Sage Monarch

Yang Qi had plenty of work to do now that he was back.

He needed to get to the greyspace of the Hell of Mahānata, that most ancient and grand of hells.

He was currently a Nirvanic Resurrection Sage, with soul enlightenment of the Demi-Immortal level. As soon as he had access to the magnificent power of the Hell of Mahānata, he would achieve a whole string of breakthroughs.

Once he was a Demi-Immortal, all eight hundred forty million megamammoth particles within him would wake up and transform into dracomammoths. At that point, not even Universal Demi-Immortals would be able to cause problems for him. In the Titan Emperor Collegium, Universal Demi-Immortals were either famous elder kings or the highest-ranked students, elysian children.

The student ranks of freshman, common, consecrated, and elite were considered low. Above them were the noble students, who were divided into mountainous, sealike, earthly, and heavenly. Obviously, the mountainous royal students were the lowest in that category, yet even they were people who no one took lightly. The sealike and earthly royal students had immense power, and heavenly students generally participated in devising the important strategies and plans of the societies they belonged to.

Above the noble students were the royal students, who had the subcategories of celestial, terrestrial, universal, and aeonic. The celestial and terrestrial ranks came with the requirement of being at least a Demi-Immortal. As for the universal rank, those were for second, third, fourth, and fifth order Demi-Immortals.

As for the aeonic royal students, they were sixth and seventh order Demi-Immortals.

Above them all, and the highest level of all for students, were the elysian children, who were eighth order Universal Demi-Immortals. Considering that neither Yang Qi nor Sword Seventeen were Demi-Immortals yet, it was only natural that they were ranked low in the Titan Emperor Collegium. In fact, in terms of seniority, they were nobodies.

With their consecrated student uniforms, they entered the collegium with little fanfare or ado.

Just as they prepared to hurry back to the Invincible Society to see if any of their Elder Brothers and Sisters had returned, voices rose up ahead of them.

"Step the hell off to the side!"

Soon, teams of students became visible, all of them wearing the uniform of the Hall of Beheadings and Executions, and as they walked down the street they shoved the other students off to the side. They looked almost like soldiers from the mortal world.

It was quite a scene as numerous common, consecrated, and elite students scrambled to get out of their way. Of course, Yang Qi and Sword Seventeen were among those ordinary students.

"Some high-ranking students must be about to come out of seclusion," Sword Seventeen said with a disdainful shake of his head. "Do they really need to put on such a ridiculous show? Come on, let's just keep going. We might rank low in the Titan Emperor Collegium, but this spectacle has nothing to do with our Invincible Society."

However, as they prepared to continue on, they found that the actual path leading to the Invincible Society was being blocked by a large group of mountainous noble students, most of them grouped into smaller squads of three to five students. The squads were keeping a close eye on the area, and any students who dared to get close would end up being cursed, or even attacked with energy arts.

In that same moment, a voice spoke from an unknown location, causing everything to tremble. "Seventeen aeonic royal students of the Hegemon's Society, who have been in secluded meditation for three thousand years, will be emerging in seven days' time. Everything within one hundred and fifty thousand kilometers of the Hegemon's Society will be locked down during that time to prevent unexpected monster invasions. All students will remain indoors and refrain from going out. On the authority of this elder king command medallion, we will kill any students who cause problems!"

"What?" Sword Seventeen said, his brow furrowing with anger. "Locked down for seven days?"

Yang Qi looked over at the group of noble students standing there as though they owned the world. "What exactly is going on here?" he said. "They want to lock the Invincible Society down for seven days? Are they feeling suicidal?"

Walking directly toward the nearby noble students, Sword Seventeen said. "We're proceeding whether you like it or not. Which of you dares to block our way?!"

Yang Qi joined him.

The Titan Emperor Collegium had countless buildings and structures, all of which were bolstered by spell formations. It was almost impossible to determine how many millions upon millions of kilometers the collegium occupied. In fact, it actually contained multiple planes of existence. Its streets stretched for hundreds of kilometers and were flanked by palaces, buildings, corridors and the like. It was like an immortal realm. To people from the mortal world, even Lifeseizers and Legendaries, this place really was a heavenly palace. Yet, tens of thousands of kilometers of streets were being locked down by the Hegemon's Society.

Seeing that Yang Qi and Sword Seventeen were walking toward them, the three mountainous noble students flew forward to stand directly in their path.

"What gall!" one of them shouted. "Where are you two from, you puny consecrated students? We're locking this place down in preparation for an important ceremony. The only people who will cause problems here are those who are tired of living!"

