Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

There was no way Yang Qi was going to let these people off the hook. He was the Emissary of Radiance and Light, with only one superior and many subordinates. And this was the perfect opportunity to find out who might be out to harm the Dao Defense League.

Whoever this ‘boss’ was, it was obvious he was a very dangerous person. That much was obvious, if he thought he could take on the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court. Apparently, he wanted to remain in hiding until the Dao Defense League and the future world’s fighting had reached a fever pitch. Perhaps he would even wait until Primeval Age figures joined the fray before swooping in and taking advantage of the situation.

Yang Qi obviously couldn’t allow people like that to stick around as threats. Each one that popped up, he would kill. And that was especially true in the Heaven Beyond Heaven. This place was Yang Qi’s world, where he controlled the vital energy and magical laws. He had already killed one member of this group of seven, and he would wipe out the rest and find this eldest brother of theirs, if he had to.

And in the end, that person would die too.

His killing intent was pulsing with such intensity that all of them could sense it clearly.

“We have to go all out!” the leader said to his fellows. “Set up the Preheaven Adjudication Formation and trap him.”

“Yes sir!”

The other experts burst into motion, spinning this way and that around Yang Qi as they set up a huge spell formation, but he wasn’t worried. Ignoring their efforts, he simply took a step forward and reached out with his hand. Streams of energy flowed out of his fingers like dragons as he used the Hand of the One God to directly attack the formation.

Crack! Snap!

The formation shattered and his six opponents staggered backward. He took another step forward and unleashed an even more devastating attack. Explosive streams of true energy snaked forward directly toward the beautiful woman.

“Watch out, Junior Sister Mei!” the leader said. He exhaled sharply, sending out an internal pellet that glowed with the color of fire. As soon as it was out in the open, it exploded with power, becoming a huge, burning sun. “Green Sun Internal Pellet! Detonate the Void, Attack to Save!”

This man in five-colored robes had spent many years of bitter cultivation to create this extremely powerful internal pellet of true energy. It was a powerful weapon that most people would be incapable of defending against.

But Yang Qi hardly even spared it a passing glance. He reached out, grabbed the pellet, and crushed it, turning it into a stream of green smoke that he quickly assimilated.

Next, he reached out to grab the beautiful woman, smashing through all the defensive barriers in the way. The woman gritted her teeth in desperation and prepared to call upon a magical escape ability. However, a dimensional barrier rose up in front of her as she turned to flee, which she slammed into, causing her to fall to the ground. Before she could react any further, Yang Qi grabbed her.

He quickly sent streams of true energy into her, filling her with a sensation of tingling weakness. Within moments, she was completely incapable of moving.

As she glared at him in rage, he smiled and said, “Scum like you want to compete with me using spell formations? I'm the top dog in the Heaven Beyond Heaven! Take a look at these primeval god formations!”

RUMBLE!

The seawater in the area began to bubble and boil as numerous god formations rose up, sending out chains of magical law that locked everything down.

Keeping his grip on the beautiful woman, Yang Qi vanished into the swirling chains.

As for the other five members of the group, they were already trapped inside the formations.

Moments later, Yang Qi and the woman were floating above the swirling vital energy. Holding her up in front of him, he glanced down at her five companions, who were buzzing around like flies trying to escape.

“So you’re Junior Sister Mei?” he asked. “Because you're a woman, I’ll refrain from killing you. But you need to tell me who this eldest brother of yours is. And where is he?”

Snorting coldly, she said, “I refuse to surrender to you, you dirty little swine. Just go ahead and kill me. I've already devoted my life to Eldest Brother. Even if you kill all of us, it won’t do you any good.”

“Ai!” Yang Qi sighed, shaking his head. “How come people nowadays always refuse to do things the easy way? Fine, the hard way it is. Let’s see if you’re still stubborn after taking a bit of a beating.” Looking her up and down, he said, “You have a nice body. Aren’t you worried that I might rip your clothes off and take your yin vitality? I control the boundless power of hell, and I can think of ten thousand ways to do that. Trust me, the humiliation would be far, far worse than death.”

