Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
chapter-121

With one vicious spear strike, Yang Qi slaughtered Huang Hong, leaving the other members of the Crown Prince Society completely flabbergasted. Not a single one of them had actually believed that Yang Qi would so wantonly kill one of them. His absolute lack of restraint was monstrous; clearly, he wasn’t exaggerating when he said that nothing was taboo to him.

Who was this Huang Hong?

A Secondary Lifeseizer, best of the best among elite students. His death would definitely cause a stir in the institute. After all, not even rival societies would dare to actually kill someone like that, for fear of reprisal from the institute itself. And yet here Yang Qi had gone and committed an enormous crime, killing Huang Hong with a devastating spear strike. What type of ferocity did it take to pull off something like that?

As of this moment, no one present dared to harbor illusions that Yang Qi wouldn’t follow through with his threats.

The truth was that Yang Qi was simply putting everything on the line. After all, he had already killed Chu Tiange. So he had little to lose from killing someone else to make a point.

If he didn’t thoroughly terrify all of the Crown Prince Society students present, the consequences would be too horrible to contemplate. Considering he had basically no options, he decided he might as well go all in. In the past, he would never have done something like this. In fact, no ordinary person would.

But after his experience in the Black Floodwyrm Grotto, he had defeated his inner devil, gained enlightenment of the dao of the quick strike, and become much more resolute. He was slowly becoming more aggressive, and at the same time, ambitious and ruthless. When the time came to make a kill, he would do it without hesitation.

“Don't kill me….” Jiang Fan said, deeply shaken by having seen Huang Hong killed right in front of him. He held no doubts about Yang Qi; he had essentially given them a blood tribute, a message written in blood that said: if I can kill Huang Hong, I can kill you too.

The penalty for killing one person would be death. And it was the same penalty for killing many. Why would he not just kill everyone?

Everyone present realized this basic truth.

The other students began to drop to their knees. They knew they were beaten, and that a massive catastrophe loomed over their heads. And none of them were foolish enough to goad Yang Qi any further.

“I gave you your chance already, Jiang Fan. Do as you please.” Yang Qi put away his Infernal Deity Spear and clasped his hands behind his back. “Your options are, one: give me my blood tribute, or two: die. Considering I just killed Huang Hong right in front of you, you’re likely intelligent enough to realize that I can’t just let you leave scot-free.”

“Ah, whatever,” Jiang Fan said, letting loose a long sigh. Crawling to his feet, and ignoring the dirt and mud that caked him, he decisively said, “Alright everyone. If you want to live, then we have no choice but to kill them.”

The other students exchanged glances, then looked over at Song Haishan and Gu Fenxian.

So terrified his face was completely ashen, Song Haishan said, “Elder Brother Jiang Fan, you can’t do this.” Then he looked over at Yang Qi. “Are you really going through with this, Yang Qi? Aren’t you afraid my cousin will come after you for revenge?”

“Yun Hailan? I'm going to kill her too, eventually. It’s just too bad that she can’t witness your horrific demise. Nor will you be able to see hers.”

“You’ll pay for this, Yang Qi!” Gu Fenxian shouted. “The institute will find out what you’ve done. And the same goes for you, Jiang Fan! Aren’t you worried about what happens when the glorious Crown Prince finds out? He’ll sever your tendons and skin you alive!”

Clearly, Gu Fenxian was not willing to back down, and in this respect, he made Song Haishan look like a true weakling.

After all, Gu Fenxian came from one of the great clans of the land.

Sadly for him, Yang Qi would not let him go simply because he was strong-willed. In fact, such strong-willed people were exactly the type who would never stop trying to get revenge. Whether it was for his clan or friends, Yang Qi couldn't let him live now. He wasn’t that softhearted.

“Are you going to do it, Jiang Fan?” Yang Qi suddenly barked. “Are you going to kill them?”

Shivering, Jiang Fan looked at Song Haishan and Gu Fenxian, and said, “I'm sorry, Junior Brothers. The Crown Prince is powerful, but he's not here to save us right now. Distant water won't put out a fire close at hand. I'm powerless to save even myself, and you both saw what happened to Huang Hong. Not even his bones are left behind. If we don't kill the two of you, we’ll all end up dead. We really have no choice but to sacrifice you for the greater good.”

Heart pounding, he said, “Kill them!”

Shouting at the tops of their lungs, he and the other students attacked.

Sword light shone, and true energy surged. Song Haishan and Gu Fenxian let out agonized shrieks as they were surrounded and reduced to pools of blood and gore.

In the blink of an eye, they were dead.

As they died, Yang Qi could sense two streams of grievous rancor shooting toward him.

In response, he snorted coldly and activated the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, destroying the rancorous energy.

As for Jiang Fan, he looked down at the blood and gore, then turned to face Yang Qi. “Are you going to let us go now? We killed them just like you asked. Now our hands are stained with the blood of fellow students. If the truth is revealed, the consequences will be horrific. We can’t divulge any of today’s secrets, to anyone.”

