Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Zhan was extremely pleased, but at the same time, profoundly calm. His battle spirit pulsed because of his martial arts reaching a higher level, and even his aura was multiple times stronger than before.

Defeating the battle spirit of the asura had been like fighting a hundred fierce battles, and had been profoundly beneficial to both his true energy and his martial arts.

Yang Qi nodded. “Yes, Father. You absorbed just the right amount of vital energy. Any more, and you would have been devilized, and turned into a maniacal warrior. Of course, I could have purged the evil from you if that happened. Now it should only take a few months for you to form true energy vestiges and reach Quinary Lifeseizing.”

“What?” Yang Zhan said, shocked. “Quinary Lifeseizing? True energy vestiges? Impossible. It usually takes a hundred years or more to achieve each successive breakthrough in the Lifeseizing level. How could I do it in a few months when other people spend hundreds of years at it?”

“Because of the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, and the flesh and blood of that asura. Not even the four institutes have access to resources like these.”

“Exactly,” said Lu Wangxian. “How could anyone possibly refine the flesh and blood of an entity in the Never-Dying Transformation? And who else could use the Grand Emperor's Pagoda? My father was hesitant to allow me to have dealings with you, Brother Yang. But when he heard that the chancellor gave you the Grand Emperor's Pagoda as a reward, he changed his mind.”

Just like Pontifex Flame, Houselord Spring-Autumn was deeply afraid of the Crown Prince.

But the news about the Grand Emperor's Pagoda prompted a change of heart. He decided to just wait and see what happened. In addition to allowing his son to have dealings with Yang Qi, he also sent gifts to Yun Hailan.

There was no other option than to try to play it safe with both sides.

Of course, Yang Qi understood the situation, and wasn't opposed to it. Obviously, it didn’t make sense at this point for them to risk their lives on his behalf.

“Very well, everyone. Let’s continue to work on our cultivation. Make sure to absorb the vital energy slowly and carefully.” Yang Qi settled down cross-legged, placed his palms onto the ground in front of him, and sent his true energy into the Rich-Lush Eye.

RUUUUUUMBLE!

A force shot out that was ten times as powerful as that of everyone else combined. Instantly, the huge conglomeration of flesh and blood pulsed more violently than ever, sending streams of dragon-like blood-energy high into the sky, where it was caught and filtered by the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, then sent through the Rich-Lush Eye into Yang Qi.

Yang Qi could immediately sense that this sura godpower was dozens and dozens of times as powerful as the sura flames he had dealt with in the past.

In response, numerous particles inside of him stirred. In one shot, forty awoke, providing megamammoth true energy that seemed capable of flattening mountains.

Thankfully, this was all happening in the Grand Emperor's Pagoda. If such a thing occurred on the outside, the levels of true energy that were raging in the area would level Yanhaven, and kill too many people to count.

But inside the pagoda, the Rich-Lush Eye controlled the force, sending out waves of opposing power to soften or block it.

In fact, not a bit of true energy leaked away, allowing Yang Qi to use it all for his cultivation.

With every wave of the incoming energy, Yang Qi felt his own true energy crystallizing, causing major transformations to his bones, flesh, and blood.

Adding the power of forty megamammoths to the previous two hundred and sixty, he had now reached a total of three hundred of those ancient beasts. How shocking, considering that the trunk of only a single megamammoth was strong enough to drain a stream, then shoot the water into the air to create a rainstorm that filled a fifty kilometer area. The power of three hundred such creatures was definitely on par with a Legendary.

In fact, ordinary Legendaries such as Flame Midheaven would be only a third as powerful as Yang Qi.

RUUUUUUMBLE!

As power coursed through Yang Qi, he sent more of his true energy into the bronze magical symbols that made up the Rich-Lush Eye. As a result, the spell formation went into full activation, along with the warding magics. At the same time, the flesh and blood up above sent out more dragon-like streams of blood-colored true energy into Yang Qi.

And thus, Yang Qi’s energy continued to grow stronger, flowing through his veins, arteries, meridians, dantian region and even his bones.

All of a sudden, it felt like more particles were about to wake up.

His flesh, blood, and bones were transforming every moment, and even his acupoints were shifting, along with the nascent divinities that existed within them. Everything about him was experiencing a heaven-shaking, earth-toppling change.

It was an unprecedentedly sudden and intense burst of power. Even more shocking, the golden imp in his ancestral aperture was also waking up.

