Sage Monarch

The instant the Demi-Immortal elder said "World of Mirages", rumbling sounds echoed out from the far end of the square, where a doorway rose up from the ground, and an illusory, mirage-like aura spread out.

On the other side of the door, it was possible to see a mysterious and strange world.

"The immortals of our Titan Emperor Collegium used the secret magics of the Demolishing level to create the World of Mirages. Enter it and kill to your hearts' content. There is plenty of good fortune inside, even energy arts. There are also seeds left in place by members of the senior generation which, if acquired, will enable you to achieve incredible progress. Please note that while you may fight and kill each other, anyone who is killed will not actually die. Instead, you will simply be ejected from the World of Mirages and will have failed the test of the ceremony. Any who fail will become freshman students and will lose their chance to be taken in by elders or society chiefs. Does everyone understand?"

"Yes sir!" the students shouted back, simultaneously looking over at the doorway with excited expressions on their faces. Apparently, many of them were already aware of the marvelous aspects of the World of Mirages. "In that case, enter the World of Mirages, all of you!"

RUMBLE!

Thousands of students immediately drew on their energy arts and became streaks of light that shot toward the entrance. Most stuck together in groups of three to five, and they all looked like ferocious tigers seeking prey. After all, there was plenty of treasure in the World of Mirages that was now up for grabs.

"According to the rumors, the World of Mirages is an illusory realm, almost like a game of sorts. That said, you can get wounded inside, and whatever treasures you find, you can take out. You can even further your cultivation and energy arts. In the end, it's hard to say what is illusory and what isn't."

"I've also heard of the fantastic nature of this place. I'm from the biggest sect back in the Waste-Wilds Continent, the famous Grand Preceptor's Cathedral. We've had disciples who participated in the entrance ceremony before and acquired immortal skills and legacies from the ancient past. Some have even acquired power seeds from the immortal world, or immortal items of incredible power.

"Well, let's head in and see what treasures we can find."

"Go, go, go! We already placed high in the Proto-Wilds competitions and were blessed by the immortal world. Let's work together here in the Titan Emperor Collegium to do the same thing."

At that point, someone spoke in a booming voice, "Yeah right, fools. The magical treasures in there are ours! Try to take them from us, and you're dead!"

Yang Qi looked over to see another Destructive Sound Wave rolling out from the hulking fellow with the Bright Sun Truebronze Body. The man was fierce and fiendish, and was surrounded by similarly brutish-looking experts who all made a small team of sorts.

The sight caused a cold smile to play out on Yang Qi's face. He had already decided to kill the man in the World of Mirages. In fact, he was already able to detect some of the aspects of what was true and real in the World of Mirages.

As had been explained, anyone who was killed in the place wouldn't actually die, but would just be ejected. It was obviously because the World of Mirages had been created by immortals, who had changed the magical laws of life and death, and had altered the state of life force. Such alterations surpassed the mental capacity of virtually everyone present.

But Yang Qi cultivated a godly-class energy art and was somewhat familiar with the workings of immortals. He could tell that the changes the immortals had made to the magical laws of life and death were child's play compared to what his Fist of the Halls of Heaven and Hand of the One God could actually do. In other words, he could pierce through to the ultimate true and real aspects of the World of Mirages to literally kill his opponents.

Therefore, he wouldn't hesitate to kill that burly man the first chance he got.

WHIZZZ!

Thousands of students were streaming through the doorway and into another world filled with enchanting scenery, including towering mountain peaks, mighty rivers, and even kingdoms of mortal humans.

The World of Mirages was actually a place that existed between reality and illusion.

There were also enormous devillings, demon-devils, devil-ghosts, and hobgoblins of every sort, lurking in the depths of the world, just waiting to leap out and attack anyone who got too close to them.

After flying in, Yang Qi landed on the ground and looked around to find himself alone. Getting his bearings, he began to head deeper into the world to look for clues about what to do next.

Roar!

A shadow passed over Yang Qi and he heard howling as an enormous beast appeared above him in the sky. It descended and began ravenously devouring the mortal humans who inhabited the World of Mirages. As their screams rang out, it was like a scene from hell right in front of Yang Qi's eyes.

