Chapter 1403 - Advent of Devils (1)
Profound Sky Southern Ocean.
As the sky turned dark, Yun Che and Yun Wuxin’s fishing competition ended with Yun Wuxin being the complete victor.
It was clear that the activity was more of an entertainment between father and daughter rather than a serious cultivation of the heart. However, Yun Wuxin didn’t break out in cheers even though she was the victor. Instead, she walked up to her father and held his hand, “Are you not happy today, daddy?”
“Huh? No, I’m very happy.” Yun Che beamed at her, “Where did you get that idea?”
Yun Wuxin looked at him carefully for a moment before replying in a certain tone, “You are worrying about something. Let me guess… Are you thinking about that place called the ‘God Realm’?”
“...” Yun Che hadn’t expected his daughter to reach the truth he hid in the deepest part of his mind so easily. Caught off guard, his first reaction was to deny everything, but when he saw the concern behind her pure eyes he couldn’t help but change his own tune, “A little, yes.”
He had been feeling ill at ease ever since his heart had suddenly twitched in pain. For some reason, he couldn’t shake off the feeling that something very bad must have happened somewhere.
“I knew it,” Yun Wuxin’s features relaxed into a smile at the correct guess, “Master told me that daddy is a passionate person, so you must have had a lot to worry over while you were in the God Realm. For example…”
“For example?”
“For example…” Yun Wuxin looked at Yun Che and counted with her fingers, “There is Jasmine, Caizhi, Shen Xi, Master…”
Yun Che’s eyes widened a little every time he heard a name, and when Yun Wuxin got to “Shen Xi” and “Master” he finally lost his cool, “Wait… Wait a second… Where did you even hear these names!?”
“Heehee,” Yun Wuxin cocked her head to one side and beamed, “Mom's the one who told me. Mom said that daddy would often repeat these names a lot in his dreams… Mn! Master has told me the same too!”
“...” Yun Che pressed a palm to his forehead, unable to say anything until a long time later.
“Something doesn’t make sense to me though,” Yun Wuxin revealed something that had confounded her for a long time, “when a profound practitioner has achieved the divine way, there shouldn’t be any need to go to sleep, right? But why do you sleep and sleep talk so often, daddy?”
“Cough… cough cough…” This was one question Yun Che could never answer even if he was dead, so he hurriedly changed the topic in panic, “I er… there’s just no harm to sleep, you know. Anyway… it’s about time we head home already. The sky will be turning dark soon.”
“Are you going to sleep again, daddy?”
“Yeah… No, I mean, I cultivate at night just like you, Wuxin!”
“Oh…” Yun Wuxin replied skeptically.
Just when the duo was about to leave the area, Yun Che’s sound transmission jade suddenly vibrated in his pocket. He swiftly picked it up and heard Feng Xue’er’s slightly rushed voice immediately, “Come home quickly, Big Brother Yun. There’s been another series of serious profound beast rampages.”
The profound beast disturbances had been spreading west at a steady rate and breaking out more and more often as of late. But after Yun Che had recovered his strength, he was always able to purify their negative emotions and quell the disasters in good time.
It was why the people thought that the profound beast rampages had been happening a lot less frequent than before. Even when there was one, peace usually returned to land in no time at all.
“Where is it this time?” Yun Che asked calmly. Beside him, Yun Wuxin didn’t sound surprised in the slightest.
“Everywhere… it’s happening everywhere across the entire continent!” Yun Che frowned a little when he heard Feng Xue’er’s report, “Even those places that have never had a riot and Big Brother Yun has been to are experiencing profound beast rampages!”
“It’s not just the Profound Sky Continent either, Illusory Demon Realm is facing the same disaster as well! It struck without any warning, and the attacks are everywhere…”
“I understand. Don’t worry, everything will be better again in no time.”
There was no doubt that the continent-wide breakout was a terrible calamity to both the Profound Sky Continent and Illusory Demon Realm. However, it was but a small issue to Yun Che because Blue Pole Star itself was already too small for him. He could compress his profound light energy to the smallest unit possible and still purify the two continents in just a short time.
His brows were deeply furrowed, however. He didn’t relax until quite a while later.
