Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

The Heaven Beyond Heaven was huge, and at the moment, he couldn’t fully draw on it. He needed to improve his cultivation base before he could explore its depths. When the time came, he would search its spell formations and nexus points, find its core, assimilate its essence, and gain full control of the place.

It was a process that couldn’t be hurried, but only accomplished one step at a time.

Besides, he was fairly certain the chaotic vital energy depths of the Heaven Beyond Heaven contained fierce, gigantic entities that would need to be cleared out. And that would be a dangerous task.

All Chancellor Demi-Immortal’s aura did was ensure that the defensive spell formations protecting the place wouldn’t oppose him. It wouldn’t do anything about the other ravenous dangers inside.

Thus, his immortal-slaying clone remained in place, working on his cultivation, absorbing vital energy to improve his own cultivation base and channeling power out for Yang Qi to use.

As Yang Qi received that power, he sent it into the Cruiser of Civilization, gradually replacing the power reserves that had been so severely drained during his fierce battle with Leaf Dao-Denier.

Thankfully, the extra legacy medallion and the god pill provided a big boost.

Yang Qi was currently on his way back to the Dao Defense League to continue his cultivation. He obviously didn’t want to just abandon the business he had set up there. As the war heated up between the future world and the immortal worlds, the demand for morphblight treatment increased, and the resulting profit was a huge benefit to the Sage Monarch Heaven.

WHOOOOOSH!

Descending from the higher levels of the universe, he neared the area where numerous fortified locations had been set up by both sides, between which fierce fighting played out.

Along the way, he saw future warriors pillaging and looting various areas, and fighting with immortals. The flames of war burned high. Bizarre morphlings could be seen here and there, taking every opportunity to ambush immortals and devour them.

The future world was a cancer that was slowly spreading and infecting the immortal worlds, and even seeping into the primal-chaos void.

Yang Qi paid little attention to it all, though he did slaughter the future warriors and morphlings that he encountered.

It was an easy thing for him. None of these future warriors were even close to being on the same level as the Warriors of the Great Dance, and of course, the morphlings were even less of a threat.

The Warriors of the Great Dance were crack troops from the future world, with terrifying fighting prowess at the level of sixth division Revisionist Gods. As for Void Dancer, he was at the peak of the Revisionist God level, putting him very close to a breakthrough to the Measureless God level.

The fact that Young Master Leaf had been able to hurt them so badly indicated that he was probably around the Measureless God level himself.

Right now, Yang Qi needed to use his newly acquired god pill, and whatever other means necessary, to break through to the Godmyth level. Otherwise, an eighth division Buddha God or a ninth division Chaos God could theoretically come along and cause huge problems for him.

Eventually, he arrived in the territory of the Nine Yangs God Sect.

There were a lot of disciples gathered at the main entrance, and as soon as they saw him they clustered around him. “Young Sir Dragon Proudheaven, you’re back! Sir, there are a lot of patients waiting to be treated by you. Even some of your own people! And the medicine you left is losing effectiveness! A lot of patients are about to die! They’re furious!”

“My own people?” Yang Qi said, stunned. It took a moment for him to realize that, since he had assumed the identity of one of the Dragonfolk, that must be who they were talking about.

‘Some of the Dragonfolk came? I thought they didn’t participate in the affairs of the world, including wars? They’re unusually independent and look out for their own interests, so why would they send experts here to fight? And some of them contracted the morphblight virus? Don’t tell me they’ve seen through my disguise. There’s no way. The Dragonfolk are a huge group, and they surely have plenty of mysterious figures. Besides, after assimilating August Patriarch Fire Dragon I got some pure dragon energy. I cultivated the Eight Tribes Godfist to a very high level, and the Cruiser of Civilization can replicate the aura of the Dragonfolk. I should be fine. I can just pretend to be an expert from some obscure subsidiary branch, and they’ll never know the difference.’

After contemplating these things for a moment, he said, “The medicine I left behind is losing effectiveness? What's going on?”

Yang Qi had been at this work for about a year, and had prepared a lot of medicine for his disciples to use if he left. It should have been more than enough to deal with the morphblight, but now it seemed the virus had mutated.

