Against the Gods - Volume 07 - Heaven Smiting Shakes the World

by Mars Gravity

  Why… am I still unable to kill him…

  Why did I still lose in such an ugly, humiliating manner…

  Why is it always like this…

  Vengeance… the only reason for me to go on living… For the sake of vengeance, I went through hell… and paid the most disastrous price…

  Could it be that I cannot even achieve… the only thing that I am living for now…

  NO…

  How could I… how could I… lose to him… How could I lose?!

  Fen Juechen’s body continued to sink into the deep waters, but he finally began to move. His right arm began to slowly rise up as a bead of jet black blood rose up from his fingertip. His eyes focused on that bead of blood and he mumbled a few words as if he were talking in his sleep, “Daylight Devour… Lightless Eternal Night…”

  On the surface of the waters, Yun Che had not retrieved the Fen Juechen who sunk deep into the ocean. Instead he stood there, staring quiety at the water. His face solemn and grave because he was beginning to feel that something was amiss with the whole situation.

  To think that he could so easily injure Fen Juechen to such a serious extent.

  Even the wound on his right shoulder was taken so that he could land a heavy blow onto Fen Juechen.

  The entire process was so easy that it felt rather unnatural.

  When he thought about it calmly, when he had been dodging and defending, Fen Juechen’s power, aura, and every single one of his dark attacks had all been peerless and terrifying. Yet the moment he had engaged Yun Che in hand to hand combat… his profound energy continuously grew weaker and more chaotic each time they clashed. The power of his dark attacks also continued to plunge as well.

  Even if his profound energy was not stable, it should not have become this wild in such a short period of time.

  So what exactly was going on?

  “Be careful!!” Jasmine’s cold voice rang out all of the sudden, “There is no way that he would be defeated so easily. Even though the wounds he has suffered are considerably heavy, he still has a measure of strength left. Furthermore, it seems as if he is planning to release all of that strength in one shot.”

  “Mn, I’ve noticed it as well.” Yun Che said, his gaze growing more and more intense as he stared at the waters below. The Heaven Smiting Sword in his hand blazed with flames once more.

  Chapter 748: Lightless Eternal Night, Yellow Springs Ashes

  Under the blue ocean, Yun Che could feel that Fen Juechen had stopped sinking. Even though he was seriously wounded, the aura on him was still expanding with surprising speed… In the blink of an eye, he had actually surpassed the peak status of the profound strength he had before, and was continuing to increase with extreme speed.

  At the same time, an extremely gloomy, suppressed aura spread through heaven and earth silently, as if a terrifying storm that could end the world was quietly brewing.

  Yun Che’s eyebrows also tightened more and more. Of the two strikes that hit Fen Juechen before, the first strike smashed all of the bones on his chest, and the strength of the second strike destroyed his whole body. If it was someone else, that person would’ve died instantly. Even though Fen Juechen was seriously injured, it wasn’t enough to kill him. However, when he was knocked into the ocean, his vitality and the aura of his profound energy became incredibly weak… But it was at this moment, an unusual burst of power appeared.

  Could it be… under his unwillingness, he triggered some kind of forbidden power?

  As Yun Che was surprised by it, the ocean region below him suddenly became all pitch-black… this severe change did not happen gradually, instead, it happened in an instant. As far as the eyes could see, the huge blue ocean region had become black, a thick ink-like black. Before Yun Che could react, the world before his eyes also became pitch-black all of a sudden, and he could not see any trace of light anymore.

  Hundred of kilometers away, Feng Xue’er brought Xiao Lingxi and flew to the edge of the ocean region. Just as their bodies passed the edge of the ocean coast, a pitch-black world appeared before them.

  “Ah!!” Feng Xue’er and Xiao Lingxi both exclaimed at the same time.

  This pitch-black world was a couple hundred kilometers away, but it was as if it was right before their eyes. The region that was covered by the dark night was like a black hole that was carved into the world. The things within it were all completely swallowed, disappeared, and turned into nothingness.

