The moment the Magnificent Dream Heart-Sutra came into play, Yang Qi was at a serious disadvantage.

It was a very powerful technique that placed one in a dream state, making it almost impossible to tell the difference between illusion and reality. As for Zilin, he was like a god of the dream, an entity with boundless power and control.

As the lord and creator of the dream, he could use it to do anything that he wanted.

Thankfully, Yang Qi wasn’t at a complete disadvantage. After all, he had just defeated a host of knowledge-devils, and had incredible force of will. Obviously, he wasn’t going to be completely entranced by a mere dream state.

Ordinary Grand Emperors who faced the Magnificent Dream Heart-Sutra would likely unleash their personal domain, only to be confused into thinking that they actually hadn’t done so. That would in turn lead to a chain reaction of confusion and misunderstanding, subverting their will and making them easy to attack.

The Magnificent Dream Heart-Sutra was an extremely powerful magic created by the Lord of Dreams, who had used it to defeat even other Paramount Gods. As such, how much more vulnerable would Yang Qi be to it?

Without using his God Legion Seal to break free of the dream, the best he could do was try to defend himself, which would lead to wasting time and, eventually, running out of power. The danger only increased the longer he remained trapped.

‘If I could open the sealing mark on the altar, it might do the trick. But the baleful energy inside will definitely attempt to overwhelm me. Whatever hell-born fiend-devil created the sealing mark was definitely on the same level as the legion of gods. If that energy gets inside me, it will take time to suppress. If I wasn’t in a tight situation, it wouldn’t be a problem, but with Zilin attacking me like this, tampering with the sealing mark would be courting death.’

His mind spun as he tried to come up with a plan to escape the Magnificent Dream Heart-Sutra.

Swish. Swoosh!

All of a sudden, Zilin’s hand appeared from within the mist, slamming onto the God Legion Paradise, and causing Yang Qi to shudder within it.

“Why are you struggling, Your Majesty,” Zilin said. “If I keep attacking you like this, you’re definitely going to run out of power. And you know what happens then.”

Although he clearly viewed Yang Qi as an enemy, he wasn’t resorting to arrogant speech or curses. Instead, he continued speaking in a very calm, even respectful manner.

In some ways, he was the worst kind of enemy to face.

Snorting coldly, Yang Qi said, “It’s just as much of a drain for you to have all your attacks blocked, whether they’re real or illusory. Did you really think your Magnificent Dream Heart-Sutra is completely unparalleled under heaven? If you want to play around with illusions, fine. Let’s play!”

All of a sudden, a host of spell formations appeared around Yang Qi, powered by thousands upon thousands of varieties of vital energy. At first glance, it was impossible to tell which were real and which were illusions. Then, with no warning whatsoever, Yang Qi vanished.

The formations had been little more than a diversion, giving him time to create a power double. It was none other than his Life-Death Void-Destruction Lightning, which he had honed to further perfection in the treasure storehouse, and could be used to create perfect copies of just about anything.

“You’re obviously very skilled with powers of illusion, Your Majesty,” Zilin said calmly. “Unfortunately, this doesn't match up to my Magnificent Dream Heart-Sutra.”

BOOM!

The spell formations collapsed.

Although Zilin seemed as calm as ever, his attacks were growing fiercer by the moment. In fact, the blow he had just launched caused Yang Qi’s power double to collapse along with the spell formations.

“What?!” Zilin murmured as he realized that Yang Qi was nowhere to be seen. The other consorts had the entire area around the altar locked down, making escape impossible, yet Yang Qi’s true self was apparently gone.

“What’s going on, Eldest Brother? Where’d he go?”

“I'm not sure,” Zilin said, a serious expression on his face. “He vanished, except I have a feeling he's actually hiding in the area. If only I could force him out into the open. I'm not sure where he came from, but he's obviously very strong. I wish I knew what god item he was relying on. Whatever it is, it's obviously very powerful and has immense powers of concealment. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s watching us right now.”

“So what do we do?” another consort asked. “Just undo the sealing mark and take the godhood? That brat obviously can’t beat you in a fight, Eldest Brother.”

“No, this guy is too crafty. I bet that once the godhood comes out in the open, he’ll have a way to steal it. And if we lose it, we’ll be in huge trouble. Our top priority should be simply standing guard here. You send word back to Eunuch Sunflower and tell him to come in person. Meanwhile, I’ll do my best to flush our opponent out into the open.”