Half a year ago, he had wondered if the disaster that struck the Azure Cloud Continent would be Profound Sky Continent and Illusory Demon Realm’s tomorrow.
He didn’t think that his thought would actually come true.
However, the frequency between the disasters wasn’t the reason Yun Che was frowning. He was frowning because the breakout had happened without warning at all!
Not long ago, the profound beast rampages were only happening near the eastern regions. But just now, it had suddenly spread to the entire continent.
“Lets go.”
Yun Che held Yun Wuxin’s small hand and got ready to fly to Feng Xue’er’s side. However, he came to a sudden stop and turned toward the east.
A scarlet star was imprinted on the eastern sky, omnipresent during both day and night. By now, the denizens of both the Profound Sky Continent and Illusory Demon Realm had already gotten used to it, and it had even given birth to many strange theories and myths.
Right now, the scarlet star was hidden behind a cloud—or it should’ve been, but for some reason the cloud had failed to diminish its glow. To Yun Che’s eyes, the light of the star seemed capable of piercing his eyes from the distance and looked brighter than ever before.
“...” Yun Che’s brows furrowed deeper and deeper.
He had been observing this red star every day, and he was absolutely certain that its light wasn’t as bright as it was just two hours ago. This meant that something terrible had happened between then and now.
The red light pierced his pupils and entered straight into his soul, causing long lasting waves…
…………
“But he gave up on the chance to live another six hundred thousand years with his divine power under the trappings of Myriad Tribulations and invested all of his divine power and life force into creating that indestructible drop of Heretic God blood. This was all for the sake of leaving behind the source of his power… even towards the end of his life, the Heretic God was only worried about the arrival of that day, going so far as to give up his life in order to leave behind one final hope to the future. Perhaps, he was the only person worthy of being called the greatest of all gods.”
“And if that day truly comes, you who shoulders the power of the Heretic God… will become the only hope.”
…………
“I cannot tell you right now, because you are still too weak and cannot shoulder that terrifying truth. What you need most now is to grow. Shouldering it too soon will only seriously affect your growth. You only need to know two things right now… Firstly, is to grow as fast as possible, make your Heretic God’s power strong enough. Secondly, is to value your life. You must live on properly. If you die, then the final hope will be extinguished.”
…………
“Your life is too short, your experiences are too few and your strength and soul are far too weak. If there comes a day you feel like you are already powerful enough, that your willpower and comprehension are ready to assume great waves and responsibility, come find me again. I will tell you the truth about everything…
“And give you all my power.”
…………
The Ice Phoenix girl at the bottom of the Heavenly Netherfrost Lake surfaced in his consciousness. He had never forgotten her words for even a moment.
At that time, he was just a new profound practitioner of the divine way. He had had no knowledge about the God Realm at all.
But after his strength, his mind, and his knowledge continued growing… After he had seen everything that had happened in both the God Realm and Blue Pole Star for the past few years, his thoughts had become completely different from before.
“Hope”. “Duty”. The words he had thought were a delusion were slowly but surely growing clearer and clearer in his head.
He wondered if this sudden change had affected the God Realm as well… He wondered if it would affect Snow Song Realm...
By now, it was clear that this change wasn’t going to spread or worsen gradually. Instead, things would simply grow worse without any warning at all… What would happen in the future? And what was the “terrifying truth” behind that red star...
“Daddy? Daddy… Daddy!”
Yun Wuxin had to call out to him several times before Yun Che finally returned to earth. He then held her by waist and said, “Come on, let’s purify the Profound Sky Continent and Illusory Demon Realm together. Let me show you how great I am, hmm?”
Space warped around them, and Yun Che soon appeared straight above Divine Phoenix City. He wasn’t making any movements at all, but light profound energy was already pouring down to the earth and enveloping all mindless profound beasts...
Meanwhile, in Eastern Divine Region, Snow Song Realm, Ice Phoenix Sacred Hall.
Mu Bingyun had suddenly entered the hall.
“What happened?” Mu Xuanyin asked.
“An hour ago, a large-scale beast rampage suddenly broke out from the eastern side of Ice Wind Empire. Nearly a tenth of the empire was involved in the attack, and at least a dozen or so sects were destroyed in the process. I’ve already sent out the second and third palace’s palace masters to suppress the riot with their disciples.”
