Against the Gods

Chapter 1966 - Endless Fog, Land of the Living, Pure Land

Partially Edited Chapter - Rubble

Jie Yuan hovered above the Abyss of Nothingness for a very, very long time before she finally took her leave. The projection disappeared after that.

In Yun Che’s soul sea, the image of Jie Yuan opened her eyes once more.

“Once upon a time, the Abyss of Nothingness was a place that was untouchable even to Ni Xuan and I,” her voice resounded in his ears. “But now, its energy of destruction has become so weak that it could not even destroy you, much less a god or devil from the olden times.”

“Over ninety nine percent of the energies of Primal Chaos have flowed into the Abyss. Clearly, this is the true reason the Abyss has fundamentally changed.”

“The fact that Primal Chaos is several planes weaker than it should be is already a disaster, but if you consider that it has been like this since time immemorial, and that any number of unpredictable malaise could’ve been born during this time… even I cannot predict the true scale of the threat.”

“There is one thing I can tell you with certainty though. I felt a vague sense of unease when I stood above the Abyss of Nothingness, and the deeper I fell into its depths, the greater my unease became.”

It was the warning of a Devil Emperor; the sense of her devil soul.

Whatever it was that made Jie Yuan feel uneasy, the fact that it caught a Devil Emperor off guard definitely qualified it as an "immense hidden malaise."

“That said, you probably noticed the tremendous pulling force inside the Abyss. I have good reason to believe that it has existed in the Abyss since time immemorial, and that it is one of the force fields that have not collapsed completely like the energy of destruction. Whatever threat might exist in the Abyss, I do not believe it could overcome the forcefield and disrupt the current world.”

“I truly hope that I am just worrying over nothing.”

Jie Yuan’s image turned transparent after that. It wasn’t long before she vanished completely from Yun Che’s soul sea.

For a long time, Yun Che said nothing in his soul sea.

Jie Yuan had said almost the same thing as the Ancestral God. She had hoped that she was just worrying over nothing. However, less than a decade after Jie Yuan left the Primal Chaos and barely a year after the Ancestral Will fell into slumber, this “hidden malaise” had shown its face already.

He had only seen one tiny corner of this “hidden malaise”, but it was already enough to drive him to helplessness and despair.

Speaking of which, Jie Yuan had mentioned that the current Primal Chaos Realm was hiding an immense secret and an immense hidden malaise. She never explained what that immense secret was, but that was fine, because he already knew what she was talking about.

She had noticed the Ancestral Will.

He remembered how stunned Jie Yuan had appeared when she discovered that dark profound energy and light profound energy existed harmoniously inside him.

The only existence that could stun a Devil Emperor like that… was of course, the Ancestral God.

It was just that Jie Yuan lacked the courage to make the connection at the time.

When all other possibilities had been exhausted, and further proof—that was the Chain of Fate that bound Xia Qingyue—had been presented…

She had no choice but to accept that the Ancestral God, while dead, still existed in this cosmos in some form.

The Ancestral God had created the Creation Gods and the Devil Emperors. Naturally, Jie Yuan revered her from the bottom of her soul.

She could never defy or disrespect the Ancestral God in any way. She could never reveal any one of her secrets either.

All things considered, perhaps the Ancestral God was the true reason Jie Yuan had ultimately chosen to destroy her and her entire clan’s hope, determination and hatred by her own hands, and bury them all outside the Primal Chaos.

Time passed quickly amidst oppressive silence.

One day… two days… three days…

Finally, Yun Che opened his eyes in the real world.

As if on cue, Chi Wuyao parted the barrier and stepped forth to meet him.

“You’re finally awake,” she said in a worried voice, “I was just going to drag you out by force.”

Yun Che shot her a gentle smile before replying, “I’m fine. I just needed some time to figure out a couple of things.”

His wounds had mostly recovered on their own over the past few days.

“Really?” Chi Wuyao slowly sat down in front of Yun Che before staring straight into his pupils. “Have you truly figured out what it is you must do?”

