Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

The future world had come to the Middle Age, the era of the dao of immortals, with one goal: to destroy the dao of heaven.

What was the dao of heaven?

Part of it involved the hearts of the people, and part of it was made up by the mysterious and unexplainable magical laws that existed. Destroy all of the magical laws of all the immortal worlds, and the dao of heaven would cease to exist.

If the dao of heaven were destroyed in the Middle Age, then the past, present, and future would undergo violent transformations, although no one could say for sure what they would be.

However, there was clearly a motivation behind the goal.

“Generalissimo Worldking,” one of the other generalissimos said, “as the overseer of the vault of the sky, I will follow your orders to the letter.” He was Generalissimo Skyvault, and he and everyone else present were people who were at least as strong as Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven—perhaps even stronger.

“Presumably, some of you are unclear as to why we’ve been tasked with destroying the dao of heaven in the Middle Age. It all comes down to the legion of gods and their god world. We come from a civilization of the future, which ended up taking a divergent path. The founder of our world changed the course of history and led us into an alternate timeline. Unfortunately, the current path of our society will eventually reach a dead end. And the reason for that is that the Ancient Road to the Gods does not exist in the future world! There is no way to reach the god world in the future!”

Generalissimo Worldking sounded gravely serious as he provided his detailed explanation. “This information is top secret, and was previously known only to the ten magisters. Even I was only recently made aware of the truth. According to longstanding truth, the god world transcends time and all other existences. It shouldn’t matter what age one is in, it should be possible to travel the Ancient Road to the Gods and reach the god world. Unfortunately, something changed. The Ancient Road to the Gods doesn’t even exist in the Primeval Age now. The legion of gods perished in ancient times, thanks to a traumatic tribulation. For some unknown reason, the Ancient Road to the Gods only exists in the Middle Age, within the immortal dao civilization. Although not all matters are clear, we do know that the only path to success lies in destroying the dao of heaven, and taking everything from this age through the river of time and space to the future world. In other words, we will remove history and send its power to the future world.”

“We understand,” replied the other generalissimos.

One of them, Generalissimo Seabrine, said, “There is no need for the immortal dao civilization to exist. Destroy the dao of heaven here, and the massive power surge will reach the future world and reopen the Ancient Road to the Gods.”

“Now we need to discuss the campaign to come,” Generalissimo Worldking said. “We’ve encountered resistance in the immortal worlds, primarily from the Dao Defense League. They named a league-lord, someone called Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven. Beneath him is the Emissary of Radiance and Light and the Emissary of Darkness and Gloom. The former is Yang Qi, who Magister Proud Heaven has ordered that we capture and return to the future world. We’ll keep him captive there, and when the ten magisters return, they’ll extract something important from within him. Understand?”

“Yes sir!”

“Once we arrive, we need to gather as much information as we can about Yang Qi and his cultivation base. We absolutely mustn't let him slip through our fingers. As we dismantle the Dao Defense League, he is at the top of our list of people to pay attention to.”

“This Yang Qi definitely has a very high cultivation base. Not too long ago, we sent a covert ops team led by General Samman. They even had a fragment of the Cruiser of Civilization and one of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions. Unfortunately, they failed in their mission to capture Yang Qi. Samman sacrificed his life to summon the power of the magisters, but in the end, it did him no good. We can’t take Yang Qi lightly. In fact, maybe it would be better to attack from a different angle. We can use the infighting among the immortal worlds to target him, possibly forcing him to bring about his own end. What do you think?”

“That sounds like a good idea. If we really plan to destroy everyone in the immortal dao civilization, we need to have a good plan. And getting them to wipe each other out would definitely make things easy.”

Terrifying forces were at play. The top experts of the future world were coming, and it presaged drastic transformations to the dao of heaven.

As for Yang Qi, he was in the middle of his cultivation when the Wheel of Fate suddenly began spinning thousands of times faster than usual, producing a thrum that began pulling his divine will inside.

‘Hmm?’ he thought, opening his eyes. ‘The dao of heaven is giving me a warning? A big threat is coming? Something that could harm the essence of our age? I can just barely sense some deathlessness out there. Well, in that case… good! It’s either someone from the Primeval Age or the Future Age. And apparently, they’re here to destroy the dao of heaven.’

Yang Qi sent out a voiceless message into the void. “Hear me, dao of heaven with your magical laws. If you want my help then you shouldn’t be trying to hold me back. How about we make a deal? I’ll stop these invaders if you help me push my cultivation base to a higher level. Stop holding back your will, your essence, and your magical laws. Allow me to peer into your most profound secrets.”

