Against the Gods

NEW NOVEL: First and foremost, I'm delighted to announce that our long-time veteran translator littleshanks has finally launched his new novel, Rise!  Rise is a novel about the esports scene in Shanghai, the competitive gaming capital of China. It follows the story of Lin Feng, a boy who has just moved to the city for his last year of high school. He's a passionate gamer and dreams of being the best professional League of Legends player in the world. The twist? He almost achieved his dream, but failed at the...

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Chapter 1146 - Grievous News from the Sky 2.0

Since Wu Guike had confined Yun Che, and hadn’t directly launched an attack, he was naturally not planning to kill him. He exhaled with force, as he calmed himself down a bit. Barely managing to suppress the impulse to tear Yun Che’s body into thousands of pieces, each and every word was in a gloomy tone as he said, “If I agree to your condition… how are you going to guarantee that the image imprinted on that Profound Imagery Stone will never see the light of day in the future!?”

As matters stood, he could only comply with the other party’s demand, even if he was extremely angry and very much depressed.

It was certainly as Yun Che said. Although it would be a matter of immense shame to be killed by him, it wouldn’t stop him from smoothly entering the second round of the preliminaries, or affect his results in the later stages of the competition. Hence, it was indeed true that he wouldn’t lose a thing.

But, if Yun Che truly exposed the image imprinted on the Profound Imagery Stone, he absolutely wouldn’t be able to bear the consequences.

Why would a Profound Imagery Stone similar to the one back then have appeared before me once again? Could it be that the one I got in exchange for the Divine Nine Star Buddha Jade was actually secretly exchanged with another by the Heavenly Wolf Star God at some instant? No! When I got the Profound Imagery Stone, I specially examined it to ascertain its genuineness. That only leaves one possibility…

Back then, the Heavenly Wolf Star God had imprinted the image on two Profound Imagery Stones at the same time!

As for why would Yun Che have one of them, Wu Guike’s mind was such a mess that it was already not possible for him to think about such things.

“I cannot guarantee,” Yun Che replied without any hesitation.

“You…”

“Great Young Master Wu,” Yun Che said smilingly. “Will you believe me if I say that I’ll destroy that Profound Imagery Stone after we’ve made the deal? Also, I’m not foolish enough to hand it over to you, as it would mean sending myself to death. Instead, I’ll firmly hold onto it, so as to prevent it from falling into another person’s or Great Young Master Wu’s hands one day.”

However, you can rest easy,” Yun Che said in an unhurried voice. “I, Yun Che, have no old nor recent grudges with you, Great Young Master Wu, nor do we have any bitter and deep-seated hatred between us. It was only because there was no other choice that I had to use such underhanded means. So long as Great Young Master Wu doesn’t cause me any trouble, there’s no way I’d want to risk my life and have a life-and-death struggle with you. Perhaps, I’m even more afraid of exposing it than Great Young Master Wu is of it being exposed. Don’t you think so?”

SNAP.

A loud and clear sound resounded. Wu Guke had actually snapped one of the fingers of his right hand.

Substituting his words, Yun Che was in fact saying: I don’t care whether you believe or not! You need to do as I wish, and I won’t hand over the bargaining chip, either. That will not only render you unable to settle scores with me later, I can also use this chip to coerce you when I feel the need.

How could there be such a one-sided deal!?

Time wouldn’t stop for even a second, and the end of the first round of preliminaries could be announced at any time. Yun Che was actually feeling even more anxious and impatient in his heart than Wu Guike was, but his face and eyes looked calm. The tone of his voice was firm and unhurried, and sometimes soft and sometimes hard. He drove the other party into a corner step by step, while displaying indifference and weakness too at the right times…

So as to successfully make the deal with Wu Guike, he had already exhausted all of his mental and physical efforts.

“Great Young Master Wu, you’d better make your decision as soon as possible,” Yun Che said in a very slow voice, as if he didn’t care about his decision at all. “This round of preliminaries might end in the next few seconds. You won’t get the chance when that happens!”

His last few words were said in a sudden heavy tone, which dealt a direct blow to Wu Guike’s mind.

