Against the Gods - Volume 10 - Snow Song Flame God

by Mars Gravity

  Huo Rulie’s eyebrows abruptly jumped but it soothed right after, “Poyun is the one who told you about this, isn’t it? Haah, about this… it’s hard for me to say this because… the creation of every Wood Spirit Orb involves a cruelly murdered wood spirit, you know? It’s the most bastardly thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

  “I can understand why you did it, you had a son to save after all,” Yun Che said earnestly, “Sect Master Huo, is the dimensional profound formation headed towards the Darkya Realm still active, sect master Huo? I need to go to the Darkya Realm.”

  A pause later, he revealed his objective honestly, “I want to find a Wood Spirit Orb!”

  “Mn?” Huo Rulie looked astonished but he ultimately was the Golden Crow sect master. He came to immediate understanding as he wondered aloud, “So, you want to find a Wood Spirit Orb at the underground black market in that place?... Is it to treat your master’s wounds? Oh… that shouldn’t be it either.”

  “Yun Che, “...”

  “Ah, would you look at me and my mouth,” Huo Rulie hit his mouth once lightly and stopped all the questions. He said directly, “Don’t worry. Not only is the profound formation still around, it should have enough energy to complete a teleportation.”

  “That’s good.” Yun Che hid a secret sigh of relief, “In that case, please give me the… sound transmission imprint of that underground merchant guild.”

  “I…” Huo Rulie wore a troubled look on his face. He then said, “It’s not that I don’t want to give you the imprint but those underground merchant guilds only meet with the customers they can completely trust at fixed intervals. As for the sound transmission, it’s impossible for outsiders to send a message to them even if they obtained their sound transmission imprint.”

  The order not to kill the wood spirit race was laid down by the Eternal Heaven God Realm itself. If they learned that someone was hunting down the wood spirit race, the consequences could only be severe. That was why all underground merchant guilds who sold the Wood Spirit Orbs acted with great caution… not to mention that there were things that were even more taboo than the Wood Spirit Orbs.

  “So… what about their location?” Yun Che frowned.

  “No underground merchant guild ever stays at one place…” Suddenly, Huo Rulie slapped himself in the head midway and said, “Oh! That’s it!”

  When he was done saying this, he looked inside his portable space for a long time before he took out a black, round jade and a scarlet token at the same time.

  “For the past few years, I bought at least a dozen or so Wood Spirit Orbs during my visits to the Darkya Realm. Since there were fewer and fewer wood spirits around these days and the act of hunting the wood spirits is considered an act against nature, the price of Wood Spirit Orbs was growing higher and higher due to the high risks involved. Because I spent a huge price to purchase a dozen or so wood spirits, I earned enough of a particular underground merchant guild’s trust to be given this black jade.”

  “This black jade is completely useless everywhere else but the moment you step into Darkya City of the Darkya Realm, it will react and point you towards members of that underground merchant. However, every black jade belongs to a specific master, so even if you find that person there they will never bring you to their place… But it’ll be a different story if you can prove your authenticity with my sect master token.”

  Once he said this, Huo Rulie pushed both the black jade and sect master token into Yun Che’s hands, “Naturally, there’s a reason why these underground merchant guilds have managed to survive for so many years. This is about the best I can do to help you. If it still doesn’t work, you can totally come and find me. I’ll bring you there myself and get you a Wood Spirit Orb.”

  “Thank you for the offer, but I still think I should go there myself.” Yun Che withdrew the black jade and Golden Crow sect master token.

  “Haha, good,” Huo Rulie laughed loudly. “Here I thought you needed me for something big but these are all little favors, are they not? What is the last matter? It should be something big this time, should it not?”

  “This third matter… will definitely trouble you somewhat, Sect Master Huo,” Yun Che said.

  Ho Rulie waved a hand in an impressive fashion, “If I feel troubled by your request then feel free to call me a bastard, Yun boy. Say it.”

  Yun Che sighed softly as his expression turned complicated, “The last thing I wish to ask of you… is to lie to my master for my sake, Sect Master Huo.”

