Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi was in the mood to kill someone, and had no plans to hold back when dealing with the Chen Clan.

They were obviously working with the House of Shadowblight against the Yang Clan, which meant that the two clans had reached the point where they were as opposite as fire and water. There was no need for any pretense of cordiality.

The moment Yang Qi appeared, he drew up on his energy arts to send arrows and crossbow bolts flying out like a horde of locusts.

Of course, he secretly drew on true energy strengthened by his hell vortexes. Having just stepped into the seventh phase, if he propelled even a tiny pebble with the power of his hell vortexes, it could crush a mountain. Therefore, it was almost unnecessary to mention what a host of bolts and arrows could do when backed by the strength of five ancient megamammoths.

Pop! Smack!

Arrows peppered the shields and armor of the Chen Clan soldiers, and even with just the first volley, roughly fifty soldiers fell.

One of the captains in the Chen Clan army, a man in the sixth phase, tried to block an arrow with a palm strike. Unfortunately, the arrow pierced into his hand and shot up into his arm, shattering the bones, and unleashing such explosive energy that his meridians twisted painfully.

Shocked, the man let out an agonized shriek.

After all, that arrow had been backed by strength from hell, true energy bolstered by a devilish will. It almost seemed powerful enough to destroy one’s soul and sea of consciousness.

“The monster….” Chen Dalei growled. The other experts of the Chen Clan looked around at the screaming victims toppling to the ground, and their eyes turned bloodshot.

Each and every soldier in this army had been painstakingly trained and given countless energy convergence pills. Each one who died was a huge loss, and reduced the clan army’s usefulness as a threat to others. And just now, nearly fifty soldiers had been killed in one shot. The clan experts’ hearts virtually dripped with blood at the sight of it.

“Attack!”

“Kill that little punk!”

“Gentlemen from the House of Shadowblight, attack! Use your poison arts! That kid must be killed!”

“Kill everyone in the Yang Clan! Don’t even let the chickens or dogs escape with their lives.”

“Kill them all! Even the animals!”

RUMMMBLE!

Led by the top experts in the Chen Clan, the army surged toward Yang Qi. In the very front was one of the elders, Chen Dahong, who was in the seventh phase. He wielded a ghostheaded greatsaber whose edge glistened with what was obviously hyper-toxic poison. Every swipe of that saber would release blasts of blade energy that was toxic to the extreme.

“Ghost Toxin Saber Art!” Chen Dahong shouted as he closed in on Yang Qi. Eyes flashing ferociously, he swept his saber out in front of him. The glow of the blade light combined with the reflection of the burning sun in the sky stabbed painfully into Yang Qi’s eyes.

That was a function of the Ghost Toxin Saber Art, which not only contained poison, but also used reflected light to harm the opponent’s vision, and even induce hallucinations. At least, until the blade took off that person’s head.

“Ghost-Built Barricade!”

The blade light rapidly circled around, cutting off all paths of escape for Yang Qi.

Yang Qi didn't seem to care at all about the blade light. Reaching out, he grabbed the ghostheaded greatsaber, which was about as tough as tofu as far as he was concerned.

“Die!” he growled. Tightening his grip, he bent the saber completely in half.

POP!

The power imparted through that simple act caused a massive plume of blood to spray out of Chen Dahong’s mouth, accompanied by the sound of numerous bones in his body snapping.

Yang Qi took another step forward, simultaneously unleashing a palm strike.

It was actually one of the stances within the Invincible King’s Fist, Triumph in Every Battle, which gave his palm the ferocity of a tiger’s paw or a dragon’s claw. His muscles rippled, and his true energy surged mightily. He was like a bubbling crucible in the depths of hell, filled with lava, terrifying to the extreme.

There was simply no way for Chen Dahong to dodge. The palm connected with his chest, and an agonized shriek escaped his lips. Everyone watching saw what looked like a giant palm made from true energy, smashing into him, crushing him into a pulp. He was dead!

“Dahong!” Chen Dalei shouted. Then, he, Chen Dalong, the more than ten seventh phase experts, as well as numerous eighth phase masters, all joined forces, pooling their energy together in an attack, creating something like a massive mountain. It was so terrifying that pebbles and rubble from the ground began to float up into the air and spin around it like a vortex.

Some of the limestone floor tiles even shattered and joined the vortex.

Yang Qi faced the conglomeration of energy without even moving an inch.

“Bring it on,” he said. “All of you. Every single expert your Chen Clan has. Let’s see how powerful you people really are.” His own energy arts were fully activated, causing a devilish, ghostly aura to spring up around him, almost like a black waterfall. As a result, anything that got within ten paces of him dissolved into dust, including sabers, swords, spears, pikes, and arrows.

This was the power of five ancient megamammoths, converged together in one spot.

The combined attacks of all of the top experts of the Chen Clan were dispelled, vanished without a trace. Chen Dalei, as well as other eighth phase experts, all backed up several steps in shock.

“How is this even possible?”

“A combined attack by all of us should cause problems even for a Master of Energy. How could he possibly just block that mountain of energy?”

“Is he human? Even his father Yang Zhan would have been forced to flee from an attack like that, much less a hedonistic silkpants like him. There’s no way his energy arts and cultivation base can be that incredible.”

“We must be missing something here. He has to have some sort of defensive magical item.”

