Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Dragon Floret had reached the end of the line, and was now going for broke.

His actual cultivation level was far above Yang Qi’s, but he had been seriously injured and his godhood was fractured. No matter how much he wanted to defeat Yang Qi, he just wasn’t in the right place to do so. Perhaps if Yang Qi couldn’t replenish his own godpower, Dragon Floret might have been able to beat him. Unfortunately for him, Yang Qi had a virtually unending supply, which meant he had the luxury of being able to simply wear Dragon Floret out.

Dragon Floret had medicinal pills to replenish his godpower, but that method was too slow to keep up with Yang Qi.

After all, medicinal pills took time to assimilate, and couldn’t restore someone to full levels of godhood in the blink of an eye.

Without true energy to back his attacks, how could Dragon Floret fight? To kill a god, one had to crush their godhood; without doing that, a god wouldn't die no matter how much you wanted to kill them.

“Going for broke won’t do you any good,” Yang Qi said. “You’re still going to die. And you’re going to be the first Consummate God who dies by my hand. Considering you’re a late Consummate God, killing you is going to be great experience for me.”

In the wink of an eye, the two of them exchanged thousands upon thousands of fist and palm strikes.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

The two of them were beating each other like punching bags, leaving both of them trembling as a result. Yang Qi was soon pierced full of holes by the Heaven-Deteriorating Earth-Waning Finger, whereas Dragon Floret had been pummeled so badly that his godhood was in worse shape than ever.

Yang Qi was truly showing what he was capable of.

No matter how badly he was beaten, he wouldn’t explode or collapse. The True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body really was eternally indestructible. Even if time itself came to an end, he would never rot away. In fact, time would eventually end, but his monarch godhood, and Unspoiled Body, would continue existing even beyond that.

Yang Qi was using his ultimate techniques; he could recover his godpower with insane speed, and his injuries would heal almost immediately. Dragon Floret was starting to feel overcome with despair.

“I won’t let you succeed even if I die! Heaven-Defying Art!” Dragon Floret shot toward Yang Qi, simultaneously unleashing a technique of heaven-defying proportions that caused countless explosions to fill the area. Unexpectedly, he was resorting to a technique of self-detonation!

However, in response, Yang Qi threw out his hands, causing a huge bubble to appear around Dragon Floret and instantly suppress him.

Stepping into the bubble, he looked at Dragon Floret and said, “You’re dead.”

“You can't kill me, Yang Qi! You’re breaking the rules of the game! The House of God Ordainment doesn't allow children of primeval chaos to be killed! Besides, I can pay you off! M-my... my background is beyond anything you can imagine! Nobody knows this, but the reason I got all of those things left behind by the dragon patriarch is because—”

Crack!

He never finished speaking.

A stream of sword light pierced into his sea of consciousness, destroying his mind. That sword light came from the number one dao of the sword, that which even the Lord of the Sword Dao, a Paramount God, had admired. It was the dao of King Life-Killer, and it was beyond the compare of anything and everything.

Yang Qi knew that long delays usually lead to trouble, therefore he wasn’t interested in dragging out the fight any longer than necessary.

Dragon Floret, the mighty and famous leader of the Dragon Society, a child of primeval chaos, and a top expert in the sect, had met his end. He was utterly and completely dead. Yang Qi searched him and produced a dragon-shaped bracelet of holding, within which was a large dimension filled with medicinal pills, magical treasures, and other items.

Yang Qi wasn't interested in the magical treasures, but the medicinal pills did interest him.

Every single one of them was a pure Paramount medicinal pill, which was exactly what Yang Qi needed.

In fact, this was one of the main reasons he had chosen to kill Dragon Floret. Thankfully, it seemed it was all worth it. They were all medicinal pills from ancient times, left behind by a dragon patriarch. That patriarch had actually possessed Unbounded will, yet he had created Paramount pills to leave behind to his descendants. To him, they were like trifles.

