Sage Monarch

The walls weren't black, either, but as golden as the ground, almost like they contained the mineral itself. Yang Qi flew over and touched the wall, trying to figure out if he could perhaps extract the gold.

Unfortunately, the wall was incredibly tough; no amount of power seemed to do anything to it. He got a strange sensation from the wall, as though it were created from the preheaven blood of a god of gold. If someone who cultivated sword energy were able to make a weapon from this stuff, it would definitely help them to advance by leaps and bounds. However, considering he had no way to extract the material, it was pointless to waste time.

"Where exactly are we?" he murmured. The golden path seemed to thrum with preheaven sword energy, and he could just barely make out sounds which resembled screaming, fighting, and dying.

As for the air, it seemed to weigh down with an oppressive energy. Yang Qi inhaled, and it felt like breathing in countless tiny, metallic swords. Thankfully, he was able to suppress their sharpness.

The power assessment systems immediately began providing an analysis.

[Beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep. Vital energy detected. Source: the perished Gold God, from the god world. Such vital energy is harmful to the human body, but can be profoundly helpful when cultivating the dao of the sword. It can improve the energy, make one's attacks stronger, break through barriers, create sword energy out of thin air, and so on.]

As Yang Qi's cultivation base increased, the functions of the Cruiser of Civilization grew more impressive. That was especially true of the power assessment systems, whose analytic capabilities continued to grow vastly more precise.

"Seems there's some treasure ahead," Holy Daughter Joyflower said. "Don't tell me it's the soul of the ancient Gold God. This aura seems no weaker than the fiery god soul from earlier."

"Let's keep going. If we run into something like the god soul from earlier, we can easily handle it." He clenched his hands into fists. "It seems there's treasure everywhere in this Great Necropolis, let's just take it all."

The two of them continued onward, and as they flew, the metallic, golden energy continued growing stronger.

Eventually, Yang Qi sent the God Legion Paradise out to form a greyspace around them, which the golden light would scrape against, leaving deep gouges.

Crack!

Holy Daughter Joyflower had a shield of her own, but the golden light smashed through it as though it were designed to slice defensive empyrean energy. Thankfully, she was no novice. She quickly gathered her frigid energy and summoned a kingdom of frigid ice that the golden light was incapable of penetrating.

Eventually, the golden light grew even more intense and a humanoid figure made of pure gold appeared. He held a sharp sword in his hand and pulsed with the preheaven energy of a sword-spirit.

The sword spirit flourished its sword, and razor-sharp sword light flew out like a song filled with wailing lyrics of death.

"Sing a Song of Wailing…."

The wild sword energy slashed through Holy Daughter Joyflower's kingdom of frigid ice, forcing her to dodge to the side with a look of shock on her face. Meanwhile, Yang Qi stepped forward, lashing two fingers out like a sword. It was none other than the Life-Killing Sword Dao, in which the sword was used to defeat the sword. An aura of slaughter appeared as the opponent's song rang out like thunder.

Whoosh!

The sword-spirit's sword energy instantly shattered, and the pieces swirled around to form a golden talisman that dropped down onto Yang Qi's palm. It was inscribed with god script, apparently, text from an ancient sword scripture.

RIP!

Holy Daughter Joyflower thrust her palm out in an attack against another sword-spirit. They went back and forth for about ten moves before she identified an opportunity. Her attack turned into solid ice and shattered the golden light. However, in contrast to Yang Qi, no script appeared.

Meanwhile, the text in Yang Qi's hand wriggled as it transformed into an expression of sword will that flowed into his body.

"How come you produce that script when you kill the sword-spirits, but not me?" Holy Daughter Joyflower asked.

Yang Qi thought about it, but before he could respond, a voice echoed out from further down the pathway.

"Use swords to defeat swords; the sword scripture exists of its own accord, the dao of the sword is mighty and imposing; any who wish to inherit my legacy shall pass the tests, become consecrated, and stand in front of me…."

