Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

This member of the Crown Prince Society didn’t mince words. It was with unbridled aggressiveness that he immediately resorted to a physical attack.

“Army-Shattering Fist!”

A freezing blast of fist-wind roiled out, heading straight toward Yang Qi’s head. Even a massive boulder which found itself in the path of this fist attack would be blasted into dust. Furthermore, the fist-wind rotated in a way that was designed to completely obliterate the enemy’s defensive true energy.

This member of the Crown Prince Society clearly looked down on Yang Qi so much that he wasn’t even worried if he got killed.

After all, the Crown Prince Society was extremely powerful in the Demi-Immortal Institute.

“Resorting right to rule-breaking!?” Killing intent burning, Yang Qi unleashed a palm strike; true energy swirled out to form a huge hand, glittering and golden, which seemed to pulse with the aura of a king.

The fist-wind struck the enormous true energy palm, and shattered, whereupon the golden palm continued onward, smashing into the Crown Prince Society student, who staggered backward and coughed up blood.

The other nearby members of the Crown Prince Society were so incensed that they clearly wanted to kill Yang Qi and chop his corpse up into a million pieces.

“Such impudence! How dare you strike a member of the Crown Prince Society? You’re dead!”

Energy art fluctuations immediately filled the area.

More than ten Masters of Energy unleashed deadly attacks, causing sword energy, blade nimbuses, fist strikes, and more to descend like rain.

The explosion of energy actually made it difficult to see clearly.

The other students in the area backed up, all of them wondering who this Yang Qi character was, and why he had dared to arouse the ire of the powerful Crown Prince Society.

“Triumph in Every Battle!Victory in Every Fight!”

It was with casual calm that Yang Qi summoned six true energy arms. Even more shocking, two additional heads sprouted on his shoulders, one of them extremely vicious-looking, the other the picture of calm.

In the blink of an eye, he had literally turned into a three-headed six-armed entity.

This was the full manifestation of the Invincible King’s Fist.

His six arms flowed through numerous stances as he lunged forward, seemingly capable of ripping the ground up and destroying it.

“Aaaiiiieee!”

“Aaaiiiieee!”

“Aaaiiiieee….”

Numerous screams erupted as the students from the Crown Prince Society were sent flying backward, slamming into the stairs leading into the Academy of Sage Studies. As they did, the sounds of breaking bones rang out for all to hear.

They had all been vanquished in only one interchange with Yang Qi.

“Lifeseizing level!?” someone shrieked, a woman. “He's actually a Lifeseizer….”

It was none other than the arrogant young woman in the green garment that Yang Qi had spoken to moments ago. The shock on her face was apparent; how could she ever have guessed that the outer campus student she had just derided was actually a powerful Lifeseizer?

“Lifeseizer!? He's really in the Lifeseizing level…?”

As word spread, more and more students looked over at Yang Qi, their eyes shining with the realization that he was a Lifeseizer.

“An outer campus student actually reached the Lifeseizing level? That’s incredible! I'm a Master of Energy myself, but even I don’t know how many years it will take for me to do the same thing!”

“When you achieve meteoric progress, then you can hold your head high!”

“Well, even though he made his breakthrough, he pushed things a bit too far. How is he going to deal with the Crown Prince Society now that he's offended them? Seems he doesn’t understand the concept of death. They are definitely not going to let him off the hook.”

“Not necessarily. It depends on what society he joins. All the powerful organizations are interested in recruiting new Lifeseizers. If he has a problem with the Crown Prince Society, he could always join the Gentlemen’s Society. They would probably protect him.”

“You know, you’re right.”

Even as the members of the Crown Prince Society lay there in shock, Yang Qi strode past them into the main hall of the Academy of Sage Studies.

By this point, the commotion from outside had been noticed by the elite students inside, and they all looked over.

Almost instantly, Yang Qi felt something like the rays of a thousand burning suns locking onto him.

Everyone inside the hall was a top expert, and their combined gazes were so powerful that they could vanquish any Master of Energy.

However, Yang Qi merely squared his shoulders and continued walking.

In fact, his gaze locked onto the key figure of the ceremony, Yun Hailan.

She, of course, looked back at him, and instantly realized who he was. And considering his energy fluctuations, she could tell that he had recently reached the Lifeseizing level.

Chuckling coldly, he said, “I bet you never would have guessed that I would reach the Lifeseizing level, eh Yun Hailan? How long will it take you to learn that schemes and plots don’t always work? Connive and finagle to your heart’s content. I'm still going to leave you choking dust when I pass you.”

‘He actually reached the Lifeseizing level…?’ Although she was visibly shocked, she quickly wiped it from her face.

“I must offer my sincerest congratulations,” she said coolly. “Your cultivation is progressing along quite quickly. I guess I misjudged you in the past. You might be a Lifeseizer now, but don't forget that the higher you rise, the farther you can fall. To be honest, such a high cultivation base doesn’t fit you. If you want to live your days in peace, return to Yanhaven and go into seclusion. Live like an ordinary person.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but not only will I not live like an ordinary person, I'm going to become the type of famed individual who shakes the entire world.” As of this moment, Yang Qi was hard-pressed not to just attack Yun Hailan and kill her right here.

