Sage Monarch

Yang Qi ripped open the void and stepped through space. The spatial tempests couldn't harm him in the least bit as he surrounded himself in concentric rings of sagelight, completely suppressing them.

"Space-Time Convergence; Perfect Heaven and Earth."

He traveled for three days and three nights before finding a suitable location to set up the spell formation. Waving his hand, he caused the spatial power in the area to crystallize, transforming into the taiji and wuji, the two polarities.

Numerous enormous flags shot forth, formed from the vital energy and tribulations of the god world, offering clear evidence of the incredible and mysterious things Yang Qi was capable of now.

He spent seven days putting the formation together, until something resembling an altar made of flags took shape.

Any observer who managed to catch sight of this would have been absolutely flabbergasted. The ability to set up spell formations in the void was something that only Perfect Gods or higher could do. So a Common God doing it was considered totally impossible.

RUMBLE!

Vital energy surged in all directions as Yang Qi took control of all heaven and earth. Boundless psychic power filled the void, creating cyclones and lightning. At the same time, space-time sank down as a physical object took shape.

"Psyche of Heaven and Earth; Let the Sages and Mahātmās Come; Mahātmā Jade; Appear within the Void; Let my Soul Pierce the Aeons; Summon and Reform the Future." All of a sudden, an image of the complete Mahātmā Jade appeared, making Yang Qi seem like the ancient sages and mahātmās who had worked with the True Devil to create the Mahātmā Jade for the first time.

His boundless psyche had managed to extrapolate what the complete jade looked like. Next, the piece of the Mahātmā Jade that was in his godhood flew out, almost as if it had been summoned.

Let the Sages and Mahātmās Come!

As Yang Qi threw his head back and howled, shadowy projections of sages and mahātmās appeared behind him, standing as though in the river of time, filled with understanding of the great dao of humanity, and the morality of people.

"Ultimate Summoning!"

Yang Qi drew on the summoning techniques of the God Legion Seal, using the might of the legion of gods to pierce through the shackles of space and touch upon its very origins.

"The end of time? The origin of time?"

His psyche expanded without limit until he saw two antipodes, one being the actual origin of time, and the other its end. Unfortunately, his psyche was currently not nearly capable of actually reaching those limits. Only Annulled will convergence could actually reach the origin and end of time.

That said, as his psychic power expanded, it was enough to cause the shadowy image of the Mahātmā Jade to become more complete. It almost seemed as if some almighty power of summoning was at work.

The ultimate summoning.

Relying on his spell formation, he was extracting the Mahātmā Jade from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty's treasure storehouse by summoning it directly to himself. And in order to pull off the summoning, he was completely unleashing all of his psychic power.

As he roved through the river of time, he searched for the right vector, although he was having trouble keeping control. What he was doing was something few people could actually control.

He pushed his psychic power harder and harder, until he finally exploded, leaving behind only his godhood. Then his godpower faded and a new body formed. Blood flowed through him as his godhood quintessence-blood slowly faded away.

Normally speaking, when one cultivated to the point of being a god, they didn't have blood. Everything from blood, to vital energy, to bones became part of one's godhood. However, if one was badly injured, then psychic power could flow from their godhood and restore the body, including the blood.

He was like an oil lamp on the verge of flickering out.

Psychic power was the ultimate foundation of everything, and could turn vital energy into godhood. When the psychic power vanished, godpower would unravel and return to its essence, then disappear into the void. That was how the magical laws of the god world worked.

In the impure lands, things were different.

RUMBLE!

Yang Qi's psychic power was draining so rapidly that not even the God Legion Seal could help. The God Legion Seal could fill his godhood up with godpower, but it couldn't replenish psychic power. If you ladled water out of a bucket, you could fill the bucket up again from a stream. But if the bucket itself was broken, no amount of water would help.

Psychic power was the bucket, and godpower was the water.

'This is bad,' Yang Qi thought. At the rate he was going, he was going to fade and be destroyed by the spatial tempests.

But in the end, this was actually a type of cultivation, and it was within the throes of death that one could forge the most powerful psyche and will.

