Against the Gods

Chapter 2157 - “Lord of the Abyss”

His voice was as gentle as smoke and as indifferent as mist. In Yun Che’s eyes, though, every word pierced his heart like an icicle. It sent a chill through his entire body, and his blood seemed to freeze a little inside his veins.

What is he saying... What the hell is he saying?!

He had appeared calm and collected even when he was facing the highest existence in the Abyss for the first time, but right here and now, it took him nearly all of his willpower to suppress the tremors crawling underneath his skin. Even so, his fingertips were curling involuntarily.

“What is he saying?” This was Li Suo’s voice, and her exclamation of surprise was exactly as the one resounding inside Yun Che’s heart and soul.

“Fog... Monarch?”

“But... the ‘Fog Monarch’ is just a fake existence you fabricated. Is he lying, or...”

“Does a Fog Monarch actually exist in the Endless Fog??”

Yun Che could not answer this question. The bone-chilling cold lingered in his body for a long time, spreading from his spine to his torso, then from his torso to his limbs, and finally from his limbs to his soul sea. At the end of it, nearly all of his soul sea was frozen, and he almost lost his ability to think for a good while.

Yun Che did not attempt to hide his shock. Anyone would suffer a collapse of common sense and be shocked to their core if they heard the truth... even though it wasn’t the truth that shocked him, but the name “Fog Monarch”.

Mo Su had turned around. He did not look at Yun Che’s shocked expression.

He brushed his hand slightly, and the space in front of him switched out. The “Othershore Paradise” vanished from their views just like that. The living beings of the “Othershore Paradise” had no idea this was happening and kept marching along their set fate and laws, methodically exploring... and forever existing in their preconceived “reality”.

Meanwhile, Yun Che finally found his own voice and said in a voice full of disappointment and frustration, “When something has existed in one’s consciousness from the very beginning, the person would naturally take it for granted and treat it as an inherent truth. Thus, no one questioned why abyssal dust spontaneously gathered in the Endless Fog, or why the abyssal beasts and abyssal ghosts never left the Endless Fog.”

“True.”

Mo Su said indifferently while staring at the emptiness ahead, “Just the same, no one ever questions why living creatures are standing on the ground instead of hanging in the sky, why our eyes could see the world, why our ears could hear sounds, so on and so forth.”

Once more, Yun Che recalled Chi Wuyao’s words... The most terrifying thing in this world wasn’t the unknown, but being trapped within fixed notions. Ironically, his greatest weapon he wielded against the denizens was their fixed notions, and yet he himself had long been ensnared in an invisible cage of his own entrenched beliefs.

He was exploiting the unresolved mysteries of the Abyss when he emerged as the “Fog Monarch” and fabricated “rumors” to threaten the people’s absolute faith in the Abyssal Monarch. However, even he instinctively thought that abyssal dust gathered into the Endless Fog, and abyssal beasts inhabited the Endless Fog because that was just how natural laws of this universe worked. He thought that it was just like rivers drained into oceans, and how fish could only live within the oceans in his universe.

He never thought... or he did not dare to think... that it was actually the result of some sort of power.

Yun Che looked up at Mo Su with an appropriate amount of shock and curiosity. “Everyone in Dreamweaver believed that the ‘Fog Monarch’ was just a lie and a fabrication created to throw the people’s hearts into disarray. After all, they only appeared once in a while, and no one had ever seen their true form.”

“To think... he actually existed...”

He never imagined, never even considered that it could be real. In fact, he would rather believe that the Abyssal Monarch was lying to him. After all, the very existence of the “Fog Monarch” was a lie he fabricated.

He had countless reasons to lie to Mo Su, but Mo Su had zero reason to lie to him. After all, the precondition of a lie was a motive, and Mo Su... had no motive against him, did he?

While doing his best to maintain a reasonable range of expressions on the outside, Yun Che was also fighting to quell the lightning storm that was occurring inside his heart. However, the storm could not truly be quelled.

If a “Fog Monarch” really exists in this world, if this Fog Monarch is strong enough to gather all abyssal dust into one place and even apply laws and rules to the soulless abyssal beasts and abyssal ghosts, then their strength is... no... I need to focus on handling what’s in front of me. For now, I must put the “Fog Monarch” and everything behind them aside. I must!

Mo Su cast a sidelong glance at Yun Che and read his hesitation accurately. “You wish to know more about the ‘Fog Monarch’?”

Yun Che nodded with a perfectly reasonable tone of curiosity. “Of course. I’m sure anyone who heard this truth would want to know who the Fog Monarch is and why they haven’t shown up before.”

“However, since you ‘exchanged promises ‘ with the Fog Monarch, I’m sure it involves secrets that you do not wish to be known to others. That is why I would rather keep silent about this. Master also told me that the less you know, the easier life gets.”

