Sage Monarch

Yang Qi was very familiar with the power of hell. Thanks to cultivating the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, he was adept with the use of all sorts of godpowers and could easily summon hordes of fiend-devils. And here, the Regal Event Heaven had connected to the Hell of Bleached Bones by means of a spell formation. Yang Qi couldn't have asked for a better setup.

"Come on, let's go in." Yang Qi quickly opened a Hell Portal that pulsed with devil energy. Inside the portal, views of countless hell planes sped by until it reached a scene of endless bones, mountains of corpses, and seas of blood. Countless devil-gods could be seen, howling and screaming in the hopes of devouring more living beings to add more bones to their surroundings.

Much like the Hell of Suras, the Hell of Bleached Bones was a vicious and violent place.

Yang Qi immediately sent his nascent divinity branding mark into the hell, and used the God Legion Seal to ensconce it there.

The vital energy of bleached bones then began pouring into him, rapidly forming into a bone-white suit of armor. Then he descended into the kingdom of bones below, toward the depths of the Regal Event Heaven.

Hu Latu also received a suit of bone armor, allowing him to move about as easily as a fish in water without having to worry about a single warding magic.

"This is incredible!" he laughed. "It's impossible to say how many people have failed to get into this kingdom of bones. I even heard that once, in the distant past, the Brahman Immortal World fought the Regal Event Heaven and it resulted in devil-gods from the Hell of Bleached Bones devastating our forces. I bet those three pieces of trash won't even be able to get inside."

"Not necessarily," Yang Qi said as they sped along. "Based on my connection to them, I'm fairly certain they've disguised themselves as merchants and are sneaking in from another direction. They're trying to find us, but the confusion spell I cast on them has them completely lost."

"Do you think they already know the location of the imperial snakecharms?"

"That's very likely."

He waved his hand, and three tiny puppets appeared, with the faces of Luo Dan, Wang Chen, and Su Zhen. As they went here and there in their searching, all of their activities were made plainly clear.

Yang Qi's abilities with the puppet curse were such that not even a Godmyth patriarch would be able to identify it.

After passing through the barrier of bones, they reached the greyspace of the immortal world, a place which was no smaller than the Brahman Immortal World. Transforming into a primal-chaos elder-snake, Yang Qi dove into the greyspace and began devouring it like an enormous termite.

Three days later, they were inside the Regal Event Heaven.

It was immediately obvious that this place was not as flourishing as the Brahman Immortal World. The biggest difference was that the Regal Event Heaven seemed ancient and traditional, whereas the Brahman Immortal World didn't hesitate to mix aspects of the ancient mechanical civilization with that of an immortal dao civilization. As a result, their immortal world seemed futuristic, almost like a reflection of the future world.

Yang Qi was fairly certain that was Proud Heaven's doing.

That said, the combination of machines and the immortal dao led to terrifying levels of power. In terms of overall fighting prowess, the Regal Event Heaven wasn't even close to the Brahman Immortal World. That was one reason why the latter controlled thirty-six thousand immortal worlds, and the former, only twenty-four thousand.

'This place seems so old,' Yang Qi thought. 'The energy is ancient. It's like it's a remnant left behind by the ancient legion of gods.' Looking around, he saw endless floating mountains filled with mansion grottos, sects, and cities and the like. All sorts of cultivation were practiced that were exactly what would be expected in an ancient immortal world. And of course, there were sect wars large and small being fought.

**

"Well, Su Zhen, the Regal Event Heaven has nine major sects. The leader among the nine is the Mādhyamika School, which leads the Sun Moon Sect, the Devil Bone Church, the Cauldron Heaven Association, and other such groups. They all have their own territory and are always at odds with each other. However, with the Mādhyamika School as the leader of their alliance, they'll abide by calls to action from them. That said, there are always plots and schemes of some sort or another going on. Although the Regal Event Heaven rules over many other immortal worlds, it's nothing compared to the unity commanded by the Brahman Society. If we attacked them, they definitely wouldn't be able to stand up to us."

"Is that so?" Su Zhen replied. "Well, you really did your research into the Regal Event Heaven. I guess we should be able to get our hands on those imperial snakecharms fairly easily, shouldn't we?"

"They're in the hands of one of the Mādhyamika School's Godmyths, namely, August Patriarch Fire Dragon. As you would imagine, he started out a hundred million years ago as a fire dragon, although he eventually cast aside the husk of his body."

"How are we supposed to get the talismans?"

