Sage Monarch

Clicking his tongue, Ghost Emperor Yama said, "How very ruthless of you, Yang Qi. You left those people from the Hall of Ninjas either dead or running, and got their Black Golden Dragon-Smelting Cauldron to boot. The Quake-Dawn Cathedral just suffered a big loss, and they're definitely going to do something about it. They'll probably even send a Great Sage after you."

Of course, the sight of Yang Qi cutting down people from the Quake-Dawn Cathedral actually caused Ghost Emperor Yama to nod inwardly in approval. Even still, he hadn't joined in the attack.

He actually wanted Yang Qi to force the Quake-Dawn Cathedral's hand, and get them to send some top experts out to try to kill him. Once Yang Qi was in the position of not being able to defend himself, then either the God Legion Seal would destroy the experts from the Quake-Dawn Cathedral, or Yang Qi would end up dead. Either way, Ghost Emperor Yama would benefit.

Just thinking about that got him excited.

Everything was going according to his master plan.

'Ah, Crown Prince, I really have to thank you. If you weren't working with the Quake-Dawn Cathedral, then how could I have recruited Yang Qi to help me deal with them? I hope both they and Yang Qi end up hurting or killing each other. Then I can get my hands on that God Legion Seal. Although… I have the feeling Yang Qi won't end up getting killed that easily, not with the seal protecting him.'

Of course, Yang Qi was fully aware that Ghost Emperor Yama must have plots and schemes of his own, and was only using him. But in the end, he was doing the same, so he couldn't complain.

'The Black Golden Dragon-Smelting Cauldron is a powerful sage weapon, the type of rare thing that a Great Sage spent blood, sweat, and tears to make. At the very least, I can use it to put on a bit of a show.' All of a sudden, he thought about how the Crown Prince had snatched the Gate of the Great Void, and given it and the Pearl of the Thousand Illusions World to Yun Hailan. Both of them were sage weapons, but obviously of low level, most likely first and second step respectively. Neither of them were anywhere close to the level of the Black Golden Dragon-Smelting Cauldron, the Grand Emperor's Pagoda or the Heaven-Dominating Golden Swordbreaker.

"You know," Ghost Emperor Yama said, "that hook weapon is called the Fierceblood . It was forged tens of thousands of years ago by Great Sage Fierceblood, who was nothing more than an errand boy for a subordinate of one of the primal-chaos elder-immortals. Even still, he was pretty important. There used to be two of them, but I'm not sure where the other ended up. It would make a pretty good gift for one of your own followers."

Ghost Emperor Yama seemed to know everything about treasures like this, which made sense considering that he was tens of thousands of years old, and had seen many more things in life than Yang Qi had.

"Of course, you need to refine that cauldron to make it your own. If you don't, it will realize it, and then you'll be done for. It would be like keeping tribulation lightning as a pet. Now that I think about it, considering the level of your cultivation base, I don't think you're actually strong enough to handle the cauldron. Want some help? All you have to do is admit that you're going to lose our bet."

Ghost Emperor Yama was taking advantage of every opportunity to try to get what he wanted. However, even as the words left his mouth, Yang Qi chuckled, and something spectacular happened.

A black dragon flew out from the palm-sized cauldron, which was then wrapped up by the heaven-demon seed, the yellow gold seed, and the Wilds God seed.

"You're using the power of a heaven-demon and the Wilds God to suppress the will of the Great Sage in that cauldron?" Ghost Emperor Yama was receiving one shock after another, until he felt like biting his own tongue off from the astonishment.

"Yes, Captain Obvious," Yang Qi said. "I took the Heaven-Dominating Golden Swordbreaker for my own, and those five phases spirits as well. Did you forget about that?"

A moment later, the cauldron was his.

With that, Yang Qi burst into motion, heading deeper into the primal-chaos. He knew that more and more people would be showing up here, including Great Sages. He needed to get the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment quickly, before someone else found it and ruined his plans. It was his main hope for defeating the Crown Prince.

Unfortunately, the world within the primal-chaos vital energy was huge, and consisted of multiple levels. The ruins therein were like a labyrinth with no end. It was impossible to tell where one was, and furthermore, it was too unstable to perform teleportations in.

As he traveled along, he saw experts of all sorts stuck within the primal-chaos, fighting powerful enemies, searching for clues, or dead in spell formations.

Some were howling in frustration because of being lost.

Some of the experts from the Quake-Dawn Continent were actually powerful Demonfolk, but unfortunately, they were just as lost as everyone else, and were wandering around like headless flies.

