Against the Gods

“Kill me?” Qianye Ying’er answered with a shallow smile. A million tiny black rays of light twined around her dancing fingers. “If it’s just you alone, that’s something you won’t be able to accomplish in your lifetime.”

Rumble!

Darkness filled the sky once more and the space around them suddenly started to collapse. Everyone could clearly make out the image of a fluttering black butterfly in this lightless pitch-black world. It was an image that was seared into their eyes and their souls.

“This… This is…” Shocked gasps rang out in the darkness.

“The Eternal Butterfly Abyss.” Yan Sangeng’s gaze pierced the darkness. He stared at the sky as he spoke in a slow and measured voice, “To think that a level eight Divine Master would be able to push her to such an extent…” 

Nearby, Fen Jieren’s expression continuously changed. He seemed to have realized something and he unconsciously muttered something, “Could they be…”

Yang Sangeng turned his head towards Fen Jieran. “Prince Jieran, do you know who these people are?”

“No, it’s not them.” Fen Jieran shook his head. It was unclear if he was answering Yan Sangeng’s question or talking to himself. “It can’t be them.”

Yan Sangeng’s brow furrowed, “Who exactly are you referring to…”

Bang!

A very soft sound rang in the air but it swallowed up all other sounds. Witch Yao Die had not only been shocked by her opponent’s power, she had also finally gotten angry, so she was releasing all of her profound strength without holding back. The Witch Domain that was known as the “Eternal Butterfly Abyss” was something that belonged to the Fourth Witch of the Soul Stealing Realm alone. Now, it was displaying its terrifying true appearance in the skies above the Imperial Heaven Realm.

The image of a fluttering butterfly had also appeared in Qianye Ying’er’s golden eyes. She felt her five senses swiftly disappearing and she started to feel as if she was being devoured by something. This sensation started to swiftly spread through her entire body.

The existence of the Devil Emperor blood within her body meant that Qianye Ying’er would not be defeated by Yao Die’s power.

However, it could only make up for the gap in profound strength, not a gap in soul power!

Yet the greatest strength of the Fourth Witch Yao Die was her darkness soul power!

The soul suppressing power that assaulted Qianye Ying’er within the Butterfly Abyss had far exceeded even her own expectations. She was a person who had been able to master the “Brahma Soul Death-Wishing Mark”, so one could well imagine how strong her soul power was. However, the instant she faced Yao Die’s fully unleashed soul power, she realized that she could not defend against it.

She could also tell that if she was swallowed up by this butterfly illusion, she might be “eternally” trapped inside.

However, Qianye Ying’er did not try to use all her strength to escape from the very moment she was caught in the illusion. In fact, she had not even tried to defend against it. She welcomed Yao Die’s attack, darkness profound light shining at the tip of Divine Oracle.

“Hmph, how foolish,” Yao Die muttered to herself, her hand gestures and the look in her eyes changed at the same time...

Just as the Eternal Butterfly Abyss was about to fully open and swallow up Qianye Ying’er, Yun Che, who was very far behind her, suddenly thrust out a hand and casually made a grabbing motion.

Yao Die felt as if an invisible force was violently tugging at her. Her narrowed eyes snapped open as she felt the profound energy and soul energy she released going out of control. Thus, the Eternal Butterfly Abyss that had spread open was an extremely distorted one. Not only had her perfect Witch Domain lost a lot of power, but dozens of flaws had formed in it.

The bizarre feeling that had assaulted her for an instant and this unbelievably distorted Witch Domain were things that Yao Die had never experienced before. In the same instant, Qianye Ying’er, who had been biding her time, exploded into action. Her power erupted and a golden shadow which trailed black light shot into Yao Die’s domain. She nearly effortlessly pierced through the Witch Domain, a domain that was supposed to be incredibly terrifying, and started tearing it apart.

Bzz!

The wings of the butterfly were ripped apart and the domain started to shake. The sudden backlash from her collapsing domain caused Yao Die’s body to shake violently. An odd sense of shock and alarm flashed through her heart, but the willpower of a Witch allowed her to remain unflustered. Her hand gestures suddenly changed as she forcefully withdrew her domain. She chose not to retreat. Instead, her body suddenly shot forward as she tried to grab Divine Oracle, the sword which had ripped her domain apart.

Yao Die firmly caught Divine Oracle in her hand, causing a muffled sound to ring out in the air. The seven inch sword reacted as if it were a golden snake that had been caught and its divine light suddenly dimmed.

In the distance, Yun Che gently made a grasping action with his fingers once again.

In the next instant, that incredibly strange tearing energy assaulted her once again. The energy that she had forcefully gathered suddenly escaped her control and practically thirty percent of it dissipated in an instant… She had lost control of her energy without reason and it had now been dispersed without reason. It was as if it had been soundlessly swallowed up by some strange invisible creature.

Crack!

Yao Die’s strange loss of control over her power meant that she could no longer bind Divine Oracle. It immediately escaped her grasp and flicked toward her face.

