Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

The approaching figure was none other than the imperial uncle, who once again looked like a wooden-faced young man.

“What a surprise to find you here, Mister Second,” he said, walking toward him with a broad smile on his face.

“Stop right there, boy!” Yang Qi shrieked. “What do you think you’re doing? Stand right there! If you take another step, I’ll cut you down!”

Of course, the more frantic he sounded, the broader the imperial uncle’s smile grew, and the more convinced he was that Yang Qi had reached an extremely critical juncture in dealing with the angel souls.

“Could it be that you’re in this state because of absorbing those souls, Mister Second?” He didn’t make any effort whatsoever to stop, but in fact, just kept walking right toward Yang Qi. “How about I help you pass this difficult moment? You put on a really big show by absorbing all those souls. But how could you possibly keep them suppressed? Not even Patriarch Deva could pull that off!”

“I said to stop moving, boy! Didn’t you hear me? If you take another step forward, I’ll crush you! If you think I can’t deal with these souls, you’re mistaken. I have an ancient divine ability that I can use to assimilate them and turn their power into my own. Patriarch Deva couldn’t do it, but I can! Do you know what Patriarch Deva was like in the ancient era? He didn't count for anything. But I was important and almighty, even back then!”

All of a sudden, he started building up power as if he were preparing to attack the imperial uncle.

“Enough, Mister Second. There’s no need for this show.” The imperial uncle was feeling more confident than ever. “I know you were an almighty being in the past. But even in your prime, you would have been roughly on the same level as me. And now, you’re far beneath me. You think you can kill me? Do you even know who I really am?”

“Listen, boy!” Yang Qi shrieked. “You might be extraordinary, and you did well to hide your true nature. But I saw through it from the beginning. You’re one of the leaders of the Deva Dynasty! A trump card of theirs! Am I right?”

“That's right. I'm the imperial uncle of the dynasty. And now I'm going to crush you. You've reached the end of the road, Mister Second. The fact that you’re from ancient times isn't going to help you. We live in a new age now, and it’s time for you old-timers to make way for the new generation.”

Yang Qi snorted coldly. “How dare you act so arrogantly in my presence? In the past, I would’ve killed you and slaughtered your family down to the ninth generation. Do you really think you have what it takes to defy me? I can kill you a hundred times over! Are you just the vanguard for Patriarch Deva? When is he going to show up?”

The imperial uncle laughed loudly. “Stop it with the act, Mister Second! You know full well Patriarch Deva wouldn’t be so rash as to appear here. Besides, I'm more than capable of handling you myself. You see, neither you nor anyone else in the entire Deva Dynasty actually knows how strong I am.”

Shrinking back, Yang Qi said, “I don’t care how strong you are, boy. You’re still beneath me!”

“I’m done wasting my breath on you, Mister Second. Prepare to be crushed.” All of a sudden, mist swirled about the imperial uncle’s head, forming the shape of a palm that was clearly about to shoot forth in an attack.

“Hold on!” Yang Qi blurted. “If you attack me, boy, the seals within me will shatter, releasing the trapped souls. Then we’ll both die. Is that really what you want?”

“Hmph! Those souls aren’t even human. They have no intelligence, and act only on instinct. Maybe I can't capture or kill them, but I’ll have plenty of time to get out of the way. You aren't fooling anyone, Mister Second. You know that I can crush you, so you're desperately grasping at straws. Am I right?”

“You’re pushing things too far, boy!” Yang Qi gushed.

“Get ready to die! I'm going to take all your wealth and power, and I'm going to see exactly what sort of being you were in ancient times!” Grinning viciously, the imperial uncle said, “You're in the wrong time period, you old bastard. This age belongs to the new generation!”

Just when the imperial uncle was about to make his move, the sound of two clucking tongues rang out.

“That's exactly right. This age doesn't belong to old-timers like you, Mister Second. But just look at how things are playing out. After the services you performed for the Deva Dynasty, you were given a third of their destiny, yet now they're trying to kill you.”

“Buddha Testimony! Dibarra!” The imperial uncle looked over at them coolly. “I should’ve known that you two would show up.”

“You’re very impressive, Imperial Uncle,” Buddha Testimony said. “But I knew all along who you were. Why exactly did you waste so much time talking with Mister Second, without making a move? My patience has a limit, you know. At a certain point, I had to actually do something.”

