Unless something unexpected happened, it seemed the evidence really was going to be ‘irrefutable’.
But Yang Qi had only pretended to be injured and weakened, in the hopes of finding out what exactly was going on. And now he knew. It seemed most likely it was a plot hatched by the junior houselord, or at the very least, one of his advisers.
The three chief elders of the Hall of Promotions were obviously on the junior houselord’s payroll, which came as no surprise.
The Sage Monarch Society didn’t have any Perfect God chief elders working for them, but they had only been around for a few years. How could they? But the junior houselord had access to unmatchable resources. He had been around for thousands of years, and had most of the chief elders under his thumb. If he wanted to hatch a plot to harm someone, it wouldn’t be hard for him at all.
“Yessir!”
Dozens of elder kings fanned out to surround Yang Qi, all of them either mid, late, or peak Consummate Gods. Considering their numbers, they wouldn’t have been afraid of Yang Qi even if he was a Consummate God, much less after he had been weakened by five chief elders.
They would arrest him and force him to make a confession, which would then seal the case. At that point, even if Jadefall made a big scene, it wouldn’t do any good.
Jadefall had the purrling, so no one could do anything to her directly. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t target her advisers and subordinates. As long as the accusations were made within the law, Jadefall couldn’t do a thing.
That was how sect infighting worked: by doing things one step at a time, deadly and shocking acts could be accomplished.
“Don’t struggle, boy,” said one of the elder kings. “I can’t believe you pretended to be a Consummate God to try getting appointed as a child of primeval chaos. We knew all along you were faking. You’ve only been in the sect a few years, and you joined as a Quasi-God. Normally speaking, it takes hundreds of years to become a Greater God, much less a Consummate God. And now you’ve given us the evidence to prove your guilt.”
Metal chains and manacles appeared in the hands of the elder kings as they closed in.
However, before they could touch him…
RUMBLE!
A huge bubble appeared, sending them flying away to slam into the walls of the audience hall, their faces ashen and blood spraying out of their mouths. Furthermore, cracking sounds could be heard as their godhood was damaged, and their cultivation levels regressed.
The Perfect God chief elders looked around in shock, unsure of what was happening. Then, to their shock, a tremor passed through Yang Qi as his godhood healed itself. Yet again, the aura of a Consummate God appeared, and it weighed down heavily on everyone present.
Shaking out his arms and shoulders to loosen up, he smiled and said, “You people really are villains. I’m not sure who came up with this wicked scheme, but a sect like this shouldn’t tolerate such behavior. You tried to cripple my cultivation base, then slandered me. It’s really not fitting for an organization like this. I bet you could never have guessed that your plan to cripple me would completely fail.”
The elder kings who had just been about to arrest him had been so badly hurt that all of them, regardless of whether they were early, mid, late, or peak Consummate Gods, had now fallen to the level of Greater Gods.
They were now essentially crippled, and would find it almost impossible to once again become Consummate Gods. Yang Qi had just ruthlessly hamstrung over a dozen elder kings, which was quite a brazen display.
“Are you okay?” one of the chief elders said, an early Consummate God. Reaching out to one of the elder kings, he sent some godpower into him. When he found that the man’s godpower was shattered, his expression flickered dramatically.
“Y-you… you crippled them?” Glaring murderously at Yang Qi, he said, “What exactly is going on here? We didn’t reduce your godhood?”
“No. Are you kidding me? My godhood can’t be crippled that easily.” Yang Qi threw his head back and laughed. “Did you really think your energy arts were that impressive? You were pretty proud of leading these Consummate God elder kings, weren’t you? Sadly, I crippled them. Wait, just kidding. You see, they weren’t really Consummate Gods. They were just pretending to be. Sadly, there’s a lot of corruption in the Hall of Promotions, and obviously, the place needs to be thoroughly investigated. In fact, I think all of the chief elders should just resign and hand their positions over to people from the Sage Monarch Society.”
The arrogant, domineering, imperious, and unforgiving Yang Qi was back.
He was once again acting the way he had back in the impure lands.
After coming to the god world, he had acted carefully and with caution. But now he could finally throw caution to the wind. Thus, he was crushing his opponent and showing that no one in the House of God Ordainment could possibly stand up to him.
