Sage Monarch

Countless bizarre signs and portents swirled around Yang Qi.

Innumerable elemental fays flew around his head, creating resplendent halos. There was also an ancient god in the depths of tribulation, watching the destruction of the universe.

The process lasted for three months.

The halos were eventually sucked into his body, then his God Legion Paradise. There, in the middle of his personal domain, a tiny infant was growing. As it lay there, it began to move, meridians snaking through its form and a sea of energy forming inside of it.

It was like a baby god, and as it emerged into the open it unleashed boundless golden light that pierced deep into the void.

The power radiating from the child was from numerous types of immortal energy and items, all of which were part of it.

The Heaven-Burying Bow, the Heaven-Wasting Arrows, and the Golden Dragonscale Godskiff had all become part of it.

Furthermore, he was filled with powerful sage motes.

"That's…." Shocked, Yan Weiyi suddenly blurted, "An immortal embryo! According to the stories, it's only when the boundless quintessence energy of a high-level immortal world contacts a human that an immortal embryo will eventually form. They're the type of thing that are almost impossible to internally create. If he could turn it into an out-of-body incarnation, he would have access to boundless magical power. Some people have even abandoned their original bodies to fuse with an immortal embryo. How did Junior Eighteenth Brother get one?"

That infant was the very same treasure that Yang Qi had acquired in the depths of the Hell of Mahānata. After refining and purifying it with the energy and blood of over a dozen mutant humans, he had added the energy of the immortal world to him.

Thus, he had transformed the devil embryo into an immortal embryo, something that countless individuals could only dream of having.

"Junior Eighteenth Brother's already turned the immortal embryo into an out-of-body incarnation!" Sword Seventeen said. "He basically has two versions of himself now, and one of them is even a child of immortals. Imagine how incredible he would be if he pushed it to maturity. Compared to this, my Bladeless Sword Body is just average."

Elder Sixteenth Sister Flower Fern was watching Yang Qi with sparkling eyes. "You're right. Immortal embryos are usually only created in high-level immortal worlds. Who knows how Junior Eighteenth Brother got it. But what I find strange is that the immortal embryo isn't as strong as Junior Brother himself. What type of body does he have, I wonder?"

"Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing." Yan Weiyi shook his head. "In the Four Wilds, an immortal embryo is a manifestation of the most impressive type of battle body and can lead to cultivation speeds thousands of times faster than normal. And yet, Junior Eighteenth Brother is already capable of cultivation speeds thousands of times faster than his immortal embryo. I don't think there's ever been anything like this in the Titan Emperor Collegium. I've never even read it in literary works from the immortal worlds."

"Wait, could it be that he has the fabled and infinitely powerful Immortal-Slayer's Battle Body?" Elder Sixteenth Sister said. "I heard rumors that Junior Eighteenth Brother acquired the medallion of King Immortal-Slayer. Maybe that's the battle body he cultivates."

"It's highly likely," Sword Seventeen said. "But don't forget, there are all sorts of body types in the immortal worlds. For example, I've read in ancient immortal books about Taiji Battle Bodies, Chaos Origin Tyrant Bodies, Lightning Dragon Dueling Bodies, Life-Ending Devil Bodies, Violet Firmament Dao Bodies…. Such physiques don't exist in the mortal world, only in high-level immortal worlds. As for the heaven above us, the Titan Emperor Heaven, it has the Titan Emperor Sage Body, which one of the vice-rectors in the collegium has. Maybe Junior Eighteenth Brother has something like that."

"Probably so," Yan Weiyi said. "The immortal planes are very mysterious places, with as many unique battle bodies as the sands of the sea. What we know is like a drop of water in the ocean. After all, we're like tiny bugs compared to people from the immortal planes."

"Nascent Divinity Convergence; Second Soul Creation. Earth, water, fire, wind. Come forth, tribulations!" Yang Qi shivered as he provoked numerous tribulations. His out-of-body incarnation, the immortal child, already had muscles, bones, hands, and feet by the time the tribulations hit.

In the blink of an eye, the child's cultivation rose, accompanied by thunderous rumbling.

He jumped from Energy Arts to Lifeseizing, and in the blink of an eye, was in Nonary Lifeseizing. Lightning crashed as he reached the Blood-Form Transformation. Then Spirit Soul, Space-Void, Five-Phases, Yin-Yang, Personal-Domain, Ghost-God, Astral-Star, Never-Dying Transformation, Half Sage, Great Sage.

First step, Born Again. Second step, Nirvanic Resurrection. Third step, Eternal Sands. Fourth step, True Real. Fifth step, Light King….

The immortal child's cultivation base finally stopped rising when he was in the fifth step, making him a Light King Sage.

The immortal child was actually stronger than Yang Qi! To become a fifth step Great Sage in only a few months was a speed that would leave virtually anyone tongue-tied.

