Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi strolled through the forest, holding back from unleashing any major slaughter. Occasionally people would attack him from the shadows, and he would kill them. But other than that, he wasn’t doing much. Instead, he was employing the tactic of not showing the mountain and not revealing the water.

After all, he knew that the gods above were keeping a close eye on the competition.

All of a sudden, wild laughter met his ear. “You scum! How dare you try to fight me! I'm going to slaughter every last one of you. Being in the Bloodgore Trials with trash like you is no challenge at all. Can’t some real experts show their faces?”

Whack. Whack. Whack!

Off in the distance, Yang Qi saw a group of a dozen or so people surrounding a young man. In fact, ‘young man’ almost didn’t seem like the right description. He was so small that he looked more like a little boy.

Despite having the stature of a child, he wore adult clothing that dragged on the ground behind him when he walked. It was splattered with blood, although he didn’t seem to care.

His voice didn’t match his appearance at all. Instead of sounding like a child, he sounded more like an old man; perhaps he was someone who had reverted to a youthful appearance after consuming some sort of spirit medicine.

The boy unleashed a consummate palm technique that caused buddhist light to shine brightly as a flurry of golden hands appeared, which shot out in all directions.

As they flew out, they emitted an intense sound that weighed down heavily on everything, filled with godpower that seemed to be just shy of the legion of gods.

All the people surrounding the boy were sent flying.

“Buddhas Pierce the Cosmos!Buddhas Shake Mountains and Rivers!Buddhas Destroy Heaven and Earth!Buddhas Command Chiliocosms!Buddhas Rage at the Universe!Buddhas Destroy the World of Men!” He unleashed a host of explosive palm strikes, and not a single one contained the mercy and kindness one might expect of the buddhist schools. Instead, they were like the wrath of a furious buddha out to punish the wicked and exterminate evil.

Every person that was hit by one of those palms was first ripped to shreds, then collapsed into ashes. It took only a single volley to slaughter over a dozen people, a feat so impressive that, afterward, no one would possibly dare to launch another sneak attack.

After the dust settled, the boy happened to notice Yang Qi strolling along. A malicious expression appeared on his face, and his fingers curled into claws. “What are you doing walking along so casually, boy? Don’t you know that this isn't a place for children’s games? This is a battlefield of slaughter! Get over here!”

“Children’s games?” Yang Qi said. He chuckled. “You’re right, this isn’t a place for children’s games. In that case, why don’t you head home to suck on your mother’s teat?”

The boy’s face turned bright red and he howled in rage. “How dare you! Do you know who you’re talking to? I'm the Child of the Buddhist Lamp! I used to practice cultivation in a buddhist school, but in the end, I just slaughtered all of those damned monks. Then I left the sect to do some more killing. Nobody is a match for me, yet you dare to talk to me like that? You have no idea how much older than you I am! Although, it looks like your cultivation is respectable. In that case, if you get on your knees and beg for mercy, I’ll spare your life.”

“You really are a child, aren’t you?” Yang Qi said. “In the Bloodgore Trials, only one person will walk out alive. So why exactly would you waste your breath talking about sparing me?”

The Child of the Buddhist Lamp suddenly went green with fury. However, a moment later, he let out a stream of maniacal laughter. “You have a very sharp tongue, boy. I think I’ll cut your head off and remove your tongue! Then we’ll see what witty things you try to say. Buddhas Furious at Hell!”

He thrust his palm out, and fire raged into the shape of an enormous hand, which pierced through the air right toward Yang Qi, instantly surrounding him.

“Nice energy art,” Yang Qi said. Then he casually thrust his own hand out, sending out three waves of energy that instantly shattered the fiery hand.

The boy lunged forward with an enraged roar, unleashing more consummate buddhist palm techniques, each of them filled with the wrath of buddhas.

“Buddhas’ Rampaging Godfist!”

This time it was a fist strike, but Yang Qi easily met it. Then the boy unleashed a series of deadly kicks, filled with such shocking killing intent that Yang Qi had to float backward to avoid it. As a result, the boy's feet slammed into one of the iron trees, uprooting it and sending it flying off to the side. This level of power clearly was beyond that of a Quasi-God.

That said, Yang Qi was still able to negate the power of the attacks.

However, the boy only continued to attack with increasing speed and ferocity. “Psychotic-Devil Lokapāla Constraint!”

