Sage Monarch

"This is bad!" An Yiru exclaimed, a very unsightly expression on her face as she saw a female disciple from her own Memory Peak falling into the river of blood.

Anyone who looked at the river would get the sensation that it was filled with countless vengeful souls, ready to grab anyone who got too close. Upon leaving the river, such souls would become blood-devils that the disciples would be eager to either fight, for the purpose of increasing their psychic power, or capture the things to be turned into puppets. They were truly horrifying.

Yang Qi immediately sprang into motion, moving with blinding speed to the edge of the river. Without any hesitation, he jumped out over the surface and wrapped his arm around the waist of the terrified disciple.

This provoked another round of alarmed cries from the onlookers.

After all, the vengeful souls and grasping hands of baleful energy in the blood river would even be dangerous to someone in the Terrifying level. Once they latched on to you, you would find it impossible to climb free. After all, this blood had been shed by the legion of gods, so there was no way that mere mortals could possibly deal with it.

Unfortunately, Yang Qi was now in midair over the river, and the magical laws of this place were so weighty that it was impossible to simply spin in place and fly back to the bank. From the look of it, the only thing left to do was fall downward.

However, that was when his eyes glittered and he sent out a stream of true energy in the shape of a whip, which moved with lightning-like speed to wrap around the neck of the enemy disciple who had shoved the girl to begin with.

When the man realized that he was about to be pulled into the river of blood, he shrieked and pulled backward in the opposite direction. As for Yang Qi, he took advantage of the force of the pull to fly through the air back toward the bank as gracefully as a swan.

"How dare you save her, are you looking to die?!"

Suddenly, another of the nearby experts lunged forward and thrust his fist out, sending a deadly tempest of fist energy straight toward Yang Qi. Unexpectedly, he was still trying to shove them into the river of blood to meet their ultimate doom.

Smiling coldly, Yang Qi simply flicked his whip of true energy, which caused him to spin, avoiding the fist energy and landing surefootedly off to the side.

The vengeful souls reached up and tried to grab him as he passed, but he simply exhaled sagefire, causing hissing and popping sounds to ring out as the hands were wiped out of existence, leaving nothing behind but green smoke and bloodcurdling screams.

Afterward, none of the vengeful souls dared to do anything.

Meanwhile, An Yiru flew over toward Yang Qi, as well as roughly a hundred other disciples from Memory Peak. At the same time, Yang Qi released the young female disciple he had just saved, whose face was a bit flush after having just been rescued.

"This is your new Elder Brother," An Yiru said. "Master just accepted him as a disciple. From now on, you follow his orders as if they're my own. Got it?"

The disciples all saluted and chorused a respectful greeting.

"Thank you." Yang Qi nodded.

It was at this point that he realized that most of the disciples from Memory Peak were women, and the men were so good-looking that they were almost effeminate. Apparently, that was how Memory Peak liked to recruit people.

Turning toward the disciple whose neck was still red from having Yang Qi's whip wrapped around it, An Yiru angrily said, "What were you thinking, Bright Nāropa!? You were obviously trying to push disciples from Memory Peak into the blood river. I know that you people from Nāropa Peak have always been defiant law-breakers, but are you really willing to violate sect rules so flagrantly?"

Bright Nāropa was a sinister-looking man with merciless eyes. The way that Yang Qi had used him to escape the river of blood had obviously been a huge loss of face, and he was the type who would want to get revenge.

In response to An Yiru's accusation, he cleared his throat and said, "Nobody died, did they? I didn't break any rules. There's nothing unusual about disciples fighting each other."

"You're right, it's not unusual," An Yiru said. "So get over here and fight! You and me, right now!"

Bright Nāropa chuckled. "You're the chief disciple of Memory Peak, and I'm nothing but a normal disciple from Nāropa Peak. I would be stupid if I agreed to fight you. However, I'd be happy to fight any other disciple from Memory Peak." Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, he realized he had made a mistake, then quickly pointed at Yang Qi and blurted, "But obviously not him, either!"

"You're really full of crap," An Yiru said with a dark chuckle. "In fact, I think I'll throw you in the blood river now, so you can get an idea what it's like." Swish! Her whip snaked out toward Bright Nāropa like a ghost, who tried to dodge to the side but was wrapped up nonetheless.