  A gloomy, irritating emotion shrouded Feng Xue’er’s mind and soul. She immediately became alert, and used the Phoenix profound energy to protect her heart. At the same time she transferred a large amount of energy to protect Xiao Lingxi. This pitch-black color overflowed with power which possessed an aura more terrifying than anything Feng Xue’er had ever seen. The unsettling feeling she felt increased more than ten times. She held Xiao Lingxi tight with her arms and said hastily, “Let us hurry.”

  Before her anxious voice faded, Feng Xue’er’s whole body burned with Phoenix flames, her flying speed increased suddenly as they rushed towards the pitch-black regions like a Phoenix resurrected in fire.

  Yun Che’s surroundings had become a field of darkness. Moreover, it wasn’t just normal darkness due to the absence of light as within the darkness, Yun Che felt as if he had been fallen into a pitch-black swamp as the air surrounding him became viscous and thick. Even simply moving a finger took many times more strength than normal. Countless oppressive, ghastly, ice-cold auras came from all directions and surged into his mind, eroding it. This kind of mind erosion was extremely terrifying. If these auras had entered the minds of others, they would already have corroded those minds with negative emotions, and perhaps even driven those people crazy. However, due to the Dragon God Soul, Yun Che didn’t need to fear these auras for now.

  “This ‘Lightless Eternal Night,’ one of the high level domains within the 《Illusory Devil Tome of Eternal Night》!” Jasmine said in a serious tone, “With Fen Juechen’s current ability, he can barely activate it. He might even need to pay an enormous price.”

  “Lightless Eternal Night?” Yun Che started to feel countless spooky, bone-piercing aura gush crazily towards him. Slowly, he felt like he seemed to be swallowed into the stomach of a giant monster, and would be digested into nothingness anytime.

  “Everything that is covered by this domain will be swallowed whole once they are covered by this domain. Not a single trace would be left… including light!” Jasmine said in a low voice, “Now that this domain has covered an entire seventy five kilometers, even if you used all your strength, you would still unable to forcefully escape from it before it completely devours you… the only thing you can do right now is to forcefully tear it open.”

  Even with his spiritual perception, Yun Che was completely unable to perceive the edges of this pitch-black domain, as if it were endless. As his surroundings became increasingly dark and viscous, the range of Yun Che’s spiritual sense continued to decrease, and the amount of effort for each breath doubled. It reached a point where Yun Che began to feel a trace of despair from being trapped within this endless black hole.

  “Yun… Che!!” The sound of devilish voice wailing resonated over from the depths of the dark domain. It was none other than Fen Juechen, who had become completely twisted due to his immense hatred and enmity, “Disappear… forever!!!”

  He could hear Fen Juechen’s voice, but he wasn’t able to detect where he was because this voice came from every corner of the Dark Domain. At this moment, Yun Che was almost suffocated and couldn’t even breathe. The devouring energy shrouded his whole body and the whole world, and his protective profound energy was almost pushed to its defending limit.

  As the time of the terrifying crisis became increasingly near, Yun Che’s face remained extremely stiff, but the glint in his eyes became increasingly frosty and serene. At this time, a trace of light suddenly appeared below the corner of his eye.

  A light which shouldn’t have been able to appear wi
thin this dark domain.

  Yun Che’s vision was quickly redirected as he focused below him… the light wasn’t a hallucination or illusion. Although it weak, it was real. Moreover, it appeared to contain a unique vermilion!

  Yun Che was incredibly familiar with this smear of vermilion… it was the color that belonged to the Heaven Smiting Sword!

  As Yun Che’s mind willed it, in the blink of an eye, his entire body’s profound energy was condensed atop the Heaven Smiting Sword. The next moment, the Heaven Smiting Sword became enveloped in burning flames. Using the Heaven Smiting Sword as a catalyst, Golden Crow flames began to blaze fiercely. An extremely intense glow of fire emerged amidst the darkness within this dark domain which had devoured all light.

  The Golden Crow flames blazed atop the Heaven Smiting Sword, illuminating its blade along with Yun Che’s face and figure. It also completely dispersed the darkness around him within a diameter of three meters. Within this seemingly endless dark domain, he had easily burned out an area of light.