A host of projections appeared, wildly spinning around to create an invincible preheaven spell formation. It was like the energy art of a boundless lokapāla from a buddhist school, designed to restrain devils, and it quickly circled around to trap Yang Qi.

Yang Qi waved his finger, as casually as if he were writing words in the middle of the air, and as a result, the Psychotic-Devil Lokapāla Constraint started falling apart.

That said, this boy was the strongest opponent Yang Qi had faced so far, and was very close to becoming a god. And he wasn’t done fighting. Without pausing, he took a deep breath, causing a dharma idol of a lokapāla to appear behind him.

“Grand Lokapāla God-King!”

RUMBLE!

This was the energy art of a god-king. After all, the Grand Lokapāla God-King was a majestic protector of the buddhist schools who specialized in slaughtering wretch-devils.

This additional technique strengthened the Psychotic-Devil Lokapāla Constraint, boosting it by several times over.

Seeing this, Yang Qi reached out, sending energy arts and daoist techniques streaming out of all five of his fingers. It was as though a sage had descended into the world of men, bursting with indescribable strength.

SNICK!

He grabbed the lokapāla god-king, then crushed it into a śarīra that was actually a high-quality piece of godhood.

“Damnation! You destroyed my Grand Lokapāla God-King!” At this point, the boy realized that Yang Qi was truly a formidable enemy. “Who would’ve thought that an expert of this level would be in the Bloodgore Trials? That’s fine. I’ll just have to unleash my full power. Soon you’ll realize exactly how domineering I can be!”

Even as the words left his mouth, he unraveled a sealing mark within him.

“God from Heaven; Godhood Convergence; Golden Apex Buddhist Lamp!Join the Legion of Gods!Lesser Godhood, Form!” Wild streams of energy surrounded the Child of the Buddhist Lamp, as well as numerous bolts of dragon-like lightning. Everything in the area was shaking so violently that, unexpectedly, even Yang Qi’s defensive empyrean energy began trembling.

The meteorological phenomena on display were so intense that other experts in the trial noticed what was happening.

Numerous experts in the forest now had expressions of despair on their faces.

‘Why did we get so unlucky? I can’t believe someone is reaching godly ascension! They held their power in check, joined the Bloodgore Trials, and intentionally waited to become a god here!’ That was what many people were thinking.

Although the Child of the Buddhist Lamp was only aiming to become a Lesser God, it was still godly ascension. Already, he was surrounded by god tribulation, which despite being dangerous, was actually a safety measure, as no one dared to get too close to him.

A lamp suddenly appeared above his head, burning with intense fire as it absorbed the power of the god tribulation. Generally speaking, the tribulation of godly ascension involved numerous different tribulations that were incredibly difficult to pass. However, this Child of the Buddhist Lamp had somehow found a buddhist lamp that could deal with tribulations like that.

As such, he wasn’t in a weak position at all. In fact, he was getting stronger by the moment, and his godpower was surging, causing his eyes to flicker with immense fighting prowess.

Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz.

His eyes were like vortexes of lightning, emitting electric light to slam into Yang Qi’s defensive empyrean energy.

The gods on the cliffs noticed what was happening. “Very impressive. This is the first person to reach godly ascension in these Bloodgore Trials. Even in past trials, godly ascension is a rarity.”

“Rarity yes, impossibility no. He’s known as the Child of the Buddhist Lamp, a former genius from a buddhist school. However, after stealing and secretly mastering a consummate art known as the Ageless Longevity Divine Art, he returned to the state of being a child. They tried imprisoning him and crippling his energy arts, but he escaped, and even managed to steal the Golden Apex Buddhist Lamp from his school, which can be used to absorb tribulations. Although it can only use buddhist mental dharmas to operate, he obviously knows them. It was a given all along that he would become a god. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if he ends up being the one to walk out of the valley of iron trees alive.”

RUMBLE!

The Child of the Buddhist Lamp burst out laughing. “I didn’t want to reach godly ascension so early, but you forced my hand. And because of that, there’s no way I'll let you off the hook. You have a death wish, right? In that case, I’ll just kill you.”

Meanwhile, others in the forest were coming to realize what was happening.

“Someone is reaching godly ascension?!”

“We can't let him succeed. If he becomes a god, we’re all dead for sure. Let’s kill him!”

“Heaven-Slaughtering God Fist!”

“Grand Dragon’s Hand of Capturing!”

“Fist of the God-Tiger’s Roar!”

Numerous experts were now converging on the location, and joining forces to wipe out the Child of the Buddhist Lamp.