Against the Gods (Web Novel)

Chapter 1137 - A Chance Encounter

As the blue light flashed, the world around him changed irregularly. When Yun Che opened his eyes, it was the site for the preliminary competition that he saw after being transferred over, where all the young geniuses of God Realm had been gathered together.

The ground was withered and yellow, and the whole place was full of grand and primitive buildings that were dilapidated to a great extent. Beside him, the disciples from the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect appeared one after another. When they looked at the world they had been transferred to, the excited and nervous expressions in their eyes gradually changed to surprise.

The place before them was clearly an ancient and primitive city that had been desolate for a long period of time. They didn’t see what they initially expected of a “site for the preliminary completion.”

“Isn’t this… an abandoned ancient city?” Yun Che looked at his surroundings.

“According to master, as this Profound God Convention is being held within the Eternal Heaven Pearl, we’ll be sent to the internal world of the Eternal Heaven Pearl for the preliminary competition.” Huo Poyun came over to him. “Therefore, it’s very likely that this isn’t the place selected for competition, and we have just been sent here for the time being, before the start of the competition.”

It was naturally not only them that were present here, powerful auras were continuously coming from all directions. As one needed to be at least of the Divine Tribulation Realm to enter this place, this meant that profound practitioners of the Divine Tribulation Realm or even the Divine Spirit Realm, who were difficult to see during ordinary times, could be found everywhere in this world.

However, they didn’t all go exploring and the majority of them were just sitting upright in place. They were calming down their hearts and auras, as they did their final and most important preparations before the great battle.

“The internal area of the Eternal Heaven Pearl certainly looks quite promising.” Yun Che said with a smile. “There’s still more than two days left. Does Brother Poyun intend to adjust his state?”

“That won’t be necessary,” Huo Poyun said, full of confidence. “Although the aura of the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm differs greatly from the Flame God Realm’s, it isn’t able to affect me negatively.”

Looking into the distance, his voice grew a bit heavy all of a sudden. “I have to make it into the top thousand in this Profound God Convention… no matter what.”

“I believe that Brother Poyun is definitely capable of it.” Yun Che didn’t say anything along the lines of “don’t pressure yourself too much,” as the weight Huo Poyun was carrying was the expectations of an enormous star realm. There was no way any words of comfort would help with his situation.

On the other side, all the disciples from the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect had assembled at a place under the lead of Mu Hanyu. He came over to Yun Che. “Senior Brother Yun Che, we’ve just found a quiet place. Will you be coming with us?”

“No need.” Yun Che shook his head. “I want to casually stroll around, so you don’t have to bother with me.”

“All right.” Mu Hanyu nodded in understanding. He didn’t say anything else as he turned around and left.

“Brother Yun,” Huo Poyun gave him a deep glance. “I feel as if… you aren’t very excited about, or interested in the Profound God Convention. Instead, there’s something else on your mind.”

“The stage of the Profound God Convention belongs to the rarely seen extraordinary geniuses like Brother Poyun. It’s impossible to have any achievement with my cultivation level. Therefore, it’s difficult for someone like me to be that interested in the convention.” Yun Che gave him a casual reply.

“Brother Yun must absolutely not underestimate himself so much.” Huo Poyun shook his head. “Brother Yun took less than three years time to cultivate from the Divine Origin Realm to the Divine Tribulation Realm. In addition, given your talent in frost element, if the Profound God Convention were to be held twenty years from now, perhaps no one in the Eastern Divine Region would remain unaware of Brother Yun’s… na… name…”

Huo Poyun’s voice abruptly grew weak. He stood still dumbfounded in place, as his eyes looked straight ahead, making him seem as if he had lost his soul all of a sudden.

“?” Yun Che turned around in puzzlement, and caught sight of an absolutely beautiful snow white figure.

She was originally looking over to this side, but when her gaze came into contact with Yun Che’s, her cold, crystal-like beautiful eyes shifted away. Yun Che could only watch her back as she walked away into the distance with indifference.

“Feixue?” Yun Che called out her name unconsciously, as he felt slightly complicated in his heart.

“That person just now… was also a Junior Sister of Brother Yun… from your sect?” Huo Poyun had come back to himself. He squeezed out the calmest words possible in his current state to hide the fact that he had lost himself just a moment ago.

“Yeah… I guess.” Yun Che had always seen Mu Feixue as a senior sister. Although according to sect rules, Mu Feixue would definitely be considered his junior sister. His gaze, which didn’t contain any of his inner emotions, swept over the expression of Huo Poyun, as he said with an indistinct smile, “She is the granddaughter of Great Elder Huanzhi, Mu Feixue.”

