Sage Monarch

To unleash a sword slash that could devastate an immortal world, but find that it hardly scratched the floor, left Yang Qi feeling almost like his martial arts had been crippled.

Of course, he knew it was because this buddhist kingdom contained characteristics of the god world, so it inherently suppressed the fluctuations of magical power.

He almost felt like he was back in the mortal world, when he had just stepped into the Energy Eruption level and had hardly been capable of hurting a fly. And considering how weak his cultivation base seemed now, he could only imagine what it would be like to actually enter the god world.

'This cave is exerting a lot of pressure on me, which makes it a great place for cultivation. However, I have to wonder how Leaf Dao-Denier dealt with this. You would think he would've been so thoroughly suppressed he couldn't even move, or possibly even crushed to death like those people...."

There were corpses visible here and there. Some of them remained upright, as though they had died the moment they stepped inside. Others had clearly been knocked to the ground, expressions of shock on their faces. Still others lay on their back, and a few appeared to have died trying to crawl out.

They were all top-tier experts with power indexes in the hundreds. Yet upon entering this cave temple, it was to their complete shock that they found it to be very different from the outside world. Those who came in were trapped, and eventually killed.

From what Yang Qi could tell, a power index of over a thousand was the very minimum to enter this place safely. Even then, it would be as difficult to move around as a mortal trying to wade through a swamp.

He even caught sight of the corpse of someone with a power index of a thousand. They were gripping a pillar, as if they had been trying to uproot it, but they had ultimately failed and died.

The pillar was made of some sort of metal that Yang Qi didn't recognize, and glowed with a buddhist light. It was covered with carvings depicting buddhist teachings of morality, as well as other buddhist decorations.

Yang Qi ran his fingers down the pillar and instantly felt a sensation of complete peace and tranquility. His nascent divinity felt as if it were being blessed and strengthened in a way that would defend against all intrusive devils.

There was even text written in the script of the buddhist schools.

"Pillar of God-Transformation..." Yang Qi murmured. He drew on the power of the Secret-Ensconcing All-World Anything-Everything Fundamental-Law Magic and touched the pillar again. This time he could tell that it was a magical treasure made from god world metal. If one sat cross-legged beneath it and practiced cultivation, it would provide immense benefits to their nascent divinity.

Opening the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, he prepared to place the Pillar of God-Transformation inside. However, his expression flickered as he realized that the vortex leading inside was only as small as a sesame seed. Exerting some effort, he opened it wider, but still couldn't get it past the size of a coin. Obviously, an opening like that was too small to fit the pillar through. In other words, he couldn't bring people from the chart to him, nor could he escape into the chart.

He called on his God Legion Paradise, but found that it was also severely limited and would only spread out for about one-third of a meter around him. Normally speaking, it was a pure land that could encompass boundless immortal worlds, but here in this buddhist land it was like ordinary defensive empyrean energy.

Yang Qi gave up on the idea of taking the pillar. Perhaps he might be able to figure out a way to do it, but it would be too much of a waste of time.

Walking on, he felt very much like a tourist as he looked around at the buddhist iconography around him. Some of the statues seemed merciful, others seemed vicious. All of their hands were contorted into various hand seals representing martial disciplines of buddhism. To ordinary cultivators, such hand seals would be useless, but Yang Qi had the Secret-Ensconcing All-World Anything-Everything Fundamental-Law Magic and could understand some of their mysteries.

Ordinarily it would have been very dangerous for him to be in this situation, considering he couldn't open the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. Furthermore, the pressure grew greater and greater as he continued along, making it even harder to draw on his energy arts. Even with the godpower of the Great Necropolis, he could only jump about thirty meters into the air before falling back down.

It really was like being an Energy Eruption expert in the mortal world.

He completely focused his mind, focusing all of his power on resisting the magical laws of the surrounding cave. As a result, he felt his cultivation base slowly advancing. Cultivation circumstances such as this were truly rare. Thankfully, he still had about half of that bit of godhood left to work with.

'So where are those Secret-Ensconcing All-World Anything-Everything Fundamental-Law Magic seeds? Are they deeper inside the cave temple?'

Thankfully, his search was aided by the part of the technique that he already knew.That part of the Secret-Ensconcing All-World Anything-Everything Fundamental-Law Magic was his greatest asset.

Before long, he saw a mountain up ahead, out of which a buddhist statue had been carved. It depicted a woman whose face was full of compassion, her palms together, as if in prayer, and a vertical eye on her forehead that glittered with bright light.

'Don't tell me this is a likeness of the Vajra Māyādevī?" he thought. 'Why is my Secret-Ensconcing All-World Anything-Everything Fundamental-Law Magic seemingly connecting with that eye? Is that the location of the seed? But it's three thousand meters tall! How am I supposed to get up there?'

It was a vertical climb to the top of the statue, and he could only jump about thirty meters. He obviously couldn't fly up to the top, and climbing it didn't seem realistic either.

He stepped forward and touched the statue, finding it to be incredibly tough. In fact, he couldn't even leave a scratch on its surface, leading him to believe that the statue had definitely been left here by a Paramount God from the buddhist schools. After being buried in the Great Necropolis for so long, its godpower had dispersed, but it was still as fundamentally tough as it had ever been.

He smiled faintly as he came to a realization. 'I, Yang Qi, who have dominated millions upon millions of planes of existence and innumerable worlds, a person who can come and go as I please, have essentially been turned back into a mortal here in this buddhist cave temple. I can't even get to the top of this statue. It goes to show that the world really is full of endless mysteries.'

With that, he sat down cross-legged and drew on the Secret-Ensconcing All-World Anything-Everything Fundamental-Law Magic.

Soon, true energy began converging within him, and he became aware of fluctuations in the cave. It seemed that some great buddha from the god world had left godpower behind here in the form of godhood, although he wasn't sure exactly where.

As that godpower seeped into him, the seed of the Secret-Ensconcing All-World Anything-Everything Fundamental-Law Magic grew larger. Obviously, working on cultivation here was a really good idea.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

All of a sudden, he heard the sound of flapping clothing behind him. Rising to his feet, he saw a figure in white floating toward him. It was a woman.

'How strong must this woman be to glide about in this cave? Her energy arts must be far above mine.' He was surprised, but not too much. Only incredibly marvelous individuals could possibly be in this cave.

Eventually, the woman in white noticed Yang Qi.

She wore a butterfly mask that concealed most of her features, but it was possible to tell from her lips and chin that she was spectacularly beautiful.

"Oh?" she said. "I didn't realize anyone else had come to the statue of the Vajra Māyādevī. Who might you be, sire? And what sect do you come from?"

"I'm just a rogue cultivator," Yang Qi replied, rising to his feet and clasping his hands behind his back, "a traveler in the Great Necropolis. I came across this cave temple by chance, and entered it in the hopes of learning an ability or two. Miss, might I ask what noble errand brings you here?"

"I'm here to pick up a certain item," she replied. "If there's nothing important you have to discuss with me, you can be on your way."

"Oh?" Yang Qi smiled. "No one owns this cave, which means that anyone is free to come here. And considering that I'm not interfering with you, why can't I stay to see what item you might be here to take?"

"What did you just say?" she replied grimly. "Sire, are you saying that you want to fight with me over that object?"

"I'm not sure what object you're referring to," he replied with a frown. Although he was fairly certain that this woman was after the seed in the statue's forehead, he didn't see a need to take action yet.

1. Just as a reminder, Yang Qi reached the Energy Eruption level in !