Against the Gods - Volume 08 - Cloud's End Mirage

by Mars Gravity

  This was clearly an aura of profound energy!!

  “This is…” Xiao Yun appeared in the sky as well and he softly said with a doubtful tone, “Wait a minute! This aura, don’t you think it’s a bit familiar?”

  “It’s indeed rather familiar.” Number One Under Heaven said with a sunken voice.

  “It’s Fen Juechen!” Feng Xue’er suddenly shouted. “When big brother Yun fought with Fen Juechen above the eastern seas a few months ago, Fen Juechen had an energy aura like this!”

  “Him?” Xiao Yun and Number One Under Heaven were stunned but immediately after, they came back to their senses. Number One Under Heaven said, “That’s right, this feeling is indeed extremely similar to Fen Juechen’s aura… But, it’s a little different as well! Though it’s the same energy aura, the feeling it’s giving me seems to be different.”

  But as to what was different, he was also unable to differentiate.

  “Look… Quickly look over there!” Number Seven Under Heaven suddenly exclaimed.

  Xiao Yun and Number One Under Heaven looked towards the north at the same time and suddenly saw that the northern skies had already turned into a vast and terrifying, pitch-black darkness. Furthermore, this pitch-black darkness was spreading towards Frozen Cloud Asgard at a considerably fast pace.

  “Hss…” Number One Under Heaven took a deep breath. “Let’s go!!”

  “Seventh Sister, stay here and protect grandfather and little aunt well!” Xiao Yun hurriedly told her and then flew out of the palace gates with Number One Under Heaven and Feng Xue’er.

  And at the same time, Murong Qianxue, Jun Lianqie, Mu Lianyi, Chu Yueli, Feng Hanyue and Feng Hanxue had already brought a group of Frozen Cloud disciples out of the palace gates. With frosty faces, the swords in their hands shone with cold light, as they awaited the strong foe.

  The black clouds in the northern skies rolled and tumbled, causing the rays of light to dim even further. That stifling feeling and sinister cold aura intensified with every breath. These Frozen Cloud girls cultivated in the Frozen Cloud Arts and had resided in Snow Region of Extreme Ice for a long time, so they were basically unafraid of the strong cold. However, their bodies felt chills as the aura approached and their souls were even trembling uncontrollably.

  “This… Is this really a profound energy aura?” Chu Yueli said in utter disbelief. “How can there be such a profound energy… The most sinister profound arts recorded in my Asgard’s records are not even up to this extent either.”

  “Do you people know who the other party is?” Murong Qianxue asked. She was unable to believe that this was an aura being released by a single person either.

  “We can’t say for certain. However, no matter who it is over on the other side, there’s no need to worry.” Number One Under Heaven confidently said. “With the Little Demon Empress here, if the other party is an enemy, no matter who it is, that person is just courting death!”

  As his words fell, a bolt of light suddenly flashed in front of them. A petite girl wearing a colorful glazed dress stepped onto the snowy ice field, her face was like the jade of ice and her eyes were like the cold stars, not even a single cold breeze blew at her arrival.

  “Little Demon Empress sis,” Feng Xue’er voiced out in pleasant surprise. However, when she immediately thought that with the Little Demon Empress’s arrival here, there was no one looking after Yun Che and she once again began to worry. “About Big Brother Yun…”

  “All of you stand back!!” The Little Demon Empress suddenly raised her hand and a violent snowy wind suddenly blew, forcefully pushing everyone several dozen meters away. She herself, however, was already several hundred meters in front of them.

  At this moment, the rumbling black clouds in the sky were already right before their eyes. They watched as the clouds slowly rolled about in the sky and then, stopped moving forward. An extremely stifling and sinister aura enveloped the entire Frozen Cloud Asgard immediately after.

  “Pretentious,” The Little Demon Empress coldly crooned. With a flip of her palm, before traces of any profound energy flow could be seen emitting from her body, a golden flame had already exploded within the dark clouds in the sky above and then, a sea of flames erupted within the changing dark sky. “Come out!!”

