Against the Gods (Web Novel)

“Qi’er!”

“Qinghan!!”

“AH~~~~!!”

The sky was filled with Zhou Xuzi’s heart-wrenching screams.

They were like the howls of a despairing beast, or the wails of a wraith in pain… anyone who heard them would never believe that they belonged to the Eternal Heaven God Emperor himself.

Nothing he had ever experienced in his nightmares came close to the cruel despair of watching his own children and grandchildren being slaughtered right in front of him.

He screamed and attacked the image in the sky like a madman, but no matter how many times the projection crumbled and reformed, he couldn’t stop hearing Yan Three’s demonic laughter, couldn’t stop watching Yan Three tearing his people apart again and again.

Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi—

Yan Three swung his arms repeatedly until he formed a gigantic web of darkness made of black claw marks.

Everything beneath it—even space itself—was turned into fleshy bits and bloody mist.

Zhou Xuzi eventually stopped moving.

Blood blurred his vision and tore his heart and soul into pieces.

His whisk slipped out of his grasp and hit the cold, hard ground beneath him.

His face was full of tears.

Less than two years ago, after Zhou Qingchen died, he thought that there was nothing in the world that could make him cry anymore.

He was wrong. Not only was he crying tears, he was crying blood out of his eyes, his ears, his nose, his mouth… every orifice on his face was bleeding as his vision alternated between gray and white. Then, the entire world started spinning faster and faster...

Pu!

He suddenly opened his mouth and threw up blood. There was so much blood that it actually formed a huge blood mist. Then, he fell from the sky without warning and hit the ground hard.

Chi Wuyao walked up to him and glanced at him from the corner of her eye. The well respected Eternal Heaven God Emperor was vomiting blood like it was free and lying limply on the ground like a piece of dead wood. The light in his eyes had faded completely, leaving behind only murky, deathly gray.

She didn’t look at him for more than an instant. She then asked coldly and pitilessly, “Does it hurt?”

“...” Pushing himself off the ground, Zhou Xuzi raised his head shakily and stared at Chi Wuyao with blurry, bloody vision. His face was so white that he looked like a man at the end of his lifespan.

“You… devils!” He uttered hoarsely. Every word was wet with blood.

“Heh.” Chi Wuyao chuckled. “You are correct. When every person in the world calls you a devil, when you are locked away in a cage and slaughtered like prey, what else can you be but a devil?”

“Even better, the world did this simply because we possess darkness profound energy… not because we had ever committed any unforgivable crimes.” She sneered. “Am I right, O’ righteous one?”

Zhou Xuzi grabbed his bloodstained whisk and looked up again. His grayish white pupils were now dyed by blood red violence. “You… monstrous devils… all deserve to be destroyed by the heavenly law!”

At this point, he was starting to lose his mind. He was already a firm believer that all devil people must die from the start, and his hatred for them only deepened after the terrible death of Zhou Qingchen, and now the destruction of Eternal Heaven Realm.

Chi Wuyao smiled coolly and sorrowfully. “Four years ago when the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor returned, she could’ve enslaved all the beings in the Primal Chaos and allowed her kin, the hateful devil gods to vent their million-year hatred on the God Realm and turn it into the worst purgatory in existence.”

“It was she, the empress of devils who chose to sacrifice herself and her entire clan for the sake of those who were countless planes beneath her level. It was she who protected the entire world and the Primal Chaos.”

“Jasmine, the Heavenly Slaughter Star God was hunted all over the place after a devil artifact transformed her into a devil. But she still showed up when the time called for it and sealed the crimson crack with the Evil Infant’s power.”

“As for Yun Che, I could tell you that he already had darkness profound energy from the first day he entered the God Realm. This means that the Yun Che you knew was a devil person from the very beginning.”

“Yet he was the one who stood up and faced the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor when the rest of you were on your knees and shaking like leaves. He even believed that saving the world was his sworn duty, as funny as it sounds.”

