Sage Monarch

One sought to kill. One sought to save. And neither seemed superior or inferior.

Yang Qi was dead set on his course of action, just as much as Star Swordlife was. Yang Qi wouldn't let anything stop him from killing Profound Valor, no matter what arguments or attacks were thrown his way.

In the end, it would come down to who was willing to fight the hardest.

So Yang Qi drew on his most powerful killing move. He used the God Legion Seal, which had been accompanying him from the very beginning of his journey. For all intents and purposes, the seal was his life, and he could not part with it. But now he was sending it directly into Profound Valor through his forehead.

Obviously, there was no way that Profound Valor would be able to take control of something like the God Legion Seal.

Yang Qi's plan was to use this most profound of divine abilities to crush the will of the Great Necropolis, then use his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth to take Profound Valor's life.

He was going to kill him right in front of Star Swordlife, which would hopefully serve as a severe blow to Star Swordlife's faith.

BOOOOM!

The God Legion Seal carried with it golden lightning filled with endless worlds, and as it entered Profound Valor, he went completely stiff, to the point where he couldn't talk. All he saw was golden light that filled his sea of consciousness and threatened to inundate his nascent divinity.

But then the Inheritor godpower seed transformed into the Great Necropolis, covering his nascent divinity and protecting it from harm.

Fortunately, Yang Qi had cultivated the power of the God Legion Seal to the point of perfection over the years, and knew exactly how to work with it. He had even created a duplicate of the seal with his own nascent divinity. It was almost as if he were completely at one with it.

"Transform my true self into the legion of gods; a myriad of gods flow toward truth, the true and real self...." Yang Qi himself shone with golden light as he used a profound art of possession to enter Profound Valor's meridians.

"You didn't know about my God Legion Seal, did you, Profound Valor?" he said. "Well, take a look at the seal and its might. It doesn't matter how you stumbled across that godpower seed. Not even that can save you."

RUUUMBLE!

Yang Qi's true body became a stream of will that flowed into Profound Valor's sea of consciousness, backed by the power of the God Legion Seal, and heading directly toward the godpower seed.

Profound Valor's sea of consciousness instantly began to tremble and shake as though something incredible was about to happen.

"Aggghhhh!"

Star Swordlife watched as Yang Qi became a stream of golden light and shot into Profound Valor, who began emitting golden light from every pore on his body. At the same time, Star Swordlife's sword energy was forced out of him.

BOOOOM!

Without warning, Profound Valor launched a fist strike at Star Swordlife that was filled with both Yang Qi's God Legion Seal power, and godpower of the Great Necropolis from Profound Valor. What existence could possibly fight against that directly?

Not even Star Swordlife could. Instead, he flitted back and forth like a leaf dropping down from the sky, evading the force of the attack so that it wasn't a threat at all. Then he swept his sword out, sending seven beams of sword light flying into Profound Valor's seven orifices, where they continued through to his sea of consciousness.

"Seven Orifices Reality-Returning Sword!"

This sword technique involved making streams of sword energy as fine as silk, so narrow that they were invisible. Yet, when they entered the seven orifices and struck at the nascent divinity, they could lock it down so tightly that it would never be able to escape.

Yang Qi could instantly sense what seemed like seven huge ropes rumbling toward him.

'What the fuck? This Star Swordlife is really tough to deal with! If I don't end up killing him, this will all be a big waste. He's always going around ruining my plans!'

Yang Qi was staking everything on this one move, and knew he couldn't give Star Swordlife any opportunity to come out on top.

"Come Forth, God Legion!" Yang Qi summoned all of the knowledge-devils he had vanquished, which bore the semblance of a legion of gods. At the same time, he heard chanting of "Such arrogance! Such arrogance!" The surrounding sea of consciousness was instantly thrown into chaos, and the attack was so powerful that the godpower seed began dissipating.

"Will of King Immortal-Slayer!"

The immortal-slaying clone used that opportunity to further attack Profound Valor, who was now breaking apart as though he might explode at any moment.

"I won't let you get away with this, Yang Qi! Godpower seed, explode with power! Crush all wretch-devils and make me invincible. Bury Gods, Ordain Gods!"

Yet again, the God-Ordaining Dais appeared.

But this time, Yang Qi's God Legion Seal flew over to it, causing the dais to crumble and shatter. In the blink of an eye, the paragonic figure atop the dais vanished.

