Against the Gods

It was one of the darkest moments of Xia Qingyue’s life.

Yun Che had perished in the Primordial Profound Ark, the Blue Wind Nation was being trampled by the Divine Phoenix Empire and facing the threat of annihilation, and even Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace was backed against the wall and just waiting for death to claim them…

It had been so bad that the entire Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace had unanimously agreed to send her, their final hope through the dimensional formation left behind by the great ancestor master, Mu Bingyun, to carry on the flame.

However, the world she was teleported to was of a higher plane than she ever knew.

The natural spirit energy of this world was unnaturally rich, and the people here were powerful beyond imagination and resistance.

Xia Qingyue was a Tyrant Profound Realm profound practitioner at the age of twenty; an unprecedented achievement back in her homeworld. In this new world though? The very first two people she met had backed her into a dead end with the merest flick of a finger.

Standing before her were two profound practitioners in blue robes. They were both in the Divine Origin Realm.

In the God Realm, the Divine Origin Realm was but the starting line of one’s divine way. However, to Xia Qingyue, it was a wall of despair she couldn’t hope to surpass no matter what.

“My oh my, she probably rivals even the legendary Dragon Queen and Lady Goddess,” the man to her right said with lust filled eyes and grabby hands. “If we offer her to the sect master as tribute, I bet that he would reward us with ten Blue Scale Pellets at the very least!”

“Shh! Shut your trap. We are dead if anyone happens to hear your blasphemy,” the guy to her left rebuked his companion harshly. However, his lips quickly curled into a smirk. “I’ve seen many beauties, but one so extraordinary… I dare say that she may tempt even a God Emperor to sinfulness.”

“In a different place and time, she would be the exclusive property of a realm king, and we would be punished for the crime of staring at her for too long. However, she’s clearly no one important, and she is only a Mortal Realm Tyrant…” He looked at his companion with half-lidded eyes, “Are you sure you want to offer her to the sect master?”

“If even you don’t want to give her up, then I can only support your decision, can’t I?”

The two men exchanged a most ugly and evil laugh with each other.

Everything Xia Qingyue had heard, Yun Che also heard as a matter of course.

He locked his spiritual perception on the duo and memorized every characteristic of their persons.

He almost hoped that they were still alive and well in the present.

If they were, he would personally put them through the cruelest torture imaginable in the Primal Chaos even if they didn’t deserve even one lick of his attention.

Xia Qingyue slowly raised her blood-drenched arm and summoned a new sheen of ice across her sword.

“Hoh? Still going to resist futilely?”

The profound practitioner to her right casually pointed a finger at her and flicked it as if in jest.

Ding!

The ice shattered, and the sword snapped in half. However, the broken sword Xia Qingyue was holding traveled toward her neck instead! She had baited them into “assisting” her in committing suicide!

At the same time, she gathered all of her profound energy to destroy her own life vein.

Both profound practitioners blanched when they realized what was happening. They didn’t think that Xia Qingyue was the type of woman who would rather break than yield to them.

They let out strange cries and pounced toward her, but everything was moving too quickly. Divine Origin Realm or not, there was no chance they would be able to stop her in time.

It was at this moment a dull yet impossibly terrifying boom resounded from the distant sky.

It was the sound of space itself being shifted.

At the same time, a pressure powerful enough to encompass the entire world fell from the sky.

Xia Qingyue’s sword froze before it could make contact with her snow white neck. The profound energy she gathered to destroy her own life vein had frozen as well. The pressure enveloping her entire being was utterly ineffable. It froze her body and aura so thoroughly that she couldn’t move a finger even if she mustered all of her strength into one point.

It was the same for the other two profound practitioners.

A small profound ark about three hundred meters long appeared in the sky. [1]

Standing at the bow of the ark was a middle-aged man in light purple robes with his hands clasped behind his back. The profound ark was kicking up a powerful gale as it moved, but none of them could affect the middle-aged man in any way. All the light in the world seemed to focus on his person until one could see nothing but him.

The mere sight of him made the two profound practitioners feel like dropping to their knees and kowtowing in submission.

That wasn’t all. The profound symbol they glimpsed on the profound ark right before it shifted out of view caused their pupils to dilate to breaking point.

