Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
chapter-289

The Rich-Lush Continent was within sight, and Yang Qi was nearly overwhelmed with excitement. His journey from the Western Continent to the Quake-Dawn Continent, and everything which had occurred subsequently, ate away a lot of time. Worse, he had no way of knowing what might have occurred while he was away.

He was now a Space-Void Legendary, and very close to being a Five-Phases Legendary. Although he couldn’t quite match up with a Great Sage, it shouldn’t be difficult for him to fight a Half Sage, and possibly even kill one.

He would surely cause quite a few double-takes back in the Demi-Immortal Institute.

“Crown Prince. Yun Hailan. Chancellor…. You people just wait until I get back. You’ll be trembling under the power of my energy arts.”

Reaching into his sleeve, he patted the Heaven-Dominating Golden Swordbreaker. When he used the swordbreaker, the might it unleashed was shocking, and at the same time, made his true energy more true and real. Backed by the quintessence energy of the five phases, it was a fiendish weapon that could dominate anything in creation.

RUMBLE!

In the very moment that Yang Qi actually caught sight of the Rich-Lush Continent, the entire wormhole shook as though it were being attacked. Its walls began to split open, and devil energy rushed in. Devil-ghosts and gigantic beasts appeared and began to attack anything in their path.

“So, we're finally meeting some resistance.”

All of the mercenaries unleashed their energy arts to fight the devil-ghosts. These people were world-class fighters from the Quake-Dawn Continent, so creatures like this could hardly put up a fight. Instantly, screams of death rang out, and none of them were from the mouths of the mercenaries.

“How could fiend-devils like this stand up to me, Blademaster Thunderbolt!?” A shining blade nimbus erupted from Blademaster Thunderbolt’s hand, which sliced a fiend-devil to pieces. A moment later, a devil core dropped in Blademaster Thunderbolt’s palm.

“This is so boring,” white-robed Chaoguang said lazily. “Why can’t there be any interesting fiend-devils?” Seemingly expending no effort at all, he waved his finger back and forth, cutting down fiend-devils as though he were harvesting wheat.

“How come there aren’t any asuras?” a female mercenary said, waving her shining chakram through the air, taking the heads off several bronzeblaze fiend-devils all at the same time.

“I thought we were going to end up in a real fight,” a middle-aged mercenary said. “What's with these weak fiend-devils? I'm actually quite disappointed.” He suddenly exhaled a massive blast of fire which burned all of the nearby fiend-devils to death.

HISSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Even as the mercenaries laughed and joked, a profoundly noxious stench suddenly swept through the wormhole. Many of the mercenaries suddenly felt their eyes drooping, and their heads nodding down toward their chests. Some of them simply passed out.

“Not good!” Chaoguang said, his face falling as he looked deeper into the passage ahead. “Something really strong is coming!”

Suddenly, an enormous snake appeared up ahead, slithering toward them, pulsing with a suffocating aura.

It had nine heads, and wings, and its eyes flickered with evil, aberration, corruption, lust, greed, bloodthirstiness, and a host of other evils.

The giant, nine-headed snake glared scornfully at the mercenaries, its psychic fluctuations causing the entire wormhole to tremble. “Listen up, mortals. I command armies back in the Hell of Nagas. Tremble! Shake with fear in my presence! For all of you are about to become lunch!”

“A giant snake from the Hell of Nagas!” Chaoguang growled.

“Everyone, form ranks!” Yang Qi said.

The rest of the mercenaries were shocked. “How could this be possible? How could a being from a higher plane of hell be right here?”

In the ancient Helltongue, nagas were actually called ‘dragons’. In fact, even in many other planes, giant snakes like this were commonly called ‘dragons of hell’ because of their noble blood. They were actually considered to be more highborn than asuras. It was little wonder considering the Hell of Nagas ranked higher than the Hell of Suras.

As for this giant snake, its aura was equivalent to a Half Sage. Furthermore, each of its nine heads contained separate psychic fluctuations, which meant that, for all intents and purposes, it was equivalent to nine Half Sages, collected together in one body.

Giant snakes like this were powerful in a depraved way, and specialized in devouring enemies. They were different from asuras in that any sort of lesser true energy that hit them would be instantly consumed.

Almost immediately, Blademaster Thunderbolt found himself trembling under the psychic power of the naga. Circulating his true energy, he lifted his thunderbolt longsaber over his head and then lunged forward in an attack.

