Sage Monarch

Having reached the level of Sensing the Star God, Yang Qi could draw out the true flame of the sun itself, and use it to forge sword energy.

As his cultivation base grew more and more refined, his sword technique could become godlike, and even use true flame to create a cosmic flame palace. His blood could slowly become golden like the sun, until eventually, he could call himself the offspring of the sun.

Of course, his blood had already been purified to the point where it was like the color of porcelain. It was the blood of a god from heaven, which surpassed the blood of the sun. Therefore, he didn't need to use scorching hot true energy to transform his blood.

In fact, with the blood of the legion of gods, he could push his Cosmic Sunflare Sword technique to an even greater level of power, until it was also like something created by gods.

Doing that would be far more effective than improving it with a sun gem.

According to myth and legend, it was the legion of gods who had created the sun to begin with. After all, they were the sovereign lords of all, and had created everything.

Even as the fiery rain descended on the island of peach trees, incomparably frigid energy erupted from the spirit spring, becoming crystalline layers of ice that rose up to block the path of the sparks.

Considering how much frigid energy blanketed the island, it seemed like there must be something lurking in its depths that had been provoked into action.

Each spark within that fiery rain was hot enough to melt metal and pierce rock, and if it had actually landed onto the island, it would have been turned into slag, and all of the trees would have been destroyed.

That was one reason why Yang Qi had avoided carrying out this session of cultivation at the Demi-Immortal Institute.

If he had, it would have definitely been noticed, and worse, would probably have thrown the institute into chaos. And of course, people would have begun to investigate the reason for it all.

In contrast, he was free to do what he wished on this remote island. After all, with his life force springwater and abundance of vital energy, he wasn't worried about any problems cropping up. Furthermore, it seemed as though he actually ended up encountering even further good fortune.

As the frigid energy spewed out of the spring, it became like clouds of ice that blocked the intensely hot rain of sparks.

Cracking sounds rang out as the sparks hit the ice clouds. Not a single spark made it through; they were vanquished by the clouds, which slowly began to turn into dense mist.

At that point, Yang Qi waved his hand, causing the deluge of sparks to swirl together to form a fiery sword several dozen meters long, which he used to slash the ice clouds to bits.

Then, he sucked the sword energy into his dantian region, where it condensed down into a flame spark, floating amidst his true energy.

The most typical representation of Sensing the Star God was the ability to make a flame spark that represented the sun. Although it was miniscule, and constantly flickered as though it might be extinguished, it was actually formed from the true flame of the sun, and was itself like the soul of the sun.

"Disperse this mist!" He then unleashed his sword energy, causing golden, burning light to emerge, which transformed into fire flowers, fire trees, fire crows, fire birds, fire horses, fire qilins, fire dragons, fire humanoids, fire phoenixes, fire palaces and the like.

The fire then spread out through the island, dispelling the mists, and allowing the brilliant sunlight to shine down on it again.

Miraculously, none of the peach trees were burned, and in fact, they seemed to bloom even more spectacularly than before. Yang Qi's sword energy had truly reached the point of perfection; it was as if it had its own soul which governed its actions, and prevented it from blindly destroying everything in its path.

With the ice clouds and the mists driven away, the island almost seemed to be reborn. No more frigid energy pulsed out of the spirit stream, only spirit energy, which spread out to nourish the trees.

'There's something very strange about this spring!' Yang Qi looked into its depths, but could see nothing, so he finally sent out a stream of true energy to investigate.

Down, down the true energy went, finding no bottom.

Eventually, the water grew so cold that his true energy began to freeze up. And as he descended further and further down, the space widened.

At the mouth, the spring was only the size of a bowl, but down here, thousands of meters from the surface, it was already kilometers wide. In fact, it was wider than the island above, but did not contain sea water.

The water here was not like the sea water in the ocean. Sea water was salty, but this one was sweet and aromatic, and could liven the senses.

