Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
chapter-232

The Infernal Deity Spear had made its appearance.

With that spear in hand, Yang Qi’s true energy could strike terror into the hearts of ghosts and gods. It could lock down onto any soul it wanted, and charge forth like an unstoppable army.

It was a sudden, deadly attack. He had long since reached the point of wanting to kill this Master Jadecrux, and as of this moment, had decided that the time had come to do exactly that.

The Crown Prince could break whatever rules he wanted, and Yang Qi couldn’t.

But in this situation, he had been pushed too far, and thus decided to bet on the God Legion Seal to help him smash anyone who stood in his way. Even if the chancellor showed up and tried to stop him, hopefully, the seal would defeat him as easily as it had defeated Ghost Emperor Yama.

There was no way that the measly Demi-Immortal Institute could truly threaten he who carried the legacy of the legion of gods, and bore the glory of the Lord.

The aura of Yang Qi’s Physique of the Sovereign Lord had reached a peak level, and his life force flourished mightily. In this moment, if he didn’t break the rules, he would be admitting that he was weak. And the consequences would be too horrible to contemplate, thus, he had one option: kill anyone who got in his way.

The Infernal Deity Spear materialized out of nowhere, seemingly summoned from some distant land, to appear only an inch in front of Master Jadecrux’s throat.

Master Jadecrux was surrounded by the power of the five phases and the energy of yin and yang. However, all of that was shattered by the spear, which was already a mere moment away from stabbing into his fleshly body and ripping him apart.

As a Yin-Yang Legendary, Master Jadecrux was constantly surrounded by fragments of space and the void, as well as reflections of the five phases, and yin and yang. Anyone less than a Space-Void Legendary would find that their attacks could never actually reach him. Even if they got within an inch of him, the remaining distance would still be like a space filled with endless mountains and rivers.

But Yang Qi was drawing on the Grand Emperor's Pagoda’s power, causing his attack to distort space itself, and reach his opponent’s body.

Yang Qi had already killed experts in the fourth Legendary transformation, such as Blightczar Manyshadows. Unfortunately, he was still weak compared to experts in the fifth transformation.

When it came to people like that, such as Old Man Superdestruction, all he could do was scramble to avoid being hit. Winning would be a much, much more difficult task, if not completely impossible.

But after making his deal with Young Master Shroud-Heaven, he acquired a massive amount of wealth, including many spirit stones, items that most energy arts cultivators could only dream of. After his three days and nights of working with the five phases treasures, he had dramatically refined his true energy. He had also tossed the slaughtered Blightczar Manyshadows into his Hell Portal to become a devil-spirit. At the same time, he had continued access to the flesh and blood of the asura which still remained in his Grand Emperor’s Pagoda. Because of that, he now had something new: a spore-devil.

Spore-devils were a fundamental aspect of the Hell Portal. When summoning monsters with the portal, it was necessary to have some entity to act as the leader, and that was the function of the spore-devil. The stronger Yang Qi’s cultivation base grew, the stronger his spore-devil would become; it was the metric by which to measure the quality of summoned monsters. Any fiend-devil that was weaker than the spore-devil could become a target for summoning, whereas devil-gods that were stronger than it could not be touched.

Without the spore-devil, it could theoretically be possible to summon a devil-god who was too strong, which would lead to Yang Qi being killed. As for those entities which could be summoned, they would be sealed with a mark that would force them to follow Yang Qi’s commands.

Yang Qi’s spore-devil was much stronger than Blightczar Manyshadows. After all, he had fused the man’s devil-spirit with the flesh and blood of the asura, which had been in the Never-Dying Transformation.

If Yang Qi were stronger, it might have been possible for his spore-devil to summon entities in the ninth Legendary transformation.

But at the moment, his limit was the fifth transformation; he could summon Yin-Yang Legendaries, and control them with such finesse that they were almost like his own Humanoid True Energy.

That was the trump card he had kept tucked away in case he needed to fight Old Man Superdestruction.

And because of working with the five phases treasures, he had made even more progress, and pushed himself higher within the Legendary level. He could actually unleash a psychic tempest at any moment to jump into the second Legendary transformation.

And therefore, this spear attack was definitely enough to kill Master Jadecrux.

Suddenly, everyone present felt the Nightfall Symphony tugging at their hearts and souls. In that instant, it was as if everyone realized that Master Jadecrux was in the last moment of his life.

His eyes were somewhat blank because of the Nightfall Symphony, and yet, a moment later, they flashed with clarity. Bellowing, he leapt backward.

“Demi-Immortal Teleportation!” he shouted. It was the most powerful of movement techniques.

Unfortunately for him, the Infernal Deity Spear was locked onto his aura, and before he could actually do anything, the spear stabbed deep into his shoulder.

Blood sprayed out in all directions, and Master Jadecrux let out a mixture between an agonized shriek and an enraged roar. His true energy erupted out, its power so intense that the roof of the Academy of Sage Studies immediately began to melt. At the same time, he did everything he could to try to destroy the Infernal Deity Spear.

However, Yang Qi twisted the spear, simultaneously summoning the enormous Hell Portal. Instantly, streams of devil-ghosts poured out like a river, following the spear to pierce into Master Jadecrux.

In the blink of an eye, Master Jadecrux was being consumed by a myriad of devils. His meridians were instantly infused with boundless devil energy, and his sea of energy became like a kingdom of ghosts.

“Damn wretch-devils!” Master Jadecrux realized that his life force was like a candle flickering in the wind, and that if he wasn't careful, he would die here.

Without any hesitation, he used an unheard-of magic. “Demi-Immortal Secret Magic! Great Wheel of Yin and Yang! Detonate! Life Force Combustion!”

Massive amounts of life force power surged out of his flesh and blood, burning him as it destroyed the wretch-devils, and even the Infernal Deity Spear.

Smack! The flesh and bones around the spear also exploded, ripping his arm off of his body.

“Freakish hellion!”

“I can’t believe you blind-sided him!”

The rest of the Seven Preheaven Masters all lunged forward to attack Yang Qi. These seven had practiced cultivation for so long together that they could act as one. As long as they weren’t caught off guard, they could virtually share each other’s thoughts.

“Come forth, Grand Emperor's Pagoda!” Yang Qi shouted, causing an ancient bronze pagoda to pop into being overhead. As it spun, it absorbed all of the attacks which had just been unleashed, causing sonorous booms to echo out.

Yang Qi didn’t even have to move a muscle. The spell formations in the pagoda kept him completely protected.

“Damnation!”

The other six of the Seven Preheaven Masters grabbed their strongest member, and quickly sent their true energy into him to heal him. Unfortunately, the exploded flesh and blood was not something that could be restored in a short time.

Henceforth, Master Jadecrux would have only one arm. Because of his advanced state of cultivation, the only way to regrow it would be to become a Never-Dying Legendary. Not even trying to transplant a new arm would help; the discordant energy and blood would cause any such transplant to quickly wither away.

“You Seven Preheaven Masters want to stop me from becoming a holy neophyte? Sadly, none of you qualify! You people believe that justice isn’t important, only power. Well fine. I’ll show you what true power is.” With that, Yang Qi sucked the Grand Emperor's Pagoda back into his body, and stood there with his hands clasped behind his back. It was almost as if nothing had happened a moment ago.

“What? He won, just like that? Master Jadecrux lost an arm and looks a hundred years older than a moment before. He must have used a technique to burn his longevity! That’s the only way he was able to defend himself. How is that even possible? Yang Qi just reached the Legendary level, and Master Jadecrux is in the Yin-Yang Transformation!”

“They're as apart from each other as earth is from heaven. How could the fight have ended like this!?”

“The Grand Emperor's Pagoda? I wasn’t seeing things, was I? That magical treasure was the Grand Emperor's Pagoda! Grand Emperor Rich-Lush leveled mountains and changed the flow of rivers with that thing. It’s a magical treasure for Great Sages!”

“Strong. So strong! He’s only in the first Legendary transformation, but he can already beat someone in the fifth! That’s like the Crown Prince back in the day! Another person who can just break the rules. Another genius in the Demi-Immortal Institute….”

Everyone was discussing what had just played out. Whether the elite students, conclave students, or even the Legendary grand elders, they were all nearly mad with shock. However, they somehow managed to keep their cool.

By this point, a huge sea of people had surrounded the Academy of Sage Studies, and more were showing up every moment.

Of course, none other than Yang Qi dared to actually enter the place.

Holy Daughter Manyflowers almost felt like she didn’t know Yang Qi, and was eyeing him with a strange look. Never in her wildest dreams could she have guessed that he would reach this level, that he would become a maverick able to disregard all the rules, just like the Crown Prince.

As the moments ticked by, Master Jadecrux seemed to also regain his composure. He looked down at the stump of his arm, and then assessed the damage to his vital energy. Finally, he looked back up.

“How dare you hurt me!” he shouted, sounding like a wild beast. “You wretch-devil! Preheaven Masters, hear my command. Set up the grand spell formation and use our preheaven powers to slaughter this wretch-devil! Students of the Demi-Immortal Institute, I order you to all join us. Slaughter this beast, and you’ll be rewarded. Attack!”

As far as he was concerned, the only way to cleanse his humiliation was to use the surrounding sea of people to cut down Yang Qi right here and now.

“Seven Preheaven Masters?” Yang Qi said with a chuckle. “More like Seven Pieces of Trash. Alright. I'm ready to fight a big battle, and I'm ready to kill all of you! Prepare yourselves to go to hell.” As of this moment, Yang Qi really was ready to defy all laws and principles, just like the Crown Prince had. Without any hesitation, he summoned his Infernal Deity Spear, splitting it into seven pieces that shot toward his seven opponents.