Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Even if Wretch God Ultimate were stronger than he was, now that he was inside the Everlasting Aegis, there was no escape for him. That said, as soon as he unleashed Wretch God Ultimate's Obsidian Flame, which pulsed with a seemingly all-destructive power. In fact, if it kept spreading, it would likely kill everyone it touched, like some sort of plague.

Not that Yang Qi would let that happen.

Yet again, King Heaven-Devourer’s form appeared behind him.

The enormous snake inhaled, and the countless streams of black fire entered its mouth. As of now, the snake was incredibly powerful. In fact, it was capable of unleashing about eighty percent of King Heaven-Devourer’s full might.

After the black flame entered the snake, it shrank down as it started assimilating it internally.

Yang Qi wasn’t spending a lot of time analyzing the situation. He thrust his hand out again, and a projection of the Great Necropolis appeared, which slammed down onto Wretch God Ultimate’s head. It was the Great Necropolis God Art!

As far as Yang Qi was concerned, it didn’t matter that Proud Heaven had unlocked so many of the secrets of the necropolis. Yang Qi's connection still hadn’t been severed. And for some mysterious, unknown reasons, King Immortal-Slayer had access to certain bits of knowledge that he’d hidden from Proud Heaven, making them impossible to discover. The Great Necropolis still had more mysteries to be revealed. Proud Heaven thought that because he could use the necropolis to deal with the High Priestess, he already understood everything about it. Sadly, he was completely wrong.

Yang Qi knew what the Great Necropolis was ultimately capable of. And his knowledge had only increased after Proud Heaven mistakenly came to believe that he had assimilated King Immortal-Slayer.

Because both Yang Qi and King Immortal-Slayer were deeply connected to the Great Necropolis, it was possible for Yang Qi to sense how King Immortal-Slayer had survived. There was no way King Immortal-Slayer was going to be assimilated by Proud Heaven that easily.

Yang Qi was using the final move from the Sage Monarch Grand Magic. Annul Death; Eternally Bury. He wasn't giving the Wretch God any chances to destroy his empire.

RUMBLE!

The Great Necropolis crushed down inexorably until the Wretch God was completely suppressed. Not even the incredibly powerful brainwaves he fought back with did any good.

“Prayers and Destiny of the Empire!” As soon as Yang Qi gave the command, the destiny of his empire flowed into the Great Necropolis, where it battered the Wretch God.

The Wretch God was finally starting to shrink back.

“I have undying immortality!” Wretch God Ultimate shrieked. “Nobody can defeat me! I'm going to destroy everything. Ultimate’s Dao of Gods; Melt Heaven and Earth into Wretchedness; Let the Wretch World Appear!”

RUMBLE!

The Wretch God’s head vanished, to be replaced by a wretched world that was rapidly expanding outward. Yang Qi had created the Everlasting Aegis, which was independent from the god world. And now the Wretch God wanted to do the same thing. He’d created his Wretch World long ago, but it had vanished, and now he was hoping to use a world to defeat a world, break free from the Great Necropolis, and make his escape.

The Wretch God was proving difficult to deal with.

But... he was dealing with Yang Qi! And Yang Qi wasn’t going to let him succeed in his plan. In response, Yang Qi vanished, to be replaced by an image of the Halls of Heaven, which shot into the Great Necropolis and slammed into the Wretch God’s world. The Wretch World then deflated like a popped balloon, provoking a shrill scream from the Wretch God. “You assimilated the Halls of Heaven!?”

“That's right, Wretch God Ultimate. Your fate is sealed. Give me your head, and open up your psyche to me. Be cleansed by the sagelight of the Halls of Heaven. Your destiny is going to push me to new heights.” With that, Yang Qi focused even more of his destiny on assaulting Wretch God Ultimate.

It became so forceful that Wretch-God Ultimate couldn’t even move.

“I might not have been a match for you in the past, Wretch God Ultimate. But with the power of my empire to back me, you won’t even be able to self-destruct. My empire is one of a kind, and everyone within it is a sage or mahātmā. You want to break down order, which makes you fundamentally incompatible with my empire. My empire’s destiny is the bane of your existence, and now, you will be assimilated!”

Streams of wretch energy and psychic fluctuations flowed into the Halls of Heaven, causing blackness to spread into the white.

Eventually, the ship-like form of the Halls of Heaven was half black and half white, almost like a taiji symbol.

The Wretch God's power was weakening, and he could only roar out a curse of defiance as he realized he wasn’t a match for Yang Qi. Not even his greatest art, Ultimate’s Curse, could do anything to Yang Qi’s soul.

