Sage Monarch

As the White-Haired Boxer King continued unleashing a flurry of fist attacks, he said, "I have plenty of reasons to arrest you. Whatever secrets you have, I can force them out of you for the safety of the House of God Ordainment. I'm your superior, and I have the power to decide what's right and wrong here. You obviously have some big secrets, otherwise you wouldn't be able to stand up to me!"

The White-Haired Boxer King was right. He was a powerful person in the House of God Ordainment, and although he couldn't just do as he pleased in any situation, it would be easy for him to come up with an excuse for why he arrested Yang Qi, then subsequently tortured him for 'important' information.

It was a risky tactic, and if the truth were to come out, he would be punished. But in the end, he wasn't worried about that. Besides, he was convinced that Yang Qi was hiding something, and that attacking him would force him to reveal his secrets.

The fact that Yang Qi could use the power of a Quasi-God to fight back against his attacks was reason enough to prove that, and to justify using torture to further the interests of the sect.

"I do have secrets, White-Haired Boxer King," Yang Qi said. "And since you want to see them, I guess I should show you. Take a look at something called the Purrfect God Art!" A tremor passed through Yang Qi as a huge bubble appeared around him; when the fist strikes hit it, it bent inward, but didn't break. In other words, it was impossible to hit Yang Qi directly.

"What?!" the White-Haired Boxer King blurted. "A bubble?"

He stared at it for a moment, then said, "Is that a bubble from Jadefall's invincible pet? How can you use it?"

Yang Qi snorted. "This is my secret, and it's the reason I can stand up to you. Didn't you say you wanted to arrest me and force me to reveal my secrets?" Truth be told, this had been his plan all along. "Jadefall knows that your Dragon Society has been trying to get to me, all because of her pet. You see, she left a scrap of godpower on me that I can activate at any time to become completely invincible. You can't do anything to me now. So now that you know my secret, you can go tell it to the council of chief elders."

Of course, the leaders of the House of God Ordainment knew a bit about the purrling. They knew that anyone who opposed it would end up dead, or at least severely injured. And if the purrling had left some godpower on Yang Qi, it made sense that he could do this.

"A purrling bubble," the White-Haired Boxer King murmured, shocked. However arrogant he was, he knew full well that he wasn't a match for the purrling. After all, Wang Xiantian of the Preheaven Society had once tried to forcibly take the purrling, only to sustain grievous injuries that he still hadn't recovered from.

Wang Xiantian was almost a Consummate God, whereas the White-Haired Boxer King was only a mid Greater God, which was a massive difference.

"What do you think, White-Haired Boxer King? You can't do anything to me right now. And although I can't do anything to you, I can say this: stop arguing with me. I don't want to work with you, so stop trying to force me."

Yang Qi was already certain of how strong the White-Haired Boxer King was, and knew that vanquishing him in a fight would be very difficult. That said, there was no way the White-Haired Boxer King would be able to defeat Yang Qi easily.

And if a real fight broke out, and Yang Qi decided to use his secret weapons, he could kill the man. That said, he didn't want to waste the godpower to do that. It would definitely set his cultivation base back by decades, and make him an enemy of the House of God Ordainment.

Until he formed his monarch godhood, Yang Qi didn't want to waste even a scrap of godpower.

The main reason Yang Qi had done all this was to assess the White-Haired Boxer King's strength and see how it measured up to his own. He was now certain that, despite not having completed his monarch godhood, he could definitely hold his own against mid Greater Gods. If word spread about that in the sect, it would cause a big stir. However, Yang Qi had successfully convinced the White-Haired Boxer King that it was all because of the purrling, and not Yang Qi himself.

"Fine. Since you have some of the godpower of the purrling, I guess we don't need its blood after all. We can just use you. We'll extract that godpower and give it the leader. You can wear out iron shoes in a fruitless search, then find what you're looking for without even trying!

"Maybe you can stand up to my fist technique, Yang Qi, but you obviously don't understand how terrifying Greater Gods can be. Our Paramount will convergence enables us to draw on the spatial power of the god world. Spatial Manacles! Spatial God Pillars!"

RUMBLE!

Spatial rifts streaked into existence around Yang Qi, creating what looked like a cage. Within the rifts were raging spatial tempests that could wreak havoc that would crush god items into dust.

