Sage Monarch

The Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment had not emerged, and yet, blood-red vital energy was already erupting out into the open.

It was an ancient and wild energy, even the smallest bit of which could crush mountain peaks to bits. And anyone who tried to absorb it would find their meridians shattered, and would then drop dead.

Even the nine sages who were trying to reel in the fragment could barely breathe, and had unleashed their sage domains to protect themselves.

If the energy were allowed to spread out further and develop, it would transform into mountains, rivers, crystals, and perhaps even form an entire plane. It was preheaven energy and power that no person could absorb, with the exception of Yang Qi.

The holy power inside of him was already splicing that vital energy for personal use.

On the one hand, it was vital energy that contained everything and anything: yin and yang, the five phases, the wild and aeonic past, the universe and the chiliocosm, the sun, the moon, and all creation. It was everything mixed together. On the other hand, it was the purest energy possible, capable of transforming Yang Qi's meridians, sea of energy, five viscera, six bowels and even his sea of consciousness, into numerous worlds of their own.

The Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth was transforming rapidly, and with every cycle, it absorbed massive amounts of the blood-red vital energy, which was essentially the blood of the ancient Yore-Wilds Continent.

Even more telling, the vital energy actually seemed connected to Yang Qi, and was entering him as though it was returning to its parent.

The reason for that, of course, was the God Legion Seal in his forehead. All planes of existence, and all vital energy, originated with the true words spoken by the legion of gods. The preheaven origin and substructure of the planes made all of them children of the legion of gods.

Furthermore, Yang Qi had rescued this plane from destruction, and the vital energy was aware of that.

As the energy coursed through him, explosive cracking sounds could be heard, and he began to tremble physically. Soon, true energy megamammoths inside of him began to rear up and trumpet loudly. Back when he reached the Five-Phases Transformation, he reached the level of one million megamammoths, and from then on out, they began to awaken in batches of ten thousand.

Ten thousand.

Twenty thousand….

In a very short time, a hundred thousand megamammoths awoke. As Yang Qi grew stronger, the yin yang seeds in his sea of energy grew more solid, and transformed into a palm-sized taiji symbol. Streams of black and white energy intertwined, and pulsed with the power of both yin and yang. As a result of this heightened level of yin yang and five phases power, his physical heart turned bright red, and countless images appeared on its surface, including mountains, rivers, endless stars, countless forests, and even more beautiful scenery. It was like the most wonderful aspects of the Yore-Wilds Continent.

As the true energy of the megamammoths poured through his blood vessels, the power of the Yore-Wilds built up within him.

'Yang Qi's cultivation base is advancing by leaps and bounds!' Ghost Emperor Yama thought, visibly stunned by what was happening. 'Not even I could absorb the Yore-Wilds power coming from that heart fragment, and he's just sucking it in like crazy!? This is unbelievable. Although, I guess having the God Legion Seal in you means you can do unbelievable things.' Peering into the depths of the well, he saw a writhing blood dragon that seemed like a ghost-god ready to fly out into the open and become an actual divine dragon.

All of a sudden, a resounding sound echoed out from the well, which resembled the tolling of bells from the netherworld.

Even the first bell toll caused Ghost Emperor Yama's face to turn ashen. 'That's the Yore-Wilds' Resonance! Incredible! It's a preheaven musical note of immense and pure power. According to the rumors, when the Yore-Wilds' Heart would beat, it would cause this sound to echo out and cow all wretch-devils and daemons in existence! Even a fragment of the heart would still be able to unleash it with unimaginable power.'

If Ghost Emperor Yama was shaken by the sound, there was little need to mention the Great Sages. The entire group was sent flying backward, coughing up blood like mad, and apparently, seriously injured.

"Hold on to your fishing poles!" shouted the strongest of the group. "The Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment is almost out in the open." All of the Great Sages pulled out handfuls of medicinal pills which they popped into their mouths and swallowed.

As their energy built back up, they tightened their grips on their fishing poles, and began to pull the line in with more vigor.

However, the Yore-Wilds' Resonance continued to echo out louder and louder, causing them to cough up more blood; it seemed like they might not be able to hold on for much longer. Shaking his head, Ghost Emperor Yama used a consummate skill from the dao of devils to protect himself.

In contrast, Yang Qi didn't seem negatively affected at all, and in fact, was benefiting from the sound. In addition, Ghost Emperor Yama could tell that all of the energy from the sound was rushing toward him like the rivers of the world would rush into the sea.

With every moment that passed, Yang Qi's aura grew stronger, to the point where the yin and yang energies within him were like two enormous dragons floating behind him, one of them black, the other, white.

'Black and white twin dragons! Grand yin and yang transformation!' Ghost Emperor Yama was shaken to the core. 'That's an ancient sign spoken of only in stories! Only when someone is blessed by preheaven yin and yang will the image of a black and white dragon appear. Don't tell me he's so lucky as to have been blessed by preheaven yin and yang?'

