Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
Chapter 26: Who Dares Block My Path?

Luo Hun had been coldly looking on for the entire time.

He had long since been informed that Yang Qi's energy arts had recovered, but could never have guessed that he would be so strong he could vanquish Chen Miejin in the blink of an eye.

And considering that Yang Qi was about to cripple Chen Miejin, he had no choice but to intervene.

Nobody could possibly have anticipated that Yang Qi would simply ignore his command, and continue with his attack. It was an outright provocation to Luo Hun, something he couldn’t just ignore.

And so, he resorted to a ruthless move.

Energy surged as he unleashed a thunderously powerful attack from hundreds of paces away.

The explosive true energy became a huge vortex, bearing down on Yang Qi and threatening to drag him inside of it.

“Whale Consumes the Sea!”

Just barely visible within the massive vortex was an enormous whale, its mouth gaping as though to swallow up an entire sea.

This move was part of the martial ability that had earned Luo Hun his fame, his Furious Whale Energy Art. It was a boundlessly powerful technique that would summon the projection of an enormous whale, something so majestic that no opponent could possibly stand up to it.

This move was so strong that eighth phase experts would have trouble dealing with it, so there was little need to even mention people in the seventh phase.

And yet, Yang Qi didn’t even move a muscle in response.

Suddenly, six long arms of true energy sprang into being behind him, each of them fully nine meters long, crab-like in appearance, and domineering to the extreme, pulsing with the aura of a king.

Rumbling sounds echoed out as the Invincible King’s Fist slammed into the mouth of the enormous whale.

BAM!

Unexpectedly, the whale actually was incapable of consuming Yang Qi’s true energy, and was shattered to pieces by the six arms.

A shockwave of true energy raged outward in all directions, causing screaming winds to batter at the people in the area, who had no choice other than to step backward pace by pace.

“You dare to try to stop me?” Yang Qi growled as the winds battered at him. “When I want to cripple someone, I cripple them, no matter what anyone else tells me to do. The Chen Clan colluded with the House of Shadowblight to harm my eldest brother and second brother. And therefore, I’ll cripple one of their young ones! Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth!”

As his words continued to float through the air, he mercilessly stomped down with his foot, sending a blast of energy directly into Chen Miejin’s dantian region and sea of energy.

Chen Miejin screamed, energy streaming out of him as he deflated almost like a balloon, blood oozing out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

“You… you really destroyed my sea of energy!?” he cried. “I'm gonna kill you….”

To him, the despair of having his sea of energy destroyed was worse than being killed.

After all, in the Rich-Lush Continent, people who could not practice martial arts or cultivation were looked down upon in all regards. And to be treated with such coldness was definitely worse than death in many ways.

Chen Miejin was widely regarded as a genius in the Chen Clan, and had been the top contender to become the next clan lord. But now he was a cripple, more useless than the lowest-ranked servant.

“Kill me?” Yang Qi said, pulling his foot back. “You can’t cultivate energy arts now, and will soon be the subject of endless scorn and ridicule. And I’ll be there to watch it all happen.

“And then there’s the rest of you….” He turned to look at some of the other elite young ones and servants from the Chen Clan. “Weren’t you just cursing the Yang Clan too? I think I should probably cripple all of your energy arts.”

With that, he jabbed his finger in their direction one by one.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh…!

With each jab of his finger, a spiral of energy shot out, almost like a bullet, slamming into the abdomens of each individual he targeted.

Instantly, the entire group who had cursed him sagged visibly as their seas of energy were destroyed, and their martial arts crippled.

These people had called Yang Zhan and Yang Qi animals, which was something he couldn’t possibly ignore. Therefore, he put them in the position of being alive, and yet yearning for death.

For Yang Qi to use such vicious tactics indicated that the Yang and Chen Clans would soon be going to war. And yet, he wasn’t too worried about that. The Chen Clan had no experts in the Master of Energy level, so even if they sent more people to try to fight him, he could stop them.

Furthermore, his father was in the middle of advancing to the Master of Energy level.

To top it all off, clues had come in recently indicating that the situation with his eldest brother and second brother was all because of the Chen Clan working together with the House of Shadowblight.

“You beast!” Luo Hun shouted, flying toward him and simultaneously summoning numerous bursts of energy that he locked down onto Yang Qi’s position, as if he planned to launch an attack at any moment. Never in his wildest dreams could he have guessed that Yang Qi would be strong enough to dispel his Furious Whale Energy Art.

His blood was surging through his veins, and his desire to do battle pulsed. He almost couldn’t hold back from starting a big fight with the cocky Yang Qi right then and there, taking his head as a way of warning others not to follow his bad example.

Others might fear the Yang Clan, but he didn’t. Furthermore, he knew that City Magistrate Yan Gufeng viewed the Yang Clan as being a thorn in his side, and planned to eliminate them eventually.

At this point, a vicious thought rose up within Luo Hun. ‘Perfect. This little punk Yang Qi actually crippled people right at the front gate of the city magistrate’s mansion. It’s the perfect excuse to simply kill him.’