Yang Qi reached out and grabbed the seed, simultaneously muttering a dhāraṇī incantation that sent golden light to dispel the Seven Orifices Reality-Returning Sword energy.

Star Swordlife fell back several paces, watching as Yang Qi emerged from within Profound Valor. As for Profound Valor, he remained standing in place, unmoving and completely covered with boundless golden light.

Profound Valor was cursing inwardly, but couldn't move a muscle. Yang Qi held him in place with one hand, while his other hand held the godpower seed of the Great Necropolis, which resembled a pearl. Although it trembled as though it wished to fly out of his hand, he kept it locked in place with golden light. That seed contained the status of an Inheritor, as well as boundless martial paths and energy arts, as well as the essence of the Great Necropolis.

It contained Profound Valor's will, and the basis of all of his cultivation advancement. Without it, he would revert to being just as weak as Battle Resister. In short, he would hardly count as a top expert anymore.

His energy arts had already regressed, and he no longer had the power of an Inheritor, which meant that he wasn't even close to being a match for Yang Qi.

A vortex sprang up in Yang Qi's palm, which sucked in the godpower seed and transported it to the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, where it would be incapable of escaping.

"A Great Necropolis godpower seed," Star Swordlife said coolly. "I acquired one as well, which helped my sword dao advance by leaps and bounds. However, I did it by subduing the power within it by my own will. Yang Qi, now that you have that godpower seed, release Profound Valor. Killing him would be meaningless."

"That's not going to happen," Yang Qi said with a smile. "What, you still want to save him? He nearly killed me, so there's no way I'll just let him go for no reason. If you want me to free him, you have to agree to one stipulation."

"What stipulation?" Star Swordlife said.

"You have to give me your godpower seed. If you do, I'll spare his life. What do you say?" Yang Qi was treacherously setting a person's own spear against his own shield. If Star Swordlife refused the offer, then Yang Qi would throw his own words back against him and accuse him of violating his own dao of the sword by not rescuing someone.

"I don't agree," Star Swordlife said without the slightest bit of hesitation.

Yang Qi laughed. "In other words, what you're really after is power. You always go around talking about saving people, yet here you have the chance to do just that, but you refuse. Doesn't that make you a hypocrite?"

"I save people, but not blindly," Star Swordlife replied. "In this age of violence and bloodshed, one can't survive unless they're strong enough. Power is the only way to achieve my ultimate goal, to save as many people as possible and bring about peace. I obviously can't abandon my larger ambition for a single person. And no clever words on your part are going to change my mind."

He spoke with a decisiveness that could sever nails and chop iron, to the point where Yang Qi instantly realized that he would never, ever be convinced to change his mind.

And considering that Yang Qi had similar determination, he knew there was no way he could 'defeat' Star Swordlife with words.

"In that case, I'll be leaving now," he said coldly. "And I'm taking Profound Valor and his sect with me. You're not in a position to fight me, Star Swordlife. Unfortunately, I'm not strong enough to beat you either. Combat would be pointless, so I'll attend to my affairs, and you'd do best to leave me alone. If you keep interfering, then don't blame me for being vicious and merciless. If I have to, I'll make sure your Star River Sword Sect drowns in a sea of blood. I'll destroy it down to the chickens and dogs. Got it?"

"You!" Star Swordlife said angrily. "You're an outright wretch-devil!"

"I'm not a wretch-devil. But you follow the dao of life, and I follow the dao of killing. If you don't get in my way, I won't kill you. It's really up to you." He shook his head. "You're mistaken if you think I enjoy killing. The truth is that I want to take complete control of the dao of heaven and universal fortune. When I do, I'll be the exact same savior you want to be."

"You force people to follow you, so that's different. Don't try to debate this with me, Yang Qi. I want to save everyone in heaven and earth, and let them thrive. I don't want to interfere with their path, I want to give them freedom. You follow the dao of wretched evil, and I follow the dao of righteousness and justice."

"You're really long-winded, did you know that? I can see that you're really set in your ways. However, don't think that I'm just going to change my mind either. It all comes down to this: are you going to leave me alone, or not? If not, then mark my words, I'll put an end to your Star River Sword Sect."

"Fine. Let's see you try." Star Swordlife's sword suddenly flicked out, sending a stream of sword will flying out to surround him. A moment later, the sword will vanished, along with him.