Sage Monarch

Yang Qi yelled as loud as he possibly could, bolstering his voice with true energy.

Not only did the sound waves shred numerous fiend-devils to pieces, they passed through the entryways to the various dimensional spaces.

His true energy was so powerful that these sound waves were almost Humanoid True Energy, making them audible to individuals within the alternate dimensions.

When he got no initial response, he shouted out again, and then again. Countless fiend-devils rushed toward him, but none could reach him, and soon, they simply went into hiding.

Although fiend-devils generally didn't fear death, they were like wild animals in that, upon encountering something even more vicious than themselves, would slink away to save their lives.

After shouting several times in a row, he got a faint response from one of the entryways to another spatial dimension. "Brother Yang, we're over here…."

'That's definitely Brother Jun Tianchou!' Heart pounding with anxiety, he shot toward that very passageway, and entered it.

He soon found himself in a location very similar to the Heavencorpse Dimension. Looking around, he saw endless decaying swamplands, and black streams and rivers that stank so badly he had to suppress the urge to vomit. However, those black waters were rife with lesser fiend-devils, as though that liquid were like mother's milk to them.

There were also many of the things flying about in the air.

Yang Qi ignored them and focused on what appeared to be a mountain off in the distance. Just barely visible at the top of the mountain were several enormous, devilish figures. They sat on the perimeter of a hexagrammic spell formation, in the middle of which was a shimmering black-gold canopy. Inside that canopy, he saw a familiar face: Jun Tianchou.

There were other experts trapped alongside him.

Obviously, Jun Tianchou had brought some friends with him to Fiend-Devil Island to rid the world of devils and demons. However, they had encountered some particularly powerful monsters who trapped them in a deadly spell formation.

Having no other options, Jun Tianchou ended up contacting Yang Qi for help.

There were five peaks on the mountain ahead, and the enormous devilish figures there were clearly different from the lesser and greater fiend-devils he had encountered up to this point. For some reason, they seemed more powerful and noble than the others.

Back in the Demi-Immortal Institute, Yang Qi had studied some of the detailed information about various monsters. Right now, he did his best to recall that information.

'Because of the influence of the power of hell, fiend-devils have a very strict social structure. They are monsters that are born out of thin air, and are classified as lesser, greater, and noble fiend-devils. As for the fiend-devil nobility, they are broken up into barons, viscounts, counts, marquises, dukes, and princes. Their classification corresponds to their energy arts level. Greater fiend-devils are equivalent to Primary Lifeseizers. Fiend-devil barons include Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary Lifeseizers. Fiend-devil viscounts are Quinary and higher. Fiend-devil counts are Legendaries. Above them are the marquises, dukes, and princes. I wonder what level those things up there are.'

There were many types of monsters, including zombies, devil-ghosts with their spirit bodies, fiend-devils, bane-devils, blood-devils, heaven-devils, god-devils and many more.

Of all of those, fiend-devils were considered to have the purest bloodlines, as well as the strictest social order. They were very similar to humans in how they ran their society.

All of the various dimensions which connected to Fiend-Devil Island were run by different fiend-devils. There were no other types of monsters.

From what he could tell, the beasts on the mountain were far past the Quinary Lifeseizing level. Furthermore, he didn't sense any Legendary aura. That meant that the group contained Septenary, Octonary, and apparently at least one Nonary Lifeseizer, whose energy fluctuations were roughly on the same level as Holy Daughter Manyflowers.

Yang Qi was currently in Quinary Lifeseizing, and if he went absolutely all out, could probably hold his own against a Nonary expert. However, defeating such an opponent probably wouldn't be possible.

Nonary Lifeseizers were on the border of becoming Legendaries, and had profound understandings of the mysteries of heaven and earth, and the magical laws that existed therein.

Even with the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, Yang Qi still felt nervous about fighting someone on that level.

These five fiend-devils, the weakest of which was a Septenary Lifeseizer, maintained their perches on the five mountain peaks, trapping the humans between them.

As Yang Qi continued to observe the situation, he realized that the monsters weren't there in their true form, but rather, as Humanoid True Energy. Their true forms were likely hiding somewhere nearby, although he couldn't tell where.

The crafty fiend-devils had set things up so that launching an ambush would be very difficult.

'What do I do?' Yang Qi thought. He knew that he didn't have time to spare, and thus, his mind raced as he tried to come up with an idea.

RUMMMBLE!

The black-gold, egg-like shield trembled and shrank down a bit. From what Yang Qi could tell, it was some sort of energy art that would definitely be very dangerous to break through.

'My top priority is keeping my brother safe. Killing those monsters isn't as important. The best option would be to break into that spell formation and join forces with my brother. With me there to help, he'll be less likely to get hurt. And maybe we could buy time until more help arrives.'

Having made his decision, he circulated his true energy and became a white streak of light that shot directly toward the black-gold shield. He was now fully drawing upon his dao of the quick strike to try to breach the spell formation and rescue Jun Tianchou.

