Sage Monarch

'God crystals, right here in front of me. If I can get my hands on a bunch of those, I'll be in a much better position. I can just get out of here and wait for the future world, the Dao Defense League, and Young Master Leaf to fight it out, then jump in at the last minute to take advantage of the situation. In terms of going to the future world, my cultivation base is obviously too weak right now. I definitely need to be a Godmyth before I even consider that. And I need to somehow get Young Master Leaf's three legacy medallions, so I have a total of six.'

As he proceeded deeper, he finally ran right into a god crystal.

Without hesitation, he sent out some divine will to wrap up the crystal. However, as soon as he did, an immense, ancient, and desolate will emerged from the crystal, like something from primal-chaos itself. In the shortest of moments, he found himself incapable of movement. Even the Cruiser of Civilization was locked down.

'What's going on?' he thought in shock.

The will entered his sea of consciousness and seemed just on the verge of overwhelming his own will. However, as soon as it reached his forehead, the God Legion Seal suddenly unleashed boundless god might and devoured the encroaching will.

With the invincible God Legion Seal in his forehead, there was no incursion of outside will that would have any effect on him.

"God Legion Seal? Fateless One!? What are you doing here? Don't tell me this is my fate?"

All of a sudden, Yang Qi felt like everything around him was spinning and realized that he was in some ancient aspect of the void.

Right in front of him was an enormous, pulsing heart. None of the outside powers or attacks had any effect on him here, and no one from the future world could see him.

The voice from moments ago had come from that heart.

'What just happened?' Yang Qi thought, quickly quelling the panic that had risen up in him moments ago.

"You're the will of the god Brahma, aren't you?" he said. "You must be. I have a third of the God Legion Seal, and I'm a Fateless One. You were imprisoned here by the power of the future world. I'm no enemy of yours. In fact, I'm an enemy of the future world! Why don't we become friends?"

Caught up in the moment, Yang Qi hardly had time to consider the fact that he was communicating with the will of Brahma's heart, an actual god! This was no fake god, no Godmyth with virtual godhood. This was a god, with true godhood—someone who could drift forever through the river of time!

All that remained was a heart, but the will of the god was still present, and the power it pulsed with could destroy anything and everything. It was obviously something that Yang Qi himself couldn't do anything against.

"Become friends? With you, boy?" The ancient will of Brahma seemed to smile. "I'd say that, at the moment, you're about one quadrillionth as strong as me. Even if you fully powered that fragment of the Cruiser of Civilization you have, you still wouldn't be a match for me. And you want to be friends with me? I've never heard of a mortal becoming friends with a god before."

"I'm foreordained to become a god," Yang Qi replied confidently. "The God Legion Seal fell to me and that's proof enough, isn't it?" He wanted to make sure he didn't sound weak in any way. Here in this moment, when the flames of war were about to engulf all heaven, the god Brahma had called out to him. In a desperate situation like this, it wasn't time to sit around pondering possibilities and consequences. Instead, he would throw caution to the wind and see what exactly Brahma's heart wanted.

"It is a curious thing that you have the God Legion Seal, boy. Even I'm not sure why you have it. Based on my understanding, the seal was split into three parts. One rests eternally in the primeval era, one exists in the present, and one exists in the future. Those that exist in the past and the future fell into the hands of two invincible, almighty entities there. You're definitely the weakest of the three. So weak you're hardly worth mentioning. I truly don't understand why the ancient Sovereign Lord would arrange things in this way. However, that is the arrangement, and there must be a reason for it all. I shouldn't presume to question such matters. Since you have the God Legion Seal, why don't you consider making a deal with me?"

"What sort of deal?" Yang Qi said.

"I need your help," Brahma replied. "Long ago, I fought a battle with King Immortal-Slayer and his seventy-one brethren. I lost, and was dismembered, with my corpse being scattered in various locations. My heart is here, my head is in the future world, and my limbs are in various ancient god ruins. As for my torso, it's in the depths of a certain enormous immortal world. All of them are sealed, and I need your help to break free. What do you say? Only when my body is returned to a whole state can I be resurrected and finally return to the god world."

"Find the pieces of your body? I don't think I'm powerful enough to do that." Yang Qi could tell right off the bat that it was an impossible task. Perhaps in the past he would have had the confidence to say that he could do it, but now that he'd seen first-hand how incredibly powerful this heart was, he realized that any such confidence was wishful thinking.

It almost seemed like he was dreaming. Here he was, trying to work out a deal with an actual god.

