Sage Monarch

"Aaaiiiieee!" screamed the Flower-Seizing Marauder, his face a mask of disbelief. In his mind, he had never even considered the possibility that he might die one day. "I can't believe this! I'm dying at the hands of some brat who isn't even in the Terrifying level? I didn't even have a chance to kill Star Swordlife and get his godpower seed!"

Trembling, he continued, "If I'm going out, I'm taking you with me, boy! Time for a godpower explosion!"

RUMBLE!

Energy shot out of him that could destroy the heavens and extinguish the earth, and as a result, the bubble generated by Yang Qi finally popped.

Yang Qi was not the purrling, and his mastery of these bubbles was superficial at best. Obviously, he still had a lot to learn.

However, if the Flower-Seizing Marauder thought he was going to take Yang Qi out with him, he was sadly mistaken; as soon as he was out in the open, Yang Qi easily got him under control again.

Chuckling coldly, Yang Qi said, "Take me out with you? Who do you think you are? My cultivation base is so high that there's no way you could ever hope to kill me."

Yang Qi's physical body had reached a level of such incredible power that it defied the norms of nature.

He extended his hand, and his five fingers were like immense mountains that crushed all of the divine abilities launched by the Flower-Seizing Marauder.

"Hand of the One God; Nine Stance Combination!"

Yang Qi was resorting to a trump card, hoping to forestall any interference from Star Swordlife. After all, Star Swordlife was willing to sacrifice his own life force to save this despicable villain.

Therefore, he combined all nine of the stances from one of the best killing moves from the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, bolstering it with the energy arts he had picked up from Proud Heaven.

POP!

He closed his fingers into a fist, and the Flower-Seizing Marauder's head shattered. His godpower seed flew out, pulling his nascent divinity and will along with it, leaving the fleshly body behind.

Yang Qi was ready for that. He flicked his finger, sending out a bubble of true energy that encased the godpower seed and then pulled it over to him. Without any hesitation, he began to burn it with bright fire. The Flower-Seizing Marauder immediately screamed, "Mercy! Show me mercy! I'll acknowledge allegiance to you! I won't kill anyone ever again!"

"You might convince Star Swordlife of that, but not me." There was absolutely no way Yang Qi was going to show mercy in this situation, and he continued to unleash his powerful energy arts. Soon, the Flower-Seizing Marauder's screams faded away and his body collapsed into ash.

He was dead and gone.

One of the most evil and despicable bandits in existence was no more.

Jubilant cheering immediately broke out.

"Alright!"

"A great kill!"

"He really got rid of a big scourge!"

The Flower-Seizing Marauder had brought harm and suffering to many people, and unfortunately, virtually none of them had been in the position to get the revenge they deserved.

But Yang Qi had done it for them.

Already, word was starting to spread that the vile Flower-Seizing Marauder was finally dead, leading to widespread rejoicing.

Yang Qi immediately felt destiny shifting, flowing toward him rapidly. This battle had boosted the reputation of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect and made him a subject of even more adoration. Yet again, his prestige was growing.

"No!"

A bubble popped, and Star Swordlife leaped out into the open. The fact that he had been unable to save the Flower-Seizing Marauder was obviously a huge blow to him. And this wasn't the first time that Yang Qi had left him absolutely powerless. A similar thing had played out with Profound Valor. As of now, he truly loathed Yang Qi.

"Yang Qi! You've killed again!" He pointed his sword at him. "Why do you have to do things like this!?"

"What," Yang Qi replied coolly. "What are you going to do, kill me to avenge the Flower-Seizing Marauder?"

"No, I don't kill people. Ever. But I swear that I'm going to capture and seal you. With you free, it's impossible to say how many people you'll harm."

"The Flower-Seizing Marauder killed a lot of people. Why didn't you capture and seal him? Don't tell me that your goal is to rescue wretch-devils and ignore good people? Or did I hurt your feelings so bad that you're pretending I'm worse than the Flower-Seizing Marauder? If so, I'd say you're being a bit too conceited."

"Kill him, Junior Sectlord!"

"Yeah, cut him down. Not even death can atone for how he helped the Flower-Seizing Marauder. Let's join together to seal him! Make sure he doesn't escape!"

Everyone was shouting, and quite a few people began setting up a spell formation. Obviously, they all hated Star Swordlife and wanted to see him dead.

"See that?" Yang Qi said. "You've aroused public anger. And you think you're going to take me captive? You're obviously not strong enough to do that. You're not even on the same level as the Flower-Seizing Marauder, and the two of you working together weren't enough to handle me. I could kill you as easily as turning over my hand. And even if I chose not to, you've pissed off enough people that there's no way you'll get out of here alive. I'll give you one chance to survive."

"I don't care about your glib lies!" Star Swordlife spat. "I'm capturing you right here and right now!"

