Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

‘What exactly is going on here? Why is the monster that the chancellor sent me after located in the eye of the Heavendawn Quarry’s enormous spell formation? Sura Devil-Eye? Don’t tell me… that Young Master Shroud-Heaven plans to kill the Crown Prince in the eye itself?’

Not only was Yang Qi shocked, he was starting to think that there must be some deeper, more important reason the chancellor had sent him here. It was obviously no mere test.

The chancellor’s motives seemed impossible to discern. However, after a moment of thinking, an idea occurred to Yang Qi.

‘Hold on. I need to think about this carefully….’

He reviewed all of the information he had so far, but couldn't come up with any further theories. And that feeling of ignorance was profoundly unsettling.

‘Young Master Shroud-Heaven invited the demon kings of the seventy-two grottos, a host of fiend-devils, and numerous experts from the Shroud-Heaven Alliance, all to operate this ancient, deadly spell formation. And the purpose is to put an end to the Crown Prince. It seems a foregone conclusion that the Crown Prince is going to end up getting killed. But the chancellor is no simpleton. He must be privy to some secret or another, and thus sent me to try to damage or destroy the spell formation eye. Does he want me to save the Crown Prince? The Crown Prince is my enemy, and the chancellor knows it. Why would he send me here to save my enemy?

‘Back during the competition, he tried to kill me and my sworn brothers, and even went so far as to steal the Gate of the Great Void. He’s stated outright that he will destroy me or die in the attempt. The first thing he’ll do after taking care of Young Master Shroud-Heaven will be to come after me. There’s no doubt about any of that. So why would the chancellor send me to help him? It seems to me he’s on the Crown Prince’s side. Although, considering the level of his cultivation base, that’s not necessarily the case….’

As Yang Qi stood there wrapped up in his thoughts, Patriarch Frost-Drake remained silent, not daring to say a word.

Yang Qi tried to put himself in the chancellor’s shoes, and figure out what he was thinking. After a moment, another idea struck him. ‘That must be it. I’d say it’s highly likely that the chancellor wants me to resolve my differences with the Crown Prince. If I go into the Sura Devil-Eye, and accomplish my mission, it will weaken the devil-eye, and make it impossible for Young Master Shroud-Heaven to trap the Crown Prince. That, in turn, will allow the Crown Prince to defeat Young Master Shroud-Heaven, ostensibly with my help. Afterward, the chancellor will point out that fact to the Crown Prince, and say that, given how I helped out, he should let old matters drop. The chancellor is trying to kill two birds with one stone. Very clever and shrewd. This chancellor is definitely on another level than me. I guess that’s what you would expect from a Great Sage.’

If Yang Qi damaged the devil-eye and weakened the spell formation, it would be a big help to the Crown Prince, and perhaps the chancellor could convince him that letting Yang Qi live was the best thing for the institute. And the chancellor didn't tell Yang Qi the complete truth because he hoped he would unwittingly accomplish his mission and aid the Crown Prince.

When all was said and done, a big grudge would have been resolved.

Yang Qi couldn’t help but admire the chancellor’s skill in scheming. It was with seemingly casual ease that he set everything in place to fix a major problem.

Sadly, Yang Qi quickly saw through his plans.

‘If I did it,’ he thought, his expression turning grim, ‘it would definitely be a big service to the Crown Prince, and would probably resolve the deadly crisis….’

He suddenly shot to his feet and began pacing back and forth in the cave, startling Patriarch Frost-Drake, who scrambled backward and nearly fell down in the process.

‘You made a big mistake, Chancellor,’ Yang Qi thought as he stomped back and forth. ‘You misjudged me. There’s no way I’ll stoop to helping the Crown Prince. He refused to show me mercy, and as a true man, there’s no way I’ll stand for such bullying. Even if he let me off the hook, I won’t do the same for him. Turn hostility into friendship? Never! I’ll fight him as long as I have blood pumping in my veins.’

Yang Qi had made his decision, and would not play the chancellor’s game. He would not live in humiliation.

He would fight!

He would do battle with the Crown Prince down to the bitter end, and wouldn’t let a single chance to kill the man pass by. And in fact, he was now facing an extremely rare opportunity to do just that.

Sitting down cross-legged, he thought, ‘Forget the chancellor’s mission. I'm going to bury the Crown Prince in this place. Should I wait patiently and watch how the situation develops? Or do something else? No, the chancellor is too tricky. There must be more to his plan regarding that monster. And I bet he even took into consideration that I might just stay on the sidelines and refrain from interfering. I need to get into the Sura Devil-Eye and see how the chancellor has set things up, and what traps he might have laid. Whatever he wants me to do, I’ll do the opposite. I’ll make sure his plan fails, and that the Crown Prince gets killed this very day!’

