Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Out in the deep ocean, there were a plethora of demonlings that haunted the pitch-black night.

On the deserted island they had chosen to spend the night, the travelers lit a roaring fire. As they sat there, they could hear howls of rage from the water, apparently from various wild beasts fighting each other in deadly fashion. The waves crashed loudly, mixing with the sound of combat.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, something in the distance noticed their fire, and a shadowy figure blurred in their direction. A bird the size of a human became visible, with the face of an old woman. Its withered skin was covered with complex designs, and it had sharp claws that pulsed with godpower.

Apparently, it was at the level of a Quasi-God!

“Watch out!” Lightning Dragonriser said. “That’s a crone harpy! They’re very strong and fierce, just as bad as wretch-god witches!”

However, even as the words left his mouth, a beam of sword energy shot out and cut the crone harpy in half.

Sword Seventeen snorted disdainfully. “How dare a wimpy bird such as that attack us. Was it suicidal?”

Walking forward, he probed at the harpy with his sword until he managed to pull out something that looked like a pearl. ‘A godpower pearl! Not bad. Not bad at all. In the lands of mortals, demonlings have internal pellets, and it's the same with godlings in the god world.’

There was no way Sword Seventeen would speak his final thoughts aloud, lest Lightning Dragonriser guess that they were from the lands of mortals.

Lightning Dragonriser sighed.

“What are you sighing for, old pal Lightning?” the Shepherd said. “We just killed a daemon, and you’re acting like we killed your mother.”

“You have no way of knowing, but the crone harpies usually travel in groups. They’re a powerful group on the high seas, and when you kill one, its daemon energy will infect you. Afterward, it’ll be hard to stay safe. These daemons are the type who seek revenge over the smallest grievance, which means they’ll definitely come after us.”

He sighed again. “When we come across beasts like this, the best thing is to drive them away. Once they realize how strong we are, they’ll leave us alone. That’s how these creatures work. But when you break that rule, they won’t rest until you’re dead.”

“So that’s how things work?” As far as Yang Qi was concerned, rules like this made sense. It was better to give a warning that would prevent people from causing problems.

But what was done couldn’t be undone, and Yang Qi felt no fear.

“Most pertinent, some of the crone harpies are Lesser Gods,” Lightning Dragonriser continued. “If we keep killing the harpies, their demon-gods are eventually going to come after us. And the question is whether or not we can escape from pursuit like that.”

“I'm not worried about some demon-gods,” Yang Qi said, chuckling coldly. “They aren’t anything impressive. Even Lesser Gods with a godhood rating of one, two, or possibly even three won’t stand a chance if we work together. In fact, they’ll find out exactly what it means to ‘murder gods’.”

The Shepherd laughed heartily. “I love murdering gods. In fact, I was just wondering when I would have a chance to get some practice at that. If a god comes, let’s surround it and assimilate its blood. It will definitely help us to advance our energy arts and cultivation base.”

‘My god, who are these people?’ Lightning Dragonriser thought. All of a sudden, he wondered if he had misjudged them, and if bringing them to the Bloodgore Trials would be a mistake.

That night, while everyone rested on the deserted island, Yang Qi stayed awake and kept watch. With the God Legion Seal to help him, all he had to do was close his eyes for a brief moment and he would get as much rest as an ordinary person would get in a whole day.

There were no demonlings on the island itself, but there were plenty out in the darkness of the night. And when such creatures tried to crawl on land, Yang Qi would use a bubble to keep everyone safe.

Yang Qi was finally starting to realize how many creatures there were in the ocean. There were octopus-like creatures who crawled on eight legs, half-fish half-human creatures, and many more. Overall, the situation seemed generally dangerous, despite the fact that they were on an island.

Yang Qi wasn’t interested in slaughtering them all.

There was no point in killing animals, and he couldn’t strengthen himself with their corpses, nor could his people. And after his conversation with King Immortal-Slayer about the morality of the dao of monarchs, his desire to kill had lessened.

