Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

As Yang Qi looked at Mount Sumeru, the former dwelling place of August Patriarch Mammoth Heaven, a voice reached his ears.

“Young Master, I've been waiting here for you for some time.”

Looking up to the palace at the peak of the mountain, he saw Yan Wubing.

“Yan Wubing, you’ve reached the Demi-Immortal level!” Yang Qi said. “Congratulations!”

Yan Wubing bowed at the waist. “Compared to you, Young Master, I'm like nothing. News has already spread of your deeds in the Titan Emperor Collegium. An edict came down appointing the Holy Mother as the leader of the Hanging Mountain, and the August Patriarch was summoned to the collegium to be a student. Apparently he’s not fit to lead the Demonfolk anymore. Young Master, you’re virtually invincible in the Titan Emperor Collegium! You slaughtered elder kings and nearly destroyed the Hall of Beheadings and Executions. Everyone was shocked by the stories. In fact, many of the societies brought gifts to the Hanging Mountain because of you.”

“I heard about that,” Yang Qi said. “In any case, there’s no reason to think too much of it. Besides, the tallest tree attracts the most wind. The Yore-Wilds planetary system is still in ruins, and the Megaplexus planetary system could invade in full force at any time. If they do, we need to take the lead in the defense. By the way, it seems to me that they must have taken Mammoth Heaven away to protect him. Which society did he join?”

“Very astute, Young Master,” Yan Wubing said. “Although August Patriarch Mammoth Heaven lost his position of authority, he's actually stronger than ever. And now he’s even more of a threat to the Holy Mother. He’s benefited from his setback, and we’ve been set back because of his benefit. He’s in the Beastmaster Society and, from what I’ve heard, already has a high standing there.”

“The Beastmaster Society?” After a moment of thought, Yang Qi recalled that their society chief was a mysterious individual who had a big collection of imperial snakecharms. “So, he joined them.” He chuckled coldly. “Obviously, they’re trying to make things difficult for me. In that case, I don’t see why they need to exist any longer.”

“Young Master, please, don’t do anything rash,” Yan Wubing said. “The Holy Mother is trying to achieve her breakthrough, although she hasn’t succeeded so far. Why not wait until she’s out of seclusion?”

“What level is mother currently at?”

“After slaughtering those people from the Northstar Clan, she gained enlightenment of the Revered Demi-Immortal level. Afterward, she went into the Hell of Gloom and Darkness to try to unlock more secrets of the Jade-Emperor Profound-Welkin Exalted-Celestial God-Dao. At the moment, she’s still trying to reach the Universal Demi-Immortal level.

“She left orders that if you came here to the Hanging Mountain, I was to take you to see her in her secluded meditation facilities in the Hell of Gloom and Darkness.”

Yang Qi nodded. “Alright, lead the way. You know, I have a knack when it comes to hell. Mother really should have reached out to me. I could have altered that hell and subdued the fiend-devils for her.”

Yan Wubing waved his hand to open up a wormhole leading into the depths of darkness. As they entered, devil energy swirled and space-time rotated madly. Faces drifted here and there, devil-spirits that even Yan Wubing needed to be careful about touching.

Of course, Yang Qi wasn’t worried about them at all. Since he could enter the Hell of Mahānata, going to the Hell of Gloom and Darkness wasn’t anything to fear.

Yang Qi casually waved his hand and dazzling, holy light spread out into the wormhole. Instantly, the devil-spirits dropped to their knees in trembling supplication. Even the devil-gods that were lurking in the shadows kowtowed, as if they were facing the bane of their existence.

“Young Master, this is an ancient, secret passageway that the Holy Mother discovered some time back, a treasure trove left behind by of a certain god-spirit. It’s the godrelic that enabled the Holy Mother to achieve such spectacular cultivation speeds. Unfortunately, she lacks control of the lineament she discovered, which was why she wanted you to come see her. Perhaps you could gain further understanding of the godrelic, and achieve even further advancement in your cultivation.”

“Wonderful,” Yang Qi said. Looking around, he saw the endless mists within the darkness and could tell that this was a hell that focused on destruction. The devil energy itself was rife with a sense of ruination that significantly differed from the Hell of Mahānata.

The only inhabitants of the Hell of Gloom and Darkness were the destruction devil-gods.

That was another difference with the Hell of Mahānata, which was inhabited by all sorts of entities. Although the Hell of Gloom and Darkness couldn’t measure up to the Hell of Mahānata, it was higher than the Hell of Euphoria and was a place unsuitable for humans. Its devil energy was a high-level universal power, and was perfect for the cultivation practices of fiend-devils. In fact, it would increase fiend-devils’ battle prowess until they went mad.

