Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“You’re really back already, Brother Yang Qi?”

Li He and the others excitedly unleashed their energy arts onto the remaining skeletons and zombies, and then harvested the demon cores from them.

Although the quality of the cores was very low, at least something was better than nothing.

“Yeah, I'm back.” Beckoning, he continued, “Guys, look at this stuff.”

They hurried over, whereupon Yang Qi showed them the gold and jade garment, the scepter, and the remains of King Huaiyin. After examining them closely, Liang Dong couldn’t help but exclaim, “That’s a thousand-year-old corpse king! And that gold and jade garment is a suite of preheaven armor.”

“And that scepter has a sun gem in it!” Hua Yinhu said loudly.

“I can’t believe it’s a sun gem!” Li He exclaimed.

“A suit of preheaven armor? A sun gem?” Since Yang Qi wasn’t familiar with them, he needed an explanation.

“Brother Yang Qi,” Liang Dong said, “as you know, there are all sorts of fields of study taught at our institute. For example, magical items, pill concocting, spirit medicine, equipment forging, crafting, astronomy, geography and more. We recommend you take the time to attend some classes as soon as you can. Being able to identify items like this will be of great help to your cultivation. This preheaven armor is made from something called preheaven goldjade, which is essentially impenetrable, and yet as soft as cotton. It also prevents dead bodies from decomposing. Any corpse buried in this will naturally absorb the spirit energy of heaven and earth, and eventually transform into a vicious zombie. However, unlike other zombies, it will retain its memories of its past life. As for that sun gem, it’s even more miraculous. It contains the quintessence of scorching heat. It actually started out as a fireball descended from the sun itself, which eventually turned into a gemstone. The power it contains can be used for all sorts of things. And anyone who cultivates fire-type energy arts, and got a sun gem, would be able to advance by leaps and bounds.”

“Brother Yang Qi, don’t tell me you found a thousand-year-old corpse king in that tomb, and then defeated him? How did you possibly beat a Lifeseizer?”

“Nah, I just got lucky. I happened to come across a thousand-year-old corpse king practicing cultivation. By chance, he experienced cultivation deviation, and very nearly exploded. I attacked him right then and managed to kill him.” Yang Qi made up a bit of a story. If word got out that he had casually killed countless zombies and skeletons, and then slaughtered a thousand-year-old corpse king, it would become increasingly difficult for him to hide the truth about himself.

It made more sense to slowly make a name for himself in the school, rather than do something to shock all creation. Although he was on the same team as these other four, that didn’t mean that it was wise to reveal secrets about his cultivation technique.

“You really did get lucky. You just happened to run into a thousand-year-old corpse king who then experienced cultivation deviation….” The entire group was taken aback, and yet, they believed him. It seemed obvious that it was impossible for him to have single-handedly charged into the depths of the tombs and killed a thousand-year-old corpse king.

“You know,” Li He said, “I’d say it’s highly likely this thousand-year-old corpse king was actually King Huaiyin. He was a ruler of old who was buried in a geomantic tomb. Later, he became a zombie, and wreaked havoc on the world for hundreds of years. Eventually, he came to rest deep in the Fiendcorpse Mountains. Throughout the years, plenty of students from the Demi-Immortal Institute have tried to fight their way to him, and even some of the Lifeseizer elite students. But he always eluded them. If word got out about this, it wouldn’t be good. If people found out we have a sun gem and a suit of preheaven armor, even elite students would get greedy, and would demand we hand them over. And if we didn't, it could cause some deadly grudges.”

“That's right,” Hua Yinhu said. “This preheaven armor and this sun gem should be considered precious treasures of the Sage Monarch Society. Especially that sun gem. If Chu Tiange found out about it, it would probably mean doom for all of us. He cultivates the Cosmic Sunflare Sword, which gathers the quintessence of the sun and the will of the cosmos to create a divine sword that can slaughter anything within five hundred kilometers. If he got this sun gem, he could instantly add a hundred or even two hundred years of cultivation to his technique. He would instantly go through multiple lifeseizings, and would probably become a conclave student. I bet he would even take the risk to violate the rules of the institute and kill us just to get it.”

It was at this point that a voice suddenly drifted into their ears. “You’re right. In fact, you couldn’t be more right. If I didn't kill you to take something amazing like that, then I wouldn’t be Chu Tiange.”

Yang Qi, Li He, Liang Dong and Hua Yinhu all looked visibly shocked as they turned to find Chu Tiange floating in the air nearby, his energy already weighing down on the mountain.

Yang Qi’s four friends suddenly went pale in the face, and their knees began to tremble as they stared at Chu Tiange. Already, they had sinking feelings about what was to come.

As the saying goes, an innocent man with treasure in hand is courting disaster. Now that Chu Tiange knew they had a sun gem and a suit of preheaven armor, there was no way he would simply let them go.

