Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

The Unbounded God Reverberation was a vocal utterance of unbounded power. Considering the level of Doom’s cultivation base, if he used the technique to baptize a Destabilizing expert, that person could easily reach the Terrifying level.

The person who originally invented it had a Terrifying cultivation base, making it one of the most powerful aspects of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, second only to the Annulled Grand Magic.

Although Doom had already mastered the Unbounded God Reverberation, he couldn’t cultivate the Annulled Grand Magic. When he tried, he would feel splitting pain in his sea of consciousness, a result of his cultivation base being too low.

Doom also knew that his aspect of the God Legion Seal was focused on psychic power.

The Annulled Grand Magic was what the Sovereign Lord had used in the Unbounded level to try to break through to the Annulled level. Obviously, it would be impossible to cultivate the technique without first joining the legion of gods.

In fact, Doom technically wasn’t strong enough to be using the Unbounded God Reverberation; he had gained a bit of cursory knowledge but was still far from true mastery.

He had given the Annulled Grand Magic to Yang Qi on purpose, and with ill intent. He knew that without his own God Legion Seal, it would be impossible to cultivate it. Yang Qi’s God Legion Seal focused on strength and power; without the proper psychic cultivation, trying to use the Annulled Grand Magic would lead to cultivation deviation.

Not even Doom himself with his psychic-based God Legion Seal could actually cultivate the Annulled Grand Magic, so it seemed obvious that it would be very dangerous for Yang Qi to do so.

But if Yang Qi died, then maybe Doom would be able to get his God Legion Seal.

However, now it seemed that Yang Qi was cultivating the technique without any negative side effects. Even more frightening for Doom, Yang Qi was cultivating the Unspoiled Body, an energy art that was on the same level as the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. Normally they would be in conflict, but Yang Qi found a balance with the Purrfect God Art, and had even freed himself of the shackles of the seal.

By now, Doom realized that there was no way he would be able to kill Yang Qi and take his seal.

And if he couldn’t kill Yang Qi, there was little chance that he could force him into cultivation deviation. Yang Qi’s cultivation base was so refined that he could defend against the illusion-based wretch energy of the Great Necropolis, which went to show how strong he was.

Slowly but surely, Doom was losing any feelings of antagonism toward Yang Qi. In terms of the God Legion Seal, he knew that if he wanted to get it, he would have to wait until Yang Qi gave it to him.

As soon as Doom unleashed the Unbounded God Reverberation, Proud World and the Shepherd felt their psychic power rising, defending themselves against the sound from the coffin that Yang Qi had just opened.

The piercing sound that emanated from the coffin very nearly pierced through the Purrfect God Art, striking pain into the hearts of everyone present.

They all felt as if they were suddenly in immense danger because of the shrill, despairing call.

It filled them with the certainty that they were all about to meet a grisly end.

Crack!

The lid of the coffin flew back, and wretch energy poured out of it. At the same time, a person was revealed, laying prone in the coffin. They almost looked as if they were alive, just sleeping.

All of a sudden, Doom’s eyes went wide and he shrieked, “How could the person in the coffin be me?!”

“Agggghhhhh!” howled the Shepherd. “It’s me! I'm in the coffin!”

“The person in the coffin is me!” Proud World shrieked. “What’s going on here!? How could I be laying in that coffin? Who is the real me? The one in the coffin, or the one outside the coffin?”

Chaotic emotions could now be sensed within the protection of the Purrfect God Art.

Yang Qi was shocked. However, he knew that if his Purrfect God Art hadn’t contained traces of the Annulled Grand Magic, which gave it the ability to pierce through illusions of all kinds, his companions would likely have already begun trying to kill each other.

Steeling himself, he looked into the coffin at the person quietly lying inside. The person was tall and well-built, with a long battle robe. And he glowed with a holy light. It was none other than Yang Qi himself.

He was lying there in the coffin!

All of a sudden, Yang Qi was struck by a very jarring sensation as he suddenly wondered which version of himself was real, and which was an illusion.

