seemed to be very earnestly pondering the question before an adorably mischievous look appeared on her jade face and she pressed her tender lips to his ear. “Actually, even though Ninety-ninth Brother did mention it many times, I’m really just looking for an excuse, okay.”

“I… I just want to have Big Brother Yun Che all to myself for one day… Just the two of us? Please?”

Her warm breath tickled his ear as her soft voice stole into his soul. Yun Che could even feel the young girl playfully flick her tongue into his ear a few times, sending a jolt of electricity down his spine.

“Alright, let’s go take a look at the Seven Star Realm then.” Yun Che said. There wasn’t even a single trace of reluctance in his voice. “During the time I’ve spent in the Southern Divine Region, I’ve never truly been able to take in the sights and the sounds. You know what, it doesn’t sound like a bad idea to relax a little before this showdown with the Dragon God Realm.”

He simply couldn’t reject Shui Meiyin, and in truth, he didn’t want to reject her any longer.

She had sacrificed far too much for him, but he had never been able to do anything for her. There was no reason he couldn’t indulge this small whim of hers today.

After he sent two swift sound transmissions to Chi Wuyao and Yan Tianxiao, Yun Che wrapped his arm around Shui Meiyin’s small and slender waist and said, “Let’s go! I don’t care if it’s the Seven Star Realm or the Nine Star Realm, I’ll go wherever you want me to today!”

“Mmm!!” The stars in Shui Meiyin’s eyes sparkled with all of their brilliant luster as her grip on his arm grew even tighter. She leaned her delicate head against his shoulder before she suddenly giggled and said, “Should I ask Big Sister along as well?”

“Please don’t,” Yun Che said as he shook his head in a panicked fluster.

“I can help you take advantage of her, you know.”

“...Stop playing around!”

“Hee hee!”

Just as the two of them were about to depart, Caizhi suddenly appeared in front of them.

Caizhi had known who Shui Meiyin was for a long time. During the Profound God Convention, Caizhi had seen the then-fifteen year old Shui Meiyin via the Eternal Heaven Projection.

However, today was the first time the two girls officially met.

Shui Meiyin’s bearing and appearance had undergone an earth-shattering change since then, but Caizhi’s appearance hadn’t changed one bit thanks to her Heavenly Wolf divine power… However, now that she had fallen into darkness, she had lost her free-spirited and lovely innocence, and what replaced it was a chilling darkness that sent shudders down everyone’s spines.

When she saw the couple stuck together, Caizhi didn’t say anything or even stop. She simply continued to fly into the distance.

Yun Che was about to say something, but Shui Meiyin beat him to it. “Big Sister Caizhi!”

“...” Caizhi hesitated for a brief moment before stopping. As she turned around, both girls’ eyes met. One pair was as gloomy as the abyss but the other sparkled like all the stars in the sky.

“Big sister?” Caizhi said in a dry voice. Yun Che wasn’t sure whether she was expressing bemusement or dissatisfaction with that form of address.

If one counted their ages normally, Shui Meiyin was actually quite a few years younger than Caizhi, but if the time she spent in the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm was included in the count, then Shui Meiyin… was about three thousand years older than Caizhi.

Therefore, the question as to whom should address whom as big sister was actually quite a complicated one indeed.

However, it didn’t even seem to be a question at all to Shui Meiyin.

“I am the Glazed Light Realm’s Shui Meiyin, Big Brother Yun Che’s fiance,” Shui Meiyin said in a rather serious manner.

“I know.” Caizhi’s reply, however, was cold and curt.

Unfortunately for her, Shui Meiyin’s bright smile didn’t falter one bit. “Then… Big Sister Caizhi, I’ll borrow Big Brother Yun Che for today and return him to you tomorrow.”

After taking a single glance at Yun Che, Caizhi suddenly turned her face away from them and said in a cold voice, “It’s not like he belongs to me or anything, so there’s no need to return him.”

After she said that, profound energy erupted from her body and she sped away, leaving space quaking in her wake.

Yun Che opened his mouth before he finally breathed a sigh in the end. Caizhi had greatly changed over the last few years.

His mind wandered back to the day he first met her. She was an extremely adorable girl dressed in rainbow robes who buzzed around him like a mischievous and adorable fairy. Her bright and inquisitive mind allowed her to quickly puzzle out his identity and she used the name “Little Jasmine” to lead him around in circles.

