Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Before Yang Qi’s spear attacks could land on the three War Gods, a stream of immense power shot out from the depths of Silvermoon. Silver light flared as a moon appeared above the city, out of which stepped a woman.

“For killing my generals, mortal, you deserve to die….”

She radiated a field of power that immediately locked onto the trajectories of the three spear strikes, and neutralized them.

The three War Gods had been saved.

Yang Qi rested his spear at his side and looked over at the woman, who was obviously the magistrate of the city. She was a member of the imperial family of the Sky-Heaven Dynasty, Lady-Princess Silvermoon, widely regarded as a powerful expert of energy arts.

The power of the stars seemed to descend from the sky, blessing her, and giving her the most holy of auras. At the same time, there was something about her that made it seem like she could never die; from the fluctuations which rolled off of her, it was possible to tell that she was somewhere between the eighth and the ninth Legendary transformations.

“So, she's in the Eighth Legendary transformation, making her an Astral-Star Legendary. However, she’s being boosted by countless spell formations, making her no weaker than a Never-Dying Legendary.”

Yang Qi had killed entities of this level in his time in the hell monsoon. For example, the bronzeblaze fiend-devils. Therefore, he was relatively familiar with the auras involved.

Despite being only in the second transformation himself, he didn’t fear this level of power.

That said, the defensive mechanisms in Silvermoon were nothing to take lightly, and the spell formations were deadly to say the least. Worse, the vital energy of the Western Continent wanted to expel the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, making it much more difficult for him to use it. Obviously, he had to be much more careful than when he was in the Rich-Lush Continent.

“Who are you?” she asked, her expression frosty. “Rich-Lush Continent scum? Anyone who invades my precious Silvermoon will pay the price in the form of rivers of blood. Aren’t you afraid?”

The fact that two of her War Gods had been killed was infuriating. They were key subordinates of hers, similar to holy neophytes back in the Demi-Immortal Institute.

“The Rich-Lush Continent and the Western Continent have done business with each other for a long time,” Yang Qi said. “Both sides have benefited greatly. What gives you the right to unilaterally change the terms of business? Worse, you slander people, steal their demon cores, and even randomly arrest them. Why?”

“Listen, peasant. Everyone from the Rich-Lush Continent is scum, and should be slaves of the Western Continent. The fact that you use those despicable demon cores to take our precious spirit stones is a mockery. Your bloodlines are impure, and you’re all despicable, natural-born slaves. We people from the Western Continent have the purest of blood, and are destined to rule you. One of these days, the Rich-Lush Continent will bow to our leadership, and you mortals will tremble in fear!”

“Unless I'm misunderstanding the situation, you people are the ones with impure blood. You’re all part Demonfolk! You've been ruled by the Hanging Mountain for who knows how long. You’re not even human anymore. You’re half-human, half-demon freaks!”

Even as the words left his mouth, Yang Qi remembered that his mother was a holy daughter from the Hanging Mountain, and that he had probably been born with Demonfolk blood in him. Of course, his blood had transformed since then. With Sovereign Lord True Energy and universal power, it had become the thing of god-spirits. Actually, his blood surpassed that of the legion of gods. He had the aura of the Sovereign Lord!

“Half-human, half-demon freaks…?” Lady-Princess Silvermoon’s silver eyes burned as if with the light of the stars above. “Mortal, you have profaned the noble blood of the people of the Western Continent, and the dignity of the Sky-Heaven Dynasty. You won’t be the only one to die today. Everyone from the Rich-Lush Continent in Silvermoon will be executed!”

“How impudent!” Yang Qi growled. “Not interested in living? Alright. We’ll see who ends up dead.”

The Nightfall Symphony erupted as his spear sped forth, following a profound and mysterious trajectory as it shot toward Lady-Princess Silvermoon.

Apparently, she had just been waiting for him to attack.

“Heavenly Wolf Sage Magic!” she said. An enormous star appeared above her head, fiendish to the extreme, and pulsing with demonic power of the fiendish Heavenly Wolf star.

Clearly, Lady-Princess Silvermoon had taken the ancient Heavenly Wolf Star as her animadestiny star, and used it to cultivate a sage magic. Upon using that magic, she could draw on the fiendish power of that fabled star. It wasn’t something to do with demons or wretches, but rather, pure power of heaven and earth. Normally speaking, this level of fiendish power would instantly destroy the will of anyone it assaulted.

Suddenly, a scepter appeared in her hands, atop which could be seen a crescent moon. On the other end, at the bottom of the scepter, was an enormous heavenly wolf, howling to the moon.

