Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“This is preposterous! A shame! A complete humiliation!”

Far, far away, white clouds that not even spatial tempests could dispel swirled around an immortal world. Beautiful scenery stretched out everywhere, including majestic mountains and rivers that seemed like something out of a painting. Immense god dragons lurked in the clouds, millions upon millions of kilometers long, looking down at the scenery that seemed like something from a mythological story.

This was the Eight Tribes Heaven, and specifically, one corner of that thirty-third ranked immortal world, where the God Dragon Tribe resided.

Dragon Everlasting had returned home.

Black energy pulsed in his face as he sat atop a huge cliff, struggling to suppress the morphblight virus within him. He was surrounded by a group of elders with flowing beards who were transmitting energy arts into him. Obviously, these elders had very high cultivation bases.

Suddenly, all of the elders drew deeply on their cultivation bases, spitting out mouthfuls of blood that became magical symbols which then burrowed into Dragon Everlasting.

“All Things Become Dragons; Anything and Everything Succeeds!”

Countless streams of black energy within Dragon Everlasting screeched as they were extracted out of him.

SNICK!

The elders all trembled violently as the black energy entered them, instantly transforming them into morphlings. In response, Dragon Everlasting unleashed a huge palm attack which killed them all on the spot, then burned them with dragonfire, transforming them into nothing but dust.

“Whew!” Dragon Everlasting said, breathing a sigh of relief. “So I had to sacrifice all of these elders’ lives, and even use a teleportation secret magic, all to get rid of that virus. This version of morphblight is really strong!”

“Dragon Everlasting!” a voice rang out.

A massive dragon’s head dropped out of the clouds and came to a stop in front of the cliff. Sitting on the dragon’s head was a middle-aged man who was a powerful person among the God Dragon Tribe. He was Dragon Everlasting’s father, King God Dragon, one of the highest-ranking leaders in the entire tribe.

“Father!” Dragon Everlasting said, bowing his head respectfully.

“You just ruined the lives of all those elders!? You unfilial bastard! Not only that, you lost a huge amount of face for our God Dragon Tribe. We’re going to be a laughingstock from here on out! You’d better well earn that face back, do you hear me?”

“Yes sir!” Dragon Everlasting said, his hands clenching into fists. “I'm going to kill you, Dragon Proudheaven! You’ll find out the consequences of crossing me!”

“That Dragon Proudheaven is a genius from one of the subsidiary branches. Don’t let him off the hook for this, otherwise the other dragon clans will get involved, and they might turn him into a weapon against us. You have to capture and enslave him, then crush every bit of value out of him that you can, understand? If you come out on the losing end again, then don't come back. You’ll be expelled and turned into nothing more than a roving dragon.”

“Yes, Father. I’ll definitely keep a cool head. I need to figure out who exactly is backing this Dragon Proudheaven. What kind of an expert is it? Which old-timer from the Dragonfolk is he relying on?” Dragon Everlasting grinned cruelly. “I've already sent people to get information from the fire dragons. I’ll wipe out their entire tribe if I have to! How dare lesser dragons like them defy us great dragons. It's a crime punishable by death!”

“Good. I'm assigning my top generals to help you. Go back down to the lower worlds and formally join the Dao Defense League. The plan was approved by the old-timers from the thirty-third ranked immortal worlds and will eventually become very profitable for us. Right now is the perfect chance to both fight the future world and unite the immortal worlds under our command. Eventually, the Dao Defense League will become the cornerstone of all of the countless immortal worlds. You need to go down there and train! Gather the support of the various immortals and build a power structure. It’s imperative to reestablish the ancient Heavenly Court. The immortal worlds are currently weak and divided, but thankfully the future world invaded, which provides the perfect impetus to bring them together. Don’t let Dragon Proudheaven ruin all of our plans.”

King God Dragon was bubbling with anger by this point. “Whoever his backer is, get him under your control. Get to the bottom of this. If I have to, I’ll kill that person myself!”

“Yes sir!”

“Dragon Raver! Dragon Screamer! Dragon Shaker! Dragon Rocker! You’re all assigned to follow the young lord here on his campaign. If anyone gets in your way, kill them without hesitation.”

Four hulking generals appeared, all of them clad in armor and pulsing with incredible fighting prowess.

“In that case, father, I’ll head down immediately to capture Dragon Proudheaven!” Flying out at top speed, Dragon Everlasting left the Eight Tribes Heaven and headed down.

Upon nearing the Dao Defense League, he saw hundreds of billions of immortal worlds all strung together to create a line of defense. Dragon Everlasting knew that the Dao Defense League had already united many of the immortal worlds, creating something like an imperial court. As that trend continued, the immortal world would eventually cease to be the dish of loose sand it had been in the past.

He issued a draconic roar, and a host of young Dragonfolk appeared. Bowing, they said, “We offer respectful greetings on your return, Young Sir!”

