Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
Chapter 265: Nine Stars Pearl Necklace

Bronzeblaze fiend-devils were summoned without cease from the hell monsoon, and as a result, Yang Qi grew stronger and stronger. Eventually, the Grand Emperor's Pagoda trembled violently as it came completely under his control.

Imperial might radiated out of the pagoda, indicating how impossible it would be for anyone else to forcibly take control of it. It was for that reason that the chancellor hadn’t even made such an attempt.

Another way to refer to a grand emperor would be ‘Son of Heaven’, and as of this moment, Yang Qi’s will surpassed that of heaven. He was like the father of a grand emperor, the one god, the most paramount sovereign in existence, a person who the most ancient of grand emperors would bow to in allegiance.

After all, when emperors offered sacrifices to heaven, they would usually begin by saying, “I, your humble servant, tasked with managing all creation…..” [1]

Now that the Grand Emperor's Pagoda had offered complete allegiance to Yang Qi, it was only natural that the imperial mightiness therein would be sacrificed to him.

A sense of nobility and might filled him, combining with his personality and even his soul, making him an entity that any lesser being would instinctively feel shame just looking upon.

Sovereign-grade spirit stones melted like mad, until all nine hundred and ninety-nine of them vanished in wisps of smoke.

At that point, Yang Qi reached out toward the sagely-grade spirit stone.

WHIZZZ!

The instant he touched it, dazzling light shone out, and the nine Never-Dying demon cores that made the Nine Stars Pearl Necklace suddenly erupted with power. The entire bone altar seemed to come alive, pulsing with the most intense sagely light imaginable.

Then, a sonorous voice echoed out from the altar. “Who dares blaspheme against the might of dragons…?”

Along with the voice, an enormous white dragon appeared, its claws bared as it loomed over Yang Qi.

RUMBLE!

Never-Dying pressure weighed down as the dragon lunged at Yang Qi, unleashing a bevy of deadly draconic energy arts and magics.

Lady-Princess Silvermoon suddenly burst out with laughter. “Oh Yang Qi, I bet you never could have guessed that the sagely-grade spirit stone in my altar contained a Nine-Stars Demon-Dragon Supreme White Spell Formation. Anyone other than me who tries to take that spirit stone will activate the spell formation, which will summon a supreme white demon-dragon that can kill gods and devils!”

“Oh really? You mean this puny thing?! Is this all it can do? You really think I was caught off guard or something? Not really. This supreme white demon-dragon, this Nine Stars Pearl Necklace, and these nine demon cores, will all be perfect to upgrade my spore-devil! And the stronger my spore-devil gets, the stronger fiend-devils I can summon!”

Not nervous at all about the demon-dragon, Yang Qi stepped forward, sweeping his hands out in front of him, creating swirling expressions of light as he drew on the powers of the Grand Emperor's Pagoda. In the blink of an eye, he was surrounded by the image of a god-spirit with an elephantine head and a human body.

Without any hesitation, that god-spirit hefted the Infernal Deity Spear and then began fighting the demon-dragon.

The enormous dragon was backed by the power of a sagely-grade spirit stone, as well as the Nine Stars Pearl Necklace. Its fighting prowess surpassed Lady-Princess Silvermoon’s, but unfortunately, it wasn’t actually a Never-Dying Legendary. It had no soul, which was a big disadvantage.

Yang Qi had assumed all along that there was more to the altar than met the eye, which was why he had used the strategy of slowly reeling silk from the cocoon. He had taken his time to investigate the situation, and had first drained the nine hundred and ninety-nine sovereign-grade spirit stones, in the hopes of discerning what hidden dangers existed in the altar.

Thankfully, the supreme white demon-dragon that had appeared was the perfect fuel for the Hell Portal to strengthen his spore-devil.

At the moment, the spore-devil had the power of a Personal-Domain demon core and the Zombie Kingdom, making it quite formidable. But the demon-dragon and its Never-Dying demon core was something that Yang Qi should not have been able to work with, normally speaking.

However, the changes Lady-Princess Silvermoon had made to the sagely-grade spirit stone, and the fact that the demon-dragon was an entity similar to the spore-devil, made everything different.

It was almost like a shortcut tailor-made for Yang Qi. All he had to do was use his Sovereign Lord True Energy to combine the spore-devil and the dragon, transforming it into a hellish protector who would boost his power to even higher levels.

It would also serve as a backup plan for dealing with the Crown Prince. If he couldn’t reach the Space-Void Transformation, perhaps he could use the power of his spore-devil and the Hell Portal to trap the Crown Prince.

As the godmammoth and the demon-dragon fought back and forth, streams of energy swirled out from the Grand Emperor's Pagoda to wrap up the dragon.

