Sage Monarch

Proud Heaven had finally appeared to save Star Swordlife, who was an important pawn in his schemes.

Of course, Yang Qi didn't care at all whether Star Swordlife lived or died. Now that he was in the mid Terrifying level and had assimilated the thirty-six masks, boosting his psychic scale, he was more than confident enough to fight Proud Heaven. So why would he possibly care or worry about Star Swordlife?

At this point, Star Swordlife couldn't possibly put up a fight against Yang Qi, not even with all of the dozens of Great Necropolis godpower seeds he had.

Before Yang Qi teamed up with Doom and the others, Star Swordlife might have had a chance to fight him. But after Yang Qi formed his new alliance, he had continued to grow stronger and stronger, unlocking various secrets of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth and gaining deeper insights into matters of reality and illusion.

Yang Qi's cultivation speed was something that hadn't been seen at any point in history.

Star Swordlife couldn't match speed such as his, even having been directly blessed by Proud Heaven. Besides, considering that Star Swordlife had begun relying on other people to help his cultivation, it was a given that Yang Qi would surpass him by leaps and bounds. Yang Qi had advanced on his own merits and strength, which would always lead to better results.

In fact, even the person who had blessed him, Proud Heaven, was now looking at Yang Qi with a very serious expression on his face.

All of a sudden, Star Swordlife felt even further below Yang Qi than he did before.

For the first time, he also actually felt a spark of jealousy, which quickly grew into a raging fire of hatred as he realized that he hated Yang Qi so much he wanted to kill him.

It was the first time in his life he had ever thought of killing someone.

"Begone, heart-devil," Proud Heaven said. Placing his hand onto Star Swordlife's head, he extinguished the flames of jealousy within him. "Yang Qi has already infected you with a heart-devil, and it's proliferating within you. If you don't get rid of it, your cultivation base is going to suffer."

As Star Swordlife felt the flames being extinguished, he shivered, and his cultivation base rose a bit higher.

Staring icily at Yang Qi, he said, "All of this is thanks to you, Yang Qi. I'm going to remember this. You're the one who implanted this heart-devil in me. It's the first one I've ever had. Even when I was a child, I always had strong willpower, and would never waver in my beliefs. Going forward, my mind will only continue getting stronger. You just wait. I'll seal you eventually."

"Piece of trash." Yang Qi said. "For every first, there's a second. Your heart-devils are going to grow more numerous and powerful, until you're dead. So screw off. Proud Heaven and I have some things to talk about, and you don't qualify to participate in the conversation."

"You finally showed your face, Proud Heaven," Doom said, his voice thrumming with enmity. "You killed my people and threw the Primeval Age into complete and utter chaos. I don't even know if it's possible to count how many people died at your hands. Today, I'm going to make sure that your malicious ways are ended. Hand over your God Legion Seal!"

"God Legion Seal?" Proud Heaven laughed. "You think I need the God Legion Seal to deal with you? I admit I underestimated you, Yang Qi. You've actually forsaken the God Legion Seal, even going so far as to cultivate the Unspoiled Body. You even lucked into getting that purrling, and from its blood, you gained enlightenment of some of its secrets, which enabled you to neutralize the conflict between your two major energy arts. If you hadn't done that you would have been turned into a zombie eventually. I suppose I really ought to view you as an enemy."

"You kidnapped my mother, my Aunt Susu, and my Master, taking them from the immortal worlds with one of your incarnations. I actually find it somewhat amusing. Why didn't you make your move on me back then, when I was so weak? Were you worried that my God Legion Seal would be a threat to you? I can tell that you don't have your God Legion Seal with you, which means that you have ambitions just as grand as mine. You want to either free yourself from the seal, or combine all three pieces. Either way, you're not going to use it while fighting us here. If we combine our two pieces of the seal, it would change everything, and you would definitely lose control. In any case, you'll never actually free yourself from the seal."

Proud Heaven laughed. "Why would I want to disconnect myself from the God Legion Seal? I'm not as stupid as you. That seal is the purest, most powerful thing in existence, even in the god world. It would probably be impossible to unlock its secrets, even after studying it for an eternity. But that's only in the mortal world. In the god world, the magical laws at play surpass anything you can imagine, and the true mysteries of the seal can be unlocked."

"If that's the case, then just give me your God Legion Seal," Yang Qi said, extending his hand. "Listen up, Proud Heaven. Either you die today, or I will. I won't permit you to leave here."

