Sage Monarch

'Damnation. With the spell formation broken, nearby experts are definitely going to notice what's happening.' Although Yang Qi was frustrated, there was nothing he could do about what had happened.

Taking a deep breath, he began to strike the portal even more quickly than before.

He used every imaginable martial discipline, and held nothing back in terms of true energy. As he did, signs of damage finally appeared on the surface of the Space Portal.

However, as the old saying went, a centipede does not stop wriggling even after being stomped on. From within the depths of the portal, spatial power seeped out in an attempt to repair the damage.

It even sent stifling pressure down onto Yang Qi.

It seemed to be fighting directly against his soul, to the point where, even if he opened the portal and survived, it would still do everything possible to hurt him.

Of course, that was only natural. When a Legendary tackled a higher level, they needed to go all out and never shrink back. If they succumbed to the backlash from magical law, they would either be injured so badly they could never achieve their breakthrough, or they would be killed, and their spiritual and physical souls would disperse.

WOOOOSH!

As Yang Qi intensified his efforts, shadowy figures could be seen flying into the area and looking down at the enormous Space Portal, all of them clad in yellow garments.

All of them picked places that were safe from the spatial fluctuations, and some even used magical treasures to summon true energy shields of protection. As they settled down onto mountain peaks in the area and saw what was happening, their expressions flickered dramatically.

"That Space Portal is huge!"

"Someone is gaining enlightenment of the third Legendary transformation!"

"Even when I broke into the sixth transformation, I didn't provoke such a reaction from the magical laws of space." The highest ranking member of this newly arrived group was a Personal-Domain Legendary, but even he was shocked by what he was seeing.

"When I broke into the Space-Void Transformation, my Space Portal was about as tall as myself, but even then, I wasn't able to open it. I had to use that Space Piercing Immortal Pill to do it."

"What do we do?" another of the experts said. "These Spirit Origin Mountains are ours, but here's some outsider experiencing tribulation as he tries to achieve a breakthrough. Should we capture him? Hand him over to the grand elders of law enforcement? Or should we just kill him on the spot?"

"Hold on," the leader said. "It's not like we can attack him now. You're going to walk into the middle of that tribulation? With spatial tempests like that, not even my personal domain would protect me. Let's wait until the Elder Brothers arrive, then we can decide what to do."

Before long, more waves of power filled the mountains as additional forces arrived. The highest ranking person among them was a young man in a golden crown and robe, whose eyes radiated golden light. Although he held no weapon in his hand, his aura revealed him to be a Never-Dying Legendary.

Behind him were three other experts, one of them an Astral-Star Legendary, the other two in the Ghost-God Transformation. From the high and mighty way they carried themselves, it was obvious that they believed themselves to be superior to everyone present.

"What's going on here?" asked the young man in gold.

"Elder Brother, someone is borrowing the power of our spirit lodes to achieve a breakthrough right here in Spirit Origin Association territory. Sir, look at that Space Portal. It's huge! You can tell that this person doesn't have a very high cultivation base, and yet look at how shocking the tribulation is. He must be someone important."

"Space Portal…." The young man in gold licked his lips, and his gaze turned sharp. "It is big. I wonder how strong this guy will be if he breaks through. Even the successive patriarchs of our Spirit Origin Association never had Space Portals this large during their breakthroughs."

"What are your orders, Elder Brother? What do we do?"

"It doesn't matter what happens, we have to take him captive. He's trying to break through in our territory, and is using our spirit lodes. That's a big crime, something he can't explain away no matter where he's from." Deep within this young man's eyes was a trace of jealousy and greed.

Any observant person would be able to tell that Yang Qi was not a person to be easily trifled with. However, that meant that he most likely had very valuable loot on him.

Although this young man in gold was an arrogant fellow, how could he not feel jealousy upon meeting someone stronger than him?

"Alright, we're going to take him captive right now," the young man said. "Activate the spell formation, and I'll personally break through the spatial tempests. He's a mere Spirit-Soul Legendary, so I don't have anything to fear from him."

Before anyone could do anything, Yang Qi's voice echoed out from within the spatial tempests. "Ladies and gentlemen, please, hold on a moment! I can compensate you for the spirit energy I used for my breakthrough. Here, I got these demon cores from fiend-devils I killed out in the void. This should make up for your losses. After I achieve my breakthrough, I promise to owe your Spirit Origin Association a favor!"

With that, six demon cores flew out of the spatial tempests.

Several of the nearby experts reached out to grab the demon cores, which pulsed with burning auras. Strictly speaking, these were actually devil cores from the bronzeblaze fiend-devil's Yang Qi had killed.

"Incredible!" one of the Ghost-God Legendaries said as he realized that it was a devil core from an Astral-Star bronzeblaze fiend-devil.