Dragon Everlasting looked them over, and could tell that these were definitely the most skilled geniuses the Dragonfolk possessed. “As protectors of the interests of the God Dragon Tribe, you were assigned the task of recruiting elder kings from the various big sects. Have you finished the job yet? Also, now that Dragon Proudheaven left the Nine Yangs God Sect, what has he been up to? Did he really try to continue the operations of his sect? I want to take care of him immediately!”

The young Dragonfolk exchanged glances. “Uh… Young Sir,” one of them said, “we suggest you don't act rashly. Dragon Proudheaven founded something called the Sage Panacea Sect. All sorts of powerful people have been going there to get treatment. He even took a whole bunch of elders as his sworn siblings.”

“What? How ridiculously presumptuous! He knew he offended the God Dragon Tribe, and still he went and did something as arrogant as that? How detestable! I'm going to go kill him right now!” Dragon Everlasting immediately flew up into the air.

“Wait, Young Sir! This could cause a big problem!” All of the young Dragonfolk were clamoring similar things.

Dragon Everlasting simply snorted coldly. “You scum. What happened to the valor of the Dragonfolk? Dragon Proudheaven is a lesser dragon, but he’s got you this scared? It might seem like he's won some hearts over, but that's all superficial. Of course people beg and plead when they need healing. They’ll say almost anything in moments like that. But when all is said and done, do you really think they’ll stick to their word? If we go in there to kill him, who will possibly dare to stand in our way. We’re the God Dragon Tribe!”

Unleashing another draconic howl of rage, he burst into the interior area of the Dao Defense League and immediately caught sight of the Sage Panacea Sect, with a large group of elders outside lining up to seek treatment.

Raising his voice, he shouted, “The God Dragon Tribe has come to handle tribe matters with Dragon Proudheaven! This is Dragonfolk business, so would everyone please kindly step aside. Unless you want to sow enmity with the Dragonfolk, don’t interfere in our internal affairs!”

Dragon Everlasting had assumed that shouting in this manner would immediately result in all of the elders deferring to the face of the God Dragon Tribe. In fact, he hoped to see some of them try to kick Dragon Proudheaven while he was down, and help apprehend him.

But instead, most of them simply cast frosty looks in his direction. To Dragon Everlasting’s shock, one of those elders was from the thirtieth ranked Without Expectation Heaven, who was in the peak Revisionist God level and had already stepped halfway into the Measureless God level. Supposedly, he had miraculously acquired dozens of godly-class energy arts, all of which he cultivated at the same time using something called a Hundred-Gods Cauldron Furnace. Because of that, he was called Daoist Hundred-Gods.

A buzz of conversation had already begun.

“I can’t believe the God Dragon Tribe is back to cause problems for Young Sir Dragon Proudheaven! How annoying! If he pisses off the young sir so much that we don’t get healing for our heterogeneous true energy, we're all finished!”

“Kick him out! How dare these scumbags act so boorishly here at the Sage Panacea Sect!”

“Who cares if they’re from the God Dragon Tribe? Drive them out! Anyone who displeases the young sir should be killed!”

“Come on, let’s just kill these earthworms from the God Dragon Tribe. If we offer a dragon head as payment, the young sir will definitely negate our heterogeneous true energy!”

“Brothers! Elders! The God Dragon Tribe is here to cause trouble. They probably want to kidnap Young Sir Dragon Proudheaven to blackmail the rest of us. I’ve already started taking Dragon Proudheaven’s medicinal tablets; if they capture him, then who knows what the God Dragon Tribe will do? We need to side with the young sir. We definitely can’t let him fall victim to their scheme! Attack!”

RUMBLE!

The numerous voices turned into a big sound wave that rolled out in thunderous fashion.

Then a host of elders, grand elders, prime elders, paragon elders, prime paragon elders, and even elder kings flew out. These were the top experts from the top sects in the Dao Defense League and they were all joining forces to rush aggressively toward Dragon Everlasting.

“How dare you people!”

The four dragon generals, Dragon Raver, Dragon Screamer, Dragon Shaker, and Dragon Rocker smiled grimly and took positions to defend Dragon Everlasting. “This is a young sir of the God Dragon Tribe! Do you really dare to offend the Eight Tribes Heaven? Aren’t you worried that your clans will be wiped out and looted?”

“Attack!” howled Daoist Hundred-Gods, who summoned an enormous cauldron filled with nearly a hundred godly-class energy arts.

With him taking the lead, the other elder kings didn't hesitate and unleashed deadly moves of their own.

“Slaughter these God Dragon Tribe members! The young sir will definitely reward us!”

WHIZZZ!

Intense rumbling filled heaven and earth as a host of daoist techniques, immortal skills, god skills, and magical treasures became a flood that rushed forth with such intensity that few people could ever hope to stand up to it. There were even some powerful old-timers who preferred to remain in hiding, but still lent their power to the attack.

The massive, combined attack hit, and Dragon Raver, Dragon Screamer, Dragon Shaker, and Dragon Rocker exploded, with even their skeletons being shredded to pieces. Not even their souls remained behind. They hadn’t even had a chance to change their expressions from that of ferocity to terror.

Four generals had perished, just like that.