Sage Monarch

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"You all are just too stubborn!"

The sixty-five young patriarchs had erupted like a hornet's nest, unleashing a bevy of god skills, energy arts, immortal skills, great daos, magical laws and the like, all in a desperate attempt to kill Yang Qi. He simply shook his head as their attacks smashed into the barrier he'd thrown up, causing dazzling light to flicker in all directions.

Crack! Snap!

Not a single one of the attacks made it through.

"Many-Heavens God Seal!"

An enormous sealing mark appeared and quickly wrapped up the various patriarchs until they looked like enormous cocoons. They struggled, but not a single one could break free.

"Everyone join forces!" one of them howled. An energy flow appeared and swept between them, creating three pure-white lotuses that grew larger and larger in what was clearly an attempt to break free.

Under normal circumstances, this group would have been very difficult to deal with. Some of them would've escaped already, and they would have been able to send messages to other experts to come help. After all, they all came from the Tusita Heaven to begin with, and their clans had old-timers that would quickly come to their aid.

But Yang Qi lured them into a spell formation, and that changed everything. They couldn't escape, and were, in fact, being suppressed by the Many-Heavens God Seal. Furthermore, Yang Qi was drawing on the essences of the Heaven Beyond Heaven and the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.

Despite that, they were quick on their feet and pooled their powers to create the three white lotuses. Space cracked and ripped as the lotuses grew larger, thrumming with power that, unexpectedly, surpassed anything from King Devil Dragon, King Bone Dragon, or Sectlord Nine Yangs.

Thankfully, this wasn't the full group of seventy-two patriarchs. Young Master Leaf wasn't present, and Yang Qi had already converted six of them to his cause.

All of them combining the powers of their special constitutions into a huge spell formation would have been a very deadly and formidable situation.

But Yang Qi had ensured that they were in a very weak position.

"Three Flower Convergence!" the sixty-five patriarchs howled in their attempt to break free.

Yang Qi stepped off of his throne, unleashing a palm strike with one hand and performing an incantation gesture with the other, causing a stream of sword light to streak out. "When life turns to death and the void is destroyed, a myriad of long nights stretch out before you. Be broken!"

RUMBLE!

A streak of godlightning appeared, filled with the force of a host of giant gods striking out with axes to split apart heaven and earth, and establish the paths of reincarnation.

This was another energy art state from the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. The Life-Death Void-Destruction God-Lightning. It was something that Yang Qi could use to destroy any immortal world under the twentieth level.

In fact, if he powered it with enough quintessence-blood, it was possible to use it to strike a hole in the greyspace of a thirtieth ranked immortal world. It started out as a tiny spark, but rapidly grew into a deadly conflagration.

POP!

Lightning poured down like rain onto the three white lotuses. The flowers instantly exploded, revealing a host of howling, vicious faces. All sixty-five of the patriarchs coughed up blood, and dropped back down, numb and weak from the blow.

Unfortunately, using the lightning was a big drain on Yang Qi.

The full name of this magic was the Life-Death Void-Destruction Many-Heavens God-Lightning, which supposedly had been created by the supreme Sovereign Lord to destroy god kingdoms, and strike fear into the hearts of all living things. Because of that, it required such an incredible drain of power that even the fabled Lightning God couldn't use it.

In that one moment, Yang Qi's true energy drained by roughly thirty percent.

However, the result was that the entire group of patriarchs were so weak they could hardly move. All of them clearly had vital energy injuries.

Yang Qi wasn't done. "Halos of damnification!"

Waving his hand, he caused a whole host of halos to pop up around the patriarchs, making them even weaker.

"Fiend-devil!" one of the patriarchs shouted. "He's a fiend-devil! He's actually using halos of damnification! Those are primeval god skills!"

"Very perceptive. You're the Devouring One, right? With two hundred of King Heaven-Devourer's talismans? Give them to me!" Yang Qi made a grasping motion and two hundred talismans shot out toward him. Primal-chaos energy flows exploded behind him as an enormous primal-chaos elder-snake appeared, vastly more realistic than before, to the point where it had blood pumping through its body.

Yang Qi previously had two thousand of the talismans, but now he had two thousand two hundred, making him stronger than ever.

After one acquired two thousand, additional talismans would cause substructural changes. Now each talisman bore an image of a hulking figure in a cloak—King Heaven-Devourer himself—who looked down on all existence and fought against the legion of gods.

