Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
chapter-1388

Immense psychic power filled the area. In terms of the psychic scale, it was definitely over the level of a hundred million, which meant this person was similar to Patriarch Deva.

The early Unbounded level was a psychic scale of between one and ten million.

The mid Unbounded level was up to ninety million.

The late level was between a hundred million and a billion. As for Patriarch Deva, he was at around a hundred million, and definitely not past two hundred million, otherwise he would be a peak Unbounded expert.

Anyone with a psychic scale past a hundred million was nobody to take lightly. They were conquerors who could found sects, unleash shocking fighting prowess, and surpass the ordinary limits of martial might.

They could even unleash destructive power on the magical laws of the god world itself.

It was a person such as that who was coming into the Bastille of the One God. Therefore, Yang Qi didn’t dare to do anything rash. Although he was invincible among mid Paramount Gods, and could even fight those in the late level with psychic scales of a hundred million, when it came to opponents with scales of two or three hundred million, he would have no choice but to run for his life.

So when he realized someone like that was coming to the Bastille of the One God, he had no choice but to hide and see what was going on.

Soon, he realized that there were actually multiple individuals approaching.

There were two men and two women, all of them late Paramount Gods.

Yang Qi didn’t dare to read their psychic scales or godhood ratings. But he was fairly certain that they surpassed Patriarch Deva. Who exactly were these people?

“Let’s head in deeper, Junior Sister. This is only the periphery of the Bastille of the One God, where trashy early Paramount Gods can come and go. There’s definitely nothing worthwhile out here. Let's go to where the Army of Radiance and Light was once housed. We might be able to find a place where a battle was fought in ancient times. That's where you can find some really good loot. There might even be undying expressions of will sealed up there that we can subjugate and use for cultivation breakthroughs.”

The man who was speaking wore a flowing yellow robe, its voluminous sleeves embroidered with a dark golden trim. He came across as being confident and relaxed, but at the same time full of boundless majesty.

He had smooth skin that seemed to glow with health and life, and his eyes contained the birth and death of space-time itself. It was almost as though his eyes had seen the birth of countless universes.

Standing next to him was an elegant woman dressed in the attire of a noble lady of the court. She held a pitch-black flower in her hand that seemed like a lotus or ‘queen of the night’ flower, yet was neither. It emanated a nightmarish aura, making it seem like anyone who looked too closely at it would be sucked into a nightmare. [1]

‘That’s... a flower of illusion!’ Yang Qi thought. ‘One of the top ten godflowers. However, this woman has crafted it into an incredible magical treasure. Amazing. Even a Paramount God who had that flower, but lost control of it, would end up dead.’

Years ago, Yang Qi had acquired a flower of time, as well as Summer Vastcold’s flower of wisdom. Sadly, he had simply directly assimilated them to boost his power. The truth was that such flowers could have their life force stimulated, which would allow them to grow to their full potential and even ultimately turn into magical treasures.

By way of comparison, what Yang Qi had done was like finding an egg, breaking it open, and cooking it. A much better use of that egg would have been to hatch it into a chick, which could then lay more eggs and produce even more chickens.

The young woman with the flower replied, “Elder Brother, the path up ahead leads right to the former location of the Army of Radiance and Light. But we have to be very careful in the Bastille of the One God, lest we end up dead.”

The other man present said, “You’re right about that. For instance, there are soul conglomerations that simply can’t be killed, and will chase you down forever until you're dead. The best you can do is temporarily seal them. Thankfully, we have a secret map leading to the encampment of the Army of Radiance and Light. Supposedly, they had a powerful devil general sealed there by the Lord of Radiance and Light and a contingent of angels. The sealing marks should be loosening by now, which means we can nab that devil before he escapes and causes chaos. Master will be very pleased to get it.”

“Ancient devils like that are nothing to take lightly,” the other young woman said. “Are you sure we can handle it? If he was sealed by the Lord of Radiance and Light, and has been alive this entire time, he’s got to be at the peak Paramount God level. Why didn’t Master come himself? Why did he send us to handle this? We don’t even know if we can do this, and for all we know, we might end up dead along the way.”

