Sage Monarch

“Oh really?” Yang Qi wasn’t worried at all about Ghost Emperor Yama’s negative talk. With the Grand Emperor's Pagoda, he could already sense the existence of the Yore-Wilds’ Heart fragment. And his cultivation base was vastly higher than when he had left these lands. Not only was he more familiar with how to use the pagoda, he was also more connected to the essence of the Rich-Lush Continent.

He was now a Five-Phases Legendary, and even more relevant, the Grand Emperor’s Pagoda had absorbed the vital energy of both the Western Continent and the Quake-Dawn Continent, and then used it to form an emperor embryo. As such, upon his return to home, he found that he had all sorts of abilities that he hadn’t known about before.

To Yang Qi, it almost felt like the Grand Emperor's Pagoda was a continent unto itself now.

With it, he could tap into the will of ancient Great Sages, and as such, he was fully confident that he could get the Yore-Wilds’ Heart fragment.

RUUUUUMBLE!

Without any hesitation, he flew past the greyspace of the Rich-Lush Continent, to find himself hovering in the void beyond. From this vantage point, the continent had a curved heaven and flat earth. There was also boundless devil energy from a hell monsoon; however, the monsoon was completely blocked by the power of the greyspace, and couldn’t enter.

Only people born and raised in the Rich-Lush Continent could casually pass through the greyspace without being rejected. The only other way to enter would be by means of space-time wormholes.

Cradling the Rich-Lush Continent and its greyspace was a massive convergence of primal-chaos energy.

It was a permanent feature beneath the continent, and its existence was well-known among many people. Without that primal-chaos, the continent would have no stable foundation, and would actually just float about randomly in the void.

Unstable planes were terrifying things. After all, they could theoretically end up colliding with other continents, which would result in the destruction of both planes, and everything on them.

In other words, primal-chaos energy like this was very important to the overall safety of a continent.

From what Yang Qi could tell, the Yore-Wilds’ Heart fragment was actually located in the depths of that primal-chaos energy flow.

It was far larger than the continent itself, and contained layer upon layer of profound mysteries. In fact, the remains of Great Sages could be found therein. The place abounded with killing intent, and was rife with naturally-forming spell formations, even teleportation portals. It was a dangerous place, and those who explored it usually ended up either dead, or transported to unknown locations.

“Are you sure you want to go into that primal-chaos, Yang Qi?” Ghost Emperor Yama asked. Even he looked somewhat afraid. “The Rich-Lush Continent is a pretty small place, but it’s actually very important. That primal-chaos energy convergence was created by a very important person from the Yore-Wilds Continent, a primal-chaos elder-immortal. During the war, he fought an extremely powerful monster from the Hell of Euphoria, and suffered a grievous wound. A chunk of his flesh fell to this location, and gave birth to the energies of primal-chaos. 

“Later, a group of Great Sages transformed the place into what you see now. This is one of the unique aspects of the Rich-Lush Continent, and one of the reasons why people often desire to visit. In fact, it’s why the old geezers from the Quake-Dawn Cathedral imprisoned me here. They wanted to use the primal-chaos vital energy to wear me down. Unfortunately for them, I actually used it to gain understanding of the great transformations of primal-chaos.”

“I’ll be fine,” Yang Qi said lightly. “I rely, not just on the will of the legion of gods, but on the will of the Lord who exists above them. This primal-chaos energy flow won't be able to do a thing to me.”

The primal-chaos energy convergence had been touched by the will of many Great Sages. However, he had rescued the sage spirits in the Planar Pearl, and had thus repaired the greyspace of the continent. Therefore, he had a unique connection to this heaven and earth, and by extension, the primal-chaos vital energy.

Of course, instead of revealing the truth to Ghost Emperor Yama, he tried to make himself seem more mysterious.

At this point, he flew into motion and entered the primal-chaos vital energy.

Almost immediately, he felt everything spinning, and then found himself within an entire world of primal-chaos. The dirt was made of the stuff, and contained the most ancient of auras. There were crumbling buildings, columns, statues, temples… and also corpses.

Within the primal-chaos energy convergence was another unique heaven and earth.

Even as Yang Qi began to search for signs leading to the Yore-Wilds’ Heart fragment, he suddenly detected the stench of blood. Looking off into the distance, he saw a ruined temple with some corpses in it, whose flowing blood contained traces of Legendary magical laws.

Walking over, he grabbed a flow of energy and looked at it more closely. “This is the aura of the Quake-Dawn Continent. So, some people from there were killed here? But who were they fighting? Others from the Quake-Dawn Continent?”

Ghost Emperor Yama examined the scene, and then checked some of the primal-chaos vital energy flows. Finally, he shook his head. “Since you fixed the greyspace of the continent, space-time wormholes have opened up all over the place. And the ruins in this place have a lot of treasure in them; it’s only natural for treasure hunters to show up and end up fighting each other.

