Sage Monarch

As Yang Qi stood on the pitted and scarred battlefield, countless top experts arrived and killing intent began to fill the area. All of them knew exactly who Yang Qi was, and from the way they carried themselves, it was as if they were all teaming up to take down a devilling sitting on a hoard of treasure.

WHOOSH!

All of a sudden, a shocking beam of sword light sliced through the air, seemingly capable of destroying anything it touched, including greyspaces and dimensional barriers.

Sword Seventeen immediately identified it. “That's the Northern Deity’s Grand Sundering Sword Technique, a top energy art from the Dragon Brilliance Collegium! It’s a secret magic of the dao of the sword, Junior Brother. Be careful! It combines preheaven metallic elements with the dao of the Northern Deity, then adds in eighty-one types of profound yang true flame and the transformations of the five phases. But by cultivating it with the esoteric variations of the sun and moon, it creates an unparalleled and erudite manifestation of the ancient dao of the sword!”

“Is that so?” Yang Qi flicked his finger, sending out a stream of light that instantly shattered the sword energy.

BOOM!

As the scattered bits of sword energy drifted apart, a young man stepped out of thin air. He looked like the embodiment of a sharp sword, capable of slicing through anything that got in his path. His unparalleled dao of the sword was one in which ‘the sword became the body, the body became the dao, the dao became heaven, and heaven became life’.

“I'm Dragon Sun-Chaser, also known as King Sunsword from the Dragon Brilliance Collegium!” He was a Universal Demi-Immortal that was even stronger than the half-Demolisher Liege Beast.

That said, both Yang Qi and the young man in yellow were low-level Demi-Immortals who could fight and kill half-Demolishers.

Yang Qi opened his Lord's Eye to examine Dragon Sun-Chaser and immediately realized that he was immensely strong on a genetic level. ‘This guy’s genes surpass that of an ordinary person by tens of millions of times. I never even imagined that someone like him could exist. Some immortal must have altered his genes and helped him cultivate a profound secret magic.’

In terms of genes, Yang Qi was essentially eight hundred forty million times as strong as an ordinary cultivator, which was really an astonishing thing. Of course, that was all because of the God Legion Seal. 

Ordinary geniuses would often be ten times stronger than an ordinary cultivator, or perhaps a hundred times stronger. People who were a thousand or ten thousand times stronger than normal were the type of top apex individuals who only came around once in ten thousand years.

When it came to individuals who were a hundred thousand, a million, or ten million times as strong as ordinary cultivators, they were considered freaks and eccentrics, the type of invincible fighters who were rare even in the immortal worlds. If a cultivator had genes ten million times as strong as ordinary, it meant that person would have ten million times as much power and enlightenment regarding magical laws. Usually, such people either weren’t human, or had some sort of primeval blood.

Once you got past the level of a hundred million, that most definitely wasn’t human, but was more likely related to the blood of a god-spirit. As for Yang Qi, he was eight hundred forty million times stronger than normal, a number that bordered on one billion. Genes like that couldn’t be described by simply talking about the blood of god-spirits. No, there was only one way to describe Yang Qi: Fateless One.

Fate had not decreed that he would exist, yet here he was.

As for the yellow-garbed young man, his genes were roughly a hundred million times as strong as ordinary, making him essentially invincible. Liege Beast was only ten thousand times as strong as normal, so naturally he wasn’t a match for Yang Qi.

At the moment, cultivators whose genes made them ten million times stronger than normal weren’t even worth Yang Qi’s attention.

The stronger one was on a genetic level, then the longer one practiced cultivation the more terrifying the results would be. For example, a Universal Demi-Immortal who was ten million times stronger than normal would be on the same level as a half-Demolisher.

Another example was the Infernalfolk, whose genes were millions of times stronger than normal, but still never surpassed the level of ten million.

The elder king Yang Qi had killed, Kingly Beheader, only had genes which were ten thousand times normal. And Yang Qi had cut him down with impunity.

“Dragon Sun-Chaser from the Dragon Brilliance Collegium….” From what Yang Qi could tell, this arrogant, sword-wielding young man was used to cutting down anyone who got in his way and viewed himself as the ultimate swordsman under heaven. “So you want to kill me too? Why, exactly? I’ve never even met anyone from the Dragon Brilliance Collegium, much less offended one.”

Dragon Sun-Chaser chuckled coldly. “I don’t need a reason to kill people. I heard you’re a top genius, so I came over to have a look for myself. Your genes are strong, that's for sure, so your path of cultivation must have been very astonishing. Luckily for me, I have a great technique for out-of-body incarnations. Do you mind giving me your physical body to use as a host? Of course, I promise to wipe out your nascent divinity quickly beforehand. No pain involved.”

“In your dreams, Dragon Sun-Chaser!” someone said, laughing loudly.

