Sage Monarch

As Yang Qi slaughtered his way further and further into the mountains, countless zombies and skeletons met their end at his hands.

He broke open innumerable tombs, slaughtering virtual armies of zombies and corpse kings. Normally speaking, the terrifyingly powerful thousand-year-old corpse kings would lurk in the mountains, waiting for the right moment to launch a wave of slaughter on innocent humans.

But this time, Yang Qi was forestalling all of that.

KABAAAMMM!

Another mountain-top exploded as Yang Qi unleashed a torrent of destructive true energy.

He had long since hoped to find a chance to see exactly how destructive he could be, and this was the perfect opportunity. At long last, he was able to push his energy arts to the limit to see what they were capable of.

Back when he had been a Master of Energy, his Invincible King's Fist had been capable of causing the waters of a lake to rise into the air. But now, he was thousands upon thousands of times stronger than that.

Now, he could easily crush mountain peaks.

He was like an unbeatable god of battle, bringing disaster with him wherever he went. Mountains crumbled. Platinum sagefire burned away every scrap of filth.

He had long since contemplated clearing out these mountains in order to make Yanhaven a safer place, and now, he was actually rooting out the thousand-year-old corpse kings and ending them, one by one.

In one short day, he slaughtered six of them. As for the number of zombies and skeletons he ended, it was literally impossible to count. He was a merciless meat grinder that no demon-devil could possibly stand up to.

He now had over a hundred zombie demon cores of the Master of Energy level in his thumb-ring, and hundreds of eighth phase versions. Those were demon cores that were essentially useless to him at this point, but would act as a mountain of wealth to his clan.

Because of the platinum sagefire that constantly surrounded him, he was like a shining light within the darkness of the mountains around him.

'Dear lord, six thousand-year-old corpse kings in a single day? All of them Lifeseizers? If something happened to provoke all of them to attack at one time, there's no way Yanhaven would have survived. Actually, I'm going too slowly. I need to kill more, and faster.'

Speeding up, he sent platinum sagefire out, creating a massive sphere hundreds of meters wide, which then exploded, causing a rain of fire to fall.

It was something that came naturally with the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth; in places where evil energy abounded, the platinum sagefire would erupt to cleanse it.

Most corpse kings spent their time sleeping, and absorbing the baleful, subterranean energy they needed to cultivate their nefarious arts. Only occasionally would they go out to hunt spirit creatures or humans to suck dry of blood. After all, if they killed humans too brazenly, it could attract the attention of the powerful orthodox organizations.

A good example was the vampire brigand force from the Blood Demon Grotto. They had long since been completely and utterly routed.

Yang Qi watched as the rain of platinum sagefire descended, then sighed as he realized that there was no corpse king in this area. However, it was still worth it; as long as there weren't any corpse kings to lead armies of zombies to attack Yanhaven, his father would be able to handle the situation.

Deeper and deeper he went into the mountains….

As he did, he felt his energy building, pushing him closer and closer to breaking through into Quaternary Lifeseizing.

All of a sudden, a host of voices reached his ears, like a throng of vengeful souls all crying out at the same time.

"Give me my life back… give me my life back…!"

It was accompanied by the most wretched of energies. Even the air itself seemed to turn evil. Looking off into the distance, he could see something like a black haze, which was the source of the howling. Just barely visible within the churning haze were vicious ghost faces.

He was now nearing the ultimate depths of the Blackcorpse Mountains, a place of such profound evil that few people ever came here. Even a Master of Energy who reached this location would find his defensive true energy destroyed, and would become a zombie within minutes.

The wretch energy here was so profound it caused the air to distort.

'So, I was right about the Blackcorpse Mountains!' To his delight, the distortions ahead made it clear that there really was a dimensional passageway, leading to the fabled Heavencorpse Dimension. That was where he would be able to find life force springwater.

With that, he drew all of his magical power back inside of him.

