Sage Monarch

“Mother, I'm strong enough now to kill heaven-immortals. And soon I’ll reach an even higher level. Don't you think the time has come to tell me about my father?”

From his tone of voice, he obviously took the matter to be very serious.

“I guess you've waited long enough, Qi’er. Your father is unusual, even by the standards of immortals. You just mentioned that young man in yellow who you said was a Future One. Well… I think it’s highly likely that your father is also a Future One, and that he traveled through time to get here. He was always extremely skilled at making predictions; he even knew my fate, and the things that would happen to me. Apparently, the reason he got close to me was because he knew that I would acquire the blood of a god and become very important because of it. After all, he was a banished immortal, making him one of the most powerful of entities in the mortal world. I was a mere holy daughter. The two of us should never have ended up together. Yet he sought me out….”

“So, that's what happened,” Yang Qi said. “Please keep going, Mother.”

Her eyes faded a bit as she recalled distant memories. “Things changed when I became pregnant with you. From that point on, his predictions always failed. And he tried to kill you. Several times. 

“That was when I fled. Thankfully, I already had a godly-class energy art to cultivate. And because you were in my belly, there was a barrier between me and many heavenly workings. No one was able to track me down during that time. Of course, my hiding place was none other than the miniscule Rich-Lush Continent. While I was pregnant, I found myself in a lot of strange and dangerous situations. 

“However, whatever energy touched me always ended up being absorbed by you. That was when I realized that there must be something very special about you. To be honest, I had put such matters to the back of my mind, but now that you call yourself a Fateless One it all comes rushing back. According to your father, you don't exist in the future. But you're here now, and you’re my son.”

Yang Qi nodded. “True. My existence now is true and real, and my future is changeable. No one knows what will come to be, not even the Future Ones. And the fact that there are Future Ones here indicates that some big change is coming. Whatever that change is, we need to turn it to our advantage. That young man in yellow said ‘after the gods experience nirvanic rebirth’, a new civilization would gradually rise up.” 

The Holy Mother’s eyes suddenly flickered, but before she could say anything, Yang Qi continued, “Mother, you stay here and work on your cultivation. Try to achieve that next breakthrough. I'm going back to the Hell of Mahānata. When I return, the two of us will conquer the Titan Emperor planetary system, and expand our territory until we control the entire mortal world!”

With that, he reached out with both hands and tore a rift into the canopy of heaven, beyond which existed the dark gold greyspace of the Hell of Mahānata. By this point, he could enter the Hell of Mahānata without expending any effort at all.

He inhaled, exhaled, and was inside.

Any fiend-devils he encountered exploded on sight, turning into vital energy that he funneled into his Hellfire Crucible.

Of course, the Hell of Mahānata was a massive place. It was so large that even if there were a hundred billion, a trillion, or trillions of Yang Qis all slaughtering fiend-devils at the same time, it would only be like a drop of water in the ocean or a grain of sand in a desert. The Hell of Mahānata was a thorn in the side of the legion of gods, even in ancient times.

However, Yang Qi was like the fledgling lord of this hell, and as he grew stronger he would gain more and more control over it. In fact, he would eventually come to control millions upon millions of hellish planes.

At this point, Yang Qi pulled out a nascent divinity. 

“Alright, Lei Jiuzhou,” he said. “Do you know where we are? The Hell of Mahānata! Even in ancient times it was the most mysterious, fiendish, and largest of hells. And I rule this place! My battle prowess here is ten times normal!”

“The Hell of Mahānata!?” Lei Jiuzhou blurted. He glared at Yang Qi. “So you're planning to wipe me out of existence? Why don’t we make a deal instead? It's obvious that the leaders of the Titan Emperor Collegium want to kill you. They used their Initiation Power to strike at you, and surely they have the backing of the Titan Emperor Heaven. There’s no way you can deal with people like that. Why not join the Great Metropolis Heaven and lead them in war against the Titan Emperor Heaven?”

Yang Qi laughed. “Even now, you have a very glib tongue. You see, I couldn’t care less about the Titan Emperor Heaven. The Hell of Mahānata is my true headquarters. You think the Titan Emperor Heaven is going to invade here? Cut the crap. You’re going to die in a moment, and I’ll absorb your nascent divinity, as well as the śarīra of the Preheaven Magnetic King. What do you think will happen to my cultivation base then?”

