Sage Monarch

"Be broken," Yang Qi said calmly, exhaling an energy flow that easily negated the stream of infernal energy.

"An expert?" the infernal said, visibly shocked. "Oh, nope. You're just a Great Sage. How did you do that just now?" Suddenly, he smiled viciously. "Oh, I get it. You're new to the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. In fact, you still have the power of a spatial nexus on you. If I absorb you, I'll finally have hope of getting out of here."

"Heaven-Devil Devastation Incantation!"

RUMBLE!

With the wave of a hand, the infernal sent a stream of devil light slicing through the air. Although the attack wasn't as powerful as it would have been on the outside, it was still as strong as ten thousand devil swords.

As the swords bore down on Yang Qi, his God Legion Battle Robe flared.

Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping.

The devil swords smacked into the robe and shattered into dust.

"Creation!" Yang Qi said. Stamping his foot down like an ancient godmammoth, he shot forward in the direction of the infernal, his hand clenched into a fist.

C-C-CRACK!

All of the infernal's defensive energy arts were destroyed and he was sent tumbling backward, his body splitting apart. After all, the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth was a bane to Infernalfolk blood.

"Dammit! How are you so strong? Infernal Monarch Sheds Tears!" The infernal chopped both of his hands out in front of him and an enormous evil eye appeared. As it opened, it shed a single tear, which exploded into a hellish domain. "Infernal Monarch's Kingdom!"

In the blink of an eye, the Infernal Monarch's Kingdom had Yang Qi completely sealed within its borders.

Flying back toward him, the infernal said, "You puny Great Sage! I can't believe you forced me to use my deadly Infernal Monarch Sheds Tears move. Your death is at hand!"

"You think a crappy move like that will work on me?" Yang Qi said. Suddenly, the Hellfire Crucible appeared behind him and flames erupted out of it, along with a gravitational force that sucked in the evil eye, the tear, and the Infernal Monarch Kingdom.

In the shortest of moments, the deadly attack vanished as if it had never existed to begin with.

"Creation. Nature. Undying." Yang Qi drew on three stances, causing him to burst with majestic power.

RUMBLE!

The infernal shot up into the sky like a bullet, screaming. Meanwhile, Yang Qi stomped his foot down again and launched into the sky in pursuit. A moment later, he had the infernal by the throat and was floating back down to the ground.

The infernal looked like a captured duck, his eyes flickering with absolute terror.

"Tell me, what's the situation with this Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart?" Yang Qi said. "When did you get in here? And how do you get out?"

Yang Qi was convinced that this infernal was not like the other experts who were rotting their way into death. The creature was very much alive and had even achieved soul enlightenment, which indicated that it must be aware of the way to leave the place.

"You just got here, didn't you?" the infernal replied. It chuckled darkly. Despite being afraid of Yang Qi, he hadn't lost his instinctual desire to haggle for benefit. "Without my help, you'll never learn the secret of escaping this place. You'll be trapped here for your whole life! Let me tell you, the longer you stay here and become familiar with the local magical laws and vital energy, the more you become assimilated and the harder it is to escape. In fact, after you're inside for a few tens of thousands of years or so, it becomes completely impossible and you end up dying from old age like all those other fools."

"Even in your position, you still have what it takes to threaten me? You really don't know the difference between life and death, do you?" Yang Qi sent a gravitational force into the infernal and began to extract his blood, causing his bones to creak ominously.

"Agggghhhhh!" the infernal screamed. "You're extracting my blood? I'm an infernal! How could this be happening? Are you designed to defeat me?"

Yang Qi ignored him, continuing to extract his blood. Finally, the infernal shrieked, "Stop! Stop it! I'll talk. What do you want to know? Just stop taking my blood. I'll tell the truth. I've been in here for ten thousand years already. I know lots of secrets. You want to know how to get out? I can tell you!"

Yang Qi stopped extracting the infernal's blood and then stared at him coldly. "Alright, talk. How do you get out? And are there really treasures to be had?"

"There are actually a lot of ways to get out. One of them is to capture a primeval godworm larva. If you raise it to maturity it can eat through the greyspace here, as long as you can find a weak spot. Another option is to take advantage of the time period when the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart opens up and the spatial nexuses erupt. In fact, we're in that time period right now.

