Against the Gods

Meng Jianxi’s eyebrows furrowed deeply. “Meng Jianyuan, even my tolerance has its limits. If you keep this up…”

“Divine Son Jianxi,” Yun Che said indifferently, “if I was you, if I had toiled long and hard for an entire century and finally solidified my status as Divine Son, only for some ghost of the past with no merits, no power, nothing whatsoever to appear out of nowhere and receive the same status just a week after he returned to the Kingdom of God… I would not have accepted it either.”

“If you are unwilling to accept it, then you should speak to the Divine Regent and tell him outright that Meng Jianyuan does not deserve the conferral. If you could find a hundred reasons to explain why the Dreamweaver Kingdom of God does not need a second Divine Son, I’m sure you could find a hundred reasons to explain as to why Meng Jianyuan does not deserve to be a Divine Son… Just speak truthfully and honestly. No one would think that you are in the wrong, much less think less of you because of it.”

Yun Che squinted a little. “After all, a Divine Son should have the will to defend what is theirs, and a suitable amount of independence, confidence, and ambition.”

“Unfortunately…” Yun Che shook his head with an expression of disappointment and pity. “You chose to ask your clique to pressure your Father, and even arrange a whole pile of pathetic tactics to give me an eternal brand of shame. You desire to turn the day of my conferral into a day of eternal shame. This is malicious enough, but you also wanted to play the good guy. That’s why you kept yapping about how brothers of the same blood should rely on and support each other earlier. You wanted to show off your ‘magnanimity’ and ‘culture.’”

“Is it really necessary?” Undisguised scorn colored Yun Che’s eyes. “You are the Dreamweaver Divine Son. You of all people have the power to openly express your opinion, so why did you choose to paint yourself as an ugly, hypocritical bastard instead?”

“Oh right!” Yun Che suddenly moved a little closer to Meng Jianxi, the disdain in his eyes pricking Meng Jianxi’s own like needles. “This reminds me of a vulgar saying: there is a woman who is a maiden, but she insists on whoring herself. Not only that, she wants a monument put up to her chastity after she became a whore… What do you think of this saying, Divine Son Jianxi?”

Nearly everyone’s heart stopped beating there and then… To say that Yun Che had shed all pretense of cordiality would be an understatement. The guy was practically riding on the Divine Son’s face and thrusting into his mouth!

Forget that this was a public space where the Divine Regent, the Dream Lords, and countless other important figures were present, no one would dare to shower the Dreamweaver Divine Son with such vulgarity even if this was the most secluded and darkest corner of the world.

“How dare you?! How dare you?!!” Meng Cangji growled. Right now, he had every reason to be angry with Yun Che, so he glared at him while his soul pressed down from above like the heavens. “Are you aware how big of a crime shaming and slandering the Dreamweaver Divine Son is?!”

“Is that a joke?” Yun Che sneered. “If Divine Son Jianxi had never done such a thing, then sure, you can definitely say that I have committed the crime. But since he has done it, I am just telling the truth as it is. How does that constitute shaming or slandering? If this is shaming, then doesn’t that mean that Divine Son Jianxi is shaming himself?”

“Meng Jianyuan,” Meng Jianxi said in a low voice, though his expression was still fairly calm. “You’ve successfully angered me.”

“You claim that my words and my deeds are inconsistent, and that I am trying to humiliate you. Where is your proof then? If you don’t have proof, then everything you just said is your dirty mind making assumptions! By slandering me, you are only damaging yourself!”

Yun Che could expose the truth for the whole world to see, he could convince everyone present to believe his words absolutely… but Meng Jianxi was certain that he could never produce actual evidence to support his claims.

“You want evidence? That’s easy.” Yun Che pointed a finger at An Zhiming and said, “Just use ‘Falling Dream’ on him, and you will have all the evidence you need.”

“...” Meng Jianxi’s expression did not change, but the edges of his eye suddenly burst into countless red lines.

“Shouyuan.”

Yun Che called out his protector’s name, and Meng Shouyuan immediately appeared behind him like a ghost.

He then pointed a finger at An Zhiming—the prince was currently wearing a stormy, uncertain expression—and commanded, “Cast ‘Falling Dream’ on him.”

“As you command!” Meng Shouyuan did not hesitate. He immediately unleashed his soul energy at An Zhiming.

“Stop!”

Someone yelled, and Meng Shouyuan’s power was blocked before it could make contact with An Zhiming. Meng Xuanji withdrew his arm and said in a low voice, “You do not have your memories, Meng Jianyuan. You have forgotten that ‘Falling Dream’ is considered a taboo in the Dreamweaver Kingdom of God, and it cannot be used barring important matters!”

