Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“A talisman?”

It only took a single glance for Yang Qi to realize that this was what was truly keeping the Second Devil General sealed up. If he destroyed the talisman, the consequences would be too horrible to contemplate. The talisman and the lamp were a combination that had been created by the Lord of Radiance and Light’s personal quintessence-blood!

“If I destroy that, Second Devil General,” Yang Qi asked, “doesn’t it mean you’ll just be free sooner rather than later?”

“Destroy the talisman? You think you can do that?” The Second Devil General sneered. “Look, just tamper with the talisman a bit. The lamp will think I’m escaping, and it will suck me inside. Once I'm in there, I’d normally be stuck forever. However, in the moment that the dimensional passageway opens to suck me inside, that's when you can make your move and take the lamp. Afterward, you’ll have to come up with a method to get me outside of the lamp.”

“So that’s how it is.”

Yang Qi could tell that the Second Devil General was telling the truth. And even if he had some tricks up his sleeve, Yang Qi could still use the God Legion Seal to level the playing field.

“Alright! It's a deal, Second Devil General. I’ll take you out of here, and you’ll reward me for it.”

“No problem. I can even give you a boundless devil art.”

“I don’t need any devil arts. I have the God Tombstone Palms, so I don’t need anything else.”

“What? I'm the Second Devil General! My martial disciplines are unparalleled under heaven! You don’t want them? The God Tombstone Palms are, um....” He had been about to say that the God Tombstone Palms were useless. But the truth was that the God Tombstone Palms were so amazing that even the Sovereign Lord had studied them. “If I'm not mistaken, boy, it seems you’re in a cultivation bottleneck. You’re a mid Paramount God with a godhood rating and psychic scale of ninety million. What if I could help you break past that bottleneck?”

“What? You could help me break through?” Yang Qi made sure to look shocked, but inside he was thinking, ‘That's right. You are going to help me with my breakthrough. After I take that Mahātmā Jade from your chest. Other than that, you think I want any of your divine abilities touching me?’

“By the way,” Yang Qi continued, “what’s a psychic scale? Ninety million? What does that mean?”

“It’s an ancient calculation method,” replied the Second Devil General. “An ordinary early Lesser God would have a godhood rating and psychic scale of one. The Lord of Civilization was the one who came up with this method. It's very simple. Anyway, do you want to break past the level of a hundred million? You could enter the late level! And I could help you do it right now!”

“I’ll pass,” Yang Qi replied. “I’d rather achieve breakthroughs on my own, or at the most, with the help of King Immortal-Slayer. Let me handle this talisman, and we can discuss other details later.”

“Hold on a moment. Given the level of your cultivation base, messing with that talisman will be very dangerous. Any mistake on your part could hurt me. It was designed by the Lord of Radiance and Light to self-destruct if it’s tampered with.” The Second Devil General waved his hand, sending out a stream of devilishness that created a suit of armor around Yang Qi, making him ten times larger than before.

“That’s my boundless War Devil Armor. Now, go ahead and deal with the talisman. Remember, the moment you attempt to do anything to it, it’ll fuse with the lamp and suck me inside. As soon as the dimensional passageway is opened, you have to act fast. Grab the lamp in that moment, and you should be safe.”

“I got it,” Yang Qi replied. He knew full well that the Second Devil General was desperate to be freed from his hundreds of millions of years of imprisonment. “Alright. Here I go!”

Yang Qi launched himself at the talisman and immediately sensed a powerful sword light slashing into the armor. That said, he smiled coldly and used the power of the God Legion Seal to suck in the attack power and use it to heal his sage monarch magistrates, even growing a few dozen more.

‘This power of radiance and light is incredible. Just what I’d expect of the Lord of Radiance and Light. If the talisman hadn’t been slowly breaking down over the past hundreds of millions of years, this would be much more difficult. With this influx, I should be able to reach the late Paramount God level without issue.’ Gobbling up the power, he reached out toward the talisman.

WHOOSH!

