Sage Monarch - Chapter 239

Chapter 239: 239

Of course, the chancellor wasted no time in spreading word, and the reactions were mixed . However, everyone felt that it was fair for him to punish Yang Qi for being so arrogant . Killing Grand Elder Feat-Virtue was a crime that couldn’t just be forgiven, so if the chancellor hadn’t punished him in some way, the discontent in the institute would have reached the point of being irresolvable .

It was true that the chancellor had never punished the Crown Prince for his breaking of the rules . But Yang Qi wasn’t the Crown Prince . Many people believed that the Crown Prince was so important that he was justified in breaking the rules . Not so with Yang Qi . He just wasn’t important enough .

Many of the grand elders in the Minorcosm World were discussing the matter .

“This was a smart move by the chancellor . He really deserves his position . ”

“Mission: Mend Heaven is an extremely dangerous mission . Yang Qi stands a very high chance of dying, and has almost no chance of accomplishing it . That’s a pretty big punishment . ”

“It’s unusual . Considering Yang Qi’s cultivation base, not even the Grand Emperor's Pagoda will be enough of a boost for him to succeed . Whenever we make an attempt at Mission: Mend Heaven, it’s with a group of experts, with the chancellor providing backup . Even then, people end up getting hurt or killed . How could one person possibly accomplish it?”

“It’s a stiff punishment . He’s killing two birds with one stone . ”

“But what if Yang Qi actually succeeds? Won’t Grand Elder Feat-Virtue have died for nothing?”

“Succeed with Mission: Mend Heaven? If Yang Qi does, it means he really does have the backing of a Great Sage, and yes, Grand Elder Feat-Virtue will have died for nothing . It's a really smart move by the chancellor . Not only does he punish Yang Qi, but he also forces him to reveal if he has a Great Sage backer or not . If he doesn’t, his days are numbered . If he does, then fine, he shows that, not only did he qualify to kill Grand Elder Feat-Virtue, he also was in the position to repair the damage to heaven . ”

“If you look at it that way, then the chancellor is really killing three birds with one stone . I wonder if we’ll see who Yang Qi’s backer really is . ”

Key members of the Crown Prince Society had been planning to send word of Grand Elder Feat-Virtue to the Crown Prince . However, this latest news pacified them for the moment, and they decided to wait to see how things played out before making a decision .

Before, there had been open cries of complaint about Yang Qi’s actions, but now, everyone was quieting down .

Not even the Hall of Law Enforcement had anything negative to say . The grand elders there were simply chomping at the bit for Yang Qi to fail in his mission, so that they could swoop in and arrest him . Afterward, they would make him live a life worse than death .

** 

Yang Qi and the masked young woman hovered high above the sea of clouds, looking down at the Demi-Immortal Institute .

“Look, Yang Qi, do you see all the devil-suppressing halls down in the institute? The reason for that is we’re located in the exact middle of the Rich-Lush Continent, where there are a large number of spatial rifts . Such rifts are easy for devil-ghosts to slip through, and thus, we need plenty of places to keep them prisoner when we catch them . ”

As Yang Qi looked down, he identified many temples that were filled with pitch black devil energy, as well as the howls of devil-ghosts . He even sensed the auras of fiend-devil barons, viscounts, and counts .

The devil-suppressing halls were scattered about everywhere, and anyone who got close to them would be terrified by the powerful devil energy they contained . If any of those halls were breached, and the devil energy poured out, the entire institute would be invaded by devil-ghosts .

“Since you haven’t reached the Space-Void Transformation, you can’t see how, in the very depths of the institute, space-time is twisted and distorted . There are many areas there which were magically sealed by Great Sages of the past . On the other side is an immense aspect of distorted space-time filled with devil-ghosts . To describe them as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea would be an understatement . If those seals were ever breached, the Demi-Immortal Institute, and the Rich-Lush Continent as a whole, would be overwhelmed . ”

“Are you saying that the magical seals are keeping the Hell of Euphoria out?” Yang Qi asked .

The masked young woman shook her head . “No . The Hell of Euphoria exists much further away . But the worlds and kingdoms beyond the magical seals have been affected by its devil energy, causing their inhabitants to turn into monsters . ” She chuckled coldly . “If it was the Hell of Euphoria on the other side, the Rich-Lush Continent would long since have been razed to the ground, and would be inhabited by monsters . There are far, far more magical seals preventing the Hell of Euphoria from reaching us here, and many space-time barriers . Only someone in the Great Sage level could possibly reach that hell, and yet, if they did, would inevitably be turned into a fiend-devil . ”

“The Hell of Euphoria, huh… . ” The truth was that Yang Qi would love to have a chance to visit a true hell . After all, the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth was specifically designed to deal with hells, and if he could cultivate in one, it would be very beneficial to his cultivation base .

