Against the Gods

Chapter 2021 - The Heretic God Reborn

The moment he set foot inside the Endless Fog—and this was just the edge of the area—the concentration of the abyssal dust abruptly increased by over ten times.

Wherever he looked, there was only grayish fog that resulted from condensed abyssal dust. It blotted out the light, the sounds, all sorts of auras and even one’s profound energy.

This meant that one’s profound energy would be suppressed to a certain extent inside the abyssal dust as well. The weaker one’s cultivation, the greater the suppression.

A zone that devoured life and suppressed both spiritual perception and profound energy. This reminded Yun Che of the dark energies that permeated the Northern Divine Region, but of course it couldn’t even come close to the potency of the abyssal dust.

He slowly walked through the Endless Fog. The world was horrifyingly silent, and his footsteps, despite his best efforts, sounded so clear that it shook the heart. The ground and the stones were grayish black. He couldn’t see any plants anywhere. They had all been corroded into all sorts of strange stones by the abyssal dust. Densely packed or sparsely scattered, as tall as mountains or as small as common rocks, it looked like a black forest that was permanently shrouded by grayish fog.

This was just the edge of the Endless Fog, and yet it portrayed the word “Deathliness” to the extreme. He could scarcely imagine what kind of “life” existed in the depths of the Endless Fog.

“What are you doing?”

A gentle, divine voice suddenly entered his mind. It was so sudden and unexpected that Yun Che nearly puffed up like a cat.

Resisting the urge to spit in a Creation God's face, Yun Che replied in a calm tone, “I’m testing this place’s suppression on my life aura and spiritual perception.”

He extended his arm, and the fog-like abyssal dust in front of him gave way. As he channeled his thoughts and soul power, the speed at which it dissipated clearly increased. When he opened his palm and unleashed his profound energy as well, the abyssal dust dissipated even faster.

Suddenly, he withdrew his profound energy. The surrounding abyssal dust slowly approached him before settling snugly between his fingers.

“As expected of the Ancestral God’s Sacred Body of Nothingness. It’s just the lowest level of control, but I don’t doubt that you’re the only one who can do this.”

“Even I am immune to abyssal dust because my life aura is connected to yours.”

Yun Che withdrew his arm and became absorbed in thought.

On his fourth day in the Qilin Abyss Realm, the abyssal dust could no longer erode him.

On his seventh day, its effect on his spiritual perception was practically non-existent.

On the fifteenth day, he could push away the surrounding abyssal dust with his profound energy a little, and he quickly discovered that he could do the same with soul energy.

Prior to the Qilin Abyss Conference, he could already control the abyssal dust to a certain extent with both his profound energy and soul energy.

Now that he was in the Endless Fog, he discovered that the increased concentration of abyssal dust didn’t affect his ability to repel or gather it in the slightest. In fact, his power and spiritual perception could pass right through it without any difficulty.

It was as if the abyssal dust that was supposed to devour everything was ignoring his existence, and his alone. In fact, it was obeying him to a certain extent.

He recalled the day he first came to the Abyss. His body had swiftly adapted to the existence of the abyssal dust and slowly generated the power to control it.

No, that was wrong. His body was the Ancestral God’s Sacred Body of Nothingness. He probably had this ability from the beginning. It had just been slumbering until the moment he came into contact with the “Power of Extinction”.

Not only that, his newfound ability was a permanent, qualitative change. The abyssal dust could be a million times thicker than it was before, and he would still be able to control it with relative ease!

He had only been here for a month, and he had already gained a basic level of control over abyssal dust. How much farther could he grow if he continued to submerge himself in abyssal dust?

Instead of continuing forward, Yun Che laid down a small barrier, sat down and asked, “Li Suo, what kind of person was senior Heretic God in the past? Was he the same as the records claim him to be?”

Li Suo answered, “Although we were all Creation Gods, my memory of them is over ninety percent blurry. My clearest memories of them are…”

“Mo E was the most imposing Creation God of us all. He was extremely strict in matters regarding right or wrong, good or evil, rules, hierarchies and so on, so much so that it made you want to sigh all the time.”

“Xi Ke was the loneliest Creation God of us all. As the Creation God of Order, he couldn’t allow himself to be bogged down by any emotions or bonds. He walked proud and alone his whole life, and he didn’t have a place or even a subordinate to his name. Considering that my impression of him was the shallowest, I believe that I did not have much contact with him.”