"Unfortunately, primeval godworms aren't common and the ones you do find are usually mature, which means that they're actually a threat to us, not the other way around. Besides, the larvae are usually protected by godworm patriarchs, who are extremely dangerous. They'll chew you up and not even spit out any bones after they're done."

"Primeval godworm larva? You mean like this?" Smiling, Yang Qi produced the wriggling godworm to show the infernal.

"A godworm larva?" the infernal exclaimed, so excited that he nearly bit his tongue off by accident. "You actually have a godworm larva?! My god! This is fate! Destiny! You have no idea how many old-timers in here would try to rob you of that thing if they found out. Nobody even knows how many people have gotten into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart over the years and ended up stuck here. There are even Demolishers here, you know, immortal patriarchs…."

Yang Qi tightened his grip again. "Alright, so how do you find the weak spots that can be used as exits? Serve me well, and tell me everything you know. If you do, I might take you out with me. In fact, I'm going to place a sealing mark on you from the legion of gods. If you defy me, all it will take is a single thought to turn you into dust. I'll be aware of your every move and action. Be sealed!"

He sent a glowing seal of sagelight into the infernal, who screamed as surely as if he were being branded with red-hot iron.

"I'll tell you everything! Look, the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart has numerous world junctions. Find one, and you can get treasures hidden there by immortals. In fact, you won't just find immortal items, you can actually find the corpses of immortals!"

"What? Corpses of immortals?" Yang Qi was shaken by the thought. 'Is he serious?'

Immortal corpses were entirely different things than immortal items. After all, immortal items were created by an immortal adding magical laws to weapons or other objects. Things like the Heaven-Burying Bow and the Heaven-Wasting Arrows were such items, things that had been blessed by the breath of an immortal.

To people weaker than immortals, they were stupendous treasures.

However, the corpse of an immortal was an entirely different thing. It would contain that immortal's quintessence, which would be worth a hundred million immortal items.

If he could get one and toss it into his Hellfire Crucible, then reaching immortal ascension would be a lot easier. Either that, or he could fuse it with his immortal clone to make it vastly stronger.

He could never have imagined that the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart would have immortal corpses in it.

"I'm serious," the infernal said, looking a bit envious at the mere thought of what he was talking about. "And there are real immortal items here, not the quasi-immortal, counterfeit immortal, or defective immortal items you come across outside…. These are real treasures branded with the quintessence-blood and nascent divinities of real immortals. The type of things they use to wage war in the immortal planes. There are also immortal pills and godly-class energy arts, although most of those are incomplete. Anyway, that stuff is all in the world junctions."

"What are these world junctions?" Yang Qi asked. "And where do you find them?"

"They're basically nests of primeval godworms. Each and every one of them is protected by a godworm patriarch in the Demolishing level, who usually have adult godworm subordinates. In the past, the immortals would raise them to harvest their spatial powers, and actually used them to create the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.

"Godworms love to hoard treasure and protect the remains of the immortals. People say they wait for destined individuals to come to them. Considering the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart has been around for millions and millions of years, and appears every ten thousand years, it's not unheard of for destined individuals to come along, enter a world junction, and come out with treasure. As for those who are not destined, well, they just live out their lives here."

"What do you mean by 'destined'?" Yang Qi said, his eyes flashing.

"I don't know. There are a lot of powerful organizations that have risen up in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, and all of them want to get into the world junctions and take whatever legacies exist inside. But every ten thousand years that pass, only a handful of people succeed."

"There are powerful organizations here? Like what?" Considering that the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart had been around for millions and millions of years, it was obvious that as long as the mortality rate wasn't high, there would be a lot of people inside.

"Well, let's see," the infernal said, "there's the Grand Emperor's House, the Whispering Rain Pagoda, the Supreme Valley, the Exemplar God Mansion, the Demi-Immortal Institution, the-"

"Wait, what did you just say?" Yang Qi interrupted. "Demi-Immortal Institution? What's that?"

"Some experts from the Demi-Immortal Society in the Titan Emperor Collegium branched off and tried to start something called the Demi-Immortal Institute. But it never even got close to rivaling the Titan Emperor Collegium. Eventually, they came here to the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart and got stuck like everyone else. Anyway, they're very fierce. Although they can't achieve cultivation base breakthroughs in here, they've managed to keep their longevity going by various means and are very powerful."