The voice was magnificent, powerful, and seemed to thrum with the vibrancy of metal. It seemed as if some ancient god-spirit had really arrived to utter prophecies and portents. The power within the voice surpassed that of the fiery god soul by many times over. And it seemed like this soul was seeking a successor.

It was at that point that Yang Qi realized that there were other people in the vicinity, and from the sounds of fighting that were ringing out, they were also fighting sword-spirits.

'So, it really is a treasure trove,' he thought. 'It's a test set up by some ancient god soul, and those sword-spirits are the guards. Kill them to get the sword scripture. And with enough of the scriptures, you can get far enough into the kingdom of swords to gain the approval of the god soul. If you do, you'll win his legacy. This metallic god soul is clearly many times more powerful than the fiery god soul. I'd say its power index is going to be several hundred.'

Yang Qi had already realized that there were many god souls in this Great Necropolis. Some were violent, attacking anyone that got near them. But others were looking for successors, and there were certainly others who were peaceful. Regardless, they were all treasures that could be used to spectacular effect.

It really begged the question of what exactly the Great Necropolis was, and how it had come to contain so many god souls.

Ding dong. Ding dong.

Now wasn't the time to sit around wondering, though. Yang Qi continued forward through the golden energy flows, slashing at the sword-spirits with King Life-Killer's sword techniques, of which there were many. Stab. Poke. Slice. Chop. Swish. Crush. Cleave.

He held nothing back.

The sword-spirits were complete experts of the sword, and their every attack could shatter the sky and pierce through time. As such, fighting with them was excellent practice. Furthermore, it was helping his cultivation in general. After all, the dao of the sword was about advancing courageously across the battlefield and conquering every obstacle.

Yang Qi's sword skill was growing more and more advanced. It was based on King Life-Killer's dao of the sword, which was the best in all of heaven and earth. Light streamed about as he slaughtered the sword-spirits, all of which were converted into motes of light that contained god script. Slowly but surely, the sword scripture was taking form.

He was cutting down the sword-spirits with incredible speed, almost like a farmer harvesting wheat in the mortal world. As for Holy Daughter Joyflower, she had produced a sword of frigid ice to fight the sword-spirits, but was nowhere near as effective as Yang Qi.

As he progressed, the sword-spirits grew more numerous and Yang Qi's understanding of the god world's sword scripture grew deeper. At the same time, his cultivation base, will, and psychic powers grew more proficient in attacking.

C-C-CRACK!

After slaughtering a whole group of sword-spirits, Yang Qi suddenly saw a huge golden cloud rise up in front of him, filled with what looked to be lightning made of swords. As it neared, the cloud shattered into a host of enormous planets, which flew toward them.

"It's a Planetary River Projection!" Holy Daughter Joyflower blurted as she realized what they were up against. "Only the Star River Sword Sect would use something like that. They're one of the biggest organizations on the Ancient Road to the Gods."

Yang Qi didn't care who it was. He sent out a stream of sword energy from the fifth stance of King Life-Killer's dao of the sword. It was called Lightless, because as the sword energy pierced forth, night spread and black clouds proliferated, ensuring that all light faded from visibility.

All of the sword light in the area shattered and a roar of rage could be heard from deep within the golden cloud. Apparently, Yang Qi's sword attack had hit its intended target.

"The legacy of God-Noble Goldensword belongs to me!" someone shouted. "Only we from the Star River Sword Sect can take it. Anyone else who comes here will be slaughtered! You just wait, punk. You'll get what's coming to you!"

Yang Qi chuckled. 'God-Noble Goldensword? I think I'll be taking that legacy. This seems way more powerful than that fiery god soul, and that means good fortune for me. I wonder if Leaf Dao-Denier and the others are still around, or if they've been killed already. With the arrival of the Great Necropolis, the overall structure of things is really changing."

Yang Qi was certain that great changes were coming to the Immortal Dao Age. Powerful new forces were descending, and it was hard to say if the Dao Defense League would be able to keep its grip on power.