Rip!

Space was violently torn apart as it distorted around Yao Die’s waist. She had escaped backwards using a strange and fantastic movement technique. Only a few dozen strands of her black hair were left fluttering in the darkness.

Yao Die reappeared five kilometers away. The moment her body came to a stop, a soft ringing sound reverberated in the air. A diagonal crack appeared at the top of her mask and a small rivulet of blood slowly flowed out from the crack.

Space completely froze and the hearts of everyone present were so tightly clenched it felt like they had stopped beating.

They had seen a Witch Domain that had just been opened get shredded apart in an instant. They saw the rivulet of glaring, bright red Witch blood trickle down Yao Die’s face.

Even Yao Die could not remember how many years it had been since she had suffered an injury.

“Just who exactly… Just who exactly are they?” Tian Muyi muttered to himself as he stared at the sky. He had actually personally witnessed the Witch Yao Die getting hurt. This was an utterly unfathomable scene, a scene that would shock the world.

Yao Die did not touch her own wound. Instead, her gaze pierced through the darkness to fix itself on Yun Che.

Rather than Qianye Ying’er, it was Yun Che who Yao Die was paying the most attention to. Even when she was exchanging blows with Qianye Ying’er, she still kept an eye out for Yun Che.

The last two times that bizarre phenomenon occurred, she noticed that Yun Che was moving his hands.

However, was he merely making gestures in the air!? There was no bizarre energy leaking out from him.

So what exactly was the sensation… she had felt just now?

However, Qianye Ying’er did not even give her a chance to catch her breath. A golden figure tore through the air as it rushed toward her.

The two of them started their battle once again and a calamity of darkness once again descended upon the Imperial Heaven Realm.

When they had clashed previously, both of them were evenly matched. But Yao Die was starting to feel a little flustered right now. After she had suffered a backlash from the collapse of her Witch Domain, she was gradually being cornered and suppressed by Qianye Ying’er.

Yun Che silently watched the proceedings. His emotionless gaze fixed on Yao Die and at a certain moment, his left index finger tilted downward.

Bang!

Yao Die’s fingers, which were wrapped in devilish light, clashed against Qianye Ying’er’s Divine Oracle, causing dozens of domains of darkness to instantly erupt all around them. This dreadful deadlock that could only occur when two late stage Divine Masters clashed only lasted for less than half a breath. After that, Yao Die’s fingers suddenly spasmed and a gap abruptly appeared in the energy she was releasing.

It was not a big gap, but it caused her to lose control of the circulation of her energy for a split-second.

This sort of change was undoubtedly fatal during a fight when both opponents were equally matched. Furthermore, this was a vicious battle taking place at the Divine Master level. Before Yao Die’s expression could even change, Divine Oracle was already violently tearing apart her power. It shot toward her like a venomous golden snake that dove straight at her heart.

BOOOOM————

It was as if a pitch-black star had erupted on Yao Die’s chest and she was carried away by the storm of darkness like a butterfly whose wings had been clipped, leaving a shocking trail of darkness in her wake.

This time she had noticed something with incredible clarity. Yun Che’s fingers had made a tiny movement the very instant that bizarre phenomenon happened.

Once… Twice… Thrice… Could it truly be a coincidence?

Just what exactly was it? Was it one of those auraless profound artifacts left behind by the gods?

Or perhaps it was a demonic art!?

But she was not the only person to notice this. There was also someone else.

Whooosh!

Yan Sangeng suddenly took to the skies, causing everyone to stare at him in shock. He faced Qianye Ying’er and spoke in an incredibly gloomy voice, “Let me help you.”

Yao Die’s body froze in midair. She pressed a hand against her chest, causing blood to flow out from between her fingers.

“Divine Oracle”, this was one of the divine artifacts that the gods had left to the Eastern Divine Region’s Brahma Monarch God Realm. Yao Die had long heard of it, but she had now personally experienced just how terrifying it could be.

However, she did not bother with the wounds that Divine Oracle had inflicted on her. She turned back and shot towards Qianye Ying’er at full speed. The butterfly images trailing behind her seemed to turn real for a moment. The divine might of a Witch started to radiate from her body once more and it did not seem any weaker than before.

Yan Sangeng suddenly pressed in. Now, a level nine and seven Divine Master were attacking Qianye Ying’er together!

Qianye Ying’er did not retreat a single step. In fact, her snowy face remained completely unmoved.

When it came to cultivation, Yan Sangeng was weaker than Qianye Ying’er by a small realm. But now that he was personally facing off against her, the pressure she was emitting was so heavy that it was suffocating. At the very least, this was not the sort of pressure that could be exerted by the difference of a single small realm.

His eyebrows twitched and he swiftly exchanged a look with Yao Die. The moment he neared Qianye Ying’er, his stance suddenly changed and he swept past Qianye Ying’er instead. He was shooting straight toward Yun Che.

