Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

The Crown Prince remembered dying.

But here he was, resurrected, with his cultivation base climbing higher and higher. He had gone through all nine steps of the Great Sage level until he was a Demi-Immortal. Furthermore, it seemed like he still had more breakthroughs in him. He could tell that it was no illusion, and of course, it caused joy to surge in his heart. In fact, he was already itching with the desire to get out into the open and give vent to his ever-increasing hatred of Yang Qi.

After all, if Yang Qi was in the sixth Legendary transformation, and the Crown Prince was a Demi-Immortal, it would be a simple thing to kill him.

“Ah, the God Legion Seal,” the Crown Prince murmured. “Yang Qi is a bearer of the God Legion Seal. Unfortunately for him, now that I'm a Demi-Immortal, crushing him out of existence will be easy. Then I’ll exterminate his entire clan. No, wait. That would be making it too easy on them. I’ll treat them like the basest animals. The women will be enslaved, and the men will become eunuchs.”

Clenching his hand into a fist, he unleashed a mighty fist strike.

The Son of Heaven’s Godfist!

RUMBLE!

The fist hit the surrounding bubble and did nothing. It didn’t even cause a banging sound.

“Hmm?” Confusion fluttered in his heart. “Wait, what’s going on here? Am I captive in this thing? Hold on, I remember something happening the moment I died. Something unexpected. Don’t tell me that I'm trapped inside King Immortal-Slayer’s legacy medallion! Or am I in an immortal world somewhere? I need to reach immortal ascension! I need to get to the immortal worlds! The immortal worlds are a truly worthy destination. I'm going to become the ruler of the Titan Emperor Heaven!”

Meanwhile, Yang Qi was on the outside, watching what was happening inside the bubble. He could hear everything the Crown Prince was raving about, and could see his cultivation base increasing. It had been a lot of work, but he had successfully recreated the Crown Prince.

And this Crown Prince contained all of the personality and memories of the earlier version, including his hatred of Yang Qi.

It was a perfect recreation in every way.

Of course, it only worked because, after killing the Crown Prince, Yang Qi had absorbed his psyche, will, and even his flesh and blood. Without that, he would have failed, even with divine abilities vastly more powerful than his current arsenal.

Furthermore, this recreated Crown Prince was far, far too weak. If he somehow escaped the bubble he was in, he would die. He needed to stay in that bubble and continue working on his cultivation until he was a Quasi-God. Only then would it be safe to emerge.

This recreated Crown Prince was what Yang Qi intended to use to make his move against the crown prince of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty.

As soon as Yang Qi heard there was a Crown Prince Society in the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, he had guessed it had something to do with the Crown Prince from the impure lands. It had taken months of research, but he was now absolutely convinced that the Crown Prince in the impure lands had been an expression of the crown prince’s divine will. However, after sending that divine will into the impure lands, the crown prince had lost his connection to it. That divine will had eventually grown into a completely separate entity, similar to what had occurred with Yang Qi and his immortal-slaying clone.

That said, they still had the same essence and origin. Their energy and soul structure were the same, a fact that Yang Qi intended to take advantage of. In fact, after his recreation of the Crown Prince reached godly ascension, he would subjugate him with the God Legion Seal, and use him to spy on the true crown prince’s every action.

Unfortunately, the true crown prince was just too strong. And if he achieved Unbounded will convergence, he would probably become impossible to control. And he would likely be able to find out the truth about Yang Qi. Unless Yang Qi himself also formed Unbounded will convergence, he would be too weak to defend himself.

“Who's out there? Are you King Immortal-Slayer?” The Crown Prince let loose a bevy of fist strikes on the bubble, but none of them did any good. Compared to the Purrfect God Art, the cultivation base of a Demi-Immortal was like nothing. The Crown Prince was like an ant trying to tear down a mountain. “Where am I? How come there wasn’t any tribulation when I reached the Demi-Immortal level? Why was it so easy?”

As he asked these questions, the bubble suddenly started transforming. A pagoda appeared, along with an illusory region that were all created by Yang Qi using his Life-Death Void-Destruction God-Lightning within the Purrfect God Art. Of course, to the Crown Prince, the illusions were all completely real.

The Crown Prince shivered as he saw a world unfold in front of him, complete with a continent, stars, a sun, a moon, and spirit energy.

He inhaled deeply, then shivered with delight as creaking and cracking sounds rang out within him. Unexpectedly, he went from the first order of the Demi-Immortal to the second.

However, at the very same time, he caught sight of a person walking toward him. When he saw who it was, his eyes tightened with anger. It was none other than his most hated archenemy Yang Qi!

Bursting into laughter, he said, “I can’t believe you’re here, Yang Qi. Are you ready to be killed by me? I'm already at the Demi-Immortal level!” All of a sudden, the Crown Prince lunged forward, attacking Yang Qi with a deadly move from the Son of Heaven’s Godfist.

However, before the attack could even get close to Yang Qi, it simply fell apart.

Voice cool, Yang Qi said, “We meet again, Crown Prince. It’s been a very, very long time. I know you remember what happened on the Rich-Lush Continent, and how I killed you. Do you have any idea where we are now?”

