Against the Gods

Chapter 2117 - Break (1)

Ripples washed over the distorted and blurry image, and a new scene appeared. The background was still the Divine Palace of Life.

“Who is she, master? She’s so cute.”

A young woman let out a cry of admiration as she watched the girl slumbering in the Coffin of Eternity.

Yun Che’s soul twitched. Although the image and voice were severely distorted and torn, he still recognized immediately that the voice belonged to Shen Xi, even though it was filled with youth instead of the ephemeralness he was familiar with.

Li Suo said gently, “She is my future adopted daughter and your friend. However, I haven’t thought of a name for her yet.”

“A name...” Shen Xi thought for a moment before answering a bit mischievously, “Well, the Wan Hu Flowers in the Holy Garden today are in full bloom today almost as if they are welcoming her awakening. In that case, let’s call her Wan Hu!”

Li Suo smiled and nodded. “Very well.”

Her ever gentle voice was now mixed with a bit of doting love, though it was missing the imposingness that a supreme divine being should possess.

It was at this moment a voice came from outside. “Ling Zhen, the current chief of the Sword Spirit God Clan, has come to answer your summons, Lady Li Suo.”

“Xi’er, please excuse yourself for a moment.”

“Yes, master.”

A huge, tall man whose righteousness could not be concealed even by the distorted, blurry images of the memory fragment stepped inside and bowed. “Minor God Ling Zhen greets Lady Li Suo. So, why have you summoned me today, Lady Li Suo?”

Instead of answering immediately, Li Suo turned her gaze to the girl inside the crystalline coffin.

Ling Zhen followed her gaze and immediately let out a cry of surprise, “The Coffin of Eternity!?”

“This minor god remembers that the Coffin of Eternity is a gift by Lord Xi Ke to Lord Ni Xuan. With it as the base, it could ensure that the Creation God of Elements Tower remains standing for eternity. Why is it here? And who is this...”

He abruptly cut himself off realizing that he was one word away from overstepping.

Li Suo answered, “There is no longer a Creation God of Elements in this world, nor a Creation God of Elements Tower.”

Ling Zhen’s eyebrows knitted together, and his face instantly morphed into infinite astonishment.

“Do not ask. Such is fate, and no one can change it,” Li Suo added, her voice tinged with a kind of sorrow and helplessness that was exceedingly rare for a Creation God.

“The reason I summon you today is to entrust this girl to you.”

Ling Zhen replied respectfully, “This minor god sees no reason to disobey your order, but why me?”

Li Suo explained indifferently, “This girl is named Wan Hu, and she possesses an extremely special body and soul. I have reforged both of them, but a portion of her soul is a sword soul. This sword soul is extraordinarily special even though it is missing half of itself. I originally intended to repair and complete the gap with light profound energy, but I wasn’t able to make it so that it was compatible with her body no matter what I tried.”

“Clan Chief Ling Zhen, I remember that your youngest daughter, Siyao, passed away at a young age due to a tragedy. You preserved her sword soul in order to remember her. I would like to merge Siyao’s sword soul with this girl’s sword soul so that the newborn sword soul would be compatible with her body. Once she awakens, you will take her as your daughter.”

Ling Zhen’s eyes trembled violently for a moment before he collapsed on his knees and stammered, “You know that I am willing to fulfill any order you give me, Lady Li Suo, but... My daughter, Siyao, has had a short and tragic life, and I, her father, have failed her from the start until the end. I am ever possessed by pain and sorrow whenever I think of her, and her sword soul is my one and only memento of her.”

“I beg you, Lady Li Suo. This is the one order I must disobey. Please withdraw your—”

Li Suo said quietly, “She is Ni Xuan’s daughter.”

Ling Zhen’s voice came to an abrupt stop, and he turned to stare at the girl inside the Coffin of Eternity for an indefinite amount of time. Then, he shook his head once and declared, “Lord Ni Xuan’s favor to the Sword Spirit God Clan cannot be repaid even with ten thousand lifetimes. From now on, she will become my daughter; the noblest princess of my Sword Spirit God Clan!”

“I, Ling Zhen, swear on my life that I will give her an eternity of peace and happiness. I will not allow her to suffer even a bit of sorrow even if the entire clan must perish to do so!”

Every word was spoken like the mandate of heaven itself.

“Good.” Li Suo nodded slightly. “Ni Xuan would be happy if he was here to hear this.”

“One thing. No one must find out about her origin, not even she herself.”

“Do not worry, Lady Li Suo.” Ling Zhen’s voice was still shivering. “I won’t ask anything. No one will find out about this.”

......

With that, the images turned into white fog and crumbled completely.

“You’re definitely the one who gave senior Heretic God this memory fragment,” Yun Che said with complicated feelings. “It’s probably to inform him of your arrangements for his daughter, and senior Heretic God has carefully preserved it throughout the times. To think that he would continue to preserve it even when only a wisp of his soul was left... perhaps it was his only comfort during his final moments.”

So this was how Hong’er joined the Sword Spirit God Clan.

Her sword soul was also unbelievably complicated. First, she had inherited a sword soul from the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor. Afterward, it became a broken sword soul because the dark portions were removed. Later, it was reforged by Ni Xuan’s power and repaired by Li Suo’s holy power. Finally, it merged with the Sword Spirit clan chief’s daughter's complete sword soul.

As it turned out, the holy power Hong’er displayed when she transformed into a sword did come from Li Suo... the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor’s teeth-clenching guess back then was spot on.

