Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

As it turned out, everything had been a part of Yang Qi’s plan.

Why else would he have loudly announced that he was entering a dangerously unstable state in which he couldn’t afford to be disturbed? Things had played out exactly as he expected, and a hidden expert in the area had been lured out. Now he had Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend in his clutches, to be used as he saw fit.

When he drew deeply on the God Legion Seal, his battle strength would rise to the level of being able to slaughter everything in his path, even pierce through immortal worlds.

After grabbing the devil item that was the Myriad Fiends Pitchfork, he sent energy from the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth into it, instantly forcing it to submit. It was powerful enough to be the signature weapon of an entire sect, but now it was his. It even surpassed his seventy-seven imperial snakecharms—at least for the moment.

Even better, once he took full control of the Chiliocosm Mirror he would have something even better than the Myriad Fiends Pitchfork.

Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend screamed and struggled, hoping to break out of the world of the Chiliocosm Mirror. But he was even weaker now that he didn't have the Myriad Fiends Pitchfork, and thus, he was no match for Yang Qi.

He tried using the various immortal skills he knew, and all the combined righteous and evil cultivation techniques he had at his disposal. But they were all suppressed by Yang Qi’s sagelight.

“Myriad Devils Formation Cleaving!”

He unleashed a fist strike that sent a myriad of roaring devils out, an army that swarmed toward Yang Qi and even managed to bash through his sagelight.

Unfortunately, that was when Yang Qi flicked his finger, sending out true energy that melted the myriad of devils as if they were an army of snowmen on a hot summer day. Then he chopped out with both hands.

To meet the attack, Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend summoned a kingdom of darkness, filled with lightning and fiendish tempests that spread out in a powerful defense.

“Kingdom of Myriad Fiends!”

This was the kingdom he had produced after an entire lifetime of cultivation.

“Nice,” Yang Qi said. “A kingdom of both righteousness and evil. A combination of an immortal skill and a fiend-devil energy art. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be enough to deal with me. Even if we weren’t in the Chiliocosm Mirror, I would still be able to crush you. You have no idea of the limits of my cultivation base!” He began singing the Eternal Heavenly Aria, causing countless primeval god skills to appear and blessing himself into a state ten times stronger than before.

Here in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, he was actually far more powerful than he had been on the outside. After all, he had just gained enlightenment of the Tyrant Demi-Immortal level.

Sadly, the limitations of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart itself made it impossible to achieve cultivation base breakthroughs. That said, thanks to his enlightenment his true energy flowed with more strength and speed.

Therefore, his God Legion Paradise, Hand of the One God, and Eternal Heavenly Aria were all slightly stronger than before.

Thanks to the blessings of the Eternal Heavenly Aria, he shot forward with great speed, splaying his fingers to create a palm strike millions of kilometers wide.

Crack!

The Kingdom of Myriad Fiends shattered as surely as a chicken egg thrown against a rock. Then he dragged Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend out, like pulling a fish from the water. Without any hesitation, he slapped him with the Devil-God Seal, leaving him as tightly wrapped as a glutinous rice dumpling. [1]

The Devil-God Seal could seal devil-gods, much less immortals.

After the process was over, Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend was immobile and completely helpless.

“What is this?” Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend said, trembling. “How can this seal be so strong? I refuse to believe this! How could you possibly shackle my immortal body!? You’re only a punk Demi-Immortal! I'm an elder-immortal who can rebuke heaven and earth in the immortal worlds!”

Yang Qi shook his head. “I don’t think so. Your cultivation level isn't nearly high enough for you to dominate immortal worlds. That said, your immortal body will make the perfect spirit automaton for this Chiliocosm Mirror. Hellfire Crucible!”

The enormous crucible appeared, burning with intense flames. Without any hesitation, Yang Qi tossed Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend inside, whereupon miserable shrieks rang out, the type that could shake all heaven and earth. Outside, Eldest Brother, Elder Second Brother, and the others all felt their hair standing on end from horror.

But Yang Qi didn’t even flinch.

Exhaling, he sent true flame into the crucible, causing Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend’s body to slowly melt, releasing numerous motes of bright light that Yang Qi subsequently sent into the god essence of the mirror.

Yang Qi was rapidly wiping out the immortal’s will and turning him into a puppet of pure power. With the burst of energy, his acquisition of the Chiliocosm Mirror sped up. Without Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend, it would have taken a lot more effort to succeed.

But now it took almost no effort at all, and in fact, the process was leading to even further enlightenment.

The idea of the levels of power that would come with a god item had Yang Qi itching with anticipation.

“I refuse to accept this!”

At this point, one final howl erupted from the fading Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend. He suddenly erupted with a black mist that turned into a monster wearing a greenish robe. It was none other than a heaven-devil!

“Yin-Yang Heaven-Devil Soul-Reversal Dao!” in the blink of an eye, a whole host of heaven-devils descended to assist Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend.

“Heaven-devils? You think they can cause trouble for me?” Yang Qi waved his hands, and when the power of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth was unleashed, the heaven-devil’s faces became masks of dread. Howling, they faded away into nothing.