With no warning whatsoever, it overflowed with boundless golden light, causing a mass of written text to appear, which was none other than a new technique.

‘What’s this…?’

As of this moment, Yang Qi felt like his mind was an endless mass of darkness, in the middle of which was a cluster of dazzling light. Closer examination revealed that it was a plethora of worlds, which was none other than the heavenly halls, the home of the legion of gods.

Below, in the dark, infinite void, were countless planes, so many that they were like the sands of the sea. And they pulsed with devil energy that seemed to indicate that they were the hells that were the home of the horde of devils.

Radiance and light defined the legion of gods in heaven.

Darkness and gloom defined the horde of devils in hell.

Gods and devils were eternal entities within the universe, and the conflicts and wars between them never ended. Endless space-time. Endless planes. And all of them trembled as though they were in the middle of evolving.

All of a sudden, a majestic power erupted from the depth of the radiance and light of the heavenly halls. That light met the darkness, and as it did, the power began to take a physical form.

Even when the figure was just forming, and was impossible to see clearly, it was obvious that it had an elephantine head and a human body.

As the light and shadows swirled together, massive power pulsed. After what seemed like the passage of millions and millions of years, the figure became a god-spirit, which stepped forth, causing all heaven and earth to devolve into primal-chaos, and keeping the masses of darkness trapped beneath its feet.

Soon, the chaos of the darkness began to recede, and the radiance and light of the legion of gods rose to superiority.

All of a sudden, Yang Qi realized what was happening. ‘That’s the body of a godmammoth. This is a body-tempering magic….’

As he watched, he received enlightenment from the golden imp, a technique mnemonic regarding a method to improve one's physical body. This was the orthodox technique he could use to progress toward the Legendary level, something that was an absolute necessity to achieve success.

Upon reaching the Legendary level, one’s body would literally explode, and the acupoints, meridians, and even the sea of energy would transform into primal-chaos. Then, using one’s technique, that primal-chaos could be molded back into a body. For example, if one cultivated the Cosmic Sunflare Sword to the ultimate limit, then when one reached the first Legendary transformation, the Blood-Form Transformation, one would acquire a Sunflare Sword Body.

But the technique the golden imp was giving him now was so far beyond the Sunflare Sword Body that it was impossible to even quantify.

In the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, the godmammoth body type gifted from the legion of gods was called the Physique of the Sovereign Lord, named after the ultimate ruler of all living things, who was often simply referred to as the Lord.

The legion of gods used their own power and quintessence to create the godmammoths to suppress hell, and subjugate the horde of devils. Because of that, radiance and light came to hold supreme within the universe. As for the Physique of the Sovereign Lord, it was incredibly mighty. Right now, Yang Qi was only receiving a tiny fraction of what he would in the Legendary level. Even still, the enlightenment he was receiving of its mysteries was enough to transform his meridians, and give him the initial aspects of the Physique of the Sovereign Lord. A moment later, transformations spread to his blood, which Yang Qi could sense was changing on a substructural level. Tiny specks of life force came to appear in it, like tiny people, devils, gods, ghosts, immortals, bodhisattvas, kings, and emperors. This was the grandest aura and power in existence.

As the tiny entities propagated, they organized themselves in accord with some predetermined, perfect order.

Yang Qi’s bones, joints, and marrow all thrummed as they connected with each other, and as his blood flowed, it seemed alive with magical symbols.

Whizz!

At that point, a vertical slit appeared on Yang Qi’s forehead, something like an eye. It was like an eye of the heavens, abstruse, mighty, and filled with the power of stars and planes, capable of bringing life or destruction.

Compared to this, the Crown Prince’s Rage Eye was almost like nothing.

This was a unique eye associated with the Physique of the Sovereign Lord, and it was called the Lord's Eye.

When a godmammoth opened its Lord's Eye, the most powerful devil-gods in the depths of hell wouldn’t dare to make a single move. It represented the past, present, and future of the world, and the most powerful ruler there was. It was the power of the Lord.

When the Lord said something existed, it would never be destroyed.

When the Lord said something should vanish, it would disappear forever.

When the Lord took control, he controlled the entire universe.

This eye was a gift from the Lord himself, presented by the legion of gods to the godmammoths, to use to defeat the darkness, to see through all planes and hells, and to defeat all devil-gods.

Of course, despite having formed the Lord's Eye, Yang Qi couldn’t release its full power. That would come when he was a Legendary.