Against the Gods

It was no wonder Chi Wuyao could tell him about his Heretic God Profound Veins the very first day we met. Even the explanation she had given him after that had been incredibly strange and mysterious.

It was no wonder she almost seemed to be able to read his mind.

It was no wonder she understood him so well that it shocked him each and every time, making him think that her eyes could see through other people’s souls time and again.

As it turned out, she had already appeared in his life ten years ago. She had always been observing him and teaching him from the years he had spent in the Snow Song Realm… up until the day his heart and soul were broken at the Blue Pole Star.

“You possessed far too many secrets.” Chi Wuyao continued, “When a woman wants to dig up a man’s secrets, she normally ends up sinking into an abyss before she can even notice. Even she (I) was no exception.”

“This was especially true for her (me) after the events that occured within the Ancient God Burying Inferno Prison… Even she (I) had completely given in to despair, yet you used your strength, wits and even your own life to rescue her (me).”

“You had not only stolen her body, you had also stolen her heart… For a woman who had sealed her emotions in ice for the last ten millennia, for a woman who could not fall in love, the moment she did fall in love, it would be something that would last beyond even death.”

Yun Che: “...”

“It was also after that moment that she would regularly use my ‘personality’ to face you. In fact, she had become far more willing than ever before to use that ‘personality’. Perhaps, she subconsciously thought that my ‘personality’ would be able to draw you to her more, would be able to make you fall head over heels for her.”

“However…” Chi Wuyao briefly paused as her voice became tinged with a deep melancholy. “Right before she met her untimely end outside the Blue Pole Star, as her soul was slipping into death, she finally learned of my existence in the few instants it took for my devil soul to leave her body.”

Yun Che’s vision spun violently as the world grew blurry. The sounds and the images which pierced his heart and cut his soul clearly played out in front of him yet again.

“You are not the only one… who gets to act selfishly…”

“Che’er, live… on…”

His body started to violently shake as a wave of sorrow that was far too intense for him to handle overtook him. He lifted his head to look at Chi Wuyao, who was still veiled in black mist. His gaze was frightening and his voice was low and deep. “What the hell… did you take her for…”

The Ice Phoenix divine being had inserted her divine soul into Mu Xuanyin so that she could see the outside world through Mu Xuanyin’s eyes. It was only when Yun Che had appeared that she interfered with Mu Xuanyin’s will for the first and last time.

That had already stirred up Yun Che’s wrath.

Even if getting rid of that suggestion meant that Mu Xuanyin’s doting love for him might turn into hatred, he still insisted that the Ice Phoenix divine being do it. Because it was much too cruel and unfair… for Mu Xuanyin, for anyone at all in fact, to have their own mind and will tampered with.

As for Chi Wuyao… Although she had only attached her soul to Mu Xuanyin and could not forcefully interfere with her, she had subtly influenced Mu Xuanyin for nearly her entire life.

This also meant that Mu Xuanyin had been used and manipulated by other people for nearly her entire life and she never had a clue about it.

“What the hell do all of you take her for…” Yun Che muttered under his breath, his fingers curling into tight fists as they trembled. “Why did each and every one of you… have to treat her this way!?”

Pain, self-recrimination, and rage that were too intense for him to bear chaotically surged through his heart and Yun Che’s vision swam. He instantly closed the gap between him and Chi Wuyao as his arm suddenly shot out violently. His fingers pierced the black mist as they shot toward her throat.

Chi Wuyao did not move and allowed him to grab her violently by the throat, his fingers painfully digging into her flesh.

It was also in this instant that Chi Wuyao’s black mist slowly started to scatter… For the first time ever, Yun Che beheld Chi Wuyao’s true appearance through blurry eyes.

The Soul Stealing Realm’s Devil Queen, Chi Wuyao. She was the most beautiful woman in the Northern Divine Region. That was something that every living creature in the Northern Divine Region knew and no one had ever doubted.

As the black mist blew away, an alluringly beautiful face that seemed to hold all of the bewitching seductiveness in the world appeared before him.

Just based on the exquisiteness of her physical features, she would already be considered a peerless beauty in the God Realm. Her beauty was just a step lower than Shen Xi and Qianye Ying’er’s beauty.

However, her crescent brows and phoenix eyes effortlessly released a boundless bewitching allure that threatened to yank a person’s soul out of their body. Her exquisite lips were pink and dewy. A single small glance from her would penetrate a man’s soul and topple his will, causing his body to burn up with boundless desire.

