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

by Mars Gravity

  “!!!” Yun Che did not even think, as he fiercely raised his energy and fled forward with his fastest speed.

  “Aoouu!! Ouu!!”

  With a devil god-like imposing aura and an extremely terrifying roar, the ferocious beast behind him seemed to have gone completely enraged, as if it wanted to annihilate Yun Che at all costs.

  Yun Che gnashed his teeth as he constantly looked back. Every time he looked back, he could sense that it had gotten closer to him by a certain extent. Though its speed was inferior compared to the one that had chased him previously, it was still at a level where he could not escape from it with his speed alone.

  Could it be that all the monsters here do not have the least bit of reason and only know how to desperately kill all outsiders?

  Wait a minute! Could it be… the flames!?

  To be capable of living in this dark world, the monsters within it must possess a similar attribute. Jasmine had long mentioned before, that bodies which carried darkness profound energy would averse to or even hate flames. They would even be suppressed by fire profound energy to a certain degree. Especially the flames of the Vermilion Bird… Followed by the Phoenix flames and then the Golden Crow flames.

  The purer the dark profound energy, the more it was so.

  The dark monster behind him was suddenly alerted right after he ignited the Golden Crow flames as well.

  Realizing this point, Yun Che hurriedly extinguished the Golden Crow flames from his entire body, allowing the surrounding world to once again return to complete darkness.

  “A… Ouuu!!”

  However, the roars behind him persisted and there was not the slightest bit of slowing down or hesitation in its pursuit. The extremely terrifying sense of danger continued to approach from behind.

  “Hss… Is it already too late?” Yun Che gritted his teeth in the dark… It seemed like he had to once again rely on the Primordial Profound Ark to forcefully flee.

  Though the Primordial Profound Ark was unable to bring him out of this world, at the same time the two former attempts failed, he was still brought to different places… Especially the first time, where he successfully escaped from the dark monster’s pursuit.

  Yun Che’s speed slowed down slightly and he turned his body around in the air. The flames that he had extinguished earlier once again burned… However, they were no longer the Golden Crow flames but the Phoenix flames.

  Since a dark monster like you hates and fears flames, then before escaping this place, let me give you a big present!!

  The profound energy in Yun Che’s entire body poured out and the flaming light from his body exploded forth. A gigantic Phoenix Flaming Lotus speedily bloomed, growing several hundred meters wide in the blink of an eye. Then, it was pushed towards his back with all his might.

  The gigantic flaming lotus flew out amidst a sonorous phoenix cry and when it landed on the ground, a stream of crimson flaming light blazed through the darkness, charging straight up into the skies and reaching several hundred meters in height. It released what might be the most intense heat and light in the history of this dark world.

  Initially, Yun Che smashed out this flaming lotus with the pure intention of disgusting the dark monster that was relentlessly pursuing him.

  However, he was unaware that this action of his had ruthlessly stabbed the hornet’s nest of this dark world.

  “Aoouuuu!!!”

  “Scree~”

  …………

  The previously considerably silent dark world, was suddenly blasted with countless thunderous beast roars. Some came from afar, some came from up close and these roars evidently carried incomparably intense ferocity and anger.

  Boooooom…

  The earth and space wildly trembled. Those were the sounds of countless dark ferocious beasts sprinting at the same time. In the sky faraway, extremely shrilling space-tearing sounds could also be heard. Evidently, a large number of flying ferocious beasts were approaching with peerless speed.

  One dark monster was already incomparably terrifying, let alone a herd of this size. Their overlapping roars constantly shook Yun Che’s body and there were several times where he had almost collapsed. Never did he expect that a causal release of his flames had actually brought about such a terrifying situation. He no longer dared to stay any further, as he charged forward with all his might. At the same time, he quickly summoned the Primordial Profound Ark and set his coordinates, which was still a vertical jump of sixty kilometers.

  Where it was going to bring him was not important, as long as it could allow him to escape from the noses of these dark monsters.

  The Primordial Profound Ark appeared and under Yun Che’s will, its spatial jumping ability activated. Layers of ripples swayed in the surrounding space… However, these ripples were incomparably frail, several times weaker than the previous two times. They could not even be compared to the water ripples caused by a gentle breeze.

  Following after, these ripples immediately appeared, while the Primordial Profound Ark stayed at its original position, not having moved in the slightest.

  “!!!” Yun Che was shocked in his heart. Though there were situations in the past where he was unable to jump out of independent small worlds, there had never been a case where he could not even undergo a jump within the same world.

  Could it be that the spatial laws in this place were far stronger than his previous location, preventing the Primordial Profound Ark from even undergoing a spatial jump?

  Not giving up, Yun Che consecutively tried several times but the results were all the same. The Primordial Profound Ark would only bring about frail spatial ripples and would not move in the slightest.

  “[email protected]#$%…”

  The roars behind him grew even closer and the numbers were increasing as well. Yun Che’s hair stood on end. He put away the Primordial Profound Ark and once again raised his speed to the absolute limits, charging towards the darkness in front of him.

