Sage Monarch

The pillars were sealed in a way that wasn't affected at all by the toxic miasma. In fact, the seals were so strong that Yang Qi didn't feel like he could actually unravel them.

Chopping out with a knifehand, he used the Seventy-Two Monarchs Energy Art to attack one of the pillars. When the blow hit, fire broke out on the pillar, accompanied by hissing and popping sounds.

However, it was almost as if the magical symbols could sense the incoming attack and instinctively stirred into action, causing blood-colored light to rush out and negate it.

'I just formed monarch godhood and I'm almost completely invincible, yet I can't even undo a warding magic?' Yang Qi was shocked. However, he was more delighted than frustrated. After all, for the warding magic to be this strong meant that whatever was inside was obviously incredible.

And if he couldn't personally break the seal, he could always resort to the God Legion Seal.

As soon as he drew on the God Legion Seal, soft golden light shot out in all directions, surrounding the pillars and boring into them. This time, the blood didn't do anything to stop the light, as if it had encountered its ruler.

"Myriad Gods Bowing to the Lord!"

Countless god-spirits appeared around Yang Qi, and at the same time, an aura of the legion of gods rose up from within the columns.

The God Legion Seal had been formed by countless gods prostrating in worship to the boundless Sovereign Lord. The blood warding spells that protected the pillars contained the power of ancient gods, which was why they reacted this way to the God Legion Seal.

The ancient gods always bowed to their lord.

The blood on one of the pillars flowed until it took the shape of a word in god script that then fell onto Yang Qi's palm. It was the character for 'warding'. It was made of blood, and contained incredible godpower. If absorbed, it would obviously bolster the energy and blood, and transform the fleshly body. However, Yang Qi didn't do that. He would keep it to study later, and then decide if he could use it to make medicinal pills to help his subordinates.

With the warding magic gone, the pillar glowed with dazzling light, then cracking sounds rang out as the godpower revealed a small dimension, inside of which was a jade box.

Yang Qi waved his hand and the jade box flew out to him. There was another warding spell on the box itself, and upon inspecting it, Yang Qi realized that its function was to seal time itself. In other words, whatever existed inside the box wouldn't experience the passage of time.

'A talisman that stops time?' Yang Qi was shocked. In the impure lands, his cultivation base was such that he could alter or even reverse the flow of time. He could even create passages that led to primeval times or the future.

But the god world was different. Only Paramount Gods could possibly harness the power of time here. Did that mean that this box had been left behind by some Paramount God?

Yang Qi broke the talisman and opened the box, which caused a fragrant aroma to drift out, like flower petals. A small, hand-sized flower petal was revealed, almost like that of a lotus, yet clearly from some other type of flower. It was very beautiful.

"A flower petal? And a talisman that can actually stop time?" The talisman that had been sealing the box was now in Yang Qi's hand. Looking down at it, he saw that it wasn't working anymore. It was as if all the godpower inside of it had vanished as soon as he removed it from the box. Or perhaps it had been sucked into the flower petal.

'Don't tell me that there are flower petals like this in all of the pillars?'

He went on to use the God Legion Seal to open up the rest of the eight pillars, finding that all of them contained jade boxes with flower petals in them. And all of them were protected by talismans that stopped time, yet ceased to function after the boxes were opened.

Nine flower petals which, when formed together, created the shape of a flower.

Unfortunately, the combined flower lacked a central stamen.

The flower wasn't complete.

The nine petals were all different, and were inscribed with glowing magical symbols that almost seemed to be naturally occurring.

Yet despite fitting together, the petals didn't actually click into place. For now, all Yang Qi could do was put them back into the boxes to save for later study.

Thinking back, he reviewed what he had taken from the Chaos-Forge God-Shrine. From the first floor, antidotal pills. From the second, sword pellets. From the third, the Chaos-Forge God-Shrine. From the fourth, the medicinal ingredients. From the fifth, the corpse of the scholar. And here on the sixth floor he recovered some flower petals. What would he find on the seventh floor? He couldn't use the scholar's corpse or the strange flower petals. Therefore, it seemed his only course of action was to go up.

