Sage Monarch

Yang Qi had already learned a lot about the god world, thanks to reading the Great Classic of God Ordainment. The book didn't contain cultivation techniques. But of all the things he lacked at the moment, cultivation techniques were at the very bottom of the list. He had the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, Purrfect God Art, Sage Monarch Grand Magic, Secret-Ensconcing All-World Anything-Everything Fundamental-Law Magic, and the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body, all of which were boundless techniques even in the god world.

Having finished reading the Great Classic of God Ordainment, he began a session of secluded cultivation.

The God Legion Seal was in his forehead, constantly drawing in the essence of the god world, making it so that he didn't need medicinal pills of any sort. And by passing that essence through the Heaven and Earth Furnace to be refined and cleansed, it turned into extremely powerful godpower.

Yang Qi was wreathed in burning sagefire, melting everything else that existed in his mansion grotto. At the same time, godnotes appeared, which fluttered down ceaselessly almost like snowflakes. As Yang Qi furthered his cultivation, his Sage Monarch Grand Magic grew more refined and his virtual godhood was gradually crystallizing and turning into true godhood.

"Sheepskin scroll! Mahātmā Jade! The time has come to reveal your true grandeur. We're in the god world now, and my cultivation base is vastly beyond what it was before. I know that you two are both boundless treasures, and the time has come to completely assimilate you!"

Yang Qi pulled out the scroll and the jade.

They were diametrically opposed to the God Legion Seal, but Yang Qi had used the Purrfect God Art and the Sage Monarch Grand Magic to use them together. And if he could literally combine the sheepskin scroll, Mahātmā Jade, and God Legion Seal, it would definitely lead to some sort of incredible divine ability, something he could use to conquer the dome of heaven and be unparalleled in all creation.

Yang Qi didn't care about any of the treasures to be had in the god world.

He was now just on the verge of being a god; therefore, it seemed like the perfect time to use the sheepskin scroll and the fragment of Mahātmā Jade. By now, he had realized the truth; they weren't technically treasures, but rather expressions of mighty will. And ever since he had come to the god world, he had been constantly baptizing them with his energy arts. Now was the time to reveal their secrets, especially the Mahātmā Jade. The only downside was that he didn't have the complete jade. If he did, the combined jade and scroll really would be on the same level as the God Legion Seal.

Yang Qi exhaled a stream of vital energy as he used his peak Terrifying will and the true energy of the Sage Monarch Grand Magic to wrap the two items up and start assimilating them.

He had performed innumerable tests on the Mahātmā Jade back in the Great Necropolis, using the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. However, he had never fully succeeded. But things were different now that his cultivation base was so much higher.

He was now strong enough to kill gods.

And gods didn't even exist in the immortal worlds.

The will of the Sage Monarch Grand Magic entered the Mahātmā Jade, which immediately unleashed an incredible force of pressure. Almost immediately, Yang Qi felt like his soul was being dragged into the jade.

Shifting his concentration, he started fighting back. It was almost as if the jade were a boundless black hole that could devour any psychic power that got close to it.

The process was actually helping him increase his psychic power. Of course, he was already at the peak of the Terrifying level, and couldn't achieve any minor breakthroughs. The next major step was the Paramount level, which was for mid-level gods.

Normal gods, the Lesser Gods with a godhood rating of ten or less, would be at the peak Terrifying level.

Unfortunately, Yang Qi had previously reached the point where his psychic power couldn't increase, at least not without immense difficulty. But now, with the Mahātmā Jade tugging at him, it was growing.

As it turned out, the jade could be used to improve psychic power!

Normal. Stupendous. Destabilizing. Terrifying. Paramount. Unbounded. Annulled. Those were the levels that governed one's psyche and will, and each step was an immense increase. Back when Yang Qi had first fought the Terrifying Empress Joyflower, he was forced to flee with his tail between his legs.

Of course, the rise from Terrifying to Paramount would be one of even greater invincibility. It was theoretically possible for some Quasi-Gods to kill actual gods, but there was no way that a Terrifying expert could ever possibly fight a Paramount expert.

Lesser Gods with a godhood rating of one were definitely weak enough that Quasi-Gods could kill them. But even someone who had only just stepped into the Paramount level could, with a mere glance, slaughter Terrifying opponents.

