Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“Yang Qi, you bastard! I'm going to go for broke!” Young Master Leaf’s attempt to escape had been thoroughly vanquished and he knew he was facing a major catastrophe. Yang Qi would kill people without batting an eye, and in many ways, was more ruthless than Leaf Dao-Denier himself.

‘I can’t allow it!’ he thought. ‘I can’t allow him to get the other parts of the map. If he opens the Aeonic God Temple, not even Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven will be able to keep him in check! If I don’t make my move now, I’ll never have a chance!”

Leaf Dao-Denier knew that his pieces of the Aeonic God Psalter were the only things keeping him alive right now. If Yang Qi acquired them, he would become so powerful that he would be virtually impossible to fight.

“Tusita True Zodiac!” He quickly drew on the true power of the Tusita Heaven to try to attack Yang Qi, throwing his hands out to summon violet god lightning that caused all of heaven and earth to tremble.

“Be suppressed!” Yang Qi said, performing a sealing gesture. Instantly, a stream of godlight weighed down on Leaf Dao-Denier, clamping down on his vital energy with steel-like force.

The violet god lightning hit Yang Qi, but simply dissolved into sparks.

“What?” Leaf Dao-Denier said, visibly surprised. Never could he have guessed that Yang Qi would have become this strong. All it took was a casual act on his part to completely crush the essence of the Tusita Heaven.

Of course, he had no idea how long Yang Qi had actually been connected to that essence. Yang Qi had begun gaining enlightenment of it way back in the days of the Sage Monarch Continent.

BUZZ!

Suddenly, numerous streams of light appeared above Yang Qi and converged into King Heaven-Devourer’s talismans, of which he now possessed a total of two thousand three hundred. As for the remaining seven hundred, they were somewhere out in primal-chaos, in the hands of certain unknown old-timers. Hopefully, he could use his upcoming duel with Sectlord Nine Yangs to get his hands on them.

Of course, he had complete control of Sectlord Nine Yangs, but no one else knew that. And it was a given that people would try to use the man to try causing problems for Yang Qi.

So he would take advantage of that.

In fact, he had already received word that Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven wanted to meet with Sectlord Nine Yangs. That made it seem likely that the Grand Emperor wanted to use the duel to make a move on Yang Qi, perhaps by setting up a spell formation in the Heaven-Dao Operation God-Temple. After all, Yang Qi was the only thing standing in Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven’s way of taking ultimate control of the Dao Defense League.

Sadly for him, Yang Qi was one step ahead of him.

“You’re not much use to me anymore, Young Master Leaf,” Yang Qi said. “I can already sense the aura of the two remaining pieces of the map on you. So hand them over!” Keeping the surrounding essence suppressed, he unleashed a primal-chaos elder-snake to devour the magical laws of the Tusita Heaven. Unexpectedly, a duplicate of the Tower of Tusita then appeared inside him.

It came because of how he had been sapping the magical laws of the place for so many years. That alone made him like the second lord of the place.

He reached out with the Hand of the One God, causing majestic true energy to swirl out toward Leaf Dao-Denier.

Leaf Dao-Denier could only watch in astonishment as his own energy was shattered; he was completely incapable of defending against Yang Qi’s attack. The gap between him and Yang Qi was now more obvious than ever, yet he still wasn’t ready to give up. “I'm a Fortuned One! What could you possibly do to me? Eternal True Blood; Fortuned True King! Shield of Fortune!”

An enormous shield appeared in front of him, dripping with blood that was apparently Leaf Dao-Denier’s own quintessence-blood. It pulsed with the power of good fortune, creating a powerful defense right in front of Yang Qi’s incoming attack.

When Yang Qi’s hand hit the shield, it was to his surprise that it actually stopped moving. Nodding in approval, he said, “Not bad at all, Young Master Leaf. Your energy arts and cultivation base are truly amazing. But how long will your Fortuned constitution really be able to hold out against me? You sacrificed a lot of blood just now to defend yourself. And unfortunately for you, I'm a Fateless One. In the end, I'm still your superior.”

“I’ll die before I help you, Yang Qi. I’ll self-detonate! I’ll destroy the essence of the Tusita Heaven, and the fragments of the Aeonic God Psalter as well. I’ll never let you succeed! If you dare to attack me again, you’ll never, ever get into the Aeonic God Temple!”

With great effort, Leaf Dao-Denier reached out again to the essence of the Tusita Heaven, which caused a mad inrush of vital energy to fill him, pushing his energy arts and Fortuned constitution to the ultimate limit.

“Fortuned Dao of Gods!” He threw his hands out, and the blood shield exploded into countless streams of magical laws formed of blood. In a shocking twist, he was actually attacking Yang Qi!

