Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi had resorted to one of his best abilities: bluffing.

He had cultivated this technique to the point of perfection, and had used it on too many people to count. He bluffed his way from the impure lands to the immortal worlds, then from the immortal worlds to the Ancient Road to the Gods, and from there to the god world. He had used bluffing techniques on Patriarch Deva and the Second Devil General, and now he was targeting Buddha Thunderjolt, an expert from the Dragonfolk.

The moment he claimed affiliation with the House of the Invincible, Buddha Thunderjolt hesitated. The Dragonswarm Society was powerful, yet they didn’t even control all of the Myriad Dragons Lair. Therefore, they weren’t even close to the level of the colossal monster of an organization that was the House of the Invincible.

With the destiny, power, and resources the House of the Invincible had at their disposal, they could easily crush the Dragonswarm Society.

And that wasn’t to mention the fact that they had certain experts that the Dragonswarm Society simply couldn’t deal with. The mere mention of the House of the Invincible was enough to frighten virtually anyone that was familiar with them.

Normally speaking, Buddha Thunderjolt wouldn’t have believed Yang Qi’s claim to be from the House of the Invincible. But moments ago, he had sensed that Yang Qi had monarch godhood, which gave him pause for thought.

Most sects couldn’t produce monarch godhood, not even the Dragonswarm Society. It was only a truly colossal group like the House of the Invincible, who had directly associated with the Sovereign Lord in years past, that could produce disciples with monarch godhood. And of course, it wasn’t just any old disciple from such a group that would have it. Only their core disciples, like the children of important members of the sect, would have it. Therefore, if Yang Qi was a person like that, and Buddha Thunderjolt killed him, it would definitely spell disaster for the Dragonswarm Society.

Monarch godhood wasn’t anything to take lightly; any group that had it would view such members as extremely important.

“Are you really from the House of the Invincible?” Buddha Thunderjolt asked.

“Yes. As you noticed, I have monarch godhood. I'm a genius that the House of the Invincible has been grooming for a long time. If it weren’t for Buddha Swallow, Buddha Lotus, and Buddha Trueheaven trying to outright rob me, I wouldn’t have pulled out that talisman to kill them. And if you try harming me, I’ll pull out that same talisman and you’ll have a hard time avoiding death.”

“Hmph. Talisman? You don’t have any sort of talisman. If you did, you would’ve used it already. And you haven’t done anything to prove that you’re actually from the House of the Invincible.”

“Look. Harm a single hair on my head, and my backer will make sure you die a horrible death.” Yang Qi was really going for broke with this bluff of his.

“So what if you’re from the House of the Invincible? Does that mean you just get to kill people from the Dragonswarm Society with impunity? Hmph. The House of the Invincible is indeed impressive, but it's not as if they’d dare to tangle with the Dragonswarm Society in the Myriad Dragons Lair. We Dragonfolk aren’t afraid of anybody, and we never have been. Even if you were the son of the Sovereign Lord himself, I’d still take you captive. If the patriarchs of the House of the Invincible are so incredible, they can just come to the Myriad Dragons Lair to get you back. And if they come in with weapons drawn and banners flapping, we’ll just awaken the patriarch of all dragons to slaughter them!”

Yang Qi’s blood went cold at what he was hearing. After all, there was no way the House of the Invincible would mount an invasion of the Myriad Dragons Lair.

It was considered a profoundly enigmatic place, a massive world that had been created by ancient holy ones among the Dragonfolk who had slaughtered endless demons, animals, and even gods, harvesting their flesh and blood to create a sacrifice of the most epic proportions. As for the Dragonswarm Society, they were only one group to be dealt with. And if the patriarch of all dragons was woken from slumber because the House of the Invincible invaded, it would be hard to say how things would turn out.

In the Myriad Dragons Lair, Dragonfolk had as much of an advantage as Yang Qi had in the Bastille of the One God. Their fighting prowess would be significantly boosted, and they would never run out of godpower.

“What are you planning to do?” Yang Qi said, slowly backing up. “If you take another step toward me, you’ll regret it.”

Buddha Thunderjolt threw his head back and laughed maniacally. “There’s nothing in all existence that could possibly make me, Buddha Thunderjolt, regret anything. I'm very interested in seeing what a young pup from the House of the Invincible is capable of. Honestly, I'm surprised you chose to run to the Bastille of the One God. It—”

RUMBLE!

Before he could finish speaking, Yang Qi attacked. In the blink of an eye, the Tribulation Monarch Cannon appeared behind him, which had been powering up for quite a while, filling it with destructive energy that could cause entire worlds to go up in smoke.

Intense white light shot out, like the wrath of ancient angels.

