Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

In the shortest of moments, five elite disciples related to the council of chief elders, top experts of the sect, had their heads exploded by a palm strike from this junior superintendent. Then, he didn't hesitate to try to assimilate their nascent divinities.

At that point, the five chief elders who had been observing quietly from behind the scenes, had no choice but to spring into action. With the nascent divinities of the five disciples intact, they could be resurrected and given new fleshly bodies. But with their nascent divinities destroyed, it would be impossible for them to ever live again.

The higher one's cultivation base, and the stronger one's divine will, the less likely it would be that a damaged or incomplete sliver of will could be used as the basis for resurrection.

Five chief elders flew out at top speed to grab the nascent divinities of their respective sons.

However, that was when one of the four executors made a move.

No one could even see what exactly happened. Five palms flashed out in ingenious fashion, slamming into the five chief elders and shoving them away.

Those five palm moves were like the blossoming of plum flowers, or the falling of snowflakes. They corresponded to the cycle of the five phases, and grew stronger and stronger with each moment that passed.

Whack!

The five chief elders were slammed back into the thrones they had been sitting in, with such force that the thrones cracked and crumbled.

Looks of open astonishment could be seen on the faces of the five chief elders. Never could they have guessed that the Executors of the Ancient Road would be so strong that one of them could use a single palm strike to force the five of them into retreat. Even worse, the force of the blow ran through their meridians like destructive fire.

These five elders were all Terrifying experts. They had spent a lot of godhood power to reach their current level, as well as the psychic scaling systems. Of course, that meant that they were slightly weaker than if they had reached the Terrifying level on their own, but in the end, they were still Terrifying experts! It seemed completely impossible that someone could just shove them back into their seats!

“What,” the executor said. “We agreed that any of your disciples under the Terrifying level could fight the junior superintendent to see who is stronger. I can’t believe you people would actually try to interfere! Your Will Manifestation Heaven Sect might be a superpower sect, but I never imagined you would be this arrogant and conceited. You actually look down on the Executors of the Ancient Road this much? I won’t let this happen again. For the honor of the junior superintendent, I let the five of you live. Otherwise, considering you scum used the Cruiser of Civilization’s psychic scaling systems to reach the Terrifying level, there’s no way you’re a match for me.”

‘This guy is so strong!’ was what many of the chief elders were thinking. He had used just a single move to vanquish five of the chief elders, effectively crushing the fighting spirit of the entire council. After all, if all five of these executors took action at the same time, what exactly would they be capable of?

It seemed doubtful that anyone present could stand in their way, not even the sectlord.

Meanwhile, the five disciples were wailing piteously.

“Mercy! Spare me!”

“Save me, Father! Save me! I don’t wanna die!”

“After all my years of cultivation, I don’t want to die now! Father, save me! Don’t let me die!”

However, it was with a vicious grin that the junior superintendent inhaled deeply, sucking all five of them into his mouth and swallowing them down.

Their voices were cut off as they all died, having become little more than food for the junior superintendent. From that one act, it was possible to get a glimpse at how incredibly powerful he was.

“I was just having some fun. Meanwhile, these five fools were talking about performing some sort of service? What a joke! Your sect is about to be wiped out, and you think someone’s going to save you?” The junior superintendent clasped his hands behind his back and looked around imperiously. “Does anyone out there really think they can defeat someone as powerful as me?”

“Chief elders, remain calm!” the sectlord ordered. “Same for all disciples. Nobody do anything.”

Truth be told, there was no need for such orders from the sectlord. The disciples in the sect were so scared that none of them dared to do a thing. The five disciples that the junior superintendent had just so easily destroyed were the kind of people who normally abused the other disciples with impunity. They were viewed as extremely powerful figures, yet they had been wiped out in one move. It only begged the question of just how strong this junior superintendent’s energy arts were. Even worse, five Terrifying chief elders had just made a move on him, only to completely fail.

The disciples present were no fools. They all realized that trying to get involved in the situation would just lead to a quick death.

“Is anyone else going to step forward?” the junior superintendent said. “Are the disciples of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect really such useless pieces of trash? Not even one of you can fight me? Well, that’s fine. How about this. I’ll make things even easier. If any of you disciples can last for ten moves against me, I’ll remove one of our five demands from the list. Last for twenty moves and I’ll remove two. And if you can last for fifty, I’ll let the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect completely off the hook for now. How about that?”

With that, he burst out laughing. Although everyone present was inwardly furious, they knew there was nothing they could do. No disciple under the Terrifying level could possibly fight this young man.

That said, when he mentioned being able to last for only ten moves, the eyes of some of the disciples and chief elders began to shine brightly.

“Fine. I’ll start!”

