Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
chapter-240

This was Yang Qi’s first time directly piercing through space in this manner.

Up to this point, he had always used the Grand Emperor's Pagoda to do so. And it had always been within the Rich-Lush Continent itself; never had he dared to brave the spatial tempests that filled space-time.

The slightest mistake could lead to being sucked into one of the tempests, or losing one's way for all time. However, he was now strong enough to provoke a psychic tempest. And his true energy now counted as Sovereign Lord True Energy. Considering that, and the added protection of the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, he didn't need to fear spatial tempests.

Besides, he had the additional assistance of the Young Lady.

The mere wave of her hand opened the spatial rift; it seemed as easy for her as blowing some dust off her shoulder. Yang Qi couldn’t help but be shocked. She was obviously far beyond the level of Master Wind Gentleman or Unparalleled Lightning.

In fact, Yang Qi was now fairly certain that she was on the same level as Hua Tianxiong and Young Master Shroud-Heaven. Although her aura didn't seem particularly powerful, on a substructural level, she was terrifying. From what he could tell, she had access to some of the most powerful energy in the world.

It was similar to how, if a Great Sage looked at Yang Qi, that person would see true energy that appeared to be weak. And yet, because of the universal power in it, the substructure of that true energy was actually far purer than that of many Great Sages.

“After you,” the Young Lady said. “This is the first of the passageways. Take your time reaching the location of the sealing marks. Along the way, you’ll encounter powerful opponents, fiend-devils that I'm sure you can handle on your own.”

Looking completely unfazed, Yang Qi said, “I happen to love ridding the world of devils and demons. When facing me, even the strongest fiend-devils will be crushed into a bloody paste.” With that, the Grand Emperor's Pagoda appeared, and he entered the area of spatial tempests.

Instantly, the pressure increased by hundreds or thousands of times. Spatial tempests battered the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, like the attacks of tens of thousands of Space-Void Legendaries.

Yang Qi was like an ant being swept along by a flood, able to do nothing but hand his fate over to heaven.

And he had already lost track of the path leading back.

Presumably, the Young Lady had already closed the rift.

Yang Qi immediately activated certain spell formations in the Grand Emperor’s Pagoda, which caused radiant light to swirl out everywhere, and fight back against the spatial tempests. Within moments, he managed to stabilize himself.

Looking around, he saw the violent tempests raging everywhere, seemingly without end, so terrifying that it didn’t seem like even fiend-devils could survive them.

“What are you hesitating for?” the Young Lady said from behind him. “Some aspects of space-time have tempests, some don’t. They come and go at random. In that respect, it’s just like being out on the sea. We’re here when the tempests are at their peak, because that’s when the devil-ghosts are least active. But if we see any, they need to be exterminated. Understand?”

Yang Qi looked over his shoulder and saw her simply hovering there among the tempests. She wasn't using any magical treasure, nor any sort of defensive true energy. When the tempests hit her, she seemed to simply absorb them, as surely as a black hole. Yet again, Yang Qi wondered what level she was, and what technique she cultivated.

However, he said nothing. Instead, he circulated his true energy and began to work on the Physique of the Sovereign Lord. By setting up self-sustaining cycles of true energy, he could keep the Grand Emperor's Pagoda functioning for many days and nights without intervention.

“Follow me,” the Young Lady said as she began to make her way through the tempests.

He did, his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth stirring excitedly at the sensation of powerful devil-ghosts and fiend-devils up ahead.

RUMBLE!

Suddenly, something like a black river appeared off in the distance, causing everything to turn dark. The spatial tempests went still, and the passage of the river caused space-time to twist and distort. At the same time, a corrosive aura spread out, accompanied by the cries of fiend-devils and ghost-gods.

“A hell monsoon!” the Young Lady said, stopping in her tracks, astonishment visible on her face.

Yang Qi stopped behind her and looked over at the pitch-black river that could crush spatial tempests. This was a mighty power that was clearly not man-made; no, this was definitely godpower.

