Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

After being sucked into the ‘belly’ of the skeletal head of King Heaven-Devourer, Yang Qi couldn’t move. However, his ability to assimilate the golden blood improved. After all, this skeletal head was filled with immense power, and conformed to the maxim snakes devour mammoths.

The digestive capabilities of snakes were astonishing.

They could digest virtually anything they devoured. Even ordinary snakes that couldn’t chew anything, but consumed an animal, would digest everything from their fur to their bones.

King Heaven-Devourer was essentially the ultimate snake, and could digest anything and everything. Rumor had it that he could have digested the King of Godmammoths if he had been able to swallow him.

Normally speaking, that meant Yang Qi would definitely have been digested. But he had the imperial snakecharms, all three thousand of them, and that made him perfectly in line with the will and soul of King Heaven-Devourer. As such, he could resist the digestive power, and at the same time, remain completely undetected by Dugu Yunkong.

For one thing, he was surrounded by golden blood. Furthermore, he had connected the imperial snakecharms to the skeletal head, allowing him to tap into the power of the blood even more effectively.

In other words, without the blood present, he wouldn’t have been able to do this. Dugu Yunkong would eventually return to the House of the Invincible, so obviously, his plan was to take as much of the golden blood as he could, and worry later about strengthening his connection to the head. Sadly for him, it would be too late, as Yang Qi would soon have complete control of the head, allowing its full might to be unleashed.

“God Legion Paradise; Kingdom of Gold; Liquid Fills the Golden Mountain.”

Not holding anything back, Yang Qi used a host of daoist techniques to unleash explosive power.

Golden blood poured into the God Legion Paradise, filling everything in it, eventually even covering the magical gene chains.

Once the golden blood touched those chains, they started hissing and popping.

Furthermore, there was a teleportation portal in the middle of the God Legion Paradise, which he activated, allowing the shining starlight from the halls of heaven to pour into the blood.

At the same time, his soul, which was connected to King Immortal-Slayer’s soul, worked hard to absorb more of the golden blood.

He was making an attempt to fully fuse with the skeletal head.

Even if Dugu Yunkong were stronger than he was, he wouldn’t be able to tell what was happening, as he was fully focused on battling the will of the King of Godmammoths. Undoing the sealing mark on the Dragon Compendium was no minor task, especially considering he had to deal with the distraction of the psychic tempests.

Yang Qi smiled coldly. “You can absorb the power too, Second Devil General. I’ve converted it, so it’s safe. Hurry up and get back to your full strength!” He waved his finger, converting godliness to devilishness that the Second Devil General could use.

The Second Devil General shivered as the pressure on him eased up and he felt himself growing stronger.

“Amazing!” he blurted involuntarily. “Simply amazing. You can actually convert godliness into devilishness!? Have you gained enlightenment of the ultimate limits of power?”

“Yes,” Yang Qi said. “At least for the moment, I understand many of the mysteries regarding gods and devils. The Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth contains the meanings of both gods and devils. It was originally a combination of the divine abilities of both devils and gods. And since I have the God Legion Seal, which is the ultimate expression of gods, and the Mahātmā Jade, which is the ultimate expression of devils, I can see how godliness and devilishness are interchangeable. Stop jabbering, Second Devil General. Circulate your magical power and take the devilishness I'm giving you to get stronger!”

“Of course!” the Second Devil General said, immediately drawing on his animadestiny devil vitality to do just that.

It was as if ghostfire from the depths of hell had flared to life, shooting toward Yang Qi’s God Legion Paradise as the Second Evil General greedily tried taking more godly might. Yang Qi didn't care, and simply kept feeding him devilishness.

The truth was that it was actually a trap. He was using the Second Devil General to help assimilate the golden blood. As godliness was converted into devilishness, which the Second Devil General then absorbed, it passed through the God Legion Seal, which was where the Second Devil General’s throne was. And the process made it grow stronger.

Of course, how could the Second Devil General possibly know that?

