Sage Monarch

Yang Qi stood there with his spear, looking like he could conquer heaven.

In very sharp contrast were the Crown Prince and Yun Hailan, who huddled in fear, trembling like a pair of kittens.

To the Crown Prince, the situation was a thorough humiliation.

From the moment he had been born, he had been the dominant force in the world. Never once had he experienced a moment of weakness. He had even fought Great Sages when he was a Legendary.

But now, he was being crushed by Yang Qi.

Escape was not an option, and he was trapped in a hopeless situation.

In the beginning of the fight, the Crown Prince actually had the upper hand. But not anymore, now that Yang Qi had taken the sage motes of eighteen Great Sages.

With power like that to back his Fist of the Halls of Heaven, he could eradicate primal-chaos, forge new heavens and earths, destroy the power of faith, and obscure the stars in the sky, making it impossible for any outside source of power to benefit his opponents.

On top of it all, the Crown Prince was only a first step Great Sage. It was only because of his unique constitution and true energy that he could reach out into space and summon the power of an immortal-spirit, which was why he had been able to astonish so many Great Sages. But now, all of his splendor was gone as Yang Qi crushed him with impunity.

Although rage burned in his heart, there was nothing he could do with it.

Yang Qi's spear had the Crown Prince's soul locked down, and also Yun Hailan's. They were in a deadly situation in which there was absolutely no hope of escape. Yang Qi wanted nothing more than to kill them, and they knew that even if they somehow got away, he would follow them to the ends of the earth.

The Infernal Deity Spear quivered, not because Yang Qi's hand was unsteady, but because it was filling up with power. In fact, it thrummed with a song of nightfall and death that was the perfect dirge to accompany the burial of the dead.

As of this moment, Yang Qi felt no desire to waste time talking to either the Crown Prince or Yun Hailan.

However, that was when Yun Hailan said, "Are you really going to kill me, Yang Qi? Don't tell me that you don't have any feelings at all for me. I know you do!"

All of a sudden, her eyes overflowed with tenderness as she looked at him.

In response to her seduction, Yang Qi spoke in a booming voice. "Those who profane the glory of the legion of gods will suffer their punishment…."

He was no longer like a human, but rather, like a member of the legion of gods, they who existed far above the host of immortals. No earthly will could possibly sway him.

The Infernal Deity Spear reached its maximum level of power, and Yang Qi said, "The Concluding Elegy…."

The darkness of evening spread out as the spear streaked through the God Legion Paradise toward the Crown Prince and Yun Hailan.

Considering that everyone had assumed Yang Qi would die, this attack was like the nirvanic rebirth of a phoenix rising from the ashes.

It was one of the most deadly moves from the spear art of the Infernal Deity Spear, the Concluding Elegy. It was the move used to completely and utterly bury the opponent.

"As long as I'm alive, nobody can kill Yun Hailan!" the Crown Prince suddenly shouted, brandishing his halberd. "The Immortal-Slayer executed gods, and so will I! I will slaughter immortals and eradicate devils! I am the most supreme entity in the world!"

Fighting like a cornered beast, he slashed out with his halberd, igniting immortal motes as if he wished to slash apart the halls of heavens and bring war to the legion of gods.

Bam!

When the Infernal Deity Spear and the Immortal-Slayer's War-Halberd collided, the sound of the elegy rang out for all to hear. Sagelight fell from the halls of heaven like a waterfall, causing everyone present to drop to their knees in worship. And the Crown Prince staggered backward as if he had been struck by lightning, his immortal armor turning even darker now that his immortal motes were almost gone.

His halberd shattered into pieces, which rained down onto the ground of the God Legion Paradise. Meanwhile, Yang Qi's spear, backed by the power of eighteen Great Sages, had the Crown Prince's true energy locked down so tightly that he couldn't draw on the power of his immortal motes.

For the Crown Prince to be using immortal motes as a Great Sage was like a toddler trying to use an enormous sledgehammer.

Whoosshhhh!

The Infernal Deity Spear stabbed through the immortal armor, and blood sprayed out.

The Crown Prince grabbed the spear with both hands to prevent it from stabbing further into him, and simultaneously coughed up a huge mouthful of blood; from the look of it, he was really in bad shape.

The humiliation in his eyes couldn't have been clearer. As a Great Sage, he was supposed to dominate the world, but now, he was about to die at the hands of Yang Qi.

"Your immortal armor is a treasure that requires a person to back it. You're not strong enough to use those immortal motes." Yang Qi took a step forward, and the glow of sagelight behind him grew even stronger. At the same time, his spear seemed to fill with power as it prepared to reduce the Crown Prince to dust.

As he did that, the Heaven-Dominating Golden Swordbreaker appeared in his other hand, which he lifted up to smash Yun Hailan's head in. Even if she were a Great Sage, it wouldn't have done her any good. It didn't matter that she had the power of the Dragon World Plane or the Sea King Plane. Compared to Yang Qi, that power was inconsequential.

In that moment, Yun Hailan felt true fear. Yang Qi had no softness in his heart whatsoever, and would show her no mercy. He really was like a god-spirit treading amongst mortals.

