Sage Monarch

Yang Qi was throwing caution to the wind.

He desperately wanted to form his God Legion Paradise, to seemingly turn what was illusory into what was real. Therefore, he was converging true energy into the sea of consciousness in his forehead, in the hopes of forming his personal domain. The domain was the fusion of one’s psychic aspect with one's flesh and blood; when it formed, it contained one's soul and one’s will.

The personal domain was true energy and will combined, birthed of the sea of consciousness. With it, all one had to do was think of something, and it could be conjured in one’s personal domain.

It was the true manifestation of one’s heart and spirit.

As for this bronze immortal, he was so powerful that he was capable of directly damaging Yang Qi’s sea of consciousness. Each blow he struck was devastating, and Yang Qi had no way to deal with it in his current state. All he could do was go all out, and try to summon his personal domain, even though it wasn’t complete. After all, this situation was extremely dangerous, and if he failed, he would end up dead.

Keeping the fight going only in his sea of consciousness would not be as dangerous. In contrast, if he summoned his personal domain, it would involve both his soul and fleshly body.

If he lost the fight in his sea of consciousness, then his body would be taken over, and his soul sealed. However, that always left the possibility open that he could recover one day.

However, if he lost the fight with his personal domain, then his soul and his body would be destroyed, and he would never have a chance to recover.

But Yang Qi was ambitious.

When he did something, he didn't hold back. And thus, he was using the fight with the bronze immortal to try to force the completion of his personal domain, the God Legion Paradise.

Thankfully, he had an advantage in the Yore-Wilds’ Heart fragment.

The red light that shone from that fragment could devastate even the will of a Great Sage, and as it rose up in his half-formed personal domain, it was like a burning sun in the Yore-Wilds Battle Mural, shining down onto the Yore-Wilds of old. In the blink of an eye, it began to eat away at the bronze immortal.

It was almost as if, within the battle mural, Yang Qi was inside the sun, fighting the immortal, surrounding it with countless projected images of the Yore-Wilds.

The immortal destroyed one image after another, each blow of which caused some of Yang Qi’s true energy to disperse. The immortal shattered the images of the Yore-Wilds without hesitation, as if he wanted to make his own world in its stead.

“Grand Emperor’s Pagoda!”

Yang Qi’s true energy spread out to lock down the space around the pagoda, then used it to begin forming greyspace, which was the shell of his personal domain. Once it was complete, the framework for the domain would be finished.

With the Grand Emperor's Pagoda and the Heaven-Dominating Golden Swordbreaker, Yang Qi faced the bronze immortal and began to fight with more fury.

By this point, the bronze immortal was not an expression of will, but a real form, a clone made from vital energy and the quintessence of a martial path.

“Dao-Extermination form!”

RUUUUUMBLE!

The bronze immortal unleashed his most powerful move yet, spreading his arms wide and then crushing them together. Everything began to shrink down, and all the land beneath him transformed into dust, crushed by the power of space.

The light of the Grand Emperor's Pagoda faded, and the pagoda itself began to shake violently, as if it might collapse.

Yang Qi didn't seem afraid at all, and swung his swordbreaker with full force, causing a river of gold to sweep toward the bronze immortal.

“Dao-Opening form!”

The immortal stomped his foot onto the ground, causing crevices to open up, and a wild wind to sweep through Yang Qi’s forming domain. Raising his hands over his head, the immortal smashed them down, tearing open a huge rift, and causing magical laws to go into chaos. Waves of earth, water, fire and wind spread out, causing Yang Qi to cough up a mouthful of blood.

“Just die, will you?!” the immortal shouted. Spitting out a stream of vital energy, he shrank space, ensuring that no obstacles could interfere as he sent mountain-like force crushing down toward Yang Qi’s head.

Bam!

The Heaven-Dominating Golden Swordbreaker blocked the move, but instantly went dim, its golden power forced to retreat inside of it. Its spell formations and warding magics were so damaged that it obviously couldn't be used again any time soon.

‘Time to go for broke,’ Yang Qi thought. Shaking his head as his wounds began to heal, he yet again summoned his partial domain.

“This is all futile!” the bronze immortal shouted. “Give me control of your soul! Become my missionary! Spread faith of me through all creation, and I will bless you!”

Clenching his hand into a fist, he punched out.

“Dao-Corroboration form!” 

The instant his fist made contact with Yang Qi’s true energy, it started a chain reaction. 

Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam! Bam!! BAM!!!

