Sage Monarch

The corpses of countless devils were being poured into the Sage Monarch Continent.

As a result, its borders were rapidly expanding within the starry sky. The common people and cultivators in the lands could sense that immense changes were taking place. Thankfully, it was a very calm and peaceful expansion, with no earthquakes, volcanoes, or the like.

After several days and nights passed, the Sage Monarch Continent was fully a hundred times larger than it had been before and was continuing to grow larger.

Although it still couldn't compare to the Quake-Dawn Continent, and was nowhere near ready to become a planet, its substructure, essence, terrain, aegis, and greyspace had all improved.

From far away in the starry sky, it looked like a huge continent within the void, surrounded by glittering sage motes and pulsing with power. Its greyspace was in the process of growing, and it was constantly absorbing spatial power from around it.

How many fiend-devil corpses had been absorbed into the continent in the process?

Yang Qi had lost track, but not Ghost Emperor Yama. "Thirty thousand. Thirty thousand Great Sage fiend-devils were absorbed into the Sage Monarch Continent. He really did use the corpses of countless devils to create a land belonging to the legion of gods. Even if you combined all of the Great Sages that came from the former Rich-Lush Continent and Western Continent, how many would there be? Probably not even three thousand."

That was a good estimate. After all, before Yang Qi conquered and united the two continents, the Rich-Lush Continent only had the four chancellors of the institutes and the emperor of the Sage Ancestor Dynasty. What that indicated was that the vital energy of the continent itself was too weak to support any more than five Great Sages.

For a person to reach the Great Sage level required a lot of time and huge accumulation of vital energy. Unfortunately, the vital energy in the Rich-Lush Continent had been extremely limited, and had begun to wane over the years. That was why fewer and fewer Great Sages had risen up.

And yet, Yang Qi had just buried the remains of thirty thousand Great Sage fiend-devils in the lands around him, using them to bolster its vital energy and giving birth to a much more powerful energy flow within the continent itself.

The number of Great Sages would be limited in a given location, not just because of the quality of the vital energy, but also the type of energy flow created by the world's essence. A continent was in some respects a living thing, and if it gave birth to too many top experts, who then began to fight amongst themselves, it could lead to widespread destruction. Therefore, a continent would limit the number of Great Sages to protect itself. Because of the strict control over the number of experts, it would have been impossible for the Rich-Lush Continent to produce a Demi-Immortal. After all, a Demi-Immortal would have been powerful enough to destroy the entire continent with almost no effort, or perhaps even accidentally.

There was no way a continent would produce an entity that could lead to its own destruction. Actually, truth be told, even the seventh step of the Great Sage level was technically too powerful. That was why, by means of some good fortune Chancellor Demi-Immortal encountered on his travels outside of the Rich-Lush Continent, he ended up ensconcing his nascent divinity in another location. Otherwise, he would never have been able to reach the seventh step.

Normally, the ensconcement of one's nascent divinity in a continent, planet, or plane would be the key to successfully increasing one's cultivation level. So anyone who ensconced their nascent divinity in the Rich-Lush Continent would never have been able to surpass the sixth step of the Great Sage level. As for the Quake-Dawn Continent, ensconcement there would limit one's capacity to the Demi-Immortal level.

Ensconcement in an immortal plane such as the Titan Emperor Heaven would allow someone to push their cultivation to the Demolishing level.

And of course, Yang Qi had his nascent divinity ensconced in the Hell of Mahānata, an ancient plane and the most magnificent of all the hells, a place that had once waged war on the legion of gods. Who knew what limits would be placed on a nascent divinity ensconced there? After all, in Helltongue, Mahānata meant 'grand', and obviously only the grandest of entities could rise up from the grandest of hells.

The fact that thirty thousand Great Sage fiend-devils were now buried in the Sage Monarch Continent implied that it could theoretically allow thirty thousand Great Sages to exist.

That was not to mention the fact that some of the slaughtered fiend-devils had particularly strong blood, such as the Infernalfolk, who were nobility among fiend-devils.

And yet, Yang Qi wasn't finished. He continued summoning more fiend-devils in the Great Sage level. After all, hells were like immortal worlds, in that they were ranked, and the Hell of Mahānata was one of the highest ranked.

Other places, like the Hells of Euphoria, Scorching Flame, Frigid Ice, or Mud Pits, couldn't possibly compare.

Unfortunately, Yang Qi's cultivation base limited the growth of the spore-devil, which in turn meant that he could only summon fifth step Great Sages. Not even the fact that his immortal child had a fifth step cultivation base helped, because his immortal child couldn't summon the Hell Portal. Only Yang Qi's true self, with the God Legion Seal, was capable of wielding such power.

Fiend-devils poured out like sand, bolstering the Sage Monarch Continent, giving it power, and causing its essence to flourish. At the same time, it caused tempests of wind and lightning to rise up in the depths of the continent.

Wind represented softness and lightning represented hardness. And the combination of softness and hardness represented eternity.

It was with a completely dazed expression that Ghost Emperor Yama continued to count in a hushed tone.

