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 483 - Hong’er (2)

This little girl did not possess the vital signs of a living being, yet she was very much alive, and even though she was clearly hungry, she did not eat dried rations or meat… Yun Che was beginning to suspect that this girl was not even human.

But her appearance was exactly like that of a human, and even if she was some kind of spirit who transformed into a human, she should still eat rations or meat!

What caused Yun Che to collapse was, that even though the little girl’s stomach kept rumbling heavily, she herself didn’t even know what it was that she liked to eat!

Rumble...

An oppressive sound suddenly rang out, and the space began to quake slightly

“Ah? Such a strange sound… ah, the ground is shaking! Is something fun about to happen?” The unusual vibrations within this space caused the little girl to get excited. Her gaze shot around in all four directions, her scarlet eyes flashing, her excitement allowing her to temporarily forget her hunger.

“Vibrations in space… is the precursor that the Primordial Profound Ark is about to deploy its energy field! We need to leave this place immediately!” Jasmine yelled in haste.

The stirring of the space around them had aroused Yun Che’s suspicions… Once the vibrations began, it would take about an hour for the Primordial Profound Ark to generate a repulsing energy field. This repulsion field was the only way for him to leave the Primordial Profound Ark!

And this occurrence could be said to be perfectly timed! If he had delayed leaving the stone room for a day, he would have been unable to use this energy field to expel himself from the ark. The end result would have been Yun Che having to survive for another eighteen months within the spatial turbulence.

Yun Che swiftly levitated himself, turning around to rush towards the gap he had created with his ice flames. When he was about to exit, the frantic voice of the little girl echoed beneath him, “Ah! Big brother, where are you going?! Bring me with you… Bring me with you!!”

Yun Che turned his head towards the girl, and asked suspiciously, “You can’t fly?”

“Fly?” The little girl scrunched up her face as she sincerely pondered the question, after understanding the meaning behind the word ‘fly’, she stamped her little foot and said, “I am still such a young beauty, how could I fly!”

“...” Even though this little girl’s constitution and personality were extremely weird, she still seemed to be nothing more than a normal little girl. Even though she had a tsundere personality and was clingy, he definitely could not just leave her here unattended. So Yun Che had no choice but to fly down and bring her back up with him.

“Wait! Bring the Coffin of Eternity along as well! It is an extremely unusual treasure.” Jasmine reminded Yun Che.

Yun Che flew down again, and deposited the Coffin of Eternity into the Sky Poison Pearl, after that he rushed out of the gap and returned to the first floor of the mysterious ancient fortress.

“Wow! What is this place? It’s so big!” the little girl twisted her body while she was in Yun Che’s arms, her gaze running all over the area, as if she was not worried she would drop at all.

“You have no impression of this place at all?” Yun Che asked.

“Impression? Not at all! I don’t remember anything!” the little girl shouted crisply in a lovable voice. And those words “I don’t remember anything” seemed to be shouted with a peculiar… pride!

What was up with this girl’s personality! Exactly what kind of parents could have raised such a child?!

Forget it!

Everything else could be addressed once he had left this place!!

Yun Che increased his speed, and flew towards in the direction of the ancient fortress gates. This ancient fortress was simply too large; even though his present speed far exceeded his previous speed, it still took him more than fifteen minutes to travel the distance from the end of the castle to its exit. There was still roughly one hour before the repulsion field would appear, so there was still more than enough time. But Yun Che still rushed forward, as he did not want to chance anything.

In a short amount of time, which was exactly fifteen minutes, Yun Che could see the castle exit… and all this while, he had to endure the excited yelling of a girl right next to his ear; he was not given a moment of respite throughout. If he did not have enough love in his heart, and this little girl did not have the potential to be a game-breaker, he might have just tossed her there and then.

Yun Che’s body flickered like an arrow, shooting out of the gates of the ancient fortress and reached the world outside in no time at all.

The light had grown bright; Yun Che slowed down and was stunned by the scenery that laid ahead.

Initially, he had entered the ancient fortress from a flat and boundless wilderness…. That wilderness was purely just a wilderness. With barrenness and openness being its only special characteristics, it was unforgettable.

But right now, what appeared in front of him, was a vast swathe to yellow-green grass, and at a distance, all he could see was a sea of ancient, towering trees. The leaves, branches and trunk of these ancient trees were largely blue and black in color, and showed no signs of vitality.

“What happened? This definitely was not the place from which I had entered the ancient fortress.” Yun Che said with a shocked expression as he turned to look at the towering ancient fortress, its roof was so high it could not be seen with the naked eye.

