Sage Monarch

Sectlord Nine Yangs was surrounded by top experts.

He was a Chaos God, and had once been the type of figure who wouldn't even have backed down to Young Master Leaf. But confronted with so many people like this, he was obviously a minor figure who didn't dare to do anything other than babble obsequiously.

"I hate Yang Qi down to my bones!" he wailed. "League-Lord, if you can help me kill him, I'll do anything. If I fight him as I am now, he'll definitely kill me. I plead with you to help me improve my cultivation base, League-Lord. Then I can handle him."

"You understand the situation perfectly," Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven said. "Of course I'll help you with your cultivation base. Meet the lord of the Unrestrained Heaven, Wave Wind."

A burst of devil energy rose up in the area as a figure appeared in a black cloak, complete with a black hood that completely hid his face. He pulsed with a faint holiness, but at the same time, abounded with wretch energy. He was obviously a person who was a combination of wretched evil and holy righteousness. He was mysterious, enigmatic, and of course, indescribably powerful.

He was the devil emperor of the Unrestrained Heaven, Wave Wind, whose cultivation base was no weaker than Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven.

"Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven, could it be that you want me to boost this man's cultivation base? Well, I happened to concoct this bottle of Myriad-Sages Devil-Tempering Necrosius Truth Pills recently. Is that what you're after?"

Lord Wave Wind didn't seem to be exercising any effort at all to respect Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven as the league-lord. Instead, he seemed more like he was talking to an equal. Although Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven didn't seem very pleased about that, he said, "That's right. Your divine abilities from the dao of devils can provide a lot of benefits to someone who wants to improve their cultivation base. Besides, Sectlord Nine Yangs is a Chaos God, which means reaching a higher level of enlightenment isn't going to be easy for him. What if the two of us join forces to help him? I'll provide a God Pill of Fate, and you use one of your Myriad-Sages Devil-Tempering Necrosius Truth Pills. The combination will be extremely domineering, and should help him to shed his current husk and transform on a fundamental level. The two of us can also use the power of our cultivation bases to modify his true energy. What do you say? Afterward, he can kill Yang Qi, and the two of us can split the loot evenly."

Lord Wave Wind smiled. "Fine. From what I can tell, that Yang Qi made his Army of Radiance and Light by converting a bunch of hell-born fiend-devils into angels. If I can learn his secrets, I could challenge numerous suzerains of hell, defeat them, and take their place. I definitely need to get my hands on him."

"Let's begin!" With a flourish, Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven produced a large pill that was wreathed in flames and pulsing with such destiny that the entire Heaven-Dao Operation God-Temple was covered with a red glow.

They were flames of destiny, the type that might appear when an imperial dynasty reached the height of glory. Flowers would bloom, and fire would burn hot. Rivers would flow with the redness of flame. It wasn't an ordinary fire, but rather something that bordered on the deathless.

This was a God Pill of Fate, which had been created by the ancient Heavenly Court after slaughtering countless geniuses and harvesting their destiny.

These pills were one of the reasons the old Heavenly Court had eventually crumbled. Despite that, the Grand Emperors who founded that court had still benefited greatly.

"Now that is a medicinal pill!" Lord Wave Wind said. "It's little wonder you and your group killed so many experts in the ancient era. And it's also little wonder that everyone rose up and crushed the court you'd established. I guess it was all worth it, if you ended up with pills like that. But are you really willing to waste a God Pill of Fate on a piece of trash like this? I guess it's Sectlord Nine Yangs' lucky day to have made himself an enemy of Yang Qi."

With that, he produced his own pill, which sizzled with sickly green light and emanated the chanting of devils. Anyone who listened closely to that music would likely lose their minds, even immortals. It was a Myriad-Sages Devil-Tempering Necrosius Truth Pill.

"That's also quite a pill," Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven said. "I'm not sure how you went about concocting it, but it seems to be on the same level as my God Pill of Fate. Amidst the horde of devils, you managed to birth yang out of yin, and used devilishness to produce deathless godliness. Amazing! Let's get to it!"

He crushed the pill in his hand, then flicked his finger. The medicinal strength instantly began flowing into Sectlord Nine Yangs.

At the same time, Lord Wave Wind transformed his pill into a green stream of fire that also shot into Sectlord Nine Yangs.

Instantly, Sectlord Nine Yangs turned as stiff as a corpse and floated slightly up into the air.

Next, the two experts drew on their energy arts and sent streams of energy into him. Suddenly, Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven shouted, "Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court: Myriadmagic Heavenspan, Ninelimits Paragon, Heavenearth Vastocean. Come together! Set up the grand formation to control the dao of heaven and lock down this entire area!"

In response, three streams of power shot into the Heaven-Dao Operation God-Temple, quickly forming a huge god formation that locked everything down.

"Father!" Wave Charm blurted, her face falling as she suddenly came to suspect that the Grand Emperor was trying to trap her father.

Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven was vicious, merciless, and would do literally anything to accomplish his goals. Whether it was sworn brothers and sisters, or even his own children, he would sacrifice them all to come out on top. He was more of a devil than anyone who followed the dao of devils, which was exactly why the old Heavenly Court had fallen.

In response, Lord Wave Wind simply chuckled coldly. "Mahānata! Misery! Never-Ending! Suzerains three, come to my aid!"

Three streams of devilishness descended that were in no way weaker than the Grand Emperors' power streams. They, too, formed a spell formation in the middle of the Heaven-Dao Operation God-Temple, creating a complete opposition to Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven's formation. The two of them were like yin and yang.

Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven shivered with surprise. Never could he have possibly ever guessed that Lord Wave Wind would call on the help of suzerains from thirty-third ranked locations like the Hells of Mahānata, Misery, and Never-Ending.

All of a sudden, Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven felt like he was facing a true rival.

'Dammit!' he growled inwardly. 'So, these hell-born fiend-devils are trying to take a slice of my pie. How despicable. I'm not going to let them off the hook for this. Unfortunately, I have no other option than to cooperate with them for now. Perhaps I'll lend someone a knife and have them do my dirty work… yes. Yes, I can use Yang Qi to kill the fiend-devils. And maybe he'll get so hurt in the process that I can easily finish him off in the end.'

Meanwhile, Sectlord Nine Yangs' cultivation base was increasing rapidly.

At a certain point, Lord Wave Wind reigned in his energy and said, "Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven, with these two god formations we set up, we should have no trouble locking down the space in this area. Once Yang Qi and Sectlord Nine Yangs start their duel, Yang Qi won't be able to use King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions to escape into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. Then we can make our move, and not even a god would be able to stop us."

"Well, that goes without saying. I and the Grand Emperors Myriadmagic Heavenspan, Ninelimits Paragon, and Heavenearth Vastocean, as well as you and your suzerains of hell, could easily take on a god, much less Yang Qi. Now we need to decide how to split up the spoils. I want all of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions."

"No. We split them half and half!"

"But there are only seven in total. How do we split up seven?"

Soon, a heated argument was underway.

Out on the edges of primal-chaos, Yang Qi was able to watch the scene by using Sectlord Nine Yangs' eyes and ears. Although he couldn't help but chuckle coldly at how all of these people were plotting against him, he was also surprised at how strong they were. If he hadn't managed to turn Sectlord Nine Yangs to his side and use him as a pawn, it was likely he would perish during the upcoming duel.

In fact, even now, he was worried that if he went to Heaven-Dao Operation God-Temple, he would end up captured. Even if he were a Measureless God, there was no way he would stand a chance against the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court, plus four suzerains of hell.

'I have to come up with a plan,' he thought. 'I know what they're going to do to me, so I should be able to come up with something. Unfortunately, I can't just choose to not show up. That would be a huge blow to my reputation. How can I foil this conspiracy of theirs? Trick the tiger into attacking the wolf? Or perhaps I could use the strategy of sowing distrust and discord. Maybe I can get that devil lord to betray the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court. Although, I should probably go get the Engine of the One God before I worry about that.' [1]

If he could get the Engine of the One God and sufficiently power it up, then not even these eight powerful opponents would be able to easily deal with him.

Before long, Yang Qi and Patriarch Annalist were outside the Eight Tribes Heaven.

"What an ancient aura," Patriarch Annalist murmured, visibly taken aback. The entire immortal world was surrounded by a primeval mist that was grey in color, and clearly impossible to pass through.

There were enormous dragons flying to and fro in the mist, with incredibly powerful energy arts. It looked like the Eight Tribes Heaven was now starting to expand in the same way that the Brahman Immortal World had, earlier. And the killing intent of the Primeval Age was now fully detectable.

"Well, this is nothing to take lightly," Yang Qi said. "It seems they really are following the example of the Brahman Immortal World by summoning experts from the Primeval Age."

He shook his head slowly. It seemed that the Dao Defense League was heading for major trouble. The attack by the future world was bad enough, but now the past world was coming. And during the middle of it all, people like Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven were trying to benefit themselves. The path ahead was blocked, there were enemy soldiers in pursuit, and there seemed to be no options. Yang Qi was truly unsure of what to do.

Even if he killed the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court and took power, he wasn't confident that he would successfully be able to lead the Dao Defense League in the fight against the other two worlds. In fact, he was certain that, if he tried, the end result would be the future and past worlds allying to destroy the present.

Soon enough, the other two bearers of the God Legion Seal would come.

Then he would have no choice but to fight.

1. To trick the tiger into attacking the wolf is a saying attributed to Xun Yu from the Three Kingdoms Period in China. The saying is similar to the classic fisherman, sandpiper, clam expression, and even the other expression from further up to lend someone a knife to get them to do your dirty work.