Sage Monarch

"True siblings, one and all!" Yang Qi's heart swelled with gratitude to see all of his sworn siblings coming to stand with him and face death. "With brothers and sisters like this, I, Yang Qi, have gained the blessing of three lifetimes, and could die nine times without regret."

Everyone present in the arena could hear his words as clear as day.

This was heroism that towered to the sky, and caused the blood to pump with passion.

In fact, the members of the Crown Prince Society in the arena had all fallen silent. They were regarded as the most powerful society in all the lands, with more experts than the sky had clouds, and therefore, Yang Qi and his sworn siblings were like nothing compared to them. However, not a single member could so much as chuckle at what they were seeing. All of them could sense the hot-blooded heroism on display, a strength that could conquer every obstacle. Furthermore, the term 'sworn sibling' contained profound meaning.

The Crown Prince Society had a huge membership, strict rules, and a complex seniority system. However, there was always intense competition between members, and definitely no sense of brotherhood which would prompt a given member to stand with another member the way that Yang Qi's sworn siblings were standing with him. If a member was facing death like this, others would look down on him as being weak. They were fine teaming up to defeat enemies, but if anyone too powerful came along, they would scatter.

Right here and now, nineteen Lifeseizers were taking a stand against the Crown Prince. In fact, the members of the Crown Prince Society almost couldn't believe it. It struck fear into their hearts, not because they suddenly felt themselves weak, but rather, they realized they lacked cohesion. There was no passionate sense of brotherhood among any of them.

After all, the Crown Prince was someone who could dominate even ten Legendaries fighting together. To many people, he was literally invincible, and also the most important person in existence. It was even said that he would eventually unite the Rich-Lush Continent and become the Son of Heaven.

'How come Yang Qi has so many sworn siblings?' That was what virtually all of the Legendary grand elders were thinking.

"That's… that's Flame Clearspring!" one of the elders said. "The son of the pontifex of the Tabernacle of Flame! He's willing to live and die with Yang Qi? He's standing with him against the Crown Prince?"

"And look at that! Isn't that the ninth son of the houselord of the House of Spring and Autumn?"

"Those three are from the Soaring Clan. In the distant past, they had a Great Sage. How could the pride of the Soaring Clan be sworn brothers with Yang Qi?"

"That's nothing. Look. She's Hua Fengfeng. Her father is Hua Tianxiong from the Sun Moon Institute. I've heard that he's the Junior Brother of the chancellor there. He's already reached the ninth Legendary transformation, making him a Never-Dying Legendary. There's a definite possibility that he'll end up becoming a Great Sage."

"Ah, no wonder Hua Piaomiao forfeited her match against Yang Qi earlier."

"Did you notice that Meng Qingshan and Zhao Wuhun are there? They're both from a big organization. The House of Martial Saints is no less impressive than the House of Spring and Autumn or the Tabernacle of Flame!"

"And then there's Ji Xiaoman and Ji Xiaorong. Their father and mother are Legendary grand elders from the Sun Moon Institute!"

"Look, Jun Tianchou and Li Zhengdao from the Sea God Institute are there too. This is incredible."

Although the people surrounding Yang Qi were only Lifeseizers, they all had impressive backgrounds. Probably the most impressive was Hua Fengfeng's father, who was in the ninth Legendary transformation, and seemed likely to become a Great Sage. Although he wasn't as famous as the Crown Prince, he was still an enigmatic and widely respected figure.

Together, Yang Qi's sworn siblings were a very impressive collection of people, and many people in the audience were wondering how a country bumpkin from Yanhaven could possibly gain such support.

All of a sudden, the Crown Prince looked at Yang Qi and his sworn siblings with a gaze that caused the fighting arena to twist and distort.

"You think your little gang has what it takes to stand up to me?" he said. "Are you all suicidal?"

Yang Qi could sense powerful vibrations that seemed to indicate he and his friends were about to be extracted to another location.

'Nightfall Symphony!' Sword energy erupted, causing a defensive canopy of nightfall to surround him and his sworn siblings.

However, the powerful gaze quickly ate through the sword technique and then pierced into Yang Qi. As for his sworn siblings, they simply couldn't react in time. This gaze of the Crown Prince was so powerful that, if he wanted to, he could use it alone to wipe them out of existence.

"You think that getting the help of your so-called sworn siblings qualifies you to defy me? I think not."

By means of his gaze alone, the Crown Prince then lifted Yang Qi up into the air. "Since you refuse to cripple yourself, I'll step in and do it for you. And your friends won't be able to do a thing about it."

Crack! Snap!

Intense fluctuations rolled out that caused his meridians to tremble violently, his sea of energy to dry up, and the true energy vestiges in his acupoints to rattle on the verge of exploding.

