Sage Monarch

The majestic hell monsoon swept along, seemingly without end.

It was impossible to say how many devil-ghosts filled the thing, but they were organized, with generals, commanders, captains, squad leaders, and the like. They were truly an army seeking to invade another plane of existence.

The bronzeblaze fiend-devil that Yang Qi had possessed was one of the leaders, from a higher plane of hell. He commanded an enormous portion of the army that was composed of millions of devil-ghosts.

At the moment, Yang Qi knew that he couldn’t show his face within the hell monsoon. There were Half Sages here and there, and if he revealed himself, he would definitely be in great danger. As the saying went, not even a strong man can fight an entire pack of wolves. He could only wait until the fiend-devils reached another plane. Hopefully, he would be able to enter that plane, and then figure out a way to return home.

Unfortunately, he had no idea where he was, or how far away he was from home.

Hopefully the Grand Emperor's Pagoda would eventually help him to determine the exact location of the Rich-Lush Continent. Despite being very, very far away from home, he could still feel a faint connection to the place. Unfortunately, his cultivation level was too low right now to actually make the journey.

Thankfully, he was very close to the Space-Void Transformation. Once he found a peaceful and quiet place to make his breakthrough, he would have the power to break the fetters of space and the void.

The sagely-grade spirit stone he held in his hand was much smaller than earlier; his flight from the Great Sages had required him to drain much of its power.

‘Ai. The power levels I need right now are ridiculous. If a sagely-grade spirit stone can only get me to the Space-Void Transformation, how am I possibly going to reach the Five-Phases Transformation? Where am I going to get more sovereign- and sagely-grade stones? Don’t tell me I need to go back to the Western Continent again. That doesn’t seem like an option.’

As he sat there in the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, he focused his thoughts on the spatial tempest fays.

At the moment, spatial power lurked inside of him, ready to erupt at a moment's notice.

‘The chase earlier really did unlock a lot of my potential. Unfortunately, it also wasted a lot of time. I need to get home as quickly as possible, and kill the Crown Prince.’

Even just the days he had spent in the Western Continent were worrisome. After all, what would happen if Hua Tianxiong and Young Master Shroud-Heaven attacked the Crown Prince without him? Unless he could personally see the Crown Prince dead, he would never be able to rest at ease.

“You… you actually escaped from Great Sage Pure Emptiness?” the terrified Lady-Princess Silvermoon said. Back when she realized that Yang Qi was tangling with Great Sages, she had been absolutely convinced that Great Sage Pure Emptiness would capture or kill him, and thus, free her.

Instead, Yang Qi escaped to safety, leaving her in complete despair. If Great Sages couldn’t deal with Yang Qi, then who could? As of now, it seemed completely impossible for her to ever win her freedom.

As for the other individuals in the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, the fight between the Great Sages and Yang Qi had been so intense that many of them had collapsed into unconsciousness. Only now were they starting to recover.

Upon clearing his head, Sage Greatmaster said, “Brother Yang Qi, did you really escape? Those were Great Sages! And Great Sage Pure Emptiness, well, he’s completely famous in the Western Continent.”

“Great Sages?” Yang Qi replied coolly. “Ha. Not even they can kill me.”

If he could get these people back to the Rich-Lush Continent, then the stories they would tell would only bolster his reputation. He would become so renowned that not even the Crown Prince would be able to match up to him.

At this point, the bronzeblaze fiend-devil sent a mental message to Yang Qi. ‘Milord, the greyspace of the Quake-Dawn Continent is up ahead. That’s where the hell monsoon is headed. You need to be very careful, sir. The Quake-Dawn Continent has as many experts as the sky has clouds. And they carefully guard the gaps in their greyspace. Once our army arrives, it's going to be a massacre.’

After possessing this fiend-devil, Yang Qi had used the Devil-God Seal and the Hell Portal to thoroughly subjugate it. If he wanted to, he could extract its demon core with a single thought.

Of course, it was all thanks to the spore-devil, and the power of the Nine Stars Pearl Necklace. Otherwise, how could he possibly have subjugated an Astral-Star fiend-devil? It was just shy of being as strong as Hua Tianxiong or Young Master Shroud-Heaven.

‘What? The Quake-Dawn Continent? The hell monsoon is heading there?’ Yang Qi was so surprised that he was trembling.

He had heard of the Quake-Dawn Continent, and knew that it was an important place. It had even been a significant location back in the days of the Yore-Wilds Continent.

It was far larger than the Western Continent or the Rich-Lush Continent, and according to the ancient records, was a location with many powerful energy artists. It was considered a higher plane, while the Rich-Lush Continent was considered a lower plane. The two simply couldn’t be compared to each other.

