Sage Monarch

Because it had just laid eggs, the godworm was incredibly weak. Even just the eggs were incredibly enticing, and they were already the focus of much attention. Top experts from all sorts of factions who were stuck in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart were here, ready to risk everything to get them.

Yang Qi was no less covetous. Those eggs were just as important to him, and he could only imagine how much control over the magical laws of space he would have if he could give them all to his own godworm. Where could he travel to?

The mere thought caused him to shiver with anticipation.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem even remotely possible that he could acquire them. There were too many top experts here, and all of them were ready to fight. There were even a dozen or so who were just as strong as Grand Emperor Rich-Lush and King Langya. If a ‘nobody’ like him tried to make a move, they could crush him into a pulp with hardly a thought.

Hopefully, he could find an opportunity. That was how he had dealt with Grand Emperor Rich-Lush and King Langya. Besides, he was already a lot stronger than he had been when he dealt with those two. And in the end, he would be happy to get even just a few of the eggs.

“Junior Brother,” Sword Seventeen said, “we absolutely, positively cannot let this godworm nest go to waste. Your godworm needs food, and besides, I would love to have a godworm of my own. We have to figure out a way to get some of those eggs. After all, your lone godworm isn’t going to be enough to get us out of the Myriad Worlds Monarchs Chart. Multiple godworms can be used to create a spatial spell formation, and that’s our best shot.”

“Don’t worry, Elder Brother,” Yang Qi said solemnly. “I’ll definitely help you to get your own godworm.”

“Let’s stick to the shadows and wait for our opportunity. If we stick around in the open, we’re going to get killed. There are just too many famous experts here.” Sword Seventeen shivered with excitement. However, he kept his cultivation base focused and drew on the power of the thousand swords bone, keeping himself ready to attack at a moment's notice. Thanks to that bone, he was now a lot stronger than before, and despite still being an eighth step Without Limit Sage he was strong enough to beat a first order Demi-Immortal, perhaps even a second order.

RUMBLE!

In almost the same moment that Yang Qi and Sword Seventeen concealed themselves, a mushroom cloud rose up some distance away.

Two powerful Demi-Immortals had just begun fighting. One of them was a young woman in imperial garments, and the other was a burly man with a three-hundred-meter-long saber. They fought even more fiercely than Grand Emperor Rich-Lush and King Langya, to the point where gods and buddhas would back away in fear, and even ghosts and devils would cower.

“That’s Empress Netherdark and Guru Army-Smasher,” Sword Seventeen said. “A few tens of thousands of years ago, they conquered multiple planetary systems. But after they went into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, they were never heard from again. Everyone assumed they perished inside, but as it turns out, here they are, stronger than ever. They obviously didn’t increase their cultivation level, so they must be using other means to unleash such power. They're completely domineering!”

Massive vital energy shockwaves exploded out in all directions as a result of their fighting. The fluctuations were so powerful that even the God Legion Paradise was shaken, hidden as it was like a speck of dust in the folds of space. In fact, it was nearly knocked out into the open.

Thankfully, Yang Qi’s enlightenment regarding space had reached the point of perfection. Plus, he was at one with his godworm and had twenty-eight imperial snakecharms to add to his overall power. He exhaled some vital energy and the primal-chaos elder-snake merged with the God Legion Paradise, making it one with primal-chaos and separating it from the fluctuations. From here on out, nothing could shake Yang Qi hard enough to reveal him. In fact, he was actually able to get closer to the fighting, and to the godworm nest.

He eventually reached its greyspace, which was incredibly strong and would often erupt with spatial flames that burned almost anything they touched. However, when that fire touched the God Legion Paradise it was actually gobbled up.

Yang Qi was like a parasite, leeching away at the power of the greyspace.

As that power caused transformations within him, neither the experts fighting some distance away, nor the godworm inside the nest, noticed him at all.

There were multiple factors at play. First of all, the fighting was incredibly intense, and even the godworm was focused on that, and how it affected its defenses. The massive vital energy shockwaves were far beyond anything that the tiny parasite that was Yang Qi could produce, so why would the godworm possibly notice him?

