Against the Gods (Web Novel)

Yun Che’s gaze shifted to a corner. Over there he saw the master-disciple pair of Jun Wuming and Jun Xilei were flying far away into the distance. Jun Xilei had not even bothered to glance at him.

“Let’s go,” Mu Bingyun said.

Yun Che, however, shook his head in response. He stood up and said to Huo Poyun, “Brother Poyun, there’s something I want to talk about with you alone.”

Huo Poyun was taken aback. He didn’t say anything and simply gave him a light nod.

Yun Che and Huo Poyun flew away from the place, and as soon as they left the Conferred God Stage area, Yun Che immediately said to him, “Brother Poyun, you have always been treated as the future hope of the Flame God Realm from the very beginning, and the people of Golden Crow Sect, in particular, have extremely high expectations for you and highly praise you. But due to the battle yesterday, the glory that you deserved ended up belonging to me. They have become crazy for me, and this craze of theirs far surpass what they feel for you. You must… find it very difficult to accept, right?”

Huo Poyun’s body clearly became stiff for a moment. Seeing Yun Che speaking so bluntly, he could only blankly stare at him, without being able to say anything.

Yun Che turned to look straight at him as he said in an incomparably serious manner, “Yesterday, I thought that winning against Lu Lengchuan with the Golden Crow flame would make you regain confidence in it. However, I overlooked a critical point. Doing so would hurt you far more than comfort you… Although it was unintentional, the result is still… I must apologize to you.”

“No, no-no!” Huo Poyun promptly waved his hand. He wanted to force a smile but still failed to do so as he said in a dejected tone, “You haven’t done anything wrong. Rather, you made the Golden Crow flame appear so dazzling for the first time. It is… me who should be apologizing. Not only did I fail to live up to expectations, but I also… felt unnecessary jealousy towards Brother Yun…”

Having finished his words, Huo Poyun lowered his head.

“Jealousy?” Yun Che said with an indistinct smile. “Brother Poyun, do you truly believe that my Golden Crow flame is stronger than yours?”

“Of course,” Huo Poyun said in a low voice. “Your Golden Crow flame can even defeat Lu Lengchuan. It’s much stronger than mine.”

“No,” Yun Che slightly shook his head. “I’m quite confident if we’re talking about other things, but… when it comes to the Golden Crow flame, I am absolutely far, far inferior to you.”

Huo Poyun was startled upon hearing Yun Che speak in an extremely certain tone.

“Brother Poyun, the Golden Crow bloodline and the Golden Crow Divine Soul you possess, are a complete inheritance that was given to you by Golden Crow Sect’s Golden Crow Soul at the cost of its existence, right?”

Huo Poyun suddenly raised his head. He had a baffled expression as he looked at Yun Che.

Yun Che faintly smiled, “No need to be surprised. Brother Poyun, you must have doubts about me having the Golden Crow bloodline and the Golden Crow Divine Soul. Let me give you a straightforward answer. The world where I was born is only a little planet, but there was a Golden Crow inheritance left behind on it.”

“…So it really… is the case,” Huo Poyun uttered in a low voice, in a daze.

“The Golden Crow’s souls were both soul fragments of the Divine Beast Golden Crow, and could mentally communicate with each other. Therefore, I knew that the God Realm also had a Golden Crow’s soul even before my arrival in this place. In other words, the Golden Crow’s soul in your Flame God Realm had not ceased to exist before I came to the God Realm. However, the Flame God Realm no longer had the Golden Crow’s soul when I arrived at the God Realm. Then I saw you, who had such an extremely strong Golden Crow bloodline, as well as an abnormally great control over the Golden Crow flame. That’s why when we met for the first time in the Snow Song Realm, I had already guessed this point.”

Of course, there was also another reason. He had the precedent of Feng Xue’er to go by.

“You…” Huo Poyun was stupefied, and couldn’t say anything for a while.

“The Golden Crow bloodline and the Golden Crow Divine Spirit I have are from the Golden Crow’s soul in my world. I think that the Golden Crow’s soul in your Flame God Realm should have mentioned about the existence of the other soul to you all. As part of inheritance, I obtained a strand of its divine soul, and a total of nine drops of the Golden Crow’s origin blood.”

