Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Each skull was as strong as a Consummate God. Thankfully, they didn’t possess actual wills of their own, otherwise they would have ripped Yang Qi to shreds. They were formed from the undying quintessence of members of the legion of gods, but that just meant that the God Legion Seal exercised innate control over them, which was why Yang Qi eventually got the upper hand.

Were it not for that, then even if he were much stronger than he was, he wouldn’t have been able to seal the skulls.

Any god from the ancient era, which was when the Sovereign Lord existed, would definitely be put under control by the God Legion Seal.

After the Sovereign Lord vanished, many new gods came along, and they were a different story. They had not been connected to the God Legion Seal, and thus they weren’t necessarily under its absolute control.

He took the thirteen crystalline skulls, leaving the seventh floor utterly bare of any items.

After a quick search to confirm there wasn’t anything left, he headed to the eighth floor.

Surprisingly, there was no toxic mist on the eighth floor. It was almost as if some powerful force had cleansed the place. This floor wasn’t particularly large, and the ground seemed to be made from pure green crystal. It was almost completely transparent, free of any impurities at all. And floating in the air in the middle of it all was a single god pill.

It was roughly the size of a thumb, and although it hadn’t evolved into a human form, in terms of quality, it obviously surpassed the Chaos-Cavern Grand-Magnate Pill by many times over.

Furthermore, this pill actually wasn't complete. However, it wasn’t created by someone with Paramount will convergence. No, it was made by someone even more incredible than that. It was created with Unbounded will. Unfortunately, its creator had died before finishing the pill, yet the pill was still so incredible that it could clear the entire floor of toxic mist, creating something like a kingdom of its own there.

‘I finally found something really valuable. A god pill made by someone with Unbounded will.’ Despite being only partially complete, Yang Qi knew that not even the House of God Ordainment would have anything like this.

If he handed it in to the sect, he would get an immense amount of merit points. However, he wasn’t foolish enough to do something like that, as it would draw too much attention. He was only staying in the House of God Ordainment to be as safe as possible, and over the past two years, he had made significant advancements in that regard. At the very least, the books he had access to in the Scripture Pavilion were worth it. And once he was recognized as a god, he would be able to go to the third floor and read the books there.

Slowly and carefully, he unleashed the power of the God Legion Seal to take hold of the Unbounded pill.

A smile touched his face as his fingers closed around it. However, he didn't immediately consume it. He knew that, given the level of his cultivation base, he wouldn’t actually be able to absorb and benefit from it.

‘I wonder what miraculous item is going to be on the last floor.’ As soon as he put the medicinal pill away, toxic mist rushed back in to fill the room. As it did, he hurried up the stairs to the ninth floor.

This floor was also empty, without any toxic miasma. The entire place bore the scars of fierce fighting, and just by looking at them, Yang Qi could imagine the epic battle which must have been fought here in ancient times.

Chopping his hand out at the floor, he used all the power he could muster to try leaving a mark on it, only to fail.

‘This ground is so hard it seems impossible to damage. So what type of people could actually leave such deep marks in it from their fighting?’ Sitting down cross-legged, he studied the marks, which he soon realized contained traces of Unbounded will that prevented the toxic mist from entering the area.

Each mark contained profound and mysterious principles of heaven and earth, boundless profundities that would be difficult for even gods to understand. Closing his eyes, Yang Qi sent out his psyche to make contact with the marks.

Crack!

All of a sudden, he touched a mark that had been left behind by a sword. When he did, the psychic power in the mark emerged, taking the shape of a sword that slashed toward him, cutting him in half at the waist.

Shocked, he quickly drew on his energy arts to stitch himself back together.

‘So strong!’ he thought. ‘In fact, too strong. Even just the psychic remnants here are enough to cut me in half! Just how much will I benefit from gaining enlightenment here?!’ With that, he continued working with the battle scars. Some would cause his entire body to explode, and some would cut his head off. However, none could harm his godhood, so he could recover from whatever injuries he suffered.

As he studied the marks, it was as if he could see a fight playing out between Paramount Gods of ancient times. And that fight contained profundities of heaven and earth that brought enlightenment to his own skill.