Yang Qi nodded, finally confident that he could rest at ease. “You did well. Now all of our secrets are tied together. That said, the deaths of Huang Hong, Song Haishan, and Gu Fenxian is still a major issue. You'd better think of a way to cover it up. Otherwise, we’ll all come under investigation.”

“It’s going to be somewhat troublesome, but we from the Crown Prince Society can handle it. It's only natural that we have certain methods for covering up things like this. Considering we're involved now, there’s no way we’ll take it lightly.” Jiang Fan looked around at the rest of the group. “Alright, everyone. We’re all in the same boat now. Understand?”

Everyone nodded and said, “We understand, Elder Brother Jiang Fan.”

Considering these people managed to survive down to this point, it was obvious they were no fools. They understood the situation they were in, and knew that there was essentially only one course of action.

“Very well then,” Yang Qi said with a smile. “We’re all in this together now. Don’t worry. I’ll keep my end of the bargain.” Suddenly, he stomped his foot, causing vital energy to spring out and fill everything for five kilometers. Then, his own true energy surged out, becoming a variety of shapes that shot forth and entered the bodies of everyone present.

“I’ll even help you out a bit. The true energy I just gave you is extremely powerful. It will remain inside of you permanently until you need it, whereupon it will assume the same form as this spear of mine, which you can use to pierce anything in your path.” The truth was that the true energy he had just imparted to them contained a bit of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. “You see, I'm actually much, much stronger than you can possibly imagine. Only two days ago, I went to Black Floodwyrm Grotto and killed the Quinary Lifeseizer Jiao Wufeng, as well as a few dozen other black floodwyrms in the Lifeseizing level. Although your Crown Prince is stronger than me now, it won’t be long before I catch up.”

Everyone was completely taken aback.

“I can even rip the ground apart,” Yang Qi said, stomping his foot down. In response, the entire plain quaked violently, and massive crevices opened up.

Jiang Fan staggered so wildly that he almost fell to the ground before staring around at the crevices which had opened up. As far as he could tell, this was something that only conclave students should be able to do.

‘That’s the power of Septenary Lifeseizing!’

The mere stomp of Yang Qi’s foot had leveled most of the area; it was a complete shock to everyone present.

“Alright, let’s discuss how exactly you plan to cover everything up. By the way, in order to make sure all of this remains a secret, we’ll need to keep in touch. If you feel that true energy inside of you stirring, you’ll know that I want to get in touch with you, and that you should arrange to come secretly meet me. Understand?”

Everyone present shivered as they realized that, with Yang Qi having imbued them with true energy, they were completely under his control.

And there was nothing they could do about it.

In fact, for all intents and purposes, they were his agents in the Crown Prince Society now.

Sighing, Jiang Fan stepped forward and said, “Elder Brother Yang Qi, this is what we can do….”

With that, he explained his plan to cover over the deaths of Huang Hong, Song Haishan, and Gu Fenxian.

After discussing some of the details, Yang Qi nodded. Although these people were no match for him in terms of cultivation base, they were clearly masters at schemes and plots.

Eventually, it was evening, and the bright moon cast silver light over the sprawling plains. By this point, the plans were ironclad, so Yang Qi rose to his feet and sighed. “Well, I’ll head back to the institute now. You’ll return in ten days, with news that Huang Hong, Song Haishan, and Gu Fenxian were killed when you were ambushed by powerful demonoids. Meanwhile, the rest of you escaped with serious injuries.”

“That’s the best we can do,” Jiang Fan said, also rising to his feet, mixed emotions playing out on his face.

Yang Qi spread his arms, and two wings of true energy spread out behind him. Then, a blast of sand and wind swept out as he vanished.

As soon as he was gone, the Crown Prince Society students tried to expel his true energy from within them. Unfortunately, it was stuck like glue, and couldn’t be budged.

Before long, the moon hung high, and Jiang Fan smacked his hand on the ground, causing a cloud of dust to rise up. “That’s some powerful true energy. There’s simply no way to expel it.”

“Elder Brother Jiang Fan,” one of the crestfallen students said, “we're basically criminals now. What do we do? Don’t tell me we're going to have to follow Yang Qi’s orders for the rest of our life? I don’t think I’ve ever met someone as vicious and merciless as him.”

“There’s nothing we can do now. We underestimated him. He’s ambitious, ruthless, and just seems to grow stronger by the day. It won’t be long before he's invincible to anyone under the Legendary level. And unless something drastic happens, he’ll probably catch up to the Crown Prince within four or five years. For now, the only thing we can do is keep ourselves alive.” Jiang Fan gritted his teeth from the frustration. “If it wasn’t for that ignoramus Song Haishan, we wouldn’t be in this predicament. Damn him and damn that Yun Hailan!”