However, that was when he heard someone speaking. It was none other than Yang Qi, who had compressed his voice into a line that went directly into his ears.

“I bet you’re thinking of trying to kill me, aren’t you Luo Hun? But do you really have what it takes to beat me? If you want to fight, we can find the time. But not now; I want to give Miss Yan Feixia a bit of face. Don’t worry. You crippled my martial arts not too long ago, and I'm going to get my revenge sooner or later.”

“It only took you less than two weeks to rise all the way to the seventh phase?” Luo Hun replied. “In that case, there’s no need to wait until later. I'm going to arrest and execute you this very day!”

As far as Luo Hun was concerned, if Yang Qi was allowed to continue to grow and advance, then it was impossible to say how powerful he would be in half a year. Just now, a completely unexpected event occurred: his whale was defeated.

That attack was something that only an eighth phase expert with remarkable skill and ability could have defeated. And yet, he was still confident that, if he paid the price, he could still cut Yang Qi down.

“Alright, Luo Hun. Bring it on. Let’s see if the Armored Devil-Ghost can live up to his reputation!”

Energy surged to the heavens as the two of them faced off and prepared to fight.

“Am I seeing things? Did Yang Qi just challenge Armored Devil-Ghost Luo Hun to a fight? Is he looking to get killed? Luo Hun is more terrifying than most clan lords!”

“Did you see that? Yang Qi just neutralized one of Luo Hun’s attacks! That’s something that only clan lords could do! He’s only eighteen years old, and yet has energy arts that profound?”

“His martial arts were crippled! Even if he recovered, he shouldn’t be able to do things this incredible, should he? Maybe he was possessed by some consummate master!”

“The Chen Clan suffered severe losses just now! Their prodigy Chen Miejin was crippled, along with several other young ones. The quintessence of their younger generation has been severely damaged! However, if the Yang Clan really goes to war with the Chen Clan, then they’re definitely going to make them pay the price in blood. Yanhaven is going to have one less aristocratic clan pretty soon!”

The people from the other clans were shocked, but at the same time, were interested to see how things would play out. On the other hand, they were all coming to realize that Yang Qi was definitively stealing the limelight.

Not a single one of these elite young ones could possibly fight him.

They all viewed Armored Devil-Ghost Luo Hun as being on the same level as a clan lord, and therefore, this was a fight they could not participate in.

Luo Hun stared at Yang Qi for about three breaths of time, then growled, “Alright, punk, if you get killed, you can only blame your own arrogance.”

His suit of armor began to tremble, causing metallic rumbling sounds to echo out. Then, a sea suddenly sprang into being behind him.

It was composed of pure true energy, and was so realistic that it had waves on its surface, and even contained the call of sea birds. In the middle of that sea, a spray of water shot into the air as a huge whale broke the surface.

Anyone present who closed their eyes and listened to what was happening would think that they really were standing at the shore of a sea.

This manifestation was none other than the mysterious and enigmatic Mind Incarnation ability, which made it abundantly clear that Luo Hun was at the peak of the eighth phase, the Energy Incarnation level.

“I’ve long since cultivated a fragmented scripture, the Sea Emperor Sutra. Remember the name Furious Whale Energy Art. It will be a great honor for you to be killed and buried by this technique!”

And thus, Luo Hun prepared to unleash a completely extraordinary technique.

In response, Yang Qi simply looked at him calmly. After all, he had once faced the attack of a mighty white ape. Although Luo Hun’s energy arts might be exquisite, in terms of true energy, he didn’t even come close to that beast. And Yang Qi was currently so powerful that if he used his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth to the fullest, he could easily destroy the man’s heart and blood vessels.

However, no matter what happened, he still wasn’t willing to reveal his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth to anyone.

Without using it, it would be hard to kill Luo Hun. And even if he did kill him, he would then have to face the wrath of Yan Gufeng, who was a Master of Energy.

‘Hmph. Either way, he’s trying to kill me, so I can’t just look on wide-eyed. He started this thing, so I'm going to end it. By killing him! If Yan Gufeng wants a war with the Yang Clan, then we’ll give him war! If father and I fight him together, there’s no reason to fear Yan Gufeng. And who knows, I might end up absorbing more of the power of the lightning mammoth during the fight, and awaken the sixth particle within me, or even the seventh. With even more megamammoth power, I would be so strong that I wouldn’t need to fear a Master of Energy!”

By this point, Yang Qi was definitely ready to kill.

After cultivating the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, he had accepted the life force characteristics of godmammoths, making him bold and fierce, the type of individual that could crush hells.

Elephants were powerful and mighty leaders; even fierce tigers, the kings of almost all other types of beasts, would run in fear from them. If elephants were like that, then it was even less necessary to mention godmammoths, who could crush hells.

Just as they began fighting, and right before things got serious, a beam of sword energy suddenly shot forth, separating them. And then a young woman appeared, who was none other than Yan Feixia.

“What are you doing?” she said. “Fighting?”

Fearful of injuring her, Luo Hun pulled all of his energy back into himself. “Miss, what are you doing here?”