He immersed himself in the influx of power. The devilishness was simply too abundant. After all, what would it have been like if the King of Godmammoths had descended to hell and become a devil king? What would his devilishness have been like? The greater the godliness being converted, the greater the devilishness that would result.

Yang Qi could sense the Second Devil General’s psychic scale being restored, and his overall strength rising.

Over the course of the following hours, more and more golden blood poured in, and the Second Devil General’s cultivation base actually rose at a higher rate than Yang Qi’s. Six billion. Seven billion. Eight billion! Yang Qi was also achieving progress, but his breakthroughs always came more slowly. During the hours that passed, he rose from four point one billion to five billion. Going any further than that wouldn’t happen easily.

As for the Second Devil General, he blew past eight billion and kept climbing, making it seem like he might actually reach ten billion. Originally, he had actually existed in the realm of ten billion, and was only weaker because he’d been injured and imprisoned for so long. And recovering from that was no simple task.

Not that Yang Qi was very impressed.

The Second Devil General would never have been in this position to begin with if he hadn’t been nearly beaten to death so many years ago.

Nine billion. Nine point eight billion. Nine point nine billion.

After several days passed, the Second Devil General’s damaged devilishness was almost completely repaired, placing him just on the verge of ten billion. He was now feeling more powerful and vigorous than ever, like a normal person who had a severed limb suddenly repaired.

“Die! Let true devilishness enter the world... and devour it! I am the devil general, king among kings! Devil among myriad devils! DIE!”

Thrumming with incredible devilishness, he launched himself toward Yang Qi and prepared to take the God Legion Seal away from him.

He was finally turning on Yang Qi!

In the end, the Second Devil General was a devil, after all. He didn’t believe in honor or trust, and only cared about himself. Deceit, treachery, theft, and other such things were all built into him. It made perfect sense that he would try to devour Yang Qi and reach the ultimate level of power, that which the Sovereign Lord had achieved in the past.

POP!

As soon as his soul came in contact with the God Legion Seal, he encountered Yang Qi’s devilishness. After all, Yang Qi had both godliness and devilishness within him, as he’d assimilated part of the Mahātmā Jade.

As soon as the Second Devil General sensed the Mahātmā Jade, he burst out laughing. “The spirit of the Mahātmā Jade!? I'm going to devour that too. This is perfect. I'm finally going to break through. It’s like the True Devil set this all up as a gift to me! I'm going to become the Second True Devil now!” His soul bared its fangs as it approached Yang Qi’s soul and prepared to devour it whole. At the same time, the aura of the Mahātmā Jade washed over him, repairing more of the damage he had sustained in the past.

Crack!Crack!

His psychic scale and godhood rating suddenly broke past the barriers and reached the level of ten billion! He was reaching a higher level of cultivation!

“I reached ten billion! I'm fully a third healed now, Yang Qi. And you’re dead! You underestimated the Second Devil General, boy! Did you really think I would let you control me forever!?”

However, it was at that moment that he suddenly received an order from the God Legion Seal that he couldn't resist. The moment he achieved a psychic scale of ten billion, his golden throne in the God Legion Seal became complete. Then, Yang Qi had instructed his psychic scale and godhood rating to stop increasing.

“What? What’s going on!?”

He tried moving his arms, but found that they didn't respond. His mind wouldn’t permit them to!

“Hit yourself,” Yang Qi said.

WHACK!

The Second Devil General slapped himself hard across the side of his face.

“You trapped me!? I'm enslaved by the God Legion Seal!?” The slap had brought the Second Devil General to his senses, and he now realized what had played out.

“Correct,” Yang Qi answered. “You thought I was just helping you heal yourself? Did you really think that you could outscheme me? I knew all along you’d try to devour my soul. Every time you improved your cultivation base, you were becoming more closely connected to the God Legion Seal. And when you reached the level of ten billion, the process was complete. You are now enslaved, and you are now my devil general.”