As his divine will was somehow communicating with the dao of heaven, he felt as if he could sense some immense entity out there, something he couldn’t possibly even budge if he tried. It was like a photonic computer that could control everything in creation, something that made his own will seem monumentally insignificant.

In the mortal world, an emperor was so glorious and majestic that the common people would instinctively drop to their knees in obeisance to him. But if all of the subjects in the empire died, then that emperor would be left powerless and a fool. The dao of heaven was the same.

All of a sudden, Yang Qi could sense the restrictive nature of the dao of heaven, but at the same time, could now make use of its will.

As he reached out and communicated, his enlightenment of cultivation levels soared and he suddenly rose to a higher level. A smile broke out on his face. ‘I don't care what level you’re at now, Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven. You have no hope of keeping the spot of league-lord. The Dao Defense League is going to belong to me.’

He slowly slipped into a trance.

Magical laws from the dao of heaven streamed into him, entering his flesh and blood, connecting to him like great chains of true energy.

Slowly but surely, Yang Qi was becoming like an incarnation of this age’s dao of heaven. His blows were becoming like the blows of the age itself, causing space and time to tremble. At a certain point, they could not be blocked or defended against by any person who came from the same age as him.

As his Wheel of Fate communicated with the dao of heaven, he couldn't quite reach the level of being a full incarnation, but he made significant progress and his cultivation base grew stronger, purer, and more resilient.

The process continued for days upon days, until the course of events shifted dramatically.

Within the depths of boundless primal-chaos, a majestic power erupted, followed by a fiery rage that shot from the heights of heaven down to the Heaven-Dao Operation God-Temple.

The league-lord’s throne suddenly began to emit the pounding sound of drums and bells.

To everyone’s shock, they realized that the moment they had been waiting for was finally here.

Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven was back.

Yang Qi had been subverting him and taking the destiny that officially belonged to him. Even if Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven were as dense as a clay bodhisattva, he would have still been enraged. But of course, he was much more than that. He was one of the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court, and the most explosively violent of that group. Anyone who crossed him died!

“I, Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven, have returned! And I hereby call a meeting of all elders, god-generals, dharmarajas, and emissaries of the Dao Defense League.”

His words echoed out with a calm that was somehow filled with rage, leaving everyone certain that a big tempest was coming.

BOOM!

Old-timers began streaming into the Heaven-Dao Operation God-Temple, far more than had been present when the position of league-lord was settled. After all, many more old-timers had emerged from primal-chaos to join the alliance. Most of them were already loyal to Yang Qi, while there were still a few who were waiting to see how things would play out.

Obviously, a critical juncture had arrived in which Yang Qi and Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven would lay all their cards on the table.

Bugles echoed for a full day and night as the old-timers slowly filled up the Heaven-Dao Operation God-Temple. This was a true meeting of the host of immortals. Countless Godmyths from the never-ending immortal worlds were here; if they were killed, the destiny of this age would suffer a major blow and the dao of heaven itself would likely collapse.

If the dao of heaven was the emperor of this age, these old-timers were the civil and military officials. And without those officials, the emperor couldn’t remain in power.

Yang Qi was the last to arrive.

After stepping into the Heaven-Dao Operation God-Temple, he saw Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven glaring at him with a gaze as sharp as a sword.

Yang Qi merely smiled and took his seat on his throne of radiance and light.

Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven looked at him for a moment, then said, “You’ve done well, Emissary of Radiance and Light. I heard that you’ve accomplished a lot while I was in seclusion. You declared war on the Demon League, although I'm curious who gave you the authority to make decisions like that. The Demon League is a vast alliance that we should be working with to fight the future world. I can’t believe that you would lead the fight against one enemy while another was ready to stab us in the gut. Furthermore, as the league-lord, I should be making decisions about when to launch attacks. Who gave you that right?”

The man was obviously going on the offensive with his words.

Many of the old-timers present looked somewhat faint. Never could they have imagined that Yang Qi and Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven would have an altercation this quickly. The grand emperor was essentially accusing Yang Qi of treason.

Everyone looked over at Yang Qi, waiting to see how he would respond, wondering if he would stand up for himself or resort to guile.

Seeing that he had the attention of all eyes present, he slowly stood. “Very good questions, Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven. You see, I’ve invited all of the elders, god-generals, and dharmarajas here today to accuse you of gross misconduct! The Demon League seeks to completely destroy our Dao Defense League, which means that they should be viewed as a major enemy. In such dire circumstances, you decided to go off into seclusion and do nothing? You might as well have handed the Dao Defense League over to the enemy to be exterminated! If you don’t care for the lives of our people, then we don't want you to be our league-lord!”