Sage Monarch

Proud Heaven was a vicious wolf who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.

Both Yang Qi and Greensura knew that.

In fact, if Greensura didn't know, it would reveal her to be a massive idiot who didn't deserve to have fused with the essence of the god world. Yet she was still willing to use Proud Heaven. He was the perfect genius to use against Yang Qi, and in fact, without him, the entire effort would have been impossible.

But if she could get Yang Qi to join her, she would kill Proud Heaven without hesitation. Then she could give the Great Necropolis to Yang Qi, while she devoured everything in the god world in preparation for transcendence.

After all, she needed someone to assimilate the Great Necropolis, otherwise she couldn't transcend.

Although Proud Heaven had command of a portion of the necropolis, he couldn't assimilate the entire thing. Only Yang Qi had that power.

If Yang Qi couldn't do it, no one could.

There was just one critical point that hadn't been clarified. "So," Yang Qi said, "you want to devour my empire, along with all my friends and family?"

"That's right. You know as well as I that your empire is just too big. It has too much of a negative influence on my development. Because of it, I can't get all the resources I need. Your friends and family steal my resources. Furthermore, you have that purrling there with you. It's a unique entity that exists separate from all types of karma. I need to devour it as well. It's a tradeoff. You get the Great Necropolis, but I kill everyone. We'll be the only two beings left. That's what it means to transcend. No third living being can be left alive."

"In that case, I refuse," Yang Qi said with a decisiveness that could sever nails and chop iron. "The only way to end this is with war."

He wasn't even sure if he could assimilate the Great Necropolis. But the more salient point was that abandoning his empire and his brethren to get it just wasn't an option.

"Fine. Then I guess this discussion is over. It's time to prepare for war." Greensura had created the 'perfect plan' of cooperation.

But Yang Qi would never abandon his empire and its people. So the idea of cooperation popped like a bubble. War would be the outcome, and no one had any idea how it would all end.

However, one thing was certain: Yang Qi needed time to find the Sovereign Lord and the True Devil.

Sadly, there was no way the essence of the god world would readily give him that time.

Every moment that passed was bad for the essence of the god world. Although the god world could devour resources much more quickly than the Everlasting Aegis, those resources weren't particularly effective in terms of fighting prowess. In other words, the potential of Proud Heaven's empire was limited.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi's empire had fighting prowess that was only continuing to rise.

Everyone there was a sage or mahātmā. Even the children were born that way. It led to a terrifying level of power.

"Well then, Yang Qi, our mother-son relationship ends here and now. Going forward, we have nothing to look forward to but war. I hope you're ready to face my wrath."

Yang Qi laughed. "I could've told you before that we weren't mother and son. I'm going to kill you and bring my real mother back. Let the war begin. And by the way, yes, I'm ready."

"Ai..." she sighed. "You're strong, but in the end, you're going to be destroyed. You might be the most powerful expert to have ever existed, but you're still just human. I'm the ultimate entity to exist in all the many heavens and myriad worlds. I represent everything. The great dao. Fate. Power. Glory. Anything and everything. Everything and anything. It's all encompassed in me. There's no way you can win a war with me. Your empire and your people aren't going to survive."

"I guess we'll see," Yang Qi said.

RUMBLE!

Greensura vanished without a trace.

As soon as she returned, the god world changed. Yang Qi saw it suddenly brighten, and could sense an evil climate from within it. Apparently, the mass destruction of the living beings there had already begun.

The god world was an inherently vile existence. When Yang Qi had first arrived, it snowed for months. And it had experienced ice ages that lasted for thousands of years. Other times, summer would bake the lands as if with fire.

Now, its climate had become millions upon millions of times worse than before. The light that shone down on it could kill Paramount Gods, and destroy virtually any god kingdom that had been set up in its multiverse. Resources were no longer created anywhere in the god world, nor could safety be found anywhere. Except the Deathless Heaven Empire.

The essence of the god world was transforming its physical shape, ensuring that no living beings were there to take resources. Not even the most powerful old-timers could continue to exist.