At a depth of roughly twelve thousand meters, the level of coldness was shocking, and Yang Qi's true energy was so frozen up that it could hardly move. Shaking his head, he bolstered his true energy directly with the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, allowing it to break through the ice like a boulder crushing a drinking glass. Soon, he was thirty-thousand meters down.

There, he saw successive layers of ice so solid that it couldn't possibly break or melt by any ordinary means. It was as hard as steel, and pulsed with such frigid energy that it could freeze virtually all other types of true energy. If it wasn't for his godly-class energy art, there was simply no way Yang Qi could sink his true energy to this depth.

Not even Nonary Lifeseizers like Holy Daughter Manyflowers could do so.

The layers of ice seemed endless, and as still as death, without any living things anywhere. Yang Qi's stream of true energy swept this way and that, which required a massive drainage of energy with every breath of time that passed. Thankfully, he had such boundless reserves that he could easily sustain such wastage.

'Why would there be a kingdom of ice at the bottom of a spirit spring? There must be something hiding in here. Otherwise, why would so much frigid energy have shot up to counter the rain of sparks?' As his true energy 'eyes' roved about, he suddenly realized that in the depths of the frozen waters was a baleful, fiendish energy that suddenly rose up as if to attack him.

'There it is!' Some distance away in the depths of the ice was an enormous ice dragon.

It was hundreds of meters long, and it seemed capable of moving through the layers of ice with no effort at all. It was a deep azure blue, and almost looked like a statue of jade or stone, pulsing with boundless frigid energy.

'An ice dragon? A real dragon?'

Real live dragons were nothing to be taken lightly. For the most part, they only existed in mythological stories of the distant past. Even Legendaries would immediately retreat in the face of such a beast.

The most powerful creatures in modern times were floodwyrms, not dragons, the two of which were different on a substructural level.

Shockingly, in the depths of this spirit spring, far beneath the island of peach trees, was a kingdom of ice, within which lurked an actual ice dragon.

'Hold on. No, it's not a true dragon, it's a sword! A divine sword!' Although Yang Qi's true energy seemed like it was about to be defeated, it was at that moment that, as he sat above on the island next to the mouth of the spring, he said, "Hell-crushing godmammoths can sweep away heavenly bodies, and inhale suns and moons!"

All of the true energy within him shot toward the spring, causing the stream of true energy which descended down to transform into something like the trunk of a mammoth.

The image of a godlike being appeared above him, with an elephantine head and a human body, whose trunk seemed capable of absorbing any and all treasure which might exist in the depths of the spring.

As for the dragon, Yang Qi could see through to its true form, which was a long sword roughly a meter long, dark green in color, almost as if it were forged from jade. Its aura was no less powerful than the crab-like fiend-devil he had fought recently. As for the ice dragon, it was merely the manifestation of the frigid energy that emanated from the sword itself.

It was a divine sword that already had its own spirit; apparently, it was lurking in the depths of this spring as it grew stronger. It was almost like some consummate demon-devil hiding away practicing personal cultivation.

'What an incredible sword….' Yang Qi thought. 'Amazing. I've never seen a sword such as this before. I wonder what mighty expert left it here, sealed in this spring, feeding on the layers of ancient ice, never to be seen in the outside world? I have to get it! If I combined it with my Cosmic Sunflare Sword technique, the complementary aspects of fire and ice would make it so powerful that I could dominate the world of energy artists.'

Yang Qi immediately started to get excited.

However, it was a very powerful sword, located in a mysterious kingdom of ice. Even a Legendary would probably have trouble subduing it. All Yang Qi could do at the moment was use his true energy to struggle with the sword, hopefully subdue it, and then reel it out from the depths. Obviously, he couldn't enter the depths of the spring with his fleshly body.

And that would significantly limit the strength he could use.

Obviously, this wasn't a naturally occurring phenomenon. Some almighty expert must have left the sword there, someone who was likely a Legendary.

The massive trunk of true energy that Yang Qi controlled stretched into the depths of the mysterious kingdom of ice, and then headed directly toward the ice dragon.

As for the dragon, it looked over disdainfully and then attacked the true energy trunk.