It was divine punishment, filled with such bright sagelight that it was almost impossible to look at. After all, the tribulation energy of ancient times was so intense that it could destroy anything and everything.

Before Buddha Thunderjolt could even react, the screaming light of the Tribulation Monarch Cannon was right in front of him. Expression flickering, he thrust his hand out, summoning a huge shield covered with dragon scales and ancient magical symbols from the Demonfolk.

The white light from the Tribulation Monarch Cannon slammed into the shield, causing it to tremble violently. However, it held, preventing the shot from actually hitting Buddha Thunderjolt.

“A very powerful attack,” Buddha Thunderjolt said. “But how come it doesn't seem like a technique from the House of the Invincible? Most people would’ve been unable to defend against something like that, but thankfully I have my trusty Shield of the Dragon, which was blessed by magic from the exalted Demon Master, the powerful Demon Transformation Dhāraṇī Incantation. Do you have anything else that you think can pierce this shield?”

The Demon Master was a mighty figure in ancient times. He was one of the Four Scourges, along with the True Devil, Wretch God, and King Immortal-Slayer. Of course, ‘Four Scourges’ was the moniker given to them by the Sovereign Lord, because the four of them had opposed him.

Yang Qi had actually cultivated one of the consummate techniques of the Demon Master, that being the Psychic Devil-Raising Demon-Sacrificing Heaven-Defying Grand Magic. It was that very cultivation magic that he had used to reach the Paramount level of will convergence, forming a strong foundation for his monarch godhood. [1]

Considering that his opponent was also using a consummate technique of the Demon Master, Yang Qi knew he couldn’t afford to take it lightly. Thankfully, Yang Qi had his own plans for how to proceed, and wasn't at all interested in testing out this shield.

WHOOSH!

Spinning, he unleashed the Myriad Worlds Greater Teleportation. At the same time, he became like a black hole, sucking in all the surrounding light until he shone like a sun comprised of sagelight. Then, he simply vanished.

“Damn you!” Buddha Thunderjolt growled. “Trying to escape from me, boy? Stop dreaming! Even if you run all the way to the halls of heaven, you won’t escape my wrath!”

A mighty psychic power flowed out from him, so immense that it could instantly cover thousands of continents if it were unleashed outside the Bastille of the One God. And although he was limited here, he was still able to search hundreds of thousands of kilometers with no problem at all.

After all, he had a psychic scale of nearly a billion, which was vastly superior to Yang Qi’s.

In the blink of an eye, he identified Yang Qi’s aura.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi was speeding through the various ruins with practiced ease, simultaneously absorbing the sagelight, angels, and soul conglomerations.

Crack. Rattle.

The sage monarch magistrates within him were once again starting to duplicate. However, now that they had Unbounded will convergence, the power required to do so was a hundred times that of before. Therefore, the process went much more slowly. Right now, it was taking about six hours to produce just one more.

Before, he could have made dozens in that same period of time, possibly even a hundred.

All of a sudden, he heard the sound of military horns up ahead, as if there were an army there performing drills. Killing energy surged, and godpower pulsed. Soon, he caught sight of a host of angels marching through the air. And instead of being pure white like normal angels, they were faintly golden, with crown-like halos. They were archangels!

‘There’s an army of archangels here in the Bastille of the One God?’ Yang Qi thought. ‘It seems they have no leader, so they’re just randomly marching around.’

Meanwhile, Buddha Thunderjolt had also caught sight of the same group of angels, and stopped in his tracks. After all, the Bastille of the One God was also a dangerous location for him, especially if he ran into the rancorous will of certain almighty entities from the past. There were also mighty and destructive spell formations that could trap even him if he wasn’t careful.

By now, Buddha Thunderjolt was starting to be very confused about why Yang Qi seemed to be able to move around so freely here.

“That's an army of archangels, boy,” he said. “If you run into them, not even I would be able to save you. And the House of the Invincible wouldn’t blame me for your death in such circumstances.” But when he saw that Yang Qi was indeed charging straight toward the army, he let out a shout, the soundwaves of which were like tiny dragons that turned into a rope and shot right toward Yang Qi.

“Sound-Dragon Demon-Coil!”

Normally speaking, this was a technique that would be impossible for a person to escape from.

“Not good!”

Yang Qi knew that if the rope wrapped around him, he would be stuck. He drew on the power of the God Legion Seal, and golden light surged around him as he sped up dramatically, sending him right into the midst of the archangels.

The archangels would generally attack anyone who got close to them. But Yang Qi had the God Legion Seal, which made his aura seem exactly like that of the Sovereign Lord.

The loyal angels thus did nothing to him as he entered their ranks.

1. Yang Qi dealt with the Psychic Devil-Raising Demon-Sacrificing Heaven-Defying Grand Magic starting at around chapter 1204.