“All… all right!” Wu Guike’s face was scarlet as blood, and his scalp was tingling crazily. Even if he were to add up all the anger and depression he had felt in his life so far, it would likely be incomparable to what he was going through at this moment. “I’ll concede!”

“However, Yun Che… bear in your mind that it would be in your best interest to take care of that Profound Imagery Stone as if it was your own father. If it were to be exposed to others some day… even if you flee to the edge of Primal Chaos, I’d still make sure to have you regret coming to this world!”

“I congratulate Great Young Master Wu on making the right choice,” Yun Che responded with a lukewarm smile. “Let’s get on with it then.”

SNAP!

Wu Guike broke one more finger in rage, but he didn’t feel the slightest pain. He exhaled a few times and employed every bit of his reason to somehow suppress the feelings of unwillingness and humiliation in his heart.

BANG!

Following the light sound of an airblast, the field of aura keeping Yun Che locked in place dissipated at once. Afterwards, Wu Guike didn’t utter a word, as he began to swiftly restrain the profound aura on his body within him, until he even retracted the last of it that was protecting him.

But, his whole body was continuously trembling, with veins popping out all over.

Wu Guike conceding and his state at this time made Yun Che ecstatic in his heart. His palms were slightly trembling too. He calmly came behind Wu Guike, gathered his profound aura, and fiercely released his attack, striking firmly at the middle of Wu Guike’s back.

BOOM!!

Under normal conditions, it was basically impossible for Yun Che to hurt Wu Guike. But now that he had withdrawn all the protection of his profound strength, and had nothing but his body to defend himself, there was no way he would be able to withstand an all-out attack from Yun Che. Amidst the sound of an enormous explosion, everything from the middle of Wu Guike’s back to his chest was blown out as flesh and blood sprayed in all directions. His entire body split in two in midair, and flew extremely far away before tumbling to the ground.

“Don’t… ever let me… see you… again…”

The upper half of Wu Guike’s body uttered resentfully in an obscure voice, after which it disappeared without a trace in the midst of white light.

At the same time, another streak of white light rushed downward from the sky. It fell upon Yun Che and made his soul orb count rapidly increase, which only stopped when it reached one million nine hundred fifty thousand.

He was placed last in the entire Battle Zone 9 until this moment, but now his rank soared as if he was sitting on a rocket, and reached straight to the fourth rank… Moreover, there was only a difference of less than a hundred thousand soul orbs from the one ranked third.

Wu Guike suffered a huge loss of one million nine hundred fifty thousand soul orbs, but he was still ranked first in Battle Zone 9.

He willed the ranking list of the Battle Zone 9 to appear before his eyes. Looking at his name on the list, Yun Che smiled in satisfaction. The suffocating ice-cold and heavy feeling from earlier that had crept into every part of his throat and chest had thoroughly vanished like smoke in thin air.

Fate had played a cruel joke on him, but he had eventually found a way to get out of the predicament.

“I guess heaven always leaves a door open,” Yun Che lightly mumbled with a faint smile.

Although Wu Guike had a noble identity, an extremely high talent, and astonishing cultivation, he was excessively arrogant, a person of vile character, and even fooled around with his aunt. Therefore, Yun Che found him very despicable.

But right now, in Yun Che’s eyes, Wu Guike was simply an angel that was sent by the heavens to rescue him!

Princess Caizhi must have also never expected that the two Profound Imagery Stones, that she had casually given to Yun Che in playfulness, would actually help him out of a desperate situation at such a time.

And that the butterfly effect generated by it would change not only the trajectory of Yun Che’s life, but also… the fate of the whole God Realm.

——————————

Inside the Eternal Heaven Pearl, at the place where the members from Divine Martial Sect were located.

“Sect Master, something strange has happened.”

An old man bent his body as he bowed behind a middle aged man. He reported to the man in the front, “Just now, Young Master Guike’s overall rank saw a huge drop all of a sudden, and the number of his soul orbs has also decreased by thirty percent.”

