Sage Monarch

At the moment, there was nothing Yang Qi could do to Lady-Princess Silvermoon.

She had a godly talisman created by Grand Empress Sky-Heaven, which could not be used as a weapon, but was far too powerful for him to break through. Not even the Grand Emperor's Pagoda could reach her, making Yang Qi almost like the dog trying to bite the hedgehog.

But Yang Qi had an idea, that being to use the sagely-grade spirit stone on the altar to fill up his true energy.

His sea of energy had the capacity for the power of three hundred thousand ancient megamammoths, but at the moment, was capped at two hundred thousand. He needed a huge amount of power converted into Sovereign Lord True Energy and universal power, to fill his true energy to the point he needed.

And now, that was a simple task.

Besides, he had plenty of other marvelous treasures from Silvermoon to help.

If he succeeded, he wouldn't just have a lot of true energy, he would be a Space-Void Legendary, which was nothing to take lightly.

Once he broke through, and could shatter the fetters of space and the void, he would definitely be strong enough to fight the Crown Prince, and most likely, kill him. After all, if he waited too long, the Crown Prince would become a Great Sage, and he would lose any advantage.

Even Never-Dying Legendaries were as vastly separated from Great Sages as heaven was from the earth.

In primeval times, Legendaries were known as energy warriors, but Great Sages were known as saints, the type of people who could save all humanity, and exorcise evil. They were looked up to by all creation.

Energy warriors were the servants, and saints were the generals.

"Lady-Princess Silvermoon, you created this altar to help you reach the ninth Legendary transformation, didn't you?" The altar not only had a sagely-grade spirit stone, it had a Never-Dying demon core as part of the Nine Stars Pearl Necklace, as well as nine hundred and ninety-nine sovereign-grade spirit stones arranged into a spell formation.

The altar was pure white, almost as if it had been crafted from the bones of some powerful and holy creature. There was something mighty and godly about it, and something immensely powerful.

Yang Qi touched the altar, and even sent some true energy in to examine it. When he did, he suddenly found himself thinking of an enormous divine dragon with pure white scales, flying through the clouds, causing rain to fall.

'It's made from dragon bone!'

When Lady-Princess Silvermoon saw that Yang Qi had her altar, it looked like she might spit fire out of rage, or perhaps leap out and try to rip his throat open with her teeth.

"Dammit! I made that altar from the bones of a primeval white dragon, and the demon cores of nine powerful dragonlings! I spent blood, sweat, and tears to make it! Do you know how much it cost? You had better not—"

"You're the one being pig-headed and stubborn. You refused to back down, and even demanded that I show you how strong I am." Not interested in a debate, Yang Qi immediately began to draw upon the energy in the spirit stones.

Sagefire erupted out of him, wrapping around the altar, and causing the sovereign-grade spirit stones to start melting. Instantly, a massive amount of spirit power poured into the Hellfire Crucible.

At the same time, the remaining flesh and blood of the asura melted further, and all sorts of spirit energy, magical laws, and devil energy swirled together at his command.

The Hell Portal appeared behind him, as well as numerous devil-ghosts, zombies, and skeletons. It was the true power of a hell monsoon, and it was erupting with full force out of the enormous gate.

"What is that thing?" Lady-Princess Silvermoon murmured, her eyes wide with terror. To her shock, Yang Qi was summoning even fiend-devil counts in the third, fourth, and fifth Legendary transformations. There were even bronzeblaze fiend-devils.

Bronzeblaze fiend-devils were true denizens of hell, complete with bronze skin, and voices that could flay the skin off of living creatures. They could belch out true energy that was like lava, and could turn the world of living men into hell itself.

To people from the Western Continent, fiend-devils were terrifying, and the presence of one would be considered a major disaster.

For one thing, there was no such thing as a bronzeblaze fiend-devil in the Lifeseizing level. They were born as Legendaries, and considering how noble their bloodline was in hell, they were considered as beings from higher planes. They were a form of life that existed above Demonfolk or humans.

And yet, here Yang Qi had casually summoned one and was using it like nothing more than firewood.

The power of the summoned fiend-devils combined with that from the spirit stones and the asura's flesh and blood. All of it bolstered Yang Qi's true energy, creating an explosive mixture in the Hellfire Crucible. Transformations began to occur, a chain reaction that led to one explosion after another. Slowly but surely, Sovereign Lord True Energy was flowing through him.

