Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“You!” General Samman was so startled he nearly lost his mind. He’d assumed that his whole series of tricks and schemes had been pulled off perfectly, and never could have possibly guessed that he had fallen for Yang Qi’s even more vicious plot.

He had struck a truly vicious blow to Yang Qi’s sea of energy with the Bow of Chastisement and a God-Wrath Arrow. Then he stabbed him with the Spear of Judgement.

Even a Demigod expert who was struck in such a fashion would be severely injured, and might possibly even die. It seemed completely impossible to him that Yang Qi could survive such treatment.

After all, he wasn’t fighting with his own power, but rather godpower provided by Magister Proud Heaven via proxy. If Magister Proud Heaven were here, he could slaughter a demigod without exerting the slightest effort.

In the end, Yang Qi had used his fragment of the Cruiser of Civilization to escape. That act had almost completely drained it of power, reverting it to its original state. On the upside, he had seized the upper hand in the fight, and perhaps even secured victory.

POP!

His palm slammed savagely onto the top of General Samman’s head, sending a blast of true energy into him that shattered his sea of consciousness and his will. Yang Qi wasn’t holding anything back; he was using all the abilities he could think of to try to take out this opponent with one blow.

The fact that Samman had used King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions and the vivicreation systems in the Cruiser of Civilization to completely block Yang Qi’s access to the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart was something he hadn’t planned for, and it had put him in a very dangerous situation.

“Don’t blame me for being vicious and merciless, Samman. You came here with the will of Proud Heaven, and as far as I'm concerned, his people all deserve the death sentence! Now, give me his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth and that seed of truth!” Yang Qi could benefit greatly from the seed of truth, which would advance his own energy arts and give him a huge advantage in fighting the future world. And it was without mercy that he dug into Samman’s sea of consciousness to find it.

It was a dark golden color, holy and pure, yet also thrumming with the darkness and gloom of hell. It was a combination of something godly and something wicked, capable of destroying the heavens and extinguishing the earth, of throwing the universe into chaos. Immediately, Yang Qi could sense that it perfectly conformed to his own true energy.

If he acquired the divine ability from another God Legion Seal, his energy arts would advance and transform, providing him with benefits that would vastly surpass those which would come from acquiring more of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions.

‘There it is. Get over here!’

Even as he formed his true energy into a hand and reached out to grab the seed, the seed suddenly transformed.

RUMBLE!

Ten streams of energy shot out of it into Yang Qi, energy that could subvert the past, present, and future, throwing them all into chaos.

Creak. Crunch. Crack.

Yang Qi’s true energy began to crumble and melt as surely as ice in the hot sun. For some reason, there was nothing he could do to block those ten streams of power.

‘What are these things? Did I fall into a trap?’

A wave of terror swept through him, but a moment later he forced himself into a state of calm. Yes. He had fallen into a trap. And he knew that this was probably the most dangerous situation he’d ever been in during his entire life. It was a critical moment in which, if he didn’t play his cards absolutely perfectly, these ten streams of power would smash into his heart and soul.

He absolutely, positively could not let his guard down now.

Bursts of laughter rang out.

“The God Legion Seal!”

“It’s another piece of the God Legion Seal!”

“We finally found one of them! If we get that piece, we can conquer all of existence! We can combine the past, present, and future, break through all barriers of space and time, attack the god legion plane, trample the legion of gods, and crush all hells!”

“Your plan worked perfectly, Proud Heaven! And now our grand wills shall possess this husk and take the God Legion Seal!”

“Our true bodies are in the Primeval Age, but even these scraps of will could take down a Lesser God. With our powers combined, no one could possibly resist our possession!”

The ten streams of power were ten expressions of will, and one of them clearly belonged to Proud Heaven. They were mightier by far than anything Yang Qi had ever encountered, and that included the god Brahma, and whatever god-spirit backed Sectlord Nine Yangs and his sect.

Ten streams of will were trying to possess Yang Qi and it instantly caused him to be locked in place, immobile.

In the blink of an eye, they were battering at his sea of consciousness, placing him in extremely critical danger. If Yang Qi were to be possessed, he would essentially cease to exist and his energy arts would come to belong to the ten magisters of the future world.

The ten magisters were clearly not willing to let someone like Yang Qi continue growing into his full potential and had planned this trap very well to stop him.

“God Legion Seal, crush them!”

Without hesitation, he prepared to unleash the full and complete might of the God Legion Seal!

