Against the Gods

Chapter 767 – Floating Ocean Palace

Not long after flying over the coastline and reaching the airspace of the Southern Ocean, a peculiar blue radiance finally appeared in the vision of Yun Che and Feng Xue’er… emitting this blue glow was a not so large island.

“This is it, let’s descend.”

Yun Che pulled on Feng Xue’er’s little hand, and together, they descended onto the island. As Feng Xue’er raised her hand and gently touched her face, her absolute beauty which eclipsed the world suddenly appeared from below the layer of satin.

Yun Che retrieved the hexagonal jadestone which Ji Qianrou had given him from within his Sky Poison Pearl. This jadestone was specifically a piece of Sea God Jade. It had been engraved with the invitation for and date of the Devil Sword Conference, as well as the directions to Supreme Ocean Palace.

Arriving atop the island, a cool, refreshing sea breeze blew over as if greeting them. The entirety of the small island was empty, but when Yun Che and Feng Xue’er had descended, two figures appeared in front of them like ghosts.

“Have the two of you come for the Devil Sword Conference? If so, please show your Sea God Jade. If not, leave!”

Both of them wore blue clothes and had stiff expressions. Although respectful, there was still a clear trace of undisguised arrogance and pride.

This was because they were the disciples of Supreme Ocean Palace! Although all of the visitors this time were the most powerful practitioners and forces amongst the Profound Sky Continent, the only ones who could be considered to be on equal footing with them atop the continent were those from the other three sacred grounds. Thus, unless they met someone from one of the other three sacred grounds, they wouldn’t retract their arrogance even the slightest bit.

The Four Great Sacred Grounds were the ruling figures within the Profound Sky Continent. It was a position they had held onto for tens of thousands of years without the slightest bit of weakness.

Yun Che didn’t bother to reply and directly took out his Sea God Jade. Right when he was about to throw it to one of the disciples, a familiar voice bearing extreme joy suddenly emanated over from behind as it breezed over with the wind.

“Brother-in-law! Brother-in-law!”

Yun Che and Feng Xue’er simultaneously turned around. Yuanba was quickly flying over from the southeast in an impressive manner. Besides him, there was also an old man wearing white robes who exuded an unique demeanor… it was none other than Spiritual Master Ancient Blue who he had met so many years ago in Divine Phoenix Nation.

Xia Yuanba landed on the ground first and quickly rushed in front of Yun Che, his face full of excitement as he said, “I’m way too lucky, to be able to actually meet brother-in-law here! Hehe, I see Little Sister Xue’er also came.”

“Yuanba, how come you and your master have come alone? Where are the rest of the sanctuary’s people?” Yun Che casually asked after patting Xia Yuanba’s shoulder. Being so close to Yuanba, Yun Che could clearly feel just how much stronger Yuanba had become from their last meeting…

Moreover, it had been an extremely great increase.

The Tyrannical Emperor’s Divine Veins… Jasmine’s so called “unparalleled Tyrannical Divine Veins”!

“Oh, the major party from the sanctuary set out two days before us. Recently, I just had another small breakthrough, so master and I left later.” Xia Yuanba chuckled as he spoke. From his tone, it was clear that he was incredibly happy to see Yun Che

“So it was like this.” Yun Che slowly nodded as he silently thought: I myself arrived nearly four days early, but Absolute Monarch Sanctuary’s people actually arrived even earlier due to the Saint Emperor’s order. It seems that the Four Great Sacred Grounds are also extremely interested in this sword, huh.

After all, towards all those respected, powerful practitioners who had been stuck at the peak of the Sovereign Profound Realm for hundreds to thousands of years, the words “secrets of the Divine Profound” contained an irresistible attraction.

Upon seeing Spiritual Master Ancient Blue, the two Ocean Palace disciples no longer cared about Yun Che and Feng Xue’er, and instead quickly walked forward to greet him. The arrogance on their faces had disappeared without a trace as they saluted in an extremely respectful and humble manner. They simultaneously greeted, “Junior Ocean Palace disciples Du Changming and Gong Kaichuan greet Spiritual Master Ancient Blue.”

