Sage Monarch

In the sprawling catacombs beneath the Fiendcorpse Mountains, Yang Qi found a thousand-year-old corpse king, King Huaiyin, and attacked him immediately.

If the leadership back in the Demi-Immortal Institute learned of the matter, they would have been shocked. After all, the Fiendcorpse Mountains’ catacombs were nothing short of a labyrinth. Even Lifeseizers who ended up trapped by an army of zombies there might end up running out of true energy and dying. And even if they managed to wipe out all the skeletons and zombies, only to be faced with a thousand-year-old corpse king, then the result would be the same.

And yet, the freakish Yang Qi had mowed down everything in his path down to this point, and was still brimming with true energy.

Bam!

The two opponents slammed into each other and then backed away.

Eyes flickering with vile light, King Huaiyin glared at Yang Qi and said, “What kung fu is that? You’re no ordinary Master of Energy. You’re actually as strong as a Lifeseizer! Who are you? Don’t tell me a true consummate genius has risen up in the Demi-Immortal Institute.”

Yang Qi snorted coldly and eyed the garment of gold and jade worn by King Huaiyin. It was so tough it could actually block his Infernal Deity Spear, which meant that it was no ordinary treasure. It was obviously incredibly valuable.

Not waiting for any response, King Huaiyin continued, “Well, you might be a genius, but you're going to perish here anyway. By now, you’re an arrow that's reached the end of its flight. Well, am I right? You wasted a lot of true energy dealing with the army of skeletons and zombies on the way here, so how are you feeling now?” A horrifying smile spread out across his face, revealing two razor-sharp fangs. “I'm going to enjoy draining your life force. After I suck you dry, I’ll turn you into a zombie general under my command. Don’t worry, you’ll soon find that being a zombie isn't as bad as you might think.”

“Is that so?” Yang Qi’s grip tightened on his Infernal Deity Spear, which vibrated, causing densely packed magical symbols to appear on its surface. Then, an aura appeared like that belonging to devil-gods from the deepest depths of hell. Clearly, Yang Qi was ready to fight to his heart’s content.

Not once since he acquired his new energy art did he ever have a chance to do that. But now, with no one around to observe him, and with a thousand-year-old corpse king standing right in front of him, that was exactly what he was going to do.

“Time for you to die!” he shouted audaciously. Suddenly, his Infernal Deity Spear became ten times as solid as before, revealing countless dark golden designs that pulsed as though liquid flowed within them.

Shockingly, that liquid was actually blood; Yang Qi’s blood!

By combining his blood with the true energy in the weapon, it was no longer a manifestation of the Energy Weapon level. Instead, it was a real weapon, the type that would belong to a devil-god who ruled over the netherworld, and be used to execute disgraced gods.

As his spear pierced through the air, pulsing with the mysterious and boundless power of ghost-gods, it almost seemed as if it existed, not in this world, but in some other world or dimension.

The wails of ancient ghost-gods filled the air as, in the blink of an eye, the spear stabbed toward King Huaiyin’s throat.

King Huaiyin had a layer of defensive corpse energy, but in the face of this spear, it crumbled as surely as tofu or paper.

“Return of the Ghost-God!” King Huaiyin blurted. His scepter then appeared as if by magic right in front of his throat, the enormous gemstone atop it flaring with light as bright as the sun's.

Bam!

When the two divine weapons slammed into each other, Yang Qi didn’t even react. In contrast, King Huaiyin staggered backward, completely unable to rebuff the power of twenty ancient megamammoths.

As of this moment, he didn’t hesitate to call upon the grand spell formation that filled the entire tomb.

“Let the earth bring forth mountains and rivers. Let the vault above provide the heavenly bodies. Mountain-River-Heavenly-Body Grand Formation, activate!”

Dots of light blazed into being above, starlight that came from the pearls that were laid out like heavenly bodies. Below, the images of the mountains and rivers came to life, causing dirt and water to rise up. All of it turned into a deadly power which shot toward Yang Qi.

King Huaiyin had set up this spell formation countless years in the past, and now that it was activated, all of its power was bearing down on Yang Qi, force that even Lifeseizers from the Demi-Immortal Institute wouldn’t dare to tangle with. In fact, even people who were stronger than King Huaiyin, but who got caught by this formation, would surely be killed.

And yet, that only caused Yang Qi's battle spirit to burn brighter.

His blood surged with the spirit of godmammoths, the overlords of the ancient devil-gods. As of this moment, he was actually filled with a strange excitement.

