Sage Monarch

"Heaven-Dao Reincarnation-Cycle Severing!"

"God-Dragon Strangle-Murder Devil!"

"Wind-Reversing Cloud-Shocking Slaughter!"

"Immortal-Butchering Ghost-Severing Sword!"

"Black-White Natural-Heaven Attack!"

"Lightning-Displacing Three-Thousand Detonations!"

"Mega-Boulder Heaven-Smashing Bash!"

"Black-Turtle Sea-Boiling Upturn!"

"Grand-Extermination Predestination-Summoning Slap!"

"Cold-Wave Rage-Flame Transformation!"

The White-Haired Boxer King used one move after another, all of them consummate and invincible fist techniques. Each blow, each strike, each attack... were all uncharacteristically rare, and were considered secret magics in the House of God Ordainment. Together, they formed something like a rumbling river of destruction that smashed into Yang Qi.

The nature of these attacks revealed how immensely powerful the White-Haired Boxer King's godhood was. It shone like a sun within him, rotating billions of times per second and causing godhood to flow out in seemingly never-ending fashion. And of course, all of that power was flowing right into Yang Qi's godhood.

It was another immense baptism for him.

The White-Haired Boxer King was blessing Yang Qi with his own essence and cultivation base. He was drawing on the vitality of his own godhood and life essence to power his attacks to destroy the bubble protecting Yang Qi. Yet every time it seemed like the bubble would burst, the White-Haired Boxer King's hope would turn into disappointment.

Of course, it was all because of the formidability of the purrling, not Yang Qi. After all, even within the protection of the bubble, Yang Qi was actually coughing up blood and seemed to be on the verge of collapsing into unconsciousness.

"I refuse to believe that I can't break through these defenses!" the White-Haired Boxer King shouted, forcing his godhood to rotate even faster. In fact, in the blink of an eye, it was circulating at ten billion times per second! Thanks to the consummate influx of power, his next attack caused a huge black hole to appear and slam into Yang Qi's defenses, detonating them!

"Finally broke through!" the White-Haired Boxer King yelled, laughing heartily as he reached out toward Yang Qi. However, in that exact same moment, the bubble popped into being again, nearly trapping him inside.

As a result, the power of the bubble touched him, causing him to burst into flames.

Instantly, his godpower, energy arts, and psyche were burning away.

'This bubble is incredible!' he thought, lunging backward. Meanwhile, Yang Qi turned, shot into the mist, and disappeared.

'What!?' the White-Haired Boxer King thought. 'He's trying to escape? Well, it's not going to be that easy. I definitely can't let him get away. If he reveals the details of this fight to the council of chief elders, it's going to cause problems.' The White-Haired Boxer King knew that Yang Qi had broken some sect rules and was harboring secrets that could theoretically harm the sect. Unfortunately, it was a bit of stretch to use that as an excuse to harm him.

The main thing he was interested in was getting the purrling's power that Yang Qi possessed. However, if he attacked and killed him, it would be a clear violation of sect rules.

Although the White-Haired Boxer King was important enough that he wouldn't be severely punished, if certain people found out, they would push hard to bring him to justice. For instance, Jadefall.

So if he wanted to pull this off successfully, he needed to capture Yang Qi, destroy any and all evidence, and make sure no one was aware of what he'd done.

'I have to catch up to him!'

The White-Haired Boxer King shot into the mists of the Pill-King's temple ruins. Eventually, he was closing in on the center of the ruins, where he caught sight of the Chaos-Forge God-Shrine.

As soon as he entered, he realized how strong the toxic mist was, to the point where even he had to exercise great caution. As he proceeded, he produced medicinal pills that drove away poisons, using them to create a protective barrier around himself.

'This is the central region of the Toxic Continent, and the toxic mist here is obviously deadly. But how can this brat move around so freely? Maybe I actually knocked him out, and the bubble just floated here with him in it. If he gets dissolved by the toxic mist, that's going to be troublesome, especially if people find out I was chasing him. Although... I should be able to come up with an explanation.'

Not ready to give up, he followed the bubble through the second, third, and fourth floors.