However, even as he neared, a vortex suddenly appeared on the black-gold shield, which sucked him in before he could react.

As soon as Yang Qi was inside, the five fiend-devil viscounts began to transmit a conversation with devilish sense.

"Viscount Kui, it looks like another righteous individual has been sucked into our devil formation. Although, I must say, this fellow looks particularly strong."

"Only a Legendary could hope to break free from our Preheaven Devil Formation. Everyone else will become fodder for our sacrifice."

Another powerful stream of devilish sense rumbled, "The more Lifeseizer humans we get, the better. For years these righteous humans have been invading Fiend-Devil Island to slaughter us. Now, the debt of blood will be paid in blood!"

"That's right, these humans are all from big sects. They're the best of the best from the institutes in the land. Killing them will certainly ease some of our angst."

"But what if the institutes get angry and attack us en masse?"

"Ah, what are you scared of? There are countless dimensional spaces on Fiend-Devil Island. Some are even controlled by exalted counts and dukes. Although they currently sleep, if the humans attack us en masse, we'll definitely end up slaughtering them. Humans won't dare to interfere in the affairs of god-devils."

The fiend-devils continued to confer amongst each other with devil sense.

'What a powerful spell formation,' Yang Qi thought. The black-gold true energy that crushed down on him caused his defensive true energy to creak ominously. Thankfully, his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth was the bane of wretch energy, and therefore, he wasn't very adversely affected.

Now that he was inside the spell formation itself, he saw something else, a shimmering light that looked like a cauldron, which was protecting all of the people inside. Then he glanced over at Jun Tianchou, and could see that his face was ashen, and his true energy was running dangerously low.

"Everyone, this is my sworn brother that I mentioned," Jun Tianchou said. "Brother, come over. We'll open the Flameking Cauldron for a moment to let you in." The cauldron flared with light, and the black-gold devil energy was momentarily dispelled.

Yang Qi allowed the light to grab him and pull him into the cauldron, whereupon the pressure he had felt moments ago vanished.

"You came so quickly, Brother," Jun Tianchou said, rushing forward to greet Yang Qi.

The glowing cauldron was the size of a small house, and was protecting everything inside it from the boundless devil light outside.

"Yeah. As soon as I got your message, I rushed over here without even stopping to rest." At this point, Yang Qi finally looked around at the others in the cauldron, and his eyes immediately flickered with shock.

There were fourteen people present, and all of them were higher than Quinary Lifeseizing. One of them was even an Octonary Lifeseizer, that one being the person operating the Flameking Cauldron.

There were men and women, and they all wore different styles of clothing, but from their haughty expressions, it was obvious they all came from large organizations. One of the experts was a young woman in Septenary Lifeseizing, who wore the long robes of the Sun Moon Institute. She was particularly beautiful, and wore dazzling, silver earrings that were decorated with phoenixes.

Shockingly, all of these people were conclave students.

And all of them were now sizing up Yang Qi.

At this point, the young woman from the Sun-Moon Institute snorted coldly and said, "Come on, Jun Tianchou, you really think this guy is going to save us? A Quinary Lifeseizer? You've basically just doomed him to die. This Preheaven Devil Formation is manned by five fiend-devil viscounts. Only a Legendary could possibly break it."

Clearly, this young woman was disappointed by the low level of Yang Qi's cultivation base.

"My brother isn't an ordinary person," Jung Tianchou said. "Not long ago, when he was only in Secondary Lifeseizing, he actually killed Jiao Wufeng with a single move." Looking at Yang Qi with no small level of disbelief, he continued, "Brother, you reached Quinary Lifeseizing already? How are you progressing so fast?"

Yang Qi nodded. "I encountered some good fortune, that's all."

The young woman with the earrings looked at Yang Qi, her eyes flickering with surprise. "You killed Jiao Wufeng when you were in Secondary Lifeseizing? How is that even possible? If that's the case, why don't you send some true energy into the Flameking Cauldron and see how long you can keep it going?

"Elder Brother Flame Clearspring, why don't you hand over the cauldron to Jun Tianchou's sworn brother for a moment, and see how strong he really is?"

1. There are tons and tons and tons of terms in Chinese for various ranks, titles, etc. The version of 'prince' mentioned here would traditionally have been a rank bestowed upon a male member of the royal or imperial house who was not actually a son of the king or emperor. That's not to say that the dictionary definition applies here. I just want to point out that it is a different word than a "bloodline" prince. Both terms will be used in various points throughout the story, so I will include footnotes to explain which version is being used.

2. I originally went back and forth a lot about whether to transliterate or translate this character's name. If I transliterated it, it would be Huo Qingquan. However, after reading further into the story, I decided to translate it, as there are certain clans and characters whose names are so uniquely tied to their cultivation or organization that they can't be taken as traditional names. In this case "Flame" should be treated like a family name, with "Clearspring" being his given name