Sage Monarch

An exceptionally quick strike. An exceptional assassination. 

All it took was one spear strike from Yang Qi to end the life of the black floodwyrm. It was as if the Infernal Deity Spear had truly awoken an infernal deity who was the sovereign of death, to take away the souls of the living.

Yang Qi looked down at the enormous corpse, and felt confidence and pride rising up in his heart.

As he had been preparing for the blow, conflict had erupted within him, essentially, an inner devil. Had he shrunk back, it would definitely have caused problems for his progress later on.

How could a coward possibly control the hard and unyielding Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth? It took bravery and ferocity to suppress hells, and only someone with the heart of an invincible expert could possibly frighten and control devil-gods. Even the slightest step backward could turn one into a coward.

But Yang Qi was no coward. He had successfully passed a major milestone in his cultivation.

And he had reaped quite a reward.

After building up his power, he unleashed an exceptionally quick strike, pushing his life force to the pinnacle, and also developing deep confidence.

His aura was transforming on a fundamental level; apparently, the true energy of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth had acknowledged allegiance to him, and approved of him.

In the past, his true energy had been unyielding, and able to explode out at any time. That also made it difficult to control. But now things were different. For example, he could now use the Four Seasons Swordplay in either a hard or a soft fashion.

He was now like finely tempered steel.

‘Not a bad demon core. Unfortunately, this is only a floodwyrm, not a dragon. I wonder how strong dragons are?’ He looked down at the demon core, which looked like a translucent moon, shimmering with soft light, illuminating the dark waters around him.

Everything around him was very quiet, without the slightest energy fluctuation.

At the moment that the black floodwyrm had died, he had pulled the heterogeneous true energy and life force of the massive beast into his Hellfire Crucible, which immediately began to bubble.

Sitting down cross-legged, he proceeded to take the heterogeneous true energy and convert it into the quintessence he needed.

Normally speaking, the death of a black floodwyrm would have led to an explosion of true energy that would send fluctuations out for quite a distance.

But with his Hellfire Crucible, he was able to absorb it instantly.

The true energy became like a black dragon which swirled through his meridians, circulating three times before it collapsed and was absorbed.

All of a sudden, Yang Qi felt like his blood had something akin to the power of dragons in it, something that was also fused into his muscles and bones. It was like the power to soar to the highest heavens, or sink to the bottom of the deepest seas.

He could even absorb what air existed in the water through his skin.

As of this point, he didn’t need to use true energy to survive and breathe underwater. He was almost like one of the Seafolk.

Thus was the benefit of a human absorbing the true energy of a black floodwyrm.

After some more time passed, Yang Qi rose to his feet, feeling very energetic. Not only was he completely recovered, but his true energy and cultivation base were at a new peak.

The strike from moments ago was really one of the most ultimate strikes he had ever unleashed.

‘I don’t care how strong you are, Yun Hailan. This strike of mine will cut you down before you can react. You just wait.’ In fact, he was confident that very few elite students in the Demi-Immortal Institute could defend against it.

Right now, he was only a Secondary Lifeseizer, and yet, if he struck quickly enough, could definitely kill or injure even a Senary Lifeseizer who had achieved six lifeseizings.

‘I need to find more black floodwyrms!’

With that, he became a dark shadow that was one with the waters of the Black Sea. Prowling through the various mountains and gullies, he was like a world-class assassin. All he had to do was build up his energy, then unleash it in that stunning strike, and he could end the life of any enemy.

An hour later, he was getting very close to the crystalline palace. At one point, in one particularly deep gully, he came across two enormous floodwyrms that were both in the Lifeseizing level.

Killing one such floodwyrm unnoticed could be done, but he couldn't quite manage two with complete confidence. It was simply impossible, and therefore, he passed them up.

Slowly but surely, he proceeded along, killing anything that he came across.