“Oh?” The middle aged man turned to him. He was dressed in a shining golden robe, and his brows were as striking as stars and moons. There was a quite noticeable air of loftiness about him which easily made others feel respect and worship for him. If his identity were to be spoken aloud, it would be enough to scare countless profound practitioners of the God Realm out of their wits.

He was the great realm king of Divine Martial Realm, as well as the biological father of Wu Guike—Wu Sanzun!

“That means, Ke’er actually suffered a defeat? Haha, that’s also interesting.” Wu Sanzun wasn’t surprised or angry, and found it interesting instead.

“In the battlefield where Young Master Guike is, no one should be able to be his opponent. There isn’t anyone who could even come anywhere close to his strength. This old slave thinks that young master fell into a fatal natural calamity in a moment of carelessness, or came across an extremely high level profound beast,” the old man analyzed calmly.

“That is not bad either,” Wu Sanzun said in an indifferent tone. “Although Ke’er is extremely talented, his life have been too smooth for his own good, which led him to become overly arrogant. Suffering this setback can only bring about a good result for him. There is no difference between the first and the ten thousandth in a mere preliminary ranking list, so there is no need to care about it.”

“This old slave thinks so too.” The old man bowed again. “In that case, Sect Master, please get some rest. This old slave will excuse himself.”

The sudden drop in the ranking and number of soul orbs of Wu Guike naturally attracted the attention of an extremely large number of people. After all, Wu Guike was an outstanding individual who had been among the top twenty in the overall ranking list. It would be rather difficult not to draw the attention of others when his name disappeared all of a sudden.

But they didn’t react any further than that to the sudden change in his ranking. Everyone could come to the conclusion that he had certainly suffered a defeat. As for how he was defeated… even the Divine Martial Realm wasn’t concerned about it, much less others.

After all, this was only the first round of preliminaries. Just as Wu Sanzun said, there was essentially no difference between the first and the ten thousandth.

But, all the profound practitioners of the Battle Zone 9 could clearly see a completely unfamiliar name suddenly appearing in fourth place out of the blue. Moreover, extremely coincidentally, the number of his soul orbs was exactly equal to the amount of soul orbs Wu Guike had lost.

In the main city of the Battle Zone 9, Xiao Mo was looking dumbfounded at “Yun Che” who had suddenly appeared on the list. Before he could come to himself, a white streak of light fell on the ground not that far away. Very soon, a golden human figure was thrown out of it. When Xiao Mo willed for the information of the figure, the name “Wu Guike” clearly appeared in front of him.

“Yun… Che…” Wu Guike muttered hatefully, with a face that would turn red at times and dark others. The aura inside his body was in a disordered state, as if it was boiling over.

Xiao Mo looked at Wu Guike in a daze for a while. When he heard him call out the two words “Yun Che,” he again stared at the name of Yun Che on the list and the change in the numbers of soul orbs of the two people…

A long while later, he raised his head as he murmured, “It seems that some kind of dirty and shady deal has definitely happened.”

BOOM-BANG——

The space vibrated and clouds rolled about unrestrainedly. The announcement of the end of the first round of preliminaries by the Voice of Eternal Heaven resounded throughout the place. “Young experts, your battle has come to an end for now. The first round of preliminaries has now concluded. The top ten from every battlefield will continue to remain in their battlefields, and the rest will leave. Your real bodies will appear before the many large teleportation formations outside the Eternal Heaven Realm. We hope that the experience of the intense battle here, into which you poured all your profound strength and will, becomes such a wealth to you that it benefits you throughout your lives.”

CLANG!!

Following the boundless Voice of Eternal Heaven, a white light came falling down from the firmament which blotted out the sky and sun, and covered each and every person.

Within the white light, the countless projections that were scattered across the thousand battle zones, no matter whether it was a person or profound beast, dissolved at a rapid rate and disappeared. The curtains fell on the hard battle that had continued for a month at this moment… But, that was not the case for everyone.

Because, there were still projections of ten thousand profound practitioners that had yet to disappear. They still existed on the battlefields in their perfect state, waiting for the arrival of the next hard battle.

