Sage Monarch

Silvermoon was a prosperous and affluent city that did so much business on a yearly basis it was almost impossible to quantify. Trade wasn’t just limited to demon cores. Treasures, weapons, and tools of all sorts changed hands on a daily basis.

Of course, the currency was spirit stones, just like it was everywhere else in the Western Continent.

As soon as Yang Qi entered the treasure storehouse, he saw an immense amount of wealth, more spirit stones than he had ever seen in his entire life. It was such a hoard that his eyes immediately went wide.

There were mountains of spirit stones of varying qualities, so much so that the entire area seemed to be filled with solid spirit energy. Of course, considering he was an intruder, countless warding magics immediately flared to life, sending numerous beams of deadly light flying in his direction.

“Be destroyed!” he shouted, launching his palm out in front of him. Instantly, the beams of light shattered, and the spell formations and warding magics in the area were destroyed.

All it took was a single move on his part.

He now had the power of two hundred thousand ancient megamammoths, making him roughly as strong as someone in the eighth Legendary transformation, an Astral-Star Legendary. In fact, in terms of raw strength, even an expert in the ninth Legendary transformation might have trouble dealing with him.

However, all other factors taken into consideration, he would still be killed in a fight like that.

Thankfully, he had his Grand Emperor's Pagoda, and the emperor embryo inside, which could unleash unimaginable force. In fact, in terms of what exact level of battle prowess he could achieve, the only way to find out would be to get in an actual fight.

‘So many spirit stones. Those are… royal-grade. And those. Imperial-grade….’

After destroying the spell formations, Yang Qi started clearing out the storehouse, including everything from low-grade spirit stones to imperial-grade. Unfortunately, there were no sovereign-grade stones present.

That point left him feeling a bit disappointed, considering that the spirit power they contained was the most suitable for his cultivation.

Even still, imperial-grade stones would also work.

As for the royal- and supreme-grade spirit stones, they were essentially useless to him other than as fuel for spell formations. They would be helpful to the Yang Clan, though. At the very least, Yang Zhan could use the royal-grade spirit stones to achieve another cultivation base breakthrough. After all, every single one of Young Master Shroud-Heaven’s spirit stones had been used in the incident with the Planar Pearl.

The might of the Grand Emperor's Pagoda spread out into the storehouse, grabbed all of the spirit stones, and sucked them inside. As for the imperial-grade stones, he sent them directly into the Hellfire Crucible to become power to work with the asura’s flesh and blood, as well as to bolster his Sovereign Lord True Energy and universal power.

Yang Qi also sent the corpse of the Personal-Domain Legendary guard he had killed into the crucible as well, after which a demon core popped out. A Personal-Domain demon core.

‘So, it turns out these Western Continent savages really do have the blood of the Demonfolk in them.’

Of course, the people of the Western Continent wanted to separate themselves from demon cores, therefore, they called them by a different name: internal pellets.

“What gall! Who is it that has dared to break the laws of Silvermoon, ransack the Municipal Business Pavilion, and plunder the treasure stores? Whoever it is, kill him! Attack!”

It was only at this point that the experts of Silvermoon finally arrived.

Silvermoon was a very large and important coastal trade city, and overseen by the Sky-Heaven Dynasty. Obviously, Yang Qi’s actions would not be ignored. As the experts converged on the business pavilion, numerous spell formations throughout the city were activating, locking down the entire area.

“Ambush! Ambush!” cried the soldiers.

“Citizens of Silvermoon, do not panic. Stay where you are and remain calm. Anyone who causes a scene will be killed immediately.”

Ding dong. Ding dong….

The tolling of bells could be heard, their source being a silver castle in the middle of the city, the highest tower of which was emblazoned with a crescent moon sigil. It was the city magistrate’s mansion.

Along with the tolling of bells, clouds spilled out of the tower to cover the city, almost like rivers of mercury flowing to and fro. The city walls and the streets were bathed in silver light, seeming to indicate that the city was under complete lockdown. In fact, the light caused everyone in the city to physically slow down as the true energy inside of them was influenced by the spell formations.

Silvermoon was clearly a very powerful city, far beyond a place like Mongoltar. And of course, Yanhaven was like nothing compared to it.

Back in the Rich-Lush Continent, only the Sage Ancestor Dynasty’s Capital City could possibly compare in terms of raw power and spell formations. As Yang Qi flew up into the air, he saw the mercurial clouds flowing out to cover the area.

