Sage Monarch

When Yang Qi took the destiny of those disciples, the ground reacted violently, sending out snake-like roots bursting with killing intent and thrumming with a fiendish will as they tried to wrap around him and strike into his soul. Instantly, Yang Qi felt like he was in a boundless hell, surrounded by mountains of corpses and seas of blood, with armies of asuras fighting in deadly fashion everywhere.

Unfortunately, although that will could easily deal with most people, it was completely ineffective when up against Yang Qi. He really was like a lord of hell, so why would he possibly be afraid of mountains of corpses and seas of blood?

Swish!

A sword nimbus flashed, and one of the roots dropped to the ground and tried to burrow away to safety.

"You're not going anywhere," Yang Qi growled, waving his hand. The primal-chaos vital energy in the area suddenly vanished, allowing him to simply reach out and grab the root. It emitted a piercing shriek, causing a pulse of power to roll out from some distance away as if to grab the root.

As the power poured into the root, it transformed, a vicious-looking head growing out of the severed end, making it look like some sort of primeval devil-dragon. Snarling, it lunged at Yang Qi with snapping jaws.

Yang Qi simply squeezed it in his hand and crushed the thing. Then he called on the Flame of Hope to burn it into ash. In response, a roar of rage could be heard deeper within the primal-chaos ahead.

Crick. Crack!

All of a sudden, the countless roots in the area wrapped around Yang Qi's legs and began dragging him downward.

'So that's what's going on!' He now realized what was going on. The Live Forever God Tree would try to kill any geniuses who came close to it and absorb their destiny as fuel for the god dao seeds, which would subsequently be harvested by the Tusita dynasty.

Apparently, billions of geniuses would participate in the exam, but only a few would get the god dao seeds while the rest were slaughtered. In fact, sometimes the entire group was slaughtered. It seemed like a very profitable venture for those who ran it.

Furthermore, Yang Qi had the feeling that the Live Forever God Tree was more than just a factory for producing god dao seeds. It likely had some other purpose or function.

'To slaughter so many geniuses and take their destiny and cultivation bases is very much like what the legacy medallions of King Immortal-Slayer do. The purpose of those medallions is to resurrect King Immortal-Slayer, a task which will require a huge amount of destiny.' With such thoughts on his mind, Yang Qi sent out countless beams of sword light to sever all of the tentacle-like roots, then flew away from their reach.

Apparently, the roots realized how dangerous he was, because instead of pursuing him, they shrank back down into the ground.

He flew on a bit before landing back on the ground.

'There must be some ancient entity in the Tusita Heaven that's using the Live Forever God Tree to collect destiny in the hopes of reaching godly ascension. Only the Deathless Throne would require that much destiny.' Yang Qi had long since come to realize that the levels of Energy Arts, Lifeseizing, Legendary, Great Sage, Demi-Immortal, Demolishing, Godmyth were all essentially the same as far as the dao of heaven was concerned. All such people were like pawns on a game board.

Only the Deathless Throne truly mattered! That was the level in which one escaped the control of the dao of heaven.

'Now I really want to see what the hell this Live Forever God Tree really is. I wonder if I'll actually be able to figure out what's behind it. Maybe I can seize the resources they've been hoarding for godly ascension.'

Blurring into motion, Yang Qi drew on the hyperdrive systems in the Cruiser of Civilization to pierce through the primal-chaos in a way that made him almost completely undetectable.

Along the way, he saw young geniuses being ripped to shreds by various creatures. And with his Lord's Eye, he could see countless streams of destiny flowing into the roots in the ground and heading toward some central location.

It was in this fashion that he got a general sense of where the tree was located.

A faint smile appeared on his face as he realized that he'd made the right decision to come to this exam.

As he flew deeper into the primal-chaos, he saw enormous rocs, eagles, dragons, and other terrifying beasts. And not a single of the geniuses who had come into the exam made any headway in fighting them.

RUMBLE!

