Against the Gods (Web Novel)
chapter-2025

Chapter 2025 - Colorless Profound Handle

“What did you see?” Li Suo asked as soon as Yun Che’s consciousness departed the soul shadow.

Ni Xuan had embedded his memory fragments into Yun Che’s soul sea, so Li Suo was unable to share the view.

“The memory fragments senior Ni Xuan left for me,” Yun Che replied in a heavy tone.

Mo Su…

This wasn’t the first time he made contact with the name, and his impression of it was very faint. Even so, he knew only two people in the entire universe who possessed the surname “Mo” [1], and they were Mo E, the leader of the four Creation Gods, and Mo Su, the person mentioned in the Ancient Records of the Dragon God!

“The “Heaven Punishing Crown Prince” [Mo Su] was outstanding in both looks, temperament, and talent. None of the god children in the universe was his equal and the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor loved him deeply. However, Mo Su violated a taboo that must never be violated, so Mo E personally buried him in the Abyss of Nothingness.”

“His ruthless devotion to righteousness shocked the entire universe, but it also earned him universal praise and admiration.”

“...” Yun Che recalled the brief excerpt regarding Mo Su and fell into deep thought.

In his memory, Ni Xuan’s power, status, appearance, personality, spirit and more stood at the pinnacle of all men, and yet he was able to treat all life equally and was unconstrained by any norms or rules.

A man like him should have died as he lived, if he died at all.

And yet, the Ni Xuan that Yun Che had met was so old, so crushed…

The difference was so huge that no one would have believed that they were the same person.

By now, Yun Che could tell that the reason Ni Xuan looked the way he did before he perished wasn’t because of the erosion of Myriad Tribulations at all. It was due to extreme self-abandonment and self-torture.

As for Mo Su…

He was the Heaven Punishing Crown Prince mentioned in the Ancient Records of the Dragon God and undoubtedly the son the Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor treasured the most.

According to the memory fragment, Mo E ultimately chose to entrust his precious son to Ni Xuan despite sharing drastically different beliefs with the man. He was basically lowering himself to ask his former love rival a favor, and yet he still did it for the sake of his son’s progress.

It showed just how much he valued and loved his son.

So why… had Mo E executed him by throwing him into the Abyss of Nothingness with his own hands?

The young man in the memory fragment was noble yet foolish. More accurately, he was wooden and slow of speech because he had been brought up to respect all sorts of laws, rules and customs. He was insensitive toward basic desires that should be second nature to anyone, and he was afraid of breaking an unsaid rule even when he was speaking.

Mo Su was so constrained that he almost couldn’t bring himself to make a “transgression” for the sake of the person he admired the most, Ni Xuan. How could such a person commit such a taboo that his own father had no choice but to execute his own precious son?

Wait…

Why did Ni Xuan specifically leave this memory to me?

Mo Su… was thrown into the Abyss…

Could it be…

“I could feel your soul trembling like an earthquake.”

It was at this moment Li Suo broke his train of thoughts once more. “The memory Ni Xuan left for you must be quite unusual.”

Yun Che exhaled slowly and said, “He told me something he wasn’t going to tell me… It was probably to thank me for taking care of Hong’er and You’er.”

Ni Xuan had left behind a total of five memory fragments inside his soul sea.

He had only viewed two of them because the other three were sealed. Although the seal was incredibly weak, the memories would destroy themselves should he try to read them by force.

This meant that he could only wait for them to unlock themselves sometime in the future. Perhaps Ni Xuan himself wasn’t sure if he should pass down these memories even at the final moment.

Still, the two scenes alone were enough to clarify so many things.

It took a while to console Hong’er and You’er. It was only then that Yun Che finally opened his eyes in the real world.

His surroundings were still dead silent, but it was also quite different from before.

The ground where he was sitting had caved into a deep, massive pit. In fact, the pit was so big that it was at least ten kilometers in radius.

Strangely, the bottom of the pit was as smooth and flat as a mirror.

He had no idea that the rebirth of his profound veins would trigger such a natural disaster.

“This commotion is big enough to draw people… or more likely, abyssal beasts to the area. I should leave immediately.”

Yun Che muttered to himself and shot into the sky. However, he abruptly skidded to a stop and slowly looked down at his hands.

It was because his profound energy had responded to his will much faster than before.