“Nine… drops?” Huo Poyun lightly repeated the words, as his eyes were filled with disbelief.

Nine drops of the Golden Crow’s blood… and of the origin blood too. It was such a great divine bestowal that the disciples of the Golden Crow Sect would not even dare to dream of it. But, seeing the terrifying burning power of Yun Che’s Golden Crow flame… how could he only have nine drops of Golden Crow’s divine blood?

“That’s right, only nine drops. With respect to both the divine blood and divine soul, I am much weaker than you.” Yun Che looked Huo Poyun in the eye. “The might of my burning Golden Crow flame seems so great because I have another special profound art which helps me to control the Golden Crow flame in a much better way, consequently, optimizing the might of the flame. In other words, given the level of energy I possess right now, I can only unleash the power of nine drops of the Golden Crow’s divine blood, and it is impossible for the flame to become any stronger.”

“On the other hand… although your control over the Golden Crow flame is far better than others, you are still too young, after all. You have a long way to go before you succeed in digging out the true divine might of the Golden Crow flame. In short, the burning power of my Golden Crow flame has already reached the limit, and you, with the strongest Golden Crow bloodline and the strongest Golden Crow Divine Soul, still have extremely enormous latent potential that anyone would find hard to imagine. Once you have gotten ahold of the true potential hidden within you, my Golden Crow flame will definitely be incomparable to yours at the same energy level… It might even become so strong that it will be impossible to mention them in the same breath.”

Huo Poyun, “…”

“Therefore, you don’t need to be concerned about it at all. As for you feeling jealous, that is even more unnecessary. It should actually be me being jealous of you. If I had a powerful bloodline like you, why would I need to fight so desperately against Lu Lengchuan? I could have burned him to ashes in no time.”

Hearing Yun Che’s words, Huo Poyun’s bleak eyes brightened a bit. He let out a long sigh to relax himself, before finally saying, while smiling faintly, “Brother Yun, I thank you for comforting me once again.”

“I’m not comforting you,” Yun Che said with a smile. “It’s just that you were subconsciously ignoring the facts. However, although my Golden Crow flame is bound to be inferior to yours in the future, that doesn’t mean that my strength will be weaker than you. Brother Poyun, how about we make an arrangement?”

“…What arrangement?”

“You will be sent inside the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm to cultivate for ‘three thousand years’ once the Conferred God Battle ends. So, how about we have a proper contest between us when you come out of the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm?”

Three thousand years was quite a long period of time for people of young generation. An extremely huge number of unforeseen factors could influence them during this time. Not only would their strength undergo transformation, their understanding of things, state of mind, objective of pursuit… and even their natures would change.

His words caused Huo Poyun’s eyes to brighten. These past few days, he had constantly felt as if a mass of blazing flame was burning within his heart. He heavily nodded as he looked at Yun Che, “Brother Yun, I thank you for your words of guidance. I am the successor of the Golden Crow Divine Spirit. Even if I’m too inexperienced right now, I and my Golden Crow flame will absolutely be not weaker than any person in the future.”

“Brother Yun, I may be far, far inferior to you at the moment, but… in three years, I will certainly… I will certainly make you, Master, and the entire Eastern Divine Region see me in a new light!”

“Good!” Yun Che nodded as he brought his brows together. “I’ll be waiting for that day! I’m also going to give my all so as to not be surpassed by you! Therefore, don’t you slack for even a day during these ‘three thousand years!’”

Huo Poyun reached out with his hand and heavily shook hands with Yun Che. He had a faint smile on his face, as if clouds had been pushed aside and fog had dispersed from it. Afterwards, he turned around and flew far away into the distance.

“Phew.” Seeing the departing figure of Huo Poyun, Yun Che sighed and relaxed inwardly, before speaking to himself, “Brother Poyun, best of luck.”

Huo Poyun didn’t notice that when Yun Che had mentioned about cultivating for three thousand years inside the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm, he said “you,” not “we.”

In the God Realm, Huo Poyun was the only person that Yun Che considered a true friend. It was not only due to his nature, there was also another reason for that—he was the last successor of the Golden Crow Divine Spirit.

