Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Within the depths of the universe, the spatial tempests and energy flows were dangerous enough to kill fifth stage World-Demolishers. There were even some areas of particular chaos and severity that would be deadly even to sixth stage Abstrusity-Demolishers and seventh stage Wilds-Demolishers.

Whizz!

A wind of blades appeared, filled with blade light. It was referred to as a ‘heavenblade squall’, and it was immensely powerful and dangerous.

However, the emissaries from the Brahman Society had no trouble at all dealing with things like that. They were all ninth stage Dao-Demolishers, so as soon as they saw it approaching they threw up a shield of light to protect themselves.

The heavenblade squall slammed into the shield and thunderous booms rang out.

“This heavenblade squall is strong,” one of the emissaries said. “It sure is dangerous traveling about the universe. If you’re not careful, you could easily get sucked into a deadly vortex. We have to stick to the paths outlined by the immortal worlds, otherwise we’ll end up lost forever. Only Godmyths are strong enough to just travel about at will.”

“You want to be a Godmyth?” the leader said. “I've been in the ninth stage for tens of thousands of years, yet not even I have any hope of reaching the Godmyth level.”

Another of the emissaries fawningly said, “How many lineaments do you have on your dao heart, Captain? Once you reach the ninth stage and form your dao heart, you have to experience nine tribulations. And with each tribulation, a lineament is formed on the dao heart. The number of lineaments shows your progress, and when you finally get enough, your dao heart shatters and your nascent divinity becomes mythological. At that point, you reach the Godmyth level.”

The leader snorted. “I only have three lineaments. And you can drop the act. There’s no need for brown-nosing. We have a big opportunity on our hands here. We really hooked a big fish.”

He looked over at Yang Qi in the cage. “The fact that he can spend power stones the way he did means that he came across some sort of good fortune—probably a godrelic. We just need to force the details out of him and we can all advance by leaps and bounds.”

“Exactly,” another of the emissaries said. “We’re on orders to bring this guy back to the headquarters, but that doesn’t mean we can’t profit a bit along the way.”

“Come on,” the leader said. “Let’s find a good place to finish the interrogation and drag all of his secrets out of him. My Nine Heavens Deadfall Soulsearch technique can scrape his sea of consciousness clean of all the information. In fact, it will even pull up things that he’s forgotten.”

Within the cage, Yang Qi appeared to be twitching and moaning because of the various torture techniques that the emissaries were throwing at him.

Of course, no one realized that it was just an illusion and that the real Yang Qi was literally looming over their heads.

‘So, Princess Jadefall says that the buzz cut kid and Chancellor Demi-Immortal appeared.’ Because of their shared cultivation—and because they were a Reincarnated One and a Fateless One, respectively—Princess Jadefall and Yang Qi were connected and could communicate with each other at any distance.

Of course, Yang Qi could sever their connection at any time, if necessary. But for now, her help was invaluable and came with many benefits.

Right now, he was using these Brahman Society emissaries as bait, in the hopes of catching a big fish such as the kid in yellow. He was a Future One, with King Immortal-Slayer’s legacy and the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart; if he continued to grow in strength and power, he would eventually be a big threat. Although Yang Qi was certain the kid in yellow and Chancellor Demi-Immortal had come to the Titan Emperor Heaven, he had no way to track them down. The immortal world was simply too big.

But now he was about to hook them.

As long as he could get the kid in yellow to reveal himself, he could crush him and get the power of a Future One. Of course, King Immortal-Slayer’s legacy, and the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, would also be immensely helpful.

With the chart, he might finally be in a position to tangle directly with Proud Heaven.

It was impossible to say how many clones Proud Heaven had, or where his true self was. And who knew what other secrets he harbored. Most likely, he was a Godmyth, and it was even possible that he had reached the Deathless Throne.

Even with all of his secret weapons, there was no way Yang Qi was in the position to handle someone like that right now.

Continuing his conversation with Princess Jadefall, Yang Qi said, “I’m going to crush this kid in yellow out of existence once and for all. Only by assimilating him and his Future powers will I be able to get an idea of what Proud Heaven is going to be like. And that’s my only chance to strike at him and save mother.”

Princess Jadefall was a Dao-Demolisher, and had reached an even higher level thanks to her session of cultivation with Yang Qi. That said, she still wasn’t a match for the kid in yellow. She was currently shadowing him and reporting his position back to Yang Qi.

**

“Alright, we’ve tortured this bastard enough for now. Let’s find a good place to soulsearch him.”

“Very well.”

“I've already prepared the perfect location,” the leader said. “A while ago, I set up a mansion grotto halfway between the Megaplexus Heaven and the Five Blooms Heaven. The gravitational interaction between those two immortal worlds creates something like a preheaven labyrinth, which is the perfect place to hide. Not even a Godmyth would be able to find my mansion grotto in there. It’s the perfect place to conduct our interrogation, and also split up the profits once we track down his treasure.”

“But… what happens when we finally take him back to headquarters. What if they interrogate him and find out what we did?”

“It doesn’t matter,” the leader said. “We can just say that the stubborn imperial court from the Titan Emperor Heaven ambushed us after we left and rescued him. Headquarters will definitely send people to wipe the Titan Emperor Heaven out of existence after that. Trust me, I've done this sort of thing too many times to count.”

“Alright, we’ll follow your lead, big bro.”

The others nodded, convinced that it was a foolproof plan.

Cold light gleamed in the leader’s eyes as he summoned a wormhole which they all flew into. They went along for about fifteen hours or so before they were in the very depths of the universe, halfway between two enormous immortal worlds.

One of them was covered with intersecting lines like those on a Go board. That was the Megaplexus Heaven.

The other seemed to swirl with five types of colorful energies. It was none other than the Five Blooms Heaven that the leader of the emissaries had just mentioned.

The interactions between these two enormous immortal worlds created a twisting, turning space-time labyrinth that seemed impossible to navigate. It was immense; in the mortal world, it would be able to contain hundreds of thousands of planetary systems. There were certain areas that had volcanic eruptions of energy that went on for light-years. Even high-level Demolishers who came here would face the risk of being killed.

“Stick close to me,” the leader said. “My mansion grotto is hidden in the depths of this labyrinth. I created it specifically to hide from Godmyths, if necessary.” With that, he flew right in, winding his way through the twists and turns with practiced ease.

As for the shadowy Yang Qi, he had no trouble keeping up.

He could already guess what was really going on. This leader wanted Yang Qi’s wealth for himself and was just leading the other emissaries to their deaths. It was a real pity the other emissaries were too naive to realize that.

Some distance into the labyrinth, all light vanished. Everything turned pitch black, and not even powerful daoist techniques could illuminate the area.

“What’s going on here? Why did everything get so dark all of a sudden? This is almost like the Hell of Gloom and Darkness!” The emissaries all started crying out, and some of them even summoned nascent divinity true flame to light the area, but it did no good.

CRACK!

One of the emissaries vanished, consumed by the darkness.

One by one, attacks smashed into the other emissaries.

“Sir, what’s going on? This place is extremely dangerous! Where’s your mansion grotto? Why did you take us—” He let out an agonized shriek as some enormous beast devoured him.

“This is my mansion grotto! I emulated the Hell of Gloom and Darkness to create a spell formation called the Kingdom of Gloom and Darkness! You can all rest in peace here, fuel for my spell formation. Once I rise to power in the Brahman Society, I’ll make sure to take care of anyone you left behind. You think I'm going to split my loot with you? Impossible!”