Although, even being able to enter an aspect of space-time filled with devil-ghosts would help him to achieve significant progress . The chancellor was trying to sound him out, but in the end, was giving him a perfect opportunity for training .

And considering the progress he had been making recently, he knew that relying on his current methods to achieve a breakthrough didn't seem the best strategy .

“Very well, let’s go inside,” the masked young woman said . “I’ll point out any monsters, as well as the heavenly damage that needs to be repaired . ”

“What?” Yang Qi blurted, completely caught off guard . “You’re coming with me? What’s going on here? Don’t tell me you’re coming to supervise me?”

“That’s exactly right . I’ll be supervising you to make sure you don’t try to escape . ” She laughed . “As you well know, if you fail with Mission: Mend Heaven, you’ll be punished for killing Grand Elder Feat-Virtue . But if you succeed, then you’ll have equal standing with the Crown Prince . ”

“If this mission is so dangerous, don’t you stand a chance of getting killed if you come with me?”

“Me? Get killed?” She laughed again . “You know, I'm more accomplished than the Crown Prince in many ways . Besides, if you really want to accomplish the mission, you’ll need help from me . There’s no way you could do it on your own . I’ll tell you how to kill the fiend-devils, and how to repair the damage . ”

“Who exactly are you?” Yang Qi asked . He was very curious about this point . “Master Wind Gentleman and Unparalleled Lightning treated you with the utmost respect . They even called you Young Lady . ”

“It’s no secret . All the important people in the Demi-Immortal Institute know who I am . I'm the chancellor’s daughter . You know, I'm actually very curious about you, Yang Qi . I looked into you, so I know that when you joined the institute about two years ago, you were only in the seventh or eighth phase of the Energy Arts level . Now you’re a Legendary . That’s speed that surpasses almost every genius in the history of the Demi-Immortal Institute . Not even the Crown Prince can come close . Therefore, I'm going to help you repair the damage to heaven, and at the same time, be looking to see what secrets you harbor . ”

“The chancellor’s daughter? No wonder everyone shows you so much respect . Might I presume to ask how to address you, Young Lady?”

“Just call me Young Lady,” she replied, clearly not willing to divulge her true name . “Even the Crown Prince calls me that . No one is allowed to know my name, and that includes you . ”

‘Quite the egomaniac,’ he thought . He tried again to assess her cultivation base, but had no luck . For all he knew, she could be weaker than him, or stronger . If he had to bet, he would say she was a Legendary, and a high-level one at that .

The fact that she was the daughter of the chancellor meant that she was destined to be powerful and respected .

“Alright, then . I’ll call you Young Lady . With the formalities out of the way, do you mind leading the way into this aspect of space-time?” He extended his hand invitingly .

“You can do it on your own with the Grand Emperor's Pagoda . It's more than capable of piercing through the void and defending against space-time tempests . My father had the Grand Emperor's Pagoda for a while, but sadly, I never had a chance to work with it . He subsequently arranged for the Crown Prince to get it, but things changed, and now it's yours . ”

Hoping to probe for some information of his own, Yang Qi said, “Thanks to me, the Crown Prince doesn't fully trust the chancellor anymore . ”

“He’s suspicious by nature,” she replied casually . “In that way, he's very much like a monarch . As long as people do what he wants, everything goes smoothly, but when someone goes against him, he reacts violently . He’s the epitome of the saying submit to me and prosper, or oppose me and perish . Of course, he's very important . It's highly likely that he was actually sent here from beyond heaven, by some incredibly powerful person from a higher plane of existence . ”

“Higher plane?”

This was Yang Qi’s first time hearing the term .

“Planes are worlds . And our world is one of the lower planes, with living things that aren’t particularly powerful . Even in primeval times, when the Yore-Wilds Continent was whole, it only counted as an intermediate plane . There are many planes in the universe, and they’re usually ranked according to the level of the living beings they contain . As for the truly higher planes, they produce immensely powerful living things . The ancient records of our institute contain detailed information about that . Supposedly, some of the immortal-ranked planes have entities strong enough to be considered immortals, who can pluck stars and snatch moons . Above the immortal planes are the god legion planes, which are inhabited by the legion of gods . The gods are entities which can create worlds as easily as breathing . With the snap of a finger, such beings could create dozens of planes like the Rich-Lush Continent . Although, perhaps all of that is just myth . One thing is for sure, though: the Hell of Euphoria is a much more powerful plane than the Rich-Lush Continent . ” [1]

After finishing her explanation, the mysterious Young Lady waved her hand, causing a rift to open up in front of them, from which emerged the sound of wailing ghosts, screaming gods, and spatial tempests .

1 . The Chinese terms use the common characters for “high” and “low” . However, it’s not always talking about position, but rank . So while you might expect a hell to exist “below” the Rich-Lush Continent, it might be considered a “higher” plane .