Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“What are you doing, Daoist Hundred-Gods!?” Yang Qi said, quickly pulling him back to his feet. “I just helped out a bit, there’s no need for such politeness.”

“You really gave me a new lease on life,” Daoist Hundred-Gods replied. “A majestic old-timer once told me that I would never have a shot at reaching the Measureless God level. But now I've broken past what was predestined. I've already made my decision. I want to join the Sage Panacea Sect! Even if you won’t have me as an official member, at least let me be a dharmic elder. I can handle random tasks and make sure that anyone who causes problems for the sect is killed immediately!”

By now, Daoist Hundred-Gods was convinced that following Yang Qi would come with many benefits.

If he could become a member, he might have a chance to cultivate more godly-class energy arts, and at the same time, benefit from the sect’s medicinal tablets.

“That would be wonderful!” Yang Qi said, delighted at the prospect. With someone like Daoist Hundred-Gods as a member of the sect, it would be an even more intimidating organization. Daoist Hundred-Gods was now no mere elder king, but would soon have an oversight position within the Dao Defense League as a whole. He wouldn’t be a pawn to manipulate, he would be a person who could manipulate countless other pawns.

Thus, right in the presence of countless witnesses, Daoist Hundred-Gods went through all of the formalities and ceremonies to join the Sage Panacea Sect. Yang Qi threw a huge banquet in which he went about negating the heterogeneous true energy of numerous elders. Of course, the elders were no fools, and provided gifts to both Yang Qi and Daoist Hundred-Gods.

In that one day, the renown of the Sage Panacea Sect rose to incredible heights, and it became the envy of countless individuals. Many people were trying to come up with plans to establish good relations with the new sect. If nothing else, the medicinal tablets that cured heterogeneous true energy would likely become a form of currency that surpassed power stones in value. They would definitely be the most well-known type of pill in all the immortal worlds.

Nothing could be more miraculous than a medicinal pill that could cure the effects of heterogeneous true energy.

By now, the leaders of the Nine Yangs God Sect were starting to feel sick to their stomachs about how things had played out. Yang Qi was becoming so terrifying that they regretted nothing more than failing to come to his defense when the God Dragon Tribe came to cause problems.

Unfortunately, they had no face left in that regard.

Worse, many of their own patriarchs were actually plagued by heterogeneous true energy. Some of them were even thinking of leaving the Nine Yangs God Sect and joining the Sage Panacea Sect.

After the banquet was over, Yang Qi went into seclusion, determined to break into the Godmyth level. Although he’d done a lot to earn a great reputation, it was a bit empty without him being a Godmyth. Besides, he had so many powerful magical treasures that there was no doubt certain old-timers envied him, and would love to rob him. Right now, he was not inclined to abandon everything he had built up in the Dao Defense League, and was also determined to explore what other bountiful benefits might be at hand.

Improving his own cultivation base was the best way to keep any ambitious individuals in check.

Thump!

In the depths of the Nine Yangs God Sect, one of the elders slapped his palm onto a table, shattering it into splinters.

A whole group of elders were sitting there in a meeting, which was presided over by an elder named Yang Wine, a seventh division Measureless God. He was obviously a very important person, with everyone else being in lesser positions as elder kings, or prime paragon elders and the like, most of them in the fifth or sixth divisions.

“Damnation!” he growled. “We lost our shot. If we had known that Dragon Proudheaven could cure heterogeneous true energy, we would never have let him go. That damned God Dragon Tribe caused us to lose everything! He left and we turned into a laughingstock!” Yang Wine looked around with fury, causing all of the others in the room to turn as quiet as cicadas in winter.

A long moment passed, and one of the elder kings sighed. “You’re right. I personally cultivate several godly-class energy arts, and it's got me stuck in my cultivation. Our Nine Yangs God Sect’s signature ability is the Nine Yangs Paragon Preheaven Art, which consists of nine separate godly-class energy arts. By combining the True-Yang with the Lesser-, Supreme-, Pure-, Jade-, Vulcan-, Intense-, Empyrean-, and Profound-Yangs, you can achieve ultimate power. Unfortunately, only the sectlord himself can do that. For the rest of us, it’s impossible. Right now, most of the elder kings are stuck with only six or seven of the various types of yang energy and cannot achieve breakthroughs. If we could negate that heterogeneous true energy, then all of us elder kings could follow in the footsteps of Daoist Hundred-Gods and have a shot at becoming Measureless Gods.”

“What good does it do to talk about that now?” another elder king said. “Our top priority should be mending our relationship with Dragon Proudheaven. If we don't, other sects are going to get stronger and stronger, while we continue growing weaker.”

“I have an idea,” another elder king said. “Quite a few elders were enticed to join the Sage Panacea Sect. What if we ask them to serve as moles?”

“When moronic rebels like that join a new sect, the first thing they try to do is oppose their old sect!” Yang Wine said angrily. “They won’t be able to hold back from striking a blow against us if they can, trying to earn points with their new leader. And you think they’re going to work as moles? Forget about them. You can't rely on unreliable people.”

