Against the Gods

Chapter 2027 - Deep Within The Endless Fog

By now, Yun Che had reached a point where the concentration of the abyssal dust could only be described as terrifying.

For instance, a Divine Master wouldn’t be able to extend their spiritual perception for more than thirty meters. Not that any Divine Master except one would be able to make it to this place.

After all, most of the abyssal beasts in this area were in the Divine Extinction Realm.

Back in the Land of the Living, Divine Extinction Realm was a cultivation realm countless coveted but would never attain. When someone entered the Divine Extinction Realm and became a Half God, they would automatically be positioned in a high position in the Abyss.

For example, over ninety percent of the powerful and noble Abyssal Knights were Divine Extinction Realm profound practitioners. Less than ten percent of them were in the Divine Limit Realm.

In the Endless Fog however, Divine Extinction Realm abyssal beasts were everywhere. Literally, there was no direction Yun Che could spread his spiritual perception in without detecting entire hordes of Divine Extinction Realm abyssal beasts, and their numbers could only be described as insane.

Even he felt small as he trekked alone through this place as a Divine Master. It was no wonder the inner areas of the Endless Fog were also nicknamed the Land of the Dead. Ximen Boyun was a powerful and noble existence, but Yun Che doubted that he would last even ten breaths in this place. Combined with the impossibly thick abyssal dust, not even a Divine Limit Realm profound practitioner would be able to hold out for long.

Yun Che was still venturing deeper into the Endless Fog, but his footsteps were much lighter than what they were before. He also withdrew his aura as much as possible while covering himself in many layers of abyssal dust. One could almost say that he had become one with the abyssal dust.

For the past half a year or so, Yun Che’s grasp of the abyssal dust had continued to grow by leaps and bounds. Today, he could instantly gather all the abyssal dust in a certain area and even use it as a medium to transmit his soul energy far, far away.

His ability to control the abyssal beasts had gone from barely manageable to well-practiced as well. The level of beasts he could control had also increased tremendously.

In essence, his ability to control an abyssal beast lay in his ability to control abyssal dust. For the past half a year, Li Suo had been observing Yun Che’s every move. She had witnessed him refining the origin power the Qilin God had left him in just three days. Then, he had spent only eighteen hours to perfectly subsume its origin blood and origin marrow.

In the second month, Yun Che successfully cultivated the qilin’s strongest exclusive guardian technique, the Qilin Sacred Palace. Li Suo was aware that he possessed the Sacred Body of Nothingness bestowed by the Ancestral God herself, but she hadn’t witnessed his experiences prior to that moment. That was why she couldn’t help but be shocked when Yun Che shattered her common sense—the common sense of a Creation God—again and again.

Besides that, his mastery of the abyssal dust was growing at a visible rate almost every day.

In her memory, the primal Power of Extinction couldn’t be controlled by anyone except the Ancestral God, but Yun Che… was mastering it like he was just mastering another type of profound energy.

When a beast was corrupted into an abyssal beast, they were practically immortal so long as they remained inside the Endless Fog. They could only be annihilated.

Logically speaking, no profound practitioner could ever defeat another abyssal beast of the same cultivation level.

It was because a profound practitioner’s profound energy and soul energy would be suppressed by the abyssal dust, but an abyssal beast possessed near limitless destructive power in abyssal dust. Even their injuries would heal at a rapid rate. Therefore, it took at least two or three profound practitioners of at least the same cultivation level to defeat one abyssal beast.

Of course, it was a different story outside the Endless Fog.

The thicker the abyssal dust was, the stronger the abyssal beast would become. As a result, Yun Che was forced to slow his footsteps and be careful with spreading his spiritual perception.

At one point, he finally muttered, “Looks like this is my limit.”

Just now, his spiritual perception made contact with two auras that sent chills into his soul.

They were probably middle-stage Divine Extinction Realm abyssal beasts.

There was no chance he could defeat a middle-stage Divine Extinction Realm abyssal beast in direct combat, but he should be able to control them at the most basic level.

That was only if he was facing one or two beasts though.

If he accidentally triggered an entire swarm, then he would most likely die here.

It must have been ages since anyone had ventured so deep into the Endless Fog, and Yun Che was absolutely the one and only person in the history of the Abyss to make it this far as a Divine Master.