He muttered to himself, “Divine Master Realm…”

Back then, Yun Che had tried so hard to break into the Divine Master Realm to no avail. He had never encountered anything that so much as resembled a bottleneck until he reached the peak of the Divine Sovereign Realm. Since then, it was like he had run into the Wall of Primal Chaos itself. No matter what he tried or how hard he pushed himself, he was unable to progress even an inch further.

It wasn’t until he entered the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm that he realized that it was probably because his Heretic God Profound Veins were incomplete. When he obtained the stele, he finally learned that the wall was left behind by the Heretic God, Ni Xuan himself to protect the order of the Primal Chaos.

Today, after he entered the Abyss and obtained the final Heretic God Seed, after his Heretic God Profound Veins were finally reborn, the power that had been forcefully limited to the Divine Sovereign Realm for many years had finally burst like water from a broken dam.

Yun Che had achieved his breakthrough at the same time his profound veins transformed into a universe, and the process was so smooth that he hadn’t noticed until after the fact.

“Finally…” Yun Che muttered in a daze as he stared at his own fingers. This wasn’t just a breakthrough to him. This was him finally making his first true step in the Abyss.

He stretched out his hands. Fire, ice, wind and lighting appeared on each finger. Finally, a yellow, earthly profound light appeared on the tip of his little finger.

He was releasing and maintaining five elements at once, and he didn’t feel any difficulty whatsoever.

He closed his palm and extinguished all of the profound lights at once. Clear ripples appeared in the space around him.

So this… is my power as a Divine Master!

If I had this power before, I might have been able to fight the eleven Half-Step Divine Extinction Realm profound practitioners in the Qilin God Realm alone and without resorting to God Ash!

What really surprised Yun Che wasn't his drastically increased profound energy, but his improved senses.

Earlier, he could detect the existence and movement of the abyssal dust, but it was relatively blurry so to speak.

Now… he could sense every wisp, no, every speck of abyssal dust that existed in the surrounding space.

If he withdrew the range of his spiritual perception and focused on his senses, he could even sense the trajectory of the abyssal dust clearly.

Yun Che was going to take his leave, but he suddenly changed his mind and closed his eyes. He would not move a muscle for a very long time. He was concentrating almost as if he was entering a strange state of enlightenment. It was such that even Li Suo didn’t dare to disturb his concentration.

It was at this moment a shredding noise came from somewhere. A gray silhouette leaped out of the gray fog, let out a strange cry, and pounced straight for Yun Che’s back. It was aiming for his heart.

Yun Che remained where he was as if he couldn’t detect the attack.

When the gray silhouette was a third of a meter away from his back, a hand abruptly caught its skull.

The hand had appeared so fast it almost looked like it had blinked into existence.

The gray silhouette froze in the air like its time itself had been frozen. The only thing that showed that wasn’t the case was the gray fog rising from its body.

Yun Che slowly turned around to face the creature he had just caught.

So this… is an abyssal beast?

The abyssal beast was shaped like a wolf and only 1.7 meters long. Because it was completely covered in gray fog, it resembled a ghost wolf that was burning its gray purgatory flames.

The only identifiable part of the abyssal beast was its silhouette… and the eyes that were dancing with terrifying, grayish light.

Judging from its destructive aura, this abyssal beast was probably equal to a middle-stage Divine Sovereign. At his current strength, he would be shocked if the abyssal beast could put a dent in his skin.

Still clutching the abyssal beast’s skull, he injected his profound energy and soul energy across its whole body.

Some time later, he slowly narrowed his flashing eyes.

Bang!

There was a soft bang, and the abyssal beast abruptly exploded. It spilled a lot of abyssal dust and a surprising amount of stinky blood and gore.

This proved that its flesh and blood were still present. It had just undergone some sort of mutation due to the erosion of abyssal dust.

A human’s flesh and blood would eventually be consumed into nothing.

The effect of abyssal dust had on a human and a beast was clearly different.

As for why a beast transformed into an abyssal beast when humans wouldn’t…

Yun Che swiped a pitch black orb from the air.

It was the profound pellet of a profound beast and the equivalent of a human’s profound veins, but this one was completely corroded by abyssal dust. It looked like tendrils of black that wrapped completely around the profound pellet. The gray fog rising from it was so thick it was almost pitch black.

Yun Che’s eyebrows suddenly twitched violently.

This was probably the “abyssal core” Yun Xi spoke of.