“Seems to me there was a Great Sage treasure in this temple that was recently taken away. You know, there are even places deeper inside where Great Sages perished and left behind sage motes. Any of them would be considered precious. You think you’re going to find the Yore-Wilds’ Heart fragment here? Not even my divine will can see very far. This place is really dangerous.”

“It's fine,” Yang Qi replied. “In fact, I hope I can find some magical treasures that will help in my fight against the Crown Prince.” Taking a closer look at the corpses in the temple, he saw that they were all in the sixth Legendary transformation or higher.

Any treasures on them had been looted. In fact, they all had gaping holes in their torsos, which seemed to indicate that the true energy pellets inside of them, the objects similar to demon or devil cores, had been harvested.

Whoever had killed them was clearly a vicious individual.

“Before you go any further, Yang Qi, hear me out: whatever dangers you face in here, I can help you handle them. But only for a price. A big price. Understand?”

“We already have an agreement, right? I think the terms are more than fair.” With that, he headed further into the primal-chaos vital energy. There were no mountains or rivers, only ruins. Buildings, altars, temples, corpses. All of it lacked any life force whatsoever.

Ghost Emperor Yama used a consummate energy art to turn himself into something like a shadow that drifted along behind Yang Qi, invisible to any onlookers. He wasn’t interested in causing trouble for anything in this place. As long as he didn't get greedy, and didn’t disturb any of the spell formations, he wouldn’t be bothered.

RUUUUUMBLE!

“Die, brat!”

All of a sudden, a figure blurred out of one of the nearby ruins. He was clad in all black clothing, making him look like a world-class assassin. His sword was like a blur that moved faster than the speed of light as he closed in on Yang Qi.

Shockingly, this person was a Never-Dying Legendary.

However, Yang Qi didn’t even look in his direction. He thrust his palm out, destroying the sword light, and provoking a scream from the black-garbed man. In the blink of an eye, he was reduced to a mass of twitching blood and gore.

“Ignite!” the man screamed. Before anything else could happen, he burst into flames, and was reduced to ash. Thankfully, Yang Qi managed to grab his dimensional sack and magical treasures before they were burned up.

Ghost Emperor Yama didn't seem surprised at all that Yang Qi could kill a Never-Dying with a simple palm strike. 

“He’s from the Quake-Dawn Cathedral, Yang Qi. However, he’s not just an ordinary member. He definitely is an assassin from their Hall of Ninjas.”

“Hall of Ninjas?”

“Yep. The Quake-Dawn Cathedral has a number of different halls. However, the hall that’s adept at assassination, concealment, infiltration and the like, the most dangerous hall, is the Hall of Ninjas. Their top leader is called the Ninja God, and he was one of the ones who imprisoned me. The old bastard. I wonder what cultivation level he's reached by now.”

“Ninja God? People who call themselves ‘god’ of their own volition blaspheme the glory of the true legion of gods.” Already, Yang Qi’s eyes flickered with killing intent.

Whooosh! 

Even as Yang Qi spoke, he heard several people flying through the air, a large number of people in groups of between three to five.

He could even hear them talking. “Is that the weapon of a Great Sage? Did a sealing mark unravel somewhere?”

At the same time, the sensation of sagely might erupted out from somewhere in the distance, accompanied by intense rumbling sounds.

‘That’s a big group of people,’ Yang Qi thought. Piercing through the air toward the source of the fluctuations, he looked around to find numerous people heading the same direction. They all wore different outfits, and although some had the aura of the Quake-Dawn Continent on them, there were also the auras of other continents. Surprisingly, some even pulsed with demon energy.

‘So, repairing the Planar Pearl really did open up space-time wormholes, and now experts from all over are gathering. Presumably, they want the Yore-Wilds’ Heart fragment, as well as that ancient teleportation portal that leads to higher planes.’ Yang Qi shot through the primal-chaos with everyone else, closely followed by the invisible Ghost Emperor Yama, who wasn’t about to lose sight of his ‘prey’.

Before long, a ruined temple appeared up ahead, which was the location that all the experts were heading to. Already, they were landing outside and peering into the depths of the structure.

Inside was an altar that pulsed with intense spatial fluctuations. Shockingly, there was a hook-shaped weapon sealed there that emanated sagely might.

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Hey everyone, I don't often make announcements like this, but I think this one is relevant for everyone. I did a video about the phrase "courting death" which I'm sure all of you are familiar with. Even I use it on occasion. There is a bit of context to the phrase that many readers might not be aware of. Check out the video here. 

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Important announcement: In concert with the appearance of ninjas in the story, when this chapter goes live to the public, I intend to reinstitute “ninja chapters”, which means that I randomly release an extra chapter here and there. This will be for all sponsor levels; whatever the current release rate is for you, it should increase by about a chapter a week. Also, in the next chapter, you can get a hi-res artistic depiction of Yang Qi's clash with the ninja. It is a gift for sponsors only, and the link will go down when the chapter goes live.