As it turned out, Bright Nāropa wasn't a match for even a single move from An Yiru.

From what Yang Qi could tell, Bright Nāropa's power index was at one thousand five hundred, roughly the same as Cipher Ever-Heaven. Yet he was virtually powerless when up against An Yiru. That made sense, considering her power index was three thousand.

"What incredible gall!" someone shouted in a thunderous voice that caused waves to roll out on the blood river. Someone shot toward them in a blur, and at thirty meters out, loosed two palm strikes that sent mountain-toppling, sea-draining blasts of air toward An Yiru.

An Yiru's eyes widened as she realized that, if she didn't drop Bright Nāropa and get out of the way, she would probably be knocked into the river. Dropping him, she jerked her whip toward the incoming palm strike, causing it to transform into something like a coiling snake.

POP!

The fist transformed into a palm, which slammed into the whip and shattered it. At the same time, the newcomer sent out a stream of powerful true energy to grab Bright Nāropa and pull him away from the river.

The newcomer was a tall, burly man with arms as muscular as an ape's, who seemed to pulse with explosive power. In fact, he looked like the kind of person who would never run out of strength. He seemed at one with the universe and the god world, as if he could reach the Terrifying level at any moment. Obviously, his psychic scale was well beyond Yang Qi's.

"Well, if it isn't Bright Fatality, the chief disciple of Nāropa Peak!" An Yiru said. "What exactly do you think you're doing? Encouraging your disciples to harm those from Memory Peak? How arrogant could you possibly be?"

Bright Fatality smiled coldly. "Arrogant? Hmph! Where are these supposedly injured disciples from Memory Peak? All I saw was you grabbing a Nāropa Peak disciple with your whip to throw him in the blood river. Is that what happened, Bright Nāropa?"

"Yes, exactly, Eldest Brother. You see, some godhood just appeared, but the bridges leading over the blood river are all broken. We were all just sitting here trying to figure out what to do, when the disciples from Memory Peak said that they were the ones who discovered the godhood, so it belonged to them. Fighting broke out, and An Yiru flew over and tried to toss me in the river."

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" Bright Fatality said, clasping his hands behind his back. "Considering what you did, perhaps we should go talk things out in the presence of the council of chief elders."

"I'm done with this discussion," An Yiru growled. "Everyone knows who's in the right and who's in the wrong here. It seems to me that whatever energy art you've cultivated really has caused you to grow insufferably arrogant, Bright Fatality. Look, we're going to figure out a way to cross this river, eventually. Before we do, how about the two of us have a little duel. Whoever wins can explore the temple and take the godhood. Whoever loses can screw the hell off!"

"Very well spoken!" someone said, and a new group of people appeared, led by a tall, imposing man.

Looking over, An Yiru said, "So it's you, Sorrow Might. Don't tell me you're here to fight for that godhood as well? You stumbled across a corpse of one of the Executors of the Ancient Road, then used it to get access to the Cruiser of Civilization and the psychic scaling systems. What possible reason could you have to try to get godhood from the Land of God Extermination?"

Sorrow Might burst out into hearty laughter. "Godhood? The more the better! Look, the Land of God Extermination has been part of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect for a long time, and the rules for training have been set in stone. Anybody can come in here, and whatever items pop up are taken first come first served. At the moment, Grand Might Peak is actually low on godhood."

Bright Fatality snorted coldly. "So, you want to poke your nose in here as well, Sorrow Might? Fine. Once I put An Yiru in her place, I'll do the same to you. You may've found that executor's corpse, but you were just a blind cat bumping into a dead rat. That had nothing to do with any skill or ability on your part, so don't go around thinking you're really a Terrifying expert."

"Why don't we duel it out then?" Sorrow Might said. "All three of us. We're all chief disciples, so let's see which of us is the last one standing. Whichever mountain peak comes out on top gets the right to explore that temple and take whatever's inside. You were already about to have a duel between the two of you, right? By the way, Bright Fatality, I know that energy art you cultivate makes you extremely arrogant, but that doesn't ensure that you'll defeat An Yiru."

"Are you kidding me?" Bright Fatality said, laughing uproariously. "You think I can't take her out? That's a joke if I've ever heard one. Bring it on, An Yiru!"