Sage Monarch

The fact that Yang Qi could use the Cruiser of Civilization to so quickly assimilate and learn from these items was almost like having an actual god impart knowledge directly into him. Thankfully, the God Legion Seal sent golden light to fill him, ensuring that his sea of consciousness wasn't harmed during the process.

The complex experiences of the gods were like mysterious godly laws that surrounded Yang Qi's mind. Entering them was no easy task. It required that he take firm hold of them, shrink them down into magical symbols, and make them part of him.

If he took in too much, it would be dangerous, and could even lead to his sea of consciousness exploding. The sea of consciousness needed to remain pure and untainted by even a speck of dust, whereas Yang Qi's sea of consciousness was essentially filled with a horde of writhing devils. However, he was slowly but surely assimilating them and using them to bolster his nascent divinity.

In other words, every god item and treasure he took gave him the experiences of another god, which in turn turned into something called a knowledge-devil that could pose a dangerous obstacle in his cultivation. They were devils that could easily lead a person astray without them having any idea what was happening.

Knowledge could be considered a type of monster, and in life, one had to constantly win victory over such monsters to truly understand oneself and achieve true freedom. Right now, Yang Qi could see the experiences of the gods transforming into knowledge-devils. Using his own willpower to defeat them was a process by which he strengthened and improved his will.

In fact, he could sense his will growing tougher as he defeated the knowledge-devils, pushing his will convergence level to the peak of Destabilizing.

In fact, he was just on the verge of reaching the Terrifying level.

Normal. Stupendous. Destabilizing. Terrifying. Paramount. Unbounded. Annulled. Those were the various levels of will convergence. The Terrifying level was the level of the gods, while Paramount and Unbounded belonged to Consummate and Paramount Gods, respectively. Such wills could control all kinds of power and physical matter, giving birth to life and destruction, illusion and truth. [1]

As for the Annulled level, that was supposedly something only the Sovereign Lord could achieve.

In fact, it was even possible that the Sovereign Lord had never reached the Annulled level, which would supposedly usher in a new age. But no such new age had ever appeared.

Once Yang Qi reached the Terrifying level, he would have ultimate control over his true energy and any magical treasures he possessed. It was definitely important that he reach the Terrifying, or possibly even the Paramount level, that way not even the will of King Immortal-Slayer would be able to do anything to his nascent divinity.

Furthermore, having a will at that level would ensure that, even if he physically perished, he could be resurrected, just like King Immortal-Slayer and other Paramount Gods.

Yang Qi was already planning many moves ahead. Sometimes, perishing was the best way to evade certain tribulation.

He began picking up speed as he conquered the knowledge-devils, which flooded him with the experience of the gods and pushed his will convergence toward new heights.

Simply taking in knowledge was nothing to be proud of. Only by assimilating the knowledge and defeating the knowledge-devils could one truly benefit. Empty, but not empty; not empty, but empty. Great intelligence could take the guise of stupidity. Acquiring knowledge but not putting it to use made one empty. But using it could push one to a much higher and profound level.

As his will convergence improved, his speed increased.

Behind him, Flower Mildcloud watched as he blurred into motion, heading forward to take spell formation after spell formation. At a certain point, she didn't even need to offer explanations of the names.

A new formation appeared in front of him, formed from numerous concentric rings, each of which contained shadowy worlds. Although it seemed to lack power, anyone with insight would be able to tell that it surpassed any of the formations up to this point.

"Be careful!" Flower Mildcloud said. "That's a Consummate—"

Before she could even give voice to her warning, Yang Qi entered the formation and absorbed it.

"It's a Consummate Dao Lineament True Self God Formation, right?" he said. "It was created by Exalted Celestial Millifluent from the god world. Each of the rings contains a polarity that interacts with the other polarities to create a godly magnetic field. I know all of that. In fact, I understand everything about Exalted Celestial Millifluent's cultivation base as well."

Yang Qi's will was now so powerful that all he had to do was send it into a spell formation and he could communicate with the will of its creator, absorb all of that experience and knowledge, and gain an understanding of exactly how the formation worked.

Like this, his work went more and more quickly.

'This is incredible,' Flower Mildcloud thought. 'How can he be doing all of this single-handedly?'

Yang Qi was improving so rapidly it was almost as if she didn't know him anymore.

'A billion spell formations. At this rate, I'm definitely going to clear them all out. And then the Joyflower Palace will be nothing but an empty shell.'

He entered another god formation, which was made from numerous pillars of preheaven wood from the god world. Once the formation activated, it would give rise to a green-colored god soul that was no weaker than that of God-Noble Goldensword's.

'So, there are god souls locked in some of these formations. Amazing. Thankfully, none of them can stand up to me.' The green god soul let out a howl of fury, but was crushed by Yang Qi's will, forcing it down into the shape of a green pearl that he easily grabbed.

Flower Mildcloud was completely bowled over, and couldn't help but think of how much effort it had taken to defeat God-Noble Goldensword's god soul. Yang Qi was now doing the same thing with almost no effort.

On the Ancient Road to the Gods, she had seen many experts encounter good fortune, but be unable to benefit from it in a short time. Yang Qi was completely different. He flew back and forth, taking spell formations wherever he went and leaving behind virtual substitutes that only the most elite experts would be able to identify.

Knowledge-devils multiplied within his sea of consciousness, but he continued destroying them.

As he proceeded along, he looked deeper into the collection of spell formations and suddenly caught sight of an expression of grieving will that seemed like something not even the god world could stop. In fact, as soon as he saw it, Yang Qi suddenly felt as though he were descending into grief.

Thankfully, the God Legion Seal had his sea of consciousness tightly under control, ensuring that he wasn't fully affected.

BOOM!

He opened his Lord's Eye and saw a sea up ahead, a sea made of pure sorrow. It was so large that he couldn't pierce its depths, but he could tell it was filled with godhood. Instantly, the Engine of the One God began thrumming, and the power assessment systems began transforming in dramatic fashion.

[Beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep. Deviant godhood detected. The sorrow of a god-king. This godhood can be transformed into useful power. Refrain from assimilating. Only the Engine of the One God can accept godhood like this.]

The sea was surrounded by countless spell formations, and looking around, Yang Qi realized that he had no idea how long it would take to assimilate them all.

There were apparently a billion, and he had only conquered a few thousand so far. The power and knowledge he had absorbed was like one hair from nine oxen.

'The god-king's tear. I can't use this godhood, nor can anyone else, even other gods. But the Engine of the One God can absorb it.' Just as Yang Qi was about to head toward the sea that was the god-king's tear, his heart thumped.

'What? Something's going on with my power double. It's almost time for that mission….'

1. I just want to point out that yes, the exact same Chinese characters are used for the Paramount will level and the Paramount God level, even though the former is actually lower than the latter.