Spiritual Master Ancient Blue slightly flicked the whisk in his hand as he faintly smiled and nodded his hand. Afterwards, he directly moved towards Yun Che, chuckling as he said, “Little friend Yun, when we met in the past, this old one believed that you would become a dragon in the future. Today, only three short years later, you have already become a true golden scaled dragon which can look down on the heavens. Even this old one cannot help but shower you with praise, ha ha ha ha.”

“Junior Yun Che greets Senior Ancient Blue. This junior feels ashamed to be praised so highly by Senior Ancient Blue,” Yun Che respectfully greeted as a faint smile emerged on his face.

While Spiritual Master Ancient Blue spoke to Yun Che, his eyes slightly moved, sweeping over the figure of Feng Xue’er beside Yun Che. As he did so, his pupils and face momentarily stiffened. Even his footsteps had obviously paused for a moment.

The higher one’s profound energy, the longer one would live. Thus, one simply couldn’t use appearance to judge the age of a powerful profound practitioner. However, even though appearances could be kept youthful, profound practitioners with enough experience could still roughly guess a person’s age from their aura.

Using this method, Ancient Blue perceived that the girl beside Yun Che was only in her twenties. At the very least, she was definitely younger than Xia Yuanba.

However, her profound aura was actually…

Sovereign Profound Realm… eighth level!?

This greatly surprised him, but he then immediately thought of a person… and the ridiculous, unbelievable rumors which had been recently floating around.

Could it be that those rumors… were actually true?

Spiritual Master Ancient Blue’s gaze fixated on Feng Xue’er’s figure as he suddenly asked with difficulty, “This little friend, could it be that you are Divine Phoenix Sect’s Princess Snow?”

In the face of the question, Feng Xue’er courteously replied, “Junior Feng Xue’er greets Senior Ancient Blue Cang.”

“Mn.” Spiritual Master Ancient Blue slowly nodded. However, the waves in his heart took much longer to suppress. He heavily sighed then said, “Ah, the younger generation will truly surpass the older one. Even after living these thousand years, it seems like I have still been a frog in a well this entire time, hoho.”

The moment Yun Che had revealed his name, the expressions of the two Supreme Ocean Palace disciples drastically changed as a great fear arose amidst their panic. The two of them looked at each other, then hurriedly walked forward towards Yun Che and saluted him while saying in a respectful tone, “So… so esteemed guest is actually the Asgard Master of Blue Wind Nation’s Frozen Cloud Asgard. Although we have eyes, just now we were unable to recognize Mount Tai and acted poorly. We hope Asgard Master Yun will be magnanimous enough to tolerate our errors.”

This huge change in attitude slightly surprised Yun Che as he waved his hand and said, “I am only but a junior. Moreover, this is Supreme Ocean Palace, so you two don’t have to be so polite with me.”

“No no,” an Ocean Palace disciple quickly shook his head, “The great Sovereign of the Seas personally stated that Asgard Master Yun was a distinguished guest of our palace, and that we should treat you with extreme respect. Just now, I…”

“Ah, understood, understood.” Yun Che flourished his hand again, “Forget about all of these useless matters, just directly take us to the teleportation formation.”

“Alright… guests, please follow us.”

At the center of the little island was a profound spatial formation which released a greenish-blue glow. Of all the various types of profound formations, profound spatial formations had the greatest rate of consumption. However, they were nonetheless extremely precious because this spatial profound formation allowed one to directly travel across a distance of fifteen hundred kilometers. In the entirety of Profound Sky Continent, there were very few of these profound spatial formations.

“Four esteemed guests, after entering this profound formation, you will be directly transported to an island called ‘Ocean Eye Isle.’ If you travel another fifty kilometers south from Ocean Eye Isle, you will arrive at the ocean palace. Great Elder is already there personally waiting to welcome you all.”

As they activated the array, the two ocean palace disciples respectfully explained everything. As for their eyes, they focused less on the figure of Spiritual Master Ancient Blue, and instead constantly stole glances at Yun Che and Xia Yuanba.

