Sage Monarch

Yang Qi returned to Planet Sage Monarch in complete secrecy.

Everyone on the outside assumed that he was in seclusion with the Invincible Dugu, receiving some sort of consummate skill. The truth was that he was gone. Although the Invincible Dugu's mere 'presence' would be enough to keep any hostile forces at bay for a short time, word would eventually get out that he had ascended, at which point chaos would ensue.

Therefore, Yang Qi wanted to take advantage of every moment to push his cultivation base as high as possible.

Hopefully, by the time the news spread, he would be strong enough to hold his own. Perhaps he wouldn't be as strong as the Invincible Dugu himself, but he could at least be on the same level as Eldest Brother.

Planet Sage Monarch was Yang Qi's foundation. It already bore the semblance of a planetary system, with a main planet being orbited by hundreds of thousands of smaller satellite planets. Just like the main planet, the satellites were the color of jade and abounded with spirit energy.

In the final analysis, though, it still wasn't a planetary system. Planetary systems were immense, and required the power to conform to the rotations of the universe. They usually contained hundreds of billions of planets and planes, all of which had their own unique orbits and paths of movement.

Thankfully, now that Yang Qi could summon fiend-devils in the Revered Demi-Immortal level, he had access to the resources he needed to make a planetary system. The first order of business was to give the planetary system a guardian deity that could defend it against countless enemy experts.

"Qi'er, you're back!"

As soon as Yang Qi's true self landed in Sage Monarch City, a host of people ran out to meet him, including Yang Zhan, Yang Yunchong, Yang Hualong, as well as a crowd of sworn siblings. The Sage Monarch Continent had long since become Planet Sage Monarch, and when its inhabitants looked up they could see the countless heavenly bodies, which were shining satellites. There was a powerful energy field thrumming throughout the planet, giving strength to the living beings there and helping their cultivation. The disciples of the Yang Clan flourished, and there were even some outstanding individuals among them who had been sent to rule over some of the satellites above.

Yang Qi's immortal clone was stronger than ever, and presided over the influx of jade-like power from that mysterious immortal world that he could connect to with the godly-class Jade-Emperor Profound-Welkin Exalted-Celestial God-Dao.

After all of the initial greetings and formalities were over, Yang Qi said, "There's no time to waste, everyone. Get into position. I'm going to use the immortal formations deep within the lands below us to assimilate the essence of Grand Emperor Rich-Lush and strengthen our defenses. According to what I learned, one of the immortal formations has ancient, heaven-defying dao lineaments that can lead directly to an immortal world."

If the legends were true, and he could send Planet Sage Monarch to such a world, it would be worth any effort spent. Unfortunately, he had the feeling that Grand Emperor Rich-Lush had been exaggerating. Even so, he knew he had to try.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

Everyone flew into the depths of Planet Sage Monarch toward the embryonic planetary core, which was billions of kilometers down in the center of the planet, formed from countless layers of primal-chaos. It also contained the ancient immortal formations. Yang Qi had never finished his work with it, and had previously assumed that he would need to accumulate more power before being able to draw on its most miraculous aspects.

In some ways, returning to this place was like a walk down memory lane. He saw the ruined immortal formations he had passed by when he first acquired the Yore-Wilds' Heart fragment. He had been in the mere sixth Legendary transformation when he had his big fight with the Crown Prince, but that event now seemed as abstract as smoke in the wind.

He actually missed having a rival like the Crown Prince, someone to put constant pressure on him and force him to become stronger as fast as possible. Back then, he had constantly advanced by leaps and bounds. But things were different nowadays. Although he had plenty of adversaries, none of them were really worth worrying about.

Of course, there was that yellow-garbed young man with the buzz cut who he had met in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. He was definitely a very mysterious individual, and had apparently traveled through time to arrive in Yang Qi's world. Furthermore, he had two of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions. He was very strong, and seemed to come and go like the wind.

All of a sudden, Yang Qi realized something. It was probably that very young man in yellow who had spread rumors about the godworm eggs. A smile broke out on Yang Qi's face. 'A rival,' he thought. 'A worthy rival. This makes things much more interesting. Well, I'll kill him one way or another. Eventually.'

Looking out at the primal-chaos paleo-energy and the ruined immortal formations, Yang Zhan said, "Qi'er, while you were away, I spent a lot of time in seclusion, studying the primal-chaos paleo-energy and the immortal formations. These formations truly are mysterious. Unfortunately, they're all in a state of ruin. Actually, similar ruins exist throughout the entire Yore-Wilds planetary system."

