Sage Monarch

Traceless Slasher had unleashed a devastating attack of sword energy onto Yang Qi, yet it didn't hurt him in the least.

Yang Qi ultimately resorted to the divine abilities of the God Legion Seal, and had actually grabbed all ninety-nine of King Life-Killer's sage swords, holding on to them so tightly they couldn't escape his grasp.

Traceless Slasher howled in rage, but had to admit that Yang Qi was the most formidable opponent he had ever faced. However, Traceless Slasher had fused with those sage swords, so there was no way he would just let them be taken away. Suddenly, the combined swords flared with light as bright as the sun and began vibrating, as if they might break out of Yang Qi's grasp at any moment.

Without any hesitation, Yang Qi relied on a dhāraṇī incantation.

"Be broken!" he said. Instantly, the sage swords exploded, transforming into numerous streams of sword energy composed of countless magical symbols that read 'kill'. They were expressions of will that had been placed there by Traceless Slasher during the process of subjugating and fusing with the sage swords.

Yang Qi turned to face the magical symbols and inundated them with true flame; in the blink of an eye, they shattered.

POP!

Traceless Slasher coughed up a huge mouthful of blood as the sage swords were ripped out of his control.

"Sword Matriarch Ice Spirit," Yang Qi said, "take these ninety-nine sage swords. I have no idea where this guy got them, but that doesn't matter. With them, you should be able to take control of the Sage Sword Heaven and subjugate the God-Slashing Sword Sect. After you successfully fuse with them, not even this Traceless Slasher will be able to deal with you."

"Yes sir!" she said. Inhaling deeply, she sucked the ninety-nine swords into herself and combined them with her existing collection. A moment later, her energy surged and her dao of the sword became something that could shatter the greyspaces of immortal worlds.

"This is incredible!" she exclaimed. "Each sage sword pushes my sword techniques to a higher level. This Slashing One is already no match for me." She let loose a stream of contented laughter. "Any of the other seventeen sword sects that refuse to submit to me will be completely and utterly destroyed. Don't worry, Traceless Slasher, I'll help you achieve your goals. You wanted us to become a tenth ranked immortal world, right? I'm going to start the process by sacrificing you and your God-Slashing Sword Sect to the cause!"

"You animal!" Traceless Slasher shouted, his eyes wide with fury. He wanted to rip Sword Matriarch Ice Spirit to shreds, but with Yang Qi there it was impossible.

"Don't sacrifice Traceless Slasher," Yang Qi said. "He has one of the three thousand unique constitutions, and I need that. Although he's nothing but a mere Slashing One, his complete set of abilities could be of some use to me. I'll assimilate him, which will also accomplish the task of killing a chicken to frighten the monkeys. Then we'll see who refuses to submit to you."

He reached out, using the Hand of the One God to create numerous motes of sagelight. It almost seemed like the ancient legion of gods was reaching out to destroy the endless hells that existed.

"Aaaiiiieee!"

Traceless Slasher's vital energy had already been damaged when Yang Qi forcibly took the ninety-nine sage swords away from him. Considering how weak he was now, there was no way he could stand up to the current onslaught.

As the Hand of the One God descended, space and time cracked and shattered.

"I'm not going to let you do this. You think you're really that strong? You're mistaken! The Sword God can provide boundless power! Sword God Possession! One Sword, Nine Prefectures!"

RUMBLE!

Traceless Slasher was making one last-ditch effort to extricate himself.

A mysterious power suddenly shot out from the nearby rift, devastating everything in its path. Nine shadowy figures could be seen within it, like swords of immeasurable sharpness.

In ancient times, the 'nine prefectures' had nothing to do with the mortal world. Nor were they continents that made up high-level universal planes of existence. Instead, they were prefectures that divided up the god legion kingdom. And now these swords were bringing them to the world of men.

Yang Qi strode forward and thrust his palm out, causing the projections of the nine prefectures to shatter into nothing.

"Sword Shakes Distant Lands!"