Although his own sense of morality seemed superficial at the moment, it was growing. As such, he simply drove the sea creatures back into the water instead of killing them.

Eventually, it was daylight.

Yet again, the ocean was illuminated with radiant light. However, Yang Qi could sense that there were faint strands of coldness seeping through the air, seemingly coming from one specific location.

“What's going on? Is winter coming or something?”

Everyone got the sense that the seasons were changing. However, it was strange, as the recent thunderstorms were clearly the hallmark of summer. And since the god world had no sun, how could there be changes in season?

“We absolutely, positively must not step out into the open,” Brahma transmitted into their minds. “The weather in the god world changes unpredictably. In fact, there really aren’t four seasons. The years are measured by the number of days, which is how things have worked for a long time. In terms of the weather, it could be hot like summer one day, then cold like winter the next, freezing everything in sight.”

“What a world...” Yang Qi said. The god world was seemingly unfathomable, yet that was just a representation of how mighty it was.

“Crap,” Lightning Dragonriser said. “I can’t believe winter is falling so quickly. In fact, I bet it’ll snow soon. It’s impossible to fly in a blizzard, and for all we know, a storm could last for months. What happens if we get seriously delayed?”

Even as they spoke, the howling of the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. Fist-sized snowflakes started falling, turning the sky white and making it impossible to get any sense of direction.

Whoosh!

Almost immediately, the wind grew so intense that they felt like they were going to be blown off their feet.

“Snowflakes...” Yang Qi said, reaching out to let one land on his palm. It had six sides and radiated a sharp chill that seemed more intense than anything from the immortal worlds.

In fact, just one of these snowflakes could probably freeze an immortal world solid.

Yang Qi’s people wouldn’t have been able to endure such temperatures before, and would have instantly been turned into corpses.

Thankfully, they had furthered their cultivation and were getting used to the god world. With their godpower, they could create coverings to prevent the snow from hitting them.

In this weather, the windsails weren’t going to be of any help. Using them in such intense winds could easily turn out to be deadly. Besides, if they flew out over the ocean and couldn't find another island to rest on because of the storm, they could easily tire and end up dead.

“It seems we have no choice but to rest,” Lightning Dragonriser said, sounding worried. “Once the snow passes, we can hurry on our way. Hopefully this doesn’t last for months, otherwise we might freeze to death.”

“Ah, what’re you scared of?” Yang Qi laughed. “You think a bit of snow like this is going to stop us from traveling? You’re kidding, right? Let’s go!”

With that, he flew right up into the wind.

Unleashing his godpower and energy arts, he cleared a path through the snow. Given his current level, it was something he could do without much effort.

“This....” Lightning Dragonriser’s face fell. “But how do we fly? We can’t use the windsails! It’ll be suicide!”

“Think of flying as a type of cultivation,” Brahma said. “And don’t worry about your godpower running out. Yang Qi will help you when you run low. You want to survive the Bloodgore Trials, right? Then think of this as a bit of a test.” With that, he flew up to join Yang Qi.

Seeing he had no choice in the matter, Lightning Dragonriser followed.

Despite the protection of their godpower and energy arts, it was still freezing cold as they flew over the water. Below them, the waves still surged, which was somewhat frightening.

If the water had frozen, they could have dropped down to recover their energy when flying became impossible. But the ocean water in the god world couldn’t be easily frozen. On the ocean floor were countless volcanoes that heated up the water, making it very warm. It would probably take thousands of years of endless snowfall to cause the surface to freeze.

That was nothing particularly miraculous. The history of the god world stretched back for so many trillions of years it was impossible to count. And there were points in history where snow fell for thousands of years, freezing numerous cultivators. During such ice ages, the commoners were forced to find refuge in the god legion kingdoms.

There was no rhyme or reason to the weather in the god world. Luckily, Yang Qi and his people hadn’t arrived in an ice age, otherwise he would have been the only one to survive the arrival.

Of course, as there were ice ages, there were also ‘fire ages’, in which the entire god world was so hot that everything dried up and died.