Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

The immortal emissary Titan Duelbringer did exactly as Yang Qi asked, and began praying to the Titan Emperor Heaven. He held nothing back, asking for immortal items, pills, stones, and even god items.

Even in immortal worlds, god items were extremely rare, definitely not things which were casually thrown around as gifts.

Of course, Yang Qi didn’t actually expect to get such rewards. He was simply probing for information.

As Titan Duelbringer prayed, Yang Qi surreptitiously used an energy art to watch for a reaction from the immortal world. He knew that Titan Duelbringer had some level of important status, and as such there would definitely be a response to his prayer. It wouldn't be like the supreme rector of old, who despite leading an entire group in prayer, could never be certain that he would get a response.

After Titan Duelbringer finished with his prayer, time passed. Roughly two hours later, a dark cloud appeared above a mountain peak in the Plane of Initiation. It wasn’t devil energy, but was filled with killing power and the muffled rumbling of thunder. It looked like flames of fury were brewing inside of it.

Crack! Snap!

The glow of lightning appeared, which formed into the shape of an enormous sledgehammer, something that could easily crush planets into rubble. Obviously, this was a punishment from the immortal world!

Indeed, a voice rang out from within the sledgehammer. “How dare you, lower world monster! How dare you defy heaven and the dao! You destroyed the Titan Emperor Collegium, established your own mystical network of laws, and began gathering faith for your own. That runs contrary to the interests of the host of immortals and profanes their will. You deserve to die ten thousand times over for your crime. Within moments, your network of laws and faith will all be destroyed! You will be taken captive to the immortal world, where you will forever be tormented by immortal flame! Tremble, mortal! The armies of the immortal world are coming. Just wait until your network of laws is smashed to bits! Those who defy the immortal world never live long. As for you, Titan Duelbringer, how dare you help this monster! For your act of scamming the immortal world, you are also sentenced to death! Your name has been stricken from all records in the Department of the Imperial Clan! Prepare to die!”

Lightning from the immortal world instantly began falling.

Titan Duelbringer immediately sagged weakly; he knew there was no way he could fight the immortal world. He could do nothing but wait to be cut down.

POP!

Yang Qi punched the lightning sledgehammer, which collapsed in the blink of an eye. Then he reached up with the Hand of the One God to rip apart the cloud which had just formed.

RIIIIP!

Even as the dark cloud was torn to shreds by the Hand of the One God, planet-sized fireballs began falling down with destructive force that seemed capable of destroying the entire Sage Monarch planetary system. Clearly, the immortal world had no patience for chaos below and was planning to simply wipe everything out and start over with new life.

“All Rivers Run to the Sea; Heavenly Flames Converge Together!” Yang Qi said. Immense power swept out and pulled the fire into his Heaven and Earth Furnace, where it was forced into the shape of a fist-sized śarīra filled with fiery fays. Clearly, it had become a fire-type precious treasure!

It was a śarīra of heavenly flames.

“Elder Sixth Sister!” Yang Qi said. “This śarīra of heavenly flames is no inferior to a greater godly item. Take it. It will be of immense benefit to your Preheaven Flame Spirit Vital Body.” Yang Qi immediately threw the śarīra to his Elder Sixth Sister, a young woman who wore bright-red clothing and was sometimes called Auntie Flamedance. Her unique physique was born out of primeval preheaven true flame and was extremely powerful.

“Many thanks, Junior Brother,” she said with a smile. “Based on that prayer, it seems the immortal world knows about what's happened here, and their army will certainly arrive soon. What orders do you have now? We Elder Brothers and Sisters will follow any instructions you give. We definitely need to take action immediately.”

“You're right, the immortal world will be invading shortly. Get ready. And send down orders to get into battle formation. We will form the core of the fighting force, and our objective will be to defend the central area of the Sage Monarch planetary system. I'm fairly certain that, after they emerge from the passageway, they’ll spread out and try to kill all the leaders. After that, taking the rest of the planetary system would be easy. Unfortunately, their abacus calculations are off. I'm not going to be as easy to deal with as they think. In fact, I'm actually very curious to see just who will lead their forces against me.”

His voice thrumming with killing intent, he continued, “Fear not, Titan Duelbringer. You did well, and I’ll make sure you survive this. You’ve been expunged from the imperial clan registry, yet that doesn’t matter. Just wait until I defeat this invasion. Stick with me, and later on we’ll take the fight to the Titan Emperor Heaven, executing any who stand in our way. In the end, I’ll make you the new ruler of the immortal world. There, you will uphold my mystical network of laws and gather faith for me.”