One particular formation caught their attention, and they flew over to investigate. It appeared to be made from ancient stone slabs and totemic pillars that radiated an archaic aura. They were also carved with ancient poems written in an unknown script. Yang Qi was far more perceptive than he had been in the past, and instantly identified some of the marvelous aspects of this mysterious immortal formation. It contained yin and yang, the five phases, taiji, the eight trigrams, and ancient godly abilities. The totems were from the ancient era of the Yore-Wilds, and had been carved by some heaven-defying, almighty entity.

If he could get it functioning again, he could pierce from the lowest universal planes to the highest.

'Power!'

Without any hesitation, he sent a stream of power into the immortal formation, hoping to repair it. Unfortunately, no matter how much power he poured into it, it didn't seem to do anything. It still seemed like nothing more than a chunk of ruined stone.

'Hmm. Seems I need to restore its essence. If I bathe it in the power of time, perhaps that would return it to its previous glory.' He sat down cross-legged and waved his hand, sending out the power of time, which wrapped up the formation and began cleansing it of dust. Eventually, it began shining dazzlingly.

Without any hesitation, he sent out more power of time.

Of course, he alone wasn't strong enough, so he called on the Hell Portal to summon hordes of fiend-devils, all of them Revered Demi-Immortals.

The first to appear were a hundred asuras, whose surging devil energy created an ancient devil-eye formation. They dropped to their knees, began silently praying, while the power of time erupted out.

The immortal formation creaked and groaned, yet no transformations occurred.

However, the asuras didn't stop. Spitting up mouthfuls of quintessence-blood, they caused the dazzling time power to grow even stronger, to the point where their bodies began to wither up. Their lifespan began running low and they grew old and feeble. And yet they continued going all out to call on the magical laws of time. After all, because they had been summoned by Yang Qi via the Hell Portal, they had absolutely no choice but to follow his every command.

Thump!

All of a sudden, one of the asuras shivered and then collapsed into dust.

Then another.

Without even blinking, Yang Qi proceeded to summon more fiend-devils and use their command over the power of time to restore the immortal formation. It was an extravagant method, something that no one else could possibly pull off. In the shortest of moments, Yang Qi caused a hundred Revered Demi-Immortal fiend-devils to perish, something that no one in the Titan Emperor Collegium could ever have done.

After all, seventh order Demi-Immortals were prime paragon elders, and no one would possibly sacrifice them to do something like this.

"Infernalfolk! Armored dragon-devils! Giant snakes from the Hell of Nagas!" He summoned one fiend-devil after another and drained them of power until they perished.

Days passed, to the point where it was impossible to keep track of how many fiend-devils had been sacrificed. By this point, the embryonic planetary core pulsed with the power of time.

As for Sword Seventeen, he looked on in numb shock.

The sea of quintessence energy which surrounded them was incredible, and was the type that couldn't possibly exist in any other location.

Buzzzzzzzzzzzz….

Without any warning, the immortal formation stirred and the totem pillars began to glow with bright light. Immortal power burst out of it, instantly transforming into an enormous, heavenly net that filled the void outside of Planet Sage Monarch.

As of this moment, Yang Qi sensed that the immortal formation was linked to a vast heavenly kingdom far, far above. It was an immortal world that seemed perfectly on par with the Hell of Mahānata.

"Is that…!?" Sword Seventeen said, his eyes widening. "It is! That's the Tusita Heaven! It's one of the highest of all the thirty-three types of immortal worlds! According to the stories, of all the billions and billions of immortal worlds, the Tusita Heaven is one of the highest-ranking of all. It's like the Hell of Mahānata. It has power the likes of which the Titan Emperor Heaven and the Megaplexus Heaven can't even compare to. The universal power there can't be looked down upon at all."

"Is that so? Tusita Heaven?" Yang Qi looked at the immortal formation for a moment, then sent some divine will into it. Immediately, he sensed irresistible majesty, prompting him to use the Hand of the One God to reach into the formation. There, he encountered a violet stream of power, which he grabbed. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a violet jewel that was none other than an immortal stone.

'This level of power is incredible!' he thought.

1. The Tusita Heaven is a real heaven from Buddhist cosmology. The Chinese version of the name is itself a translation, and the meaning is not particularly relevant or pithy, so I'm going with the common and existing "Tusita". .