Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“Hold on!” Li He said. Yang Qi was obviously very pumped up, and wanted to wade into the fighting just like the members of the Gentlemen’s Society. However, Li He had another idea. “These vampire brigands have more experts than the sky has clouds,” he continued. “Look, the students from the Gentlemen’s Society aren't actually able to get very far into the city. Why don’t the four of us stay out here and pick off stragglers? As for you, Brother Yang Qi, your cultivation base is the highest, so you can sneak into the city and try to find the brigands’ treasure stores. Our Sage Monarch Society has just been founded, and we’re completely broke. We’ll need to get some major funds to attract new recruits.”

Yang Qi immediately realized that Li He was right. If he could find the treasure stores in Krorän, it could theoretically be far more valuable than killing the brigands themselves.

After all, the vampire brigands had been terrorizing the northwest for some time now, so they definitely had a lot of wealth built up.

Besides, they had also pillaged Krorän itself. Altogether, that was an amount of wealth that was probably worth more than a thousand Yanhavens put together.

Best of all, Yang Qi had a way to take massive amounts of wealth away with him.

‘Definitely a good idea. I can finally make good use of this thumb-ring of holding.’ Looking at Li He, he said, “Okay. You four stick close to the Gentlemen’s Society, and pick off any stragglers. If the situation changes, adjust accordingly. I’ll sneak into Krorän and see if they actually have some powerful experts inside. If not, I’ll send you a message to join me. Otherwise, I’ll search for their treasure stores alone.”

Of course, his four friends had no idea that he had a thumb-ring of holding.

However, they did know that even if he only took away a bit of the treasure the vampire brigands had built up, it would definitely be worth it.

They all knew what was going on.

There was no way they could get rich right here, not with the experts from the Gentlemen’s Society present.

In this situation, finding a hoard of treasure would be much better than trying to stack up merit points.

Based on how things were going, it was obvious that of the five members of the Sage Monarch Society, Li He was the most knowledgeable.

Of course, Yang Qi was quite intelligent, but he was only eighteen, making him the youngest. Even though the incident with Yun Hailan had been life-changing, he still lacked experience compared to the others.

After a bit more discussion, Yang Qi blurred into motion, heading deep into Krorän.

In fact, he moved so quickly with his energy arts that not even a Master of Energy would have been able to track him visually.

His friends were all stunned.

‘So fast!’

In the shortest of moments, he was thousands of paces away, where he easily scaled the city wall, which was hundreds of meters tall. Before the vampire brigands atop the wall could react, they were killed, and their demon cores harvested.

Meanwhile, whistling sounds could be heard from numerous directions as more students from the Demi-Immortal Institute arrived to besiege the city. Chaotic fighting was breaking out everywhere as vampire brigands rushed to defend themselves.

At this point, Hua Yinhu gave voice to the question that they had all been pondering.

“Liang Dong, now that you’re a Master of Energy, you’re much more perceptive than before. Can you tell what level Brother Yang Qi’s cultivation base is at?”

Liang Dong pursed his lips for a moment. “Presumably you all had a chance to sense his true energy when he improved our cultivation bases. Well, even after becoming a Master of Energy, I'd say I'm not even one percent as powerful as him. And when he struck Song Haishan, I think he only used about ten percent of his full strength.”

“So strong….” they gasped. “Doesn’t that mean he’s as strong as a Lifeseizer? After all, upon first achieving a breakthrough, Lifeseizers are a hundred times as powerful as a Master of Energy.”

“Well, if Brother Yang is really that strong, then our little Sage Monarch Society might actually have a chance to get big. We’re all sour at having been stuck as freshman students for nearly a decade, right? The only way to earn a name is to rely on someone important and powerful, but nobody like that has ever paid any attention to us. But Brother Yang Qi is definitely on the way to becoming such a person.” It was Li He who provided the final analysis. “Our clans are just as powerful as those of students from the Outer or Inner Campuses. Or even the elite students. It's just that our cultivation bases were too low, and we have no sway in our clans. If we stick with Brother Yang Qi, our cultivation bases are definitely going to continue rising.

