Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Upon seeing Confucian Daoless shining with dazzling light, Young Master Leaf nodded and said, “I've given you an immortal-slayer’s body, which makes you my true successor. Very soon now, you’ll be able to reach the Incarnated God level, and after that your progress will continue. Go. Be careful around Dragon Proudheaven. If he figures out what’s going on, you’re done for.”

“I’ll definitely be careful.” Confucian Daoless dropped down, kowtowed, and left.

Young Master Leaf’s clone watched him leave. ‘This guy really is fanatically devoted to me. Let’s see how his luck turns out. If he can stay alive, I’ll continue grooming him. If not, then too bad for him.’

Swish!

The clone vanished into nothing.

**

Deep in the territory of the Nine Yangs God Sect, in the main hall of the Heaven-Dragon Medicine Sect, Yang Qi finally emerged from a month of secluded meditation. His eyes glittered like lightning, piercing through numerous universes all the way to the other shore of pāramitā. Then he retracted his gaze, as though he had just seen something very important.

‘Now I know the general location of the other pieces of the Aeonic God Psalter. Excellent!’ During the past month, the Cruiser of Civilization’s photonic computers had performed numerous calculations to help locate the rest of the Aeonic God Psalter. The Wheel of Fate had also helped, and in the end he now knew where all of them were.

And of course, he sensed that two pieces were in the depths of the Dao Defense League—specifically, in the Immortal-Slayer’s Sect.

It was obvious that the piece he possessed had been given to Confucian Daoless by Young Master Leaf, and that the former was a mole trying to lead Yang Qi to his doom.

Presumably, he would use the other pieces of the Aeonic God Psalter to try to lure him out.

‘Each piece of the Aeonic God Psalter comes with part of the Aeonic Heaven-Dao Life-Destruction Zen Art. And I don’t want to miss out on any of them. Young Master Leaf wants to get all the pieces of the map, and all of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions. Well, I'm going to beat him at his own game.’

Yang Qi knew that he would eventually have to reveal himself and lure his enemy into a trap.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite ready to face Young Master Leaf yet. It would be difficult to beat him quickly, and right now he couldn’t wrest the legacy medallions away from him. And Yang Qi didn’t want to waste a single opportunity in that regard.

Instead of rushing into a dangerous battle, the outcome of which was unsure, it would be better to bide his time. Beating the grass and startling the snake would be counterproductive.

The big downside was that he had no way to quickly grow stronger. Despite the month of cultivation, he had not added a single lineament to his dao heart. From the look of it, his fateless dao fruit was incredibly tough and couldn’t easily be cracked. To place even a single lineament on it was an effort that defied imagination.

That was a consequence of being incredibly strong, and it was a truth that governed the universe in general. The stronger one was, the stronger one’s dao heart, and the more difficult it was to crack and demolish it. Each and every lineament was monumentally difficult. According to the rumors, there were some illustrious people throughout history whose dao hearts were so strong that they never managed to acquire a single lineament. In the end, they perished and faded away into nothing.

That was the problem Yang Qi was currently facing, and he couldn’t think of any way to get the power he needed.

“Master!” Confucian Daoless said from outside. “You’ve been in seclusion for a month now. Are you finished with your cultivation? I've been tracking certain rumors, and also did a lot of contemplation about how I acquired that piece of the Aeonic God Psalter. It was in a certain godrelic, and the more that I think about it, the more I bet there are other treasures there. In fact, maybe there are other parts of the treasure map there.”

‘So, he’s back already,’ Yang Qi thought. Raising his voice, he said, “So that’s how it is! Excellent. Please, come in!”

Rushing in, Confucian Daoless offered a deep salute, “Master! Your energy arts have improved again! You’re virtually at the Deathless level!”

“No, that’s the level of the legion of gods!” Yang Qi replied. “I'm not even a Godmyth yet.” As he spoke, he used his Wheel of Fate to analyze Confucian Daoless. And it took only a moment to realize that he was dozens of times stronger than when they initially met. Now, he seemed strong enough to pierce through the greyspace of an immortal world. And there was something very familiar about his aura.

‘An immortal-slayer’s body!’ Yang Qi thought. ‘Yes, that’s exactly what he has. An immortal-slayer’s body! He was remolded with immortal-slaying power. So Young Master Leaf really has helped him. At least now I know for sure that he's a mole.’

“Master, I know exactly where that godrelic is. If you want, we could go together to investigate it. What do you say? If you got more of the pieces of the Aeonic God Psalter, you would be even more invincible!” Confucian Daoless was doing his very best to lure Yang Qi out into the open.