“Apparently, the future world created a new strain of morphblight,” one of the disciples replied. “It’s so strong that it's virtually impossible to save anyone who contracts it. The upside is that the medicine you left can at least slow the effects. But given enough time, all of the infected victims will die. Thankfully, you’re back now, sir. Maybe you can do something about it.”

“Oh? Take me to them immediately.” Yang Qi strode into the Heaven-Dragon Medicine Sect. The first sound that met his ears was a crash as the main plaque above the secondary entrance was smashed, and someone shouted, “Is that god-doctor Dragon Proudheaven of yours back yet? Is he looking to get killed? If something happens to the young sir of our clan, I’ll make the entire Nine Yangs God Sect pay for it!”

Frowning, Yang Qi looked into the spacious main hall and saw quite a few people laying in the various beds, most of them with low-level cultivation bases. However, there was one group of burly men, all of them clad in armor, with cruel, arrogant expressions on their faces. Some were older, some were younger, but all of them were clustered around one particular youth who was clearly afflicted with morphblight.

The young man lay on an enormous wooden bed that was itself a god item, festooned with a host of stars and planets, with a group of leaderless dragons drifting among them. It was a very stern and awe-inspiring sight.

‘Dragonfolk?’ Yang Qi thought.

Unexpectedly, they really were Dragonfolk, and from the aura and power they thrummed with, they came from a thirty-third ranked immortal world. Their mere breathing caused magical symbols resembling dragon scales to fill the area, transforming everything around them into a kingdom of dragons.

In fact, at a certain point, the effects spread to include one of the nearby patients, an old man who suddenly screamed as scales spread out over him and he began to be dragonized.

The patient's wounds suddenly became far worse, and blood oozed out of him as he grew fangs like a morphling.

“Hmph! Another patient turning into a morphling? Just kill him!” One of the burly Dragonfolk walked over and extended his palm, causing the roar of millions upon millions of dragons to fill the air as he launched a blow at the patient’s chest.

A young woman stood next to the old patient and rushed forward to try to defend him, but the mere force of the blow sent her flying off to the side.

“Stay your hand!” Yang Qi said, striding forward to block the attack.

The burly Dragonfolk’s expression turned vicious. “Who are you, brat? Looking to die? Fine, the two of you can die together! Swimming Dragon Flits through Heaven!”

The burly man suddenly became like a loach, flitting through space to launch a vicious blow toward Yang Qi’s acupoints. It was an attack filled with such numerous variations that, although it seemed like a superficial martial technique, it actually contained a very profound spatial divine ability.

“Trying to show off in my presence? Sadly, you’re not at that level.” Hardly seeming to pay attention, Yang Qi threw his hand out, fingers splayed as if he were about to grab the universe itself. Space coagulated, and before the burly Dragonfolk could do anything, Yang Qi’s palm slapped his chest.

The burly man was flung backward violently, blood spraying out of his mouth until he slammed into the wall, where he was embedded so deeply he looked like a bas relief carving.

“How dare you, villain!”

“Kill him!”

In the blink of an eye, a host of Dragonfolk experts all attacked with deadly force. Meanwhile, the disciples of the Nine Yangs God Sect shouted, “Stay your hands! This is Young Sir Dragon Proudheaven! If you hurt him, how can your own young sir get healed?”

The experts quickly ceased attacking.

“What? You’re Dragon Proudheaven?

“Hurry up and heal our young sir!”

Despite not attacking them, they still strode forward as if they planned to take Yang Qi captive.

Ignoring them, Yang Qi sent some gentle force into the old patient behind him, causing the scales to fade away. After a moment, the man opened his eyes.

“Father!” the young woman said.

“Many thanks, God-Doctor. I'm sorry for the trouble I caused you. Please, accept this gift.” The old man quickly handed over the gift he had prepared. “I'm from the twentieth ranked immortal world, the Rising Flood Heaven. I'm a prime elder from the Martial Rising Sect, so if you ever need any help, please, seek me out, we won’t refuse you.”

With that, the old man hurried away, leaving behind a few words echoing behind him. “Those dragons nearly took my life and I'm not going to forget it. I’ll get revenge sooner or later.”

“Are you feeling suicidal or something?” the Dragonfolk experts shouted, but then Yang Qi snorted coldly, and the pressure weighed down heavily on the hall, much to the shock of the Dragonfolk.

At this point, Yang Qi looked around at all the patients. “I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting. Please be patient while I heal all of you.”