Yang Qi smiled coldly, dodging and defending himself with numerous fist techniques. “I can see that your attacks are a combination of your Fortuned vital energy and the power of the Tusita Heaven. Sadly, I'm not very impressed. Even the Tusita Heaven as a whole can’t do anything to me. I could destroy the entire place if I wanted to. And by the way, do you really think I would believe that you could destroy the Aeonic God Psalter? If it was so easy to get rid of, why would it be called ‘aeonic’. That implies that it will survive for aeons. So go ahead and blow yourself up. I can use the force of the explosion to devour the Tusita Heaven and get even stronger than before!”

“Blood of the One God!” He shivered as a drop of the Blood of the One God appeared on his palm. It rapidly spread out, becoming blood clouds that dispelled the essence of the Tusita Heaven, and caused the surrounding Tower of Tusita to violently tremble.

Yang Qi reached out again, and his hand became like a heavenly net that completely surrounded Leaf Dao-Denier. Then an Aeon Portal opened up, unleashing a gravitational force that caused the final two pieces of the Aeonic God Psalter to tremble as if they were preparing to fly out of Leaf Dao-Denier’s control.

‘No! No! I can’t let him get those two map pieces!’

Spitting out some blood that wrapped around the two pieces of the map, Leaf Dao-Denier spoke in a trembling voice, “Blood of Fortune; Sovereign of the Cosmos; Great Daos of Heaven and Earth; Heed my Command!”

The great daos of heaven and earth in the boundless Tusita Heaven began stirring, causing violet energy to swirl around Leaf Dao-Denier. As it transformed him into something like a violet devil-god, he unleashed a fist strike on Yang Qi.

“You’re bringing about your own destruction!” Yang Qi said, casually thrusting his fist out to meet the incoming attack.

Crack. Rattle.

Young Master Leaf was flung back, smashing into the wall of the Tower of Tusita. At the same time, the blood binding the map pieces to him collapsed and Yang Qi grabbed them.

Leaf Dao-Denier wasn’t even close to being a match for Yang Qi now. He could struggle, he could put everything on the line, but in the end, Yang Qi was just too strong.

Before, when Leaf Dao-Denier had King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions and his seventy-one brethren, he might have stood a chance.

However, it was at this moment that something completely unexpected happened.

A shining, seemingly eternal energy descended and filled Leaf Dao-Denier, who suddenly looked completely reinvigorated. Then, the light transformed into magical laws that began wrapping around the two map pieces, as if to take them.

‘Who’s this?’ Yang Qi thought. Looking up into the boundless primal-chaos above, he saw a powerful expert who looked like a god, emanating the eternal energy that was benefitting Leaf Dao-Denier.

This was obviously someone who could match up to Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven.

“Be broken!” Yang Qi bellowed. “Hand of the One God. Life-Death Void-Destruction God-Lightning!” God lightning snaked out, and at the same time, profound light shot out of his Lord's Eye, piercing the primal-chaos in a deadly attack on the interloper.

Meanwhile, he used the power of the God Legion Seal to keep a tight hold on the map pieces.

The newcomer burst out laughing. “So, there’s someone with a God Legion Seal in this age as well. Not bad. Not bad at all. Unfortunately, I'm not going to just sit back and do nothing. You killed one of my subordinates and forced the other six to give their faith to you. You thought I wouldn’t notice, but I did. Remember my name: Secundus! I'm from the Primeval Age, and I am an Eternal One!”

It was certainly a surprise for Eldest Brother Secundus to have shown up right here and now.

All of a sudden, Yang Qi realized that he was missing six streams of faith. Eldest Brother Secundus must have realized what was going on and somehow removed Yang Qi’s psychic branding mark. It was a terrifying thing, and it went to prove that this was an opponent that would be very difficult to handle.

“Don’t worry. I'm currently in seclusion working on a very important technique. You see, since I traveled from the Primeval Age to here, I'm also a Past One. Once I fully combine my Eternal and Past constitutions, it will be time for you to die and give me that God Legion Seal. I'm taking this Young Master Leaf with me for some training. Soon, the time will come for us to have our final clash!”

More eternal light swept down, wrapping up Leaf Dao-Denier and whisking him away into the primal-chaos. A moment later, neither he nor Eldest Brother Secundus were anywhere to be seen.

Thankfully, Yang Qi still had the two map pieces.

‘Eldest Brother Secundus! So, you’re biding your time to get stronger before attacking me outright? Well, at least I got the rest of the Aeonic God Psalter; no technique you can come up with will be a problem for me. I'm going to open the Aeonic God Temple, and soon enough it’ll be your time to die!’