Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi asked more questions about this Eldest Brother Secundus, and the explanations caused his shock to mount. Apparently, he really was strong enough to beat Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven in a fight, even if he joined forces with one of the other Grand Emperors. He wasn’t truly a god, but he was definitely as strong as a Lesser God.

It really was true that there is always a heaven beyond heaven, and there are always people more important than you.

Already, Yang Qi was starting to form a new plan. “You people go back to Eldest Brother Secundus and tell him that Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven found out that you have the pieces of the map. He sent some people who ambushed you and took your pieces. Convince him that Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven knows about him and is planning to come with all the emperors of the Heavenly Court to take his life.”

“Yes, Milord!”

Henceforth, this group of six would never hesitate to do anything Yang Qi asked of them, nor would they ever be able to consciously betray him. Turning, they flew out into the Heaven Beyond Heaven, then passed through its greyspace and disappeared.

Yang Qi was sowing seeds of disaster; right now, this Eldest Brother Secundus was too much for him to deal with, so he was hoping to spark a conflict between him and the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court. A fight like that could be just the opportunity he needed to seize more power in the Dao Defense League.

‘It seems to me that the Heaven Beyond Heaven isn’t that dangerous after all. Ordinary Chaos Gods can’t get inside, but old-timers who’ve started to climb the Deathless Heavenly Stairway can. And people like that evidently do come here looking for treasure. I need to speed things up and take control of this place’s essence.’

With five pieces of the Aeonic God Psalter, it was even easier for Yang Qi to see the Aeonic God Temple in the depths of the ocean.

Thanks to what he had overheard, he now realized that the temple wasn't visible to the eyes of anyone except those who held pieces of the Aeonic God Psalter.

Apparently, the temple housed the essence of the Heaven Beyond Heaven, which could lead to the control of the entire immortal world. In fact, that level of control could allow one to shrink the Heaven Beyond Heaven down by thousands upon thousands of times, turning it into a bastion of defense that not even the legion of gods could break into.

WHOOSH!

Yang Qi went on to further his cultivation of the Aeonic Heaven-Dao Life-Destruction Zen Art with the new pieces of the psalter. It was more evident than ever that Chancellor Demi-Immortal had been the intended recipient of the psalter and the Heaven Beyond Heaven. He had been blessed by heaven in a way that few experts ever were. Sadly, he would never be able to live up to his potential.

Yang Qi flew out over the sea and toward the distant island. He could sense enormous primal-chaos beasts in the water below, but when they scanned him and sensed Chancellor Demi-Immortal’s destiny and aura, as well as the power of the psalter, they shrank away.

Without those assets, they would have attacked him. And considering the level of his cultivation, it would have been difficult to extricate himself from a situation like that.

He soon landed on the island, which wasn't very large, only about fifty kilometers from end to end. The temple was in the middle, an exquisite structure that was the color of ancient copper. In fact, it actually did seem to be constructed from pure copper, although it wasn’t the copper of the mortal world, but the copper of the gods.

The entire place was tightly sealed.

Yang Qi tossed the incomplete psalter toward the main gate of the temple. When it hit the gate, it sank inside amidst loud creaking and groaning noises. Then an incredibly ancient aura erupted out, accompanied by a dazzling light.

[Beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep.]

Reports immediately began pouring in from the two main systems on the Cruiser of Civilization.

[Power from the god world detected. Compatibility rate one hundred and fifty percent. Request permission to absorb.]

“Of course you can absorb it,” Yang Qi replied. He had come to find that with both vivicreation systems and genetic systems, the Cruiser of Civilization needed much more power than he could provide. Unfortunately, the power he had acquired from the ancient past and the future world was no help. In fact, because of that, the cruiser had recently been mostly dormant.

Therefore, the fact that sending the psalter into this temple had unlocked power from the god world was a welcome surprise. If he could power up the Cruiser of Civilization to the right level, he wouldn’t need to be afraid of Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven at all.

As power flowed into the spacecraft, Yang Qi noticed that the temple was transforming and the main gate was rippling and distorting. Soon, it looked like a passageway of some sort. Sending some divine will inside, he sensed something that resembled the constant cycle of life and death. There was also the aura of multiple god items. If he could get inside that temple, he would definitely have access to a huge stash of god pills and other paraphernalia from the legion of gods.

Unfortunately, he was still missing two pieces of the psalter. Without them, it didn’t matter how strong he was, he would never be able to get into the temple.

Thankfully, the five pieces he did have were giving him access to power, as well as secrets of the temple that would help him to improve his cultivation base and gain a greater control of the Heaven Beyond Heaven.

This immortal world was so immense that not even Yang Qi could fully probe its depths. But he was currently at its core, and if he could seize this temple, he would have access to even greater amounts of the vital energy of the place.

SNICK!

He exhaled, sending out a stream of true energy that glowed with godlight as it swept around the temple. ‘Maybe Chancellor Demi-Immortal’s destiny will be of some help here.’

As Chancellor Demi-Immortal’s destiny touched the temple, the place erupted with a dazzling light that pierced into Yang Qi’s mind and will, causing him to be even more closely connected to the structure of the Heaven Beyond Heaven.

Creak. Crunch.

The temple suddenly began to lurch, and with each heave, immense god world energy would spill out, which Yang Qi’s fragments of the Cruiser of Civilization would then absorb.

Drastic changes were occurring to the Heaven Beyond Heaven. Its primal-chaos vital energy was shrinking, and every aspect of it was growing smaller. Cracking sounds rang out as the greyspace became smaller and the magical laws knitted more closely together.

Before long, it had shrunk down to roughly one-tenth of its previous size. Of course, because of shrinkage, the effects of the magical laws and vital energy were ten times as strong. Before, a high-level Chaos God might have been able to enter, but now it would be impossible.

Not even the six surviving adherents of Eldest Brother Secundus would be able to get back inside, even if they possessed pieces of the god psalter.

‘Excellent. As I refine this temple, I gain more and more control over the vital energy of the Heaven Beyond Heaven. Once I get the final two pieces of the psalter, the gate of the temple will open.’

Considering the changes that had just occurred, Yang Qi was confident that if he could lure Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven into the Heaven Beyond Heaven, it wouldn’t be impossible to beat him in a fight.

Unfortunately, it was highly likely that the man would be able to see through such a ruse. He was a profound schemer and wouldn’t be easily led into a trap.

Yang Qi continued working on his cultivation. The more control he gained over the vital energy of the Heaven Beyond Heaven, the more clearly he could see the structure of the world around him. He realized that there were actually no real primal-chaos beasts in this place; nor were there mountains, rivers, planets, vegetation, or seas. They were all manifestations of primeval god formations. The god formations even rose high into the sky, where they emanated might and power of the most enigmatic nature.

The more Yang Qi learned, the more he realized that this place was less like an immortal world and more like an enormous spacecraft! It was almost like the Cruiser of Civilization. It was something the ancient legion of gods created to travel through primal-chaos, and it could gather the past, present, and future together. It was definitely different from other immortal worlds, although Yang Qi couldn’t explain the specific details.

Back before he had started opening the Aeonic God Temple, he was unable to see the true substructure of the Heaven Beyond Heaven. But things were different now. Meanwhile, his cultivation was advancing, allowing him to creep closer and closer to the sixth division Revisionist God level.

It would be a very difficult breakthrough. In fact, Yang Qi could sense that, although he was gaining more control over the Heaven Beyond Heaven, he wasn’t receiving anything that would help him with that upcoming breakthrough. The power here was just too limited.

Now more than ever he needed to open that temple. And that meant that his most pressing goal was to get the final two pieces from Young Master Leaf.