Sage Monarch

All of a sudden, Yang Qi was no longer a puny outer campus student. He was now a powerful expert whose energy could shake the heavens and topple the earth. As of this moment, it was hard to tell whether he was human, or a ghost-god.

As for his friends, they felt like they were dreaming.

And although Chu Tiange’s eyes were wide open, he still couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Yang Qi might have defeated Song Haishan, but he was still a nobody, little stronger than an ant, a person who could be defeated without even thinking about it.

That was why Chu Tiange had so casually offered to get rid of him for Yun Hailan, in exchange for a favor.

But considering what Yang Qi’s aura was like now, and the fact that he had so easily neutralized the power of his four friends’ cultivation base, it was obvious that he was no pushover.

Yang Qi had revealed his true strength, and clearly had no intention of letting Chu Tiange get away alive. It was a kill or be killed situation, and there were no other options.

“You can only blame yourself for seeking death, Chu Tiange. You wanted to kill me, so I have no other options than to take your life first. Enough chit-chat. Let’s go!”

Whizz!

A blue ring appeared on Yang Qi’s thumb, which flashed with glittering light. Instantly, a rippling blue gate appeared, out of which swirled a cloud-like stream of true energy that wrapped up Yang Qi’s four friends, the gold and jade garment, and the sun gem, and pulled them all inside.

Mainly, he was concerned that the shock waves caused by the fighting might hurt his friends.

And he was dead set on making sure Chu Tiange didn’t leave the Fiendcorpse Mountains alive.

If he lived, there would be no end to the trouble he would cause.

And once he died, Yun Hailan would lose a powerful backer, which would make her much easier to deal with in the future.

Killing the thousand-year-old corpse King Huaiyin had only been his warm up routine. He was done playing games. Chu Tiange had delivered himself up just in time for Yang Qi to truly fight to his heart’s content.

As soon as Yang Qi used his thumb-ring, Chu Tiange realized exactly what it was. Startled, he said, “That’s a Heart of the Sea thumb-ring of holding! A consummate treasure which can store vast quantities of items inside of it….”

Then he suddenly let loose a long string of laughter that caused the mists of the Fiendcorpse Mountains to ripple and churn. “I underestimated you, Yang Qi. It turns out you’ve been keeping a lot of secrets. No wonder Yun Hailan takes you so seriously. And here I thought she was just concerned with giving face to Yang Susu. I would never have guessed that you're so shrewd. Sadly, you have too many valuable things to just let you go free. Before, I’d planned to just cripple you, but now, I guess I really will have to kill you.”

“You think you have what it takes to kill me? What a joke!” As Yang Qi’s power levels continued to climb, black energy swirled around him, and in the blink of an eye, he was covered with a suit of dark golden armor.

“What’s this?” Chu Tiange had been just about to attack, hoping to strike Yang Qi down before he could finish getting ready to fight. But the sight of this dark golden armor was so shocking that he stopped in his tracks. “Is that….”

“Yes, it is,” Yang Qi replied. “You’ve seen this armor before, because I'm the same person who fought you back in the ancient city of Krorän. And I also took the Sage Devil Painting, as well as plenty of treasure that the vampire brigands had hoarded up. By the way, I already gave that Sage Devil Painting to my aunt Yang Susu, which she’ll use to cultivate an out-of-body incarnation, a second nascent divinity. That will get her to Secondary Lifeseizing or possibly even Tertiary Lifeseizing. Either way, she’ll be well on her way to becoming a conclave student. What, did you really think I would let you take advantage of me that easily? You’ll never become a conclave student, Chu Tiange. You won’t live that long. Don’t tell me you’re so stupid that you think that you’re a match for me?”

Yang Qi had just openly described Chu Tiange’s worst defeat ever up to this point in his life.

Not only had his attempts to fight back been completely useless, he had also hurt himself in the process.

Afterward, he had spent months wondering who that armored man had been, in the hopes of tracking him down and taking back the face which had been lost. Unfortunately, he had never been able to turn up even a single clue.

And now, he found that the person he had been looking for was the same one he had always taken to be trash. It was easy to imagine how displeased, irritated, and impotent he felt.

“DIE!” he shouted. Sun-like radiance erupted from his hand, streams of sword energy that rapidly became his Cosmic Sunflare Sword. One sweep of that sword turned everything for ten thousand paces in all directions into a world of swords. No, a cosmos of swords!

