Sage Monarch

As the words left his mouth, he walked toward Yang Qi, the immense blood-devil right behind him. Clearly, he wasn't worried about anyone launching a sneak attack. He had a blood-devil formed from the life force power of seven enemies, people who had survived for hundreds of years in the god world. And the fact that the thing would only last for two hours only went to show how much of that life force was being burned to sustain it, thus, the incredible levels of power it was capable of.

Obviously, he really believed that two hours would be plenty of time to find more victims to kill and keep the blood-devil powered.

The man could see how strong Yang Qi was. He had just defended against something that had killed seven others, so adding him to the blood-devil would obviously lead to incredible results.

"Die!" the man shouted, his eyes flickering with blood-colored light as he sent the blood-devil rushing toward Yang Qi. The blood-devil sent a massive stream of energy slamming into Yang Qi's defensive empyrean energy, yet the sphere surrounding him didn't even show so much as a crack.

"What? Blood-devil, add more power!"

The blood-devil attacked with greater speed, yet it seemed like an ant trying to shake a big tree.

"Lightning!" He yet again summoned the ball of white lightning, which exploded, sending crackling lightning bolts in all directions. There were a few people in the vicinity who had been hiding and waiting to launch surprise attacks, but they were instantly killed.

Unfortunately, the old man was again disappointed when his lightning didn't do a single thing to Yang Qi.

"Impossible!" he said, backing up and preparing to call back his blood-devil.

However, that was when Yang Qi made his move. He reached out, and the blood-devil shrieked miserably as it was wiped out of existence. Then Yang Qi held his palm out as all of the white lightning in the area converged atop it.

"You can leave," Yang Qi said. "But I'm keeping your lightning and your blood-devil, that way you can't carry out any more evil deeds."

With that, he waved his hand, causing a wind to spring up that sent the old man tumbling off into the distance. There, he fell on the ground, a vicious expression on his face as he considered heading back to recover his lost items. Before he could, a blast of dazzling light erupted from the ground and he screamed as he died.

It was the same person who had just killed the woman from earlier, who attacked from underground, and apparently had a technique to make quick getaways.

"You're good at sneak attacks aren't you?" Yang Qi said, clasping his hands behind his back. "And you like attacking from underground. So why haven't you attacked me yet?"

Thump! Dirt exploded up as a figure shot out of the ground and landed a short distance away from Yang Qi. It was a young man dressed in yellow garments, with a mischievous smile on his face. "I, Tu Longzhen, might not be good at much, but I have a lot of ways to stay alive. And killing a person here or there is par for the course. How could I have guessed that an expert like you would show up in the Bloodgore Trials? People attack you, and you let them go free. It's almost like you want to become some benevolent buddhist expert. Or could it be that you really are from one of the buddhist schools, and not allowed to kill people?"

As he spoke, Tu Longzhen swayed back and forth, making him seem very unstable.

SNICK!

All of a sudden, a few dozen meters behind Tu Longzhen, a host of spikes shot up out of the ground.

Then a scream rang out, and blood flowed as someone was killed who had just been trying to sneak up and stab him in the back.

"I'll be keeping this bottle," Tu Longzhen said, holding up the bottle he had just taken from the old man he'd killed. Apparently, he was planning to use it to make his own blood-devil.

Yang Qi simply stood there quietly, neither interfering, nor doing anything to kill anyone else.

After Tu Longzhen used the bottle to assimilate the person he had just killed, he looked over and said, "You're a real weirdo. Are you really not planning to kill anyone? Don't tell me you're trying to conserve godpower and wait until everyone else has killed each other before making your move."

"Whether or not I kill anyone is my business," Yang Qi said with a smile. "I didn't feel like doing any killing a moment ago, but I will soon enough."

"Are you saying you're going to try to kill me?"

The two of them were talking to each other more as if they were friends than enemies.

"It'll depend on my mood." Yang Qi could see that this Tu Longzhen was vicious and merciless, and definitely wouldn't let anyone off the hook. And he was obviously looking for weaknesses he could take advantage of.

"In that case, I suppose I'll make my move." Apparently, he had identified the weakness he was looking for and was taking action. The ground beneath Yang Qi's feet collapsed, forming an enormous crater.

However, instead of falling inside, Yang Qi just hovered in place, surrounded by a bubble that had appeared out of nowhere.

"What? My sneak attack failed?" Tu Longzhen's smile returned, more mischievous than ever. "Ferocious. Very formidable. Well, I'll take my leave. I'll kill a few others, then come back for you. After all, you're not killing anyone, and there is virtue in sparing animal life." With that, he burst into laughter and turned to leave.