The corners of Mo Su’s lips curled up slightly into a small but gentle smile. There were even faint wisps of... indulgence? In that smile.

It was because Mo Su recalled how Big Brother Ni Xuan always smiled at him and answered all his bizarre, childish, or amusing questions with unending patience.

“I have not truly seen the Fog Monarch,” Mo Su said slowly, and surprised Yun Che.

Mo Su turned his gaze back toward the front and said slowly, “The Fog Monarch I saw was exactly the same as they appeared recently. They are hidden behind a thick layer of abyssal dust that could not be penetrated by vision or other senses. They appeared as a distorted entity and spoke in a cryptic, indistinguishable voice. They also carry themselves with a strange aura that is... wholly unfamiliar even to my senses.”

Yun Che: “...”

Mo Su continued, “As the son of a Creation God, I could easily bask in the divine radiance of every Creation God, and I could easily make contact with the divine presence of any member of the god race. However, the Fog Monarch’s presence is ethereal, empty, and illusory in a way that I have never felt before. I even had this absurd feeling... that it transcends even the Creation Gods.”

Yun Che’s heart seized like it was squeezed by an invisible hand. A terrible, suffocating feeling instantly engulfed his whole being.

“However, an existence that surpasses the Creation Gods cannot exist, so all these feelings, no matter how illusory or absurd they are, all point toward one possibility... The Fog Monarch does not truly exist, and they do not possess a true body. They are an abyssal will that naturally evolved from the endless abyssal dust of this abyssal world after an inconceivable amount of time.”

He paused for a brief moment before adding, “At least, that is what I theorize. I cannot think of another possibility[1].”

“I... see.”

Yun Che slowly nodded to express acknowledgement. “A will that is born from abyssal dust. That would explain why it could concentrate the abyssal dust of the entire world and even bestow laws to the soulless abyssal beasts.”

“They concentrated all of the abyssal dust in the Endless Fog so that a permanent living space could exist in this world. They also confined the abyssal beasts and abyssal ghosts to the Endless Fog to ensure that the living beings of the Land of the Living could have peace. All things considered... the ‘Fog Monarch’ is actually an extremely benevolent will, right?”

“...”

The answer to this “obvious” question seemed equally obvious, and yet Mo Su’s response was long, long silence.

Yun Che frowned and exclaimed in surprise, “Am I... wrong?”

Mo Su shook his head slightly. “No, I just can’t answer this question. After all, the concepts of good and evil have blurred for me for a long time now.

“...” Yun Che abruptly fell silent as well. After all, his own understanding of the line between good and evil was not nearly as clear as it was when he was a youngster.

“Did your master tell you about the lost artifacts of the devil race?” Mo Su asked suddenly.

Yun Che was deeply surprised to hear Mo Su asking this question of his own accord. He replied immediately, “The Original Nether Void Breaching Mirror, the Nirvana Devil Wheel Reversing Pearl.”

“Master told me that the ‘mysterious disappearance’ of these two devil artifacts was not publicized. He only learned about it because your Father told him.”

Mo Su paid no attention to his last sentence. He said calmly, “Back then, Xiaodie blocked a grievous blow for my sake and fell into the Abyss of Nothingness with me. The abyssal dust back then was far scarier than what it is now. At the time, every bone was broken, Xiaodie was... tattered, and both the Original Nether Void Breaching Mirror and the Nirvana Devil Wheel Reversing Pearl were almost completely destroyed.”

Yun Che forcefully controlled his breathing and listened quietly to Mo Su’s story. Ni Xuan’s memory fragments told him that the strike that blasted Mo Su and Pan Xiaodie into the Abyss had, in fact, come from the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword... If not for the two devil artifacts, Mo Su and Pan Xiaodie would have perished on the spot. Even so, the two devil artifacts were almost destroyed.

Although the Original Nether Void Breaching Mirror and the Nirvana Devil Wheel Reversing Pearl were not ranked among the seven Heavenly Profound Treasures, they were the next closest things to them. Yun Che could hardly believe that one strike from the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword was almost enough to destroy both of them. Its power was truly terrifying beyond imagination.

“Xiaodie and I were able to survive for a bit, relying on the spatial demonic domain barely created by the Original Nether Void Breaching Mirror, but the shattering devil artifact simply could not defend us for too long. Xiaodie, having resolved herself to die, had also fallen asleep. For a time, there was only despair.”

A world of certain death, a lifeless lover, a breaking barrier, and him all alone... he could scarcely imagine the despair.

“Resolved herself to... die?” Yun Che subconsciously mumbled.

Despite reliving the distant past, Mo Su still sounded incredibly calm. “When I held Xiaodie tight and got ready to commit suicide, I saw the twisted gray fog and heard the first-ever voice since arriving in the world of the Abyss.”

“They called themselves the Lord of the Abyss. They claimed that they could repair the damaged devil artifacts and grant me a permanent place to stay in this world.”

