Sage Monarch

As the Sage Monarch Continent's impurities were removed, it shrank by nearly half. However, that was actually a big improvement. Furthermore, all of the people and other living beings there experienced fundamental transformations.

Their flesh grew tougher and more compact and their blood filled with power.

As Yang Qi gained enlightenment, his immortal child sensed it and began to twitch as he was filled with an understanding of the true meaning of what it meant to be without limit.

'The Without Limit Step!'

At the same time, a certain sealing mark far out in the void began to tremble. That was the ensconcement mark of Yang Qi's nascent divinity, which he could sense calling to him from the Hell of Mahānata. He sent a thought out and it traveled through countless planes within the darkness and gloom until he caught sight of the hell itself. It was a dark golden color, and its incredibly thick greyspace was surrounded by endless hell monsoons that gave birth to fiend-devils without end. In fact, no one even knew exactly how large this hell was.

Unfortunately, although Yang Qi could see the Hell of Mahānata in his mind, it was impossible for him to actually go there. After all, it was like an immortal world. A mortal couldn't just go to an immortal world, unless he broke out of the Demi-Immortal level and became a Demolisher.

For humans to go to the Hell of Mahānata involved the same level of difficulty as initially being able to pierce through space.

Of course, Yang Qi had the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, which had the power to suppress hells. He had also ensconced his nascent divinity in the essence of the Hell of Mahānata. If he could only get Demi-Immortal power, he would have a chance to go there.

Thanks to the power of Northstar First-Rank, the Sage Monarch Continent was benefiting, as were Yang Qi and his immortal clone. In fact, Yang Qi could sense that the hundred million megamammoths within him were already transforming into dracomammoths.

When the process was complete, he would experience a tenfold increase in strength.

Right now, his true self was strong enough to barely hold his own against a Lesser Demi-Immortal. But if he could convert all of the megamammoths into dracomammoths, it would be an easy task to defend himself against such an opponent. In fact, he might even be able to kill one.

The difference between megamammoths and dracomammoths was immense.

Then, beyond dracomammoths were protomammoths, which would come only after he had achieved immortal ascension. He couldn't even imagine what protomammoths were like.

The only reason the process was beginning now was the magical laws of a Demi-Immortal. If he followed the same pattern as before, then when he reached the ninth step of the Great Sage level he would slowly awaken all eight hundred forty million particles. Then, as a Demi-Immortal, he would slowly feed Demi-Immortal magical laws into them to convert them into dracomammoths. That would obviously be a monumental task.

For all intents and purposes, his normal practice of cultivation within the Demi-Immortal level would be eight hundred forty million times as difficult as a normal Demi-Immortal and would require him to expend eight hundred forty million times as much energy.

The results, of course, would far surpass anything in existence.

Not even people with immortal battle bodies would be a match for him.

'Alright! Now that I have enlightenment of the eighth step, my immortal clone can become a Without Limit Sage. Next, I need enlightenment of the ninth step, and after that, the Demi-Immortal level. Then I need to get into the Hell of Mahānata. If I do, I'll experience a whole chain of breakthroughs and nobody will be able to deal with me.'

RUMBLE!

The fighting outside was intense.

The Holy Mother had used her Exalted Celestial Globe to bear the brunt of the attack just now. Unfortunately, the Northstar Inert Wither-Glory Death Formation was extremely domineering; every attack it unleashed built momentum from the previous attack, and was even more powerful.

Cracks were already covering the surface of the Exalted Celestial Globe.

It made sense. The Holy Mother had been seriously injured by a curse, and also, the defensive capabilities of the Exalted Celestial Globe were nowhere near close to that of the God Legion Paradise.

"The savage can't hold out much longer. Hit her with another attack! Bring out the immortal stones!"

Northstar First-Truth and Northstar First-Summer were both shouting out orders to the fleet. As a result, numerous immortal stones flew forth into the spell formation, some of them as large as houses.

The mere sight of the level of power here caused Yang Qi's scalp to tingle in shock.

"Ignite!" Northstar First-Truth shouted. True energy ignited the immortal stones, and as they burned, the spell formation unleashed a deadly attack that was fully a hundred times as powerful as before. The ships in the fleet expanded, then launched a cloud of pitch black magical sealing symbols that slammed into the surface of the Exalted Celestial Globe.

"Going all out, huh?" the Holy Mother said, her eyes flashing. "Well, in that case, I guess I'll do the same! Exalted Celestial Sacrifice. Shedding of Righteous Blood!"

