Sage Monarch

"Dammit, are you threatening me, boy?!"

Intense fluctuations of devilishness rolled out from inside the lamp. In response, Yang Qi shouted, "God Legion Seal; Devil Lamp Suppression; End in Mutual Destruction; Hero's Last Stand!"

Surging godpower erupted from the God Legion Seal and smashed into the lamp, causing an actual image of the Lord of Radiance and Light to appear, his palms clasped together as if in prayer. Instantly, the lamp began burning brighter than ever, provoking a howl of rage from the Second Devil General. "Stop it, boy! Stop! Otherwise I'll burn away half my cultivation base to break out of here and kill you!"

"Stop it with the bullshit," Yang Qi replied. "You're not even at full power right now. If I didn't have the God Legion Seal, you could probably break free, devour the Everlit Godlamp, and become completely invincible in the dao of devils. But right now, I have the seal to suppress you and add to the power of the lamp. So you can't do anything to me."

Without the God Legion Seal, Yang Qi would have been powerless to deal with the Second Devil General even if he had ten Patriarch Devas to help him. Except... he did have the seal.

Furthermore, although his psychic scale and godhood rating were currently stuck at the level of ninety-nine million, nine hundred and ninety thousand, and he had no hope of achieving another breakthrough right now, he did have twenty-five thousand sage monarch magistrates.

If he unleashed them all, he could temporarily boost his psychic scale and godhood rating past the level of a hundred million, and be in the position to hold his own against people like Patriarch Deva, or possibly even defeat them in combat. He wasn't sure if he could actually kill experts like that, but at the very least, he didn't need to fear late Paramount Gods.

Even more amazing, Yang Qi could sense that using the God Legion Seal on the lamp was actually pushing him in the direction of fusing with it.

That lamp was the true form of the Lord of Radiance and Light, so what sort of amazing power must it have? It surpassed the Cruiser of Civilization and was probably on equal footing with the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. It was born from the pure power of radiance and light, and it could illuminate the dome of heaven, and easily crush any type of devilishness.

'Just wait until I assimilate the Everlit Godlamp. The Second Devil General will have no way to escape me then. And even if he dies in the process, I'll definitely get that piece of the Mahātmā Jade. If I can push my psychic scale and godhood rating into the billions, or tens of billions, exactly what type of cultivation base will I have?'

After some thought, he said, "Come to me, Mahātmā Jade!"

Yet again, he used the God Legion Seal to try to pull the piece of the Mahātmā Jade out of the Second Devil General, which would keep the general fully occupied, and incapable of splitting his attention to other tasks.

"How come you can reach out to my Mahātmā Jade? Just who are you? Everything you said before was a lie, wasn't it! You do have some of the Mahātmā Jade!" Howling, the Second Devil General sent out another surge of devilishness, causing inky blackness to spread out in the lamp, as if he were about to convert it into a devilish object. However, Yang Qi forcefully suppressed it as much as possible with the God Legion Seal. At the moment, the lamp was half godly and half devilish.

'This Second Devil General really is unrivaled in devil might. Without this lamp to suppress him, I'd be dead many times over already.' At the moment, the lamp was like a volcano trying to erupt, but Yang Qi was keeping the opening clamped shut. If he slipped up and the volcano erupted, he would be dead.

"You guessed right, Second Devil General!" Yang Qi said loudly. "I'm the bearer of the God Legion Seal. But I'm many other things as well: wielder of the Mahātmā Jade; Fateless One; successor of the Great Necropolis. I've also combined the God Legion Seal with the Mahātmā Jade, the fluctuations of which are fused with my own mind. You could never take any of that away from me. And that's why I have to take your piece of the Mahātmā Jade away."

Yang Qi was revealing his secrets in the hopes of delivering another big blow to this devil. "Spare yourself some trouble and just give me the jade. If you do, I'll let you live. But if you keep causing problems, I'll take you away from this place and just have King Immortal-Slayer help me assimilate you."

"What did you just say?" the Second Devil General said. "You combined the God Legion Seal and the Mahātmā Jade?! What's going on here? Don't tell me you've come up with an actual way to control the Great Necropolis without suffering any consequences!"