Only after the massive conglomeration of different types of energy was refined by the Hellfire Crucible could the various qualitative and quantitative transformations occur which resulted in tiny bits of Sovereign Lord True Energy seeping out, and stimulating the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth.

To Yang Qi's delight, his Hell Portal could already sense the numerous aspects of space-time that existed in the void around the Western Continent. There were all sorts of devil energies to be drawn upon, be it from hordes of devils or from the powerful hell monsoons that battered the continent.

Lately, the Western Continent had been surrounded by far more fiend-devils than the Rich-Lush Continent, and most of them were bronzeblaze fiend-devils, which were the perfect fuel for Sovereign Lord True Energy.

After all, it was only the most hellish of auras that could be converted into the boundless radiance and light.

Within the Hellfire Crucible, radiance and light slowly mixed with darkness and gloom.

RUMBLE!

Somewhere in the space-time outside of the Western Continent was an enormous area that was like an air bubble, surrounded by a hell monsoon.

The depths of the bubble consisted of burning lava, and a continent filled with countless bronzeblaze fiend-devils. They thrived on hell monsoons, as well as combat. In fact, they constantly fought among both themselves, and the various Demonfolk who they would encounter occasionally in the void.

After all, the devils of hell and the Demonfolk were staunchly opposed to each other.

Suddenly, a portal opened up within that enormous bubble, and a gravitational force erupted out which began to drag the bronzeblaze fiend-devils into it. None of them were strong enough to fight back.

One of the fiend-devils, in the fifth Legendary transformation, thought to take the offensive. He rushed toward the portal to attack it, but unfortunately, that was when the image of an enormous pagoda appeared. The fiend-devil coughed up blood, and then a huge, holy hand appeared, grabbed him, and dragged him into the portal.

Roar!

Another fiend-devil tried to attack the Hell Portal, this one in the sixth Legendary transformation. Although the creature wasn't dragged into the portal, none of its attacks had the slightest effect.

Yang Qi wasn't capable of dealing with a fiend-devil in the sixth Legendary transformation, and therefore, he didn't even try summoning one.

Thankfully, there were plenty of other targets near the Western Continent to pick from, and thus, his Sovereign Lord True Energy continued to build up.

The Hellfire Crucible was growing bigger and bigger as it absorbed more of the asura's flesh and blood, and more spirit stones. Popping sounds rang out as sovereign-grade spirit stones exploded, and transformed into greenish spirit power.

As the explosions rang out, and power coursed through Yang Qi, the image of an ancient megamammoth appeared next to him, formed from true energy. Then another, and another. They radiated a primeval aura that seemed eternally unstoppable. The truth was that the true energy megamammoths actually looked exactly like real-life megamammoths from the past. It was almost as if they had actual flesh and blood bodies, as though they were something illusory that had become true and real.

True energy. True energy…. It was said that by using energy to create physical objects, it was possible to give rise to the true ego. That was why the word "true" was used in the term true energy.

When the god-spirits in heaven unleashed their true energy, they could create worlds that were true and real in every sense of the word.

Using true energy to create something true and real indicated that a person's energy arts had reached an incredibly high level of enlightenment. The fact that the true energy megamammoth that Yang Qi had created contained a strong element of reality was quite shocking to say the least.

They were all engaged in different sorts of activities. Some were casually breathing in the spirit energy of heaven and earth. Others were sleeping, drinking water, or letting out trumpeting calls. As they congregated above Yang Qi, it was almost possible to see the environment in which they existed: the Yore-Wilds Continent of old. It was simply miraculous.

The extent of a godly-class energy art was on full display here.

"What energy art is that….?" Lady-Princess Silvermoon murmured, feeling stifled by the power, her face ashen. In fact, she was so shaken that she could hardly keep her talisman fueled with true energy.

Yang Qi couldn't break her talisman yet, but she still felt the might of a god-spirit crushing down onto her will and soul. All of a sudden, her faith in her ability to hold out against Yang Qi shattered.

Another fifty thousand megamammoths awoke in Yang Qi. Thanks to his Sovereign Lord True Energy, he now had the terrifying power of two hundred and fifty thousand megamammoths. The final number of three hundred thousand was just around the corner.

And that meant that he was very close to becoming a Space-Void Legendary.

1. This term literally means "true/real me". Here are some more of the dictionary definitions: 1) actual self, 2) the real or nirvana ego, the transcendental ego, as contrasted with the illusory or temporary ego, 3) the ego as considered real by non-Buddhists. As I've mentioned before several times, the author can appropriate real-life terms to use in his own way in this fantasy setting.