Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

The King of Godmammoths, Demon Master, and High Priestess were all benefiting from observing the profundities of fateless energy. Despite all the billions of years they had lived, none of them had ever been able to see anything like it, thus the enlightenment they gained was immense.

It took almost no time at all for Yang Voidprime to reach the half-Annulled level. Instantly, he felt like his will was so powerful he could rule over all of heaven and earth.

However, with the three experts glaring at him like tigers eyeing prey, he had to maintain a cool head.

Despite his breakthrough, he couldn’t possibly overcome those three. In fact, he couldn’t even take on one of them right now.

That said, he had still passed a major milestone, and couldn’t have been more pleased.

‘These three want to use me as a pawn. They helped me reach the half-Annulled level, but I shouldn't be thanking them. I’ll devour them sooner or later. Of course, I have to start with Yang Qi. Heh heh. Just wait until I summon that fateless energy away from him and become a true Fateless One. Then all three of you are dead! Completely and utterly finished!’

“You’ve succeeded,” said the King of Godmammoths. “You truly have a lot of potential as a Fateless One. Now we need to start the summoning. Let’s work together with Yang Voidprime to strip Yang Qi of his fateless power. Once we do so, we can force him to work for us. Then, once we’re at our peak, we’ll take on Proud Heaven and the essence of the god world.”

“Fateless Ones really do have a lot of potential,” the Demon Master said. “Anyone else that we poured power into like that would have died. But as a Fateless One, you used it to reach the half-Annulled level. Incredible.”

“Yes, let’s begin the summoning,” the High Priestess said.

“Alright! Activate the spell formation!” The King of Godmammoths knew they didn’t have any time to lose, so he waved his hand, causing an enormous spell formation to appear.

“Get into the middle of the formation, Yang Voidprime. Understand?” the Demon Master said. “We made that with blood, sweat, and tears, over the course of many years. It can summon anything in existence, and is your key to getting immense power.”

Yang Voidprime’s expression flickered. It seemed like an obvious trap; once he stepped into the formation, they would probably be able to kill him at any moment.

“What are you waiting for, Yang Voidprime?” the High Priestess growled, not even making a pretense of courtesy. “Get in the formation!”

“Hold on,” he said. “Is it dangerous? What if Yang Qi takes my fateless power?”

“That won’t happen,” the King of Godmammoths replied loudly. “You’re a half-Annulled expert now, and he isn’t. You’ll instantly crush him. And even if he has somehow broken through, he won’t be able to resist a summoning backed by the power of all three of us. He's going to die soon, so stop wasting time! If you don’t, I’ll just kill you. Don’t think that because you’re in the half-Annulled level now you can just ignore us.”

RUMBLE!

All of a sudden, a mammoth trunk appeared, which wrapped around the shocked Yang Voidprime and threw him into the formation.

He had only been in the half-Annulled level for moments, which meant the King of Godmammoths was vastly stronger than him.

Swish!

“He’s still struggling,” the High Priestess laughed. “But you're far superior, King of Godmammoths. Maybe we should just take control of him. Puppetize him. Then when we take Yang Qi’s fateless power, we can split it three ways.”

“Not a bad idea,” the Demon Master said with a smile. “There are no free gifts under heaven. This guy is destined to be our cash cow. If I were him, I would’ve already run as far away as possible to get stronger. Instead, he stuck around doing nothing, just giving us the chance to kill him.”

“Begin the summoning!” the King of Godmammoths said, waving his hand. Instantly, the spell formation stirred to life.

In the formation, pain wracked Yang Voidprime, who finally understood that none of this was being done to benefit him. He was just being used as bait. He might be a half-Annulled expert now, but the King of Godmammoths, Demon Master, and High Priestess had left their power in him after the breakthrough, allowing them to control him. If he weren’t in the formation, he might have been able to run away and hide somewhere, then slowly figure out a way to extrude their power. But now, he was trapped. He just couldn't compare to these three old-timers in terms of wisdom and cleverness.

He felt like he was being roasted alive by fire, or tormented in the deepest depths of hell. Of course, that was because of the King of Godmammoths, who specialized in matters relating to hell.

Yang Voidprime wasn’t even strong enough to deal with the King of Godmammoths alone, let alone him working with the Demon Master and the High Priestess.

“Fateless Summoning!”

The King of Godmammoths made a grasping gesture, and all heaven and earth seemed to shatter, causing brilliant light to shine about.

“Out-of-Body Incarnation: King of the Great Dao!” The King of Godmammoths was drawing on a consummate art to create an out-of-body incarnation. It was called King of the Great Dao, and it was so amazing that as soon as it appeared, the High Priestess’ face fell.

“Fear not, High Priestess,” the King of Godmammoths said. “We won’t treat you like this brat. You’re an old friend, whereas this kid wants to crap all over us. Obviously, we won’t go for that.

“As of this moment, I have a second identity: the King of the Great Dao. I learned this from the Sovereign Lord, a consummate art he cultivated with the intention of transcending the essence of the god world. Sadly, he fell before he succeeded. But I learned the essence of the technique, and now I'm going to use this fateless power to complete my King of the Great Dao. Then, the King of Godmammoths will vanish and be replaced by the King of the Great Dao. Among the three thousand great daos, and the great dao of the universe, I am king. The leader of all, the king of myriad ancient daos, the king of kings!”

“Incredible. Simply incredible!”

The appearance of the King of the Great Dao convinced the High Priestess that the King of Godmammoths was definitely far beyond her. He had truly stepped on the path to a great dao, placing him immeasurably close to the Annulled level.

“Brother, your cultivation base is far beyond mine. Going forward, I’ll follow you without question. I just hope you can help me get rid of that pesky Proud Heaven!”

“Not a problem at all. Begin!”

As the King of Godmammoths pushed the King of the Great Dao to the limits of power, tapping into the depths of the multiverse, Yang Voidprime was screaming in the middle of the formation. As he did, he began melting into a clump of vital energy that resembled primal-chaos. Then, the King of the Great Dao exercised control over the vital energy, causing it to swirl into the form of a single character: fate.

However, the “fate” character was incomplete. After all, the other half was with Yang Qi.

Of course, it was pure fateless energy.

Yang Voidprime howled in defiance, but fighting back didn’t do him any good. The “fate” character then erupted with a gravitational force that stabbed out into the void to look for its other half.

“Hmm?”

Yang Qi suddenly sensed the power within him stirring. Despite his connection to his empire and its destiny, in the blink of an eye, he felt like he was about to fly away, as if something was pulling at him.

There was no question that it would be very harmful.

‘Someone’s trying to summon the fateless power out from within me?’ A cold smile broke out on his face.

Ever since he had reached the half-Annulled level, he had been able to directly sense the fateless power within him. It was changing, becoming more closely fused with him, yet at the same time, he didn’t understand its profundities.

But now that the other half of the fateless power was reaching out to him, he had no choice but to act.

“Be crushed!” he said, drawing deeply on his will.