Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Doom and Yang Qi’s divine wills connected, and they began a session of cultivation. Neither was interested in causing mischief, as neither felt that there was any point in trying to deceive the other. Right now, the most important task at hand was killing Proud Heaven.

Besides, Yang Qi had reached the point where he honestly didn’t care much about the God Legion Seal. It was simply another martial arts asset in his arsenal. Even if he lost it, he would still be profoundly domineering, and would still be able to reach an incredibly high level.

Therefore, he didn’t hold back, and transmitted all of the energy arts and cultivation methods of his version of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth into Doom’s mind. Besides, once Doom took them and started cultivating them, he would form even more profound dependency-devils.

Although they would give him a big boost to his cultivation base, making him much stronger, that was a temporary thing. In the long run, it would make his path of cultivation more difficult.

It was different with Yang Qi. As he acquired new methods from the God Legion Seal, he used his psychic power and Unspoiled Body, coupling strength and gentleness to produce marvelous transformations.

One person was relying completely on the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, and the other was only using it as a reference point. The two of them had different ways of thinking, and they led to different results.

Yang Qi didn’t hold anything back from Doom. He provided his Infernal Deity Spear, Hellfire Crucible, Angel Wings, the Sovereign Lord’s Holy and Far-Reaching Consummate Omnicurse, the Heaven-God Hell-Exterminating Devil Embryo, and everything else.

As for Doom, he started out slowly and didn’t immediately give Yang Qi everything that he knew. But as Yang Qi’s information poured into his mind, a look of shock appeared on his face as he realized that Yang Qi was obviously not holding back at all. At that point, he did the same, and began pouring knowledge from his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth into Yang Qi.

The first technique Yang Qi received was a powerful psychic technique called the Unfeeling Mammoth-Heart Body.

Upon cultivating it, one’s spirit became incredibly tough, like the skin of a mammoth. After all, mammoths could trample the thistles and thorns of the jungle floor without the slightest impediment.

Next came another transformative psychic magic called the Great Dao of the Steel Heart. It involved using a psyche that was backed by a great dao to batter one’s own heart, giving it the power to endure anything.

More techniques came flowing in.

The World-King’s God-Assimilating Grand Magic.

The Surpassing the True-Self Heaven-Melting Dao-Shattering Will.

The Psychic-Creation Many-Heavens Godhood Secret Magic.

The Holy Grand Magic of Illuminating Radiance and Light.

The Grand Reverse-Light-Stream Empty-Spirit Ascension Art.

The Daoist Sutra of the Unbounded-Psychic Void.

The Deathless God-Ordaining True Empyrean.

The Essence-Moulding Psychic Lightning.

Most of the techniques seemed to involve psychic cultivation of some sort, and the highest level of them all was something called the Annulled Grand Magic. Supposedly, it was the quintessence of what the Sovereign Lord had used in his attempt to gain enlightenment of the Annulled level of will convergence.

As Yang Qi pored through the new information with his psyche and will, he came to understand many areas of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth that had once been a mystery to him. His psychic power became like rivers of silver streaming through him, causing his psyche to begin climbing to a higher level.

It was almost like there had been a treasure storehouse in front of him that he had never been able to enter. But then someone came along with a key and opened it up, revealing mountains of gold and silver.

Even Yang Qi’s sea of consciousness began transforming. The magical laws within him collapsed and formed together, then repeated the process millions upon millions of times. His psychic power was receiving a true baptism, and soon, his psychic scale was climbing again. From one hundred fifty, it rose to one hundred sixty, seventy, eighty, until it finally stopped at one hundred ninety-nine, just shy of two hundred.

Unfortunately, he still hadn’t broken through to the mid Terrifying level.

Thanks to all of the new enlightenment of the various daoist magics, his true energy thrummed inside him, condensing and even crystallizing. Nascent divinities began forming, created from vital energy. And at the same time, impurities were extruded from within him.

Suddenly, tribulation characters from the Unspoiled Body appeared, and he rose higher in his level as he passed them.

For cultivators and mortals alike, the psyche was the basis of everything. If your psyche was indestructible, you could cultivate any type of energy art, even the godly-class versions.

Yang Qi sat there unmoving, with golden light swirling around his head. Eventually, that golden light covered his entire body, then he once again transformed in the most fundamental of ways.

The process lasted for seven days and nights.

Doom was experiencing the same thing, and was rapidly rising in strength. With Yang Qi’s version of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth combining with his own, he was experiencing all sorts of transformations. Of course, he wasn’t benefiting nearly as much as Yang Qi was.