Only Yang Qi was as calm as could be, as if he was privy to some secret that no one else could guess at. Rising to his feet, he looked over coldly at Chu Tiange.

Chu Tiange looked back at him as if he were already dead. Then his eyes dropped to the sun gem, and they burned with passion. “A sun gem, something I have yearned for even in my dreams. And today, I’ll finally get one. With that gemstone, I can push my Cosmic Sunflare Sword to the ultimate peak. I will be like an emperor of the sun, a tyrant of the cosmos. But there’s one point in which you are incorrect. It won’t just let me bypass one or two hundred years of cultivation and become a conclave student. No, it will likely allow me to become a holy neophyte.”

“Ch-Chu Tiange,” Li He stammered, “er, Elder Brother Tiange, what are you planning to do?”

“What am I planning to do? You really don’t know?” As he talked, Chu Tiange began to stroll in their direction. “Thankfully, I'm quite the clever individual. I knew there was something fishy about you, so I secretly had some Humanoid True Energy follow you. Who would have guessed that the brat Yang Qi would sneak underground and find King Huaiyin in the middle of cultivation deviation, then end up with a sun gem and a suit of preheaven armor? That’s some bullshit luck if you ask me. Well, it seems that today is the day that Chu Tiange will finally rise to prominence.”

“Please, let us go, Elder Brother Tiange,” Liang Dong said. “Take the sun gem and the suit of preheaven armor as a gift. We won’t tell anyone what happened.”

Chu Tiange chuckled coldly. “Let you go? How naive of you. The only people who won’t spread rumors are dead people. All the others are liars. It doesn’t matter whether or not you would tell people about the armor or the gem. You’re dead. We're in the depths of the murky Fiendcorpse Mountains, a treacherous place of danger. It's the perfect place to get rid of a few witnesses.”

“Aren’t you afraid the institute will punish you?” Hua Yinhu said, clearly grasping at straws. “You might be an elite student, but that doesn’t mean you can just defile the Inner Campus. Murdering outer campus students is a major crime. The institute won’t let you off the hook.”

“What do you mean? I didn’t kill you. It was King Huaiyin.” Tapping his fingertips rhythmically, he said, “Of course, I fought a fierce battle trying to rescue you. Sadly, I wasn’t able to pull it off. It was only after you were killed that I managed to defeat King Huaiyin, and avenge your deaths.”

Chu Tiange had thought everything through, and Yang Qi’s four friends could already feel his killing intent.

There was no hope for them. They were all Masters of Energy, but he was a Lifeseizer, and he could crush them as easily as crushing an egg on a boulder.

A hundred Masters of Energy working together might be able to take on an ordinary Lifeseizer. But Chu Tiange was no ordinary Lifeseizer. He was an elite student from the Demi-Immortal Institute, a person capable of completely dominating other ordinary Lifeseizers.

Truth be told, outside of the Demi-Immortal Institute, and in the Rich-Lush Continent as a whole, he was considered second to none. When compared to people in the same cultivation level, students from the Demi-Immortal Institute were always considered the best of the best.

With his Cosmic Sunflare Sword, he could be considered a fiendish killer among the elite students.

“Time to go for broke!”

“Yang Qi, we have to put everything on the line. Let’s get out of here. Your cultivation base is the highest. We’ll buy time for you while you flee.”

“Brother Yang Qi, you have to get out of here. Report this matter to the institute. Tell them we were murdered by Chu Tiange! Tell our clans! They’ll avenge us.”

“We’re not going to let this drop, Chu Tiange!”

“Take care, brother! Get out of here!”

Shouting at the tops of their lungs, Li He, Hua Yinhu, He Jili and Liang Dong unleashed their true energy and charged toward Chu Tiange. Their goal: buy time for Yang Qi to escape.

Sword light glimmered behind Chu Tiange's back as he prepared to attack Yang Qi’s four friends.

“Gimps,” he said, chuckling. “Haven’t you heard the expression a mantis trying to stop a war chariot?”

However, that was when Yang Qi took a step forward.

Suddenly, powerful streams of true energy wrapped around his friends, pulling them back to his side.

Their eyes went wide as they looked around, trying to figure out what happened.

As for Chu Tiange, his pupils constricted as he looked over at Yang Qi.

“You four are really willing to sacrifice yourselves so that I can escape?” Yang Qi said. “You four… are truly brothers. Live together. Die together. From now on, you are like blood brothers to me, the same as my eldest brother and second brother. That’s how I’ll treat you. And therefore, I'm not going to hide things from you any longer. Brothers, watch as I cut down this Chu Tiange. Anyone who insults a brother of mine will die! And that means you, Chu Tiange!”

At that point, the true energy which had neutralized their attacks and pulled them back swirled around them into a defensive shield.

The four of them were gradually regaining their senses, and now looked over at Yang Qi.