The talisman immediately began bending toward his hand.

However, as it did, intense sagelight shot out from the talisman and entered him. Yang Qi caught sight of a mighty god-spirit, holding a long spear that shone with radiance and light, which was currently stabbing in his direction. As it entered him, power that was more than ten times strong enough to kill Patriarch Deva coursed through him. This was the will of the Lord of Radiance and Light, and it was trying to wipe him out of existence with a single deadly blow.

‘The brat's dead!’ the Second Devil General thought, a smile spreading out on his face.

However, a moment later, his smile turned to an expression of shock as he realized that Yang Qi wasn’t even the least bit injured. In fact, he even seemed to be benefiting.

The Lord of Radiance and Light had his place in the God Legion Seal, so there was no way that an attack by him would harm the person bearing that seal. It would only help them.

And how much power had been contained in that attack?

Crash!

Sage monarch magistrates were proliferating like mad in the God Legion Paradise in his sea of energy.

Eight thousand!

Ten thousand!

Twelve thousand!

Fifteen thousand!

Twenty thousand!

The numbers continued climbing until they finally stopped at twenty-five thousand. At the same time, dramatic changes occurred to Yang Qi’s God Legion Paradise.

For now, though, he didn’t have the time to concentrate on such matters. Looking over, he saw the talisman had transformed into a stream of brilliant light that shot toward the Second Devil General, causing him to let loose a mighty howl. At the same time, he shrank down and was sucked into the lamp.

Then a dimensional passageway opened, revealing a host of tombs. Meanwhile, an enormous hand of radiance and light rose up from the graveyard, intending to grab the Second Devil General and crush him out of existence!

“Lord of Radiance and Light!” the Second Devil General shrieked. “You left behind your resentful will to try to destroy me! You couldn’t do it in years past, so you lured me into this base, where I’ve been trapped by the countless vengeful souls here. You thought we would both end up dead here, but do you really think I would just let that happen? Even without this boy to help me, I still would have succeeded with my plan to escape this place! Inexhaustible Devil Wave!”

RUMBLE!

A boundless black sea of devil water surged, pouring into the dimensional passageway.

He was hoping to make his escape even while stuck in the lamp. As long as he got out of the Bastille of the One God, he could rebuild his strength, break free from the lamp, and become invincible.

However, even as the lamp began to move, Yang Qi thrust his hands out. As he did, a golden figure appeared behind him, which reached out and grabbed hold of the lamp. Then, golden godpower flowed into the lamp, causing it to flare with radiance and light. Instantly, hissing and popping sounds rang out as the Second Devil General’s devil energy evaporated.

Yang Qi grabbed the lamp, then blurred into motion and vanished.

Moments later, a rumbling explosion could be heard as the entire area caved in dramatically. Meanwhile, Yang Qi was back in the form of a shining magical symbol, speeding up toward the surface. Soon, he was back in the military base aboveground, looking around at what seemed like a major disaster.

The quaking of the ground lasted for a few hours, then everything went still. However, the devilishness in the area was being vanquished by the sagelight, to the point where, in a thousand years or less, this place would have no darkness, only light.

Yang Qi found an appropriate place to hunker down and take out the lamp. Smiling broadly, he said, “We’re out, Second Devil General.”

“You have the God Legion Seal, boy! And it’s complete! What’s going on here? The only reason the Lord of Radiance and Light couldn’t kill me back then was that he didn’t have the God Legion Seal. With that seal combined with the power of his lamp, he would have killed me for sure. Your psychic scale is only ninety million, and mine is in the billions! I could kill an endless number of you! But how could I have guessed that you have the God Legion Seal!? The only upside is that your cultivation base isn’t strong enough to release its full might, which means you can’t kill me.”

Assured that he had the upper hand, Yang Qi smoothly said, “Maybe I can’t kill you, Second Devil General, but have you forgotten that you’re sealed inside the Everlit Godlamp? I can use the power of the lamp to assimilate you in a very painful fashion.”