Sage Monarch

The Gate to the Gods was an enormous gateway that had once led from the mortal world to the god world. Back then, the executors had tasked some of their top old-timers with guarding the door. Not even their emperor would be allowed to pass through it without a very good reason. Of course, things eventually changed. Later, it reached the point where the executors wouldn't let anyone through the gate.

Anyone who tried, whether their intentions were good or bad, whether they were immortals or fiend-devils, would be slaughtered without question, and their treasures and quintessence energy taken away.

The executors had long since become freaks; people who, because they couldn't become gods, wouldn't allow anyone else to try to reach godly ascension. Furthermore, they would use the most powerful curses of the gods to plunder the resources of anyone who had prepared to reach godly ascension.

It was impossible to say how many people had fallen to their villainous tactics over the past millions upon millions of years. Unfortunately, there was nothing anyone could do about it. The executors' headquarters occupied the end of the Ancient Road to the Gods. And whenever items spilled out of the god world, the executors were the first to fill their coffers. Whatever scattered items made it past them were fought over by the top experts on the ancient road, who could use them to become stronger, but never actually reach godly ascension.

No one knew how many ambitious people had launched assaults on the executors over the years, only to be slaughtered in bloody massacres.

But everything was changing because of Yang Qi.

The Gate to the Gods had been made part of a powerful spell formation that could part primal-chaos, summon god lightning, and unleash the most brutal of trump cards. In fact, in addition to the god lightning, it could send forth all sorts of primal-chaos soldiers, god mountains, god talismans, and god paintings.

It was called the Primal-Chaos Hundred-Weapons God-Assimilating Grand Formation.

When the formation was activated, it could summon power from the god world, transform primal-chaos into numerous types of weapons, and slaughter any defiant individuals.

It could be used to kill anyone who defied the executors.

"You won't escape the magical net of justice!"

"Die!"

"How dare you challenge the dignity of the Executors of the Ancient Road! You're going to be killed beyond the shadow of a doubt!"

"We're the executors! We enforce the laws of heaven and earth. We control primal-chaos, and we can make it into whatever we want."

"Destroy the Sage Monarch League!"

"Summon the magical net!"

In response to what was happening, numerous old-timers among the executors began shouting in rage.

Countless streams of primal-chaos swirled to create an enormous net that spread out, god lightning crackling across its surface. Then, numerous eyes opened up on the net, which could perceive everything in existence. As it was said, it is difficult to evade the net of justice.

The appearance of that net of primal-chaos seemed to have immediately put the Sage Monarch League at a disadvantage.

However, that was when Yang Qi showed up.

He threw his hand out with fingers splayed and grabbed the entire net, which began to pop and explode. The eyes shattered and the god lightning went wild, crashing into Yang Qi left and right. However, it didn't seem to hurt him in any way.

"Be destroyed!" Yang Qi said, and an enormous primal-chaos elder-snake appeared behind him, a manifestation of King Heaven-Devourer's energy arts. The snake opened its mouth and began devouring the primal-chaos vital energy.

Then, it lunged toward the Gate to the Gods as if to consume it.

However, the gate struggled to fight back.

"Are you really going to defy the heavens, Yang Qi!" a voice howled from within the gate. "The legion of gods tasked the Executors of the Ancient Road with guarding the road. It's the most holy of tasks! By defying us, you defy the gods!"

An old man appeared in front of the gate in nascent divinity form, clad in a yellow robe that pulsed with the energy of an emperor. Pointing at Yang Qi, he said, "Back down, boy, or—"

BOOM!

Yang Qi interrupted him with a fist.

He bent like a bow, causing golden light to converge above his head, which shot forth like an arrow to slam into the surface of the Gate to the Gods. The gate trembled violently, and the light shining off of it shattered, to be grabbed by Yang Qi. Then his golden light swept onward, crushing many of the lower-level executors into streaks of gore.

He was single-handedly destroying their formation!

Just what level of mighty power was that?

To see so many lower-level disciples being massacred caused the old-timers to howl with rage as they tried in vain to unleash the powers of the Gate to the Gods.

"This is a nice gate," Yang Qi said. "I think I'll take it." Although it wasn't on the level of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, it would make a great headquarters, as it contained a multitude of minor worlds. Reaching out with his hand, he sent his true energy into the gate to dismantle the warding magics inside.