Considering their rank, these students were definitely eighth step Great Sages, or perhaps even ninth step. They were nearly Demi-Immortals, thus they stared down their noses at Yang Qi and Sword Seventeen with open sneers.

"Drop to your knees and beg for mercy, then screw the hell off. You two are really courting death to even show up in this place."

Not even waiting for Yang Qi and Sword Seventeen to comply, one of the ninth step noble students laughed and waved his sleeve, sending out an explosive tempest filled with wind sabers, swords, axes, and the like. Unexpectedly, it was a heavenly-class energy art!

"Strength of the Tempestuous Sky!"

"Get the hell out of my way!" Sword Seventeen said, sending out a stream of sword energy. From the outside, he looked like an eighth step Great Sage, but the truth was that he was already strong enough to kill second order Demi-Immortals.

Swish!

His sword sliced right through the tempest and cut the noble student in half.

"Aaaiiiieee!" the student screamed. His two halves wriggled back together and began stitching back into one, yet Sword Seventeen's sword light was not the ordinary type. It had a sharpness that could harm even Demi-Immortals!

Before the two halves could unite, flames burst out and engulfed the noble student, who screamed for a moment before being transformed into ash.

A famous noble student had been cut in half and burned to death by Sword Seventeen!

The other two noble students were visibly terrified. Lunging backward, they began to cry for help.

"How dare you kill someone here! Ambush!"

"They must be punished! Notify the Hall of Beheadings and Executions! Tell them that two puny consecrated students just dared to murder a noble student! This is outrageous!"

"Punish us? I'm curious who would dare to try! We're from the Invincible Society! I'm the seventeenth disciple, and this is the eighteenth. How dare you block our path back to our society! You want to punish us? Fine! In fact, that's wonderful! We'll wait for the Hall of Beheadings and Executions to come find us in the Invincible Society. Sound good? I really can't wait to see who will dare to come 'punish' us." Turning to Yang Qi, he said, "Come on, let's go."

With that, they strolled onward to the Invincible Society. No one got in their way, nor did anyone even speak to them.

Of course, there were plenty of onlookers who were already discussing the incident amongst themselves.

"I heard that the disciples from the Invincible Society were all trapped in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. The chart already vanished into the depths of the void, and isn't supposed to be back for another ten thousand years. How did those two find their way out?"

"That Sword Seventeen is a fiendish, vicious sword devil, and Yang Qi is a complete monster. You know, when he joined the collegium he broke the rules and actually killed some mutant human experts."

"They're definitely vicious fiends. It's no wonder they dared to openly kill a noble student. But you know, it might come back to bite them. Think about it. The Hegemon's Society is one of the most mysterious societies in the Titan Emperor Collegium. They're a lot more powerful than anyone realizes, with over a billion common students as members, and who knows how many freshman students. This whole thing is happening because seventeen of their aeonic students are coming out of seclusion after three thousand years. There are definitely a few of them who achieved breakthroughs to the eighth order. As Universal Demi-Immortals, they'll become elysian children and receive rewards from the immortal world. They aren't the type of people you can just casually disrespect."

"Well, this is going to be a fun show, that's for sure. The Invincible Society really went overboard this time, especially considering there are only two of them. People say that the Invincible Dugu is in the depths of the universe, trying to achieve his next breakthrough, so he's obviously not coming back any time soon. And their Eldest Brother is in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, so he can't help them. The Invincible Society is really weak right now. Why would they go and act so overbearing?"

"That's what I was thinking. Well, let's wait and see what happens. Things are definitely about to get interesting."

There was already a buzz among the students. Some were talking about how arrogant the Hegemon's Society was, but others hated how overbearing the Invincible Society acted. Either way, just about everyone wanted to see the two societies come to blows.

**

The Invincible Society was cold and empty, like it usually was. There were no servants or staff, just empty courtyards and rooms. It almost seemed like a ghost town. That said, the defensive spell formations were set up by the enigmatic Invincible Dugu and Eldest Brother, therefore no one could possibly break through them.

Outside the entrance, Sword Seventeen produced a paper talisman, which he placed on the enormous slab stone that served as a front gate. The door opened, revealing a minor world that served as the interior of the Invincible Society. The two entered and closed the door behind them. Everything went completely silent.

"Whew!" Sword Seventeen said, breathing a sigh of relief. Now that they were actually in the Invincible Society, the warding magics would keep them safe. They were home.

"Now we can work on our cultivation without any fear of interference."

1. I try to avoid "term crossovers" but in this case it was somewhat unavoidable. The "universal" rank from the students is completely different from the Chinese character in "Universal Demi-Immortal".