Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Within the darkness and gloom, the leader of the emissaries transformed into something profoundly vile.

Bloodcurdling screams rang out as he mercilessly cut down his fellow emissaries one after another. Within moments, half of them were dead. Most terrifying of all was that, now that they were within this labyrinth of pitch black, there was nowhere to escape to.

The emissaries were all top experts, thus there was no way that the leader could cut them all down at the same time. If even one of them escaped, it would lead to his ultimate doom.

In the Brahman Society, killing fellow disciples was a high crime that came with the penalty of death.

The leader was going all in; he had to kill all of his fellows, then force Yang Qi to tell him about the ‘godrelic’, and ultimately reach the Godmyth level. If he could do all that then he would become a patriarch in the Brahman Society.

Screams rang out one after another.

Soon, only three were left, the strongest of the group, the eighth stage Antiquity-Demolishers. Immortal emperors. All of them were fighting tooth and nail to survive.

“You’re an outright fiend-devil, Hu Latu! How dare you try to kill us. We're fellow disciples! Aren’t you worried about being punished by the Brahman Society!?” [1]

“You think you can escape me?” Hu Latu said. “You might as well just give up. This is my kingdom, which I built with blood, sweat, and tears. It’s locked tight! Not even your souls will be able to escape. Stand still and let me kill you!”

“You rapacious villain, Hu Latu!” Obviously, the final three emissaries weren’t willing to go down without a fight.

“Fine. Prepare to die. Darkness-Gloom Mud-Plowing Profound-Yin Fist!”

Hu Latu unleashed a pitch black fist strike that caused sinister yin winds to sweep out, accompanied by the weeping of ghosts and wailing of gods. Yet even as looks of despair covered the faces of the final three emissaries, absolutely nothing happened.

Radiance and light blossomed and a sea of sagelight appeared, driving away all of the gloom and darkness. In fact, all of the twists and turns of the labyrinth became clear as crystal.

The darkness and gloom was completely eliminated and Hu Latu was sent stumbling backward, sealed by Yang Qi along with the other three emissaries.

“You!?” he shouted, a look of shock overtaking his face. He looked down at a crystal he was holding in his hand, within which was another version of Yang Qi. However, even as he watched it, the illusion inside the crystal faded away.

“You really think you could imprison me that easily?” Yang Qi laughed coldly. “That was an illusion. Killing fellow disciples is a big crime, so get on your knees and forget any thoughts of running away. Those three are all the proof I need. If I let them go, you’ll have the entire Brahman Society after you. Where will you run to if that happens?”

The other three emissaries were locked down by Yang Qi as well, but upon hearing his words they breathed sighs of relief.

“Hu Latu!” one of them shouted. “You rapacious villain! Now that the truth is revealed, your crimes are going to earn you death!”

Eyes narrowing, Hu Latu said, “I underestimated you, you little punk. But this is my territory. You really think I wouldn’t set up a way to escape from just such a situation as this?”

“So, not willing to shed a tear until you see the coffin?” Yang Qi began walking toward Hu Latu, and every step he took turned the area around him into a land of pure holiness in which all other hexing magics and magical techniques faded out of existence.

“You!” Hu Latu blurted. He was burning paper talismans and spitting up blood to fuel them, but none of it did any good.

“Calm down, I'm not going to give you a hard time,” Yang Qi said. “How about I let you live, and you work for me? Help me infiltrate the Brahman Society.”

“You’re not going to kill me? Alright, fine. I can help you expunge your record in the Brahman Society.”

“Expunge my record?” Yang Qi laughed. “Considering the level of my cultivation base, I can defeat Godmyths. Give me a year or so and my cultivation base will be even stronger. And then what will the Brahman Society count for? My armies will soon overwhelm immortal world after immortal world. You think I want your help to expunge my record? Wrong. I'm going to destroy the Brahman Society and take over the Thirty-Six Thousand Immortal Worlds Coalition.”

“What? You’re going to destroy the Brahman Society?” Hu Latu began trembling. “Who exactly are you? I've never met someone as ambitious as you! The Brahman Society has as many experts as the sky has clouds!”

“Experts? Like I care about experts. Look, I don’t have time for chit chat at the moment. Some of my biggest enemies are on the way here right now, and I want to draw the snake out of its hole. In fact, not just a snake. Snakes. So I'm going to give you to the count of three to make your decision.