As his eyes swept downward, he saw that she was wearing an unadorned black robe which wrapped around her, showing off her ample chest and every bewitching curve of her body. She quietly stood there, her breasts gently rising and falling from simply breathing, creating a sight that was so seductive and mesmerizing that Yun Che’s veins almost popped open.

It was also in that moment that Yun Che blurrily realized what the words “devilish figure” truly meant for the first time in his life.

Yun Che had seen many seductive and alluring women and he was familiar with more than a few arts of seduction. But he had never known that a woman could actually be this alluring and mesmerizing.

Every inch of her body… even her snowy skin, even the jade neck that he was gripping with his hand, seemed to glow with a fantastically mesmerizing light.

Yun Che’s entire body was frozen in place as he dumbly stared at her.

The incredibly intense pain, sorrow, and rage that he had clearly felt an instant ago had vanished into thin air. It was as if all of these emotions had been sucked into the boundless abyss of her spellbinding magnetism.

“Che’er,” Chi Wuyao softly whispered, her misty and limpid eyes staring straight into Yun Che’s own. “Do you truly want to kill your master?”

Master’s eyes, Master’s bewitching voice, the way that Master sighed, those provocative and alluring words...

Yun Che’s hand retracted from Chi Wuyao’s neck as quick as lightning.

“No, no…” Yun Che stumbled backwards. In that instant, he could scarcely believe that he had done such an outrageous thing to his master.

But as he retreated in panic and nearly lost his balance, a calming fragrance gently tickled his nose. His muddled senses barely registered her movement as Chi Wuyao gently enfolded him in an embrace, burying his face in what felt like a warm pile of cotton.

“Che’er…” An ephemeral voice softly entered his ears. “She was your master, but I am also your master. We watched your growth together, we watched you go farther and farther, we quietly watched over you all this while… We shared your joys, lamentations, hurts, and tears.”

“...” Yun Che’s body was shaking and the black wall that had been erected in his heart was soundlessly crumbling in this moment.

“When she used her life to protect you, that was the… one choice she least regretted in her entire life.”

“Thus... I inherited her desire to protect you.”

“I won’t allow anyone to harm you or let you down. Anyone who bullies you, hurts you, or betrays you, I will pay them back ten thousand fold, no matter who they are.”

“Everything you desire, all of the best things in this universe… I will give them all to you to make it up to you, even if I have to take them by force.”

“Is that okay…”

“...”

Yun Che’s body was shaking and his teeth clattered together noisily. He tried to clench his teeth together hard but he couldn’t summon up any strength to resist.

“Mas...ter…”

That soft cry had come from the depths of his soul. The black ramparts in his heart had come crumbling down in front of the master he had once thought was lost to him forever. For the first time since that dark day, his deeply hidden vulnerabilities finally saw the light of day.

“Master… Master… Master…”

He cried out that word again and again, and the tears which he had thought had long ago dried up were gushing out of his eyes once more, soaking the front of Chi Wuyao’s robes.

This was an illusion which he’d be willing to wallow in forever… What’s more, it wasn’t entirely a dream.

Chi Wuyao gently closed her eyes as she enfolded the man in front of her in a tight embrace.

Maybe it was because she cherished Yun Che, or perhaps it was influenced by the guilt she felt toward Mu Xuanyin… But her words were not just meant to comfort Yun Che.

This was a vow she had already made before she had even found Yun Che again.

——————

Eastern Divine Region, Snow Song Realm, Southern Region.

The Azure Snow Ice Kirin was the overlord of the profound beasts in the Snow Song Realm’s southern region, one of the two remaining giant Divine Sovereign beasts in the Snow Song Realm. Its power was equivalent to a human level six Divine Sovereign.

Its “rebellion” was always one of the things that the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect had been most worried about.

The Snow Song Realm had two Divine Sovereigns total, Mu Bingyun and Mu Huanzhi, so it was not hard for them to suppress a single Azure Snow Ice Kirin. But its status as the ruler of all of the profound beasts found in the south of the Snow Song Realm was far more terrifying than its individual strength. Because it could summon a profound beast horde that stretched from horizon to horizon.

If they attacked human settlements to enlarge their own territory, the humans living in the southern region would be plunged into a terrible situation.

This time, Mu Bingyun had personally come to the southern region and nine great elders and countless disciples had followed her. She had also mobilized the strength of all of the branch sects in the south. But when this force descended upon the territory of the profound beasts, they found an incongruous scene waiting for them.