A massive tempest raged through the universes of the god world, and no one could escape destruction.

It was a catastrophe the likes of which had never been seen. The radiation from it even seeped out into the world of primal-chaos, forcing the old-timers who remained hidden there to flee into the Deathless Heaven Empire, lest they die.

Greensura was preparing for the final attack.

Yang Qi could see mass destruction playing out in the god world. Humans. Demonfolk. Countless civilizations. They were all dying.

Back when he'd arrived in the god world, it had been a rich and marvelous place.

Small nations like the Lightningbolt Continent had numbered as many as the eternal sands, places where Lesser Gods were the patriarchs.

But places like that were of little note. Even back when the three-dynasty alliance had existed, Yang Qi hadn't been able to consider conquering them.

But now, all of that was going away. The climate itself was horrible enough to eradicate the common people. And there was nothing Yang Qi could do about it. There was no way for him to save those people or those civilizations.

The essence of the god world was destroying all civilizations.

In some ways, it was a natural thing. In the impure lands, planets would often experience catastrophes that wiped out all life on them. That was what happened when people got too comfortable, and disturbed the natural order of things.

What he could do was search through the primal-chaos paleo-energy to find any old-timers in hiding, to see if they would be willing to join him.

The battlefield needed to be prepared, cleaned such that a third force couldn't arise to cause problems.

"Speed up operations!" Yang Qi ordered, and the Everlasting Aegis sped up, devouring primal-chaos paleo-energy at a greater rate than before. At the same time, he adjusted the flow of time.

For every day that passed in the god world, a thousand years passed in Yang Qi's empire.

After all, at the current rate, the resources wouldn't last for very long.

However, after some time he had to change the flow of time again.

Now, for every day that passed in the god world, ten would pass in his kingdom. Allowing a thousand years to pass would cause the population to grow far too rapidly.

In order to devour the resources that were required, Yang Qi transformed into a primal-chaos elder-snake. He was King Heaven-Devourer. Actually, he had already surpassed King Heaven-Devourer. He was more like a primal-chaos elder-dragon!

And it was with mad abandon that he devoured the primal-chaos paleo-energy.

In fact, he wasn't thinking about anything else.

Thus, days passed. Eventually, after a certain amount of time had gone by, the primal-chaos paleo-energy shivered. It had grown visibly thin, and beyond it was nothing but a boundless void with absolutely nothing in it, and no end. It was a place of eternal silence and emptiness.

Yang Qi's empire was now ten times larger than before, and it was so powerful it seemed completely and utterly capable of crushing the god world below it.

Meanwhile, everything was still and silent in the god world. Within its multiverse, no life existed. Everything was dark. The Demonfolk were no more.

There was only one location left worth noting, and that was the Deathless Heaven Empire.

"It's been three years already?"

During the years since his conversation with Greensura, they had both made plenty of preparations. However, despite the growth in Yang Qi's empire, or the increase in God-Lords, he still hadn't made any more half-Annulled experts. There were only three.

As for the Deathless Heaven Dynasty, they had Proud Heaven, the King of Godmammoths, the Demon Master, and the High Priestess. There was no fifth. Greensura didn't count, as she was of a much higher level.

The primal-chaos paleo-energy was very thin.

The countless old-timers who remained were shaken as they realized that the final war was about to begin, a war that would determine the fate of the many heavens and the myriad worlds.

In the Sage Monarch Empire, everyone was calm. They looked upon death as going home, and were ready to fight. In contrast, the people in the Deathless Heaven Empire still had plots and schemes of their own that they were hoping to carry out. That said, the leaders kept strict control over everyone.

The destinies of the two empires had reached the limit, and the clash between the two would shake all of the universes and worlds that existed.

As the two destinies probed each other, the multiverse of the Sage Monarch Empire trembled, and the same happened to the god world.

By now, the Sage Monarch Empire was roughly a third as large as the god world, which went to show how much Yang Qi had accomplished in growing it.

As for Yang Qi's cultivation base, no one could assess it.