Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
chapter-919

Lifting his consciousness to a higher level had drawn him even closer to the God Legion Seal.

His current grand ambition was to eventually abandon the old God Legion Seal, and instead forge his own nascent divinity and mind into an exact replica. After all, the God Legion Seal technically didn’t belong to him, which would eventually cause problems for him in terms of controlling it.

He needed to develop his own nascent divinity and consciousness, and focus on his true ego. After all, there was nothing more true and real than one’s self. Everything else was merely an illusion.

He vanquished all of the knowledge-devils, whereupon godliness and the will of gods flooded into him, strengthening the God Legion Seal and producing more transformations.

As Yang Qi examined his nascent divinity, he saw that it already looked like a golden imp, covered with complex designs and shining with a golden light that pierced into the depths of the universe.

His Wisdom was now as deep as the sea itself.

A smile appeared on his face, and at the same time, his nascent divinity opened its mouth, causing numerous spell formations to collapse into particles. Roiling vital energy from the god-king’s tear was now streaming into Yang Qi’s heart.

After passing into what was beyond the level of six hundred million god formations, Yang Qi reached an area filled with bleak mists and rushing winds.

The mists were filled with an aura of grief, and Yang Qi wouldn’t have been able to proceed easily without the Engine of the One God to absorb them. Even an expert like Profound Valor would have been adversely affected by the mists, and would have either been reduced to ash, or transformed into a puppet who would haunt the mists henceforth. They came from the tears filled with godhood, something that no one under the level of the legion of gods could resist. They were the kind of thing that could only be used as a source of power, not assimilated.

Thankfully, Yang Qi had the Engine of the One God, which could absorb any of these types of power and add it to its reserves.

Yang Qi suddenly inhaled deeply, causing mist to rush toward his palm, where it took the form of a drop of water that actually resembled a teardrop. He immediately sent it into the Engine of the One God.

Thump thump.... Thump thump....

The black and bronze, heart-shaped Engine of the One God was moving, emitting a sound that was almost like the beating of a drum.

[Beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep.... Second state of the strength god systems activated....]

Yang Qi scanned the engine with divine will and it seemed to him almost as if some ancient god were waking up. It was a higher state than the strength god systems, although in some ways it was softer than before. However, it was still strong, just as soft water could be strong enough to bore a hole into rock.

RUMBLE!

Burning godlight appeared inside of him as his heart was transformed. As it pulsed, it connected to the power of the Engine of the One God and made it more a part of him.

His heart began beating more quickly, then more slowly, the speed variable. Sometimes it seemed like the pounding of war drums, and other times it was like the march of an army. And sometimes it was like the whispered fall of spring rain.

As he breathed and his blood flowed, it was as if a melody drifted within him that contained enlightenment of the profundities of heaven and earth. Somehow, he was drawing closer to the god world, and his cultivation base was reaching a higher peak of perfection.

“Come forth!” he said, thrusting his palm out in the final move of the Hand of the One God, Immortality. Energy surged out, and fully ten million spell formations flowed toward him.

His speed had increased yet again.

These were spell formations whose central nexuses were filled with corporeal god items and souls, not the illusory type that were usually featured in lower-level formations.

There were plenty of very powerful items, but nothing that Yang Qi could really use. However, to people with power indexes of less than a thousand, they would be extremely helpful. Soon, when his followers finally went out into the outside world again, they would definitely shake the immortal worlds.

This was the absolute quintessence of the Joyflower Palace, and if Yang Qi’s guesses were right, they were probably items that had been stored here nearly since the founding of the organization. Apparently, not even Empress Joyflower had even been able to touch them, which further reinforced his guess that no one had ever pierced through the mists to the god-king’s tear.

RUUUUUMBLE!

After several days passed, Yang Qi finally broke through all barriers and had taken nine hundred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninty-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine of the total one billion spell formations. There was only one left, and its function was to contain the ocean that was the tear of godhood.

It was the last god formation, and it was the largest by far.

There were nine pillars that could prop up heaven, covered with countless magical symbols, flowers, and images of both men and women. The men and women all seemed to be couples, and they all seemed to be deeply in love with each other.

Creaking and crunching sounds could be heard as the pillars rotated, and as they spun, the images on them changed. The previously loving men and women changed, and began violently tearing at each other until blood flowed. It was brutal and bitter, with women digging out the hearts of the men, and men decapitating the women. Some bit and clawed at each other, making the entire thing seem like an image from hell. Positive emotions drained away into nothing, and then nothingness became despair.

Love turned into hatred, and affection to enmity.

The intensity of it all caused Yang Qi to flinch. He shook his head. This type of god formation was such a masterpiece of emotion that he was already convinced he couldn’t break it. It seemed to be connected so deeply to the Joyflower Palace that if he touched it, the entire place would shake violently.

‘This thing is so powerful that not even I can touch it. With something like this, it’s no wonder the Joyflower Palace lasted for hundreds of millions of years on the Ancient Road to the Gods without anyone defeating them. Not even the superpowers can do anything to the Joyflower Palace. Intense emotion. Intense lack of emotion. If there’s any power that could be considered transcendent in the mortal world, it’s emotion....’

Compared to this god formation, the rest he had taken seemed like little more than laughable toys.

‘Forget it. I’ll just sit here and absorb as much godhood as I can for the Engine of the One God.’ Looking around at the mists, he sat down cross-legged and got to work.

Within the depths of the Engine of the One God, there was a crystalline area that served as the location of the power reserves. And with every clump of mist that he absorbed, an expression of godhood formed, looking very much like a teardrop.

Before hardly any time had passed, there were over a thousand of them.

Now that the strength god systems had reached their second state, the Engine of the One God could convert these teardrops into expressions of power equivalent to experts with power indexes of two thousand.

In other words, if Yang Qi burned them all at once, it would allow him to strike a blow like that of an expert with a power index of three or four thousand.

That would definitely be suitable for fighting Empress Joyflower.

He continued with his work, bringing in tens of thousands of the teardrop expressions of godhood. Eventually, the mists around him were virtually gone.

At that point, he stopped absorbing the mist and went on to deal with the knowledge-devils in his sea of consciousness.

‘I could easily beat you now, Profound Valor,’ he thought. Looking around, he saw that the final remaining spell formation was causing more mist to spill out and refill the area, to the point where it looked just like before.

At this point, he had cleared out about a third of the storehouse. As for the rest of the items, he decided to leave them in place for the time being to avoid attracting attention.

After returning to his quarters, he didn’t see Flower Goddesses Jade Nightqueen or Snowlotus.

As for the sect leaders he had working for him, they were practicing cultivation or contemplating ways to deal with Empress Joyflower.

Yang Qi considered what he should do next. Should he go try to kill Profound Valor and take the Inheritor seed from him? Then deal with Empress Joyflower afterward? That seemed like the safest bet.

However, although he was fairly certain he could kill Profound Valor, if the man ended up trying to flee, it could end up being a big waste of time. A chase like that could end up dragging on for years.

Even as he was contemplating his next move, he received a message from Leaf Dao-Denier.