The true energy began to explode, and his meridians, sea of energy, acupoints, five viscera and six bowels all began to detonate. His face drained of blood as he staggered backward. And yet, no matter how he retreated, how could he avoid the will of an immortal?

“Soul Appropriation!”

The bronze immortal turned into a shining field of light that swept forth to wrap up Yang Qi, until he was like a wriggling bronze cocoon.

“Crap, he lost!” Ghost Emperor Yama blurted, shooting to his feet and preparing to take action. “You’ve been beaten, punk! Admit it! Seems you finally need me to save you. However, why did the God Legion Seal fail to come to your rescue? Is it weak? Or did it leave you? Why exactly have you been boasting so much in front of me without it? Well, in that case, I won't save you. I’ll expel the will of that bronze immortal, and then finally absorb you like I’ve always wanted to!”

Devil energy suddenly raged around Ghost Emperor Yama. “Your sworn brothers and sisters, your friends and family, all of them will soon be my puppets! They’ll be an army of zombies for my use!”

Laughing maniacally, he reached out toward Yang Qi.

However, in the moment he laid hands on him, dazzling golden light suddenly erupted from the bronze cocoon, accompanied by the frenzied scream of the immortal. “What’s that!? That’s not the power of a human! Nor is it the power of an immortal! That's power from the legion of gods. Dear lord! How could your soul have something like that in it?!”

RUUUUUMBLE!

A stream of golden flame began to melt the bronze immortal into nothing; clearly, he had finally crossed a line he should not have crossed, and was suffering the wrath of the legion of gods.

Meanwhile, Ghost Emperor Yama’s hand was still touching Yang Qi.

Golden light stabbed through his hand, catching it on fire. He was a Great Sage, and had a powerful devil physique, and yet the golden light met no resistance. In fact, the flames raged so violently that, in the blink of an eye, his arm was transformed into ash. And the flames continued to spread!

“Not good! It's the legion of gods! I'm going to die! No. I can't die here! Why did I have to make a move on Yang Qi?”

Ghost Emperor Yama was going virtually crazy with regret at what he had done.

“Hellish Transmigration; Primeval Infernal Deity; Swap Life for Life; Ten Thousand Years of Longevity!” In that moment, he quickly called on a primeval secret magic, burning his own life force to gain access to immense power, which he used to craft a new version of himself. Even as the old version burned away into nothing, he switched places.

Then, he watched as his old body became nothing more than ash.

His face was ashen as he reveled in the sensation of having just escaped death. “The God Legion Seal. The God Legion Seal is still there…. Dear lord. I almost died. If I hadn’t acted quickly, and used that rebirth magic, I would have been destroyed! Dammit, my cultivation base and lifespan were both severely damaged!”

With every moment that passed, Ghost Emperor Yama felt more regret that he had made a move on Yang Qi.

He had tried to steal a chicken only to end up losing the rice he used to lure it.

Now, he could only stare as the bronze immortal and his bronze glory were absorbed by Yang Qi. Meanwhile, countless beams of sagelight and magical symbols spread out like rainbows around Yang Qi, turning the surrounding area into a holy land.

A glowing dimension was taking shape around him.

In the moment that Yang Qi exterminated the will of the bronze immortal, he gained significant enlightenment of numerous magical laws of space, as well as of yin, yang, and the five phases.

As he did, the enlightenment caused the space around him to burn with fire as it became purified.

This was the initial state of the Personal-Domain Transformation.

Something like a ray of sunlight shot out into his personal domain, turning it into an expression of the Yore-Wilds of old.

“To form one’s personal domain,” Ghost Emperor Yama murmured, “one needs a powerful magical treasure, core, or nascent divinity to exercise control over it. And he has the Yore-Wilds’ Heart fragment. With that as the focus of his domain, how strong will it be? Isn’t he afraid of the power levels? If the Yore-Wilds’ Heart fought back against him, wouldn’t it destroy his domain?”

After yet another grievous loss, Ghost Emperor Yama was finally convinced that he couldn’t do anything to Yang Qi.

The Yore-Wilds’ Heart fragment was now set into the greyspace of his personal domain. As Yang Qi’s true energy continued to form the geometric dimensional segments of the greyspace, they all thrummed with the power of the Yore-Wilds. With that power, he could fully realize his personal domain.

The fight and victory over the bronze immortal had given him plenty of enlightenment.

Now, he needed to use the techniques of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth to fuse the various dimensional aspects together, and then complete his domain. When that happened, he would fully step into the sixth Legendary transformation.

Now, he just needed a bit more time.