The Crown Prince seemed just as strong as Ghost Emperor Yama, to the point where Yang Qi simply couldn't stand up to him.

'Time to go for broke!' With that, Yang Qi prepared to call upon the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. His plan? To loosen the God-Devil Seal, and use his Infernal Deity Plate Armor, Infernal Deity Spear and Hellfire Crucible. In this life-or-death moment, there was no way that he could hold back.

But then, in that very moment before he took action, the God Legion Seal in his forehead stirred.

Boundless power erupted from his forehead, moving with indescribable speed as it destroyed the power of the Crown Prince's gaze and then shot into Yang Qi's sea of energy.

Yang Qi felt immense power building up in him, and at the same time, heard a faint voice speaking to him. "Who can possibly harm he who has been blessed by the legion of gods, and inscribed with the God Legion Seal…?"

Rumble! BOOOOOOOM!

The area around Yang Qi exploded, sending out a shockwave of energy. Moments ago, the Crown Prince's gaze had been surrounding Yang Qi almost like a sphere, but then, that sphere exploded, and Yang Qi dropped to the ground.

"Brother, are you alright?" his sworn siblings asked as they clustered around him.

"Crown Prince," Flame Clearspring said, "if you want to hurt our brother, you'll have to walk over our corpses to do so!"

"I'm fine," Yang Qi said, his true energy surging. The golden imp in his forehead had neutralized the Crown Prince's gaze, and then bolstered Yang Qi's true energy. His Hellfire Crucible was now bubbling with so much power than he knew that he could break into Septenary Lifeseizing at any moment.

"What's this?" the Crown Prince murmured, taking a step forward. Never could he have guessed that his gaze would be neutralized in such a miraculous fashion. He had assumed that he would simply cripple this Yang Qi and be done with the matter, only to find that his intended victim actually had access to some mysterious power.

"It's time to go all out, isn't it?" Zhao Wuhun said, his gaze sharpening. "Brothers and sisters, we might not be able to win this fight, but there's no way we can just stand here and be humiliated. Anyone who insults our brother shall die. Either him, or us!"

"Attack!"

"Kill whoever insults our brother!"

All of Yang Qi's sworn siblings drew their weapons and called upon their most powerful techniques. An enormous flaming phoenix formed from true energy appeared behind Hua Fengfeng. It was the color of blood, and it was singing a song of incredible beauty and power.

"Opus of the Phoenix! She's burning her life force to gain power!" someone blurted.

The Crown Prince took another step forward. "You think that because you have impressive backgrounds I won't cut you people down? No one in heaven or earth would dare to defy the Crown Prince!"

All of a sudden, a vertical eye opened up on his forehead.

"The Rage Eye!" someone said.

"Not good!" another echoed.

In accompaniment with the two voices, two powerful auras flared to life. Meanwhile, a beam of dazzling light shot out of the Crown Prince's third eye, furious, burning light that shot forth toward Yang Qi and his sworn siblings.

Shockingly, the Crown Prince was ignoring the powerful backers of this group, and was actually attempting to burn them all alive.

Considering how intensely hot the light was, Yang Qi knew that it was a very bad situation, and immediately stepped forward to try to block it from harming his friends.

However, that was when two blurs arrived, figures who thrust their hands out to meet the incoming attack.

"Thousand Autumns!"

"Sagefire!"

Both figures were tall and muscular, and pulsed with incredible auras. One looked like a middle-aged Confucian scholar, and the other was wreathed in flame-like robes. As for the scholar, his true energy transformed into a tome that pulsed with an aura of civilization and culture, which blocked part of the incoming flame attack.

The man in the robe of flames unleashed a beam of sagefire, to literally fight fire with fire.

Their combined true energy smashed into the Rage Eye attack, causing deafening rumbling sounds to echo out, and shaking the arena so violently that many students feared it would collapse beneath their feet.

"These are children, Crown Prince," the Confucian scholar said. "Why are you using your Rage Eye? Are you really trying to kill them all?"

"That's right, Crown Prince," the man in the flame robes said. "Squabbling with them is unbefitting of your status."

"Houselord Spring-Autumn. Pontifex Flame." The Crown Prince's Rage Eye closed, vanishing as though it had never existed to begin with. "You interfered because your sons are present, correct? But this Yang Qi broke rules that I instituted. How can I maintain any face without killing him? Don't tell me that the House of Spring and Autumn and the Tabernacle of Flame are really going to defy me?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" House Lord Spring-Autumn said. "Are you really dead set on causing problems for my son? I watched the entire competition, and didn't see Yang Qi break a single rule. He even took first place. You're a holy neophyte of the Demi-Immortal Institute. If you picked the first place winner ahead of time, and then fixed the competition, doesn't that mean you've blasphemed against the four great institutes?!"

1. Hua Tianxiong's name was explained already in