Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
chapter-935

It definitely counted as a successful sneak attack. Using the Wheel of Fate and his Fateless powers, he had struck like an assassin. In some ways, it was just like back in the days of the Rich-Lush Continent, when, as a youth, he had gone hunting black floodwyrms and mastered the dao of the quick strike. By pouring all of his heart and mind into one single blow, he could unleash the most consummate of attacks, reaping life with ease.

If he had been like a world-class assassin back then, how much better was he now?

Furthermore, one of the seventy-two monarchs was known as King Heaven-Assassinator, who had also mastered the dao of the quick strike and had led a sect of assassins. Considering that Yang Qi had mastered the Seventy-Two Monarchs Energy Art, he obviously had the quintessence of King Heaven-Assassinator as well. Thus, when he unleashed a blow, it was very difficult for anyone to evade.

That said, Profound Valor was a very formidable opponent, and just at the right moment, he unleashed an art of his own and successfully threw Yang Qi’s hands off of him.

That move saved his life.

If he had waited a moment longer, his god vitality would have been completely drained away. God vitality wasn’t ordinary true energy, but rather animadestiny quintessence that connected Profound Valor to the god power of the Great Necropolis. In that sense, it vastly surpassed the true energy of ordinary cultivators.

Unfortunately, he had lost half of it, and that was something that he couldn’t easily recover from. Furthermore, Yang Qi had just laid both hands on him. With his left hand he had been absorbing the god vitality, but with his right, he had unleashed a very deadly stream of will, which smashed into Profound Valor’s meridians and battered at his nascent divinity and sea of consciousness.

It was a very dangerous situation, and blood was already oozing out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

“What a pity,” Yang Qi murmured, obviously not very happy at how unfortunately mighty Profound Valor was. He must be twice as powerful as the last time they had fought. In fact, if they faced off in an ordinary duel, there was no telling whether or not Yang Qi would even be able to gain the upper hand, let alone kill him.

Even worse, although he had managed to take half of Profound Valor’s god vitality and seal it up in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, he didn't get his hands on the godpower seed. And that was the entire focus of this endeavor.

If he had acquired the godpower seed, he could have called his sneak attack a complete and utter success. But now he was going to have to get involved in a protracted fight, and there was no way to be certain of the outcome.

That said, there was no question about who had the upper hand. Yang Qi had it, and was currently at his strongest state possible, with even more power to come as he assimilated the god vitality in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. And there was no way that Profound Valor was going to make up for his losses as Yang Qi relentlessly attacked him.

Keeping his eyes on Profound Valor, Yang Qi locked down the area so that escape wouldn’t be possible. At the same time, two battle puppets emerged, who were none other than Preeminence Boost and Preeminence Swan, the two emissaries from the Immortal House of Supreme Preeminence. They had not been weakened after being subjugated by Yang Qi, but were actually a lot stronger than before.

Both of them had already had power indexes over two thousand five hundred. Plus, the immortal-slaying clone was also able to provide assistance from the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. Yang Qi had everything tightly locked down, including the spatial nexuses, ensuring that even if Profound Valor somehow found a way to leave this location, he would only end up in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.

“What? People from the Immortal House of Supreme Preeminence!?” Profound Valor's eyes went wide with shock. He knew that the Immortal House of Supreme Preeminence was a superpower sect with countless experts. They were so important and large that they were almost like the leader of the superpower sects.

In short, they represented a frightful level of power.

Even though Profound Valor was an Inheritor, he still feared the Immortal House of Supreme Preeminence, who he knew could crush him like an egg if they came after him with full force.

“That's right, they're from the Immortal House of Supreme Preeminence. After they found out you’re an Inheritor, they joined forces with me to kill you!” Of course, Yang Qi was intentionally trying to frighten Profound Valor. “You’re going to get what you deserve, Profound Valor. It wasn’t long ago that you captured my power double and tried wringing information out of him. I'm going to destroy your true self, and take your godpower seed. If you want, you can go ahead and start begging for mercy.”

In response, Profound Valor burst into maniacal laughter. “You think I care that you brought the Immortal House of Supreme Preeminence with you, Yang Qi? I'm an Inheritor of the Great Necropolis! Compared to the Great Necropolis, the Immortal House of Supreme Preeminence isn’t even worth mentioning. Eventually, when I get control of the legacy of the necropolis, I’ll destroy the Immortal House of Supreme Preeminence.”

