Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Thanks to Yang Qi’s preparations, Yanhaven was now like a city blessed with divine protection.

After all, being a Nonary Lifeseizer who was on the very cusp of reaching the Legendary level gave him a solid understanding of spell formations.

It helped that, back in the Heavendawn Quarry, he had been able to observe the operation of the Nine-Heavens Ten-Earths Demon-Devil-Horde World-Ending Grand Spell Formation, which had been extremely beneficial.

And the past six months of practicing cultivation in the formation inside the Grand Emperor's Pagoda had been even more helpful.

In his early days as a country bumpkin, he had known nothing about spell formations, but his progress in the past years had been considerable.

It was the same with pill concocting, weapon forging, and the like; he now had foundational understandings of them all. Although he couldn’t be called a grandmaster of any of them, not in any sense of the word, at least he wasn’t groping around in the dark.

It helped that he had sworn siblings who had been raised in powerful institutes. All of them were geniuses with plenty of formal training. In fact, during the course of their six months of intensive cultivation in the pagoda, many of them had given him tips, such as information about the dao of spell formations.

That, coupled with his increasing level of control over the energy, ensured that the spell formation protecting Yanhaven was quite formidable.

After the preparations he had made, deadly traps and illusory regions could spring up anywhere and everywhere, especially in the depths of the royal palace, where the flesh and blood of the asura ensured that not even Legendaries could easily survive.

Yanhaven was now virtually invulnerable to attack.

Having accomplished these things, Yang Qi headed west.

Not only did he seek to reach the Legendary level, he also hoped to get rid of some troublesome enemies.

The first on the list was the House of Shadowblight.

The House of Shadowblight originally came from the west, and not from the Rich-Lush Continent. Their true origins were in the Western Continent, and specifically, the Blight Legion Church.

It was a mysterious organization, adept at using poisons and toxins. In fact, whenever their unique toxic energy arts were discussed, people would go pale in the face from fear. For Yanhaven and the Yang Clan, they were an enemy that could never be fully guarded against.

The only way to ensure safety would be to completely destroy their organization, to cut the weeds and eliminate the roots.

And that was exactly what Yang Qi intended to do. The House of Shadowblight definitely had Legendaries, but Yang Qi was already capable of destroying Blood-Form and Spirit-Soul Legendaries.

Space-Void Legendaries were capable of piercing through space and the void, which made it possible for them to easily avoid mundane attacks. Normally speaking, only others in the third transformation would be able to fight against them.

However, Yang Qi wasn’t worried at all about tangling with one, the reason being, the Grand Emperor's Pagoda. It was a magical treasure that gave him the ability to flit through the void, and make attacks that he normally couldn’t. With that, he could definitely tangle with a Space-Void Legendary, if not actually kill one.

The Grand Emperor's Pagoda inherently contained all of the magical laws pertinent to the Legendary level. With enough true energy for operational purposes, it could even decimate Great Sages.

Unfortunately, Yang Qi would need far more power at his disposal. Only with the strength of sixty thousand ancient megamammoths could he control the pagoda to that level.

The truth was that the pagoda was actually intended for use by a Great Sage. After all, back when it was used by Grand Emperor Rich-Lush to subjugate the lands, even Great Sages of the Demonfolk would flee in terror because of it. Of course, his work of founding the Rich-Lush Dynasty had been a success because of the alliance of other Great Sages who worked with him.

After making all the pertinent preparations, Yang Qi flew up above the sea of clouds and then vanished without a trace. Things had changed for him. Now more than ever, he wanted to know the true story of his past.

He was still digesting the shocking news that he was not the true son of Yang Zhan. He was the offspring of his mother, Greensura, and another man. His mother was a holy daughter of the Hanging Mountain, the ancient holy land of the Demonfolk. That seemed to indicate that his father was probably a similarly important person.

However, he had no feelings for this mysterious, supposed father. As far as he was concerned, no one could ever measure up to Yang Zhan. Yang Zhan had always been and always would be his true father, and he could hardly care less about his biological father.

The Rich-Lush Continent was a vast place, and even at his current level, and his ability to fly with incredible speed, he still couldn’t cross it quickly. He didn’t use the Grand Emperor's Pagoda to head west, but rather, relied on his Fiend-Devil Wings.

According to the rumors, if one crossed the West Sea, one would eventually reach another continent. It was the Western Continent, which was almost a completely different world from the Rich-Lush Continent.

Yang Qi knew there were other continents, for example, the Quake-Dawn Continent. Unfortunately, he had no idea where any such continents were. Perhaps they existed in other aspects of space-time. After all, during the fabled God-Devil Apocalypse, the Yore-Wilds Continent had been shattered, with different parts sailing out into other areas of space.

As for the western regions of the Rich-Lush Continent, there were millions upon millions of cities and nations there. There was something unique about this area. Although it was technically part of the Rich-Lush Continent, throughout the years, its culture had been affected by the Western Continent.

