Sage Monarch

The fight between Yang Qi and Emperor Heart-Celestial was like a contest between a dragon and a tiger. One of them was the number one chief disciple among the fifty mountain peaks, illustrious among the younger generation. The other was a unique prodigy with an amazing legacy, who had conquered his dependency-devils and become boundlessly invincible.

Their moves seemed to contain unending variations, and the shockwaves from their clashes had thrown the river of blood into chaos. The hands that stretched out of the river were ripped to pieces and couldn't reform. They were expressions of the resentful will of the blood, which itself was comprised of remnants of members of the legion of gods. It could only be imagined how powerful that resentful will was, yet the fight between these two experts had destroyed it.

Emperor Heart-Celestial had no expression on his face whatsoever as his energy flowed like a river, his every move seemingly connected to the extremities of heaven and earth.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi was majestic, towering, and unmoving, evoking a sense of utter dignity.

One of them was like a sprawling continent, and that was Emperor Heart-Celestial. The other was like a towering mountain, and that was Yang Qi.

Although a continent could be vast and impressive, it couldn't reach the impressive heights of a mountain.

As for a mountain, although it could touch the clouds, it had to rest on the surface of a continent. In some ways, they were interdependent and could not truly compete with each other.

"Monarch Hegemony!" Emperor Heart-Celestial said, reaching his last move. He threw his arms out in a circular motion, causing energy to ripple out. He was like a consummate god-emperor that could encompass all of creation and cow all living beings.

It was the deadliest move from the Deathless Emperor's Dao Fist, which was intended to only be unleashed after the other moves like Great Heights Reached, Unprecedented and Unduplicated, and Without Parallel in History. In fact, those moves were intended to pave the way for the final, ultimate move.

It was something that could force the many heavens to acknowledge allegiance to it, the ultimate monarch whose hegemony could conquer universes.

At long last, Yang Qi was incapable of holding strong and was thrown back over the blood river.

Cries of shock and alarm rose up from the crowd. After such a spectacular fight, it was sad to see Yang Qi be forced into a situation where he likely wouldn't escape with his life.

However, that was when something spectacularly amazing happened. When Yang Qi landed on the surface of the river, he didn't sink down into it! Nor did any of the swirling whirlpools affect him in any way. Hands reached out to pull him down, but the golden light that shone from him crushed the blood energy. Then he simply walked back to shore.

Emperor Heart-Celestial looked on, completely stunned. Then he chuckled. "Your energy arts are truly formidable. You can walk on the blood river, and you sustained a blow from my Deathless Emperor's Dao Fist without being hurt in the least. We really did fight to a draw. Perhaps one day in the future we can have a more thorough match."

"Emperor Heart-Celestial, my friend, your techniques were also completely amazing," Yang Qi said. It was only thanks to his enlightenment of the waxing and waning of yin and yang that he understood how to float in the air. He had actually made himself as light as air, then grasped on certain spatial magical laws to propel himself forward, and prevent the whirlpools from dragging him down at the same time.

That blood river was an extremely dangerous thing; even just being close to it could be deadly, let alone standing on its surface.

Everyone present was bowled over, as they knew that only people with Terrifying will could possibly walk on the surface of the river without sinking down into it. However, there was no way Yang Qi had Terrifying will, otherwise he would definitely have defeated Emperor Heart-Celestial. No matter how impressive Emperor Heart-Celestial was, he couldn't possibly fight with a Terrifying expert.

Most of them assumed that Yang Qi must have some powerful god item. Little did they know it was actually because Yang Qi had managed to grasp the magical laws of the Land of God Extermination.

"It seems neither of us lost," Yang Qi continued, "and yet neither of us won. But I do have to offer my sincere thanks for your offer to give me the godhood."

Emperor Heart-Celestial nodded in response, then turned to the disciples from Celestial Peak and said, "Come, let us go."

