Sage Monarch

"Emissary Red Lotus?" Yang Qi murmured. "Who is this Holy Mother? And why does she want to see me? And here I thought it was going to take some work to get to the Hanging Mountain. From the message, it's obvious they know about the Rich-Lush Continent being united under my command. And now this Holy Mother sends an emissary to me? It seems highly, highly likely that the Holy Mother is my birth mother."

Without any hesitation, he prepared to return to the Rich-Lush Continent.

Already, his heart was beginning to beat with excitement. At the same time, he felt a bit uneasy, and also uncertain.

It was like he had been searching for something for years, toiling away in the hopes of making a bit of progress toward it, only to have it suddenly appear right in front of him.

The Hanging Mountain was widely regarded as a holy land of the Demonfolk, and now its Holy Mother, a spectacular and seemingly invincible leader, a Demi-Immortal who surpassed Great Sages, was looking for him.

Nie Chaoguang realized exactly what was going on. He knew that Yang Qi's entire purpose on this journey was to look for his mother, who was a holy daughter of the Hanging Mountain. If Yang Qi's mother was actually the Holy Mother of the entire Hanging Mountain, then that would be a major development.

Of course, it was all speculation until they returned to the Rich-Lush Continent and learned the details.

Yang Qi ignored Nie Chaoguang's thoughtful look, and waved his hand to open up a rift in space-time. Stepping into the spatial tempests, he headed back toward the Rich-Lush Continent at top speed.

After using the heavenking thistle to reach the eighth Legendary transformation, the God Legion Paradise had constellation networks in it, allowing him to call upon the power of the stars. With that, he could move even faster than before.

His trip to the Quake-Dawn Continent had taken a few days and nights, but the return trip only took a few hours.

Soon, the Rich-Lush Continent was visible, and it was almost as if the primal-chaos vital energy could sense his return, and was cheering in joy.

Swish!

He opened his Lord's Eye, and instantly caught sight of the five-colored space-time wormhole in the void above the middle of the continent.

Although he couldn't see where exactly the wormhole led to, he could see the hosts of women inside, waiting patiently.

'When did that wormhole appear, and how come I was never aware of it?' he thought. 'Ever since I took control of the primal-chaos vital energy, and the ancient immortal formations, the Rich-Lush Continent has become almost like a part of me. I should have been aware of any space-time wormholes in the area. It must be a new wormhole. Hmm, seems dangerous.'

The Rich-Lush Continent was more important to Yang Qi now than it ever had been.

It wasn't just the fact that his family and sworn siblings were all here. For all intents and purposes, the continent was now a magical treasure, and in some aspects like an animadestiny nascent divinity.

When he became a Great Sage, he would be able to upgrade the continent in the same way he would upgrade a magical treasure. He would eventually turn it into a planet, and then use the resulting power surge to push himself past the bottleneck that blocked the way into the Demi-Immortal level. Without that power surge, the breakthrough would be much more difficult.

Under ordinary circumstances, it was almost impossible for cultivators to break out of the Great Sage level and into the Demi-Immortal level. It required the perfect opportunity to come along, usually, the legacy of an entire continent.

Not even a ninth step Great Sage who came along and destroyed the Rich-Lush Continent could just take its legacy. Neither could such an outsider acquire the approval of the continent, and build up the cycle of energy necessary to make it a planet.

But Yang Qi had all of those things.

WHOOSH!

He landed in Sage Monarch City, and his aura spread out in shocking fashion, causing the primal-chaos paleo-energy to surge like an army cheering the return of its general.

That energy was completely different in Yang Qi's presence than when he was away.

WHIZZZ!

Instantly, the immortal formations in the depths of the continent all activated.

Streams of immortal energy shot into the sky, connecting to the sun, moon, and heavenly bodies. In the blink of an eye, screaming winds filled the sky above the city, and the burning power of the stars, sun, and moon shone down.

At that point, Ghost Emperor Yama appeared in front of Yang Qi, and he looked quite surprised. "Yang Qi. You're back. How did you return so quickly? Your cultivation base advanced again?! You're in the eighth transformation, aren't you? And you have the power of immortal-spirits in you. You must have consumed some sort of immortal pill, didn't you, or perhaps some immortal grass. As of this moment, you don't even need sage motes to fight a Great Sage. You just won't stop, will you? At this rate, it will only be four or five more years before you can completely outdo me."

"I just happened to acquire some heavenking thistle, that's all," Yang Qi said coolly. "As of now, it should be relatively easy to reach the Great Sage level."

