Sage Monarch

The Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart was changing substantively. For instance, the addition of the Profound Killing Dao Sect had brought tens of trillions of top experts, including hundreds of thousands of Grand Emperors.

Many of those Grand Emperors had power indexes in the dozens, but there were some in the hundreds, and even some in the thousands. And all of them had been subjugated and turned into thralls to improve the cultivation and true energy of Yang Qi's people. One could only imagine what the result would be. Yang Qi's father, Yang Zhan, had long since reached the Grand Emperor level. He was given a thrall in the form of a prime elder from the Profound Killing Dao Sect, a Sect Uncle of Profound Valor.

The man was a burly warrior with a power index of one thousand eight hundred. Initially, he refused to cooperate, but then the Hell Scourge came into play. Eventually, he submitted, and Yang Zhan acquired a font of true energy to use in cultivation.

Of course, the energy was passed through a special god formation first, which cleansed and purified it so that Yang Zhan didn't need to fear any heterogeneity.

Empress Jadefall was also sitting in the middle of a god formation, performing breathing exercises and absorbing true energy from a prime elder with a power index of roughly a thousand.

Thanks to the influx of quintessence vitality, Empress Jadefall's porcelain godspore seemed ready to open up, with cracks already spreading out on its surface.

Considering that numerous powerful gods had fought to take that porcelain godspore, it was obviously something incredibly precious, although not even Empress Jadefall knew exactly what it was. However, once it hatched, it was sure to push her cultivation base to a terrifyingly high level.

Yang Qi was keeping a close eye on the situation, but he didn't have any idea what the godspore was, either. 'That thing is surprisingly tough. Although it does leak a bit of power that Jadefall can use for her cultivation, it seems that getting it to hatch will be no easy task. It must take a huge amount of power. I suspect it won't happen until Jadefall reaches the Terrifying level. Right now, she's only at Stupendous, which means the next major step will be to rise to Destabilizing.'

He looked around and found that everyone was rapidly advancing. Eldest Brother and the others from the Invincible Society were all at the Destabilizing level, which was very pleasing to Yang Qi. Eventually, the time would come to struggle for control of the dao of heaven, and they would be a huge asset.

With everything settled, the time had come for Yang Qi to search for the Cave Temple of the Vajra Māyādevī. That was his best shot to improve his own will convergence so that he could defeat the will of the Great Necropolis.

Otherwise, that will would remain in his sea of consciousness like a fish bone stuck in his throat.

Yang Qi and Battle Resister headed into the depths of the Great Necropolis in a blur. By now, the necropolis could be considered fully open and there were people everywhere, engaged in exploring, searching, and of course, fighting. Considering the god items that were to be had, everyone was willing to fight to the death for them.

Yang Qi ignored all of it. The time had not yet come for him to exert dominance in the Immortal Dao Age, so he didn't want to become stained with the karma that would result from fighting. Instead, he quietly made his way through the Great Necropolis toward its deeper parts.

By now, the main parts of the necropolis weren't really dangerous for Yang Qi, although they were most certainly hazardous even for Grand Emperors with power indexes in the hundreds.

The depths of the necropolis were where things became dangerous and the locations were only appropriate for people with power indexes over a thousand.

As Yang Qi flew along, Battle Resister said, "Brother Yang Qi, the cave temple of the Vajra Māyādevī is definitely going to be a dangerous place. Not even I would normally go there. However, I'm fairly certain I know the path that leads to it."

As they continued along, looking left and right, Yang Qi drew on some of the Great Necropolis godpower he had assimilated to try to help determine which direction to travel in.

There were some locations in these depths that were being explored by other top experts, but Yang Qi avoided them. Again, his goal was not to engage in fighting, but rather to improve his Secret-Ensconcing All-World Anything-Everything Fundamental-Law Magic. Besides, some of them were so strong that they seemed like they were on the same level as his immortal-slaying clone.

RUMBLE!

It took a lot of effort to travel about here, but it was made easier by the necropolis godpower that he already possessed.

