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

by Mars Gravity

  “It is far from being just some great riddle.” Jasmine said as her long and delicate eyebrows faintly sank, “The things recorded in his memories are for more interesting than I had initially expected them to be!”

  Even though Jasmine labelled it as “interesting”, her expression had clearly become rather solemn.

  This undoubtedly caused Yun Che’s already great curiosity to grow even more as his suspicions became even heavier. Before, when Jasmine had yelled out the words “Illusory Devil Tome of Eternal Night”, her tone had been rather irregular. And right now, it seemed like the complexity of the situation far exceeded the boundaries of what he had initially imagined.

  “Could it be something that I am once again not allowed to know about?” Yun Che asked cautiously. Jasmine had hidden many things from him and if she did not feel like telling him, there was no way that he could even finagle a single word from her.

  Jasmine gave him a glance before haughtily turning her head aside once more, “Even though this matter is rather troublesome to talk about, since you’re so anxious to know about it… Hmph, today I finally got rid of the devilish poison and I’m feeling pretty good, so I’ll just tell you anyways. Whatever I’m about to say to you right now, you must never leak a single word of it to anyone in the future, no matter who you meet.”

  Damn me, it was this serious… Yun Che thought as he solemnly replied, “There is probably nobody in this world who knows me better than you, and whether or not I am a person who has no sense of what is important or not is something that you should know better than anyone.”

  “Hmph! When it comes to women, you have never once ever showed that you had your priorities set straight!” Jasmine coldly snorted.

  Yun Che was left utterly speechless.

  Jasmine extended an arm and with a flourish of her small hand, she set up a small sound obstruction barrier around Hong’er… This sound obstruction barrier was definitely not to prevent her from eavesdropping, on the contrary, it was to prevent their conversation from waking her up.

  This casual gesture merely illustrated the practically involuntary care and love that Jasmine had for Hong’er.

  Jasmine had always been protective and caring towards Hong’er, but she is forever so fierce towards me… Yun Che thought rather sourly.

  “During the Primordial Era, the Era of the Gods specifically, the other races were all deemed to be inferior and lowly existences. The north of the Primal Chaos Dimension was composed of yin energy while the south was composed of yang energy. The southern region of the Primal Chaos Dimension was the realm where the ancient god clan existed, whereas the northern region of the Primal Chaos Dimension was where the ancient devil clan lived. The god clan and the devil clan each controlled half of the Primal Chaos Dimension. The yin and yang energies of both clans repelled each other and both clans viewed the other with animosity, but actual conflict rarely occurred. It could even be said that they rarely came into contact with each other and a tenuous peace existed between the two clans. It was just like two conflicting elements which existed mutually as they balanced each other out.”

  Jasmine began to recite her tale, but the contents of her story caused Yun Che to become completely dazed as a question involuntarily escaped his lips, “All of this… what does it have to do with Fen Juechen?”

  “Do not interrupt!” Jasmine said with a loud scoff, “All of these naturally have something to do with Fen Juechen.”

  Yun Che, “…”

  “The reason that the gods and the devils were so strong was because they were birthed from the power produced at the very beginning of the primal chaos. Furthermore, they were also nurtured by the energy that was produced at the beginning of the primal chaos…. And the purest, strongest and most perfect energy of heaven and earth that was produced at the beginning of the primal chaos is the ‘primordial energy’ that I mentioned when I was teaching you the Great Way of the Buddha. Even though the energy that you absorb into your body using the Great Way of the Buddha is also the energy of heaven and earth, when you compare its quality to that of the quality of the ‘primordial energy’, it is inferior by heaven knows how many levels, it is akin to the difference between heaven and earth.”

  Yun Che naturally remembered the term “primordial energy”. At that time Jasmine had said this: If one could cultivate the Great Way of the Buddha until one reached the tenth stage, that person could use the ultimate energy of heaven and earth—primordial energy! But she had also said that for the body of a human, even being able to cultivate the sixth stage of the Great Way of the Buddha was already the extreme limit.

  “It was basically impossible for any more true gods to appear after the Era of the Gods, and the most fundamental reason behind that was that the primordial energy within the Primal Chaos Dimension had become so thin that it was no longer possible to nurture any more people with the bodies and strength of a true god. Furthermore, as the Primal Chaos Realm grew more and more turbid, this caused the primordial energy to become thinner as each year goes by. Thus, we are destined to never have a true god appear from among us ever again. And right now, it is possible that the initial ultimate and purest primordial energy that existed in the beginning might not even exist in the Primal Chaos Dimension anymore.

  “During that Ancient Era, the gods were at the pinnacle of all existence. And among the small worlds that exist across countless stars and worlds, a portion of them were naturally created by the primal chaos but the majority of them were created or transformed by the gods. More than ninety percent of the races in existence today were all created by the power of the gods. And that includes the human race, the demon race, the elven race, the dark nether race, the wood spirit race…”

  “Dark nether race, wood spirit… race? What sort of races are these?” Yun Che blurted out involuntarily. He had never ever heard of the name of these two races before, whether it was in the Profound Sky Continent or the Illusory Demon Realm, and there were no written records regarding them either.

