Sage Monarch

In a surprising turn of events, Northstar First-Rank, a sixth order Prime Demi-Immortal and the top expert in the Northstar Fleet, had perished.

He was actually the admiral of the entire fleet, to whom Northstar First-Truth and Northstar First-Summer always deferred. But the Holy Mother had used only two moves to shatter his minor world and kill him.

Not even his soul escaped destruction.

The Holy Mother's godly-class energy art had truly reached a peak level.

The two moves of Eternal Unknown and Deathless Demolishing made her unkillable in this situation. If news of this spread to the other three of the Four Wilds, or even the Central Planetary River and the Titan Emperor Collegium, it would cause a huge stir. In fact, the leaders of the Titan Emperor Collegium could theoretically report the matter to the immortal world above and be rewarded as a result.

"What? Northstar First-Rank's soul was destroyed? He's truly dead?"

"His aura is completely gone. And his corpse disappeared after it fell onto the land below."

"It's being refined as we speak…."

Northstar First-Truth and Northstar First-Summer both had incredible senses, and realized instantly that Northstar First-Rank was indeed dead and gone.

Never in their wildest dreams could they have imagined that this would happen. Northstar First-Rank was supposed to be the first among them to become a Revered Demi-Immortal. But now he was dead. Not even the three of them directing the Northstar Inert Wither-Glory Death Formation had been able to do anything to the Holy Mother's energy arts.

Just how strong was she?

The moment Northstar First-Rank died, the Holy Mother's face turned as white as a sheet and blood oozed out of her mouth. A bloody wound also opened up on her forehead; clearly, Northstar First-Rank had managed to let out a final counter-attack before he died, which ended up damaging her vital energy.

"Look, she killed him, but he managed to hurt her as he went out. He used Wither-Glory Malediction to attack her animadestiny and soul. With that curse power in her sea of consciousness, her energy arts will be significantly hindered. Now's the perfect chance to grab her."

Grins of delight appeared on the faces of Northstar First-Truth and Northstar First-Summer. To them, it was clear what had happened. The Holy Mother was powerful, but right now she was an arrow that had reached the end of its flight.

Northstar First-Rank was no slouch, nor was he the kind of person who could be casually killed.

Right before dying, he used a curse to ensure that his enemy went out with him.

"This savage's energy arts are too strong, but if we can capture her the rewards would be astronomical. It's sad that Northstar First-Rank is dead, but his cultivation base wasn't that much beyond ours. He got special treatment because he was the son of one of the elder kings and always used it to tyrannize everyone. Well, with him dead, this savage girl is ours for the taking!"

Without any hesitation, the two of them fell back into the protection of the fleet.

"Everyone attack! Unleash the full power of the formation! That savage girl was injured by Northstar First-Rank's curse and is much weaker than before!"

WHIZZZ!

Countless streams of dazzling light shot forward, like strands of silk from the spiders of hell. They created something like an enormous fiery net that began wrapping up the Holy Mother and the Sage Monarch Continent.

Meanwhile, Northstar First-Truth and Northstar First-Summer fused with the spell formation nexuses to control it more directly.

"Wither-Glory Lightning!"

In the blink of an eye, a storm of lightning fell, a blanket of death that burned with sage and immortal motes and power that seemed to come from beyond the heavens. There were even numerous wormholes that opened up and poured power into the attack.

"Exalted Celestial Globe! Ward Off Myriad Magics!" Ignoring any possible injuries she might suffer during the process, the Holy Mother unleashed her own minor world, which was an enormous globe that rapidly spread out to cover the entire Sage Monarch Continent.

The lightning, fire, wither-glory power, and everything else slammed into the globe and faded away. In fact, some of it was even absorbed.

"Mother, are you alright?!" Yang Qi said. Because of his use of the Lord's Eye, he could see that she had been seriously injured, and that her soul was contending with vicious curse power. Apparently, that curse was trying to destroy her will and mind, and could not be easily dispelled.

"I'm fine, Qi'er. Hurry up and absorb the corpse of that Prime Demi-Immortal into your Sage Monarch Continent. That's the most important task right now. If you succeed, the Sage Monarch Continent will be just on the cusp of becoming a planet, and that will push your enlightenment all the way to the eighth step of the Great Sage level, maybe even the ninth.

