Sage Monarch

Yang Qi felt a lot better now that his decision was made.

There could be no better plan in the current situation than to sneak in and sever their supply chain. In vicious fashion, he would rake the firewood from beneath the kettle.

With that, he blurred into motion, leaving the region of mirage that surrounded the island, and heading west.

Far, far away, on the other side of the boundless sea, was the Western Continent. Yang Qi had never been there before. However, he could sense that this continent was actually not located in the same dimension as the Rich-Lush Continent. Instead, it was connected by a tenuous passageway similar to the passageway between the Fiendcorpse Mountains and the Heavencorpse Dimension.

Following his senses, he flew for a day and a night. He took his time, simultaneously using his thoughts to study the fluctuations on the surface of the water, and observing the paths of the metal trade ships that were ferrying goods back and forth between the two continents.

After all, although the Western Continent sold all sorts of goods on the Rich-Lush Continent, the reverse also occurred. Yundale-by-the-Sea survived by sea trade, and was much richer than Yanhaven, as well as much more militaristic.

If Yang Qi truly wanted Yanhaven to prosper, the best thing would be to relocate it to a suitable harbor, and start trading demon cores for spirit stones.

Supposedly, the Western Continent had plenty of spirit stones, but few demonlings. In contrast, the Rich-Lush Continent had many sparsely-populated areas where demonlings thrived.

Demon cores were obviously rare in the Western Continent, and they had many useful functions. They could be used in spell formations, inset into weapons, and more. Although spirit stones were extremely useful for personal cultivation, they were far less effective than demon cores when added to weapons.

As Yang Qi proceeded along, he saw fewer and fewer ships. And the people manning what ships he did see were very powerful. The waves grew fiercer, and the sea demonlings all traveled in large packs. In fact, he even noticed a pack of demonlings who were in the Lifeseizing level, far down in the depths of the water. Occasionally, such demonlings would attack the ships, and even eat the people on them, or the spirit stones that were the cargo.

In these parts, the ships were all extremely large, and guarded by powerful energy arts experts, some of them Legendaries.

Eventually, Yang Qi saw what appeared to be an enormous barrier rising up from the sea off in the distance. It was none other than a barrier between dimensions.

This was the end of the sea, a fact which he could also tell from how his Grand Emperor's Pagoda was vibrating. The other side of the barrier was where the Western Continent existed, although it wasn’t visible with the naked eye. Of course, Yang Qi didn’t have ordinary eyes. He could see through the barrier, across the boundless sea on the other side, to the enormous continent.

Ordinary people who came here would think they had just reached the end of reality. After all, one could not proceeded past this point.

Yang Qi initially hesitated. Should he try to break through the dimensional barrier, and head to the Western Continent?

After some thought, he decided not to. The Grand Emperor's Pagoda would be too weak, and he wouldn’t be at one with heaven and earth. Besides, the Western Continent had as many experts as the sky had clouds, and now wasn’t the time to alert the enemy to his existence.

RUMBLE!

Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long. Soon, spirit energy fluctuations rolled out from the dimensional barrier, and an opening appeared, from which emerged an enormous bronze ship.

Its design was ancient in nature, and it looked powerful enough to crush mountains. The waves in this area of the sea were so large that they would capsize any smaller vessel, but this bronze vessel floated along as smoothly as if there were no waves at all.

At the stern of the ship was an enormous banner embroidered with the character “Blight”.

There was also a stifling spirit stone energy in the ship that caused Yang Qi to instinctively shiver.

There was no question about it: this ship belonged to the House of Shadowblight, and contained the shipment of spirit stones.

The spirit stones were actually locked away tight, and if it weren’t for his Grand Emperor's Pagoda, he wouldn’t have been able to sense their fluctuations. 

‘Heaven’s on my side in this!’ he thought. However, he kept his Lord's Eye closed. Instead, he used his godly-class energy art to connect with the vital energy of heaven and earth, allowing him to identify several powerful auras on the ship. One of them contained traces of the magical laws of space, indicating that it was someone in the third Legendary transformation, a Space-Void Legendary.

That made sense, as only a Space-Void Legendary would be able to breach the dimensional barrier.