Unlike them, Yang Qi felt like a fish in water. The primal-chaos vital energy actually felt comfortable, as though it were connected to him personally. To some extent, it even acted like his eyes and ears. Because of that, it was an easy task to avoid the dangerous spell formations which existed here and there. He almost felt like he was walking around his own home. Therefore, he made his way through the labyrinth with ease, and didn't set off a single trap.

Some of it had to do with how he had fixed the Planar Pearl and saved the sage spirits, and some of it was because of the functions of the Grand Emperor's Pagoda.

The primal-chaos vital energy was actually intelligent, and recognized that Yang Qi was a glorious representative of the legion of gods.

'That aura belongs to multiple Great Sages!'

Yang Qi suddenly stopped in place and allowed the primal-chaos vital energy to surround him, making him fade from view. As of this moment, his aura was almost non-present, making him like a drifting ghost.

Then, he opened the Lord's Eye, and peered out to discover a shocking scene some distance away.

He saw nine Great Sages, all of them clad in battle robes as they stood there in the depths of the primal-chaos.

They stood around a well, which was pitch black, and seemed to descend for endless kilometers. In fact, it was so deep it was impossible to say what was at the bottom.

Each of the nine Great Sages held a fishing pole in hand, with the line stretching far down into the darkness.

"Nine Dragons Fishing Poles! Azure Yin God Hooks! Godworm Silk!" Ghost Emperor Yama was visibly taken aback. "Those are all priceless treasures. So, nine Great Sages are working together to make a Nine by Nine Azure Infernal Dragon-Hooking Spell Formation. They must be trying to pull the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment up from inside that well."

"What? Nine by Nine Azure Infernal Dragon-Hooking Spell Formation?" Yang Qi asked.

"It's a spell formation that ancient immortals would use to pierce through multiple planes all the way down to the Dragonsea Plane, to try to hook gigantic dragons. Once that formation is activated, it can hook just about everything. You know, those nine Great Sages would be like nothing to me, but you definitely couldn't handle them." He smiled craftily. "Although, if you're interested, then you could just wait for them to pull up the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment, and then I could grab it for you. You'd have a hundred percent chance of getting it. Just hand over the Infernal Deity Spear first."

"No, I'm fine," Yang Qi replied casually. "I'm pretty confident in my own plan. The primal-chaos vital energy is telling me that those nine are almost completely drained of power. Furthermore, once they pull the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment into the open, it will attack them. That's when I can swoop in and get it for myself."

"Yeah right!" Ghost Emperor Yama said with a cold chuckle. "You really think you can pull it off that easily? Those Great Sages are top experts from the Quake-Dawn Cathedral. They're not going to just ignore you if you try to do something like that. And even if they are drained, what if they team up against you? What will you do then?"

"Whatever. Just wait and see. Now's not the time for me to explain. As long as you don't do something to interfere, then I'll get that heart fragment."

"Fine. I'll just sit back and watch. Other than using that God Legion Seal, I don't see what you could possibly do." With that, he crossed his arms and looked over at the well.

The area around them was quiet and peaceful. Thanks to the abundance of deadly spell formations, even Great Sages who wanted to get to this area would need to be very cautious, let alone weaker people.

And from what Yang Qi could tell, these nine Great Sage hadn't taken the long way to get here; they had most certainly used teleportation formations or wormholes.

Twang! Twang!

A moment later, the nine Great Sage's arms began to tremble, and their fishing line went taught and began to thrum.

Yang Qi watched as blue veins bulged out on their arms and hands, as they seemingly went all out to try to pull the lines up.

Then, blood seeped out of the pores of their hands, forming into shocking magical symbols that began to follow the fishing line down into the well.

"I'm impressed. Those Great Sages are actually sacrificing their own life force and longevity to try to hook the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment. That fragment is definitely not going to be easy to get." Licking his lips, Ghost Emperor Yama waited to see what Yang Qi was going to do next.

Only moments later, a blood-red stream of energy shot up from the depths of the well, and a roar like that of a dragon could be heard. It was followed by the sound of earth, water, fire, and wind, as well as Yore-Wilds power that could shatter space itself. All of the Great Sages began to tremble and sweat, as though they might not be able to endure for much longer.

Even Ghost Emperor Yama felt like he was being weighed down.

In contrast, Yang Qi didn't seem affected at all. In fact, as the vibrations grew more intense, he seemed to be fusing with the void, as though the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment were causing him to enter some straight state of dao enlightenment.

The truth was that even the sight of the red beam of energy left him feeling very comfortable. It was almost like seeing a dear friend or family member. Although it would be as hot as lava to anyone else, to him, it was extremely beneficial. Pulses of the power of the Yore-Wilds began to race through him, and ancient megamammoths began to wake up left and right.