Sage Monarch

It was no easy task to reach the Light King Step.

Only a few hours after reaching the Eternal Sands and True Real Step, Yang Qi was attempting his breakthrough into the fifth step, something unheard of throughout all history.

The Light King Step involved the magical laws of time, which was the realm of the legion of gods. They could peer into the past and the future, and could even halt the movement of light. They were like kings of light itself.

Only people with absolute determination could break into the Light King Step. Once the attempt began, there was no turning back, and failure would result in horrific death. In some cases, it was a death of complete annihilation, with no remains being left behind at all. In other cases, it involved slowly withering away into death.

The tribulation that came with the Light King Step was vicious. It was not a tribulation cloud, but rather a tribulation of time.

The Godlightning of Time would illuminate all heaven and earth, and was a light that contained time itself. When it hit a cultivator, that person would age rapidly until their life force ran out, an effect Yang Qi had encountered before in the world junction in the Coiling Arc planetary system. He had even seen Demi-Immortals age into death in the blink of an eye after being struck by the light there.

As the tribulation built, the Hell of Mahānata filled with the light of time, which descended upon him and caused dramatic transformations to his substructure. However, it didn't harm him, much less destroy him. Instead, power built up in the depths of his being, to the point where he felt like he could flatten the universe itself with his bare hands.

RUMBLE!

A glowing sphere of light fell, exploding above him to bathe him in Godlightning of Time. The power of time joined the true energy lightning and was wrapped up in baleful energy, creating an enormous, deadly spell formation.

As the formation rotated, a churning river made of raw time itself appeared above Yang Qi's head. Within the river, three dharma clones of Yang Qi appeared, one of them fierce, one of them vicious, and one of them evil.

They all seemed to contain various aspects of power belonging to Yang Qi, and all of them had malevolent smiles on their faces as they reached out and tried to pull Yang Qi into the depths of the darkness and gloom of the river of time.

"That's…." Yang Qi's infernal servant was stunned as he looked at the river of time and the three dharma clones. "It's the Three Periods Tribulation! I've heard that this tribulation usually appears for Demolishers, so how could it have come for Yang Qi? That river of time connects to the past, present, and future, and those are dharma clones of the three periods that reflect the most evil versions of the self. If you can't resist the tribulation of the three selves, you'll be pulled into the river of time and perish!"

It was one of the most mysterious, evil, and miraculous of all heavenly tribulations, one that could easily be deadly. After all, it involved killing reflections of one's past, future, and present self. Oftentimes, the self could be the most difficult opponent to defeat. And in this case, one had to face three selves.

"Three Periods Tribulation? Alright, let's do it!" Yang Qi had read of this tribulation in ancient daoist texts, yet he didn't feel any fear at all. Flying up toward the three versions of himself in the river of time, he immediately unleashed a fist strike that caused sagelight from the halls of heaven to fill the area.

"Creation!"

Unexpectedly, one of the three periods dharma clones in the tribulation also attacked with the Hand of the One God, as well as the God Legion Paradise. The Hell of Mahānata was instantly thrown into chaos. Vital energy raged, soil erupted like water, and even the subterranean baleful energy was affected.

"Undying!"

Yang Qi held nothing back and fought to his heart's content. He knew that these three periods dharma clones were just reflections of himself, and were essentially tools of the natural laws of the universe. Although they were using his power and energy arts, they did not have any magical treasures; they had no godworm, no imperial snakecharms, and no mammoth tusks.

All of a sudden, a primal-chaos elder-snake appeared, sweeping forth to smash into the spell formation created by the Godlightning of Time.

Considering the level of Yang Qi's true energy right now, he was actually gaining new enlightenment by using the imperial snakecharms. Truth be told, they were not limited by levels or realms; as long as one had enough true energy, their higher-level functions could be unlocked.

The last time he had used the imperial snakecharms he had been a second step Great Sage, but now he was in the fourth step, and the difference was immense.

As soon as he unleashed them, he could sense certain martial disciplines lurking in their depths. A moment later, he drew on one of those deadly abilities.

"Heaven-Devouring God Dao!"

The primal-chaos elder-snake coiled up, transforming into a vortex that erupted with a gravitational force. Instantly, the wails of ghosts and the howls of gods echoed out from inside.