“My guess was right.” Jasmine said in an exceptionally calm voice, “Remember what I had told you at that time? That it was extremely likely that this fortress would move around… and looks it was really the case! If not, it would have long ago been discovered by those from the Profound Sky Continent.”

Yun Che’s heart grew even more bewildered… if that was truly the case, then how exactly did this gigantic ancient fortress move around? Did this mean that it possessed a life of its own?”

Yun Che came to realize more and more that there was nothing that was impossible in this boundless universe. Before he was sixteen, he was a mere weakling, and the world he recognized was confined within the bounds of Floating Cloud City. Nowadays, as he continued to grow in strength and reach greater and greater heights, the world that he could see had also expanded greatly… yet the feeling he got was that he had become smaller and smaller in the grand scheme of things. In this world, who knew how many more incredible things existed, things which could overturn his understanding in the blink of an eye.

Such as the little girl that was beside him right now!

“Where is this place? Is it a fun place… there is so much grass, and big trees too! But the grass in this place isn’t green at all, and it looks like it is about to wither.” The little girl measured her new surroundings with curiosity, filling the air with her lovable shouts as she spoke to herself.

Plop!

“Ah… Ow ow ow ow…” The little girl had slept for too long, and she was in a state of extreme hunger. Her body was already soft and weak, so after her exertions, all of a sudden she collapsed onto the ground and made no move to get up. She kept crying in pain, and two huge tears had welled up in her eyes.

Yun Che turned around helplessly, and picked her up from the ground. His emotions were an entangled mess right now… Originally, he had followed a mysterious voice, reached a mysterious place, saw a mysterious protective ball of light, and received a mysterious ‘mission’... His heart had been filled with anticipation, thinking that the ‘little mistress’ of someone who could control such an enormous profound ark had to be some big shot who could shake the heaven and earth. And once Yun Che had saved her, maybe she would feel a deep gratitude towards him; either way, this person would still owe him a debt for saving her life. To Yun Che, this entailed an immeasurable amount of benefits… Would she give Yun Che a treasure which defied the heavens? Or use her powerful strength to help Yun Che fulfill any desire? Or maybe she could even have sent him straight back to the Profound Sky Continent!

But in the end, the person he had rescued did not have any great ability, and he did not attain any benefits, because this person was just a little girl! Not only that, but in this place, other than him, there was no other person, and this little girl did not emit a single iota of power from her body either. If he left her here, she was dead meat, and if he brought her together with him out of the Primordial Profound Ark…..

Dammit! This was simply just adding a huge burden to himself!!

If he was by himself, he could do whatever he wanted, and intently pursue anything without any distraction; he could even venture into the most dangerous places. But if he brought along this huge burden with him…

Just thinking of this made it hard for Yun Che to breathe.

And if he just dumped her somewhere… Ah, in the end, he did save her, and he couldn’t bear to do something against his conscience.

The little girl turned to Yun Che with tears in eyes, but realized that Yun Che was just standing there daydreaming, and he completely missed the pitiful look in her eyes. She pouted and said in a tender voice filled with grievance, “Big brother! It really hurt when I fell, but you didn’t even care about me….”

“Guuu guuu guu….”

The little girl’s stomach sounded in a very timely fashion, she covered her little stomach, her expression becoming pitiful, “Wuuuu… I am very hungry, so hungry that I wanna die. Big brother, won’t you please find something for me to eat?”

“You need to at least tell me what you want to eat, you know.” Yun Che said with an expression filled with agony.

“Wuuuu…… I dunnooo….”

“What kind of person doesn’t even know what she wants to eat?!”

“But I really don’t know!!”

Yun Che almost went crazy.

“Okay, I’ll go find something for you to eat.” Yun Che could only say this to pacify her. After which, he strode forward and observed the surrounding area, trying to look for any unusual phenomena.

“Big brother, where are you going?” Once she saw Yun Che leave, the little girl hurriedly followed after him. After this, she shadowed his every movement. Where he went, she followed, when he stopped, she also stopped. A pair of scarlet eyes were fixed anxiously to his body, as if she was scared that he would suddenly run away.

“You can’t be prepared to keep following after me like that right?” Yun Che said as he turned around, his face filled with frustration.

“Of course I am! If such a lovely and cute little beauty followed you, it should definitely make you happy, right?” The little girl used both her hands to prop up her face as she made a cute pose.