“Taboo?” Yun Che sneered disdainfully. “All I heard is that ‘Falling Dream’ must never be used on a fellow kin. Forget that An Zhiming hails from a vassal state, he doesn’t even have the surname ‘Meng’. You’re not going to tell me that he’s a fellow Meng, are you?”

“Besides, I’m doing this to clear Divine Son Jianxi’s good name. Are you saying that proving the Divine Son’s innocence doesn’t count as an important matter?”

Meng Xuanji’s face stiffened a little, but he replied in a harsh voice, “To cast ‘Falling Dream’ on someone is to expose the very fabric of their being! They would no longer have any secrets or dignity to speak of! An Zhiming may not be a member of our Kingdom of God, but he is one of our people! How can we, the great Dreamweaver Kingdom of God, trample over an innocent junior’s dignity in public? The entire world would laugh at us if we do this!”

“Oh, I see! You’re saying that Divine Son Jianxi’s innocence is worth far less than the dignity of a vassal citizen, Dream Lord Xuanji? Haha, hahahaha!”

Yun Che lifted his head and cackled uncontrollably. “You heard that, Divine Son Jianxi? You are so cheap that Dream Lord Xuanji would sacrifice your ‘innocence’ to defend the dignity of a small nation’s prince. What a pathetic and laughable Divine Son you are…”

“...” Meng Jianxi slowly gritted his teeth. The red lines at the edge of his eyes were rapidly expanding toward the center.

Suddenly, Yun Che stopped laughing and looked at An Zhiming with a look of realization. “Oh~~ I get it now. You are the Lord of a Dream Hall. No matter how stupid you are, you could never have made such a hilarious and retarded statement under normal circumstances. In other words…”

He pointed a finger at An Zhiming and declared, “This An Zhiming is really your illegitimate son, isn’t he?!"

“YOU!!!” Meng Xuanji’s eyeballs were bulging. His blood nearly reversed its flow at that moment.

“Pff… Pff…” Dian Jiuzhi tried his damndest to hold it in, but a bit of air was still leaking out of his lips.

Yun Che cocked an eyebrow. “What, am I wrong? I can’t imagine any other reason the Lord of a Dream Hall would say such a stupid thing. What do you think, Shouyuan?”

Meng Shouyuan echoed in agreement. “You are correct, young master.”

“Prince Jianyuan!” It was at this moment An Zhiming suddenly shouted and freed Meng Jianxi and Meng Xuanji from the embarrassing situation they were trapped in. “Dream Lord Xuanji is right. I may be of humble origin, but even I have my dignity. Anyone with even a shred of dignity would not accept being put to ‘Falling Dream’ in public, much less over a fabricated reason.”

“If you must do this…”

He clenched his teeth in secret and took a step forward. Profound light flashed in his hand, and he pointed a silver spear at Yun Che’s face. “The reason I stepped forward in the first place is to challenge you, Prince Jianyuan. If you defeat me fair and square, then I would humbly submit to your judgment… But if you do not dare to accept my challenge, if you insist on subjecting me to ‘Falling Dream’ unjustly...”

His eyes swiftly turned bloodshot until it looked like he was bleeding from his eyes. “I, An Zhiming, would rather commit suicide right here and now!”

Yun Che side-eyed the guy.

Poor thing. They’re forcing him to give up his own life in exchange for his clan’s.

“Very well.” Yun Che met An Zhiming’s determined eyes and nodded slowly. “I shall do as you wish.”

An Zhiming’s aura visibly relaxed for a moment when he heard those words.

The light of hope abruptly burst out of the ugly-faced Meng Cangji and Meng Xuanji as well.

Meng Jianze in particular was so agitated that he nearly jumped to his feet.

He had selected this group under Meng Jianxi’s orders. Although they did not belong to the Dreamweaver Kingdom of God, their talents were all top-notch. Not only that, An Zhiming was the most talented of them all.

He was absolutely certain that, among all the vassal states of the Dreamweaver Kingdom of God, there was no one at the level three Divine Master Realm who could defeat An Zhiming.

To their knowledge, Meng Jianyuan had been wandering the world for the past century. He did not have anyone to provide him with resources, support, or backing, much less experts who would solidify his foundation every time he achieved his breakthrough. He was certain that Meng Jianyuan’s profound arts and profound skills were all low-tier trash, so much so that he might not even be able to win against an ordinary level three Divine Master in the Land of the Living. There was no way he could possibly measure up to An Zhiming.