“Beast riots?” Mu Xuanyin turned around and frowned slightly, “Do we know the cause?”
Mu Bingyun shook her head, “No. We only know that every profound beast in the Ice Wind Mountain Range came out of their homes, and that they were acting extremely violent for some reason. However, there was no warning whatsoever prior to the attack.”
Mu Xuanyin, “...”
“There is nothing to worry about though. With the strength of two palace masters, the riots should be quelled in just a short time.”
However, Mu Bingyun suddenly noticed that Mu Xuanyin was wearing a stern and even frigid look on her face. It was at this moment that her Ice Phoenix Engraved Jade suddenly flashed blue. Mu Bingyun gave it a rub, and shock entered her eyes all of a sudden.
“Big Sister, something isn’t quite right.” Mu Bingyun’s voice turned much serious than before, “Just now, a beast riot happened at the north eastern side of Flame God Realm as well. The timing of both riots is almost identical.”
“...” Mu Xuanyin still hadn’t said anything. She was recalling everything she had seen while she was still at Blue Pole Star.
“Send my order to the entire sect,” Mu Xuanyin suddenly declared in a cold tone. “From this day onward, the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect will be preparing for war!”
“...What?” Mu Bingyun was caught off guard.
“One more thing, notify all the elders to strengthen Mist End Valley’s barrier in three days—no, today—immediately!”
Mu Xuanyin’s orders confused Mu Bingyun greatly, “What’s going on, sis? Do you know something?”
Mu Xuanyin’s eyes grew colder and colder, “All I know is that great chaos… is coming to the Eastern Divine Region very soon.”
Mu Bingyun, "...”
“By the way, has there been any news regarding the Northern Divine Region as of late?” Suddenly, Mu Xuanyin asked Mu Bingyun a question that seemed completely unrelated to the topic at hand.
Mu Bingyun thought for a moment before replying, “There is a very strange rumor regarding the Northern Divine Region as of late. Apparently, Northern Divine Region’s “territory” has actually grown bigger instead of reducing as usual… There is no way to verify if this rumor is true or false though.”
“...” This time, Mu Xuanyin’s silence lasted for at least an eighth of an hour before she finally closed her eyes, “Right. Go send the order. Please inform the elders, palace masters, hall masters, and disciples who are in seclusion as well. No one is to go into seclusion from now on.”
“I understand.” Mu Bingyun nodded, but she didn’t leave immediately. Instead, she asked suddenly, “Sis, did this sudden beast riot have something to do with the Northern Divine Region?”
“Of course not, they’re not nearly capable of that,” Mu Xuanyin answered coolly. “The root cause is a strange darkness aura that is spreading throughout the entire Eastern Divine Region. In the future, it might even spread all the way to the Southern Divine Region and Western Divine Region as well. Worse, this unusual phenomenon may be an unpredictable tribulation to the three divine regions, but to the Northern Divine Region… We all know just how much they hate the three divine regions, and this may very well be the opportunity they’ve been looking for to escape their ‘cage’. I have no doubt that they will take action soon!”
“Snow Song Realm is among the closest places to the Northern Divine Region in the Eastern Divine Region. We must be careful!”
The Northern Divine Region might be one of the four divine regions of the God Realm, but it was also known as an “unholy domain” and a cage.
The Northern Divine Region was a place where countless surviving devil people, devil beasts, and devil spirits lived. The reason it was called a cage was because any devil who tried to leave to the other three Divine Regions would be hunted down at all costs.
Moreover, since the Primal Chaos’ yin energy and the dark devilish energy from ancient times were fading away, the Northern Divine Region’s “domain” had been slowly but surely shrinking over many years. Although the denizens of the Northern Divine Region had tried everything in their power to escape their home and seek out other bigger and better places to live, it was simply an impossible task… Not only were they the weakest divine region out of all four divine regions, but their very existence was intolerable to all three other divine regions. That was why they could never mount any resistance, and they were forced to shrink ever deeper into their domain.
This year was different, however. Not only did the Northern Divine Region’s devilish energy or domain not shrink as normal, there were actually signs pointing toward them being slightly stronger than before!
This was the first time in a few million years that an inexplicable veil had shrouded the entire Northern Divine Region.