Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Proud Heaven’s glib tongue had won over the King of Godmammoths, the Demon Master, and countless Demonfolk God-Lords. They would all join the Deathless Heaven Empire. And they signed a formal agreement allowing for all of them to share in the destiny.

Even Proud Heaven signed it, binding it with his own life force.

Next, Operation Demon Destruction was furthered. The Demonfolk God-Lords didn't care at all for their own kind. They treated them like livestock, and simply watched as their prayers ended with them being sacrificed.

Several months passed.

Thanks to the innumerable prayers being offered by the Demonfolk, a devil embryo now existed on the altar, and it was growing larger every day. It already pulsed with an energy that seemed to border on the half-Annulled level.

Eventually, it would become a rancorous spirit that would take the initiative to devour the Demonfolk around it, inflicting misery and suffering on them.

The Demonfolk in the god world were experiencing a tribulation like no other.

“Well, Operation Demon Destruction is roughly half accomplished,” said the King of Godmammoths. “The devil embryo has reached strength equivalent to the half-Annulled level, and can now feed itself. Let’s leave it to run amok in the god world, and head back to your empire to take our positions.” The King of Godmammoths couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of the devil embryo.

He couldn't control it, nor could the Demon Master or the High Priestess. When the time came for Operation Demon Destruction to come to fruition, the devil-god would destroy the rest of the Demonfolk and become the most powerful entity imaginable.

“Alright, let’s go,” Proud Heaven said, casting a grim look at the devil embryo. He knew full well that the inhuman embryo could easily kill him, if he didn’t have the protection of the essence of the god world.

Right now, the King of Godmammoths and the others were afraid of the god world, not him. Otherwise, they would have done everything they could to kill him.

Once the devil embryo was complete, the King of Godmammoths wouldn’t have anything to fear from Proud Heaven’s empire. Of course, because of the agreement that had been signed, Proud Heaven couldn’t do anything against them. For now, they would go and take their official positions, then struggle for power using interest groups.

Of course, the King of Godmammoths and the Demon Master were already planning a way to overthrow Proud Heaven.

RUMBLE!

The Demonfolk God-Lords joined the four half-Annulled experts as they headed toward the Deathless Heaven Empire. Yang Qi saw all of this happening, and smiled. ‘Operation Demon Destruction? Ruthless. They're going to wipe out all the Demonfolk in the god world. The destructive power of that weapon is enough to wipe out any empire. That said, the King of Godmammoths is asking a tiger for its skin by joining Proud Heaven. The only question is how he’ll end up dying. It's a good thing I have my back door into his empire. I'm curious to see how things develop.’

Unfortunately, Yang Qi didn’t have time to waste on the King of Godmammoths and the others. He had been fully focused on trying to track down the True Devil and the Sovereign Lord over the past few months.

He was starting to wonder if they were really dead. That said, he was remaining on full alert, and wasn’t taking the situation lightly. He was still operating under the assumption that they were deep in hiding.

Over the course of the past months, his empire’s dynasty had grown, and he had built up more resources. A multiverse was forming in the depths of his empire, and each universe that made it up was complete with its own flow of time.

He was making his own natural laws.

Immense power was building up as he drew on primal-chaos paleo-energy.

Yang Immortal-Slayer becoming a half-Annulled expert had been extremely beneficial. He joined the Invincible Dugu in taking the lead in educating the experts of the empire in matters of their cultivation base. And as they led the people of the empire in prayer, they improved both individuals and the empire as a whole.

Jadefall and the others were constantly climbing in their cultivation, but unfortunately, none of them were able to reach the half-Annulled level.

That said, most of them had psychic scales between two and three hundred billion.

And all of them wore a combined version of the Mahātmā Jade and the God Legion Seal, created by Yang Qi after he became a full Fateless One. Although it was only about one percent as powerful as the original, that was still incredibly mighty.

By now, all of Yang Qi’s friends and family were on par with the Patriarch of the Universe and the others who had been sentenced to death by the Sovereign Lord. Unfortunately, further progress would be difficult.