He was absolutely right. The elders who had already defected to the Sage Panacea Sect were filled with righteous indignation and were already itching to see the Nine Yangs God Sect destroyed. At least, that was what they gave voice to in the hopes of proving their loyalty.

Yang Qi approved, saying it was only natural for converts to stick closely to their new master and long for the destruction of the old. People who switched sides but maintained loyalties to their previous organization were fools. Double-dealing backstabbers who only gave lip service to the spirit of loyalty and self-sacrifice would eventually harm the interests of their new masters. The only thing Yang Qi would do to people like that would be to execute them.

“But what do we do now?” another elder king asked. “Don’t tell me we just suck up the loss?”

A vicious gleam appeared in his eyes. “Why don’t we just see it through to the finish? Have the supreme patriarch kidnap Dragon Proudheaven back here and force him to work for the Nine Yangs God Sect again?”

“That's something we can consider,” Yang Wine said with a nod. “Unfortunately, we can’t strike directly at Dragon Proudheaven right now. Not only does he have the backing of several powerful patriarchs, he also has a very strong cultivation base. And he has the support of a lot of the elder kings. We’d need one of the old-timers to help out. An eighth division patriarch—or even better, one in the ninth division. I’ll send a request up the chain of command to see if our patriarchs will agree to do something.”

“In addition to that, we could also form other alliances.”

Yang Wine thought for a moment. “You, Yang Glory. And you, Yang Frost. Take a trip to the Eight Tribes Heaven and get in touch with the God Dragon Tribe. See if you can get their help to deal with Dragon Proudheaven. You two, Yang Riches and Yang Soul, go to the Tusita Heaven and ask for a meeting with the seventy-two patriarchs of the Immortal-Slayer’s Sect. They hate Dragon Proudheaven down to their very bones.”

Orders flew within the Nine Yangs God Sect, and their forces were soon mobilized.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi was in seclusion, drawing on his divine abilities, including the Wheel of Fate, to work on his dao heart. At the moment, his first goal was to reach the level of nine lineaments.

Once his dao heart had nine lineaments, he would crush it and step into the Godmyth level.

At the moment, he only had four lineaments. Although that put him at the lower end of the overarching level, it meant that with each breakthrough, he would require immense amounts of momentum, more so than was normally required for higher levels.

Reaching the level of five lineaments would be hard enough, and once he headed toward six, he would have to draw heavily on the power of the eternal sands that were the hells of the universe.

“God pill!”

A strange-looking pill bottle appeared in front of him, floating in the air. He inhaled, and immense amounts of medicinal energy flowed into him. His fateless dao fruit appeared, complete with its four deep lineaments. They almost seemed like cracks in the dao of heaven itself, eternally deathless on the surface of the dao heart.

As he gathered true energy and went through his breathing exercises, he could sense the god pill in the bottle slowly rising up.

‘Great. I have no idea where exactly this god pill came from. I wonder if it was concocted by King Immortal-Slayer himself. I've seen god pills with medicinal strength like this, but none that are as effective.’ Although Yang Qi was curious, he didn’t feel like spending the time doing any research for further information. Instead, he just absorbed the medicinal strength.

As he was immersed in trying to elevate his cultivation level, somewhere else in the universe, a flat, shadowy figure approached the border of the Dao Defense League. Shockingly, it was traveling through the Flatverse!

The borders of the Dao Defense League were protected by countless godwarding spells, the kind that made it impossible for future warriors to slip through unnoticed. But this shadowy figure easily made it through undetected. It sped this way and that through the immortal worlds until it reached the Sage Panacea Sect. There, it stopped when it saw the six Warriors of the Great Dance and began pulsing with killing intent. Moments later, it retracted its killing intent and continued onward.

It began searching through the depths of the Sage Panacea Sect, passing countless disciples in the process. None of them noticed the figure. After all, it currently existed in a different universal hyperdimension, making it impossible to detect.

“The disciples of this Sage Panacea Sect are really lax and weak,” the figure murmured. “If I felt like it, I could slaughter them all and raze this place to the ground.”

“Oh really?” another voice rang out. “You must have come from far away, friend. Unfortunately for you, I usually execute rude, uninvited guests.”

Space rippled around the shadowy figure and everything twisted. As things changed, the figure tried to flee, but was incapable. Eventually, everything looked different. Bright light shone everywhere, and the ground appeared to be made of silver. There Yang Qi sat, right in front of the shadowy figure, looking at him.

“Yang Qi…” the shadowy figure said. “You're using high-level science and technology in this place, aren’t you? Something from another civilization. The techniques of the dao of immortals can’t be used to invert the universe like this.”

“Who are you?” Yang Qi said, secretly taken aback that this figure knew so much about him. “And how do you know my name?”

No one knew that his Sage Panacea Sect was actually built by the photonic computers of the Cruiser of Civilization. Because of that, the photonic computers would warn him if any intruders came.

If it weren’t for that, there was no way he could have detected this black-garbed individual.

The man in black was actually dressed in similar attire to the six Warriors of the Great Dance, which made it obvious that he was a future warrior of some sort.