Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“So, a Golden Lokapāla One,” Yang Qi said. “That’s quite a powerful constitution. I had no idea there were buddhist disciples among you seventy-two brethren.” After looking for a moment at this young patriarch who could stand up to the torment of hell, Yang Qi reached out and tapped his forehead.

Crack! Snap!

The patriarch’s energy arts were wiped out of existence and the golden glow which had surrounded him vanished. A moment later, he was squealing in pain.

“You destroyed my energy arts?! You took away my Lokapāla Prajñā Safeguard Technique? Mercy! Please, don’t beat me. Spare me!”

The Golden Lokapāla One couldn’t handle the pain now, and immediately began begging Yang Qi for mercy. He was completely and utterly subdued.

Yang Qi sent sagelight into him, making him the last of the group to convert and become a believer.

RUMBLE!

All seventy-one of the patriarchs now exercised faith in Yang Qi. As a result, a vortex of faith appeared around Yang Qi’s immortal-slaying clone, invincible flows of energy and destiny that poured endlessly into him.

“Defy heaven. Slay immortals….”

Crack. Crunch.

Energy surged in the clone, whose cultivation base began climbing in shocking fashion.

‘What exactly is happening?’ Yang Qi thought. Within his mind, he could see everything that was happening with his clone in the Heaven Beyond Heaven. And even he was completely taken aback.

The clone howled as an immense tempest built up around him, the power levels surging in such an incredible fashion that not even he could absorb them easily.

WHOOSH!

All of a sudden, Yang Qi sensed the four of King Immortal-Slayer’s legacy medallions that he had flying out of his control. They entered the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, then popped out in the vicinity of his clone, where they began belching massive amounts of energy onto him.

‘Such majestic power. Such incredible destiny!’ Yang Qi was completely shocked.

He was aware that the medallions had immense destiny in them; after all, their main function was to store the destiny of those who died with the medallions in their possession. Now that the destiny was coming out into the open, it almost seemed like something that had belonged to a god.

The destiny of gods was completely different from the destiny of humans, and surpassed it in just about every way imaginable. In fact, it even surpassed the level of the true godhood Yang Qi had acquired by many times over.

“Incarnated God level!”

POP!

The destiny from the medallions flowed into the immortal-slaying clone, causing his power to increase rapidly as he broke into a higher cultivation level.

Shockingly, after that, he still had momentum for further breakthroughs. There was energy flowing through him that Yang Qi’s true self couldn’t benefit from; it was godpower from King Immortal-Slayer himself.

‘So incredible!’ Yang Qi thought. After breaking through to the third division, the clone continued, and before long he was a fourth division Shattered God. Even still, Yang Qi wasn’t sure what exactly was happening, or why the faith of the seventy-one patriarchs would produce a result like this.

But then something clicked in his mind, and he realized what was happening.

‘That’s right! The seventy-two patriarchs themselves have immense destiny. Young Master Leaf wanted to emulate the original seventy-two brethren, including King Immortal-Slayer himself. That’s why he gathered these seventy-one patriarchs to begin with. And he helped them develop incredible abilities and collect special magical treasures that were connected to them by destiny. Eventually, he would have demanded faith from them and taken their destiny for his own use. After forcing the seventy-one of them to be believers in him, he could have awoken the true majestic power of King Immortal-Slayer. Now, all of his work is pushing my immortal-slaying clone to an incredibly high level.’

All of a sudden, he realized what precious treasures these seventy-one individuals were.

Before, the immortal-slaying clone had been unsure of how many months or years it might take to achieve any significant progress. But now he was advancing by leaps and bounds. Normally speaking, increases like this would involve thousands, or even millions of years of cultivation for ordinary people.

At the current rate, it seemed like reaching the Chaos God level might even soon be possible.

Yang Qi burst out into hearty laughter. ‘Now all I need to do is add Young Master Leaf to the mix. With his destiny, my immortal-slaying clone will likely be able to reach the Deathless Throne. And at that point, I can easily build the full collection of all nine of King Immortal-Slayer’s legacy medallions. That, in turn, would unlock the full potential of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. I have a feeling that there’s immense power lurking in the profound depths of the chart. I can’t get to it right now, but I could if I recover the full will of King Immortal-Slayer.’