At first, Ghost Emperor Yama looked anxious, then worried, but then, a moment later, calm, as though he had just realized something.

'This feels wonderful!' Yang Qi thought. 'It seems I definitely made the right choice here. The Yore-Wilds' Heart really is giving me access to a huge boost of power. This is just what I need to fight the Crown Prince.' As of this moment, Yang Qi was fully confident that he could reach the sixth Legendary transformation and then fight the Crown Prince, that supposed 'god from heaven descended into the mortal world'.

As he continued to absorb the power, he looked over at the well, where the Yore-Wilds' Resonance had reached a peak level, and was battering the nine Great Sages to the point where it looked like they might die at any moment.

RUUUUUMBLE!

All of a sudden, a space-time wormhole sprang into being above the heads of the Great Sages, which then erupted with pitch black divine light.

The light instantly healed the sages, and filled them with energy, until they were as lively as dragons or tigers. Gripping their fishing poles, they pulled back with all their might, causing an enormous, glowing red object to emerge from the well.

In the blink of an eye, all of the primal-chaos vital energy in the area was stained bright red.

It was the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment!

Yang Qi's heart began to pound with excitement.

'The Ninja God!' Ghost Emperor Yama thought, his eyes shining with hatred at the sight of the pitch black light shooting out from the wormhole. From the look of it, he wanted to rip that wormhole to shreds in a burst of fury.

He recognized the black light the moment he saw it; its origin was one of the same bastards who had imprisoned him years ago, the ultimate leader of the Hall of Ninjas, the renowned Ninja God, whose cultivation base put him only a hair away from being a Demi-Immortal.

However, he managed to keep himself in check. 'The pressure from the Planar Pearl is only more effective against stronger people. There's no way he can get into the Rich-Lush Continent. As for me, I was sealed in the Rich-Lush Continent for so long, that I've already fused with its vital energy. I might as well be a full-blown native. You really think you're going to get the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment?'

'Now's my chance!' Yang Qi thought, looking at the heart fragment, and the dazzling red light it cast on everything around it. Even the wormhole that had just opened up was forced to shut, as all space in the area was locked down. Not even the Great Sages could easily move, and in fact, cracks began to spread out on their skin. It seemed that without the power of the Ninja God to support them, they would soon be crushed out of existence by the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi, who wasn't hurt at all by the power being unleashed, and actually enjoyed it, could now see something like bloodjade within the glowing light. It looked like part of an actual heart, covered with blood-red magical symbols, script carved by the legion of gods. From what he could tell, it was Godtongue, the same language he had first heard thanks to the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth.

"Out-of-Body Godmammoth! Capture and Return!" Yang Qi reached out with his hand, and at the same time, an enormous godmammoth appeared behind him, with a trunk that could tear planets down out of the sky. In coordination with the movement of his hand, that trunk snaked out and wrapped around the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment.

Not even nine Great Sages working together could capture that fragment, and in fact, were just about to die from the effort. Even as they tried to focus the power of their cultivation bases to complete the effort, a 'bandit' showed up.

As soon as the trunk wrapped around the fragment, Yang Qi was covered with so much red light that it looked like he was dripping with blood.

Instantly, more particles within him woke up. In the blink of an eye, he had three hundred thousand more.

The will of the Lord touched the heart fragment, blessing it, making it feel like it was being embraced by a fatherly figure. Without any hesitation, it flew in Yang Qi's direction.

"Grand Emperor's Pagoda!"

As soon as the pagoda appeared, the heart fragment flew inside, filling it with bright red color. The Great Sages couldn't do anything about it whatsoever. Once the true energy of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth entered that fragment, the weight which had once seemed like that of an entire continent disappeared, and the thing turned as light as a feather. The sight of it caused Ghost Emperor Yama's jaw to drop.

'He really is blessed by the legion of gods. The Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment isn't even heavy to him?'

"Hey!" he shouted. "What are you waiting for? Let's get out of here!"

Yang Qi wasn't paying attention to him. As soon as he had the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment, the primal-chaos vital energy wrapped him up, and then he vanished without a trace, as if he had been teleported away. Ghost Emperor Yama was left alone to face nine Great Sages.

"Who was that!?"

"Who stole our Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment!?" It took a moment for the Great Sages to react, and when they did, it was with utter rage.

1. Quick note here that in this case, "world" is actually "heaven and earth". For all intents and purposes, "heaven and earth" usually means "world", but in this novel, there is sometimes a distinction between the various different terms that can be translated as "world". In this passage, I didn't want to say "numerous heavens and earths" so instead I'm going with "worlds".

2. In Chinese, twenty thousand is "two ten-thousands", and "one hundred thousand" is literally "ten ten-thousands".