She had used the thick abyssal dust it released to destroy her own face.

Once again, Yun Che froze in his tracks. He just clutched the abyssal core and did not move for a very long time. Even Li Suo didn’t know what he was sensing.

Shred!!

Another shadow appeared and pounced straight for Yun Che.

This time, Yun Che reacted quickly, but instead of killing or catching the abyssal beast, he simply turned his gaze on it.

This abyssal beast looked very similar to the one he killed earlier, but its destructive aura was much weaker. It was only a Divine King.

Yun Che still didn’t act when it had gotten within thirty meters of him. He simply stared at the rapidly approaching shadow and did everything he could to slip his divine perception into its abyssal core… and every wisp of abyssal dust within it.

The shadow suddenly slowed down drastically. The ghastly flames within its eyes started swaying unnaturally as well. Even the gray fog around its body was flickering wildly as if it was being blown by a storm.

Not only was it slowing down, its movement was obviously less hostile than before. When it was one meter away from Yun Che, it finally came to a complete halt.

Abyssal beasts possessed no consciousness whatsoever. The one thing they possessed was the instinct to destroy. This was a common sense everyone in the Abyss was taught since they were born.

“You… Did you actually…” Li Suo exclaimed in quiet disbelief.

In essence, abyssal dust was the Power of Extinction. It was a power that existed beyond the realm of common sense.

However, this abyssal beast had halted its instinct to destroy… before Yun Che.

It was at this moment Yun Che slowly extended his hand. His movement was unbelievably slow and stiff even compared to a mortal. His facial muscles were also scrunched together as if he was pushing back against some sort of great resistance or pain.

He was focusing almost all of his soul energy on the abyssal beast’s core. As if he had gone insane, he was doing everything he could to touch the seemingly infinite abyssal dust that was densely packed within it.

He wasn’t raising his arm because he wanted to. It was an instinctual movement.

When his arm was fully raised, the abyssal beast abruptly wheeled around and ran off in the opposite direction. It wouldn’t stop until it had completely vanished into the fog ahead.

Thump!

Yun Che’s vision abruptly turned black as he hit the ground with a resounding thud.

His face was deathly pale, and his forehead was positively drenched in cold sweat. However, he propped himself up and let out a low, disturbing chuckle all of a sudden:

“Heh… hehehe… hahahaha…”

“Are you… alright?” Li Suo asked a little worriedly.

“I’m fine,” Yun Che replied and climbed back to his feet, though his lips were still curved into a smile. “I just discovered something… incredible is all.”

“Can you… control abyssal beasts now?” She had said the most shocking thing in the softest voice.

“Not yet.” Yun Che shook his head, but he didn’t deny the possibility. “But that day isn’t too far off.”

Li Suo couldn’t say a thing for a long time.

“Phew… One step at a time.” Yun Che gazed into the distance, but the way he looked at the Endless Fog was completely different from before. “First things first, I should find another safe place to refine the divine origin, origin blood and origin marrow the Qilin God left me.”

“Also… the Great Way of the Buddha is finally showing some changes. It is time for my body to undergo a transformation.”

According to the records of the Great Way of the Buddha, the first six realms could be cultivated by mortals. But starting from the seventh… only a god’s body could bear its power!

“It looks like I’ll be staying in the Endless Fog for a very long time to come.”

Originally, he was only going to stay in the Endless Fog for a bit. He was going to leave after he absorbed the earth seed. But now, he had changed his mind.

After taking a moment to recover his depleted mental energy, Yun Che got ready to leave. It was at this moment he suddenly glanced at his left arm.

For some reason, he felt like a certain power in his bloodline… had undergone a transformation of sorts.

He raised his left arm and summoned his profound handle.

The next moment, he froze in his tracks.

In the Yun Family, the weakest profound handle was red in color, and the strongest was purple in color. His profound handle was the most unique of them all as it went from the weakest red to the strongest purple as he grew in strength.

According to their family records, there was actually another tier above purple. It was a golden profound handle that was said to be capable of bearing one hundred percent of its wielder’s power! However, the person who left this record himself stated that this was just a legend. No one had actually seen it before.

Yun Che knew he had summoned his profound handle. He could clearly perceive its existence. However, his eyes were unable to see his profound handle at all.

A colorless profound handle!?

Author’s Note: It’s a good day today. All cheats are being sold at a 50% discount!

1. Sorry, the pinyin are the same.