Yet, in a very bizarre turn of events, the God Legion Seal didn’t respond at all. It seemed to be ignoring his commands, and even seemed willing to accept the ten streams of power.

Things were turning very, very bad. Terrible even!

The God Legion Seal was Yang Qi’s last resort, his ultimate trump card, yet for some reason it didn’t seem to be working. Although Yang Qi was flabbergasted, he forced himself to remain calm. Obviously, the God Legion Seal was willing to accept the aura of his enemies. The seed of truth had been created by the God Legion Seal, and now it seemed as though the two seals were trying to combine.

Apparently, the ten magisters had known all along that this would happen.

Yang Qi forced himself into an even deeper state of calm and drew on the rest of the power he had. Godpower sprang up, filled with infinite variations which he used to create a host of gates to block the path of the ten streams of will.

“How could this boy's will be so strong? How many gates is he going to make? How do we get past this?”

“Calm down. He has a very weak cultivation base. Even if his will were stronger, he would need the help of a powerful cultivation base to hold out for very long.”

“With no foundation to stand on, one cannot endure!”

“We have to possess him and take control of his God Legion Seal!”

“Normally, no one would be able to enter his sea of consciousness without being attacked by the God Legion Seal, and not even a god would survive that. But sadly for him, we also have a God Legion Seal, and won't suffer any backlash!”

“Exactly. When two forces who have God Legion Seals clash, it all comes down to who has the higher cultivation level and who is stronger. Our will and power are obviously superior to this brat’s. There’s no way he's going to escape calamity today!”

The ten powerful expressions of will battered at the hundreds and hundreds of gates that blocked the way to Yang Qi’s sea of consciousness. If they broke through all of them, Yang Qi’s will and soul would be destroyed.

“A thought brings life; with many thoughts, no life; lifeless and destructionless; a subversion of dreams….” Yang Qi’s heart continued descending into calm. The more dangerous the situation was, the less flustered he was, until he entered a state of mind that could be considered lifeless and destructionless. Not even the ancient legion of gods could easily enter a state like this; it was the kind of thing that could be encountered by chance, but never searched for and found. With life came destruction. But at the same time, with lifelessness came a lack of destruction.

Life and destruction comprised the rhythm of existence.

“Attack!” The ten streams of power blasted their way into Yang Qi’s sea of consciousness, only to find that it was absolutely empty. There was no soul there, no will, no true energy, and no physical matter. It was as if Yang Qi didn’t exist at all. It wasn’t that he had died, but rather as though he’d never existed at all.

He had entered a majestic state of being that was attainable only by Fateless Ones. Lifeless and destructionless. Endless nirvanic rebirth. It had nothing to do with King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions, the God Legion Seal, or the Cruiser of Civilization. This was Yang Qi’s power and constitution.

“Why can’t we find the brat’s soul?”

“He has no will?”

“He's a Fateless One! I can’t believe he actually entered the level of being lifeless and destructionless! Without our true selves to provide power, we won’t be able to possess him. But we should be able to find the God Legion Seal and take it away from him.”

RUMBLE!

The ten streams of will burst out of Yang Qi’s sea of consciousness and headed toward his forehead, where they saw the golden imp sitting cross-legged on a field of countless golden godflowers, smiling faintly.

“Surround it!”

“Assimilate it!”

“If we can get this part of the God Legion Seal, we can take it back to primeval times and combine it with the one we already have. We can subvert space and time, slaughter the almighty entities of the past, and get the final piece of the seal. When we combine three into one, we will change the face of heaven and earth! When the gods experience nirvanic rebirth, a new civilization will come, and we will control it!”

The ten streams of will began to surround the God Legion Seal.

However, the seal began emitting a glowing light that blocked the ten expressions of will. At the same time, the ten streams of will also began glowing as they tried to force their way to the seal.

All of a sudden, a face appeared in the God Legion Seal, and it was none other than Yang Qi!

Instantly, the glowing light grew more intense and became an attack that slammed into the ten streams of will.

“What?”

“How could this be happening? His will is lifeless and destructionless, and it combined with the God Legion Seal!? Not even we could cultivate the God Legion Seal to that level. How did he do it?”

“Don't worry, he only has initial enlightenment of this level. He won’t be able to sustain this state for long. Being lifeless and destructionless is a temporary condition. If we keep attacking him, he’ll eventually break. Once he’s back to normal, we can take the God Legion Seal and kill him!”