Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Cultivating the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body was a very difficult task. Apparently, there had never been a single fiend-devil who succeeded with it.

A kalpa was the time from when a world was born until it was destroyed. To say that one would remain unspoiled even after a myriad of kalpas had passed essentially meant that one would remain eternally indestructible. When interpreting the meaning of the character as “kalpa”, myriad carried the sense, not of ten thousand, but of a number so high it was incalculable.

Of course, cultivators had to experience numerous tribulations as part of their cultivation, experiencing both internal and external torment. Those who couldn't endure such torment would be destroyed forever.

Yang Qi’s initial reaction was that he wouldn’t ever cultivate something so dangerous while being threatened by so many deadly monsters. In fact, he probably wouldn’t agree to cultivate it under the eye of people he trusted, such as close friends and family members. The presence of friends or foes had no bearing on how deadly it could potentially be.

Unfortunately, it was obvious that the fiend-devils weren’t going to take “no” for an answer. And how could he defy so many monsters?

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that, if he survived, his cultivation base would receive incredible benefits and his psychic scale would skyrocket. Unfortunately, if he failed, he would definitely be finished.

As he stood there thoughtfully, the devils all eyed him with glittering eyes, and he could tell that if he refused their offer, he would instantly meet a grisly end. The three most powerful fiend-devils, the scholar, the mahātmā, and the dream-devil, were all shockingly powerful. They definitely wouldn’t give him any chance to make a move. Even worse, the increased pressure of the magical laws here made it harder to open the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. On the outside, he might have stood a chance. But inside, he didn’t even harbor a ten percent chance of escaping.

In fact, he was one hundred percent certain that he would die.

For now, he put thoughts of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart on the back burner. After defeating the dependency-devils and casting aside his reliance on magical treasures, his cultivation had improved and he had become even better at seeking viable opportunities and coming out on top.

“What do you say?” the mahātmā fiend-devil asked. “This is the kind of opportunity that will only come about once in a blue moon, boy. With the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body, you’ll have an honest shot at standing up to Proud Heaven. It's a technique that none of us here can cultivate. Once you have it, we can join forces to deal with any enemy, and hopefully make Lord Blood River a puppet under our control”

“You make a good case,” Yang Qi said. “But how do I know you won’t turn me into a puppet?”

“I’d be willing to swear a Heart-Devil Vow on it!” Dream Mintdance said.

Yang Qi shook his head. “What good is a Heart-Devil Vow? To people as strong as us, vows are bullshit. If the dao of heaven can't do anything to us, what could a mere vow do?” Unfortunately, Yang Qi realized that the more he said, the grimmer the expressions grew on these fiend-devils’ faces. So he quickly said, “Fine, I agree. However, the precondition is that you promise not to turn me into a puppet.”

The mahātmā fiend-devil’s face had been filling with killing intent, and he had clearly been preparing to strike with deadly force as soon as Yang Qi refused the offer. However, as soon as Yang Qi agreed, he smiled and nodded. “We won’t. Under no circumstances will we turn you into a puppet. Of that much, you can rest at ease. If we did, Proud Heaven would sense it, and that would spoil the entire plan.”

“That’s right,” the scholarly fiend-devil said. “If our suppositions are correct, he placed a seed deep in your nascent divinity. If anything happened to it, we would lose any advantage we have. Obviously we won’t even consider puppetizing you.” Truth be told, this scholar was just as glib of tongue as Yang Qi, and was essentially making things up off the top of his head.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Dream Mintdance said tenderly. “How could we ever find another young man like you? How boring would it be to turn you into a puppet?” There was no way Yang Qi would be tricked by a dream-devil. He knew that dream-devils were infinitely devious and almost impossible to fully understand. They were like dreams that fluctuated between illusory and real.

“How about this, boy. First, use this to master the Unspoiled Body, which you won’t be able to do without our help.” In order to win Yang Qi’s trust, the mahātmā fiend-devil pulled something out of his robe that appeared to be a roll of sheepskin.

It fairly exuded a sensation of age, and the script on it was neither from the dao of immortals nor that of humankind. Instead, it was the bizarre script of the Devilfolk.

