Sage Monarch

Right now, Yang Qi's most powerful attack was his Grand Tribulation Cannon.

When the True Devil fought the Sovereign Lord, he had drawn on the most powerful tribulations in hell to create a cannon that could attack the halls of heaven. Just how mighty must a weapon like that be? It was the ultimate manifestation of the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body, and as Yang Qi's collection of the Mahātmā Jade grew more complete, the cannon became more refined and powerful.

Yang Qi still had a lot of progress to make, but he'd also come up with a new idea that had worked splendidly; he used the power of the God Legion Seal and the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth to make the cannon even more formidable.

Now the cannon contained the might of both the legion of gods and the horde of devils. And one could only imagine the might that would be unleashed by a combination of myriad tribulations and the King of Godmammoths.

It made the Grand Tribulation Cannon something completely different from before, with an attack power that could be considered unparalleled in heaven and earth.

In fact, a single blast was enough to destroy the Wretched Brain God Art and scatter all fifteen Perfect Gods.

Swish!

Wings sprouted out of Yang Qi's back, which were the Freedom Wings, the next iteration of the Angel Wings. With a flap of those wings, he became a blur of immense speed.

Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.

Fifteen bangs rang out as he struck all of the Perfect Gods and forced them back together. No matter how they tried to flee, it didn't do any good.

Forgetting about Yang Qi's strength, his speed alone was stupefying.

"Let the Great Necropolis Descend!"

A huge necropolis appeared, which settled down around the fifteen experts. They could instantly sense the immensely solid magical laws that they were now surrounded with, and knew that escape wasn't an option.

As they huddled together in fear, King Blacktooth said, "What do you think you're doing, Yang Qi?"

"What do I think I'm doing?" he replied. "Enslaving you. I defeated your strongest move, unless you happen to have another you want to try. You're completely under my control now, so do you really think you have a chance to escape with your lives?"

"This was all a big misunderstanding!" Granny Witch-Ghost said. "We don't have any grudge with you. We had no idea you were such a top expert in hiding. It was our fault for trusting that third prince of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty. He wanted us to capture you, then use you to threaten Jadefall from the Sage Monarch Society. Why don't we just let all this stuff drop? We can turn weapons of war into gifts of jade and silk. We'll even help you get revenge on the third prince! Your beef with him doesn't have anything to do with us."

"Doesn't have anything to do with you?" Yang Qi laughed. "You tried to kill me! And if I wasn't so strong, you would have succeeded, and wiped out all my people in the process. And you think none of this has anything to do with you? Even you must realize how ridiculous that sounds. It doesn't matter how glib your tongues are, you're all going to end up as my slaves today."

"Don't push things too far, Yang Qi!" King Blacktooth said. "Don't you know that we're all chief elders from the League of Wretch-Gods? You can't afford to offend a group like that. The league represents an alliance of all the top wretch-god groups in the god world. You really think you can fight something like that? Don't be naive. We have countless Paramount Gods on our side, making us so strong that not even the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty would dare to offend us. And don't even mention the House of God Ordainment. We could raze it to the ground with the snap of a finger."

"Oh? Countless Paramount Gods?" Yang Qi laughed heartily. "You're not very good at bragging, are you? Not even the Sovereign Lord could say that he had countless Paramount Gods working for him!"

"Your House of God Ordainment doesn't even have a single Paramount God!" King Blacktooth replied. "My Master has Unbounded will, and just broke through to the Paramount God level. Even the crown prince of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty is scared of Emperor Blackheaven! It doesn't matter how strong you are, you're no match for him. And I'm his favorite apprentice. If you kill me, he won't let the matter drop."

"Let's just pretend this never happened, Yang Qi," said the woman who had saved Devil-Duke Hercules, a beautiful devilwitch with green hair and pointed ears. "All of us here have impressive backgrounds. Getting on good terms with us will benefit you a lot. And maybe we could even help you grow your business. What do you say?"

"You think I'm going to believe the rubbish you wretch-gods are spewing?" Yang Qi said, continuing to tap his finger. "You'd betray me the first chance you got. You think I'll just sit around while you go get a group of a hundred and fifty companions to power that Wretched Brain God Art?"

"So, you've made up your mind to be our enemy?" Devil-Duke Hercules said. "You really don't care about the consequences?"

"Look, cut the crap," Yang Qi said grimly. "I'm going to give you two options. One: submit. Two: die!"

"Let's go for broke!" The fifteen Perfect Gods all attacked at the same time, once again summoning their Wretched Brain God Art and sending ruthless psychic fluctuations toward Yang Qi.