  “You want me to… lie?” Huo Rulie was immediately flabbergasted.

  “Due to a certain circumstance, I have no choice but to leave the Snow Song Realm temporarily. My trip to the Darkya Realm needs to be concealed from everyone too, especially my master… so please don’t tell my master or anyone from the Snow Song Realm where I’m going. Just say that I… headed north and disappeared.”

  “This junior knows that Sect Master Huo is upright and outspoken and that lying is absolutely beneath you… but I beg you to promise me this, Sect Master Huo.”

  Huo Rulie was silent for a long time. Finally, he said slowly, “I was wondering why you would give me the horned dragon first instead of taking it back to your sect. I was wondering even more why you wish to visit the Darkya Realm alone. If you really want a Wood Spirit Orb, there are plenty of people in your sect who will be better and safer choices to send there… But I see now. You intend to leave the Snow Song Realm.”

  Yun Che, “...”

  “Why?” Huo Rulie frowned deeply. He couldn’t understand Yun Che’s decision at all.

  “It is for a compelling reason and a certain mission that I must accomplish. Please don’t ask me any further, Sect Master Huo.” There was no way he could tell him the real reason because it was related to Mu Xuanyin’s reputation and integrity.

  “Hm…” Huo Rulie didn’t ask further but he seemed to figure out a little something on his own. He nodded slowly and put away the ancient horned dragon. Then, he carried Yun Che along with him and said, “Alright, let’s go!”

  He didn’t greet either Yan Wancang or Mu Bingyun. In fact, he purposely stayed out of range of their spiritual perception and flew straight for the south.

  Golden Crow Sect, Flame God Realm.

  A small dimensional profound formation slowly lit up after Huo Rulie blasted a wisp of flame at it.

  “As I thought, the remaining energy in this formation is enough for it to active once more.” Huo Rulie withdrew his palm, “Once you head in, you will be teleported to a random location above the Darkya Realm. However, this is a one-way teleportation formation, so you’ll have to find a different teleportation point if you wish to come back to the Flame God Realm or the Snow Song Realm. You will also have to spend a large amount of purple stones or purple crystals to do that.”

  “... Unless my master finds me, I should not be returning in a short while,” Yun Che said as if he was speaking to himself. Then, he walked straight towards the teleportation formation.

  “Wait!” Huo Rulie stopped him with a cry before taking out a jadestone glowing with brilliant, metallic light.

  “The Jade of the Nine Suns.” Yun Che blurted out the object’s name. It was exactly the same as the one passed to him at Illusory Demon Realm by the Golden Crow Soul.

  “Oh? You know its name.” Huo Rulie put it in Yun Che’s hand, “The Jade of the Nine Suns is its ancient title. These days it is commonly known as the Golden Crow Jade. It is of the same grade as the Vermillion Bird Jade you possess and it is the greatest energy jadestone the Flame God Realm possesses. That profound ark of yours is very… unusual, so you may need this.”

  Yun Che didn’t turn down the offer. He gratefully accepted the gift.

  “Yun boy, I have a question that I need you to answer.” Suddenly, Huo Rulie’s eyes turned incredibly serious.

  “Please speak, Sect Master Huo.” Yun Che said.

  “Did you… really reach the bottom of the God Burying Inferno Prison?”<
br />
  When Huo Rulie asked this, he stared firmly at Yun Che’s eyes. There was an odd light behind Huo Rulie’s eyes that Yun Che couldn’t understand.

  “...” Yun Che turned around and walked towards the dimensional profound formation, “I really want to say that I was lying because I was overly concerned for my master but… I don’t want to lie to you, Sect Master Huo. So please, forget about this, Sect Master Huo.”

  When his final words reached Huo Rulie’s ears, Yun Che had stepped into the profound formation. A ray of dimensional profound light wrapped around him.

  Yun Che’s words were without a doubt a silent acknowledgement. Huo Rulie’s brain turned blank for a second before he abruptly pounced forward and shouted loudly, “Yun boy, wait…”

  Clang!!