This was what Greater Gods could do when they manipulated space.

Expression flickering, Yang Qi caused the bubble to shrink down, then pop out of the cage before it could fully form. "Not even spatial tactics can stop a purrling bubble, White-Haired Boxer King. You wasted your trick. You really can't do anything to me. Soon enough, you'll be trying to explain to the council of chief elders why you inexplicably attacked an innocent disciple, you psycho!"

"You're going to accuse me of a crime? You, a puny Quasi-God? I could wipe you out of existence without any effort at all! I could kill you like a chicken!" The White-Haired Boxer King threw both of his hands out as he drew on a truly powerful divine ability that caused a stream of saber energy to rumble out. "I wasn't using my full strength just now. Let's see if you can handle the power of my Space-Severing God-Saber Incantation!"

Spatial saber energy shot forward, seemingly locked onto Yang Qi's soul as it slammed into his defensive energy.

RUMBLE!

His defensive energy started to crumble, and spatial power seeped through the cracks toward him. Shouting, he drew on the Heaven-Devouring God Dao to devour the saber energy.

"You're doing everything you can to kill me, aren't you White-Haired Boxer King?!" Inside, Yang Qi was laughing, but on the outside he had a very serious expression as he dodged his opponent's attacks. Although it seemed like he was in a very dangerous situation, he was actually in complete control, and every bit of godpower that reached him, he devoured with King Heaven-Devourer's abilities.

King Heaven-Devourer specialized in devouring everything, including destiny, godpower, and the psyche....

Considering Yang Qi had intentionally drawn the White-Haired Boxer King out to test his strength, it was a given that he was prepared for a fight. In fact, considering how he could benefit from a situation like his, he had actually been worried that a fight wouldn't break out.

One of the things he lacked was godpower for his monarch godhood. And if a Greater God went all out trying to kill him, there would definitely be godpower in the blows levied against him. And that would only benefit him.

Yang Qi might not be able to deal with a Consummate God, but he wasn't worried at all about a mid Greater God like the White-Haired Boxer King.

In fact, in order to use the spatial manipulation magic that he was using, he would also have to draw on his essence, which was something that not even Yang Qi would dare to do.

If the White-Haired Boxer King knew that all the effort he was going through to kill Yang Qi was actually helping form his godhood, he would definitely cough up blood.

'You moron,' Yang Qi thought. 'I really fooled you. I'm in a bottleneck, so I intentionally provoked you, and now you're attacking me, letting me use King Heaven-Devourer's abilities to improve my position. In what other situation could I have found a Greater God willing to work so hard to help me?'

Although he was laughing inside, on the outside he actually forced himself to cough up some blood. Forcing the bubble around him to seemingly weaken, he shouted, "Are you really going to kill me, White-Haired Boxer King? How dare you!"

"So what if I kill you? Nobody will ever know the truth. They'll just think you got killed somewhere in the Toxic Continent. Thousand-Emperors Space-Piercing Slash!"

All of a sudden, a thousand sabers appeared, slashing through space and leaving behind nothing but afterimages as they became a net that shot toward Yang Qi and his bubble.

'Great!' Yang Qi thought, absorbing the saber light and causing his monarch godhood to tremble. Godlight flowed through his meridians, which actually felt wonderful. However, continuing with the act, he let blood spray from his mouth, and caused his face to turn deathly pale. Of course, it was all thanks to his Life-Death Void-Destruction God-Lightning.

If the White-Haired Boxer King had somehow been able to reach the Consummate God level, he would have seen that Yang Qi wasn't actually being hurt at all. He was actually very comfortable and secure within his bubble, and was absorbing all of the godpower that came his way.

"That bubble still isn't gone?" growled the White-Haired Boxer King. From his perspective, it looked like Yang Qi was unconscious, yet the bubble hadn't dissipated. Rage filled his heart.

"How could that godling be so powerful? It can do all this with just a bit of godpower left behind in this brat? How come I can't break through it? At least he's injured. I need to get that bit of godpower for my own use! Then I'll be stronger than even Dragon Floret!" He chuckled darkly. "Ah, Dragon Floret, you might be the leader of the Dragon Society, and I might be your subordinate, but I'm not willing to live like that forever."

Clenching his hand into a fist, he launched another mighty attack.