“Many thanks, Milord! Henceforth, I, Titan Duelbringer, will risk life and limb to serve you faithfully!” Titan Duelbringer kowtowed over and over again. After all, he now had nowhere to go, therefore offering loyalty to Yang Qi was his best option. As for Yang Qi, having an immortal attendant would definitely be of much use later on.

“Milord, there’s something important you need to know.” Clearly, he was placing all bets with Yang Qi. “There’s unrest in the Titan Emperor Heaven! When the Hell of Euphoria invaded, the quintessence of the immortal world was damaged and many important people died. Quite a few other immortal worlds are just waiting for a chance to take over the Titan Emperor Heaven. All of the strongest people are occupying defensive positions there. There’s no way they’ll take important forces out of strategic locations and send them to the mortal world. I’d say it’s highly likely that they’ll send their lowest-ranking armed force, a fiendslave battalion. It's an army formed from criminals and lowlifes of all sorts. They’re more vicious than monsters, but they don’t have high cultivation bases. And because they’re not given any cultivation resources, they have no hope of ever achieving cultivation base breakthroughs. They’re essentially demented slaves that are viewed as little more than cannon fodder. Every immortal world has soldiers like that, which are usually used to deal with lower worlds or thrown away in minor squabbles with other immortal worlds.”

“Oh? Well, that’s a very useful bit of information. Fiendslave battalion, you say? Yang Qi thought for a moment. “How many soldiers will be in this fiendslave battalion?”

“Too many to count. I mean, not even I know exactly how big the Titan Emperor Heaven is! Not even a thousand planetary systems from the mortal world would be as large as it is. The immortal worlds are complicated, and it's not like I'm a leader there. I'm not even considered high-ranking.”

“The immortal worlds are that big?” Yang Qi shivered. The Sage Monarch planetary system was made up of the Four Wilds, plus the Central Planetary River. And it contained hundreds of billions of planets, each of which was inhabited by tens of billions of living things! Calculating the population of a place like that would be a difficult task. And apparently, an immortal world was larger than a thousand planetary systems all put together. It seemed impossible to determine how many soldiers they could muster. If an entire fiendslave battalion was sent down, they would definitely be difficult to deal with.

There was obviously a bitter fight to come.

Around this time, Yang Qi suddenly felt a sense of danger from above, something weighing down on his heart and mind from the dome of heaven. Everything began trembling, and as he looked up, he could see a rift opening in the sky.

“Get ready everyone! The immortal world will be invading soon. This is a critical moment of life or death, so hold nothing back. As long as we stand firm, we have great glory ahead of us. The Titan Emperor Heaven is nothing to marvel at and is beset by infighting! Fiend-devils, assemble! Prepare to be blessed by the boundless Eternal Heavenly Aria!”

WHIZZZ!

He began singing and the Eternal Heavenly Aria spread out through the planetary system, blessing countless fiend-devils. As the primeval god skill touched them, it was almost as if they were transformed into god-spirit-like god-devils.

Bursting with power, they began flying up into the sky.

RUMBLE!

Meanwhile, high in the dome of heaven, a planet-sized rift had been torn open which radiated killing intent and heavenly might, the type that completely surpassed any of the devil-ghosts below.

That was the aura of a fiendslave battalion. Just as Titan Duelbringer had described, the soldiers who made it up were all criminals and people viewed as the scum of society. All of them were fierce and vicious, making them the perfect type of cannon fodder.

Even so, they were all immortals, thus could not be taken lightly. Even peak entities from the mortal world couldn't rival them. As Yang Qi looked up, his Wheel of Fate trembled, a clear indication of the dangerous gravity of the situation.

Next, a voice rang out from the rift. “Lower worldlings, listen. Yang Qi, the Sage Monarch Collegium, and all the monsters who work with him have looked down on the magical laws of the immortal world. For these crimes, an army has been gathered and will soon descend. Citizens of the lower world, if you renounce the darkness and seek the light and rise up in resistance, you might have a chance to get out of this situation alive. But any who insist on following the evildoer Yang Qi will be trampled by our army!”

The words instantly spread out to fill the entire planetary system.

In all of the Four Wilds, countless planets, sects, churches, and clans heard the words. Numerous experts could sense the rift above and knew that something big was about to happen.

Many people who had been forced to follow Yang Qi, especially people from the Titan Emperor Collegium, such as the initiators, were already trembling in anticipation. They had long since decided to betray Yang Qi and this decree from the immortal world cemented that decision.

‘So, they want to betray me?’ Yang Qi thought. After all, his mystical network of laws instantly informed him of what such people were thinking. Obviously, he couldn't stand for such sentiment. “Fiend-devil army, find any betrayers and execute them immediately!”