Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Doom had reached an extremely critical juncture, and Yang Qi wasn’t doing anything to influence his decision. Although Yang Qi had cast aside the fetters of the God Legion Seal, he knew that gaining a second seal would provoke heaven-shaking, earth-toppling changes.

At the least, it would be enough to defeat Proud Heaven.

In fact, with two pieces together, it might even be possible to force Proud Heaven’s God Legion Seal out of him, which would be such a loss for him that he would become an ordinary person who could be crushed with no effort at all.

But Yang Qi had made a promise to Doom, and he intended to keep it. He wouldn’t use underhanded methods to try to get his God Legion Seal. That would go against his ideals. However, if Doom chose to fuse the two God Legion Seals, it would definitely be an optimal outcome.

Of course, after using two combined aspects of the God Legion Seal, he would still forsake them in the end, similar to the log raft used to cross the river in the classic buddhist analogy.

At the moment, though, he was in the middle of a river as broad as the sea of bitterness, with only his own divine abilities to rely on to get to the other side. If he could use the God Legion Seal as a boat to aid the process, he wouldn’t hesitate to do so.

“The God Legion Seal is your foundation!” Proud Heaven called out, his voice thrumming with wretched evil. “Doom, all you have to do is join forces with me and you can have everything you desire. Yang Qi is treating you well because he wants your God Legion Seal, but once the right moment comes along, he’ll definitely kill you!”

Doom’s eyes suddenly went blank.

As for Proud Heaven, it was possible to see wretched light flickering in his eyes as he used some sort of wretched daoist technique to try to goad Doom into turning on Yang Qi.

However, as Proud Heaven used the technique, a holy aura sprang up around Doom, along with golden light. Then cracking sounds rang out, almost like ice rapidly melting. It seemed as though Doom was experiencing some sort of transformation, like a caterpillar emerging from a chrysalis as a butterfly. “You’re using some devil art to try to enchant me, Proud Heaven? Who do you think you are? I'm a bearer of the God Legion Seal, so what can your little challenge of illusions do to me? My mind is incomparably sharp, and I have complete control over myself! Hmph! Yang Qi’s cultivation base is so high that he has no need to scheme if he wants my God Legion Seal. You’re scared, aren’t you? Scared that we’ll actually combine the two God Legion Seals!”

“How could I have guessed that my enchantment technique would fail, and would actually result in helping you achieve a breakthrough?” Proud Heaven’s expression was cold, but he still managed a faint smile. “But that doesn’t matter. You’re not going to abandon your God Legion Seal and hand your life into the hands of another. That would be foolish beyond measure, even when dealing with the most trustworthy person in existence.”

“You’re right!” Doom replied. “The God Legion Seal is my foundation, and I don’t want to just hand it over to someone else. But I’ll do anything to see you dead. Do you know how many of my people you killed? Every single family member. Every single friend. You slaughtered all of them.”

Proud Heaven sighed. “No soul under heaven lives for all time. Even if I hadn’t killed them, they would have died eventually. That’s the truth, so what difference does it make if I killed them? I killed them to help you sever your mortal karma and remove the fetters holding you back. Only in that way could you truly seek the great dao of the legion of gods. Think about it. If I hadn’t killed them, would you have become so focused on revenge that you pushed your cultivation base to its current limit? There’s no way! You’re ultimately just a nobody from the Primeval Age who happened to come across some good fortune. Besides, think about all the things you accomplished thanks to me invading the Primeval Age, and all the years of warfare that resulted.”

“Bullcrap!” Doom said. “I'm here to fight you to the death, Proud Heaven, not to chat about old times. By the way, thanks to your enchantment attempt right now, I achieved major enlightenment about an ultimate truth. Care to hear the details?”

“What ultimate truth?” Proud Heaven said, not quite sure what he meant.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi was watching the situation develop. Based on his analysis, the dialogue between Doom and Proud Heaven was more complex than it might seem. After all, it seemed highly unlikely that Proud Heaven would engage in such banter for no reason.

As he watched and analyzed, he sent part of his mind into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.

Right now, he didn’t fear Proud Heaven at all, but rather, the ninth legacy medallion that he possessed. If he used it, then given the level of Proud Heaven’s cultivation base, he might be able to force his way into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. And if that happened, it was entirely possible he would awaken the will of King Immortal-Slayer, which would then possess the immortal-slaying clone.

Yang Qi absolutely had to avoid that.

