The announcement caused a major commotion, but Yang Qi didn't care. In his heart, he remained completely calm and collected, despite the fact that he could sense numerous cold gazes locking on to his general location.

Some of them were experts who had come to attend the assembly, but there were also gazes from outsiders, such as fiend-devils and the Executors of the Ancient Road.

It was no exaggeration to say that he now had enemies everywhere.

In fact, he was inclined to go out, track down such enemies, and kill them. After all, 

in the jianghu, killing is the foundation of everything

. Only by means of slaughter could one cow their adversaries and strive forward. Yang Qi was really looking forward to the sect assembly now, and when the heroes contended for dominance, he would definitely rise to the top and earn plenty of benefits. He couldn't wait to lay eyes on the various magical treasures and techniques that he had never seen before.

[1]

And he was very much looking forward to fighting Bastard Seacliff.

‘Where did Star Swordlife get off to?’ he thought. Scanning the area, he couldn’t find any traces or clues. It was as if Star Swordlife had completely vanished into thin air. The Woodfern Couple Palace had been hoping to groom him for use against Yang Qi, but after Yang Qi turned the tables on them, they had obviously abandoned such thoughts.

Yang Qi had hoped to use Star Swordlife as his first test of strength. And killing him would provide another godpower seed. Unfortunately, he had apparently fled, and at the moment, Yang Qi wasn’t in a position to go hunting him down.

Drawing on his Wheel of Fate, he could see a point sometime in the future where an immense expression of life force was trying to seal him, and apparently that was Star Swordlife.

‘He’s going to be a big threat to me later on,’ Yang Qi thought.

That said, he wasn’t particularly worried. Not even Star Swordlife was enough to shake his confidence, and he was sure that he could kill his way out of whatever future predicament he might encounter.

A few hours passed, then the sound of bells could be heard in the depths of Destructionless Castle, after which a new plane of existence appeared in the middle of the castle. It was an enormous taiji sphere, half black, half white. It featured a powerful greyspace, within which was a dimension filled with mountains, rivers, and other terrain features.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” a voice spoke, “as of now, virtually all of the major sects from the Ancient Road to the Gods are here. The Genesis Sanctum and the Woodfern Couple Palace have called this general assembly to tighten the bonds between our organizations and form an alliance to fight the Executors of the Ancient Road! As you all know, we’re currently 

as disunited as a dish of loose sand

, which means that if open conflict erupts, we’ll lose, and be purged by the executors!”

‘That’s the old bastard from the Genesis Sanctum,’ Yang Qi thought. A moment later, an old man appeared, standing so tall and straight that he seemed like a god of creation. Standing alongside him were Mu Renwang and Su Xin.

These three experts could crush anything and everything; they were like a group of dragons and tigers, as invincible as the sun and moon.

No one else dared to utter a single word.

The enormous plane of existence that was the taiji sphere then opened, and everyone realized that the assembly would take place inside.

Yang Qi immediately scanned it to find a suitable location for the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect. The place was large, as big as an immortal world with a rank of two thousand. Its magical laws were strong and mysterious, but it only took a moment for him to find a place where the universal natural rules were most suitable.

Settling down, everyone listened to the introductory remarks being made, and the explanation of how the two major sects were not participating in the competition, but rather wanted one of the young elites to become the league-lord. Everyone had already heard these rumors, but it was a different matter to have the news confirmed by these three top experts.

Yang Qi looked around at all of the experts gathered in the taiji sphere, but many of them remained hidden, making it impossible to determine anything about them. Of course, there were going to be plenty of 

hidden dragons and crouching tigers

, as the experts of the Ancient Road to the Gods were very different from the old Dao Defense League.

He was actually certain that there were multiple mid Terrifying experts present.

That said, such entities wouldn't be participating in the competition either. It had already been established that the competitors would be the ‘young elites’ who were beneath the mid Terrifying level. Of course, truth be told, everyone under the mid Terrifying level was considered a ‘young elite’ no matter how old they were.

“And now, we shall prepare to begin the assembly!”

An enormous platform rose up in the middle of the plane of existence. Flags flapped on it, and countless magical symbols streamed back and forth. At its edge were numerous thrones, which quickly filled with various chief elders from the two major sects.

