Sage Monarch

As Yang Qi looked through the various intelligence reports, he nodded in satisfaction. 'It feels great to be in a position of power again. It makes it so much easier to get information. And the fact that the Special Reconnaissance Division specializes in recon is perfect. The more my power grows within the army, the easier it will be later on to take over this entire immortal world.'

To any onlooker, it would look like Yuan Kuohai was running the Special Reconnaissance Division as usual. But the truth was that Yang Qi was its true leader now.

And it was all thanks to his devil seeds.

The devil seeds were impossible to extrude, destroy, or be extracted. They would fuse with the soul of any immortal they entered, making Yang Qi privy to their very hearts. He was the only one who could remove them, thus anyone who had a devil seed in them wouldn't dare to even think about rebelling against him. No, they would be completely and utterly loyal to him.

Eventually, it would reach the point where he could remove the seeds, and they would still serve him faithfully.

'Proud Warpatience… I'll ignore you for now. But once I get King Heaven-Devourer's talismans, I'll come for you.' After finishing with the intelligence reports, Yang Qi decided that it was time to probe deeper into the Heaven's Net Consortium.

He had greatly benefited from the demon altar in the Endless Forest. The Chartreuse Sovereign God Armor, Protomammoth Flag, and megamammoth quintessence-blood had allowed him to awaken protomammoth particles within himself. Not only was he now more able to mask his aura and true capabilities, but the deathless godliness ensured that few people could match him in a fight.

'So, the Heaven's Net Consortium has a sixth stage Abstrusity-Demolisher—in other words, an immortal paragon. Right now, I'm strong enough to deal with the fifth stage, but probably not the sixth. I might even get killed if a fight broke out. The godliness from two god items helped me a lot, but my overall level is still too low. The energy arts within the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth can't reach their full potential. And in the end, I'm still only a mortal. Not an immortal. Well, I still need to go poke around for some information. If I can get some of those imperial snakecharms, great. If not, I'll just leave.'

Although the reports confirmed that the Heaven's Net Consortium did have a sixth stage Demolisher, whoever it was came and went like a ghost, making it impossible to determine their identity.

All that was certain was that an immortal paragon had been seen.

What kind of people were immortal paragons? The sixth stage of Demolishing was called Abstrusity-Demolishing, and it involved opening the most abstruse and profound of doors, making one a paragon among paragons. One's energy arts became vastly more profound, and one's lifespan would increase significantly. Furthermore, it would make one capable of leaving to travel among other immortal worlds.

Normally, not even fifth stage World-Demolishers, immortal marquises, could leave their immortal world without using a teleportation portal.

The planes that were immortal worlds were definitely nothing like the planetary systems of the mortal world. They essentially existed in a different universe.

From what Yang Qi could sense, the immortal worlds were like bubbles hung in the universe, within which immortals existed.

And the bubbles didn't touch each other.

No, there were vast distances between the various immortal worlds, space that was occupied by a cosmic vacuum and deadly universal tempests. Only upon reaching the immortal paragon level could one venture through such regions.

However, not even immortal paragons could surpass the essence of the immortal world they came from. People who made immortal bodies with the magical laws of the Titan Emperor Heaven were fated to be forever connected to that immortal world.

If that immortal world were destroyed, all the immortals in it would also be destroyed. Not even ninth step Dao-Demolishers, sovereigns of heaven, were an exception.

The only way to rise above that limitation was to reach the Godmyth level. However, Yang Qi had already helped Titan Duelbringer and many others to reform their immortal bodies with the magical laws of the Tusita Heaven. As of now, their fate was tied not to the Titan Emperor Heaven, but to the Tusita Heaven.

The Tusita Heaven was a virtually invincible location, a place where Godmyths abounded, and was a place that would last for aeons upon end. It was quite the opposite of the Titan Emperor Heaven, which hovered in the shadow of destruction.

As for Yang Qi, he was tied to the essence of the Hell of Mahānata, the Tusita Heaven, and the Hell of Gloom and Darkness. And as time went on, he would likely perform ensconcements in other immortal worlds and hells. There were millions upon millions of immortal worlds and hells, and performing ensconcements there would ensure that, as long as they weren't destroyed, neither would he be. Eventually, he wouldn't need ensconcements of any sort. He would join the legion of gods and be able to create worlds. He would be truly invincible, and eternally deathless.

After taking some time to plan his next move, he left the military plane and headed to the business plane.

There were countless planes that made up the imperial city, which was overall a massive, extremely crowded place. By now, he had a somewhat respectable standing and wasn't stopped by any passing patrols.

He headed right into the business plane, where he saw all of the countless wormholes with people coming and going with various goods. It almost made him feel like he was back in the mortal world.

