Sage Monarch

Yang Qi left the greyspace of the Rich-Lush Continent and entered outer space.

He was a Ghost-God Legendary, and even ordinary Legendary experts could traverse the void by means of space-time wormholes. So there was little need to mention Yang Qi's ability to do so. After all, he had used his Angel Wings to escape Great Sage Pure Emptiness back when he was only in the second transformation.

And now, he was thousands of times stronger than back then. Perhaps even tens of thousands of times as strong. Even without the help of a hell monsoon, he could theoretically travel to the Quake-Dawn Continent himself.

Unfortunately, the Hanging Mountain was much, much further away than that continent. If he tried to fly there with his own power, it would likely take a million years.

However, he could definitely hop through various space-time wormholes to shorten the time.

After he was in outer space, he saw an endless silver river of stars and planets. In the void, it was impossible to see the stars and planets. The only thing visible was darkness and tempests. But in outer space, there was dazzling starlight everywhere, filling anyone who could see it with a feeling of warmth.

The first thing Yang Qi did was take in the sights. Looking out into outer space, he saw the silver river, and began thinking about the universe, the planes of existence, the void, and other such things.

He even opened the Lord's Eye, and could see even more clearly the distinction between the eternal darkness and light that existed. There was a bright universe that was outer space. Within it hung countless planets, planetary systems, continents. And there was a dark universe that was the void, filled with darkness, and without any light.

The two universes did not intersect. However, they were connected by wormholes, which were very much like passageways left behind by burrowing archaean godworms.

One could enter the dark void, and leap great distances, to come out in other locations in outer space.

To do so, however, required massive amounts of power.

With his Lord's Eye, Yang Qi could see down to the substructure of the universe around him. In fact, it was now possible to determine that the immortal planes above actually existed in another universe of their own, separated by a massive greyspace.

Within this universe, the Rich-Lush Continent was like a speck of dust, which could be blown away by the slightest fluctuation. As for Yang Qi himself, he was very weak.

Of course, the mighty legion of gods was far beyond his sight. It was hard to say why; although he could sense the countless immortal planes, he had absolutely no sensation regarding whatever world the legion of gods lived in.

He could sense the will of heaven, or more precisely, numerous wills of heaven. And yet, he could not sense the mighty entity who had created the heavens above.

Looking out, Yang Qi could see the starry sky, which he knew had once belonged to the Yore-Wilds Continent. That continent had shattered, transforming into countless planets and continents. As for the other major continents, the Waste-Wilds Continent, Brute-Wilds Continent, and Proto-Wilds Continent, they were much further out in the sea of stars.

Of course, all of them fell under the jurisdiction of one of the immortal planes above them, the Titan Emperor Heaven.

Closing his eyes, he could sense the will of heaven out in the boundless sea of stars. That will was the animadestiny of the immortal plane above, or perhaps, the expression of some almighty being from there. It was essentially a manifestation of magical law.

Anyone within the planetary systems governed by that magical law would have to act in accord with it.

Throwing his head back, he shouted, "Let the power of the stars gather within me!"

Instantly, countless streams of starlight began to rush toward him.

He was making his breakthrough into the Astral-Star Transformation.

Normally speaking, making this breakthrough would require an extensive period of preparation. However, killing Young Lady Starlight had given him access to the powers of a Nascent Divinity Starlight Body, making it much easier to reach out to heavenly bodies. As such, it was no problem at all to begin creating constellations within the depths of his domain.

His God Legion Paradise was complete, but not yet perfect. After reaching the Ghost-God Transformation, he had added empyrean-baleful powers to it, and now that he was stepping into the Astral-Star Transformation, he was adding a constellation network. With that, he could use the power of heavenly bodies to attack and kill his enemies.

Starlight swirled around him like a sea. It was almost like he alone had become a hundred thousand versions of himself, all reaching out to bring in starlight.

As the starlight rushed into the God Legion Paradise, it fused with the greyspace, causing countless stars to begin to twinkle brightly within it. It was a constellation network of a mysterious and profound nature, filled with constellations such as Sagittarius, Pisces, Scorpio, and others. As a result, the God Legion Paradise grew more vast and mighty, and filled with the type of mighty aura that would exist during the early moments of a universe.

