Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Purr, purr....

Within Yang Qi’s nascent divinity was a budding framework, slowly developing, and at the moment, so slight that no one would ever be able to detect it. As for Mu Renwang and Su Xin, despite being top experts, they saw Yang Qi being encased in stone. His flesh, blood, meridians, and even his internal organs were all being petrified.

In fact, there were only two parts of him that weren’t already stone: his sea of energy and his sea of consciousness.

If those parts were converted by the godpower of the Great Necropolis, then he truly would become a deathless chunk of rock, bereft of true energy or life force. And at that point, no one would be able to save him.

Seeing what was happening, Mu Yexi said, “Father, Mother, can you save him? We don’t want to stop just short of success, do we?”

“Remain patient,” Mu Renwang said. “He’s actually still conscious, plus, I can sense that he still has a flow of true energy in him. His sea of energy hasn’t been petrified, which is a good sign. We still might be able to make this a success, and if we do, all three of us will have a chance to become Inheritors. And with that level of power, we can make the Woodfern Couple Palace the top sect among all other sects!”

“Yes!” Mu Yexi replied. “Inheritors are truly terrifying. I can already envision us controlling the Great Necropolis and being the ultimate figures in all existence. We’ll even be able to take over the god world! I almost can’t believe this Yang Qi has held out to this point. Father, Mother, you can now proceed to the next step of the plan!”

“Absolutely!”

RUMBLE!

The two mid Terrifying experts called on their immense levels of power, causing an ancient gateway to appear in front of the godpower seed, within which was an intense, burning flame.

As the fire began burning the seed, layers of dust drifted off of it as it was deeply cleansed.

“Fantastic!” It was impossible to say exactly what energy art they were using, but backed by their extraordinary cultivated bases, the sinister and ill-fated majesty of the godpower was slowly being chipped away.

Mu Renwang laughed heartily. “It’s just as we anticipated! The godpower seeds were pure when they first emerged, but quickly became infected with wickedness and misfortune. After being cleansed, the seeds multitude of profundities can be unlocked.”

“Be cleansed!”

They continued sending out their true energy, causing smoke to pour off of the godpower seed as it slowly shrank. It was almost like a piece of jade in the middle of being polished, causing it to slowly glimmer and shine.

“Now his blood vessels need to be reshaped. Either he succeeds, or dies. Now is the critical moment!” The seed was finally returning to its original form.

It was just as Mu Renwang had said. When the godpower seeds had first appeared, they were pure and untainted, but subsequently became so attached to a single person that they were inseparable. Somehow, Mu Renwang and Su Xin had come across a divine ability that could transform them, making them suitable for others.

However, they had never succeeded in using it, and didn’t dare to use it on themselves. Therefore, they were experimenting on Yang Qi, and if the process succeeded, it would lay the groundwork for their ultimate plan. After it succeeded, they would find a way to secretly insert a spell formation into him that would ultimately immolate him, destroying his nascent divinity and leaving behind only the godpower seed.

He would be like a consummate buddha who experienced nirvanic rebirth, leaving behind nothing but a perfect śarīra.

RUMBLE!

The two experts exerted all their strength to send their will into Yang Qi’s nascent divinity. “Hold out just a bit longer. As long as you don’t turn completely into stone, you’ll succeed!”

Yang Qi’s senses really were blocked, meaning he had no idea what was happening on the outside.

He was in a state of complete calm and quiet. Within his sea of consciousness, his nascent divinity was in the midst of contemplation, and the structure of the Great Necropolis was becoming clearer and clearer. Simultaneously, he was coming to a deeper understanding of the Purrfect God Art.

The true energy in his dantian region was becoming like a bubble, which in turn contained countless more bubbles, just like how the Great Necropolis contained countless immortal worlds.

At the same time, he was coming to understand many of the profound aspects of the Great Necropolis, information about the pathways, the danger zones, and other such things that few others would ever be privy to. Truth be told, without the help of Mu Renwang and Su Xin, and their profound energy art, he would never have been able to enter this state.

When he heard them speaking to him, he knew he had reached a critical moment, so he sucked in all of his thoughts and energy arts, entering a zen samādhi trance of complete emotionlessness.

RUMBLE!

Drawing on every scrap of true energy they could muster, the two experts forced the godpower to slowly enter Yang Qi.

As they did, a stone-like energy flow erupted out of Yang Qi, causing the entire hall around them to begin petrifying.

“Watch out!” Su Xin cried, pulling Mu Yexi behind her and simultaneously pulling out a defensive god item to surround all three of them with a protective shield.

Meanwhile, the stone energy continued battering at the hall, even turning the twin woodfern trees and the god item Su Xin had just called on to stone.

The process went on for a while until the entire hall was pure stone. Only then did the energy flow fade, and everything went silent.

Crack. The god item broke open, and the emperor, empress, and junior empress emerged, looking around to find themselves surrounded by lifeless stone.

“Father? Mother?” Mu Yexi said. “The Metroplexus Heaven Net god item was turned into stone?! But... did the process work?”

If Yang Qi lost his life and their plan failed, it would mean they had just wasted an extremely valuable god item.

“Did we succeed?” Mu Renwang said. “Probably not. This Yang Qi was an elite genius, but it looks to me that he’s turned into stone. Is it really true that the godpower seeds can’t be transferred to another person? It can’t be! All of our research indicated that if you cleansed the misfortune and returned a seed to its original state, it would be possible. Is it just that this Yang Qi wasn’t strong enough?”

“Who knows,” Su Xin said. “Let's crush the rock and find out. I have the feeling we failed, and he's completely turned into stone. And we can’t let that godpower seed go to waste after all the effort we spent cleansing it.”

As far as she was concerned, Yang Qi was nothing more than a test subject.

With that, the two of them stepped forward and unleashed palm strikes onto the petrified statue of Yang Qi. Mu Renwang aimed toward his head, and Su Xin aimed toward his dantian region.

Just as they thought the stone was going to shatter, it turned out they had miscalculated.

Their true energy was sucked into the statue, and cracks spread out on its surface.

“What? It's not breaking?” Shaking their heads, they funneled more true energy into the statue.

The cracks spread, yet it soon became obvious that the statue wasn’t actually breaking. Expressions of confusion appeared on the two experts’ faces.

They had experience breaking statues such as this in their previous experiments, and they could tell that things were going differently.