Sage Monarch

Yang Qi was truly taken aback to see a fiend-devil from the Hell of Sages and Mahātmās.

The fiend-devil's aura seemed less like that of a devil and more like that of a sage or mahātmā, although it was still a far cry from that of the legion of gods. In ancient times, there were actual sages and mahātmās who, in the hopes of gaining a deeper understanding of hell-born fiend-devils, had left the legion of gods. After all, the legion of gods believed that hells should be wiped out of existence. In contrast, the sages and mahātmās felt that there was a method to the madness of the hells, and they should be preserved. They felt that light and darkness were antithetical, but created and required balance. According to them, if all of the hells were destroyed, then the great daos of the universe would be destabilized and the magical laws of the god world would be thrown into chaos.

Unfortunately, even the righteous entities who lived in the Hell of Sages and Mahātmās were hunted and killed by the legion of gods. Some survived and sired offspring, but those later generations were eventually overtaken with wretched and evil energy. That said, they still bore the blood of their ancestors, and their combination of righteous and evil cultivation made them extremely terrifying. In fact, they were roughly on the same level as the Infernalfolk in terms of strength.

Thankfully, the fiend-devils of the Hell of Sages and Mahātmās only existed in that specific hell, as opposed to Infernalfolk, who spawned fiend-devils in virtually all of the other hells.

The effects of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth on the fiend-devils present was minimal, and that was especially true of this old man from the Hell of Sages and Mahātmās, who was like royalty. He had one eye that seemed to thrum with the aura of ancient mahātmās, and one that was profoundly wretched and evil. And as he stared at Yang Qi, it was impossible to miss the brutal nature of his gaze.

There was no doubt that he had Terrifying will, and at the same time, a split personality. On the one hand, he wanted to save all living beings in existence by transforming them into devils. On the other hand, he made light of murder and was viciously evil. He really did seem like an embodiment of universal balance.

"I've taken a liking to this boy, Mahātmā," the dream-devil said. "Don't even think of trying to take him from me."

"There's something unique about him," the mahātmā fiend-devil said. "Didn't you notice the scuffle between him and the other disciples of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect? It happened just now on the other side of the blood river. He defeated one opponent after another, even Emperor Heart-Celestial. Then he walked across the river, and even escaped Lord Blood River himself. I'm afraid it won't be easy to force him to be a male consort that you can extract quintessence energy from. Killing him would be the best option."

"Absolutely not," the dream devil replied. "He's clearly a genius, and I'm going to groom him to his full potential." Beckoning to Yang Qi, she continued, "Come to me, boy. You can't escape, so why not become my man? With my protection, none of the other monsters here will harm you. What do you say?"

One of the other fiend-devil's chuckled darkly. "Whoever becomes Dream Mintdance's man won't last for long. Why don't we just take him and devilize him? Considering how powerful his cultivation base is, he would make a great fiend-devil. He's obviously going to reach the Terrifying level soon, so what better disciple could we have?"

This particular fiend-devil looked like a middle-aged scholar, and even had a scroll tucked under his arm. In fact, he hardly looked like a fiend-devil at all. However, Yang Qi could sense the profound evil within him, and knew that he was the kind of person who could casually carry out all types of slaughter.

Yang Qi immediately recognized what he was. 'A fiend-devil from the Hell of Books and Civilization. I've heard that fiend-devils from there all seem scholarly and educated. There are even powerful book-devils. All of them are very learned regarding history, and will absorb all the knowledge of a civilization before completely destroying it.'

Most fiend-devils, upon conquering a kingdom or world, would absorb the quintessence energy of the people they killed, and leave behind nothing but destruction. But fiend-devils from the Hell of Books and Civilization would absorb the power of those places' history. In the mortal world, the Rich-Lush Continent had been considered a very small location. But even it had a host of countries and dynasties, as well as important historical figures whose deeds were recorded in books. When one considered all of the mortal worlds in existence, it could only be wondered how many civilizations existed there. Unfortunately, this was another hell that seemed to belong to one of the other two aspects of the God Legion Seal, because Yang Qi couldn't sense it.

"Regardless of what you think, this man is mine," Dream Mintdance said. Gliding forward, she reached out toward Yang Qi, her hand becoming like a dream with a million variations that spread out to cover him. Almost immediately, Yang Qi began physically shrinking down from the effects of the palm.

'What a powerful palm move,' he thought, shivering. He had no idea if Dream Mintdance was using her full strength, but he did know that he was locked down and couldn't move. She was obviously vastly stronger than Emperor Heart-Celestial, and far beyond his own ability to deal with. She was definitely in the Terrifying level.