'So, that's the limit….' Yang Qi thought, looking very pleased as he examined the immortal child. He had poured all of the resources, energy, and enlightenment possible into the immortal embryo, who had advanced rapidly until he was in the Light King Step.

However, that just went to show that Yang Qi's enlightenment of magical laws actually surpassed the level of his own cultivation base.

Although he was technically only a second step Great Sage, he was having trouble advancing, for the very simple reason that heaven and earth wouldn't let him. The magical laws of this heaven and earth were too weak, making further breakthroughs impossible for him.

He was like a whale in a pond that simply couldn't grow larger until it got to the deep sea, where it could wave its tail and swim about freely.

If he wanted to reach the Eternal Sands Step, then he needed to take another trip to the Hell of Mahānata.

Unfortunately, despite having ensconced his nascent divinity there, he had no way to travel to the place directly. He needed some extremely powerful wormhole to do so.

Right now, he didn't have either the strength or the means necessary for that. After all, back when the training competition began in the Hanging Mountain, he had no idea how many powerful immortals had participated in the effort of breaking into the Hell of Mahānata.

It was an impasse that he currently couldn't do anything about.

Although it was possible for him to reach certain other hells, such as the Hell of Euphoria or Hell of Suras, they were much lower than the Hell of Mahānata. The upside was that, considering how he was linked to the essence of the Hell of Mahānata, if he could get there to work on his breakthrough there would be plenty of benefits to be had.

In the meantime, he had devised something of a workaround, which was to use his enlightenment to create an out-of-body incarnation, an immortal child.

He was incredibly powerful, far more so than the average person.

Yang Qi was itching to send him back to the Sage Monarch Continent, to fuse with its essence and further his cultivation. Later, when the Sage Monarch Continent became a planet, the immortal child could use the energy surge to reach the Demi-Immortal level and form his own minor world. As for himself, he would open a passageway to the Hell of Mahānata and work on his own cultivation there, to much better effect.

It was a classic case of attacking a problem from two angles.

After all, the immortal child did not have the same things holding him back as Yang Qi, and would be able to improve his cultivation much more quickly. Furthermore, he possessed all of Yang Qi's wisdom and knowledge.

Taking a deep breath, Yang Qi pulled the immortal child back inside of a spatial dimension within him. The immortal child was already strong enough to defeat a sixth step Great Sage. Although he wasn't capable of Yang Qi's battle prowess, that was balanced by the fact that he could advance his cultivation much more quickly.

"Are you done with your cultivation, Junior Eighteenth Brother?" Yan Weiyi said. "You've been in seclusion for a few months now. Got the enlightenment you need? You didn't reach the Eternal Sands Step, but formed an immortal embryo that got to the fifth step. Obviously, you have the enlightenment of the fifth step, but are limited by the magical laws of space and time here. You're just too strong, and this heaven and earth is too weak. You need to get to a more stable location to achieve your breakthrough." Yan Weiyi had very sharp eyes and thus easily identified Yang Qi's problem.

"It's not a big deal, and I can resolve the situation on my own," Yang Qi said coolly. "I'll achieve the breakthrough somewhere else. It was hard, but I managed to ensconce my nascent divinity somewhere very powerful. And I need to get back to that plane to continue my work."

"Oh?" Sword Seventeen said curiously. "You must have ensconced your nascent divinity somewhere very special, Junior Brother. Do you mind telling us where?"

"I guess there's no harm in that. I ensconced it in the Hell of Mahānata."

Yan Weiyi, Flower Fern, and Sword Seventeen stared at him for a long moment, their eyes wide.

"You ensconced your nascent divinity in the Hell of Mahānata?" Sword Seventeen said. "That… that's incredible! Astonishing! Even the most elite students in the Titan Emperor Heaven only went so far as to ensconce their nascent divinities in the Titan Emperor Heaven, and that made them royal students. The Hell of Mahānata surpasses the Titan Emperor Heaven by multiple levels."

The Titan Emperor Collegium had something called the Nascent Divinity Altar, which was set aside for students who were trying to become second step Great Sages. Successfully using that altar could lead to rapid cultivation advancement, although failure came with the punishment of death.

All of a sudden, a new voice rang out. "Junior Brother, it's quite amazing that you ensconced your nascent divinity in the Hell of Mahānata, and weren't affected by the power of hell. But getting back there is going to be hard. That said, it won't be impossible. There's an ancient immortal formation called the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. You might be able to get into the Hell of Mahānata from there."

"Elder Second Brother," Yan Weiyi called out, "you're back!"

1. The narrative usually refers to his clone as an "immortal embryo". However, I think that's weird, and considering that there are also usages of "infant" and "child" and "clone", I'm going to standardize them into two terms to be used depending on the context: "immortal child" and "immortal clone".