Sage Monarch

"If you pieces of trash are too scared, the House of God Thieves will step in."

Chuckling, the man from the House of God Thieves strode toward Yang Qi, who was currently sitting cross-legged in the middle of the fighting platform. It seemed a given that Yang Qi would have a lot of treasures on him, and the House of God Thieves was all about stealing treasure. They also stole true energy, power, cultivation bases, and just about everything else.

In fact, there was nothing they wouldn't steal.

That was how the House of God Thieves worked.

They were a very powerful group, and when they faced an enemy, would use their Heaven-Stealing Profound Art to rob them of their life force quintessence and essence. That made them virtually impossible to beat. Even worse, they had the ability to steal whatever magical treasures their enemies used against them in battle.

It was said that the founding patriarch of the House of God Thieves was the Thief God from the god world, who was even known to have stolen godhood from his enemies.

According to the rumors, the Thief God could steal hearts, men, emotions, and plenty of other things that weren't even corporeal items. He was notorious in the god world, but no one had ever been able to stop him. At least until he stole a magical treasure from the Sovereign Lord himself. The Sovereign Lord then used one of his consummate divine abilities to eventually capture the Thief God and send him to the Abyss, where he became a wretch-god and was ultimately refined in the Heaven and Earth Furnace by the King of Godmammoths.

Because of these stories, everyone feared the House of God Thieves.

The current houselord of the House of God Thieves was supposedly in seclusion, attempting to reach the mid Terrifying level. However, the man currently standing on the fighting platform wasn't the houselord, but rather one of the top geniuses in the sect, the junior houselord. He had one of the three thousand special constitutions, making him a Thieving One, and although no one was exactly sure of the level of his cultivation base, he was clearly confident in his ability to deal with Yang Qi.

Most of the other organizations on the Ancient Road to the Gods viewed the House of God Thieves as very troublesome, and tried to avoid attracting their attention. Whoever the House of God Thieves took an interest in would be forced to constantly be on guard lest they be robbed blind, even of their wives.

It was as if the House of God Thieves had a devilish power that allowed them to successfully steal anything. The fact that their junior houselord was here taking an active role in the competition caused everyone else to back away nervously.

He stopped about nine meters in front of Yang Qi, then reached out and made a grasping gesture. Then he looked in surprise at his hand, as if he had expected something to appear there.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi remained seated with his eyes closed, apparently ignoring everything that was happening.

The junior houselord snorted. "Let's see what you're capable of." Even as the words left his mouth, he drew on all of the power he could muster to launch an attack.

However, before he could make his move, a white blur appeared, landing right next to him on the fighting platform, pulsing with killing intent. The junior houselord tried to retreat, but before he could, a palm technique was unleashed, creating an energy field that completely surrounded him and made it impossible to flee.

POP!

A palm struck the junior houselord and his head exploded. At the same time, his nascent divinity flew out, only to be grabbed and crushed out of existence. His true energy didn't even have a chance to escape.

Then, a cynical, arrogant voice rang out. "Wonderful. Heh heh. So this is the Heaven-Stealing True Energy of the House of God Thieves. I'm glad I got my hands on some. Now, be assimilated!"

Flames erupted from his palm, and within moments, the junior houselord's corpse was eaten up and his vital energy was completely absorbed.

If this person wasn't Bastard Seacliff from the House of God Bastards, then who could he possibly be? His cynically arrogant voice was so distinctive that anyone who heard him speaking would be able to instantly identify him.

And his appearance on the scene caused quite a few experts standing on the fighting platform to suddenly feel like they were suffocating.

One of them looked over and said, "We got here first, Bastard Seacliff. If you want to join in, you'll have to wait your turn. Don't tell me you're just going to ignore the rules."

"What rules?" Bastard Seacliff said. Looking down at the seemingly meditating Yang Qi, he chuckled coldly and said, "I never would've predicted that this brat would get so strong. Very impressive. Unfortunately, it's time for him to call it a day."

"Are you really going to try to take advantage of us, Bastard Seacliff?" another expert said. "You might be superior to us individually, but considering how many of us there are, you'll end up dead if you try to stand in our way."

"Is that so. Well, let's see what happens."

Without even seeming to move, Bastard Seacliff was suddenly in front of the expert who had just spoken. The man shouted and threw out a palm, yet it hit nothing. In the same moment, a black hole popped into being right above his head, sucking away his blood, quintessence energy, psyche, and everything else that made him up. A moment later, he was a desiccated corpse floating there for everyone to see.

He had been killed with one simple move.

The other experts all reacted with open shock. "How vicious of you, Bastard Seacliff! We never said we wanted to fight you, did we? You should have waited to deal with Yang Qi first before exchanging fighting tips with anyone else."