A powerful blast of saber energy filled the area, the kind that could destroy anything in creation. A burly young man appeared, clad in beast hide, with an enormous saber strapped to his back and a profound wild aura surrounding him. 

“So, this is Yang Qi?” he said in a deep, booming voice. “He’s mine. His perfect genes would be great for my beast-rearing magic. I’ll transform him into a beast slave with plenty of battle prowess.”

At this point, a new voice rang out. “How come you people from the Ancient Gloom Collegium are all barbarians and savages? Can’t you even try to be civilized?” A young woman stepped forward. “The Titan Emperor Collegium is the archenemy of our Megaplexus Collegium, so this punk Yang Qi is mine for the taking. The rest of you had better back up immediately.”

“Southpalace Jade?!” Dragon Sun-Chaser said. “You people from the Megaplexus Collegium really think a lot of yourselves, don't you? Yang Qi would be perfect for my possession technique. And he has a lot of treasure, too. His perfect genes and blood are going to make a great medicinal pill!"

Southpalace Jade laughed loudly. “Well, considering so many collegiums want this walking treasure trove, I guess it will all come down to who’s stronger and better. Whoever kills him first will get him, right?”

“I want him alive,” said the young man with the saber. “That way I can transform him into a slave beast.”

Yang Qi slowly shook his head. “So I'm just a devilling with treasure to you people?”

“You’re no devilling,” said Southpalace Jade. “You’re a fat sheep! And you’re doomed to die this day, or at least be captured. I’ll give you one chance to come over and surrender to me. If you do, I’ll keep you alive and take you with me back to the Megaplexus Collegium to be my servant. Agreed?”

“Nice try!” Dragon Sun-Chaser said. “Listen, brat. Stick with the Dragon Brilliance Collegium, and I’ll make sure you stay alive. There’s no way Southpalace Jade can keep you safe. We from the Dragon Brilliance Collegium are the descendants of ancient divine dragons. What do you think? Just bow to me and seal your power. That's the only way for you to evade catastrophe.”

“Stick to the Coiling Arc Collegium, punk!”

“Come over to the Highest Clarity Collegium! We're the strongest of all collegiums.”

“Your Highest Clarity Collegium is like nothing compared to the Crapemyrtle Collegium.”

Yang Qi was surrounded by a ring of top experts, all of whom wanted to get their hands on him.

“Since you people think I'm a devilling, I suppose I’ll just massacre all of you.”

He suddenly burst into motion, causing a string of sonic booms to echo out. In the blink of an eye, he was like a primal-chaos elder-snake bearing down directly on Southpalace Jade.

“I've been waiting for you to make a move!” she said with a chuckle. “You think a surprise attack is going to work on me? Megaplexus Labyrinth; Space-Time Passageway; Eternal Sealing Mark; Thousand-Year Trap; Dream of a Thousand Years!”

Mist poured out and created something like a Go board, a space-time labyrinth that seemed partly real and partly illusory. It was a consummate technique from the Megaplexus Collegium, the Dream of a Thousand Years. Inside the board, the powers of both space and time were interlaced in a devious fashion, making it virtually impossible to escape. When someone got stuck inside the trap, they would pass through millions upon millions of years of time.

The Dream of a Thousand Years spread out, immediately trapping Yang Qi. However, that was when he unleashed a fist strike strong enough to shatter universes.

Space-time collapsed, with suns, moons, planets, and planes crumbling. The labyrinth exploded, devastated by the Hand of the One God, which could decimate three thousand chiliocosm worlds in the blink of an eye.

WHIZZZ!

Yang Qi sprang out into the open like an uncaged tiger thirsting for blood!

Southpalace Jade’s face turned ashen, as though she were just about to cough up a huge mouthful of blood. However, she hadn’t lost her cool.

“The fat sheep is fighting like a cornered beast! But you’re still weak! Immortal Dao Formation: Megaplexus Golden Painting!”

She waved her finger and a golden image flew out, filled with innumerable golden taiji symbols. The taiji symbols were filled with razor-sharp lines that could slice apart anything in existence, and all of them were flying directly toward Yang Qi.

“What bullshit is this?” Yang Qi said. Extending his hand, he said, “Pāramitā!”

It was a stance that could part the sea of bitterness and cause the opposite shore of pāramitā to appear. When it hit the Megaplexus Golden Painting, the entire thing shrank down to the size of a handkerchief, which Yang Qi then grabbed.

At this point, Southpalace Jade couldn’t hold back any longer, and blood sprayed out of her mouth.

Yang Qi chopped his hand out in front of him, causing a red line to spread out along her neck.

Her face filled with terror. “Impossible! How could you be a match for me, you punk?!”

“Prepare to die!” Yang Qi finished chopping his hand through the air and her head flew off her shoulders.