The Mind Incarnation ability of the eighth phase of energy arts was profound to say the least.

Simply put, one could send one’s thoughts into one’s true energy, and do the opposite as well. That could lead to all sorts of abilities, such as the True Energy Megahand, which could perform strikes, jabs, claws, and other motions.

The eighth phase was one of a complete increase in raw power. At that point, the True Energy Megahand was almost like one’s own hand, so much so that it could be used to detect an enemy's temperature, heartbeat, stamina and even how they circulated their true energy.

In the eighth phase, it also became possible to send one’s true energy out to examine one's surroundings.

By simply closing the eyes, one could use true energy to examine the surrounding area as if it were a painting.

When one reached the Energy Incarnation level, it didn’t matter if one was blinded, lost one’s ears, or suffered any number of other mutilations. After all, true energy could be used as a substitute for one's own eyes, ears, mouth or nose.

That was actually the meaning of the term Mind Incarnation.

It was the ability to send one’s mind outside of the body.

It was also one of the reasons why the eighth phase was so mysterious, and so much more powerful than the seventh.

At the moment, Yang Qi was using his vast reserves of true energy to break through the shackles that bound him to his previous level. As he entered the eighth phase, the whole world seemed to open up to him, and he was suddenly filled with power that could shake the heavens and topple the earth.

“Infernal Deity Aegis!” he roared. A black shield of true energy swept up around him, blocking the incoming attacks, and even sending backlash strikes to the attackers.

POP!

The toxic energy bullet launched by the old woman became an arrow that pierced directly into the pit of her stomach, causing a plume of black blood to shoot out. In the blink of an eye, all of her skin turned black from the poison, and then she dropped to the ground, dead, killed by her own weapon, her eyes still flickering with ferocious greed for that ‘imperial-class’ energy art.

“Many thanks for attacking me!” Yang Qi announced loudly. “It pushed me through another breakthrough. Now it will be even easier to kill the lot of you. Imagine, all the chief elders of the Chen Clan, buried in the deep mountains.”

WHOOSH!

He looked like a devilish god as he burst into action, as lithe as a dragon as he unleashed a fist strike onto the nearest chief elder. Before the elder could react, his tendons were snapped and his bones crushed. His skull caved in, and all of his blood was shoved out of his body by his true energy, spraying out of his mouth in its entirety as he flopped onto the ground, a dried-up corpse.

“Triumph in Every Battle.”

Yang Qi didn’t stop with killing one person. Without pausing, he continued with more forms from the Invincible King’s Fist, attacking the next two chief elders.

Cracking sounds rang out as the two chief elders’ arms were turned into mangled gore, and true energy raced through them toward their dantian. Sadly for them, their seas of energy simply couldn’t withstand the force.

Their bellies exploded, and both died.

In the blink of an eye, three people had been cut down.

“Dammit! How could this be happening? How could he have broken through so quickly?” Chen Tianxiong was completely overwhelmed by both grief and terror. Eyes bloodshot, he shouted, “Retreat! Get out of here! I’ll hold him off!”

With that, Chen Tianxiong began to walk forward, using a powerful footwork technique in which his steps created an outline of the Big Dipper constellation. At the same time, his Humanoid True Energy exploded, becoming seven enormous stars that hovered above his head. With those stars in place, it almost seemed like he had the power to connect with the actual stars in the sky.

“Seven Stars Above, Unleashed and Unstoppable.”

Chen Tianxiong’s hands flowed from one form to another, causing the seven stars of true energy to spring rapidly through the air. At the same time, he began to float up into the air, his clothes rippling as he went through the seven forms of the technique. Unexpectedly, he also had a quasi-royal-class energy art like the Invincible King’s Fist.

He was unleashing an attack that contained the accumulated power of one hundred years of cultivation. It was nothing to be taken lightly; the power of the seven stars was more than enough to slaughter devils and cut down demons.

Yang Qi slapped his palms together and then pulled them apart, activating his defensive energy arts; crackling sounds could be heard as lightning swirled around him. Then, he took three bold and decisive steps forward, clenching his hands into fists as he said, “Suppressing Hell!”

Suddenly, the image of a crucible appeared above his head. It was like a furnace, and also like a cauldron, yet was neither of those. It was filled with boiling lava, and emanated the screams of divine beings, as though disgraced gods were being melted inside of it.

This was a sign of a further increase in the godly-class energy art that was the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. 

The first upgrade in the technique was the Infernal Deity Spear.

The second was the Fiend-Devil Wings.

The third was the Infernal Deity Aegis.

And the fourth was the Hellfire Crucible, which could melt anything and everything. According to the ancient legends, it had been created for punishing fallen and disgraced gods. With the complete crucible, Yang Qi could easily consume demon cores raw.

However, what he had now was only a slight fraction of the true Hellfire Crucible. As for how much cultivation it would take to reach the full form, he had no idea.

And yet, even adding even a fraction of the power of the Hellfire Crucible to a fist strike would be enough to defeat just about any opponent.

