Yang Qi really didn’t want to waste Chief Pill, who was an expert in pill concocting.
Grandmaster pill concocters could create all sorts of foundational spirit pills that were very useful to low-level cultivators, such as those in the Energy Arts or Lifeseizing levels. Killing this society chief would be a big waste. In fact, Yang Qi planned to keep the entire Pill Society around to serve as slaves to the Yang Clan.
There were other societies he wanted to keep as well, such as the Swordsmith Society and the Forging Society.
“Not willing to back down, Society Chief?” Yang Qi said. “Fine. I have a boundless devil art that I’ll use to plant a devil seed in your sea of consciousness. If the seed activates, your life will turn into endless torment. Only if you exercise full faith in me will it remain dormant.”
Yang Qi flicked his finger and a tiny bullet of devil energy appeared, complete with a ferocious human face. In the blink of an eye, it shot out and embedded itself into the pit of the society chief’s stomach.
“Aaaiiiieee!” he screamed in agony, writhing on the ground as though he had been bitten by ten thousand vipers. Having been sealed, he couldn’t unleash any energy arts, making him look almost like an ordinary mortal.
The horrifying nature of his screams caused everyone else present to tremble physically, even the initiators and the supreme rector.
Considering how many countless hell-born fiend-devils Yang Qi had summoned, it was only natural that he would have picked up some fiend-devil energy arts along the way. The devil seed technique was quite miraculous. If the subject wasn’t completely loyal, the devil seed would cause them endless torment and make it impossible for them to use any energy arts.
“Were you about to say something, Supreme Rector?” Yang Qi asked, ignoring the screaming society chief, whose pain would subside automatically once he acknowledged allegiance.
“Are you really dead-set on making us your enemy, Yang Qi?” the supreme rector said, his face ashen. “We’re backed by the Titan Emperor Heaven! If you kill us all, even if you wipe out the collegium and the entire planetary system, the immortal world won’t let you off the hook! You’re going to receive an incomprehensible punishment from the heaven above! Look, I’ll hand over my position to you right now if you just let the immortal emissary go. What do you say? It’s—”
SMACK!
Before the supreme rector could finish speaking, Yang Qi smacked him across the side of the face and sent him tumbling to the ground.
Howling in both humiliation and rage, he tried to struggle to his feet, but before he could, a foot stomped on his face and shoved him back down.
This was humiliation. Raw and utter humiliation. The supreme rector was essentially the ruler of this entire planetary system, and had been for a million years. He was the type of person who no one would ever humiliate. In fact, his words were law in the mortal world. Numerous experts in the Yore-Wilds, Waste-Wilds, Brute-Wilds, and Proto-Wilds would tremble when he spoke.
But now, here he was, powerless and being trampled into the dirt.
“Your position?” Yang Qi said. “Sorry, I’m not interested. I wouldn’t be interested even if you offered to let me rule the Titan Emperor Heaven itself. Who do you think you are? You conspired against me over and over again, constantly throwing more fuel on the fire!” He stamped down on the supreme rector’s face again, adding in some of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth to provoke an agonized shriek. “It would defy the natural order of things for me to not kill you. Titan Emperor Heaven? Hmph! I’ll kill every single immortal emissary they send my way. With the energy arts I cultivate, I can turn the Titan Emperor Heaven into a graveyard if I feel like it.” He stomped down again, causing blood to spurt out of the wounds on the supreme rector’s face.
“Let the supreme rector go!”
“You’re an outright rebel, Yang Qi!”
“We should never have recruited you!”
Although the initiators were all shouting angrily, none of them dared to make a single move. After all, if Yang Qi could take out an immortal emissary, it was obvious what he could do to them.
Whack!
A scream rang out as Yang Qi waved his hand toward the loudest of the initiators, sending him flying. Then, even as the man tumbled through the air, he suddenly exploded, causing the entire Plane of Initiation to tremble.
Deathly silence followed.
