Sage Monarch

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Acquiring the godworm caused Yang Qi's energy arts to improve and his soul enlightenment of the Epic Saga Step to grow more profound, placing him on the verge of Demi-Immortal enlightenment.

He was also able to start gaining enlightenment of the mysterious aspects of godworm genes. The way the legion of gods viewed space was a source of profound help to Yang Qi's God Legion Paradise, Angel Wings, Devil-God Seal, and even his Fist of the Halls of Heaven and Hand of the One God.

Henceforth, all of his skills and abilities could benefit from the godly laws of space.

Just like the immortals of old, he would be able to bypass space to attack his enemies. Only a profound understanding of the godly laws of space could enable someone to treat them like toys to be manipulated at will.

Such godly laws were extremely profound, to the point where even immortals would have trouble mastering them. That was not to mention how such laws in the mortal world were weak, whereas in the immortal world, they were stronger. Some people could spend an entire life attempting to control them. But with this primeval godworm, Yang Qi almost immediately gained understanding that rivaled that of a Demi-Immortal expert.

Now that the worm was resting in his God Legion Paradise, its powers merged with his own and enabled him to easily create space-time wormholes within the Dark True Void around him.

Thanks to these powers, Yang Qi was effectively almost twice as strong as he was before.

Before, the godworm larva had been as strong as a Demi-Immortal and was, in fact, something that ordinary Demi-Immortals couldn't handle. But now that Yang Qi was raising it with the Blood of the One God, it would grow dozens of times stronger.

To Yang Qi, it almost seemed like his God Legion Paradise was breathing. And every 'breath' it took sucked in massive spatial power from around it, which the godworm would absorb and change into the godly laws of space. That was also transforming the God Legion Paradise.

Hissss!

Yang Qi looked out and realized that he could see all aspects of space, including all the types of wormholes. Everything looked different than before, as if all reality were made up of numerous layers that ordinary people couldn't even detect.

Suddenly, Yang Qi vanished, passing through the gaps between those layers in a way that would be impossible for onlookers to see.

As all of this was happening, his mind was also active in the God Legion Paradise, gaining new enlightenment of the Hand of the One God.

Up to now, he had learned of four main stances, those being Creation, Destruction, Nature, and Undying.

Now the God Legion Seal was giving him access to more. The fifth stance was Aeon. The sixth, Reincarnation. The seventh, Epoch. The eighth, Pāramitā. The ninth, Immortality.

The Hand of the One God had nine total stances, each one mighty to the extreme. Not only did they require massive amounts of power to back them, they also needed a strong heart and a domineering will like that of heaven itself.

If all nine were used in concert, the destructive power they would unleash would defy imagination.

Unfortunately, considering the level of Yang Qi's cultivation base, he could only use up to the fourth stance, Undying. The fifth stance, Aeon, was beyond him; he would need to become a Demi-Immortal first.

**

The moment Yang Qi vanished into the cracks of space a stream of divine will swept through the area he had just occupied, searching it thoroughly. Then the entire area filled with destructive rumbling.

Afterward, a group of people appeared, all of them clad in garments decorated to look like Go boards. In fact, there were Go pieces embroidered into the garments, featuring end-game scenarios that seemed to contain profound truths about the universe. Each individual had a different end-game scenario and all of them seemed to pulse with the power to distort space-time itself.

"What? How could it have vanished?"

"We clearly sensed the passage of a godworm larva. We have to get it!"

"Well, it's clearly gone. Godworms only show up once every ten thousand years or so, and the larva are even harder to come across. If you can get one, you would become like a god of space and achieve incredible cultivation advancement. If it weren't for the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart appearing, we would never have found traces of a godworm."

"That godworm larva definitely burrowed out of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. People say that the chart itself is a magical treasure created by the host of immortals, and is actually a full plane of existence. It's supposedly even larger than the Megaplexus Heaven. It drifts in the void and appears every ten thousand years or so, filled with all sorts of treasures. I've even heard that it was created by immortals to defy the legion of gods."

"That's an old myth that you hear about in the epic sagas. It's really not relevant to us now. Our mission from the Megaplexus Collegium is to get as much treasure as possible and kill as many students from the Titan Emperor Collegium as we can. Every Great Sage that we kill will earn us a thousand merit points, and if we kill a Demi-Immortal we'll get a hundred thousand. That's a lot of wealth!"