These were the people who had emerged victorious among over fifty million topnotch profound practitioners of the Eastern Divine Region. Every person among them was an undisputed, exceedingly rare genius who was capable of catching the eyes of all under the heavens. Serving as a foil to these ten thousand winners, were those more than fifty million profound practitioners who were eliminated.

When their projections disappeared and they awakened, their bodies were already outside the Eternal Heaven Realm. Under their feet was the screen of light that they had stepped on when approaching the Eternal Heaven Realm earlier. Some distance away, there were teleportation profound formations that could send them back to their respective star realms.

The eliminated ones would naturally not get much attention from the masses. Their gazes were all firmly focused on the next competition that was bound to be even more fierce.

The fierce fighting sounds disappeared, and the roars and howls of profound beasts completely faded too. The entire battlefield had become quiet. Having ascertained that he was still inside the battlefield, Yun Che fully calmed down. He had still been a bit worried. The projections were all formed by the Eternal Heaven Pearl, after all. Perhaps, there were extremely strict and fair rules in place, and his action might be judged as cheating, which could lead to his qualification being cancelled…

Looks like he had worried for nothing.

“I’ll finally be able to enter the Eternal Heaven Realm. Top ten thousand in the whole Eastern Divine Region, huh…” Yun Che said as he smiled in self-ridicule. After all, he got his rank by employing means that could be called despicable. “No matter what happens later, I have the qualification to enter the Eternal Heaven God Realm.”

The instant he finished talking to himself, the Voice of Eternal Heaven resounded from the sky above once again.

“Young experts who are still left on the battlefield, you used your strength and will to prove yourselves. There is no doubt that you are the pride of the Eastern Divine Region, and its future as well. But, only a thousand people will obtain the qualification to enter the Eternal Heaven Pearl and experience three thousand years within the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm.”

“The next battlefield will be the place to determine these thousand people!”

Hearing the Voice of Eternal Heaven, all the profound practitioners who were still left on the battlefield felt their blood boiling. Outside the battlefield, those who were eliminated, as well as those who didn’t have the qualifications to participate in the Profound God Convention, felt utter envy, jealousy and longing in their hearts.

It was the first time, in the entire history of the Eastern Divine Region, the opportunity to cultivate in the Eternal Heaven Pearl had been offered. It could help a profound practitioner to ascend from “infancy stage” to the land of miracles in a step! Any profound practitioner, who had even the tiniest bit of desire to pursue the profound way, would definitely be unable to resist such a favor!

To get such an opportunity, they wouldn’t hesitate to be badly battered. No price would be spared for it, even if it meant losing half their lifespans!

“In the next round, you all will be sent to the same battlefield. In this battlefield, there will be no natural calamities, profound beasts, or anything else that will hinder your way. The only things present over there are the safe main city and your very own battlefield. The rules will be reset, but they will remain the same as in the previous battlefield. The soul orbs in your possession will also be brought into the new battlefield along with you.”

Yun Che was quietly listening, but unlike the others, he didn’t look the least bit tense. Instead, he felt more relaxed than he had in a long time.

But, the next words of the Voice of Eternal Heaven made the expression on his face stiffen, and he almost cursed out loud.

“No more than a thousand people can emerge victorious in the new battlefield. These thousand heaven chosen children will be sent to the Eternal Heaven God Realm, where the final battle will take place. After the final battle, they will then enter the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm where your fates will undergo a change in the next three years. The other nine thousand people will be eliminated from the battlefield, and their true bodies will also be expelled out of the Eternal Heaven God Realm.”

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It has come to my attention that some readers are being very selective in their reading which is causing false rumors to wreak havoc in ATG’s comments section. There is one particular ill-informed long comment that also seems to encompass most of what everyone is concerned about, so I will be responding to it in pieces, quote and answer style. Q&A!

Q: I believe Wuxia World is well aware of the complaints levied by Alyschu's patrons, so I am sure they are looking for a replacement when the time is appropriate.

A: I am not aware of this at all. I haven’t had the time to look through all the commentary for quite a few months so I asked my editor this, and he said there was only one vocal old patron in the comments who wished for the team “to some goodwill to [the] readers and pick up the pace.”

