Sage Monarch

If there was any hope that Hua Tianxiong could be brought back to life, Yang Qi would do his best to make it happen. Having a powerful expert like Ghost Emperor Yama on his side was turning out to be very useful. Without him, dealing with the chancellor earlier wouldn't have been so easy.

Right now, Yang Qi planned to save Hua Tianxiong, and then call all of his sworn siblings and clan relatives together. Then, he would do everything in his power to make sure everyone achieved major progress.

Furthermore, he wanted to know more about the unsuccessful attempt Hua Tianxiong and Young Master Shroud-Heaven had made on the Crown Prince's life. For example, exactly how strong was the Crown Prince now? He absolutely needed to know that.

At the moment, Ghost Emperor Yama could hardly contain his excitement, and wanted nothing more than to bring Hua Tianxiong back to life so that he could get the rest of the scripture Yang Qi had just tantalized him with.

As time went by, Ghost Emperor Yama was becoming more and more convinced of how strong Yang Qi was. The fact that the chancellor of the Demi-Immortal Institute was so leery of making a move on him only seemed to confirm that tangling with the God Legion Seal was too dangerous.

Thanks to the tens of thousands of years he had been imprisoned, Ghost Emperor Yama was actually a very patient person. He knew that he had plenty of time to deal with Yang Qi, and that being short-sighted would be a mistake. The fact that Yang Qi had his God Legion Seal indicated that he was definitely no ordinary individual, and that he had mighty powers backing him. In fact, Ghost Emperor Yama was beginning to believe that Yang Qi was truly favored by the heavens, and that he had some unique destiny. Even he trembled at the thought of the legion of gods.

As such, he was beginning to abandon thoughts of somehow forcing Yang Qi's godly-class energy art out of him. If Yang Qi truly was connected to the will of the gods, then harming him would mean blaspheming against the legion of gods.

Considering how high Ghost Emperor Yama's cultivation base was, he had something of an understanding of the will of heaven, and mysterious principles of the universe.

And because of that, he was fairly certain that the will of heaven had touched Yang Qi.

Yang Qi and Ghost Emperor Yama were both capable of incredible speed, and therefore, the Rich-Lush Continent actually felt like a small place to them. It didn't take them long to reach the Sun Moon Institute which was similar to the Demi-Immortal Institute in that it was filled with pavilions, pagodas, ancient temples, and beautiful scenery.

Upon arriving at the main gate, Yang Qi raised his voice and said, "People of the Sun Moon Institute, it's me, Yang Qi. I've come to offer formal greetings and discuss an important matter."

In response to his voice, the Sun Moon Institute began to glow with shining light, as streams of true energy rose into the sky that resembled golden, silver, and azure snakes. It was the manifestation of a spell formation, which, in the shortest of times, locked down the entire institute.

"What's going on here?" Yang Qi said, frowning. Something seemed very strange.

At this point, a group of individuals appeared, wearing long robes decorated with suns and moons, with golden crowns on their heads. Unexpectedly, these were the holy neophytes of the Sun Moon Institute.

"Yang Qi," one of them said, "you're no longer welcome here in the Sun Moon Institute. There's nothing for us to discuss with each other."

"Open the spell formation," Yang Qi said. "I've come to bring Uncle Hua Tianxiong back to life."

At this point, a woman appeared, who was none other than Hua Tianxiong's wife, Yan Chenxing.

"Just leave, Yang Qi," she said, her face a mask of fury. "The Crown Prince is a Great Sage now. He has the support of the Quake-Dawn Cathedral, and the only thing left of Hua Tianxiong is a discarnate soul. Not even the chancellor of the Sun Moon Institute can save him. What do you think you're going to do?"

One could only imagine the pain and anger she felt because of her husband being killed.

"All we need is his discarnate soul," Yang Qi said. "You think that just because your chancellor can't do anything about the situation, I can't either? Ghost Emperor Yama, please break this spell formation. If we don't bring Hua Tianxiong back to life, then I won't be able to give you the rest of that sutra."

Ghost Emperor Yama snorted coldly. "What am I, your coolie? Well, I guess that since a sutra from hell is on the line, I'll just grin and bear it. This had better be worth it in the end."

With that, he reached out with his pitch black hand.

RUUUUUMBLE!

His hand blotted out the sky, causing lightning to crash and pitch black rain to fall onto the glowing shield generated by the Sun Moon Institute's spell formation.

"Be broken!" he shouted. The land for hundreds of kilometers in all directions quaked, and crevices opened up. At the same time, the spell formation began to break, causing the students of the institute, even the holy neophytes, to cry out in alarm.

"A Great Sage! That guy's a Great Sage!"

"Stay your hand!"

Just before the spell formation crumbled, a glowing taiji symbol composed of the sun and the moon shot out toward Ghost Emperor Yama's hand projection. Shockingly, another Great Sage was making a move. The chancellor of the Sun Moon Institute!

