Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

As the Humanoid True Energy entered Yang Qi, it began to transform. It wanted to take control of his soul, to possess him, and normally speaking, not even a Master of Energy would have been able to resist. Sadly for it, Yang Qi cultivated a godly-class energy art that was designed to crush hells.

Cracking, crunching sounds could be heard as the creature entered Yang Qi’s dantian region to be absorbed by the lightning mammoth.

Normally speaking, if such powerful true energy entered a person, it would need to be expelled immediately lest it harm the meridians, or defile one's own true energy.

But with the quintessence of lightning that had come along with the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, Yang Qi could easily absorb it into his sea of energy.

Closing his eyes, he observed the energy settling into place in his dantian region, where it slowly transformed into a blue monster, the same snake-creature from before. However, it now seemed bereft of any ability to act or think of its own accord.

“Good!” Yang Qi murmured, prodding at it with his thoughts.

Unexpectedly, he found that he could manipulate it as easily as one of his own limbs.

At this point, he looked back at the jade thumb-ring which had been hovering there in the air this entire time. Without any further hesitation, he sent the strange stream of true energy directly into the ring.

Buzzzzzz….

The ring, which had not so much as trembled the entire time he had possessed it, suddenly began to shake violently.

At the same time, scintillating blue light shot out of it, which took the shape of a human-sized door, covered with blue ripples like waves.

Yang Qi’s eyes went wide with disbelief. “What's this?” He sent some true energy inside, and immediately realized that this door was a passageway to a small, self-contained dimension, roughly sixty square meters and as tall as seven or eight people.

As for the walls, ceiling, and floor, they all appeared to be made of rippling water.

There were a variety of objects stacked up here and there, the most eye-catching of which was an altar surrounded by bottles and bottles of energy convergence pills. The medicinal strength they exuded sent powerful fluctuations rolling out to fill the small dimension.

“A spell formation!” Yang Qi murmured, shocked. According to the rumors, some top masters became so powerful that they could send out true energy that would never fade away. Instead, it would perpetually absorb the spirit energy of heaven and earth. It was a level that far surpassed Master of Energy.

And this altar was exactly that type of object.

However, what was most intriguing of all wasn’t the altar, but instead, a weapon that lay on top of it.

It was a trident that was apparently made of black gold, its surface covered with numerous complex designs. It was inlaid into the altar itself, which was absorbing the energy from the energy convergence pills, and using a powerful spell formation to imbue it into the trident.

It was almost as if this weapon were a person, absorbing spirit energy.

“A spirit weapon?” Yang Qi was aware that some weapons would develop a spirit and personality. After being refined with true energy to a certain degree, they would be able to absorb the spirit energy of heaven and earth, and do amazing things such as fly through the air.

Most powerful weapons could improve the wielder’s true energy, but weapons with spirits and personalities were different. They could attack enemies on their own, and if they became strong enough, were often referred to as demons.

And in truth, such weapons had become demons, although they were referred to as spirit weapons. They were very rare, and in fact, Yang Qi had only ever seen one in his entire life, the flying sword that his aunt Yang Susu had used to transmit messages.

He had even entertained the hope that if he continued to refine that sword of his, it would eventually become a spirit weapon. Unfortunately, he didn’t know much about equipment forging; having been in the Demi-Immortal Institute for only a month, there was no way he would have studied such things.

And yet, this trident here was most definitely a spirit weapon in the making. It was impossible to say how many energy convergence pills it had absorbed, but after examining it with his true energy, Yang Qi could see that it already had a system of meridian channels forming in it.

“This thing is amazing! If it truly becomes a spirit weapon, it will be incredibly powerful.” Yang Qi was completely delighted. “Plus, this thumb-ring actually has its own dimension! Amazing! It must be some sort of legendary treasure. From now on, I can hunt way more demonlings than before. However many demon cores I harvest, I can keep them all in here.”

At long last he realized that this ring was a legendary holding device.

How many objects could be stored in a sixty-square-meter area as tall as seven or eight people? From now on, he wouldn’t need to carry important objects on his person anymore.

“No wonder that blue-robed youth wasn’t carrying anything. He actually had a thumb-ring of holding!” With that, he went on to take a complete inventory of everything in the ring. In addition to the altar and trident, he found some sets of clothing and medicinal pills. Unfortunately, he didn’t find any martial arts manuals.

There were also numerous banknotes worth more than thirty million energy convergence pills, which was a fortune.