When he was in the Illusory Demon Realm, he was not only bestowed the divine blood and divine soul of the Golden Crow’s soul, he also received a lot of guidance from it. When he was full of despair on the verge of death after being poisoned by Moonflower, it was the Golden Crow’s soul that guided Feng Xue’er on how to save his life with the Flame of Nirvana. When the devil origin orb in his possession exploded in succession, it was once again the Golden Crow’s soul that forcibly helped him keep his life every time the explosion happened at the cost of reducing its existential energy repeatedly.

In the end, the Golden Crow’s soul bestowed the last of its energy to the Little Demon Empress, and then completely vanished.

Yun Che didn’t even get the chance to repay all the favors it had done.

That was why he was not only friendly to Huo Poyun, but possessed very special feelings for him. He had always subconsciously wanted to repay the favors the Golden Crow’s soul had done for him to Huo Poyun.

Huo Poyun had constantly been suffering mental setbacks for these past two days, and Huo Rulie also didn’t have the mood to see him in such a state. It was actually Yun Che who racked his brains to resolve the issue for him.

Compared to the matter of Huo Poyun, the true big issue was the thing he was going to face soon.

Three days later… Jun Xilei!

Lu Lengchuan had confessed with certainty in his voice that there was absolutely an insurmountable difference between his and Jun Xilei’s strengths.

The only thing he could rely on right now were the seven Time Wheel Pearls. But, was it really possible for him to greatly lessen such an enormous difference in strength in the short period of seven months?

When he returned to the courtyard, Mu Bingyun was quietly waiting for him. Her first words were, “How are you planning to deal with Jun Xilei?”

“No idea.” Yun Che shook his head. “I have seven Time Wheel Pearls in my possession. If I can achieve a great breakthrough in these seven months, I might be able to put up a fight against her… probably.”

The entire Eastern Divine Region was in an uproar to see someone from a middle star realm making it into the ranks of the Four Conferred God Children, but there was not the slightest sign of joy or excitement on Mu Bingyun’s face. She had an extremely deep and serious look instead. She let out a light sigh, “It seems that it is still not enough for you even after reaching such heights… You’re determined to win the battle against Jun Xilei, right?”

“Yes, I am!” Yun Che said in a resolute and decisive tone of voice.

There were still three days before the battle, so Yun Che didn’t immediately activate the time wheel barrier to cultivate. Rather, he sat by the pond once again, as he closed his eyes and concentrated his mind to think hard. The period of seven months might seem quite nice to increase his profound strength, but he was very clear about the reality in his heart. It was impossible for him to catch up with Jun Xilei in just seven months, given the huge difference in their strengths.

He had to think of some other method… Was there any way that could increase his strength by a great margin in such a short time? Was there any way that could greatly amplify the might of the Heaven Smiting Sword…?

Time quickly passed by as he pondered over it. Unbeknownst to him, the sky had already started to get dark.

When the curtain of night was about to enshroud the world, Yun Che suddenly raised his head as an unusual firelight flashed in his eyes for an instant. It was at this time that an angrily rebuking voice came from the outside:

“Yun Che, get the hell over here!!”

Right after, a blue light beam shot down from the sky and immediately blew the large gate of the courtyard to pieces.

At this time, there was no doubt that all the people from the Snow Song Realm were alarmed. Mu Bingyun, Mu Huanzhi, and the others instantly came out to face the attacker, but they were dumbfounded when they saw a woman entering their residence with a sword in her hand.

The woman was dressed in blue, she had a fairy-like beauty, and fantastically colorful light was emitting from the sword in her hand.

It was actually Shui Yingyue.

As the eldest daughter of the Glazed Light Realm King and one of the Four God Children of the Eastern Region, Shui Yingyue had long been famous throughout the Eastern Divine Region. Most believed that she had the same nature as her name; calm and gentle like water, noble and quietly elegant like a moon. She had almost never shown visible changes in her emotions… But in this moment, Shui Yingyue had a chilly look in her eyes, and her snow white face was full of anger. Not only did she have her Jade Rivulet Sword unsheathed, there was also faint killing intent emitting from it.

Yun Che stood up with a “thud” as his scalp went numb… It’s over. She found out what I did. I’m so f*cking dead!