  The sea of flames raged on and in the blink of an eye, a large half of the dark clouds had been already engulfed. The other half of the dark clouds were sinking down from the sky, all the way to the in front of the Little Demon Empress. Then, a loud, arrogant laughter slowly scattered them apart.

  “Hahahahaha… Truly, as expected of the divine flames of the Golden Crow, it truly did not disappoint me.”

  Amidst the scattered dark clouds, a tall human figure with a thin frame slowly walked out.

  He had a face of a twenty year old. Dressed entirely in black, he had long ink-black hair and ink-black eyes. He looked at the Little Demon Empress, wearing a sinister, light smile that made one feel uncomfortable. “Nice to meet you, Little Demon Empress of Illusory Demon Realm. Welcome to the Profound Sky Continent.”

  Little Demon Empress: “…”

  “Fen… Fen Juechen!? It’s really him!!” Feng Xue’er held onto her lips, she was unable to believe her own eyes for a moment. The person who walked out of the black fog was undoubtedly Fen Juechen.

  “No! Wrong!!” Number One Under Heaven suddenly said. “He’s not Fen Juechen! Though his appearance is exactly the same, the feeling he’s giving me… is completely different from Fen Juechen! Even his voice is different as well… Who are you? Who in the world are you? Why did you disguise yourself as Fen Juechen!?”

  Number One Under Heaven was not that familiar with Fen Juechen but Fen Juechen was someone who had an extreme temperament, so this trait was overly obvious. Fen Juechen’s expression had always been ice-cold, expressionless, aloof and he carried a heavy sense of solidarity that could make one feel a pang in their hearts. He was like a lone wolf with nowhere to go.

  Though the person in front of their eyes had exactly the same appearance as Fen Juechen and had an extremely similar profound aura, the feeling he was giving off was not aloofness but an insufferable arrogance. His expression, atmosphere and the arc he formed with his lips, were completely different from the Fen Juechen he knew.

  The most obvious difference was his voice. Furthermore, with Fen Juechen’s personality, he definitely would never have laughed in such an arrogant manner earlier.

  “Hahahaha.” ‘Fen Juechen’ once again laughed out loud and he nodded in admiration. “As expected of the young master of the elven race, you truly possess keen senses. If you lose your life in this world of ice and snow today, it would truly be a shame.”

  Number One Under Heaven’s expression changed, his heart skipped a beat… Earlier, he called out the Little Demon Empress’ identity, and now, he had even precisely called out the status he held!

  “Fen Juechen” raised his hand and said with a wide grin, “In that case, why don’t you people make a guess? Who am I really?”

  This voice was not foreign in the slightest and among the people present, the number of people who heard this voice before was not limited to just one. After the initial shock, this voice suddenly overlapped with a figure in their minds.

  “You’re… Xuanyuan Wentian!!” Feng Xue’er and Xiao Yun shouted in astonishment.

  “Heh…” Fen Juechen… No, Xuanyuan Wentian’s lips raised, the inclined slope grew even more dangerous and brazen than before. In a slow and leisurely manner, he voiced out. “Perfect answer. That’s right, it is exactly I. Just to remind you, there’s no need to call me Sword Master Xuanyuan again in the future, rather, you must refer me as… the Unparalleled Heavenly Sovereign!”

  “It’s actually, really…” Hearing him personally admitting it, Xiao Yun opened his eyes wide. He was still unable to believe his own eyes and everything that he heard.

  “Unparalleled Heavenly Sovereign? Heh, that sure is an exaggerated title,” Number One Under Heaven ri
diculed. “I have long heard of the name Xuanyuan Wentian but never had I expected that he would be so arrogant. As someone who dares to call himself Heavenly Sovereign, you hide your head but expose your tail, disguising yourself as someone else. You’re simply making us laugh our heads off.”

  Number One Under Heaven wantonly threw out ridiculing remarks. Though he was on guard, he did not feel much sense of danger. Because he was incomparably confident that the Little Demon Empress was an absolute peerless existence in this world. Forget about a single Xuanyuan Wentian, even if the Four Sacred Masters of the Profound Sky Continent come together, they would only face defeat in front of the Little Demon Empress.

