Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“Deva Lunge!”

Upon seeing Dibarra taking action, there was no way the imperial uncle was just going to give up. Instead, he drew on a consummate movement technique called the Deva Lunge, allowing him to burst into motion.

As that happened, Yang Qi was leading Buddha Testimony on a chase deep into the crumbling temples of the Bastille of the One God. Here, the buildings rose high into the air, but they looked different from the other buildings. Plants crept up and covered cover the walls, strange vegetation the likes of which wasn't seen in the god world in general.

RUMBLE!

Heaven and earth shook as Yang Qi and Buddha Testimony exchanged blows.

Buddha Testimony was being very careful. There were numerous soul conglomerations here, floating around like jellyfish, and he didn't dare get too close to them.

Yang Qi was putting on a show of being scared of them as well, and was spending more effort luring Buddha Testimony to a location where he could effectively take him out.

They proceeded along for several hours, exchanging blows here and there. Eventually, they reached a large temple, the vicinity of which abounded with soul conglomerations and groups of converted angels.

At that point, Yang Qi stopped and plastered an odd smile on his face. They were in such a dangerous situation that no one in their right mind would dare to take any action. Of course, Yang Qi was different.

He now had Buddha Testimony in a location where he couldn’t use any trump cards to easily escape.

“What are you smiling for, Mister Second? Don’t you understand that there’s nowhere left to run to? How are those angel souls inside you feeling? We're surrounded by soul conglomerations! You can’t go back, because I'm blocking the way, and you can't go forward. This is a very dangerous place that not even I dared to come to in the past. Where do you think you’ll escape to? Just surrender! Stop fighting, and I might spare your life. Refuse, and things will go very bad for you.”

“Nowhere left to run to?” Yang Qi said. “Those words apply to you, not me.” All of a sudden, his facial expression changed. All of the artificial fear from before vanished and was replaced by a confident, powerful expression.

He suddenly inhaled, and a vortex sprang up around him, sucking in all the soul conglomerations for hundreds of kilometers in all directions. To the complete and utter shock of Buddha Testimony, the glowing balls of light vanished into Yang Qi. Inside of him, the sage monarch magistrates began splitting apart and growing stronger.

“Y-y-you...” Buddha Testimony stammered. “Who are you? How are you not hurt? You just absorbed those soul conglomerations?”

“That's right. I'm not injured at all. I lured you out here to kill you. Even if your original dragon ancestor were still alive, he couldn't save you now. What do you say, Buddha Testimony? Did you really think I'm so stupid that I would absorb a bunch of deadly souls just to maintain face? As for my identity, I’ll tell you after you acknowledge allegiance to me. All three of you top experts from the various sects will become my puppets today.”

“You’ve got some wild ambitions, don’t you?” Buddha Testimony said, keeping his cool. He knew he was now in an extremely dangerous situation, but that remaining calm was crucial if he wanted to escape alive. Obviously, Mister Second had completely surpassed any of his speculations or expectations.

Just as Yang Qi was about to respond to his question, Buddha Testimony suddenly thrust his palm out and used a move from the Heaven-Defying Eight Steps.

“Savage Dragon Emerges from the Sea!” he shouted.

In response, Yang Qi unleashed his energy, summoning an immense pure land from the Sage Monarch Grand Magic.

“God Legion Paradise. Magisters!”

RUMBLE!

The pure land spread out in all directions, erupting with a gravitational force that sucked in all of the sagelight and angel souls in the area. At the same time, the two thousand sage monarch magistrates appeared, along with a few newcomers that had just split off.

All of these sage monarch magistrates had psychic scales and godhood ratings of nine hundred and ninety thousand.

Joining their voices together, they unleashed a shocking battle cry.

“Triumph in Every Battle! Triumph in Every Battle!” Their voices echoed loudly in the God Legion Paradise. Normally speaking, no one would dare to unleash a personal domain in the Bastille of the One God. Doing so would be pure suicide, as it would instantly attract the attention of the angel souls. And as the saying goes, it's easy to invite a god in, but hard to send it away.

But Yang Qi wanted those angel souls to come, even the converted angels.

Once they were sucked into the God Legion Paradise, they would explode and add to his strength.

He launched a fist strike at Buddha Testimony, and when their blows met, Buddha Testimony felt immense power smashing into his five viscera and six bowels, devastating his meridians and causing true energy to erupt out of him.