  Jasmine rolled her eyes at him, seeming angry that she was interrupted once more, but this time she only gave a soft snort as she held her temper and continued to speak, “The wood spirit race is the same as the elven race, they are a clan which possesses an extreme intimacy with nature energy. They can communicate with plants and they have a certain degree of control over plants. The innate talent this clan has for cultivating profound energy is extremely low, therefore they are always weak and downtrodden. Furthermore, given their unique powers and physique, if they fall into the hands of those from outside their race, their fates will always be exceptionally miserable… they will be enslaved and treated as tools that could look for and nurture medicine, or even worse, their bodies might even be used to refine spirit medicines or medicine spirits! In the auction houses of my world, it was very common to see wood spirits being sold, and because there were less and less of this race of people and they began to teeter on the edge of extinction, their prices began to get higher and higher.

  Yun Che, “…”

  “The dark nether race is a race that subsists on darkness and has the ability to change their form at will. Their race doesn’t have any distinction between the genders and they can reproduce asexually. This size of this race isn’t small, but they can only exist in places where yin energy abounds; the profound strength they can cultivate by themselves is extremely low. However, they have the ability to harvest the souls of living creatures and they can devour these souls to greatly increase their strength.”

  “They… subsist… on darkness?” Yun Che’s eyes widened. He could understand if one subsisted on vegetation, morning dew or even wind, but to subsist on darkness… what the hell was this race??

  Could something like “darkness” even be eaten?

  “Hmph! Ignorant fool!” Jasmine said in a very disdainful manner, “Given your experiences, you may perhaps only know of the existence of humans, demons and beasts. But in this gigantic Primal Chaos Dimension, there exists h
undreds of small and large races, and the knowledge that you possess is not even equivalent to a single drop in the ocean! There not only exist races which subsist on darkness, there are even races that subsist on dreams and even space. It is rumored that during the Primordial Era, there was even a race that subsisted on time itself…”

  “~！@#￥%…” Yun Che’s brain was about to crash but he still could not imagine what it would be like to be able to eat dreams, space or even time…

  “Forget it, you have never even left this tiny Blue Pole Star before, so these are things that you will probably never understand in your lifetime and telling you these kind of things is equivalent to wasting my breath.” Jasmine folded her tender arms across her chest as she assumed a haughty posture which seemed to look down on everything else.

  “Moreover, the Era of the Gods ultimately met a most complete and thorough demise. And the reason for this demise was something that I mentioned to you a long time ago… it was because of one sword.”

  “Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword!” Yun Che whispered in a hoarse voice.

  Chapter 751: The End of the Era of Gods

  “The Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword existed since the primordial times. It was produced from the foundation and core power of the Primal Chaos Realm, it was also the Primal Chaos Realm’s first sword. It is the ancestor of every single sword and even every single weapon in the world! Ranked first in the Seven Heavenly Profound Treasures, it contains heaven defying strength. The legends say that even a powerless man wielding it, will be able to easily cut through the blue firmament and destroy the heavens.

  Jasmine duly described of this sword of legends… and even in the world she was born, the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword was also a legendary existence.

  “During the Era of Gods, no one had not heard of the name Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword. However, as the divine essence of its first owner, who was also its only owner in records—the head of the three Creation Gods “Mo E”, dissipated entirely and their lifespan ended, the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword also disappeared without a trace. No one had ever seen traces of it ever again, until seven hundred thousand years later. In the center of the primal chaos, the silhouette of the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword appeared once again.”

  Yun Che: “…”

  Jasmine closed her eyes, as if immersing herself within distant memories, and continued narrating unhurriedly. “Because it existed in the middle of the Primal Chaos, the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword was discovered by the god and devil races at the same time, and they inevitably wanted it for themselves. This was because by obtaining the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword, they would possess supreme power within the entire Primal Chaos. It was something that none of the gods could resist.”

  “Thus, in order to obtain the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword, the southern region of the Primal Chaos world of the gods and the northern region of the Primal Chaos world of the devils waged a fierce war. At first, both sides were simply fighting in order to obtain the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword. As the war became fiercer, as increasing numbers of gods perished at the hands of the devils and increasing numbers of devils were buried by the gods, hatred started to breed, spread and intensify, causing the war between the gods and devils to become more bitter, causing even more gods and devils to perish, and causing the animosity to further deepen…

  Yun Che was entranced, however, one sentence roared in his heart tens of times… What did this have to do with the matter of Fen Juechen!?

