Sage Monarch

"Proud Heaven, you vicious wolf! If I'd have realized you'd do this, I would've taken care of you a long time ago. You're my son! I raised you! How could you possibly betray me like this? Are you even human?!" Previously, Proud Central hadn't been scared at all of Proud Heaven. But seeing Proud Heaven reveal his Ten Universes made it clear that he had been hiding his true strength. And now... Proud Central was afraid.

"Maybe I'm your son, Proud Central, but that doesn't matter. Do you think I don't know the truth about your plans? You know the amazing potential I have, so you've been grooming me with the goal of eventually devouring me to improve your cultivation base. Thankfully, Yang Qi has given me the perfect opportunity to kill you." He threw his head back and laughed loudly. "To be honest, I should thank Yang Qi. Without him, I never would've been a match for you. But now, the time has come for you to die!"

The ten universes behind Proud Heaven started rotating, making them look like enormous suns that cast out rippling strands of light, which shot toward Proud Central at top speed.

"Central Grand Tempest!" Proud Central shouted, unleashing the most powerful psychic tempest there was.

"Dark Universe!" Proud Heaven shot back, unleashing a pitch-black universe that instantly devoured the psychic tempest.

BAMMMM!

Proud Heaven viciously struck Proud Central, and without the slightest scruple, started absorbing his power. As for Proud Central, there was nothing he could do but watch as the energy of the Dark Universe infected him, turning him into a pitch-black mass covered with pinpoints of light that resembled stars.

"Proud Heaven, you animal!"

Although Proud Central fought back viciously, he was too distracted by King Immortal-Slayer and the Lord of Righteous Justice. And that wasn't to mention how Yang Qi had used the Sovereign Lord's lightning attack to wound him. Given all that, how could he possibly defend against this sudden ambush by Proud Heaven?

"You beast! I'll make sure you die with me!"

He suddenly abandoned his work with the Great Necropolis and unleashed all the power he could muster.

"Die together? Nice idea. God World Essence!"

Proud Heaven smiled oddly as the essence of the god world sprang up beneath him, pouring into his Ten Universes, causing each and every one to swell dramatically. As a result, Proud Central's stream of power was shattered, and Proud Heaven's Ten Universes shot into him like a parasite.

Then, all ten of them began absorbing Proud Central's power.

"What's going on, Proud Heaven? You've been approved by the essence of the god world?" Proud Central suddenly felt as though fighting against Proud Heaven was the same as fighting against the entire god world, and it caused him to shiver with terror, fury, and helplessness.

"That's right, Proud Central. I have the approval of the god world. Little do you know that, when I was in the impure lands, I met a girl named Greensura. Not only was she Yang Qi's mother, which means she had fateless energy inside of her, but she was also closely connected to the essence of the god world. The essence of the god world knows that it couldn't have any greater enemy than a Fateless One. After all, the god world will eventually devour all of the primal-chaos out there. And we're nothing more than parasites living inside of it.

"However, Fateless Ones are different. And so is the Great Necropolis. I control Greensura, therefore I can connect with the essence of the god world. The god world has long since taken Greensura back, thus becoming an enormous, unified living thing. And it's completely different from us. I'm helping the god world get rid of Yang Qi, so it's helping me. Of course, once I use its essence to devour you, I'll move on to the Great Necropolis. After that, I'll devour Yang Qi, and ultimately, the god world itself. The god world is going to be mine! I'm going to reach the Annulled level. Not the half-Annulled level. The full Annulled level!"

Even after hearing all of these secrets, Proud Central was powerless to do a thing. He was already being devoured, and all he could do was wail, "Raising a tiger is inviting calamity. Raising a tiger is inviting calamity.... You beast! I should never have taken care of you. Agghhhhhh!"

Moments later he was dead, completely absorbed by Proud Heaven's Ten Universes. Considering Proud Heaven had the help of the essence of the god world, what could Proud Heaven have done to fight him?

Having assimilated Proud Central, Proud Heaven waved his hand, and it thrummed with power. As a result, the Great Necropolis suddenly went completely still. Then King Immortal-Slayer's voice could be heard, "Well played, boy. Very ruthless of you. You even went so far as to devour your own father. Unfortunately for you, you still won't be able to do anything to me."

"You're going to be the next to die, King Immortal-Slayer," Proud Heaven said. "I'm going to turn the Great Necropolis into an out-of-body incarnation. An animadestiny magical treasure. Lord of Righteous Justice, you should stop struggling as well. I'm going to absorb you as well."

