Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi really was caught by surprise that the three experts he had been about to subjugate were resorting to self-detonation.

All of them had power seeds inside their bodies, placed there by a peak Paramount God. They were seeds of pure arrogance and defiance that would prevent anyone from enslaving them. And if they reached a deadly situation, the seeds would explode, destroying everything around them.

That was why they said the Dragonfolk could be killed in battle, but never conquered.

And now, it was too late for Yang Qi to stop them.

How devastating would this explosion be? Enough that nobody could stand up to it, that was for sure. As the explosion spread out, Yang Qi quickly threw Patriarch Deva and Buddha First-King out of the spell formation. However, he didn’t flee.

Right now, he was in a moment of extreme danger. Of course, it wasn’t the explosion itself that he was worried about. Rather, after the three patriarchs exploded, their backers would come investigate. And when they came, the entire Nine Dragons Court would be wiped out of existence.

As to whether or not they would track Yang Qi down, he couldn’t say for sure. If they did, and they realized he was responsible, they might end up finding out about the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty and the Nacrelight Sageland. And that would be troublesome.

Then all of Yang Qi’s conquests up to this point would be meaningless, as he would be forced to flee to parts unknown.

How could he ever have guessed that the Dragonfolk would be this ruthless? This arrogant!? How could people who reached the late Paramount God level be so willing to kill themselves? It was one of the biggest mistakes he had made in a long time.

‘I can’t let the energy of this blast escape. I can definitely hide it. Life-Death Void-Destruction God-Lightning! God Legion Paradise!’

He quickly deployed the God Legion Paradise, which wrapped up the vital energy and confined the destructive tempests within the pure land.

Unfortunately, the forces of destruction were impossible for even the God Legion Paradise to handle. The twin godtrees of permanence and impermanence were ripped to shreds, and the rest of the lands transformed into something from an apocalyptic doomsday. Volcanos raged and the earth quaked; lightning crashed, and heaven and earth filled with bloody rain and the wailing of ghosts and weeping of gods.

Yang Qi suppressed the explosion as fiercely as he could. And he had twenty-five thousand sage monarch magistrates within him joining in the effort.

Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam! Bam!!

The force was too immense.

The sage monarch magistrates were shoved backward step by step, until they started exploding as well. In short order, thousands were wiped out of existence.

However, Yang Qi wasn’t ready to give up.

He held firm, but soon he, too, was being wiped away, until even his godhood was melting.

“Sage Monarch Grand Magic; Rapid Rederivation; End of the Road; Ultimate Flourishing and Decay!”

RUMBLE!

All of a sudden, a mysterious and enigmatic void popped into being within the numerous streams of destructive power.

This was a true void. A vacuum.

RUMBLE!

The death of his precious sage monarch magistrates had pushed Yang Qi into a pain so great he reached a level of complete, icy calm.

The self-detonation was about to wipe out the God Legion Paradise, but Yang Qi wasn't ready to give up. He knew that if he didn’t keep the power of the explosion in check, and the slightest fluctuation escaped, the patriarchs of the Dragonfolk would find out. Then, he would be in a truly dangerous situation. For the moment, all he could do was draw deeply on the Life-Death Void-Destruction God-Lightning to make sure no one found out about what was happening.

He was now trying to buy time. Even if he ultimately had to pack up and run, he could deal with that.

He had the complete Cruiser of Civilization now, which meant he could take the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, Sage Monarch Society, Nine Dragons Court, and Sumeru Temple with him if it became necessary.

After all, the space available within the cruiser was immense. It was as large as his heart needed it to be. In years past, the Lord of Civilization had filled it with countless civilizations. In comparison, Yang Qi’s groups were negligible.

Fifteen thousand sage monarch magistrates had collapsed into ash!

He had lost more than half of his force! And yet, he didn't frown. Thanks to his relentless efforts, the power of the explosion was finally starting to shrink within the God Legion Paradise.

“Be melted! The blood of the Dragonfolk is eternally proud! Your fighting spirit is immense. And now I finally understand what my sage monarch magistrates have been missing. Your three Dragonfolk patriarchs are so proud you decided to self-detonate rather than be defeated. And that is exactly what I need for my sage monarch magistrates to reach the next highest level!”

RUMBLE!

As the explosion shrank, he forced the genetic material and proud will of the Dragonfolk into his surviving sage monarch magistrates. Almost instantly, their energy skyrocketed, breaking through all fetters as they developed a pride and arrogance like that of dragons.

The remaining ten thousand sage monarch magistrates all acquired Unbounded will convergence, breaking past the level of nine hundred and ninety thousand into a million!

An indescribable aura rose up from them as they reached vastly higher levels of power. Whether it was their substructure or their fighting prowess, they were far beyond anything from before. The sage monarch magistrates from before were like weaklings, compared to these versions.

And although Yang Qi was spending a lot of vital energy, he was able to absorb the remaining vital energy from the self-detonation of the three experts to improve his sage monarch magistrates!

Even though he was only left with ten thousand of them, the fact that they had Unbounded will convergence meant their fighting prowess was equivalent to forty or fifty thousand of the previous version!

Meanwhile, fluctuations from the explosion had died down. Buddha First-King and Patriarch Deva were watching closely, very serious expressions on their faces.

“We’re finished,” Buddha First-King said. “Done for. All my work building the Nine Dragons Court, and it's going to be destroyed just like this. Now that those three experts are dead, the Dragonswarm Society’s patriarchs are going to wipe us out of existence. There’s no way to escape it.”

“It's worth worrying about,” Yang Qi said. “But I used my Life-Death Void-Destruction God-Lightning to cover everything up. As long as the Dragonswarm Society leaders don’t summon those three for a meeting, no one will have any idea of what’s happened. We should have time to come up with a plan. For one thing, we have to move locations. Patriarch Deva, call a meeting to discuss the particulars. We need to get all of the people and resources of the Deva Dynasty, even the continents, and take them away.”

“What? We're really going to move?” Patriarch Deva said, shocked. “The Deva Dynasty has a population in the billions. Moving that many people is going to be a huge task. Even if I were ten times as strong as I am right now, I probably couldn’t do it.”

“He's right,” said Buddha First-King. “And how could I possibly move the Nine Dragons Court? The patriarchs of the Dragonswarm Society are vicious, and they’ll definitely wipe us out down to the chickens and dogs.”

“It's not going to be easy, but we can do it if we handle it one step at a time.” Yang Qi opened his Lord's Eye to examine the details of the Deva Dynasty and the Nine Dragons Court. They were huge, and had immense destiny. Furthermore, they were so inextricably tied to the space around them that even if Yang Qi were ten times stronger than he was, he probably wouldn’t be able to move them.

It would only be possible to take away some of the most important items. But that would be a huge blow in terms of destiny, negating all of his efforts so far.

That was when laughter suddenly rang out from inside the Everlit Godlamp. “Not strong enough, are you, boy? You really got in a bad position within the Myriad Dragons Lair, didn’t you? All you have to do is share your life force with me, and you could probably conquer the entire Myriad Dragons Lair!”