Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

‘Patriarch Promoter, huh,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘He’s very strong.’

He had been paying close attention to everything since the arrival of Dragon Everlasting. Although he never actually made a move, in the end, he was really in control of everything. After all, he had essentially incited most of the elders into action.

Yang Qi knew that, Dragon Everlasting would definitely try to get revenge, given his personality. Therefore, he needed to meet with the elder kings who were his strongest allies and discuss the matter. After all, even if the God Dragon Tribe reacted with fury, the law cannot be enforced when everyone is an offender. With a unified alliance, not even all of the Eight Tribes working together would be too much of a threat to handle.

The Dao Defense League had become such a powerful force nowadays that no one would dare to offend it.

It stood in for heaven to promulgate the dao.

It stood in for heaven to defend the dao.

It had justice on its side as it fought back against the future world, and as such, was tasked with defending and restoring the destiny of the dao of heaven. Yang Qi had even heard rumors that the old-timers who founded the Dao Defense League were out in primal-chaos working on their cultivation. Supposedly, some of them had suddenly achieved cultivation breakthroughs, broken through bottlenecks, encountered good fortune, or received legacies from the ancient legion of gods.

For them to receive such blessings and rewards indicated that the dao of heaven approved of them and their Dao Defense League.

Yang Qi felt that he had already benefited greatly simply by being in the Dao Defense League. It was like being an important government official in a mortal dynasty, and everyone would back down at the slightest lift of his chin. Already, the Dao Defense League was starting to resemble the ancient Heavenly Court, whose destiny vastly surpassed anything from the mortal world by many times over.

It even seemed like it could create fate itself.

In the mortal world, emperors were sometimes given the title Lord Master of Fate. That begged the question of what title would be held by the lord of billions of immortal worlds.

‘If I'm going to continue to operate here in the Dao Defense League,’ Yang Qi thought, ‘I need to reach the same level as those old-timers. I need to take control of destiny, and not just rely on the blessings of the dao of heaven. That's the only way I’ll be able to handle Proud Heaven. Unfortunately, my cultivation level is too low. I need to reach the Godmyth level as quickly as possible. Only then will I be able to stand on equal footing with the old-timers. Unfortunately, that breakthrough is going to be very, very difficult!’

After Patriarch Promoter calmed the situation down, he looked over at Yang Qi sitting in the Sage Panacea Sect, then suddenly vanished without a trace.

Before long, all of the elders had returned to their previous positions.

Before any of them could say a thing, Yang Qi rose to his feet and said, “Many thanks to all of you for helping me drive out the God Dragon Tribe. I won’t let any of you down. Please, line up and allow me to heal your sicknesses and negate the effects of any heterogeneous true energy you have.”

A resounding cheer rose up.

Up in front of the group was an elder king that Yang Qi recognized.

“Daoist Hundred-Gods, please, step forward!”

“Alright!” He was the man who had led the charge, the same one who supposedly cultivated nearly a hundred different godly-class energy arts. Without hesitation, he stepped forward.

“Daoist Hundred-Gods, I can see that you cultivate a total of ninety-three godly-class energy arts, something that no ordinary individual could ever do. Even people with unique constitutions would end up exploding as a result. Obviously, there’s something special about you. Presumably, your search of various primal-chaos debris netted you a God-Smelting Shrub, which you used to fuse the godliness of those different arts. That’s how you summon that immensely powerful Hundred-Gods Cauldron Furnace of yours.”

“Yes, that’s common knowledge,” Daoist Hundred-Gods replied. “Young Sir Dragon Proudheaven, please heal my maladies. I managed to combine all of my godly-class energy arts, but my practice of cultivation has become very difficult as a result. I'm worried that if I try to advance to the next step, I’ll experience cultivation deviation. My cauldron might even shatter, leading to my death.”

“No problem. Considering your natural talents, I should be able to heal you easily.” Yang Qi threw both of his hands out, sending out streams of true energy that took the shape of dragons. The dragons swirled around Daoist Hundred-Gods for a moment before plunging into his acupoints. He shivered, and a booming sound like thunder echoed out as he began glowing with blinding light.

Gong!

A sonorous boom rang out, then everything went silent.

As Daoist Hundred-Gods clasped his palms together in front of his chest, ninety-three godflowers appeared above his head, creating something like a beautiful cloud. Atop the cloud was a huge cauldron that had no color to it whatsoever, but was instead the picture of purity. A moment later, the cloud and the flower shrank back down into Daoist Hundred-Gods’ head.

Crack. Rattle.

Dazzling light shone in all directions and auspicious blessings proliferated as a host of finger-sized immortals appeared.