At the moment, not even true godhood would be enough for Yang Qi to become a true god. Stepping from the Chaos God level to the Deathless Throne required unimaginable levels of power.

His requirements were so incredible that not even a thousand bits of true godhood like he had would be enough. Probably not even the god Brahma’s godhood would suffice.

However, if he could recover the power of King Immortal-Slayer, things might be different. That could be the foundation he needed for godly ascension. After all, King Immortal-Slayer had been a Paramount God, second only to the Sovereign Lord.

Yang Qi’s Wheel of Fate seemed to thrum with delight, as though it were cheering for his thought process. Of course, he also knew that it would be a dangerous undertaking. After all, King Immortal-Slayer was an invincible and mighty entity, and his will would do everything possible to absorb Yang Qi.

The more Yang Qi learned about King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions, the more he was convinced that King Immortal-Slayer wasn’t actually dead. He was most likely laying at rest in some aspect of space-time, waiting for the right moment, the right convergence of fate, and the right dao to come along. If that happened, he would awaken, shatter the great heaven above, proclaim himself the ruler of the universe, and become the new Sovereign Lord.

Seeing the thoughtful look on Yang Qi’s face, Green Merchant said, “Milord, Milord! The seventy-one of us are ready to take any orders. Whatever you ask us to do, we’ll do!”

“Good,” Yang Qi replied coolly. “For now, stay in the Tusita Heaven and maintain contact with Young Master Leaf. Keep him off guard, and notify me as soon as he's out of seclusion. He’s my greatest enemy at the moment, and for all intents and purposes he’s like a weaker version of King Immortal-Slayer. I need to kill him to awaken the power of King Immortal-Slayer. Under no circumstances are you to allow him to realize what’s happened here. We need to lure him out of the Tusita Heaven. In here, he’s too strong and will be virtually impossible to kill. Oh, another thing. Try to stir up as much trouble as you can between the Tusita Dynasty and the God Dragon Tribe. I want the God Dragon Tribe destroyed!

“Now, brace yourselves as I cleanse all seventy-one of you and heal any hidden cultivation injuries you have. Don’t worry, before long, all of you will be Buddha Gods, and together you will probably be a match for even Young Master Leaf.”

“Many thanks, Milord!”

All seventy-one of the patriarchs dropped to their knees and kowtowed. In the past, this group would only do such a thing for Young Master Leaf. But Yang Qi had turned everything around. Young Master Leaf was now a general with no troops under his command, and it would only be a matter of time before he came out of seclusion and found, to his utter shock, that his own brethren were conspiring against him.

Young Master Leaf believed himself to be invincible and unparalleled under heaven, and a person who maintained control of all situations. But now, Yang Qi was truly proving to be his archenemy.

As Yang Qi healed and cleansed the seventy-one patriarchs, their energy arts advanced and their hidden potential was unlocked.

“Give me fresh blood!” he said. He flicked his finger, and a drop of blood appeared from the foreheads of all seventy-one patriarchs. The blood flew over to his hand, filled with all sorts of unique energies. He combined the drops into a single blood śarīra, which he then absorbed into himself.

That blood contained the special constitutions of all seventy-one of the patriarchs. At first, their energies were in conflict, but Yang Qi was able to neutralize those effects with the God Legion Seal. Before long, the power of all those constitution types was flowing through him.

Yang Qi had long since cultivated the Physique of the Sovereign Lord, a body type connected to the actual Sovereign Lord that could accommodate all types of constitutions. In fact, to cultivate the Physique of the Sovereign Lord to the ultimate level, he would need to combine all three thousand of the unique constitutions.

‘General Samman is going to be arriving through that passageway soon. I definitely need to set a trap to kill him. Having vivicreation systems in my fragment of the Cruiser of Civilization will be a huge benefit. With enough power, I can use them to do all sorts of incredible things—for example, analyze the seventy-one constitutions I just acquired and produce more unique constitution blood.’

Supposedly, the Lord of Civilization, who was a Paramount God, built the Cruiser of Civilization with science and technology from many planes of existence. With even a single drop of blood, it could completely replicate any type of constitution!