POP!

The clone of the past couldn't sustain the force and was sucked into the ancient snake, becoming raw power. In short order, the clones of the present and future suffered the same treatment.

Absorbing the three periods clones immediately pushed Yang Qi's enlightenment of the magical laws of time to a much more profound level. Now, he was surrounded by a swirling power of time that was so dense it was almost liquid.

This was a critical moment in reaching the Light King Step.

Crack. Crunch….

A hundred million particles awoke inside of him, pushing him to the level of five hundred million megamammoths. With this power, he could truly pluck stars and snatch moons, and even alter the rotation of entire planes of existence.

Changes occurred to his God Legion Paradise as well. Streams of light swirled throughout it, giving rise to an aura like that of a king. As that light merged with the godly laws of space, they formed numerous chains of space-time.

Within the depths of the God Legion Paradise, space-time sank in on itself, creating a flow that was different from the outside world and would occasionally even cease to move.

This was the power of the Light King Step.

The Infernal Deity Spear, the Hell Portal, and the Hellfire Crucible all improved, but the most dramatic transformations were to his Angel Wings, which grew larger. They became a purer white color, shining with dazzling light and covered with decorative designs representing time and light.

As of this moment, the speeds Yang Qi was capable of vastly surpassed anything from before. The Light King Step involved the control of time, and its magical laws bolstered his Angel Wings to the point where other ordinary godly-class energy arts could never compare to them. Right now, not even a seventh order Revered Demi-Immortal could ever hope to catch Yang Qi if he fled from them.

"Three Hell Portals!" he said. Another Hell Portal appeared behind him, erupting with fiend-devils who tumbled directly into his Hellfire Crucible, instantly being converted into more vital energy to power the spell formation.

'Next is the Heavenly Workings Step. There's no stopping now. I'm going to drain these nine mammoth tusks until I reach the Demi-Immortal level! I get stronger with each breakthrough, so there's no reason to give up. Once I'm a Demi-Immortal, who in the collegium will possibly be willing to cause trouble for me? Only the near-Demolishers, those eighth and ninth order Demi-Immortals, would dare to cross paths with me.'

Next up was the Heavenly Workings Step, in which one contemplated the workings of heaven and the profundities of the universe. One would also meditate on the truths of energy arts, which would push their energy arts and true energy to a higher, more consummate level.

Throwing his head back, Yang Qi drew fully on the nine mammoth tusks, and also used his Hell Portals and Hellfire Crucible to summon Demi-Immortal fiend-devils to serve as the fuel.

Finally, one of the mammoth tusks crumbled and the bone fragments were sucked into Yang Qi to become a part of his own bones. At that point, a membrane appeared on his bones which appeared to be the godly skin of megamammoths. Instantly, his bones became tougher and more resilient.

Everything began trembling, to the point where it seemed like a rain of stars was falling.

In the blink of an eye, Yang Qi felt like the universe was being flooded with water. It was as if his slightest movement could cause dramatic transformations to the universe at large. He felt just like the mythological crocodiles from ancient times, who had continents on their backs and whose slightest movement could cause earthquakes that killed countless living beings.

It was a truly profound and enigmatic experience.

At this point, another tribulation arrived.

There were various types of lightning and light that weren't associated with earth, water, fire, or wind. Instead, they were magical laws that stretched out in lines to form a Go board. Then the game pieces on the board shot toward Yang Qi in an attack. In fact, he himself was a game piece, and everything was moving in accord with the workings of heaven. In the blink of an eye, the entire Go board was set up into a deadly scenario.

This was Heavenly Workings Tribulation.

The workings of heaven were just like a game of Go.

1. The "three periods" is a Buddhist term which is pretty much explained in the passage here. It refers to one's past, present and future. Even the "river of time" seems to be part of the "real life" definition. I couldn't find much online in English about this, although I'm sure sources exist somewhere

2. I did a bit of searching and found some information in Chinese about the mythological being mentioned here. However, I couldn't find much in English, and even the Chinese information was not very extensive. I'm not sure how much of this "continents on the back" thing is "real life" mythology, and how much is the author's invention.