“Ah?” Huo Poyun was startled. Soon after, he said with some excitement, “So she is that Mu Feixue! It’s surprising that… I never noticed her all this time.”

Before Huo Poyun had first stepped into the Snow Song Realm along with Huo Rulie three years ago, he had heard of the names of Mu Feixue and Mu Hanyi of the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect. But as he was completely engrossed with cultivation, he was not at all concerned about things that were unrelated to the profound way. So naturally, he wouldn’t be interested in the top-notch disciples of the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect.

Just now, it was his first time catching sight of Mu Feixue. In that instant, it seemed as if a flawless ice lotus had bloomed in his field of vision, making his pupils see a dreamlike, absolutely beautiful, and splendid world in the extremely brief time of a split second. Following this, the feeling spread to his entire body like an uncontrollable disease and invaded his heart and soul, causing the flames within his body and soul to ignite on their own. They flared up chaotically, showing no signs of calming down any time soon.

It was a kind of feeling that he had never felt in his life. He had no words to describe what he was feeling now.

“Brother Poyun, are you all right?” Yun Che asked suddenly. “Could it be that you…”

“No, no, no! That’s absolutely not the case.” Before Yun Che could finish his words or make himself clear, Huo Poyun panicked as if he was sitting on pincushions as he promptly denied. “I had already heard that Mu Feixue had the appearance of a snow white, immortal person. When I saw her just now, not only did she live up to that description, but she was even better than what I had heard about her. Hence, I was deeply stunned and lost my composure for a second. There’s… absolutely no other reason. Besides, I’ve vowed to pursue the pinnacle of the profound way throughout my life, so how would it be possible for me to take an interest in the emotions between men and women?”

“…I wanted to ask that could it be that you are seeing Junior Sister Feixue for the first time? I thought that you had seen her before,” Yun Che said with an indistinct smile.

“…” Huo Poyun had a stiff expression. He let out an awkward laugh and said with some embarrassment, “It certainly is… the first time.”

Yun Che was far, far worse than Huo Poyun in terms of cultivation in the profound way, but when it came to the matters between men and women, Yun Che had dabbled in them many times compared to Huo Poyun. There was no way he wouldn’t understand the meaning behind the reaction of Huo Poyun. He said in a seemingly causal manner, “Junior Sister Feixue and Brother Poyun are very similar on the point that you both have such strong desire to pursue the profound way. Basically all the women of the Divine Ice Phoenix possess a pure heart and few desires, and Junior Sister Feixue is also a direct inheritor of the Ice Phoenix bloodline. It is said that she would never feel any emotions or the desire that a man and woman have for each other, and it’s even more impossible for her to get married, like my master and Palace Master Bingyun. Sigh, it’s such a pity, huh.”

When a person who was always indifferent to the emotions between men and women suddenly started having feelings for someone, their feelings would often be extremely intense and deep, and they might not feel the same way another time in their lives. So, Huo Poyun losing himself in front of Mu Feixue didn't feel funny but rather a bit serious to Yun Che.

This is absolutely not a good sign…

He could only try to have Huo Poyun slowly wipe off the feeling he had just felt, but no one could really predict how things would turn out.

"Hmm, I seem to have also heard about it from Master," Huo Poyun said, but he sounded absentminded. His gaze would, from time to time, drift in the direction Mu Feixue had gone.

Yun Che let out out a sigh inwardly looking at Huo Poyun. He said in his heart: As the yang aura is extremely heavy in the Flame God Realm, there are more males there, and the majority of females tend to have masculine features too. Since Huo Poyun has seen too many ugly women in the Flame God Realm, it's not hard to imagine the impression Mu Feixue, a celestial-like woman, would leave on him at first glance…

I hope that he really was only stunned by her for a brief moment as he claimed.

Faraway, Mu Feixue stopped in her tracks. She turned around as she looked in the direction of Yun Che and Huo Poyun and faintly talked to herself, "How could you say… that I won't ever feel those emotions…?"

Mu Bingyun told them that although the number of people participating in this session of the Profound God Convention had greatly reduced, there were still several tens of millions of profound practitioners that had come to participate in the convention. Therefore, this dilapidated ancient city should be just one of the many temporarily allocated locations.

Even though a large number of participants had swarmed into this place, the whole ancient city was unusually quiet. It was perhaps because they were under the supervision of the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm that they were behaving themselves. Or, they were concentrating their minds and calming their auras with all they had. The desolate atmosphere of the ancient city itself was undoubtedly exaggerating the immense pressure before the great battle.

As Yun Che and Huo Poyun were chatting, a group of people headed in their direction at a moderate pace all of a sudden. They were a group of young profound practitioners that were dressed in similar clothes. Each and every one of them had an extraordinary temperament, and their auras were each more powerful than the next. However, such a group of genius profound practitioners, each of whom could command a great reputation in a large region of any star realm, were actually following behind a single person like a myriad of stars surrounding the moon.