"What kind of bullshit energy art is that? You think that's going to do something to me?" Ghost Emperor Yama changed the direction of his hand, grabbing the taiji symbol, and crushing it out of existence. "What are you hiding for? Get out here! Your institute was founded by Reverend Sun Moon, right? Seems he was really worthless!"

Ghost Emperor Yama let loose another punch, causing the air to tremble. A moment later, a tall, burly man tumbled out into the open. "You're… you're Ghost Emperor Yama! How did you get free? Everyone in the Sun Moon Institute, fall back immediately! This is a deadly devil king!"

"Calm down, Chancellor Sun Moon!" Yang Qi shouted. "Ghost Emperor Yama and I have an agreement. We're here to bring my Uncle Hua Tianxiong back to life!"

"That's right!" Ghost Emperor Yama added. "Your puny Sun Moon Institute isn't worth making a fuss over." He kept his energy arts reined in, aware that if things got out of hand, Yang Qi might not hand over the sutra.

And he also knew that he currently wasn't strong enough to single-handedly get his revenge on the Quake-Dawn Cathedral. There were old-timers in the Quake-Dawn Cathedral who were strong enough that, if Ghost Emperor Yama tried to take them on, he would probably just end up being imprisoned again. Therefore, he needed Yang Qi's godly-class energy art to become a Demi-Immortal, then truly destroy the church.

'This little punk Yang Qi might not ever give me that godly-class energy art though. So how am I supposed to get my revenge? He definitely has the God Legion Seal on him, so I can't force him to give it to me. I can't challenge the legion of gods. Wait a second!' All of a sudden, a new thought occurred to him. 'Yang Qi has the God Legion Seal. And there are people in the Quake-Dawn Cathedral who support that brat they call the Crown Prince. So therefore, the Quake-Dawn Cathedral is definitely going to clash with Yang Qi at some point. And if those old codgers from the Quake-Dawn Cathedral provoke the legion of gods, then they'll definitely end up dead! Even Demi-Immortals would end up dead if they went up against the God Legion Seal.'

The more he thought about it, the more Ghost Emperor Yama realized that it made a lot of sense to try to use Yang Qi to deal with the Quake-Dawn Cathedral. Having reached this point in his train of thought, a broad smile appeared on his face.

Considering that Ghost Emperor Yama had stopped attacking the spell formation, the people in the Sun Moon Institute were beginning to calm down. However, Chancellor Sun Moon was visibly taken aback that Yang Qi was working with Ghost Emperor Yama.

Even to Chancellor Sun Moon, Ghost Emperor Yama was a senior to his seniors' seniors.

He had heard many stories of this primeval monster who was sealed in the Heavencorpse Dimension.

"Chancellor Sun Moon, it stands to reason that you have Uncle Hua Tianxiong's discarnate soul," Yang Qi said. "And I've brought Ghost Emperor Yama here to restore it. Please, let me in. It won't be long before you get a message from the Demi-Immortal Institute about what's happened. I'm going to have a duel with the Crown Prince in a hundred days. If I win, I'll be the new chancellor of the Demi-Immortal Institute. You, the other two chancellors, and the emperor himself will be invited to bear witness."

"What?" Yan Chenxing said. "You're going to have a duel with the Crown Prince…? This…."

"He's telling the truth," Chancellor Sun Moon said. "I sensed some powerful fluctuations earlier, coming from the direction of the Demi-Immortal Institute. It felt like two Great Sages fighting. If you can really help restore Hua Tianxiong's soul, then please, come with me."

The students and elders of the Sun Moon Institute could never have guessed that something like this would happen. All of them were looking at Ghost Emperor Yama, their eyes shining with unprecedented awe.

To most people, he was a devil from primeval myths, a savage villain who struck fear into the hearts of anyone who heard his name.

Before, everyone had assumed that because the Crown Prince was a Great Sage, Yang Qi's death was a foregone conclusion. But now, everything was changing. With Ghost Emperor Yama working for Yang Qi, who could possibly harm him?

Even as everyone discussed the matter, Chancellor Sun Moon led Yang Qi and Ghost Emperor Yama into a small dimension in the depths of the Sun Moon Institute.

Inside the dimension was a pagoda, and inside the pagoda was an altar, atop which rested a host of white flags, which were being used to contain Hua Tianxiong's discarnate soul.

In fact, in the middle of the fluttering flags were streams of will that occasionally formed together into Hua Tianxiong's face. Unfortunately, they weren't capable of maintaining a consistent form.

Also in the middle of the flags was a lamp which pulsed with Hua Tianxiong's aura.

Chancellor Sun Moon sighed. "Legendaries in the Sun Moon Institute all have an altar lamp like this, which is connected to their soul. If such a person perishes, it will provide an opportunity to restore their soul. Unfortunately, Hua Tianxiong was killed very violently, and no matter how I've tried to use the soul-gathering flags, I haven't been able to restore his soul. If the soul isn't restored, then as time passes, it will slowly fade away into nothing."