Sage Monarch

"Aaaiiiieee!"

Before Brahma Erudite could even react, he was smashed into a bloody pulp by Yang Qi and his Heaven Moving powers immediately began dissipating. Of course, Yang Qi quickly locked those powers down and began pulling them toward him.

"I can't believe scum like you would really try to fight me," Yang Qi said. "There are only two things which happen to people who oppose me. Either they die, or they become believers. You picked option one, and now you have to deal with the consequences."

"No!" Brahma Erudite howled. "I refuse to accept this! I'm a Heaven Moving One! Nobody can match my speed, how did you possibly catch me"

"You think nobody can match your speed? Then explain my Angel Wings." As Yang Qi absorbed the powers of a Heaven Moving One, he unfurled his Angel Wings, upon which appeared a host of magical symbols, all of which were the character for "move". The blood of Heaven Moving Ones could be formed into the ancient script of the legion of gods and would take the shape of that character. It was the quintessence and ultimate meaning of their constitution.

The character "move" encapsulated the concept of speed.

Yang Qi unhesitatingly absorbed all of Brahma Erudite's power, making him faster than ever. At this point, not even an Incarnated God would possibly be able to catch up to him in a chase.

Settling down on the Godjade Prayer Mat, he focused on his cultivation. With the various warding magics in place on the mountain, no one had any idea what was happening inside.

Eventually, heavenly tribulation descended from the void.

Yang Qi was breaking through to the seventh stage of Wilds-Demolishing, which made him an immortal ancestor. Almost immediately, he reached the peak of that level. Meanwhile, within the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, tribulation hit his immortal-slaying clone, who broke out of the immortal ancestor level and became an immortal emperor.

The clone merely needed to call on the powers of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions to push himself into breakthroughs.

As for his true self, he had the enlightenment of the immortal emperor level, but needed a bit of time to consolidate his power before attempting another breakthrough.

'Excellent. My immortal-slaying clone is stronger again, and can call on even more of the power of those legacy medallions. Once he's a Godmyth, he can finally search for the core of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. Maybe he can even find the corpses of some of the fallen monarchs.'

Yang Qi reached out and ripped open a passage, causing the power of monarchs to spill out and revealing Jade-in-Stone, sealed there within the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.

"How are you feeling, Jade-in-Stone?" Yang Qi asked coldly. "Comfortable? If not, I can give you a little massage."

"You shameless little bastard! What Incarnated God did you get to help you earlier? Whoever it was, he went all out to fight me. Was it your father? But I doubt even your father would have wasted his life force quintessence like that. That much of a loss of energy would make it almost impossible to reach the Shattered God level!"

"Nobody was helping me," Yang Qi replied coolly. "I was fighting someone and redirected his energy to use on you. And I did the same with your attacks, injuring him so badly he fled."

POP!

Jade-in-Stone immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood in response. Of course, he had no physical shape—he existed only as deathless devil will—so the blood was really an expression of vital energy and power. But he coughed it up nonetheless, and it resulted in a significant injury to him.

"Enjoy your last moments, Jade-in-Stone. I'm going to assimilate you and make your devil will part of me!"

Yang Qi sat down cross-legged and began to draw on the virtual godhood he had built up. Igniting it with sagefire, he poured it into his Flame of Hope, causing it to burn brighter and more intense with every moment that passed.

The Flame of Hope was an energy art from the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, something that Yang Qi had previously been unable to use. Its function was to assimilate anything and everything, and thankfully the virtual godhood he had collected was just the fuel he needed for it.

It started out as a spark that quickly turned into something like a spirit snake, which then burrowed into the sealed Jade-in-Stone, who let out a miserable shriek.

"This… this is the Flame of Hope! People say that the legion of gods filled the world with hope, and in order to bring future blessings, they created a spark that could burn godhood to create a better future. How are you able to use something like this?"

"I have a God Legion Seal," Yang Qi replied, "so why wouldn't I be able to use it? You might be an Incarnated God, Jade-in-Stone, but that's not very impressive. With my Flame of Hope, I'll easily assimilate you."