Yang Qi’s psychic techniques and Unspoiled Body made it possible for him to gain far more enlightenment. Besides, he was also improving his Purrfect God Art and Great Necropolis abilities. Little did any of these people know that his Purrfect God Art was actually his most powerful technique now.

When they finished, Proud World stepped forward and said, “Excellent. The two of you have both gained further enlightenment. Although, I cultivate the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth too. Even though I don’t have a God Legion Seal, I do have the true energy of the seal within me. Might it be possible for the two of you to help me out a bit?”

“No problem at all!” Yang Qi said, and quickly sent some cultivation techniques into his mind.

In response, Doom’s expression flickered. “Brother Yang Qi, he has a boundless art of battle as well that he could give you in return. After all, Proud Heaven's God Legion Seal focuses on the techniques of fighting and battle. It would be a real pity to not get some of them.”

“Er...” Proud World said, then shook his head. “I got some of his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, but the truth is that I only got a tiny portion of his will of battle. Too little to be of use. I actually rely on another set of techniques for that.” It looked more like Proud World didn’t want to give up his knowledge of the technique.

Yang Qi immediately severed the will connection he had just created, leaving behind only a tiny fraction of the enlightenment he could have. Of course, he already knew the secrets of Proud Heaven’s will of battle, but he wasn't about to reveal that now.

By now, he had acquired at least bits of all of the various cultivation systems from the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, although much of it was the result of piecing things together by instinct as opposed to cultivating the true and orthodox techniques. After all, to truly cultivate the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, one had to have the corresponding God Legion Seal.

Thankfully, all Yang Qi really needed was the mere technique or method; his need for the God Legion Seal only continued dropping as time passed.

“There’s no need to argue,” the Shepherd said. “As long as we stick together, we can fight Proud Heaven. Afterward, there will be plenty of time for negotiation. We’re already much stronger as a group thanks to this exchange of techniques. Next, we need to come up with a step-by-step plan of how exactly we’re going to deal with Proud Heaven.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Doom said. “Right now, we should find the essence of the Great Necropolis, the origin of the godpower seeds. That should give us more clues about how to fight Proud Heaven and resurrect the will of King Immortal-Slayer.”

“I don’t think that's particularly appropriate,” Yang Qi said. During the past seven days of cultivation, Yang Qi had spent a lot of time thinking. Although it seemed like this group really had sought him out to join forces in dealing with Proud Heaven, it was still entirely possible this entire thing was some crafty plot. Perhaps they wanted to use his status as an Inheritor to search for the essence of the Great Necropolis, then get godpower seeds for themselves. Maybe then they would stab him in the back. After all, there was no way that Doom was simply going to forget about Yang Qi’s God Legion Seal. It made sense to become ‘friends’ with him, then betray him later. After all, bearers of the God Legion Seal were similar to the Inheritors: they were supposed to fight each other like venomous bugs in a jar until only one came out on top in the end.

“Oh?” Proud World said, his eyes glittering. “What about it do you find inappropriate, Brother Yang Qi?”

“For one thing, the depths of the necropolis are very dangerous,” he replied. “I can sense that clearly. If we go there, we need to have a very specific plan first. Furthermore, I think that using King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions to fight Proud Heaven is actually too dangerous. Considering how strong we all are, why don't we just team up and take Proud Heaven on directly?”

“I'm not confident that we could kill him,” Proud World replied. “I'm still his son, and I'm currently plotting behind his back. If we fail, he’s going to find out the truth, and I’ll be in extreme danger. We have to make sure it works the first time around.”

“That’s right, Yang Qi,” Doom said. “This undertaking is nothing to take lightly. Remember, the God Legion Seal is at stake here. There’s no way the other magisters of the future world will just sit idly by as we kill Proud Heaven and abscond with the God Legion Seal. If we make a move to kill Proud Heaven and fail, we’ll be in profound danger.”

“Then why don’t we make some better plans?” Yang Qi said. “Remember, the Great Necropolis is dangerous as well. If we go deep inside and run into something unexpectedly dangerous, the organizations we lead will be left defenseless. I think I’d like to return to my sect for half a month or so to make certain arrangements for my departure, then meet back up afterward. What do you say?”

Inside, he was smiling coldly; he had already started planning how he would deal with the situation.

After a moment of thought, Proud World said, “I guess that’s fine. I suppose you haven’t fully exercised control over the House of God Bastards, Woodfern Couple Palace, and Genesis Sanctum. They could cause problems at any time. What if we came with you to help? We can crush those three organizations and make them your puppets. Then the Sage Monarch League would be fully stable. What do you think?”