Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

‘These buddha dragons seem different from the other Dragonfolk. That sprawling temple is amazing, almost like one of the buddhist schools. I wonder how strong they are. I definitely can’t do anything rash, but I do need to check the situation out.’

Yang Qi knew that, just like the Tusita Heaven, the Eight Tribes Heaven had mysterious and unpredictable old-timers, experts with consummate and invincible divine abilities who could easily destroy him if they joined forces. Right now, he was about as strong as a demigod patriarch, perhaps even a bit stronger. But if a whole group of demigods set up a spell formation to use against him, he would be in big trouble.

He’d seen the clone of the emperor of the Tusita Heaven, and knew that he wasn’t prepared to deal with the might of demigods.

If he could rise one more level and become a Tempered God, he would have much less to fear. And of course, further breakthroughs would eventually make it so that no old-timer could handle him, even if they used god items. By the time he was a Chaos God, he would probably only fear other people with God Legion Seals.

Yang Qi had never really viewed Young Master Leaf or General Samman as true rivals. Not even Proud Heaven deserved that. Only those with God Legion Seals were his true enemies.

He flew a bit nearer to the temple and landed on a mountain peak to get a closer look. He saw people coming and going, male and female, all of them wearing kāṣāyas, softly chanting words of prayer with their palms together.

They looked human, but naturally, they were not. They were Dragonfolk in human form, and they all had pious expressions on their faces. To Yang Qi’s surprise, not a single one of them were in the Demolishing level. They were all Godmyths, and quite a few were fifth division Nirvanic Gods.

These Dragonfolk were profound and noble, with paragonic auras that made it obvious that the buddha dragons were the most powerful of the dragons.

‘What incredible faith,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘I would say that a single buddha dragon has faith purer than a hundred million experts from any other immortal world. I wonder what I could create with even a drop of faith like that. It’s so pure, completely without spot.’

Glowing light swirled above his palm as he used the imperial snakecharms to reach out to their three hundred companions, which he now realized were in the temple up ahead. There was some invincible power locking them down, making it impossible for them to move. It was a completely enigmatic power that seemed to originate in ancient times, like the origin of all faith.

‘Hold on,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘Why does it seem like something from the past? It is! It's the aura of the past. Has a Past One been here?’

It was a stunning development.

The Brahman Immortal World had been created by Future Ones to facilitate passage from the future. That was the starting point to their invasion, and it was the reason the virtually never-ending amount of immortal worlds were in such a stir.

All in all, the two sides were evenly matched.

But now, Yang Qi’s imperial snakecharms had led him deep into the Eight Tribes Heaven, where he’d encountered the aura of the past. It seemed clear to Yang Qi what was going on.

The Buddha Dragon Tribe had a spell formation set up that was very similar to the one in the Brahman Immortal World. The only difference was that this passageway was to allow Past Ones passage into the present.

Of course, if Yang Qi traveled through the space-time passageway into the future world, he would gain the constitution of a Past One. Such constitutions were dependent on the direction of travel and little else.

Immediately, Yang Qi was on guard, aware that important secrets pertaining to a past age were now in play. His cultivation base probably wasn’t at a high enough level to tangle openly with such forces, so he had to be very careful.

A moment later, he was sneaking into the temple.

The buddha dragons inside had all assumed human form and maintained silence as they bustled about. It almost seemed like they were preparing for some important event.

As he got closer to the location of King Heaven-Devourer’s talismans, the temple surroundings grew larger and more majestic. There were numerous divine likenesses of buddhas, their fingers shaped into a host of different incantation seals as though they were practicing consummate energy arts.

At a certain point, he heard two people talking.

“Li'er, do you think the summoning will be successful?” a young man said. “Will we really link the present with the past, and bring an almighty entity into our world? Once we do, our Eight Tribes Heaven will control the cosmos, and our Buddha Dragon Tribe will definitely be powerful enough to crush both the Dao Defense League and the future world!”

