Sage Monarch

Chapter 861: Joyflower Palace (Part 1)

Fifty Grand Emperors had appeared in the middle of the Dao Defense League, including one whose power index surpassed a hundred, Cipher Rite-Heaven. And all of them were completely and utterly loyal to Yang Qi.

The hundred trillion immortal worlds that made up the Dao Defense League were now in a defensive formation. But unlike before, they were not incredibly vulnerable to attack. In fact, they could strike back with devastating force against any enemy.

Of course, the Grand Emperors had to remain hidden. They came from important organizations on the Ancient Road to the Gods, especially Cipher Rite-Heaven and the other elders from the Cipher-Devil Sword Sect. If their existence was revealed now, it could lead to the swift destruction of the Dao Defense League.

In the past, the Dao Defense League hadn't had anyone to fear, and was able to forcibly take roughly two-thirds of the universal fortune that existed in heaven and earth. But now things were different.

Because of the appearance of the Great Necropolis, the universal fortune of heaven and earth was in chaos and the Dao Defense League had lost control of much of it. The league was now in a dangerously unstable position, and if forces from the ancient road established themselves on the scene, the league would be relegated to a third-rate role. Therefore, Yang Qi had to work hard to keep the league safe.

Thankfully, his cultivation base was rising and he was able to continuously siphon god world power from the Great Necropolis to give to his immortal-slaying clone.

After assimilating the god soul of God-Noble Goldensword, his power index had risen to two hundred twenty. And after emerging from the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart into the Great Necropolis, he immediately started using King Heaven-Devourer's talismans to absorb the surrounding vital energy. Furthermore, as he began moving through the pathways of the necropolis, the talismans devoured entire planes of existence. They were truly starting to resemble King Heaven-Devourer himself.

The pathways of the Great Necropolis were immense, like entire starry skies or universes. The current path he was on was glittering and resplendent, reminding him of an immortal world, as opposed to a place of darkness.

The primal-chaos elder-snake inhaled, and a plane of existence equivalent to a twentieth ranked immortal world was sucked into its belly. The plane featured numerous primal-chaos beasts and spirits, as well as a host of minerals and ores.

As such planes of existence were devoured and digested, they were cleansed by the power assessment systems and passed through the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart to the Dao Defense League.

More power pillars appeared there, which the Grand Emperors fed into the spell formations.

"So many god items!"

Patriarch Annalist, Eldest Brother, Elder Second Brother, and numerous disciples of the Yang Clan saw an influx of power coming from a nearby vortex, and moments later, a plane of existence equivalent to a tenth ranked immortal world appeared and began raining god items.

Yang Qi had just devoured a plane of existence that was an ancient battlefield filled with god items. They were very low-level god items, the kind that belonged to Lesser Gods, but to Godmyth cultivators they could provide a huge boost in fighting prowess, especially if they were used in conjunction with spell formations.

The Great Necropolis was essentially a massive treasure trove, something that completely and utterly surpassed the Aeonic God Temple from the thirty-third ranked immortal world that was the Heaven Beyond Heaven.

With his Destabilizing will, Yang Qi was in a very different position than before. He could completely suppress the lingering will of King Heaven-Devourer and use the talismans much more effectively than before. As of now, he could easily use them to suck in people like the young chaplain of the Ancestral Wilds Basilica or Star Swordlife, thus inflicting a heavy blow to their fighting prowess.

So far, Yang Qi had not found any more god souls.

He was simply taking planes of existence, stripping them of anything beneficial, and sending it to the Dao Defense League.

At a certain point, Holy Daughter Joyflower frowned, looked around, and seemed to be making some calculations.

Given the expression on her face, Yang Qi could see that she really was lost, and had no way to lead him to the godhood she had mentioned.

Suddenly stopping in place, she looked at a flowered bracelet she kept on her wrist. A moment later, a voice spoke from the bracelet, calm and relaxed, like an ancient goddess scattering beautiful flowers on the path in front of her.

"Flowers Bloom; Flowers Fall…."

"It's a message from the Joyflower Palace," Holy Daughter Joyflower said. "Something's happening there, and everyone is being recalled."

"Your headquarters itself is in the Great Necropolis?" Yang Qi asked.

