Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi singlehandedly charged toward the spacetitans, who had been whipped into a vicious frenzy thanks to the vigorous zither music. Thankfully, he had his Tribulation Wings, so he had nothing to fear. As he flew out on his own, none of the enemy attacks could even touch him. It was almost as if he were traveling past them on a different dimension of existence.

Meanwhile, every spacetitan he passed collapsed into clouds of dust, which were then sucked into his wings.

Strum. Twang. Thrum....

As if sensing the threat, the zithertitans increased the intensity of their music, which caused some of the spacetitans to self-detonate, sending waves of destructive power racing toward Yang Qi. It contained the weeping of blood, the perishing of the sun and moon, the transformation of the cosmos, and the inverting of the great dao.

‘Very impressive,’ Yang thought. Drawing on the energy arts of King Heaven-Devourer, he sent the primal-chaos elder-snake on the offensive. When it came to devouring, no energy arts could compare to those of King Heaven-Devourer, not even the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. The snake opened its mouth wide and gobbled up the vital energy of the self-detonations, then converted it into something the sage monarch magistrates could use.

Yang Qi was slaughtering enemies with abandon, moving with lightning-like speed, killing spacetitans left and right, then using the primal-chaos elder-snake to absorb them. With his combination of techniques, he was cutting his way closer and closer to the zithertitans while simultaneously growing more sage monarch magistrates within him.

Thrusting his hand out with fingers splayed, he drew on Grand Tribulation Cannon, which had already powered up within him. For the moment, he chose not to use the Tribulation Monarch Cannon, which was his true trump card, something that would unleash a destructive power that would be too horrible to contemplate.

A high-pitched whine could be heard from within him as he stretched his hand out, then the onlookers saw an enormous beam of white light smash into the spacetitans. Blasting through the ranks of the ordinary beasts, it hit the first few zithertitans and ripped them to shreds.

“What an incredible trump card! Amazing!” The other Paramount Gods present were shocked, having been caught completely off guard by Yang Qi’s deadly attack.

The zither music stopped as the remaining zithertitans were thrown into chaos. When they worked together, they were mighty, but receiving a blow from the Grand Tribulation Cannon had devastated their ranks.

Yang Qi took advantage of the extremely rare opportunity. Blurring into motion, he sent his primal-chaos elder-snake out, which gobbled up the vital energy of the spacetitans and rapidly grew in size. Then it set upon the zithertitans with a ferocious appetite, devouring them and absorbing their might.

All of the energy it took, it sent directly to the sage monarch magistrates.

Yang Qi was like a starving gobblewock as he attacked left and right, slaughtering the spacetitans. While most people would consider this place to be a deadly location, to him it was like a holy land of cultivation.

The slaughter went on for an entire day and night. When it was over, the zithertitans were gone. The remaining spacetitans fled, and Yang Qi finally stopped fighting.

He could sense something like an ocean of energy within his dantian region, where sage monarch magistrates were splitting apart like mad to create new versions.

Creak. Crack.

Thanks to the slaughter he had just carried out, he had amassed a thousand magistrates.

Going from a hundred to a thousand was a major increase, and Yang Qi could sense there was still plenty more power to work with.

Going forward, it would only take a day to create one and a half magistrates. In other words, it would take two days to create three.

‘Excellent! I'm now strong enough that I don’t need to worry about a fight with a mid Paramount God.’ Rejoicing inwardly, Yang Qi flew back.

The combined forces of the three major powers were in a much better position now that Yang Qi had dealt with the zithertitans. Everyone was breathing sighs of relief.

“Let’s rest for a moment, and then continue on our way,” said Grand Prince Yi.

Everyone nodded and settled down to recuperate.

A short while later, they were again flying through space-time, killing whatever beasts they encountered. They continued onward for a month, then two months. Eventually, Yang Qi lost track of his surroundings and had no idea of exactly where they were.

When traveling in the god world, one would encounter mountains, rivers, lakes, countries, different types of weather and customs, and even different types of living beings. But out in the depths of space-time, there were only deadly spatial tempests, some of them so large it would take weeks to pass through them. Within such tempests, it was so dark and chaotic it was almost impossible to see clearly.

Thankfully, this group of experts all had immense willpower and were able to proceed in such conditions. And whenever they ran into deadly beasts, they just attacked and killed them efficiently.

Five months went by and Yang Qi had more and more sage monarch magistrates, thanks to all of the beasts he encountered and slaughtered. He now had about fifteen hundred. However, he was looking physically exhausted, as the nonstop flying and fighting was apparently draining even to him.

The sight of Yang Qi looking so tired caused many in the group to exchange meaningful glances. The fact that this ‘monster’ Yang Qi was being worn down meant it was obviously possible to kill him.

Of course, the truth was that he wasn’t tired at all, nor was his cultivation base declining. He was at a higher peak than he had ever been, and was stronger than ever. No one had any idea about the sage monarch magistrates, nor the fact that, because of them, he was probably twice as strong as he had been before.

‘Bring it on, people,’ he thought. ‘I'm going to subjugate each and every one of you!’ He was really looking forward to reaching the Bastille of the One God.

Two more weeks passed, when suddenly everything around them went calm, and they saw a brilliant light up ahead of them. Eventually, a sprawling complex of buildings and altars appeared, a sight that made everyone think of the ancient halls of heaven.

They stopped short, not daring to go any further.

“We’ve arrived!” Grand Prince Yi said. “We’re now on the edge of the Bastille of the One God, so going forward, we need to be very careful. Dangers abound in this place, and even Paramount Gods are like children playing in the deep ocean. Death and destruction can rain down at any moment.”

“Well said,” said one of the monks from the Sumeru Temple. “According to the stories, the reason the Bastille of the One God shines with such radiant light is because it's actually part of the ancient halls of heaven. We need to join forces now, and link our vital energy to form a triple-sided formation to protect us from danger as we search for treasure.”

“That should work,” people said, nodding in agreement. The members of the three major powers formed a triangular formation, then headed toward the sprawling complex of buildings.

The closer they got, the more intense the light grew, until it was so pure and bright that they could hardly see.

To Yang Qi, it felt wonderful; it was many thousands of times more powerful than the light he had experienced in the Mountains of Radiance in the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty.

As the light poured into him, the particles within him thrummed with life. And the sage monarch magistrates, who had the genetic material of angels within them, also thrived because of it.

‘The Bastille of the One God is the perfect place for me to further my cultivation.’ he thought. Although it was a dangerous location, he knew the God Legion Seal would be able to gobble up the light and make him stronger.

“Be careful, everyone!” Grand Prince Yi said. “This light is so powerful it can melt anything. Even Paramount Gods who get infected by it will be in trouble. And if it gets into your soul or sea of consciousness, it will transform you from a human into an angel, with no mind of your own, fixated only on fighting intruders.”