According to the myths and fairy tales, godmammoths never ceased their war with the devil-gods of the hell planes. In primeval times, they slaughtered countless devil emperors, devil kings and devil dictators. They pulsed with power that even the legion of gods in heaven trembled at.

WHIZZZ!

Explosive true energy rushed out that resembled lava from hell, transforming everything around Yang Qi into burning liquid. And within the bubbling lava, the Hellfire Crucible appeared. Although it was only in its embryonic form, it could still melt the aura of fallen gods, and shake the hearts of billions and billions of devil-gods.

As of this moment, Yang Qi was like the true sovereign lord of hell.

The grand spell formation immediately began to fall apart, causing the ground to crack and the pearls overhead to begin to explode.

Yang Qi was like a godmammoth with a trunk so powerful it could pluck stars and snatch moons, even absorb suns.

As the godmammoth took shape, it crushed everything around it in the tomb.

Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam! Bam!!

The walls exploded, and all remnants of the spell formation were obliterated, and the pearls were transformed into dust.

“What devil art is that? That’s not a royal-class devil art. Don’t tell me it’s a fabled imperial-class art? Or even a saintly-class art? How could you possibly be this strong? You’re specifically targeting my type of true energy!”

In the face of a godmammoth, this thousand-year-old corpse king could do nothing but gasp for breath. His grand spell formation was destroyed before he even had a chance to do anything.

This godmammoth was like the bane of his existence, and in fact, the bane of existence for all demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters.

Just about anything possible could be found in hell, and godmammoths could dominate anything and everything, so it was only natural that they could be considered the bane of existence to devil-gods. And the source of this thousand-year-old corpse king’s devil arts and true energy was none other than the legion of devils in hell. Therefore, he didn’t count for much more than an ant.

However, even as the spell formation fell apart, Yang Qi frowned as he saw a demon core suddenly flying up from the rubble, surrounded by flaming true energy. Before he could do anything, it turned into a beam of corpse light that shot directly toward him in an attack.

“Heavencorpse Assault. Destroy the Cosmos!” growled King Huaiyin as intense corpse energy sped rapidly toward Yang Qi’s chest.

Yang Qi’s Infernal Deity Plate Armor was already fully powered up by his blood, making it the sturdiest defense possible.

Therefore, when the corpse energy hit him, it was the same as hitting an immovable mountain.

WHAM!

Yang Qi’s spear couldn’t pierce the gold and jade garment, but the backlash force from the failed corpse energy attack did.

“Aaaiiiieee!” King Huaiyin let out an agonized shriek as he stumbled backward and then fell into the bronze coffin.

Of course, there was no way Yang Qi was going to let matters end there. True energy exploded out as he unleashed a palm strike, completely destroying the coffin, revealing King Huaiyin, battered and damaged, black corpse blood oozing out of him everywhere. He seemed barely capable of keeping his body in one piece.

“You….” he murmured, shivering, completely shocked that a Master of Energy could do something like this.

“I bet you never would have thought I would end up putting you to death. Although, I do have to thank you for the service you’ve provided. I finally got to fight to my heart’s content, and at the same time, confirmed how strong I really am. I'd say it won’t be very long now before I reach the Lifeseizing level. Well, time to say goodbye.”

Leaping up into the air, he struck downward, smashing King Huaiyin’s head into bits, and destroying the rest of his body. At that point, a bone demon core shot out, roughly the size of a fist. Unexpectedly, the core had seven apertures on it, almost as if it were on the verge of gaining intelligence. Yang Qi could sense massive quantities of true energy stored inside it.

This was the demon core of a thousand-year-old corpse king, and was valuable beyond imagination.

However, even better was the gold and jade garment, and the scepter, which were definitely treasures in their own right.

After searching the rubble of the tomb, he found a few other things of value which he put into his thumb-ring of holding. He even took the remains of King Huaiyin.

With that, he donned the garment, and gripped the scepter, blurring into motion as he left the tomb.

Back outside, Li He and the others were on top of a mountain, fighting against the skeletons and rotting zombies that climbed up out of the mud. They had already killed several hundred.

“Brother Yang Qi won’t be in any real danger down there, right?”

“Don’t worry. We all know what he’s capable of.”

Suddenly, the ground off in the distance exploded, sending sludge flying everywhere as Yang Qi flew up into the open. With the wave of his hand, he sent a flood of flames flying out over the sludge. Instantly, all of the zombies and skeletons near him were transformed into ash.