Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

‘Time to go for broke!’ thought Shi Yuan. Howling, he yet again attacked with his God Tombstone Palms, sending an enormous tombstone of true energy rumbling toward Yang Qi.

Yang Qi hardly paid it any attention and destroyed the entire tombstone with a casual swipe of his fist.

Shocked, Shi Yuan waved his arms again, this time sending out streams of stone-colored true energy as he called on a different martial discipline from the Great Necropolis. It was the Tusita God Energy. The streams of energy shot out to form something like a web, then he leaped onto it, making him look like some sort of spider. Each step he took was in accord with some unique and strange rhythm, and it enabled him to evade all of the incoming attacks from Yang Qi. As he circled Yang Qi, he slowly surrounded him with the web.

In her heart, Zi Qiong chuckled coldly. ‘The Tusita God Energy? That’s used to avoid and defeat a more powerful enemy. I'm curious to see how Yang Qi defeats this tactic!’

She was still feeling a bit irritated at having been scolded by Yang Qi moments ago, and was hoping this would cause some trouble for him.

However, Yang Qi simply waved his hand, causing the dome of heaven to crumble and sending blade light shining in all directions. Instantly, the web collapsed and Yang Qi took a step forward, easily catching up with Shi Yuan. Then he thrust his hands out, and flickering characters began to flow out from them.

“Flame tribulation!”

RIP!

The character for “flame” exploded, and intense fire shot out. At the same time, Yang Qi threw a curse character of fire into the mix.

The two characters were perfect complements to each other. When the tribulation of fire from the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body was mixed with the curse of flame from the Sovereign Lord’s Holy and Far-Reaching Consummate Omnicurse, they caused the entire area to ignite. A sea of flames swept forth, reminiscent of the parable of the burning house from buddhism, in which those caught in the house would be incapable of escaping on their own. [1]

“Aaaiiiieee!”

Shi Yuan burst into flames, and even the godpower of the Great Necropolis was afire. He was simply incapable of dealing with an energy art like this that contained two complementary aspects, one righteous and one evil.

As Shi Yuan’s access to the godpower of the Great Necropolis faded more and more rapidly, he realized that if things kept going this way, he really would perish. Faced with that prospect, a wretched thought suddenly formed in his head and he suddenly changed directions, evading Yang Qi and heading toward Zi Qiong.

“Die, you bitch! If I'm going out, I'm taking you with me!”

As he closed in, he summoned an enormous vortex, filled with seemingly endless power. Of course, the truth was that he didn’t actually want to die along with Zi Qiong; he was actually hoping to kill her and take her godpower seeds. That was his only hope, if he wanted to kill Yang Qi and destroy the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect.

Zi Qiong had been prepared for something like this all along, and immediately prepared to meet his attack.

However, before Shi Yuan could even reach her, he suddenly lurched to a halt in midair.

RUUUUUUUUMBLE!

A beam of incomparably fast sword light streaked forth, wrapped around him, and cut him in half!

Then, Yang Qi appeared.

“That speed!” blurted Zi Qiong. “You’re too fast! Too powerful! How are you capable of such things?”

“Aaaiiiieee!” Shi Yuan screamed. His two halves immediately tried to stitch back together, but Yang Qi simply waved his hand, keeping them separate. Then, he stabbed his hand into Shi Yuan’s head, grabbed the wriggling godpower seed there, and wrenched it out into the open.

“Be sealed!” he said, sending a host of sealing marks onto it. Then a vortex appeared, into which he tossed the seed.

Next, he waved his hand again, causing Shi Yuan’s mangled head and body to wriggle and squirm as they formed back into a whole person. However, he was completely bereft of any power. He was back to having Destabilizing will, lacking any fluctuations of the Terrifying level.

Having lost his godpower seed, his cultivation base had reverted to its previous state, making him little more than an ordinary disciple.

Zi Qiong burst out laughing. “I thought you were a hero of the age, Shi Yuan! But now you look the same as you did before. Hero? I think not. Back before you got that godpower seed, you were trash. Scum. A petty and spineless coward. And even after you got the godpower seed, you were still no hero, just an arrogant psycho. So how does it feel to be back to normal? Have any clever things to say? You piece of shit!”

“Sectlord, should I kill him?” Yang Qi said.

“Don’t bother,” the sectlord said coolly. “Killing him won’t do anything. His current cultivation base makes him useless. Just seal him and turn him into a thrall. He can help some of the other disciples improve their vital energy and cultivation base. Maybe later, we can even let him be a normal disciple again.”

“Sectlord, you can’t let him live!” Zi Qiong said. “As long as he’s alive, he’ll harbor hope. Besides, that godpower seed belongs to him. He's still an Inheritor, even if the seed is sealed. What would happen if he somehow got the seed back? Then he would be impossible to stop!”

“Impossible to stop?” the sectlord said. “Didn’t Yang Qi just stop him?”

