Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

The angels in the Bastille of the One God were extremely difficult to kill, unless one had the ability to assimilate them. Even blasting them to the point of turning them to ash wouldn’t do any good, as the ash would fall to the ground and form back into the angel’s previous shape. There was something underground that caused this, although no one knew exactly what it was. It was one of the profound secrets of the Sovereign Lord’s ancient barracks, and not something that some late Paramount Gods could reveal the truth of.

The Sovereign Lord had been halfway into the Annulled level, which was far beyond any late Paramount God in existence.

Therefore, the four experts Yang Qi was following had no choice but to simply forge ahead, deeper in the ruins.

Angels were visible everywhere, and their daoist techniques, energy arts, and vital energy kept the Bastille of the One God completely locked down at all times.

“Damnation,” said one of the women. “On the outside, we could’ve destroyed these false angels. But here in the Bastille of the One God, our abilities are limited. Worse, the angels regenerate after you kill them.” Her flower of illusion was useless at the moment, as the false angels had no souls, and therefore couldn’t be confused by it.

“These false angels aren’t too bad,” said one of the men. “They might be as strong as late Paramount Gods, but they're a far cry from true ancient angels. True angels who were even just early Paramount Gods would be able to get into formation and unleash a will convergence that could slaughter virtually any enemy they faced on the battlefield. The false angels here can’t use formations to pool their power. And their genes are basically the same as our own.”

“We might as well just pool our psychic power and use the taboo technique Central Grand Tempest to clear out this whole area. They’ll be resurrected eventually, but in the time it takes, we can get out of here.”

“I suppose that’s our only option.”

The four experts joined their psychic power together, then unleashed a massive whirlwind.

Crunch. Crack!

Angels collapsed into dust left and right, clearing out the entire area. Even the soul conglomerations were destroyed.

“Let’s go!”

After unleashing the Central Grand Tempest, the four experts vanished into thin air. Meanwhile, Yang Qi had been forced to back up in the face of the devastating technique.

‘These four are very impressive,’ he thought. ‘I had no choice but to avoid that Central Grand Tempest of theirs. If I’d been sucked in, I would’ve been shredded to pieces. It would’ve been a very grievous blow.’

It didn’t seem the tempest would abate any time soon, and it was sending smaller individual gusts of wind whipping about everywhere. Each of those smaller gusts was roughly the size of a person, and when Yang Qi thrust his palm at one that got near, it released such destructive power that he was forced to stagger backward.

“Stop!” Yang Qi said in shock.

Waving his finger, he unleashed the Devil-God Seal, sending out vital energy and stopping the gust in place. Yang Qi had been forced to use the God Legion Seal to draw on the magical laws of the Bastille of the One God to stop that gust of wind.

It went to show just how shocking that tempest was. If he had faced this thing in another location, it probably would have killed him.

Yang Qi’s acute senses had picked up on the fact that this expression of psychic power had a unique signature that led to its ability to shred things to pieces.

Godpower was similar. Some energy arts could use godpower to generate mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. Others were extremely precise and incisive. There were even some that were soft in nature. It all came down to how they were supposed to be used.

It was the same with psychic powers. Some could generate illusions, others could take over the mind of the enemy. Some could create corporeal items, and some were just purely destructive in nature.

Yang Qi was extremely proficient in understanding and using psychic power. In fact, few could compare to him. After all, the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth and the God Legion Seal both had aspects related to the use of psychic power.

Because of all that, he knew that the Central Grand Tempest was a pure representation of destructive psychic power. And it was such a high-level representation of those factors that ordinary people could never understand it. Of course, Yang Qi was far from ordinary. After all, he had combined the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth and the Unspoiled Body into his Sage Monarch Grand Magic, which contained immense psychic force.

After sealing the gust of wind, Yang Qi’s eyes glittered like a photonic computer as he analyzed it on the deepest level. Then, moments later, he added the best elements into his own will, thereby forming the basis of a new technique of his own.

His will stirred, and he released his psychic power, forming concentric circles that rolled out around him. Then, Yang Qi turned his attention to another gust of wind.

Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam.

He destroyed one gust of wind after another, and the process repeated. In essence, he was using his mind like a sledgehammer, which was not an easy task. It was similar to killing people by beating them with one's bare hands. Although it was a simple task in terms of the process, it wasn’t easy by any means.

Adding godpower to psychic power in such a task would be like killing a person with a sharp blade.

Godpower was a tool, not something inherent to a person’s substructure. In other words, psychic power was like a person’s physical body, and godpower and godhood were like weapons in their hands.

Upon reaching the same level as King Immortal-Slayer, one’s godhood would vanish, leaving them in a pure psychic state, that of Nevasaññānāsaññāyatana, which was neither perception nor non-perception, neither thought, nor lack of thought. When one could enter a state of neither thought nor lack of thought, their psychic power could fuse with any universe or set of magical laws. They could create godhood with their will, send their mind across all of the continents in the depths of the god world, and scan all the hells that existed like the eternal sands.

Yang Qi was far from that level. At the moment, his will could only cover a handful of continents. As for the innumerable other continents, he couldn’t possibly cover all of them.

That said, given his current state of cultivation, he could at least understand the fundamental nature of psychic power.

He closed his eyes and sank into thought, considering countless matters, until at last he reached the end of his train of thought.

RUMBLE!

His psychic power converged on a single point, then shot out with explosive, uncontrollable force.

All of the gusts of wind around him were ripped to shreds and a nearby palace was torn to pieces.

The palaces of the Bastille of the One God were extremely tough, and not easy to tear down. Yet Yang Qi had just done exactly that, and with only psychic power. It was nothing short of astonishing.

‘I've finally gained enlightenment of a truly consummate technique. This move will be called Hero’s Last Stand, and it stands on par with Sage as the Master, Monarch Invincible, and Hegemon Without Bounds. From what I can tell, I've taken another step along my path to the late Unbounded level.’

His will was evolving yet again.

Only by reaching the late Unbounded level was it possible to rise to the late Paramount God level.

Hero’s Last Stand used psychic power of an incredibly intense nature, making it like a mighty hero who had reached the end of the road and was ready to hold his head high as he fought to his last breath.

It was now another trump card at Yang Qi’s disposal.

If he unleashed this move, he was confident he could strike a grievous blow on Patriarch Deva, probably even draining him of much of his fighting prowess.

Now, it was time to resume the chase.

Although the four experts had been taking a circuitous route, he knew exactly how to track them down. And along the way, he continued to make more sage monarch magistrates. Two days passed in which he lost track of how many soul conglomerations he had consumed.

He actually avoided the angels, as the fluctuations that were released when he subjugated them might have alerted his quarry as to his presence.

During this time, he broke past the level of six thousand sage monarch magistrates to seven thousand. It was a terrifying number. With his psychic power, and the new move Hero’s Last Stand, he could use them to unimaginable effect.

More time went on, he reached the level of eight thousand.

It was around that time that the four experts reached an enormous military base, or at least the ruins of one. It was a huge castle, apparently crafted from some sort of pure white stone. However, it was in ruins now, and even had some pitch-black devilishness in it, the scars of an ancient war.

“The former base of the Army of Radiance and Light!” one of the men said, his expression very serious.