“It was because of him the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor ultimately chose to depart the Primal Chaos.”

A dark gleam gathered soundlessly in Chi Wuyao’s eyes as she continued, “You, Zhou Xuzi, know better than anyone who the person was that averted that calamity and saved everyone.”

“The Devil Emperor, the Evil Infant. and Yun Che are all devils. I won’t even deny that they are some of the purest and most extreme of all devils. But it was they who saved the God Realm and all the living beings of the Primal Chaos! They are the reason you’re still alive to call us devils right now!”

“...” A trembling, inhuman noise escaped Zhou Xuzi’s throat.

The black gleam in her eyes grew darker and darker. “When a person speaks of people with sacred hearts, they should really look to the Devil Emperor, the Evil Infant, and Yun Che as their examples. These are the people who wanted to save the world and actually did so to prove it.”

“What about you!? You claim to be a man of virtue and justice, but you are the one who ambushed the Evil Infant and sent her out of the Primal Chaos, the person who had just saved your life! You are the one who drove Yun Che to a dead end right after he saved the world, even going so far as to bring everyone to his homeworld and destroying everything he loved in a single day!”

“Heh.” Chi Wuyao chuckled again. “The righteous way you believe in is nothing but a joke. Zhou Xuzi, are you truly that blind to the ugliness of your own beliefs?”

“Do you really not understand why Long Bai, Nan Wansheng, and Qianye Fantian turned against Yun Che the moment the Devil Emperor was gone!?”

“All these years you spearheaded the hunt for Yun Che all over the God Realm, are you really trying to carry out the justice you claim to believe in, or are you just averting your eyes from the ugly darkness you never dared to touch in your heart!?”

“Shut up… shut up!!” Zhou Xuzi suddenly broke his dead silence and swung his whisk at Chi Wuyao. However, the power that came out was unstable and chaotic.

Rumble!

The earth cracked under his power, but all the attack managed to do to Chi Wuyao was lift the hem of her skirt a little.

“Oh right, there’s one more thing I forgot to tell you, the most important thing of it all.” Chi Wuyao’s voice grew more and more transient. “Before that fateful day, Yun Che was a man who couldn’t stop butting into another person’s business and saving oppressed mortals who had nothing to do with him at all.”

“Today, he became a man who could slaughter your entire realm without blinking.”

“From a God Child Messiah to a Devil Master who dreams of burying the entire Eastern Divine Region in a sea of blood… who do you think is the one who drove him to change so drastically in just a few years?”

Zhou Xuzi started shaking from head to toe. His head in particular was shaking so violently that it was as if his neck was broken.

The prophesied words that had been haunting his dreams for the past few years started ringing like a death knell from hell.

Yet despite the utter chaos in his mind, Chi Wuyao’s devilish voice continued to reach the deepest parts of his soul unhindered.

“Yun Che saved the Eastern Divine Region, the Eternal Heaven God Realm, you and your family.”

“Now, blood is raining all across the Eastern Divine Region, and countless pitiful souls are doomed to die without even a grave to remember them by. Your ancestors’ lands are turning into bloodied rubble, and your descendants are screaming and dying a worse death than even the devil people you’ve slaughtered your whole lives…”

“Who do you think is the one who created such a terrible devil? Who do you think is the one who damned his people, his homeland, and the whole Eastern Divine Region?”

Bang!

Zhou Xuzi’s whisk sank deeper into the ground. His head was shaking even harder than before, and his eyes were shockingly white. “No… no… say no more… it wasn’t me… it wasn’t me… say no more!”

No matter how his soul struggled, the devilish voice invading his soul was as clear as his nightmares. “This is a sin that cannot be atoned for even if a pillar of shame is erected above your grave, and the people spat and cursed you for a million lifetimes.”

“Your descendants… assuming any are left when this is all over, shall bear your shame and sin for eternity. They will cower in darkness and be cursed by the living for as long as they live, never be able to lift their heads high again.”