"Forty thousand. Fifty thousand. Sixty thousand. Seventy thousand…." The number climbed higher and higher and the Sage Monarch Continent continued to tremble deeply, until a flow of starlight appeared within its depths. It became a vortex that was an early sign of the formation of a new planetary system. Clearly, the Sage Monarch Continent had the potential to become, not just a planet, but a full-fledged planetary system. It could become a grand and expansive collection of worlds like the Yore-Wilds planetary system itself.

'Right, the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment….' Yang Qi suddenly thought. With a thought, he extracted the heart fragment from the God Legion Paradise and sent it into the vortex of starlight deep within the continent.

'If I could get all of the fragments of the Yore-Wilds Heart and put them together, what would that mean for the potential of the Sage Monarch Continent?' All of a sudden, he was filled with the ambition to do just that.

With all the heart fragments, as well as whatever treasures he might come across in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, it seemed highly likely that he could turn the Sage Monarch Continent into a planetary system. Perhaps it would not be as magnificent as the old Yore-Wilds, but maybe it would be enough for him to reach the Demi-Immortal level in that way.

It was impossible to say how difficult it would be for him to eventually reach the Demi-Immortal level. However, one thing was for certain; he would need to defeat a lot of eighth step Great Sages and take their sage motes to use as fuel.

Once he was a Demi-Immortal, he would have heaven-shaking, earth-shattering power, enough that he could rip open heaven, enter the immortal world, and have strength that rivaled a Demolisher.

"Immortal child!"

After absorbing a hundred thousand fiend-devil Great Sages and too many Legendaries to count, the Sage Monarch Continent stopped expanding. It hung there in the void, mountains towering above it, pulsing with spirit energy that was so strong it was almost liquid.

By this point, it was impossible to say how many of the commoners throughout the land had experienced cultivation breakthroughs. And from here on out, reaching the Great Sage level would no longer be an impossible dream for most.

Forgetting the Great Sage level, it was obvious that Legendaries would be springing like bamboo after a spring rain.

How many Legendary fiend-devils had Yang Qi summoned? A million? Ten million? Not even Ghost Emperor Yama had been able to keep track. All Yang Qi knew was that, for every Great Sage fiend-devil, he had summoned hundreds or maybe even thousands of weaker fiend-devils.

As for the immortal child, he was firmly linked to the essence of the continent and had grown significantly. Now he was one with the lands, and had used the immortal items Yang Qi provided to become the ultimate guardian of the continent's greyspace.

The soil of the continent was like infinite tiny grains of crystal, which emanated a spirit energy that was like golden streams of blood.

The total area covered by the Sage Monarch Continent was now close to that of the Quake-Dawn Continent, and, in terms of its substructure, it was even denser. Although the Quake-Dawn Continent had plenty of spirit-energy-rich soil, it also had areas with ordinary soil. But in the Sage Monarch Continent, everything was spirit soil.

It was definitely a holy land of cultivation in every aspect.

**

While Yang Qi was in the middle of transforming the Sage Monarch Continent in a very significant way, there were many organizations and powers keeping a close eye on the situation.

Not too far away was the Quake-Dawn Continent and the many satellite planets which orbited around it. One such satellite was an ancient temple that was located in a hidden nexus.

The temple itself covered an area of tens of thousands of kilometers. Within that temple, a pair of eyes peered out toward the spirit-energy-rich Sage Monarch Continent.

"Holy Daughter, the Sage Monarch Continent has suddenly grown in size. In the past, it wasn't even one ten-thousandth the size of our Quake-Dawn Continent. But now look at it. I can't believe Yang Qi is that strong."

This man wore completely black clothing that hid everything except his eyes. He was the Ninja God, a ninth step Epic Saga Sage, yet he could hardly believe what he was seeing.

He was standing next to a throne, upon which sat the Holy Daughter of the Quake-Dawn Cathedral. She held a moonlight scepter in one hand, and had a veil that covered her face, making it impossible to read her expression. "My son was a god from heaven descended into the mortal world, and he even acquired the legacy medallion of King Immortal-Slayer. And yet, he died at Yang Qi's hands. Yang Qi will meet a tragic end, I tell you that."

"Holy Daughter, is the Quake-Dawn Cathedral going to openly make a move against him? His cultivation base is so high that he can trample even ninth step Great Sages. Without a Demi-Immortal, I don't see how we could kill him. And that's not to mention that his mother is a Demi-Immortal, or that he's a student of the Titan Emperor Collegium. Compared to the collegium, our Quake-Dawn Cathedral is like a piece of dust."

Obviously, the Ninja God had grown wary of making a move against Yang Qi.

"I know all that," she replied. "But I can make use of others to do the dirty work. He killed my son, the Crown Prince, and that must be avenged. Have you forgotten that beyond the edge of the Four Wilds planetary system is the Megaplexus planetary system, which is managed by the Megaplexus Heaven? Are you telling me that they're afraid of the Titan Emperor Collegium?"

1. The term "aegis" came up in passing in . Essentially it refers to the active defenses of some enormous location. In 339 it was referring to a city, and here, a continent. In some respects its very similar to the greyspace, although greyspaces are more like a permanent wall, with an aegis being something that can be activated, deactivated, powered, unpowered, etc.