Sage Monarch

"The Crown Prince is coming back."

"There's more than a week left before the hundred-day time limit is up. Pretty soon there's going to be a huge fight going down! The Crown Prince has a clear advantage, but he can't lower his guard. After all, Yang Qi is backed by Ghost Emperor Yama."

"Ghost Emperor Yama is a deadly monster, that's for sure. However, he's inherently untrustworthy. Why would someone like him agree to work with Yang Qi? Isn't it a case of Yang Qi asking a tiger for its skin?"

"Besides, after all these years, the Crown Prince's true origins have come to light. Everyone's saying that he's the son of the Holy Daughter of the Quake-Dawn Cathedral. He really is a god from heaven descended into the mortal world! The real question is whether he's blood-related to the Quake-Dawn Cathedral, and how much they'll actually support him."

"Really? The Quake-Dawn Cathedral is a colossal monster of an organization! From what I've heard, the Quake-Dawn Continent is a higher plane that's thousands of times larger than our Rich-Lush Continent. They have access to purer power than we do, to the point where Ghost Emperor Yama probably isn't a match for the experts from there. In fact, I heard that they were the ones who originally imprisoned him."

"Well, however it plays out, it's going to happen soon. I wonder how Yang Qi has progressed in his cultivation recently."

"A few days ago I snuck into Yanhaven, and you'll never guess what I saw."

"Huh? What did you see? Don't tell me that you actually saw Yang Qi working on his cultivation!"

"I saw spatial powers moving Yanhaven into the Blackcorpse Mountains, where it began to glow with sagelight. Nowadays, it's a holy land of cultivation that no one can enter without permission. The territory controlled by Yanhaven stretches for thousands of kilometers. Furthermore, I got the feeling that the entire city could fly up into the sky at any moment, and pierce through space. It seems like the perfect location to achieve immortal ascension."

"Hey, what about all the big-shots from the Demi-Immortal Institute? What are they up to?"

"Yun Hailan returned recently, and I heard that she earned the favor of an immortal from a high-level plane. She's a lot stronger than before. In fact, with the blessing of that immortal, she can fight Never-Dying Legendaries and even Half Sages."

"What a prodigy…."

A storm was brewing in the Rich-Lush Continent, and it was all due to the coming conflict between Yang Qi and the Crown Prince.

Even the Sage Ancestor Dynasty court was abuzz.

In Capital City, virtually everyone in the imperial palace was talking about the matter, including military officials, civil officials, princes, counts, dukes, marquises, feudal kings, and the like.

For nearly a thousand years, the emperor hadn't held a formal morning court session, and yet even he made an appearance. Sitting there on his throne of nine dragons, he looked out at the court for a long moment.

"Advise me. Who should I support?" he said in a thunderous voice. "The Crown Prince is a Great Sage now, just like I am. I can already sense his aura, and his baleful energy; he's backed by the Quake-Dawn Cathedral, and they have vicious ambitions. Unfortunately, he has the audacity to call himself the Crown Prince, and has killed generals of our Sage Ancestor Dynasty. He defies all laws and principles, even those of heaven. His rebellious intentions are well-known."

At this point, the famous Prince Ba stepped forward, a Half Sage.

"Your Majesty, it makes sense for us to support Yang Qi," he said. "Unfortunately, his cultivation base is too low, which means that the Crown Prince should be able to kill him with ease. Even before the Crown Prince was a Great Sage, he was insufferably arrogant. Now, he'll be worse. Plus, he has the support of the Quake-Dawn Cathedral. How far do you think he'll go when it comes to crushing his enemies? It's difficult to determine what the chancellor of the Demi-Immortal Institute really thinks about it all. One thing is clear, though: he favors the Crown Prince. And we all know about his relationship with the Crown Prince's mother. Considering all that, we definitely need to establish a solid base for ourselves. If we don't, we'll give the Crown Prince an excuse to wipe us out for all time."

"Hold on, Prince Ba!" Prince Wei interjected. "Are you saying that the Sage Ancestor Dynasty should side with the Crown Prince?! That's completely inappropriate! The Crown Prince is ambitious, everyone knows that. Even if we side with him, he'll still crush us beneath his feet, and humiliate us to no end. I think we should support Yang Qi, and fight to the death with the Crown Prince. Based on what I've heard, the chancellor of the Sun Moon Institute has publicly sided with Yang Qi."

A duke stepped forward. "That's not appropriate either. Why not just withhold support from either? We can stand by while they fight it out. Who knows, they might kill each other."

A flurry of conversation ensued.

"Kill each other? That would be great, but things never go so smoothly in life. The Crown Prince is a Great Sage, and he's more powerful than ever. It doesn't matter how much stronger Yang Qi has become recently, he's definitely not a match for the Crown Prince."

"Don't forget that Yang Qi has a Demi-Immortal level backer! How else could he have repaired the damage to heaven?"

"You're right. However, the Quake-Dawn Cathedral probably has people just as strong as that. And the Crown Prince has surely learned of how Yang Qi repaired heaven."

The members of the court continued to discuss the matter, and yet, couldn't come to an agreement.

Eventually, the emperor cut in.

"Enough jabbering! I'll take everything you've said into consideration." Instantly, the court went silent.

