Sage Monarch

All of a sudden, Great Sage Quake-Cloud was bathed in holy light, and his head grew back.

"Flesh and Blood Rebirth; Quake-Dawn God Magic!"

It was a powerful divine ability that only Great Sages could utilize. However, despite the fact that he had avoided death, Great Sage Quake-Cloud was completely terrified by what had just occurred, and lost all sense of courage. He had assumed that the sinister-looking old man with Yang Qi was a nobody. How could he ever have guessed that what he assumed was a bunny rabbit was actually a devil-dragon!?

After all, Ghost Emperor Yama had sealed his aura perfectly, making it seem that he was nothing more than a low-level Legendary. Although Legendaries were still looked up to, in the Demi-Immortal Institute, they weren't particularly noteworthy.

Nobody could ever have guessed that he was really a devil king from primeval times, someone who was tens of thousands of years old. He was someone who could destroy anything and everything, who could reduce the world to rubble.

In fact, a casual move on his part had destroyed the head of a Great Sage.

His cultivation base was so profound that Great Sage Quake-Cloud was too weak to even fight back.

And yet, Great Sage Quake-Cloud was still a Great Sage from a higher plane.

After regrowing his head, he shouted in rage as he summoned a field of millions upon millions of layers of blinding light. Instantly, the land began to quake, and the sea of clouds overhead was torn to pieces.

Buildings in the Demi-Immortal Institute began to crack and crumble to the ground, and subterranean spell formations were destroyed. The effects rapidly spread for dozens of kilometers, and as the buildings collapsed, students fled out into the open, screaming in shock and confusion.

Shouting, the chancellor waved his sleeve, sending out a stream of pure vital energy right in between Great Sage Quake-Cloud and Ghost Emperor Yama, hoping to stop them from fighting. At the same time, he sucked all of the students of the institute into his sleeve.

His sleeve contained an entire cosmos, and every living thing in the area was pulled to safety inside of it. In the end, the chancellor still wanted to keep the Demi-Immortal Institute safe.

"Anybody who gets in my way is dead!" Ghost Emperor Yama was enraged, and was absolutely determined to kill Great Sage Quake-Cloud, no matter who tried to stop him.

Even as the chancellor swished his sleeve, Ghost Emperor Yama roared in fury, causing the air to split open, and filling the area with rumbling sounds. At the same time, a massive rift opened up above the sea of clouds, surrounded by a spider web of cracks and tears. Instantly, tribulation fire, tribulation water, and tribulation wind began to descend. As they did, they became primal-chaos that threatened to turn the entire area into a sea of tribulation.

Even the Minorcosm World up in the clouds was threatened, and seemed like it might explode.

The burning sun overhead turned black, and the sunlight became streams of black flame.

Even the sun and moon were being devilized.

Ghost Emperor Yama stood there like the ultimate devil in heaven and earth, ready to spread his kingdom to cover the lands.

"Yama Sage Domain; Sun-Moon Devilization! Wherever I step, the world of man becomes a land of devils…."

His sage domain easily negated the stream of vital energy from the chancellor.

"If you try to stop me from killing this despicable twit, then I'll destroy the entire Demi-Immortal Institute!" Flames erupted from Ghost Emperor Yama's eyes, shooting up to engulf the Minorcosm World.

"Cosmic Reversal!" The chancellor shot up into the air to block Ghost Emperor Yama's fiery gaze, and then waved his sleeve again, sucking the massive Minorcosm World into it. At the same time, a host of stars appeared up above, which sent starlight streaming down through the sea of clouds with the power to demolish devils.

"Devil-Demolishing Legion of Stars? Complete crap! Watch and see what a ghost emperor can do! Devil-Completing Army of Stars!" BOOOOM! Innumerable streams of devil energy shot up to meet the starlight, and turn it completely black.

Meanwhile, the chancellor simply turned and left Ghost Emperor Yama's sphere of influence, seemingly uninterested at all in fighting him. Some distance away, he waved his sleeve again, sending the students of the institute out, where they quickly formed ranks. After all, his sleeve could contain them all, but couldn't necessarily keep them safe if he ended up in a protracted fight.

When he left the area of devil energy, Ghost Emperor Yama ignored him. Even he seemed to realize that the chancellor was profoundly mysterious, and was not someone to be casually trifled with. Turning, he once again faced Great Sage Quake-Cloud.

"You despicable beast. You insulted me, Ghost Emperor Yama, and the only way to pay for that is with your blood!"

His Yama Sage Domain quickly spread out to cover Great Sage Quake-Cloud, whose face fell dramatically. However, he still had backup techniques to try to protect himself.

"Sacrificial Instrumentation! Great God of Quake-Dawn, come to me!"