“What must come will come,” Yang Qi replied. He could sense that Profound Valor’s power index was slowly recovering even as they spoke, but there was no way it would return to its peak level any time soon. Profound Valor’s attempts to buy time were clearly useless. That said, it would at least give Yang Qi more time to probe him for information about the godpower seed. For instance, its specific location, which he had been unable to determine in the earlier exchange.

Once he knew more about it, he would launch another deadly attack.

“There are more Inheritors. You’re not the only one.” Meanwhile, profound power was flowing through Yang Qi, causing his black hair to rise up into the air around him, making him look like a devil-god risen from hell. His pores opened, allowing universal quintessence to flow into him, where it bubbled and popped like lava in the Heaven and Earth Furnace.

Meanwhile, in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, there was a collection of god vitality as large as a fiftieth ranked immortal world, tightly bound and sealed. It looked almost like an enormous rock made from the same material as the Great Necropolis. As the fires of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart burned it, it slowly turned into a liquid that began raining down.

Of course, it was Profound Valor’s god vitality. It was being refined by the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, then sent to Yang Qi and his Heaven and Earth Furnace, where he turned it into animadestiny true vitality for his own use. Of course, the quintessence of the Great Necropolis contained the auras and wills of buried gods. Therefore, as Yang Qi took it, his energy arts grew more powerful and he slowly began to gain a deeper understanding of the necropolis.

[Beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep. Power index rising. Pure god vitality similar to godhood. One thousand three hundred. One thousand four hundred. One thousand five hundred....]

Slowly but surely, an image of the Great Necropolis was taking form in his mind, which was none other than a knowledge-devil that he needed to subdue. Unfortunately, no matter how he assailed it, the will of the Great Necropolis wouldn’t budge. However, that didn’t surprise him, and in fact, he was glad. After all, the more difficult it was to assimilate the power of the Great Necropolis, the more incredible it would be.

As he assimilated the god vitality, his power index rose from one thousand seven hundred until it reached two thousand. From that, it was obvious to see just how terrifying Profound Valor’s god vitality was.

Profound Valor himself only had a power index of three thousand, apparently because of the boundless technique that he cultivated. And he hadn’t mastered the technique. If he did, he would be just as terrifying as Empress Joyflower.

Obviously, leaving him alive wasn’t an option.

Of course, Profound Valor could sense Yang Qi’s energy rising with heaven-shaking, earth-toppling force, and knew that it boded ill for him. If he let things continue on like this, Yang Qi would definitely be able to crush him.

Clenching his hand into a fist, he punched out, causing powerful shockwaves to ripple out beneath him like the waves of a sea.

“Raging Waves Smash the Shore!”

His attack was like raging waves from the sea smashing endlessly into the shore.

As it closed in on Yang Qi, it was met by a palm that completely quelled the incoming vital energy. Then he took a step forward, launching a fist strike that contained the mysteries of heaven and earth, and had power to dry up rivers and drain seas.

BOOM!

Vital energy erupted as Profound Valor met the fist and staggered backward several paces, the waves beneath his feet fading out of existence. Those waves were the manifestation of something called the Strength of the Sea God’s Rage, and their power originated with the essence of the sea itself. In fact, it was a consummate art created by the Sea God from the god world.

Unfortunately, the Strength of the Sea God’s Rage had shattered, and what little remained was no threat to Yang Qi.

“Your life ends now!” Yang Qi said. After using his God Legion Seal to suppress Profound Valor’s god vitality, and the godpower of the Great Necropolis that it contained, he was much stronger than before. Of course, he still needed to vanquish the knowledge-devil, but that could wait until later.

Without hesitation, he unleashed a rain of attacks, including palm strikes, finger blows, punches, and kicks. And every single attack contained a berserk power that flowed out to fill heaven and earth.

The Seventy-Two Monarchs Energy Art. The Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. The Secret-Ensconcing All-World Anything-Everything Fundamental-Law Magic. Those three abilities were combined, and each of them were no weaker than the divine abilities of the Great Necropolis that Profound Valor had access to.

Profound Valor was shoved farther and farther back, and clearly had nothing left to stand on.