Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Night-Kṣetra truly was furious. He was an immortal paragon, an Abstrusity-Demolisher who had destroyed profundity and abstrusity.

Yet Yang Qi continued flying higher and higher into the empyrean winds and the dangerous lightning.

This was a height that most immortals wouldn’t dare ascend to.

The empyrean winds contained deadly ball lightning, the detonations of which could wipe even high-level immortals out of existence. Anyone who flew near such lightning would definitely be courting death.

Yet Yang Qi was a blur as he shot through it, with Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra hot on his trail.

Although Night-Kṣetra was having trouble catching up, he could see Yang Qi, and was convinced that he was the source of all the misfortune.

“Who are you?” he shouted. “How dare you steal King Heaven-Devourer’s talismans? Aren’t you worried about having your entire clan wiped out by us? You can’t escape! Getting those talismans won’t do you any good. If you stop right there I’ll spare your life, and even help you to become a truly powerful expert. Join the Heaven’s Net Consortium and you’ll have endless prospects!”

Yang Qi burst out laughing. “You’re very reckless, aren’t you Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra. You set up those talismans right in the middle of the imperial city for the purpose of consuming the immortal world’s essence and weakening its foundation. If word leaks out that you’re trying to subvert the imperial clan, you’ll be in big trouble. I'm just helping you get out of that predicament! You should thank me for being so righteous and helpful!”

In response, Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra very nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood. “You… you evildoer! You’ll die for this! I'm going to teach you a lesson you won’t ever forget, you little punk! Profound Gate of Heaven and Earth!”

Rumbling sounds echoed out as a gate appeared above his head, which exerted a profound gravitational force that even shattered the empyrean energy in the area and dragged it inside.

WHIZZZ!

Yang Qi suddenly found himself slowing down.

“Shatter the Five Phases; Reconstruct Heaven and Earth; Order of the Immortal Dao; Inescapable Net of Justice!” Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra shoved his hand out and true energy exploded like rain to create an enormous net designed to capture any opponent. “Coiled Dragon God Silk!”

It was a divine ability that Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra had created himself, combining the quintessence energy and souls of ten thousand dragons, the essence of the immortal world, and Heaven-Devouring True Energy, and using it to create an enormous magical net.

“Inescapable Net of Justice?” Yang Qi laughed. “What kind of bullshit is that? The Hand of the One God suppresses hell; the horde of devils submits to the holy one!” He spun in place, eyes shining with boundless light as he threw his hands out in front of him, sending out numerous shockwaves of destructive power.

RUMBLE!

A swirling vortex appeared as he went through all nine stances of the Hand of the One God, causing everything to tremble violently. A moment later, the magical net shattered and the gate exploded.

A huge hand filled the air, suppressing everything as it shot toward Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra.

“You dog bastard!” Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra shouted. “How dare you fight with me. Night-Kṣetra Profound-Heaven Spirit-Channeling God Fist! Heaven and Earth Spirit!”

This time, Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra threw his hands out with even more viciousness, causing what sounded like the chanting of spirits to fill the air.

Apparently, this fist strike allowed him to channel the power of spirits of heaven and earth to bless himself. He suddenly grew stronger and taller, making him seem like a ghost-god who could challenge the might of the great heaven above.

“Nice move,” Yang Qi said. “Now it’s my turn. Good fortune is the worker, yin and yang are the fuel, all creation is the copper. Heaven and Earth Furnace!” The Heaven and Earth Furnace appeared, filled with red-hot liquid as it shot toward Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra.

“Are you feeling suicidal or something?” Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra growled. “Myriad Spirits Pilgrimage!” He unleashed another fist strike, making him seem like the most holy figure in all heaven and earth, with ten thousand spirits rushing toward him and filling him with power and magical laws. Heaven and earth transformed, causing an immense tempest to spring up around him, filled with lightning and clouds.

At the same time, the Wheel of Fate slowly began turning, ensuring that no attacks could land on Yang Qi. He then drew fully on the nine stances of the Hand of the One God, and various other martial disciplines of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. Martial memories of the primeval infernal deities emerged from the God Legion Seal as he and the immortal paragon fought back and forth amidst the empyrean winds.

“Myriad Magics Channel Spirits!”

“The Dao of Spirits is Paragon!”

“Pierce Through the Spirit World!”

“God-Spirit Creation!”

