Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

The Deathless God-Lord Pill had been created by a powerful God-Lord.

God-Lords were more powerful than peak Paramount Gods, but weren’t in the half-Annulled level. In other words, they were slightly below King Immortal-Slayer, the Sovereign Lord, the True-Devil, Demon Master, and Wretch-God Ultimate.

Items created by God-Lords couldn’t possibly be simple in nature, especially medicinal pills. They contained incredible godly might, the type that could alter the genes of living beings. Even gods that consumed them could experience dramatic transformations, and become a newer, more perfect type of creature.

Top figures from the Deva Dynasty, Nine Dragons Court, and Sumeru Temple could wrack their brains to no end, yet never be able to create things like this. And it wasn’t possible to use perfect caliber godstones to purchase them, as there were no beings who could create them to sell.

Even Patriarch Deva would drool over a medicinal pill like this, as it would even allow him to reach a higher level. Of course, it would be difficult for people like him to come this deep into the Bastille of the One God to hunt for medicinal pills and the like. It was simply too dangerous. These four experts were far more advanced in their cultivation, and even they were having trouble in their travels.

The buildings here were immense, with many of them being tens of thousands of kilometers high, or even hundreds of thousands. When a building like that collapsed, it could truly be said to be a case of the heavens collapsing and the earth being crushed. Any items inside would end up buried deep below the surface, making them virtually impossible to acquire without using a technique like Yang Qi had.

Even the most elite experts of the time could do little more than scratch at the surface of such rubble and, if they were lucky, scrounge up a few magical treasures.

Looking down at the Deathless God-Lord Pill in his hand, Yang Qi nodded and smiled. Then he once again transformed into the shape of a magical symbol that easily roved about underground, looking for not only items from the seventy-two monarchs, but also the piece of the Mahātmā Jade.

He could sense that, in the depths of this military base, there was a location where a massive convergence of devilishness fought against the radiance and light. It was obviously from some ancient devil, and from what he could tell, it was likely that there was a devil general sealed there.

Yang Qi had been masquerading as the Second Devil General.

The Supreme True-Devil had employed numerous devil generals, and the Second Devil General was one of the strongest among them. He had personally fought the Lord of Radiance and Light, and had eradicated many top experts from the Army of Radiance and Light, including angel kings and archangels.

‘Don’t tell me my casual remark will turn out to be tragically poetic. What if the Second Devil General really is buried here?’ As he continued searching, he came across many treasures from the seventy-two monarchs, including sabers, swords, hammers, palace halls, flags and the like. There had obviously been a very dramatic battle fought here, and he was actually surprised he hadn’t come across any corpses.

‘I suppose any corpses would have long since been eaten up by the sagelight and transformed into vital energy. If living beings have a hard time dealing with the lingering power of the Army of Radiance and Light, then corpses would have an even harder time.’

After acquiring more of the items of the seventy-two monarchs, his God Legion Paradise came to pulse with more of the energy of monarchs, and a host of deadly weapons could be seen floating there.

‘Excellent!’ Yang Qi thought. As his collections grew closer to completion, and his understanding of the dao of monarchs grew deeper, it was reaching the point where he was like the embodiment of the seventy-two monarchs. He was the seventy-two monarchs, and the seventy-two monarchs were him.

Ding. Dong.

He found yet another item, this one deep in a subterranean cave that pulsed with the undulating aura of time. There were bells flying about here and there, releasing sound waves that could destroy the spirit and crush the soul.

These were items from one of the female members of the seventy-two monarchs, who was known as Queen Void-Melody. Her weapon suite consisted of a host of bells, and their clinking contained melodies of heaven, earth, men, and devils. Together, they formed a universal melody that could create new worlds and new civilizations. It was truly amazing.

After collecting the bells, he thought, ‘I was right. The seventy-two monarchs obviously fought a huge battle here, and lost many of their items in the process. Some of them are still here, but the majority fell out into the god world in general, and the lower worlds as well. Does that mean this place is connected to the lower worlds?’