No matter how he thought about it, the best idea seemed to be to go into the Sura Devil-Eye and place himself right in the middle of the action. That would be the best way to wreck the chancellor’s plan and see the Crown Prince dead.

With that, he reached out and gently slapped Patriarch Frost-Drake’s torso, sending a stream of true energy into him. “Alright, Patriarch Frost-Drake, listen well. I've put some true energy inside of you, and if you screw up, it will explode. You wait here for me. I’ll return shortly with a task for you.”

With that, he blurred into motion, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Using the Hell Portal to mask his cultivation base, he made his way through the wretch energy into the depths of the mine. The deeper he got, the more often he encountered raw spirit stones that seemed to bubble with immense power.

However, he ignored them, and kept his course set on the Sura Devil-Eye.

In the middle of the Heavendawn Quarry was an enormous mine shaft that had supposedly been hewn out by greater demons of the past, in their attempt to mine godstones. Later, the mine went dry, and the greater demons and giant-devils sacrificed various living creatures to the deities they worshipped in the hope of contacting the Hell of Suras for help.

Eventually, that location became the Sura Devil-Eye, the center of a spell formation fueled by the power of ancient Demonfolk Great Sages. Nowadays, it was a place of such profound evil that not even members of the Demonfolk would enter it lightly, for fear of meeting terrible catastrophe.

And now, Yang Qi was preparing to head directly in and see what was inside.

This Sura Devil-Eye was far, far more powerful than a Deathly Devil-Eye or Preheaven Devil-Eye.

Soon, he was able to catch sight of the location itself. It seemed to pulse with an intense feeling of war, a murderous, devilish will that made the entire place seem like a battlefield, rife with blood, slaughter, and massive armies of monsters. This was a place without even a shred of mercy, only endless fighting.

The will of battle here would cause even Quaternary Lifeseizers to be devilized. In fact, even Nonary Lifeseizers who stayed long enough would be eaten away by the sura energy, and transformed into monsters.

From that it could be seen how terrifying of a place the chancellor had dispatched Yang Qi to for this mission.

Thankfully, Yang Qi had his Hell Portal, Hellfire Crucible, and the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. The sura power which emanated from the Sura Devil-Eye was one of the highest levels of power in hell, but that only meant it was the perfect fuel for the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, and could even be used to push his Hell Portal to a higher level.

Fiend-devils would be terrified of that energy, but to Yang Qi, it was just as beneficial as Nine-Yang Immortal Energy.

As he flew down into the mine shaft that was the Sura Devil-Eye, a hair-raisingly terrifying sensation swept over him. The mine shaft really did seem like an enormous eye, in the depths of which was some profoundly evil entity, something that could defile heaven as easily as blowing some dust off the ground.

As for the raging sura power, as soon as it touched Yang Qi, his Hellfire Crucible, Infernal Deity Plate Armor, Infernal Deity Spear and Fiend-Devil Wings all seemed to thrum with excitement.

He immediately began to absorb it, and as a result, could feel that the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth was pleased. At the same time, his cultivation base, martial arts instincts, and fighting stances were all being thoroughly refined. It was almost as if some grandmaster of martial arts were imparting all of his secrets and experiences to him.

What were suras? Of all the entities in all the hells, they were the most adept at waging war. They lived to fight, and their martial arts experience gave them unprecedented advantages. An ordinary person who encountered the power of the suras would instantly be ten times better at martial arts, perhaps even a hundred or a thousand times better. Unfortunately, they would also turn into a bloodthirsty monster.

But not Yang Qi.

As he absorbed the sura power, he could see the Hell of Suras, and could see countless suras locked in combat. Every stance they unleashed could shake heaven and earth, and their command of the magical laws of heaven and earth, and of the ways of combat, were simply unmatchable.

Suddenly, Yang Qi received enlightenment about the nature of combat.

This was war!

Crick. Crack!

The true energy of his Infernal Deity Spear changed as numerous magical symbols appeared on it. It also thrummed with the Nightfall Symphony.

Supposedly, when the Infernal Deity Spear unleashed the Nightfall Symphony on the world, ordinary living creatures would be killed instantly, and their souls extracted.

The symphony was composed of many musical notes, but before, Yang Qi only had enlightenment of a few of them, not the complete score. Now, with the sura power, the entire piece was playing out in his mind, causing the nature of his martial arts to grow far more powerful.

WHOOSH!

Reveling in the sensation, he descended further into the Sura Devil-Eye. As he did, the sura power grew stronger, and the benefits to him more profound. In fact, he had the feeling that he might reach Nonary Lifeseizing here.