“However…” Yun Che suddenly changed his tune. Just when everyone thought that he was planning to make an excuse, the young man pointed at the group standing behind An Zhiming and said, “You arranged nine people to fight me, and I cannot be bothered to fight them all one by one. So let’s do it this way: All of you, come at me together.”

“I may not be the Dreamweaver Divine Son yet, but my time is still very valuable, you know?”

His remark sparked a commotion as a matter of course.

Meng Jinghai burst out laughing in incredulity and scorn. “Have you gone mad, Meng Jianyuan?”

While everyone was voicing their surprise and snorting in disdain, the light in Meng Kongchan’s eyes suddenly flashed brightly. He suddenly raised a hand, and cries of surprise broke out from the crowd. The eight level three Divine Masters Yun Che had pointed out earlier were immediately dragged to the center by an unstoppable force. Before they knew it, they were standing shoulder to shoulder with An Zhiming, stupefied.

“Yuan’er,” Meng Kongchan spoke up, “I’m only going to ask you one time. Are you sure you want to fight against the nine of them at the same time?”

“Of course,” Yun Che turned around and replied without any hesitation whatsoever. “I am a man, and my word is my bond. Otherwise, what difference is there between me and those hypocritical, ugly bastards?”

Crack… Meng Jianxi could clearly hear his teeth cracking a little in his mouth.

“Very well!” Meng Kongchan nodded slowly. “The nine of you will fight Meng Jianyuan together, and you will give it your all. If you win, I promise you that you will receive no punishment. Not only that, I will reward you for it.”

“However, if you dare to hold back even a little… your punishment will be severe!”

The words of a Divine Regent were absolute. There was no taking it back.

“As you command, Divine Regent!” An Zhiming replied loudly. He seemed to want to get this over with as soon as possible. Profound light began circulating around his spear as he yelled, “Pleased to meet you in battle, Prince Jianyuan!”

With that said, the profound light turned into thunder, and An Zhiming himself was charging toward Yun Che like rolling thunder.

The power he exuded was clearly the limit of a level three Divine Master. There was no doubt that he was going all out.

The distance between An Zhiming and Yun Che was terribly short to begin with, and the prince had gone all out. From the crowd’s perspective, there was no way the lackadaisical-looking Yun Che could avoid it.

They were right. Yun Che didn’t dodge.

Shred!

There was a crack as blue thunder ripped the air into shreds and… that was it.

The thunderous noise came to a sudden stop, and Yun Che hadn’t moved an inch from his original spot. Not even his expression had changed one whit.

All he did was lifting his right hand and placing his index finger in front of An Zhiming’s spear tip.

That was all he needed to stop the full-powered attack dead in its tracks.

Even the thunderous light surrounding the spear had disappeared completely.

An Zhiming was still holding a charging posture, but he was completely frozen. The blood was rapidly draining from his face, and his pupils were dilated to the max. He looked like he was receiving the fright of his life.

The crowd was completely silent for a moment. Then, the sounds of chairs skidding across the ground happened everywhere as they shot to their feet, eyes wide with shock and disbelief. They just could not believe what they were seeing.

“Wha… what is… going on…?” Meng Jianze stammered in a daze.

Meng Cangji, Meng Xuanji, Meng Jinghai, Meng Kongdu… every single Dream Lord was standing on their feet and wearing the same shocked expression as well.

“...” Dian Jiuzhi, the one person who had been enjoying the show this whole time, was also overwhelmed by astonishment in an instant.

The corners of Yun Che’s lips seemed to twitch upward for a fraction of a second, and… he abruptly disappeared into nothing.

Bang!

An Zhiming found himself being flung toward the crowd. He instinctively tried to grab his spear but found that it had fallen into Yun Che’s hand. Moon Splitting Cascade empowering his movement, he left behind an icy silhouette and charged toward eight pairs of widening, horror-filled eyes.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!

Eight instantaneous movements, eight afterimages. Before An Zhiming’s body could even hit the floor, the rest of his companions were already scattering in different directions and screaming at the top of their lungs.

Yun Che finally came to a stop. Behind him, the eight afterimages looked like segments of a dragon.

When he turned around, he swept his spear casually and summoned a large cyclone. It arrested the nine profound practitioners’ momentum and pulled them right back to him.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!

Each time one of them hit the ground, the spectators felt like they were landing inside their hearts.

Countless mouths were opened wide enough to fit an egg. Meng Jianze was completely stupefied. Even the Lords of Dream Hall could only stare at the incredulous scene before them, unable to say a single word.

The red lines in Meng Jianxi’s eyes had long disappeared. Instead, it was replaced by a pair of dilated pupils that nearly covered his whole eyeballs.