“It’s too bad that thirty million energy convergence pills are only worth three merit points in the institute. Virtually useless….” In the Demi-Immortal Institute, merit points were precious. Even a single one was worth ten million energy convergence pills.

Generally speaking, it wouldn’t be worth it for anyone to buy merit points with energy convergence pills. They had set things up that way specifically to discourage students from doing so.

Yang Qi retracted his true energy, and the door vanished.

Reaching out, he grabbed the ring, which was when he noticed that he could now see writing on its surface: Heart of the Sea.

It was a legendary object from the depths of the sea, forged from a holy object that gave it the ability to hew out its own dimension.

Feeling very pleased with himself, Yang Qi put the ring away and looked around at the wreckage in his room. Taking a breath, he sent out numerous strands of Silk Rain of the Spring Silkworm, and before long, the room was back in order.

Thump thump. Thump-thump-thump….

It was at this point that Yang Qi realized someone was knocking on his door.

Sending some true energy through the door, he saw Li He along with his group of other freshman students.

When he opened the door, they all rushed in. “Yang Qi, we have a good opportunity on our hands. The institute issued a mission for freshman students that’s worth a lot of merit points.”

“What mission?” Yang Qi asked, starting to get a bit excited. After being in the Demi-Immortal Institute for a whole month, he hadn’t accomplished anything of note. If he could get some merit points, though, it would make life a lot easier.

One of the freshman students was named Hua Yinhu. [1]

“An army of brigands has risen up in the northwest plains,” he said. “They've been burning and pillaging everywhere, causing a lot of grief for the common people. What’s worse, many of the common people who were killed had their blood sucked out of them. It seems that the brigands are probably cultivating some evil energy art. The institute wants students to investigate, so a lot of outer campus and even inner campus students are heading to the northwest. Luckily, there are also slots available for freshman students who want to join. All we have to do is kill some of the vampire brigands and bring their blood demon cores back here to get merit points.” [2]

“Kill vampire brigands? That’s all we have to do to get merit points?” Yang Qi was surprised. “That's a pretty hefty reward, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, so a lot of students are planning on going. However, the fact that the reward is so high indicates that the vampire brigands are definitely not easy to deal with. That’s why we need to join forces.”

In addition to Li He, Hua Yinhu, and Yang Qi, there were two other students present, making them a team of five.

“Alright, let’s do it!” Li He said excitedly. “Hey, Yang Qi, I heard that some people from the College of Elite Students might be participating in the mission. You never know, you might run into that Yun Hailan you’ve been looking for.”

“Oh, really?” Yang Qi replied, an enigmatic smile playing out on his face, his pupils glittering.

Hua Yinhu thought for a moment and said, “Yun Hailan? She’s way more important than any of us freshmen. I heard she’s some sort of genius. I'm pretty sure that only two months ago she defeated an inner campus student who was in the ninth phase. Somebody like that must have some impressive backers. She's not the type that we could ever tangle with. We could only hope that one day we would have the chance to kiss up to her.”

‘What? She defeated a Master of Energy? How could she be advancing so quickly?’ Yang Qi frowned, but recovered his composure quickly. This was the Demi-Immortal Institute; studying here was ten times more beneficial than being on the outside, perhaps even a hundred. Many students who had the right circumstances could easily get stronger in a short period of time.

After all, this was a holy land in the Rich-Lush Continent, a place whose legacy stretched back more than ten thousand years.

And Yun Hailan had joined it as an elite student, a position vastly above that of the freshmen.

Perhaps she was being groomed by a Lifeseizer.

However, Yang Qi was convinced that, no matter how strong she was, and no matter how proud, he would be able to crush her.

‘You betrayed me, Yun Hailan. You used me to get that Latent Dragon Pill and then joined the Demi-Immortal Institute. I bet you never could have guessed that I would end up stronger than you. Unless you’re already in the Lifeseizing level, I can definitely crush you. I can't wait to see the expression on your face in that moment. Will you still look as arrogant as you did back when you were toying with me?’

Although the thought got Yang Qi’s heart pounding, he didn’t let it show on his face.

“What,” Li He said teasingly. “Who is Yun Hailan to you anyway? A sweetheart of yours?”

“No,” Yang Qi replied coolly. “But I know her. And she owes me.”

1. Hua Yinhu: Hua is a common surname that has a lot of meanings. Yin technically means “respectful, regardful” and Hu means “tiger”. However, the combination of them has a unique meaning. Without getting too complicated, it basically means “year of the tiger”

2. The specific words here implies that these brigands are “mounted bandits”