Traceless Slasher unleashed another consummate divine ability, a sword move that caused a heavenly river to appear, the kind that could sweep through the most distant lands. This was power like that from the bottom of the sea or the depths of hell, a tidal flow that swept forth like a devastating tempest. It contained the power of high-level planes and universal energies that sought to crush Yang Qi into dust.

Considering the level of Yang Qi's cultivation base, there was no way he could exchange blows with Traceless Slasher. He drew on the Wheel of Fate and the attack flowed past him and into the primal-chaos elder-snake, which converted it into sword energy that he could use. Instantly, Traceless Slasher weakened and Yang Qi grew stronger.

"Life or death, it's down to this. Time to go for broke!" Traceless Slasher suddenly unleashed a burst of divine will. "All disciples of the God-Slashing Sword Sect, hear my command. Sword Matriarch Ice Spirit has betrayed our immortal world; she summoned an almighty enemy here to destroy us. We can't let her scheme come to fruition! All disciples attack together to kill this villain! The only way to save our Sage Sword Heaven and eventually reach the tenth rank is to cut him down!"

BUZZ!

There was some entrancing and inspiring power within his voice, perhaps something related to one of the unique constitutions that Yang Qi had read about, that of the Inspiring Ones. Instantly, all of the experts from the God-Slashing Sword Sect unleashed their sword energy and attacked Yang Qi, Sword Matriarch Ice Spirit, and the disciples of the Ice Spirit Sword Sect.

It was such a dazzling display that it was almost impossible to quantify how powerful of an attack it was.

All Yang Qi could see was boundless, dazzling sword light. Nothing else was visible—no vital energy, trees, rocks, treasures, or anything else. Just sword light.

"You scum really want to fight me?" Yang Qi quickly opened his connection to the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart and drew on the immense collection of virtual godhood he had built up after killing hundreds of Tempered Gods. Without hesitation, he unleashed the Sagely Sacrifice.

The fire of the Sagely Sacrifice raged, and everywhere it went, the sword light evaporated. Some of the sword experts were hit and burst into devilfire. The flames resembled the heads of devil-ghosts, and they viciously tore away at the victims' empyrean energy and began sucking their quintessence energy away.

"I assimilated hundreds of Tempered God fiend-devils from Castle Heaven-Devil, making me strong enough to decimate Incarnated Gods! And you think you qualify to fight me? Stop fighting, Traceless Slasher. Once I assimilate you, your lackeys will be leaderless!"

Yang Qi attacked like a dragon or tiger, lunging through the sword light directly toward Traceless Slasher. He thrust his palm out, and it contained power to destroy myriads of worlds and crush magical laws of all types. All truth existed in that palm, truth that existed outside of truth, nothing else. It was with casual abandon that Yang Qi controlled the truths of safety and defense. These were actions that were within the realm of the legion of gods!

Traceless Slasher's jaw dropped as he realized that this palm attack was something that no daoist technique or sword energy could do anything about. Anything sent against this technique would be instantly fettered; it could change metal to wood, wood to water, and so on. It could completely subvert the five phases! It was a power that Yang Qi could only use by drawing fully on his Blood of the One God, thanks to the level of his cultivation base.

It was only a small fraction of the full potential of the technique; if he used it to the fullest, it could alter the truths of the dao of heaven.

As he thrust his palm out, numerous heavenly eyes popped open above his head, containing countless heavenly tribulations that attacked him.

After all, this was an incredibly domineering move that defied the natural laws of the dao of heaven. There was no way the dao of heaven could accept it, thus it rained fury down on him in the form of heavenly tribulation.

However, the tribulation did nothing to him, for as soon as it descended it was devoured by the primal-chaos elder-snake.

POP!

Yang Qi's palm landed on Traceless Slasher, who screamed as he exploded into a cloud of quintessence energy, magical symbols, and godliness.

"Slashing One, huh? Yang Qi said. "Another unique constitution to add to my collection, pushing me further toward the perfection of the legion of gods. However, I sensed the inspiring nature of your voice, and how it drew people to follow you. That's the power of an Inspiring One, isn't it? Where did that power go? Do you have someone else backing you?"

He inhaled deeply, absorbing the power into himself, yet found no clues about this Inspiring One.