Eventually, he found a remote, empty alley a short distance from the Heaven's Net Consortium. Ducking inside, he murmured, "Lord of gods, transform me to dust."

Then he slowly shrank down to the size of a mote of dust, which began floating through the air toward the consortium.

The entire business plane had warding magics everywhere, designed to negate the effects of certain daoist techniques used for transformation. Even divine abilities designed to mimic the functions of heaven and earth would be viciously suppressed.

After all, immortals could change their size at will. If they wanted to be as large as a mountain, they could. If they wanted to turn into dust, they could. However, upon entering the imperial city, such techniques couldn't be used. It was a function of the magical laws that filled the area. After all, if a fight broke out and everyone suddenly became as large as mountains, it would obviously cause chaos.

But Yang Qi had deathless godliness and magical laws from the legion of gods. And the God Legion Seal in his forehead had the Blood of the One God. As such, he could easily surpass the magical laws that governed the imperial city. The ability to keep hidden was the most important tool in his plan to get into the Heaven's Net Consortium and try to get those snakecharms.

As he approached, he realized that the street that housed the Heaven's Net Consortium was filled with black-garbed individuals going here and there. It seemed that something big was going on. At the same time, they had the street locked down so that outsiders couldn't enter.

And it looked like all sorts of goods, especially immortal items, were being brought into the consortium.

'I bet the incident in the Endless Forest was a big blow to the Heaven's Net Consortium. They look like they're preparing to deal with some major enemy. Well, the more chaos they're in, the better my chances of succeeding.' As he proceeded in, he realized that there was some latent power in the air that was crystallizing even outside dust.

Obviously, it was an added precaution to prevent people from sneaking in.

'Another warding magic? As if something that crappy could stop me.' Chuckling coldly, he drew on the transformation powers of the God Legion Paradise, shrinking down to the point where he had no shape at all. Then, using the Wheel of Fate, he slipped through the crystallized dust.

None of the black-garbed individuals or figures in cinnabar noticed him.

Deeper he went, relying on the details from the intelligence reports he had just read to make his way along. Eventually, he reached a place protected by powerful auras and many warding magics, things that would protect against any intruder. Except Yang Qi.

WHIZZZ!

He passed into the inner hall, where he saw a mirror whose light almost fell onto him and revealed him.

Luckily, he had a mirror of his own, the Chiliocosm Mirror. And thus, he fought mirrors with mirrors and continued on. He knew that he was skating on thin ice, and was doing his best to get in and out as quickly as possible.

Eventually, he reached a storeroom filled with high-grade immortal items, as well as sabers, spears, swords, staffs, axes, halberds, hooks, tridents, and shields. There was even immortal armor.

At the same time, there were other types of armor that lacked immortal power or magical laws from the dao of immortals. Yet there was something innately marvelous and powerful about them, as if they had been manufactured by uncannily skilled hands. In fact, they were mechanical suits of armor from the ancient mechanical civilization. Mechas.

Yang Qi could tell immediately that these mechas had been put together by the Mechfolk, who carried on the legacy of that ancient civilization. They were filled with such immense power that even a mortal who suited up in one of them would be able to kill immortals.

It was a level of power that was no less than immortal armor. However, there was a big difference. Immortal armor required a powerful individual to use it. The more powerful the immortal armor, the stronger the person needed to be to wear it.

In immortal dao civilizations, immortal items and magical treasures were designed for use by people who were already powerful. In some ways, they were like embellishments.

But the machines from that ancient civilization didn't require the user to be particularly powerful. Even the weakest mortal could use them.

The two civilizations were very different in that regard.

However, that only begged the question of how terrifying they would be if combined.

Surprisingly, Yang Qi had found a stockpile of mechas here in the Heaven's Net Consortium, as well as mechanical weapons of all sorts. He wanted to take them all, but didn't want to alert the enemy to his presence. Right now, the imperial snakecharms were the most important thing.

He passed through the storeroom and continued toward the altar. With his Lord's Eye, he could already see the altar, and the primal-chaos elder-snake swirling about within it, devouring the essence available from the immortal world. There were a host of experts surrounding the altar, absorbing the Heaven-Devouring True Energy that the snake was producing.

And in the very middle of the group was a young man in a long robe that flickered like primal-chaos itself and was covered with snake-like designs. His eyes were closed, and Heaven-Devouring True Energy swirled within him, making him seem extremely abstruse.

Shockingly, he was an immortal paragon!

1. Just to be clear, fight mirrors with mirrors is not a common Chinese idiom. But the structure of fight X with Y is (the technical, direct translation is use X to fight/strike/defeat Y). The most common version is to fight poison with poison, which is both a common saying, and also a trope in wuxia where someone who is poisoned uses another type of poison as a cure.