Sage Monarch

No one could have guessed that some fiendish entity would attack like this without any warning.

The enormous hand in the sagelight even managed to strike at Tai Cangyi when he was in the Golden Dragonscale Godskiff.

It seemed that the immortal item might actually fall into someone else's hands.

Yang Qi had made his move. Earlier, he had simply watched the fighting from a distance, including when Tai Cangyi unleashed his Myriad Bronzes Divine Pellet to single-handedly take the Golden Dragonscale Godskiff. Then, just as Tai Cangyi was about to brand the craft as his own, Yang Qi unleashed the Hand of the One God.

As easily as that, Tai Cangyi was forcibly ejected from the boat.

The Hand of the One God faded away and Yang Qi appeared on the deck of the Golden Dragonscale Godskiff, his God Legion Battle Robe fluttering around him, pulsing with an air of complete invincibility.

Sagelight poured off of him like a waterfall and entered the Golden Dragonscale Godskiff, which trembled like an imprisoned dragon.

A moment later, the boat shrank down until it fit on Yang Qi's palm. He had completely made it his own.

The immortal item was now his and his alone.

Including the Heaven-Burying Bow and Heaven-Wasting Arrows, he now had three immortal items. As for the boat, it actually had numerous unique dimensions inside, as well as both offensive and defensive powers, and was much more powerful than ordinary immortal items.

In fact, it was similar to the Grand Emperor's Pagoda.

"Bastard!"

By the time Yang Qi had made the Golden Dragonscale Godskiff his own, Tai Cangyi recovered his composure and glared over with burning rage. He had taken the treasure into his hands, but before it could truly be his it had been snatched away unexpectedly by Yang Qi.

Whooooosh….

The other shocked experts from the Everlasting Alliance flew to surround Yang Qi, their expressions fierce and bursting with killing intent and rage.

"You've got guts to ambush me, dog!" Tai Cangyi growled. "I know that the Invincible Society is eyeing you for recruitment. And ever since I found out, I wanted to teach you the lesson you deserve. Unfortunately for me, you were slinking around in the shadows where I couldn't find you. Now that you're out in the open, I'm definitely not going to let you go. You've pissed off the wrong expert!"

"You ambushed me with your Destructive Sound Wave earlier, right?" Yang Qi said. Hefting the Golden Dragonscale Godskiff in his palm, he said, "Well this little ambush of mine was just tit for tat. I guess now we're even. This Golden Dragonscale Godskiff is an immortal item with a total of thirty-six unique dimensions inside, each one better than the one before it. How wonderful it's going to be to sit inside and drive this thing around."

"Your name is Yang Qi, right?" The speaker was none other than the man with the silver hair and the Icejade Ultrafrigid Body. Hardly able to contain his fury at how Yang Qi was blithely talking about the amazing nature of the immortal item, he pointed at him and said, "Hand over that Golden Dragonscale Godskiff immediately. We know all about you. You come from that crappy Hanging Mountain in the Yore-Wilds, right?"

"Yeah? So?" Yang Qi frowned. Although he wasn't sure why, he really hated it when people brought up his personal information. Of course, the silver-haired man didn't know that.

"The Yore-Wilds planetary system produced a lot of human geniuses in the ancient past," the man continued, "but when it went to war with the Hell of Euphoria, all of the top figures died and the planetary system of the past became a barren wasteland full of barbarians. Back in ancient times, the Hanging Mountain was a wimpy sect of human-demon hybrids with impure blood that our Everlasting Alliance could reduce to ashes with the snap of a finger. You're the son of the Hanging Mountain's Holy Mother, right? And you run some sort of merchant clan in a place called, what was it…? Oh right, the Rich-Lush Continent. That's where all your friends and family are, right? And you also have some fiend-devil guard, named, what? Ghost Emperor Yama. Well, they're all weaker than chickens or dogs. We could wipe them out with a single move, so if you want to spare them, then hand over that immortal item, kowtow to us and commit ritual suicide. That way you'll be ejected from the World of Mirages and become the freshman student you deserve to be. That's your only option at hand, got it?"

This silver-haired man was very arrogant and was talking to Yang Qi as if he were an inferior who could be executed at any moment.

In the blink of an eye, the atmosphere became very tense.

"What's your name?" Yang Qi asked.

"You think you deserve to know my name?" The silver-haired man snorted coldly. "I hope you were listening carefully to my speech just now. I'll give you ten breaths of time. If you don't hand over that treasure and kill yourself by then, I'll do it for you. Later on, I'll go kill your entire clan, and also exterminate every living being in the Hanging Mountain. Understand?"

"If you refuse tell me your name," Yang Qi said coldly, "then I guess I have no choice but to turn you into a nameless ghost."