“Stop trying to sound so impressive, Yang Qi. What do you mean? Where are we?” The Crown Prince was arrogant and egotistical, but even though the blow he had just unleashed was a formidable one, it had done nothing. Everything since he was resurrected had been strange and mystifying. Therefore, he was secretly circulating his energy arts to defend himself, but preparing a killing move to unleash on Yang Qi at the same time, hopefully inflicting a fatality with a single move.

Yang Qi didn’t bother to even check what he was doing with his energy arts. “This is the god world.”

In response to this revelation, the Crown Prince’s face filled with a look of complete and utter shock. In fact, it took him a long moment to regain his composure. “The god world? Are you kidding me? Even if you said we were in an immortal world, I wouldn’t believe you, much less the god world. Are you trying to convince me this is a dream or something? Or that I've fallen into some sort of illusion?”

“Sad to say, I actually did kill you in the impure lands. You need to calm down. I’ve already reached godly ascension, which is how I resurrected you. If you don’t believe me, just look. I’ll show you everything that happened after you died. Watch for yourself.”

He waved his hand, causing an image to appear in front of the Crown Prince that showed all of the main events that played out after his death: Yang Qi destroying the Demi-Immortal Institute; the creation of the Sage Monarch Continent; the destruction of the Quake-Dawn Continent; the eradication of the Titan Emperor Collegium; the ascension to the immortal worlds; the devastation of the Titan Emperor Heaven; the invasion of the future world; the creation of the Dao Defense League; the struggles that ended with Yang Qi becoming league-lord; the appearance of the Great Necropolis; the restructuring of the immortal worlds; the establishment of the Sage Monarch League, and all the bloodbaths that came along with it; and finally the events on the Ancient Road to the Gods and the fight with Proud Heaven.

At that point, Yang Qi combined all the pieces of the God Legion Seal and ascended to the god world.

That was where the images ended.

The process took several hours, and it left a deep impression in the Crown Prince’s mind. When it was over, the Crown Prince looked aghast. Back on the Rich-Lush Continent, he had been the type of arrogant person who defied all laws and principles, even those of the heavens. But after what he had just seen, he understood what it truly meant to be someone who saw the sky from the bottom of a well.

“No. How could this be happening? It’s not real, is it? I really died? And you resurrected me in the god world?” The Crown Prince seemed like he was going through some kind of mental breakdown.

“That’s right,” Yang Qi said coolly. “You’re a Demi-Immortal now, but that's only because of the godpower I imparted to you. Furthermore, what you see around you is also a manifestation of my godpower. If you leave this place, you’ll be crushed out of existence by the paramount magical laws of the god world. You need to push your cultivation to the mid Terrifying level as quickly as possible, got it?”

“Like hell, Yang Qi. I'm going to kill you! I can’t believe you’d try to frighten me with an illusory region like this! Ohhhh. I know what’s happened. You killed me and captured my soul, and we’re in the Demi-Immortal Institute.” Raising his voice to a shout, he cried, “Son of Heaven’s Godfist; Nine Prefectures Sink into Ruin; Nine Cauldrons become Complete; Nine Times Nine is Paragon! Grand Emperor of Heaven and Earth!”

Rumbling sounds echoed out as he sent another fist flying in Yang Qi’s direction. However, before it could touch him, the attack crumbled into nothing.

“Ai...” sighed Yang Qi. “Fine, I’ll dispel the illusion so you can see the god world around you.” As the words left his mouth, all of the surrounding images collapsed and the Crown Prince once again saw himself surrounded by a bubble.

Taking the bubble with him, Yang Qi flew over to a teleportation portal and exited the god kingdom. Normally speaking, outside cultivators weren’t allowed inside the god kingdom, but the Crown Prince was a mere Demi-Immortal, making him like a speck of dust on the wing of a fly. The god kingdom wouldn’t even react to someone as weak as that.

“That back there is the god kingdom of the House of God Ordainment, one of the top sects in the god world. Out here, you can see what the god world is really like. See those people over there? They’re Quasi-Gods. If it weren’t for this bubble of mine surrounding you, you're so weak that you would die in an instant. You don’t even remotely qualify to exist in the god world.”

At first, the Crown Prince didn’t believe any of what Yang Qi was saying. But eventually, three days passed, and as he observed everything that was happening, he gradually came to realize that he really was in the god world. He had died, and Yang Qi had rescued him. Or if not rescued him, at least recreated him.

Of course, it only caused the hatred in his heart to grow, and made him wish more than ever that Yang Qi was dead. “Maybe you killed me, Yang Qi, but there’s no way you can make me acknowledge allegiance to you. You’ll always be my enemy. I don’t care if you’re a god, I’ll never submit to you. And one day, I’ll kill you. Then you’ll know the truth of the saying raising a tiger is inviting calamity.”

“You might as well forget trying to do that, Crown Prince,” Yang Qi said. “I created you, and I can destroy you. Right now, you’re weaker than a speck of dust. So work on your cultivation and get to the Quasi-God level. Once you can get out of that bubble, I have work for you. Namely, reaching godly ascension. Remember, if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even be in the Demi-Immortal level.”

With that, he flicked his sleeve, sucking the bubble containing the Crown Prince inside.

During the three days that had just passed, he’d been watching the Crown Prince and had confirmed that the fluctuations of his thoughts were very similar to the fluctuations of the jade amulet. In fact, they almost seemed like they belonged to the same person. Although the Crown Prince was extremely weak right now, once he reached godly ascension, he would be the perfect tool to use against the crown prince of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty.