Sage Monarch

The ground beneath their feet was as smooth as glass, and seemed to be filled with a marvelous true energy. In fact, as they walked along it, it chimed as surely as gold or jade.

“Susu, the Divinity-Piercing Immortal Light here in the Minorcosm World can pierce into your nascent divinity and drive impure thoughts or desires out. When practicing cultivation here, you can do so without any fear of developing inner devils, a year of cultivation here is worth a hundred outside.”

With that, Holy Daughter Manyflowers extended her hand into a flow of nine-colored energy that was rife with a feeling of immortals.

“The Minorcosm World also has something called Nine-Yang Immortal Energy, which comes from an alternate dimension, and is composed of nine types of pure yang vital energy. It can significantly bolster your true energy, improve your flesh and blood, and cleanse your sea of energy. Cultivating with it over a long period of time can be extremely beneficial.”

Clearly, the nine-colored energy flow swirling through Holy Daughter Manyflowers’ fingers was the very Nine-Yang Immortal Energy she was talking about.

Yang Qi looked around at the abundance of energy flows, and then took in a deep breath to absorb some of the Nine-Yang Immortal Energy. It flowed through him, reaching his sea of energy, except, nothing happened.

“What’s going on?” he murmured, confused.

Glancing coolly at Yang Qi, Holy Daughter Manyflowers said, “Nine-Yang Immortal Energy is nothing to be taken lightly. Our Demi-Immortal Institute sends top professors into numerous alternate dimensions to harvest it. After all, it’s a type of vital energy that doesn't even exist in our current heaven and earth. And only Legendaries can actually absorb it and make it part of their own true energy. Part of the reason for that is it requires a basic understanding of space-time to do so. If anyone could use it, then would it be special to begin with? Besides, students aren’t usually allowed in here to begin with.”

“Not allowed in?” Yang Qi murmured. Oh so carefully, he loosened his Devil-God Seal, allowing a tiny version of his Hellfire Crucible to appear in his sea of energy.

Considering he couldn’t absorb the Nine-Yang Immortal Energy into his true energy, it was already about to vanish from his sea of energy. However, by drawing on some of the power of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, he quickly shoved it into his crucible.

It was almost as if the immortal energy could sense the danger it was in, and tried to shove its way out, blasting back and forth against the inside of the Hellfire Crucible.

‘It's so strong! But my Hellfire Crucible is the lord of the netherworld. It uses the power of a legion of gods to melt and refine all sorts of divine beings!’

Without further hesitation, he unleashed more of the power of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, focusing it all on the Hellfire Crucible.

Closing his eyes, he looked into the Hellfire Crucible, and saw the image of a god. Unexpectedly, it had an elephantine head, the body of a human, and massive limbs. It was clad in a suit of armor, and was so powerful that it was actually holding a mountain above its shoulders, a mountain of gods so large that it seemed to fill the heavens.

This was a godmammoth.

In the ancient myths, a godmammoth was responsible for shouldering the mountain of the legion of gods. Not only did that godmammoth give the gods the glory of being able to oversee the heavens, but it crushed countless devils beneath its feet. Essentially, it supported the heavens and crushed the earth.

Now that Yang Qi was in the Lifeseizing level, his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth had reached a new level, and within the Hellfire Crucible existed a godmammoth with an elephantine head and a human body.

The godmammoth opened its mouth and breathed in, sucking in the Nine-Yang Immortal Energy. A moment later, it exhaled through its trunk, producing a blast of lava-like true flame, laced with hissing Nine-Yang Immortal Energy.

The remaining Nine-Yang Immortal Energy couldn’t withstand the heat, and broke apart, creating nine small dragons that began to fly back and forth in the Hellfire Crucible.

Each of those dragons was an energy flow of a different color.

Nine colors. Nine dragons.

Red. Green. Cyan. Blue. Purple. White. Black. Orange. Gold. The nine dragons swirled within his true energy, seemingly on the verge of merging into it, and thus, his body.

Crick! Crack!

A resonance sprang up with the thirtieth particle inside of him, which seemed just on the verge of absorbing the nine dragons.

The fact that the nine dragons formed a resonance with one of the particles indicated that it was possible for him to transform Nine-Yang Immortal Energy into life force quintessence.

As of now, he had twenty-nine particles awake within him, which put him at somewhat of a bottleneck. If he broke past thirty particles, he would enter Secondary Lifeseizing.

Each of the nine lifeseizings required different levels of power, a fact which was even more pronounced with Yang Qi. Normally speaking, cultivating a godly-class energy art like his was incredibly difficult.

In recent days, he had been working very hard at his cultivation. Sadly, even with the energy formation of the dao of monarchs, he had made almost no progress.

And yet, here in the Minorcosm World, he could absorb and use Nine-Yang Immortal Energy, an energy flow from an alternate dimension which ran contrary to the essences and magical laws of the world in which he lived. Normally speaking, it would be impossible to use it for cultivation before becoming a Legendary.

And yet, with his godly-class energy art, Yang Qi could refine it into nine colored dragons that burst with life force quintessence. It was a matter that no one could have ever predicted.

‘This is incredible! Who could ever have thought that I would be able to use this energy from the Minorcosm World? If I could cultivate here long term, I would be virtually invincible. Secondary and even Tertiary Lifeseizing would be just around the corner….’ Heart pounding with excitement, he sent the nine colored dragons directly into the thirtieth particle, which instantly woke up.

The powerful Nine-Yang Immortal Energy blasted right into the bottleneck, but could not break through it.

As that happened, Yang Qi looked out of the corner of his eye at Holy Daughter Manyflowers and Yang Susu.

However, neither of them seemed to be paying attention to him.

Therefore, he secretly continued to pull Nine-Yang Immortal Energy into his Hellfire Crucible, which went much more smoothly each time he did it. Furthermore, refining it into nine dragons was easier.

More and more of the dragons appeared in the Hellfire Crucible with every moment that passed.

Instead of sending them into the particles in his body, though, he decided to save them up to use all at once. With enough power, he could definitely break through to Secondary Lifeseizing.

A few dozen breaths’ worth of time passed, after which he had over a hundred tiny dragons in the Hellfire Crucible. By this point, the godmammoth could refine the Nine-Yang Immortal Energy with complete ease.

All of a sudden, Yang Qi realized that dragons were actually very much like mammoths, causing an expression to pop into his mind. The power of dracomammoths!

‘Work harder!’ he shouted inwardly. ‘The more of this energy I absorb, the more life force quintessence I’ll have to work with. And then, when the time finally comes to go all out, it will be even more effective. I doubt even Yun Hailan could fathom that the Minorcosm World would be so beneficial to me. Holding back in this moment will prevent any of the top experts from figuring out what I'm doing. After I'm able to leave, I can easily reach Secondary Lifeseizing. And if I'm in here long enough, I can definitely get enough to reach Tertiary Lifeseizing, and possibly even Quaternary. How strong will I be then?’

At the moment, his main focus was trying to absorb as much of the energy as he possibly could.

“I'm going to take you to see two old-timers, Yang Qi,” Holy Daughter Manyflowers said. “Collectively, they’re called the Patriarchs Wind and Cloud. They're both Legendaries, and have a very high rank in the Demi-Immortal Institute. For a while now, it's been public knowledge that they’re looking for an apprentice to pass on their legacy to. I have the feeling that codger Godhawk is taking Yun Hailan to see them. So, you’d better not lose face for me. Make sure you become their apprentice.”

“Yes ma’am,” Yang Qi replied. Although he was immersed in the process of absorbing the Nine-Yang Immortal Energy, he was still paying attention to everything around him.

‘Who exactly are these Patriarchs Wind and Cloud?’ he thought. ‘Legendaries, huh? Well, I'm intrigued. I've never seen Legendaries before.’

“Up ahead is their Wind and Cloud Pagoda,” Holy Daughter Manyflowers said. “Remember, be respectful.”

In front of them was an enormous pagoda made from wood. It had nine levels, and was surrounded by a network of mountains, rivers, and the like. It was very beautiful. 

At the highest level of the pagoda were two middle-aged men playing Go. One of them wore white robes that drifted around him like clouds. The other wore gray garments that fluttered like the wind. Strangely, their auras were impossible to sense, making them seem almost like two ordinary people who knew nothing about energy arts.

‘These are Legendaries?’ Yang Qi wondered.

Standing right next to the two middle-aged men were Yun Hailan and Grand Elder Godhawk.

As Yang Qi arrived with Holy Daughter Manyflowers and Yang Susu, Yun Hailan looked down at them and smiled sarcastically.

Looking up, Holy Daughter Manyflowers said, “Holy Daughter Manyflowers is here to offer formal greetings, Patriarchs Wind and Cloud.”

“So, it's Holy Daughter Manyflowers,” said the man in white, his gaze shooting out toward the group below.

Those were eyes that could see all secrets; thankfully, Yang Qi already had his Devil-God Seal activated.

The gaze swept over him, then left, whereupon the white-robed patriarch said, “If you’re here to try to get us to accept an apprentice, just save your breath. We Patriarchs Wind and Cloud have already accepted a fine new apprentice, and don't need a second.”

Yun Hailan’s eyes glittered as she looked down at Yang Qi, the derision in them growing stronger by the moment.