Q: It is good to know that there are other teams out there that are willing to take over ATG.

A: I’m sorry but the only thing I am getting from this is that I am a slowpoke (not refuting this) and instead of reaching out to me and offering to help, they wish to forcibly take over someone else’s series instead.

Q: It is quite frankly disgraceful and scandalous for them to say, that they owe their patrons and contributors nothing, after pathologically reneging on their promises.

A: Where in the world did I say this? For those not in the know, the translation of this series did not start off with the intent for any monetary gain so I obviously owe it all to everyone who has supported me when I first began, all the way to now. The only reason money came into this was because back then, it was the choice of continue translating normally or getting a summer job and people offered to support the translation in response. Pathologically reneging on their promises. Keyword I use most of the time is TRY. Try out best! Try our best! But yes, I do remember saying that the missed chapters will be released. If catching up to the author does not fulfill that, then I don’t know what to say. Fanfic time?

Q: If it wasn't for the trip to China, being sick, exams, internet problems, then it is something else.

A: I can understand complaints when there are delays without notice, but complaints about me actually saying why things are delayed? BTW, I still have internet problems at night lol. I actually did consider moving out back then but ended up not being able to due to various reasons.

Q: Worst off, they are now saying they "no longer have a schedule"

A: There seems to be quite a lot of he said she said going around here. I don’t recall saying that ATG no longer has a schedule. If I have said that, I apologize, but there is a schedule that we have been at least trying to adhere to. I had a poll set up on patreon a few days before we caught up to the author (which was also a few days before the move from patreon to wuxiaworld advanced chapters) about whether or not I should continue having the early access system and what the projected new release schedule would be. After the poll, I posted its results in the translator thoughts of chapter 1119, that it would be 1-2 days between releases if we have not caught up to the author yet. From then on, slight posting delays due to the difference in timezone when I ask someone else to post for me aside, any other deviations from this should be around the time when the author was releasing pretty much 2 chapters a week, or when we were a bit late in knowing that a new chapter is up. We cannot help that. 

Q: for the Patrons that use to pay $ for 7 translations a week and are owed 59 chapters, they essentially have been scammed.

A: While I am not too certain where the number 59 comes from and do not know whether or not it is false because I really do not have the time to count everything up, I do admit the 2 month trip to China with the typhoons did delay releases because I barely released anything during that time. On the subject of scamming and delays, let’s take a trip back to the past. I have actively opened myself several times to refunds with apologies and refunded a few, if not several months for those that requested it. All this while trying to catch up to 2 months of missing releases for 3 different series alongside new releases. When I could’ve just issued a mass refund to null those chapters. That was my goodwill. The end result of this was the dropping of one series and the catching up of the other two. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about how I felt, but I actually regret that immensely.

Q: They will not get reimbursements for the money they paid to get 59 chapters translated, the reason being, the author took a vacation, so the services promises is now null and void.

A: This reimbursement thing sounds like a repeating trend. Or maybe it’s because I’ve read this so many times that it’s making me think that. If we reach the end of existing chapters please understand we cannot produce chapters out of thin air, and we will be eternally grateful. But if you don't that’s perfectly fine too.

Q: They now expect to be paid a second time for the 59 chapters.

A: Huh? All I’m hearing is they want money money money money. They are greedy greedy greedy greedy. With all due respect, I am pretty sure consistent releases make more money than the haphazard releases being churned out back then.

Please note I have nothing against this guy, am I just using his statements to bring order to the scramble of thoughts I had when I first heard about it from my source. Unscrambling them and writing up this explanation took as much time as translating a chapter. I do not mind complaints about our release rate not being up to one's own standards but please do not put words in my mouth. Clarifying things takes time out of everyone's happiness.

On another note, our beloved author said: Let me tell you a ghost story, guys. IT'S - THE - END - OF - THE - MONTH - ALREADY! This is in reference to his goal of releasing 2 chapters a day until the end of the month a while after he came back from his small hiatus.