It was like a great swordmaster who left behind some toy swords for his grandchildren. Although they were little more than trash, they were still from a grandmaster.

He pulled out a Dragon Marrow Pill, which actually resembled a tiny dragon made of mercury. He knew that if he consumed it, it would provide a huge influx of godpower and cleanse his meridians. In fact, it was even possible that it would strengthen the connection between the particles in his body and the space around him, providing increased storage capacity and solidifying his godhood. The benefits would be immense.

“I’ll consume them all.”

He took every single one of the medicinal pills out of the bracelet of holding and absorbed them. That collection was Dragon Floret’s life savings, and every pill had taken immense effort to acquire. But Yang Qi was devouring them with abandon. Anyone who saw what he was doing would have been completely shocked.

Purr, purr....

The medicinal power of the pills instantly exploded within him, only to be gobbled up by his monarch godhood, crystallizing the godpower within it

“Time to break through to the mid Lesser God level!” He threw his head back and howled as the seawater around him shot into the air.

Yang Qi felt like it took unending amounts of godpower to fill his monarch godhood and make even the slightest progress. Any observer who saw what was going on would have been shocked to say the least. Even after consuming what was like a small mountain of medicinal pills, he still lacked what it took to reach the late Lesser God level.

He just didn’t have enough pills.

‘What a damn pity,’ he thought. ‘Even with all those medicinal pills, I only advanced by one minor level. Monarch godhood is insanely difficult to work with. What’s going to happen later on? Will I even be able to find enough medicinal pills?’ He shook his head, not feeling very pleased at all. Dragon Floret had possessed a stockpile of medicinal pills so immense that their value surpassed a hundred Sage Monarch Consortiums put together. And Yang Qi had consumed them all at once.

He flicked his finger, summoning a primal-chaos elder-snake to devour Dragon Floret’s corpse. There was now nothing left of him in existence. However, if Yang Qi needed, he could always recreate him like he had done with the Crown Prince.

After everything was over, Yang Qi didn’t leave. He remained there on the surface of the ocean and flicked his sleeve, summoning the bubble that contained the Crown Prince, who was currently in the early Terrifying level.

“Have you finally realized the truth of it all, Crown Prince?” Yang Qi asked. “I just killed a late Consummate God. Maybe he was even as strong as the peak level. Did you see?”

The Crown Prince’s eyes glittered with an ominous light. He had indeed witnessed what played out, and knew that Yang Qi wasn’t somehow fooling him. Everything was real. He had always been an intelligent person, so how could he not see the truth?

“Very impressive, Yang Qi. I really was looking at the sky from the bottom of a well before. The measly Rich-Lush Continent is like nothing, compared to the god world. In fact... I can't even find the words to describe the difference. I died, and you resurrected me here in the god world. And while I was dead, a lot changed.”

The Crown Prince seemed to have changed down to the level of his soul.

“That's right. You and I could hardly be more vastly separated right now. Everything that happened in the impure lands might as well have been a dream. Including our conflicts of the past. What do they count for here in the god world?” Yang Qi smiled. “I recreated you out of nostalgia, to see an opponent from the past.”

“Don’t be so quick to rejoice. Sooner or later, I’ll make sure you understand it was a big mistake to recreate me. And then you’ll regret everything.”

“Cut the crap,” Yang Qi said. “I’m going to help you reach the level of a god. Do you know how many levels there are between Great Sage and godly ascension?” Taking some of the quintessence energy he had absorbed from Dragon Floret, he flicked his finger and sent it into the Crown Prince, instantly causing his psyche to improve.

Thump!

Almost instantly, the Crown Prince jumped to the mid Terrifying level.

At that point, the bubble around him vanished.

Without the protection he had been receiving, the magical laws of the god world instantly crushed down on him, and he dropped to his knees, gasping like a fish out of water.

At that moment, he felt incomparably weak.

“This is the god world?” he murmured, looking at his own two hands. “The only real and true world?”