Sage Monarch

Three god pills, one a buddhist, one a daoist, one a confucian. They all knew they were in extreme danger, and on the verge of being destroyed. How could they possibly just resign themselves to their fate?

Therefore, they decided to join forces to kill Yang Qi.

Not that he cared. Quietly drawing on his psyche, will, and boundless godpower, he set up a spell formation.

The confucian pill unleashed energy that became like a white dragon, shooting upward to smash into the warding magic. "I'm a Noble-Energy Exist-Forever Confucian God Pill! I control the noble energy of heaven and earth, and was concocted by the combined effort of numerous teachers, saints, sages, and scholars from a boundless confucian college. I was formed from the energy of books and scrolls, and shall exist forever within heaven and earth. How could you possibly assimilate me?"

"Let heaven be the game board, and the stars the pieces." The daoist pill unleashed an attack that filled the sky with consummate energy, forming an immense star chart that battered at the warding magic.

"Compassion cometh from Buddha. Pilgrimage of a myriad buddhas. Nirvanic rebirth of a myriad buddhas. The buddhist lamp is like a dream. With a buddha, one has a lamp."

A shining lamp rose high into the sky as the buddhist pill called on an incredibly powerful divine ability. All three of the pills attacked together, unleashing devastating power that smashed through the warding magic with unstoppable force.

"Very impressive energy," Yang Qi murmured. Drawing on his cultivation base and will, he transformed his monarch godhood into a divine pearl. Bright light shone into the void, and immense psychic power crackled like silver lightning or fire dragons.

"Unspoiled by Myriad Kalpas and Tribulations. Mahātmā Jade!" Ten thousand characters appeared within Yang Qi's monarch godhood, rapidly forming what appeared to be an enormous cannon.

Devilish, godly text flowed back and forth to form the cannon, which was none other than a devastating weapon the True Devil had devised in the ancient past. It was called the Grand Tribulation Cannon, and it lobbed projectiles formed of raw tribulation. When firing the cannon from the depths of hell, it could blast the halls of heaven in devastating barrages.

Hell was the lowest point in the world, and the halls of heaven were the highest.

Hell could only look up at heaven.

Yet, according to the stories, the True Devil really had blasted the halls of heaven with his cannon all the way from hell. There was nothing in existence that could match the attack power of the Grand Tribulation Cannon.

After Yang Qi got his second piece of the Mahātmā Jade, his True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body improved dramatically, and he learned of this new transformation.

RUMBLE!

Even as the three god pills destroyed the warding magic, the Grand Tribulation Cannon appeared and a deafening roaring sound could be heard as it was unleashed. The recoil was so immense that Yang Qi staggered backward from the force.

The projectile ripped through the defenses of the three god pills, and they screamed miserably as their vital energy was shredded apart.

"Is all this worth the trouble?" Yang Qi asked them. Reaching out with the Hand of the One God, he grabbed the three pills and wrapped them up in a bubble.

"Out of power, right?" he said. "I devastated your pill energy, leaving behind only pure medicinal strength and godpower. You're at the end of the line here."

"Just who are you?" the confucian pill asked. "How come you're so strong?" Suddenly, he spat out some blood that was pure pill energy, which he used to try to break through the Purrfect God Art bubble. He completely failed.

"If I'm not mistaken," said the buddhist pill, "you have the cultivation base of a Greater God. But your psychic power is on the verge of the Unbounded level. It took a lot of hard cultivation for us to reach this level. Why destroy us? Compassion cometh from Buddha! Don't tell me you have no compassion in your heart?"

"I have compassion," Yang Qi said. "Otherwise I would've killed you already. Don't worry. All I need are your medicinal pill bodies. In terms of your boundless wills, they would only be impurities to me. Just separate your wills from the medicinal pills that contain them. Eventually, I can find new fleshly bodies for you, and help you become true gods. What do you say?"

The pills had long since developed intelligence, and the truth was that Yang Qi didn't actually want to destroy them. He just wanted their exterior shells, the medicinal pills. Considering they had survived a blast from the Grand Tribulation Cannon, they were obviously on the level of Consummate Gods.

All he would have to do would be find them appropriate bodies for them to continue on their paths of cultivation.

The three god pills exchanged glances. "In that case, we believe you. Our wills would indeed be impurities to you, and wouldn't be of much help."

Three beams of light appeared, one golden, one green, and one white. Yang Qi waved his sleeve and sucked them inside, leaving behind three medicinal pills on his palm. They now contained only pure psychic power, godpower, and almost limitless medicinal strength. He could sense the pills almost pulsing in his hand.

As for the buddhist pill, it had obviously been concocted by the joint effort of countless ancient buddhas, who chanted their sutras and gave form to crystallized expressions of enlightenment.

The confucian pill had been created by innumerable confucian teachers, combining their academic knowledge of righteousness and virtue into the form of a pill.

The daoist pill was similar, having been created in a calm and natural fashion by numerous daoist priests.

The three pills contained the wisdom of three main teachings, and while it was hard to say where exactly the House of God Ordainment had acquired them, it didn't matter. They now belonged to Yang Qi.

It was impossible to say how many merit points it would have cost him to take them. Most likely, it would require saving the sect from imminent destruction ten times over. Yet Yang Qi had just spirited them away.

One after another, he popped them into his mouth, and his monarch godhood virtually burst into flame.

The fire was so intense that his fleshly body once again vanished, leaving behind only his godhood. Cracking and creaking sounds rang out as it began growing larger and larger.

Soon it was like a tiny mountain, burning as brightly as the sun.

It was the longest session of cultivation Yang Qi had engaged in for a long time, lasting three years. Three god world years passed, in which he remained in the depths of the void, assimilating the medicinal strength and growing stronger. At the same time, his psyche was still operational and in touch with Jadefall and his other people.

Three years wasn't really a long time. To the House of God Ordainment as a whole, it was like the snap of a finger. During that time, Jadefall and the others stabilized their cultivation bases and continued growing stronger, although that wasn't necessarily obvious to outside observers. After all, they still needed more time to consolidate their benefits from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty.

Yang Immortal-Slayer came to visit during that three-year-period, but obviously, he didn't see Yang Qi.

Yang Immortal-Slayer had formed monarch godhood, and was proceeding rapidly with his cultivation. Not only was he benefiting from the help of the Lord of the True Void, but he was also in contact with King Immortal-Slayer. The Lord of the True Void knew about his monarch godhood, and was both keeping his secret and also doing everything in his power to help him.

Yang Immortal-Slayer's rapid advancement in cultivation delighted some people in the sect, but had the opposite effect for others. The Sage Monarch Society had already turned into a major force in the sect, surpassing the Brilliant Radiance Society, Honorable Glory Society, and former Dragon Society.

Now, they were second only to the Mystery Society.

No one discovered the fact that the medicinal pills had been stolen from the treasure storehouse. They were stored in a place so deep that it would sometimes go for thousands of years without being visited.

One day, deep in the void, a massive explosion occurred. A huge, divine mountain appeared, which slowly shrank until it became obvious that it was godhood.

Monarch godhood. When it was roughly the size of an egg, Yang Qi's body formed around it.

'I finally understand the deepest secrets of how to improve godpower and godhood. It touches on the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth and the Annulled Grand Magic. Now I know for sure that, even without the Mahātmā Jade, I'll eventually gain enlightenment of Unbounded will convergence.'

Yang Qi was now a Consummate God!