"Let me go!" Jade-in-Stone wailed. "If you do, I'll help you take over Castle Heaven-Devil! You can have all of the Incarnated Gods there!"

"Sorry, no. I don't need your help with that. Once I assimilate you, I'll be able to take out any Incarnated God I want. That means Castle Heaven-Devil will be mine. You think I'm going to let a duplicitous villain like you sit around and scheme against me?" Even as he spoke, Yang Qi kept the Flame of Hope burning strong, and before long, Jade-in-Stone began weakening.

He called down curses and calamities and drew on all sorts of energy arts from the dao of devils. But none of it could do anything to Yang Qi. He simply absorbed the curses into śarīras, completely negating their effects.

Eventually, Jade-in-Stone ran out of energy and was slowly converted into a sparkling and translucent heaven-devil śarīra. It was a fist-sized expression of virtual godhood, something so powerful that it caused this corner of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart to violently tremble by its mere presence.

Yang Qi chuckled. "Virtual godhood from an Incarnated God. For now, I don't need it. My immortal-slaying clone can make better use of it. He can use this heaven-devil śarīra to further control those legacy medallions, which will make it that much harder for anyone to take them from him."

Flicking his hand, he sent the śarīra to his clone.

With Jade-in-Stone gone, the sealing marks were all unraveled and an enormous arm became visible. It was the arm of the Jade Emperor, which had been severed by the sword of King Life-Killer. The godpower in that arm had never fully dissipated; although the Jade Emperor was only a Lesser God, he was still a god. A true god. Thus, he existed above even the most powerful Godmyth expert.

Yang Qi knew that this arm only contained one ten-thousandth of the power it had originally held and its true godhood was no more, destroyed by King Life-Killer's sword. What was left behind was essentially some mangled flesh and blood, yet that was still enough to push his drop of the Blood of the One God to the level of one hundred percent.

'God Legion Seal, come forth and subjugate the arm of this god!' The God Legion Seal appeared, larger and stronger than before. Upon seeing the arm of an actual god, it unleashed golden light that immediately began assimilating the thing. Godpower surged into the meditating Yang Qi and his Blood of the One God grew purer almost immediately.

As time passed, it reached the level of one hundred percent and was the size of a mote of dust. Despite how small it was, it was boundlessly powerful. As it thrummed, Yang Qi felt the essence of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart trembling and could sense its greyspace. Upon sensing the power of the Blood of the One God, the immortal-slaying power in the chart tried to suppress it.

Unfortunately, King Immortal-Slayer was only a Paramount God and couldn't compare to the Sovereign Lord.

Lesser God. Common God. Greater God. Consummate God. Perfect God. Paramount God. Sovereign Lord. The Sovereign Lord existed above all other gods. He was the Lord over the legion of gods, the god of gods, the monarch of ten thousand divine beings.

Although Yang Qi only had one tiny speck of the Blood of the One God, that blood was the blood of the Sovereign Lord and was not something the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart and its greyspace could suppress. As of now, Yang Qi realized that his power surpassed that of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart and he didn't need King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions to enter or exit it.

That was how powerful a single pure drop of the Blood of the One God was.

Of course, part of that was because of how, in the past, he had searched out the spatial nexuses leading into the chart, which made it that much easier for him to lock onto its location. It was a god item that surpassed space-time and was connected to the past, present, and future.

"My Blood of the One God reached the consummate level early. It's now at one hundred percent strength. Unfortunately, it's still only one drop. That said, considering I'm not a Godmyth, it's an incredible amount of power. Once I get enlightenment of the Godmyth level, I can use that one drop to break through without even needing to fear the wrath of the dao of heaven." Yang Qi could tell that he was strong enough to kill some Godmyths without any effort.

For some, it would take only a single blow and they would be dead, with no hope of fleeing. The time had come to pay a visit to Brahma Echo-Silk.

He surreptitiously left the mountain and went back to the Brahman Institute. Before long, he had locked onto Brahma Echo-Silk's aura.