The only downside was that, after assimilating that godpower, the will of the Great Necropolis began to take more and more space within his sea of consciousness, until his nascent divinity began to feel pressured. It was almost like a situation of the turtledove occupying the magpie's nest.

Yang Qi wasn't worried, but did find the situation troublesome. He needed to find a way to negate this side-effect as soon as possible before it became a serious problem.

When Yang Qi gave Battle Resister some of the godpower, he didn't suffer from such effects, because Yang Qi made sure to remove the will of the necropolis from it.

It was in this manner that the two of them slipped through the Great Necropolis like fish through water, going deeper and deeper until there were virtually no signs of human life. Occasionally, they reached a point where immense tempests swirled, the kind that were so savage they could rip people to shreds.

The lightning bolts within these tempests were the result of friction between different types of vital energy and godpower, and they could even instantly kill experts with power indexes of a thousand.

There were also tribulations of water, fire and even sand. The entire place was like a deadly labyrinth that few people would ever dare to enter.

The two of them proceeded through it all unfazed.

At a certain point, they heard a strange noise from ahead, which prompted Yang Qi to open his Lord's Eye. His vision pierced through the godpower of the necropolis until he eventually saw some ruins that glowed with godlight as bright as the sun.

Within that light, he could see the shadows of several people.

"Godhood!" Yang Qi said, startled. It was godhood that completely surpassed what he had acquired in the Exquisite Cathedral, obviously left behind by an incredibly powerful god. It didn't seem tainted in any way, which meant that it would be possible for Yang Qi to assimilate, unlike the godhood stars in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.

'It seems today is my lucky day,' Yang Qi thought. 'If I can assimilate that goodhood, it should fully reactivate the Engine of the One God. Once the strength god systems are back online, it'll be a big help when I deal with the will of the Great Necropolis.'

Reaching out, he grabbed the burning godhood, which caused his skin to sizzle and pop painfully.

However, the power contained in it caused his face to flicker with delight. Sending the power of the Great Necropolis pouring into the godhood to keep it under control, he summoned a vortex and threw it into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.

Without any hesitation, he began refining it, causing flaming drops of liquid to appear, which he sent into his heart, and the Engine of the One God.

[Beep-beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep. Strength god systems fully activated. Upgrading to second state. Imperial-heaven pre-beginning systems... coming online!]

BOOM!

The imperial-heaven pre-beginning systems were the upgraded version of the strength god systems. Almost immediately, Yang Qi could sense them pulsing with godpower. The will of the imperial-heaven pre-beginning systems then connected with his own will, then flowed into his sea of consciousness to assault the will of the Great Necropolis.

The will of the Great Necropolis trembled under the attack, and stone-colored light shone throughout Yang Qi. Slowly but surely, that will began to melt away, turning into golden vital energy that entered his nascent divinity.

With his nascent divinity and the God Legion Seal working together, they filled the larger portion of his sea of consciousness and were beginning to reject the will of the Great Necropolis.

Of course, although some of that will had been shaved away, more was coming through via Profound Valor.

But in the end, Yang Qi was very happy. Now he had confirmed that, as long as he had enough godhood to fuel the Engine of the One God, he would definitely be able to break down the will of the Great Necropolis and turn it into something he could use.

And considering he had long since conquered a billion knowledge-devils, any resulting knowledge-devils would be easy to handle.

'It's too bad I only have a third of the full God Legion Seal. If I had two-thirds, I'd definitely be able to crush the will of the Great Necropolis. And that would push me to the Terrifying level much more quickly.'

He couldn't help but think about how, after Terrifying will came Paramount will. Once he was at that level, he could definitely handle an attack by a god.

Meanwhile, light flickered around them as Battle Resister looked around uneasily and said, "Yang Qi, old pal, I think we have company."

1. There is a rather complicated explanation for what "imperial-heaven pre-beginning" means. It will come quite a few chapters down the line. Until then, it will remain a mystery…. To be honest, I initially translated this in a different way for quite a few chapters, until I stumbled on a wordplay explanation that I missed in my initial readthrough.