And that was when Yang Qi opened the Lord’s Eye, causing brilliant light to spill out onto the dragon, which was instantly rendered powerless as a result.

“Hell Portal!” Even Yang Qi was surprised at the result. The spore-devil lunged forward, grabbed the demon-dragon, and gobbled it up. Then the spore-devil sank down into the flames of the Hellfire Crucible, to be surrounded by devilfire as he underwent a shocking transformation.

Time passed. The spore-devil twitched, and then leaped back out of the Hellfire Crucible. He was taller and more real than before, clad in a suit of resplendent armor, as well as a battle robe. He now had hundreds of heads and hundreds of arms, and carried countless magical devices. His skin was covered with devil-eyes, and he radiated the power of a psychic tempest.

Of particular note were nine devil-eyes on his chest that were larger than the others, and glittered with brilliant light. They were none other than the demon cores of the Nine Stars Pearl Necklace, each of them with the power of the ninth Legendary transformation. Such objects were considered rare, so only a person as powerful as Lady-Princess Silvermoon could possibly have collected so many.

As of this moment, those demon cores were the source of the spore-devil’s ultimate strength.

Almost immediately, the Hell Portal became more stable, and Yang Qi could sense that he could now summon fiend-devils in the seventh Legendary transformation.

Of course, he was still far from being able to truly connect to hell.

Supposedly, when the Hell Portal was used to directly connect to hell itself, it would be possible to summon suzerains of hell, the leaders of hellish forces who surpassed the Demi-Immortal level.

Although he had subdued the demon-dragon, his cultivation base was still too weak. If he could get a bit stronger, and fully unleash the potential of the Nine Stars Pearl Necklace, then he might be able to summon Astral-Star fiend-devils.

In any case, his spore-devil was now more powerful than ever.

And therefore, despite not having reached the Space-Void Transformation, he could still help Hua Tianxiong take on the Crown Prince.

After the process was over, the spore-devil spat out the sagely-grade spirit stone. Even after having been used to melt the demon-dragon and form a devil body for the spore-devil, the stone still glittered with bright light, and the aura of sages. Yang Qi couldn’t help but gasp in amazement.

If a sagely-grade spirit stone was this powerful, then what about heavenly-grade? Or godly-grade? And speaking of which, what did those fabled immortal stones look like?

After seeing everything that had just happened, Lady-Princess Silvermoon was visibly in despair. That was especially true considering how casually Yang Qi had dealt with the bronzeblaze fiend-devils.

‘A fiend-devil in the sixth Legendary transformation? Something like that would be a big threat to the Sky-Heaven Dynasty. A whole host of experts would need to join forces to defeat it! With a personal domain, it could summon armies and take over much of the continent. It would be a true war god! And this guy just uses them for fuel? Who is he?’ All of Lady-Princess Silvermoon’s hopes were now completely dashed.

Yang Qi ignored her as his true energy grew stronger and stronger. Seven days and nights passed, and explosions rang out over and over again. Eventually, the sagely-grade spirit stone had been reduced by half, whereupon Yang Qi gathered all of the energy in his body together.

It was at that point that he reached the level of three hundred thousand megamammoths.

His meridians, his sea of energy, his blood and even his hair were now real expressions of true energy, and his aura had something sagely about it.

Even the slightest, most casual movement on his part was filled with domineering and invincible might.

Unfortunately, when he tried to use his psychic powers and soul to pierce through the void, he suddenly found himself facing a backlash of spatial power.

Even as he stretched his hands out to try to tear a rift in space, countless transparent lightning bolts appeared, which slammed into him, causing his flesh and blood to vibrate, and his meridians to tremble.

“That’s… Space-Void Godlightning!” Lady-Princess Silvermoon blurted. “I can’t believe you’ve provoked Space-Void Godlightning! How strong must you be to do that? Your true energy is actually provoking a reaction like that? Ohhhh, I get it.” She let out a stream of laughter. “You’ve reached this level of cultivation, but can’t tear open rifts in space. You've really bitten off more than you can chew! You’ve gotten strong enough that the magical laws of heaven and earth have decided that you can't be permitted to exist!”

She was obviously quite happy at this development.

Despite Yang Qi’s immense strength, he couldn't pierce through space, and thus, she assumed he would end up permanently stuck in his current level. Heaven and magical law were envious of him, and had completely rejected him.

Frowning, Yang Qi sank into thought regarding the matter.

1. This is essentially what the historical emperors of China would say when offering sacrifices to heaven. If you ever have a chance to visit Beijing, you can go to the Temple of Heaven, which was where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasty would do just that.