Sage Monarch

BOOM!

To Yang Qi, it felt like being tossed into an immensely deep pit. He fell for tens of thousands of meters, then slammed onto the hard ground with lethal force. It was no exaggeration to say that the fall nearly killed him. If he hadn't cultivated the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body, then thanks to the extremely rigid magical laws in place, he very well might have died.

And even though he didn't die, the force of the impact still shattered many of his meridians and damaged his true energy, sea of consciousness, and nascent divinity. Thankfully, he had plenty of energy arts at his disposal, so even as he struggled to his feet, he used the impact force to increase the tribulation energy within him. Although tribulation energy was generally a bad thing, it could be used to catalyze his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth.

'What is this place?' he thought, looking around at the cavern around him. The walls were made of some sort of rare metal from the god world. He launched an experimental punch, but it didn't even put a dent into them, and the backlash caused him to stumble backward with a gasp. The ground was obviously just as hard, and no amount of stomping did anything to it.

The cavern was several dozen kilometers across, and the wall emanated a faint glow that confused the eyes.

Despite the fact that the place looked like a cave, Yang Qi knew that it was a prison cell. And the entrance above was so tightly sealed that even if he somehow reached the Terrifying level, he would still be trapped. He closed his eyes and reached out to the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, and with some difficulty was able to make a connection. Thankfully, his immortal-slaying clone had the Engine of the One God to make him stronger, and was able to absorb some of the godhood stars to power the imperial-heaven pre-beginning systems. That was the only thing that allowed the connection to exist to begin with. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to open enough of a passageway to enter the chart.

The magical laws here were ten times as strong as the Cave Temple of the Vajra Māyādevī.

Yang Qi couldn't help but be shocked.

However, the connection to the chart was stable enough that he could get power from inside it, so at least he had a way to defend himself. And he could also contemplate ways to get out of his predicament.

'The Executors of the Ancient Road are truly contemptible,' he thought. 'I wonder what this 'emperor' of theirs is like. And it's too bad I never got a good look at their headquarters as a whole. I might as well forget about trying to get into their treasure storehouse now.' He sighed. At the moment, it seemed he was well and truly trapped.

At least he had plenty of quiet to contemplate his divine abilities.

With that, he began examining his surroundings more closely to see if there was anything useful around. And that was when a voice suddenly echoed out. "I have to say, boy, I'm surprised the fall didn't kill you. Very miraculous. And you aren't in the Terrifying level?"

Yang Qi started in shock. Considering the level of his cultivation base, he could identify the aura of dust motes, let alone people, yet his initial scan hadn't shown any living person around him. There was only one explanation: the owner of this voice vastly surpassed his own level.

Turning in the direction of the voice, he noticed that there was a huge metal slab in the middle of the prison cell with a person bound atop it. He was blackish violet, including his skin, eyes, hair, and teeth. He had narrow, vicious-looking eyes that seemed like vortexes pulling at the soul.

He was bound by countless metal chains that seemed to be part of the cell itself, so without destroying the entire cell, they would be impossible to break. Clearly, there was no way this person would be able to leave that metal slab.

Backing up, Yang Qi circulated his energy arts and asked, "Are you human?"

The thing laughed maniacally, his voice so powerful that Yang Qi nearly passed out from the sound. He backed away until he ran into the wall, where he stood there gasping for breath.

Then he drew on some of the power within him to negate the effects of the sound, even sending some of its power into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart and the sheepskin scroll.

THUMP!

He had just conquered another tribulation, and as a result, the sound waves now had no harmful effect on him at all.

"Hmm?" The violet figure suddenly stopped laughing. "My Preheaven Wretch Laughter is so strong that even Terrifying experts who hear my voice will have their meridians shattered. But you negated it, boy? Get over here, I want to inspect your constitution!"

The violet figure stirred and, amidst the sound of clanking metal, reached out with splayed fingers. Instantly, Yang Qi felt a gravitational force wrapping around him and pulling him forward.

Fully aware of how horrifyingly powerful this violet entity was, Yang Qi drew on his Unspoiled Body, using the power of wind tribulation to break down the gravitational force and absorb it.

"Well done, boy!" The black violet entity laughed heartily, then flicked his finger to send out a burst of blackish violet flame. It was so intensely hot that, as it approached, it caused his skin to hiss and pop as painful blisters popped up.

"Wretch-God Ultimate's Obsidian Flame!?" Yang Qi blurted. This fire was many times stronger than that unleashed earlier by the junior superintendent, to the point where the earlier flame seemed like nothing more than a toy in comparison.

Crack! Snap!

Yang Qi directed the power into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. Immediately ceasing his work with the godhood stars, the immortal-slaying clone quickly powered the imperial-heaven pre-beginning systems to the highest level. Only in that way could he prevent the god formations he was using from collapsing as they defended against the fire. Without those defenses, the fire would have pierced into the virtual god world and caused a massive disaster.

Pop. Pop. Pop!

Yang Qi immediately surpassed several more tribulations, causing the tribulation energy of the Unspoiled Body to fill him, which provoked further transformations to the combination of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth and the Seventy-Two Monarchs Energy Art.

Having stabilized himself, he reached out to grab the dragon-like fire that flowed toward him, and as the cracking sounds rang out, further variations of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth appeared within him.

"Not bad, boy. You can even neutralize my Wretch-God Ultimate's Obsidian Flame?" Growling, he prepared to further his attack.

Before he could, Yang Qi shouted, "Hold on, Senior! What does your version of Wretch-God Ultimate's Obsidian Flame have to do with the junior superintendent who threw me in here?"

"Hmph! You think I have anything to do with that dirty little swine? He stole some of my energy arts, that's all. And once I get out of here, I'm going to find him and kill him! So, you were thrown in here by him? I wonder why. Are you a spy sent by that pig? Hoping to steal some more of my energy arts, are you?"

"You think I'm a spy? That's pretty funny. Senior, you're surely smart enough to see that my cultivation base is higher than that brat's. And you think I would be working for him? No, he wants to get some of my energy arts, too. But none of his torture methods work, so he decided to lock me up in here."

"His torture methods don't work on you? Even Terrifying experts who fall into the hands of the Executors of the Ancient Road either end up dead or in this very prison. There must be at least eight hundred prisoners here, all of them top experts who once stood a good chance of reaching the god world. So if I were you, boy, I wouldn't use a ridiculous story like that to try to pull a fast one on me. Except... you did just stand up to Wretch-God Ultimate's Obsidian Flame. What energy art do you cultivate that even the damned junior superintendent couldn't deal with you?"

"Well, Senior," Yang Qi replied with a faint smile, "being the consummate expert that you are, I bet you can guess which energy art I cultivate."

"Hmm?" Brilliant light suddenly shot out of his eyes and enveloped Yang Qi, making him feel like he was a candle just on the verge of melting. Without hesitation, he drew on tribulation power to negate the effects of the light.

"Impossible! That's the most powerful energy art from the king of all hells, the Hell of Sages and Mahātmās. It's the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body! But not even the elite mahātmās from that hell could ever cultivate it past the level of a few dozen tribulations. The only way to do so is with the Three Lives Stone and Mahātmā Jade. Heh heh. Even now, you're trying to convince me you're not a spy? Everybody knows the executors have a chunk of the Three Lives Stone. That's the only way you could have cultivated that technique and absorbed the tribulation energy. But wait. Without the Mahātmā Jade, the Three Lives Stone would be useless. And I haven't heard of any pieces of the Mahātmā Jade appearing anywhere recently."

"What?" Yang Qi said. "I've heard that the Three Lives Stone is a requirement, but I've never heard any mention of this Mahātmā Jade. What is it!?"