Sage Monarch

"You still haven't answered my question, Yang Qi. Do you have a Great Sage backing you, or not?" Holy Daughter Manyflowers was obviously not willing to let the topic just drop. "If you do, then I'd say you're safe. Not even the Crown Prince will be able to do anything to you. But if you don't, and simply used some trick to make it seem like you do, you're playing with fire."

"It's a secret," Yang Qi replied. Instead of offering any further explanation, he suddenly extended his hand, revealing a walnut-sized spirit stone that was somehow reminiscent of the Grand Emperor's Pagoda. It was a sovereign-grade spirit stone, something rarely seen in the world, as they were usually used for cultivation purposes by Great Sages.

Holy Daughter Manyflowers' eyes went wide. "Is that…?"

"Yes. A sovereign-grade spirit stone. Don't ask me where I got it. Take it, and your cultivation base will improve by leaps and bounds. Soon, you'll be the new Grand Elder Feat-Virtue, and you'll need a strong cultivation base to stay in power."

"Okay," she replied, taking the spirit stone. "From ancient times until now, sovereign-grade spirit stones have been considered the best of the best in the Rich-Lush Continent. There is literally no better type of spirit stone. I have a few deadly moves that I haven't been able to cultivate because of lack of power, but now that won't be a problem."

"How is Aunt Susu doing?" Yang Qi suddenly asked.

"Susu? The chancellor took her to another aspect of space-time to be educated by some of the prime elders. Hopefully, she can fully awaken the potential of her Seven Apertures Sprite Body now. In that regard, they view her as being more important than the Crown Prince. Rest at ease. Even when the Crown Prince becomes the chancellor, he won't be able to defy the prime elders."

"Alright," Yang Qi said, nodding.

"Well then, I guess the time has come to part. Take care of yourself. I'm not going to forget this gift, Yang Qi. I'll pay you back one day."

Suddenly, she disappeared into a blurred shadow as she returned to her own mansion in the Minorcosm World.

In the end, only Legendaries were truly viewed as being important in the institutes. In fact, in case of emergency, the Minorcosm World could actually slip through the void and leave the entire Rich-Lush Continent, taking all the Legendaries with it to safety. Of course, that would only be done in an extreme emergency, as it would involve losing all of the lower-level students.

In any case, Yang Qi was now so important that the institute wouldn't casually discard him. The only person who could directly harm him would be someone so powerful they could ignore the rules, just like him.

As of now, he was the only person in his sprawling mansion, and for some reason, he felt a bit lonely.

However, he shook his head to dispel such feelings, and began to consider matters at hand. At the moment, he had established himself as a prestigious individual in the institute. Unfortunately, it was all because of the God Legion Seal, which was not something he could absolutely rely on.

What would happen if the God Legion Seal didn't work the next time he needed it to? The answer was simple: he would die.

For now, the best thing to do was stay in seclusion and push his cultivation higher as quickly as possible. At the absolute minimum, he needed to reach the third Legendary transformation.

Once he was a Space-Void Legendary, and understood spatial fluctuations, he would have access to even more spell formations in the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, and would definitely be able to deal with people in the sixth Legendary transformation. If he ran into someone like that now, he would definitely be in big trouble. Unless the God Legion Seal defended him, he would be forced to flee, and likely be seriously injured after that.

"Well, considering how many spirit stones I have, I'll just focus completely on cultivation. If I can't make cultivation progress, then I'm useless. I need to improve my physique, and master the psychic tempest. Then, with a stronger spirit and soul, I can reach the second transformation." Waving his hand, he summoned a pile of royal-grade spirit stones.

Instantly, the wave of intense spirit energy caused images of humans, dragons, tigers, winds, clouds, palaces and more to take shape around him.

He used the spirit stones to set up a formation around him, which would allow him to converge the spirit energy in the area into a single node, a Rich-Lush Eye that was just like the ones in the Grand Emperor's Pagoda.

Although he had never been an expert of spell formations, he did have some experience. This particular formation was one of the more powerful ones from the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, and it was called the Rich-Lush God Formation. As for the "rich-lush" aspect, it referred to prosperity, abundance, blessing, and contentment.

It took ten thousand royal-grade spirit stones to set up the formation, but he was sure that it would be enough to push his cultivation base to a higher level.

Generally speaking, it would be rare for a Legendary to use a hundred royal-grade spirit stones in cultivation. Not even the corrupt Grand Elder Feat-Virtue would have been able to; at most, he would have used supreme-grade.