Yun Che stared back without wavering in the slightest. But instead of answering her question, he said, “Tell me everything you’ve learned from Mo Beichen’s soul.”

“Before that,” Chi Wuyao replied, “I need to know everything you know about the Abyss. There’s nothing worth hiding at this stage, is there?”

Originally, Yun Che was planning to take the Ancestral God’s secret and the complete truth of Xia Qingyue to the grave.

Chi Wuyao must know that he was hiding some great secret, but she never asked him about it because she respected his wishes. But now, it was exactly as she said. There was no need to hide anything any longer.

She needed every scrap of information she could get to search that ephemeral hope that might not exist in the first place. The least he could do was to help her along the way.

So, Yun Che hesitated only for a brief moment before nodding. “Okay.”

He immediately launched into the story the Ancestral Will had told him back then. He told her how the Ancestral God had modified the original Primal Chaos and split it into the World of Existence and Extinction, how life came to be and what it became afterward, the terrible war between the gods and the devils, the damage it dealt to the laws on the Abyss, the rebirth of the Ancestral God…

… the Ancestral God’s thousandth life cycle, the truth of Xiao Lingxi and Xia Qingyue…

He told Chi Wuyao everything and without reservation.

Before the arrival of the pioneers, he had thought that these secrets would forever remain a secret between He Ling and himself.

Finally, he told Chi Wuyao about the soul memory the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor had left behind for him.

For a long time, the Devil Queen couldn’t say anything at all. Clearly, even a woman of unparalleled intellect and wisdom like her needed a not insignificant amount of time to accept and digest everything she had heard up to this point.

She finally understood why Xia Qingyue had acted the way she did. She finally understood why Yun Che was so hurt that his soul nearly tore itself apart back then.

Yun Che’s fate, Xia Qingyue’s fate… who would’ve thought that the mastermind behind everything would be the Ancestral God?

Who would’ve thought that the Ancestral God was Xiao Lingxi?

Moreover, the Abyss’ transformation was the reason the Ancestral God had chosen to be reborn to this universe. In that sense, the Abyss was the true cause behind everything.

It certainly was the root cause behind Yun Che and Xia Qingyue’s engineered fates.

The Abyss…

……

A long time later, Chi Wuyao exhaled quietly and looked up at Yun Che once more. She said softly, “I have theorized many times exactly what had happened back then, and some of them are so ridiculous that even I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. To think… that the truth would be a million times stranger than even my boldest theory.”

“Truly, no one would have found out the truth if the Ancestral God hasn’t told you herself, not even if the Creation Gods and Devil Emperors still exist in this world.”

Her eyes slowly turned cold and hard after she collected herself.

What’s past is past. While astonishing, they were no more important than the present.

Thanks to Yun Che’s confession, the picture of the Abyss she had built using Mo Beichen’s final memories was more complete than before.

“Mo Beichen’s soul was too powerful, and my devilish soul was grievously injured. It wasn’t until his soul was almost completely scattered before I was finally able to pry some information from it,” Chi Wuyao finally began her own story, “Besides his latest memories, most of what I retrieved is what passes for common knowledge in the Abyss.”

Yun Che simply waited patiently for her to continue.

Slowly, Chi Wuyao began telling him about the world of the Abyss.

“At the beginning, the Ancestral God split the energies of Primal Chaos into two. One became a lush world that is full of life, and the other the Abyss that is only filled with extinction and destruction.”

“However, the laws the Ancestral God had applied to the Abyss slowly crumbled due to the passage of time and the war of gods and devils. The energies of our world started leaking rapidly into the Abyss, and some sort of strange transformation took form after the energies of existence and extinction mingled and reacted with one another.”

“As a result, our world lost most of its energy and became incredibly weak and fragile. On the other hand, the energy of extinction inside the Abyss also declined greatly. Eventually, the energy of extinction in some areas became so weak that it was barely livable.”

“However, the Abyss was ultimately a world that was mainly composed of the energy of extinction. Less than one-thousandth of the entire Abyss was livable even though most of the energies of Primal Chaos had flowed into it.”