Dian Jiuzhi was standing before he knew it, gaze fixed on Yun Che, the man whose cultivation level was only level three Divine Master no matter how many times he checked his aura.

Everyone knew that he was the strongest Divine Son of the six Kingdoms of God, and his profound talent was practically unrivaled ever since he awakened the Divine Vein of Great Rage. Although he could easily defeat anyone at his cultivation level when he was a level three Divine Master… he was certain he could not have defeated nine of them in an instant.

One could even say that such a feat was unheard of.

“...” Meng Kongchan’s chest visibly heaved up and down a couple of times.

The glint in his eyes especially was so hot it scorched the soul.

I knew Brother Fuchen didn’t lie to me!

Pleasant surprise? More like ecstatic shock!

“Hahahaha!” Meng Kongchan laughed loudly and wantonly despite being in the presence of many. “Good! Very good! As expected of my Yuan’er. Despite being away from your homeland for over a century and enjoying not a lick of a Kingdom of God’s resources, your talent is as outstanding as ever!”

“Outstanding doesn’t even begin to describe it…” The Valley Lord of Sinking Dream Valley muttered under his breath before realizing what he just said and shushed himself.

Considering the current situation, even a simple compliment could force him to choose a side and enter the war of cliques. Staying silent and neutral was the most rational thing to do here.

After witnessing what might be an unprecedented feat in the history of the Abyss, the scales in the hearts of the fence sitters were slowly but surely sliding in favor of the side named “Meng Jianyuan”... an outcome that had never crossed their minds until this point. After all, no one thought that the returned “Meng Jianyuan” could ever hope to measure up to Meng Jianxi before the conferral ceremony.

An Zhiming was kneeling on the ground with empty eyes. He did not get up from the floor even though he wasn’t hurt anywhere.

Bang!

There was a heavy thud. It was the sound of his favorite spear being planted on the ground in front of him.

Yun Che’s low, hypnotic voice rang beside his ears, “Pitiful thing. What are you going to do now that you failed your mission? In any case, I’m sure your ending will be a tragic one…”

“Before you pick up your spear again, try and remember who is the one who had put you in this impossible situation, and who are the only ones who can save you.”

An Zhiming’s empty eyes began trembling. It grew fiercer and fiercer until suddenly, he pushed himself up, knelt in front of Yun Che, and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Divine Regent, Divine Son Yuan! Please save me! Please save the Restful Dream imperial family!”

The roar had come out of nowhere and so loud that it nearly ripped his throat. Everyone’s ears were deafened by it.

The blood drained away from Meng Jianze’s face when he saw this.

Meng Kongchan turned his head and cast Yun Che a look. Then, he asked in an indifferent voice, “Save you? Whatever do you mean?”

An Zhiming abruptly jabbed a finger at Meng Jianze and yelled, “It’s him! It’s Prince Jianze! He took my Father and sister hostage and demanded that I challenge Divine Son Jianyuan during his conferral ceremony and defeat him in the most humiliating way possible! He—”

“Silence!”

Meng Jianze exploded as his face turned beet red with anger. “An Zhiming! How dare you slander me in front of Father?!”

At this point, his retreat was completely cut off. Turning to face Meng Jianze and glaring at him hatefully, he declared with a level of mournfulness that touched even the hardest soul, “I, Am Zhiming, swear this on my life and my honor. If I had told a single lie, may—”

“You still do not repent?! You deserve a million deaths!”

At this point, Meng Jianze’s complexion had turned bluish black. Without warning, he charged toward An Zhiming and curled his fingers into a claw. He looked like an uncontrollable, rampaging beast who was going to rip out An Zhiming’s throat.

He was the son of a Divine Regent. It wasn’t a big, irreversible situation for him to kill a small nation’s prince in anger.

Yun Che was right next to An Zhiming, so he immediately blocked in front of the young man. However, before Meng Jianze’s power could touch Yun Che, a sword beam suddenly appeared in front of him.

“Argh!”

Meng Jianze let out a bloodcurdling scream as he flew back dozens of times faster than when he was charging toward An Zhiming. When he hit the ground, he curled up like a prawn, unable to find the strength even to stand.

No one was looking at Meng Jianze, however. They were all looking at the sky in shock.

It was because the attacker was none other than…

Hua Qingying!

The least likely person to intervene in the entire venue!

Yun Che immediately turned toward Hua Qingying and bowed. “Thank you for saving my life, aunt.”

The world fell so silent that they could hear a pin drop—and Meng Jianze’s pitiful whimpers.

What did they just hear?

Did Meng Jianyuan just address the Sword Fairy Hua Qingying…

As aunt?!