"That's the same thing I was going to say to you." Keeping his hands clasped behind his back, he kicked Star Swordlife off to the side. "Get over there, scum. You'll just get in my way."

Star Swordlife had boundless magical power, and had just expelled his heart-devil. But he was powerless to resist Proud Heaven and was kicked to the side, where he slammed into the wall and slumped to the ground. At that point, he finally realized how vastly separated he was from Proud Heaven and Yang Qi.

No wonder Yang Qi had hurt him so badly with a single palm strike.

"You must have your God Legion Seal locked up in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart," Proud Heaven said. "Am I right? King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions used to be scattered far and wide, but you've collected eight of them. Presumably, you already know that I arranged for you to get most of them. The first reason is that I wanted to plunder your destiny. The second is that I wanted you to do the hard work for me in collecting all the medallions. And you didn't disappoint! As planned, all I have to do now is produce the final legacy medallion and complete the collection. At that point, your immortal-slaying clone will lose control of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart."

"What exactly do you want?" Yang Qi said, inwardly shaken.

"Nothing. Yang Qi, the truth is that we don't have any particularly great enmity between the two of us. Although you're a Fateless One, you were born in the mortal world, so your karma connects you to your mother. And since your mother is my wife, doesn't that make me your karmic father? Why don't we work together? We have a grand opportunity here in front of us"

"What grand opportunity?" Yang Qi said. There was no way he would trust anything Proud Heaven said, but he was at least curious to hear a bit of what he had to say.

"Isn't it obvious?" Proud Heaven looked at Doom. "This piece of trash has a God Legion Seal too, but isn't that a big waste? One of my clones sent him running away like the stray dog that he is. So, Yang Qi, if the two of us worked together, we could easily kill him and extract his God Legion Seal. Then we could be allies, with three God Legion Seals between us. We would become more powerful than you could possibly imagine. Afterward, we could open the seal here in the depths of the Great Necropolis, set up plenty of traps, and put all of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions together. Once King Immortal-Slayer's will awakens, we could use the completed God Legion Seal to trap him here. He would surely fight the will of the Great Necropolis, which we could use to move the necropolis, and likely even take control of it! Haven't you already decided to cast aside the God Legion Seal anyway? Then why not give yours to me, and I'll give the Great Necropolis to you? You can even have the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. That way, the two of us would be equals. After all, you must surely already realize that with the Great Necropolis, you could counter the God Legion Seal, and perhaps even surpass it. So what do you think? We can split everything fairly. You can agree to that, can't you?"

Hearing these words, Doom's face turned ashen. He knew that if Yang Qi and Proud Heaven turned on him, he would definitely die. Not even the God Legion Seal would keep him safe.

Unfortunately, there was little he could do in this situation. "Yang Qi," he said, "you know that Proud Heaven is just talking off the cuff here. You can't trust him."

Yang Qi laughed heartily. "I know that, Brother Doom. Don't worry. He's just trying to sow disharmony between us. We've agreed to face all trials and tribulations together, so there's no way I'll fall for his babbling nonsense. No one who has ever cooperated with Proud Heaven has ever lived to tell the tale. I don't think he even has a reputation left that could be ruined."

"What?" Proud Heaven said, looking surprised. "Don't tell me you're really going to refuse my offer, Yang Qi. The only way to reach godly ascension is for the two of us to work together. Otherwise, you'll be stuck here. How else will you move the Great Necropolis? Only King Immortal-Slayer's will and the completed God Legion Seal could possibly pierce the sealed depths of the Great Necropolis. And that's the only way to move the necropolis. The alternative is to be stuck in here without access to the Ancient Road to the Gods, unable to reach the god world, and godly ascension."

"Godly ascension?" Yang Qi said. "You still want to reach godly ascension? If it means preventing you from becoming a god, I'm more than happy to do the same. I can tell what you're doing, Proud Heaven. You're saying everything possible to entice me into working with you. But you don't seem to understand how much I hate you. Nothing could ever remove that hatred, thus, the only outcome waiting for you is death. Furthermore, your reputation is so bad that no one would ever agree to work with you. Did anyone on the Ancient Road to the Gods who worked with you survive? No. You betrayed them all."

"Betrayed them?" He shook his head. "You're a real disappointment, Yang Qi. You've let revenge cloud your judgment, making it impossible for you to see things clearly. Working together is the best option for the two of us. Once you reach the god world, you'll understand this truth. You see, the hatreds and enmities in the mortal world are like nothing more than clouds that eventually vanish, and aren't even worth thinking about."