  The dimensions changed and Yun Che’s figure vanished along with the profound light.

  Huo Rulie stood there blankly with a pair of eyes and a face that changed constantly. A long time later, he finally calmed down.

  If he really did reach the bottom of the God Burying Inferno Prison, doesn’t that mean that...

  Phew! Never mind. It would actually be a trouble for him if he saw that. But if one day he comes back to the Flame God Realm, then...

  “He’s only about twenty years old but he has an elemental talent that far exceeds Poyun’s, medical skills good enough to treat Ye’er in just three days, and potential great enough to reach the Divine Soul Realm in just half a year… he even saved Mu Xuanyin from the ancient horned dragon that I couldn’t even get close to. This kid…” Huo Rulie sighed deeply in admiration, “His future is truly unimaginable.”

  After Yun Che left the Flame God Realm and the Snow Song Realm he grown very attached to… he headed toward a star realm he knew nothing about called the Darkya Realm.

  Despite being a denizen of a lower realm who had arrived at the God Realm in less than a year, he managed to obtain the kind of opportunity and protection even profound practitioners of the God Realm did not dare to dream about. In the Snow Song Realm, he enjoyed the highest quality of resources and was cared for by the world’s strongest patron. He only needed to focus on cultivating and didn’t need to fear or be on guard against anything.

  But after he committed a terrible mistake, he had no choice but to leave this harbor that was built from ice and snow.

  He, who had left the Snow Song Realm, was like a lonely duckweed floating toward the vast sea and the future of the God Realm. He could only face the shocking waves of the unknown ahead of him, alone.

  Chapter 1069: The Strange Black Feather Merchant Guild

  Lower star realms made up thirty thousand of the vast God Realm’s forty thousand star realms, far more than seventy percent of the entire region.

  Even though they could not compare to middle and upper star realms in terms of overall strength, inheritance, resources and background, they were the main bulk of the God Realm, based on quantity alone.

  Amongst the many lower star realms, the Darkya Realm was an extremely special existence, especially in the Eastern Divine Region. Although its strength wasn’t in the upper echelons, its reputation was not inferior to any one of them.

  Out of all the Eastern Divine Region’s lower star realms, it possessed the most merchant guilds.

  If profound practitioners lacked any strange objects or treasures, they would never return empty-handed if they went on a trip to the Darkya Realm… the only prerequisite being that they brought along enough purple stones or crystals.

  Darkya City was located at the center of the Darkya Realm. The entire city region was five hundred kilometers wide, with many famous merchant guilds of the God Realm gathered within and as for the medium and small sized merchant guilds, those were innumerable. There weren’t many sectoral forces within the city and it didn’t contain the Realm King’s forces either, yet it was able to take on the name of “Darkya”, the exact same name of its star realm. Just by that alone, it was obvious what kind of status Darkya City possessed in the Darkya Realm.

  Yun Che appeared above the skies of Darkya City, looking down upon this unfamiliar star realm’s main city for a very long time.

  His understanding of the God Realm was only limited to the Snow Song Realm. Since the Snow Song Realm was covered in perpetual snow year round, its population was sparse. It was an unique realm in itself. The Darkya Realm below him however, was bustling with activity. Its extraordinary liveliness gave Yun Che a few seconds of misperception when he arrived; he thought that he had returned to the lower realm’s flourishing cities.

  “Darkya Realm… Darkya Realm,” Yun Che quietly muttered. Scene after scene of the Snow Song Realm flashed through his mind, bringing him a boundless sadness.

  He withdrew his Ice Phoenix Engraved Jade and changed into a set of plain, white clothes before slowly descending onto this completely unfamiliar land that he wasn’t a part of.

  In the Blue Pole Star, he was the ruler.

  In the Snow Song Realm, he had the support of its Great Realm King and was the eviable direct disciple… Even when he had first entered the Snow Song Realm, he had the support of Mu Bingyun.

  But now, he was alone. In this boundless star realm, in this boundless sea of people, there was not a single place he was familiar with, not a single person he was familiar with.

