Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“Wait, hold on, Master,” Confucian Daoless said, looking surprised. “Didn’t you just say that you would have one of your Dragonfolk seniors go in your stead? Now you’re saying you’re going to go personally?”

“I did say that. But you made me realize that holing up in here isn’t going to help me deal with the Immortal-Slayer’s Sect. I'm a child of the Dragonfolk! I should be out roaming the highest heavens, not stuck in here like a turtle who refuses to come out of its shell!”

Laughing heartily, Yang Qi rose to his feet. “Take your leave for now. I need to make some preparations. We leave in a month. I'm going to go into seclusion for that time to work on a secret Dragonfolk magic that will let me make millions upon millions of clones. That way, if the Immortal-Slayer’s Sect ends up coming after me, they’ll never be able to find my true self. I’ll also have one of the elders from the Eight Tribes Heaven create a god lamp for me. Once my god lamp is lit, then even if I get killed they can restore my nascent divinity and fleshly body. You see, my Nine Deaths Profound Art ensures that every time I die, whatever bad luck I encountered will turn into good luck, and after I'm born again I’ll be even stronger than before! Why do you think I haven’t proceeded past Dao-Demolishing? It's because the more bad luck I encounter with my Nine Deaths Profound Art, the less I have to fear! As a Dao-Demolisher, I lose nothing upon dying. Unfortunately, once I'm a Godmyth, not even the Dragonfolk elders can restore my virtual godhood if I die. That’s why I don’t want to break through to the Godmyth level for the moment.”

Of course, this was all a huge feint on Yang Qi’s part. He was actually describing an energy art from the legion of gods that he had learned about in the photonic computers of the Cruiser of Civilization. Upon hearing the information, Confucian Daoless was completely taken aback.

“I can’t believe a technique like that even exists!”

“Well, it does,” Yang Qi said. “The more Young Master Leaf wants to kill me, and the more he hates me, the worse luck that is for me. But I can turn all that bad luck into good luck, and benefit from it. The only reason I'm telling you all this is because I trust you so much. Would I tell such important secrets to anyone else? Come on, did you really think that some ordinary person in Dao-Demolishing would possibly be so favored by the elders of the Dragonfolk? What, you thought it was just by chance? Truth be told, I'm the only person among the Dragonfolk who actually cultivates the Nine Deaths Profound Art. And once I fully master it, my prospects will be limitless. Okay, you’re dismissed. Carry on!”

“Yes, yes of course. I’ll go get everything ready!”

Confucian Daoless immediately went to report the matter to Young Master Leaf.

Yang Qi smiled faintly as he watched him leave. ‘Ah, Young Master Leaf. Let’s see how you deal with this new development. The Nine Deaths Profound Art really is a profound technique, but unfortunately it's long disappeared from use. And I don't actually cultivate it. But mixing truth with falsehood is going to put you under a lot of pressure!’

Yang Qi was really setting things up to confuse his enemy!

And his month of seclusion wasn’t to be spent just on cultivation. He started by researching information about the Heaven Beyond Heaven, and how to get there. Thirty-third ranked immortal worlds were high-level planes of existence in the universe, and were not the kind of places that immortals could just casually travel to. The higher one got, the more violent and destructive the spatial tempests became. They often contained enormous, ancient beasts, or patches of primal-chaos. In fact, the void between thirty-third ranked immortal worlds was almost entirely primal-chaos that hadn’t yet given birth to new worlds.

It was easy to perish in such places.

Such patches were often the size of hundreds of thousands of immortal worlds, and once a person entered them they would rarely come out. There were even stories of fourth or fifth division Godmyths who entered paths of primal-chaos, only to be devoured by the entities which lurked therein.

Of course, there was also all sorts of good fortune to be had inside, which was why they were such tempting places.

After his research, Yang Qi decided that he was ready to face Young Master Leaf. He wanted to see what the man was capable of, and hoped that by powering the Cruiser of Civilization with god crystals, he would be able to come out on top. Furthermore, he had Chancellor Demi-Immortal’s destiny, which should give him an advantage in the Heaven Beyond Heaven. Besides, long delays usually lead to trouble, and he knew that he would eventually have to fight Young Master Leaf. And considering the dramatic changes to heaven and earth, it was impossible to say how long Chancellor Demi-Immortal’s destiny would remain linked to the legacy of the Heaven Beyond Heaven.

It was always possible that some other person might seize that destiny.

