Sage Monarch

The dragon claw was a manifestation of space-time itself, filling the area like expanding ball lightning that could destroy anything and everything.

Yang Qi was going all out to flee, but he couldn't shake the dragon claw. Everything trembled violently as the roars of the Dragonfolk patriarch rang out, making Yang Qi feel like he was being hit in the head with a sledgehammer while simultaneously being sucked into a riptide from which he couldn't escape.

Thankfully, he was a veteran of numerous battles, with incredible experience and immense fighting prowess to back it up. In that most critical of moments, he turned, and numerous halos sprang up as he received blessings from the Eternal Heavenly Aria.

At the same time, he unleashed halos of damnification in a massive, roiling river of fate.

The attack hit the dragon claw, slowing it down slightly. But then the claw unleashed an explosive draconic tornado. "Halos of damnification? Primeval god skills? Get the fuck out of my way!"

Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam! Bam!!

The halos of the Eternal Heavenly Aria were crushed out of existence and the claw closed in, having locked onto Yang Qi's soul, spirit, flesh, and blood.

However, there was no way Yang Qi wasn't going to take advantage of that brief moment of time he had bought. Focusing his power, he became like a fish piercing through the waves as he shot into the Bastille of the One God, and the teleportation portal he had set up there.

"Be broken!" a voice shouted, and the portal started crumbling!

Yang Qi dodged out of the way of the claw. Now that he was in the Bastille of the One God, he could sense the claw's might fading, and could tell that the surrounding sagelight was pouring into him, healing his injuries and powering him back up.

'It's not very strong here,' he thought. 'I need to go deeper. I have to get to the base of the Army of Radiance and Light. That's going to be the best place.'

Already, his speed was picking up again.

RUMBLE!

Meanwhile, an enormous dragon had finally appeared, thirty-thousand meters in length and able to crush anything in its path. Although it wasn't quite as impressive as the Second Devil General, it was still nothing to look down on.

Furthermore, it was so powerful that it shoved away the sagepower of radiance and light. After a moment, the enormous dragon shrank down into human form.

As a human, he looked like a young man in his early twenties. He wore scale armor, and although his hands were empty, his eyes burned like fiery torches and contained a disdain for all other forces in heaven and earth.

"The Bastille of the One God?" he murmured, frowning slightly as he looked around. He knew that, while it was a place of immense potential benefit, it was also full of danger.

Clasping his hands behind his back, the young man thought, 'So, the culprit fled here. He must not have been thinking clearly. How dare he kill apprentices belonging to me, Buddha Thunderjolt. I'll never let him off the hook for that. But how come it seems like his cultivation base is weak? He's not even a late Paramount God. He does have some strange power in him, though. I guess I'll capture him and force him to reveal who his backer is. And once I assimilate him and take all of his memories, then I'll figure out the whole story.'

This young man was a patriarch in the Dragonswarm Society, and although he wasn't as strong as the invincible leader of that sect, the powerful Buddha Shockheaven, he was still considered a top elite expert.

'Where'd he run off to?'

Latching onto Yang Qi's aura, Buddha Thunderjolt shot after him, his dragon energy surging. Any soul conglomerations he encountered, he shot with dragon aura, which would convert them into draconic entities. However, the soul conglomerations were strong enough that they could quickly slough off the effects after he passed.

Effects that would be permanent outside the Bastille of the One God wouldn't last long inside.

Yang Qi could still sense the looming presence of the Dragonfolk expert. However, he already had a plan in place. As he shot toward the Army of Radiance and Light's base, he absorbed any angels and soul conglomerations he came across.

The chase went on for about an hour, until they finally reached the base.

Most of the devilishness there had been purified now that the Second Devil General was gone. As such, the sagelight was even brighter and more intense than ever, to the point where it was almost liquid platinum.

As Yang Qi pulled it into himself, it replenished him, but at the same time, it was profoundly draining to Buddha Thunderjolt. Despite that, he was still closing the distance to Yang Qi.

'This guy is incredible,' Yang Qi thought. 'Although, I suppose that's only to be expected of a peak Paramount God. His psychic scale and godhood rating are definitely at nine hundred and ninety-nine million, ninety thousand. That's ten times my own level. However, he still hasn't leaped that final hurdle, which means I still have a shot here. I need to keep him running around here for as long as possible to give them time for the relocation effort. Then I can go to the House of the Invincible. There's no way that even this high and mighty dragon will dare to cause problems in the House of the Invincible.'

"I can't believe you dared to harm experts from the Dragonfolk, boy. Those three that you killed were my apprentices! Who's your backer? Do you really think you can hide from me in the Bastille of the One God? Even if you fled to the ancient halls of heaven, your fate would be the same: death!"

All of a sudden, Buddha Thunderjolt appeared right behind Yang Qi, where he unleashed a unique walking technique, along with a palm strike that alternated between hard and soft. It seemed to contain pulling and pushing, explosions, attacks, flight, flows of water, cleansing, tempests, and waves.

Yang Qi felt like he had been thrown into a meat grinder.

Ding!

He actually had no idea how to defend against something like this! Therefore, he had no other option than to throw up a huge bubble around himself as his defense.

RUMBLE!

He was instantly sent flying.

The bubble popped, and countless meridians within him shattered. Even his godhood seemed on the verge of collapsing.

That one single attack had seriously injured him.

'Interesting,' Buddha Thunderjolt said upon seeing that Yang Qi had survived. He had just used a consummate technique of the Dragonfolk, something called the Grand Buddha Eight Strikes. It should have been capable of destroying entities even more powerful than Yang Qi, yet somehow he had survived. From that, Buddha Thunderjolt realized that his opponent must have an incredibly powerful type of godhood.

"Do you have monarch godhood?" he asked, surprised. A swarm of dragons appeared behind them, all formed from pure dragon energy, which shoved away the surrounding sagepower as he started walking toward Yang Qi.

Yang Qi stood there, trembling a bit as he absorbed sagepower to restore himself to his previous condition. As Buddha Thunderjolt, he was trying to think of a way to escape. The discrepancy in psychic scale and godhood rating was just too immense here.

And if it wasn't for the fact that he was in the Bastille of the One God, he would be dead already.

The attack from moments ago had been filled with power, and contained the ability to strike from multiple hyperdimensions, making it impossible to evade.

Unfortunately, Buddha Thunderjolt's energy had the entire area locked down, making escape impossible. Yang Qi could only watch as the dragon walked closer, until they were about thirty meters away.

An aura of death accompanied him, such that Yang Qi realized he had never been in a more dangerous situation than this. Even his clash with the Second Devil General hadn't been as threatening. After all, the Second Devil General had been sealed and incapable of unleashing his true might.

Surprised that Yang Qi was still alive, Buddha Thunderjolt said, "You have monarch godhood, don't you? How did you get it? You can't escape from this place, so talk. Who's your backer? And what gave you the gall to attack and kill Dragonfolk?"

Struck with sudden inspiration, Yang Qi said, "If you... if you dare to hurt me, you'll meet a bad end! I'm from the House of the Invincible! If you kill me, they'll never let you go. Those three Dragonfolk tried to rob me, so one of my seniors killed them for me. It didn't have anything to do with me. They deserved their fate! Who are you, anyway?"

Yang Qi had fooled countless opponents over the years, and now he was once again attempting to use that tried and true method.