As soon as the thought occurred to him, he couldn't get it out of his mind. If he could find a passage to the lower worlds in this place, he could get the rest of his friends and family from there and bring them up to be reunited.

The god world was the only real world. As for the lower worlds, they were illusory and virtual in nature, and it was only upon leaving them that a person could become truly real. The things that happened in the lower worlds were like dreams, which meant coming to the god world was like waking up.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. There had to be a way to the lower worlds here. In fact, he was starting to wonder if this place had something left behind by the Sovereign Lord, like a method to control the Ancient Road to the Gods.

With these thoughts on his mind, he redoubled his search efforts.

Meanwhile, the four experts had no idea what was going on. They were exploring the ruins above, but still had to deal with the dangerous tempests of devilishness and godliness. As they tired out, it became more obvious that Yang Qi could casually crush them if he wanted to.

He was growing stronger by the moment, and truth be told, there was no better place than here for him to improve his cultivation. It was even better for his cultivation than the Cruiser of Civilization.

Every breath he took allowed him to create more sage monarch magistrates, to the point where his collection was reaching the level of ten thousand.

More and more items built up in the God Legion Paradise as Yang Qi continued his search. As he proceeded, he realized that the devilishness was getting more and more intense, to the point where it was vanquishing the nearby radiance and light. It seemed he was reaching the origin of the devilishness.

There had to be some sort of fiend-devil sealed here, some immense and mighty devil general who, despite all the years that had passed, had never managed to break free. If that entity did free itself, it was likely that it would unleash a storm of destruction onto the god world.

‘I’m very curious to see what this general devil is like. Er, what’s that? How come I can suddenly sense a piece of the Mahātmā Jade...?’ Looking at the intense devil energy, he pondered whether or not he should proceed. Whatever devil general was sealed here, it was obviously nothing to be taken lightly, and if it were freed, would lead to incredible disaster.

There was no way he was a match for something like this.

But then he remembered the four experts had come here with the intention of supposedly capturing a devil general to give to their Master. They would clearly have some tools at their disposal to deal with that devil general if he managed to free himself.

That said, he was aware of the saying be careful, and you can pilot the same boat for ten thousand years. Perhaps it would be best to refrain from any reckless decisions. However, he could clearly feel the energy of the Mahātmā Jade stirring within him, indicating that the piece of the Mahātmā Jade he sought was secured in the same location as the source of that devilishness.

In other words, he had to continue onward whether he wanted to or not. He was meant to absorb that piece of jade, otherwise he would never make any further cultivation progress.

‘If the Mahātmā Jade is here, I have to get it. Even if that sealed devil general is extremely powerful, I must go forward.’ Calming himself, he continued onward.

WHOOSH!

Deep beneath the surface of the Army of Radiance and Light’s base, there was a huge tunnel, the walls of which were inscribed with innumerable holy magical symbols. However, the walls had been so infected with devilishness that they wriggled like bloody flesh.

A primal-chaos elder-snake appeared within Yang Qi and gobbled up the surrounding devilishness. Considering he had already subjugated the Mahātmā Jade, devilishness like this was of immense help to him.

As he slipped along like a phantom, the devilishness grew more intense, until it surrounded him on all sides. Eventually, within that black, wriggling flesh, soaked with blood, he caught sight of a terrifying human face.

It was actually a devil embryo, filled with the power of nirvanic rebirth and the reincarnation elements of devils.

‘What's this?’

He entered the devil embryo and found himself in a chiliocosm of worlds. Were it not for the fact that he had the quintessence of the Mahātmā Jade, not even the God Legion Seal would have protected him.

After entering the devil embryo, he found himself face to face with a shackled man with long, ink-black hair.

He was naked, and so tall and burly that he was twice as large as an ordinary person. Furthermore, he was bound in place by manacles of pure radiance and light. And behind him was an immense image, also formed of pure light.

1. I've been translating a lot of the idioms directly to keep that cool Chinese flavor, but in this passage, I'm opting not to do that. The idiom “drool over” literally means “to have (a stream of) drool three feet long”.