Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

A tremor passed through Yang Qi.

‘What is that thing? And why do I suddenly have such a profound feeling of imminent danger?’ This wasn’t any instinctual feeling of fear, but rather a message from the Wheel of Fate.

There were innumerable paths leading into the future, and something as innocuous as a sneeze could sometimes change them. But right now, all of those paths seemed to have gone dark, as if to indicate that he didn’t have any future ahead of him at all.

‘Not good. Someone’s trying to kill me. And this seems like something I can’t fight. Life or death is on the line here.’

RUMBLE!

Without any hesitation, he burned the Blood of the One God in his forehead to activate the God Legion Seal. He needed its power!

From the moment he had begun to build up Blood of the One God, he knew that he could use it to draw on the power of the God Legion Seal. That said, he couldn’t use very much of that power.

The God Legion Seal would eventually be strong enough to easily wipe out an entire immortal world, although his seal wasn’t at that level of strength, yet.

Ever since he had gained the ability to actively use the seal, it had ceased to function as an automatic defense system for him. Perhaps that was because he had fully fused with it. He was now the seal, and the seal was him.

As burning godpower poured into the Wheel of Fate, Yang Qi himself blurred into motion to enter it as well. Then, the Wheel of Fate began turning, unleashing the power to shift the void, fate, the world, the cosmos, the universe, and space-time itself….

However, in that critical moment, a voice rang out.

“Lei Jiuzhou! Your Lightning Society and Great Metropolis Collegium are all looking to die! How dare you trifle with one of the top geniuses of the Titan Emperor Collegium! Yang Qi is the society chief of our illustrious Invincible Society. Once we old-timers ascend, he’ll be the new supreme rector! How dare you try to put our future supreme rector to death! We've come out in full strength to destroy all of you from the Great Metropolis Collegium!”

The Plane of Initiation appeared overhead, moving forward with a heaven-defying momentum. Even before it arrived in full, its aura caused heaven and earth to melt, and the local natural laws and vital energy to conform to it.

The initiators and society chiefs were there, with the supreme rector in the lead. These were the most powerful individuals of the Titan Emperor Collegium, and they were all shouting battle cries at the tops of their lungs. The sound was so intense that many of the lower-level spectators dropped to the ground, dead.

As for certain other old-timers who had come in secret to the Immortal Army Battlefield, they fled the area. Most of them already knew what was happening, and they couldn’t help but hold the Titan Emperor Collegium in contempt for making such an overt move to kill Yang Qi.

As for Yang Qi, he knew full well that they were here to kill him, and he chuckled coldly at the thought. Now more than ever, he was determined to eventually wipe out the Titan Emperor Collegium.

‘Bring it on, you people! There’s no way I’ll let you prevail. I’ll take out Lei Jiuzhou, seize the śarīra of the Preheaven Magnetic King, and disappear. When your Initiation Power begins to run low, I’ll come back. And then we’ll see what you have to say for yourselves.’

It took a lot of energy for Yang Qi to keep the Wheel of Fate going. It required Blood of the One God to draw on the power of the God Legion Seal, and those drops of blood were all incredibly valuable.

He had used so much right now that he had no idea how long it would take to make up for the loss. Perhaps killing Lei Jiuzhou and taking the Preheaven Magnetic King śarīra would help.

Lei Jiuzhou was a true Demolisher, but a new one. He had not yet been baptized by the magical laws of an immortal world, and thus was deficient in many ways. However, his quintessence-blood was still powerful beyond compare.

The flesh and blood of a Demolisher would definitely be of immense help to Yang Qi once he assimilated it via the Hellfire Crucible.

RUMBLE!

In the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint, a tempest of destructive power spread out to fill the area.

The Plane of Initiation was here.

Everything turned into chaos, almost as if a Jambudvīpa Deluge had arrived, joined by an Eternal Godwind.

‘What is that?’ Lei Jiuzhou thought. ‘Initiation Power? They’re using Initiation Power against me? No. Wait. They’re not targeting me. They’re targeting Yang Qi! He’s threatened the overall power structure of the Titan Emperor Collegium and they want to take him out!’ Lei Jiuzhou was a wily old fox, so it only took him a moment to piece together the clues.

