Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Proud Heaven was such a ruthless and ferocious character that he was sacrificing the entire future world for his own benefit. He had brought doomsday to the future to make himself stronger. That was how merciless he was. It would have been like Yang Qi destroying every person in the Sage Monarch League and absorbing them. This was the dao of devils. The dao of evil. Or perhaps one could say it was the dao of selfishness.

In the dao of selfishness, one did anything and everything to benefit oneself, with no regard for others.

As long as one could guarantee their own benefit, anyone and anything else in heaven and earth could be sacrificed.

Yang Qi could never be like Proud Heaven in that regard. Yang Qi had his own dao, the Sage Monarch Grand Magic, which was in itself a dharma of extremities.

In fact, the Sage Monarch Grand Magic actually contained the Ten Universes within it.

Because of all this, Yang Qi remained calm as he watched things play out. At a certain point, he suddenly said, “Brahma, go to my Sage Monarch League. This fight is between me and Proud Heaven. I’ll wait until he finishes powering up, then put an end to him once and for all. I’ll make sure he dies down to his core and is reduced to ashes.”

With that, he flung Brahma out of the Ancient Road to the Gods. Brahma was visibly stunned by how obviously stronger Yang Qi was than he. Meanwhile, Yang Qi’s voice continued entering his ears via will projection. “Help the Sage Monarch League destroy the Executors of the Ancient Road and seize universal fortune. I’ll use that universal fortune to rebuild your godhood, then reach the god world. When that happens, you’ll be fully resurrected and become a god again. Right now, you’re only a half-dead projection of divine will, and if you want to progress beyond that you’ll have to rely on me and the God Legion Seal.”

“Very impressive, boy,” Brahma said. “Fine, I’ll do what you say.”

Brahma knew that his hopes of true resurrection lay with Yang Qi, so he shot directly to the battlefield where the Executors of the Ancient Road were fighting the Sage Monarch League.

With Doom, Proud World, and the Shepherd on their side, as well as the immortal-slaying clone, the Sage Monarch League now had some truly powerful mid Terrifying experts.

Unfortunately, the executors had immense resources and were the top force in all of the many heavens and myriad worlds that existed outside of the god world. For all intents and purposes, no one could possibly wage war against them and succeed.

Thankfully, the Sage Monarch League didn’t just have a host of top experts. They had numerous puppets as well, such as Mu Renwang, Su Xin, Huangfu Genesis, and the King of Assassins. They were all people who had stood up to the executors in the past, and right now they were causing major problems on the battlefield. In fact, they were driving the executors crazy.

Bitter, intense fighting was already underway.

The executors’ top experts were all engaged in the fight, with numerous old-timers operating spell formations to defend against the attacks of the Sage Monarch League. Meanwhile, the experts of the league were powering their own formations, sending immense beams of dazzling godlight shooting through the primal-chaos.

Unfortunately, the executors had the Gate to the Gods, which they were using to keep the league's spell formations in check. If it weren’t for all of the vast treasures Yang Qi had plundered, which could now be used to power the formations, the Sage Monarch League would have already been crushed into powder.

This wasn’t a battle of scattered scuffles here and there, but a contest between major spell formations. After all, with untold quadrillions of disciples powering even just one spell formation, how much might could it unleash? Even a mid Terrifying expert would have to dodge out of the way of a blast like that.

Enormous spell formations were the ultimate weapons of huge organizations like these. And when two such organizations went to battle, the formations were often the most valuable asset, rather than individual experts.

For instance, an organization that didn’t have a mid Terrifying expert, but far more disciples, enough to power an enormous spell formation, could theoretically hold their own. They could possibly even kill the opposing mid Terrifying expert, or at least send them running.

It was similar to how, in the martial arts world of the mortals, a kung fu expert couldn’t necessarily stand up to an entire army. That kung fu expert could easily kill any single soldier in the army, but if the army charged him en masse, he would either die or be forced to flee.

The countless disciples in the Sage Monarch League were all assigned to various spell formations, into which they were pouring their quintessence vitality and life essence. In this moment of great danger, everyone had their assigned place and no one was holding anything back.

As the sayings go, many grains of sand piled up will make a tower, and a hundred streams will flow together to make a sea.

The combined might of all of the members of an organization would reveal their true strength!

Of course, the Executors of the Ancient Road had far more latent power at their disposal than the Sage Monarch League. Plus, the Gate to the Gods was the most devastating magical treasure in the mortal world; it even surpassed the top god items. The downside for the executors was that they couldn’t match up to the number of disciples in the Sage Monarch League. Nor did they have as many puppets and thralls.

The two sides were mostly evenly matched, with the executors having a slight advantage.

Explosions rocked the primal-chaos, and immortal worlds were being destroyed left and right. It was impossible to say how many lives were being lost on each side as this final battle to surpass all final battles took place. Whoever came out on top would control the past, present, and future, including countless worlds, and even the innumerable hells that existed. All universal fortune would go to the organization that came out on top, and obviously, that organization would be the ultimate ruler of the mortal world.