Thunderous rumblings echoed out; this attack was definitely strong enough to chop Never-Dying Legendaries in two.

“Mortal!” the giant snake growled. One of its heads shot forth, eyes shining with blazing light, to meet the descending blade. Then, when the blade hit it, it simply absorbed all of the light of the attack.

“What low-level universal power! Is this really the true energy you mortals have?” That particular head opened its mouth and spat out a stream of toxic energy, which slammed into Blademaster Thunderbolt and sent him staggering backward.

Unfortunately, his defensive true energy was too weak, and immediately began to corrode. A moment later, it was gone, and Blademaster Thunderbolt screamed as the toxins began to eat away at his flesh.

Instead of leaping to his aid, all the other mercenaries began to back up, fearful of the deadly nature of the toxins.

The giant snake seemed to be playing with the group. Nine heads swaying back and forth, it said, “Stupid humans. Ants. There’s no way you can fight back against a noble being like myself.”

HISSSSSSSSSSSSS!

An enormous tongue shot out from one of its mouths, which began to swirl around Blademaster Thunderbolt to pull him back to be eaten.

But then, a hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed him. Intense, holy light then washed through him, healing his corroded flesh and driving out the toxins.

“Captain!” Blademaster Thunderbolt blurted. He had been certain that he was about to die, only to be saved at the very last minute. Bowing his head in thanks, he said, “I, Blademaster Thunderbolt, owe you my life!”

“Mortal!” the giant snake roared, whipping all nine of its heads around to stare at Yang Qi. “How dare you snatch food out of my mouth. Very well, I guess I’ll eat you instead.”

“Despicable denizen of hell,” Yang Qi said, striding forward. He was completely impervious to the toxic energy, and in fact, it was being eaten up by his own true energy.

RUMBLE!

He unleashed an iron fist of immense power, simultaneously sending out a sea of true energy, like an interstellar deluge.

This giant snake could gobble up mountains if it wanted, so it simply bared its fangs and tried to bite Yang Qi’s fist.

BOOM!

When his fist made contact with the fangs, they shattered. As for the venom, not only did it not affect Yang Qi, it actually seemed afraid of him, and tried to flee. Unfortunately, his true energy treated the venom like water treated fire, instantly extinguishing it. At the same time, Yang Qi began to absorb the hellish energy of the naga snake.

“Impossible! You’re actually stronger than me, mortal!” The giant snake reared its nine heads in crazed fashion, causing large swaths of the wormhole to shatter from the force.

“No kidding, you oversized worm!” Yang Qi drew fully on the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, hammering the snake with blows that it couldn’t possibly avoid.

All of a sudden, the snake began to glow with devil light, and at the same time, shrink down as it consolidated its strength. Its wings flapped, and it flew up into the air, simultaneously transforming into a sinister-looking man in a long black robe. Above his head was a rippling magical symbol that looked like a twisted dragon-snake. That symbol was actually the written script of Helltongue, and meant ‘dragon’. This was none other than the human form of the giant snake.

“Prepare to die, mortal! Naga Hellfist!” Clenching his hand into a fist, he unleashed a pure expression of the martial path, something no inferior to an asura.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi strode forward to meet him, surrounded by holy hymns, unleashing a fist strike that could devastate all magics, and a palm strike that could capture all devils.

His left hand was a fist, and his right hand was a palm; the fist focused on a devastating attack, and the palm prepared to capture the enemy.

“Downfall of Myriad Hells!” he growled, unleashing one of the most invincible moves belonging to the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, something that the godmammoths could use to force countless hells to sink into oblivion.

Every step he took shattered the space beneath him into oblivion. At the same time, he glowed with powerful, radiant light that could evaporate any devil energy. In the blink of an eye, his foot smashed into the snake’s chest.

The man shrieked as he exploded, transforming into a haze of blood and gore that splattered everywhere in the wormhole.

However, a moment later, he formed back into the shape of a giant snake, and after that, a devilish wind.

“Expeditious Retreat of the Heaven-Devil!”

The devilish wind shot to the end of the wormhole and then vanished.

Yang Qi didn't give chase. He knew that the giant snake was incredibly powerful, and would be difficult to fully vanquish, whether that be by sealing it or killing it.

“Captain, that was incredible! You actually forced that giant snake into retreat. Without you here, I'm afraid our mercenary squad would have suffered a crushing defeat….”

“Amazing! If that giant snake got into the Quake-Dawn Continent, it would take dozens of Half Sages powering a grand spell formation to fight it!”