However, that was when a voice rang out, seemingly from nowhere. "There's no need for further consideration, Emperor. Support the Crown Prince. That's your only option. Otherwise, you'll only have one fate in store for you: death!"

Next, a sea-blue space-time wormhole opened up into the middle of the court, and three individuals stepped out.

In the lead was a young woman in a blue garment. She had a face as beautiful as if it had been carved from jade, and she emanated immortal energy, making it seem like she could easily travel between planes. In fact, not even Emperor Sage-Ancestor could lock down onto her aura.

Of course, she was none other than Yun Hailan.

Flanking her were two Great Sages, one of them clad in ocean-blue clothing, with an aura that caused everyone around him to feel like they were drowning.

"Chancellor Sea God!" blurted Emperor Sage-Ancestor, rising to his feet.

The other individual emanated the aura of a dragon, the type who could shred heaven to pieces and pierce through space.

"Chancellor True Dragon!"

Two chancellors had arrived.

Apparently, both the True Dragon Institute and the Sea God Institute had joined forces with Yun Hailan.

"Emperor Sage-Ancestor," Chancellor Sea God said, nodding in greeting.

Chancellor True Dragon did the same, and then said, "We're here because we openly support the Crown Prince in his effort to kill Yang Qi."

"Support the Crown Prince? Kill Yang Qi?" Emperor Sage-Ancestor looked at them with shock. "You two…?"

"Yun Hailan has the sealing mark of the Sea King Plane on her," Chancellor Sea God explained, "as well as that of the Dragon World Plane, both of which are immortal worlds. In other words, she has the power of both seas and dragons in her. And of course, that conforms to the power sources of both the True Dragon Institute and Sea God Institute. As such, Yun Hailan now acts as the spokesperson for both of our institutes."

"Isn't all this a bit sudden? It's hard to believe."

Emperor Sage-Ancestor could tell that Yun Hailan's cultivation base was in the third Legendary transformation, but that she had other mysterious power lurking within her. In fact, even though he himself had sage motes, her substructure actually seemed stronger than his.

'So, that's what an immortal's sealing mark does,' he thought.

He immediately realized that although she wasn't too strong for him to deal with directly, if he killed her, and made contact with the immortal sealing mark in her, he would likely suffer a backlash attack. And that would be very troublesome.

For all intents and purposes, she was safe from attack by Great Sages.

And as her cultivation base grew stronger and stronger, her connection to the two immortal planes would cause her power to grow exponentially.

Looking around at the court, Yun Hailan said, "Gentlemen, the Crown Prince will return today. So make your decision. If you don't, the consequences will be too horrible to contemplate."

Her words resounded like thunder into the minds of everyone present. Even Emperor Sage-Ancestor blanched.

"What?!" one of the princes shrieked, his heart pounding with terror. "The Crown Prince is coming back today? I thought there were still twenty days to go!?"

"Chancellor Demi-Immortal set the hundred-day time limit, not the Crown Prince. Considering how strong the Crown Prince is now, do you really think he needs to listen to the chancellor? In fact, abiding by the chancellor's hundred-day time limit would actually be a big loss of face, don't you think?"

"He's returning today," Chancellor True Dragon said coolly. "He'll head to the Demi-Immortal Institute first, to meet with the Crown Prince Society. The True Dragon and Sea God Institutes, as well as some Great Sages from the Quake-Dawn Cathedral, will go there to meet him and offer formal greetings. We already have the spatial coordinates, and can travel there immediately. Will the imperial court be joining us? By the way, the Crown Prince has already said that anyone who doesn't go to receive him will be executed. I'd say the safest course for the Sage Ancestor Dynasty is to go along."

"The Great Sages from the Quake-Dawn Cathedral are already here?" Emperor Sage-Ancestor's face fell again, and his heart twisted with indecision. He was an emperor, and a Great Sage, so he truly did not wish to bow before the Crown Prince. But everything was happening so quickly that he didn't see any other options.

In the end, he sagged visibly. "Fine! I'll bring all of my officials to offer greetings."

"Congratulations on your decision, Your Majesty," Yun Hailan said. She chuckled. "You couldn't have chosen better. Come on, let's go."

Waving her hand, she used some sort of unfathomable power to create a space-time wormhole leading directly to the Demi-Immortal Institute.

Emperor Sage-Ancestor led his subordinate and officials to follow.

Soon, they found themselves in a land of rolling mountains which formed a huge spell formation.

In the middle of it all was an altar vastly larger than the one used by the Sage Ancestor Dynasty to offer sacrifices to heaven. In fact, it towered so much higher than the surrounding mountains that it made them look like ants.

As soon as Emperor Sage-Ancestor arrived, he caught sight of nine other Great Sages. They were located in various positions around the altar, and were using their energy arts to lock down onto precise spatial coordinates.

'Nine Great Sages?!' Emperor Sage-Ancestor thought, trembling inside. 'This is the strength of the Quake-Dawn Cathedral. Nine of them? It's… it's unbelievable!'

"Your Majesty," Yun Hailan said, "look, the Crown Prince is here."

RUUUUUMBLE!

A massive force erupted out that was suffocating even to the Great Sages.

The Crown Prince had arrived.