It was at this moment Li Suo asked, “Were you planning to catch a glimpse of the rumored ‘Primal Abyss of Death’ [1]?”

“That’s right,” Yun Che replied, “but it looks like it's impossible for the moment.”

The Primal Abyss of Death was rumored to be situated in the center of the Endless Fog. It was a huge region and the so-called Abyss of the Abyss.

Assuming that the rumors he heard were true, Yun Che was willing to bet that it was the original, primordial Abyss… the one that could supposedly melt even a True God into nothing in an instant!

A true Abyss of Death, it would also explain why the closer he got to the source, the thicker the abyssal dust became.

Anyway, if he ventured deeper into the Abyss and encountered a late-stage Divine Extinction Realm abyssal beast or even a Divine Limit Realm abyssal beast… he probably wouldn’t even get the chance to escape. So, it was time to stop.

“I should find a suitable place nearby,” Yun Che suddenly muttered something that Li Suo couldn’t understand.

“A suitable place?” she asked, but Yun Che didn’t give her an answer. He simply moved forward at a slow rate.

Less than five kilometers later, the concentration of abyssal beast auras suddenly dropped drastically. The further he went, the fewer abyssal beasts he detected.

When Yun Che finally came to a stop, he reached a location where he couldn’t detect a single abyssal beast within twenty five kilometers of him.

“...?” Yun Che frowned deeply as a faint sense of unease settled in his gut.

He was searching for a “blind spot” where the concentration of abyssal beasts in the area was the lowest, but this place… was a little too secluded, wasn’t it?

It was almost as if he had entered a “forbidden area”.

He focused his senses on some abyssal dust and slowly spread them outward, but he still couldn’t sense anything in the area besides dead silence.

Perhaps I’m just lucky.

Seeing no reason to change his mind, Yun Che released the abyssal dust surrounding his person and revealed a red light in his hand. It was a light that Li Suo recognized.

“This is the gift the master of the World Piercer gave you before you dropped into the Abyss, isn’t it? I remember you have two of them.”

“That’s correct.” Yun Che very, very carefully wiped away the seal covering the surface of the red light. “It is the World Formation Core and World Divine Stone created from the last remaining power of the World Piercer. If I embed the World Formation Core here, I’ll be able to teleport back here with the World Divine Stone anytime I want.”

“But why here?” Li Suo asked.

Yun Che replied quietly, “Ideally, I wanted to plant this core at the edge of the Primal Abyss of Death, but I’m not strong enough to get there, so this is a compromise.”

“Still… it will suffice!”

The red light fell to his feet, and—

Shing!

Spatial divine light shone like a crimson flower and unfolded into a tiny, three meter wide red formation.

The profound formation rotated slowly and turned dimmer. Just two short breaths later, it had vanished like it was never there. When Yun Che pulled out the Spatial Divine Stone, he noted that its spatial divine light had undergone an obvious change. It looked as dim as ever, but now its colors looked a little deeper than before. Since he was so close to the core, he could even sense the special spatial connection between them.

Shui Meiyin once told him that she wasn’t able to store much spatial energy in the Spatial Divine Stone due to lack of time. Moreover, the greater the teleportation distance, the more energy it would consume. The one silver lining was that the Spatial Divine Stone could collect energy on its own.

Also, the World Piercer was extremely low on divine power due to the need to use the World Piercer repeatedly to escape Mo Beichen, so just creating the World Formation Core and the World Divine Stone had already taxed it to the extreme, meaning that the items’ spatial level weren’t the highest they could be.

As a result, he could not teleport instantly when he used the World Divine Stone. Not only that, the World Divine Stone must be left behind to keep the teleportation formation open.

This meant that he couldn’t use it to escape his enemies, but he could use it as a bridge between two spaces.

The core couldn’t be moved after it was planted. Yun Che looked around himself.

This scenery would become a familiar sight from now on.

“Let’s go.”

Yun che turned around to leave, but he suddenly froze before he could even take a single step.

He felt like something had just skewered his soul. It was writhing and squirming like a worm.

His blood froze in his veins, and his bones felt weak. He stiffly turned his neck until his pin-sized pupils met… a pair of terrifying, dark lights.

Divine… Limit… Realm…

The words surfaced into his mind like a living nightmare.

When he was at the Qilin Abyss Realm, he already knew how powerful a middle-stage Divine Extinction Realm profound practitioner was.