Then he flicked his sleeve and led them away. As for the disciples from the other mountain peaks, they knew they had no chance to participate in events now, and dispersed.

As for the chief disciples, they offered words of congratulations and promised to pay formal visits to Yang Qi later. They also relinquished any claim to the godhood.

Even some of the ordinary disciples came over to offer their well-wishes, fully aware that it would be good for them to establish a healthy relationship with the new top figure from Memory Peak.

Clearly delighted, An Yiru saw all of the well-wishers away, then turned to Yang Qi and said, "I never imagined that you were secretly so strong, Yang Qi. You really earned some fame for yourself here today."

"Famous or not famous, it doesn't matter. What I'm mainly worried about is how to get across this river and get that godhood." Yang Qi desperately needed that godhood, but the blood river was very wide. Although he had managed to use the local magical laws to walk across it moments before, it was impossible to say what lurked in the true depths of the river. The place he had walked was only a few meters from the bank, whereas the river itself was dozens of kilometers across.

"Good point," An Yiru said. "I wonder if Emperor Heart-Celestial left because he knew there was no way to get across. Perhaps I should go and ask Master for help."

Yang Qi shook his head. "That's not necessary. Don't bother the old-timers with minor issues among us juniors. It's an unwritten rule that people like us should figure things out on our own. Furthermore, I just gained some significant enlightenment, so now is the perfect opportunity to test out the limits of my energy arts."

"Don't tell me you can just walk across the river?"

"Well, I can try." He looked out at the vast river, but wasn't feeling particularly confident. However, he wanted to challenge himself. Of course, he always had the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart to rely on, but truth be told, he wouldn't consider it in this situation. First of all, he wanted to challenge himself by facing whatever threats rose up to block his path.

Second, this was the territory of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect, and he was surely being monitored. The last thing he wanted was to draw unwanted attention. And that wasn't to mention that he didn't want to depend on anything but himself.

"Well, be careful," An Yiru said. She knew that the enigmatic Yang Qi wouldn't blithely throw himself into a deadly situation. Considering he had fought Emperor Heart-Celestial to a draw, he was already superior to her among the forces of Memory Peak. That was just how things worked in the cultivation world. Only those who proved their strength and rose above the rest would be considered the top experts.

"Alright! Here I go!"

As the disciples of Memory Peak gasped in surprise, he walked out onto the surface of the blood river, destroying the hands of blood that reached toward him.

At the same time, a blood-colored fog suddenly began to rise up from the water, covering Yang Qi so completely that he could hardly see his hand if he held it in front of his face.

"Disciples," An Yiru said, "use whatever power you have to protect yourselves from the fog. Be careful. Blood-fiend devil energy exists within it, and if it infects you, you'll experience cultivation deviation." She and the other disciples from Memory Peak joined forces, using their energy arts to create shields to protect themselves.

However, the fog was roiling out so rapidly that it caused cracking sounds to ring out from the shields, as though they might collapse at any moment.

"Yang Qi, are you all right out there!?" An Yiru called, simultaneously shrinking her shield of light down to be as small as possible, thus making it as strong as she could.

"I'm fine. You be careful back there."

Nodding, An Yiru called out, "Disciples, back away from the mists!"

They backed away until the fog cleared a bit. Unfortunately, their view of the temple on the other side of the river was now obscured, and they had no idea where Yang Qi was.

'This fog is so strong!' Yang Qi thought as he proceeded along. Unfortunately, he still couldn't fly, thanks to the immense pressure. And if it weren't for his constant concentration, that pressure would have pushed him down into the blood river.

For some reason, he felt like he was crossing the legendary sea of bitterness that existed in buddhist teachings.

At a certain point, he ran into a whirlpool that spun him around several times, leaving him completely uncertain of what direction he was walking in. He couldn't see the shore or the temple, just the endless blood-colored fog that was constantly trying to bore into his body.

The circumstances were dire. However, Yang Qi also realized that this was proving to be an important session of cultivation.