  However, what he did not notice was that though the Little Demon Empress’s expression was cold and calm, a deep heaviness was being emitted from within her cold eyes. Her two petite hands were also not in a relaxed state but tightly clenched.

  “Disguise? Heh heh heh, hahahaha.” Xuanyuan Wentian was not the least bit angered. Or, to put it another way, to the current him, there was no longer anything that existed in this world that could anger him. “No no no. This sovereign bestowed him a heavenly reward, allowing him to offer his body to this sovereign and then allowing him to look upon this lowly world together with this sovereign.”

  “This is a great fortune which he used the extermination of his two families and his two lifetimes to exchange for. Heh, it wasn’t easy, you know.”

  Chapter 844: Little Demon Empress VS Xuanyuan Wentian

  “What is the meaning of this? What have you done to Fen Juechen?” Number One Under Heaven roared in fury.

  “This sovereign has already explained enough. It’s more than enough for you to clearly ask King Yama who sent you to hell when you see him. As for the rest of it, you don’t need to know,” Xuanyuan Wentian said as he threw his arms out wide and started to laugh maniacally.

  “The one who is going to hell is you!” Number One Under Heaven said with a cold laugh, “The fact that you know that the Little Demon Empress is in the Profound Sky Continent means that Huangji Wuyu and the other two must have told you about it, yes? But it looks like they did not tell you how pathetically they lost against the Little Demon Empress. Heh, this was not surprising to say the least. You call yourselves ‘Sacred Masters’ but the three of them combined forces only to end up as defeated dogs, so they definitely would not be shameless enough to tell you this as well. The fact that you came here by yourself today might very well be them scheming to send you to your death!”

  “Those three worthless pieces of trash?” Xuanyuan Wentian said with a cold laugh, his eyes flashing with a strange light, “How could they be worthy enough to be discussed in the same breath as this sovereign? It can be said that in this world, there are only three people that pose even the slightest threat to this sovereign. And two out of these three people are right in front of this sovereign’s eyes, which means that they are about to completely vanish from the face of this earth. As for the last person, he will very soon share the same fate as the rest of you.”

  The three people he was referring to were the Little Demon Empress, Feng Xue’er and Xia Yuanba respectively.

  As for Yun Che, Xuanyuan Wentian was under the impression that he was already dead.

  “Oh yes, if all of you obediently hand over the Mirror of Samsara, I can consider rewarding you by leaving all of you a whole corpse.”

  “To think that you’re still living in your own fantasy world even though your death is at hand!” Number One Under Heaven yelled through gritted teeth, “Xuanyuan Wentian! The disasters that have struck our Illusory Demon Realm in the recent years, even though all of you were used by that bastard Duke Ming, the hundred years of turmoil, the deaths of the previous Demon Emperor and the Demon King… all of them are unforgivable grievances! Since you have delivered yourself to our doorstep today, this simply means that the heavens themselves have determined that it is time for your to pay for your debt in blood!”

  “Ah? We were used by Duke Ming?” Xuanyuan Wentian said as his eyes narrowed before he broke out into a raucous laugh. His laugh was louder and more wanton than it had ever been previously, “Hahaha… hahaha… hahahahaha…”

  “In the end, idiots will always continue to be idiots! Did the lot of you really believe that the Four Sacred Grounds would be enticed by the words ‘the secrets of the Divine Profound’ that Duke Ming invented? Do you think that the Four Sacred Grounds were so tempted by this prospect that they paid a huge price and risked a great deal to charge into the Illusory Demon Realm to steal a ‘Mirror of Samsara’ that they had never even seen before? In any case, the Four Sacred Grounds have stood proudly over the rest of the Profound Sky Continent for ten thousand years, so how could they have been so easily played by a mere Duke Ming?”

  “You… what do you mean?” Number One Under Heaven’s and Xiao Yun’s expression changed at the same time while the silent Little Demon Empress’ eyes flashed with an intense light.