The experts from the House of Shadowblight were also completely shocked. The fact that Yang Qi was so ferocious completely defied all of their expectations.

“Hundred Poisons Energy Art!” shouted one of the House of Shadowblight experts. A blur of motion appeared, a streak of afterimages that was none other than Humanoid True Energy. This was the same thing that Yang Zhan had done fairly recently, the earmark of the eighth phase of energy arts, Mind Incarnation.

The “incarnation” aspect of the name came from the fact that actual incarnations would appear.

This particular Humanoid True Energy was so full of toxic energy that it would probably have been more appropriately called Humanoid Toxic Energy. As soon as it encountered a living opponent, it would explode, exterminating everything within a thousand paces, down to the grass and the roots. It would even defile the dirt with a corrosive miasma. This was one of the most unique and deadly techniques from the House of Shadowblight.

“Let’s see how you block that, you dirty little swine!” The House of Shadowblight expert was clearly hoping to catch Yang Qi off guard with this sneak attack. The Humanoid True Energy bore down on him so quickly that before he could do anything, it hit his defensive true energy, then exploded in heaven-shaking, earth-shattering fashion, hewing out a massive crater in the ground.

The experts from the Chen Clan stopped in place, looking at the crater, and the toxic smoke that filled it. “Is he finally dead?”

“Third brother!” shouted Yang Yunchong and Yang Hualong.

“See, you dirty swine? Toxic Detonation is an energy art unique to the House of Shadowblight, and is something you clearly are incapable of dealing with.” The experts from the House of Shadowblight all began to laugh loudly.

That was when a voice spoke out from the crater.

“Really? Seems to me that your House of Shadowblight energy arts are actually a bit weak!”

Even as Yang Qi’s words echoed out, a blast of air swept the toxic energy out of the crater, even faster than the arrows and crossbow bolts he had shot out earlier.

“Not good!” shouted one of the House of Shadowblight experts. “Quick, hold your breaths!”

However, his cry came too late, as the toxic energy swept through the army, to be inhaled by more than a hundred soldiers. Miserable screams then erupted as they frothed at the mouth and clutched at their chests.

Some of the top experts from the Chen Clan had already activated their defensive true energy, and were thus protected from the toxic energy.

Flustered and exasperated, Chen Dalei shouted, “How could this be happening? Experts from the House of Shadowblight, do something!”

Everything was going completely wrong. The Chen Clan had come here with great fanfare, accompanied by the House of Shadowblight, all under the assumption that they would be able to wipe out the Yang Clan. They had even assumed that they would come out on top if Yang Zhan appeared. How could they ever have imagined that Yang Qi alone would not only stop them in their tracks, but would also kill so many of their soldiers?

“You’re all going to die here today,” Yang Qi said coldly, striding forward across the battlefield. “Nobody can save you.”

So far, he had killed well over fifty soldiers, poisoned more than a hundred, and had crushed Chen Dahong into a bloody pulp. It was a chilling performance that would cause people to shiver even on the hottest day.

“Stop right there!” one of the experts from the House of Shadowblight said. “Do you know how powerful the House of Shadowblight is? We—”

WHOOSH!

Before he could even finish speaking, Yang Qi blurred into motion, trampling the limestone floor slabs like a herd of megamammoths. Experts from the Chen Clan lunged to block his path, but before any of them could get closer than ten paces, they were sent flying backward by his defensive true energy.

As for the expert from the House of Shadowblight, all he saw was a finger appear right in front of him, that then went on to stab him in the forehead.

POP!

His entire head exploded!

The leader of the group from the House of Shadowblight, the one who had just unleashed the Humanoid True Energy, was shocked to the core. “Arhat Greenblight! Y-y-you… you actually killed Arhat Greenblight? Do you have any idea of the consequences you will suffer?”

Yang Qi slowly turned to look at him. “Don’t worry, you’ll be dying next.”

Six arms of true energy sprang into being behind him, performing a complex set of hand signs that caused massive waves of energy to shoot out toward the House of Shadowblight leader.

In response, the leader stamped his foot, causing his true energy to surge, spilling out to form a suit of scale armor.

“Mind Incarnation! Hundred Poisons Battle Armor!”

Each of the scales was as dark as night, and the suit in general had vicious-looking spikes everywhere. This level of defense clearly surpassed the Golden Bell Rampart that the leader of the other group from the House of Shadowblight had used.

Not only did the Hundred Poisons Battle Armor protect against all sorts of weapons, it also pulsed with true energy filled with a hundred poisons, making it particularly deadly when used in combat.

“Bring it on, swine!” the leader shouted.

However, before he could even make a move, Yang Qi accelerated to a speed ten times faster than before. Then, he summoned shadowy palms of true energy to mask his true killing move, which was a spear that came from the underworld. Instantly, that spear stabbed into the Hundred Poisons Battle Armor, and pierced into the heart of the leader from the House of Shadowblight.

Crackling sounds could be heard as the armor sloughed off, and the flame of the man’s life force vanished, sucked away by the Infernal Deity Spear.

“How is this possible…? I'm… actually dying?”

The leader looked down at the spear stuck into his chest, an expression of disbelief on his face as a devilish will exterminated his soul. Then he toppled over onto his back.

“Go to hell,” Yang Qi growled. Dispelling the Infernal Deity Spear, he stomped down onto the man’s head, crushing it.