Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi was finally getting a look at the Myriad Dragons Lair.

It was an enormous world made up of wriggling flesh and blood. The lands, mountains, rivers, and even vital energy were all made from either blood or flesh. The rivers flowed with blood, and the flowers, plants, and trees were flesh. And there was no rotting odor; everything smelled as fresh as could be.

As for the air, it thrummed with the aura of dragons. Any Paramount God who came here would be infected and transformed into a demonic dragon.

Tapping his foot on the ground, Yang Qi confirmed that it was also made from flesh. Reaching down, he tore a chunk out and found that it dripped with blood and the vital energy of dragons. It would obviously make the perfect food for a dragon.

Breathing a sigh of admiration, Patriarch Deva said, “The Myriad Dragons Lair was actually created by the sacrificed flesh and blood of countless Dragonfolk experts. And the flesh and blood here has a name: Dragonessence Bloodfood. If a human ate it, they would instantly become an incredibly powerful divine dragon. And any dragon that roosts here will have an endless supply of sustenance. Think about it. A dragon who holed up here, doing nothing but eating and sleeping, would still have an unimaginable cultivation base. Even better, there couldn't possibly be any danger here.

“Just what you’d expect of the Dragonfolk. Only they would create a lair as perfect as this. There are even rumors that the Dragonessence Bloodfood contains the flesh and blood of peak Paramount Gods.”

Yang Qi smiled. “That's true. I can sense life force and genes here that are millions upon millions of years old. I also sense consummate godlings. The Dragonfolk are the kings of all beasts, so it’s a given that they captured the most powerful godlings to sacrifice to their Myriad Dragons Lair. You can wear out iron shoes in a fruitless search, then find what you're looking for without even trying. I actually collect the life force and genes of ancient godlings, except most of them are now extinct, making them impossible to track down and buy. Yet this Myriad Dragons Lair is full of the stuff.”

He clenched his hand, crushing the flesh and blood, which then transformed into a tiny world filled with countless top experts and godlings, flitting about in dazzling fashion.

He chuckled. ‘Look at all these ancient creatures. Spirit apes, cloudgulps, heavengems, stonelords, soulites, skynets, heart lemurs, mind horses.... They're all powerful beings that existed in the preheaven before the god world. And they all went extinct in the God Legion Tribulation. I never would’ve been able to get things like this in the Deva Dynasty, Nine Dragons Court, or Sumeru Temple. I can break down this flesh and blood and transform it into raw genetic codes! I'm finally going to be able to push my sage monarch magistrates through their final breakthrough. They'll all be Unbounded experts!’

Yang Qi’s primal-chaos elder-snake transformed into a manifestation of draconic vital energy, then burrowed into the ground and began devouring the flesh and blood, sending it into the God Legion Paradise and the twenty-five thousand sage monarch magistrates there.

Before long, the sage monarch magistrates were surrounded in blood-colored cocoons, conglomerations of wriggling flesh covered with flowing magical symbols. Genetic material flowed, becoming chains filled with the genetic codes of ancient godlings and cultivation experts. There were also some of Yang Qi’s genes.

If this process concluded successfully, the sage monarch magistrates would transform into the most invincible type of thrall troop in existence.

At the same time, Yang Qi used the flesh and blood to transform the God Legion Paradise itself.

RUMBLE!

Things were happening to Yang Qi himself, thanks to all the dramatic proceedings. His aura surged within him, but he exercised complete control and only revealed a slight flush on his face from the effort. This trip to the Myriad Dragons Lair was proving to be an incredible opportunity, possibly even fuel for a breakthrough.

Unfortunately, his cultivation base still needed more time before it reached the next level.

The Second Devil General could sense what was going on. Sadly for him, he was imprisoned in the Everlit Godlamp, sealed by the power of King Immortal-Slayer and the purrling, and couldn’t benefit at all.

“Alright, let's find Buddha First-King,” Yang Qi said. “As a matter of fact, I already have Buddha Testimony from the Nine Dragons Court under my control, as well as some other Dragonfolk. Because of that, I actually command a third of the destiny of the Nine Dragons Court. I've just refrained from fully tapping into it because I didn’t want to tip off Buddha First-King. But now it doesn’t matter. Besides, tracking down Buddha First-King in this gigantic place would be like fishing a needle from the sea, so I might as well try to locate him via the flow of destiny.”

All truly powerful experts needed to use destiny. Any who didn’t would eventually just die.

“Destiny Inspection!Acquisition!” He made a grasping gesture, and the destiny of the Nine Dragons Court flowed madly into him. If it was the destiny of any other group, it wouldn’t make it into the Myriad Dragons Lair. But the Nine Dragons Court was made up of Dragonfolk, therefore, it posed no obstacle.

With the destiny of the Nine Dragons Court flowing into him, he opened his Lord's Eye and looked around for the clues he sought. Instantly, the destiny became like a clawed dragon, flying in the direction of Buddha First-King.

Yang Qi didn’t hesitate to follow, and Patriarch Deva stuck right to his heels.

The terrain of the Myriad Dragons Lair, from mountains to rivers, was completely composed of flesh and blood. And that meant a dragon could settle down anywhere and have plenty of delicious food to eat. However, Yang Qi could already tell that some areas here abounded with dragon vitality, and others had less. There were also other Dragonfolk here, including powerful patriarchs who were early or mid Paramount Gods. There were even some late Paramount Gods.

The Myriad Dragons Lair actually resembled the impure lands in that some places were poor and impoverished, while others were rich.

RUMBLE!

After some time passed, Yang Qi caught sight of pulsing destiny piercing through the greyspace of the Myriad Dragons Lair, thousands of times beyond anything from the Nine Dragons Court. In fact, it was so immensely stronger that it sucked up the destiny of the Nine Dragons Court in the blink of an eye.

“That destiny is incredible!” Yang Qi said, shocked. “What organization is it from? It’s obviously from some group founded by dragons, but it’s vastly beyond the destiny of the Nine Dragons Court!”

“The god world is incalculably huge,” Patriarch Deva replied, and his voice seemed to tremble with a bit of fear. “That must be from some dragon dynasty founded by a peak Paramount God. Without the destiny of the Nine Dragons Court, how do we find Buddha First-King?”

“We're fine,” Yang Qi replied. “I’ve sensed Buddha First-King's rage at having his destiny taken. He's considering coming out to investigate. Let's go!”

WHOOSH!

Using the Myriad Worlds Greater Teleportation, Yang Qi flew onward, eventually arriving at an enormous mountain.

It was tens of thousands of kilometers high, and hundreds of thousands of kilometers from end to end at the base. The Myriad Dragons Lair had large and small mountains, and given the level of Buddha First-King’s cultivation base, he was only powerful enough to occupy one of the small ones.

As Yang Qi neared, he used the Life-Death Void-Destruction God-Lightning to turn himself and Patriarch Deva invisible. The mountain was full of passageways and caves, almost like a huge maze, and in the middle of it was an old dragon.

He glowed with golden light. He had long, curved horns and flowing dragon whiskers. His eyes glowed with rage at how his destiny had been stolen, yet he didn’t dare to come out lest he fall under attack.

Crack. Crunch.

His body folded in on itself until he looked human. He was an old man in a golden robe, wearing an imperial crown and holding a long scepter.

He was none other than Buddha First-King, the founder of the Nine Dragons Court.