Sage Monarch

"That is my Righteous Śarīra!" the junior pontifex said in a quavering voice. "I built it with three thousand conglomerations of true energy, and it should be secure in my sea of energy! How did you get it?!"

Everyone present was completely stunned.

Righteous Śarīras were the foundation of the Church of Righteousness. Every member would form one in their sea of energy, based on the functions of the three thousand great daos. In fact, each śarīra could be considered a great dao of its own, and could provide boundless power and might.

Yet the junior pontifex's śarīra had somehow been taken away from him without him even noticing. It was as shocking as if someone had removed his heart or lungs without his knowledge.

How could this possibly have happened? The stunned junior pontifex simply stared as Yang Qi flicked his finger, sending the śarīra flying back to him. He quickly inhaled it and sent it back into his sea of energy, then circulated his true energy.

"Does that count as me winning?" Yang Qi said coolly.

"Absolutely not!" the junior pontifex said. "You must have used some sort of special magical treasure to do that!" Obviously, the junior pontifex simply refused to believe that Yang Qi could possibly have an ability that profound.

"Ai. Then I guess I need to actually fight."

Suddenly, he blurred into motion, appearing right in front of the junior pontifex. The junior pontifex chopped his hand out in an attack, but Yang Qi simply grabbed his wrist and wrenched him up into the air.

"My apologies," he said. Before anything else could happen, Yang Qi shot back to his original position. Meanwhile, the junior pontifex hung there in the air for what seemed a very long moment before slamming down to the ground.

There were a host of top experts present, yet Yang Qi had moved with such supernatural speed that no one could track his movements.

Zi Qiong was even convinced that he had improved his cultivation base recently, as he seemed more terrifying now than he had been in the past, and hadn't even emitted any energy fluctuations. She even wondered if he had somehow gained enlightenment from the purrling.

The purrling also seemed surprised, and looked at Yang Qi for a moment before shaking its head. From the gleam in its eyes, it also seemed to suspect that Yang Qi had learned something from it.

The truth was that Yang Qi had indeed been studying the purrling, and the knowledge he had gained had been percolating in his mind. He could now see certain things that other people could not, the reason being that he was essentially standing on the shoulders of three different giants. The Sovereign Lord, King Immortal-Slayer, and the boundless True Devil.

Normally speaking, their three energy arts weren't compatible, but he could fuse them together in shocking fashion.

Thanks to the workings of his Unspoiled Body, combined with the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, he was able to use the purrling's energy arts as a point of reference to improve himself.

By taking scattered bits of the purrling's abilities, he was getting to the point of forming his true energy into things like bubbles. And he had decided to call this ability the Purrfect God Art.

Although the Purrfect God Art was only in the initial stages of development, the more enlightenment he gained, the more formidable it would become.

Shivering, the junior pontifex climbed to his feet, his vision swimming. Moments ago, he had felt like little more than a mortal as Yang Qi threw him up into the air. He hadn't even had a chance to unleash any of his energy arts before Yang Qi was back in his original position. Yang Qi had exhibited a speed and skill that could only be acclaimed as the acme of perfection.

"There's no way you could be that skilled!" the junior pontifex said. "That was definitely a trick!"

In fact, he was just about to continue fighting when the pontifex of the Church of Righteousness said, "Enough. You're no match for him. Junior Sectlord Yang Qi, you have my sincere admiration."

The pontifex could tell that Yang Qi was vastly more powerful than any ordinary person, to the point where not even he was confident in being able to fight him.

"I'm impressed!" someone said, accompanying their words with soft applause. At a nearby table sat a man dressed as a scholar, accompanied by several disciples who were also dressed as scholars. On the table in front of the man was a jug of alcohol so fragrant that everyone was convinced it must have come from the god world.

"They're from the Heaven and Earth Academy," Zi Qiong explained. "They're a huge sect of scholars and confucians, with incredible energy arts. They're very powerful. They developed ceremonial rites that they originally hoped to spread throughout the immortal worlds, although they never managed to do so. That said, they're very strong, probably as much as a few dozen ordinary superpower sects put together. I heard that their leader has been in seclusion trying to reach the Terrifying level, although he has yet to succeed."

Yang Qi nodded. "Might you have any advice for me, Sire?"

"I wouldn't dare to give advice to you," the scholar replied. "However, I happen to have this jug of fine alcohol from the god world. Considering how strong you are, would you be interested in drinking with us?"

Another of the scholars laughed heartily. "Exactly. It's a disgrace for educated people to care only about fighting and killing. Why not have a drinking contest to see who's more heroic? If you can handle our god world liquor, the Heaven and Earth Academy will definitely consider you a friend."