The blue light within the profound formation flickered, and suddenly, the scene before Yun Che momentarily turned into a plane of whiteness before changing into a different view of a blue ocean.

“We’ve arrived. This place must be the Ocean Eye Isle that those two disciples talked about. The ocean palace should be fifty kilometers south of here.”

Spiritual Master Ancient Blue was the first to exit the profound formation as he spoke with a chuckle. Yun Che and the other two all suddenly subconsciously looked south, their mouths simultaneously opening as similar exclamations of shock came out.

“Waah… wow!”

“Is that… Supreme Ocean Palace?” Xia Yuanba’s eyes had grown huge as he stared. This was also his first time coming to Supreme Ocean Palace.

Their eyes were all stuck on a circular island veiled by a cover of light blue light which filled the entire airspace south of them. Unlike other ordinary islands which floated atop the ocean, this island… floated in the sky, high above the ocean!

From their point of view, the giant palace was around three to four thousand meters above the ocean!

“My royal father once said that Supreme Ocean Palace is eternally floating in the sky… to think that it was so mystical,” Feng Xue’er mumbled softly.

“…To continuously keep such a large island afloat in the sky, must be very expensive,” Yun Che said as he looked south.

“Hehe, naturally.” Spiritual Master Ancient Blue nodded and then said with a chuckle, “From north to south, this floating island is forty five kilometers long. From east to west, it is thirty five kilometers long. Although this floating island is the smallest amongst the Four Great Sacred Grounds and is even smaller than Divine Phoenix Sect’s Divine Phoenix City, its magnificence and aura are unparalleled under the heavens. Moreover, the number of profound crystals spent every year to keep it afloat is astronomical.”

“Big Brother Yun, let’s hurry and go. I really want to see what Supreme Ocean Palace looks like. Even just looking at it from afar has already caused me to feel that it is much more magnificent than what my royal father said about it.” Feng Xue’er very naturally grabbed Yun Che’s arm as her cheeks became flushed pink from the excitement.

“I am also interested now. Let’s go!” Extending his arms, Yun Che wrapped them around Feng Xue’er’s thin waist as the two simultaneously flew into the sky and directly towards the mystical floating island.

“Hey, hey, wait for me brother-in-law!” Xia Yuanba jumped, suddenly traversing hundreds of meters as he quickly caught up with Yun Che.

“Hoho,” Spiritual Master Ancient Blue warmly laughed as he followed closely behind the three. As he watched their backs, the smile on his face slowly disappeared and became replaced by an increasingly complicated expression.

This was because the three youths in front of him were impressively the three most talented youths of the young generation within the Profound Sky Continent!

Furthermore, each one had abilities which were truly able to shock the world, surpassing the ancients and amazing the current generations.

Xia Yuanba’s body contained the Tyrannical Emperor’s Divine Veins. These veins that he had been naturally born with had contained a great power which even he himself couldn’t control. However, now that he had awoken them, the degree of growth of his profound strength had shocked even the Saint Emperor of Absolute Monarch Sanctuary… his Tyrannical Emperor’s Divine Veins were even many times more powerful than any of the previous instances of Tyrannical Emperor’s Divine Veins recorded in the history of the Profound Sky Continent!

If Xia Yuanba could enter the sixth level of the Sovereign Profound Realm before he turned twenty two, he would be making history within the Profound Sky Continent.

Others thought that becoming the disciple of Ancient Blue would be the fortune of a lifetime. However, Spiritual Master Ancient Blue had always deeply felt that having obtained such a talented Xia Yuanba as his disciple was his life’s greatest fortune.

However, today, Feng Xue’er had appeared. She had yet to reach the age of twenty, yet she had already reached the eighth level of the Sovereign Profound Realm! Xia Yuanba had actually been thoroughly defeated by her.

At least, it was like that for now.

However, the most shocking figure amongst the young generation was neither of those two, but instead… Yun Che!

Xia Yuanba and Feng Xue’er both had the terrifying talent and profound energy to break history. As for Yun Che… with profound strength at the Emperor Profound Realm, he was yet able to display power comparable to a Sovereign Profound Realm practitioner. This was something which none of the peak practitioners were able to understand.