  If another person were to take his place, they would’ve long since stopped breathing due to the fright and pressure brought about by the heavy loneliness.

  “Master…” Yun Che said softly.

  After a long bout of depression overcame him, both Yun Che’s expression and emotional state recovered to bright clarity. Since things had come to this point, he could only face it alone. What he had to do now was put all his effort into searching for a Wood Spirit Orb… and it had to be a first-rate Wood Spirit Orb.

  Purple profound stone; purple profound crystal; purple profound jade; these were the God Realm’s commonly used currency. One thousand purple stones were worth one purple crystal, and one thousand purple crystals were worth one purple jade.

  When he followed Mu Bingyun and joined the Thirty-sixth Ice Phoenix Palace, he was still able to receive a monthly allowance of five thousand purple stones but after becoming Mu Xuanyin’s disciple, he didn’t receive a single stone.

  Although he profited greatly from his harvest in the Ice Wind Empire’s treasury there, he had unexpectedly already used up those gains.

  Even though he had only taken from the Qilin Horn’s vicinity, those were still objects stored within a vast empire’s treasury. There was no doubt that they would amount to a great sum. Yun Che took inventory once more...

  There were a total of three hundred thousand purple profound crystals and two hundred purple profound jades.

  When converted, it was a whole five hundred million purple profound stones!

  “How could I recklessly squander wealth plundered from a middle star realm’s country?” Yun Che muttered.

  But where should I go?

  Yun Che took out the black jade Huo Rulie handed him and his gaze suddenly focused.

  When he had received it from Huo Rulie, it was just a lifeless black jade. But now, the center of the jade suddenly lit up as a feather, dark as the night, appeared upon it.

  “A black feather?” Yun Che slightly focused and felt a weak fluctuation coming from its surface. Then, his gaze quickly shifted toward his front as he walked over… the profound energy fluctuation on this black jade’s surface was clearly pointing in that direction.

  Even though it was his first time in the Darkya Realm, the difference between a lower star realm and a middle star realm could be seen with a single glance. The density and purity of the spiritual energy here was far inferior to the Snow Song Realm and the Flame God Realm… Though it was still far above the Blue Pole Star.

  The stream of people within Darkya City was huge; it was extremely lively, no matter where he went. It was obvious that this place prohibited the use of profound arks and mounts because
although there was an unceasing number of human figures flying past overhead, not a single profound ark or beast was in sight.

  The profound practitioners were mostly at the early stage of the divine way. The city guards that were visible everywhere were mostly in the Divine Origin or Divine Soul Realm.

  In the Darkya Realm… as well as any other lower star realm, being able to enter the divine way and reach the Divine Origin Realm was shocking and being able to reach the Divine Soul Realm put one above the masses. Being able to reach the Divine Tribulation Realm meant that one was qualified to establish their own sect and if one was able to pass through the Divine Tribulation Realm, into the Divine Spirit Realm, they could be overlords of a region.

  Entering the Divine Master Realm obviously meant that they could become rulers of a realm!

  If one or more Divine Sovereigns appeared within a lower star realm, then the entire star realm would subsequently be promoted and rank up to become a middle star realm.

  As a result, Yun Che, who was considered a genius within his age group in the Snow Song Realm after reaching the Divine Soul Realm in one step, was qualified to join the thirty six Ice Phoenix Palaces. This was why his current cultivation and age was enough to attract attention in this lower star realm.

  Following the black jade’s weak profound energy guidance, Yun Che sensed Darkya City’s aura and the traveling profound practitioners as he walked toward the heart of the city.

  As expected of the star realm of trade, within the thirty thousand lower star realms that was even well known within the middle star realms; wherever Yun Che went, what he saw the most were merchant organizations of various sizes. Aside from the merchant guilds, there were also countless small stores and stalls selling all kinds of different oddities.

  Yun Che casually meandered for several hours and that was still what he saw.

  The entire Darkya City was like an enormous bazaar.

  When Yun Che’s footsteps finally stopped at a certain location, the reaction coming from the black jade completely disappeared.