Sage Monarch

"My god! He was a powerful sectlord, but how he's wagging his tail and begging for pity!"

A nearby leader of a powerful sect shivered. "How could this be happening? What is that bubble beast? How could it be so miraculous? You people have all traveled far and seen a lot. Do you know what it is? Is it some sort of godling?"

Similarly shivering, another of the nearby sect leaders replied, "I read an ancient text from the god world called the God World Bestiary, which has extensive lists of strange creatures, but I don't remember a single one that spits out bubbles. What could it be?"

"Well one thing's for sure. The Void-Trampling Immortal School is finished. After getting trapped in that bubble, it's obvious he can't fight back. If he hadn't started begging for mercy, he would probably be dead already."

"That bubble beast is incredible. It makes you wonder... will the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect end up as the champion in this sect assembly?"

"Don't worry, they still have to worry about the Genesis Sanctum and the Woodfern Couple Palace. Those are the top two organizations. The best that people like us can hope for is to get a tiny piece of the pie. That said, a lot of superpower sects are going to be eliminated in this assembly. The only question is how the rest of us will benefit when they do."

"What if our sects are among those that get eliminated?!"

"All we can do is fight hard to make sure that doesn't happen. It's too bad the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect suddenly found that bubble beast. Originally, they were on the list of sects to be eliminated, but now it seems they'll be fighting for a share of the pie."

"Not necessarily. The tallest tree attracts the most wind. That bubble beast might be powerful, but it's obviously not full grown. It makes you wonder how much stronger it will be later. That means everyone's going to want to get their hands on it. In fact, the Genesis Sanctum and the Woodfern Couple Palace might even want it."

"That's true. The Will Manifestation Heaven Sect might look impressive now, but I have a feeling that it's only temporary."

The surrounding onlookers discussed the matter for a while, but no one could come up with any solid conclusions about what to make of the situation. And none of them dared to try to step in and save the sectlord of the Void-Trampling Immortal School. After all, nobody had any clue what they would do if they ended up trapped in one of those bubbles.

Purr. Purr....

The purrling stretched a bit, letting loose a soft purr that caused everyone's hackles to rise. Thankfully, it seemed to have calmed down, and wasn't interested in letting loose any more bubbles.

All of a sudden, Yang Qi realized that he had never seen it eat anything, or even absorb any energy for that matter. In fact, he couldn't even sense anything like power within it.

What was this thing?

It didn't eat, nor did it absorb energy, yet it seemed almost infinitely strong.

It almost completely defied the laws of energy conservation, leaving Yang Qi completely flummoxed as to how it worked.

Li Void-Trampler's cultivation base was strong enough that his fighting prowess was definitely on par with Yang Qi's, or perhaps even stronger. And if they did fight, and Yang Qi got the upper hand, the man would obviously have been able to flee if he wanted to. But with the purrling's bubbles in play, the man was completely helpless. Just how terrifying was the thing? And how strong was it?

Yang Qi was very curious to see how it would grow and develop in the future.

"Spare me!" Li Void-Trampler screamed. "Let me out of this bubble and I swear that I'll be loyal to the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect! All of you, get on your knees and kowtow to them! Hurry up!" Obviously, Li Void-Trampler knew that he was just on the verge of being killed.

When the elders and disciples heard their sect leader's commands, they exchanged awkward glances. Obviously, they had no desire to get on their knees and kowtow, but on the other hand, they couldn't just watch as their sectlord was killed right in front of them.

At the same time, some of the elders realized that with the sectlord gone, they had a chance to take over. Finally, one of them raised his voice and said, "Let's get out of here! We'll go back to the sect, train hard, and return later for revenge!"

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

A handful of the elders fled. As for the remaining disciples, they were now even more embarrassed and confused than before. Finally, one of the disciples dropped to his knees and started kowtowing. "We were in the wrong! Please forgive us. We'll be loyal to the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect. Just let our sectlord go...."

It was a disciple from the main branch of the sect. He knew that if the sectlord died, his days would be numbered. After all, there were already elders who had fled back to the sect to try to establish their own authority. Obviously, they would purge the sect as soon as they could, and any of Li Void-Trampler's loyalists along with it.

Sectlord Will Manifestation was visibly taken aback by these unexpected developments. Looking over at Jadefall, he said, "Go ahead and let Li Void-Trampler free. He's injured badly enough that I can keep him under control. And it will be good to have another top expert in our sect."

"But I don't know how to control the purrling," Jadefall said, sounding a bit alarmed.

"Why don't you just try asking?" Yang Qi said.