“AIIIEEE!” Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend let out a final scream as his last-ditch effort to escape was foiled.

Yang Qi clasped his hand onto the elder-immortal's head and poured godpower into him, wiping out his soul. Then he ignited his immortal body, transforming it into pure power.

Buzzzzzz.

The entire Chiliocosm Mirror began trembling.

From outside, Eldest Brother and Elder Second Brother could clearly see everything that was happening.

The mirror pulsed with light, rapidly shrinking down until it was only the size of a fist, whereupon it dropped onto Yang Qi’s palm. Now it looked like nothing more than an ancient copper mirror that had seen nothing but disuse for ages. Although it was covered with fanciful designs, it didn’t seem extraordinary in any way.

With the mirror in hand, any magical fluctuations in the area vanished into thin air.

“That’s the Chiliocosm Mirror, Junior Brother?” Eldest Brother said, somewhat skeptical. Accepting it from Yang Qi, he flipped it over in his hands and even sent some true energy into it, with no result.

“It’s the Chiliocosm Mirror, alright,” Yang Qi said. “However, it’s only in its earliest stages of development. Give it some time before trying to use it. I’ll keep feeding true energy into it to develop its space-time and activate the spell formations. It’s a god item, but unfortunately it's the kind of thing not even top Demi-Immortals could use. Not even you, Eldest Brother. If you try to use it without an immortal body, it will suck away your quintessence-blood before you know what's happening.”

Yang Qi sighed. “Upon fusing with it, I personally watched it wither Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend up. It’s a truly domineering item. On the other hand, his Myriad Fiends Pitchfork is a powerful devil item. Why don't you take it, Eldest Brother? I'm sure you can make good use of its power.” With that, Yang Qi extended the Myriad Fiends Pitchfork to Eldest Brother, who took it and handed the mirror back to Yang Qi.

“I can't believe we actually got a god item,” he said. No amount of true energy that he poured into it had done anything. “Not even my secret magic enables me to use it. Maybe I could burn some lifespan to improve my true energy by tenfold. However, losing the lifespan wouldn’t be worth it. Junior Brother, you’re really an invincible figure. You're only a fourth order Demi-Immortal, but you can already use a god item.”

“You flatter me,” Yang Qi said. “I happen to have acquired the most powerful type of godly-class energy art. Thanks to that, and a host of other factors, my genes have transformed into something inconceivable. Incidentally, Eldest Brother, now that the Invincible Society is back together, why don't we go see what other treasures we can find, then get out of this place? What do you think? I still have plenty of primeval godworm eggs. All we have to do is hatch them. They can eat through the void of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart and earn us plenty of benefit.”

As he spoke, he pulled out an egg for each of his Elder Brothers and Sisters.

He had originally acquired one hundred and thirty-eight eggs, but had given many out as rewards to his father, his sworn siblings, and various children of the Yang Clan.

After distributing eggs to his Elder Brothers and Sisters, he only had about eighty left.

Even still, that represented an immense amount of wealth.

“Incredible, Junior Brother!” said Elder Sixteenth Sister, Flower Fern. “You definitely deserve to be Master’s successor. How generous of you! We did some searching of our own after we got in here, but none of us were able to find even a single primeval godworm. But here you are, giving all of us godworm eggs.”

“Enough chatter, Junior Sixteenth Sister,” said Eldest Brother. “Hurry up and fuse with the egg, and hatch the godworm. Then we’ll see what else Junior Brother Yang Qi has in store for us.” Eldest Brother was the type who took quick and decisive action, and had already begun imbuing the egg with quintessence vitality. A moment later, the egg cracked and a godworm appeared, which Eldest Brother absorbed into his dantian region.

A broad smile broke out on his face. “With a godworm, not only will I be able to achieve my next breakthrough, but I should be able to draw on the power of the immortal world above before ascension! I should be able to form an immortal body early! According to the ancient daoist texts I've read, forming an immortal body in the immortal world is very dangerous. But doing it in the mortal world is much safer and will lead to huge benefits after ascension.”

“I can help you with that, too,” Yang Qi said, chuckling. “Once I break through to the eighth order and become a Universal Demi-Immortal, I’ll be able to tear rifts into heaven and harvest power and magical laws from immortal worlds. Furthermore, my Sage Monarch planetary system has an immortal formation that can connect to one of the highest of all the immortal worlds, the Tusita Heaven. With magical laws from there, creating immortal bodies shouldn’t be a problem at all. Elder Brothers and Sisters, your ascension is going to be no simple matter. But once it happens, we’re going to conquer the Titan Emperor Heaven, and you’re going to be the new rulers of the immortal world.”

1. Glutinous rice dumplings, or zongzi, are tied up inside bamboo or rice leaves. They’re a traditional food item usually eaten around Dragon Boat Festival. When you see the visual, you’ll see why likening a sealed person to one of these dumplings is particularly apt. For people from North America, or at least the southwest of the U.S., they are visually similar to tamales, except they’re actually tied with string. Here’s a picture.