"Yes. The headquarters is built on an ancient flower called the Passionless God Flower. People say that it was left behind by the Passionless God-King from the immortal world. The flower is so huge that even a thirty-third ranked immortal world could fit inside of it. In fact, if you categorized it according to the rankings of immortal worlds, it would probably be fiftieth ranked. The flower is itself a god item, and the entire Joyflower Palace exists atop it. We brought it into the Great Necropolis as our base of operations, both to absorb the vital energy of this place and to store any treasures we found. It's already advanced to the point of surpassing any organization from any age. And based on the message here, I'd say it's highly likely… that the plan is to make a move on the immortal dao civilization. Seize the universal fortune of heaven and earth." [1]

"Make a move on the immortal dao civilization?" Yang Qi shivered. Although he had known all along that this would happen, it was certainly happening a lot sooner than he'd expected. The experts who had been on the Ancient Road to the Gods, but could now return via the Great Necropolis, would obviously want to seize the universal fortune of heaven and earth. Although there were Grand Emperors in the Immortal Dao Age, none of them could be considered top experts. That said, there were literally too many experts to count, and in fact, no one was even fully sure how many immortal worlds there were. Not even Yang Qi knew where the border of the immortal worlds was, or what old-timers still lurked out in the primal-chaos.

If someone could unify all of the immortal worlds and old-timers, and gather all of the universal fortune of heaven and earth, it would obviously be a huge benefit in terms of godly ascension.

"Let's go," Yang Qi said. "I need to get back to my Dao Defense League. Things are developing too dramatically, and I need it to get stronger now."

He immediately leaped into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, and through it, to the Dao Defense League.

A tremor passed through his immortal-slaying clone, and he quickly shrank down to the size of an imp and settled on Yang Qi's shoulder. Then Yang Qi sat down on his throne and sent his divine will into the master spell formation of the alliance.

Shortly after, the hundred trillion immortal worlds began moving and shrinking, creating a very tight border that ordinary immortals wouldn't be able to pass.

From the vantage point of the surrounding primal-chaos, the Dao Defense League looked like a huge, starry vortex, shrinking down until it was a tenth of its original size. Of course, even still, it was enormous.

The process caused enormous shockwaves to roll out, making it seem almost as if some gargantuan god had come and was forcing the Dao Defense League to shrink.

"League-Lord, what's going on?" Patriarch Annalist asked, clearly surprised at what was happening. "You're tightening and strengthening the magical laws of the hundred trillion worlds that make up the league. But doing this could make it impossible for ordinary immortals to use their divine abilities."

Although Yang Qi's actions were improving the quality of all the immortal worlds, it was just as Patriarch Annalist had said. Lower-level immortals would have trouble traveling about and using their abilities.

In fact, not even early-division Godmyths would be able to pierce through space easily. It would be like a situation in which ocean water suddenly transformed into mercury; obviously, no fish would be able to survive within it, much less travel through it.

"Big changes are happening in the Great Necropolis," Yang Qi explained. "It's highly likely that experts from the Ancient Road to the Gods will be coming out. If they do, they'll likely pressure us to help them, or even try to conquer us. In other words, war is coming. Therefore, I'm shrinking the Dao Defense League down in the hopes of taking it into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart."

Considering all the work he had put into the Dao Defense League, there was no way Yang Qi would just stand by while it was destroyed.

After shrinking it down to a tenth of its original size, he stopped. He knew it couldn't be shrunk down any further, not with the limitations of his current cultivation base.

'What a pity,' he thought. 'I need to be a lot stronger before I can send the immortal worlds into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. I probably need a power index of over a thousand.' Yang Qi frowned and looked out at all of the immortal worlds stretching out in all directions, looking very much like an emperor from the mortal world who was incapable of properly administering his territory.

1. The word I'm translating as "passionless" could be interpreted in a variety of ways. For instance: heartless, cruel, unfeeling, unfriendly, etc. The reason I'm going with "passionless" is that the same Chinese characters are used in a major story arc in one of my favorite wuxia novels of all time, Return of the Condor Heroes. Here's the wiki, and here's a link to the completed (unofficial) translation. ROCH is extremely famous, and I suspect that Divine Dreamwalker is using it as inspiration for this name. In translations of ROCH, it's commonly referred to as "passionless", so I'm going to go with that same interpretation.