Sage Monarch

Thus, Yang Qi and Hu Latu skyrocketed into the higher ranks of the Brahman Society.

The Brahman Institute was a very prestigious establishment in the Brahman Immortal World, and at the same time, very mysterious. Anyone who got in would be treated as an important future leader within the society.

In fact, the students of the Brahman Institute were referred to as children of Brahma.

All of the top leaders in the Brahman Society started out as children of Brahma. Some of the original founders were still present, but they were all in seclusion and didn't pay attention to daily affairs, only coming out in the direst of circumstances.

"Milord, we really got lucky," Hu Latu said. "Once you enter the Brahman Institute, you become a child of Brahma, and eventually a leader within the society, privy to all sorts of secrets. Furthermore, only people in the Brahman Institute can get access to the divine likeness that Proud Heaven left behind years ago. Congratulations, Milord. Considering the level of your cultivation base, all you need to do is establish a good foundation, then work on combining all of the five phases godly-class energy arts into one. Then you'll dominate everything under heaven."

"That's right!" one of the other emissaries said. "I heard that the top child of Brahma in the Brahman Institute is Brahma Echo-Silk, whose cultivation base is astonishing to the extreme. She has three godly-class energy arts and has already reached enlightenment of the four tribulations of Success, Steadiness, Destruction, and the Void. People say that she even has nine lineaments on her dao heart. Right now, she's the most likely candidate to fill the last spot and join the other nine leaders of the society."

"Right now, Milord, you could possibly surpass her and become the tenth leader."

"That's right. Compared to you, Milord, her cultivation base isn't impressive at all."

"Milord, if you eventually combine all the five phases energy arts, you'll shake the entire Brahman Society. You would become the most powerful among all the leaders."

"A perfect combination of the five phases would be flabbergasting. I've seen someone who cultivates four, and understands Success, Steadiness, Destruction, and the Void. Even that was almost too much."

The other three emissaries seemed to be trying to one-up each other in terms of brownnosing.

"Alright, enough," Yang Qi said. "After Hu Latu and I join the Brahman Institute, you two work with those Heaven-Devouring śarīras and follow us. But take your time. If all of us make a scene at the same time, it will attract the wrong kind of attention." He waved his hand and sent a stream of Heaven-Devouring True Energy into them, which immediately provoked new transformations in their cultivation and caused their faces to glow with a sparkling and translucent radiance.

Afterward, Yang Qi and Hu Latu passed through a host of wormholes, teleportation portals, and even cities, until they finally reached the Brahman Institute. The trip alone impressed upon Yang Qi how immensely large the Brahman Immortal World was.

Compared to it, the Titan Emperor Heaven could be considered tiny. Most impressive of all was the infrastructure. In the Titan Emperor Heaven, there were plenty of remote, unpopulated areas filled with forests, swamps, and the like.

But in the Brahman Immortal World, there weren't any wilderness areas at all. Everything was developed, and there were teleportation portals everywhere. There were even cities floating in the sky, with enormous battleships floating back and forth among them. Minor worlds and mansion grottos were everywhere.

There didn't seem to be a single inch of open space.

This was a truly flourishing place, an actual holy land of true cultivation. This was where the true dao of immortals could be seen, a place that not even ten thousand of the Titan Emperor Heaven could rival.

To compare the Sage Monarch planetary system to it would be like comparing a muddy puddle to the vast ocean. All in all, the Brahman Immortal World made Yang Qi realize that his goal of turning the Sage Monarch planetary system into an immortal world was far, far from being realized.

Brahman Institute.

The characters on the plaque above the main entrance glowed as brightly as suns. However, the sight of the word 'institute' caused Yang Qi to smile.

For some reason, his entire life always seemed to revolve around educational institutes, as if he were tied to them by destiny.

He had started out at the Demi-Immortal Institute, where he caused one scene after another before eventually destroying the entire place. Then he went to the Titan Emperor Collegium, where he also caused one scene after another and ultimately dismantled the place and pinned the supreme rector to a pillar to be tormented day and night.

It was almost as if every place he went, he destroyed. He was like a child of destruction.

Unfortunately, even if he wanted to, there was no way he could destroy the Brahman Institute or the Brahman Society. They were part of the Brahman Immortal World, which was simply too large, with too many powerful entities in it. Not even his armies of fiend-devils could tackle it now. Maybe if the place were more sparsely populated, like the Titan Emperor Heaven, he would stand a chance. But it was just too big.