RUUUUMBLE!

The Crown Prince and Yun Hailan were only one short moment away from perishing.

However, that was when an enormous hand appeared, bursting with the aura of a Demi-Immortal. Seemingly without effort, it parted the greyspace of the God Legion Paradise, and entered the domain.

This hand belonged to a very powerful Great Sage, and it moved as quickly as lightning to save Yun Hailan and the Crown Prince.

Yang Qi had no need to even look at the hand to identify who it belonged to.

"Chancellor Demi-Immortal!" he murmured.

It was obviously the chancellor of the Demi-Immortal Institute. Only when the Crown Prince was on his last legs did the man finally dare to interfere.

Without any hesitation, the chancellor drew upon the magical laws of time, and everything ground to a halt. This was a power that could end any sort of attack.

And yet, although time slowed, Yang Qi didn't seem affected at all. It was the God Legion Seal, the stirring of which negated all of the time-slowing effects. After all, time was something that was connected to the legion of gods.

Chancellor Demi-Immortal was blaspheming against the legion of gods.

However, the tiny fraction of a moment that he had bought was enough to grab the Crown Prince and Yun Hailan, pull them out of the God Legion Paradise, and then flee into the void.

Yang Qi had been foiled at the very last moment, and yet, he still remained cool-headed, and quickly sent his psychic fluctuations into the depths of space-time.

"Kill him, Ghost Emperor Yama! I'll give you the Infernal Deity Spear the moment you do!"

"I'm on it!" Ghost Emperor Yama said, unleashing his devil energy.

Stepping out from whatever aspect of space-time he had been hiding in, he locked down onto a certain location up in the sea of clouds, then shot toward it as fast as lightning. Then, he reached out with his devilish hand, ripping the air open and causing two people to tumble out.

The first was the chancellor, a glorious Great Sage, who currently held Yun Hailan in one hand and the Crown Prince in the other. The other person was Young Lady Starlight. As it turned out, father and daughter had acted in concert just now.

Yang Qi floated up into the air, shrinking down the God Legion Paradise as he did. The vengeful souls of the eighteen Great Sages were just barely visible inside it.

Meanwhile, Ghost Emperor Yama was preparing to fight Chancellor Demi-Immortal to the death.

As for the chancellor, he tossed the Crown Prince and Yun Hailan off to the side, where he sealed them to keep them safe. Looking coldly at Yang Qi, he said, "You won a great victory today, Yang Qi. But where it is possible, you should spare your enemies. Give me some face here. Let the Crown Prince and Yun Hailan go free. I promised his mother to care for him, so clearly, I can't allow him to perish here."

The Crown Prince didn't say a word. He simply hovered there cross-legged, apparently trying to recover as much as possible now that he knew he was safe.

Sighing, Yun Hailan looked at Yang Qi and said, "I'll be waiting for you. The Quake-Dawn Cathedral has plenty of experts to call upon. I won't let you get away with all this."

"What do you say, Yang Qi?" Young Lady Starlight said. "You killed enough Great Sages today to make you famous for all time. Don't tell me you want more? Are you really going to kill everyone?"

"Like father, like daughter," Yang Qi said. "You two are really a perfect match." Of course, he wasn't moved at all by what either of them had said. "Give you some face? Why? Why give face to the faceless? Sorry. I'm going to kill the Crown Prince and Yun Hailan today, as well as the two of you! I guess that brings the total to four."

The chancellor sighed. "Yang Qi… you have been blinded by hatred. You want to kill me? Forgetting about whether or not you even can, let me ask you: why? What have I done to earn your wrath?"

Swishing his spear out to point at the chancellor, Yang Qi coolly said, "I represent the legion of gods. You blasphemed against their glory, and thus, you deserve to descend into the depths of hell."

"What if I immediately hand over the position of chancellor to you?"

"The Demi-Immortal Institute exists because of you, but that doesn't mean it needs to continue on. Considering how you've tried to save the Crown Prince, I'm going to completely eradicate the Demi-Immortal Institute. I won't leave a single loyalist left alive." Yang Qi's spear was again building up power.

"You've been bedeviled," Chancellor Demi-Immortal said. "What a pity. Considering your current state, you'll never become an immortal. In fact, I doubt you could become a sage. I'm leaving, and not even Ghost Emperor Yama will be able to stop me. Don't force me to show you why I'm known as the strongest person in the Rich-Lush Continent."

All of a sudden, Ghost Emperor Yama burst out laughing. "Since when did you become the judge of who's bedeviled or not, Chancellor Demi-Immortal? You actually dared to blaspheme the spokesmen of the legion of gods? Let me tell you this; the thing in his forehead is called the God Legion Seal. It was put there intentionally by the legion of gods, and not even a host of immortals could do anything about it. Considering how young you are, you probably don't understand what the God Legion Seal is, so let me explain. In the future, Yang Qi will be a god walking among mortals. You say the Crown Prince is some sort of 'god from heaven descended into the mortal world'? I think not. He's merely the transmigrated will of someone from an immortal plane."