“Stop!” Lei Jiuzhou said. “I’ll join you! I’ll be your slave. I'm a Demolisher! I have a high rank in the Great Metropolis Collegium! With me serving you, you could take over my collegium! The Great Metropolis planetary system is ten times as rich as yours!”

“It's still part of the mortal world,” Yang Qi replied, “and that means I'm not very interested in it. I’ll be ascending soon, and eventually the plethora of immortal worlds will be mine. Compared to them, the Great Metropolis planetary system is like nothing. Therefore, you're of little value to me. I wouldn’t even care if you handed the Great Metropolis planetary system to me on a silver platter!” Without further ado, Yang Qi smacked his hand down onto Lei Jiuzhou’s head.

RUMBLE!

Lei Jiuzhou let out a bloodcurdling scream. He cursed Yang Qi to die a horrible death and vowed to slaughter his entire clan, but Yang Qi ignored such words. True energy stabbed into Lei Jiuzhou, backed by the immense power of the Hell of Mahānata.

POP!

Lei Jiuzhou’s heaven-immortal nascent divinity shattered like a porcelain jug. Heaven-immortal magical laws flowed into Yang Qi, and Lei Jiuzhou’s memories streamed into his sea of consciousness.

All of a sudden, he was filled with enlightenment regarding preheaven protomagnetic power.

Everything clicked and he threw his hands wide, summoning the śarīra of the Preheaven Magnetic King. As he poured true energy into it, a sealing mark was revealed, which then shattered and caused dazzling protomagnetic power to form an entire world.

From the immense levels of power on display, it was obvious that this was actually an embryonic immortal world.

‘Incredible! The śarīra of the Preheaven Magnetic King truly lives up to its hype. This quintessence energy can be used to create a full immortal world! Only Godmyths have what it takes to create immortal worlds.’

There were more immortal worlds out in the void than there were eternal grains of sands in the universe. Some had come to exist naturally, but others had been created by powerful entities in primeval times.

Truth be told, the million-year history of the Titan Emperor Collegium wasn’t very impressive.

There were immortal worlds who had histories that stretched back ten billion years, or even a hundred billion. Throughout all those years, many of the entities that had created such worlds had ended up dying. Sometimes there were even multiple successions of such lordly individuals.

There were even extremely ancient immortal worlds whose histories stretched as far back as trillions, hundreds of trillions, or quadrillions of years. An immortal world with a history of ten billion years was considered very young, like a toddler just learning to walk.

As for the Preheaven Magnetic King, he had begun work on creating an immortal world, but then somehow perished. And now that Yang Qi was making his śarīra part of the God Legion Paradise, it grew hundreds of times stronger.

‘Time to break through! Third order, Profound Demi-Immortal!’

RUMBLE!

Heavenly tribulation formed, a dense conglomeration of tribulation clouds that swirled overhead, filled with heaven-devils of all sorts. In fact, there were even devil lords, entities which ruled over myriads of devil kings!  This was a grand tribulation of dao corroboration, something that would normally only come when ascending to an immortal world. Yet here it was facing Yang Qi, an invasion of heaven-devils.

Unfortunately for the tribulation, Yang Qi was a Fateless One who had long since grown used to the idea of facing immense tribulations. A mysterious wheel of vital energy appeared above him, causing the devilish tribulation to fade away like smoke. It was none other than the Wheel of Fate. Although it wasn’t fully formed, it was still incredibly powerful.

Normally speaking, Yang Qi should have been forced to reach the Demolishing level before being able to fully use it. But now that he had absorbed a Demolisher, and owned an embryonic immortal world in the form of a śarīra, he already had the magical laws of Demolishers and could summon an even more complete version of the Wheel of Fate.

“Fate decrees that tribulations of all sorts have no effect on me!” Yang Qi murmured.

As the tribulation vanished, power from the Hell of Mahānata poured into him and he began rising to a higher, more profound level. This was the Profound Demi-Immortal level!

‘Another breakthrough! Fourth order, Potent Demi-Immortal!’

He waved his hand, and an even stronger tribulation appeared overhead.

‘Another tribulation to demolish….’ He waved his hand, and the Wheel of Fate took shape again. As it turned, the tribulation was destroyed.