"There's one way you'll survive today," Yang Qi said, "and that's to acknowledge allegiance to me. Work for me. Drop your idiotic talk about saving people. I won't ask you to go around killing innocents or anything like that. But I will require you to root out evil. And you'll act as my bodyguard. Anyone who tries to kill me will earn the death sentence. Anyone who goes around killing innocent people will be judged as devils and earn a similar death. Furthermore, if I ever ask you to kill someone you think doesn't deserve it, you can refuse. What do you think?"

"I refuse to kill anyone," Star Swordlife replied. "And I won't permit you to kill another person in my presence. Capturing you is the most pressing goal in my path to godly ascension."

"You're forcing me to kill you," Yang Qi said with a sigh. "In this case, it's an act of self-defense. I have a lot of enemies, and if you took me captive, my friends and family would be slaughtered. In other words, you capturing me would be the same as you killing them."

"I won't let anyone kill your friends and family," Star Swordlife said.

"You think I'm going to believe that? The Flower-Seizing Marauder killed plenty of people. Did you save any of them? Saving people is a good thing, Star Swordlife, but it has to be done properly. Do it improperly, and your so-called saving turns into killing." Even as he spoke, Yang Qi was pooling his energy and preparing to take Star Swordlife out with a single blow. He didn't want to give him a chance to pull off any tricks.

Besides, Star Swordlife had aroused enough public anger that even if Yang Qi didn't do the deed, he would end up getting ripped to shreds by the crowd.

In that tense moment right before fighting broke out again, a beam of godlight appeared, within which were a host of young women. Their leader looked like a goddess, and had a cultivation base that was completely unfathomable. Upon seeing this young woman, many of the onlookers recognized her.

"Junior Sectlord, that's Her Majesty the junior empress of the Woodfern Couple Palace!"

"The junior empress is here!? What does she want?"

The junior empress of the Woodfern Couple Palace was just as powerful and important as the junior pontiff of the Genesis Sanctum, and was obviously not someone to take lightly.

"Please hold on a moment, Brother Yang Qi," the junior empress said. "There's something I'd like to say."

"Please, speak your mind, Junior Empress," Yang Qi said, reining in his power. "This person here aided the Flower-Seizing Marauder, and is deserving of ten thousand deaths. Everyone here is calling for his head; is there some reason you want me to show him mercy?"

"First of all, I'd like to point out that many of my Sisters were killed by the Flower-Seizing Marauder. So I'd like to thank you for the service you performed. I've often dreamed of killing the Flower-Seizing Marauder, but ever since he got a godpower seed from the Great Necropolis, he's been invincible. I almost can't believe that you took him out, Brother Yang Qi. The benevolence and righteousness you've shown makes you worthy of universal respect." She ended her speech by bowing deeply at the waist.

Yang Qi immediately bowed back just as deeply.

"I don't dare to accept your words of praise," he said. "It's my duty to rid the world of evil."

"Truth be told," the junior empress continued, "I was watching the whole fight just now. I'd originally considered stepping in to help you, but after realizing how unfathomable your cultivation base is, and watching you take the upper hand, I decided to simply let you have the victory for yourself. That said, in my opinion, Young Sir Star Swordlife is also a good person. He seeks to avoid killing, and tries to save even the wicked. Although his good intentions lead to bad results, he doesn't have an evil heart, and thus doesn't deserve death. How about instead, we heat some alcohol and discuss heroism? We can talk things over and turn weapons of war into gifts of jade and silk. What do you think?"

"Er..." Yang Qi said. "I guess that's fine with me. It's only natural that I would give you some face, Junior Empress. Although, this Star Swordlife keeps jabbering about taking me captive. And considering that he was willing to let the Flower-Seizing Marauder continue with his villainy, I'm worried that he'll be a threat to me in the future."

"Don't worry about that, I'll handle it." Turning to look at Star Swordlife, she said, "Young Sir Star Swordlife, it's obvious that Brother Yang Qi is no evil villain. Instead, he kills villains, so why do you insist on causing problems for him? Don't you see that your good intentions are leading to bad results? Why not come drink with us? We can laugh our differences away. What do you think?"

Star Swordlife's cheek twitched. However, he wasn't a complete moron, and could see what the junior empress was trying to do. She was offering him a way out of the current crisis. It was a classic situation of someone being benevolent and generous by nature and turning ill fortune to good luck. Without her help, it was obvious that he would either die at Yang Qi's hands, or the crowd's.

"I accept your invitation, Junior Empress. But I'm still dead set on stopping Yang Qi from killing anyone else."

"Great," the junior empress said with a wide smile. "Now, let's stop arguing. The two of you are valiant heroes of our age and should be allies. Fighting the executors and the fiend-devils is the proper course for all of us. There's really no need for all this deadly infighting. Please come with me to my palace. I already have the alcohol prepared."

1. Heating alcohol and discussing heroism is an expression that comes from . In fact, it's the title of a chapter in the novel.