“On your knees, all of you. Henceforth, there is no Titan Emperor Collegium. Instead, we will have the Sage Monarch Collegium. Furthermore, the Titan Emperor planetary system will now be referred to as the Sage Monarch planetary system. Understand? From now on, you are citizens of the Sage Monarch planetary—wait. No. You’re slaves of the Sage Monarch planetary system, with equal standing to dogs.” Grabbing the supreme rector by the neck, he lifted him into the air and said, “You’re a slave too, Supreme Rector. In fact, you’re going to become a court eunuch, the lowest of all ranks.”
“Bah!” the supreme rector said. “I refuse to acknowledge you, rebel! You can’t kill me. My soul branding mark is ensconced in the depths of the Titan Emperor Heaven! Even if I die, I’ll be resurrected in the immortal world! I’ll live for all eternity, unlike you, who will soon suffer a horrific death!”
“Are you trying to piss me off? Maybe hoping that I’ll kill you sooner? Sorry, I’m not planning to kill you. No, I’ll be crippling your energy arts.” Without any warning, Yang Qi reached out with his other hand and pierced his fingers into the supreme rector’s skull.
The supreme rector screamed shrilly, but could do nothing to stop the shocking pain that flowed through him. Slowly but surely, all of his magical laws and quintessence-blood were extracted, becoming a blood-colored śarīra that dropped onto Yang Qi’s palm.
This was another boundless technique from the dao of devils, which could be used to extract the pure quintessence of an individual and leave them completely crippled. It could even extract a person’s genes and essence.
“What a lovely blood śarīra!” Yang Qi said. “Supreme Rector, your genes are definitely many tens of millions of times more powerful than normal. Wonderful! Your genes will help me to raise an entire generation of top experts.” Having reduced the supreme rector to something less than a dog, Yang Qi tossed him off to the side. “Sword Seventeen, take the supreme rector to the Sage Monarch planetary—no. Wait. Nail him to the walls of the collegium by his arms and legs. That way, everyone will know full well there has been a change of leadership.”
“Will do, Junior Brother!” Sword Seventeen grabbed the supreme rector and took him off to nail him up.
“Now, what to do with the rest of you….” Yang Qi murmured, looking around at everyone else present.
After a moment, his gaze came to rest on the two-faced initiator he’d had some dealings with early on. “You. Get over here and kowtow. You’re going to be a workhorse in the Sage Monarch Collegium.”
“Yang Qi!” the man shouted. “When the enemy yields, you should spare his life! I’ll work for you! I’ll acknowledge allegiance! Why are you talking about turning us into slaves? It’s a complete humiliation!”
“Oh? You don’t want to work as a slave?” Yang Qi said with an enigmatic smile.
“Of course not! We’re the initiators, all of us half-Demolishers on the cusp of ascending. There’s no way we could agree to work for a bunch of Great Sages and Demi-Immortals. How about this, Yang Qi: treat us fairly, and we’ll work ourselves to the bone for you. We’ll help you set up your Sage Monarch Collegium. There’s no way you’ll be able to do it without our assistance.”
From the way the initiator was jabbering, it seemed he was very confident Yang Qi would agree to his proposal.
But that was when Yang Qi said, “So you’re saying being a slave is worse than dying? In that case, fine. I’ll make sure you live a life worse than death!”
“Aaaiiiieee!”
Another scream echoed out as Yang Qi used the same energy art from before to extract his blood and essence. Afterward, the man flopped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
With that, Yang Qi summoned an enormous devil-god and said, “Nail him to the walls also. Make sure he’s put somewhere high where everyone can see him.” Looking around, he continued, “So what about the rest of you? Does anyone else refuse to be a slave?”
“We agree! We agree to be slaves!” All of the initiators, society chiefs, and vice-rectors began clamoring, dropping to their knees and kowtowing in fear.
“Oh? All of you? Unfortunately, there are a few of you that I can’t leave alive.” Obviously, Yang Qi knew that the entire group would turn on him the moment they could.
Boom, boom, boom, BOOM!
Dazzling light shone from his eyes, causing several of the initiators to explode into clouds of blood and gore. The same thing happened to numerous society chiefs and vice-rectors. At the same time, Yang Qi made sure to destroy their soul branding marks.
When it was over, the survivors all shouted the same thing. “Don’t kill us, Milord! We’ll work for you! We’ll be loyal!”
