Sage Monarch

As Yang Qi sucked away the devil energy in Castle Heaven-Devil, its true visage was revealed.

It was actually formed from stone, and appeared to have been naturally formed. When Yang Qi sent his true energy into it, the energy disappeared like a statue of an ox tossed into the sea.

That was quite a shock to Yang Qi. After all, his true energy could assimilate god items, yet did absolutely nothing to the stone that made up this castle. He had to wonder exactly what this stone was.

At a certain point, he realized that the stone contained something that seemed like the flesh and blood of a god-devil. It was twitching and wriggling, and seemed capable of absorbing any power that was used against it and sending it to other planes of existence.

'Don't tell me this Castle Heaven-Devil can redirect power to the Unrestrained Heaven? If so, does that mean that not even the strength of the legion of gods would be sufficient to destroy it?'

Deep within the castle were a host of pillars, covered with magical symbols that looked like blood. Obviously, those pillars were locations in which devil-gods were sealed.

Some of the pillars abounded with devil energy, creating isolated kingdoms around them, some of them hundreds of kilometers from end to end. Such kingdoms echoed with howls of rage and the sound of chains clanking against each other.

'Who would have thought that this place would have so many Godmyth heaven-devils sealed inside? If they did escape….' Yang Qi almost couldn't wrap his mind around the concept.

Sword Matriarch Ice Spirit had entered the castle with utmost caution, keeping herself wrapped up in a black cloud. But after Yang Qi cleansed the castle of devil energy, she was even more convinced that he was a person she should make friends with.

"Daoist Brother, I still haven't had an opportunity to ask you for your name."

"You can call me Yellow Future," he replied. If he were doing something treacherous, he would have no problem using his Hu Yanmeng identity to cause problems for the Brahman Immortal World. But there was no need for that now. Therefore, he drew inspiration from the young man in yellow, who was a Future One, to come up with a new assumed name.

"Yellow Future?" Sword Matriarch Ice Spirit murmured.

Eyes flashing, Yang Qi said, "See that pillar up ahead? That appears to be the weakest of the heaven-devils. In fact, it seems to be hovering on the brink of death already. Let's start with that one."

He extended his hands and four streams of true energy shot forth, shaped like dragons. When they slammed into the pillar, it trembled violently, as though it might collapse at any moment.

All of a sudden, a stream of devil energy appeared, accompanied by a cackling voice. "Sage Sword Heaven scum! You finally fell for my trap! I made myself seem weak in the hopes you would attack me! Now I can free myself and slaughter you all!"

The devil energy transformed into a devil hand that slammed into the four streams of dragon energy from the Eight Tribes Godfist. Then the pillar began to crack and crumble as an enormous devil-ghost appeared. It had green skin, white hair, red eyes, long fangs, and claws that were fully nine meters long. Without any hesitation, it used a devil art to attack Yang Qi.

"Heaven-Devil Phantom Projection!"

It was a consummate devil art that used illusory projections to pull people into a world of illusions.

"That's the Heaven-Devil Phantom Projection Grand Energy Art! Be careful!" Shocked, Sword Matriarch Ice Spirit slashed her sword out to defend herself.

"I'm fine," Yang Qi said. Even as the devil-ghost claw descended onto his head, he opened his mouth. As he did, he physically vanished, leaving behind only a gaping maw of primal-chaos with razor-sharp teeth. The mouth lunged forward and gobbled up the Godmyth heaven-devil, immediately beginning to chew it up, and provoking agonized shrieks.

Afterward, the mouth transformed back into Yang Qi, who glowed with devil light.

He now had three Godmyth heaven-devils, all of them Seer Gods, which indicated that they had only just begun to glimpse the dao of gods. That said, they were still in the Godmyth level, which meant that they had already cultivated their virtual godhood.

Assimilating them would give him access to a huge amount of raw power. It was a level of power so unimaginable that he couldn't even begin to quantify it. All he knew was that based on what he could sense inside of him, he was pushing toward a breakthrough into fifth stage World-Demolishing.

Obviously, he wouldn't make that breakthrough here, though.

'With these heaven-devils' will and virtual godhood, I should be able to combine the different facets of the Eight Tribes Godfist. Combine the Eight Tribes into one, and eight dragons together.'

Virtual godhood was second only to deathless godliness and could lead to all sorts of power. In fact, if he used his Sagely Sacrifice on it, he could convert virtual godhood into the godpower of the Sovereign Lord. And with enough power, he could do with the Eight Tribes Godfist exactly as he had done with the five phases godly-class energy arts.

In its perfect state, the Eight Tribes Godfist would be even more powerful than the five phases arts. He would be able to connect to the Eight Tribes Heaven—a place like the Tusita Heaven—to take its power and magical laws.

The Eight Tribes Heaven, the Tusita Heaven, and the Unrestrained Heaven were all peak locations within the immortal worlds, thirty-third ranked heavenly worlds. As for the Unrestrained Heaven, its combination of devils and immortals made it high even among those thirty-third ranked worlds. In fact, it was like a kingdom of half-gods.

Sword Matriarch Ice Spirit saw Yang Qi's aura surging and noticed the passageway he had opened, as well as the dragon-scale-like magical symbols falling onto him.

Eventually, the eight streams of energies transformed into eight different types of dragons, four of which were virtually corporeal. On the other side of the passageway, it was possible to see an entire world of dragons whose cultivation base surpassed her own.

'He cultivates the Eight Tribes Godfist, the combination of the godly-class energy arts of eight different tribes of dragons. Anyone who cultivates them all will become the king of all dragons, their god! Does he really think he can do something like that?'

Sword Matriarch Ice Spirit was a Godmyth patriarch from a seventh ranked immortal world, the Sage Sword Heaven. She was stronger and more important than even the patriarchs from the Brahman Immortal World, and was vastly more informed than them. Therefore, it was no wonder that she recognized the incredibly famous Eight Tribes Godfist. According to legend, the Dragonfolk existed in all civilizations. In fact, most immortal worlds had detailed records about them.

Right now, Yang Qi had four, which was astonishing enough as it was. Throughout history, any of the Dragonfolk who managed to cultivate four of the eight techniques could shake heaven and earth.

WHIZZZ!

A dragon appeared that was made completely of white bones. It was a manifestation of the techniques of the bone dragons, and was the fifth of the godly-class energy arts that made up the Eight Tribes Godfist.

Unfortunately, making progress within the Eight Tribes Godfist was incredibly difficult, even harder than the five phases arts.

He had only managed it because of the godhood of the heaven-devil patriarchs he had just defeated. Any further progress would be very difficult. That said, he wasn't worried. There were plenty more heaven-devils in this castle that he could use to progress further.

The Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth was actually connected to the Eight Tribes Godfist in a mysterious way, which was not the case with the Cardinal Grand Brahma Five Phases Energy Art.

After all, dragons and mammoths were both holy creatures among the Demonfolk. Originally, megamammoth genes had been inferior to those of the Dragonfolk. However, the Sovereign Lord, ruler of the legion of gods, was worried that the Dragonfolk would eventually pose a threat. That was another reason he had created the godmammoths.

During his act of creation, he had taken the genes of the dragons into consideration, which was why the megamammoth particles in Yang Qi would became dracomammoths as part of their transformation.

When Yang Qi cultivated the Eight Tribes Godfist, he could sense how it could benefit from the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. It actually made his true energy stronger, made it even more possible to connect to the godpower of the Sovereign Lord, and improved his Blood of the One God.

'I've mastered the techniques of the Heaven, Devil, God, Infernal, and Bone Dragon Tribes, leaving only the True, Netherworld, and Buddha Tribes. I have to finish the final three!"