In response, he vanished, causing the vital energy of the Great Necropolis to rumble out and create a huge bubble around the gigantic head.

When the powers of the Purrfect God Art and the Great Necropolis God Art were combined, they were unparalleled under heaven.

Screams rang out as Yang Qi reached out, grabbed the bubble, and looked inside to see fifteen pieces of godhood grouped in the shape of a brain. Sending his own psychic power inside, he analyzed the profundities of the brain, which was when he realized that it was actually a manifestation of the life force and genes of those who wielded it.

'This thing isn't complete, but it's obviously capable of transforming my psychic power, and my very substructure. After I get back, I need to do some more research into it.' The fifteen Perfect Gods had spent a huge amount of vital energy to summon the giant brain, so it was now an easy matter for Yang Qi to seal them. Perhaps he could learn something from the structure of the brain, and use it to alter the relationship between his fleshly body, godhood, and psyche. Perhaps that would help in his attempt to reach Unbounded will convergence.

"Let us free!" the Perfect Gods wailed.

Yang Qi paid them no heed. Hurrying back to the Sage Monarch Consortium, he passed along word that he was going into secluded cultivation for a time. Then, he slipped into the depths of space-time to do further training and research.

Without any hesitation, he sent powerful psychic power into the seas of consciousness of the fifteen Perfect Gods.

Soon, cultivation techniques, energy arts, and other knowledge was flowing into his mind. Before long, he knew a lot more about the profundities of the technique. It was an energy art unique to the League of Wretch-Gods, and was the combination of a host of techniques originating with Paramount Gods of ancient times. Those techniques had been combined into the Wretched Brain God Art. By using boundless vital energy and life force fluctuations, it was possible to create something that was like an energy art, but wasn't. It was like a spell formation, but wasn't.

The reason was that, according to legend, after Wretch God Ultimate had been killed by the Sovereign Lord and the King of Godmammoths, only his brain remained. Later, the League of Wretch-Gods hid it in a secret location as an object of worship and veneration.

It was a profound energy art that was different from the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth or the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body. It used something physical to create something psychic, and could violate the void with the quintessence of that which was Annulled.

When experts practiced cultivation to a very high level, their brains would normally turn into expressions of vital energy and psychic fluctuations. But that didn't mean they were destroyed; they still existed in the form of godhood or expressions of will.

That was why brains were said to be either godhood or psychic will.

What was matter? What was a lack of matter? What was something that lacked the lack of matter?

Many profound questions were popping up in Yang Qi's mind as he combed through the minds of the Perfect Gods. At a certain point, he suddenly came to a realization. A moment later, vital energy swirled, forming an enormous brain that seemed to exist between the psychic and corporeal.

Buzzzz.

Psychic power rolled out everywhere from the wretched brain, equivalent to roughly thirty percent of his own power.

'I get it. I really get it.' As it turned out, the psychic power rolling out of the brain was like a voice. Normally, it was low and hard to distinguish, but if yelled at, would become much stronger. If he could master the energy art related to this brain, then when he released his psychic power, it would increase it dramatically, and would make it much more similar to Unbounded will.

He continued his study for seven days and nights.

At a certain point, he received a flash of inspiration, whereupon he understood the structure of the wretched brain, and its power. Any psychic power that was passed through the brain would experience a huge boost.

Yang Qi's psychic power had already reached the peak of the Paramount level, making it immeasurably close to the Unbounded level. By using this wretched brain, he could use his Paramount power to devastate an Unbounded expert.

Unfortunately, he couldn't cultivate the Wretched Brain God Art right now. He needed to study it further. After all, the fifteen Perfect Gods hadn't been using the complete art. In other words, he would need to venture into the League of Wretch-Gods to seek advice from a Paramount wretch-god.

From what Yang Qi could tell, those fifteen Perfect Gods had only been able to unleash about ten percent of the Wretched Brain God Art's potential.

That said, even ten percent was enough to boost his psychic power by about thirty percent. And that begged the question of what the complete version could do.

'This is a good technique. I can't believe that these fools gave me such an amazing gift.' Yang Qi was feeling very excited. Although he didn't currently have Unbounded will convergence, at least he knew he was now in the position to fight an Unbounded expert if he had to.

He wouldn't be helpless if he faced the crown prince; at worst, he could probably make an escape. Furthermore, he was now much more confident of getting into the Nacrelight Sageland and getting that piece of the Mahātmā Jade.

'I still need to keep studying this Wretched Brain God Art, though. I need more than a thirty percent boost!'