Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

The heart-shaped Engine of the One God could provide immense power. Therefore, anyone who controlled the engine and its power would be immensely strong. The truth was that the engine hadn’t been crafted from metallic machinery. Instead, it was built from the flesh and blood of gods and devils. The ancient Lord of Civilization himself had a body made of pure quintessence vitality, and was originally born out of the countless magical laws and expressions of power that existed in the god world.

Yang Qi had the Engine of the One God in his own heart, so in some ways it was as if he had the heart of the One God. With such power coursing through him, he could easily rip the Five Great Lokapālas to shreds.

And now, in a situation in which he wanted to conserve as much power as possible, he used the engine to back his deadly attack.

Lord Wave Wind couldn’t have been more shocked to see his weapon, Evil Sin, shatter. After all, it was an incredibly powerful god item that had become a part of him over the years. In fact, he had even felt safe in assuming that it would be strong enough to vanquish Yang Qi and his energy arts, only to have such expectations completely subverted.

All of a sudden, Wave Wind shouted, “Mahānata. Never-Ending. Misery. Get out here, the three of you! Don’t tell me you want to see me dead! If I get killed, you’ll be the next ones to die.”

Yang Qi pulled his hand back and laughed heartily. “So, you’re summoning suzerains of other hells to help you? Let’s see what it's like when the four of you work together. I wonder if any of you will manage to survive.”

Wave Wind wasn’t sure why his opponent had suddenly seemed to cease attacking, but that didn’t stop him from proceeding with his summoning.

A moment later, three powerful waves of power descended as three newcomers arrived. One of them wore a dark golden robe, making it obvious that he was the suzerain of the Hell of Mahānata. Another, in black and red, was from the Hell of Misery, and the third wore robes of black and white, and was from the Hell of Never-Ending.

In the past, Never-Ending Suffering had been a pair. Suffering was Never-Ending. Never-ending Suffering. Once upon a time, they had been twin gods, but they eventually perished, and their quintessence-blood became a pair of hells.

RUMBLE!

When the three suzerains arrived and saw Lord Wave Wind in such a bedraggled state, they laughed.

“You’re not in very good shape, Devil Lord Wave Wind! It’s been millions upon millions of years since I’ve seen you like this.”

“I remember you were in a bad situation years ago when you had that run-in with King Attu. Unfortunately, King Attu long since stepped onto the Ancient Road to the Gods. He's either in the god world now, or dead.”

“Did this boy really beat you into such a sorry state?”

The three suzerains shifted their gaze to Yang Qi.

“I didn’t call you three here to ridicule me,” Devil Lord Wave Wind said. “This is the Emissary of Radiance and Light we've discussed. Somehow, he found out about our plan with the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court and has come to kill us. He already destroyed my cudgel, Evil Sin.”

“What?”

“He destroyed Evil Sin?”

“That’s not possible! Evil Sin was created from the bones of a god! It's indestructible. No force in existence could possibly be strong enough to destroy bones left behind by a god.”

The golden-robed Suzerain Mahānata stepped forward. “Boy, are you the Emissary of Radiance and Light? Do you really think you can kill a suzerain of hell? You don’t have divine abilities strong enough to do that. I don’t know how you learned our secrets, but you must know that if we join forces with the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court, there’s no way you can escape our wrath. Why don’t you be a good boy and just accept death?”

“Young Sir, these four are about to join forces,” Patriarch Annalist said, stepping out into the open. “Shall I handle one of them for you, sir?”

Suzerains Misery and Never-Ending both recognized the illustrious Patriarch Annalist, who they knew was no weaker than they were.

“So it’s you, Patriarch Annalist!” Suzerain Misery said. “What are you calling him Young Sir for? Don’t tell me you’ve willingly become his lackey?”

“The young sir is mysterious and unpredictable,” Patriarch Annalist said, “and I'm only here today thanks to his kindness and mercy. I had experienced cultivation deviation, but he saved me, returned me to health, and even helped me reach a higher level of enlightenment. Now I have a chance to reach godly ascension. You four should surrender immediately. Truth be told, the young sir doesn’t really want to kill you, just prove to you how strong he is. Join him in bolstering the Dao Defense League and ending the rapacious scheming of the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court. Help bring stability to heaven and earth, and join the fight against the future world.”

“Oh?” Suzerain Never-Ending said. “So, boy, you really do have some high ambitions. You want to conquer the universe. Unfortunately, we here are hell-born fiend-devils. The future world might take over the immortal dao civilization, but they won’t invade hell. Not even they could survive the devil energy. So what do we have to be afraid of? As hell-born fiend-devils, people from the immortal worlds are our enemies too!”