“That would definitely be great,” Yang Qi said. But then he frowned. “Unfortunately, I'm currently working on a very profound energy art and can’t leave. Besides, you might not know that I'm currently at odds with the villains from the Immortal-Slayer’s Sect. They’re definitely keeping an eye on me, so if I go out into the open they would notice. If they descended on me when I was outside of the protection of the Nine Yangs God Sect, I would definitely get killed.”

Lamenting inwardly, Confucian Daoless said, “Er, well, couldn’t you just sneak out, Master? Eventually, it will be too late. Remember, the future world invasion is changing heaven and earth, but the dao of heaven will repair itself, sooner or later. Now is the time to seize destiny for yourself. If you don’t get your hands on those treasure maps, someone else will. And if that happens, no amount of regret will do anything!”

“Oh? Well since you put it that way, I guess you’re right.” Yang Qi nodded. “The damage caused by the invasion of the future world will eventually repair itself. In other words, a lot of new opportunities are going to open up in our immortal dao civilization. And whoever takes advantage of them will rise to incredible heights. How about this—tell me where you think the other treasure maps are, and I’ll pass the information along to the Dragonfolk elders. They can go look into it for me. Alright?”

“Uh….” Confucian Daoless scrambled to decide what to do. “Master, you know the saying. A secret should not be shared by more than two people. The location of the Aeonic God Psalter is very sensitive, I'm really worried about letting word spread.”

“It’ll be fine. This is one of my seniors we’re talking about. He absolutely, positively won’t let the secret out.”

“Alright, Master!” Confucian Daoless said. “In that case, I’ll tell you.” During this whole time, Confucian Daoless had been reaching out to Young Master Leaf via divine will. Around this time, he got a response. “Tell him that you got the Aeonic God Psalter in some ancient ruins. There are countless warding magics there that can trap even Dragonfolk elders. This will work fine. I’ve been wanting to kill some Dragonfolk anyway, to keep them in check. And I’ll wipe them all out eventually anyway.”

Without any hesitation, Confucian Daoless passed on the location to Yang Qi.

“It's in a very dangerous immortal world, a thirty-third ranked place called the Heaven Beyond Heaven. It’s a legendary place created by an almighty, invincible old-timer who originated in primal-chaos. It’s a heaven that exists beyond heaven, a world that is not a world! The truth is that the Heaven Beyond Heaven is actually impossible for people to enter. It has no cultivators in it! Apparently, the immortal world is waiting for someone who it approves of to come along and take control of its immortal world essence.

“Unfortunately, it's located in the depths of the universe, and is a high-level place surrounded by intense spatial tempests. Not even extremely powerful Godmyths could get there without incredible defensive magical treasures to protect themselves. That’s where I got the Aeonic God Psalter.”

“What? The Heaven Beyond Heaven?!” When Yang Qi heard the name, he felt like he was being struck by lightning. He was very, very familiar with that name, and actually knew a lot about it.

That was the immortal world that Chancellor Demi-Immortal had been destined to take over!

Originally, Chancellor Demi-Immortal was supposed to rise to the immortal worlds, undergo years of training and improvement, and eventually become ruler of a very powerful immortal world. The young man in yellow had developed a relationship with him, in the hopes of taking advantage of the fact that he was the successor of the Heaven Beyond Heaven. Of course, the young man in yellow had also worried that Chancellor Demi-Immortal would betray him and try to take King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions, so he had never told him all of the details.

In fact, Chancellor Demi-Immortal never found out the truth, and died wondering about the name of the immortal world that was his supposed destiny.

Yang Qi knew the truth from the memories of the young man in yellow. He had also absorbed Chancellor Demi-Immortal’s power and destiny and incorporated it into his Wheel of Fate. Now the Wheel of Fate could perfectly imitate the man’s constitution, quintessence, destiny, and nascent divinity. Yang Qi had essentially become him.

Poor Chancellor Demi-Immortal had supported the Crown Prince and opposed Yang Qi, which got his daughter killed and lost him his own life.

‘So, heaven is really helping me! The Aeonic God Psalter comes from the Heaven Beyond Heaven, a thirty-third ranked immortal world, just like the Tusita Heaven. Chancellor Demi-Immortal was the intended successor, but I killed him and took his destiny. In other words, I'm now the successor of the Heaven Beyond Heaven. Going there will benefit me greatly! Ah, Young Master Leaf. As it turns out, you’re doing things more fairly than you realize. You picked a place like this for our showdown? Maybe you’re just feeling a bit suicidal!’

Yang Qi was convinced that this was the place to make his stand, and that win or lose, it would all end there.

That said, he still needed to plan things out well. If Young Master Leaf was choosing the Heaven Beyond Heaven as the location of his trap, there was definitely a good reason.