Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

‘I really benefited a lot from that. The godpower reserves in my godhood are reaching a peak. I wonder if I’m now in the position to seize the upper hand in a fight with a Greater God. That medicinal pill was amazing. What a boost.... If I could get one more pill like that, I would probably be able to form my monarch godhood.

‘Or perhaps not. The closer I get to completing the monarch godhood, the more power it’s going to require.’

From what he could tell, he was approaching a certain juncture that, once passed, would increase the requirement to thousands of times beyond anything from before.

In other words, even if he did happen to run into another Chaos-Cavern Grand-Magnate Pill, it probably wouldn’t be enough to complete his monarch godhood.

‘Time to head to the fourth floor! Considering the medicinal pill here was so strong, I have to wonder how powerful things will be on the fourth floor. If I can get an even stronger medicinal pill, maybe I really can form my monarch godhood, and afterward, keep my true level hidden from any prying eyes. After all, once I reach godly ascension, the powers of the God Legion Seal will become even more pronounced.’

What he was currently capable of with the God Legion Seal wasn’t anything close to its full potential; that would only come when he was a god.

After all, there was significance to the fact that it was named after the legion of gods. Upon reaching godly ascension, he would be part of the legion of gods; and how could someone who wasn’t a god possibly control the legion of gods!? Deep in his bones, he was convinced that once he reached godly ascension, the God Legion Seal would transform in some dramatic way.

With a whoosh, he shot out of the bottle gourd.

Glancing at it for a moment, he extended his hand and revealed a godstone. As of now, creating imperial caliber godstones was as easy as blowing some dust off his shoulder. Tossing the godstone into the bottle gourd, he exhaled deeply, causing the toxic mist in the chamber to disperse and revealing the evidence of the intense battle which had been fought in the chamber in years past.

“Spell formation: activate!” Yang Qi said coolly. Within the depths of the bottle gourd, a spell formation whirred to life, causing the gourd to shrink in size.

Yang Qi hadn't spent any time studying the bottle gourd to uncover its secrets, but he could tell there was spatial godpower in it, which allowed it to become a standalone dimension, and also allowed it to shrink.

Up until now, Yang Qi hadn’t acquired a good spatial magical device, which made it hard to store things. But now he had this bottle gourd. He was actually curious what the Chaos-Cavern Bottle Gourd was made of, considering it could fend off the toxic energy in this place.

Even though the temple itself hadn’t been melted by the toxins, Yang Qi knew that the materials that made it up had long since been completely infected.

Yet the bottle gourd was completely pure.

Yang Qi held the now palm-sized bottle gourd and sent some divine will into it. Inside, he saw so many spell formations that it was obvious the imperial caliber godstone he had just fed into the gourd was like nothing compared to what it was capable of. Obviously, there was more to this Chaos-Cavern Bottle Gourd than met the eye.

Tucking it into his sleeve, he headed toward the fourth floor.

There, the mist was even thicker than it was down below. However, Yang Qi’s cultivation base had advanced significantly after consuming the Chaos-Cavern Grand-Magnate Pill. He flicked his sleeve, creating a black hole that sucked in all the mist. A moment later, the fourth floor was empty, and on his palm was a tiny pearl full of poison.

The fourth floor was clear, but that didn't stop more toxic mist from pouring in from the outside. However, it would clearly take hours for the process to complete. Meanwhile, Yang Qi started searching around for medicinal pills.

Unfortunately, there weren’t any. Instead, there were numerous cauldrons.

All of them emanated strong medicinal aromas, which indicated that they were full of medicinal ingredients. They were huge, almost like storehouses, and when Yang Qi started opening them up, he found all sorts of ingredients that he had never seen before, but had read about in the Great Classic of God Ordainment. They were all extremely rare and precious.

In fact, they were all ingredients that could be used to counter toxins. And the furnaces were made from a special type of metal called detoxifying godsteel, which specifically grew stronger by absorbing toxins.

There were many miraculous things in the world.

‘I wonder how much these medicinal ingredients would be worth?’ He flew into one of the cauldrons and looked through the various ingredients, which included fruit, leaves, grasses, flowers... even ores and things that looked like flesh and blood.

‘That’s Crimson-Infernal Hell Weed.’ He picked up the weed, whose leaves were like serrated teeth dripping with fresh blood. ‘This is perfect for those who cultivate devil techniques, or follow the dao of devils.’

Looking around, he picked up another ingredient. ‘This is a Bright-Yang Godfruit, which contains immense god energy. It’s the perfect ingredient for concocting fire-type medicinal pills.

‘I might as well just take all of them!’ Taking out his Chaos-Cavern Bottle Gourd, he thought, ‘Well, little bottle gourd, it's a good thing I got you. Considering those spell formations of yours, you’re definitely anything but ordinary.’

With a flourish, he produced numerous imperial caliber godstones, which he tossed into the bottle gourd to activate it. A gravitational force sprang out, causing something like a black hole to appear within the cauldron.

Whoooosh... whooooosh....

One by one, the ingredients, and even the cauldrons, were sucked into the bottle gourd.

There were even some that were the size of houses, but fit inside the gourd perfectly. It went to show what the gourd was capable of with enough godstones to power it.

Before long, the fourth floor was completely empty. When Yang Qi took those medicinal ingredients back to the Sage Monarch Consortium, they would definitely cause too much of a stir to sell all at once. It would have to be done slowly, and with immense care. Otherwise it would attract the wrong attention.

More than ever, Yang Qi realized he needed to form his monarch godhood.

‘Time for the fifth floor!’

He slipped up to the fifth floor, only to find the toxic mist to be indescribably powerful. In fact, it was almost liquid, sticking to the body in a way that made it almost impossible to get rid of.

In fact, Yang Qi felt his godpower draining away because of it, and even found it hard to move.

‘This toxic mist is so strong!’ He quickly produced some of the medicinal ingredients he had just taken from the fourth floor and refined them with true flame. They swirled into the shape of a dragon, which spread out around him protectively. However, even as it formed, it began melting away. From what he could tell, it would give him about an incense stick’s worth of time safe from the toxic mist.

‘Let’s see what I can find in that time,’ he thought. Flying into motion, he sped around the hall, only to find that it was empty. There were no cauldrons, bottle gourds, or pill furnaces.

‘There’s nothing here? Seriously?’ Frowning, he searched again, until it was obvious the defensive dragon barrier was about to break down. It was at that point that he realized he had missed something on his first search: a corpse.

‘What? A corpse?’ Exhaling a stream of true flame to part the toxic mist, he looked around and confirmed that the corpse was the only thing on this floor.

‘What kind of corpse is this? It’s strong enough that it hasn’t broken down after all this time?’ It really was amazing. From what he could tell, even a corpse that had monarch godhood would quickly dissolve in a place like this. Other than truly indestructible things like the God Legion Seal, sheepskin scroll, and Mahātmā Jade, the toxic mist was completely destructive.

In fact, it was so much stronger than on the fourth floor that, given the level of his cultivation base, he was having trouble dealing with it.

Even more shocking, the corpse almost seemed alive. He looked like a young scholar, complete with a tall scholar’s hat, sitting there cross-legged with a book scroll in his hand. Unfortunately, the scroll had almost completely crumbled into nothing.

Yang Qi almost felt like he was looking at a sage who could provide instruction to everyone under heaven.

‘This scholar must have been an incredible person when he was alive!’