Considering that Yang Qi had already gained the upper hand in the fighting, there was no way his collegium would suddenly draw on their strongest reserve powers to help him.

‘This is the perfect opportunity for me. I’ll just bow out of the fight and let them beat each other up.’

Chuckling, he began backing away from the deadly advance of the Plane of Initiation.

Unfortunately, he was too late.

RUMBLE!

Yang Qi had already come up with a new plan.

“Wheel of Fate!”

An enormous wheel appeared above Lei Jiuzhou’s head and, as it turned, the pressure caused blood to ooze out all over his body. In the blink of an eye, his minor world was shattered like a clay tile.

“Agggghhhhh!” he screamed. “What is that? How could it be so strong? My heaven-immortal magical laws can’t do anything to it! Fine, it's time to go all out!”

“Go all out?” Yang Qi said. “Sorry, you don’t qualify to do that. You're a puny Demolisher who hasn’t even ascended and been baptized by an immortal world. The only thing you’re going to do is die!” He waved his hand and sagelight glittered as the God Legion Paradise spread out around him, sucking in Lei Jiuzhou and his three hundred and sixty Protomagnetic Godmountains along with the Lightning Society disciples who had been powering them.

Then the Hellfire Crucible appeared, tipped over, and poured molten sagefire onto them.

Meanwhile, the Plane of Initiation continued descending, turning everything around it into ash. Entire swaths of the Immortal Army Battlefield had been destroyed, revealing the inky black of outer space beyond.

This was a destructive power that rivaled what had been unleashed on the ancient Yore-Wilds by the Hell of Euphoria.

Countless old-timers and students alike were watching closely to see what would happen, yet they were unable to make out anything clearly. There was only a massive tempest of primal-chaos. A few unlucky individuals who got too close in the hopes of getting more information were sucked in, never to be seen again.

That caused everyone else to back up.

For a full four hours, everything trembled violently, until the primal-chaos finally faded and the enormous Plane of Initiation became visible. It was cracked and covered with craters, and there were numerous society chiefs and initiators on it, the cream of the crop from the Titan Emperor Collegium. At the moment, they were exchanging awkward glances with each other as they tried to determine exactly what had happened.

Already, a divine will conversation was playing out among them.

“What happened? Did our attack kill Yang Qi?”

“I can sense some instability in the void. We definitely hit something. The Plane of Initiation is damaged, and our million years of Initiation Power is gone, vanished forever. I don’t see Yang Qi or Lei Jiuzhou. Don’t tell me that we literally wiped them out of existence?”

“Impossible!” said the hallmaster of the Hall of Beheadings and Executions. “Lei Jiuzhou was a heaven-immortal. He even had the śarīra of the Preheaven Magnetic King, who was a Thought-Demolisher, if not an Origin-Demolisher. There’s no way a śarīra could actually be destroyed.”

“There’s also no way that Yang Qi could have died,” said Chief Hegemon. “Or if he did, the power inside of him would have been released and we would be able to sense it.”

Frowning, the supreme rector said, “Why did I get the sensation that, in the middle of our attack, there was some mighty force absorbing our Initiation Power? None of this falls into what I predicted would happen. Lei Jiuzhou and Yang Qi should have been killed by our attack, or at the very least, seriously injured. But instead, they vanished.”

“It doesn't matter,” said Chief Everlasting. “We need to find them, whether they’re alive or dead. Start searching. Where are Yang Qi and Lei Jiuzhou?”

“Yes, everyone start searching. Draw on the power of the Plane of Initiation.” The supreme rector did not look happy at all. If their attack had failed to kill Yang Qi, it would be a huge loss for them. The Initiation Power they had been building up for a million years was gone now, which meant that they were without any reserve defense. If word leaked, it could be a huge disaster.

Capturing Yang Qi would make up for that loss, but right now the situation seemed grim.

With that, the Plane of Initiation began powering up as they searched the area.

But then, a voice rang out. “Initiators. Supreme Rector. Hallmaster. Society Chiefs. What might you be searching for? Don't tell me it's me?”