Sage Monarch

Ghost Emperor Yama clicked his tongue approvingly. "I'm impressed, Yang Qi. Not only did you thoroughly plunder the Western Continent, you opened up new mining operations. And you connected to numerous immortal planes, allowing power from there to fill the Rich-Lush Continent. After enough time passes, and enough energy builds up, you'll be able to change this place from having a flat earth and a curved heaven, to being a planet! That will really be something!

"Not even Grand Emperor Rich-Lush himself managed to do anything like that. He worked himself to the bone to try to do it, hoping to use the resulting power surge to push himself into the Demi-Immortal level. In the end, he failed, mostly because he never acquired the approval of the sage spirits in the Planar Pearl."

Yang Qi closed his eyes and used his true energy to send his vision beyond the greyspace of the Rich-Lush Continent and into outer space.

From that vantage point, he could see Sage Monarch City and the spatial coordinates which surrounded it, as well as the immortal sealing marks which connected the continent to the immortal planes, and allowed boundless vital energy to enter it.

Among all the various planes of existence, places with curved heavens and flat earths were the lowest type. The next highest type of plane was the planet, and higher than that were the planetary systems.

In ancient times, the Yore-Wilds Continent had been considered a planetary system, meaning that it contained hundreds of billions of planets, as well as numerous continental plates, all of which were connected to create a huge plane of existence.

As for planes of a higher nature than the Yore-Wilds Continent planetary system, they were the fabled immortal planes.

Often, they were referred to as Such-and-Such Heaven. For example, Non-Interference Heaven, Titan Emperor Heaven, Sea King Heaven, Dragon World Heaven, and so on. They were enormous planes that consisted of millions upon billions of planetary systems, with strange types of space-time. They were almost like universes, places of profound and utter mystery.

There were higher planes beyond the immortal planes, although, no one knew what they were like.

It was virtually impossible to push a plane into a higher state of being, so actually accomplishing such a deed was considered incredibly astounding. In mortal terms, it would be like a peasant founding an imperial dynasty.

But now, the Rich-Lush Continent was already heading in the direction of becoming a planet, and it was all thanks to Yang Qi's accomplishments. He had first saved the plane as a whole, and had then gone into the primal chaos vital energy and opened up passageways to immortal planes.

"So, Ghost Emperor Yama, are there any benefits to turning a continent into a planet?" Yang Qi asked.

"Benefits? Of course there are. Incredible benefits! First of all, the process will release a huge amount of force, countless streams of universal vital power that can be combined to benefit the person overseeing the transformation. That person can use the power to achieve virtually any breakthrough, and without the risk of heavenly tribulation. In that moment, that person would be the overlord of the lands, and therefore, heaven and earth would actually help him. That was how Grand Emperor Rich-Lush originally hoped to become a Demi-Immortal."

"Except, turning the Rich-Lush Continent into a planet wasn't as easy as he'd hoped, right?"

"Exactly. To do things the normal way, one would have to build up power for a few tens of thousands of years. Of course, that's how it goes when you don't have all the miracles you usually come up with. For example, given your current cultivation base, you can already live for tens of thousands of years without any problems. Even ordinary Never-Dying Legendaries can live for over ten thousand years, and ordinary Great Sages, tens of thousands. Given the speed of your cultivation, I'd say it shouldn't be hard at all for you to become a high-level Great Sage in a few tens of thousands of years. By then, you could use the Rich-Lush Continent's transformation into a planet to push you into the Demi-Immortal level. You know, that's a level most people only dream of, and being able to reach it in only a few tens of thousands of years is really miraculous."

"Tens of thousands of years?" Yang Qi shook his head. "Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of laying out such long-term plans. I need to become a Great Sage sooner rather than later. Otherwise, I'll end up getting killed."

"Well, you did absorb the essence of that Nascent Divinity Starlight Body, so you should be able to reach the Astral-Star Transformation fairly soon. You didn't build up a lot of energy in your month of cultivation, but I can tell that the quality of your true energy has reached a terrifying level. You're still not quite a match for me, but given some time, you won't even need the God Legion Seal to cause me problems." Ghost Emperor Yama currently looked like a strapping, middle-aged man, and was as handsome as an infernal king from hell. He had an underworldly sage domain, a personal kingdom that had greatly benefited from the half of the Infernal Deity Spear that he had acquired.

Of course, Yang Qi had advanced even more than he had, thanks to defeating so many Great Sages.

He had plenty of sage motes, and even some immortal motes, all of them in his God Legion Paradise. Unfortunately, he could only work with the sage motes, not the immortal motes.