BOOOOM!

A space-time wormhole opened up, and the power of faith flowed forth. In the blink of an eye, and enormous god appeared behind Great Sage Quake-Cloud, a terrifying being who seemed capable of driving away all devil energy.

But all Ghost Emperor Yama did was walk forward, his eyes blazing with devilfire, the sky above him darkened by the black flames of the sun and moon. This was the might of a primeval devil king!

"The power of faith? Great God of Quake-Dawn? You think that will stop me? How very naive. Be destroyed!"

He then unleashed a fist strike that caused all heaven and earth to shake. In fact, it seemed capable of vanquishing the sea of stars itself.

The fist slammed into the Great God of Quake-Dawn, which immediately crumbled to pieces.

POP!

Great Sage Quake-Cloud coughed up a mouthful of blood as a gaping wound opened up on his torso, revealing his five viscera and six bowels, twitching and wriggling. "Time to go all out. Sage Domain; Kingdom of Clouds!"

White clouds spread out in all directions, which was none other than Great Sage Quake-Cloud's sage domain, filled with sage motes.

Shockingly, he was sacrificing his sage domain in an attempt to flee!

"You're delusional!" Ghost Emperor Yama said, taking another step forward. When his foot fell, black devil energy spread out from his foot and into the sea of clouds.

With the single stomp of his foot, he destroyed the massive sage domain. In fact, it shattered as easily as a chicken egg.

Great Sage Quake-Cloud flopped to the ground, and Ghost Emperor Yama walked over and began to trample him.

"I'm a Great Sage from the Quake-Dawn Cathedral!" the man screamed. "You can't kill me! You'll bring disaster on all these lands!"

"The reason I'm killing you is precisely because you're a Great Sage from the Quake-Dawn Cathedral! You people are the ones who sealed me for tens of thousands of years!" Ghost Emperor Yama reached out and grabbed Great Sage Quake-Cloud's head, causing it to burst into flames.

His screams could shake heaven and earth.

Off in the distance, the prime elders, grand elders, and numerous students of the institute were watching the scene play out.

All of them were trembling in fear; were it not for the chancellor's timely interference before, all of them would be dead already. Either that, or devilized by Ghost Emperor Yama.

"Chancellor, that's Ghost Emperor Yama! He's supposed to be sealed in the Heavencorpse Kingdom! He's free! Ghost Emperor Yama is free!"

"That's right. He's killing Great Sage Quake-Cloud!" one of the prime elders said. "We have to stop him! He's going to irreparably damage our relationship with the Quake-Dawn Cathedral. Chancellor, do something! Hurry!"

"I couldn't stop him even if I tried," the chancellor said coolly. "Ah, Yang Qi. Yet again I underestimated you. You actually brought Ghost Emperor Yama with you."

The masked Young Lady was also in the group. "Father, what are we going to do?"

"Let the Crown Prince sort things out. With Ghost Emperor Yama on Yang Qi's side, the prime elders can forget about punishing Yang Qi. The most important thing is to make sure Ghost Emperor Yama doesn't go on a killing spree. If he does, it will be a major disaster. I'll see if I can calm him down in a moment."

One agonized scream after another erupted from Great Sage Quake-Cloud's mouth.

The terrifying things that Ghost Emperor Yama was doing to him caused the people of the Demi-Immortal Institute to literally tremble in fear. A Great Sage was being killed right in front of their eyes.

Hardly any time had passed since Great Sage Quake-Cloud arrived in the Demi-Immortal Institute, at which time he had been treated with the utmost dignity and respect. But now, he was being burned alive.

Eventually the screams died away, and Great Sage Quake-Cloud's soul faded away.

The only thing that remained was a cloud of motes in Ghost Emperor Yama's hand. They looked almost like jade, and would feel completely pure and holy to anyone who touched them.

They were the ultimate manifestation of Great Sage Quake-Cloud's cultivation base, his sage motes.

Ghost Emperor Yama had killed a first step Great Sage as easily as if he had been eating breakfast. As of this moment, he truly seemed like a consummate devil king.

"Get over here, Yang Qi!" he said.

Yang Qi had been watching from the sidelines, observing the fight between these two Great Sages.

Upon being beckoned at by Ghost Emperor Yama, he nodded, flew over, and said, "Congratulations on your revenge, Ghost Emperor Yama. The death of a Great Sage will surely be a heavy loss for the Quake-Dawn Cathedral."

"Like hell it will," Ghost Emperor Yama replied. "He was only a first step Great Sage. His death will sting for them, but he's not crucially important. Listen, punk. These sage motes are the full manifestation of his cultivation base. Give me the cultivation technique for the Infernal Deity Spear, and you can have them, and achieve meteoric progress!"