A host of spirits appeared. Some were true-spirits, others were ghost-spirits, immortal-spirits, god-spirits, nether-spirits, or spirit automatons.

Then Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra unleashed true flame, his most ultimate technique. It was a combination of numerous energy arts that caused worlds to pop into being, complete with the cycles of the sun and moon and never-ending destruction and rebirth.

Yang Qi was instantly surrounded on all sides.

‘This guy is really incredible. I'm going all out, and still can’t get the upper hand. I don’t think I’m a match for him, although he doesn’t have what it takes to kill me.’ Yang Qi used every move he could think of to defend himself, simultaneously seeking an opportunity to strike back.

At the same time, he worked on fusing with the imperial snakecharms.

In fact, he was just on the verge of wiping out the quintessence branding mark, which would allow him to draw fully on their power.

When Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra realized what was happening, he burned with even greater fury than before and intensified his attacks, hoping to prevent Yang Qi from succeeding.

“Heaven-Born Slaughter Technique!” he growled. A god of slaughter rose up behind him, complete with three heads and six arms. Each hand held an instrument of death, and he was flanked by numerous banners of massacre. There was even a flickering projection of the character ‘kill’ floating behind him.

“Die!” Night-Kṣetra howled, throwing everything he had at Yang Qi’s defenses.

“Nice killing energy. And nice move. Unfortunately, you’re just helping me to wipe out the branding mark on these talismans!”

Suddenly, Yang Qi transformed into a primal-chaos elder-snake and lunged forward and consumed the incoming energy, preventing any of it from hitting him.

Crack! Snap!

Loud sounds echoed out of Yang Qi as his meridians were opened and primal-chaos vital energy surged through him.

‘Not good!’ All of a sudden, Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra realized that something bad was about to happen.

Unfortunately, he didn’t react quickly enough. The primal-chaos elder-snake began shining with dazzling light that locked down Night-Kṣetra’s vital energy and shoved his god of death backward. Suddenly, he was sealed, temporarily incapable of moving.

“I’ll be leaving now, Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra,” Yang Qi said. “There’s no need for you to see me off. And don't worry. I’ll come looking for you after I'm a Demolisher. Then I’ll wipe both you and the Heaven’s Net Consortium out of existence.”

The primal-chaos elder-snake shot away in the blink of an eye without leaving behind a single trace of its passage. Unlike before, there would be no way for Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra to track down Yang Qi.

As Immortal Paragon Night-Kṣetra registered Yang Qi’s words, his mind began spinning.

‘What? Become a Demolisher? Does that mean he's actually not a Demolisher right now?’ All of a sudden, he broke out in a cold sweat. ‘Who was that guy? He’s not even a Demolisher, but he’s already that fierce? I'm an Abstrusity-Demolisher and he nearly killed me! What will he be like after he breaks through?

‘This is impossible. Even if he were the offspring of a god, there’s no way he could be that strong. I've seen the offspring of gods before. They have invincible blood and perfect, immensely powerful genes. But not even they could do something like this. Maybe this guy was just trying to trick me.’

A moment later, his face fell. ‘I'm finished. Done for. I have no way to track him down, and he took the six hundred and sixty-six snakecharms. The lord is not going to let me off the hook for this. My god. What should I do? If I go back and confess, I'm dead for sure. I should run. Yes! Flee! I can't stay in the Titan Emperor Heaven any longer. I have to find someone else to work for. Considering I'm in the sixth stage of Demolishing, I can definitely face the spatial tempests of the universe and leave this place. It will be dangerous, but it’s better than being punished by the lord.’

Having reached this point in his train of thought, he turned and sped away.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi reached a suitable location and dropped to the ground.

‘Excellent. This couldn’t have gone better.’

He had landed in a wide plane bordered by beautiful mountains and peppered with random cities and buildings. It looked very much like a rustic hamlet district from the mortal world.

Yang Qi could sense that there were no cultivation experts in the area, which meant that he could get to work. The primal-chaos elder-snake in his hand was roughly the size of a thumb, and it wriggled and twitched constantly. However, it was continuing to devour the essence of the immortal world around it, converting it into Heaven-Devouring True Energy in its belly.

He had jumped from nearly two hundred talismans to well over eight hundred, and that was not merely a quadrupling in raw power. It actually boosted him by nearly a hundredfold. And each talisman he acquired from here on out would provoke more heaven-shaking, earth-toppling changes.