In fact, many Legendaries had to settle for mid-grade or high-grade spirit stones.

The fact that Yang Qi had just casually produced ten thousand royal-grade stones would cause most experts to faint from shock. Of course, his energy art required many, many times the power that others did.

It was a very pleasant sensation to be sitting in a spell formation powered by so many spirit stones; he almost felt like an immortal. In some situations, feelings like this could be dangerous. There was no shortage of individuals who had been ambushed while caught up in the intoxicating feeling of cultivation, and ended up dead. That was why it was always best to select a secure location for cultivation.

And there were few places more secure than the Minorcosm World.

'Time to power up my physique. Five phases god items!'

The spirit energy flowed into Yang Qi, and as it entered his meridians, the friction between it and his true energy caused flames to spring up inside of him.

True flame ate at the five phases treasures, the Skyspirit Lamp, Razorgold Dagger-Axe, Mulberry Shoot, Singularity Water, and Yellowdragon Sand, turning them into molten liquid that flowed into the depths of his five viscera.

In the blink of an eye, the treasures became a part of him.

All of a sudden, Yang Qi felt as though his five viscera contained spatial coordinates which could connect to the same aspect of space where the five phases treasures had come from. Inhaling, he caused pure elemental quintessence energy of the five phases to stream into him. With that, his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth and Physique of the Sovereign Lord grew stronger.

"Must get stronger!" Without any hesitation, he drew fully on the energy of all of the royal-grade spirit stones. At the same time, he opened his Hell Portal and sent streams of devil-ghosts into his Hellfire Crucible. He also drew on the flesh of the asura in his Grand Emperor's Pagoda, which pushed him to even greater heights.

Bang! Bam!

Explosions rang out inside of him as vital energy swirled through his body like dragons. Considering the technique he cultivated, the combination of the two were like dracomammoths. He was the mammoth aspect, and the energy was the dragon aspect. He was one with the energy, and his blood, soul, and spirit were experiencing manifold transformations.

Yang Qi was gaining enlightenment of a very mysterious and enigmatic level.

Inside of him, one particle after another exploded. Moments before, he had the power of a thousand ancient megamammoths, but now, that same amount awoke within him.

This was what came with the Legendary level, that ancient realm of powerful energy warriors; with every breakthrough he made, his power skyrocketed.

The power of two thousand megamammoths made his fleshly body even stronger; as the flames purified him, the Physique of the Sovereign Lord became even more eternal.

Every inch of him glittered like crystal. His flesh and blood could be considered perfect in every way, as well as his bones. The five phases treasures in his five viscera continued to draw in the power of the five phases, creating an endless cycle, and fueling his transformations with the very power of the universe, power that was an aspect of the true Sovereign Lord.

Suddenly, the Lord's Eye opened, and within its pupil was a never-ending cycle of the destruction and creation of various worlds and planes of existence. It was almost like a dream.

By using the five phases treasures to connect with those five spatial nexuses, Yang Qi was able to use the power of the Lord to transform his own true energy into Sovereign Lord True Energy. Even a scrap of that type of true energy would vastly surpass that of any other cultivator in his level. After all, it was on the same level as universal power itself.

The Grand Emperor's Pagoda trembled at is sensed the power of the true Sovereign Lord. After all, its creator had used power such as this in the past, which indicated that it contained the potential to push the pagoda to even higher levels than before.

The power of the Sovereign Lord was changing Yang Qi on a fundamental level, and as it coursed through him, he opened his eyes, and a powerful psychic tempest could be seen in their depths.

As it swirled out into his mansion, cracks began to spread out on the walls, as if they might explode.

At long last, he was reaching the limits of the Blood-Form Transformation, and provoking a psychic tempest.

That, in turn, meant that he was getting very close to the Spirit-Soul Transformation.

In the Spirit-Soul Transformation, it was possible to use psychic tempests to begin to pierce through space itself, to see into its deepest depths. Afterward, when he perfectly combined his mind and body, he would reach the next level, the Space-Void Transformation.

Space was a very mysterious thing. No fleshly body could pierce through space on its own, no matter how tough it was. Only the power of psychic tempests could do that.

'I've finally mastered the psychic tempest. Next is to truly reach the Spirit-Soul Transformation.'

1. This is one spot where my choice of translations made a play on words not work. The character I translated as "sovereign" is a component of the word "emperor", and therefore, it makes sense in Chinese to say that they are somehow similar.