He was on the fifth floor when the toxic mist started getting too much for him to handle. This was where Yang Qi had discovered the corpse of the scholar, which was still floating there serenely. Meanwhile, Yang Qi was feeling very confident about his chances on the sixth floor. After all, his cultivation base had significantly improved in the past several months, thanks to the fifty-five Double-Nines God-Dragon Starry-Sky Pellets he had consumed.

However, he continued pretending to be unconscious within his bubble. Although it might look like the bubble was just randomly floating along, he was actually using his top energy arts to maneuver it behind the White-Haired Boxer King.

Without the toxic mist in the Chaos-Forge God-Shrine, it would have been impossible for him to get close to the White-Haired Boxer King. But given the circumstances, it wasn't very hard at all.

"Lord's Eye!"

An eye appeared on his forehead, which he used to peer at the White-Haired Boxer King and locate the tiny jade bottle he had hidden in his robe. It contained a single god pill, which was none other than the Ten-Directions Many-Heavens Pill. Back when Yang Qi had first become aware of it, he secretly imprinted the bottle with an energy marker, making it much easier to locate again.

It was all in preparation for this moment.

'Purrfect God Art. Dexterous Thievery!'

A bubble shot out, silent and undetectable. Wrapping around the jade bottle, it pulled it right into Yang Qi's hand. It happened so quickly and quietly that the White-Haired Boxer King had no idea what had just happened. His attention was completely focused on protecting himself from the toxic mist, and trying to figure out a way to break the bubble protecting Yang Qi.

At this point, Yang Qi directed the bubble to float up to the sixth floor. Instantly, muffled rumbling could be heard as toxic god lightning smashed into him, seemingly reducing him to ashes.

"Woah!" the White-Haired Boxer King blurted, not daring to go any further. Obviously, the fifth floor was his limit. Seeing Yang Qi 'die', he sighed regretfully. 'What bad luck. The brat is obviously dead, dissolved by the toxic mist. And if I stay here, I'll end up dead too. I have to get out of here.'

With that, he hurried away, convinced that Yang Qi was dead. There didn't seem to be anything he could do to profit now, and the best thing would be to get away from the Toxic Continent as quickly as possible.

'I have to go into secluded meditation as soon as I get back. I'll just pretend I've been in seclusion this entire time. There's definitely no evidence to prove I had anything to do with this. No one will ever connect a measly Quasi-God disciple like him to someone like me.'

With a whoosh, he departed.

After he was gone, Yang Qi appeared, a crafty smile on his face. Hefting the jade bottle, he thought, 'Ah, White-Haired Boxer King, you really got screwed. And you're not going to realize you're missing this bottle until you get back. It's good that my illusion arts lasted long enough to fool you. Now you have to fabricate some evidence to prove you weren't here, which will give me plenty of time to go into hiding and use this Ten-Directions Many-Heavens Pill to form my monarch godhood. It's all thanks to you. You're saving me a good fifty or sixty years of hard cultivation.'

The nascent monarch godhood within him was pulsing, occasionally letting loose sounds like a booming bell, other times sounding like buddhist chants. Occasionally it sounded like hosts of gods offering worship to the Sovereign Lord, or like hosts of mortals engaged in petty business.

For godhood to produce sound like this now was something unprecedented.

Normally speaking, it would have taken decades to purify himself in this way, but thanks to the fight with the White-Haired Boxer King, it was happening almost instantly. Right now, none of Yang Qi's people were Greater Gods. The highest among them was Brahma, who was a Common God, so obviously, none of them could be of much help to him.

'I need to leave the Toxic Continent and try to achieve my monarch godhood breakthrough. It's going to be dangerous, so I can't risk it in a deadly place like this. If the poison seeps into my godhood, I'll definitely die. On the other hand, a god kingdom would definitely pick up on the fluctuations of the breakthrough, and I would also end up dead in that situation.'

He waited for a few hours, until he was sure the White-Haired Boxer King was gone.

Then he slipped back into the teleportation portal. However, instead of going to the god kingdom, he headed out into the mountains. Avoiding Zhang Jufang and the others, he headed into the wilds beyond civilization.