Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Star Swordlife always made speeches that were full of twisted words and forced logic. In other words, they were fallacious. And Yang Qi had no interest in sparring with words with him. In the end, it was clear that Proud Heaven had turned him into a pawn, and used him to get the triple combination of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth.

Although, Yang Qi couldn’t be sure if Star Swordlife had just gotten lucky, or if it was because of Proud Heaven’s planning and orchestration.

It seemed unlikely that Star Swordlife would have been able to get the upper hand on Yang Qi. Thankfully, when those three streams of energy had combined, Yang Qi had come to a deep understanding of Proud Heaven’s martial arts and techniques. And that had given him quite an extra boost. As such, he didn’t actually need the combined streams of energy anymore.

RUMBLE!

As Star Swordlife spoke, his voice boomed like thunder and his vital energy surged. Apparently, his power index and psychic scale were both climbing to unheard-of peaks.

Yang Qi could tell that capturing him wouldn’t be an easy task.

Star Swordlife’s ravings of capturing and sealing Yang Qi weren’t realistic at all. However, Yang Qi was still nervous enough that he didn’t immediately attack him. Of course, his anxiety wasn’t because of Star Swordlife, but rather Proud Heaven.

The fact that Star Swordlife had made a move in the open indicated that Proud Heaven must be hiding in the background. In fact, maybe he was just waiting for a fight to break out with Star Swordlife, whereupon he would try to stab Yang Qi in the back.

“Star Swordlife!” Proud World said. “Don’t let yourself be controlled by Proud Heaven. I'm his son, and I can tell you that he's far more ruthless and malevolent than Yang Qi. He’s killed more people than all of us have, combined. Instead of capturing and sealing him, you’ve turned into his lackey? Don’t you realize that everyone Proud Heaven uses eventually end up dead? Dead and buried! You must have heard of some of the things that happened back on the Ancient Road to the Gods. Wherever Proud Heaven goes, he leaves behind blood and carnage. He won’t ever give up on trying to kill us, and he won’t let you off the hook either. Work with us to seal him, and you’ll bring balance to heaven and earth. Furthermore, you can trust us. We can go to the god world and unlock its secrets together.”

“You're Proud World, right?” Star Swordlife said. “I know about you. Yeah, you’re Proud Heaven’s son, but you’ve rebelled against him. That’s a violation of the natural order of heaven. It’s completely disgraceful, and defies the fundamental nature of life force. In fact, I could even accept it if your father killed you. Yang Qi is a Fateless One, so the fact that he wants to kill Proud Heaven actually makes sense. But you’re Proud Heaven’s own blood! Patricide is such an insult to life that I can hardly believe I’m even talking to you. However, given that we both have the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, I won't cause problems for you. I’ll just take away all of your energy arts so that you’re powerless to commit any more evil acts.”

Star Swordlife’s speech nearly caused Proud World to vomit up blood. Expression turning vicious, he said, “You dirty little swine. When I was heroically rebuking heaven and earth, you were in some backwater place eating shit. How dare you lecture me!”

He clenched his fist, as if to unleash an attack.

“Hold on!” Doom said, holding out his hand to block Proud World’s path. “Star Swordlife, there’s no reason you can cite for me to not kill Proud Heaven. He traveled to the Primeval Age and slaughtered all of my people. And it’s impossible to say how many other living beings he killed there. Don’t tell me you’re really just going to ignore all of that.”

“Revenge breeds revenge; will there ever be an end to it?” Star Swordlife replied. “Repaying killing with killing isn’t the path of justice. You need to practice forgiveness, benevolence, and righteousness. Everyone should have a chance to live. That’s the ultimate truth, and the way for life force to truly flourish in heaven and earth.”

“So if Proud Heaven killed your entire clan, you’d forgive him?” Doom asked. “You wouldn’t seek revenge?”

“That's right,” he replied solemnly. “I wouldn’t. If he killed my entire family, I would forgive him. And that would move him so deeply that the seed of kindness I planted in his heart would stop him from further killings. That is the way of righteousness.”

“Why not capture and seal Proud Heaven so that he doesn’t do any more killing? You know full well that he’s more dangerous than us, and far more destructive. Why focus on us instead of him?” Doom wasn’t angry, just curious to see what fallacious logic Star Swordlife would use. And he hoped that he could somehow find a weakness that he could exploit.

“I have no way to influence Proud Heaven. Whether he kills or doesn't kill isn’t up to me. I can only offer him advice, and work hard to convert him. Develop the goodness in his heart. He doesn’t want me to kill you, just seal you. Once I do, it wouldn't be appropriate for him to kill you. So you see, I'm saving you.”