A young man who had been standing behind one of the chief elders moments before was suddenly right out in the open. Clearly, he had used some sort of high-level teleportation energy art.

“Criss-Crossed Major Teleportation?” the junior superintendent said. “Not bad. Not bad at all. You must be the apprentice of Winter Bladedark, who refused to use the psychic scaling systems to reach the Terrifying level. Your technique is the Infernal King's Lamentation Sword, right? I'm very interested to see it in action. In fact, I’ll let you take the first nine moves.”

His words threw the chief elders into even deeper panic.

Obviously, the only way for the junior superintendent to know so much about the sect was by means of a mole or spy. It was clearer now more than ever that Yang Qi wasn’t the spy, as he didn’t have access to behind-the-scenes information like that. It had to be one of the chief elders, and it was a terrifying thought that he had remained undercover for so long without his identity being revealed.

What was worse, the junior superintendent offered to let his opponent take nine moves, which showed how completely confident he was in being able to clinch the victory.

“Don’t get flustered, Chang Rong!” one of the chief elders shouted. “Remain calm and composed. He’s just trying to get under your skin. Remember, the Infernal King's Lamentation Sword commands both life and death. With this sword, you become an infernal deity who controls life and death. Enter the state of Sword Lamentation, and you’ll be fine.”

The chief elder who had just spoken had a particularly mighty aura, making it obvious he was far stronger than the five chief elders from moments ago. His words, laced with his will, reached the young Chang Rong, who immediately stood a bit taller, as if he had sloughed off the junior superintendent’s influence.

Yang Qi inwardly nodded as he looked on. The fighting so far had been very illuminating, and had already given him a much better idea of how strong the Executors of the Ancient Road were, and what the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect was capable of.

It seemed the chief disciples of the fifty mountain peaks only represented about one third of the overall strength of the sect’s disciples as a whole.

There were obviously other formidable people present.

After freeing himself from any influence, this Chang Rong became one with his sword, causing rumbling vital energy to roll out around him. Then he lunged forward in an attack, causing grief, sadness, and a blindingly sharp sword to fill the area.

In response, the junior superintendent floated this way and that like a leaf in the wind.

“Nice. The first stance, Between Life and Death.” He laughed cheerfully. “But even if you work on it for another hundred million years, it still won’t hurt me. What a pity.”

Chang Rong quickly began to reveal more of his sword technique, drawing on everything he had learned in his life to attack the junior superintendent with full force. As he used one move after another from the Infernal King’s Lamentation Sword, the junior superintendent kept track and listed out the moves.

“Second stance, Infernal King Sheds Tears.... Third stance, Riddle of the Sage Domain. Fourth stance, Escaping Alive from Mortal Danger. Fifth stance, Debut of the Ghost-God.”

In fact, the junior superintendent didn’t even fight back. He just let his opponent go all the way to the ninth stance.

“Here it is. Ninth stance, Lamentation of Hell.” Suddenly, the junior superintendent let out a shout, causing a sound wave to roll out that disintegrated all of the sword light. Then he reached forward and grabbed the sword, causing it to collapse into dust. Chang Rong tumbled backward with an agonized shriek, then flopped unmoving onto the ground.

“Chang Rong!” Chief Elder Winter Bladedark shouted, flying down to his apprentice, who lay gasping for his breath on the ground. Although the junior superintendent’s palm strike hadn’t ended his life, it had wiped his mind and nascent divinity out of existence. Henceforth, he would be a simpleton who might as well not be alive.

“I could have killed him, if I wanted to,” the junior superintendent said. “But for a genius like him to be turned into a simpleton is just about as bad as being killed, so I decided to do that instead. Don’t even think of trying to save him. Nobody in the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect can do it, not even your sectlord.”

“So,” the sectlord said, his voice tinged with grief, “you've mastered the Soul-Seizing Psyche-Exterminating Grand Palm, a consummate martial discipline among the Executors of the Ancient Road. It certainly lives up to its reputation. That was a very vicious and merciless move. You’ve actually crippled one of the elite young ones of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect.”

“Crippled?” The junior superintendent chuckled. “Who asked him to be so useless? Look, I'm being merciful enough as it is. Didn’t you see how I let him use nine moves on me? Did I have to do that? Don’t tell me you think I should have given him ten moves?”

The sectlord shook his head. It had been a fair fight, and the junior superintendent really had let Chang Rong use nine moves against him. No one could accuse the Executors of the Ancient Road of doing anything underhanded in this situation.

“Chang Rong!” Chief Elder Winter Bladedark sent some true energy into his apprentice, unleashing a secret magic related to nascent divinities. However, it did no good. The junior superintendent’s energy arts were clearly stronger than even an ordinary Terrifying expert, which was obviously why he had been so confident in issuing his challenge.