With that, she spat out a mouthful of blood which rapidly expanded into an enormous crimson sea.

"Exalted Celestial Godblood!"

This manifestation of her godly-class energy art was similar to Yang Qi's Blood of the One God, and using it was tantamount to sacrificing her life force and quintessence.

POP!

The Exalted Celestial Globe expanded again, and as it did, stars fell like rain. The ships in the fleet began to tremble and toss about like leaves in the wind. One of them began to creak and groan, then exploded, killing a whole host of Northstar Clan Great Sages.

"Damnation!" Northstar First-Truth growled. "This savage girl just won't stop fighting. She's really a centipede who won't stop wriggling even after being stomped on. Immortal item: Void-Shatterer!"

"Immortal item: Myriad Oceans!" Northstar First-Summer shouted.

Both of them produced animadestiny immortal items, directly from the depths of their nascent divinities. One was a whip that could shatter the void, and the other looked like a jellyfish filled with the flow of thousands upon thousands of oceans.

Considering that these two had resorted to weapons like this, it was obvious that they had changed their minds and wanted to kill the Holy Mother instead of capturing her.

Instantly, the surrounding starry sky devolved into a state of primal-chaos.

Even as they built up power to unleash devastating attacks, the Holy Mother spat out another mouthful of blood, causing another of the ships in the fleet to explode and damaging the spell formation as a whole.

The fighting continued for seven days and nights, shattering much of the starry sky and turning nearby minor planes into nothing but dust.

No one in the Northstar Clan could ever have dreamt that their valiant invasion of the ruins of the Yore-Wilds would turn out like this, or that they would run into a fierce fiend who could stop them in their tracks.

As they fought back and forth, their vital energy draining rapidly, a pair of eyes was watching the situation from inside something that looked like a bottle gourd. Eventually, a sinister voice rang out.

"Excellent. Wonderful…. They're really going all out to kill each other. Well, when the sandpiper and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits, and in this case I'm the fisherman. Prime Demi-Immortal, huh…. I never would have guessed that the Holy Mother reached that level so quickly. I, Lord Quake-Dawn, acquired eighteen fragments of the Yore-Wilds' Heart over the years, and also harvested the remains of numerous immortals from heaven who descended into the mortal world. It was only in that way that I reached the same level, yet I'm clearly not a match for her. Thankfully, this is the perfect opportunity to reach the next highest level of enlightenment.

"Wilds God. Holy Daughter. War God. Ninja God. Oracle God. Winter God! Prepare the deadly formation! We will now begin to sacrifice. No lives shall be spared!"

"Yes sir!" they all said, nervously circulating their energy as they took their places in an enormous spell formation.

At this point, Lord Quake-Dawn emerged from his illusory bottle gourd. He was a middle-aged man in a blood-red robe, his face splattered with blood and his person surrounded by a bloody haze. Shockingly, his forehead bore the mark of a blood-colored moon.

As he took his place in the middle of the formation, the essence of the Quake-Dawn Continent began flowing toward him like a river.

Instantly, a tempest of blood filled the continent.

"What's going on!? Aiiiie!" In innumerable sects throughout the Quake-Dawn Continent, Great Sages began to howl as they realized that something dramatic was happening. Countless experts who had ensconced their nascent divinities in the Quake-Dawn Continent suddenly found that doing so had been a fatal act.

Smack!

In one of the daoist temples closest to the Quake-Dawn Cathedral, the famous Heavenly Plow Daoist Rite, the dao lord of the place, a ninth step Great Sage, looked around and saw the world shaking. Unable to control the true energy within him, he exploded, and the resulting fragments sank into the ground beneath his feet.

More people in the daoist temple began to explode and become part of the continent, in much the same way that the fiend-devils Yang Qi had sacrificed ended up as part of the essence of his continent.

The same thing happened in one daoist sect after another as a gory conflagration swept through the Quake-Dawn Continent.

Lord Quake-Dawn laughed maniacally as the process continued. "The people of this continent are pigs to be slaughtered! Their vital energy and their sacrifice will temper me and push my cultivation base to a higher level. I will use the Quake-Dawn Continent to destroy the Northstar Clan and the Holy Mother! Starting today, Lord Quake-Dawn will unite the Yore-Wilds, then challenge the Titan Emperor Collegium to battle!"

The Quake-Dawn Continent was being completely destroyed by the lunatic Lord Quake-Dawn.