Ghost Emperor Yama had been imprisoned by experts from that continent, and they had used Quake-Dawn godsteel; and even after all the time which had passed, had still not freed himself. How could Yang Qi have ever guessed that he would be carried by a hell monsoon to the Quake-Dawn Continent, that legendary higher plane of existence?

‘Well, that’s fine. Let’s see what this Quake-Dawn Continent is like. Maybe I can get some spirit stones, or even better, immortal stones. If the Western Continent has immortal stones, then the Quake-Dawn Continent definitely will too.’

Yang Qi simply continued on with the hell monsoon, recovering his energy and seeking cultivation enlightenment. He even secretly observed the powerful fiend-devils around him in the hopes of learning new things.

As he built up Sovereign Lord True Energy, he eventually reached his maximum level, and then began to store some of it in a spell formation in the Grand Emperor's Pagoda.

The pagoda could store many types of true energy in unique dimensions, to the point where Yang Qi could theoretically be able to fill himself all the way up from being empty. Such reserves would be very helpful when he tried to reach the Space-Void Transformation.

Eventually, the Sovereign Lord True Energy in the Grand Emperor's Pagoda was like a roiling ocean.

As the process went on, the sagely-grade spirit stone slowly shrank down and down until it finally vanished.

At that point, Yang Qi opened his Lord's Eye and looked off into the distance, where an enormous sphere could be seen. 

It was a planet!

It was enormous, seemingly invincible, with a pulsing aura that would cause anyone who looked at it to tremble inwardly. And that was where the hell monsoon was heading.

The planet had countless clouds on its surface, and was surrounded by glowing light that was none other than its greyspace.

Shockingly, the Quake-Dawn Continent was actually a planet, not a continent with a curved heaven and flat earth.

This was Yang Qi’s first time seeing an intact, planetary world, and he couldn’t suppress the shock that filled his heart. After all, his homeland, the Rich-Lush Continent, was very different from this. It had a curved heaven and flat earth; its lands were like a plate, and its sky was like a bowl covering it over.

‘If a continent is spherical, what about the people on the bottom? Shouldn’t they fall off?’ Numerous questions such as this popped into his mind. However, he remembered reading ancient records that talked about spherical continents, where the spirit energy of heaven and earth flowed in a perfect cycle. Perhaps that had something to do with it. In any case, only places like this could truly be called worlds.

After thinking about it, Yang Qi realized that the Quake-Dawn Continent could probably be called Planet Quake-Dawn. Upon seeing the enormous place, he immediately thought of the maps he had seen of the Rich-Lush Continent.

Compared to this place, his continent was miniscule at best. On the planet that was the Quake-Dawn Continent, it was possible to see all sorts of different colors. That would be because of the various terrain features such as jungles, oceans, mountains, and the like.

As for the mottled lands, any one of them was actually bigger than the Rich-Lush Continent.

The Rich-Lush Continent was like a sesame seed, and the Quake-Dawn Continent was like a watermelon. It was almost impossible to imagine what things would be like there.

Yang Qi wasn’t even near the place, and he could already sense the power and vital energy. The pure energy of this place was called Quake-Dawn Spirit Energy, and it was of vastly higher quality than the vital energy in the Rich-Lush Continent.

It was more like Nine-Yang Immortal Energy, Clear Heaven True Energy or Great Void True Energy.

Considering that the inhabitants of this place could absorb true energy like that, as well as the spirit energy that filled the area, just how strong were they?

No wonder the top experts in his homeland always admired the Quake-Dawn Continent, and longed to go there.

It was the same feeling that people would experience who grew up in a tiny farming village, but dreamed of going to a big city.

As the hell monsoon neared, an aura surged out from the planet which caused the entire monsoon to tremble, revealing the fiend-devils inside.

The fiend-devils immediately began to call out in their language.

“Attack!”

“Conquer Quake-Dawn!”

En masse, they began to charge toward the continent.

Soon, Yang Qi caught sight of the forces of the Quake-Dawn Continent, armor-clad experts who were energy warriors and cultivators, all of them fighting with full force against the fiend-devils.

‘This has nothing to do with me,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘I just need to get into the Quake-Dawn Continent and break through to the Space-Void Transformation.’ With that, he left the fiend-devil he had possessed and used the Grand Emperor's Pagoda to fly toward the Quake-Dawn Continent, as small as a speck of dust.

As he grew closer, the lands, forests, and oceans grew larger and larger in his eyes. He was like a raindrop, falling ever downward.

WHOOSH!

Soon, he was passing through the defensive barriers that protected the continent. Although there were many experts under these skies, Yang Qi didn’t immediately sense the aura of any Great Sage.

And considering he had just escaped from Great Sages, there was no way the Legendaries in the area would notice him.

Before long, the speck of dust that was Yang Qi landed in a forest.

He had finally reached the fabled Quake-Dawn Continent.