Besides, the mystical network of laws was extremely strict. And there were military forces everywhere, all of whom were very disciplined, unlike the lax and independent forces of the Titan Emperor Heaven.

With the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, Yang Qi had his Wheel of Fate, which could easily be used to manipulate the fates of others. Unfortunately, the overall fate of the Brahman Society was so immense and complex that it was obvious there were immensely powerful old-timers backing it from behind the scenes.

If Yang Qi tried to overthrow the place, there was no doubt that the old-timers would fight back. To do anything to the Brahman Society, he would need to advance his cultivation base first.

Thankfully, doing that wouldn't be hard. All he needed to do was continue absorbing the immortal world essence around him and refining the Future One power he had acquired.

There was another relevant factor. Yang Qi was fairly certain that there were people in the Brahman Society who had unique constitutions, similar to himself. If that proved true, and he could assimilate their power, then his cultivation base would obviously advance. Reaching the fifth, sixth, and seventh steps shouldn't be hard at all.

"Milord," Hu Latu said, "once we're in the Brahman Institute, we should really be able to spread our wings."

Before they could walk through the entrance, a booming voice rang out.

"Halt! This is the Brahman Institute. Unlawful entry will be punished by execution!"

A host of devilish yakshas appeared in the air in front of them, vicious-looking and pulsing with fighting prowess. They were hired dharmic guards tasked with keeping order in the Brahman Immortal World; all of them had very powerful cultivation bases and were blessed by the immortal world essence of the Brahman Immortal World.

"We were just admitted to the institute!" Hu Latu said. "Here, check these command medallions we were given by the parliament of elders." He and Yang Qi threw out their medallions.

After checking the medallions, the yakshas became very respectful.

"So you're new children of Brahma," one of them said. "Please, come in." With that, the yakshas faded from view.

Yang Qi and Hu Latu entered and found themselves in another world, filled with all sorts of buildings as well as mountains and rivers floating through the sky. There were also hosts of planets, some of which looked like nothing but seawater. They weren't naturally formed planets, but rather collections of preheaven true energy, things so rare that ordinary people who simply looked at them would be able to reach immortal ascension.

'What an incredible aura,' Yang Qi thought, inhaling deeply. 'So many treasures. So many energy flows.' There was even faint godliness in the energy flows, which vastly surpassed anything from the Kingdom of Titan.

As they looked around, a voice reached their ears.

"New children of Brahma? Come check in."

Then a huge hand appeared, rushing toward them at top speed.

Yang Qi's initial reaction was to fight back, but Hu Latu quickly said, "There's no need to resist. That's one of the teachers."

The hand grabbed them in a nonthreatening way, then whisked them away to the depths of a hall somewhere in the institute.

A handful of patriarchs were sitting there in thrones looking down at them, looking almost like gods.

"You're Hu Latu and Hu Yanmeng?" one of the patriarchs asked. "Elder Law said that both of you cultivate dual godly-class energy arts of fire and water."

"That's correct, teacher," Hu Latu said respectfully.

He knew that the people present were important leaders of the Brahman Society. Although they weren't the highest-ranking of the leaders, they were still incredibly powerful and all of them came from important clans. They weren't the kind of people that ordinary individuals would ever be able to have contact with.

"Why don't the two of you demonstrate your skills?" one of the patriarchs said.

Yang Qi and Hu Latu complied, showing what they could do with the two godly-class energy arts.

"Excellent. So, you even succeeded with the four tribulations of Success, Steadiness, Destruction, and the Void. And you pushed the tribulations to the second level. When it comes to the tribulations there are a total of eighty-one levels, in other words, eighty-one reincarnations."

Inside, Yang Qi smiled coldly.

When it came to Success, Steadiness, Destruction, and the Void, each manifestation represented a single cycle of reincarnation. He had just demonstrated two such cycles of reincarnation, except it had been intentional. He didn't want to show off by revealing too many.

1. As most of you probably know if you read my footnotes, because of how the Chinese language works it's very easy to keep the gender of a character a secret. In this passage, there is no indication in Chinese as to whether Brahma Echo-Silk is male or female. Sometimes you can pull off the same ambiguity in English, but in this case, the fact that she is female is not particularly important to the plot, so I'm not going to go the effort of keeping it a secret.