“Oh my goodness....”

Numerous murmurs of exclamation could be heard as people noticed that the Genesis Sanctum and Woodfern Couple Palace both had over a hundred chief elders with psychic scales of ninety or higher!

If those chief elders were to combine all of their power, it would be enough to make a new heaven and earth, or completely remold the cosmos. Yang Qi was also shocked, and couldn’t help but marvel at seeing the true reserve powers of these major sects. After all, upon reaching a psychic scale of ninety, the next step would be to step into the mid Terrifying level. All of these people were essentially just as impressive as Bastard Seacliff.

Yang Qi quickly counted, and found that the Genesis Sanctum had a hundred and fifty experts with power indexes over ninety, while the Woodfern Couple Palace had a hundred and three. The huge difference in numbers showed how superior the Genesis Sanctum was in that regard. That said, they only had a single mid Terrifying expert, whereas the imperial couple counted as two.

Now Yang Qi could understand why the imperial couple was so dead set on having Mu Yexi benefit from the blessing of the two sects. Just what level of psychic power would she reach then?

“Let the assembly officially begin!” the people of the two sects said, their voices rumbling like thunder. Winds screamed and flows of destiny whipped about. Looking up, Yang Qi saw that the destiny was taking the shape of mountains, enormous wheels, and even thrones.

The destiny on display was remarkable.

And whoever took the position of league-lord would have access to that destiny, which would provide an instant boost to all of their energy arts. In the mortal world, emperors would be imbued with destiny thanks to their position. With a single word, they could end a person’s life, which was why such monarch rulers were known as lords of fate.

It made one wonder how powerful the lord of this newly formed league of sects would be.

The flows of destiny were beyond anything Yang Qi had ever seen; even one scrap would be millions upon millions times stronger than the Dao Defense League had provided in the past.

The destiny of the Dao Defense League could be likened to a drop of water, whereas this was an ocean.

This destiny would be of immense help to all his energy arts, to the point where Yang Qi was convinced that it could solve all of his problems. And while most people couldn't safely use destiny like this, with his Wheel of Fate from the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, he absolutely could.

Destiny could be used to stimulate fate.

That was one of the mysteries of the Wheel of Fate; whoever controlled it could gather destiny and universal fortune, then use them to become invincible.

As of this moment, Yang Qi was completely dead set on taking the spot of league-lord.

Of course, he wasn’t the only one who was thinking that.

Although none of them had the Wheel of Fate, there were plenty of other godly-class energy arts in existence that could be used to deal with destiny. There were even techniques that could use destiny to make medicinal pills, although such heretical techniques weren’t even worth Yang Qi’s notice.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Huangfu Genesis said, “we will now begin the martial arts competition! Each sect may send forth a young elite to participate! Whichever hero dominates the rest will become the league-lord!”

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

Numerous young elites flew forward to stand on the platform, where fighting instantly broke out. In fact, in the blink of an eye, there were people being injured and killed.

Things seemed completely out of control.

However, the people from the two major sects simply looked on coldly and didn’t interfere.

Swish!

Suddenly, a stream of powerful saber energy slashed its way onto the platform.

Screams rang out as several of the competitors were hit. However, the saber was being wielded with incredible skill, so instead of killing those it hit, it merely stopped them from fighting.

A moment later, a young man appeared, a glittering, razor-sharp scimitar in his hand. In fact, it was so sharp that looking at it would make one feel like their eyes were about to bleed.

Recognizing him, someone cried, “That's Young Master Ling Tian, the Saber Hegemon!”

“What? Is it really him? Back before the Great Necropolis came, he was on the Imperial List, but isn’t he supposed to be dead? He cultivated the dao of sabers to a very profound level, but ended up fighting Prince Saber-Slicer from the Executors of the Ancient Road. They both died in that fight, so how could he be here?”

The Imperial List was an outdated ranking method that had once been used on the ancient road, which described people who were close to reaching the mid Terrifying level.

1. In this context, I think the jianghu mentioned here carries the “wuxia” definition as opposed to the more general, daily-use definition. I talk about the term 

in this video

, which I released only a few days before preparing this chapter for release.

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