“In return, they requested that I fulfill the wish.”

“The time limit they gave me was five million years.”

Yun Che’s heart started beating rapidly once more. In the end, he wasn’t able to suppress his ever-growing impulse and asked again, “What is this wish they speak of?”

“...”

Mo Su did not say anything for a long, long time. As this involved the promise between Mo Su and the “Fog Monarch”, Yun Che thought for sure that he was going to keep quiet about this. He was just about to change the subject when Mo Su spoke up. “I cannot go into detail as it involves the promise and Xiaodie. However, I can tell you that their wish is the same as mine.”

A brief pause later, four words emerged from the thin lips shrouded by a layer of divine light. “The Eternal Pure Land.”

BOOM—

Yun Che felt as if something had exploded inside his head. The chill that had been lurking inside his body all this time vanished as well, replaced by sudden emptiness.

Ever since he entered the Abyss, he had been harnessing his “unique” ability to control abyssal dust and exploiting all sorts of cognitive biases to further his goals. Coupled with his keen ability to detect and maximize every fleeting opportunity and stroke of luck, he had laid the initial groundwork to throw the Abyss into chaos in just a mere span of years. Already, the invisible threads that bound the fates of the Kingdoms of God were lying covertly in his hand.

The peace and balance between the Kingdoms of God had lasted for eternity. Their biggest worry was always inheritance, not foreign invasions or existential threats. Thanks to all sorts of overlapping factors, every step Yun Che took in the Abyss was guarded, terrifying, and without even a moment to breathe, but overall speaking, everything was progressing smoothly so far. Even after he entered the Pure Land, he was carrying out every step of his plan with perfect clarity. There were deviations, but nothing had strayed too far away from his expectations.

That had lasted until today; this meeting to be exact. In just seven and a half short minutes, his heart and soul had endured not one, but several unprecedented, colossal blows.

His soul sea was still buzzing when Mo Su’s voice flowed into his ears, “I had answered without thinking back then. It wasn’t unlike a drowning man who instinctively grabbed a straw that had suddenly appeared in his hand. To my shock, they actually carried out their promises. The terrible abyssal dust receded rapidly before gathering at the center of the world and forming the ‘Endless Fog’.”

“And so, ‘Lands of the Living’ began appearing in what was previously a world of pure destruction, one after another. From that point onward, anyone who fell into the Abyss of Nothingness had a place to exist. As for me, I borrowed from the way of monarchs I learned from many worlds, claimed credit for the creation of the abyssal world, and appointed myself the Abyssal Monarch... That has not changed until today.”

The Abyssal Monarch back then and the Abyssal Monarch were the same person, but they were also completely different from each other. Countless years of loneliness and hardships could completely change a person and warp their soul.

“So...”

Yun Che heard himself speaking, “Did the Fog Monarch actually repair the Original Nether Void Breaching Mirror and the Nirvana Devil Wheel Reversing Pearl as well?”

They were devil artifacts, second only to the Heavenly Profound Treasures!!

Mo Su answered, “They did. Not only did they repair them, they even modified them.”

“Modi... fy?!” Yun Che exclaimed in shock.

This time, though, the Abyssal Monarch did not give him an answer. He calmly changed the subject and said, “It wasn’t like they didn’t pay a price, of course. That price was five million years of slumber.”

“They claimed it would take them five million years to recover their lost strength. They would be completely unconscious during this period, and I was free to rule the world as I pleased. However, if I failed to fulfill my promise five million years later, then they would reclaim everything and grant me the cruelest punishment.”

For a moment, Yun Che just stared blankly at the Abyssal Monarch. Then, the heavy pressure that had been crushing his heart, and the thunderstorm stirring up his soul sea all this time receded like a tidal wave.

Only three million years had passed since the abyssal world was “born”, meaning that it would take at least another two million years before this “Fog Monarch” awakened!

Dammit... just a false alarm... Yun Che cursed furiously in his heart for a good few seconds while feeling a strange exhaustion that usually appeared after surviving a terrible tribulation.

According to Li Suo, the laws of time of the Abyss were already in the middle of collapse. When the time came, the abyssal world wouldn’t just be destroyed; the calamity might impact the World of Existence as well.

Forget two million years; the abyssal world could very well suffer a total collapse in twenty thousand years. This “Fog Monarch” would most likely be annihilated in their dreams. Forget threatening him now; they might not even get the chance to awaken. Therefore, even if a “Fog Monarch” truly existed in this world, it was a “dead” one that would never see the light of day again.

Therefore, he was still the one and only Fog Monarch of this world, and he did not need to change his plans! He simply needed to follow his original trajectory toward the end[2].

1. I can. Ever heard of a lady called the Ancestral God? ☜

2. It’s cute how Yun Che doesn’t recognize that, just like the Ancestral Will could wake prematurely and do shit, the Fog Monarch could do the exact same thing. ☜