"Heavenking thistle!?" Ghost Emperor Yama said, nearly jumping into the air. "How did you possibly get something like that? It's precious beyond belief! You know, some Great Sages have been killed trying to consume heavenking thistle. You have to adjust it and refine it properly before absorbing it into your personal domain. And once you do, you'll acquire the sealing mark of an immortal plane."

"You think my personal domain needs the sealing mark of an immortal plane?" Yang Qi said. "Where is the emissary from the Hanging Mountain?"

"She's inside waiting for you."

Walking past Ghost Emperor Yama, Yang Qi entered the hall to find Emissary Red Lotus sitting there, as well as Yang Zhan.

At a mere glance, Yang Qi could tell that this young woman was far stronger than Wilds Everlasting. She seemed to glitter like morning dew, and her true energy was so powerful that he couldn't assess it.

At the very least, she was a fifth step Great Sage.

Yang Qi knew that he could take out fourth step Great Sages, but when it came to the fifth step, he wasn't so confident. In fact, he had never met anyone that strong, other than Ghost Emperor Yama and Chancellor Demi-Immortal.

And even those two were currently a bit beyond his ability to handle.

When Great Sages reached the fifth step, their true energy transformed in a very dramatic fashion. It was very similar to the fifth phase of the Energy Arts level, although Yang Qi still wasn't sure of the particulars.

"So, you're Yang Qi?" Emissary Red Lotus said, her voice light and melodic. When she looked at him, it was as if her eyes could pierce into the very depths of his soul.

Yang Qi immediately sensed that his vital energy core and his animadestiny nascent divinity were being eaten away at by some sort of demonic sorcery. It was enigmatic to the extreme, and seemed to be worming its way into his memories to extract them and plant some sort of seed inside of him. In some ways, it was very similar to the situation with the heaven-demon seed that he had encountered in the past.

"How impudent!" he said, stamping his foot. Instantly, primal-chaos paleo-energy spread out, covering him with fire that was very similar to the Night Queen Flame. A thunderous boom rang out, and a nearly imperceptible stream of true energy in the area suddenly transformed into ash. In response, Emissary Red Lotus trembled visibly.

"What incredible gall!" said one of the maidservants behind her. "I can't believe you would dare to be disrespectful to Emissary Red Lotus! That's a crime worthy of execution!"

"I'm fine," Emissary Red Lotus said, surprise flickering in her eyes. "Night Queen Flame. You can control fire like that? Spectacular!"

"We've only just met, and you're already trying to snare me with demonic sorcery?" Yang Qi said coldly. "You were just trying to invade my sea of consciousness, weren't you? If you were any other person, I would put you to death immediately!"

"Oh? Put me to death?" Emissary Red Lotus chuckled. "Boy, do you know how different our cultivation levels are? Unless I'm mistaken, you're only a Legendary."

"I've killed plenty of Great Sages already," Yang Qi replied calmly.

"Fine. You've got personality, that much is obvious. Just the type of person the Holy Mother would want to see. Well, even just meeting you, I've accomplished half of my mission. The other half is to bring you to see the Holy Mother. Come on, let's go. You don't need to worry about leaving the Rich-Lush Continent unprotected. The Holy Mother has issued a decree prohibiting anyone from coming here. Neither the Quake-Dawn Cathedral nor any Demon Sages will dare to violate her orders."

With that, she rose to her feet and opened the space-time wormhole.

"Slow down," Yang Qi said, frowning. "You think I'm just going to blindly follow orders from you?" He obviously didn't trust this woman at all, and had no desire to follow her into a potentially dangerous situation. True, he wanted to go to the Hanging Mountain, but on his own terms, and definitely not with fanfare.

Besides, he had the feeling that this Emissary Red Lotus was hiding something. It didn't seem likely that she had come here in good faith.

"You should go, Qi'er," Yang Zhan said. "It has to do with the secrets of your past."

"He's right, Yang Qi," Emissary Red Lotus said. "It's a rare thing for the Holy Mother to summon anyone to see her. Plenty of Great Sages will go to ridiculous lengths to receive that honor. Now you're getting it without asking, only to consider refusing?"

"This is an important matter," Yang Qi said, "and I want to make sure I understand the situation clearly." Looking at Yang Zhan, he said, "Father, my past is just that: the past. It's not worth it for me to put myself in great danger just to find out about some old stories. The future is far more important."

As he spoke the final words, his gaze shifted back to Emissary Red Lotus.

1. In case you forgot, the fact that the fifth phase was a "watershed" level was mentioned in . It was emphasized quite a few times throughout the early chapters, notably in and . Although it doesn't mention it in this passage, the fifth level in Lifeseizing was the same, as pointed out in . The pattern changed somewhat for the Legendary level.