After he entered the Endless Fog, the number of Divine Extinction Realm abyssal beasts he encountered could only be described as innumerable. But right now, the destructive aura pressing against his whole body was so terrifying that it nearly crushed his will in an instant. Even his eyes were completely blurry.

That was how he knew that this power had probably exceeded the limit of Divine Extinction Realm. It was probably the legendary ceiling of Half-Gods, the cultivation realm that was infinitely close to the True God Realm, the Divine Limit Realm.

An abyssal beast at this level shouldn’t exist in this area.

It seemed to have been sleeping previously, which was why Yun Che hadn’t able to detect a hint of its existence until it was too late.

Too late being the moment he activated the World Formation Core, and its spatial divine light jolted it from its slumber.

……

“Pan, Xiao (Owl), Die (Butterfly)?” Qianye Ying’er frowned as she examined the tablet closely. “It looks like a name… and not a name at the same time.”

Chi Wuyao said slowly, “This is an ancient tablet I found where I obtained my Nirvana Devil Emperor Soul.”

“It wasn’t the only relic or devil artifact I found at the time. In fact, this tablet is easily the most useless and inconspicuous of them all as even its three recognizable words make little sense without context. As a result, I set it aside and had forgotten all about it.”

“Based on Mo Beichen’s memory fragments, one of the Kingdoms of God was named the ‘Owl Butterfly Kingdom of God’. I had thought the name sounded a little familiar at the time, but it was such a distant and useless memory that I couldn’t recall it immediately. It wasn’t until after Yun Che went to the Abyss that I finally recalled it.”

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find anything useful even after looking over the tablet once more.”

“That is until my words inspired you, right?” Qianye Ying’er said slowly.

“That’s right.” Chi Wuyao’s eyes glinted with intelligence. “Assuming that Pan Xiaodie is a name… it’s not a name anyone has ever had in the current world. But in ancient times, the word ‘Pan’ would immediately evoke the memory of a certain Devil Emperor.”

“The Original Nether Devil Emperor to be exact.” [2]

Original Nether…

Nether…

The Nether Mirror!?

The countless clues and leads that seemed to have no connection to each other whatsoever in Chi Wuyao’s head abruptly joined together. But before she could do anything about it—

RUMBLE——————

A massive boom abruptly interrupted both Chi Wuyao and Qianye Ying’er’s train of thoughts.

Both women frowned and looked in the direction of the noise at the same time. This was the Soul Stealing Ream and the realm where Yun Che was made the emperor of the Northern Divine Region. Who would dare cause such a commotion here!?

“It sounds like it’s coming from the east,” Qianye Ying’er commented with obvious schadenfreude. “It looks like the Northern Divine Region isn’t as obedient as you think, Devil Queen. There must be a—”

Before she could finish, her Sound Transmission Jade suddenly shook violently. It must be something urgent.

Qianye Ying’er frowned as she activated the Sound Transmission Jade. The solemn voice of a Brahma King immediately came from the other side, “God Emperor, an unknown loud noise just came from the east. It’s louder than anything I’ve ever heard in my life. I’m afraid that something strange is going on.”

The message caused both Chi Wuyao and Qianye Ying’er to blanch a little.

The noise had appeared from the east side of the Brahma Monarch God Realm…

… And it was so loud that it traveled all the way to the Northern Divine Region!?

There was no time to think. Chi Wuyao immediately activated a sound transmission profound formation and ordered, “Hua Jin, send word to all realm kings of the Eastern Divine Region and tell them to investigate the source of the noise as soon as possible.”

Fifteen minutes later, Hua Jin reported back,

“Master, we got confirmation that the noise didn’t come from the Eastern Divine Region, but the east of the Eastern Divine Region itself. The noise was so loud and disturbing that it triggered various levels of beast tides in many star realms, but so far everything is still under control.”

“Just now, we investigated a few lower realms we have contact with and discovered that the source came from even further to the east, so… this may be ridiculous, but do you think it’s possible that the noise came from the Wall of Primal Chaos?”

Chi Wuyao and Qianye Ying’er exchanged a glance with each other. They each saw the shock in the other’s eyes.

1. full name of Abyss of Death apparently.

2. I fucking knew this would come back to bite me in the future. Original Darkness Devil Emperor has been corrected to Original Nether Devil Emperor.