Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Undercurrents abounded within the major forces at play.

Back in Destructionless Castle, more and more experts were gathering. Yang Qi had never seen so many powerful people in one place. There were people from the past, present, and future, and one thing was for sure: at such a huge gathering, there was bound to be drama.

Over the course of the few hours that passed, Yang Qi caught sight of quite a few minor scuffles.

Most were between sects that had grudges with each other. Originally, there were quite a few rivals of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect who might have caused problems. However, after word spread of Yang Qi’s might, no one dared to pick any fights with them.

In turn, Yang Qi didn’t bother bringing the fight to such sects. Slaughtering people like that wouldn’t have helped in any way. Thus, many sects were coming to view the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect as being tolerant and magnanimous.

Because of that, many sects were interested in developing better relationships with them.

Thanks to Yang Qi, the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect was gaining a reputation of being haughty to the proud and fair to the humble. That, in turn, made it much easier to resolve previous grudges, to the point where fighting often wasn’t necessary at all.

Thump. Swish. Rustle.

Flickering light could be seen gathering in Destructionless Castle as one expert after another arrived. It really seemed as though a golden age was building in the immortal dao civilization.

In the past, Yang Qi had thought of Terrifying experts as being relatively rare. But now that all of the sects from the Ancient Road to the Gods were gathering, he realized that they were as numerous as carp crossing the river.

‘It makes me wonder what the god world will be like.’

Yang Qi watched as Sectlord Will Manifestation, high-spirited and full of mettle, had meetings with numerous other sects. The Will Manifestation Heaven Sect was flourishing. Some of the sect leaders of the smaller sects were sticking to the edges of the hall, while others were currying favor with the larger sects. The entire place was abuzz.

And it was now becoming clear who was who.

The powerful organizations were slowly beginning to gather the weaker organizations to their side.

The Will Manifestation Heaven Sect’s social circle was already rather large, with more than a hundred sects gathered around them. And quite a few of the young elites were fawning over Zi Qiong and Jadefall, hoping to earn favor with them.

Yang Qi didn’t care about that and left them to handle their own affairs.

A few more hours passed, and Yang Qi was starting to get bored. Clasping his hands behind his back, he began strolling through Destructionless Castle, glancing here and there at the various meetings taking place between sects. As he strolled, he mulled over matters pertaining to his Purrfect God Art, slowly pushing his psychic power higher and higher.

RUMBLE!

By this point, his psychic scale was close to twenty, all thanks to his new art.

Before, he wouldn't have been able to pass the level of eighteen, even with secret magics and godhood. He had reached his limit, and couldn’t reach higher heights any more than someone who had climbed to the top of a mountain.

However, after cultivating the Purrfect God Art, it was as if a pagoda had appeared at the top of that mountain, allowing him to climb even higher than before.

As his true energy and psychic power flowed, he contemplated his energy arts and felt more at ease with them than ever. His Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth and Unspoiled Body had advanced even further, and he felt even more connected to the universe around him.

The heart of heaven is my heart. The will of heaven is my will. The dao of heaven is my dao. The psyche of heaven is my psyche.

Although Yang Qi’s enlightenment of the Purrfect God Art was improving, he still had no idea exactly what the purrling was. He had the feeling that if he did, if he could come to understand everything about it down to its substructure, he would become even more invincible. He would be able to fully combine the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth with his Unspoiled Body and create something new and marvelous, something never before seen throughout all the aeons.

The sounds of battle reached Yang Qi’s ears, although by this point it was nothing unusual. As the time to begin the assembly approached, fighting was going on everywhere in Destructionless Castle. Some were friendly matches to exchange fighting tips, others were all-out bloodbaths. A few were even deadly ambushes designed to take out key enemies. Magical treasures changed hands as opponents were defeated, and some sects were holding auctions. There were even instances in which two young men would take a liking to a young woman, and fight each other to earn her favor.

To Yang Qi, most of these fights seemed infantile and ridiculous.

In his heart, peace existed, as well as the desire to live a carefree life free of fighting and combat. Unfortunately, he lived in a momentous time, a time in which blood flowed and everyone fought fiercely to better their position. Even if one fled to the deepest depths of the universe, it would be impossible to fully escape the fighting and death.

