Sage Monarch

Profound Valor was an actual native of the Great Necropolis, a true elite who had accomplished in a few million years what most old-timers would take billions of years to do. Apparently, he had fantastic senses to detect danger, and already knew that people were trying to surround him.

"Oh?" Proud Ethics suddenly appeared within the primal-chaos. He had fewer generalissimos with him; the missing ones were apparently powering a spell formation somewhere nearby. Looking surprised, Proud Ethics said, "You live up to your reputation as sectlord and native of the Great Necropolis. Your senses are truly astounding. Considering the level of your cultivation, if I recruited you into the forces of the future world, you would be a generalissimo. Interested in working for me?"

"What kind of person do you think I am?" Sectlord Profound Valor replied. "Do you really think I give a crap about the future world? Why would I want to be a so-called generalissimo? I don't even care about your magisters, let alone a pampered playboy like yourself. I've dominated everyone in my path for the past hundred million years, and killed more people than you can imagine. Yet you think you qualify to block my path? To recruit me?"

"If you refuse to do things the easy way, we'll do them the hard way," Proud Ethics said. He snapped his fingers and Eunuch Blackheart and the other eunuchs spread out to surround Profound Valor.

Yang Qi also appeared overhead, sealing the path above.

His first impression was that Profound Valor was extraordinarily poised, with a towering aura and a heroic air about him.

Suddenly, the Cruiser of Civilization began speaking to Yang Qi.

[Beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep. Analyzing. Analyzing. Power index of two thousand. Will convergence at the peak of the Destabilizing level. This person is dangerous. Extremely dangerous.]

'So strong,' Yang Qi thought. This Profound Valor was basically on the same level as Battle Resister. Now it made sense why Proud Ethics had gathered such a group to besiege him. It would obviously be necessary to pay a heavy price to deal with this person and reap the spoils of a hundredth ranked immortal world.

Furthermore, Yang Qi was now convinced that there must be some other reason Proud Ethics wanted to kill him. For example, maybe he knew secrets about the future world.

"So, people from the Joyflower Palace are here too?" Profound Valor said. His expression turned serious. "Where's your empress? Upon taking that godhood, she achieved a cultivation boost and went on to slaughter numerous heroes from the House of a Hundred Battles, the Cipher-Devil Sword Sect, the Cloud-Severing Dao Society, and experts from numerous native sects of the Great Necropolis. Could it be that she's now turning her attention to the Profound Killing Dao Sect?"

"That's exactly right," said Flower Goddess Jade Nightqueen. She and Snowlotus each held a flower with tens of thousands of petals, each of which was a magical talisman that was a world unto itself. The talismans contained godly daos and magical laws, and looked like things passed down by ancient god-kings. In fact, they seemed to contain the tears of gods, pulsing with such infinite grief that they could cast anyone into endless sorrow.

They were powerful magical treasures that the flower goddesses could use to temporarily double their power index. Yang Qi could sense that the treasures linked them to the Passionless God Flower, and perhaps even the god-king's tear. Obviously, they weren't ordinary god items, but rather objects of terrifying deadliness.

"We'll give you one option here, Profound Valor," Snowlotus said. "Join the Joyflower Palace and become a consort or a eunuch. Or perhaps a god-general prisoner. Join our fight to conquer everything in existence."

"Like hell I will," Profound Valor spat. "The future world. The Joyflower Palace. I seem to remember there being quite a grudge between the two of you. I heard that Empress Joyflower was once scammed by Magister Proud Heaven, suffering grievous losses as a result. But now here you are working together? I really don't understand it."

"Attack!" Eunuch Sunflower shouted, apparently hoping to shut down any conversation that might embarrass the Joyflower Palace. Lunging forward, he sent a shining needle flying toward Profound Valor. "Baleful Yin Needle!"

It was a needle that could pierce all types of defensive empyrean energy, and contained a convergence of baleful yin energy from the god world. Yet Profound Valor didn't even move as the needle approached him. Unleashing some unknown technique, he caused the energy in the area to sweep into an empyrean wind, which instantly crushed the Baleful Yin Needle attack.

However, that was the same moment that Proud Ethics chose to make his move.

He blurred into motion, a suit of armor springing up to cover him. It wasn't a power-based mecha, but rather something ancient and organic, which rippled out to cover him from head to toe, hiding even his eyes. At the same time, he began pulsing with a sensation of primal-chaos and boundless godpower.

