Sage Monarch

Just like that, Yang Qi found himself on the Plane of Initiation.

It was the most mysterious place in the Titan Emperor Collegium, home to the initiators, who had founded the collegium. Most of the initiators were half a step into the Demolishing level, people who, if they could get a godworm egg, could without a doubt achieve their next breakthrough and become immortals.

Yang Qi didn’t have a good impression of this pack of initiators. Back during the incident with the Hall of Beheadings and Executions, they had simply watched as the vice-rectors acted with open discrimination against him. In that scenario, they had obviously been the fisherman hoping to swoop in and benefit at the last minute. Were it not for the fact that they were still uncertain about whether or not the Invincible Dugu had ascended, they would likely have already made a move against Yang Qi.

They were vermin, hungry wolves who would rip him to pieces at the earliest opportunity.

In fact, there was only one word that occurred to him when he thought about them: kill!

Eventually, he would wipe them all out and turn them into planets for the Sage Monarch planetary system.

Some people talked about having a sense of belonging toward the collegium, of maintaining its glory and honor. Not so with Yang Qi. The collegium had never done anything good for him. On the contrary, he had been at odds with other societies from the very beginning. In fact, there were plenty of wretch-devils here who would instantly resort to threatening his friends and family.

He didn't care a whit about the collegium. In fact, if he got the chance, he would do the same thing to it as he had done to the Demi-Immortal Institute, and raze it to the ground.

The Plane of Initiation was an elliptical universe unto itself. It was made entirely from primal-chaos paleo-energy and actually bordered the heaven above. With his Lord's Eye, he could actually see the greyspace overhead, which seemed to be inset into an even more majestic plane of existence. There was immense power in that higher plane, including pure yang energy. There was no doubt that such true energy belonged to the Titan Emperor Heaven.

The Plane of Initiation’s proximity to the Titan Emperor Heaven made it perfect for the initiators’ cultivation. It was a place that could avoid the contamination of the energy of the mortal world. Furthermore, it was more convenient for the power and edicts of the Titan Emperor Heaven to reach the initiators, giving them deeper insight into the immortal world.

“I’ve never been to the Plane of Initiation before,” Sword Seventeen said, looking around nervously. “The power here is incredible. Although, it actually doesn’t compare to the Sage Monarch planetary system.”

“Well, that’s a given,” Yang Qi said. “My planetary system gets power from the Tusita Heaven. That level of universal power surpasses the Titan Emperor Heaven by tens of thousands of times.” He chuckled coldly. “These initiators are complete trash. All they do is hide here, working on their cultivation and hatching plots and schemes. They want to make a move on me, which ensures that they’ll be wiped out eventually.” Given the level of Yang Qi’s cultivation base, he could wipe out the initiators if he wanted, therefore he wasn’t worried about the situation.

As Yang Qi and Sword Seventeen chatted, they reached the border of the Plane of Initiation, when a voice spoke out. “Come in, Yang Qi.”

At the same time, numerous streams of divine will reached out to inspect his true energy.

Ignoring them, he used a divine ability to cause himself to shine with brilliant sagelight. As a result, the numerous streams of true energy and divine will were shattered. Glowing brightly, he entered the Plane of Initiation with Sword Seventeen.

Just like that, he had vanquished the power of all the initiators.

Yang Qi knew that these despicable schemers were the type of people who would bully the weak and fear the strong. Therefore, he decided to put on a show of strength to intimidate them and quash any wild ambitions they might be harboring. He wanted to make it clear that he could defend himself, if necessary, and didn’t need to rely on his Master.

Of course, his act caused the initiators to break out in a cold sweat and immediately carry out a projected conversation between themselves.

‘He’s so strong? How did he progress so rapidly? He wasn’t this strong when he killed that elder king. He's ten times as powerful now! Back then, I was confident that I could keep him in check, but now I'm not so sure. This is terrifying! He’s far stronger than me!’

‘We initiators are all halfway into the Demolishing level. How could he possibly be stronger than us? Look! Look at his aura!’

‘Yes, he’s a Greater Demi-Immortal! Back when he killed that elder king, he was only a Lesser Demi-Immortal. How did he rise to another level so quickly? It should be millions of times harder for him to achieve breakthroughs than ordinary cultivators. What lucky break did he get to succeed so easily?’

‘Did you notice that the Sage Monarch planetary system fused with the Hanging Mountain?’

The initiators turned their attention to the Sage Monarch planetary system and saw the immense mass of shining planets, so dazzling that it was hard to see clearly. However, they could just barely make out the seventy-two devil-god pillars.