Yang Qi knew that the bottleneck they faced didn’t have anything to do with him. Nothing he could do would help them reach the half-Annulled level.

Of course, there was another unique entity to consider, and that was the purrling.

It had been deeply asleep ever since Yang Qi reached the half-Annulled, and it wouldn’t wake up. It didn’t want to be affected by any karma, and Yang Qi was happy to go along with its wishes. He wasn't going to get any more help from it.

That said, he didn’t need help. He would face his enemies alone. No one could help him. He had to rely on himself, otherwise how could he possibly qualify to lead all living beings in transcendence?

Furthermore, he had enemies who operated in the open, and enemies in hiding. Those in the open were Proud Heaven and the essence of the god world. Those in hiding were the Sovereign Lord and the True Devil.

He had to be prepared to face both.

Thus, he was holding back his troops without moving.

When the King of Godmammoths, High Priestess, and Demon Master led the Demonfolk God-Lords into the Deathless Heaven Dynasty, everything trembled violently.

It was a result of the power of the Demonfolk.

At the moment, everyone was gathered in a public square to be officially ordained with titles.

Proud Heaven stood at the head of the crowd, but he hadn’t given out any of the ordainments yet.

At a certain point, the King of Godmammoths frowned and turned to the Demon Master and the High Priestess. “What exactly is Proud Heaven up to? Don’t tell me he's planning to back out of the agreement!”

The Demon Master chuckled coldly. “Even if he were ten times gutsier than he is, he wouldn’t back out. First of all, we have a signed contract connected to the destiny of his empire. Second, if we start fighting, it’d be devastating. Third, we could summon the devil soul from Operation Demon Destruction to absolutely destroy his empire.”

“Then what the hell is he up to?” the High Priestess asked.

“Let’s wait and see.”

Proud Heaven almost seemed to be in a trance, leading everyone present to have a very odd feeling about what was going on.

Hailan was there, but she wasn't speaking. She just stood there as if she knew exactly what Proud Heaven was planning.

All of a sudden, Proud Heaven opened his mouth.

However, what came out wasn’t a proclamation of ordainment. It was something else! “We offer respectful greetings, essence of the god world! Welcome to the Deathless Heaven Empire!”

RUMBLE!

RUUUUUUUUMBLE!

Mountain-crushing, sea-shattering force weighed down on the empire, causing all of the experts present to nearly pass out. Most of them dropped to the ground, where they remained in place unmoving. The King of Godmammoths and the others just barely managed to stay standing, and the God-Lords all dropped to all fours, making them look like frogs.

“What? Is this the essence of the god world?! It’s so strong!” The King of Godmammoths suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood as the King of the Great Dao appeared behind him.

He wanted to fight back, but knew that he couldn’t. No half-Annulled could.

They were as helpless as children.

However, the pressure only lasted for a short while, whereupon everyone breathed sighs of relief. They could sense a mighty will converging before them, something that could dry up seas and crumble rocks, sink moons and bury stars, and crush the heavens and destroy all life.

It was a woman.

It seemed as though her each and every moment was filled with preheaven power, as if she controlled primal-chaos and could wield the boundless meridians and the great dao. She seemed like the incarnation of infinite glory, infinite order, infinite vital energy, infinite fate, and the infinite void.

She was the manifestation of the essence of the god world.

And she was the spitting image of Yang Qi’s mother, Greensura.

The essence of the god world had taken a shape. Normally speaking, the god world would take hundreds of years to form a thought, but now it could think like a normal person.

The essence of the god world was mightier than the Sovereign Lord, but because of the slowness of its thoughts, it was normally possible for the most elite experts to escape its wrath.

It was similar to how an elephant would have a great deal of trouble getting rid of a single ant.

But now that the god world had a human form, who could escape it? She looked over at the King of Godmammoths, the High Priestess, and the Demon Master.

They felt their hair standing on end as they realized they were absolutely powerless to stand up to this level of power, and that if they moved, they would likely be punished with death.

How very miserable.

All the schemes and plans these people had been considering were now completely pointless.

As it turned out, Proud Heaven hadn’t just been trying to intimidate them. He understood matters far more deeply than they did.