"You're right. The Titan Emperor Heaven is the mortal enemy of our Megaplexus Heaven, and our two collegiums are dead set on destroying each other. But our top priority right now should be to track down that godworm."

"Where do you think the thing ran off to? How did it disappear without leaving behind any clues?"

There were dozens of people present, most of them Epic Saga Sages. However, five were Demi-Immortals, the end-game scenarios on their garments pulsing with profound killing intent.

Yang Qi was actually hiding in a fold of space nearby, eavesdropping.

He knew that the Megaplexus Collegium and the Titan Emperor Collegium were enemies, and that both institutions tasked its students with killing those from the other.

Long ago, the Titan Emperor Heaven's Four Wilds had been thriving places, especially the Yore-Wilds, which had abounded with powerful experts. However, it was the Megaplexus Heaven who arranged for the Hell of Euphoria to invade, giving the Yore-Wilds no other choice but to take the lead in the defense.

The result was that the Yore-Wilds planetary system was shattered, and the Titan Emperor Collegium became weak. And thus, great enmity existed between the two heavens and their respective collegiums.

"Damnation!" one of the Megaplexus Collegium students cursed. "It's really gone. We missed a big opportunity here."

"Thankfully, we'll have more chances in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. Hopefully we can find another larva there. After all, an adult would be too much for us to handle even if we all joined forces."

"I heard that one of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions appeared in that crappy Yore-Wilds planetary system. Those things always cause a storm of blood and gore. Supposedly, the Northstar Continent sent a fleet over there to look for it. I wonder if they found it already."

"Probably. The Yore-Wilds is in ruins, but the blood of the people from there is pretty valuable."

"After we get back out of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, we should go over there and pillage the savages. Absorbing their blood comes with a lot of advantages."

"That's right. Those damn barbarians all deserve to die."

"Come on, let's go. We need to find a nexus leading to the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, and I have a clue where to start."

Before the group could leave, a voice rang out. "You might as well stop right there. You want to invade the Yore-Wilds planetary system? Wrong. The only place you'll be going after this is an early grave, and the process is going to hurt badly."

The students all looked around in surprise.

"Who's there!?"

"Who are you? Show your face!"

One of the Demi-Immortals spotted the newcomer and instantly launched an attack, sending out a field of true energy that looked like a Go board, accompanied by the howls of ghosts and the wail of gods.

However, the attack didn't do anything to Yang Qi, who was clad in the God Legion Battle Robe. In fact, the attack passed through him almost as if he didn't exist.

Apparently, he was in an alternate metadimension that existed parallel to the space occupied by the students from the Megaplexus Collegium.

"What's going on?" one of the students blurted. "There's no alternate dimension here, but our energy arts just passed right through him. Is he a projection? No, that's impossible. Even a projection would have been dispelled by that attack."

"My god. He's using the godly laws of space and metadimensions! That surpasses our enlightenment significantly. He must have gotten his hands on the godworm! That's the only way he could be doing something like this. Not even Demi-Immortals should have such abilities. Let's get out of here!"

The five Demi-Immortals turned to leave. "Send a message saying we found a genius from the Titan Emperor Collegium. Call everyone over to kill him!"

1. Quick note that the Immortality stance does not contain the character for "immortal". Instead, it refers to eternal life. Remember, "immortals" are simply supernatural beings, and the Chinese characters that make up the term do not inherently imply anything about invincibility, long life, etc.

2. An end-game scenario in Go would . Go is an extremely complex game, and is the source of many idioms and sayings. In the end, it is a game of "life and death" strategy, and the final layout of a game would ostensibly contain layers of information. If you are into board games, and have someone you can play with, I definitely suggest learning how to play. Here's , presumably it comes with instructions. I would say that in about 2-3 years, I'll introduce it to BDB, and he'll probably be beating me within two years of learning how to play.

3. The term metadimension came up originally in , which was when I pointed out that it's a loan word from Japanese that just means "dimension". However, Divine Dreamwalker has obviously appropriated it to be used in a unique way in this story.