Sage Monarch

The insufferably arrogant King Delirium had been struck down by a single blow. Now he lay amidst a heap of rubble, his face completely ashen as he coughed up blood.

The people in the crowd were having a hard time believing their eyes.

Yang Qi had moved too quickly for anyone to see clearly, and in fact, faster than many of them could think. Before anyone could react, his target was on the ground, seriously injured.

"Trash like you doesn't deserve to challenge my dignity," Yang Qi said, brushing his hands together as if to clean them of dust. "How dare you compare yourself to me. I'm the captain here. If anyone doesn't like that, then they can join King Delirium in the dust."

King Delirium was many levels higher than Yang Qi, and yet had ended up crushed. To the spectators, it was as shocking as having watched an ant felling an elephant.

"Bastard!" King Delirium spat as he crawled out from the rubble. His complexion was ashen, but his eyes were shining bright red. "How dare you hit me like that! Fine, I guess I'll show you my top secret magic. Grand Delirium!"

Waving his hand through the air in front of him, he caused a string of mysterious symbols to appear, which formed into various hexagramic and heptagonic spell arrays, all of which emanated an aura of delirium.

"Come forth, Delirium Blade!"

WHIZZZ!

An aura that resembled that of tortured gods could be heard as a divine weapon appeared within the spell arrays. It was hard to say whether it was an actual magical treasure, or formed from true energy. However, it seemed to pulse with such an aura of delirium that anyone who looked at it would sense their vision blurring.

"That's the Delirium Blade! From what I've heard, it's an energy art created by Great Sage Delirium himself, and is one of the most powerful secret magics there is. That weapon can kill the most powerful experts, and at the same time, cause everyone within five hundred kilometers to turn into delirious beasts."

"Considering King Delirium acquired the legacy of a Great Sage, and reached this level of cultivation, it's little wonder he's furious. He's definitely going to kill that guy."

"Yeah, after being knocked down like that, it would be strange if he didn't get angry. It's too much of a loss of face. Without killing that kid, he'll never recover his dignity."

"Prepare to die!" King Delirium shouted, swinging the Delirium Blade back and forth through the air as he strode forward. The vital energy in the area was sliced to pieces by the blade, which was so powerful that it was surrounded by the image of deliriously dancing devil-ghosts.

"Crazed Devil Chaos Blade! Grand Cleaving!"

A blade nimbus from King Delirium's weapon surrounded Yang Qi, making it seem like King Delirium was just about to achieve his goal of killing him.

Everyone present looked on, eagerly awaiting Yang Qi's response. After all, because no one had been able to clearly see what happened earlier, they assumed that Yang Qi had knocked down King Delirium by unexpectedly using some sort of magical treasure. Now that King Delirium was attacking with force that bordered on the level of a Great Sage, everyone was very curious to see if Yang Qi could hold up.

Bam!

Yang Qi reached out with his hand and stopped the blade's motion. Not only did it not cut him, he actually forced it to a complete standstill. That blade was unimaginably sharp, and yet it couldn't even cut Yang Qi's skin.

"Look!" a female mercenary cried. "He actually used his bare hand to stop the Delirium Blade! How strong could his fleshly body be?"

"What?! His bare hand!? Are you sure?"

C-C-CRACK! The Delirium Blade shattered into countless fragments, which then became a virtual storm of vital energy.

Scarcely able to believe his eyes, King Delirium began to back away.

However, Yang Qi lunged toward him, reaching out with his hand, a move that caused a black hole to spring up that shattered King Delirium's armor.

"Grand Delirium Detonation!" King Delirium shouted, drawing on even more explosive energy arts, causing his long black hair to whip about like enormous snakes. "Let's see whose attack is the strongest. DIE!"

Not even bothering to see what the man would throw at him next, Yang Qi just stepped forward and unleashed another fist strike.

Even before Yang Qi's fist reached King Delirium, Space-Void Godlightning appeared, slamming down onto the surrounding mountains, shattering the boulders into even more rubble. At the same time, thousands of black holes sprang into being, causing the trumpeting of ancient megamammoths to fill the air.

AAAAOOOWWWW! AAAAOOOWWWW! AAAAAAOOOOOWWWWWW!

Anyone who heard that sound would think they were hearing something from the primeval Yore-Wilds. It was a sound so powerful that it was suffocating by nature, and weighed down on the souls of all present.

BOOM!

Yang Qi's fist was like an iron-clad expression of the wrath of the gods. It completely vanquished King Delirium's energy flows, then hit his head, smashing it like a watermelon.

Roar! Before the man's flesh and blood could pull back together, Yang Qi took a step forward and ripped the rest of him to pieces, then sent raging flame out that, to the utter shock of everyone present, burned him away into nothing. Cries of anguish echoed out at first, but then faded away.

Eventually, the only thing left was a bag, King Delirium's dimensional sack, which was surely filled with all sorts of treasures, including spirit stones.