“As for Ni Xuan, he was the most un-Creation-God Creation God of us all.”

Yun Che could see that. The Creation God had abandoned his own title later on.

“In his world, it was as if planes and hierarchies did not exist in his dictionary. Lower gods, lower beasts, the spirits, and even the mortals in the lowest planes… he treated all living beings as equals no matter who they were. While maintaining the order of elements across all of Primal Chaos, he was also able to make friends everywhere and anywhere.”

While piecing together the few clear memories she had of the past Li Suo continued, “Out of everyone, he is the one I remember the most. He would often visit me in the Divine Palace of Life and tell me all about the new friends and acquaintances he'd made, the new star realms he created, and the beginnings of life. He would also bring me all kinds of strange gifts from multiple worlds and planes…”

“I think this went on for millions, no, tens of millions of years.”

Yun Che: (⊙o⊙) (utterly shocked)

Does Jie Yuan know about this?

She has to… every time she talks about Li Suo, I can practically hear the sound of her teeth breaking…

“Say,” Yun Che couldn’t help but ask, “did you never really fall for Mo E or Ni Xuan despite everything they did for you? Not even a little?”

“Fa… ll?” She seemed to be trying really hard to understand his words with her limited understanding. “As the Creation God of Life, it is my duty to carry out the Ancestral God’s will and mission and spread my Creation God powers to all of Primal Chaos. How could I allow myself to be tainted by mortal desires?”

Yun Che’s eyes looked strange. “You are quite similar to Xi Ke in this regard.”

“...?” She didn’t seem to understand the comparison.

“What about now?” Yun Che asked, “Everything you know is gone, and even the title ‘Creation God’ has become distant history. Your so-called ‘mission’ has naturally disappeared with it as well. Why do you still exist in this world?”

For a long time, she didn’t say anything. It was clear Yun Che’s question had sent her into deep contemplation. A long time later, when she finally gave her answer, it was one word and one word only…

“You.”

“...” If she wasn’t the Creation God of Life, if he hadn’t witnessed just how indifferent and unfeeling she was, he would’ve believed that she was flirting with him for sure.

Yun Che reacted calmly, “Because of my Ancestral God aura?”

“Yes.”

This was the answer Yun Che expected… and it was also perfectly disappointing.

“The Ancestral God gave birth to the Creation Gods. Naturally, they should serve her and carry out her missions faithfully. My old mission may have disappeared, but the Ancestral Will has reappeared in this world, and the one and only thing she desired was your safety.”

“The Ancestral Will’s desire is my mission, and the fact is I have no choice but to cling to you for now. Perhaps this too is guidance from the Ancestral Will. She is the one who brought my powers back to this world to protect you.”

Yun Che couldn’t say anything for a time. Li Suo’s memories and recognition were shattered and blurry, but her faith and belief in the Ancestral God seemed to be engraved in her very soul origin. It remained pure even after an era had crumbled, and fate itself had undergone a drastic change.

Ni Xuan was obsessed with Li Suo, but Li Suo was—is—obsessed with the Ancestral God, and this era’s Ancestral God, Xiao Lingxi, was obsessed with him.

When one’s faith was pure enough, they could always find a reason to justify their beliefs… Not even a Creation God was an exception to the rule.

“I got it,” Yun Che replied matter-of-factly, “Don’t worry, I swear I won’t betray your protection and faith.”

Finally, he managed to suppress the energies that had been rampaging inside his body for a while. So, he slowly held up a star that was surrounded by a sheen of yellow qilin light. It was the final Heretic God Seed.

“That’s Ni Xuan’s aura,” Li Suo mumbled as an ancient memory was triggered.

“You might be able to meet each other again,” Yun Che smiled.

“What?”

The Qilin God aura surrounding the Heretic God Seed had dwindled to just thirty percent, but it was still so pure that it was almost sacred. The sealing barrier around it had dissipated because of God Ash, but Yun Che couldn’t feel any rejection or hostility from the light whatsoever.

It was as gentle as the Qilin God’s final words.

Finally…

Yun Che stared at the Heretic God Seed one last time before tossing it into his mouth. He swallowed it in one gulp. The seed’s yellow light was clearly visible from the outside as it moved toward his chest as if drawn by an invisible force. It continued to slide toward his profound veins until it entered his profound vein world.

