Sage Monarch

A strange, unique aspect of the Western Continent was that it lacked demonlings.

Back when the Sky-Heaven Dynasty was founded, an almighty member of the Demonfolk swept through the continent and took away all demonlings with potential for future growth. Later, the Sky-Heaven Dynasty instituted laws to strictly prohibit the slaughtering of demonlings. Instead, they were to be captured and offered as gifts to Amaranthine Greensura.

According to the intelligence reports of the Sun Moon Institute, all such captured demonlings ended up in the Hanging Mountain.

Over the millions upon millions of years which had passed since then, the population of demonlings in the Western Continent shrank and shrank to the point where they were essentially extinct. Any organizations who sought demon cores to augment spell formations or magical devices would need to surreptitiously acquire them from the Rich-Lush Continent.

Demon cores were about as precious in the Western Continent as spirit stones were in the Rich-Lush Continent.

Not even the elite students of the institutes in the Rich-Lush Continent had access to spirit stones for their cultivation. They had to rely directly on the powers of heaven and earth, which made their cultivation much more arduous.

Because of the vast network of subterranean mines, the people of the Western Continent had used spirit stones for cultivation for countless generations. As a result, there were more energy arts experts there. That was another reason why the Sky-Heaven Dynasty was so strong; they had plenty of Legendaries in their forces.

There had been many occasions in which the Western Continent sought to invade the Rich-Lush Continent. However, because the chancellors of the four institutes were always Great Sages, such efforts were extremely dangerous to say the least. Unless they could be absolutely confident in taking out all of the Great Sages, invading would be too risky.

Yang Qi took some time to study the Western Continent Atlas for a time. After he was finished, he left.

Thankfully, he had acquired quite a few demon cores in the hell monsoon. Furthermore, when the wills of the sages in the Planar Pearl had swept out and killed numerous fiend-devils, Yang Qi had been able to harvest the demon cores they left behind.

Right now, they were all stored in his Hellfire Crucible, the best being from a Ghost-God fiend-devil, that being one he had harvested in the moments after the restoration of the pearl.

Because of his improvement in cultivation base, he could now use his Hell Portal to summon flesh and blood fiend-devils. Although the highest ones he could summon were those in the fourth or fifth transformation, they would still be a perfect supply for the demon cores he would need to get spirit stones.

His psychic power was now stronger than ever, and when he unleashed his psychic tempest, he could access numerous nearby planes of a similar level to the one he occupied. That in turn made the summoning powers of his Hell Portal even more effective.

Even fiend-devil counts, Yin-Yang Legendaries, who were hiding in the depths of space, could be snatched up by him and turned into slaves.

In fact, the regions of space-time surrounding the Rich-Lush Continent were now virtually devoid of fiend-devils. But the Western Continent was a different story. Hell monsoons battered that continent as well, and that meant there were plenty of fiend-devils in the area for Yang Qi to summon.

In his dimensional sea of energy, massive amounts of true energy simmered, and in the middle of it all was the Hellfire Crucible, which burned with everlasting Cleansing Flame of the Heavenly World.

And his Lord's Eye was now powerful enough to pierce through a thousand planes. When he looked out, he could see countless spatial tempests and space-time wormholes, and at the same time, use his psychic power to lock down on whatever evil entities lurked in the darkness.

To him, wretch energy shone like brilliant stars in the dead of night.

Suddenly, he waved his hand, and the Hell Portal opened, connecting to another location in space-time. As it happened, that location was Fiend-Devil Island! Without any hesitation, he locked onto a Septenary Lifeseizer fiend-devil, who he then pulled toward him through the portal.

BOOM!

The fiend-devil immediately shattered into powder. Yang Qi didn't even bother speaking to the thing; he had simply been interested in testing out his summoning abilities.

His eyes could pierce through space-time, and thus, he could easily identify major convergences of wretch energy, locations with fiend-devils, zombies, devil-ghosts, skeletons, and the like. They were places like the Blackcorpse Mountains and the Fiendcorpse Mountains. 

In fact, out in the depths of space-time, he saw a half-plane, connected to the Rich-Lush Continent by a wormhole, which was none other than the Heavencorpse Dimension. In the middle of that location, in a pitch-black mountain, was the aura of an immensely powerful fiend-devil.

There was no doubt about it: that was Ghost Emperor Yama, who was far more powerful than the chancellor of the Demi-Immortal Institute. Not even the chancellors of the four institutes combined could match Ghost Emperor Yama. Summoning a fiend-devil like him was currently beyond Yang Qi’s capabilities.