King Delirium had been a famous bandit, and thus, had unimaginable riches. Yang Qi could sense that there were sagely-grade spirit stones in the sack, and yet, he just tucked it away without looking at it. Feeling very pleased with himself, he looked around at the other mercenaries.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this Pan Yong refused to follow orders from me, so I was forced to execute him. Is there anyone else out there who doesn't admit that I should be in charge? The Grand-Wilds Mansion appointed me as the captain of this. As a guest elder, I have ultimate say regarding what happens in the Rich-Lush Continent. If anyone disagrees with that, we can talk it over right here and now."

"I'm on board!" someone said.

Yang Qi looked over to see a rather lazy-looking young man in white. He seemed the type of person who was too lazy to take anything seriously, and yet, emanated fluctuations that made him seem far more mysterious to Yang Qi than the so-called King Delirium had.

"You're definitely stronger than average, friend," the young man continued. "Considering you ripped King Delirium to shreds, I'd say you definitely deserve to be our captain. In this world, we respect strength above all else."

"Friend, might I ask your honored surname and distinguished given name?" Yang Qi asked.

"Oh, you can just call me Chaoguang," the young man said casually.

"I'm on board too," said a burly man with long sideburns, and a thunderbolt longsaber. He was none other than the man who had called himself Blademaster Thunderbolt moments ago.

"I'm in as well, Captain."

More and more voices joined in. After all, these people had come to earn money, not fight amongst themselves. Now that Yang Qi had proven how strong he was, they all approved of him.

"Fine. Let's head to the Rich-Lush Continent." Yang Qi had killed King Delirium for the very purpose of establishing his authority, and obviously, it had worked. He could only imagine how shocked the people at the Demi-Immortal Institute would be when he returned leading a group like this. He now commanded a group even more powerful than the Crown Prince Society.

In fact, if these mercenaries actually followed his orders, then not even the Chancellor could stand up to him. And what could the Crown Prince possibly count for? Nothing. These were top experts from the Quake-Dawn Continent, which was a higher plane of existence than the Rich-Lush Continent. Even in the Quake-Dawn Continent, these people would be considered an invincible force. After all, among the dozens of mercenaries, there were at least seven or eight Half Sages, with the rest being Never-Dying Legendaries.

As of this moment, Yang Qi could truly call the wind and summon the rain.

He could already imagine the looks of shock on the faces of the elders in the Demi-Immortal Institute when they saw him.

Of course, gaining the complete allegiance of a bunch of mercenaries wasn't going to be easy. Yang Qi could only hope that the journey through the wormhole to the Rich-Lush Continent would provide some opportunities to make these people his true subordinates.

"Very well," Overseer Heavenwood said. "Now that everything is settled, and you've agreed on your captain, the time has come to depart. Remember, you may run into other mercenary squads in the Rich-Lush Continent, so be prepared." Of course, Overseer Heavenwood didn't care at all that King Delirium had been killed. To him, everyone present, even Yang Qi, was little more than cannon fodder.

Hefting his saber, Blademaster Thunderbolt loudly said, "What about the wormhole? Why haven't you opened it yet? I'm very curious about this lower plane that is the Rich-Lush Continent. I've never been to a place with a curved heaven and flat earth."

"The wormhole is being opened even as we speak!" Overseer Heavenwood waved his finger toward the center of the valley, causing rumbling sounds to echo out from a formation of stalagmites which rose up from among the rubble. Within them was a spell formation, powered by spirit stones, which ripped open a hole in the void, causing a wormhole to appear.

Wormholes were like tunnels eaten into space by enormous, archaean worms. They twisted and turned through the spatial tempests, connecting different planes of existence. Unfortunately, they were often unstable, and as they were battered by spatial tempests, always ran the risk of collapsing.

However, that didn't seem to bother the mercenaries. They all knew that wormholes were inherently unstable, and that anything could happen when traversing them. There was little to be done about it, and they were the only way to quickly travel between planes. Even Great Sages could exhaust themselves to death trying to get to other planes by traveling the long way.

After all, the spatial tempests outside of wormholes often contained spatial beasts and hobgoblins, as well as hell monsoons, naturally occurring spell formations, magnetic fields, heavenly tribulations, vital energy tempests, and other dangers.

Compared to all that, wormholes were definitely the safest way to travel.

After the wormhole was opened, Yang Qi took the lead. The time had come to return to the Rich-Lush Continent.

1. Chaoguang: Chao means "exceed, surpass, transcend, go beyond, as well as ultra-, super-, extra-, etc". Guang means "light, ray, honor, glory, brightness". Because of how the Chinese language works, a Chinese reader would have no way to know if this is supposed to be a surname, a given name, or a combination of both. If it was a combination, it would be Chao Guang, with Chao being the surname and Guang being the given name. Unfortunately, English doesn't allow for such ambiguousness, so you get a mini-spoiler in that you know that this is his given name. This is obviously the same young man who was introduced in . If you remember, he used an ability called Super-Luminous Godfist, in which the "super-luminous" contains the same characters as this name. Furthermore, the author repeatedly emphasizes that he seems "lazy", both in the original introduction and now. There is a further clue about his name/surname if you go back to read , or happen to remember the details of that chapter.