It was her Heavenly Wolf Consumes the Moon Scepter.

It was actually a powerful divine weapon and magical treasure, which she could use in countless ways. For one thing, it contained a dimension filled with spell formations, which she drew upon now to cause concentric rings of light to spread out and block Yang Qi’s Infernal Deity Spear.

“Heavenly Wolf Devours the Moon!”

She twisted the scepter, and a massive stream of glittering starlight shot out, swirling around her, bolstering her until her true energy itself took the shape of an enormous, silver wolf, which lunged at Yang Qi.

Yang Qi didn’t even move. Behind him, his true energy took the form of an entity with an elephantine head and a human body. At the same time, ancient power descended, the glory of the Sovereign Lord, which easily crushed the silver light.

“Despicable heavenly wolf….” a voice said in Godtongue. The being with the elephantine head and a human body twitched its trunk, and the heavenly wolf shattered, becoming countless fragments of silver light.

Backed by the power of two hundred thousand megamammoths, Yang Qi took a step forward and stabbed out with his spear.

“I'm halfway into the Never-Dying level!” Lady-Princess Silvermoon said. “I'm one with the ancient city of Silvermoon. I'm connected to heaven and earth!” Eyes brimming with malice, she threw her hands over her head, using her scepter to summon numerous paper talismans. Some were hexagramic star charts, pentagramic star charts, others resembled the Nine Stars Pearl Necklaces….

At the same time, corresponding spell formations activated within Silvermoon, causing Lady-Princess Silvermoon’s power to spike instantly. In the blink of an eye, she reached her absolute peak state.

The silver heavenly wolf appeared again, along with a silver moon hanging high above her, looking almost like a sword preparing to chop down and execute judgement.

“Attack!”

Her scepter was now fully ten times as strong as it was before, and she didn’t hesitate to thrust it in front of her to meet Yang Qi’s spear.

When the two weapons met, it was like a comet slamming into the ground. Numerous streets in Silvermoon were ripped to shreds, and countless spell formations were destroyed.

The streets of the city were paved with mithril, and contained powerful defensive spell formations that not even Legendaries should have been able to harm, but Yang Qi’s attacks were like the footsteps of megamammoths, and the vibrations they caused were more than enough to destroy the tiles that covered the ground.

The Infernal Deity Spear was backed by the power of hell, and was so shockingly strong that the spell formations in the city were like nothing.

Each sweep of the spear would cast light filled with images of hell. The Hell of Euphoria, the Hell of Suras, the Hell of Never-Ending, the Hell of Mud Pits, the Hell of Frigid Ice, the Hell of Melting Iron….

The various hells superimposed and created a domineering, destructive power that could transform the living world into a burning underworld. Virtually all living beings who encountered power like this would have no other choice than to acknowledge allegiance to it.

This was Yang Qi’s first time since his recent major breakthrough to unleash the full extent of his power. Backing his spear technique with the power of two hundred thousand megamammoths, it radiated the glow of numerous hells, and although it was somewhat heavy and slow, it was immensely powerful. It brought with it darkness that could extinguish all nearby radiance and light, and create pure devilishness, the most divisive power in the universe.

BOOOOM!

The spear fairly thrummed with power as it slammed into the scepter.

Lady-Princess Silvermoon screamed as her weapon was wrenched from her hand. Backing away, her eyes shone with terror as she realized that she had been bested. There was no way she could stand up to an attack backed by the power of hell. Every swish of the Infernal Deity Spear made her feel like she was in hell itself, with her soul facing nothing but endless despair.

It was like she was fighting a god-spirit, someone who would tolerate no blasphemy, and would instantly cast offenders into hell to be tormented.

“You're mine,” Yang Qi said. Suddenly, the Grand Emperor's Pagoda appeared, and descended onto Lady-Princess Silvermoon, accompanied by thunderous rumbling sounds.

“He captured Lady-Princess Silvermoon!”

“It's the end of the world! What’s going on here? Run. RUN!”

“Dammit, how could this be happening? Lady-Princess Silvermoon is like a god! How could she have been captured? Not even the city’s spell formations could save her. What’s happening? Is this guy a Never-Dying Legendary? Or a Half Sage?”

“This is bad. We’re trapped! That damned Rich-Lush Continent scum has locked down the city!”

“Fight him to the death!”

A few of the braver experts in the city shot up into the air to try to fight Yang Qi.

And yet, before they could even reach him, they collapsed into ash.

At this point, Yang Qi pronounced judgment, his voice echoing out into the ears of all the locals in Silvermoon. “Silvermoon, I hereby sentence you to death.”

RUMBLE!