Sage Monarch

The first line contained sixteen characters.

Flame Doom Yearly Beginning, Heavenly Truth Glorious Splendor, Successful Achievement Never Failing, Defeating Ruin Floating Adrift!

It was impossible to determine what exactly the characters meant, as they didn't seem to form an actual sentence. However, each character contained a different core meaning, and as they entered Yang Qi, they gave birth to immense power and made his fleshly body vastly tougher.

The characters Yang Qi saw were different from the characters seen by the infernal who had looked at the sheepskin scroll earlier. The reason was that the text on the scroll was constantly changing, creating new texts with every moment that passed. All of the different possible text combinations contained different truths and aspects, but they were all profoundly mighty.

The first line of text that Yang Qi had perused was making his fleshly body vastly stronger. However, there were other changes going on. For instance, his understanding of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth was improving. Although the technique was sealed away, it was such a fundamental part of his fleshly body that, as he cultivated the Unspoiled Body, it automatically improved.

C-C-CRACK!

Countless daoist techniques from the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body flooded through him, causing the particles within him to tremble. As the devil vitality continued flowing through him, his body was destroyed and born again millions of times over.

If he let things progress naturally, he would probably become the most powerful devil in all history. However, his will was strong, and as he developed the new technique, he secretly began to draw on some of the abilities of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth to develop the constitution of a godmammoth. He was cultivating godly and devilish techniques at the same time!

When gods and devils combined, they were unparalleled under heaven!

Two immense forces flowed through him like water, although the mahātmā fiend-devil had no clue as to what was happening. All he knew was that Yang Qi's aura was growing stronger. After all, the mahātmā had never successfully cultivated the energy art on the sheepskin scroll. That scroll was one of the most precious treasures from the Hell of Sages and Mahātmās, and it was hard to say how this fiend-devil had gotten his hands on it. He had tried to cultivate it in the past, but whenever he did, he nearly slipped into cultivation deviation. His true energy would reverse its flow, and the deadly side-effects would loom. Thus was born his current plan to help Yang Qi cultivate it, then assimilate him and take the technique that way.

The sheepskin scroll was required to cultivate the technique, but there was more to it than that. To properly cultivate the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body required the Three Lives Stone, which was an item similar to the God Legion Seal. It contained the wisdom of the horde of devils, and was inscribed with knowledge of all kalpas, tribulations, fates, destinies, and the like. It was what could lead to one being invincible to all sorts of tribulations.

All of a sudden, Yang Qi erupted with godly might.

He had reached a critical juncture and needed more devil vitality than ever. The fiend-devils in the spell formation were dropping left and right, no matter how they screamed, struggled, or tried to flee.

And as the devil vitality flowed into Yang Qi, his cultivation base transformed. He carefully combined aspects of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth with the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body, leading him down a most mysterious and unorthodox path.

His constitution improved and his psychic scale increased, and as he experienced the tribulation of each character from the scroll, it really was like passing through kalpa after kalpa.

Transcending tribulation was like reaching the other shore of pāramitā.

It was the sea of suffering that gave birth to kalpas, and right now his sea of energy had become that sea of suffering. Tribulations blossomed in the sea of suffering, to the point where every move and stance contained the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body.

Truth be told, the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body was not a technique designed for combat. However, when it was mastered, any move made with it would contain the power of a myriad tribulations. Even the slightest move of one's finger would contain boundless, majestic power. And all of one's divine abilities, even those of the most common sort, would become the most dangerous and deadly moves imaginable.

Even a breath could give birth to tribulation.

Although Yang Qi had only cultivated the first line from the scroll, it had already surpassed the one-third of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth that he possessed. Because the two techniques were governed by the principles of mutual augmentation and suppression, Yang Qi developed even greater wisdom from both of them.

Upon seeing that Yang Qi was pulsing with energy flows filled with tribulations, the mahātmā fiend-devil said, "Alright, his fleshly body is now sturdy enough to accept the sealed Lord Blood River! I'm going to start devouring the sealing mark now. Once it's gone, Lord Blood River will appear, and the next step will be to re-seal him. Then, with pressure from both outside and in, we can force Lord Blood River to submit."

With that, he chopped his hand out toward the sealing mark. Instantly, a voice could be heard that sounded like it was made of countless other voices, bubbling like boiling water. The voice laughed, then said, "So, Mahātmā, you've sacrificed your fellows to create an entity to serve as a furnace to seal me. Unfortunately, I've been manipulating you the whole time! Many thanks for creating this furnace for me!

"The despicable villains from the Executors of the Ancient Road sealed me here, but my chance to be free again came once the sealing mark began to loosen. Now, I have the perfect fleshly body waiting for me, and all I have to do is possess it! Then, the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body will be mine!"

An intense blood energy flowed out from the sealing mark and resolved into a blood dragon, complete with fangs and claws. It swirled above Yang Qi's head for a moment, then dove right down into his sea of consciousness.

Yang Qi's pores instantly erupted with blood-colored light that swirled out, wrapped around the sheepskin scroll, and began dragging it down.

Screams rang out as the spell formation whirred even faster than before, and the fiend-devils were all dragged toward Yang Qi, including the mahātmā, the scholarly fiend-devil, and Dream Mintdance. From the look of things, Yang Qi was now fully under the control of Lord Blood River.

From within his mind, Yang Qi's nascent divinity cried, "Mahātmā, hurry... hurry... save me! Lord Blood River is taking me over. He's possessing me!"

"Ultimate Life Destruction!" the mahātmā spat, and all of the fiend-devils began to wither. Popping sounds rang out as they transformed into skeletons, their nascent divinities and quintessence energy flowing into the sheepskin scroll to help Yang Qi fight Lord Blood River.

Meanwhile, Lord Blood River howled in rage.

"Die, all of you! You tried to plot against me, Mahātmā, but in the end, you fell for my tricks. Once I have this new fleshly body, we can fight things out. As for you, boy, why aren't you dead yet? Your nascent divinity is really tough!"

Blood-colored waves raged on the surface of Yang Qi's sea of consciousness, and on top of it all was an old man in a blood-colored robe, with sunken eyes, a high-bridged nose, and fangs that made him look like a vampire. Reaching out, he grabbed Yang Qi's nascent divinity and sent raging, blood-colored fire to engulf it.

However, that was when three mighty nascent divinities appeared in Yang Qi's sea of consciousness. They were none other than the mahātmā, the scholarly fiend-devil, and Dream Mintdance, all of whom had Terrifying will convergence.

"I'm surprised you're doing this, Lord Blood River, but sadly, it's not going to help." A sagely glow sprang up around the mahātmā, driving away the blood-colored light as he attacked Lord Blood River.

It all happened in the same moment that Lord Blood River grabbed Yang Qi's nascent divinity to assimilate it.

Intense booming sounds filled Yang Qi's sea of consciousness.

Outside in the temple, all of the other fiend-devils were skeletons, with the mahātmā, the scholar, and Dream Mintdance sitting cross-legged, their wills sent into Yang Qi. Bright, blood-colored light would occasionally flare up within Yang Qi, then die down.

"Aren't you three worried that this fight will kill the brat?" Lord Blood River said.

"No, Lord Blood River! He's already begun cultivating the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body. Although he hasn't fully mastered it, he's succeeded enough that our fight won't hurt him at all."