“There’s no need to get nervous. Master couldn’t come because he was injured in a fight recently, and needs time to recover. We can definitely handle this devil. Once we get him back to Master, he can assimilate him to fully heal his wounds, and even rise in cultivation level. Perhaps he’ll even achieve a breakthrough and reach the ultimate level.”

“So that's how it is. Well, if Master assimilates the devil, are we going to benefit at all?”

“Definitely! Master would never let us down.”

“Come on, there’s no time to lose. Let’s get in there before someone else beats us to the punch.”

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

Not having noticed Yang Qi, they simply flew along. Of course, this all begged the question of what type of person would have four late Paramount Gods as apprentices. For someone to simply be strong wasn’t necessarily impressive. But for someone to have followers this incredibly strong was another matter entirely.

As for Yang Qi’s brethren, he had groomed all of them personally, yet none of them were even close to being as strong as he was. Even Yang Immortal-Slayer, who also had monarch godhood, was still barely a tenth as strong as Yang Qi when it came to fighting prowess.

So who exactly would have four apprentices that were all as strong as Patriarch Deva? The mere thought caused Yang Qi’s hackles to rise. However, the fact that they had mentioned the Army of Radiance and Light and a sealed devil was very intriguing.

He couldn’t help but wonder what type of devil it was that the Lord of Radiance and Light had been forced to imprison as opposed to killing it.

It would definitely be monstrous to the extreme.

Considering that he could move about with complete ease in the Bastille of the One God, it wouldn’t be hard to follow these four late Paramount Gods without them seeing him. He had all the advantages when it came to terrain. Therefore, he crept along behind them, keeping his distance. About twenty hours later, they were deep inside the Bastille of the One God. There were more and more soul conglomerations, which Yang Qi would surreptitiously assimilate when he could.

When it came to such tasks, he could operate with incredible speed and efficiency now. As a result, he was constantly acquiring more and more sage monarch magistrates.

‘If I can get enough sage monarch magistrates, I could probably handle these four if necessary.’ There were also more angels present. The four figures Yang Qi was following didn’t engage them in battle, though, for fear that the shockwaves might attract the attention of even more dangerous entities. But that just made things easier for Yang Qi.

He was like a ghost, slipping about this way and that, assimilating soul conglomerations and angels.

Every time he absorbed a soul conglomeration of a few dozen kilometers in diameter, the resulting influx of power would provide dozens of new sage monarch magistrates. Furthermore, it slowly but surely helped his godhood to advance, and even helped transform the God Legion Seal.

All of a sudden, he caught sight of a soul conglomeration that was thousands of kilometers in diameter. It looked almost like a writhing cloud filled with vicious faces. The four experts he was following were careful to avoid it. Although they were strong enough to seal it, there was obviously no need to get into any sort of fight with it.

‘That thing is huge,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘I don’t think I’ve seen one that big before.’ Of course, he was delighted. As soon as the way was clear, he pounced, and started absorbing it.

The process took about an hour, after which he felt every inch of himself thrumming with energy.

Crack!

Clusters of lightning appeared within his monarch godhood, and many of the sage monarch magistrates began splitting into new versions.

‘My monarch godhood is on the verge of reaching the mid Paramount God level. The Bastille of the One God doesn’t have medicinal pills, but for me, these soul conglomerations are better than any pill I can think of.’ Yang Qi couldn't help but feel excited. If he hadn’t come to the Bastille of the One God, it would be impossible to say how many years it would have taken him to achieve a breakthrough like this. He could probably have cleared out the resources of the Sumeru Temple, Deva Dynasty, and Nine Dragons Court and not succeeded.

But all he had to do was absorb these soul conglomerations, and he would make natural progress.

‘I'm at ninety million. Just on the verge of a breakthrough!’

Considering how far away the four experts were, he simply started absorbing everything in sight, even the angels.

1. Some of you may remember that, about a thousand chapters ago, ‘queen of the night’ flowers were mentioned. Here’s a link directly to the footnote explaining them, in case you're interested in a refresher.