“I don’t care who is, or isn’t, an enemy,” Yang Qi said with a dramatic wave of his finger. “I have one reason for coming here to the Unrestrained Heaven, and that’s to accept your allegiance. Either you give it to me, or you die. Those are your two options. The fact that you’ve been working with the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court against me is enough to earn you a death sentence.”

“You talk big, boy,” Suzerain Mahānata said. “You think you’re going to kill us? If we join forces, we're no weaker than the four emperors. And that means that if you can kill us, you could kill them. But there’s no way you're that strong. And in a moment, you’re going to pay the price for your arrogance!”

“Arrogance?” Yang Qi said, not backing up by even a single step. “I'm not being arrogant at all. It might be difficult for me to deal with the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court, because they follow the dao of immortals. But you people are from hell, and my energy arts are the bane of your existence. It's definitely within the realm of possibility for me to kill you.”

“Are you kidding me? The bane of our existence? I've never seen anything like that. Besides, did you really think that we only use devil arts? The only way to achieve a cultivation base like ours is to cultivate the dao of devils and immortals together. When you combine righteous and evil, you acquire the strength of both. We have the hearts of immortal-devils, and I’d very much like to see what could possibly be the bane of that! Grand Formation: Hellish Essence, Four Extremities!”

Four heavenly pillars appeared, expressions of pure power that were being controlled by the four suzerains.

As the spell formation activated, Yang Qi could sense his connection to the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart being interfered with. Thankfully, there was no way any of these people could truly block him as long as he had the power of the Engine of the One God.

Years ago, the Lord of Civilization, the ultimate creator of the Cruiser of Civilization, had been nearly on the same level as King Immortal-Slayer.

“You people are very ignorant and ill-informed,” Yang Qi said. “You think there’s nothing that can be the bane of your existence? I suppose I need to show you something called the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. With the power of godmammoths, I can conquer devils and gods and control all hells!”

True energy, radiance, and light erupted, creating a projected godmammoth whose trunk could draw on the essences of endless hells.

“That’s….”

“The Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth?! How is this even possible? How did you get that?!”

“The boundless Sovereign Lord left that behind. The Monarch of myriad gods!”

In the blink of an eye, Yang Qi proved he was the bane of their existence as he cut them off from the essences of their various hells. Inwardly, Yang Qi nodded in satisfaction, having proved that his energy arts had advanced and he was now even more fully connected to the essences of countless hells.

Of course, it begged the question of what the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth would be like when he became a Chaos God.

BOOM!

Yang Qi thrust both of his fists out, causing both light and darkness to swirl together into a taiji symbol of the gods that expanded, creating an immense aegis. This was a new energy art state, the Mandala Vajra Aegis, which was so immensely powerful it could confine gods.

RIP!

Then Yang Qi struck out with the force of a godmammoth, adding in power from the Engine of the One God that made him move so quickly he couldn’t be described in terms of speed. Instantly, his fist was right in front of Suzerain Mahānata.

Suzerain Mahānata had only just begun to make his attack when he was hit with the force of a mountain, knocking him down and causing blood to spray out of his mouth.

He was defeated with one blow!

Then Yang Qi spun and launched another fist attack, moving so quickly that it was almost impossible to track his movement.

BAM!

BAM!

Suzerains Never-Ending and Misery were sent flying.

Clasping his hands behind his back, Yang Qi walked up to Wave Wind.

“Well, what do you think?” he said.

Wave Wind opened his mouth, but only a gurgling sound came out as he dropped down to a sitting position. Normally speaking, he was the kind of person who wouldn’t tremble even in the face of death. How could he possibly be threatened by anyone when he had already surpassed the limitations of life and death?

But he was a person born in hell, and was instinctively terrified of godmammoths, who could innately reduce the effectiveness of his energy arts by thirty percent.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

The three other suzerains flew back to sit at Wave Wind’s side, but all they could do was stare at Yang Qi without daring to make another move.

“You scum call yourselves suzerains of hell? I'm not sure what’s going on, but the true suzerains are obviously gone. Presumably, they went to the Ancient Road to the Gods and left you pieces of trash behind. Alright, enough of this. Give me your faith. Acknowledge allegiance.”

“Fine!” Wave Wind said, finally regaining his composure. “You have a God Legion Seal, so it’s no wonder you know the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. You really are the bane of our existence.”