The immortal motes were buried deep in the immortal armor he had taken from the Crown Prince, and could not be easily accessed. Yang Qi would need to become a Great Sage before he could do that.

Thankfully, the sage motes he had acquired could be used to power his Fist of the Halls of Heaven, which was more than enough to slaughter Great Sage enemies.

At the moment, Yang Qi was easily able to handle first, second, and third step Great Sages. After all, among the nine Great Sages from the Quake-Dawn Continent, only one had been in the third step, and the Fist of the Halls of Heaven had destroyed him almost immediately.

Unfortunately, even though he had reached the Ghost-God Transformation, his Hell Portal could only summon hell-born monsters in the Half Sage level. Great Sages were still out of the question. It seemed likely that he would need to reach the Great Sage level before that was possible.

Another problem he currently had was that using sage motes to unleash the Fist of the Halls of Heaven was an inferior option. It was only about one percent as powerful as the full version of the fist technique.

Because of all that, it could only be imagined how terrifyingly powerful he would be as a Great Sage. Not only would he himself be far stronger, but he would be able to summon an army of Great Sage fiend-devils, something that could shake even the ancient Yore-Wilds Continent.

Yang Qi suddenly rose to his feet. "Ghost Emperor Yama, I'm leaving for a trip to the Hanging Mountain, and I don't want you coming with me. You stay here in the Rich-Lush Continent to defend against any potential invaders. Alright?"

"What? You want me stationed here? Hmm. Okay. I'll keep an eye on the Sage Monarch Society. But are you going to make it worth it for me?"

"Worth it? Of course. With the Crown Prince and Yun Hailan dead, I have only one major goal, and that's to find out the truth about my past. I already know that my mother is Greensura, a holy daughter from the Hanging Mountain, so once I know the rest of the secrets of my origin, I can focus fully on my cultivation, and strive to reach the highest of heights. After I find out the truth of my past, I'll give you the rest of the Infernal Deity Spear. In the meantime, I'll give you other hellish enlightenment. What do you say? You're strong enough to take charge here and resist any advances by the Quake-Dawn Cathedral. After all, don't forget that the Crown Prince's mother is the Holy Daughter of the Quake-Dawn Cathedral. Considering how many of their people I killed, they'll definitely be coming to cause problems sooner or later."

"Okay," Ghost Emperor Yama said, beaming with joy. "So, you're the son of a holy daughter from the Hanging Mountain. And the Crown Prince's mother is the Holy Daughter in the Quake-Dawn Cathedral. In some ways, you're the same, although, the Quake-Dawn Cathedral can't possibly compare to the Hanging Mountain. The Hanging Mountain is essentially a planetary system, and is far, far larger than the Quake-Dawn Continent. There are even people there who represent the Demonfolk from the immortal planes. The holy daughters of the Hanging Mountain are not to be trifled with, which means you're actually pretty important. Say, what about your father? Who's he? And why did they possibly send you to a tiny plane like the Rich-Lush Continent? It doesn't really make sense."

"I only have one father, and his name is Yang Zhan. I'm from the Yang Clan, and my blood is that of the Sovereign Lord, who exists above the legion of gods. That said, I still want to know the story of my past."

At this point, he exercised a thought, and countless enlightenment of the primeval infernal deities entered Ghost Emperor Yama's mind.

Yang Qi didn't fear Ghost Emperor Yama anymore. In fact, he could sense that, after killing the eighteen Great Sages and the Crown Prince, the man actually viewed him as an equal.

However, the act of imparting the infernal deity sutras to him, as well as half of the Infernal Deity Spear, left Yang Qi with the distinct sensation that, eventually, such things would give him complete control over Ghost Emperor Yama.

It was something Yang Qi had never imagined could happen.

The truth was that for Ghost Emperor Yama to cultivate the Infernal Deity Spear was actually an act of blaspheming against the legion of gods, and would lead to his ultimate doom. Yang Qi could cultivate it because he had the God Legion Seal, and was a spokesperson for the gods. In the end, for Ghost Emperor Yama to try to get techniques from Yang Qi was essentially suicidal for him.

Of course, Yang Qi wasn't going to tell him that. The man obviously still had it out for him, and therefore, he would draw things out as long as possible. And right now, he needed him to stand watch over the Rich-Lush Continent. Without that safety net, he wouldn't be able to head to the Hanging Mountain to search for his mother.

"Come back as soon as possible, Qi'er," Yang Zhan said. His cultivation base was already in Nonary Lifeseizing, putting him just on the verge of becoming a Legendary.

"Don't worry, Father. I will." With that, Yang Qi unfurled his Angel Wings and flew out into the void.