Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi knew full well that Yang Voidprime was a vicious schemer, and that as a half-Annulled expert, he would take the first opportunity to try to possess Yang Qi. Sadly, Yang Voidprime was the one being played. He had no idea that Yang Qi was already a half-Annulled expert, and was in fact the number one person in the god world.

Not even the King of Godmammoths knew how strong Yang Qi really was. After all, none of them could see inside the Everlasting Aegis to assess the Sage Monarch Empire.

Plus, Yang Qi was a Fateless One, which made it impossible to divine information about him. And the fact that he had completely locked down his empire ensured that no rumors could spread.

It would only be when Yang Voidprime actually tried to possess Yang Qi that he would realize how horribly wrong he’d been about everything, and that he had thrown himself from the tiger's den into the wolf pack’s lair.

In other words, he was being hoodwinked by Yang Qi.

The truth was that even if Yang Qi hadn’t suggested it, Yang Voidprime would have attempted a self-detonation. Unfortunately, the King of Godmammoths was using his terrifying King of the Great Dao to completely suppress Yang Voidprime, which meant he couldn’t self-detonate even if he wanted to.

Therefore, it would require Yang Qi’s help. Yang Qi planned to use their fateless power connection to slowly give energy to Yang Voidprime, until he had enough to break free from the restrictions and go through with the self-detonation.

The detonation of a half-Annulled expert would release the most destructive power imaginable into the surrounding heaven and earth.

“Be summoned!” the King of Godmammoths howled. “King of the Great Dao; Reverse Reincarnation; Shatter Heaven and Earth; Let Ghosts and Gods appear!”

Immense flows of energy shot out of the King of Godmammoths, who was using a deadly technique called Boundless Shattering.

Yang Qi instantly felt more power flowing away from him. And the fateless energy within him seemed like it might fly out, which would weaken him dramatically, maybe even removing him from the half-Annulled level.

“Do you really think it’ll be that easy?” he growled. Tapping into the destiny of his empire, he sent more streams of power into Yang Voidprime.

“Yang Voidprime, use the power I'm giving you to collect your memories and thoughts. Give them to me so that I can resurrect you in my empire!”

“Alright!” Yang Voidprime said. But in his heart, he was chuckling in sinister fashion. ‘You’re only a peak Paramount God, Yang Qi. A God-Lord. Even if your psychic scale was higher than it is, you couldn’t possibly understand the profundities of the half-Annulled level. You really think you can control me? I'm going to destroy you! I'm going to come out of nowhere to possess you, and there won’t be anything you can do to stop me!’

Thanks to the help from Yang Qi, he actually felt much better, and wasn’t really being harmed at all by the King of Godmammoths.

Furthermore, reserves of power were building up inside of him, although no observer could tell.

As he continued producing false screams of pain, he sent his thoughts and experiences to Yang Qi’s empire via psychic fluctuation. Eventually, he caught sight of the body that Yang Qi had prepared for him, which looked like an exact copy of his real body.

“So, you weren’t lying, Yang Qi!” Yang Voidprime said. “Siding with you was the right decision. We can wage war together, and I’ll draw fully on the power of the half-Annulled level to help you!”

Of course, inwardly, he was actually thinking, ‘You really don’t get how powerful the half-Annulled level is. You think that you can just create a clone and put my will into it? Unfortunately, without the fateless energy to go along with it, I won’t stay in the half-Annulled level. And there’s absolutely no way I’ll agree to that. Instead, I’ll use that clone to strike Yang Qi when he least expects it!’

Meanwhile, Yang Qi was also chuckling coldly. He had used a whole collection of preheaven treasures to make a new body for Yang Voidprime, who assumed that he didn’t understand the half-Annulled level. But the truth was that Yang Qi had prepared all of this in advance, and was in fact so powerful that, if he wanted to, he could actually damage the spell formation the King of Godmammoths was using.

But thanks to the Life-Death Void-Destruction God-Lightning, Yang Voidprime had no idea what was really going on, or that Yang Qi was already a half-Annulled expert.

Yang Qi twitched, creating a duplicate of himself. He had no idea how long the process would take. Maybe months, maybe years. In any case, he had other things he needed to do in the meantime.

He left the clone in his place, with some fateless energy in it to keep the King of Godmammoths occupied. With the backing of his empire’s destiny, the Halls of Heaven, and the sage monarch magistrates, it would be able to hold out.

“Master!” he said, and the Invincible Dugu appeared.

“Can you watch over this clone of mine? I need to take a trip to the Deathless Heaven Dynasty to subjugate the empress there, Hailan. She wants to reach the half-Annulled level, but doesn't quite have what it takes. I'm going to take advantage of the situation to see if I can work out a deal with her.”

“No problem,” the Invincible Dugu said. He was now fully recovered, which placed him in a position of being no weaker than the King of Godmammoths. “I’ll take care of everything here for you.”

Yang Qi nodded. “You certainly live up to your reputation, Master. I definitely can’t measure up to you.”

“Don’t be so modest, Yang Qi,” the Invincible Dugu said, laughing. “I'd say that, even considering all of history as a whole, you’re the top figure to ever have existed in the god world. Not even the Sovereign Lord can measure up to you. Even back in the impure lands, I could tell there was something special about you, which is why I selected you to rescue me. Alright, be on your way. Subjugate that Hailan woman. She seems to be an expert in causing trouble. Besides, the essence of the god world seems to be nearing the point of succeeding in taking human form. Once that happens, it’ll crush anything and everything that gets in its way.”

“What? The essence of the god world can take human form?” Yang Qi frowned.

“That's right. And I can sense that it's about to succeed. The form it takes will be that of your mother. As I said before, the essence of the god world is your mother, and your mother is the essence of the god world. You’re going to be in a very difficult position soon. That’s why you need to take over the entire god world before it succeeds. Once you ensure that it has no formal representative, you can assimilate the god world. Take the Great Necropolis back from Proud Heaven, and use it to bury the god world!”

“Alright! I'm leaving.”

With that, he blurred into motion, leaving his empire.

Before long, he had pierced through multiple universes to reach the spot where the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart was fusing with the Deathless Heaven Dynasty.

Proud Heaven’s empire.

Looking at it all, Yang Qi smiled. ‘Ah, Proud Heaven. You’re very impressive. You’re actually fusing the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart with your empire’s destiny. Your cultivation base is rising, and now that you’re a half-Annulled expert, not even I could sneak into your empire under normal circumstances. Sadly, you devoured King Immortal-Slayer, who isn't actually dead. He just entered another state that you can’t detect. And King Immortal-Slayer also has some of my energy, which I can use to sneak into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart without you realizing it. That's what you get for devouring King Immortal-Slayer!”

King Immortal-Slayer was a profound schemer. It was no wonder that he had been ambitious enough to contend with the Sovereign Lord in ancient times. In fact, it was entirely likely that he had realized the best way to deal with Proud Heaven was to let himself be devoured by him.

Truth be told, it wasn’t that King Immortal-Slayer couldn’t deal with Proud Heaven. It was the essence of the god world that was truly troublesome to him. And in the moment before he ‘perished’, he set everything up so that Yang Qi could sneak into the Deathless Heaven Empire.

‘You underestimated King Immortal-Slayer, Proud Heaven,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘Of course, I did something similar with the Wretch God. The difference is that I didn’t underestimate the Wretch God.’

WHOOSH!

With that, he flew into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to him. What if the Sovereign Lord had left a secret way to return to the Halls of Heaven? And what if the Sovereign Lord used that method to try getting into Yang Qi’s empire? Thankfully, he had already made preparations to ensure that no such attempt would succeed.