Speaking of which, was her anomalous ability to eat swords and subsume the swords she ate the heretical result of the mixture of the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor, the Creation God of Elements, the Creation Goddess of Life, and the Sword Spirit Sword Clan’s powers?

“I’m curious,” Li Suo whispered, “what was the secret Ni Jie was trying to tell me?”

To her surprise, Yun Che was uninterested in it. “The Era of Gods and Devils has long ended. No secret from that dead era is of any importance now.”

It was then he recalled a question the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor had asked him before:

“Yun Che, say... should I merge their souls together again?”

At the time, his answer was rejection because both Hong’er and You’er had developed their individual personalities. To merge them was to wipe out their existence.

It was because of his words that the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor had chosen to give up on the thought.

Now that he thought about it, it was clear that the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor was able to tell at first glance that Hong’er and You’er could merge again, and the result was the Ni Jie of the old.

In other words, Li Suo did accept Ni Jie’s request after all.

This was also why Hong’er was a child in both body and mind from the moment he met her. It was as if she could never grow up.

Back then, he had advised the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor not to merge Hong’er and You’er. Today, he was even firmer in his decision as a matter of course. That was why the possibility Ni Xuan had begged for and mercy Li Suo had left behind did not really move him.

In fact, he could not help but wonder that, even if Hong’er and You’er could combine into one, considering all the drastic changes Hong’er had gone through, would the returned Ni Jie really be the Ni Jie of the past?

“It is not too important,” Li Suo echoed in agreement. “So, did the memories left behind by Ni Xuan give you any major revelations? For example... did it change your frame of mind, your understanding, or your... solution toward ‘Him’?”

Yun Che did not answer immediately.

A long, long time later, he murmured seemingly to himself, “The Heaven Punishing Divine Emperor mentioned two names... the Original Nether Void Breaching Mirror and the Nirvana Devil Wheel Reversing Pearl.”

“He called them the ‘supreme devil artifact, and that the combination of their power over ‘space’ and ‘time’ is such that even he could not break out of it.”

“To think that the Devil Queen’s guesses would all come true. They can only be the ‘Nether Mirror’ and ‘Devil Pearl’ she spoke of.”

“The pierced abyssal passage, the Black Tide of Time, and the Cradle...”

Yun Che let out a long sigh.

Li Suo asked, “Are you worried that the Original Nether Void Breaching Mirror and the Nirvana Devil Wheel Reversing Pearl are both in ‘His’ hands?”

“Worried?” Yun Che’s voice grew a little heavier. “It is practically confirmed. Everything I know is pointing toward that possibility.”

“Even so, there is no need to worry too much,” Li Suo consoled. “The Abyss is definitely at a higher level than the God Realm, but it is still far behind the Era of Gods and Devils. Therefore, the two devil artifacts cannot possibly boast the power they originally possessed.”

“Besides, the Nether Mirror and the Devil Pearl are ultimately Devil Artifacts, and ‘He’ is a God. He cannot master them fully no matter what. That is why ‘He’ needed to assemble every True God’s power to activate the Nether Mirror.”

Yun Che fell silent once more. The only sound in his soul sea was his slow, even rhythm of his heartbeat.

“It looks like I need to adjust my strategy a little.”

......

Inside the Still Heart Profound Formation, Yun Che slowly opened his eyes.

As soon as he stepped out of the formation, he immediately came face to face with Meng Kongchan. The Divine Regent was smiling meaningfully as he said, “As expected. You are a young man after all.”

Yun Che was confused by his reaction for an instant. The answer appeared to him right after that.

He could sense Hua Caili’s aura pacing back and forth not far away from him. She had clearly been waiting for him. However, she waited for him to meet her instead of approaching herself.

Yun Che went with what Meng Kongchan thought was happening and asked, “Senior Divine Regent, would it be too much to...”

“It’s fine! It’s not a problem at all!” Meng Kongchan declared without hesitation. “The two of you are perfect God Bearers who had appeared in the same generation; the first in the long history of the Abyss. It is perfectly natural for the two of you to interact with each other.”

“That said, I would advise you to watch yourself when the other Kingdoms of God show up; especially the Boundless Kingdom of God. You still have a long future ahead of you, so there is no need to mind one moment.”

“I understand. Don’t worry, Caili and I would not do anything untoward before you have finished paving the path ahead for us.”

After Yun Che was done speaking with the Divine Regent, he turned to Meng Jianxi and said, “Divine Son Xi, please keep an eye on the other Kingdoms of God. Inform me immediately if any one of them shows up.”

The first thing he saw after stepping out of the courtyard was Hua Caili. Her silhouette was such that it tickled the heart and stirred one’s soul to no end even in this fantasy land of the Abyss known as the Pure Land.

Hua Caili’s eyes flickered as she bloomed into a wide smile. There was a gorgeous flash of sword light, and she was standing in front of Yun Che.

“I’m surprised your father allowed you to come,” Yun Che said smilingly.

As there was an audience nearby, they made sure to maintain a distance of three steps between each other.

“I had to give him a lot of promises before he caved. And I have to go back as soon as the other Kingdoms of God arrive.”

Hua Caili was complaining, but her eyes and eyebrows were still curled into crescents. “Come with me, big brother Yun. I want you to meet someone.”

“Er... okay. By the way, where is aunt?”

“Aunt went to meet the Chief Priest. There is no danger in the Pure Land, so why would she follow me around?”

A bright smile on her face, she took to the skies and led Yun Che toward a lustrous white land to the north of the Pure Land.

At the same time, a loud noise came from the light barrier covering the Pure Land.

The main profound ark of the Boundless Kingdom of God had arrived.