“What are you planning to do?” the imperial uncle asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Dibarra said. “We’re just here to offer an invitation for Mister Second to join us as a guest. That shouldn't be a problem, should it, Imperial Uncle? Our Sumeru Temple has been running low on funds recently, and it shouldn't be difficult for Mister Second to loan us a few billion perfect caliber godstones. Am I right?”

“Each of you is more vicious than the next!” Yang Qi growled. “It's settled. I'm going to get rid of all of you! I won’t leave a single one alive!”

“You're going to get rid of all of us?” Buddha Testimony said. “Mister Second, given your current condition, do you really think that's possible? What do you think, Imperial Uncle? Should the three of us join forces to deal with Mister Second?”

“As the two of you well know,” the imperial uncle said, “Mister Second is a member of the Deva Dynasty. Therefore, all of his wealth rightly belongs to the dynasty.”

“Wrong,” Dibarra said. “We’re going to split it. Come on, Imperial Uncle, don’t tell me you think you can kill Mister Second on your own, then just waltz away. Do you really think you’re going to just take all his wealth?”

The crew-cut archmonk wanted nothing more than to kill the imperial uncle, but knew that he had to be patient and first work together with him and Buddha Testimony to take down Mister Second.

Originally, he and Buddha Testimony had been planning to just let the imperial uncle kill Mister Second. Never could they have guessed that the imperial uncle would actually detect their presence, which was why he had spent so much time talking instead of doing anything.

He had forced their hand.

“You two have really taken the bait,” Yang Qi suddenly said. Chuckling, he continued, “Attack, boy! Patriarch Deva sent you here for the express purpose of luring these two out into the open. Let’s join forces to kill them!”

WHOOSH!

Yang Qi lunged toward Buddha Testimony, moving so quickly the man had almost no chance to react.

“Dibarra!” Buddha Testimony shouted. “Block the imperial uncle! I’ll handle Mister Second!”

Throwing out his hands with fingers splayed, he stomped his feet down in a profound rhythm and said, “Heaven-Defying Eight Steps! Dragon-Defying Seven Claws!”

Cracking sounds could be heard as he unleashed a consummate art of the Dragonfolk. According to rumor, the Heaven-Defying Eight Steps was a collection of eight movements created by the original emperor of the Dragonfolk. They were extremely domineering, and each one was capable of defying fate, destiny, truth, great daos, order, law, and even the yin and yang.

Eight defiances!

SWISH!

As Buddha Testimony took the eight steps, they caused Yang Qi’s attacks to completely miss him. Then, Buddha Testimony, who was known as the lord of destroyers and king of terror in the Dragonfolk, drew on another consummate and deadly technique. He thrust his hand out, causing the entire area to fill with the aura of a dragon.

“All Living Things Become Dragons!”

Suddenly, numerous streams of vital energy in the area transformed into draconic true energy!

“Myriad Dragons Strangling Slaughter!”

Thus, Yang Qi and Buddha Testimony began fighting back and forth.

Meanwhile, Dibarra lunged toward the imperial uncle, whom he hated with a vengeance. He had been caught completely off guard by Yang Qi’s tactic, and was convinced that he and the imperial uncle really had been sent to kill him.

Yang Qi had pulled off a very clever move.

Although the people from the Sumeru Temple had been dealing relatively politely with the Deva Dynasty, in the end, they were enemies. Yang Qi knew that, and had decided to use it to his advantage. If these three experts had joined forces against him, he wouldn’t have lost. But now he had created a situation in which he only had to deal with one enemy, and could potentially trap him like a turtle in a jar. Furthermore, in the Bastille of the One God, he could move about freely, whereas the others had to be very careful.

Of course, he had to make the situation seem realistic. Therefore, as he faced the Heaven-Defying Eight Steps and the Dragon-Defying Seven Claws, he made it seem like he was starting to run out of godpower. Then he turned as if to flee.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Buddha Testimony snapped. Convinced that Mister Second was severely wounded, and not really trying to work with the imperial uncle, he decided to try to handle him alone.

WHOOSH!

Yang Qi shot out into the Bastille of the One God, followed by Buddha Testimony.

“We were fooled, Dibarra!” the imperial uncle shouted. “I wasn't working with him! Now Buddha Testimony’s going to come out on top. What's the point in us fighting to the death here!?”

Things had really slipped out of control for him.

“Fine, there’s no reason to fight to the death.” He suddenly launched thirty-six fist strikes, all of them incredibly powerful. They were from a set of moves called the Myriad-Buddhas Devil-Crushing Palms.

The imperial uncle was shoved backward, and Dibarra shot into motion after Yang Qi.