RUMBLE!

Suddenly, he took a step forward and a wild wind sprang up, including clouds filled with dragons, tigers, turtles, snakes, and flaming birds.

He waved his finger, and a thick string of sage motes appeared, a chain that swept forth like a living dragon.

Shockingly, the magical laws of the World of Mirages stirred in response.

Yang Qi bent like a bow, then shot forth like an arrow, becoming a blur that moved so fast that no one could make him out clearly. Before the silver-haired man could react, the Hand of the One God slammed into him.

Whack!

The man's previously arrogant expression froze and he blurted, "You-"

Before he could say anything else, cracks spread out over his skin and he exploded, causing a tempestuous rain of quintessence-blood to fall everywhere.

Yang Qi waved his hand, sucking up the blood into a sphere which then settled onto his palm, quivering slightly.

A moment later, the experts from the Everlasting Alliance recovered from their surprise and howled in rage.

"What? You killed Yu Quan!"

"You'll die for that!"

"You've offended our Everlasting Alliance! Do you really want everyone you know to be executed!?"

Tai Cangyi strode forward, a fiendishly vicious expression on his face as he said, "Do you know who Yu Quan is? Probably not. He's the son of a clan chief from the Frigidfolk. Considering you've condemned him to become a freshman student after being reborn outside, I can guarantee that he's going to wipe out your entire clan. You just wait."

"Reborn?" Yang Qi chuckled coldly. "He won't get that chance. In fact, none of you will. Did you really think that the World of Mirages is all just an illusion? Let me tell you the truth. Everything in here is real, including all of the magical laws. The only exceptions are the magical laws of life and death. The immortals used powerful methods to tweak them a bit; that's why people who die inside are reborn outside, and also why this place seems like an illusion or mirage. There are very few people in the world who can break the magical laws of life and death and seize the souls of others. Unfortunately for you, one of those people is humble little me. Hey there, Yu Quan! Come on out…."

The wriggling sphere of flesh and blood suddenly took human shape. Although it was only about seven inches tall, it looked exactly like the silver-haired Yu Quan, screaming in rage and anguish, his soul, flesh, and blood all completely locked down, and clearly unable to be born again.

"That's…." Tai Cangyi's gaze sharpened as he looked at Yu Quan's flesh, blood, and soul. "Break the magical laws? Tweak life and death…?"

"Exactly. Life and death belong to the legion of gods. And things that the legion of gods control cannot be blasphemed, even by immortals. If the legion of gods says someone will die, then not even immortals can force them to be born again."

Crack!

Yang Qi's hand snapped closed into a fist and the screaming Yu Quan was crushed out of existence. Only his scream remained behind. That fact was proven true by the sound of various paper talismans in the possession of Tai Cangyi and the others suddenly collapsing.

Yu Quan was dead, and would not be born again on the outside.

For the first time ever, the unimaginable had occurred: someone in the World of Mirages had truly died. Yang Qi had temporarily restored the magical laws of life and death to allow enemies to actually be killed.

"Yu Quan is dead! The transmission talismans he gave us crumbled, which means that his life essence and nascent divinity are gone. He won't be born again! How could this be happening?"

"He's really dead? Not just in the World of Mirages? But that's supposed to be impossible! This is supposed to be an illusory game! How could someone actually die in here?"

"No! Not even Demi-Immortals should be able to tweak the magical laws of life and death in this place. How could some puny entry-level student do it?" Countless experts were stunned, especially those from the Everlasting Alliance.

As for the other students in the entrance ceremony, they began grouping together to watch Yang Qi face off with the Everlasting Alliance.

Meanwhile, the elders who were observing the events that played out were so shocked that many shot to their feet.

"What?"

"Dead? What's going on? How come the dead student isn't being born again? From the moment we instituted this arrangement until now, that's never happened! Many outstanding students have appeared in the Titan Emperor Collegium throughout the years, but none of them managed to actually kill someone in the entrance ceremony."

"Dammit. Something must have gone wrong with the entrance ceremony. Maybe it's just getting worn down after all the years of operation. Perhaps the magical laws of life and death are weakening."

"We can't let this go on! There can't be real deaths in the entrance ceremony. It's a matter of the reputation of the Titan Emperor Collegium! Stop the murderer this instant!" There were even certain Demi-Immortals who were about to go down and interfere with the ceremony.

1. At this point I would like to mention that there can be planetary systems within planetary systems. The Hanging Mountain is called a planetary system, but it's in the Yore-Wilds planetary system, which is part of the Four Wilds planetary system, which is synonymous with the Titan-Emperor planetary system. I considered trying to come up with subdivisions, but considering the author uses the same term for all of them, I decided to just do it his way.