Therefore, he needed to have a good plan for what to do without the chart. He had eight pieces, but the ninth piece held by Proud Heaven was the core piece, crafted from King Immortal-Slayer’s heart. Unfortunately, he couldn’t open the chart lest Proud Heaven take advantage of that moment to seize it.

“The ultimate truth I learned is that it's possible to hand anything over to anyone. And the God Legion Seal counts in that.” Staring at Proud Heaven, Doom said, “I’ll give my God Legion Seal to you if you want it. But what will you give me in exchange?”

“What do you want?” Proud Heaven replied. “How about the future world? Or a chance to reach godly ascension?”

“No. The only thing worth it to me would be your life.” Doom burst out laughing. “You see, Proud Heaven, if it means taking your life, I'm more than happy to lose my God Legion Seal. Take it, Yang Qi! I trust you. You just have to promise you’ll use it to kill Proud Heaven!”

WHOOSH!

Doom waved his hand and a golden imp flew out in a streak of gold, arriving in front of Yang Qi before anyone could react. It radiated such might and grandeur that it seemed capable of suppressing the legion of gods in all the glory.

It was, of course, Doom’s God Legion Seal.

He was forsaking it and handing it to Yang Qi, all for him to use as a weapon to kill Proud Heaven. That was how much he desired to put an end to Proud Heaven; he was willing to trade the God Legion Seal for it!

“No!” Proud Heaven howled in a voice so shrill it seemed capable of shredding his heart and lungs to bits. Without hesitation, he thrust out his hand, drawing on his Ten Universes ability to unleash an aeonic aura of eternal destruction.

Unfortunately for him, he was too late.

The seal was already in Yang Qi’s possession, surrounded by a bubble. Cultivation base thrumming, Yang Qi launched a palm strike containing a host of very simple energy arts, backed with immense destructive power. It was a case of changing something rotten into something magical, and the moment it hit Proud Heaven’s Ten Universes, the vital energies of the two moves counteracted each other, and they both faded away.

With seemingly no effort, he had yet again negated Proud Heaven’s consummate technique.

Proud Heaven immediately backed up toward the altar. His attack had failed, but he still managed to keep his composure, although he was visibly surprised that Yang Qi had seized the God Legion Seal from Doom.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi was drawing on the God Legion Seal to further his cultivation. New techniques and abilities were flooding into him, combining with his true energy and pushing his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth to a further state of perfection.

Although he had pushed the Annulled Grand Magic and the other abilities he had acquired from Doom to very high levels, how could they possibly compare to what was capable with that aspect of the God Legion Seal?

All aspects of his body were experiencing marvelous changes, and becoming more complete than before.

At the same time, his psychic scale and power index both experienced explosive advancement.

Three hundred fifty. Three hundred sixty. Three hundred seventy. Three hundred eighty. Three hundred ninety.... Four hundred! It was only at the level of four hundred that his psychic scale stopped rising. He was now virtually at the peak of the Terrifying level and could even rival Lesser Gods!

As for his power index, it instantly broke past nine thousand

With a power index over nine thousand and a psychic scale of four hundred, he was so strong it was hardly possible for the mortal world to contain him. The top figures in the mortal world were mid Terrifying experts. But right now, Yang Qi was so strong he could kill people like the old Mu Renwang with a single glance.

If Yang Qi went to the god world now, he might not necessarily be instantly killed if he fought a Lesser God.

Besides, the true potential of the God Legion Seal could only be unleashed in the god world itself. In the mortal world, it was like little more than an infant.

Yang Qi was surrounded by a holy, golden light that couldn’t be penetrated by a myriad manifestations of wretched evil. The light was like the buddhist clouds from the buddhist schools, or the auspicious clouds of the daoist sects, and it pulsed with the unknowable majesty of the god world.

Now that Yang Qi had taken Doom’s God Legion Seal, everyone could tell that Proud Heaven’s end was nigh.

“Hurry up and fuse with it, Yang Qi!” Doom said urgently. “With two parts of the God Legion Seal, you can easily suppress the third piece! Even if Proud Heaven flees to the edges of reality, you can still kill him! KILL HIM!”

“What else would I do?” Yang Qi said, and a vortex sprang into being behind him.

Scintillating starlight erupted from within it, power from the godhood stars in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. “If Proud Heaven and I are going to have our final battle, the rest of you go into safety in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart!”

Without any hesitation, he threw Doom, Proud World, and the Shepherd into the chart. Meanwhile, another golden imp appeared within the depths of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.