‘I wonder what type of demon core he would have.’ After some thought, Yang Qi blurred into motion, heading out over the ocean toward the Western Continent.

On what was essentially the horizon of the Rich-Lush Continent was a membrane, a dimensional barrier that only Space-Void Legendaries could possibly travel through. That was what led to the Western Continent.

On his own, Yang Qi could never pierce that dimensional barrier. However, he had the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, and therefore, when he reached the end of the sea, he drew upon its spell formations to do exactly that.

RUMBLE!

Just like that, he was in another land. At the same time, the Grand Emperor's Pagoda shivered as some immense force attempted to expel it. The local vital energy of heaven and earth forced its way into the depths of the spell formations, and immediately caused explosions and flashes of light.

‘What’s going on?’ The Grand Emperor's Pagoda was part of the Rich-Lush Continent, and differed from the Western Continent on a substructural level. Thus, the local vital energy instinctually wanted to expel or even exterminate it.

However, even as the vital energy rushed into the pagoda, the might of an emperor erupted from inside. In the blink of an eye, an actual emperor appeared out of thin air, holding a scepter, the tool he would use to expand his empire.

“The four corners of the earth are my domain; the four seas serve me as ministers….” [1]

It was the voice of an emperor, sounding out from ancient times, and it immediately cowed the vital energy. Unexpectedly, this emperor was actually seeking to expand his territory! Even as the Grand Emperor's Pagoda subjugated the local vital energy, something new appeared in its depths. An embryo! 

It was the embryo of an emperor that radiated boundless imperial might, indicating that Yang Qi had pushed the Grand Emperor's Pagoda into its second form.

The greatest thing an emperor could do was expand his empire throughout his life. And that was the exact point of the second form of the Grand Emperor's Pagoda; it was going to try to subjugate the Western Continent.

Yang Qi had the feeling that if he ventured far enough into these lands to acquire the continent’s heart, then make it part of the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, the pagoda would transform. It would become like an actual empire, constantly seeking to expand and add new blood into itself.

Yang Qi could sense that the Grand Emperor's Pagoda sought to do battle, to conquer a new land, to take over another plane of existence.

‘Emperor embryo….’ Yang Qi thought, looking into the depths of the pagoda. It looked like an actual human embryo, laying there deep inside the pagoda, pulsing with the desire to conquer. All of the vital energy that it encountered, it subdued, tempering and refining itself in the process.

With the emperor embryo in the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, Yang Qi felt even stronger than before, and capable of more marvelous feats.

‘So, where exactly am I?’ he thought, absorbing the pagoda into his body and looking around. He was currently in the sea of clouds near a certain coastal region. Thanks to all the clouds, there was no way anyone would be able to spot him.

Countless trade ships could be seen along the winding coast, some of them obviously captained by Space-Void Legendaries. Those would be the ones who could pass through the dimensional barrier to the Rich-Lush Continent.

Already, Yang Qi could detect the presence of spirit stones. Casting his gaze off into the distance, he saw areas of dense spirit energy, which were the spirit stone mines.

‘This is the coast of the Sea of Waves, the most prosperous area of trade in the Western Continent. However, it’s not the center of culture, nor is it a location of many spirit stone mines. The greatest spirit lodes are in the Sky-Heaven Plains; that’s where all the mines and cities are, and that’s where I'm most likely to find what I need. But first, I might as well head down to Silvermoon to get the lay of the land. The Western Continent is bound to be full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers, so I have to be on guard at all times.’

Thanks to his map, he knew a bit about the local cities.

His destination was a flourishing city called Silvermoon, a coastal trade hub, and a fairly large place.

In the Western Continent Atlas, Silvermoon was described as being a prosperous and influential city, ruled by a member of the imperial house, a Legendary known as Lady-Princess Silvermoon.

It didn't take long before Yang Qi found himself outside of the city.

The walls were massive, and were covered with a type of mithril that reflected the moonlight, and made even the dead of night as brilliant as midday. [2]

1. This is an actual line of poetry from the Book of Songs, China's oldest collection of poetry. As you would imagine, the book has long since been translated into English here or here.

2. In Chinese, mithril is literally “secret silver” or “mysterious silver”. Point is, it shares a character with the name of the city itself. In fact, the name of the city could be interpreted to be mithril instead of silver. However, I happen to think that Silvermoon sounds a lot better than Mithrilmoon, so, yeah. Also, there are a few instances in which the city is described using only the character for “silver”. In the end, the “mithril” aspect isn’t particularly important in its connection to the name of the city, so I’m not going to worry about translation continuity in this instance.