Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“What’s that?” Chu Tiange blurted, the shock visible in his eyes. Never could he have guessed that his Fire Dragon of the Great Sun would end up trapped in a true energy crucible, where it would be slowly melted out of existence.

Losing that dragon was equivalent to permanently losing half of his true energy, something that could only be replenished by returning to the Demi-Immortal Institute and practicing long-term cultivation with all sorts of precious materials of heaven and earth.

And if he continued to waste any more time in this fight, it would essentially be throwing his life away.

Shaking, he waved his hands, causing two wings of swords to spring out from his back, dozens of meters wide, and wreathed in flames.

Yang Qi chuckled. “That's not going to do anything. Hellfire Crucible, drag him in!”

Dark golden blood flowed across the surface of the crucible, which suddenly shifted, locking onto Chu Tiange as he hovered there in midair.

POP!

A stream of lava-like true energy swirled out of the crucible, flowed up into the air, and grabbed Chu Tiange, ripping his wings off in the process.

“What energy art is that? It's so brutal!”

At this point, Chu Tiange finally realized he didn’t have the upper hand, and as he looked over at the enormous Hellfire Crucible, his face flickered with astonishment.

“Yang Qi, how could you, a Master of Energy, actually be a threat to a Lifeseizer!?”

“Since you're about to die, Chu Tiange, I guess I’ll tell you. My energy art is called the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. And no, you were wrong. It’s not imperial-class. It’s not saintly-class. It’s not even heavenly-class. It’s a godly-class energy art! Only gods and mythological experts could possibly cultivate something like this!”

Yang Qi’s words battered Chu Tiange’s brain, smashing his self-confidence into absolutely nothing.

Every step Yang Qi took toward him seemed like that of a god in heaven, someone capable of plucking stars and snatching moons. This was the power of twenty ancient megamammoths.

“Impossible! Godly-class energy art!? The arts cultivated by gods exist only in heaven among god-spirits! You can’t even use them in the world of men. They’re impossible to cultivate! Who the hell are you anyway? A nobody! A lowlife piece of trash! How could you possibly be cultivating something like that!? There isn’t even a single godly-class energy art in the entire Demi-Immortal Institute.”

Wracked with astonishment, Chu Tiange simply couldn’t believe what was happening. He began to hack at the fetters holding him in place, hoping to somehow flee and spread word of what was happening, to ensure Yang Qi’s death.

“Infernal Deity Spear!”

Dark golden true energy turned into a spear fully thirty meters long and as thick as a column.

The Infernal Deity Spear was back!

A hell vortex sprang into being around the spear as it shot ruthlessly toward Chu Tiange.

Chu Tiange was simply incapable of dealing with the attack; blood sprayed out of his mouth, along with a terrifying scream, as his defensive true energy was destroyed, and he fell out of the sky onto the scorched earth below.

His true energy was in such chaos that it couldn’t even take humanoid form.

Striding forward, Yang Qi wrapped Chu Tiange up in more true energy bonds, making it impossible for him to even move. “Fortune favors the mighty, Chu Tiange. Is there anything you can say to that?”

“I’ve lost? Defeated by a Master of Energy? I refuse to accept this!” Chu Tiange’s hair was in disarray, and he was soaked with blood, his meridians damaged almost beyond repair.

He was now like an arrow that had reached the end of its flight, and was completely and utterly incapable of standing up to Yang Qi.

Even worse, Yang Qi’s Hellfire Crucible was simply unstoppable.

“I'm Chu Tiange, a heavenly genius! At age five I could already sense the true energy flowing through my meridians! By age eight, my meridians were fully opened! By nine, I was in the Energy Eruption level, and could use the Hundred Paces Divine Fist to kill people and leave behind no evidence! How could this be happening?” Chu Tiange glared up at Yang Qi. “Don’t think you can just kill me and get away scot-free. I'm an elite student of the Demi-Immortal Institute. If I die, it will cause a huge stir, and you’ll get found out eventually. The world is a big place, but not even you’ll be able to hide from them forever. I'm warning you, Yang Qi. You'd better think this through! And don't forget that you’ll drag Yang Susu into it.”

Yang Qi burst out laughing. “All that monologuing and you still won’t admit defeat? Do you really think that I'm too scared to kill you? What happened to all your big talk? What happened to all your confidence? You're a Lifeseizer! I'm just a puny Master of Energy. How could I possibly kill you?”

“You deserve to die ten thousand times over, Yang Qi, you criminal!” Chu Tiange spat, suddenly feeling a bit self-righteous.

He simply couldn’t accept this humiliation at the hands of Yang Qi. He was a Lifeseizer, and Yang Qi was a Master of Energy. That was like the difference between a nobleman and a slave! But now, the slave was about to crush the nobleman beneath his feet. And Chu Tiange knew that the only reason he wasn't dead already was that Yang Qi had more vicious humiliation planned.

“Inverse Sun-Moon Assassination!”

All of a sudden, his seemingly spent frame shone with intense light, and he lunged toward Yang Qi.

It was a last-ditch, suicidal attempt to somehow cut down his enemy.

Unfortunately, Yang Qi had been prepared for something like that, and immediately responded by summoning his Hellfire Crucible.

All of the light Chu Tiange had summoned vanished, and he flopped to the ground again. This time, he really was completely spent, without any more true energy to work with.

“You—!” he growled, glaring at Yang Qi. “I refuse to accept this. How come I can’t kill you?!”

“Time to die.” This time, Yang Qi didn’t mince words. Stepping forward, he thrust his palm out at the defiant Chu Tiange, absolutely shredding his heart, meridians, and sea of energy to pieces.

Chunks of internal organs erupted from his mouth, and he flopped back, dead.

He had been an elite genius student from the Demi-Immortal Institute, who had dominated everything in his path for his entire lifetime. But now he was dead.

Dead at the hands of Yang Qi.

Glancing down at Chu Tiange’s corpse, Yang Qi said, “I have to thank you, Chu Tiange. Your Fire Dragon of the Great Sun, the quintessence of a lifetime of cultivation, has already been imprisoned in my Hellfire Crucible. Now I’ll slowly refine it into true energy and life force quintessence. Then, I’ll make another attempt at reaching the Lifeseizing level!” Already, he could sense the life that was Chu Tiange slowly fading away into nothing.

Supposedly, upon reaching a certain extremely high level of cultivation, a powerful expert could see fading life auras, and manipulate them so that the dying person was temporarily spared.

But there was no one present to do such a thing for Chu Tiange, and thus, his death came quickly and cleanly.

Yang Qi pulled the Hellfire Crucible back into his sea of energy, and then summoned the rippling blue door of his thumb-ring of holding.

Instantly, Li He, He Jili, Hua Yinhu and Liang Dong all leaped out into the open, and the first thing they saw was Chu Tiange’s corpse, causing looks of shock to overtake their faces.

A very long moment passed, and finally, Li He managed to choke out, “Is that… the corpse of Chu Tiange? He’s dead?”

“Yes,” Yang Qi replied. “Chu Tiange’s dead. I just killed him.”