The power of devouring in Yang Qi grew greater, causing the void around him to crumble. At the same time, he saw information playing out in front of his eyes that was previously locked within the talismans.

As of this moment, he knew where all of the other talismans were. Unexpectedly, most of them were in the Eight Tribes Heaven, the territory of the Dragonfolk, in the hands of one of the old-timers there. As for the rest, they were scattered in random locations within the primal-chaos debris.

After he handled the current matters at hand, he would take the time to finalize his collection. Right now, there was no one who could stop him. He would get all three thousand talismans and fully accept the legacy of King Heaven-Devourer. Long ago, King Heaven-Devourer had been second only to King Immortal-Slayer. He was a Paramount God who savagely devoured numerous members of the legion of gods. Even Consummate Gods had shivered in terror at the mention of his name. As for Yang Qi, he could only dream of having a cultivation base that powerful.

'Incredible…' he thought as he noticed the changes to himself. Next, he waved his hand and a host of magical treasures flew out of the possession of the sixty-five patriarchs, including palaces, swords, suits of armor, blades and the like.

They were all items possessed by the original group of seventy-two brethren.

"Mourn-Parting Heaven-Palace halls. Horned King Armor…." All of them were very precious items that would normally be very difficult to collect. However, Young Master Leaf had been very conscientious in his efforts. In his attempt to continue the core teachings and doctrines of King Immortal-Slayer, and even surpass him, he'd hoped to turn all seventy-one of his brethren into god-spirits. Thus, he helped them collect the various treasures they needed.

Now Yang Qi had them, and they would make his people an even more domineering force in the immortal worlds.

The sixty-five patriarchs were now incapable of fighting back, and could only hang their heads in crestfallen disappointment or glare angrily at Yang Qi.

Of course, their hatred toward Green Merchant and the other five patriarchs burned hot and intense. "Green Merchant, you traitor! And the other five of you, too. I can't believe you would do something like this. Why? Why did you do it?"

Snorting coldly, Green Merchant stepped forward and said, "You bunch of pig-headed bastards! Our lord took a liking to you, and wanted you to work for him. He already forced Sectlord Nine Yangs and King Bone Dragon to submit. And he'll soon dominate all the other experts in the Dao Defense League, even the old-timers. Young Master Leaf is doomed to die! Join us, and help take down Young Master Leaf. Do you know what amazing rewards you'll receive? Our lord will refine your energy arts and make you ten times as strong as before!"

"You shameless bitch!" one of the patriarchs spat. "If you think we're going to betray Young Master Leaf, you might as well stop dreaming!"

"Ai," Yang Qi sighed. "Green Merchant, it seems to me that these people won't shed a tear even with the coffin right in front of them. Take these Hell Scourges and beat them!" Six Hell Scourges appeared in the hands of his six followers.

Without hesitation, they fanned out, and soon, screams of agony rose up. It was as if hell had come to the world of men. It didn't matter how strong these sixty-five patriarchs were, there was no way they could handle this level of pain.

Soon, people began submitting, offering their faith to Yang Qi. Others claimed they would die before giving in and cursed the others for being weak. But as the whips lashed them, they eventually screamed like slaughtered pigs and acknowledged allegiance.

Those who had never experienced the agony of the Hell Scourge could never imagine what it was like. And none could imagine the heaven that people would experience when the lashing stopped.

Eventually, sixty-four of the patriarchs had submitted. There was only one who held strong. As the Hell Scourge lashed him, he suddenly began chanting some sort of ancient mantra, causing his entire body to flicker with golden light that protected him against the whip.

"The śarīra is empty, and is the color of change. Color is the change of emptiness…." It seemed very much like some sort of buddhist mantra designed to weaken the power of hell and reduce hellish pain.

"Hmm?" Yang Qi walked over from his throne of primal-chaos.

The young patriarch looked up at him and shouted, "Bring it on! Beat me! Throw me into hell! The hellish pain you can provide is a blessing to me! It tempers my Lokapāla Prajñā Safeguard Technique! I'm a Golden Lokapāla One, and my constitution was a blessing from an almighty member of one of the buddhist schools! It's specifically designed to defy hells!"

"Oh really?" Yang Qi knew that the buddhist schools were among the most powerful organizations there were. They'd even contended with the legion of gods, and although they had never gained the upper hand, they were still mighty. They had also never been seen in the immortal worlds, but some of their techniques had been circulated.