“So, punk, you’re that monster with the dark golden armor, and you’ve been hiding in the Demi-Immortal Institute this entire time. What exactly is your plan? You’re obviously a devil, which means that Yang Susu must also be a monstress. Fine. I guess I need to take you into custody and bring you back to the institute for questioning. You and Yang Susu will both be imprisoned, and will suffer a grisly end. You just wait!” Chu Tiange exhaled sharply, sending streams of sound waves out to combine with the sword energy of the formation he had created. 

“Cosmic Blast; Aeonic Invincibility!”

SWISH!

Millions of streams of sword energy swept toward Yang Qi with seemingly invincible strength.

At this point, the Infernal Deity Spear appeared in Yang Qi’s hand, with vein-like streams of dark golden blood that looked like they came straight from the underworld. The spear began to thrum, emanating a sound like a symphony from hell, describing the death of sovereign gods.

Yang Qi leapt into motion like an eagle taking to flight, easily dodging the sword energy.

All of a sudden, Chu Tiange had the distinct sensation that his life wasn’t under his own control.

Instead, it felt like Yang Qi was preparing to end it, a sensation that any Lifeseizer would find completely inauspicious and even terrifying.

“Repulsive!” Chu Tiange shouted. Slashing out with his Cosmic Sunflare Sword, he said, “Sword Shakes all Creation; Engulf the True Origin.”

Intense, sun-like true energy filled the entire mountain, driving away the mist, and even shoving away the sludge on the ground, revealing stones and graves of all sorts.

His sword energy spread out to create a fan of swords, which sent a gust of razor-sharp sword wind toward Yang Qi.

“Hell-Crushing Godmammoth!” Yang Qi barked. His spear vibrated, causing millions of spear projections to spring up in all directions, which linked together to make the outline of a door that emanated the aura of hell. It was almost like the gates of hell!

The radiating light from the fan of swords was then sucked into the gates of hell and neutralized, crushed into nothing more than dust.

All of the sword energy of the attack, was sucked through his spear into his sea of energy, and the Hellfire Crucible therein.

The more Yang Qi fought, the stronger he got, and the more impressive his Infernal Deity Spear became. It was now surrounded by a massive vortex of dark golden energy, like the power of hell itself, which was capable of absorbing the enemy’s true energy and turning it into Yang Qi’s.

The fact that his Hellfire Crucible could do such a thing, to use the enemy’s energy against them, made him virtually impossible to defeat.

Although the crucible wasn't actually complete, it was more than enough to deal with Chu Tiange.

He had actually been in the position to defeat Chu Tiange back in Krorän. Now, months had passed, and although he hadn’t yet reached the Lifeseizing level, his understanding of his current level far surpassed that of before. When it came to energy, life force, meridians, and cultivation, he was more knowledgeable than ever.

And the dark golden god blood that coursed through his veins made his Infernal Deity Spear, Infernal Deity Plate Armor, and Fiend-Devil Wings anything but simple manifestations of energy. They were almost completely corporeal, and corporeal objects were on a completely different level than illusory objects.

Whoosh!

His spear tore through all of the defensive sword energy, ignoring the burning power of the sun to stab directly toward Chu Tiange’s forehead.

Shaken, Chu Tiange shouted, “How dare you, brat!”

Spinning his Cosmic Sunflare Sword until it became a blur, he said, “Mighty Heaven Sword Wheel, Illuminate all Creation!”

His Cosmic Sunflare Sword flew up into the air, creating a burning red sun that cast red light down onto everything below; a burning stream of sword energy fully eighteen meters wide descending to smash viciously into the Infernal Deity Spear.

Snap!

Yang Qi and Chu Tiange shot away from each other. Chu Tiange couldn’t maintain his position in the air, and landed on the ground, where he staggered backward.

In contrast, Yang Qi remained airborne, his dark golden Infernal Deity Plate Armor suddenly covered with pulsing flows of god blood that added power to both it and the spear.

As of this moment, his Infernal Deity Spear, Infernal Deity Plate Armor and Fiend-Devil Wings all looked completely corporeal. The wingspan of his Fiend-Devil Wings was nearly three hundred meters now, and the wings themselves were also dark golden. The wild wind caused by their flapping uprooted numerous bone trees, and sent nearby skeletons and zombies flying away as surely as if they were leaves.

At the sight of those wings, Chu Tiange instantly knew that if he didn’t flee, he would be killed.

Yang Qi was so fast and brutal that even a Secondary Lifeseizer would be terrified in his presence.

A thousand thoughts ran through Chu Tiange’s mind, and yet, he still couldn’t think of a way to kill or capture Yang Qi.

“Just who are you?” he growled.