  Under this immense crisis, his will surpassed his concentration and he ended up not noticing something that was obviously strange. A large number of dark ferocious beasts were startled into moving by his flames but the auras and roars of these ferocious beasts, were all coming from the world behind him.

  In the direction he was fleeing to, it had been completely silent from beginning to end, as though no dark ferocious beasts existed there. Not even a single one.

  Chapter 883: The Girl in the Abyss (3)

  Yun Che did not know the direction in which he was traveling nor did he know what was ahead of him. The only thing he could do was fly forward with all of his strength. Death would bear down on him the moment he stopped.

  The oppressive might that was bearing down on him from behind was growing more and more dreadful, the sound of pursuit growing ever so closer. However, it was at this time that a penetrating cry pierced the air above him. That shrill cry directly covered the darkness monster that had started pursuing him first. A dangerous aura that was even closer and more terrifying than the previous one spread out from above and it swiftly drew near to him using a dreadfully peerless speed.

  What was that? What a terrifying speed!

  Yun Che was greatly shocked and alarmed because the darkness monster, which was rushing in from above, was at least two to three times faster than the previous monster!

  If Jasmine was here, she would instantly be able to tell that this was clearly the primordial devil beast known as the Bane Glass Bird! When she had come here previously, she had also been attacked by a Bane Glass Bird.

  This kind of speed was undoubtedly a terrifying nightmare to Yun Che.

  With the Bane Glass Bird’s dreadful speed, the considerable distance between the two of them had swiftly dwindled in a short period of just over ten breaths.

  “SCREEEEE!!!”

  The shrill cry behind him abruptly turned incredibly sharp, the sound causing Yun Che’s entire body to fiercely shiver… Because judging from that sense, the darkness monster th
at was pursuing him from above was astonishingly only a few kilometers away from him!

  Furthermore, when this bird cry sounded, the dangerous aura behind him instantly turned into an aura of death which sent chills running through Yun Che’s entire body.

  The Bane Glass Bird who had already come within seven kilometers of Yun Che gathered its wings before it violently flung them out wide. In a split second, a howling darkness gale was formed and it hurtled forward with an earth-shaking screech. Wherever this storm of darkness hit, it instantly warped the dark space, which even the Primordial Profound Ark could not jump through, into twisting vortexes.

  The instant the storm of darkness arrived, Yun Che felt as if he had been thrown into an abyss of death… He was acutely aware that if he came into contact with this storm of darkness, even if it merely brushed him, he would instantly be wrung into dark powder.

  Yun Che’s gaze grew dark and heavy as he desperately raised his speed to its very limit. Even though his speed was already peerlessly quick and fierce, the storm of death that bore on from behind grew ever closer…

  This would not do… If he maintained his current speed, he would definitely die!

  Ssssss!!

  Yun Che fiercely gritted his teeth, his eyes glowing with a tyrannical light. After that, he let out a low roar as he forcefully opened the 【Rumbling Heaven】 gate.

  Bang!!

  A profound energy storm violently exploded outwards from Yun Che’s body. His profound energy immediately turned scarlet red. As his profound strength explosively increased by several times, his speed also abruptly increased as he frantically tore through the darkness at a frantic rate…

  BHOOOOM

  The storm of death smashed against the ground behind Yun Che, reducing the dark ground which was countless times stronger than profound steel into countless motes of dust. The intervening space immediately became riddled with holes.

  After that peerlessly dreadful destructive power erupted, the remaining power spread out in waves that buffeted the surrounding space that was tens of kilometers wide…

  Before Yun Che, who had forcefully opened the 【Rumbling Heaven】 gate to escape certain death, even had time to catch his breath, the extremely dangerous aura hurtled in from behind once again. His pupils contracted and he did not have enough time to even turn around but he nearly instinctively activated the Evil God Barrier.

  Bang!!

  Yun Che’s back was buffeted by a backlash wave that had been emitted by the storm of death.

  It was merely a backlash wave that had yet to dissipate and its strength could only be described as weak compared to the center of that storm. But for Yun Che, this “weak” backlash wave was still akin to an incredibly dreadful disaster.

  With an explosive ring, his Evil God Barrier instantly collapsed and fractured and his entire body shot out at a speed that was even faster than his fastest speed. He flew for an entire thirty five kilometer before fiercely smashing against the ground.

  “Cough… cough, cough… cough…”

  Yun Che planted his palms on the ground as he gingerly lifted himself off the ground before coughing out more than ten mouthfuls of bright red blood.

  After he had perfectly obtained Feng Xue’er’s Phoenix vital yin, his strength had risen explosively and he had reached the pinnacle of strength in this world. Besides Xuanyuan Wentian, the Little Demon Empress, and Feng Xue’er, there was no one else who could rival him/.

  But within this dreadful dark abyss, he was like a young and tender child who had mistakenly crawled into a demon’s den, he was so weak that even a touch could consign him to death.

  It was just a backlash wave that had been dispersed from far away but it practically took away half his life… and this was when he had even activated the Evil God Barrier.

  Right now, Yun Che did not have time to even consider what kind of crazy place this was. He stood up and staggered forward… Forcefully opening up Rumbling Heaven had already done an enormous amount of damage to his body and before he even had time to catch his breath, he had sustained such a dreadful amount of damage yet again. But he had to stand up, because the moment he stopped, he would die.

