Sage Monarch

"Surprised, Elder Brother? Come on, let's go." Yang Qi had just killed six top experts without batting an eyelid. Looking over at Sword Seventeen, he waved the sleeve of his God Legion Battle Robe to wrap him up, then vanished.

Before anyone in the area could react, they were gone.

With the godworm in his God Legion Paradise constantly eating away at space, Yang Qi could move around in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart with ease.

When Yang Qi vanished, the people in the area exchanged awkward glances which slowly transformed into expressions of terror.

"The Six Langya Fiends were just killed!?"

"Who did it? Who could possibly be so ferocious? Before we could even blink, the six of them were dead, and not even their bones were left behind! They were all powerful Demi-Immortals."

"The Six Langya Fiends work for King Langya, who runs this city. And now some mysterious outsider just went and killed them? King Langya isn't going to let this go. Come on, let's get out of here. We don't want to be around when King Langya flips out."

"Get out of here! King Langya is coming!"

RUMBLE!

A short moment later, an immense force erupted from the city center. Shockwaves rolled out that sent people tumbling off their feet as a tall man appeared, wearing a golden crown and clad in a jade-colored robe embroidered with ancient godlings, gobblewocks, chymeras, drakoids, and horned phoenixes, all of them extremely lifelike. In fact, it seemed entirely likely that they were real life godlings that had been sealed into the garment with magic.

He looked every bit the king and was followed by a retinue of Demi-Immortal servants who kept their hands folded respectfully at their waists and their heads down.

King Langya had arrived.

He ruled this city, which he himself had founded to watch over the world junction.

As he surveyed the scene his eyes flashed with deadly light.

"Who did it? Who killed my Six Langya Fiends? And how did he do it so quickly? You… talk!" Without any warning, he reached out and grabbed a ninth step Great Sage, who had been lurking off to the side to see how things would play out. In the blink of an eye, the man was in King Langya's grip, as weak as a baby chicken.

"King… King Langya…." the man gurgled, clearly terrified out of his mind. "The Six Langya Fiends surrounded a guy in a bamboo hat, a Great Sage, and were trying to rip him off. But then another guy showed up wearing a glowing white robe. They didn't even fight! The Six Langya Fiends just disappeared. And then the guy in the hat and the guy in white vanished without a trace. That's what happened, King Langya. Please, show me mercy! We're all stuck here together in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, so please, spare my life and I'll-"

Smack!

King Langya waved his hand, and the man collapsed into dust.

"Trash. If I didn't kill you, then who would I kill? I can't believe a bug like you would beg for mercy from me. Well, your soul will be a fine addition to my Langya Eighty-One Gods Banner."

A moment later, one of the servants said, "Your Majesty, who are those two? I can't believe they went so far as to cause problems here in Langya City. We definitely have to make an example of them. We should mobilize every man we have to track them down."

"Absolutely," King Langya said, looking around with flashing eyes. Every cultivator he looked at simply stood there with head bowed and heart pounding. "Troubling times are upon us. The Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart is opening to the outside world again, which means that we can search for a way out. But at the same time, people outside will be struggling to enter. The godworm larvae in the world junctions are stirring, and getting one is the ticket to leaving here. Once I'm on the outside, I'll be a force to be reckoned with."

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Start the search immediately!"

"Yes sir!"

Numerous cultivators blurred into motion, heading this way and that as they began searching the area for Yang Qi and Sword Seventeen.

Unfortunately for them, their quarry was some distance away, sinking toward the bottom of an enormous sea-like lake. Yang Qi had his God Legion Paradise out and had combined its powers with that of the godworm to create an illusory region that no one could detect.

Of course, the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart was a very dangerous place, and that wasn't just limited to the strength of the magical laws of space. Even ordinary things like mountains, rivers, and lakes could be very dangerous. For example, although this lake didn't contain any living beings, it had powerful whirlpools and flows of water that could be deadly in nature.

Suddenly, a sound like the wail of ghosts or the howl of gods rang out and a white bone hand slammed into the greyspace of the God Legion Paradise, causing a deafening boom.

Yang Qi waved his hand, sending out a stream of sword energy that pierced through the hand to whatever evil spirit was behind it and killing it.

Opening his Lord's Eye, he looked out into the lake to see the situation.

Shockingly, there were countless whirlpools at the bottom of the lake. Each one was home to an evil spirit of immense power, who would lurk about and wait for an opportunity to emerge from hiding and consume the souls of living beings.