“What if you capture and seal us, but Proud Heaven tries to kill us anyway?” the Shepherd asked. He had never encountered a freak like Star Swordlife, a person who was so illogical, yet clearly believed even his own falsehoods.

“I’ll stop him. And if I can’t stop him, I’ll teach you how to change his heart, and remind him not to kill you. I know that as long as you follow my example and try to change Proud Heaven’s ways, and as long as your heart is devoid of the desire to kill him, then heaven on high will bless you! It will help you turn ill fortune into good luck, and ensure that Proud Heaven doesn’t kill you.”

“Like hell it will,” Doom snapped. “I bear the God Legion Seal. You think I care about some heaven on high? Heaven was created by the legion of gods, and I exist above them. I'm a successor of the Sovereign Lord, so why would I seek the blessing of heaven? I'm superior to it!”

“Grandstander!” Star Swordlife spat. “Considering how arrogant you are, it's impossible to say how much bloody slaughter you’ll unleash in the future. You definitely need to be sealed immediately!”

RUMBLE!

It was Doom who attacked Star Swordlife, using something he had acquired from Yang Qi: the Hand of the One God. The vital energy in the area collapsed as his five fingers stretched out, causing holy light to form the halls of heaven around them.

POP!

In response, Star Swordlife sent out a stream of glowing sword light that intercepted the attack.

At the same time, he smiled coldly. “Using the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth on me? Are you kidding me? The Fist of the Halls of Heaven? The Hand of the One God? I can use those too!”

WHIZZZ!

Energy streamed out as he unleashed the Fist of the Halls of Heaven, which was unparalleled under heaven.

He made his move last, but his attack landed first, smashing through Doom’s attack and closing in on the four companions.

“Doom!” Yang Qi said. Reaching out, he sucked Star Swordlife’s Fist of the Halls of Heaven into himself to save Doom. The truth was that Yang Qi was multitasking. Even as he fought, he was concentrating inwardly on the thirty-six masks that he was trying to assimilate.

Unfortunately, the death energy and power of illusions on them was causing problems for his own psyche. That said, he was convinced that if he could overcome them, it would give him a huge advantage against the sealed face. He had no idea how strong the thing’s true body was, but the exit to the Ancient Road to the Gods was apparently also beneath that sealing mark.

Therefore, while he fought with Star Swordlife, he was also planning how to undo the seal and possibly move the Great Necropolis.

“Everybody stop fighting,” Yang Qi said. “Star Swordlife, I've finally decided to change my mind. I don’t want to fight with you. Let’s turn weapons of war into gifts of jade and silk.”

“Shut your mouth!” Star Swordlife blurted. “I know how strong your daoist techniques are, Yang Qi. The fact that you negated my Fist of the Halls of Heaven shows how mysterious and unpredictable you are. But that doesn't mean I’ll suddenly start trusting you. Turn weapons of war into gifts of jade and silk? You’ll just change your mind a moment later and try to kill me. What makes you possibly think that I would ever believe anything you say?”

“Why did you believe the Flower-Seizing Marauder?” Yang Qi asked coolly. From the look of it, he was ready to get into a long discussion with Star Swordlife.

“Don’t try to buy time, Yang Qi. I'm going to seal you today no matter how glib your tongue is. Your daoist techniques are powerful, but I’m confident I can beat you. I’ll win in the end because you have evil in your heart. You’re far more wretched than Proud Heaven, and I can't tolerate that level of corruption.”

Swish!

He suddenly attacked, sending out a sword strike toward Yang Qi that seemed capable of cleaving through all defenses.

SNICK!

His sword energy plunged into Yang Qi’s chest, right into his heart!

Everyone was completely flabbergasted.

If Yang Qi had unleashed some consummate energy art that instantly defeated Star Swordlife, none of them would have been surprised. Nor would they have been surprised if it was a bit difficult for him to fight Star Swordlife. But for Star Swordlife to pierce his defenses with a single move, and stab him through? That seemed completely outrageous. Since when had Yang Qi become so weak? It seemed completely incongruous with his actions only moments before.

“What?!” Star Swordlife blurted, clearly just as shocked as everyone else. However, he didn’t pause for a moment, and sent sword energy shooting out to seal Yang Qi’s meridians.

However, at that moment, Yang Qi took a step backward. Eyes flashing, he said, “Well? I let you kill me, Star Swordlife. I didn’t even activate my defensive true energy. Now do you believe that I’ll turn weapons of war into gifts of jade and silk?”

The truth was that Yang Qi had simply redirected the sword energy toward the area where he was struggling to deal with the thirty-six masks, then used it to negate some of the death energy on them. No one present had any clue as to what he was really doing.

While Star Swordlife was initially stunned, he recovered, and growled, “Don’t even dream of trying to con me!”

Then he launched another sword attack.