Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“One Thought Focused on the Past Dust; Heart and Mind on the Former; Forget the Old Matters; Indefinite Future of the Soul!”

The red-garbed young woman spoke sixteen characters to meet Eldest Brother’s consummate technique, the Killing Fist of the Dao of Monarchs. She was drawing on fifty percent of her overall power!

And when she said ‘Indefinite Future of the Soul’, all of heaven and earth changed color and the heavenly bodies shifted. Great daos shattered, and all creation seemed to collapse. It was as if the end of the entire universe had come, leading one to feel completely lost in both body and soul.

A destructive tempest swept from the young woman’s palm to wash over Eldest Brother, completely covering him.

At this point, the immortal-level godworm opened its mouth, as though it were preparing to consume Yang Qi and everyone else.

RUMBLE!

That was when Yang Qi finally made a move.

He could tell that Eldest Brother had finally reached his limit. His Killing Fist of the Dao of Monarchs was profound and mysterious, but was actually an incomplete set of techniques. By way of example, if Yang Qi was only limited to the first three stances of the Fist of the Halls of Heaven and the Hand of the One God, he would be at a big disadvantage.

Considering the circumstances, he didn’t hold anything back.

Up to now, he had been using the Wheel of Fate to keep his aura masked and his true abilities hidden. After all, he didn’t want the red-garbed young woman to know anything about him. But then he suddenly exploded with an attack that could shatter three thousand worlds and destroy anything in creation.

As he unleashed the Hand of the One God, he went right to the Pāramitā stance. A boundless sea of bitterness appeared, with Yang Qi in the middle of it all. He was like the savior of the world, someone who brought hope and endless blessings to all living beings. The true profundities of the Hand of the One God were on display.

After all, the true purpose of the Hand of the One God wasn’t to destroy the people of the world, but to save them and bring them into the eternal kingdom of heaven.

The vital energy fluctuations immediately halted all of the destructive power the young woman had released. The universe returned to its proper state, and the godworm began to tremble and look fearfully at Yang Qi. All of a sudden, it realized deep in its heart that this person was someone it couldn't fight against. It immediately backed away from Eldest Brother, allowing Yang Qi to bring him into his God Legion Paradise.

“Eldest Brother, what did you say that fist technique was called? The Killing Fist of the Dao of Monarchs? It's obviously an amazing godly-class energy art. Too bad it's not complete.”

“That’s right, Junior Brother, it's the Killing Fist of the Dao of Monarchs. I got it here in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart when I sensed a location filled with a mysterious will and power. It actually came from one of the sworn brothers of King Immortal-Slayer, a fiendish monarch named King Homicide. It’s definitely something on the level of the legion of gods. It has a total of seven stances, each of which correspond to an ancient set of wisdom. If you master all of the stances, you can actually slaughter gods. Unfortunately, what I acquired seems to be only part of the remaining power of King Homicide, with only three stances. If I have time to keep searching the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, maybe I can find the other four.”

From his tone of voice toward the end, he was clearly not pleased to only have the three moves he did.

However, he transmitted the three stances he knew to Yang Qi with a thought.

‘Capacious Mountains and Rivers; Verily, Heaven doth be Exhilarating.

‘Magnific Seas and Oceans; Verily, Water doth be Invigorating

‘Iconoclastic Monarchs; Verily, Royalty doth be Reverberating.’

Each stance was filled with boundless transformations of mountains, seas, heavens, monarchs, heavenly might, and more. When combined, they could lead to deadly results.

Its might did not surpass that of the Hand of the One God, but unfortunately Yang Qi’s immortal clone couldn't use the Hand of the One God. Those nine stances could only be cultivated by Yang Qi’s true self. Therefore, if he passed these three abilities onto his clone, it would make him even stronger and more capable of slaughtering immortals.

“Eldest Brother, why don’t you fall back while I kill this woman.” With that, Yang Qi stepped forward and looked up at the young woman on the godworm’s head.

The planet-sized worm had shrunk down until it was only a few thousand meters from end to end, with countless prolegs.

As for the young woman, she was clearly shocked by what had just played out. Never in her wildest imagination could she have guessed that Yang Qi would have energy arts powerful enough to shatter her true energy.

“Apparently I wasn’t paying close attention to the situation,” she said. “So, we have another top expert here. You're a fourth order Potent Demi-Immortal, but your energy arts are far, far stronger than that. That said, you're still a weakling, and you clearly don't understand the vast gap between true immortals like me and mortals like you.”

“True immortal?” Yang Qi said with a jeering smile. “I just met another ‘true’ immortal, someone named Elder-Immortal Hyperfiend. He tried to take my Chiliocosm Mirror, so I killed him and made him the mirror's new spirit automaton. But maybe I should replace him and make you the new spirit automaton.”

“Well, aren’t you amusing? I've sure met a lot of interesting characters on this trip to the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.” Instead of being angry, she actually seemed amused. Eyes glittering, she continued, “I'm a very high-ranking person in the Neon Red Heaven. You can call me Immortal Officer Fallen Red. You seem even stronger than this Eldest Brother of yours, so why not join me? I’ll forget about any rudeness and blasphemy up to this point, and even give you a very high position. There isn’t a single crappy society in the mortal world that will do you any good. And if you go to the immortal world on your own, you could end up captured, stripped of your vital energy, and killed.”