The Azure Snow Ice Kirin was more than two hundred meters long. Its beastly might was boundless and it could topple a mountain with a single strike from its claw.

Yet when they encountered it, they found it lying prostrate in front of the border of its territory. Not a single trace of malice or might radiated from its body.

However, there was an enormous horde of profound beasts behind it, a horde which was too vast to count.

Yet none of the humans could sense the slightest danger or threat from this gigantic profound beast horde. Furthermore, all of them were also lying prostrate on the ground motionless.

Mu Bingyun had brought her own army of Ice Phoenix disciples and Snow Song Realm practitioners to confront this horde, but they were greeted with a scene that made her brow furrow deeply.

A vicious and terrible battle had just taken place in this snowy region a day ago, but a bizarre silence had fallen upon it today.

As it “stood” at the head of the profound beast horde, the Azure Snow Ice Kirin spied Mu Bingyun’s arrival when she was still a fair distance away. Its entire body trembled, and it slammed its upper body against the ground and bowed its head toward her. It cried out, “This lowly beast greets the Snow Song Realm King!”

“...?” Mu Bingyun’s body froze in midair. She looked into the distance, shock and puzzlement blossoming on her snowy mien.

The Ice Phoenix disciples behind her and those Snow Song profound practitioners who had just engaged in a fierce battle with these profound beasts yesterday glanced at each other, stunned shock apparent on their faces.

“Sect Master, be careful. It must be a bluff,” Mu Tanzhi said in a low voice.

Clang!

Mu Bingyun drew the Snow Princess Sword out of its scabbard and pointed it towards the distant Azure Snow Ice Kirin. She pronounced in a cold voice, “Azure Snow Ice Kirin, you went against the deal you had struck with the previous realm king and you rallied the profound beasts of the southern region to steal human land and resources. Today, this king has personally come to settle things with you once and for all!”

Despite being confronted with the cold glint of her sword and her icy might, the Azure Snow Ice Kirin did not get up. Its profound energy did not fluctuate at all. It pressed itself even deeper into the ground as it said in a pleading voice, “This lowly beast was wrong, this lowly beast was wrong! This lowly beast lost its mind recently so I committed an unforgivable crime. This lowly beast already understands the error of its ways, so I beg that the Lord Realm King show me mercy… I beg that the Lord Realm King show me mercy!”

Just the angry bellow of the Azure Snow Ice Kirin would display a heaven-shocking beastly might. But right now, every word it said was filled with fear and trembles as it pathetically prostrated itself on the ground and pleaded with her. Its gigantic body was actually shaking as it said those words.

This time, even those who had not been stunned by the scene that greeted them felt their jaws dropping open.

“...” The Snow Princess Sword stopped in midair and Mu Bingyun found herself at a complete loss all of a sudden.

“What… What is going on?” Mu Tanzhi’s brow deeply creased. He released his divine sense only to discover that every single profound beast in this vast profound beast horde that stretched to the horizon was lying prostrate on the ground. Fear was practically dripping from their bodies and they did not even dare to release the slightest bit of malice or attacking intent.

When it saw the Mu Bingyun had remained silent for a long time, the Azure Snow Ice Kirin’s trembling grew even mightier as it anxiously said, “This lowly beast knows its crimes are extremely wicked… This little beast vows to retreat into the southern region from today onward and I will never take another step out of it. Neither will the profound beasts of the south dare to leave their territories.”

“We will definitely compensate you for all the damages we have caused within three months. Furt… Furthermore, from today onward, our southern beast region will send two hundred fifty thousand kilograms of the best ice profound crystals to the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect as tribute every year… We beg Lord Realm King for mercy. We beg Lord Realm King for mercy!”

As it pleaded with Mu Bingyun, the Azure Snow Ice Kirin pounded its head into the ground. Every profound beasts behind it also began to desperately beg for mercy.

The fact that Mu Bingyun had to come here personally showed how powerful the Azure Snow Ice Kirin and its hoard were.

Even if Mu Bingyun could successfully suppress it and force it back into the southern region, that would already be the best case scenario… and they would have to pay a rather heavy price to accomplish that.

But before they had even started their suppression, the Azure Snow Ice Kirin and the gigantic horde had already started to plead for mercy. They had even offered outrageously generous terms in order to obtain said mercy.

Moreover, the way that they begged her and the fear that they showed were not things that could be faked.