Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi had just sent down orders that no one was permitted to fight for the magical treasures coming down from the Ancient Road to the Gods. Instantly, one of the god-generals stepped forward, held out a magical treasure with both hands, and said, “League-Lord, I just took this magical treasure a moment ago. Please remove it from my hands. I should really lead by example.”

Yang Qi took the shining treasure and looked it over. He could immediately tell that it had eight streams of godlight that were very similar to his own primeval god skills.

Nodding at the god-general, he said, “Excellent, God-General Blazeflame. I'm going to put this god item into storage for now. Although you won’t be able to use it personally, I'm going to give you a reward for your actions. Take this flame spark of true energy from the godly-class Cardinal Grand Brahman Five Phases Energy Arts, which I transformed using the mysteriousness of past civilizations. It is now called the Spark of Civilization. Considering you have one of the three thousand unique constitutions, that of a Blazeflame One, the Spark of Civilization will be a huge benefit to your cultivation base. I'd say you won’t have any problems reaching the sixth minor stair of the Deathless Heavenly Stairway with it.”

God-General Blazeflame was one of the old-timers in the league and was originally an emperor in the thirtieth-ranked immortal world, the Raging Flame Heaven. After proving his loyalty to Yang Qi, he became one of the god-generals and established the Army of Fire. Obviously, he was just as loyal to Yang Qi now as he had ever been.

When the Spark of Civilization entered him, he immediately sensed his energy transforming in a heaven-shaking, earth-toppling fashion.

Truth be told, he would have sacrificed countless god items to get the Spark of Civilization. And the other god-generals, dharmarajas, old-timers, and elders could see what Yang Qi was doing. He was proving that as long as his followers were loyal and followed orders, they would be greatly rewarded.

“We’ll definitely follow your orders, League-Lord. We’ll keep the Dao Defense League under control and use this opportunity to improve discipline.”

Almost immediately, a tempest of orders began flowing out, passing Yang Qi’s instructions along to all of the numerous immortal worlds in the Dao Defense League.

“The league-lord has ordered that no one attempt to seize the treasures falling from the Ancient Road to the Gods. Anyone who acquires any treasures shall hand them over immediately.”

“Hand over any treasure you come across, and you’ll be greatly rewarded. Any who disobey the league-lord’s orders will be executed immediately! Everyone, stay in position and be prepared for possible enemy invasion!”

The Dao Defense League was huge, with over a hundred trillion immortal worlds making it up, organized into enormous formations. In fact, it was so huge that if an ordinary Godmyth tried to fly from one end to the other by normal means, he would probably die of old age before reaching the other side.

Of course, whether it was during the rule of Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven or after Yang Qi took over, there was an emphasis on connecting the various immortal worlds using “roads” of teleportation portals. Because of that, travel was much easier.

Meanwhile, the rain of items from the Ancient Road to the Gods was causing quite a bit of chaos throughout the immortal worlds. Numerous forces had already begun fighting fiercely to get the resources, and as a result, there was quite a bloodbath going on.

In a distant location, the twentieth ranked Lone Soul Heaven was locked in deadly combat with another twentieth ranked immortal world, the Seaquell Heaven. Immortals were falling left and right, even some of the powerful patriarchs.

That was when Yang Qi’s orders arrived.

The old-timers from the two respective immortal worlds were visibly taken aback.

“What the fuck!?” one of them spat. “We're supposed to hand over all the magical treasures? This stuff is raining down from heaven. It should be first come first served! What gives the league-lord the right to interfere? Out here on the frontier, nobody cares about the league-lord! Brothers, to me! This is a gift from heaven, and whoever acquires a god item gets to keep it! Whoever gets it might even be able to surpass that dick of a league-lord! Attack!”

“That’s right. Attack! Rise up against the league-lord! Who cares about the Dao Defense League, anyway? We won’t quit until we’re in charge! Attack!”

They all instantly began going crazy—it was an open revolt!

And that was only what was happening in one small location. Similar occurrences were playing out among the hundred trillion immortal worlds of the Dao Defense League.

WHOOSH!

However, even as the revolt began spreading, the emperor of the Lone Soul Heaven suddenly looked down to see a spear protruding from his chest.

His aura began fading away, and he died with no idea what killed him. Meanwhile, a glowing, radiant angel appeared behind him, backed by an entire army of fellow angels.

“That was too clean a death for a traitor like this!” Raising his voice, the angel said, “Kill all the rebels. Don’t leave any alive! Destroy any immortal world that revolts!”

“Yes sir!”

As they marched into battle, the angels sang hymns and praises. “Our Lord commands all, our Lord controls the legion of gods. Our Lord’s will is everywhere….”

Majestic and mighty, their voices echoed out for all to hear.

Meanwhile, screams could be heard and blood was flowing as the rebels were executed. Some of the angels stayed behind as the army moved on, sending sagefire to rain down onto the Lone Soul Heaven and reducing it to molten liquid. Eventually, the liquid turned into ash, which then collapsed down into the form of a śarīra.

A twentieth ranked immortal world had been completely wiped out of existence.

Rebellion was breaking out everywhere. However, wherever rebellion rose up, the armies of angels would appear. As the rebels were crushed, a voice would ring out.

“The league-lord has decreed that all rebels are to be executed and the disloyal put to death.”

The truth was that Yang Qi had been prepared for something like this from the outset. He had originally set up armed forces in various parallel universes throughout the Dao Defense League that were prepared to defend against enemy incursions. That said, they could just as easily be used to crush rebellion.

In another border region, an old-timer shouted, “Kill them! Kill them all. Ignore those orders. Take whatever god items you can get your hands on. They’ll make us invincible! Then we can destroy the Heaven-Dao Operation God-Temple and take all the treasures there!”

Thanks to his inciting words, many people began to fight fiercely to acquire the magical treasures. Meanwhile, the old-timer who had spoken the words was off in the shadows, transforming back into the demon that he was.

Chuckling darkly, he thought, ‘Leave it up to me, good old Patriarch Spirit Rat. If there’s one thing I'm good at, it’s stealing and inciting riots. I've been in hiding for so long that I was beginning to wonder when I would have a chance to make a move. Now that chaos has struck the Dao Defense League, I’ll just go back into hiding and secretly collect the fallen souls.’

Transforming into a spirit rat, he scuttled into the depths of a nearby twenty-ninth ranked immortal world.

RUMBLE!

However, almost as soon as he incited the rebellion, the angels appeared on the scene. Then, only moments later, the rebels were all dead. No one could stand up to the angels.

‘What’s going on here? How could an army get here so quickly?’ Patriarch Spirit Rat looked out from his hiding space and saw hordes of angels preparing enchantments and sagefire to destroy the immortal world he was in. And he had no way to escape!

“AGGH! You monsters! How could you destroy an entire immortal world!?”

His pleas fell on deaf ears as the angels completely ignored him and went about their destructive work.

Even a god who faced an army of angels like this would be ripped to shreds!

“I'm an emissary from the Demon League!” he shrieked. “You can’t do this to me! It’s against the rules to execute enemy ambassadors!”

Crack!

His voice eventually faded away as the immortal world around him was thoroughly destroyed. All rebel worlds were being destroyed, with no exceptions.

Other members of the Dao Defense League could see what was happening, and watched as one rebel world after another was completely destroyed. Yang Qi’s armies of angels didn’t show any mercy.

The brutal display drove all ambitious thoughts of rebellion from the hearts and minds of the people.