If Yang Qi’s people vanquished the Executors of the Ancient Road, he would be able to completely free himself from the control of the gods and get so much destiny that it would be impossible to quantify.

Even as the executors were struggling into a winning position, the god Brahma arrived.

A true god!

Although he wasn't complete, he was still a god, and wasn’t particularly weaker than Yang Qi. Only the God Legion Seal could truly restrain him. As soon as he appeared in front of the Gate to the Gods, he unleashed a fist strike that instantly caused the enormous gate to seize up.

“Damnation!” the emperor of the executors cursed.

One of the other old-timers present shouted, “That’s a true god! Sadly for him, he’s lacking godhood. And the fact that he’s opposing the Executors of the Ancient Road means he's a wretch-god. A depraved god worthy of nothing but death! Attack him with full force! Sacrifice the thralls!”

On one of the enormous worlds they controlled, a massive altar rose up, onto which the disciples tossed countless thralls, all of them bound and trussed. Countless blades rose up, then fell, causing rivers of blood to flow onto the altar.

Bzzzzzzzz!

The power of the blood sacrifice towered into heaven, halting Brahma’s advance and sending him tumbling backward.

Brahma roared in defiance. However, that was when the immortal-slaying clone said, “Brahma, come into the Sage Monarch League grand spell formation. If we power it together, we’ll definitely crush the executors. You alone are strong enough to power countless formations and unleash their numerous enigmatic abilities. This is a battle of sect versus sect, a war of the top forces of the age. It’s not a time for people to show off and try to be heroes.”

“Fine,” Brahma said. Even in the god world, there were plenty of gods who would groom slaves and believers within their god kingdoms, imbuing them with their own quintessence energy and training them for battle, in case another god invaded. In many ways, the strength of a god lay in the strength of their believers.

It was even like that with Lesser Gods. If two Lesser Gods clashed and had the same godhood, but different numbers of believers, the one with superior numbers would likely win.

In an organization in the mortal world, the disciples were like the believers.

As soon as Brahma entered the grand spell formation, he sent his power into it, and loud cracking sounds could be heard as numerous subsidiary spell formations powered up. He was a god, and could have held his own against either of these organizations. In other words, he was as strong as the majority of the disciples put together.

Even a drop of his animadestiny quintessence vitality would be enough to instantly kill millions upon millions of disciples.

As soon as Brahma appeared, the tables turned. The Executors of the Ancient Road were now being forced into retreat, with many of them fleeing into the primal-chaos in the hopes of finding a place to hide.

As for the Sage Monarch League, they were intent on wiping out the executors, so they immediately gave chase.

Yang Qi could see what was happening, and he nodded in approval. It was now a given that the executors would be wiped out. Brahma had ensured that. Now Yang Qi could focus on the fight with Proud Heaven, who was still powering up.

“You were foolish to let me absorb the power of the future world to get stronger, Yang Qi,” Proud Heaven said. “I'm no weaker than you now. If you thought it would turn out any other way, then you’re sadly mistaken.” Proud Heaven knew that Yang Qi was allowing him to power up, which left him feeling very uneasy. However, he couldn't complain, and he most definitely wasn't ready to give up the fight.

“Power up as much as you want,” Yang Qi replied coolly. “You won’t have another chance to do so after today. As I'm sure you realize, this fight is a matter of karma. Fight as hard as you can, and don’t hold anything back.”

“Very impressive, Yang Qi. You have my admiration. In fact, you’re the first person I've ever admired. I’ve manipulated you to no end, even kidnapping your mother and sending her to the god world. Of course, I did that for your own good, to make you stronger. You realize that, right? If I had left your mother in the mortal world, you would have eventually found her.

“Now I’ll show you what I left behind in the Primeval Age. I just buried the future, and now I'll bury the past. Doomsday is coming to primeval times. After that, the Immortal Dao Age will be put to an end. And now, the debut of the Ending One.”

Proud Heaven burst out into maniacal laughter. “You're a Fateless One, Yang Qi. The best among the three thousand special constitutions. But I’ve surpassed those three thousand to create my own constitution. I will bring an end to the dao of heaven, and thus, I am the Ending One!”

1. The word I'm translating as “untold quadrillions” literally has the characters for “multiple” + “one hundred million” + “trillion”. Normally speaking, the latter of the two characters when put together will be translated as “astronomical in number, countless, numberless, etc.” Considering there are plenty of other words that mean those things, I'm going with a more literal version. I don’t think the literal meaning is supposed to be “one hundred million times one trillion”, and even if it was, I'm not sure what number that would be. So feel free to criticize or weigh in, any math people out there. In the end, I think it’s supposed to sound like a very, very large number, but not just an adjective that means “large numbers”.