People said that that continent was much larger than the Rich-Lush Continent, and that cultivation was much more common there. There was even talk about how the Western Continent wanted to invade the Rich-Lush Continent. There had to be some truth to that, because millions of years in the past, battleships from the Western Continent had indeed crossed the ocean and waged war on the people of the Rich-Lush Continent.

And that was exactly how the House of Shadowblight started.

Based on information provided by his sworn siblings, Yang Qi had pieced together something of a picture of the House of Shadowblight. His goal? To locate their headquarters, attack it, and raze it to the ground.

Eventually, an enormous city rose up in the distance, hundreds of times the size of Yanhaven. Landing on the ground, he approached on foot.

This enormous city was named Mongoltar.

It had as many expert energy artists as the sky had clouds, to the point where the gate guards were all Masters of Energy. When Yang Qi prepared to enter the city, one of the guards looked over at him and barked, “The entry tax is a hundred energy convergence pills!”

Yang Qi paid the tax and entered the city. It was roughly the same size as the Sage Ancestor Dynasty’s Capital City, and was filled with towering buildings and bustling with people. It was even possible to see Lifeseizers here and there, all of them high and mighty.

‘There’s a business group based in Mongoltar called the Myriad Consortium,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘Supposedly, they deal in all sorts of precious items, and also, information. They’re a very powerful force in the continent, and apparently, they also fund the Crown Prince Society. The House of Shadowblight supposedly has a branch here too. This place is really a nest of dragons and serpents.’

Yang Qi strolled through the city, thinking back to everything he had learned about the place.

At one point, he suddenly came across one particular street that was paved with white jade. It was as pure and clean as the halls of heaven, and was lined with towering buildings. An archway entrance towered over the entrance of the street, where a group of expert energy artists would inspect anyone who wished to enter.

For the most part, ordinary citizens were not allowed in.

After a moment of looking on from a distance, Yang Qi realized that only Lifeseizers were being permitted to pass.

Looking up at the archway, he saw the words Myriad Consortium inscribed in bold calligraphy.

‘So, this place is where the Myriad Consortium is headquartered.’ Nodding to himself, he circulated his energy, causing his facial features to shift, and making him look slightly hunched. In the blink of an eye, he was an elderly cultivator. After all, Yang Qi was fairly famous nowadays. Word had long since spread of how he had stood up to the Crown Prince, and therefore, disguising himself with the abilities of his godly-class energy art seemed like the smart thing to do.

As he approached the archway, one of the guards reached out to block his path.

“What,” Yang Qi said, snorting coldly. Unleashing some of his powerful true energy, he said, “I'm here to do business with the Myriad Consortium. What’s the meaning of this?” The Lifeseizing aura he unleashed caused the guard to fall back a few paces, his eyes flickering with fear.

In his hand was a jade identification plaque that suddenly began to shine with dazzling white light. The guard looked down at the plaque and thought, ‘Such incredible true energy! He's a Nonary Lifeseizer!’

“Senior, please, you’re welcome to enter,” he said. “If there’s anything specific you're looking to buy, please let me know, and I can point you in the right direction.”

“I want to buy information,” Yang Qi replied in a cold tone. With that, he handed the man a demon core.

The guard’s expression flickered. “A fiend-devil demon core in the Lifeseizing level?! Many thanks, Senior. Many thanks for your generosity!” This man had only recently reached the Lifeseizing level, which was when he became a captain of the guard at the entrance to the Myriad Consortium. It was a relatively high position, and therefore, Yang Qi decided to whet his appetite with a little gift, in the hopes of getting more insights into the Myriad Consortium.

“Little Yu,” the captain said, “you take over for me. I'm going to take this Senior in to talk business.” With that, he led Yang Qi in through the archway. Before long, they were in a meeting hall, where the captain served some tea and then said, “I’ll go get some of the leaders of the consortium, Senior. Please wait here for just a moment.”

Without any further ado, he left. Before long, a burly man entered, who sized Yang Qi up, and vice versa. Yang Qi instantly identified him as a Quinary Lifeseizer.

“What can I help you with, Senior?” the man asked courteously, clearly nervous because of Yang Qi’s cultivation. “I am a vice-president in the Myriad Consortium branch here in Mongoltar. We do business throughout the lands, in hundreds of thousands of cities. As long as you can pay the price, we can provide the goods you need. Don't worry, Senior, we have an excellent reputation, and we live up to it.”

“Oh really?” Yang Qi said. Without any hesitation, he placed three enormous demon cores onto the table, each of them as dark as night. They looked like devil-eyes, and flickered with abundant wretch energy.

“Demon cores from fiend-devil viscounts?!” the man blurted in shock. “Senior, don’t tell me you want to sell them!?”

“Yes, I want information,” Yang Qi replied. “Where is the headquarters of the House of Shadowblight?”