However, he didn't rush forward to save anyone. In fact, he didn't even move. He simply opened his Lord's Eye to examine the situation, which revealed what was truly happening. As the mortal humans died, they became streams of power which contained rows upon rows of data, information that the monster absorbed.

Obviously, the beasts and humans were all illusory collections of power and data. However, after thinking about it for a moment, Yang Qi realized that he himself was actually a collection of power, with his soul being a vessel for information. Even his techniques could be considered sets of data.

The only difference was that these illusory humans didn't have any sort of substructure.

"Bodies. Power. Souls. Information. Data…." Suddenly, he sank into a state of deep thought and contemplation.

Moments later, he suddenly felt as if he could sense the profundities of the World of Mirages.

RUMBLE!

Flying up into the air, he launched a fist strike at the enormous beast. That beast was at the same level as a Light King Sage, yet it was instantly destroyed, becoming streams of power, data, and knowledge which began to drift away in the wind.

"Get over here!" Yang Qi said, waving his hand. In response, the power, information, and data became a tempest that swirled into his palm, and through it to his mind. As a result, he gained a bit more understanding of the fundamental framework of the World of Mirages.

Although he couldn't understand everything about the things he had absorbed, he could tell that they were something like fragments of a soul.

The World of Mirages was like an enormous, multi-layered bubble floating in the universe. Each of those layers was an aspect of space, and right now Yang Qi was in one of them.

Sitting down cross-legged, he began to investigate further and soon realized that as the World of Mirages went deeper, the spatial aspects were as numerous as a labyrinth. And in the depths of the labyrinth there were mysterious locations in which lurked shocking auras. From what he could tell from the fluctuations, there were magical treasures there, or perhaps demon-devils.

Most likely, they were the hidden treasures that senior members of the Titan Emperor Collegium had left there to be found by students.

'What's that?' he thought. His Lord's Eye focused on a spot a bit deeper than his current location, where he saw a bundle of power that seemed to contain an immortal item.

It was a boat that was completely covered with golden scales, making it look like a creature of some sort. Shockingly, it seemed to be on the same level as his Heaven-Burying Bow and Heaven-Wasting Arrows.

'An immortal item! And it's huge. I can't believe that something so valuable is just sitting there out in the open. It looks like they really are looking to find the best of the best in this ceremony.'

Without any hesitation, he headed toward the enormous boat.

Before he could get close, though, numerous other energy surges rose up from different directions and headed toward the immortal item. Obviously, these were other experts participating in the entrance ceremony who had noticed the fluctuations of an immortal item.

Even ninth step Great Sages would covet an item which surpassed anything Demi-Immortals could create.

Meanwhile, in a heavenly palace in the highest heights of the World of Mirages, numerous powerful individuals were watching the students below.

"Hey, Old White, you're the one who put the Golden Dragonscale Godskiff in the World of Mirages. Aren't you worried it might cause a situation with the new students?"

"Oh, it'll be worth it. These new students are top geniuses, and our Titan Emperor Collegium needs people like that. I heard that one of them was already recruited by the Invincible Dugu, and we all know that the Invincible Dugu really knows his stuff. He tends to look down on people that most others consider geniuses, so getting him to accept new disciples is a difficult thing."

"Oh? Which one is the new Invincible Society disciple? I honestly can't believe someone finally caught the eye of the Invincible Dugu."

"It's that one right there. See him? He's that kid heading toward the Golden Dragonscale Godskiff. Yeah. Yes! Him! That Nirvanic Resurrection Sage."

"Oh? He's only in the second step?" A few of the people sighed, seeming disappointed.

"Look, it doesn't matter if he's only in the second step," someone said. "He's from the Hanging Mountain."

"The Hanging Mountain? What's so special about that place? The Yore-Wilds hasn't been important for ages."

"Heh. Have you forgotten? Don't you remember that certain individual who was banished from the immortal world not so long ago? He was connected to the Hanging Mountain…."

Someone gasped. "Now that you mention it, I do remember that. He had something going on with one of the daughters of the Hanging Mountain. She gave birth to a son, and later became the Holy Mother there. Are you saying… that this kid is her son?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Why else would the Invincible Dugu be so interested in taking that kid as a disciple? Well, let's just wait and see how he performs."