Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“It's too bad I haven’t found any demonlings in the eighth phase, they’re the only ones that are worth a million energy convergence pills.”

Sighing, Yang Qi put away the devil-hunting spider core. ‘The more demonlings I fight, the more I can help my clan. And that’s not even mentioning the training on my side. My cultivation base is already in the Energy Weapon level, high enough that I don’t need to worry about seventh phase experts. Only eighth phase opponents would cause me problems. That having been said, if I ran into a big group of eighth phase demonlings, I might end up dead.”

At the moment, he wasn’t afraid of fighting demonlings one on one. But big groups of them? That was a different story. For example, the devil-hunting spider he had fought was in the seventh phase, and he had been fine. But if he had been facing seventeen or eighteen at a time, he would have had no other option than to turn and run.

After all, devil-hunting spiders could shoot their silk high into the air, and even pull mighty eagles to the ground.

“No use worrying about it. I’ll just head deeper into the mountains. If I can find an eighth phase demonling worth a million, it would relieve a lot of the pressure on eldest brother and second brother as they try to restore the bloodline’s assets.”

Gritting his teeth, he headed further into the forest.

Meanwhile, it continued to rain, and occasional muffled booms of thunder rang out, shaking the mountains. Occasionally, lightning would strike portions of the mountains, unleashing flash floods. At this point, Yang Qi was far off the beaten path in the Blackcorpse Mountains. Only experts in the Master of Energy level would ever dare to venture this deep.

ROAR!

Suddenly, the sound of some enormous beast echoed out from the direction of a nearby flooded area.

“What’s that? Sounds pretty strong.” The sound waves caused by the roar left Yang Qi’s ears ringing.

Leaping into motion, he drew on his energy arts, flying a hundred paces in a single motion. Being careful to avoid the rushing floodwaters, he proceeded along until he reached a cliff with a huge waterfall. The sound of the water crashing onto the rocks below was like the marching of a huge army of horses and men.

Surprisingly, Yang Qi immediately caught sight of a demonling at the bottom of the waterfall, seemingly bathing.

In truth, the creature… was practicing martial arts forms.

And it was the source of the roar he had heard moments ago.

It was an enormous ape, as tall as three humans put together, with white fur and green eyes. It looked almost like some sort of evil ghost, standing there on a boulder beneath the waterfall, striking out, sending water spraying everywhere with each blow.

Considering that the waterfall was three hundred meters tall, it could only be imagined how powerful the force of the falling water was at the bottom. It was probably enough to destroy low-lying mountains, and yet, the energy which flew out of the palms of this white-furred ape was more than a match for it.

ROAR!

Almost as soon as Yang Qi caught sight of the beast, it twitched as though it had sensed something. Then it looked over its shoulder, its eyes locking down directly onto Yang Qi’s hiding place.

It was almost as though nothing could possibly hide from it.

Instantly, Yang Qi felt some mysterious force locking down onto his soul; even if he fled for a thousand kilometers, he knew that he wouldn't be able to shake this white ape.

‘Thousand Kilometer Soul Locking? Shit! This white ape is no joke. His energy arts and cultivation base have reached the point of perfection. In terms of his general level, he’s probably beyond father, and even further beyond him in energy arts. I'm definitely not a match for him! I wonder if he's in the Master of Energy level?’

Not willing to test out his theory, he turned to leave.

He knew that he could not handle this creature, and in fact, not even his own father could do so. An opponent with Thousand Kilometer Soul Locking was just too powerful. It was a technique that could be used only after one’s energy arts reached the pinnacle, and made one extremely sensitive to energy fluctuations, to the point where one could lock one's senses onto an enemy, and track them for hundreds upon hundreds of kilometers.

Only experts in the ninth phase, or possibly the peak of the eighth phase, could use such an ability. And that level was far beyond Yang Qi. Maybe if he was already in the seventh phase, he might have taken the risk. But in the sixth phase, he was absolutely certain that he would end up dead.

Even more relevant was that this wasn’t a human. It was a massive ape, so enormous that his true energy was probably three or four times as abundant as that of an average expert of the same level.

Unfortunately, although Yang Qi wanted to leave, the ape didn't seem inclined to let him.

With a roar, the beast struck out with his palm, sending a stream of energy into the waters of the lake around him. Instantly, the water and energy turned into a twisting dragon that lunged toward Yang Qi, mouth gaping. In the shortest of moments, it was right on top of Yang Qi, who was three thousand meters away.

“Not good!”

Yang Qi immediately burst into motion like a stone flung by a catapult.

An instant later, the water dragon’s ‘mouth’ snapped down onto the tree he had been standing on, shattering it into splinters.