  “Cough… cough, cough…”

  Yun Che pressed a hand against his chest and the fierce pain that he felt from his internal organs told him that most of his vital organs had ruptured. It felt exceptionally difficult to even walk and if there was light in this place, one would be able to see a long trail of blood dripped along the ground that he had traversed.

  I… still cannot die yet…

  His steps were heavy and his wounds were so serious that he was unable to take to the air. Even his consciousness was starting to grow blurry. After he had taken more than ten steps, he finally sensed that something was amiss and he slowly turned around.

  Those terrifying bestial roars and earth-shaking footsteps that had rung out behind him had completely disappeared.

  The dangerous aura that had engulfed him had also completely dissipated.

  What was going on?

  Has my consciousness become muddled to such a great extent?

  However, all of this was not Yun Che’s misperception. Tens of kilometers away, those profound beasts that had been chasing after Yun Che had completely stopped their pursuit. Even the sounds of their howls and roars had completely died down and they did not dare to advance even a step further.

  It was as if the region in front of them was a forbidden ground that they absolutely could not enter.

  Yun Che did not know what had happened behind him. He trudged forward in the darkness and he did not even know how long he had been walking for. At the moment when he was just about to collapse, he suddenly fell against a hard and solid wall.

  After he had run around in this unknown and vast world for such a long period of time, he had finally touched something other than the ground.

  Yun Che, who had finally found something to support him, leaned against the wall for a while as he gasped for breath. Now that he had arrived at this point, he was able to confirm one thing, his feeling that those profound beasts had abruptly stopped their pursuit was not due to his senses growing blurry.

  Before he could even consider the reason for this, he had to regulate his energy and blood first. So he sat down and started to treat his injuries. At this time, he suddenly saw a gleam of purple light out of the corner of his eye.

  Yun Che’s heart was shaken and he swiftly turned his head around as he focused his vision on that spot… He had not been mistaken, there was indeed a gleam of purple-colored light coming from a spot that was somewhere in front of him.

  This gleam of light was extremely faint and weak but in this world that only contained endless darkness, the existence of this light was undoubtedly extremely unusual.

  “Light…!”

  Yun Che subconsciously muttered to himself

  Yun Che gave up on healing himself. He leaned against the wall and dragged his heavily wounded body towards the purple light, his leaden feet dragging against the ground. He was not being motivated by his curiosity. He was moving to the light because this gleam of light in this incomparably dreadful world of darkness was undoubtedly a dazzling ray of hope!

  As he moved forward, the purple light grew increasingly closer and increasingly brighter in his vision. Gradually, Yun Che could sense a strangely familiar feeling from this purple light.

  This purple light… I have definitely seen it somewhere before!

  What could it be?

  Yun Che gasped roughly as he strove to pick up speed. After he had walked a very far distance and seemed to be very near to that purple light, he abruptly reached a bend in the wall that he had been using to support himself.

  After he turned the corner, he stood in a complete daze for a while.

  What appeared in front of his eyes was a world that was filled by a bewitching purple light.

  There were countless stalks of fantastical flowers swaying amidst this purple light. Scor
es of bewitching flowers bloomed proudly upon deep purple stalks. Every single petal of these flowers seemed to be like gleaming purple jade, they released a bright purple light and a faint and indistinct dull purple fog that seemed to come from the depths of the netherworld floated around them.

  The purple light that filled this space had all come from these bewitching purple flowers.

  Within this incomparably dreadful world of darkness, Yun Che’s flames could only illuminate an area that was not even ten feet wide but these bewitching flowers could clearly illuminate a very large area and the light that was being radiated was incredibly clear. It seemed to be near at hand and it was not dimmed by the darkness at all.

  Yun Che dumbly stood in place and it seemed as if his entire body had been petrified.

  These bewitching purple flowers were clearly Netherworld Udumbara Flowers!!

  Before this, he and Jasmine had spent an entire seven years just to find the traces of the Netherworld Udumbara Flower in the Moon Slaughter Devil Nest. Jasmine had also said that it was likely that the flower they had found in the Moon Slaughter Devil Nest was the only one that could be found on this plane.

  However right now, tens of thousands of Netherworld Udumbara Flowers swayed before him in full bloom, forming a gigantic sea of Netherworld Udumbara Flowers.

  It was as if he had been thrust from a dark world of death into a purple-colored netherworld dimension.

  However, the Netherworld Udumbara Flower was not only incomparably bewitching, its most unique trait, which was also its most dreadful trait… was its ability to steal one’s soul!!

  Even though Yun Che was still rather far away from this sea of flowers, he was heavily injured and was being bathed by the purple light that radiated from tens of thousands of netherworld Udumbara Flowers. So in a short amount of time, the vision of those eyes which stared at the sea of Netherworld Udumbara Flowers grew increasingly blurry as his pupils swiftly expanded without him noticing.

  Yun Che rapidly tried to raise his guard but it was already too late. He wanted to retreat but he could barely even feel the existence of his body, and his vision and consciousness very swiftly grew blurry.