The city itself covered an area of roughly fifty kilometers, and actually formed an enormous spell formation. The foundations of the city were made from mithril, refined gold, godjade, spirit stones and smaller spell formations. When the entire city was activated as a spell formation, it was essentially a huge weapon. A magical treasure.

‘What an amazing city!’ Yang Qi thought. ‘I wonder how many years it took to construct it. Considering all the mithril, it must have taken years and years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a magical treasure as big as this.’

He could only sigh in admiration at the work that must have been involved.

As soon as he was out in the open, the spell formation and the mercurial clouds instantly caused him to slow down.

Then, several beams of deadly light slammed into him. At the same time, voices rang out which clearly belonged to ancient energy arts experts.

“Nine Yin Palm!”

“Fire Dragon Energy Art!”

“Devour Souls, Assault Heaven!”

“Invincible Lightning Blitz!”

“Unending Jadefall!”

Five unique imperial-class energy arts had been unleashed by five experts of Silvermoon, each energy art shocking to the extreme.

Down below, the people of the city reacted with shock.

“The Five War Gods of Silvermoon are in action? They’re the five strongest subordinates of Lady-Princess Silvermoon. Whoever has been causing trouble is going to be killed beyond the shadow of a doubt. How many times throughout the years have things like this happened? I think the last time was a few hundred years ago, before all the spell formations were complete. Nowadays, Silvermoon gets stronger with each day that passes!”

“Who is that? He doesn’t look like someone from the Western Continent. He’s from the Rich-Lush Continent!”

"Those damned Rich-Lush Continent bastards! I can’t believe one of them dared to cause trouble in Silvermoon. Kill him! Slaughter all of the barbarian bastards!”

“Kill them all and mount their heads on spikes on the wall!”

“Invade the Rich-Lush Continent! Kill everyone there! They should die down to the last one. How dare they extort spirit stones out of us with their demon cores. Kill them!”

Every single native in Silvermoon was angrily shouting the same sort of thing as they watched the fighting up above. And throughout the city, people from the Rich-Lush Continent were being seized.

‘These people from the Western Continent really hate us,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘People with the blood of the Demonfolk are clearly rotten to the core. Different from us on a fundamental level.’ The five energy arts attacks didn’t hurt him at all, and he quickly negated them.

Looking around calmly, he saw five figures blurring toward him from the city center. They came to a stop some distance away from him, keeping him surrounded.

These were top experts from Silvermoon, who were called the War Gods. Three of them were Personal-Domain Legendaries, and two were in the seventh transformation, making them invincible Ghost-God Legendaries.

All of them wore dazzling suits of armor, and had halos that made them seem like gods from heaven descended into the mortal world.

One of the War Gods stepped forward and said, “Who are you? You’re from the Rich-Lush Continent? Why are you causing trouble in Silvermoon? You can’t escape. With Silvermoon’s spell formations activated, no one can leave the city.”

“Yeah right!” Yang Qi suddenly vanished without a trace, then reappeared behind the War God, where he unleashed a palm strike.

Spinning, the War God smiled viciously. “I'm invincible in Silvermoon. And the spell formation gives me access to unlimited power. Prepare to die….” He immediately thrust out his own palm to meet Yang Qi’s.

Almost immediately, his vicious grin turned into an expression of terror. Then, everyone down below in the city watched as he began to inflate like a balloon, until he simply exploded.

He never even had a chance to scream before he perished.

After a moment, one of the Ghost-God Legendaries shouted, “Retreat! Hurry!”

Backing up, he summoned his personal domain, which looked like a rolling river and a huge mountain, and sent it rumbling toward Yang Qi.

Before it could arrive, Yang Qi vanished again.

Then, blood erupted into the air as the Ghost-God Legendary’s head flew off his shoulders, severed by Yang Qi’s spear.

Everyone in Silvermoon felt like they had descended into a nightmare.

“Tremble, all of you!” Yang Qi shouted. “You Western Continent people want to invade the Rich-Lush Continent? What a joke! Henceforth, any city here that dares to talk of harming my continent will be wiped off the map. And I'm going to start with Silvermoon. After today, there will be no Silvermoon in the Western Continent. Let it serve as a warning to all the other savages here!”

Without any warning, his spear transformed into millions upon millions of projections which shot toward the three remaining War Gods.

Not even their personal domains could protect them. All they could do was die.