RUMBLE!

Proud Heaven's divine will shot into the white mammoth that was the Lord of Righteous Justice, provoking an agonized shriek.

Proud Heaven's cultivation base skyrocketed, breaking into the half-Annulled level and bringing a cold smile to his face. "High Priestess, I bet you couldn't have guessed in your wildest dreams that my plan would succeed. You want to be the empress of the three dynasties? I think you'll serve better as food. Next, I'm going to go deal with Yang Voidprime. Not munching him down would be a big waste!"

Opening his mouth, he sucked the Great Necropolis inside of him and sent the Lord of Righteous Justice into his Ten Universes.

Then he turned and vanished.

**

Countless people in the three dynasties were on the move, forming alliances and making plans. Proud Heaven was no exception. Everyone wanted to take advantage of the chaos, or at the very least, take precautions to stay safe.

Meanwhile, the Sage Monarch Empire was expanding rapidly.

At the moment, a huge teleportation portal had been opened, and Yang Susu, Jadefall, Yang Doom, Yang Proudworld, and others of Yang Qi's brethren were leading an army through it. On the other side was an immense golden buddhist kingdom.

It was what remained of the ancient buddhist kingdoms, and its leader was Buddha-Lord Pārisuddhi Outstanding Vaiḍūrya Saddharma Puṇḍarīka. When Yang Qi had been fighting the alliance of dynasties, he had been marshaling the various troops of the buddhist schools in the hopes of taking advantage of the situation.

However, the Sage Monarch Empire had come out on top, and now it was planning to bring the buddhist kingdom into the fold.

The buddhist kingdom was like a viper lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike. Obviously, they were a dangerous threat that needed to be handled.

Yang Susu, Jadefall, and many of the others had psychic scales of more than ninety billion. Because of the great ordainment that had occurred on the battlefield, everyone had reached psychic scales of fifty billion at a minimum. Then the ocean of faith was fully tapped into, causing even further breakthroughs.

Although the empire had lost a fifth of its population, its destiny was many times greater than before. That was why the High Priestess wouldn't dare to attack, for fear of being slaughtered.

Also in the group heading to the buddhist kingdom were the grand generalissimo, imperial preceptor, and prime minister, whose psychic scales were all above a hundred and fifty billion.

The sage monarch magistrates had all recovered from their injuries, and were now proliferating like mad. In fact, they had already reached four hundred million, which was a hundred million more than when they had first gone into battle.

A hundred million sage monarch magistrates had come along on this expeditionary force, as well as other top experts.

"This is the Buddhist Empire," Yang Susu said coldly. "You can see how rapidly it's been growing. They're obviously quite ambitious."

"Not bad," the prime minister said. "This place really does have high ambitions. They finally managed to unite most of the scattered buddhist schools. If we and the three dynasties had both been injured badly enough, they could have jumped in and taken advantage of the situation. They have some good destiny as well. That said, they're not quite in the position to compare with our armies."

It was only natural that the prime minister would look down on the buddhist schools, considering he was a confucian.

"We can still try peaceful measures before using force," Jadefall said.

"Alright!" the Shepherd said with a smile. Raising his voice, he said, "Sage monarch magistrates, join your voices!"

RUMBLE!

The entire force of sage monarch magistrates spoke out in exactly the same tone and volume. "Buddha-Lord Pārisuddhi Outstanding Vaiḍūrya Saddharma Puṇḍarīka, and any other buddhas! Listen well. The Sage Monarch Empire has sent an army here to accept your surrender. We defeated the alliance of three dynasties, and we won't approve of any other major powers. If you don't surrender, we'll crush you into dust."

Almost immediately, there was a huge commotion as numerous buddhas flew out in a panic.

As it turned out, there was no military response at all. The armies of the Buddhist Empire couldn't compare at all to the forces of the Sage Monarch Empire. And they had no High Priestess to jump in and help them.

"Leaders of the Sage Monarch Empire, I am Buddha-Lord Pārisuddhi Outstanding Vaiḍūrya Saddharma Puṇḍarīka. Our buddhist schools are pure, and stand aloof from worldly affairs. We only want to focus on cultivation. Why would you attack us? Aren't you people who emphasize morality? Don't you espouse the saying sage inside, monarch outside? Why do you want to make us your enemy?"

All of a sudden, they caught sight of a golden buddha, floating up into the air.

However, what was telling was that he didn't leave his buddhist land, and was obviously staying within the defenses of his destiny.