Sage Monarch

The final moments of the battle were about to commence.

Lei Jiuzhou was using his trump card, drawing on the śarīra of the Preheaven Magnetic King and the Protomagnetic Godmountains to send out godlight that destroyed anything it touched.

As the protomagnetic godlight seethed, the images of planets, moons, suns, and universes became visible, as well as the transformations of space-time. This was a power that seemed capable of killing anything that wasn't an immortal.

All of a sudden, Yang Qi felt the pressure of the situation. It was almost as if he were suddenly facing tens of thousands of heaven-immortals which not even the Wheel of Fate could evade.

This level of attack power was just too great.

He could use the Wheel of Fate to avoid any single attack, but now there were just too many individual attacks to deal with. He would need a higher level of enlightenment for that.

RUMBLE!

RUUUUUUUUMBLE!

As the attacks came in, the God Legion Paradise absorbed some of the power, and the Wheel of Fate caused others to miss him. However, some connected.

His Angel Wings unfurled, and the magical laws of the godworm stirred within him. Drawing on everything he had at hand to use, he fought back against the spell formation.

"I'm sacrificing both lifespan and quintessence-blood to power this śarīra!" Lei Jiuzhou shouted. "There's no way you can escape. You're dead!"

Lei Jiuzhou was like the incarnation of the Preheaven Magnetic King himself as he held the śarīra in hand and pressed the attack.

All of a sudden, Yang Qi brimmed with unprecedented battle-spirit; a megamammoth appeared above his head and the will of hell spread out on the Immortal Army Battlefield as he opened passageways to the Hell of Mahānata and the Hell of Gloom and Darkness.

Devil energy erupted like an endless river, and the devilish will of the Hell of Mahānata slammed destructively into the protomagnetic godlight.

"Creation, Destruction, Nature, Undying, Aeon, Reincarnation, Epoch, Pāramitā…."

Yang Qi drew on all eight stances of the Hand of the One God, flowing smoothly from one to the other, stacking their power to unleash a power beyond imagination.

Sagelight flowed through all creation, within which were a host of angels singing holy psalms and chanting hallowed poetry, as if they wished to baptize the world into something new.

Instantly, the light shining from the Protomagnetic Godmountains faded a bit, and even the śarīra seemed on the verge of being overwhelmed.

"You think you can stifle me?!" Lei Jiuzhou shouted madly. "Impossible! I'm the most exalted individual in all heaven and earth! I'm invincible in the mortal world!" With that, he drew even more deeply on the śarīra, as if he wished to bring the immortal Preheaven Magnetic King back to life right there and then.

"You're pretty tough after all," Yang Qi said. Then he smiled disdainfully. "But that's not going to do you any good. Let's see how many mouthfuls of blood you can cough out before you dry up into a desiccated corpse!"

"Imbecile!" Lei Jiuzhou shouted. He strode forward, surrounded by shining light. Suddenly, thirty-six Protomagnetic Godmountains appeared around him, which dropped down with astonishing power.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi drew on the power of the God Legion Paradise, the energy of hell, the Hand of the One God, and the Wheel of Fate, hoping to gain an advantage. Their fierce fighting caused flames of battle to rage everywhere.

At this point, no spectators were even close to the scene of the fight.

It was simply too dangerous, so most of them were far off in the distance, watching and waiting.

As the fight went on, Yang Qi slowly began regaining lost ground, even creeping toward occupying the high ground in the fight. Lei Jiuzhou's expression was flickering madly; he could tell that if the fighting kept going like this, Yang Qi would eventually gain the upper hand, which would end in his own defeat and death.

"The Magnetic King Rules the World! Immortal World Sacrifice!"

At this point, Lei Jiuzhou decided to draw on another powerful trump card.

The śarīra shot up above his head and transformed into a tempest of rain, each drop of which was an entire incarnated immortal world. Anyone destroyed by the rain of immortal worlds would die so thoroughly that they would never, ever be born again.

"Immortal World Sacrifice? Hah. Doesn't seem much different from the Destruction of the Heaven-Dao Tribulation. You want to use something like that to deal with me? That's a joke if I've ever heard one!" Yang Qi shot up into the air, his fists blurring this way and that as he smashed into the tribulation.

As of this moment, the battle had reached a true fever pitch.

**

Back in the Titan Emperor Collegium, on the Plane of Initiation, the initiators were joined by numerous society chiefs as they closely watched the fighting between Yang Qi and Lei Jiuzhou. Eventually, it reached the most critical of moments.