Although Yang Qi’s fighting experience would make him invincible among ordinary gods, he couldn't compare to ancient entities like King Immortal-Slayer. After all, he had never truly fought in a war against gods. In the impure lands, he had done a lot of fighting and killing, but that was all among low-level entities. In battles like that, there were plenty of profundities of power that weren’t revealed. It was only by participating in the fighting of actual gods that one could accrue truly amazing experience.

Now, Yang Qi was able to benefit from something just like that. Eventually, he sank into a state of contemplation in which he forgot about the passage of time and became oblivious to everything around him.

After an indeterminable amount of time passed, a brilliant light appeared.

It was his monarch godhood, which glowed with radiance and light as it rose up into the air, slowly rotating. Then, shafts of light shot out of it to connect to the scars of battle.

Soon, the Mahātmā Jade floated out to join the monarch godhood. At first, Yang Qi wasn't sure what was happening.

He opened his eyes.

‘The Mahātmā Jade is absorbing the psychic power,’ he thought. Despite the fact that the jade was transforming, it wasn't complete, which meant that after it absorbed the psychic power from these ancient battle scars, Yang Qi wouldn’t have access to them until he had collected the other pieces of the jade.

If he could take that new psychic power, his own power would advance by an unbelievable level.

Even as he watched, the battle scars on the ninth floor slowly faded away.

‘I basically didn’t get anything useful. On the sixth floor I got those flower petals, which I don’t know how to use. The seventh floor had those skulls that I suppressed, but can’t assimilate or turn into puppets. The eighth floor had a partially complete medicinal pill that I can’t use. And the ninth floor had battle scars that I can’t actually add to my own fighting experience.’

Shaking his head, he flew out of the Chaos Forge God-Shrine and started searching around the rest of the Pill-King’s temple ruins. After all, there were other shrines and temples in the area. Unfortunately, the others had been mostly picked clean by other experts. Thanks to his higher cultivation base, he was able to locate a few dozen Paramount medicinal pills, a few medicinal ingredients, and some other random items.

The Chaos Forge God-Shrine was one of the main core elements of the ruins, but there were others. Yang Qi wasn’t sure exactly how much time he spent searching, but eventually, he decided to stop while he was ahead. Getting too greedy might cause unnecessary complications.

The time had come to leave.

Stepping onto the teleportation portal, he headed back to the god kingdom of the House of God Ordainment.

As it turned out, he had spent about half a year contemplating the battle scars on the ninth floor. It was enough time that the White-Haired Boxer King should have been convinced that he was actually dead.

When he walked into the second floor of the Scripture Pavilion, he startled Bai Yin, who jumped up and said, “Yang Qi? It’s you!? You’re back! I thought you were dead! Do you know how long you've been gone? It's been nearly a year. Considering I haven’t seen you for so long, I assumed you were killed by the White-Haired Boxer King.”

“A year? That long?” Yang Qi chuckled. “Isn’t it normal for disciples to be gone for that long on missions?”

“That's true,” Bai Yin said, clasping Yang Qi’s shoulder. “Tell me, how did you escape the wrath of the White-Haired Boxer King? He made an announcement a while back that he was in seclusion. I assumed it was because he had killed you and didn’t want to get in trouble for it. Who could have guessed that you’re actually fine! I was really worried.”

“The White-Haired Boxer King couldn’t kill me,” Yang Qi said casually. “Furthermore, I'm ready to become an elite disciple.”

“You’re going to become an elite disciple? Wait, did you reach godly ascension?!” Taking a closer look at Yang Qi, he realized that he had the aura of godhood on him. “Dear lord! You really chose to become a god?” From his reaction, he didn't seem very pleased. “But why? Why would you do that? You coward! Your cultivation base is far beyond mine, so if you can’t form monarch godhood, then what hope could I possibly have?”

“I had no choice. The White-Haired Boxer King was trying to kill me, so I had to take advantage of the situation. Becoming a god was my only way to stay alive. Otherwise, you’d be looking at a corpse right now.” There was no way Yang Qi was going to tell the truth to Bai Yin. After all, Bai Yin hadn’t ascended from the impure lands with him. For now, Yang Qi would keep the secrets of his monarch godhood to himself.