It was a divine moon, the totem of the Moon God Realm!

Not even in their wildest dreams did they imagine that they would make contact with a king realm one day!

Suddenly, the man on the bow shifted his gaze.

As if in response, a soul-shattering beam of divine energy flew toward Xia Qingyue and the duo.

However, both the beam and the profound ark suddenly froze as if time itself had skidded to a stop.

Then, amidst the frozen space, the man slowly descended on soil so humble that it wasn’t even worthy to be stepped on by him.

Three figures followed behind their master and descended the ground as well. However, their eyes were filled with surprise and puzzlement.

By now, the two blue-robed profound practitioners were so shocked that their hearts and even their blood flow had slowed to a complete stop. It took all of their remaining willpower to bend their knees and speak in trembling voices, “We… we greet… the V-venerable… Moon Gods.”

They didn’t know, and would never believe it even if they did know, that the man standing before them was none other than the Moon God Emperor, Yue Wuya himself.

To be fair, the three Moon Guards behind Yue Wuya couldn’t understand why their Moon God Emperor had personally descended to deal with something so trivial and common.

While Xia Qingyue was breathtakingly beautiful, they all knew that their Moon God Emperor wasn’t a wanton man, especially since a certain incident. He had barely had any physical contact with any other woman except her.

Suddenly, a thought crossed their minds all at once.

Wait a second, this woman…

“Is it just me, or does she look a little like…” A Moon Guard couldn’t help but send his companions a sound transmission.

“Silence!” He was immediately quieted by both of his companions.

Yue Wuya didn’t afford the two blue-robed profound practitioners even an instant of his attention. From the beginning, he had been watching Xia Qingyue and Xia Qingyue alone. He was the one who froze her broken blade and her profound energy before she could kill herself.

“What is your name?” he asked.

His voice sounded about as indifferent and dignified as one might expect from a God Emperor, but no one knew that he was really pushing down an unnatural surge of anticipation and hopefulness that even he had no idea of where it was coming from.

“...” Xia Qingyue watched the man who descended from the sky and cowed the two villains to utter stillness with just his presence. She had no doubt that he was an extraordinarily powerful and important man even in this world.

His eyes showed that he was a man who was long used to being in power, and common sense dictated that she should tread very carefully around him. And yet… not only did she feel no danger from him, she even felt a sense of inexplicable trust toward him.

“Xia Qingyue.” This was the first time she spoke her name in this strange world.

An unfamiliar name, a profound aura that hadn’t yet entered the divine way. Yue Wuya frowned and was about to ask another question when he noticed something. His pupils contracted in realization.

“The Heart of Snow Glazed Glass!”

At Yue Wuya’s height, there was almost nothing that could unsettle him anymore. However, he and the three Moon Guards behind him were clearly stunned by his words.

One would think that Yue Wuya’s next question would have something to do with the Heart of Snow Glazed Glass, but instead it was something that seemed to make no sense whatsoever. “Are you twenty-two years old right now!?”

“?” A trace of confusion flashed across Xia Qingyue’s eyes.

“Yes, or no?” Yue Wuya asked in a harsher tone. His eyes were even trembling a little.

“Yes,” Xia Qingyue replied.

Her answer caused Yue Wuya’s chest to heave greatly for an instant.

A short silence later, he said, “Kill them.”

The Moon Guard in the middle acted the moment he said those words. The two blue-robed profound practitioners never even got the chance to scream before they dissolved into ashes under a burst of moonlight. By the time the blast faded, even those ashes had become completely scattered into nothingness.

Still standing where he was, Yue Wuya said, “Now, kill yourselves.”

The emotionless voice caught all three Moon Guards by surprise. All three of them dropped to their knees as the Moon Guard to the right said panickedly, “God Emperor, we are absolutely loyal to the Moon God Realm—”

He didn’t finish his sentence because a sudden explosion had interrupted him. It was the Moon Guard who killed the two profound practitioners earlier committing suicide via detonating his own life vein.

“In this world, there is only one type of person that can be trusted to keep a secret. The dead.” Yue Wuya slowly closed his eyes. “The Moon Guards of my Moon God Realm cannot not understand something so simple?”

The two remaining Moon Guards shivered, but fell silent. If their God Emperor wanted them to die, then they must die.