He sensed some incredible vital energy fluctuations up ahead and soon caught sight of a group of people fighting a nine-winged giant tiger. It was a mighty creature that was reminiscent of one of King Immortal-Slayer's seventy-one brethren, an individual named King Godmight who had started out his path of cultivation as a nine-winged tiger.

The group fought well, inflicting blow after blow on the tiger. Finally, a young woman leaped out from the group and stabbed the tiger right in the heart, causing it to drop to the ground.

"The Live Forever Godtree is just up ahead," she said. "We're going to pass the test soon, get those god dao seeds, and reach the Godmyth level!"

One of her companions snorted coldly. "They say that the Primal-Chaos Gateway can identify all sorts of unlawful divine will. But it couldn't do a thing to Young Master Leaf's will. Not only are we going to get plenty of god dao seeds for the Immortal-Slayer's Sect, we're also going to reach the top of the tree and take that godly treasure hoard. The Tusita dynasty tried to keep the truth from Young Master Leaf, but they failed. He found out that the true purpose of this exam is to kill geniuses and take their destiny. After enough time passes, the godpower in that destiny will turn into true godhood!"

"Exactly. Emperor Tusita wants that true godhood to reach the Deathless Throne and become a god! He would be terrifying as a god, but sadly for him we figured out his plot."

"Come forth, patriarchs!" All of a sudden, shimmering light appeared on this handful of individuals, which resolved into a larger group, all of whom were members of the seventy-two patriarchs that included Young Master Leaf.

There were a total of thirty-six of them!

From what Yang Qi could tell, all of them were Measureless Gods, people so strong they could easily slaughter the primal-chaos beasts in this place.

One of the young patriarchs snorted coldly. "Young Master Leaf really came up with the perfect plan to deal with these old-timers and their scheme to sacrifice countless geniuses to gather power. I wonder if that true godhood has already started taking the shape of fruit."

"How could it happen that quickly?" another of the young patriarchs said. "Godhood doesn't just take shape in an instant. But we can still take the brewing godhood to give to Young Master Leaf. When he becomes a true god, he can take control of the essence of the Tusita Heaven and become its ultimate ruler. Then, in his majesty, he can devour the countless other immortal worlds, defeat the future world, and become the most invincible figure in past, present, and future. And of course, he'll make sure the rest of us reach godly ascension too."

"It's a good plan. Let's hope it all works out in our favor."

"Don't worry, of course it will. Young Master Leaf already controls part of the Tusita Heaven's essence. He can already subvert some of the heavenly workings, which is how he snuck us past the primal-chaos gateway."

"Come on, let's keep going. We need to fight our way to the Live Forever God Tree and harvest those seeds! The useless Tusita Dynasty has already proven to be an enemy of the Immortal-Slayer's Sect, and Young Master Leaf has long since decided to wipe them out. Unfortunately, they still have a lot of old-timers working with them, and if they work together, they're simply too strong."

Continuing their conversation, they flew off in the direction of the tree.

Yang Qi chuckled. 'You can wear out iron shoes in a fruitless search, then find what you're looking for without even trying. How true that saying is. Here I was wondering about the secrets of the Live Forever God Tree, only to have these fools explain it all. So they want to harvest the fruit from the tree. I guess I'll have to beat them to the punch! I wonder how strong they are. In any case, I have to get that true godhood. It's probably not going to be enough to push me to godly ascension, but it should help me progress through the Godmyth level.'

Yang Qi knew that the Godmyth level was not going to be easy. After the initial breakthrough, one became a first division Seer God, then a second division Tempered God, then a third division Incarnated God. And each breakthrough was harder than the previous ones, but true godhood would be a huge help.

"Follow them!" Yang Qi said to the Cruiser of Civilization, which followed his orders immediately.

Before long, a huge, shadowy form took shape ahead. It was an enormous tree, the mere sight of which was a major shock to Yang Qi. It had a massive trunk, with roots that spread far and wide and leaves that glittered like stars, which had skies of their own. Apparently, they were growing planets!