Paramount will described that which was boundlessly paramount.

Thanks to the sheepskin scroll and Mahātmā Jade, Yang Qi was now developing Paramount will.

Compared to one's will, everything else was false and unreal. Even godhood. Without the will, godhood could crumble. A deathless and everlasting body could fall apart without will to sustain it. People required will, lest they become like the walking dead.

During his time in the god world, Yang Qi had often thought of these magical treasures and had come to understand how and why the True Devil fought the Sovereign Lord.

The truth was that Yang Qi had come to suspect some things about the identity of the True Devil.

Generally speaking, the Mahātmā Jade was impossible to assimilate, except for one specific person, that being the bearer of the God Legion Seal. Throughout all of history, only two people had ever possessed the complete God Legion Seal.

One was the boundless Sovereign Lord, and the other was Yang Qi.

During the half-year he had spent flying over the ocean, cultivating both the Purrfect God Art and the Sage Monarch Grand Magic, he had done some further study of the sheepskin scroll and the Mahātmā Jade.

And now he was finally starting to pierce some of their secrets.

As the Mahātmā Jade tried to devour his power, he unleashed his consummate skills to defend himself. At the same time, he sent his godpower into the sheepskin scroll, which suddenly exploded, becoming a mass of ten thousand characters that swirled around him.

He opened his mouth and inhaled, breathing in the stream of characters and sending them to his sea of energy where they formed sutras, each of which contained countless expressions of will.

Intense rumbling sounds echoed out of Yang Qi, and the piece of the Mahātmā Jade suddenly erupted with immense power. At the same time, he sent the complete God Legion Seal flying toward the jade with the wave of his finger.

The light of the God Legion Seal enveloped the Mahātmā Jade and it turned into a flow of energy that shot into Yang Qi.

There in his sea of energy, a piece of the Mahātmā Jade could now be seen.

As he breathed, his psychic power swelled, and he suddenly caught sight of what looked like a paramount door within his sea of consciousness. All he had to do was open that door, and he would have Paramount will convergence.

Suddenly, he started shaking physically as though his body might fall to pieces. He immediately knew what was happening. His godpower had not yet been turned into godhood, which meant that he couldn't actually break into the Paramount level.

Not even Yang Qi could do that without becoming a god first.

"What? I've subjugated the sheepskin scroll and the Mahātmā Jade and improved my psychic scale, but my godhood hasn't completely formed yet, which means I can't reach godly ascension. It makes sense that I can't break through, but I really want to break through these shackles and reach the most invincible level of cultivation possible! If I could reach the Paramount level before forming my godhood, I would definitely be incomparably powerful!"

Yang Qi reined in his energy arts and inspected himself. His godpower and psyche were stronger than before, probably by three times. And that meant that right now he was in the mood to test out his fighting prowess.

Thrusting his palm out, he launched a stream of godpower that contained a host of characters that formed the same body of text that had existed on the sheepskin scroll. He clenched his hand into a fist, and Terrifying energy erupted, the kind that could consume the psyches of others.

It was exactly the same thing the Mahātmā Jade could do. It was different from any sort of devil technique. With devil techniques, the amount of psychic power that one could absorb was dependent on one's specific capacity. Once that capacity was reached, one couldn't absorb any more, unless it was into some sort of magical storage treasure, or an out-of-body incarnation.

But all such outside aspects could cause problems for one's individual cultivation base.

Yang Qi rose to his feet and sent out a character that transformed into a clone surrounded by swirling tribulations. More characters flew out, until there were a total of ten thousand of them.

"Amazing. Amazing!" Yang Qi could help but laugh with delight. "It's too bad I only have one piece of the Mahātmā Jade. If I could find more pieces, and use more of my Sage Monarch Grand Magic and Purrfect God Art, I could push this fusion to a higher level. It could be a boundless precious treasure that would definitely give me hope of reaching the Annulled level."

No one actually knew how strong the Annulled level was. Supposedly, it could be used to transcend the limits of the god world and reach a state that was heretofore unknown.

Was there another world beyond the god world? No one knew for sure, although the general belief was that there was no such a world, and the god world was the ultimate world among all the other worlds that existed.

1. The fight with Empress Joyflower that's referenced here is in