"Answer me this, Second Devil General: are you going to give me that piece of the Mahātmā Jade?" As the conversation went on, Yang Qi continued to move about in the army camp, absorbing the power of the radiance and light and using it to make more sage monarch magistrates. Although he had twenty-five thousand of them, enough to destroy the three major sects, it still wasn't enough to deal with the Second Devil General.

He would need to have a hundred times more of them to be able to come out on top of a fight like that.

The Second Devil General had lapsed into silence, apparently contemplating certain matters. After a short time passed, he said, "You're clearly an outstanding figure, boy. Uncharacteristically extraordinary. Who would ever have thought to combine the God Legion Seal and the Mahātmā Jade? How about you and I make a deal? I'll give you this piece of the jade, and even help you assimilate the lamp. That will put your cultivation base on roughly the same level as my own. However, you have to let me go free. Then we work together to take over the god world. What do you say?"

Yang Qi didn't trust a single thing the Second Devil General said, and wasn't inclined to banter. So he simply said, "Alright. First, give me that jade."

"I don't trust you, boy. First, let me go." Of course, the Second Devil General wasn't a particularly trusting person either.

"Are you kidding me? Without the lamp to suppress you, I'm not a match for you. And not even the Lord of Radiance and Light could kill you way back then. If I let you go now, how could I possibly handle you? You'd imprison me and try to take the God Legion Seal and the Mahātmā Jade. I'm not the type of person who will release a captive tiger into the mountains. I might be extraordinary, but as you yourself said, I haven't reached my full potential yet. The only reason I can even interact with you like this is because of the lamp." Yang Qi knew he had the upper hand with the lamp. And considering the Lord of Radiance and Light hadn't been able to kill the Second Devil General, Yang Qi decided to worry about how to do that later.

"Give me the Mahātmā Jade, Second Devil General. I'll use it to boost my cultivation base to the point of being your equal. Only then will I consider freeing you and working with you."

"I just don't trust you, boy. What if I gave you the Mahātmā Jade and then you refuse to release me. What then?"

"If you're not willing to back down, then we'll just maintain the status quo. As long as you don't cause trouble, I'll take you with me on my travels. At the very least, that's better than being stuck in the Bastille of the One God, right? For now, we'll just agree not to oppose each other directly. How's that?"

"That's fine."

The Second Devil General could tell he wouldn't be able to fool Yang Qi, so for now, he would just pretend to go along with his wishes.

At first, he was furious that he hadn't been able to manipulate this 'boy'. But now that he knew about the God Legion Seal, Mahātmā Jade, and Great Necropolis, he realized what type of person he was dealing with.

"So, we're working together for the time being. Although, now that we're being civil with each other, you have to let me absorb some devilishness to recover. You're going to be getting stronger with every day that passes, but I'm stuck here in this lamp, unable to practice cultivation, and in fact, growing weaker and weaker. And that's going to be far too detrimental in the long term."

"No problem at all!" Yang Qi said. "If it's godpower you want, I can open some channels into the lamp. Unfortunately, there are still some profound aspects of the lamp that I don't understand. But they'll have to wait for later. I'm looking for something here in the Bastille of the One God, a passage leading to the lower worlds. Hey, do you know about that, Second Devil General? I have friends and family in the impure lands that I'd really like to bring up here."

"This was the primary battlefield of the final war fought in ancient times. And it caused a lot of damage to the god world. There are actually multiple passageways to the impure lands. However, it won't be easy to track them down. Too many years have passed, and most of them have either closed or simply vanished. And I was locked up that entire time, so how would I know where they are? But I do know other secrets of the Bastille of the One God."

"By secrets, I assume you mean magical treasures? I'm not interested. And if you don't know where those passageways are, I'll just find them on my own." Yang Qi knew that powerful magical treasures would be surrounded by incredible danger, and he wasn't stupid enough to fall for a trick like that.

"By the way, Second Devil General, do you see those four experts over there? They're all late Paramount Gods, and I plan to capture, seal, and assimilate them. Want to join forces to puppetize them? You could even use one of them as your own body. As long as you're not strong enough to harm me, I'd be happy to let you out of that lamp in such a form."

"Those four children over there?" the Second Devil General said. "I noticed them the moment they entered this place. But I'm not interested in killing them. They might have weak cultivation bases, but they have the blood of the ancient Dugu Clan. And that means they're backed by a very impressive figure."