Yang Qi was a Fateless One. Nothing could touch his fate, not even the Wretch God’s curse.

“Be crushed!” Yang Qi howled.

Wretch energy flowed like mad, causing the Halls of Heaven to turn even darker. Slowly but surely, the Wretch God’s skull was removed, revealing his brain, wriggling and twitching with a psyche and will that could destroy the heavens and extinguish the earth.

The Wretch God had started out in ancient primal-chaos as nothing but a brain. That brain had slowly absorbed endless amounts of preheaven wretch energy, ultimately transforming into the invincible entity he had become. Now Yang Qi was taking that wretch energy away, leaving behind only the original brain.

The time had come! Yang Qi transformed into a stream of sagelight that shot into the wretched brain and started chewing away at it. It was a battle of pure psyche and thinking.

As for the wretch energy that was flowing into the Halls of Heaven, bright sagelight erupted and started melting it away. Of course, it was Wretch God Ultimate’s incredibly powerful wretch energy, so it wasn’t a process that went quickly.

The Halls of Heaven erupted with countless shockwaves as radiance and light fought darkness and gloom, in a battle of righteousness versus evil.

Sadly for Wretch God Ultimate, he also had to contend with Yang Qi’s destiny.

This battle between the extremes was pushing the Halls of Heaven into a very unique state.

Yang Qi had been constantly working at assimilating the Halls of Heaven, and had been trying to find an opportunity to finish the job. Now, he was killing two birds with one stone by borrowing the power of Wretch God Ultimate’s energy to assault the halls and make them easier to assimilate.

All of a sudden, the Halls of Heaven became a complete mix of black and white. It was now a different type of magical treasure, and the Sovereign Lord’s aura was gone from the spell formations inside.

It now conformed perfectly to the destiny of Yang Qi’s empire.

“I finally assimilated the Halls of Heaven! It’s now my treasure. Many thanks to you, Wretch God Ultimate! Without you, it would’ve been impossible to remold the halls.

“Henceforth, the Halls of Heaven will be a never-setting sun above my empire!”

A tremor passed through Yang Qi as he sent the Halls of Heaven flying up into the greyspace that was the Everlasting Aegis.

It was now a sun, although it looked different from ordinary suns.

Half of it burned with radiance and light, while the other half radiated darkness and gloom. As it rotated, it would sometimes cast brilliant light onto the empire, and other times it would wreath the Everlasting Aegis in night.

Peace. Security. Rest. When night fell on the Sage Monarch Empire, people could sleep soundly. After all, this darkness didn’t contain any sort of evil, but was instead meant for recuperation and recovery.

In the past, the Everlasting Aegis had only contained radiance and light, without any darkness at all. Of course, its inhabitants were all gods, so they didn’t care.

But now that there was nighttime, they realized it was the perfect opportunity to rest at ease. During the night, the entire empire would become calm and quiet.

Strangely, during those periods of nighttime rest, the destiny of the empire didn't decrease. Quite the opposite. It increased, instead! That was one of the benefits of rest and recovery.

As the Halls of Heaven became part of the Everlasting Aegis, the empire suddenly grew, reaching an unimaginable state.

At this point, neither the High Priestess nor Proud Heaven could possibly invade in force.

The Sage Monarch Empire was now a true fortress that didn’t need to fear anything else in existence.

Yang Qi looked up at the sun that was the Halls of Heaven, and while it was black and white, it still bore the general shape of a ship, with two pointy ends. ‘The Halls of Heaven are now gone,’ he thought. ‘Looks somewhat like an eye. I think I’ll call it the Everlasting Eye. It can bring peace and rest to all of the gods, which is something the Halls of Heaven could never do.’

He was still fighting his battle with the Wretch God’s brain. However, now that his work with the Everlasting Eye was complete, his empire became even more pious, and as a result, his psyche and will started climbing again.

In that moment, he vanquished all of the Wretch God’s defenses.

“No! I can’t believe you used my wretched power to assimilate the Halls of Heaven! Damn you forever! You’ve profaned the glory of the Sovereign Lord! When the Sovereign Lord joins forces with me against you, you're dead! Not even your status as a Fateless One can protect you!” As Wretch God Ultimate was suppressed, Yang Qi’s power climbed, and his psychic scale and godhood rating rose.

Whack. Whack. Whack!

Suddenly his body exploded, as did his monarch godhood, becoming a tempest that swept through his empire, causing it to tremble. Lightning fell as countless living things rose up.

The detonation of his monarch godhood represented Nothing.

He had finally stepped into the half-Annulled level!