Second, because Yang Qi had a godworm in his God Legion Paradise, his overall aura was not threatening to the godworm in the nest.

Third, the primal-chaos elder-snake he had created was immensely powerful, able to devour vital energy so efficiently that no one would notice it. After all, the will of King Heaven-Devourer was the type that could consume heaven, much less the forces at play here.

‘This is incredible….’ As he surreptitiously consumed the quintessence-blood and vital energy of the godworm via the greyspace, he could sense that, before laying its eggs, it had expended all of its quintessence-blood, vital energy, and magical laws to make its nest. The purpose of the nest was to offer it protection during its moment of weakness, and also to act as a preheaven placenta designed to nourish the newly hatched larvae.

However, it was also proving useful to Yang Qi and his own godworm. In fact, it caused spatial flames to fill his God Legion Paradise, making it shine like the sun itself.

“Such pure power!” Sword Seventeen exclaimed. He also benefited from the flames, as they made the true sharpness of his body even more apparent and molded him into a consummate divine sword. 

Meanwhile, Yang Qi’s godworm continued powering up, and his soul enlightenment slowly climbed. He had already been at the absolute peak of the ninth step of the Great Sage level, on the very verge of becoming a Demi-Immortal. Now he could vaguely sense the heavenly heart of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. [1]

In some ways, the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart was a unique heaven. A heavenly world. In its depths it was like an immortal world, therefore it had its own heart and its own great dao, things that were mysterious and pure, formed from pure fate.

As Yang Qi experienced further enlightenment from the spatial fluctuations and the flames of the godworm nest, he came to a deeper understanding of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. In addition, he realized that, right now, his only hope of getting out rested in further soul enlightenment.

He had already benefited greatly. For one thing, there were the imperial snakecharms, plus all sorts of magical treasures that could cause wars in the outside world. But if he could get those godworm eggs and feed them to his own godworm, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that he would be able to reach the Hell of Mahānata as easily as blowing some dust off his shoulder. And when that happened, he would be in the ideal place to push his cultivation base to a higher level.

The fighting was growing even more intense. Empress Netherdark, Guru Army-Smasher, and other top experts were going all out to oppose each other and, at the same time, assault the godworm nest. Unfortunately for them, the mother godworm was extremely fierce and would send out flames to negate all of the vital energy attacks.

‘This is the perfect chance,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘I need to use the distraction of their fighting to feed power into my godworm.’ As his godworm grew, he could sense that there were even more profound memories locked deep within its soul, genes, and sea of consciousness.

Primeval godworms were similar to godmammoths, in that they had been created by the legion of gods. As for the godmammoths, they were representations of power. And the godworms? They represented space-time.

Because of that, all godworms possessed ancient memories, locked in their genes from the moment they were born. By breaking through certain natural barriers, those memories could be unlocked and give them access to greater powers and abilities.

They were genetic barriers that weren’t unique to godworms. Devillings and Demonfolk of all types had similar genetic barriers. In ancient daoist terminology, they were called shackles of fate. Only those who unlocked the shackles of fate would eventually become deathless.

The transformations occurring to the godworm were a form of further enlightenment for Yang Qi, and rivers of information were flowing into his mind.

All of a sudden, he realized that a mysterious memory had suddenly been unsealed!

Ancient information regarding the dao of heaven filled his soul, causing power to bubble up within him. The particles within him rejoiced, and the spatial flames became like pāramitā flowers that would never wither.

In that moment, he reached soul enlightenment of the Demi-Immortal level.

1. This “heavenly heart” is a real-life term. Here are some of the dictionary definitions: “God's will, the will of heaven, the intention of the emperor, the center of the sky, the will of the gods, the monarch’s will.” Do you see how easy it can be to mix and match terms in translation? For example, what if I thought “hmm, monarch’s will sounds cool” and went with that. It might create the false impression that there was a connection to ‘Sage Monarch’ (including the continent/planet etc.). Anyway, I'm doing my best to avoid crossing terms in this translation, and am going with relatively direct translations for everything. That way you can “visually” see what connects and what doesn’t, and hopefully avoid making incorrect links between terms.