In the forefront was a young man clad in golden clothes with an absolutely handsome appearance. There was an air of nobility about him as well as some evilness. His shining golden clothes were extraordinary goods, without a shadow of a doubt. His pupils contained the same haughtiness as the sky looking down on the earth. Although it was only the topmost geniuses who could enter this world, he still had such an attitude in front of them.

He saw Yun Che but his gaze didn't pause on him even for a moment. It swept past him in a swift and casual manner, as if he was a stone lying by the roadside. But when he saw Huo Poyun, his gaze stopped on him as his brows furrowed slightly. However, he didn't say anything in the end, and haughtily passed by the duo.

Seeing his back, Yun Che frowned a bit.

"Brother Yun, you know him?" Huo Poyun asked. His tone was quite serious.

"Wu Guike, from the Divine Martial Realm!" Yun Che replied.

He had seen Wu Guike, but it was only within the profound image that was imprinted on the Profound Imagery Stone. This was his first time seeing him for real.

The God Realm was so enormous. Despite that, not only had he almost bumped into him in the Darkya Realm, now he had even seen him face-to-face. They seemed to be truly connected by fate.

"He is that Wu Guike?" Huo Poyun took a deep breath, before he said in a heavy tone, "No wonder Master praised him so much. His profound strength… is absolutely above mine!"

"Above yours?" Yun Che turned his head around as his face revealed a stupefied expression.

When he was in the Darkya Realm, Ji Ruyan had told him that Wu Guike was the most outstanding among the young children of Wu Sanzun, the realm king of the Divine Martial Realm. He had an extremely high talent and was able to reach the Divine Spirit Realm at a young age… But he never thought that not only did his profound strength reach the Divine Spirit Realm, but it had even increased up to the late stage, and actually surpassed the current Huo Poyun.

Huo Poyun's cultivation was at the seventh level of the Divine Spirit Realm. So having cultivation above Huo Poyun would mean… that Wu Guike's cultivation had at least reached the seventh level of the Divine Spirit Realm, or an even higher level!

"Just because his profound strength exceeds mine doesn't mean that I'd lose to him." Huo Poyun tightly clenched his hands, as a taut expression surfaced on his face. Evidently, the appearance of Wu Guike had doubled the pressure he had been feeling all this time. "I absolutely can't… fail to live up to the expectations of Master and the Flame God Realm!"

Yun Che slightly raised his brows seeing Huo Poyun nearly squeezing out the words through gritted teeth, and his trembling hands were clenched tightly. At this moment, he suddenly sensed that rather than the expectations and future of the Flame God Realm, it was his perseverance and dignity that was an even bigger driving force for Huo Poyun.

It was at this time that Yun Che perceived something and almost subconsciously raised his head.

There was a very young girl who looked only thirteen or fourteen years old. She was dressed in a long and black half-sleeve skirt that was spread out. Her black hair was fluttering in the wind that hung down past her waist and reached as far as her ankles. There was a black butterfly-shaped sash firmly tied around her lovely and thin waist, and even the jadelike shoes that she had put on were reflecting dim light like that from black crystals.

She appeared like a lovely and small fairy that had walked out of a dark night. A dangerously mysterious feeling was gushing out from both her black hair and black skirt. Her skin looked shiny and white as if it was made of jade and porcelain, which made her emit charm in her surrounding that completely didn't match her age.

The girl really wasn't on her own. There was also a girl beside her who seemed less than twenty years old. She was clad in a light blue long skirt, the lower-half of which fluttered like water as she flew in the sky, inadvertently outlining her lithe and graceful figure. Her jadelike face was extremely beautiful, but there was a touch of chilliness to it. Furthermore, it was releasing a sacred and inviolable aura that would make one feel a sense of inferiority just at a glance.

When Yun Che's gaze slightly fixed on her, the girl in the black skirt looked over to him all of a sudden. Immediately, Yun Che saw a pair of bright and clear eyes, like that of a newborn baby.

There was no doubt that the identity of the two girls was extraordinary, and staring at them rashly would be considered a lack of manners. Yun Che should have shifted his gaze away from them, but as if it was firmly drawn in by some irresistible thing, his gaze was fixed on the eyes of the girl, making him unable to blink for even a second.

Without any sound, the world seemed to have frozen suddenly. Everything else in his surroundings quietly faded away and disappeared, little by little. In his field of vision, inside his world at this instant, it was only that pair of starry eyes that he could see now.

It was as if he had fallen into the midst of an endlessly dark night.