  “The fierce battle between the two races lasted for thirty thousand years, with the devil race starting to collapse, even their northern area of the Primal Chaos was slowly being occupied by the gods. The remnants of the devil race were slowly forced to the corners of the Primal Chaos…”

  “In despair, the devil race started a counterattack without a care for the consequences… They sacrificed the taboo device that even they were incomparably terrified of…”

  “The Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel!”

  Jasmine’s eyebrows trembled for a split second whilst mentioning the name, as if that memory was extremely terrifying… an existence which made even the True Gods tremble.

  “Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel?” Yun Che was slightly shocked, then he remembered, “The second ranking of the Seven Great Heavenly Profound Treasures, the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel which is second only to the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword?”

  “That’s right.” Jasmine closed her eyes once again, “Although its ranking within the Seven Heavenly Profound Treasures is second after the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword, the extent of its terror far exceeds the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword. Even just based on its slaughtering and destructive capabilities, it could probably even surpass the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword.”

  “The Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword was birthed from the purest and most sacred force of the Primal Chaos, it is the strongest and most sacred sword. The Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel on the other hand is the most extreme opposite, it was born from the darkest and most evil forces of the Primal Chaos, containing the most extreme, the most terrifying negative energy. Once that energy is activated, even gods will not be able to control it, not to mention anyone else. Thus, even though the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel had always existed in the northern Primal Chaos, the devil race had always sealed and isolated it with their utmost might, not to mention using its strength, they did not even dare to go near it. Even when they had to continuously retreat during their war with the god race, they had never thought of using the strength of the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel.

  “However, the god race utterly defeated the devil race and gradually occupied more and more of the northern Primal Chaos, with the intention of eradicating the devil race. In desperation and grief, the Devil Race utilized the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel in a frenzy.

  Jasmine’s brows could not help but tighten, there was even a hint of pain in her voice, it seemed as if the memory was too horrifying, “When the power of the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel was activated, a wail as if from an infant, yet sinister and terrifying to the extreme spread to every corner of the Primal Chaos, an aura of death and a shadow enveloped every inch of space.

  “If it were the god race of the golden age, perhaps they could have banded together to resist the power of the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel, however, although the god race was victorious, thirty thousand years of bitter war had made them pay an extremely disastrous price. The golden age of the gods had withered to a point which words could not describe, they simply did not have the power to resist the destructive strength of the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel. All the gods were either destroyed, severely injured, or were inflicted with evil energy, their divine essence quickly draining. They were better off dead.”

  “It was not only the god race which experienced such a disaster, even the devil race who activated the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel had experienced it too. That miserable disaster exceeds your imagination by countless times… Those which were cut down like straws were not simply petty creatures, but True Gods, supreme existences which could easily rule the heavens. In order to survive, the remnant god and devil race could not help but to unite in order to resist the power of the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel, however, it was already too late, both races were forced to the verge of extinction… the power of the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel had also neared its end, just when both races thought they could see the light at the end of the tunnel, the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel released an extremely toxic poison across the skies, leading the god and devil races into an abyss of despair.”

  “Poison?” Yun Che subconsciously whispered.

  “That kind of poison was called ‘Terminator of Life’. Although you are well versed in the arts of poison, you could never have heard of this kind of poison.” Jasmine said apathetically, “It is even scarier than the ‘Heaven
Wounding Thought Severing Poison’ that the Sky Poison Pearl can release! It is terrifying to the point that a True God can die by simply touching it!”

  Yun Che’s heart trembled, then he suddenly felt puzzled… Heaven Wounding Thought Severing Poison? What was that? How do I not know about it? When he initially used the poisonous strength of the Sky Poison Pearl, although the poison which was released was indeed scary, it was not to a level beyond reason. After using all of the poisonous strength, it was only enough to poison thirty-three cities and seventy-six sects.

  …Could it be that when I had obtained the Sky Poison Pearl, the poisonous strength had been depleted already?

  Jasmine’s eyes swept across Yun Che and noted his reaction, but developed a different notion, she turned her head and said, “You do not need to feel shocked. Although the Sky Poison Pearl has the words ‘Sky Poison’ in its name, poisonous strength is not its main ability, its main ability is to purify and refine… in fact, it has the most powerful purifying and refining ability in the word!”

  “However, even if it is the Sky Poison Pearl’s purifying abilities, whether it can purify the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel’s ‘Terminator of Life’ is unknown. The ‘Absolute God Slaying Poison’ that I was inflicted with and the devilish poison which Hong’er was inflicted with both originated from the evil essence of the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel when the ancient devil race used it. If it is able to produce a god slaying poison with simply its remnant aura, even True Gods would not be able to comprehend how terrifying the ‘Terminator of Life’ is which was produced with the original power of the Evil Embryo Eternal Tribulation Wheel. At least to me, even the Sky Poison Pearl would not be able to purify the ‘Terminator of Life’. If not, the the god race would not have been entirely wiped out.

  “…What happened after that? Were the god and devil races both destroyed just like this?” Yun Che asked in detail.