"It's not something I expect to happen overnight," Brahma replied. "I can wait. Plus, I'll reward you, to the point where you might even reach godly ascension. Right now, you're a Demolisher mortal. That's really just too weak. And when you do reach the Godmyth level, the dao of heaven will be furious, sending a tribulation that will be very difficult to overcome. Your fleshly body and your enlightenment are both beyond where they should be. How about this. Help me with the first task of traveling to the future world, finding my head, and unsealing it. I can even give you the coordinates. To help, I'll give you boundless power that will completely power up that fragment of the Cruiser of Civilization. If you were to try doing that on your own, you'd probably never succeed."

"Oh? So the first task is to go to the future world? And you'll give me directions?" Yang Qi nodded. Of course, if he followed through with this plan, he would be able to search for benefits of his own. "I do need to power up the Cruiser of Civilization first, otherwise I'd never make it through the space-time passageway to the future world."

"Very well, boy. Remember your promise. I'll use my power to gather all of the god crystals in the area. They contain power from the future world, as well as my own godpower. Just one of the crystals should be enough to provide one one-hundred-trillionth of the power needed by that fragment of the Cruiser of Civilization. There should be enough here."

Brahma's will spread out and numerous god crystals began flying toward Yang Qi's hand.

"Normally speaking, you would never be able to collect these god crystals, because they're located too close to my heart. Furthermore, the Cruiser of Civilization is one of the greatest machines created by the science and technology of the Lord of Civilization, who ruled the ancient mechanical civilization of the past. It's neither a god item nor a magical treasure. It surpasses god items, and the fact that you acquired it indicates that destiny is taking care of you. Hopefully, you can find more fragments of the cruiser. The Lord of Civilization was a god who surpassed most of us. He reached a peak that few reach, the Paramount God level. Now, go! When you reach the Godmyth level, come back here and I will help you go to the future world to look for my sealed head!"

WHIZZZ!

Before Yang Qi could react, an immense surge of power wrapped around him and whisked him through the universe until he was far away from the Brahman Immortal World.

'Great!' Yang Qi thought as he hovered far away from the battlefield. Although he was delighted, he now had a very important mission for the god Brahma, something he definitely couldn't take lightly. Brahma hadn't forced him to make any promises, nor had he talked of any punishment. But if a god wanted to punish a mortal, it would be a simple task. And Yang Qi didn't have the complete God Legion Seal.

He looked back and could see surging vital energy and dazzling sword light. It was obvious that the future world was strongly entrenched in the Brahman Immortal World now, and that numerous immortal worlds had come to do battle.

Immortals were falling left and right, and the future world's momentum continued.

At the moment, Yang Qi wasn't worried. There were plenty of experts among the immortal worlds. Even the high-level immortal planes were as numerous as the eternal sands of the universe. There were already twentieth ranked immortal worlds involved, and the thirtieth ranked worlds would soon step in as well.

Eventually, a burst of will began spreading out, a message sent by the almighty entities of the Dao Defense League.

"The vicious future world has invaded! Anyone who cultivates the dao of immortals, be you righteous or evil, come stand in defense! Catastrophe has come. The dao of heaven is collapsing and the universe is about to be overturned. All cultivators have the responsibility to rally together during this time of crisis!"

"Any ambitious cultivators out there should come join the Dao Defense League!"

"Any cultivator who fights well shall become a disciple of the Dao Defense League, or even an elder. You'll have access to endless magical treasures and cultivation resources. And those who kill the future warriors can absorb their constitution to gain the powers of a Future One!"

Yang Qi smiled coldly. Obviously, they were recruiting cannon fodder, and it was the perfect opportunity for him to become part of the Dao Defense League. Of course, he didn't want to be cannon fodder. He would become an elder and get handsomely rewarded as a result.

War had come, and no immortal world was safe. As far as Yang Qi was concerned, the battlefield was the best place to profit, and the best way to look for a chance to get to the future world.

'I wonder if Young Master Leaf is still in the midst of the fighting. Or is his true energy starting to run low? It obviously took a lot out of him to fight the Mechwave Heaven, how could he be so full of energy?' He pulled up an image of Young Master Leaf on the screens of the photonic computers and saw that he looked just as high-spirited as he had in the beginning.

Obviously, he had some sort of divine medicine that could restore his spirit and energy. Either that, or he had some unknown magical treasure.

1. The number in question here is literally "ten thousand trillions". I'm fairly certain that's 1 with 16 zeros. Technically, quadrillion has 15 zeros, but I think it's close enough.