At that point, supreme rector raised his voice and said, "The time has come to make our move, ladies and gentlemen. Activate the spell formation with the Initiation Power. Join forces to unleash the Godly Curse of Titan Emperor Caleb's Utopia! Pierce through to the battlefield, cut down Lei Jiuzhou, and capture Yang Qi. Understand?"

"Yes sir!"

Murmured discussions immediately began.

"Alright! This is our chance. We have to grab it before it disappears."

"And here I thought Lei Jiuzhou could actually kill Yang Qi. But apparently not. Who could have guessed that he would get dominated in the fight! This is really miraculous!"

"This just proves that we absolutely must kill Yang Qi," said the hallmaster of the Hall of Beheadings and Executions. "If he survives, he'll undoubtedly undermine our power in the Titan Emperor Collegium. Supreme rector, you're truly wise to have foreseen all this. I fully back your decision—we can't leave Yang Qi alive!"

"You're right, we have to kill him," one of the initiators said. "We could hardly control him before. If he comes back from the Immortal Army Battlefield stronger than ever, it will become impossible."

"Everyone get ready," said Chief Hegemon. "Don't hold anything back. Burn your lifespan and quintessence-blood if you have to. We have to strike with ultimate force. As you can all see, he's even able to gain the upper hand against a Demolisher! If we don't kill him, it's going to be a disaster for us."

"We understand," said Chief Everlasting. "He's too brutal and fierce. If he stays alive, he's only going to throw more weight around in the collegium. Who could possibly keep an animalistic brute like him in check?"

RUMBLE!

All of a sudden, the entire Plane of Initiation trembled violently, to the point where it seemed it might crumble. Everyone looked up in shock and saw Yang Qi, shining with bright light in the Immortal Army Battlefield. From the look of it, the final moment of the fight had arrived.

"This is it!" shouted the supreme rector. "They're almost done fighting! Activate the curse formation!"

As the spell formation activated, the Plane of Initiation suddenly vanished without a trace. Initiation Power blazed, surpassing the strength of a heaven-immortal as the entire plane shot into the Immortal Army Battlefield.

The space that made up the Immortal Army Battlefield was incredibly tough, but not tough enough to keep out the Plane of Initiation. Numerous planes that made up the place shattered, and countless experts from other collegiums were killed.

Flames wreathed the Plane of Initiation as it destroyed everything in its path.

"Aiiee! What's that!?"

"What is that thing? It's killing people left and right? Someone flew a plane of existence in here? Who is it? Who would enter the Immortal Army Battlefield this way, and why? Why kill all these people?"

"It's the Titan Emperor Collegium! Those bastards! That's their Plane of Initiation! What are those old codgers doing? They're sacrificing their Plane of Initiation? Initiation Power is the essence of the Titan Emperor Collegium! They've been saving that stuff up for over a million years. Collegiums only draw on power like that to defend against the most horrific of catastrophes. What are they doing?"

"That's Initiation Power!? Back up! You can't fight it! The Titan Emperor Collegium is going all out here! But why, exactly? Aren't they worried about repercussions? Once they use all of that power, they'll be defenseless against all sorts of calamities."

"Wait, are they trying to save Yang Qi?"

"Everybody get out of here! The Titan Emperor Collegium is pulling out all the stops."

"We can't defend against this! Who would have thought that the Titan Emperor Collegium would draw on their reserve power, all for Yang Qi? There's no way we can take advantage of this situation now, not without using the reserve powers of our own collegium. But that would leave us defenseless. What idiot would use reserve power offensively like this? Well, in any case, it seems Lei Jiuzhou is done for."

"I just don't get it. Yang Qi has the upper hand. Isn't Lei Jiuzhou going to die anyway? Why would the Titan Emperor Collegium use their Initiation Power? Have they completely lost their minds?"

Streams of divine will spread out as everyone went on high alert.

"You're right!"

"This really is strange. Wait, maybe this isn't about Lei Jiuzhou at all. Maybe they're going after Yang Qi. That must be it! Yang Qi recently went crazy in the Titan Emperor Collegium. He even killed an elder king! They must be trying to get rid of him."

"Look! The Plane of Initiation is about to reach Lei Jiuzhou and Yang Qi!"

By this point, Yang Qi realized what was happening, and the sense of impending danger immediately raised his hackles.

1. Yang Qi faced the Destruction of the Heaven-Dao Tribulation in .