“That power is incredible! Are those thralls? How could thrall troops be so strong?”

Buddha Testimony staggered backward, his face ashen at the sight of the sage monarch magistrates pouring out of Yang Qi.

“That's right, these are my thralls. And guess what? I can absorb the power of the Bastille of the One God to make more of them. Do you know how strong that makes me?” He inhaled, and numerous cracking sounds rang out from inside him.

There was currently one main thought running through Buddha Testimony’s head: ‘I have to get out of here!’

Outside the Bastille of the One God, he would have been willing to hunker down and fight. But inside, he had to be extremely careful. Worse, his opponent was apparently able to use all the dangerous parts of his surroundings to boost his fighting prowess.

Even the thrall troops he was using seemed to be equivalent to Unbounded experts. What did that imply? Enough ants could bite an elephant to death. And Unbounded experts were far more than ants!

“Thinking of running? It's not going to happen!”

Psychic power spread out, covering the area as the God Legion Paradise spread out. In the blink of an eye, it had expanded to cover Buddha Testimony. All of a sudden, he found himself in the midst of countless godtrees and godflowers, with a gentle breeze touching his cheeks. And he was facing a host of sage monarch magistrates.

Yang Qi was there, sitting between two godtrees. One of them swayed in the wind, its leaves rustling gently. The other wasn’t moving at all, almost as if it were made of metal.

“What do you think of my god kingdom, Buddha Testimony?” Yang Qi asked. “These trees are manifestations of my own fundamental nature. One of them represents permanence, and the other represents impermanence. That is the nature of human life. Permanence is truth, and can never transform throughout all eternity. It represents my heart. Impermanence represents the transformations of the universe. The universe is impermanent, but my heart is permanent. Thus it is.” [1]

“You... who are you?” Buddha Testimony asked. “You’re not some big shot from the dao of devils. Your personality from before was just an act! And your cultivation is obviously totally different than you were letting on!”

“You don’t need to know,” Yang Qi replied. “The only important thing to understand is that you can’t escape. My pure land has been unleashed, and I'm absorbing energy every moment. In other words, I’m getting stronger with each second that passes!”

“Fine, I guess I just have to kill you. I’m still the king of fighters among the Dragonfolk, and the lord of destroyers! Even if you were stronger than you’re letting on, I'm still going to kill you! Prepare to die. Vile Dragon Destroys Heaven!”

RUMBLE!

A vile dragon erupted from inside Buddha Testimony, lunging toward Yang Qi, shattering the godtrees in its path and slamming the sage monarch magistrates aside.

“You made a mistake by coming here as your true self. Let’s see what you’re really made of! Not many people remember the name of Buddha Testimony, as I've been sealed for a hundred million years by the Dragonfolk old-timers. My true form is that of a vile dragon! A preheaven dragon formed from ultimate sin and enmity. I’ll kill you, take those thrall troops, and reach the late Paramount God level. Then I’ll wipe out all those damned Dragonfolk patriarchs. Eat them alive! And you too!

“Dragon Soars over Four Seas!

“Myriad Dragons Leave their Lair!

“Yin Dragon, Yang Dragon!

“Dragon Flies, Phoenix Swirls!

“Dragon-Snakes Contend for Hegemony!

“Eight Tribes, One Dragon!”

Buddha Testimony’s power began rising, his psychic scale and godhood rating climbing past ninety million and heading toward a hundred million!

He was using this evil dragon to smash everything, and using the energy of sin and enmity to transform the God Legion Paradise into a kingdom of dragons.

“Myriad Things Become Dragons; Kingdom of God Dragons; Lair of Vile Dragons; Cave of Evil Dragons; Chasm of Savage Dragons!”

Immense power erupted everywhere.

Crack!

One of the godtrees couldn't withstand the force, and transformed into a vile dragon!

Before, the God Legion Paradise had been filled with flowers and vegetation, but with Buddha Testimony there, sending out immense quantities of the energy of sin and enmity, all of the plants were transforming into dragons!

“I don’t care who you are. You're going to see a magic of magics that I've been cultivating for hundreds of millions of years! The Sin and Enmity Dragonization Incantation!”

1. You may remember a previous section of the story talking about two trees representing permanence and impermanence. That was in chapter 1058, in the part with the Genesis Sanctum. As I mentioned in the footnote of that chapter, impermanence is a real thing from Buddhism, as is the concept of the twin trees. More info here about impermanence, and here about the trees.