“What outrageous gall!” one of the Perfect God chief elders snapped. Looking Yang Qi up and down, he said, “You’ve got some guts to say things like that out loud. How dare you cause such a scene in the Hall of Promotions!”
“What. You chief elders actually set a trap to harm me, forcibly lowering my cultivation level, and when I fought back, exposing you for violating the rules of the sect, you say I’m the one with outrageous gall?” Yang Qi chuckled coldly.
“Shut your mouth!” spat one of the chief elders, a man named Ding Lian’gen. Glaring at Yang Qi, he said, “You might be strong, but it’s only because of some magical treasure you got from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty. And everything you just said about the Hall of Promotions is a lie.”
“That’s right. And I, Ding Lian’gen, can prove it. We just performed an open and above-board inspection on you. What you just said about us forcibly reducing your cultivation is complete balderdash. As all of us can see, although you indeed are a Consummate God, it’s obvious that you’re using an energy art from the dao of devils. You’ve been possessed, and driven mad as a result. You even injured these elder kings here, which is a high crime!”
“Yang Qi, what proof do you have that we were plotting against you? You were a Consummate God before, and you still are. We didn’t force your cultivation level down. It seems to me you’ve been possessed and are acting completely crazy. We have every right to arrest you and throw you into the deepest dungeons we have in the house of God Ordainment. Later, we’ll execute you and wipe out your soul so thoroughly that you’ll never be reborn.”
“How could I, Deity Megamountain, possibly allow a rebellious disciple like you to go crazy in the House of God Ordainment? You and everyone else from the Sage Monarch Society, are complete degenerates! And those from the dao of devils will be expunged!” The man thrust his palm out, using a consummate technique of his known as the Megamountain Suspension. As a result, an enormous mountain appeared in the air up above, which would fall to crush everyone beneath it.
POP!
Yang Qi thrust his own palm out to meet the Megamountain Suspension, and wasn’t shaken in the least. However, the Perfect God known as Deity Megamountain was sent flying backward, where he slammed into the wall and coughed up blood as his godhood shattered.
He was an early Perfect God expert, a chief elder who had achieved his breakthrough a few hundred years ago. He had a violent temper, yet wasn’t a match at all for Yang Qi. After all, other than someone with Unbounded will, there wasn’t anyone who could cause problems for Yang Qi.
Crack. Crunch….
The residual godpower from Deity Megamountain’s move was causing further explosions inside of him, damaging his godhood so badly that his aura faded down to that of the peak Consummate God level.
Letting loose a shrill scream, he said, “My energy arts! My godhood cracked! This is impossible! It took such effort to reach the Perfect God level! I even used a Thousand-Mountains Myriad-Rivers Pill to get to this point. Now that I’ve fallen, how could I do the same thing again?”
“You’ve reaped what you’ve sown,” Yang Qi said coolly. “If you hadn’t set out to cripple my godhood, I wouldn’t have been so ruthless.”
“Do you have a death wish or something?! Kill him!”
The seven remaining chief elders couldn’t hold back any longer, and attacked in unison, causing streams of energy to shoot forth like dragons and tigers. They obviously couldn’t let Yang Qi leave this situation alive.
Of course, Yang Qi had never even considered running. With his monarch godhood and the strength of a Consummate God, he thrust his palm out, unleashing seven different attacks from the Hand of the One God.
Seven popping sounds rang out as Yang Qi met the attacks of all seven experts. Yet nothing happened to him. In the blink of an eye, his godhood rotated trillions of times over, releasing unmatchably domineering godpower.
All seven chief elders staggered backward in utter defeat.
If Yang Qi pressed the attack, he could kill them all where they stood. But he wasn’t prepared to go that far. He didn’t mind crippling some godhood, but he didn’t want to go so far as to slaughter people in the sect.
“How could he be so strong?” one of the chief elders muttered. As each of them examined their own godhood, they realized that the one palm strike had completely drained them of godpower. Little did they know that Yang Qi had used some of King Heaven-Devourer’s divine abilities to drain them dry, making them so weak they could hardly lift a finger.
“How could I be so strong?” Yang Qi laughed. “If I weren’t supremely powerful, how could I have ever dared to come to the Hall of Promotions?” He was now more glad than ever that he had made the decision to steal those medicinal pills and rise to the Consummate God level. As a Greater God, he never would have come out of this situation on top.