“I’d say it’s highly likely!” replied the voice of a young woman. “Hmph! The immortal worlds are like the eternal sands of the universe, and they’re virtually all inhabited by humans. We Dragonfolk deserve to be the true rulers of the many heavens! Even the Dao Defense League was set up by humans in the hopes of creating a new Heavenly Court to rule over the cultivation world. They’ve set up an unprecedented system, and if we don’t do something about it, they’ll eventually force us Dragonfolk to work for them as servants.”

“That’s never going to happen. How could the noble Dragonfolk ever act as servants? You think we’re going to kowtow like human slaves and run around with our tails between our legs? No way.”

“Well, you’re right about that! We Dragonfolk are true nobility, especially us buddha dragons. We’re the ones who founded the buddhist sects that eventually rivaled the legion of gods. Those buddhist schools eventually faded out of existence, but their spirit lives on. Who the hell do these immortal humans think they are? They think they have what it takes to defy us? We should just enslave all of them!”

“Hold on. Don’t put the cart before the horse. Wait until the warrior buddhas and dragon rājas from the past arrive. Then, the structure of the immortal worlds will change. We’ll become the true rulers, and the humans will be our slaves. Just imagine how wonderful it would be if all buddha dragons had a human cultivator as a slave!”

Yang Qi looked in the direction of the voices and saw a young man and woman in a temple hall, training in sword techniques.

They were obviously very skilled at swordplay, and their weapons shone with golden, buddhist light. Within the light were tiny golden battle rājas who were chanting zen sayings as they unleashed destructive energy, which was in fact godpower that could devastate devils!

The young man and woman were both second division Tempered Gods, but Yang Qi could tell from the force of their attacks that they could easily cut down a Nirvanic God from an immortal sect.

The buddha dragon constitution was obviously no less incredible than the three thousand special constitutions. Even newborn baby dragons had the power to move mountains, fill in seas, pluck stars, and snatch moons. And adult dragons could easily crush immortal worlds.

To buddha dragons, the cultivation levels below Godmyth were like nothing. They could literally sleep through the entire process of reaching the Godmyth level.

It was only after becoming Godmyths that they had to work on their own cultivation.

‘So, that's what’s going on,’ Yang Qi thought after overhearing their conversation. The buddha dragons had some big ambitions; they wanted to conquer the immortal worlds and set themselves up as the ultimate rulers.

They were correct in that the Dao Defense League had been set up by humans, and that they hoped to turn it into the Heavenly Court. If they managed to defeat the future world, they would definitely benefit from the destiny of the dao of heaven and unite all of the countless immortal worlds. If that happened, it was entirely possible the Dragonfolk could end up acting as government servants.

However, no matter how tough the Dragonfolk were, they weren’t strong enough to take on the entire Dao Defense League, thus they were summoning powerful allies to help them.

The past, the present, and the future were coming together, and it was sure to usher in a new age. Perhaps the culmination of this conflict would cause a new world to gradually be born. It was impossible to say what type of era it would be. One thing was for sure, the civilization would not be that of the past, present, or future.

It was a mysterious and confusing topic that seemed to defy logic, and Yang Qi couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it. It was very confusing to think about the future, but what he did know was that, regardless of exactly how things played out, he needed to get stronger. And then, even stronger.

That was something that would never change.

“Lokapāla Rāja God Sword!” the young woman shouted, and she unleashed a devastating attack that would surely slaughter even a sixth division Revisionist God.

Expression flickering, the young man slashed out with his own sword. “Prajñā Buddha Rāja Sword!”

The swords clashed and an explosion of pāraka godflowers appeared, within which were entire kingdoms of dragons. The progenitors of the buddha dragons had been the ones who founded the buddhist schools, which ultimately rivaled the legion of gods before being put to an end by them.

In the middle of their practice session, an ancient voice rang out, “Are you two still practicing sword techniques? Stand at attention! The time has come for you to take your turn controlling King Heaven-Devourer’s talismans! There are one hundred and eight thousand missions associated with our master plan, and this particular mission is very important among them. Furthermore, the blessing of power from the past will likely increase your cultivation by five levels!”