Yun Che bent at the waist, and revealed an evil and sinister expression, as he said in a low voice, “Little sister, I forgot to tell you but I am actually…. A super big pervert who specializes in tricking little girls much like yourself!”

“Oh I can testify to that.” Jasmine said to his side in a neutral tone.

“Super…. big pervert? The girl bit her finger, and suspiciously blinked her eyes,”What is that? Can it be eaten?”

“...A pervert refers to a super big bad guy who specializes in tricking all kinds of beauties and eating them after!” Yun Che gnashed his teeth, and said with an evil expression, “Are you afraid?!”

“Well…” The girl cluelessly blinked her eyes and said. “Even though I don’t really understand, it sounds really awesome. Anyways, I don’t care about this, go find me some food to eat already!!”

“~！#￥%……”

Yun Che’s entire being was filled with a deep sense of powerlessness. He had a premonition that unless he mercilessly dumped this little girl somewhere and let her fend for herself, he would never be rid of this huge burden.

The vibrations in the space were slowly getting more and more violent. Yun Che walked to the front of an ancient tree, and looked out into the distance. All he saw was wilderness; even after he strained his eyes, the result was still the same. He would not be able to make it to the end with the time he had remaining. He sat on the ground, thinking about the situation with the little girl as he waited for the repulsion field to come.

“I am finally going to leave this place…” Thinking back on the two years he had spent in the Primordial Profound Ark, Yun Che sighed deeply in his heart. The difficulties he had endured in the past two years was beyond the imagination of normal people. At the same time, his cultivation had received an immeasurably large boost. But even though his improvement was tremendous, he still could not find a way back.

“That lingering spirit said that she controlled the profound ark to visit various places in search of the Sky Poison Pearl. Then, every time the profound ark stopped, it should have been in a place with as many living creatures as the Profound Sky Continent, and it would not be a barren world… At least, I hope it’s not.” Yun Che was unable to foresee what kind of world he would be brought to, and he could only console himself for the time being. But whatever world he landed in, what would decide his fate and level would always be strength.

Once he thought of that, he retrieved both the broken pieces of Dragon Fault and laid it by his side. The destruction of Dragon Fault was an extremely huge loss and regret to him. Without Dragon Fault, his battle strength would inevitably fall significantly. Once he reached the new world, he had absolutely no confidence that he could find a weapon to replace Dragon Fault in a short period of time. Looking at the completely lifeless and fractured Dragon Fault, he mumbled to himself, “Once I reach the new world, the first thing I must do is a find some way to repair you….”

“Sniff… sniff… sniff!”

From Yun Che’s side, there suddenly came the heavy sound of sniffing. The originally hungry and despondent little girl stood up with a whoosh, and was sniffing the air with her little nose as if her life depended on it, “It smells so good… smells so good! I can smell something nice to eat? Where is it, where is it, where is it…”

As the girl sniffed the air, the saliva from her mouth overflowed. She sucked it back in heavily, but as soon as she did so, her saliva continued to drip to the floor and she could not stop it. The little girl searched for quite a while, but once her eyes landed on the fractured Dragon Fault, they emitted an extremely bright light.

“Something delicious… something delicious!!”

The little girl screeched with joy and practically bulldozed her way forward, grabbing Dragon Fault. Her extremely bizarre actions caused Yun Che’s face to twitch exaggeratedly, as he said in a powerless voice, “Stop messing around, it’s really very heavy… My… my god!”

After the little girl grabbed Dragon Fault, she immediately stood up and carried Dragon Fault in her arms…

Carried it in her arms!!

Even though Dragon Fault was broken and had lost all its energy and presence, its heavy weight had not changed! Each piece weighed at least ten thousand kilograms! But this girl who would feel tired from walking and even collapse from time to time, she could actually effortlessly pick up a piece of Dragon Fault. And looking at her right now, she did not even break a sweat.

Drip, drip...

Saliva uncontrollably poured from her mouth, causing the body of the sword to become drenched in a blink of an eye. The girl sucked in her saliva, and with eyes flashing with excitement, opened her mouth and bit down on the blade of Dragon Fault.

Crunch!

The place where the girl had bitten down on was missing a large piece. The little girl drummed her cheeks, making loud chewing sounds, as if she was chewing sweets, and with a gulp, she swallowed what she was chewing.

Yun Che looked at the missing portion of Dragon Fault which was outlined by teeth marks and his eyes widened. His entire body becoming a statue, his mouth gaping so widely that one could shove a full-grown yak into it.

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