That planetary system seemed to contain power that could destroy the heavens and extinguish the earth, something that would cause even immortals to tremble. Obviously, that was because of the Holy Mother’s god blood.

‘So incredible! How did this kid do it? Is he unstoppable? How could this be happening?’

‘Look, it doesn’t matter. He’s still only one person, and he has a weakness in all of those sworn siblings he has. We still have a chance to get his godly-class energy art and his godworm eggs.’

‘Stop conversing with divine will! The crafty brat might be able to eavesdrop, and if he figures out what we're up to it would be a big problem.’

‘That’s right. Let’s see how the supreme rector handles things.’

The fluctuations of divine will died down, and the initiators focused their attention on a masked figure in a yellow robe. He was the supreme rector, the highest-ranking entity in the Titan Emperor Collegium and the only person more powerful than the initiators. According to rumors, he was a direct bloodline descendant of some important person from the Titan Emperor Heaven.

He had been privy to the discussion just now, and was also unsure of what was going on with Yang Qi. 

“Yang Qi,” he said, “It's good that you’ve come. Your cultivation base advanced again.”

“That’s right, Supreme Rector. My cultivation advances with incredible speed, and I'm already a Greater Demi-Immortal. Now that I can summon Universal Demi-Immortal fiend-devils, I can definitely crush any enemy who gets in my path. In a one-on-one fight, I would be invincible in the mortal world. In fact, I'm already at the point of being able to kill Paragon Demi-Immortals, and probably even half-Demolishers. Considering the fact that I progress with every day that passes, it won’t be long before I'm a Profound Demi-Immortal. At that point, it will be possible for me to summon Paragon Demi-Immortal fiend-devils.”

His words struck clearly into the minds of all of the initiators, who were visibly taken aback.

Even the supreme rector looked surprised; he had known that Yang Qi was strong, but hadn’t been able to ascertain the details.

“By the way, I've accepted the position of society chief in the Invincible Society,” Yang Qi continued, hoping to drive the final nail into the coffin. “Don’t worry, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll definitely bring greater glory to the Invincible Society than even the Invincible Dugu did.”

The supreme rector took a long moment to collect his thoughts. Finally, he said, “Wonderful! In that case, we pass all responsibility to you in the upcoming Immortal Army Battlefield. It's your task to bring glory to the Titan Emperor Collegium. As you likely know, the immortal worlds are always struggling amongst themselves. Such struggles affect us lower worlds. Every so often, they open the Immortal Army Battlefield as a training ground for us. Whatever victories we earn there will gain face for the immortal worlds above. Last time, our Titan Emperor Collegium lost to the Megaplexus Collegium, and as a result we were punished. We all lost face because of that. Therefore, failure is not an option this time.”

“What kind of place is this Immortal Army Battlefield?” Yang Qi asked. “I participated in the training competition held by the Hanging Mountain, is it like that?”

“That training competition is like a small-scale version of the events hosted by the immortal worlds,” the supreme rector replied. “The Immortal Army Battlefield is where true tempering and glory resides. It's held in a mysterious and ancient dimension filled with demonlings and fiend-devils. There are also ancient ruins present. Of course, the primary focus is combat. There will be experts from the collegiums of all sorts of planetary systems, and each one that you kill will provide you with points. Of course, the number of points you accumulate determine your final reward. If you score high enough, you could be appointed to serve as an immortal official, a higher rank than ordinary immortals can achieve.”

“Bring in the rest of our forces,” one of the initiators said.

Numerous wormholes opened up and a host of students stepped through them. They quickly formed ranks in the Plane of Initiation according to the various societies they came from. By the time they were in order, it was obvious that there were over a million people present.

Most were Great Sages, although there were also Demi-Immortals. The highest-ranking among them were elysian children, but each and every one was considered a genius, regardless of their rank.

Yang Qi looked over the crowd, but didn't see anyone he recognized. August Patriarch Mammoth Heaven wasn’t present, nor were Chief Snake or Chancellor Demi-Immortal.

Then he looked back at the initiators, including the one that he was supposedly cooperating with. His hope was that he might get a bit of information about the yellow-garbed young man with the buzz cut, and whether he was in the collegium.

Unfortunately, the man simply closed his eyes as if he were entering a meditative trance.

‘Fine, you wily old fox,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘One of these days I'm going to cut you down.’

“Yang Qi,” the supreme rector said, “these are the students you will lead in the Immortal Army Battlefield. Since you have the highest cultivation base, it's your task to keep them safe, and make sure they don't get killed by students from other collegiums.”