"Bronzeblaze fiend-devils have particularly strong life force!" one of the Ghost-God Legendaries said. "Even if we dispatched two or three experts of the same level, they still wouldn't be able to kill a fiend-devil like that. And this guy says he killed them and took their devil cores? No way! In any case, these are definitely valuable enough to make up for the damage to the spirit lodes. Elder Brother, what do you think? This guy doesn't bear us any ill will, and he even took the initiative to offer compensation. He also says that he'll owe us a favor. I'd say that's enough to establish his sincerity. Wouldn't it be a bit overbearing to attack him now?"

The young man in gold looked down at Yang Qi with bare killing intent. "Ah, what are you scared of? He's just afraid of us! He's obviously the kind of person who likes to defy the law, and now he's trying to buy time so that he can break open the Space Portal. Look, I don't care what he said. We can't let him succeed. Everybody, attack him now and make sure he fails!"

In the blink of an eye, an enormous, golden swordbreaker appeared in the young man's hand, which shone with dazzling golden light. It emitted a drone that sounded like the rumbling of volcanoes, and emanated fluctuations that seemed capable of destroying the sky.

"Elder Brother!" one of the Astral-Star Legendaries said. "You're going to use the Heaven-Dominating Golden Swordbreaker?! Are you trying to kill him? This is bad! What happens if he's somebody important? There's a hell monsoon out there, and countless experts of the Quake-Dawn Continent are outside fighting. What if this guy is a genius from some powerful sect who got wounded in the fighting? If we kill him, couldn't it cause a big disaster?"

"It doesn't matter. Whatever downsides there are to killing him, the upsides will outweigh them." Burning killing intent erupted from the young man's eyes as he prepared to enter the spatial tempests and kill Yang Qi.

His golden swordbreaker was a powerful magical treasure from primeval times, something similar to the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, and thus, he felt completely confident in being able to come out on top.

Just as the young man was about to attack, a voice could be heard from off in the distance as more experts arrived.

"Stay your hand!" said a young man in a long blue robe, who emanated the fluctuations of the Never-Dying Transformation. "Jin Zhenyun! Stop causing trouble. He's no enemy; he's already made it clear he has good intentions. There's no place for you to be so unforgiving here. Our Spirit Origin Association is one of the three thousand righteous and orthodox daoist sects. We don't do things like this. Besides, if word got out, it would be very damaging to our reputation."

"This is my business, Lan Tianbo. What right do you have to interfere? Nobody can tell me what to do! Who do you think you are? A Half Sage? A Great Sage? Even if you were a Half Sage, you still wouldn't qualify to boss me around. I only give face to Great Sages!"

Flying forward to block Jin Zhenyun's path to Yang Qi, Lan Tianbo said, "Regardless, taking advantage of someone in a moment of danger, especially one who has shown us good will, violates the spirit of the rules of our Spirit Origin Association!"

Both of them looked at each other and snorted coldly.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi's assault on the Space Portal grew more intense. Each of his blows was backed by the power of three hundred thousand ancient megamammoths, making him like the incarnation of a god-spirit, capable of shaking the starry sky and causing the sun and moon to tremble.

The power of the Space Portal was waning, and more cracks were spreading out over its surface. Everyone present could see that it was almost done for.

The power of the spatial tempests in the area swept back and forth, destroying the local terrain.

"Back up!" someone shouted. Many of the experts did just that. However, the low-ranking leader, the Personal-Domain Legendary, apparently wanted to use the power of his personal domain to try to advance. Unfortunately, he ended up being struck by a bolt of lightning, causing him to cough up blood.

Falling back, he pulled out a handful of medicinal pills, which he swallowed. "Not even my personal domain can deal with the fluctuations of that Space Portal. If he succeeds, how powerful will he be? He's not human! He's even stronger than a bronzeblaze fiend-devil! His substructure surpasses anything from the Quake-Dawn Continent. In fact, I don't think higher planes like the Dragon-Snake Continent have people this strong."

Everyone was completely surprised by what they were seeing.

It was in that moment that Jin Zhenyun hefted his Heaven-Dominating Golden Swordbreaker and dodged past Lan Tianbo. Golden light spilled out from the swordbreaker, parting the spatial tempests to allow him to blur toward Yang Qi. As he closed in, he sent his swordbreaker flying toward Yang Qi's head with the force to shatter mountains.

"Die!"

1. There are many types of swordbreakers. This Chinese variety is almost like a club or cudgel. .

2. Jin Zhenyun: Jin is a common surname which also means "gold". Zhen means "true, real" and Yun means "cloud". His surname matches both his clothing and the weapon he uses.

3. Lan Tianbo: Lan is a common surname which also means "blue". Tian means "heaven, sky" and Bo means "ripple, fluctuation, wave". His surname matches his clothing.