Cracking sounds rang out as a platinum suit of holy armor spread out to cover his body, burning with flames that could destroy any wretch energy that came near. It was none other than his Infernal Deity Plate Armor. In the past, it had been dark gold. But each time he seized life, he grew stronger, and his armor changed. Slowly, it was becoming the holy color of platinum to reflect the glory of the legion of gods in heaven.

Deeper and deeper he went into the mountains….

Every step he took required more and more effort as the wretch energy and wild distortions grew stronger. Even other ordinary Lifeseizers would have difficulty resisting the energy, and would have eventually been forced to retreat.

But Yang Qi was different.

Godmammoths drew upon the ultimate powers of the legion of gods to suppress hell. This mere wretch energy was like nothing.

"Be destroyed!" His Infernal Deity Spear stabbed out, driving away the wretch energy as he shot forward.

The weeping of ghosts and the wailing of gods that he heard around him truly made it seem like he was descending into hell.

By now, it was impossible to tell what was east, south, west or north. Directions were meaningless. However, thanks to his true energy, he could sense the source of the wretch energy, and could slowly make his way toward the passage that led out of the Blackcorpse Mountains and into the Heavencorpse Dimension.

He wasn't particularly familiar with alternate dimensions, other than the Minorcosm World that existed above the sea of clouds.

However, as long as the portal that he sought remained open, he was confident in being able to find it.

"Give me my life back!"

Suddenly, a deadly surge of wretch energy headed toward Yang Qi, only to be blocked by a blast of platinum sagefire.

A devil-ghost had appeared just behind him in the wretch energy, a hulking, pitch-black thing with vicious claws. It actually looked like it was made completely of smoke, as opposed to having a corporeal body.

"Devil-ghost spirit body!" Yang Qi realized instantly that this was a type of devil-ghost that had a spirit body as opposed to a physical one. Such beings were difficult to exterminate; after all, ordinary energy arts couldn't hurt spirit bodies.

Only noble, righteous energy filled with intense heat could do anything against vicious and deadly devil-ghosts like this.

Because of the extremely intense wretch energy in the Blackcorpse Mountains, some beings that died would leave behind souls that would then become contaminated, and transform into devil-ghosts!

As for this particular devil-ghost, it was far beyond the level of the thousand-year-old corpse kings he had fought up to this point. It was even more powerful than Blightking Skulkdevil had been, and was approaching the level of Jiang Fan.

Its sneak attack having failed, it transformed into a black cloud that then took the shape of a huge ghost claw.

"Netherworld Ghostclaw!" it screeched.

Dark green flames surrounded the ghost claw as it shot through the air, creating a vacuum, and emanating sounds like metal scraping against metal.

This was a claw that could drag its victim so far into the netherworld that it would never be reincarnated.

Such was the power of the Netherworld Ghostclaw, a truly sinister and vicious energy art.

In response, Yang Qi spun in place and threw his spear out, sending it speeding forth like an arrow, like a raging god from ancient times, like a burning sun!

Whoosshhhh!

The ghost claw was pierced by the spear, and the devil-ghost screamed in frustration.

"Ghostsoul Possession!" Soul fluctuations erupted from the creature, becoming a sickly green energy flow that somehow bypassed Yang Qi's armor and entered his body in the blink of an eye. Clearly, this devil-ghost was trying to possess him. Coldness gripped him as the thing's will tried to take control of the true energy in his meridians, and his mind and soul came under attack.

'All rivers run to the sea. True energy: return!' Chuckling coldly, he pulled all of his true energy back into his sea of energy, dragging the devil-ghost with it.

RUMMMBLE!

As soon as the ghost broke into his sea of energy, the Hellfire Crucible appeared, and the ghost was thrown in. Sizzling sounds then rang out, accompanied by bloodcurdling screams.

As a spirit body, the devil-ghost was essentially an expression of life force energy, very similar to heterogeneous true energy.

For most people, having an influx of heterogeneous true energy would lead to cultivation deviation, and likely, a physical explosion of the body itself. And if a devil-ghost entered a person, he or she would eventually become a monster.

Sadly for this devil-ghost, the Hellfire Crucible was the bane of all spirit bodies!