However, that was when a plopping sound could be heard as he saw his body fall over onto the ground.

And that was when he realized that his head wasn't attached to his body! His head was now in Yang Qi's hands!

"I thought... you didn't kill people!?"

"When did I say that? I told you, 'whether or not I kill anyone is my business'. And when I feel like killing someone, that's what I do." He shook his head. "Considering you were planning to come back and attack me later, the only fate you deserve is death."

RUMBLE!

Tu Longzhen's head exploded into fire, and his corpse flew over to Yang Qi, crumbling into ash along the way.

Afterward, Yang Qi began strolling through the trees, watching the slaughter around him. Almost immediately, he noticed that as people died, their destiny was being absorbed into the ground. It reminded him of his time in the thirty-third ranked Tusita Heaven, and its Live Forever God Tree with the god dao seeds. The dynasty there would invite geniuses from all over the immortal worlds to participate in a trial, in which they almost all participants died and their destiny was absorbed.

Apparently, the Bloodgore Trials were similar. The only difference from the Tusita Dynasty's trials was that everyone knew ahead of time that only one person would survive the Bloodgore Trials, and that people who feared death shouldn't participate. Furthermore, becoming an official disciple of the House of God Ordainment really was a worthy prize. In fact, it was so enticing that countless people were willing to throw their lives away for the mere chance of winning it.

'I can't believe this brat is so strong. Is he really just going for a walk?' The burly man in the trees was completely astonished. Drawing on his special energy arts, he was fused with the tree, causing the branches to shrink around him, and even causing his own skin to turn the same color as the tree. At this point, it would be almost impossible to detect his presence.

At a certain point, an expert wandered over and sat down beneath the trees. He was covered with wounds, and as he leaned up against the trunk, he pulled out some medicinal pills to heal himself. But before he could, his eyes went wide as numerous branches shot out, wrapped him up, and dragged him into a hollow in the tree.

A short while later, the burly man was slicing the man to pieces.

**

Meanwhile, the gods on the outside were observing what was happening on the labyrinthine battlefield.

"What low quality Quasi-Gods this time," one of them said. "Their destiny isn't impressive at all. The fighting is fierce, though. It's always a guess how much destiny our House of God Ordainment will get during the Bloodgore Trials."

"Ah, this is nothing," another god said. "Remember, we all started out just like those people down there, one person among ten thousand. We rose up through the blood and gore, and in the end, it was a big help. I wonder if there's an Ascendant out there. It would be great to have someone like that in the mix."

"An Ascendant? In your dreams, maybe. People are saying that the Ancient Road to the Gods has disappeared from the lower worlds, although no one knows exactly why. In any case, that just means there won't be any Ascendants anymore. Of course, we'll also be incapable of using the Ancient Road to the Gods to go down into the impure lands. What a pity. I heard there was a lot of treasure to be had there. But I guess it's sealed off to us now. A truly different world."

"That's too bad. If the Ancient Road to the Gods is gone, then heaven and men are forever separated. It's a pity we can't go down there, but it's even worse that people from the impure lands can't ascend and become gods."

"Perhaps. Ascending is extremely difficult, but it's much better to be a nobody in the god world than some tyrant in the impure lands." A thoughtful expression overtook his face. "Although, Ascendants are truly formidable. We have a few in the House of God Ordainment, and they always advance by leaps and bounds. In fact, they're always quick to surpass people like us. To them, the Bloodgore Trials would be like children's games."

"They're real people. They advance step by step, slaughtering their way to the heights of power. They're truly invincible geniuses. Unfortunately, I don't see anyone in the trial slaughtering everyone else with ease. A true Ascendant would probably kill everyone else within an hour."

Of course, Yang Qi and his people were all Ascendants. However, they didn't want to make too big of a splash by killing everyone too quickly. In fact, the truth was that they wouldn't need an hour. Each and every one of them could slaughter the other trial-takers in their groups in the time it took to drink half a cup of tea.

The real reason that Yang Qi had been acting so benevolent, and holding back from killing people, was that he didn't want to draw too much attention.

1. Tu Longzhen: Tu is a surname which also means "earth, soil". Long means "dragon" and Zhen means "true". Although it might seem at first to be contrived, this is actually a very plausible Chinese name, so I'm treating it as such. Of course, his yellow clothing is a reference to "earth/soil" and he attacks from under the ground, so the name matches him perfectly.

2. The arc with the Live Forever God Tree started in .