Yang Qi could tell that if that ‘mouth’ had hit him, it would have ripped him to shreds.

“One attack went three thousand paces?” he thought, shaken. “Incredible energy arts!”

The so-called Hundred Paces Divine Fist got its name because it was an ability used to project destructive energy to a distance of a hundred paces. However, after a hundred paces, the true energy would simply fade away.

Based on Yang Qi’s current energy arts and cultivation base, he could actually strike things five hundred paces away, which was farther than most bows could shoot. However, three thousand paces was simply too enormous of a distance to even contemplate. This white ape was definitely that far away, and yet had attacked with energy arts in terrifying fashion.

“Hmm?” The white ape was clearly shocked that Yang Qi managed to dodge his blow. However, all he did was smile viciously, revealing a host of ghastly fangs. At the same time, the white fur on his face floated about, untouched by the water.

Then, he launched himself into the air, flying out of the waterfall, a pair of golden wings appearing on his back that made him look like a huge roc. These wings were far larger than the Wings of the White Crane, and clearly more powerful.

“Roc energy arts?”

Almost before Yang Qi could even react, the white ape was descending on him, his fists lashing out to unleash shocking levels of energy.

Suddenly, the air around Yang Qi swirled into a vortex, locking him into place as surely as fetters, making him like a tiny rowboat in the face of a massive, inescapable tidal wave.

Death and destruction were about to hit him head-on.

Worse, he knew that his own energy arts were like nothing compared to the ape’s. In fact, if this ape appeared back in Yanhaven, only City Magistrate Yan Gufeng would be his match.

“DIE!” Yang Qi shouted, his battle spirit surging. He knew that the only option he had right now was to put everything on the line and fight. Muscles rippling, he drew on the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, causing an aura like that of a devilish god to erupt out, something so monstrous it would strike fear into the hearts of even demons and ghosts.

His Infernal Deity Spear materialized in his hand, which he stabbed directly toward the white ape’s throat.

The white ape was visibly shocked; he could clearly sense the destructive nature of the Infernal Deity Spear, which contained true energy that immediately weighed down on his soul.

Instantly, a flood of water erupted from his hand, forming into an enormous cudgel which he thrust out toward the Infernal Deity Spear.

When the two weapons collided, the force shoved Yang Qi backward and dispelled his spear. At the same time, the power of the enormous cudgel entered his meridians and pierced into his sea of energy, seriously injuring him and causing cracking sounds to echo out inside of his body.

“Lightning mammoth!” he shouted in his mind. Instantly, the power of the lightning mammoth swept through him, repairing the damage to his meridians.

Because of the incredible pressure he was under, it was in that very moment that, at long last, the fourth particle within him awoke, yet again advancing his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. In the blink of an eye, his limbs and bones all pulsed with the blessing of the power of four ancient megamammoths.

“Spear!” he shouted. Yet again, the Infernal Deity Spear appeared. Simultaneously, his sea of energy began to churn as hell vortexes sprang into being to power the spear. Without any hesitation, he thrust the spear out, causing it to blur with devilish speed toward the white ape’s chest.

Never could the white ape have guessed that his opponent would achieve a breakthrough right in the middle of their fight, and experience a massive increase in his energy arts. And yet, he still had no intentions of letting Yang Qi go. Yang Qi was too valuable to him; the energy arts the ape cultivated required that he absorb the true energy of people just like this.

And his understanding of cultivation far surpassed that of ordinary humans.

His floodwater cudgel suddenly twisted like storm winds, once again slamming into the Infernal Deity Spear. The attack was blocked, and yet, an aura like that of devils from hell still poured into the white ape’s soul, destabilizing his true energy.

Yang Qi seized the opportunity to attack again, summoning a dozen Infernal Deity Spears to create an array that he sent shooting toward the white ape.

Simultaneously, he flitted into the air like a bird, unleashing six moves from the Invincible King’s Fist, each of them targeting a vital area on the huge ape's body.

ROAR!

Apparently, this ape had never experienced humiliation like this. Snarling ferociously, he lifted his cudgel and unleashed his energy arts, summoning an endless mass of floodwaters to create something like a wall, formed of numerous smaller layers. The Infernal Deity Spears pierced into the wall, destroying one layer after another, and causing the entire wall to tremble. But it was a wall that combined both hard and soft elements, and thus, despite the power of the spears, they eventually faded away, having failed to destroy it.

“Mountain!” the ape howled. Energy surging, it sent masses of floodwaters swirling into the air to form a mountain that then shot toward Yang Qi.

It was a mountain so enormous that Yang Qi had no hope of dodging out of the way of the attack.