Although she wasn't at the same level as the little girl from Memory Peak, as long as she was at the Terrifying level, it meant that she would be too much for Yang Qi to handle.

That said, he could tell that this palm strike was actually a test of some sort. Furthermore, there was an obvious weakness in it. Taking a step forward, he used the Glad Tidings of the Lord to dispel the dream qualities, then jabbed his finger right into Dream Mintdance's palm and sent a stream of energy right into her.

Dream Mintdance shivered in disbelief at how his energy had entered her and started melting away her own true energy. Thankfully for her, Yang Qi had left the God Legion Seal in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, otherwise she would have been in a very bad position.

Furthermore, because he had hidden the God Legion Seal, he was able to conceal his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth and make it seem like he had devised his own method to vanquish wretched and evil techniques. After all, if the fiend-devils knew that he commanded the God Legion Seal, they would have instantly gone mad.

Crack!

A loud popping sound could be heard in Dream Mintdance's arm, as though one of her bones had just broken. Just as quickly, more cracking sounds were heard as the bone mended itself. At the same time, she shoved Yang Qi's true energy out of her, causing him to take three steps backward. Thanks to the exchange, he was now fairly certain that her power index was at about five thousand. Astonishingly, they were roughly evenly matched in that short interchange.

Dream Mintdance's face flickered with anger, and she was clearly preparing to launch another attack. Before she could, Yang Qi held his hand up and said, "Slow down, Miss Dream Mintdance. Do you, a Terrifying cultivator, really plan to bully a low-level disciple like me? What glory is there in that?"

Dream Mintdance chuckled. "Still sparring words with me, boy? I'm a fiend-devil! Don't you know what that means? Although, I have to say you are proving to be quite amusing." Even as the words left her mouth, she extended her hand again. "I'll only use thirty percent of my full strength; let's see if you can handle it. Come on, let's play!"

All of a sudden, a kingdom of dreams and fantasy appeared. Although energy arts in general were suppressed by the magical laws in the area, she was skilled enough to find the proper loopholes. Energy as fine as spider webs flowed out, interlocking and creating an enormous net that slowly began to settle down over Yang Qi.

Seeing that he was about to be bound and sealed, Yang Qi waved his hand and began to sever the threads of true energy. However, as the threads wrapped around the sword energy he sent out, it was weighed down, making it difficult to even move his arm.

Whoosh!

As Dream Mintdance's hand closed in, she shrugged her shoulder, causing her robe to fall to the side, revealing much of her beautiful figure and skin to Yang Qi.

Yang Qi was no longer wearing his God Legion Battle Robe, but instead, the uniform of Memory Peak. It was a tough garment that was imbued with godliness, the type that not even a powerful god item could pierce. However, it was as tough as tofu compared to Dream Mintdance's claw-like hands.

"Prepare to be stripped!" she chuckled, smiling like a female hoodlum. Before Yang Qi could even think of dodging to the side, she ripped the clothing from his upper torso.

Snorting coldly, Yang Qi shivered and sent out an expression of will designed to subdue devils. It was like a long sword, shining as white as the sun, that stabbed directly toward Dream Mintdance. As her true energy crumbled, more clothing rippled out to cover him, and this time it was the God Legion Battle Robe, brimming with the power to vanquish the wretched. Instantly, almost all of the fiend-devil energy around him was crushed.

Some of the nearby fiend-devils even felt like they were suffocating.

RIP!

In response to this unexpected move, Dream Mintdance backed away from him, simultaneously thrusting both of her hands out and spinning them to unleash a consummate energy art.

"Great Waves of the Dream!"

Ripples flowed out from her palm to block Yang Qi's path, then shove him backward.

Meanwhile, the scholarly-looking fiend-devil shouted, "That wasn't thirty percent strength, Dream Mintdance! That was more like forty percent!"

"Damnation!" Dream Mintdance growled, killing intent filling her face.

At the same time, Yang Qi thought, 'Not good! The last thing I need is for this deviless to actually try to kill me. I guess the upside is that I can see what her energy arts are really like. There's no way I'm going to die here!"

He stood straighter, his God Legion Battle Robe rippling, making him look like some ancient god-king clad in white, emanating an aura that terrified the other fiend-devils to the point that they didn't dare to approach him.

"What energy art is that?" Dream Mintdance asked. "And why does it seem to target me specifically? Not even the zen arts of the monks from the buddhist schools can affect me in this way."

Yang Qi simply stood there, absorbing as much of Dream Mintdance's hellish true energy as he could, storing it inside himself for later use. And of course, he didn't answer her question.