“Come on, let’s focus on killing the stragglers out here. With Krorän under siege, the brigands are going to retreat sooner or later. Let’s earn some merit points while we can.”

Whoosshhhh!

Yang Qi sped through the towering buildings of Krorän, making his way through the broad streets as he headed deeper toward the city center.

Of course, there were plenty of vampire brigands in the streets, rushing toward the city walls, filling the air with demon energy and the smell of blood.

The ground was stained with blood, and desiccated corpses could still be seen within the buildings.

As of this point, the ancient city of Krorän was nothing more than a ghost town.

In the stories, this place had once been the capital of the thriving Krorän Nation, home to millions upon millions of people. But now, even the remnants of that once powerful country had been completely exterminated by the vampire brigands, turned into fuel for their demonic energy arts.

Of course, the city was large enough that they couldn’t occupy every corner of it.

Therefore, it was easy for Yang Qi to stay out of sight. Up to this point, no one had noticed him. And besides, he could move more than ten thousand paces in the blink of an eye. Almost as soon as he appeared in a given location, he would be gone. Even top energy arts masters would see nothing more than a blur.

Krorän had many towering buildings in it, some built from stone, others from hardened clay; all of them were very sturdy. There were even imposing towers made from metal.

At a certain point, Yang Qi resorted to his Four Seasons Swordplay to make it even more difficult for prying eyes to catch sight of him.

He had long since come to understand the royal-class energy art, and considering that it was a snowy day, it was the perfect time to use the winter snow fills the sky aspect. He sent his true energy out, fusing it with the snow, creating an energy field filled with snowflakes. Now, anyone who looked at him would see nothing more than a mass of swirling snow.

The Four Seasons Swordplay itself had an ability to mask one’s aura by fusing with the surrounding nature.

Not even a Master of Energy would be able to sense him as he sped like a blast of snowy wind into the depths of the ancient city.

As he got further in, he saw fewer vampire brigands, and yet, each one he saw was more powerful than the last. He also noticed that in some of the most sumptuous mansions, blood pools had been set up, which were all manned by vampire brigand leaders, all of them fiendish Masters of Energy.

And yet, not a single one noticed Yang Qi.

WHOOSH!

He quietly landed on the roof of a nine-story building that had clearly been a restaurant in the past. It was spectacularly constructed, complete with iron columns inlaid with gold leaf. Sadly, most of it had been spattered with blood. Right in the middle, a pool had been dug out which was filled with blood.

Next to the blood pool was one of the brigand leaders, currently in the middle of a session of cultivation. Countless magical symbols could be seen forming within the blood that then floated into his body.

This particular vampire brigand had bright red hair, and spiky, blood-red fur covering the rest of his body. He didn't even look human.

He was a Master of Energy, but was ten times more powerful than the average expert of that level. In fact, he was so strong that his aura was difficult to detect.

Clearly, this person was one of the core leaders of the vampire brigands.

As soon as the blast of snowy wind that was Yang Qi alighted onto the building, the red-furred expert’s eyes opened.

“Who’s there!” he barked in a voice laced with killing intent.

Even as the words left his mouth, a blood-colored whip appeared in his hands, formed of true energy.

“Bloodshadow Godwhip!” he growled. It was a high-level blood-type energy art which summoned a whip that resembled a blood dragon. Almost as soon as the whip appeared in the open, he lashed out with it, causing a sound like weeping apes and monkeys to fill the air.

Unfortunately for the red-furred expert, Yang Qi waved his hand, placing an energy barrier around the entire building, ensuring that no sound would escape.

Normally speaking, it would take ten Masters of Energy working together to seal down a building this large, but Yang Qi could do it all on his own. As of this moment, the red-furred vampire was now completely isolated.

Pop!

The whip landed, but couldn’t penetrate Yang Qi’s defensive true energy.

“Who goes there? An expert from the Demi-Immortal Institute?”

Blood-colored true energy swirled around him as he floated up into the air toward the roof, which was when he finally caught sight of Yang Qi in his snowbear outfit.