'What's that?' Yang Qi thought. He sensed that the armor was crafted from the remains of an ancient megamammoth that had eventually reached the level of the legion of gods, then perished. Its skin had been left behind, and the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth had been used to craft it into armor.

And it served to dramatically increase the power index of whoever wore it.

[Beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep. Power index rising rapidly. One thousand five hundred. One thousand eight hundred. One thousand nine hundred. Two thousand. Two thousand one hundred. Two thousand two hundred!]

That was where it finally stopped.

'Armor made from godmammoth skin, crafted by Proud Heaven by means of a technique from another aspect of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. What better treasure could I hope to get? It would give me a much deeper insight into the secrets of the godmammoths, and help me understand further profundities of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth.'

Among the Godfolk, godmammoths were unique. They were incredibly strong, and surpassed many other types of gods. And the ultimate ancestor of the godmammoths, their king, was so powerful that only the Sovereign Lord could possibly be his rival.

Godmammoth hide was the stuff of dreams to Yang Qi. After all, he hadn't found any godmammoth relics or artifacts, even in the Joyflower Palace's treasure storehouse.

But here was Proud Ethics with just such an item.

Although the top priority at the moment was Profound Valor, everyone present was technically an enemy to Yang Qi. Therefore, watching out for his own best interest was the best course of action.

BOOOOM!

Power thrummed from the godmammoth armor as Proud Ethics strode forward and thrust his palm out in front of him. It wasn't the Hand of the One God, but it similarly caused holy, godly light to flash. As it slammed into Profound Valor, he managed to maintain his footing, but his garments flapped violently.

Profound Valor's eyes narrowed and he thrust his fist out, causing his sea of energy to erupt. The surrounding primal-chaos paleo-energy instantly became thousands of times denser than before, until it was virtually liquid, threatening to drown everyone present.

"Grand Primal-Chaos Heaven-Fortune Paleo-Fist!"

His fist smashed into Proud Ethics's palm, countering its momentum and allowing Profound Valor to continue standing in place.

At the same time, the five eunuchs and two flower goddesses all shouted, "Five Phases; Two Polarities. Combine!" A huge spell formation sprang into being that combined the seven auras to project the image of a god-king.

He had flowers beneath his feet and carried the Passionless God Flower in his hand, causing him to radiate a sensation of sorrow and grief.

This god-king was the combination of the power indexes of seven top experts. The five eunuchs all had power indexes of over a thousand. With their indexes combined with those of the two flower goddesses, it technically created a total of well over six thousand.

Of course, it wasn't literally that much power. The combined power of six thousand top experts would be enough to conquer all of the many heavens that existed. Yang Qi had never even heard of anyone with an index of five thousand. Even Empress Joyflower was only at about the level of three thousand. The truth was that, thanks to the spell formation, the battle prowess of the seven experts from the Joyflower Palace could create a projection of over two thousand.

"The Passionless God-King?" Profound Valor said. Clenching his fist, he launched an attack directly on the seven experts and their spell formation.

The Passionless God-King let loose a long sigh, then waved the Passionless God Flower out to meet Profound Valor's fist. Instantly, Profound Valor was surrounded by true energy in the form of flower petals, sealing him where he stood.

"Grand Maṇḍala-Flower Sealing-Aegis!" the Passionless God-King said, sending true energy pouring forth.

However, Profound Valor, despite being sealed in the enormous aegis, suddenly thrummed with energy as mighty as mountains and seas. The flower aegis shattered and an aura like that of a god dragon suddenly rose into the air. Unexpectedly, it was a fist strike aimed directly at Yang Qi.

'What's he doing?' Yang Qi thought, suddenly under incredible pressure. In the blink of an eye, all of his surroundings disappeared, and all he could see was the fist of an ancient devil-god, rumbling toward him with unstoppable force. Even his true self in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart was shaken as he realized that Profound Valor's will convergence apparently surpassed his own.

'How is this even possible? Obviously, in terms of psychic ability and fighting prowess, this guy isn't just at the level of two thousand!' Ever since Yang Qi's own will had made such spectacular progress, he had never been in a situation like this. Not even Empress Joyflower had psychic abilities on the level of Profound Valor.

There was no way he was just some random sect leader. He was definitely keeping some profoundly shocking secret!