"I can still hold on a little longer. I never imagined this Northstar Clan would be so strong, or that they would have curse power like this in their blood. Qi'er, you need to hurry. The curse power is unique in that, if I die, Northstar First-Rank can actually use the power of my death to be reborn via the curse. Thankfully, part of the cultivation of the Jade-Emperor Profound-Welkin Exalted-Celestial God-Dao involves fusing a jade slip of protection with your soul. That's what's holding off the curse for the moment."

After hearing his mother's explanation, Yang Qi's confidence was bolstered a bit. However, when he returned his attention to Northstar First-Rank's corpse floating in the Hellfire Crucible, he smiled bitterly. Despite being engulfed in sagefire, the corpse didn't show any signs of breaking down.

The corpse of a Prime Demi-Immortal was simply too tough. There were fully five levels of difference between Lesser Demi-Immortals and Prime Demi-Immortals. Even a thousand of the former couldn't match up to the latter; there was simply no way to compare the magical laws and substructure of the two.

The corpse had no soul or aura, only pure power, and unfortunately, Yang Qi couldn't do anything with it. It didn't matter that his soul enlightenment had reached the level of a Planet God Sage, his cultivation base was still only in the second step. One was like an ant, the other a dragon. If a dragon fell from the sky it would kill countless ants in the process, but there was no way the ants would then start to eat the dragon.

However, that didn't mean that Yang Qi was out of options.

'Blood of the One God, ignite!' A drop of blood appeared on the tip of his finger, pure, transparent, and flickering with the light of countless magical symbols. That single drop of blood was almost like an entire universe unto itself.

He flicked the drop of blood into the Hellfire Crucible. Instantly, the flames leapt so high that they reached the greyspace of the Sage Monarch Continent. It was a pillar of fire that shot out of the continent all the way to the Northstar Inert Wither-Glory Death Formation and began destroying its vital energy.

In order to get the raw Blood of the One God, Yang Qi had to use the power of the halls of heaven and masses of sagelight. Then, every tiny drop he created would be absorbed by the God Legion Seal and refined until it was filled with the aura of the Sovereign Lord.

Only the Blood of the One God produced by the God Legion Seal was true and authentic.

And right now, he only had a dozen or so drops of that blood built up in his forehead. As such, it could only be imagined the insane levels of power that would be unleashed when burning one. The fires of the Hellfire Crucible instantly increased by thousands of times.

In the blink of an eye, Northstar First-Rank's corpse began to melt, releasing immense amounts of power in the form of sparks that spread out to inundate the Sage Monarch Continent. As a result, the mountains, rivers, vegetation, and even the essence began to contract.

From a distance, it looked like the continent was wreathed in fire and giving off black smoke. Of course, the black smoke consisted of the impurities within the continent.

As those impurities were expelled, the soil of the continent became even more holy and crystalline.

This time, the continent didn't expand. It shrank, as the power of Northstar First-Rank caused it to grow more compact and sturdy!

Screams of shock and pain erupted from all of the millions and millions of living beings in the Sage Monarch Continent. However, they were not being injured, but rather baptized by fire, causing impurities to be expelled from their flesh and blood. Because of the process, their fleshly bodies were becoming nexuses of power.

In the shortest of moments, countless individuals found their cultivation bases rising to higher levels. Energy Artists became Lifeseizers. Lifeseizers became Legendaries.

And the members of the parliament of elders all grew stronger as well.

Yang Zhan immediately began to experience successive breakthroughs within the Legendary level. He quickly went from the seventh transformation, to the eighth, then the ninth. Then he reached the Half Sage level, after which the power coursing through him caused sage motes to swirl around him and he stepped into the Great Sage level.

Next came Yang Qi's sworn siblings. Li He, Jun Tianchou, Hua Fengfeng, Flame Clearspring, and the others all broke into the Great Sage level.

Great Sages were rising up in the Sage Monarch Continent like bamboo after a spring rain. As for the number of Legendaries, it wasn't even necessary to comment on.

The energy housed in the corpse of a Prime Demi-Immortal was incomprehensible. A Lesser Demi-Immortal could have destroyed the Sage Monarch Continent, without a doubt. As for a Prime Demi-Immortal, a person like that could destroy the Sage Monarch Continent a thousand times over.

Conversely, taking that power and making it part of the continent could lead to untold benefits.

However, the person who benefited even more than Yang Qi's friends and family was his immortal child and his true self.

Thanks to the burst of power, his true self's thinking suddenly seemed to break through all limits and his soul reached a state of completeness and perfection.

This was the enlightenment of the eighth step of the Great Sage level, the Without Limit Step!

**

As momentous events occurred within the Sage Monarch Continent, a pair of ruthless eyes watched and waited….