Yang Qi was completely immersed in his connection to the dao of heaven, the miracle of creation, the mysteries of the stars, and the powerful substructure of heaven and earth. Suddenly, he realized that the powerful substructure he was sensing was made up of countless smaller particles.

And he also realized that if he could push his cultivation to a certain level, then he, just like starlight, could scatter into countless particles, each of them independent, and eternally indestructible.

He was now in the Astral-Star Transformation.

And yet, in that moment in which he was immersed in the dao of heaven, a shining beam of sword light shot out from the void.

The sword light contained something so incredibly profound that it could sever heaven and earth, and it instantly broke Yang Qi's connection to the dao of heaven. It was a result of the sheer power of the sword itself, not any special move.

Yang Qi looked over, and the starlight around him faded, to be replaced by the sword light, which seemed capable of stabbing deep into his soul. It moved far more quickly than lightning, and without any sound, sliced apart anything in its path.

It was a sneak attack!

There was no time to avoid it, or even teleport away somehow. Even worse, the sword light seemed to be locked onto his soul, and preparing to absorb it.

In fact, within the light, there was actually a tiny black spot, which was none other than a black hole of vital energy.

"Superlative Defense!" Yang Qi said without thinking. As the God Legion Paradise spread out, sagelight surged, and the greyspace spread out with its turtle-shell-like pattern of interlocking crystals.

When the sword struck the greyspace, the domain shuddered, but did not break.

'Who's ambushing me!?' Yang Qi opened his Lord's Eye again, and looked out to see an enormous figure lurking in the void. At the very least, this enemy was a Great Sage, and were it not for his Superlative Defense, he most likely would have been assassinated just now.

RUMBLE!

Yang Qi unleashed the Fist of the Halls of Heaven, causing space to shatter like a mirror, and collapse into dust. In the blink of an eye, the fist strike traveled thousands of kilometers, and reached the shadowy figure who had just attacked him.

The figure blurred into motion, slashing out with his sword in a way that could pierce through space itself. Clearly, whoever this was, he had supreme control of the magical laws of space.

Yang Qi leapt out into the void, holding nothing back as he leaped into the fight. Around him, space shattered, and the God Legion Paradise caused space-time tempests to spring up everywhere.

BOOM!

Without any hesitation, Yang Qi unleashed a move from the Fist of the Halls of Heaven.

"Bury Immortals!"

Magical symbols that resembled dragons swept forth from his fists, causing the heavenly bodies to send starlight streaming down into the void.

It merged with Yang Qi's sagelight, creating numerous gravestones, each of which seemed designed to bury immortals!

A bloodcurdling shriek rang out as the fist struck the sword-wielding figure, who coughed up a mouthful of blood, and then turned to flee.

Looking over his shoulder, he said, "You're strong, Yang Qi. No wonder you killed the Crown Prince. However, the Quake-Dawn Cathedral isn't going to just let you off the hook. You and Ghost Emperor Yama are both going to die. I'm only the seventh most powerful killer from the Hall of Ninjas. Next time, it will be someone stronger who comes after you. As a Legendary who can destroy Great Sages, you're something special. Our Quake-Dawn Cathedral is going to capture you, and then extract all your secrets. You're already at the top of our kill list."

Then, a series of something like sonic booms rang out as the figure vanished.

'So, in the short weeks which have passed, the news has already reached the Quake-Dawn Cathedral. And they've already started to seek revenge.'

Unfortunately, the Great Sage assassin had escaped, and his attack had severed Yang Qi's connection with the dao of heaven, which meant that reaching further levels of enlightenment was going to be difficult.

"I originally thought I was going to blow right through the Astral-Star Transformation and reach an even higher level. After all, I have plenty of spirit stones. But now it seems it's going to take longer. Dammit. DAMMIT! Well, I might as well keep going to the Hanging Mountain. And the Quake-Dawn Continent is on my way. Maybe I should take a look and see what this Quake-Dawn Cathedral is really like."