Disobeying him would only earn them a worse death and bring harm to their families.

Buzz!

And so the two Moon Guards unleashed the final moonlight of their lives and committed suicide.

All three Moon Guards were powerful Divine Sovereigns who could reign as kings in a middle star realm. Now, they were all dead because Yue Wuya willed it so.

At the time, Xia Qingyue was far too green to even understand what was going on around her. After rising to her feet and gathering the only wisp of profound energy she could control to her fingertips, she asked, “Who… are you?”

“She looks like her… her age is a match… and it’s clear from her murky profound energy that she just ascended from a lower realm.”

He muttered dazedly to himself instead of answering Xia Qingyue’s question, “For a second Heart of Snow Glazed Glass to appear in this world… it can only… be her…”

It was impossible to tell if his expression was one of excitement or pain right now.

“Answer me one last question,” he asked again. “Did your mother leave you when you were four years old?”

“!?” Xia Qingyue’s eyes shook violently.

“Actually, forget it.” However, Yue Wuya had turned away before he could even see her reaction. Was it because he was afraid of hearing the answer he expected, or the opposite? “Come. I will take you to someone.”

“Don’t worry, I have no wish to harm you. If I did, you would not survive the flick of a finger even if you have a million spare lives.”

“If you turn down my offer, you will realize that your cultivation and your Heart of Snow Glazed Glass will quickly drive you into the abyss.”

…………

The scene turned blurry, and Yun Che’s surroundings reverted to the previous gray.

Xia Qingyue had encountered Yue Wuya the first day she was teleported to the God Realm.

She had actually told him about this, but it still pained Yun Che to witness the actual experience with his own eyes.

She wasn’t a divine way cultivator, and yet her features were excellent enough to tempt even a god emperor. No matter what Xia Qingyue did, it was always going to end in a horrible way for her unless a miracle happened.

In fact, she had escaped one fatal situation only to enter a deeper abyss almost immediately.

However, a miracle did happen. She had encountered Yue Wuya of all people and been taken away to the Moon God Realm before any real harm could be done to her.

Something was curious about this memory, however.

Yue Wuya’s reaction after meeting Xia Qingyue for the first time had puzzled Yun Che greatly.

Yun Che had never met Yue Wugou personally, but he had heard from Mu Xuanyin that Xia Qingyue was at best three to four-tenths similar to her mother in terms of appearance. At first glance, no one would think that she was the daughter of Yue Wugou.

So why did Yue Wuya, a god emperor, choose to speak with Xia Qingyue after just one glance from the bow of his ship?

Age, Heart of Snow Glazed Glass, lower realm…

As far as Yun Che could tell, Yue Wuya hadn’t made the connection that Xia Qingyue might be Yue Wugou’s daughter after asking these questions. It was the opposite. The possibility had popped in his mind almost the second he saw her, and the questions were just to confirm his suspicion.

The grayish world faded once more, and a new scene unfolded in Yun Che’s soul sea.

It was an incredibly beautiful pocket world with green grass, clusters of flowers, and soothing rivers. The gentle moon hanging in the sky also added a layer of mystery to the landscape.

The pocket world that practically no one could enter and no one knew about was located in the Divine Moon City of the Moon God Realm.

Xia Qingyue was standing beneath a tall, massively broad tree with a bluish green canopy. Two people were sitting face to face in front of her.

The first person was the Moon God Emperor, Yue Wuya. The second person was a pale-looking woman in a red dress.

Yue Wuya had one finger pressed against the area just above the solar plexus. It was where the heart vein was.

His eyes were closed, and his mind was fully focused. An indefinite amount of time later, pain suddenly flashed across his features.

Pwack!

His eyelids abruptly fluttered open, and his body began shaking violently. Despite his best attempts to suppress his reaction, he still spat out a mouthful of smelly blood that dyed the ground red.

“Wuya!” The woman in red dress hurriedly raised her hands to catch him. Her weak voice was tinged with deep panic.

However, Yue Wuya caught her instead and smiled at her. “Calm down. It’s just a bit of blood essence. It doesn’t affect me at all.”

He was probably the only person in the entire universe who would make such an outrageous claim.

1. (T/N: a 300 m flying ship is small for this world I guess)