"Come on, let's get out of here...."

The dozens of experts had been so thoroughly frightened by Bastard Seacliff that they had lost all will to fight.

"You think you can just walk away?" Bastard Seacliff said. "To where, exactly? Once you step onto this fighting platform, stepping off it is no easy task. Besides, I cultivate a certain energy art that requires souls, and I happen to be running very low on them at the moment."

Swish. Rustle.

Moving with enigmatic quickness, he waved his hand, causing a second expert on the fighting platform to violently explode.

The other experts were already fleeing helter-skelter, but sadly for them, he had already thrown up a field of empyrean energy to block their paths.

One miserable scream after another rang out as a profoundly horrifying scene played out. Some of the audience members, top experts and leaders of powerful sects, couldn't hold back and rushed forward, trying to prevent their sons and apprentices from being killed.

"Bastard Seacliff, you god bastard, how dare you harm my son!"

The houselord of the House of the Ancient Cistern leaped onto the platform to protect his son.

However, as soon as he landed, Bastard Seacliff reached out with both hands, grabbed him, and ripped him into pieces!

Blood and gore sprayed everywhere!

"Whoever dares to step onto this platform will suffer the same fate," Bastard Seacliff announced, "and will also have their entire sect wiped out!" Suddenly, his eyes blazed, sending two streams of fire toward the other elders of the House of the Ancient Cistern.

They scrambled to flee, but sadly for them, they were too slow. More screams rang out as they were hit with the fire and burned away into nothing. They had been slaughtered by Bastard Seacliff.

Flop. Plop....

The more than a dozen experts on the fighting platform all realized that the situation was hopeless. Instead of joining hands to fight, they dropped to their knees. "Spare us, Bastard Seacliff! We don't want to fight you. In fact, we can't fight you. We... we acknowledge allegiance!"

The fact that he had just wiped out every member of a sect with only his gaze was enough to strike fear into the hearts of everyone present. Many experts present had hoped that someone would interfere, but Huangfu Genesis, Mu Renwang, and Su Xin were simply looking on coldly. Obviously, they tacitly approved of what was happening.

That tacit approval caused everyone to grow cold at heart.

But at the same time, many of them inwardly nodded, fully aware that the league-lord needed to be capable of such ruthless tactics. Only someone who could shock and awe his opponents, and use brutal bloodshed to crush his opposition, would be able to convince the masses that he was qualified. And right now, that was exactly what Bastard Seacliff was doing.

"Do you really think that kowtowing can absolve you of your crimes? Unfortunately, you don't truly respect me in your hearts. Thus, you shall be executed as a warning to others." Bastard Seacliff leaped into motion, becoming a streak of white. At the same time, screams rose up from the kneeling experts.

Bastard Seacliff harvested lives with brutal efficiency, either decapitating people or cutting them fully in half. Not a single one had any chance to fight back.

"We have to go all out!" one of the experts shouted. However, before he could do anything, he was crushed into a bloody pulp.

Within a few breaths of time, all of the experts on the fighting platform had been transformed into lifeless corpses.

Bastard Seacliff's tactics were rapidly winning him the approval of the audience. After all, on the Ancient Road to the Gods, compassion, duty, propriety, and integrity would never win admiration. Those were qualities shown only by the weak! When facing a brutal, violent person, the first reaction would usually be to avoid provoking them. That was the best way to stay alive and keep one's sect intact.

In fact, it was already possible to see the flow of destiny shifting toward Bastard Seacliff, as more and more people became convinced that he had the decisive brutality necessary to be the league-lord.

Meanwhile, Bastard Seacliff was acting like he had just accomplished something trivial and not worth mentioning. Licking his lips, he smiled and looked at the seated Yang Qi. "Back at Miss Mu Yexi's banquet, I hit you with a single palm that made you cough up blood, boy. In fact, if I remember correctly, you passed out. I see that you've since recovered and gotten a bit stronger. Sadly, fate has decreed that you'll lose. Therefore, hand me your Great Necropolis godpower seed. If you ignore me, it will be a crime, the punishment for which will be... well, how about you tell me?"

"Sectlord...." Jadefall, believing Yang Qi to truly be injured, was considering going to his aid. However, the sectlord held out his hand to prevent her.

"Calm down. Come, don't tell me you aren't used to how Yang Qi does things. Have you ever known him to not have some sort of plan? He's just lulling his enemy into a false sense of security. Trust me, Bastard Seacliff is finished!"

The sectlord was absolutely correct, and had clearly come to deeply understand Yang Qi's personality.

As for Jadefall, when she heard the sectlord's words, she calmed down and fixed her eyes on the fighting platform, ready to take action in case anything went wrong.