Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

These two young buddha dragon experts had no idea that they were already essentially puppets. They still thought they were benefiting from heavenly blessings as they worked on their cultivation.

RUMBLE!

Breaking through to become Incarnated Gods, they devoured the power in front of them with increased voracity. This ancient energy from the Primeval Age was vastly superior to what Yang Qi had seen from the future, and it didn’t even come with heavenly tribulation.

These two felt like there must be some powerful god watching over them, thus they focused even more deeply on their work.

Little did they know that they were actually only getting about one percent of the power and quintessence. The other ninety-nine percent was going to Yang Qi.

After all, the three hundred talismans were already forming a resonance with the two thousand other talismans inside Yang Qi.

Yang Qi did have two thousand, but two hundred were actually back in the passageway leading to the future world. They still belonged to him, they just weren’t in his direct possession.

The two thousand he currently had, plus the three hundred amidst the altars, was a total of two thousand three hundred. [1]

With their powers combined, they were able to gobble up the power from the past at a rate that vastly surpassed anything from before. After all, adding new talismans to an existing collection didn’t lead to a mere linear addition of power. The curve just seemed to go up and up.

The power of countless hells twitched inside of Yang Qi, wriggling and growing as his cultivation base improved. He could sense that he was now very close to the second division Tempered God level, and a breakthrough was imminent.

Of course, he couldn't attempt the breakthrough right here and now. Although he had the ability to dismantle the dao of heaven in a certain area, that was only useful when other people were facing heavenly tribulation. It didn’t work on himself, owing to the fact that he cultivated an energy art of the Sovereign Lord and was a Fateless One. When he advanced his cultivation, he didn't anger the dao of heaven, but rather was punished by ancient god tribulation, which was the wrath of the legion of gods.

God tribulation could easily destroy massive sections of space-time, and even universes.

Therefore, he sealed his cultivation base and just continued to absorb the power. He had three days until General Samman reached the Tusita Heaven. Three days to hone himself and prepare to catch the man completely off guard and take his fragment of the Cruiser of Civilization.

That said, he also knew that the Engine of the One God was nearby, and that was something he absolutely had to get his hands on. Although he wasn’t sure what all of the specific benefits it would bring to the Cruiser of Civilization were, he knew that he needed it.

[Power transformation. Reserves at one thousandth.]

[Power transformation. Reserves at one hundredth.]

[Beep-beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep. Power reserves have surpassed one hundredth. Systems upgrading. Prepare for transformations.]

RUMBLE!

Two days passed, in which the Cruiser of Civilization absorbed massive amounts of power from the ancient world. At one point, a massive transformation occurred as the photonic computers suddenly spat out numerous glowing humanoid figures.

These glowing figures were made of light particles from ancient times, pieced together in some miraculous fashion until they were similar to paper talismans, except that they had human forms, complete with blood vessels, organs, and limbs. Upon being fully put together, they were actual living beings.

[Angels of Light successfully formed.]

In the blink of an eye, a host of these Angels of Light were created, who then flew out into different positions and stations within the Cruiser of Civilization to put things into order, initiate repairs, and perform systems maintenance. In the end, it gave Yang Qi greater control over the spacecraft.

Eventually, the photonic computers spoke again.

[Converting power reserves, initiating manufacturing….]

Yang Qi could sense that the massive influx of power was causing this fragment of the Cruiser of Civilization to become more complete, and thus, stronger.

There were many secrets being unlocked, while others, such as the genetic systems, were growing much more powerful.

[Beep-beep-beep. Genetic systems augmented. It is now possible to manufacture Angels of Light by means of photochemical alteration of human genes.]

Photochemical alteration involved transforming a human into an expression of light, which would make them faster, and much more dangerous in combat. It would also allow a person to absorb any type of light and convert it into true energy, leading to incomprehensible possibilities.

‘Great. The power reserves have finally received a major upgrade. And there were many minor areas of damage that have now been repaired. However, now's not the time to examine the cruiser in detail. I need to get out of here. This young man and woman are already puppets; I can take over their wills at any time. I’ll come back later to take away the imperial snakecharms and get the Engine of the One God!’

In the blink of an eye, he was out of the Eight Tribes Heaven. Heading through numerous universes, he reached the entrance of the Heaven Beyond Heaven, which he entered without incident.

Instantly, massive amounts of power assailed him.

‘It's time for the supreme magical laws of the Tempered God level!’

There was no time for thought or contemplation, so Yang Qi extended one hand toward heaven and one hand toward earth and directly summoned the god tribulation. Instantly, a host of godly palaces appeared, filled with dharmic guards tasked with protecting the legion of gods. There were even golden buddhas present.

RUMBLE!