"It's going to be very difficult, especially considering we only have three years. First we need to get into the Mādhyamika School, and somehow get close to August Patriarch Fire Dragon. Then we can come up with a more detailed plan. Based on the information I got, ever since getting the talismans, August Patriarch Fire Dragon has been building up Heaven-Devouring True Energy in secluded meditation. I bet his cultivation base is only going to get stronger and stronger."

"Thanks to my clan's information network, I learned that the Mādhyamika School actually recruits new disciples on a yearly basis. It shouldn't be hard to get in."

As the three of them discussed their plan, Yang Qi listened in to every word with his five phases puppets. He also allowed Hu Latu to hear.

"Those three are a lot smarter than we thought," Hu Latu said. "They're already closing in on the target. Milord, what should we do? The talismans are in the hands of a Godmyth patriarch in the depths of the number one sect in the Regal Event Heaven. What if those three beat us to the punch and somehow manage to get the talismans?"

"I'm not worried about it," Yang Qi said, smiling coldly. "And there's no need to overthink it. I'll also infiltrate the sect and look for a chance to beat the grass to startle the snake. Mādhyamika School. Nine sects. Whatever. This place is set up like a typical immortal world, with a whole bunch of forces all at each other's throats. There's no way they'll work together in anything. And rewards come only with risk. I'll just lure August Patriarch Fire Dragon out into the open, trap him in a spell formation, and kill him."

"What? Milord, are you sure you want to be so direct about it? That August Patriarch Fire Dragon is a Godmyth! If you somehow fail to take him out quickly, it could cause a huge disaster. Considering he's been in seclusion with the imperial snakecharms for so many years, are you sure you can get him out into the open? It's got to be impossible to just walk into the Mādhyamika School and kill him. And he's not the only Godmyth they have. What if they join forces against you? I'm afraid you'd likely end up dead."

"Well, you're right about that," Yang Qi said. "Even if I were stronger than I am, I couldn't take on the entire Mādhyamika School. But as for luring him into the open, it shouldn't be hard. And although I'm not completely confident in being able to kill a Godmyth, I'm willing to take a chance. I sense that something big is going to happen in the near future, and I need to get stronger before it does."

"Oh right, Milord, I almost forgot. You already have some imperial snakecharms. If you call on their power, August Patriarch Fire Dragon will definitely sense it and come investigate."

"Exactly, Hu Latu. It seems you've gotten a bit wiser along with the energy arts I've given you recently. Come on, let's go. If I leave behind a scrap of my aura here, August Patriarch Fire Dragon will definitely come after me." He sat down cross-legged and sent out his God Legion Paradise. Then more than eight hundred talismans flowed out, which he used to create a Heaven-Devouring śarīra.

Because of how disunited the Regal Event Heaven was, it was an easy task to make Heaven-Devouring śarīras here. That said, Yang Qi still needed to worry about the top patriarchs of this place—especially those old-timers who had the power of the Hell of Bleached Bones.

Thankfully, the connection he had made to that very same location made him like one of the suzerains of hell, thus he wouldn't stick out here.

Yang Qi immediately called on the power of the talismans, sending true energy swirling out in the form of a primal-chaos elder-snake, which turned into a taiji symbol. However, instead of a taiji symbol with yin and yang, it was composed of the colors of primal-chaos.

The chaos of night filled the entire area, making it like a mirror. Within the depths of the mirror, there were other talismans, grouped around what looked to be a fire dragon.

It was huge, the type that could consume immortal worlds with a single gulp, and was constantly devouring the immortal world essence from around it to form Heaven-Devouring śarīras.

'August Patriarch Fire Dragon,' Yang Qi thought. 'Godmyth!'

Considering that this fire dragon also had some of King Heaven-Devourer's talismans, it was going to make dealing with him even more difficult. But if you ride a tiger, it's hard to get off. Yang Qi had to take action now, otherwise he would never get those talismans. And August Patriarch Fire Dragon would only get stronger and stronger, and more and more difficult to deal with. In fact, it would eventually reach the point where sparking a conflict with him would probably end in Yang Qi's death.

After all, he had a thousand talismans and Yang Qi only had eight hundred.

"Let's go!"

After making his preparations, Yang Qi and Hu Latu flew off into the distance in the Regal Event Heaven, leaving behind a mass of primal-chaos.

RUMBLE!

A short time later, a burning hand of fire appeared, which shrank the primal-chaos down into the form of a crystal.

The hand belonged to a young man in a fiery-red daoist robe. Looking around with delight, he murmured, "More of King Heaven-Devourer's talismans!"

1. The Mādhyamika School is a real school of Buddhist philosophy. . As usual, its real-life aspects aren't really relevant to the story. Mādhyamika literally means "middle way" or "centrism".