In the blink of an eye, the Seven Unstoppable Stars smashed into the Hellfire Crucible, and the resulting shock wave was like the roar of some enormous spirit, creating a cyclone dozens of meters high and marvelous to behold.

As for Yang Qi, he strode forward through the cyclone, completely unharmed. In contrast, Chen Tianxiong was dragged out of the air, his body covered with so much blood that he looked bright red.

“You little punk….” he growled, still unable to believe that Yang Qi was this strong. “You’ve definitely been possessed by a demon! And that’s not an imperial-class energy art. Not even imperial-class energy arts could release this kind of power. This technique isn’t meant for humans, it’s meant for gods!”

“You know too much,” Yang Qi said coldly. Coming to a stop above Chen Tianxiong, he reached down and grabbed him by the neck. Lifting him up into the air, he shouted, “Nobody move, or I’ll kill your highest ranking chief elder.”

Chen Tianxiong’s energy was in chaos. His meridians were nearly destroyed, and his sea of energy was in horrible shape. Considering how old he was, the damage he had suffered had pushed him to the brink of complete collapse. He was no longer as young as Yang Zhan or Yan Gufeng, and thus, Yang Qi was able to capture him with ease.

“Get out of here, all of you!” Chen Tianxiong barked. He knew that he was about to die, but was still concerned about his clan. “This brat isn’t human! He stole the power of a god! Mortals can’t do that without being punished in the end!”

The other chief elders were completely terror-struck by the sight of a Master of Energy having been defeated so easily. And considering that he had just ordered them to flee, they didn’t hesitate to do just that.

“You think I'm going to let you get away?” Yang Qi said. Twisting his wrist, he broke Chen Tianxiong’s neck. Then, black energy swirled as two wings sprouted out of his back. Now that he had increased another level, he could move ten times as quickly as before.

His Fiend-Devil Wings were now dozens of meters wide, and cast everything around them into darkness. Furthermore, the slightest flap of the wings could propel Yang Qi dozens of kilometers.

Thus, it didn’t matter how quickly the Chen Clan’s chief elders fled, or in which direction. They couldn’t escape the death which came at them from above.

One of the chief elders was already five kilometers away. But when Yang Qi appeared above him and threw his Infernal Deity Spear, the elder was pinned to the ground, dead.

Another chief elder managed to leap onto a flood stallion, but then Yang Qi’s True Energy Megahand grabbed him, pulled him three hundred meters up into the air, sealed his cultivation base, and then dropped him to his death.

In this moment, Yang Qi truly seemed like an infernal deity risen from the depths of hell. He was a sinister wind that could cut down millions of expert fighters if it wanted to.

Screams rang out in the desolate mountains on that moonless night. Over twenty chief elders of the Chen Clan were killed, as well as the leaders of the subsidiary branches.

And Yang Qi did it all on his own.

Not even Yan Gufeng and Yang Zhan working together could have accomplished such a thing. With the power of ten ancient megamammoths, the eighth phase Yang Qi was already more powerful than two Masters of Energy put together.

After the screams all died out, Yang Qi retracted his Fiend-Devil Wings and floated down to the ground. As for the flood stallions, they all dropped down to him as if in worship, completely cowed into subservience by his aura.

In the ancient myths, godmammoths were the lords of all beasts, demons, and devils. They were like the living incarnation of the power of all gods, that could crush and subdue anything that got in their path. The aura of godmammoths even surpassed that of dragons. Therefore, the flood stallions could do nothing other than obey any order Yang Qi gave.

Yang Qi collected the corpses together and searched them for valuables, thus acquiring about fifty million energy convergence pills’ worth of banknotes. He also found some divine weapons and medicinal pills.

The wealth carried by this council of chief elders was essentially the quintessence of the Chen Clan.

With these additional funds, Yang Qi had finally brought in enough money to pay for the losses incurred by the Latent Dragon Pill.

‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. You have only yourself to blame for picking a fight with the Yang Clan. You colluded with the House of Shadowblight to harm my brothers, and therefore, it’s only proper that I send you to the depths of hell. Hopefully in your next life, you’ll remember not to provoke those who should be left unprovoked.’ 

Yang Qi dug a deep pit into which he dropped all the corpses. Then he slapped his palms together, sending a stream of black fire into the pit, which quickly turned the corpses into ash.

The Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth had infinite variations, and high-temperature flame was just one aspect of it. It could also unleash freezing cold, or the sharpness of the sharpest metal….

That was one of the mysterious aspects of the technique, and one of the reasons it surpassed anything and everything.

Yang Qi watched until the flames burned out. As of now, no one would ever be certain of the whereabouts of the Chen Clan’s chief elders. That clan was no longer a factor in Yanhaven, and even their subsidiary branches were completely doomed.

Once again unleashing his true energy, he summoned his Fiend-Devil Wings. Sending out a blast of swirling wind, he picked up the twenty-eight flood stallions, and then disappeared into the darkness of the night, looking like the very picture of a demon king.