  After burning a hole in this area, a strange light flashed through Yun Che’s eyes as they became focused and he sliced out in front of him with his sword.

  BOOM!!

  A dull roar followed the trajectory of the Heaven Smiting Sword’s slice as the dark space in front of Yun Che was viciously torn apart. A several meter long trench of blinding, blazing flames began to burn amidst the darkness in front of him, only disappearing after quite a while.

  “An extremely strong aura and a similarly terrifying momentum. However, it seems… it’s not that special after all.”

  The pressure which had been weighing on his mind suddenly lessened by several times. The feeling perceived by Yun Che’s body and spiritual sense earlier could be described as extremely terrifying. He had been unable to free himself from it, and was even more incapable of tearing it. At the time, he could even clearly feel the aura of death… He had never thought that this shockingly powerful dark domain would actually be so vulnerable against the Golden Crow flames. It might have seemed scary on the outside, but on the inside, it was just a paper tiger which broke with the slightest touch!

  Jasmine, “…”

  If so…

  Yun Che’s hands gripped the Heaven Smiting Sword which was ablaze with flames. As the flames burned, two faint scarlet flames carrying traces of gold emerged within Yun Che’s pupils. Behind him, the image of a giant golden crow slowly appeared and then quickly came into being as a heatwave crazily spread through the surroundings.

  “Golden Crow flames’ destruction domain, Yellow Springs Ashes!”

  BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

  The silhouette of the golden crow gave a long cry toward the sky, causing the air to tremble and the earth to crash. The flames which originated from a primordial true god were extremely hot and carried an unparalleled power of incineration as they forcefully tore through layer after layer of the Dark Domain. Even with the dark profound energy as a medium, the darkness which had devoured all light suddenly combusted and became blindingly bright due to the extreme flames.

  Deep howls echoed around the dark domain like ghostly wails as the darkness which hid the day madly attacked the Golden Crow flames in hopes of enveloping and devouring them. At first, the darkness was still barely able to contend with the Golden Crow flames to a standstill. However as more and more of the domain was torn and blown apart, the Golden Crow flames quickly became an unstoppable force as thousands of rips and hundreds of holes appeared amidst the formerly complete world of darkness.

  “Ah!!!”

  In the face of the oncoming heat, Feng Xue’er suddenly stopped as she let out a sound of shock. The originally cool ocean breeze became hot like a flame as several hundred meters of high waves began to madly roil and surge in the ocean below, forcing Feng Xue’er to fly up to an altitude of three thousand meters. As she looked forward, she saw that the giant area of darkness had undergone enormous change as streak after streak of flames pierced out the sides of the darkness. In the blink of an eye, the world of darkness had already become ragged.

  The darkness struggled as the flames devoured. Atop the roiling ocean, it was as if two giant beasts were fighting; a scarlet beast and a black beast were ruthlessly tearing at each other’s throats.

  However, the darkness was clearly not an opponent for the scarlet flames which had later emerged. Before long, exposure to the burning scarlet flames caused the area of darkness to fall apart and turn into countless scattered fragments. Even without touching the incinerating flames, these fragments quickly dissipated on their own. As the flames continued to burn, they became increasingly intense. They had long since dyed the dark sky a thorough red, and had caused an extremely thick layer of steam which was hundreds of meters long to emerge atop the ocean and linger there.

  The gusting winds were now no longer suppressed, and became increasingly violent and hot. In order to protect Xiao Lingxi, Feng Xue’er propped up a giant scarlet red shield. Afterwards, they welcomed the violent gusts, and used it to increase their speed as they flew east.

  Big Brother Yun… Please don’t let anything happen to him…

  In the sky within an area of five kilometers, only the blazing Golden Crow flames remained as they continued to burn until the last trace of the darkness had been exterminated.

  Under Yun Che’s “Yellow Springs Ashes,” Fen Juechen’s “Lightless Eternal Night” had been completely defeated.

  It seemingly didn’t even have the power to put up any resistance.