Daoist Hundred-Gods burst out into contented laughter. “I finally combined the hundred gods! Merge the gods and transcend; gain enlightenment of the ultimate transformations of yin and yang; grasp the truths of godliness; combine gods and energy, combine energy and will… combine truth and the dao!”

He suddenly erupted with a dazzling aura.

“Excellent,” Yang Qi said. “Since you have perfectly combined ninety-three godly-class energy arts, I suppose I might as well offer a bit of additional help. If you reach the Measureless God level, you can become a new, supreme patriarch of the Dao Defense League!” Yang Qi waved his hand and seven dragons suddenly appeared above the head of Daoist Hundred-Gods.

A god dragon! A heaven dragon! A true dragon! And more!

Seven of the godly-class energy arts that made up the Eight Tribes Godfist descended into Daoist Hundred-Gods. The only one Yang Qi held back was the art belonging to the buddha dragons.

Many of the other elder kings reacted with outright shock.

“Is that…?”

“That’s the Eight Tribes Godfist! Seven of the arts combined! Now Daoist Hundred-Gods actually has a total of a hundred!”

“Daoist Hundred-Gods was already the strongest of the Revisionist Gods in the entire Dao Defense League. That made him one of the top figures among us elder kings. Unfortunately, he was doomed to make little further progress. He just had too many random energy arts all crammed together, making the Measureless God level impossible for him. Now that Dragon Proudheaven has helped him, he’s probably going to be able to break through after all. That’s some incredible benevolence from the young sir!”

“Seven godly-class fist arts from the Dragonfolk, and each one contains all sorts of profound truths. Considering that Young Sir Proudheaven can use all eight, I doubt that any Revisionist God could possibly be a match for him.”

“Why is he only a Dao-Demolisher? He can’t even reach the Godmyth level? Is he the legendary type of person who, if he becomes a Godmyth, will overturn heaven and earth?”

“This is big. If Daoist Hundred-Gods becomes a seventh division Measureless God, that will be a huge asset to the Dao Defense League. This is the kind of thing that happens once in ten thousand… no, once in a hundred million years!”

It wasn't just the elder kings who were shocked. Some of the almighty patriarchs who were looking on were suddenly far more attentive than before.

“A hundred gods combined; fused by the legion of gods; convergence of the dao of heaven; the true expression of the dao of gods!” Yang Qi placed his palm onto Daoist Hundred-Gods’ back, sending in a stream of power from the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth.

Daoist Hundred-Gods shivered and his eyes shone with a brilliant light. “I'm going to push through to the Measureless God level! If this works, I’ll owe everything to you, Young Sir! I, Daoist Hundred-Gods, hereby swear that I will live and die together with you. Honor or disgrace, I’ll share it all!”

All of a sudden, the magical laws of the dao of heaven produced heavenly tribulation.

An enormous wheel appeared above Daoist Hundred-Gods’ head, covered with sharp spikes that spun rapidly as it descended. Everyone gasped in shock.

“That's the Wheel of the Heaven-Dao! The fury of this heavenly tribulation is completely terrifying!” Many of the elders were shocked and began to back up. But Daoist Hundred-Gods didn’t shrink back. He attacked the Wheel of the Heaven-Dao with full force, ignoring its efforts to crush him to bits.

Space shattered as hosts of illusory heaven-devils appeared, which pounced on Daoist Hundred-Gods in the hopes of draining him of quintessence energy.

“Hmph! Heaven-devils dare to come cause mischief?” Yang Qi was prepared for something like this. All of a sudden, ten thousand swirling dragons appeared above his head, in the midst of which was a buddha dragon, an entity with the head of a dragon and the body of a person. The buddha dragon immediately charged to meet the heaven-devils, who subsequently screamed as they were wiped out of existence.

Next, explosive bursts of vital energy transformed into minor universes around Daoist Hundred-Gods, which then exploded. The majestic wills at play were so intense that even Yang Qi felt pressure. Thankfully, the tribulation wasn’t targeting him; ninety-nine percent of it was focused on Daoist Hundred-Gods, with only a bit being diverted to resist Yang Qi’s efforts.

‘Strong. So strong!’ he thought. Up above, the Wheel of the Heaven-Dao was exerting more pressure than ever. The critical moment of the tribulation had come. Daoist Hundred-Gods would either pass the tribulation, become a Measureless God, and leave the ranks of the elder kings to become a patriarch of the Dao Defense League, or he would die forever.

Yang Qi couldn’t help now, he could only watch.

Daoist Hundred-Gods really was a genius. Despite the pressure he was under, he exhaled some energy which formed an internal pellet bursting with godpower!

POP!

The Wheel of the Heaven-Dao began to crack.

Daoist Hundred Gods furthered the attack, a process which went on for seven days and nights. In the end, the wheel shattered and he rose to the Measureless God level.

“I finally broke through!” he shouted exultingly.