"Second Summoning; Exceed Limitations; Unbounded Psyche!" He exploded again, and all the godpower in him boiled away. Then, his monarch godhood unexpectedly shrank down.

It was now listless and dark, as though its quality had been significantly reduced.

He was regressing from the peak Common God level to the late level. Then the mid level, and finally the early level! His cultivation base was suffering a major setback, all in the hopes that this desperate gamble would pay off.

Unfortunately, he still hadn't successfully summoned that piece of the Mahātmā Jade.

'Time to go for broke!' he thought. 'Monarch Godhood Regression! Return Everything to the Beginning!'

Power flowed out of Yang Qi's monarch godhood, and considering it was the strongest type of godhood there was, one could only imagine what was involved in draining it this way.

He dropped from the Common God level all the way to the early Lesser God level, which was a decline of an entire major cultivation level.

However, the power he could unleash this way was astonishing, and it created an explosion so incredible that it wiped out all of the space-time tempests and left behind nothing but a pure, clean void.

A massive, psychic passageway opened up, piercing through the remotest antiquity.

At that exact moment, deep in the imperial treasure storehouse in the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, the piece of the Mahātmā Jade slowly faded away without anyone noticing.

The small piece of jade then flew through the void to enter Yang Qi's sea of consciousness.

RUMBLE!

His fleshly body formed again, and the psychic power that had drained away started recovering. At the same time, his cultivation level once again began climbing. He felt as if he could sense all of the sages and mahātmās that had existed from ancient times until now, and they were becoming one with him. A mighty spirit entered him, and at the same time, he sensed the true nature of that which was nothing, annulled.

His psychic power advanced by leaps and bounds, rising from the mid Paramount level to the late and peak level. It only stopped when he was half a step into the Unbounded level.

Although it stopped there, he could sense that he was just on the verge of breaking through to the Unbounded level.

Yang Qi felt like he had developed psychic antennae that could stretch out through all heaven and earth, allowing him to see the void of the universe and the antipodes of time. That was the sign of Unbounded will. With a single thought, all heaven and earth was under his control.

'I have to keep going. I need Unbounded will convergence. Only then will I be truly invincible. A regression in godhood is nothing. Even if I'm an early Lesser God, as long as I have Unbounded will convergence, I could kill Perfect Gods, even if I didn't have godhood at all! I have to reach Unbounded!"

He threw his head back and howled, sending out waves of psychic power, the fluctuations of which caused the spatial tempests to return.

After reaching the half-Unbounded level, his psychic power continued improving. However, he wasn't able to achieve the breakthrough he wanted, so he sank into thought. Breaking into the Unbounded level was like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. It didn't matter how big or impressive the caterpillar was, it couldn't fly, and the butterfly could.

He threw his head back and howled, causing his godhood to rotate as he tried to force a breakthrough.

Unfortunately, at the exact moment in which he expected to succeed, he failed to break through to the Unbounded level.

The limits of the psychic power in the Mahātmā Jade had been reached.

He was short by an infinitesimal amount. That said, he was still vastly more powerful. It really didn't matter that his godhood had regressed to the early Lesser God level. In terms of will, he could stand shoulder to shoulder with terrifying peak Perfect Gods.

He didn't need any godpower to devastate any Consummate God who faced him. That was the impressive benefit of powerful will convergence.

Truth be told, he had already cultivated his will to a very critical juncture. After all, once he reached the peak Unbounded level, he would be half a step into the Annulled level, which was the same level as the Sovereign Lord, True Devil, Demon Master, Wretch God, and King Immortal-Slayer. He could enter the realm of Nevasaññānāsaññāyatana, whereupon all of his mental fluctuations would cease, and his godpower and godhood would vanish.

Godpower and godhood were merely vessels, like the 'boat' that could be used to 'cross to the other shore'.

The will was the self.

Yang Qi's current will convergence was such that he could soon restore his godhood to its previous level.

Ignoring his godhood, he drew on his psychic power to clear out the surrounding spatial tempests, then ripped open a huge wormhole.

'I have to find the other pieces of the Mahātmā Jade. Even the smallest piece will allow me to break through to the Unbounded level.'