As the passageway led through the hell’s greyspace, Yang Qi realized that he could sense the aura of the legion of gods. Apparently, it really was a god-spirit that had opened this passageway.

Normally speaking, hells were powerful enough that if their greyspace was pierced, the damage would quickly be repaired. Ordinary individuals couldn’t create permanent passageways into them, not even immortals. That was the realm of god-spirits alone.

This tunnel itself was truly an ancient godrelic.

Eventually, Yang Qi and Yan Wubing reached the end of the passage and entered the Hell of Gloom and Darkness. The power of destruction was formidable, and the devil-ghosts around them screamed with fury at the sight of them. However, the light of the God Legion Paradise caused them to immediately scatter.

Yan Wubing wiped the sweat off his brow. “Every time I come here I have to exercise the utmost caution. Without the god-spirit’s passageway, even a Demi-Immortal who came here would be ripped to shreds by the fiend-devils.”

“This is nothing,” Yang Qi said. “You should see what it's like in the Hell of Mahānata. In any case, don't worry. I'm strong enough now that, unless we ran into a Demolisher fiend-devil, we shouldn’t have any problems. I can even destroy Paragon Demi-Immortal fiend-devils.”

As Yang Qi looked around, he realized that he could probably open a passageway to the Hell of Gloom and Darkness just as he could to the Hell of Mahānata.

ROAR!

All of a sudden, a rift opened up and devil energy surged toward them. An enormous devil-god hand slammed into the God Legion Paradise. It was fully five hundred kilometers from end to end, scaled, and covered with countless devil-eyes that would strike fear into the hearts of any person who saw it.

This was obviously a destruction devil-god who possessed royal blood.

The instant Yang Qi caught sight of it, he struck out with his hand.

RUUUUUUMBLE!

A huge shock wave rolled out, casting the area into primal-chaos. Then, space-time shrank down into the form of a crystal, within which was a tiny destruction devil-god upon whose forehead was the character ‘royal’.

“It’s a royal fiend-devil!” Yan Wubing said. “Nobility among the destruction devil-gods!”

“A fifth order fiend-devil? I've killed enough Infernalfolk that this fiend-devil is like nothing. Might as well just kill it.” Closing his fingers around the crystal, he crushed it, and the fiend-devil, out of existence.

At the same time, the black smoke in the area dissipated, revealing a shining path in front of them that led off into the distance.

Yang Qi sent his divine will ahead of him and saw that the destructive essence of the Hell of Gloom and Darkness wasn’t present. Reaching out, he plucked a sliver of jade out of the air. It was the source of whatever power had carved this path through the Hell of Gloom and Darkness.

‘It really is the power of an ancient god-spirit.’ He crushed the sliver of jade, which dissipated without a sound into the space around him.

As he proceeded forward, he saw more such jade slivers, floating here and there. There were no fiend-devils whatsoever, almost as though the jade itself exerted a power of expulsion.

However, when Yang Qi drew on the power of the Blood of the One God, that force didn’t affect him at all. As for Yan Wubing, he could use what he knew of the Jade-Emperor Profound-Welkin Exalted-Celestial God-Dao to proceed along.

At the edges of the jade power, fiend-devils were helplessly lurking.

Yan Wubing looked at them and frowned. “I'm not sure why, Young Master, but lately the fiend-devils have been gathering at the edges of the godrelic. There are even greater fiend-devils. The Holy Mother isn’t sure why, either. She suggested that there might be some forthcoming transformation to the godrelic. Her dao comes from this location, and if something goes wrong her cultivation advancement could suffer.”

“I’ll see what I can do. That’s mother just up ahead on the altar, right?” Further ahead within the jade was an altar hanging in space, almost like a sphere. It looked something like a jade sun.

Sure enough, the Holy Mother was seated cross-legged atop that sphere, meditating.

Yang Qi could sense that she was indeed a Revered Demi-Immortal, and was currently trying to break into the Universal Demi-Immortal level. She was incredibly strong, perhaps as strong as he was.

Apparently, her rapid progress in cultivation was thanks to this world of jade she had discovered, which was none other than an ancient godrelic.

The jade sphere she sat on emitted a constant stream of true energy which contained the script of the Jade-Emperor Profound-Welkin Exalted-Celestial God-Dao.

Unfortunately, it was incomplete.