Thanks to his recent enlightenment, he could now use both soft and hard aspects of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, making it even easier for him to escape notice. Similarly, his Infernal Deity Plate Armor could be softened, allowing him to slip through the water completely undetected.

Before long, he found another rather old black floodwyrm working on cultivation in an underwater river. Apparently, it was at a critical juncture, and was just about to reach Secondary Lifeseizing.

Shockingly, the black floodwyrm was covered by multiple layers of yin-fire.

It was practicing yin-fire body refinement to improve its true energy, and then make its breakthrough to Secondary Lifeseizing.

‘Heaven is really helping me!’

Yang Qi slipped into the river and began to build up his energy to unleash a devastating attack.

There was little suspense in it all.

The black floodwyrm collapsed immediately when hit, and even as its true energy exploded out, it was sucked in by the Hellfire Crucible.

Another moon-like demon core floated into Yang Qi’s palm.

It was a level of energy that far surpassed anything he had acquired from the other black floodwyrms up to this point, and he almost couldn’t take it.

However, he had been prepared for that, and immediately set to work wresting control and fusing it into his body and blood.

Soon, the heterogeneous true energy was filling him with more power and energy than ever. He could actually see how, within his platinum blood, there were images that resembled dragons.

‘So, every time I kill one of these black floodwyrms and absorb its demon core, I get some of its heterogeneous true energy. It’s actually quite beneficial. I guess since I can’t cultivate in the Minorcosm World right now, I’ll just advance by ridding the world of devils and demons.’

Sending some true energy sweeping out, he collected the floodwyrm’s tendons, skin, bones, and horns into his thumb-ring. Such materials could be used to create armor and weapons, which meant that he could turn them in to the institute in return for a healthy sum of merit points.

Obviously, he wouldn’t just abandon them.

‘It's too bad my brothers back at the institute can’t benefit from these demon cores the way I can. Maybe I should turn them in for merit points to purchase the help of a Legendary for them.’

These black floodwyrms were essentially treasures embodied for the Lifeseizing level.

And with his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, Yang Qi could essentially take all of those treasures at will. Blurring into motion again, he continued on his way.

His aura was so close to that of the Black Sea’s at this point, that no creatures present would notice him any more than people on the land would notice a faint breeze.

With two Lifeseizing black floodwyrms having fallen under his hand, Yang Qi was now stronger and more deadly than ever.

WHIZZZ!

Another black floodwyrm was killed before it knew what was happening.

Snap!

An old black floodwyrm in one of the underwater rivers was killed, and vanished before even a drop of its blood could seep out. Yang Qi’s true energy seemed completely inexhaustible.

He now had complete control over his true energy, and could make it freezing cold or burning hot at will. Being able to turn mountains into lava was something that ordinary Lifeseizers weren’t capable of.

One by one, he slaughtered Lifeseizing black floodwyrms, all without being noticed.

He was like a god of death in the dark waters, the king of hell out to collect what was his. Only after killing five powerful black floodwyrms in a row did he need to stop for a moment to catch his breath.

Even he was somewhat taken aback at how completely heaven-defying this trip was turning out to be. After all, what would happen if a deadly monster snuck into the Demi-Immortal Institute and killed five elite students like this? Top experts would definitely be dispatched to track that monster to the ends of the earth to kill it.

If King Black Floodwyrm ever found out he was the one responsible, wouldn’t the same happen to him?

All of a sudden, he experienced a sense of impending disaster.

‘What if I somehow shift the blame to Yun Hailan? After all, she has the blood of the Sea God in her. She could get around just as easily as me here. That would be perfect!’ Having made up his mind, he looked over at the crystalline Black Floodwyrm Grotto, which was nearer than ever. If only he could go there and uncover some secrets about the Hanging Mountain.

However, considering that there was a Legendary level demon king there, it would be too dangerous.

Even as he tried to decide what to do, explosive ripples surged through the water around him.

‘What a commotion,’ he thought. ‘Has someone else entered the Black Sea to kill demon-devils?’