If one’s talent or profound art was was high enough, it was normal for one to crush those of the same level and challenge those levels above them.

However, throughout the entire history of the Profound Sky Continent, forget about an Emperor Profound being equal to a Sovereign Profound, even a Tyrant Profound being equal to a Sovereign Profound was unheard of.

What Spiritual Master Ancient Blue took to heart the most though was that whether it be Xia Yuanba or Feng Xue’er, these two future ruling figures of the Profound Sky Continent all had deep relations with and feelings for Yun Che. Needless to say, Ancient Blue knew Xia Yuanba’s reasons very clearly. Even if Xia Yuanba were to use his life to save Yun Che, Ancient Blue wouldn’t furrow his brow.

As for Feng Xue’er, this young girl who caused his heart and mind to be shocked to the point of turmoil, had an extremely intimate relation with Yun Che. Within her eyes, one could see a feeling of attachment which had already become a kind of habit.

The history in which the Four Great Sacred Lands had ruled over the continent… was it about to finally come to an end?

“Haah…” Spiritual Master Ancient Blue let out a long sigh, then opened his mouth and said, “Little friend Yun, I wonder if your respected master is interested in watching this Devil Sword Conference?”

Towards the Four Great Sacred Grounds, the name of Yun Che’s master, “Old Man Duotian”, was undoubtedly the name which astonished them the most.

Without an ounce of hesitation, Yun Che directly replied, “Master has long since been a person who doesn’t care about the mortal world. He already almost never sets foot into the mortal world as he doesn’t want to be bound by any responsibilities. Thus, although this junior is his disciple, I don’t know where my master is currently nor where he will go next. Only when this junior cannot help but beg will his master reveal himself.”

Yun Che’s response was quite clever and was something that he had thought of long before he had arrived. This was because upon arriving at Supreme Ocean Palace, he knew that there would definitely be people asking this question.

“I see.” Spiritual Master Ancient Blue nodded.

“Senior Ancient Blue, when the people of Supreme Ocean Palace want to travel to the mainland, wouldn’t they all have to go through this teleportation profound formation we just went through?” In order to prevent Ancient Blue from asking too much and possibly finding a flaw in his response, Yun Che took the opportunity to ask a useless question he didn’t care about first.

“That’s not the case.” Spiritual Master Ancient Blue then replied, “Very few of Supreme Ocean Palace’s people leave the ocean. However, when they do leave, it is through flying. In fact, it’s very possible that this teleportation profound formation was just temporarily built for for this Devil Sword Conference. After all, since the consumption of a spatial profound formation is so great, I’m afraid even the Supreme Ocean Palace is not able to maintain one.”

Seemingly seeing through Yun Che’s intentions, Spiritual Master Ancient Blue faintly chuckled. Still, he no longer asked Yun Che any questions about his master.

“Earlier, the two ocean palace disciples stated that the person welcoming guests was their Great Elder. The importance of this Devil Sword Conference for Supreme Ocean Palace must be extremely great if they are actually having their Great Elder personally welcome guests. To be a Great Elder of a sacred ground, his power and status must be only second to the Sovereign of the Seas within Supreme Ocean Palace,” Yun Che said after pondering.

“Supreme Ocean Palace’s Great Elder is called Mo Chenfeng.” Xia Yuanba continued, “However, within Supreme Ocean Palace, he isn’t necessarily second to only the Sovereign of the Seas as in Supreme Ocean palace, there are also the Seven Venerable Ones above him. They are the true seven strongest people of the Supreme Ocean Palace other than the Sovereign of the Seas.”

“Seven… Venerable Ones?” Yun Che turned around in astonishment.

“Within the Four Great Sacred Grounds, Elders aren’t necessarily the highest level of power. In Supreme Ocean Palace, there are still the Seven Venerable Ones above the Elders. Meanwhile, there are the Five Divine Envoys in Sun Moon Divine Hall and the Three Sword Attendants in Mighty Heavenly Sword Region. Our Absolute Monarch Sanctuary is the same. Above the Elders are the Twelve Spiritual Masters,” Xia Yuanba explained with great detail.