Once the God Legion Paradise sank about halfway to the bottom of the lake, the evil spirits noticed it and began heading in its direction.

However, after slaughtering the first of them, the rest settled back down and didn't dare to get close. All of them were thoroughly cowed by the faint aura of the halls of heaven and the legion of gods.

Moments later, the lake settled into calm.

"You showed up at just the right time, Junior Brother," Sword Seventeen said. He sighed. "The Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart doesn't have living things like birds or beasts, but it does have world-devils. Those evil spirits out there are low-level world-devils. The higher-level ones are extremely powerful. Omnipotent, almost."

"World-devils?"

"Yeah. As you know, the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart opens up once every ten thousand years or so. In the interval, the primeval godworms will absorb power from various planes and add it to the world around them. Of course, it's impossible to avoid absorbing baleful energy. That baleful energy combines with the magical laws of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart and forms world-devils. You know the saying: in heaven and earth, there is yin and yang, there are sages and devils. The world-devils have plenty of the power of the magical laws from the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. If you kill one and refine it with your personal true flame, you can get a lot of benefits. After being here for a month, I've already killed quite a few of them, which pushed my soul enlightenment all the way to the Demi-Immortal level. Once I'm back outside, I'll achieve my next breakthrough without any problem. A lot of people here in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart are in the same situation. This is a great place to seek enlightenment, but a bad place for breakthroughs."

"You seem to know a lot about this place, Elder Brother. What do you think we should do from here? I captured an infernal who gave me a lot of information, although I'm not sure I can trust him…."

With that, he went on to tell the story of how he had acquired the godworm, as well as the details of the fight with the infernal.

Sword Seventeen was his Elder Brother, thus Yang Qi trusted him implicitly. It was the same with the rest of the Invincible Society.

"What? Junior Brother, you have a primeval godworm? Well that's great! Not only will we be able to use it to get out of this place later, but before we do we'll be able to get our hands on a lot of treasure." He sighed. "It's too bad that even though our Master is invincible, he can't get in here to save us. Not even Demolishers can break through the greyspace of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart."

Yang Qi thought for a moment, then cupped his hands respectfully and said, "Well, what do we do next? I'll follow your lead, Elder Brother."

"We have to team up, that much is obvious. The things the infernal told you are true. There's plenty of treasure to be had in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, with most of it waiting in the world junctions for those who are destined to find it. Since you have a godworm of your own, we should be able to easily get into any world junction." After a moment of consideration, he continued, "Junior Brother, it seems to me that your cultivation base is already way past mine. Just now, you killed those six Demi-Immortals with no effort at all! You're definitely going to be a top figure once we get back to the Titan Emperor Collegium. In the end, Junior Brother, I think you're the real genius here. How about I follow your lead?"

Yang Qi nodded, then frowned in thought. "World junctions…. Treasure hoards…." Finally, he rose to his feet. "There's no time to lose. The Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart only opens every ten thousand years, and it will close soon. If we don't get some treasure and get out, we'll be stuck here for a long time."

"True. If we can find a treasure hoard in one of those world junctions, we'll definitely benefit immensely. And we should find our Elder Brothers and Sisters and help them get out, too. The best way to improve your godworm larva is to find other godworm larvae to feed it. We can't improve our cultivation base, but your godworm can."

With that, the two of them headed out to find a world junction.

1. Langya: This Langya could be a reference to two things. The first is a mountain in eastern Anhui Province. The second is the famous novel series and television show Nirvana in Fire. For info about Nirvana in Fire, here's the , and here's a link to . Long story short, in Chinese, the title of Nirvana in Fire is "Langya List", and the story involves people from the "Langya Hall". It's something of a historical and political wuxia drama. The TV show didn't come out until after SaMo was completed, but the novels were published earlier. It's possible Divine Dreamwalker is using Langya as a nod to Nirvana in Fire. The term is virtually impossible to translate; "Lang" is a type of jade, and "Ya" is a sound word with no particular meaning.

2. Drakoids are mythological creatures described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. There is very little information about them in English, and the few references I found just transliterated the name as "jimeng". I hate transliteration where a creative translation is possible, so I'm coining "drakoids". They are described as having dragon heads, human bodies, bird claws, and feathered arms. As for the "horned phoenix", that is a creature made up by the author.