“When you enter the Yellow Springs, your ancestors will never forgive you either. All they will do is nail you to the most painful cross they can find in the purgatory!”

“Shut up!!!”

Zhou Xuzi suddenly leaped into the air and tried to grab Chi Wuyao’s neck. His profound energy was chaotic and out of control.

Chi Wuyao didn’t move a muscle, but Zhou Xuzi missed completely and hit the ground.

Instead of standing up, he sank his fingers into the earth and muttered in a trembling voice, “I am right… I am right! He is the devil god who will slaughter the world… he killed my son… the devil people shouldn’t exist… the Evil Infant shouldn’t exist… I did it for the people… I did it for justice…”

“I am right… I am right… I am right…”

Suddenly, the black gleam in Chi Wuyao’s eyes turned into an invisible shadow and invaded Zhou Xuzi’s soul.

The man himself didn’t notice or react to it at all.

Chi Wuyao’s lips curled up as a cold gleam flashed across her pupils.

Zhou Xuzi’s soul was a lot weaker than she had imagined. Perhaps he had been tormented by something he dared not even look at since Yun Che had escaped to the Northern Divine Region.

The horrible tragedy at Eternal Heaven Realm was still being projected all over the Eastern Divine Region. Zhou Xuzi hit the ground with his head while doing everything in his power to seal his own hearing and vision. He hated himself for not being able to knock himself out and wake up to a whole new reality.

Chi Wuyao slowly walked toward him and extended her palm… but whatever she was going to do was cut off by three approaching white lights.

Chi Wuyao turned and appeared several kilometers away in the blink of an eye. Three Guardians appeared next to Zhou Xuzi instead.

“Let’s go, my lord!!”

One of them shouted sorrowfully before lifting Zhou Xuzi to his feet. Then, they escaped into the distance without any pause whatsoever.

Chi Wuyao didn’t chase after them. She simply watched as Zhou Xuzi was taken away by the Guardians.

Eyes twinkling like the stars of the darkest night, an eerie smile slowly spread across her lips.

“Che’er,” she whispered. “I told you that I would make anyone who hurts you pay a hundred thousand times over.”

“Death would be too easy on him. He will live to enjoy the rest of his life.”

Her voice was charming, but her words were the cruelest, most devilish curse in the entire world.

————

Meanwhile, the war at the Eternal Heaven God Realm was still going.

Yan Three was attacking Honorable Tai Yu and destroying him. The latter was already injured in the first place, and his mind was blown away by everything that was happening around him. As a result, Yan Three was able to suppress him and injure him severely in just the blink of an eye.

As for Qianye Ying’er, Yan Three had shoved her out of the fight with his aura.

He was a Yama Ancestor! He would have to dig himself a hole and hide inside if he cooperated with another profound practitioner to suppress a mere Guardian!

Qianye Ying’er put away her weapon and walked up to Yun Che. She shot a glance at the great projection formation in the air before asking, “How are you? Are you feeling better now?”

“Feeling better?” Yun Che chuckled. “I am just withdrawing the life I granted them in the first place. They could die a million times, and it still won’t be enough to repay their debt. After all, the dead cannot come back to life, can they?”

“...” Her mother’s memory flashed across her eyes, and Qianye Ying’er fell silent for a very long time.

Suddenly, Yun Che’s eyes flashed when a sound transmission formation appeared in front of him. He asked, “Has the Moon God Realm mobilized their troops?”

“No.” Hua Jin’s voice came from the profound formation. “There is good news. Shui Meiyin is nowhere in the Moon God Realm, meaning that she may have escaped a long time ago. Also, the Moon God Realm split up their forces to search for Shui Meiyin just a while ago, so it is very unlikely that they’ll be able to reconverge in a short time.”

“Is that so?” Yun Che narrowed his eyes and smiled chillingly. “That… is fantastic news!”