Of course, that was only because the Western Continent and the Rich-Lush Continent were very close to each other, and the dimensional barrier was essentially a single membrane separating the two. The fabled Quake-Dawn Continent was so far away that it would have too many separation membranes to count. And the spatial tempests that could strike within them would be strong enough to kill even Never-Dying Legendaries.

Only Great Sages could possibly brave such dangers, and travel the void to look for other planes. Of course, they could only take care of themselves in such a situation, not bring others. Only those powerful experts who existed beyond the Great Sage level could be considered the true overlords of space-time.

Yang Qi snorted coldly. ‘I can kill a Space-Void Legendary. I have a move ready for just that purpose! A ten-thousand sword attack!’

Even as the bronze ship began to cut through the waves, Yang Qi drew upon his sword technique. The Cosmic Sunflare Sword and the Ice-Soul God-Sword swirled out, creating countless streams of sword light, a shining sword formation that filled the sky with explosive vibrations.

RUMBLE!

The sword formation instantly shot downward toward the bronze vessel in a powerful attack.

“Ambush! It's an ambush!”

Streams of true energy shot up from the bronze ship toward the formation. However, Yang Qi’s sword technique was the type that ordinary Legendaries couldn’t even fight back against. Instantly, screams rang out as the sword energy pierced the defensive shields and stabbed numerous holes into the ship.

The bronze hull of the ship was instantly melted by the Cosmic Sunflare Sword, and any water in the area was frozen solid by the Ice-Soul God-Sword.

“Where’d this freakish hellion come from!?” someone shouted, his voice filled with powerful fluctuations that eradicated the fire and shattered the ice.

Even the damage to the hull started healing up.

Under the power being unleashed, the bronze ship was as moldable as clay.

‘He's the one I'm after!’ Yang Qi thought. He became a series of afterimages as he shot down toward the ship. Ignoring the crew of black-garbed experts from the House of Shadowblight, he summoned his Infernal Deity Spear, punched a hole in the deck, and dropped down inside of it.

Soon, he was in the depths of the ship, where he saw a wizened old man sitting cross-legged in the middle of a spell formation, protecting a bag of spirit stones. Those spirit stones were the source of the fluctuations he had detected on the outside.

The old man was in the third Legendary transformation, and as soon as he saw Yang Qi approaching, countless spatial distortions appeared around him. Because of that, any ordinary person would be incapable of even reaching his true form. They would instead be sucked into an impassable maze.

That was the power of a peak Space-Void Legendary.

As for the bag, it was obviously a powerful holding item with an immense capacity and powerful defenses. It was only because of the Grand Emperor's Pagoda that Yang Qi had even sensed the spirit fluctuations to begin with.

Rising to his feet with a wicked smile, the man said, “Who are you? I'm Blightczar Manyrivers from the Blight Legion Church!” 

Not waiting for a response, the man reached out with his hand, bending space so that Yang Qi suddenly felt like he was upside down.

“Flip Heaven, Invert Earth!”

Although the old man looked physically weak, he commanded terrifying power. Instantly, spatial fluctuations erupted out, causing everything to seemingly flip upside down. Clearly, a Blood-Form Legendary or a Spirit-Soul Legendary would be powerless to fight back against a move like this.

This was the terrifying power that came with enlightenment of space itself. The power of magical law could crush any and all true energy.

However, that was when Yang Qi opened his Lord's Eye.

The cry of ghosts and wailing of gods drifted out, accompanied by a holy hymn. Streams of sacred light shot forth, solidifying the space in the area. All of a sudden, Yang Qi looked like a god, like the Sovereign Lord of everything, come to the mortal world to bless all creation.

Blightczar Manyrivers could never have guessed that something like this would happen. In fact, because of the light of the Lord's Eye, his eyes felt like they were on fire.

“Blight Legion Void!” he roared. Massive spatial fluctuations rolled out from his palms to try to extinguish the flames.

BOOM!

The Grand Emperor's Pagoda appeared and slammed down onto him. As boundless spell formations activated in the pagoda, the light of the Lord's Eye slammed into Blightczar Manyrivers. “What is this thing? The Grand Emperor’s Pagoda!?”