“As a result, the Abyss was divided into three distinct worlds. They are…”

“The Endless Fog, the Land of the Living, and the Pure Land.”

“Endless Fog… Pure Land…” Yun Che muttered to himself with a frown.

Chi Wuyao continued, “In the Abyss, the energy of extinction is named ‘Abyssal Dust’. It is a substance that devours the body, the lifespan and even the soul. Abyssal Dust that is too thick would form a kind of pervading dust fog. That is why they call it the ‘Endless Fog’.”

“The Endless Fog takes up over ninety nine percent of the space in the Abyss. Needless to say, it is extremely huge. The deeper you venture into the Endless Fog, the worse the Abyssal Dust becomes. Eventually, even a Half God’s sight and perception wouldn't be enough to navigate the Endless Fog safely. Even with considerable preparation, it is all too easy to lose your way and be trapped inside the Endless Fog until you die.”

“Besides that, the Abyssal Dust wasn’t the only threat in the Endless Fog. The ‘Abyssal Beasts’ are creatures that are born from the energy of extinction, and they feed on Abyssal Dust to sustain themselves.”

Unfortunately, Chi Wuyao was unable to find out what “Abyssal Beasts” were and how powerful they were.

“Next is the Land of the Living. Most land beyond the Endless Fog is called the Land of the Living, and it is where most of the living beings of the Abyss reside.”

“However, just because it is called the Land of the Living doesn’t mean that it is free from Abyssal Dust. It just means that the Abyssal Dust is thin enough for most people to survive, but only barely. In fact, most of the people of the Abyss have extremely short lifespans, and the only way they could live longer is to achieve higher cultivation and rely on sheer power to resist the corruption of the Abyssal Dust.”

“This is why most children who are born in the Abyss are destined to meet an early grave without sufficient protection.”

“Protection?” Yun Che raised his eyebrows.

Instead of answering his puzzlement directly, Chi Wuyao continued her explanation, “That said, there are places in the Land of the Living where Abyssal Dust was almost fully isolated. They are also the heart of the Land of the Living. The people call them… the Six Kingdoms of God.”

“Kingdoms of God…” Yun Che’s eyes trembled for the first time since the conversation began. “Are they… all ruled by True Gods?”

Chi Wuyao slowly nodded despite Yun Che’s pained expression. “That is correct. The Six Kingdoms of God of the Abyss are all ruled by True Gods.”

“The True Gods that went extinct a long time ago, and should have existed in our historical records only!”

“...” Yun Che sucked in a deep breath before continuing, “How many True Gods are there in total?”

“One of the Six Kingdoms of God are ruled by two True Gods, while the rest are ruled by one True God each. In other words, the Six Kingdoms of God boast seven True Gods in total.”

“Each True God is capable of creating a barrier that envelops their entire kingdom and prevents any Abyssal Dust from entering permanently. As the protection does not extend beyond the borders of the kingdom, they call it the ‘Divine Grace’.”

“Naturally, those who are born in a Kingdom of God do not need to worry about dust corruption unless they step beyond their borders.”

“Obviously, there is a limit to how far the Divine Grace extends. Most of the people of the Abyss spend their whole lives dreaming of setting foot in a Kingdom of God but never it, and even the kingdoms themselves often banish people they deem unproductive in order to keep their populations in check.”

“All nations and races outside the Kingdoms of Gods desperately want to get close to a Kingdom of God both literally and figuratively. Each year, they pay an enormous price just to exchange for a limited amount of Divine Grace.”

In just a few sentences, Chi Wuyao had given him a full view of the cruel environment and laws of survival of the Abyss.

“What about the Pure Land?” Yun Che asked.

The Pure Land is the only place in the entire Abyss that is free from Abyssal Dust without external interference.” Chi Wuyao paused for a moment before continuing in a darker voice, “It is also where the master and the most revered existence of the entire Abyss—the Abyssal Monarch—lives.”action