There were many civilizations in the countless hells that existed, and many types of scripts. After all, the civilizations of hell weren’t necessarily savage; some contained wise people, countries, kings, and clans, all with their own customs and ways of writing.

Yang Qi was familiar with many such scripts of hell, and as soon as he saw this script, he could read it.

Upon taking the sheepskin scroll, he realized that the text actually seemed to be moving in a very dizzying fashion. Thankfully, he had the devil-vanquishing abilities of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, which allowed him to make sense of it. Upon scanning it, he realized that it described an astonishing cultivation technique that was diametrically opposed to the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. But at the same time, it also seemed possible that it could perfectly correspond to the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, if cultivated properly.

Before seeing the details of the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body, Yang Qi hadn’t been particularly interested in it. There were many godly-class energy arts, all of which were very formidable and could be used all the way from the mortal world to the god world.

For example, upon being completed, the Seventy-Two Monarchs Energy Arts would likely rival the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. And the Secret-Ensconcing All-World Anything-Everything Fundamental-Law Magic would also be particularly powerful, making it possible to traverse the sea of time, and the countless worlds that existed, as if one were contained within the will of a sleeping buddha. And that wasn’t to mention the Martial-God Hegemon-King Heaven-Propping Pillar he had acquired. From what Yang Qi could tell, it might be able to rival the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, assuming he reached the god world with it.

Now, Yang Qi realized that the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body truly was the product of some powerful devil from hell, and it could be considered the bane of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. But at the same time, they were like two different paths that led to the same place.

‘I can already see the value of cultivating this technique,’ he thought. ‘Unfortunately, it’s very much like the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth in that it’s extremely difficult to properly cultivate. It must require something like the God Legion Seal. Otherwise, that mahātmā fiend-devil would have long since taken advantage of it. Before I even think about cultivating it, I need to study the technique in detail to find out what it's missing.’

And that was just what he did.

All elements of the script seemed to contain fluctuations of the birth and destruction of entire universes. They also abounded with the energy of hell. Normally, the cultivation of the technique would involve the creation of countless kalpas within the body, imitating the birth and destruction of universes. And each instance of destruction, each tribulation, would be difficult to survive. That was one reason why the technique was called Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations.

The unwritten implications of the text were profound and mysterious, and contained countless enigmatic aspects. After reading through them, Yang Qi realized the difficulties the technique could cause for the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. And eventually, he had a flash of insight.

Considering he had cultivated the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth to such a high level, if he encountered another of the God Legion Seals, it would be difficult to use it to achieve further breakthroughs. But things would be different if he had the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body. After all, it was a technique that had been specifically designed to defy the godmammoths.

It contained the wisdom of countless devil-gods, wisdom that surpassed Yang Qi’s in every way. And obviously, the fact that it contained so much information used to counter the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth meant that it was already giving him a deeper understanding of his own techniques.

It even contained information from devil-gods who had personally fought the king of godmammoths, and thus taken bits of godmammoth true energy.

As Yang Qi continued reading, he circulated his energy arts and saw that, deep in his sea of energy, the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth was transforming dramatically. The true energy of the technique was crystalizing, dispersing, and recrystallizing over and over again. As it did, he shivered, and his head began shining with a brilliant light.

The fiend-devils saw that something was happening, and assumed that he had already begun to cultivate the new technique. However, when the mahātmā fiend-devil noticed that Yang Qi was simply scanning the sheepskin scroll, he nodded. ‘It seems he’s just laying the foundation to cultivate the technique. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the Three Lives Stone passed down by the king of all true-devils. Without that, he’ll never fully succeed. But even if he achieves some minor success, we should still be able to use him to deal with Lord Blood River. With Lord Blood River as a puppet, we’ll have the perfect weapon to fight the Executors of the Ancient Road. The fact that Lord Blood River previously fought them means that his energy arts and substructure are perfect for dealing with them. He’ll definitely be a huge asset.’

The ultimate reason these fiend-devils had gathered was to try finding a way to fight the Executors of the Ancient Road. And they thought that Lord Blood River was their best option in that regard.

The executors had been tasked by the legion of gods with maintaining law and order on the Ancient Road to the Gods. And of course, a big part of that involved killing fiend-devils. In fact, they had no greater enemies than the fiend-devils.