“One.

“Two.”

“Wait, there’s something I want to ask you about—”

“Ask me later. Three. Time to die.”

RUUUUUUMBLE!

He leaped forward, becoming a streak of destructive light that could shatter universes and destroy great daos.

Hu Latu drew on every ounce of power he had to stand up to the onslaught, but still staggered backward from the force, much to the shock of the other three emissaries.

“Nope. Not good enough,” Yang Qi said, slamming into Hu Latu again and sending him flying. However, even as Hu Latu seemed just on the verge of being killed, something flew out of the top of his head that resembled a heart, or perhaps a strange-looking fruit.

It was a dao heart, sometimes called a dao fruit, and it had three lineaments on it, making it look particularly shocking.

As soon as it was out in the open, it released waves of incomparably strong magical power. But Yang Qi’s Hand of the One God was immeasurably strong and could control heaven, earth, yin, yang, the cosmos, and all magic.

In the blink of an eye, the hand seized the heart, causing Hu Latu to suddenly deflate like a popped balloon.

“Hell Hexing Magic: Devil Seed Infiltration.” Devil energy swirled out of Yang Qi like a snake, wrapping around the dao heart and turning it pitch black before sending it back into Hu Latu.

Hu Latu rose shakily to his feet, his face ashen. “What… what did you do to my dao heart? What was that thing?”

“A curse from hell, that's all. Something from the primeval infernal deities. It stems from my Devil-God Seal, and anyone I hit with it will obey all of my commands. Even a Godmyth.”

Yang Qi moved his finger through the air and Hu Latu suddenly began dancing like a wooden marionette.

“Hu Latu.”

“Yes, Milord!” he replied, dropping to his knee. When you stand under low eaves, you have no choice but to bow your head. Those sealed by Yang Qi’s devil seed would have no choice but to fear him down to their souls.

“Listen well to my orders,” Yang Qi said. “I know that you have a god item in your lair, so go inside and use it to put up an illusory region. I want it to look like you and I are in a fierce fight there.”

“Yes, Milord. I’ll do exactly as you say. That god item is called the Trident of the Water God, and I can set up very formidable spell formations with it. Please, come inside and tell me exactly how you want me to set up the illusion.”

Yang Qi waved his finger and sent devil seeds into the other three emissaries, then followed Hu Latu inside.

**

Around that time, Chancellor Demi-Immortal and the young man in yellow appeared at the midway point between the Megaplexus Heaven and the Five Blooms Heaven. The first thing that caught their attention was the seemingly never-ending space-time labyrinth, filled with deadly vortexes and the like.

“The universe of the immortal worlds is far more dangerous than the mortal world below,” the young man said. “What is this labyrinth? And what is Yang Qi doing inside?”

He yet again used his spying magic to pull up an image showing Hu Latu using a water-type god item to fight Yang Qi in the depths of the labyrinth.

“Excellent. This couldn’t have gone better. So the leader of those Brahman Society emissaries set up a lair here with a god item in it. And it’s obviously strong enough to capture Yang Qi. Even so, I think he underestimated Yang Qi. The Brahman Society is going to be defeated shortly.”

“So what do we do?” Chancellor Demi-Immortal asked. “If Yang Qi is in trouble, does that mean our chance has arrived?”

“There’s no rush. Let’s stay hidden and wait to see if Proud Warpatience and the Crown Prince arrive. If they go in and start fighting Yang Qi as well, that will be the perfect time to strike.”

The young man in yellow quickly drew on an invisibility technique and faded from view.

RUUUUUUMBLE!

Shortly after, everything trembled violently as Proud Warpatience appeared, followed by the crown prince.

One after another, they flew into the labyrinth. Smiling cryptically, the young man followed.

1. Hu Latu. Hu is a relatively rare surname that also means “exhale, breathe out, shout, pant, call”. La. This is odd because the author actually switches between a couple different versions of certain characters pronounced “la” that all look similar. That’s a pretty clear indication this is supposed to be a traditional name, and that the meaning of the characters aren’t important. It could mean “pull” or it could have no meaning at all and just be a sound name. Tu means “picture, painting". This is a weird name that I originally considered translating. But in the end, there is evidence to indicate that it's intended to be just a traditional name.