At this moment, Yao Die unleashed all of her power, firmly restricting Qianye Ying’er’s movements and locking her down. She did not give Qianye Ying’er a single chance to escape or block Yan Sangeng.

As a level seven Divine Master and the leader of the thirty-six Yama Ghosts of the Yama Realm, Yan Sangeng definitely would not have believed that he would actually condescend to personally take action against a level seven Divine Sovereign. At least, that was the case before today.

But today, he had not only taken action, he had even launched such a quick and deadly attack.

He traversed dozens of kilometers of space in a single instant and Yun Che was now right in front of him. Yan Sangeng shot out a clawed hand, ripping open a pitch-black scar in the air in front of him.

The sound of space being torn apart was so shrill that it made everyone feel as if their eardrums were being torn apart over and over again. However, Yan Sangeng’s expression stiffened for an instant. Because his fingers had only hit empty air. Only the afterimage he had ripped apart was hanging in the air behind him.

After a brief shock that lasted such an infinitesimally short time that it was inconsequential, Yan Sangeng reacted as quick as heavenly lightning. He abruptly turned around and struck at the spot where Yun Che had reappeared in an exquisitely accurate fashion.

Rip!

His speed was several times more terrifying than it had been in that previous attack. The sound of space being torn apart was also several times more dreadful. But Yan Sangeng had once again only torn apart an afterimage.

His expression subtly changed and grayish-white death energy flashed through his eyes.

“A first-rate movement technique that may have been trained to the highest level. How admirable.” Yan Sangeng stared at the empty air in front of him as he praised Yun Che. He slowly turned around, his gaze falling on the spot where Yun Che had reappeared. After that, he lifted his arm before pressing his hand down.

Shrill and miserable wails of resentment and despair suddenly rang out from an unknown space. It was as if a hundred thousand ghosts were wailing at the same time. The grayish-white image of a skeleton slowly coalesced into existence behind Yan Sangeng. At this moment, his skin and muscles turned a startling dusky gray and he seemed to be transforming into a dessicated corpse before their very eyes. Only his eyes glowed with a strange light that should not belong to a living person.

Those dreadful eyes locked onto Yun Che’s location and when he spoke, his voice was so raspy and hoarse that it was nearly unintelligible. “Come, let me see how you’re going to escape my grasp this time.”

As his words slowly fell, he was already rushing toward Yun Che. Even though his speed was still peerlessly fast and ruthless, it was a lot slower than it had been before.

However, thousands of ghosts seemed to be wailing every time he moved. It seemed as if the entire world had been transformed into a frightening ghostly realm.

Furthermore, Yun Che was right in the center of this ghostly domain. He felt as if innumerable ghosts were clinging to his body and he could not even move a muscle.

Yun Che dominating Tian Guhu with the cultivation of a level seven= Divine Sovereign was already an event that had shocked the world. But no matter what, there was no way he could resist a level seven Divine Master like Yan Sangeng. In front of the oppression created by absolute power, even the strongest movement techniques would be nothing more than a limp and powerless joke.

A long trail of gray energy stretched behind Yan Sangeng as his fingers shot towards Yun Che’s throat. Even when he was only several meters away, Yun Che still had not escaped yet… But it was obvious that he had been rendered completely immobile.

Just as Yan Sangeng was certain that Yun Che would fall into his hands, the Yun Che in his eyes suddenly enlarged.

The aura of a level seven Divine Sovereign erupted. However, it erupted in such an outrageously terrifying fashion that it was practically incomprehensible to Yan Sangeng. Before he even had time to feel any shock, a figure had already flitted by him. However, a flash of vermillion light remained imprinted in the depths of his eyes. It did not fade even after a long time had passed.

Yan Sangeng’s body froze in place and it seemed like the entire world had gone utterly silent.

He stood there like a stone statue before he slowly started to look down… A huge sword that shone with a muted vermillion light had pierced into his chest and exited his back. His entire body had been transfixed by this gigantic sword

His Divine Master body, a body that was even tougher than Stellar Divine Stones, a body that was being protected by a Divine Master’s profound energy, had put up no resistance whatsoever. The attack had slid through his protections as if they had not existed.

“What a fool.”

The coldest and most contemptuous voice Yan Sangeng had ever heard in his life rang out from behind him.

Yun Che thrust out his arm and the Heaven Smiting Devil Slaying Sword immediately shot through Yan Sangeng’s body and flew back into his hand. The body of the sword was not stained with a single drop of blood.

After that, the vermillion sword vanished into thin air. His back was still facing Yan Sangeng and he had not even looked at him once.

For a person whose cultivation had reached the Divine Master Realm, being run through by a sword definitely was not any sort of fatal injury. In fact, it could not even be called a serious injury.

However, Yan Sangeng simply stood there, as still as a statue. No blood ran from the hole that had been opened up in his body. Only a cluster of vermillion light silently shone from that wound and it did not look like it was going to disperse or fade away.