Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yun Hailan’s whereabouts were one of his top priorities now that he was at the Demi-Immortal Institute, and he had already started trying to track her down.

This institute was a massive place, with too many buildings to even count, and countless secrets. Finding a single person was like fishing a needle from the sea.

“Yun Hailan?” Li He shook his head, apparently unfamiliar with the name. But then, after a moment passed, his eyes lit up. “Wait, I have heard of someone with that name. A girl, right? She joined the institute a few months ago. But she’s not a freshman student; one of the higher-level students took an interest in her, so she’s already in the College of Elite Students.”

“What? She got straight into the College of Elite Students?”

The College of Elite Students was the highest college within the Demi-Immortal Institute, and every member was a Lifeseizer.

There was no way Yun Hailan was already in the Lifeseizing level, so how could she have joined the College of Elite Students? Back when Yang Qi had first met her, she was only in the sixth phase.

Of course, he was also aware that she was a shrewd schemer, and had kept much of her true powers secret.

But there was no way she had been in the Lifeseizing level, that was for sure.

“I think it might have something to do with an agreement between the Demi-Immortal Institute and the Sea God Institute.” Li He shook his head. “According to the rumors, there’s something very special about that girl's bloodline. She’s an important person, you know? Somebody we freshman students can’t even hope to emulate.”

A grim expression had overtaken Yang Qi’s face. ‘I could never have guessed that Yun Hailan would immediately join the College of Elite Students….’

Yun Hailan was now in a position of some reckoning. After all, Yang Qi was currently strong enough to win in a fight against ten Masters of Energy, but it would be suicide for him to cause problems for someone in that college level.

Considering the current level of his cultivation base, he definitely was not confident in being able to take on a Lifeseizer.

“Alright, Junior Brother. From now on, you’re an official freshman student of the Demi-Immortal Institute. Why don't I introduce you to some of your new Elder and Junior Brothers? We’ll be cultivating and working together pretty much every day, after all.”

With that, Li He took Yang Qi to meet some of the other freshman students. Along the way, he reminded him not to go wandering around the institute. It was a big and complicated organization, and freshman students had to stay in their place and not cause any problems. Generally speaking, they attended to daily chores, cultivated, studied, and did whatever the Masters of Energy told them to do.

Occasionally, they would be able to travel outside of the institute on missions to earn merit points, which was how they could eventually get promoted.

From what Yang Qi could tell, merit points were the most important thing in the Demi-Immortal Institute.

They were earned by performing important services, and a record of them was kept on-hand in the institute. For example, a student could hunt demonlings for demon cores, then turn them in at the institute in exchange for merit points. Some insanely rich people even handed in energy convergence pills just to buy them.

With merit points, one could go to the Scripture Pavilion to study matchless martial disciplines and energy arts, or acquire help from a top expert to refine one’s true energy and fleshly body. And it was also possible to buy treasured items, or have powerful techniques directly imparted into one’s mind by the institute.

From all of this it could be seen how important merit points were.

Before long, Yang Qi was settled in the Demi-Immortal Institute, and life turned into a rather boring routine. Other than guard duty and various chores, he worked on cultivation in his room, or attended lectures in which Masters of Energy would talk about cultivation. None of it was very exciting.

Freshman students were the lowest of the low, and only had access to the most fundamental energy arts and martial disciplines of the Demi-Immortal Institute.

That said, Yang Qi was fine with it all. Being able to peacefully work on his cultivation meant that his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth was becoming more refined by the day. He was growing stronger and his breathing exercises were more profound; by now, he could easily absorb the quintessence of the sun and moon, as well as the spirit energy of heaven and earth.

A month passed in which nothing of note occurred.

Even his mind and soul grew stronger; he almost felt like he truly was a godmammoth, capable of plucking stars and moons out of the sky.

Currently, he sat cross-legged in his room, his true energy surging through his meridians.

Just barely visible in his dantian region was a convergence of true energy that bubbled like lava. If anyone had been there to observe, they would have seen golden light flickering beneath his skin, almost as if he wasn’t made up of flesh and blood anymore, but rather, gold.

Gold was everlasting, and right now, an everlasting aura filled him.

Before, the membrane beneath his skin had been transparent, but now it had turned golden.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and mouth, and spat out a burst of true energy, which wrapped around a sheathed sword that was hanging on the wall. The sword flew out of the sheath and whizzed through the air toward him. Grabbing it out of the air, he brandished it in front of him, causing pulses of frigid energy to roll out in all directions.

This was a treasured sword forged here in the Demi-Immortal Institute, made from uncommon metals, and it was so sharp that it could slice through iron as easily as mud.