Boom—

A dull boom engulfed Yun Che’s profound vein world and soul sea. Although Yun Che had anticipated this, he was still surprised by the commotion coming from his profound veins.

Every time the Heretic God Seed returned to his body, the Heretic God Profound Veins would undergo a drastic change. This wasn’t a change, however. It was.. A transformation!

His profound vein world started shaking violently the moment the yellow profound light entered it. It shook like it was about to shatter at any moment.

At the same time, the other four seeds—Fire, Water, Thunder and Wind—were all shining brightly as well. They were several times brighter than they had ever been.

The dark seed, on the other hand, had opened up a pitch black domain. It looked so black it was as if that section of his profound veins was completely submerged in darkness.

Yun Che’s blood stopped flowing, and every drop of profound energy inside his body flowed back to his profound veins in just the span of three breaths. His heart started beating in tandem with his profound veins, and they sounded as loud as heavenly thunder.

The Heretic God Seeds all occupied a space in his profound vein world, but the dark seed occupied the largest space of them all. After the earth seed entered, the seeds actually started moving toward each other.

Yun Che quickly noticed that the seeds’ profound lights were slowly but surely merging with each other as they continued to get closer. Fire merged with water, water merged with thunder, thunder merged with wind, wind merged with earth, earth merged with water, wind merged with fire, thunder merged with earth…

This continued until their profound lights had blended seamlessly and were cycling in perfect harmony. While Yun Che was dazed, the dark domain of the dark seed soundlessly approached the seeds. But instead of devouring the other profound light as it normally did, it merged seamlessly into the five profound lights before expanding all of a sudden.

Yun Che wasn’t able to witness the bizarre sight for too long. His consciousness was abruptly blown apart at a certain point.

BOOM—

This boom was tens of thousands of times louder than the one before. It was so loud that it dunked his entire consciousness into pure white.

Yun Che didn’t know how long the whiteness lasted. When he finally regained his senses, he saw a world that made him feel like he was inside a dream.

His profound vein space had changed completely. He felt like he was floating in an infinitely black universe where streams of stars of all colors—crimson red, icy blue, dark purple, bluish green, withered yellow, reddish purple, greenish blue and more—were floating everywhere.

The Heretic God Seeds were conspicuously missing. But equally, his profound vein space no longer had an end.

The seven Heretic God’s Gates sparkled like seven slumbering stars in this strange cosmos. They looked like they were waiting for the moment they were ignited.

There was one patch of light yellow that didn’t really fit with the infinite streams of stars around him. It was the Qilin God’s divine origin. Surprisingly, it had been fully accepted into this universe, and it was waiting obediently to be refined by Yun Che.

So this… is the true… Heretic God Profound Veins!

The divine veins that could bear the power of a Creation God!

Yun Che felt like he was inside a dream. He wasn’t able to jolt out of his reverie for a long time.

The space inside his profound vein world was as infinite as the streams of elements, but he could tell that every wisp and strand was fully under his control.

“I didn’t know that Ni Xuan’s profound vein world looked like this.”

In the end, it was Li Suo’s voice that jolted him back to reality.

“I didn’t think that black would be the background of his profound vein world. Is this what it originally looked like… or did it change after he became one with Jie Yuan?”

“No, this is not how Ni Xuan’s profound veins looked,” Yun Che said slowly.

“How so?”

“Ni Xuan condensed the foundation of his profound veins into a single drop of Indestructible Blood, and the core of his power was condensed into the elemental seeds. They represent the end of the Heretic God and the destruction of his Heretic God Profound Veins.”

“But now, they have become one and complete inside my body again. What you see… is a whole new Heretic God Profound Veins that belongs to me and me only.”

Yun Che’s image appeared inside his profound vein world as he smiled. “Senior Ni Xuan, I have truly become your successor now, though… I am unsure if I am worthy of being called the Heretic God of this era, and… I do not know if you’re satisfied or disappointed with me.”

As Yun Che’s soul voice resonated across his profound vein world, a tall, slender man slowly manifested into view. His silhouette was as ephemeral as a bubble, but Li Suo still managed to identify him and call out,

“Ni… Xuan?”