But now… it seemed as if she had sealed away her previous world and forced herself to step into a pitch-black world of darkness.

As he looked down, he discovered that Shui Meiyin was staring fondly in Caizhi’s direction and she continued doing so for a long time.

“What are you looking at?” Yun Che asked.

Shui Meiyin’s lips parted but no words came from her mouth. It was only after a while that she whispered, “I’m looking at… someone who is doing her best to wrap herself in coldness, darkness, and hatred, so that everyone will think that she is a cold and dark person. However, in truth, she’s just an exhausted little girl who has given up on herself, a little girl who is terribly lonely and filled with worries... A little girl who is afraid of herself but even more afraid that the people she loves will hate her.”

“...” Shui Meiyin’s words violently plucked at the strings of Yun Che’s heart.

“Big Brother Yun Che,” Shui Meiyin said in a soft voice as she lifted her head to look at him. “The next time this happens, please don’t let her run away again. You need to chase after her, catch her, and hold her tight. The more she struggles, the harder you need to hug her… until she doesn’t have the strength to struggle anymore.”

“She looks like she doesn’t need anyone, but in actual fact… she needs you more than me, more than anyone else in this world.”

Yun Che looked in the direction Caizhi had left in and fell into a small daze. But after that, a smile appeared on his face and said, “You always like to say the strangest things… Let’s go.”

————

The two of them held hands as they flew out of the Ten Directions Deep Sea Realm, taking in the vast sky-blue king realm as they ascended higher and higher.

“What has your father’s condition been like?” Yun Che asked.

“Royal father is in great shape. He’s been in an exceptionally good mood ever since he found out that his profound strength would recover to its peak, so he’s doing better than ever,” Shui Meiyin said in a cheery voice.

Yun Che replied apologetically, “The situation in the Southern Divine Region changed all too suddenly, so I haven’t been able to help Senior Shui recover from his wounds. Once I kill Long Bai and break the Dragon God Realm, I will return with you to the Glazed Light Realm.”

“You better mean what you say this time.” Shui Meiyin moved Yun Che’s hand to her chest, allowing him to clearly feel the steady beat of her heart.

They kept passing by Northern Divine Region profound practitioners who were releasing their darkness profound energy. The moment these profound practitioners sensed Yun Che’s aura or happened to catch sight of him, they immediately fell to the ground and prostrated themselves in front of the Devil Master. Their reverence and loyalty for Yun Che was all too clear.

He elicited the same reaction from every single Northern Divine Region profound practitioner. It didn’t matter whether they were as high as a realm king or as low as a simple footsoldier, everyone immediately fell to the ground in worship of him.

“There has never been a realm king or god emperor that has received such worship and reverence before in the history of the God Realm,” Shui Meiyin said in a heartfelt manner. “Big Brother Yun Che, I’m beginning to believe that these people are no longer fighting for the Northern Divine Region alone. Perhaps, they would be equally willing and eager to sacrifice their lives just for your sake alone.”

Shui Meiyin’s casual-sounding words had merely been something that came from her heart, but they touched upon a subject that Yun Che had never been willing to dwell on.

“I’m just the opportunity and leader that the Northern Divine Region has long been waiting for. Even if I didn’t exist, there might be another even more suitable person who would be born in another era. The wish of the Northern Divine Region has always been to change the perception of darkness in the God Realm and to change the destiny of their ailing divine region. It’s not something a simple title like the ‘Devil Master’ can ever be compared to.”

Shui Meiyin opened her mouth to say something, but when she saw Yun Che deliberately staring ahead and not looking down at the people below them, she swallowed the words that she had been about to say. Instead, a bright smile appeared on her face as she crowed excitedly, “We’re gonna leave the Ten Directions Deep Sea Realm soon! Wow, look at that! There’s a purple-red star realm that seems to be streaked with veins of lightning. Let’s go take a look at that place!”

“Okay!”

Yun Che naturally wouldn’t reject her, so the two of them altered their trajectory to travel toward the world glowing with purple light.

This was how Yun Che set aside all of his worries and took in the sights and sounds of the Southern Divine Region along with Shui Meiyin as they made their merry way toward the Seven Star Realm.