"Yang Qi, if you think you can single-handedly defy the Executors of the Ancient Road, then you're crazy!" The old-timers were clearly enraged.

Sadly for them, they couldn't actually do anything to Yang Qi.

He was just too strong. His every attack shook heaven and earth, and shattered numerous warding spells in the Gate to the Gods. Before long, only the primary warding spell remained, into which all of the top executors had fled.

"That's not going to do any good," Yang Qi said. "Fighting harder is just going to make you die sooner. Die, all of you!"

Shouting, he launched an attack at the primary warding spell, blasting it apart and sending the executors tumbling out into the open. It was like a rain of humans descending through the primal-chaos. Thankfully for them, they were all top experts, otherwise the destructive primal-chaos would have ripped them to shreds.

The gigantic Gate to the Gods shrank down until it was only about seven inches tall on Yang Qi's palm. It was stone, speckled with both blood and the slashes of blades. There was even moss visible on the surface, and its surface was etched with the history and memories of people from the mortal world who had passed through it.

After all, the Gate to the Gods had been the final obstacle on the Ancient Road to the Gods, and once one passed through it, they would enter the god world.

'What an ancient gateway,' Yang Qi thought. Cocking his ear, he could almost hear how old it was. 'From now on, the Gate to the Gods will be mine. I wonder what it would be worth in the god world.'

Flicking his hand, he sent the Gate to the Gods flying out. "Everyone, get into formation. Get this area under control. The Gate to the Gods is going to be the strongest foundation we could have for the Sage Monarch League."

"Yes sir!"

The experts in the Sage Monarch League knew that the Executors of the Ancient Road were finished. Yang Qi could destroy them single-handedly if he wanted to. Everyone knew that they were participating in establishing a new order, a new empire that would control myriads of worlds.

Looking around, Yang Qi spotted a group of people out in the primal-chaos. They were executors, arranged in formation, except that without the Gate to the Gods to provide power, they were pitifully weak.

Identifying their leader, he nodded and said, "You're the emperor, right? Step forward."

Shivering, the emperor stepped forward and glared at him. "Do you know what you've done, Yang Qi? You've violated universal principles of order! We Executors of the Ancient Road will—"

"I said step forward!" Yang Qi said. Waving his hand, he sent out a stream of golden light that shot directly toward the emperor.

"How impudent!"

"How dare you harm our emperor!"

"Looking to die?!"

"Attack him!"

A host of experts tried to block the path of Yang Qi's golden light, but it did no good. He had completely mastered the martial disciplines of the God Legion Seal, so it scattered anyone that got in the way. As for the emperor, he bellowed in rage and tried to escape, but was quickly caught and dragged back to Yang Qi, who planted his hand on the man's back.

That was how strong Yang Qi was now. The executors had several dozen mid Terrifying experts, yet none of them could stand in his way.

"An emperor?" Yang Qi said. "Look, I'll give you two options. The first is to become my slave, a thrall of the Sage Monarch League. For the rest of your life, you can give your true energy and life essence to my people. Second option: die. Then the executors will disappear into the river of history, never to be seen again. You decide."

"Fine, you win," the emperor said venomously. "We surrender, Yang Qi. But don't forget, the legion of gods will look into this matter."

"They will?" He laughed. "I control the God Legion Seal! The legion of gods will follow my orders. That's what the Lord wants. If you acknowledge allegiance to the legion of gods, then why won't you acknowledge allegiance to me?"

"Such audacity!" the emperor said, shaking his head. "For you to have the God Legion Seal is blasphemy! Don't you know? The fact that you have that seal means that the gods are going to track you down and kill you. None of them will rest at ease while the seal is in the hands of a mediocre person like you. Think about it. If the imperial seal fell into the hands of a farmer in the mortal world, what would happen? An ordinary man who possesses great treasure makes himself a big target!"

Yang Qi shook his head. "So you're saying you refuse to work for me?"

"If you want to kill me, go ahead," the emperor replied. "Besides, we executors can never reach godly ascension. Our lives are tragic to begin with, so go ahead and release me. Men! What joy be there in life? What bitterness be there in death?"

The rest of the executors settled down cross-legged. "That's right! We're the Executors of the Ancient Road! If we die, we die. For us, it will be a release!"

1. This quote about joy in life and bitterness in death has appeared before. It first showed up in , where I included an extensive footnote about it. The link above goes directly to that footnote in case you're interested.