Without any hesitation, Yang Qi ran the blade through the palm of his hand.

And yet, not a single mark could be seen on his skin.

Not even that incredibly sharp sword could harm him.

And he hadn’t even fused his true energy with his fleshly body at this point.

Snap!

He flicked his finger, causing the sword to shatter into pieces.

“Infernal Deity Boneflame: Scorching Hellfire.”

Intense true energy poured out of his palm, so hot that the ground in the area began to melt. As the energy entered the destroyed fragments of the sword, it turned them into liquid iron.

Upon cultivating the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth to the pinnacle, one’s true energy changed. It could be like a freezing hell, a burning hell, a hell of blades, or a hell of sludge.

It could freeze a mighty river solid, or evaporate it into nothing.

Yang Qi was currently working on this particular energy art in the hopes of taking the broken pieces of various equipment and weapons, refining them, and then gaining a better understanding of how they worked. The end goal was to further his understanding of the jade thumb-ring he had acquired.

His intuition was telling him that it was some sort of treasured item.

After sending his true energy into the fragments of the sword, he quickly deduced that it had been constructed from an amalgamation of at least thirty types of metals, all of them fused perfectly to create an incredibly sharp blade.

Yang Qi was by no means a grandmaster of equipment forging, and therefore, couldn’t specifically identify how the various metals had been knitted together. However, he could tell that there were imperfections that made the sword less than perfect.

With the wave of a hand, he caused his true energy to extrude the impurities, which became a small pile of sludge on the ground.

As the moments ticked by, the liquid iron slowly began to shape back together into a sword, this one smaller, only about seven inches long. In fact, it was more of a dagger. Reaching out, Yang Qi grabbed it. From the intense glitter that emanated off of it, it was clearly nothing ordinary.

A single swipe of the dagger could slice through the stone floor as easily as tofu. In fact, Yang Qi could tell that this dagger could definitely pierce through numerous types of defensive true energy.

“This thing is definitely worth some money. I wonder how much I could sell it for.” With that, he carefully put the dagger away and then took out the blue jade thumb-ring.

As the ring hung in front of him, supported by his true energy, he exhaled some more true energy, which took the form of a crucible, right beneath the ring. Instantly, flames sprang up as if to roast the item into nothing.

This time, Yang Qi wasn’t holding anything back.

Whoosh!

When the flames touched the ring, water vapor began to pour out it, filling the entire room with the aroma of the sea. It was even possible to hear the crashing of waves. As the water vapor continued to pour out, it gradually began to take the form of a humanoid entity.

It had the torso of a human and the body of a snake, and held a trident in its hand. It was ferocious to the extreme, and as soon as it appeared, it looked menacingly in Yang Qi’s direction.

In the blink of an eye, Yang Qi felt like he was in another location, in the depths of the sea, with massive waves all around him. As for the snake-like entity in front of him, it was like a god of the sea, with its glittering trident pointed directly at his heart.

In fact, he had never even been in the presence of something this powerful.

This was power that surpassed the Master of Energy level. It was true energy left behind in the ring by some consummate master, given a form that could slaughter anything it encountered.

‘Not good!’

Yang Qi reacted quickly, drawing on the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth to summon his Infernal Deity Spear, complete with its infinite variations. Without any hesitation, he thrust the spear out to meet the trident.

“Crush Hells, Subdue Devil-Gods!”

Yang Qi made an impressive sight, stabbing out with a spear that was like a mountain, causing black true energy to fill the area.

“Boundless Ocean,” the snake creature hissed. Instantly, a huge vortex like an ocean sprang up around the trident, complete with massive waves that bore down on Yang Qi.

Two expert fighters were clashing, causing the furniture in the room to shatter into pieces.

They fought back and forth for a short moment, whereupon Yang Qi unleashed an explosive attack. The Infernal Deity Spear pierced through the air, destroying the trident before stabbing into the snake creature.

The creature was not real; it was merely a manifestation of Humanoid True Energy, left behind by some powerful expert. Gurgling sounds erupted from its mouth as the spear stabbed into it. And yet, the creature simply lunged forward, allowing the spear to pass through it.

At the same time, Yang Qi felt some powerful will entering him.

Unexpectedly, the snake creature was trying to take control of his mind and soul.

This thing was far more powerful than a Master of Energy, that was clear. Apparently, it even had the ability to possess him.

However, as soon as it entered him, the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth erupted out, and a hell-crushing aura flowed through his meridians. In response, the creature shrieked, “What energy art is that? Dammit! That’s the aura of a godly-class energy art….”