He had only just entered the Lifeseizing level, and she had reached it some time ago, which left her feeling a bit confident. However, Yun Hailan had no idea how truly powerful he was.

‘Just you wait,’ he thought. ‘After I'm an elite student, there will definitely be some time when we meet alone, just the two of us. Then I’ll show you how strong I actually am.’ Yang Qi’s hand trembled with effort as he calmed his true energy, forcing himself to stop thinking about attacking her.

Although the conversation between Yang Qi and Yun Hailan didn’t appear to be over, that didn't stop a certain man from stepping forward and saying, “Who is this guy, Yun Hailan? I can’t believe that he actually interrupted a ceremony being carried out by the Crown Prince Society!”

He was tall and slender, with sword-like eyebrows and a complexion as sparkling as jade. A single glance at him, and one would take him to be a very powerful individual. Furthermore, his narrow, wolf-like eyes made him seem like a very unreasonable and intolerant person. At the same time, he was the type of person who could handle ‘troublesome’ situations.

“And you are…?” Yang Qi said. He could tell from this man’s aura that he was no less powerful than Chu Tiange. Obviously, he was also a Lifeseizer, an elite student and a member of the Crown Prince Society.

“You don’t need to know who I am,” the man said imperiously. “I’ll give you three breaths of time, and two options: One. Apologize to Yun Hailan and then get your ass out of here. Two. Get killed by me. Your choice. And when I say get your ass out of here, I mean on your hands and knees. If you try walking, then I’ll break your ankles.”

Another of the Crown Prince Society students waved his hand dismissively. “Don't get carried away, Gu Fenxian. This student is in the Lifeseizing level, so give him a bit of face. Besides, it's not too late for him to just step outside. [1]

“Listen, brat. Just step out and wait for our ceremony to finish. Then come back and get your promotion. Afterward, you can join our Crown Prince Society. We can take care of everything in one shot.”

“Did you hear that?” Gu Fenxian said. “Get your ass out of here!”

Waving his sleeve, he sent a blast of air out that transformed into a tornado which bore down on Yang Qi.

WHIZZZ!

Yang Qi’s energy arts rumbled like a bell when Gu Fenxian’s tornado hit him. Then, the tornado simply collapsed into pieces.

“You want me to get my ass out of here? You people really talk big, you know that?” Yang Qi was getting very irritated with how arrogant and bossy this Crown Prince Society was. Shoving his finger in the direction of this Gu Fenxian, he said, “If you have what it takes, why don’t you make me? Except that you can’t.”

There were also some elders in the hall, transcendent-looking old men with high positions in the institute, who were tasked with overseeing the promotion of elite students. However, they didn’t react at all upon seeing Yang Qi arguing with the Crown Prince Society. In fact, it was even possible to see slight smiles on their faces, as if they were interested in seeing who would come out on top.

“How impudent!” Gu Fenxian blurted, incensed both by Yang Qi’s words as well as his sharp tone. With that, he threw his arms wide, causing intense heat to ripple off of him, which transformed into flame horses, flame crows, flame rats, flame tigers, flame snakes, and more….

Fire filled the air and then shot directly toward Yang Qi.

Yang Qi didn’t even look at the flames. He unleashed his true energy, causing numerous energy vortexes to spring up around him, which easily sucked in all of the flame manifestations, destroying them and sending sparks showering down everywhere.

Tiny pits and holes opened up on the ground where the sparks landed, which attested to how powerful the flames had been.

“Flame qilin!” Gu Fenxian growled. Scorching hot true energy shot out from his eyes, which rapidly took the shape of a large qilin. Stamping its hooves, it began to race toward Yang Qi, breathing fire as it did. It also emanated an energy field that was so wide it instantly enveloped Yang Qi.

Everyone present could see that the heat within that energy field was so intense that the ground was melting.

However, none of the onlookers felt any of that heat, which showed how exquisitely Gu Fenxian was able to control his energy art.

There were some people who would unleash incredible energy arts, but would injure innocent bystanders. People like that seemed amazing, but were actually not in control, and were wasting their true energy.

Obviously, Gu Fenxian’s energy arts had reached the highest level of perfection.

And yet, despite being in the midst of that intense fire, Yang Qi didn't seem worried at all. He was like the ultimate manifestation of the old adage true gold fears no fire. Reaching out, he splayed his fingers, then tightened them into a fist, causing a vortex to spring up around it. It was the Invincible King’s Fist again, this time, all of its stances combined into one.

BOOOOOOOM!

He punched the flame qilin hard on the head, provoking a miserable scream from it as it collapsed into pieces.

Thump, thump, thump….

Gu Fenxian staggered backwards, his face draining of blood.

1. Gu Fenxian: Gu is a surname which also means “valley”. Fen means “to burn, immolate” and Xian means “immortal”.