“Oh? So you’re recruiting?” Yang Qi laughed. “Sadly, I've never heard of this… what was it? Neon Red Heaven? Maybe if you were from the Tusita Heaven or a place like that, I might consider your offer. And sadly, your cultivation base isn’t impressive at all. Perhaps if you were a Godmyth, I might take you seriously.”

Face turning grim, she said, “Fine. If you refuse to do things the easy way, we’ll do them the hard way! It would be a waste for a talent like you to end up stuck in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, so I mercifully offered to take you with me. But you treat me like a joke? Well, now you’re out of chances. The only thing left for you to do now is die.”

“Cut the crap. Hand over those Mourn-Parting Heaven-Palace halls and you might survive this encounter.” Truth be told, Yang Qi wasn't in the mood for banter. Not waiting for a response, he summoned the Infernal Deity Spear, which ignited with burning flame as he stabbed it through the air. It wasn't sagefire, but rather the fire of nightfall and death. Anyone who saw fire like that would be reminded of the final radiance of the setting sun and plunge into a mournful state of mind.

The Infernal Deity Spear had improved along with Yang Qi, and was currently at an unimaginable level. In fact, it was nearly a god item. At the same time, it was essentially a part of him and he could use it with skill that no one could possibly match. His command of it vastly surpassed his ability to use the Chiliocosm Mirror.

As the spear stabbed forth, piercing through everything in its path, it appeared directly in front of Immortal Officer Fallen Red.

Normally speaking, primeval godworms exerted ultimate command over space and were surrounded with space-time distortions so intense that no one could approach them without their consent. Not even immortals. As such, Immortal Officer Fallen Red didn’t see how anyone could possibly get close to her, much less pierce the defenses of her personal kingdom.

But no such barriers could halt Yang Qi’s Infernal Deity Spear.

In the blink of an eye, Immortal Officer Fallen Red was about to be stabbed in the forehead.

“God-Corrupting Finger Strike!” she shouted, not hesitating to utilize a godly-class energy art. However, this didn’t seem like something pure created by a god-spirit, but rather something like a devil art from fiend-devils in hell. Apparently, it was a fusion of righteous and evil that contained something from some unknown god-spirit.

As her finger shot forth, it radiated the glory of evil and holiness combined, something that could corrupt gods.

“That Which is Holy will be Corrupted! That Which is Deathless will be Scattered!” All of a sudden, Immortal Officer Fallen Red seemed to transform into something different. “The duality of yin and yang; the dance of righteous and evil. That is the only eternal truth in heaven and earth!”

SNICK!

The God-Corrupting Finger Strike touched the Infernal Deity Spear. Both Yang Qi and Immortal Officer Fallen Red trembled as a result, yet they seemed evenly matched and neither fell back.

“God Strolls Past Myriad Immortals!” Immortal Officer Fallen Red’s godworm shrank down even further, causing shockwaves to roll out that seemed like a god wandering amongst millions upon millions of immortal worlds.

“Chiliocosm Mirror!” Yang Qi extended the Chiliocosm Mirror, simultaneously slashing his finger open and using the blood that poured out to draw an image on the surface of the mirror. As a result, the mirror seemed to connect with everything around it, causing streams of godlight to shoot out from inside.

A kingdom of copper spread out and the Chiliocosm Mirror vanished, to be replaced by an actual chiliocosm of worlds.

RUMBLE!

None of Immortal Officer Fallen Red’s countless techniques could help her in this moment. She was grabbed by the magical laws of the Chiliocosm Mirror, and not even her godworm could break free from them.

Now that the mirror had become a chiliocosm of worlds, its true ferocity was on display.

“The Chiliocosm Mirror is strong,” she said. “But did you really think I wouldn’t have a god item too? Golden Wheel of Nirvanic Extinction!” Golden light took the shape of a wheel with eight sides, each of which represented a different element. As it spun, it sent more golden light out, which caused the copper world created by the Chiliocosm Mirror to begin trembling.

Two god items were clashing, releasing a tempest of wild destruction.

“I can’t believe she has a god item too!” Eldest Brother murmured. “She must have found it here in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. I’ve read about the Golden Wheel of Nirvanic Extinction in certain ancient daoist texts. It was created by the God of Extinction, who fought with King Immortal-Slayer himself. Apparently, his golden wheel somehow ended up in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.”

“The Chiliocosm Mirror is a good god item,” Immortal Officer Rallen Red said. “But it was forged by a Lesser God. And although my Golden Wheel of Nirvanic Extinction is the same level, my cultivation base vastly surpasses yours.”

1. While “red dust” implies the mortal world, “past dust” is another real-life Buddhist term which refers to “the past” and also “previous impure conditions (that influence succeeding stages)”.

2. Just like most Chinese poetry, the mantras and sayings used in these combat scenarios tend to follow a rigid composition scheme. Sometimes I try to keep that for visual purposes, but usually I favor the meaning and feeling. In this case, her mantra consists of four groups of four Chinese characters each, although the word count in English does not reflect that. Very occasionally they rhyme, but most often are not rhyming. This one does not rhyme.

3. Remember that pāramitā refers to perfection and literally means “the other shore”, so it will often be connected to bodies of water such as seas or rivers.