There were all sorts of old-timers in existence with profound information, people who sought the Deathless Throne and knew all about things like karma. For all he knew, there were people who could assess matters of destiny and take advantage of the coming changes. If the Heaven Beyond Heaven came to belong to someone else, it would be a big loss for Yang Qi.

After all, how useful would a thirty-third ranked immortal world be? If he got it, it would allow for indescribable advancement of the Sage Monarch Heaven. His people would definitely be able to reach the Godmyth level, and he would most likely be able to break through to the Deathless Throne.

It was hard to imagine the resources that would be available in a place like that.

It would probably be equivalent to a billion trillion of the Sage Monarch Heaven put together. Perhaps even a hundred billion trillion. The power of such worlds bordered on god worlds, so Yang Qi was confident that he could use it, and the Cruiser of Civilization, to cut down Young Master Leaf.

Even if Young Master Leaf was an invincible ninth division Godmyth, once Yang Qi could tap into the essence of the Heaven Beyond Heaven he would be as strong as the legion of gods, and would definitely be able to win.

After all, according to legends, the essences of other thirty-third ranked immortal worlds like the Tusita Heaven, Unrestrained Heaven, Eight Tribes Heaven, and Mourn-Parting Heaven were all under the control of various patriarchs in those locations. And not under the control of a single person, but rather multiple people.

If Yang Qi got the approval of the Heaven Beyond Heaven, the destructive force on his hands would be indescribable.

He was willing to take risks to get that.

In the worst case scenario, if he couldn't eke out a victory, he could go into hiding, keep his eye on Young Master Leaf, and find an opportunity to steal King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions from him. With six of the medallions, he could mask his God Legion Seal and go to the future world. Once in the future world, he could reach out to the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, which wasn't constrained by space-time. As long as one commanded the true power of King Immortal-Slayer, it could be reached in the past, present, and future.

‘I'm going to kill you eventually, Young Master Leaf, one way or another. I killed the Crown Prince, and I killed that buzz cut kid. You’re not going to be any exception.’

Smiling, Yang Qi settled deep into the Cruiser of Civilization, where he began feeding one god crystal after another into the reactors, hoping to fill the power reserves as much as possible during the course of the month.

Right now, the power reserves had reached the level of one one-hundred-millionth, and if he could push them to the level of one ten-thousandth, the spacecraft would become even more powerful. And if he could push them two levels higher, that would be even better.

That was especially true considering that if he upgraded the genetic systems enough, his own genes could be improved, which would make his command over the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth even more profound.

Almost as soon as he began feeding the god crystals into the reactors, the photonic computers began speaking.

[Power systems upgraded. Weapons systems upgraded. Genetic systems upgraded….]

Whirrr… RUUUUMBLE….

A burst of vital energy surged out as the genetic systems sent out blinding light over Yang Qi, bathing him in golden splendor. Within the light, his body collapsed and became countless particles, all of which were like embryos of primal-chaos that resembled the porcelain godspore of Empress Jadefall. They were also like primal-chaos protomammoths. The sleeping protomammoths were like the preheaven progenitors of mammoths. Preheaven mammoths. They represented the most ancient of essences, the holy aura of the Sovereign Lord, as well as the power of countless hells.

“Endless hells, eternal sands!”

Yang Qi’s voice seemed to drift into the depths of the universe, causing countless hells to appear beneath the countless embryos.

Each and every hell had a corresponding embryo.

In that moment, Yang Qi’s thoughts seemed to reach the most profound depths of the universe, the darkest and gloomiest hyperdimensions, and the deepest areas, which gave him insight into the true number of hells.

The Hell of Scorching Flame. The Hell of Yellow Gold. The Hell of Nagas. The Hell of Bleached Bones. The Hell of Fresh Blood. The Hell of Gloom and Darkness. The Hell of Mahānata. The Hell of Never-Ending. The Hell of Misery. The Hell of Black Steel. The Hell of Suras.

He knew how many hells there were, and although he didn't know everything about every single one of them, they all passed through his heart and mind.

In the shortest of moments, his soul became connected to all of the hells and they became sources of power for him.

“Eternal sands of hell, enter my body, make me hell, suppress evil for all eternity!”

RUMBLE!

As he said ‘suppress evil for all eternity’, the primal-chaos embryos merged into the void. Yang Qi disappeared and the embryos became one with the hells. As of that moment, Yang Qi was no more.