The toxic mist on the seventh floor was even more intense, and was like a pure spatial tempest so strong that it took the shape of devil-ghosts that ravenously lunged toward Yang Qi.

A huge skull of liquid black crystal appeared, surrounded by black fire, snapping its jaws at him.

BAM!

He thrust his palm out and hit the skull, causing cracks to spread out all over it. However, the skull inhaled, and spatial power rushed into it, returning it to its previous state.

SPLAT!

Toxic fire erupted from the skull, turning into fiery dragons that rushed with deadly force toward Yang Qi.

'Incredible,' he thought. 'I wonder who created this spatial toxic skull, and how it got so strong?' He opened his Lord's Eye in the hopes of identifying the profound aspects of the skull. Instantly, he could see that when the skull opened its jaw and inhaled, it would draw on the spatial tempests and quintessence in the area to power itself up.

And there were more than one of the skulls here on the seventh floor.

'They must have been created by a top expert from the Chaos-Forge God-Shrine. When that expert's undying will convergence merged with the toxic spatial nexuses around it, the result came in the form of these pitch-black crystalline skulls. If I were to assimilate them, it should dramatically increase my fighting prowess.' Almost immediately, Yang Qi's mind filled with understanding regarding the black skulls.

Long ago, the Toxic Continent had been a god kingdom belonging to the Pill-King God. Eventually, the countless experts in that god kingdom had come under the attack of King Hypertoxin, one of the seventy-two monarchs. Ultimately, they all died. However, their psyches weren't completely destroyed, and they eventually fused with the toxic miasma. That was what led to these crystalline skulls on the seventh floor.

Looking around, he counted thirteen of the skulls, all locked in combat with each other, although none seemed capable of dealing with any of the others. After all, Yang Qi had just attacked one to almost no effect whatsoever. Right now, he was strong enough to dominate even peak Greater Gods, and could possibly even fight early Consummate Gods, but not much beyond that.

"Heaven-Dao Pacification; Radiance Like Fire; Nothing Escapes the Net of Justice; Laws of the God Legion!" Yang Qi drew on the God Legion Seal, causing an immense, heavenly net to shoot out of his left hand and spread out toward the skulls. Jaws snapping, they looked up as if to devour it.

'Be suppressed!' Yang Qi said, and immense power crushed down. However, the crystalline skulls continued to rush forward, forcing Yang Qi to back up.

"Mahātmā Jade; Unspoiled Body; Seventy-Two Monarchs Energy Art; Grand God-Dao of Poison. Be suppressed!" Yang Qi drew on all kinds of consummate techniques from the depths of the God Legion Seal. For twenty hours, the fighting raged, until he finally suppressed the skulls.

During that time, he had completely drained his monarch godhood upwards of three thousand times.

Thanks to that, his fighting prowess was now at the level of an early Consummate God, and that was without using the God Legion Seal, Mahātmā Jade, or sheepskin scroll.

However, that just went to show that not even a Consummate God could deal with these skulls.

In the end, though, Yang Qi immobilized all of the skulls with his Devil-God Seal. Unfortunately, if he removed the seal, they would go right back to their previous state of activity. Right now, he would need to come up with another idea if he wanted to assimilate them.

Perhaps he needed to go work on gaining more enlightenment of King Hypertoxin's abilities.

After all, if he could gain complete control of the skulls and give them as puppets to his people, they could definitely fight a Consummate God. Even in the House of God Ordainment, Consummate Gods were mighty, invincible individuals who commanded universal respect. They could do whatever they wanted including pronouncing the death sentence.

The main reason Jadefall was in such a good position was because her purrling had enabled her to finish a mission that ended up with her Master becoming a Consummate God.