“Let me go, you beast!”

Suddenly, she gasped as he sent some true energy rippling across her skin, filling her with a sensation of both pleasure and pain. In that moment, she knew he was using some sort of devil art on her.

He shook his head. “If you really want to do it, I can show you what misery is.”

The truth was that Yang Qi had just probed her with his Wheel of Fate, hoping to get a lock onto the location of her so-called eldest brother. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to pick up on the slightest aura or fluctuation.

The other members of the group were stuck down below in the numerous god formations Yang Qi had called on. Exhaling, he sent out a stream of energy that turned into a primal-chaos elder-snake that began gobbling up the vital energy they were expending to attack the formations.

Time passed.

Soon, the rest of the group was gasping for breath and running low on energy. They tried to call for help, but Yang Qi intercepted the messages with his divine will, ensuring that they never got out of the formations.

In the Heaven Beyond Heaven, he was a god, making him far more powerful than even Young Master Leaf was in the Tusita Heaven.

Although Young Master Leaf had taken the legacy of the Tusita Heaven, there were many other old-timers there who could draw on the place’s destiny. In contrast, Yang Qi was the one and only ruler of the Heaven Beyond Heaven.

“Be broken!” Yang Qi said, and as soon as the words left his mouth, they became like a sea of lightning that descended onto the heads of his opponents. It was none other than the Life-Death Void-Destruction God-Lightning.

Agonized shrieks rang out as the entire group dropped, lightning smashing into them and wrapping them up like chains.

As Yang Qi dropped down in front of them, the leader looked up and spat, “Swine! Dirty pig! We’re eventually going to destroy your Dao Defense League! How dare you provoke us! You have no idea who our eldest brother is. If you knew, you would be terrified!”

“Even if your eldest brother is a god, I’ll still kill him.” Suddenly, the Hell Scourge appeared in Yang Qi’s hand.

Screams immediately began to ring out from the leader. “What’s going on?” he shrieked. “This pain! It’s intolerable!” The torment that the Hell Scourge could unleash was the kind that no person could endure. “Stop! I surrender! I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

“You!” the beautiful woman shouted. “You useless weakling, Ren Wuyi!”

SMACK!

This time, Yang Qi struck the woman.

At first her eyes just went wide, but then she unleashed a scream so bloodcurdling it could rip open the greyspaces of immortal worlds. After experiencing the torment of innumerable hells, she sagged in relief when he held back the lash. Dripping with sweat and looking quite listless, she said, “I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything. Our eldest brother is a Past One, an invincible expert from the Primeval Age. The buddha dragons opened a passageway to the past in the hopes of summoning primeval buddhas. But they made a mistake in the construction of the passageway and eldest brother managed to slip through. He arrived in our age over a hundred years ago and has been hiding out here in the primal-chaos, working on his master plan. In the Primeval Age, he wasn’t able to reach the level of the legion of gods. But here in the Immortal Dao Age, everything is different. Fate is different. He will change everything, and succeed in becoming a god.”

“What’s his name?” Yang Qi asked.

Taking a gasping breath, she answered, “His name is Secundus. That’s all. In the Primeval Age, people usually only have a single name. Just don’t touch me with that whip and I promise to do anything you ask.”

“Fine. Open your heart and soul. Become a believer in me.” She and all the others complied. As they did, he waved his hand and the four-part map flew out and into his palm. As soon as its energy entered him, an Aeon Portal opened behind him.

Now, he only needed two final elements to complete the Aeonic Heaven-Dao Life-Destruction Zen Art.

Upon adding his current piece to the four-piece map, they created a large composite image that had two empty spots. Those pieces were with Young Master Leaf. Once he had them, he would be able to open the Aeonic God Temple and find what mysteries and treasures lay therein.

‘You’re going to bleed, Young Master Leaf. I'm definitely going to get those treasure maps from you.’

Now that he had turned these six enemies into believers, he was able to get more information about this Eldest Brother Secundus, but unfortunately none of them had ever seen him with their own eyes. He remained completely hidden in primal-chaos, using magical techniques to communicate and issue orders.