“What’s a hell monsoon?” Yang Qi asked.

“All hells are planes of immense power,” the Young Lady said in a somber tone of voice. “At any given time, billions of streams of evil power can be found streaming out to different aspects of space-time. Whenever such a stream of power reaches a certain peak level, it causes a hell monsoon. Countless hellish beings, including devil-ghosts, fiend-devils, ghost-gods, zombies, skeletons, and the like, will ride the monsoon to other parts of space-time. In other words, hell monsoons are the only way that they can get to different planes and aspects of space-time.”

Even fiend-devils in the Great Sage level had to exercise extreme caution when piercing through space-time, much less ordinary fiend-devils. However, if they were in a hell monsoon, then it would be much easier for them to reach planes with flesh and blood creatures. If they could reach such places, they would attempt to conquer them and make them hells of their own.

At the moment, the Rich-Lush Continent was under assault by this hell monsoon. And if the hell monsoon broke through the protective seals, all of the lands would be destroyed and turned into a hell of fiend-devils.

As the hell monsoon bore down on Yang Qi, the surrounding spatial tempests vanished, to be replaced by what appeared to be a viscous, noxious plane that reminded Yang Qi of the Heavencorpse Dimension.

It was an expression of the might of the hell monsoon; wherever a hell monsoon blew, the surroundings became the perfect environment for fiend-devils.

All of a sudden, millions of fiend-devils appeared within the monsoon, all of them viscounts. And all of them seemed dead set on ripping Yang Qi to shreds.

“Prepare to die!” they screamed.

Strangely, the fiend-devils didn’t seem to notice the Young Lady, despite the fact that she was obviously standing right next to Yang Qi.

She seemed to be an observer that they didn't care at all about.

“Yang Qi, don’t take these fiend-devils lightly. And they’ll only continue to get stronger. In addition to the Legendary counts, there will also be corpse emperors and corpse sovereigns. Focus on the fighting. I’ll give you tips as I see fit.”

“Why aren’t they going after you?” Yang Qi asked. “Can they even see you?”

She laughed. “I'm here to observe and offer suggestions, not directly help you. You’re the one who’s supposed to be repairing the damage to heaven, not me. I’m not going to come out in the open and help you fight.”

Roar!

The horde of fiend-devils was almost upon him, so there wasn’t any time for discussion.

“You fiend-devils can all die!” Yang Qi leaped into action. As he unleashed a fist strike, the Hell Portal appeared behind him, within which was a simmering cauldron. Instantly, gravitational force erupted out to grab the fiend-devils.

Those who didn’t react quickly enough were quickly sucked into the Hell Portal.

And when they landed into the crucible beyond, they let out bloodcurdling screams as they were transformed into ash. These fiend-devils were not spirits, they were living things with flesh and blood, carried by a hell monsoon to a plane of other living beings, where they hoped to gorge themselves on the inhabitants.

Sadly for them, they ran into Yang Qi, who was a crusher of hells.

Over a thousand fiend-devils vanished in the blink of an eye, burned up in the Hellfire Crucible. This part of the hell monsoon was ripped to shreds, and sucked into the Hell Portal, which might as well have been a black hole designed specifically to drag in things from hell.

All darkness and gloom from hell would be consumed and transformed into pure radiance and light.

In the blink of an eye, countless fiend-devils, zombies, devil-ghosts, spirit creatures, and skeletons were absorbed, and converted by the Hellfire Crucible into power for Yang Qi.

‘This is great. This hell monsoon is incredibly powerful, and provides me with pure energy from hell. It’s almost the same as that asura’s flesh and blood.’

Ignoring the Young Lady, he flew forward into the hell monsoon, destroying everything in his path. Thanks to the constant power being fed to him by the Hellfire Crucible, his Sovereign Lord True Energy began to rise rapidly.

In fact, it seemed likely that this slaughter could push him all the way to the Spirit-Soul Transformation.