Stroking the purrling behind the ears, she said, "Purrling, baby, can you let him go? He won't run away."

The purrling stretched, then shook its head. "Purr. Purr...."

It seemed like it wasn't ready to stop 'playing'. However, in the end, it spat out another bubble, which floated over to the bubble containing Li Void-Trampler and popped it.

The instant he was in the open. Sectlord Will Manifestation blurred into motion, his finger stabbing into numerous locations on Li Void-Trampler's body, causing blood to spray out of his mouth. Then, Sectlord Will Manifestation grabbed him and flew back to his original spot.

"You've lost, Li Void-Trampler," he said in a cold voice. "And you'll never recover. I advise you to simply surrender. If you don't, you'll end up becoming an out-of-body incarnation."

Li Void-Trampler seemed to have aged by dozens of years, and any air of boundless ambition that he had once possessed was gone. "I can't believe that after dominating the world for so many years, I would end up like this. How pitiful. And I didn't even lose to a human, but to some animal instead. What a joke...."

Sectlord Will Manifestation snorted coldly. "Even at full power, you were still no match for me. You actually got lucky to end up being attacked by the bubble beast."

"Wait, do you mean you actually finished cultivating the...." Li Void-Trampler looked shocked for a moment before managing to regain his composure. Raising his voice, he said, "All disciples present are to join the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect. After this assembly is over, I'll return to the sect and execute all of the elders who betrayed me. Big changes are coming for us."

"Yes, yes of course...." the disciples all replied, kowtowing.

Thus, the disciples of the Void-Trampling Immortal School became members of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect. Peaklord Memory immediately gave them new uniforms, and placed warding spells on them to ensure that they couldn't do anything rebellious.

In a brief moment, the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect had become vastly stronger. As they proceeded onward to Destructionless Castle, no one dared to get too close to them, and many a wary glance was cast in the direction of the purrling.

Of course, there were quite a few gazes that seemed filled with greed; obviously, anyone who could get their hands on the purrling would be virtually invincible.

That said, no one present was willing to risk trying to take it by force.

Truth be told, although Yang Qi was amazed by the purrling, he was also a bit disappointed. The conflict with the Void-Trampling Immortal School should have been the perfect chance to show off how strong he was, and make sure that everyone knew the junior sectlord of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect was someone to avoid causing problems with. But in the end, his thunder had been stolen by the purrling.

Of course, he also knew that even if he had ended up fighting Li Void-Trampler, all he might have done was defeat him in battle. He would never have been able to force him to join the sect.

**

In the depths of Destructionless Castle, a group of people were gathered in a large meeting hall. There were Terrifying elders and other experts all kneeling in front of a young man with a face as beautiful as a jade sculpture. Despite his elegance, he didn't emanate even a trace of weakness. He was perfect in terms of both looks and strength.

His cultivation base was unfathomable, and from the way the Terrifying experts all prostrated to him, it was obvious that he was very important and powerful.

"That's what just happened, Junior Pontiff," one of the elders said. "If it weren't for how strange the situation was, we wouldn't have come to report it to you. Sir, considering how experienced and knowledgeable you are, do you know what that thing is?" Obviously, the matter they were referring to was how the purrling had dealt with the Void-Trampling Immortal School.

"So, there's actually a godling such as that? I've never seen any such creature. It really sealed Li Void-Trampler so easily? His cultivation base was nothing to look down on. His psychic scale is over thirty, and his power index is six thousand! He's definitely in the mid Terrifying level, yet some tiny godling actually sealed him with no effort?"

This young man was the junior pontiff of the Genesis Sanctum.

"You can watch for yourself, Junior Pontiff. One of the sectlords present at the event recorded everything." A Terrifying elder stepped forward, offered up a mirror, then fell back.

To see a Terrifying expert acting so deferential was actually a scary thing. He was treating this junior pontiff like a commoner would treat an emperor in the mortal world.

The junior pontiff took the mirror and activated it, causing a projected image of the scene to play out. When he saw the purrling in Jadefall's arms, he nodded. "So this girl is a disciple of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect?"

"Yes," another elder said. "She's apparently the owner of the bubble beast. They called it a purrling."

"Well, she's good looking," the junior pontiff said coolly. "And the godling didn't emanate any sort of power fluctuations? It's obviously a juvenile, otherwise it would've long since gained fame on the Ancient Road to the Gods. Well, it seems I need to take this woman as my wife. That will be the easiest way to get the purrling."

"Yes, Junior Pontiff! Very clever!"

The other elders kept their heads bowed.