That much he knew from cultivating the Unspoiled Body. He had faced numerous tribulations during the process of cultivating the technique, including heavenly tribulations, human tribulations, devil tribulations, heart tribulations, as well as tribulations of the past, present, and future.

Swish.... Slice....

All of a sudden, Yang Qi sensed a familiar sword energy, filled with life force and the persistent desire to save lives.

It was Star Swordlife’s sword technique.

Star Swordlife’s sword seemed to be in perfect harmony with the life force of heaven and earth, and capable of rescuing anything and everything. And that begged the question of who he was fighting, and why.

Yang Qi changed directions and sped toward the fight, and before long, found himself in a sprawling square that was actually an entire plane of existence. There were plenty of people gathered around watching the fight play out. One of the combatants was, of course, Star Swordlife, who now was at the Terrifying level.

That was no surprise at all to Yang Qi, who knew that Star Swordlife was a rare genius with incredible willpower. His sword technique was profound, to say the least, and he had his own dao. Furthermore, he was an Inheritor of the Great Necropolis. Because of all that, he was beyond the compare of most ordinary cultivators, even top figures from the Ancient Road to the Gods.

During the times that Yang Qi had clashed with him, he had learned a lot from his sword technique. In fact, of all the people Yang Qi had crossed paths with, none could really measure up to Star Swordlife, not even his original rival, the “Crown Prince”.

The Crown Prince of years past had possessed one of King Immortal-Slayer’s legacy medallions, and in his wild arrogance had tried to kill Yang Qi. Thankfully, Yang Qi had cultivated the God Legion Paradise, thus turning the tables on him. Although that Crown Prince could be considered a genius, he was definitely not on the same level as Star Swordlife.

Fighting Star Swordlife was another Inheritor, a man clad in a flowing black garment. When he attacked, his hands were like dragons, and the way he used the God Tombstone Palms surpassed anything that Shi Yuan or Zi Qiong was capable of.

‘This guy is incredible,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘I’d say he’s a top figure among the Inheritors, and most likely, he had to kill a few other Inheritors to reach this level. I wonder why he’s fighting Star Swordlife. Perhaps he hopes to kill him and take his godpower seed?’ Looking at a nearby expert, he said, “Brother, who's that fellow in black?”

“Where have you been living, under a rock?” the young man replied sarcastically, assuming that he was dealing with a nobody from a tiny sect. When he looked over and saw that it was Yang Qi, he gulped in fear and quickly said, “I had no idea it was you, Junior Sectlord Will Manifestation. My apologies. A great man does not remember a petty person’s trespasses, right...?”

By this point, the story of Yang Qi reducing the pontifex of the Sackcloth Cathedral to a smear of gore had spread so far and wide that everyone knew who he was.

“Don’t worry. He who doesn't know any better shouldn’t be punished for his ignorance. Now, tell me, who is that guy?”

“R-right, of course,” the young man stammered. “He’s a famous bandit from the Ancient Road to the Gods. The Flower-Seizing Marauder, a truly evil villain. He kidnaps women and drains their yin vitality to improve his techniques. Unfortunately, he's very powerful, and no matter how many times the various sects and clans have tried to capture him, they’ve always failed. Later, it seemed heaven wasn’t paying attention, and somehow allowed him to become an Inheritor. His energy arts advanced by leaps and bounds, to the point where he could easily rival the sect leaders of top organizations from the Ancient Road to the Gods. Considering how sinister he is, it’s little surprise that he managed to ambush several of his fellow Inheritors and take their godpower seeds, making him even more unfathomably powerful than before. Nobody in Destructionless Castle is a match for him. A short time ago, he tried to ambush that young swordsman, except he failed, and now the two of them are fighting. The fact that the swordsman can stand up to the Flower-Seizing Marauder shows that he’s incredibly powerful. I wonder who he is.”

“I see,” Yang Qi said. “This Flower-Seizing Marauder seems like a really wicked fellow. Why doesn’t everyone just team up to kill him?”

“Because his energy arts are just too profound. A bunch of people did try to team up against him earlier, and he killed them all. See? Look at those corpses right there.”

He pointed, and Yang Qi noticed a pile of blood-soaked corpses lying off to the side, most of which had been mangled so badly they were hardly recognizable.