  The arm Yun Che had raised slowly fell as he withdrew the Heaven Smiting Sword into the Sky Poison Pearl. Once the Heaven Smiting Sword left his body, a heavy feeling of near collapse was felt through every inch of his body. Even though it could be said that the process of destroying Fen Juechen’s Dark Domain went through without a hitch, it didn’t mean that he could relax. The aftermath of releasing a Yellow Springs Ashes which contained all his power left the profound energy in his body at a deficit. The reason why he had withdrawn the Heaven Smiting Sword was because he probably wouldn’t even be able to lift the Heaven Smiting Sword for ten breaths in his current condition.

  But at least his condition was by far better than Fen Juechen’s.

  The flames that filled the sky began to fall with each ball of fire leaving behind an expanse of water vapor which shot into the sky… If the power of the Golden Crow flames Yun Che released was increased by just a little bit, even water vapor would not arise for it would instead burn the water into nothingness.

  Phew…

  Yun Che let out a slow exhale, then extended his hand. As his palm faced the boiling ocean’s surface, he quickly released a streak of profound energy.

  Bang!!!

  The surface of the ocean exploded as a black human silhouette flew out in a straight line at Yun Che, and was firmly sucked into Yun Che’s grasp.

  Even though he had been soaked in ocean water for a long time, Fen Juechen’s bloodstains still had not completely been washed off his body. There were at least tens of external injuries on his body that still slowly oozed with blood. The blood which stuck on his wounds and body was an abnormal scarlet black color.

  Fen Juechen’s life force and profound strength aura was already incomparably weak. Only the phrase “hanging on by a thread” could be used to describe his current appearance. All four of his limbs dangled as he was being grabbed by the back by Yun Che. Although he was no longer able to use even an iota of his strength, his consciousness had not collapsed yet. In a weak, hoarse, and painfully low voice, he uttered…

  “Why… would… it be like this…”

  “How… could… I possibly… have lost…”

  “How could… I lose…”

  Yun Che didn’t say a single word. He lifted his left arm to Fen Juechen’s head and after a flash of radiance, his profound handle shot out of his arm, instantly entering Fen Juechen’s forehead, attacking his mind and soul.

  He wanted to know where Fen Juechen’s str
ange power came from. He also wanted to know what exactly was the “Illusory Devil Tome of Eternal Night” Jasmine had mentioned.

  After a few breaths of time, Yun Che’s complexion changed slightly. After a brief deadlock, the profound handle flew out of Fen Juechen’s body, returning to Yun Che’s arm.

  “What a tenacious mind and willpower.” Yun Che muttered in astonishment, “He could actually still resist the Profound Handle Soul Search in that state.”

  “Not only has his profound strength explosively increased, his soul has also qualitatively changed. Adding onto his originally strong willpower, even if he’s half dead, you wouldn’t be able to succeed if you conduct a Profound Handle Soul Search.” Jasmine stately indifferently, not surprised at all about this outcome.

  “…” Yun Che swept his eyes across the surface of the ocean, dove down, and threw the near dead Fen Juechen onto a broken reef.

  “You are not going to kill him?” Jasmine said coldly. She didn’t feel any killing intent on Yun Che. And his action now was obviously letting Fen Juechen go, “The consequences of cutting the grass without digging up the roots are right before your eyes. Do you want to make the same mistake on the same person again?”

  “I really want to kill him,” Yun Che took a light breath as his face showed helplessness. A terrifying trouble was created all because he let Fen Juechen go back then. With Fen Juechen’s almost heaven defying growth speed, if he let him leave alive, it would be like planting a disaster that would be who knows how many times larger than today.

  But…

  Chapter 749: Unwilling Defeat

  “Sigh…” Yun Che shook his head and extended a hand towards Fen Juechen. He did not do it to deliver the final blow, but to release the energy of heaven and earth that he had stored up quite a while ago, as he transferred it into Fen Juechen’s body.

  Fen Juechen’s wounds were immediately sealed as a faint energy circulated within his almost exhausted profound veins and meridians… Although weak, it was enough to allow Fen Juechen to move again, so much that he could fly out of the Eastern Ocean region.