  “Hehehehe…” Xuanyuan Wentian gave a low mocking laugh, “All those years ago, it was all because this sovereign added fuel to the fire by telling Huangji Wuyu and the rest of them the ‘Mirror of Samsara’ did indeed contain the ‘secrets of the Divine Profound’. Furthermore, I also told them that it was an absolute secret that had been handed down from the ancestor of Mighty Heavenly Sword Region through the generations and we had been covertly searching for throughout the ages.”

  “Of course, just this alone wasn’t enough, so this sovereign was the first to contact Duke Ming after that and did not hesitate to expend an extremely large amount of resources to create a dimensional profound formation that linked the Profound Sky Continent to the Illusory Demon Realm. It was only then that the rest of them completely believed my words. But that foolish Duke Ming actually thought that his scheme had come to fruition. Heh… He thought that he was the chessmaster who was manipulating all the pieces on the board but little did he know that he was merely a pawn in this sovereign’s hand!”

  “That isn’t possible! All of this is just sheer nonsense!” Number One Under Heaven said in a furious rebuke, “Since you knew that it was a lie that the Mirror of Samsara contained the secrets of the Divine Profound, then why did you still do it?”

  “The so-called secrets of the Divine Profound was undoubtedly a lie,” Xuanyuan Wentian said with a low and deep chuckle. “But I’m afraid that nobody in the Illusory Demon Realm is privy to the true secret behind the Mirror of Samsara! But this sovereign does know! Even though it does not contain anything like the secret of the Divine Profound, it’s true secret is far greater than any mere secret of the Divine Profound!”

  “It remained in your Illusory Demon Realm for so many years but it was merely a useless and dead item! That was simply a waste of such a resource! Furthermore, it is only when it is in the hands of this sovereign that all of its secrets can be unlocked, allowing this sovereign to rule all under heaven together with it! Since it has arrived in the Profound Sky Continent today, then that simply means that the heavens themselves have destined it to be part of this sovereign’s collection!”

  “This means…” The previously silent Little Demon Empress suddenly spoke and every single word that came from her mouth was even more bone-piercingly cold than the ten thousand year profound ice of the Snow Region of Extreme Ice, “Compared to Duke Ming, it seems that you are truly the mastermind behind the calamities that have struck our Illusory Demon Realm!”

  “Oh, you can take it that way if you want,” Xuanyuan Wentian said as he smiled merrily. “I might as well mention this as well. When the Demon Emperor was shoved into the dimensional profound formation by Duke Ming all those years ago, he had fallen into the Heaven’s Might Soul Suppressing Formation this sovereign had prepared for him. This sovereign captured him, originally intending to preserve his life so that I could exchange it for the Mirror of Samsara. Who would have thought that this old man was actually so stubborn and headstrong. In order to prevent himself from being use
d as a bargaining chip, he actually severed his own life veins… Tsk, this sovereign had no choice but to personally end him at that point. However, he did not die a completely useless death. In the end, he was buried in my Mighty Heavenly Sword Region’s medicine garden and he ended up being exceedingly good fertilizer.”

  “Xuan… Yuan… Wen… Tian!!”

  The flames burning on the Little Demon Empress’ body started to crazily flare up and crackle like an erupting volcano. The fierce flames of the Golden Crow ignited all of her composure while also igniting all of her fury and killing intent, “Even if this empress burns herself to ash this very day… I will definitely break your bones and scatter your ashes!!”

  The exploding flames completely dispelled the duskiness in the sky, causing the surrounding ice that endured from time immemorial to rapidly disappear at an incredibly terrifying speed… The ice was not melting, it was simply disappearing into thin air. The layers of ice beneath their feet that had piled up over the countless years was quickly sinking. It was as if the entire earth was sinking amidst its trembling.

  “Hahahaha, what great imposingness. But it’s a pity that you won’t be able to do it. Given this sovereign’s current power, there is nobody left in this world that can destroy this sovereign!”

  Xuanyuan Wentian raised both his arms evenly and in an instant, the dark clouds in the sky and all of the darkness energy surrounding them had gathered up and formed into a gigantic vortex of darkness. His aura had also begun to steadily increase. Once the vortex of darkness had completely formed, an oppressive might that could shake the heavens and earth had engulfed the entire Snow Region of Extreme Ice.

  “Wha… What!?”