I'm in the coffin.

His eyes suddenly clouded over a bit, and the bubble created by the Purrfect God Art began weakening, as though it might vanish. “I have to find the real me. The version in the coffin is real. That’s who I am. This person outside is fake. I need to find my true ego. The real me. That’s the only way to escape. That's the only way....”

He suddenly felt the urge to go lie down in the coffin.

However, just in the moment when it seemed he would become completely lost, he heard something deep in his sea of consciousness.

Purr. Purr....

The sound seemed immeasurably loud, filling his mind, shaking him deeply.

All of a sudden, he was completely awake.

RUMBLE!

A human face flew out of the coffin, its tongue bright red as it shot toward the Purrfect God Art bubble and began licking it, as though it sought to pierce it in that fashion.

If the bubble were to be pierced through, then everyone inside would definitely be in critical peril. The horrifying face didn’t look like Yang Qi at all now. It was twisted and distorted, and more wicked and wretched than anything Yang Qi had ever seen before in his entire life.

‘Time to use everything the Purrfect God Art can do!’ Sweating coldly, Yang Qi drew on all of his energy arts, causing the Purrfect God Art bubble to suddenly start spinning and emitting thunderous rumblings.

“Die!”

He thrust his palms toward the outside, unleashing mountain-toppling, sea-draining force, which shot toward the horrifying face and surrounded it with a bubble.

The face issued a distorted smile, then crumpled into a seething mist that shot toward the main crimson coffin and disappeared into it.

Only at this point did everyone begin to calm down and slowly wake up from what was like little more than a dream.

“Vile, that was nothing short of vile!” Doom exclaimed, cold sweat pouring down him. Normally speaking, people this powerful wouldn't sweat. However, they weren’t gods; therefore, in circumstances like this, their instincts would take over. As terror filled them, their energy and blood would converge, and their psychic power would dissipate, which would lead to the creation of droplets that would roll down them as sweat. [1]

Thankfully, they were mid Terrifying experts, so despite having been frightened, they recovered quickly. Furthermore, they all consumed medicinal pills that caused the psychic sweat to disappear, and restored them to peak condition.

“Definitely very wretched,” Yang Qi said. Even as the words left his mouth, the coffin crumbled into rubble. Without the face that had occupied it, the coffin turned into an ordinary item that his Purrfect God Art easily crushed out of existence.

“You all saw yourselves in the coffin, didn’t you?” he asked. “And then you started wondering which version of you was real, the one outside, or the one in the coffin. It was an incredible art of illusion that very nearly entranced me. Thankfully, my Purrfect God Art worked in the critical moment and brought me to my senses. If I hadn’t woken up, that face would have broken in here and wreaked disaster on all of us.”

“Many thanks to you, Yang Qi,” Doom said. “You keep saving us over and over again. In the past, we were always on guard against you, but it seems to me there’s no reason for such an attitude. You’ve had plenty of chances to kill us in this place, so it seems plain you’re not plotting against me to get my God Legion Seal. Why don’t we truly join forces to get out of this miserable situation?”

“Yes, I finally understand how superior you are,” Proud World said. He could tell that Yang Qi could have easily killed them all just now, but instead, had saved them.

“I never had any ill intentions,” Yang Qi said. “In any case, let’s not waste words. Just now, the assault of that horrifying face allowed me to push my psychic scale a bit higher. I also gained some more enlightenment. Although these coffins are strange, I think we can proceed forward. Vanquishing these illusions will be very beneficial. Let’s continue opening them one by one, until we finally get to the crimson coffin, which seems to be controlling the others. Then we can find out what’s going on here.”

1. I'm leaving out a fairly extensive passage which likens immortals to “clouds in the sky” that will create rain when they are 'frightened' by claps of thunder. Normally speaking, I'm fine with including the aspects of the story that make little sense in terms of real-world physics. This is a fantasy/mythological universe, after all. But this section just defies logic too much and comes across as being ridiculous in English.