One of the buddhas reached down with an enormous hand that pulsed with vital energy as tough as diamonds. Yang Qi’s defensive empyrean energy began crumbling, but then he opened his mouth, flew up in the air, and devoured the buddha.

He was like an ancient god dragon who whipped back and forth, merely inhaling to suck one ancient god after another directly into him. It was as though he were going through simple breathing exercises! As he inhaled and exhaled, it was as if all heaven and earth conformed to his breathing.

More and more manifestations of god tribulation appeared, until Yang Qi felt like he was in direct communication with the great will of the legion of gods.

Crack! Snap!

Yang Qi’s body collapsed into countless particles that were hells in and of themselves. The power of hell surged forth, streaks of light that represented his rising cultivation base.

The bit of true godhood he’d acquired trembled and sent its power into the countless hell particles, causing numerous infernal deities to appear.

Millions upon millions of infernal deities began chanting and singing to the greatness of the Sovereign Lord.

This was what it looked like as Yang Qi began forming his own virtual godhood. The infernal deities were the virtual godhood, and as they grew clearer, Yang Qi entered the Tempered God level.

When he reached the Incarnated God level, those infernal deities would grow even more clear, and of course, stronger.

Before long, Yang Qi had absorbed all the tribulation, and was in the Tempered God level.

He rose to his feet and loud cracking sounds rang out, detonations with enough force to destroy immortal worlds. The primal-chaos beasts that existed in the Heaven Beyond Heaven all shrank back in fear as their genetic memories told them a god was coming.

Yang Qi threw his head back and laughed heartily. He knew that it wouldn’t be long before he could stand amidst the legion of gods, and reach his own Deathless Throne. Now that he’d risen another level, his understanding of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth had grown more precise and he had a much better idea of what path he needed to take to reach godly ascension.

While in the Seer God level, he had easily subjugated Chaos Gods, killed King Devil Dragon, and approached levels of strength similar to Demigod patriarchs. Now, he was stronger than ever. He had nothing to fear from even the most elite old-timers. In fact, if two such individuals attacked him at the same time, he would still have a chance of coming out on top.

Meanwhile, his immortal-slaying clone sat in an ancient god formation, working on his own cultivation. The destiny from the seventy-one patriarchs had rapidly pushed his cultivation base forward. He was already a fifth division Nirvanic God, just on the verge of becoming a sixth division Revisionist God. It seemed likely that it wouldn’t take much time at all for him to become a ninth division Chaos God.

It was a speed of cultivation that geniuses throughout history could never match. And it was likely no one would ever progress so quickly again.

Yang Qi let him be and left the Heaven Beyond Heaven.

The place was an immortal world full of immense secrets and mysteries. It was originally supposed to belong to Chancellor Demi-Immortal, but now Yang Qi had it. Unfortunately, he had yet to fully explore it, as he needed to be a Chaos God before he could fully take control of the essence of the place. When he did, he would have a thirty-third ranked immortal world to call home, and wouldn’t need to hide out in other places.

Thirty-third ranked immortal worlds existed at the ultimate peak of all immortal worlds and were virtually indestructible. Unless an actual god came along, there was nothing that could possibly pose a threat to places like those.

The only thing that existed beyond the immortal worlds was endless primal-chaos, which was why the thirty-third ranked immortal worlds were nestled into primal-chaos.

‘It’s time. General Samman is coming. I’m going to get another fragment of the Cruiser of Civilization, and some more of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions. I can’t let this opportunity slip through my hands.’

From his vantage point within the primal-chaos debris, Yang Qi could look down and see the Brahman Immortal World and the passageway leading to the future world. Suddenly, light flickered there and an enormous spacecraft appeared, which immediately headed in the direction of the Tusita Heaven.

‘So fast,’ Yang Qi thought. It was moving so quickly that, if he hadn’t just stepped into the Tempered God level he would never have been able to track its movements, much less catch up to it.

His own part of the Cruiser of Civilization had power reserves at the level of one hundredth, but this other version was clearly completely full!

1. Quick vent here. Normally Divine Dreamwalker does pretty well with number consistency. But with the imperial snakecharms, he’s all over the board. A few hundred chapters ago, he introduced the mission saying they needed to get 200 talismans. Literally about one chapter later, he mentioned that they needed 400. In another chapter he said 600. When the time came to hand the talismans in, the number returned to 200. In the , the author changed that and said Yang Qi handed in 400. In this chapter, he’s sticking with 400, and is saying that Yang Qi actually has 1800 on his person, which if you add 300 to, makes a total of 2100. In later chapters, the “total” number continues to fluctuate. In any case, I long since standardized the original number for that mission to 200, which was what was said in the original mission and repeated when he handed them in. Going forward, I will do my best to keep all the numbers in line with the edited “correct” total. I don’t think the specific numbers are particularly important in and of themselves, as long as they add up correctly in the end.