"Sure thing," Yang Qi said. "Is this the fine alcohol you're talking about?" All of a sudden, the onlookers realized that he was holding a jug of extremely fragrant alcohol. Everyone present gaped in amazement.

The scholar immediately looked back to the table and saw that his jug of alcohol was still there, prompting him to chuckle. "Is this some sort of joke, Younger Brother? This alcohol is—"

However, even as he reached out to grab the jug, his eyes widened as his hand passed right through it. It was nothing but an illusion, which subsequently faded into nothing. Somehow, Yang Qi had taken the real jug and substituted it with a fake.

All of the scholars were flabbergasted.

WHOOSH!

Yang Qi blurred into motion, moving around the table so quickly that nobody could see what he was doing.

"What do you think, ladies and gentlemen? Impressed? Please, let's drink together." Everyone looked down at their drinking bowls and saw that they were full of alcohol.

The group of scholars immediately raised their bowls and downed the alcohol in one shot, then burst out laughing.

"Incredible. Truly incredible! Whatever movement technique or energy art you used just now, it was amazing!"

"I'd like to ask all of you to rise!" Yang Qi said, settling back in his chair. All of a sudden, everything trembled violently and the scholars felt some sort of incredible power forcing them to stand. Whatever energy arts they used to try to resist were completely useless, and they were all forced to stand, looks of amazement on their face.

"And now, sit!"

Yang Qi's energy arts once again surged and the scholars sat back down. It was now obvious that he hadn't used a movement technique or a magical treasure, but instead, his energy arts.

How could anyone present have guessed that the junior sectlord of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect would be this powerful?

A moment later, a burly man sitting at another table said, "As the houselord of the House of Martial Buddhas, I'm very interested to see whose fist technique is superior, Junior Sectlord, yours or mine. As before, we will hold back and not inflict serious injuries."

It was to be a martial competition, but considering that the houselord was a friend, it would obviously be a friendly match with no killing intent. That much was made obvious by his wording.

"I wouldn't dare to claim any superiority, Houselord," Yang Qi said, "and can only ask that you show me mercy." With that, he blurred into motion, appearing right in front of the houselord. Although his movement technique seemed to make him as weightless as a floating willow catkin, it made him seem as heavy and powerful as a mountain at the same time.

Just what kind of power could do that?

The houselord's expression flickered as he realized how powerful this Yang Qi must be. However, he kept his cool and said, "I have a technique called the Declivity Chain Hammer, that I just recently mastered. It contains a total of eighty-one stances. Be careful, Junior Sectlord!"

This fight was very different from before, as Yang Qi was now tangling with one of the sect leaders. Obviously, all of the other sect leaders were watching very closely to see how things would play out.

RUMBLE!

Houselord Martial Buddha struck out with his fist and the entire area trembled from the onslaught of fist energy. Everyone had expected him to unleash a whole series of moves, but much to their surprise, he only used one. However, that one fist strike instantly split into eighty-one shadowy projections that shot directly toward Yang Qi.

Just what level of fist technique was required to unleash eighty-one stances within a single move?

The entire room was now trembling violently. Thankfully, it was located in the middle of Destructionless Castle, which had unimaginably powerful magical laws, otherwise it would have instantly been reduced to rubble.

In response to this move, Yang Qi unexpectedly remained in place. Then, he swirled his hands out in front of him in a circular arc that conformed to the profundities of the good fortune of heaven and earth. Instantly, the move connected to all of the various fist energies rushing toward him.

Next, eighty-one popping sounds rang out, indicating that Yang Qi was directly meeting the strikes launched by Houselord Martial Buddha.

Bang!

Houselord Martial Buddha shivered and his face turned crimson, but he didn't stagger back.

"Incredible, Junior Sectlord," he said. "Simply incredible. The Will Manifestation Heaven Sect truly has an incredible asset in you. You have my sincere admiration. And I'm fully aware that you left me some face by not going all out." With that, Houselord Martial Buddha turned to Sectlord Will Manifestation and said, "Where did you find this freak? From what I can tell, he's stronger than you!"

Sectlord Will Manifestation nodded approvingly at Yang Qi.

However, he was still wondering why Yang Qi seemed so much stronger after coming back early from the banquet.

1. Yes, I know. Groan. To be clear, the Chinese version of this energy art is similarly silly. That said, the Chinese version does not contain wordplay to imply "perfect". That comes from me, as I tried to come up with something that would connect the art, the creature, and the sounds the creature makes. I actually came up with a few different options, but ended up going with this one in the end.