Yang Qi knew exactly what the sectlord was thinking. Keeping Shi Yuan alive was a way to keep Zi Qiong in check in the future. If Zi Qiong kept getting stronger and stronger, she could eventually cause big problems. That said, Yang Qi wasn’t exactly thrilled about the idea of keeping Shi Yuan alive, either. Yang Qi could sense that he had a simmering true energy inside of him that was constantly trying to reach the godpower seed in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. And it took a lot of effort on his part to keep that power in check.

“I don’t think we should spare him,” Yang Qi said. “He’s constantly trying to call out to his Inheritor powers and summon the godpower seed to him. It takes a lot of effort for me to keep that under control.”

“Oh?” the sectlord said. He thought for a moment. “In that case, you’re right. Kill him. After all, you have the authority to manage daily affairs in the sect.”

“Yes sir!” Yang Qi strode forward until he was looming over Shi Yuan.

Considering how things were developing, Shi Yuan was overwhelmed with despair and fear. Raising his voice to a near shriek, he said, “I recognize the error of my ways, Junior Sectlord! Forgive me! I was overcome by ambition before, but now I understand how terrifying it is to become powerless. I beg you to return my powers. If you do, I’ll swear an oath to work wholeheartedly for you. Remember, this woman Zi Qiong is full of craft and cunning, and is already plotting against you. If you let her live, she’ll definitely cause problems for you. Keeping me alive to keep her in check is your best option for—”

SNICK!

A beam of sword light stabbed into Shi Yuan’s sea of consciousness, and it didn’t come from Yang Qi.

It was Zi Qiong who directly destroyed his nascent divinity.

Shivering, Shi Yuan looked at her and said, “A woman’s mind is the most ferocious.... Zi Qiong, even as a ghost, I’ll never let you off the hook for this....” [2]

“You think you’re going to become a ghost? I don’t think so.” Her sword energy slashed back and forth within his sea of consciousness, destroying his soul and will. “You won’t even survive as a speck of dust. Great Necropolis Energy Disintegration!”

Fire roiled out and enveloped Shi Yuan, transforming him into nothing but steam, which the sword energy then absorbed. Just as she said, not even a speck of dust was left behind.

In this fashion, a mighty Inheritor of the Great Necropolis had died. In the moment of his death, his godpower seed briefly wriggled, then went still. It was now masterless.

Unfortunately, Yang Qi still couldn’t absorb it to become an Inheritor himself. According to common knowledge, only people who were already Inheritors could absorb the godpower seeds. Instead, he would use it to keep Zi Qiong in line. He was already very wary of her, and knew that she was a treacherous, deceitful person, the kind that would break any loyalty if it benefited her.

Yang Qi had learned his lesson with Yun Hailan, and ever since dealing with her, had never trusted women.

If it weren’t for him getting the God Legion Seal and turning the tables, he would never have recovered from that incident.

“Zi Qiong,” he said coolly, “you killed him without getting an order from me.”

“I deserve the death penalty for that,” she said, bowing her head. The displeasure that had appeared in her eyes earlier was nowhere to be seen. The fact that Yang Qi had been able to kill Shi Yuan indicated that he could do the same to her.

“It’s fine, I was planning to kill him anyway. In this case, your meritorious service will balance out your mistake, so I won’t punish you. Just don’t let it become a habit. Now we need to call the meeting I originally intended. We have a very short time to develop as many elite disciples as possible in preparation for the sect assembly.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, keeping her head bowed. “I’ll follow every order you give me.”

“Yang Qi,” the sectlord said. “There will be hundreds of thousands of superpower sects at this meeting. Although our Will Manifestation Heaven Sect is powerful, we aren’t strong enough to vie for the position of league-lord. However, we do need to secure at least some position of power. Some of the sects at the meeting are actually beyond the level of the superpower sects. They’re the paragon sects. One of them is the Woodfern Couple Palace, and another is the Genesis Sanctum. People say that the leaders of those two organizations are all in the mid Terrifying level. I'd say it’s highly likely that one of them will be selected as the league-lord. The leaders of the Woodfern Couple Palace have a daughter, their junior empress, and they’re probably going to try recruiting a son-in-law during this assembly. Why don’t you give it a shot?” [3]

1. The parable of the burning house is a real thing from Mahayana Buddhism. More information here.

2. Shi Yuan quotes a famous popular proverb/poem here. I found a handful of different variations, but they’re all very similar. It basically goes something like the sting at the tail of the scorpion, the lies in the mouth of a snake, they are not dangerous, but a woman’s mind is the most ferocious.

3. The “woodfern” here is a real-life tree, specifically alsophila spinulosa, or the “flying spider-monkey tree fern”. While “Flying Spider-Monkey Tree Fern Couple Palace” might have been an epic name, for a variety of reasons I’m just going to call the tree “woodfern”. In terms of why the sect bears that name, well… you’ll have to wait a few dozen chapters or so….