“We can’t do that, Eldest Brother! We worked extremely hard to get to this point, and even wasted a host of god items! And you drained so much of your quintessence-blood and vital energy to locate this place. If we notify Eunuch Sunflower, we won’t get full credit, and all our efforts will have been in vain! Are we really going to share the credit with someone else?”

“You're thinking about it the wrong way,” Zilin said. “We're doing this for the empress, and she’ll definitely understand our decision. This opponent of ours is extremely powerful, and although he isn’t quite a match for me, he has all sorts of tricks up his sleeve. If we fall to his schemes just because we want to earn some merit points, we would fail the empress and completely deserve death.

“Now hurry up and send that message while I keep guard on the altar. As long as we don’t touch the sealing mark, there’s no way this guy will be able to steal the godhood.”

From the stern gleam in Zilin’s eyes, it was obvious he wasn’t in the mood to discuss the issue.

‘What the fuck!?’ Yang Qi thought as he spied on them from within the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. ‘This guy is really loyal to the empress!’ The truth was that if Zilin had used his God-King Devil-Quelling Painting to undo the sealing mark, Yang Qi really would have made a move. Instead, Zilin was ignoring any possible credit he might receive and was actually calling Eunuch Sunflower to the scene. If his ploy worked, Yang Qi definitely wouldn't stand a chance of ever getting the godhood.

Yang Qi felt like he was 

a mouse trying to pull a turtle

, that he was completely ineffective in all his efforts.

Zilin wasn’t greedy, didn’t get angry, was impossible to defeat in combat, and wasn’t impulsive... in short, he had no weaknesses. How could Yang Qi possibly deal with him? If he was up against Leaf Dao-Denier, he would be able to think of a hundred methods to get what he wanted.

‘I can’t let him take complete control of the situation. I have to do something!’

Without any hesitation, he flew out of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart and launched an attack straight at the consort who was about to send the message. Zilin tried to interfere, but was too slow.

Bam. Bam. Bam!

All of the palm strikes hit home, and the consort tumbled back, his message completely interrupted.

“Hold on,” Zilin murmured. “What was that energy I just sensed? Why did I just sense the power of monarchs? Do you have the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart?!”

“Yeah, I do,” Yang Qi replied. “Now you see why you can't trap me. I can leave any time I want with the chart. I can come and go as I please. Even if Empress Joyflower herself came here, she wouldn’t be able to do anything about me.”

Zilin’s cheek twitched. “The Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. So, you have some of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions? The Joyflower Palace has many artifacts from the seventy-two monarchs, but nothing from King Immortal-Slayer. How many of them do you have? You obviously have enough to access the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. Considering the level of control, you must have more than three or four of the medallions, right?”

“I don’t have very many,” Yang Qi replied. “Only seven or eight.” Of course, Yang Qi knew that one of the legacy medallions had recently been put in the treasure storehouse, but Zilin didn’t. Obviously, revealing that information now wouldn’t be of any help in his effort to keep quiet the fact that he had looted the storehouse.

“So many!” Zilin exclaimed. “You’ll soon have the full collection. But that puts you in a very dangerous situation. Once all the medallions are together, you’ll awaken the will of King Immortal-Slayer. Even a god would end up possessed by him, much less you!”

“I wouldn’t worry about that, if I were you,” Yang Qi replied. “I have my ways of dealing with that. Look, I’ve revealed my secret weapon, and now you understand why you’re really no threat to me. I can escape any time I want, or launch a sneak attack at you at any moment. What do you think? Are you willing to work with me now?”

“Work with you? You actually want to join forces?” Zilin frowned, although he still looked as calm and collected as ever.

“I do,” Yang Qi said. “Let’s work together to undo the sealing mark. Then we split the godhood fifty-fifty. What do you say? You can accomplish your mission for the empress, and I can get what I want as well. It’s the best of both worlds, and we won’t have to fight any longer.”

One of the other consorts snorted coldly. “That’s some very wishful thinking. Our Eldest Brother is far stronger than you, and we’ll have even stronger experts here to back us up soon enough. If you know what's good for you, you’ll just leave. Incidentally, there’s no way you could remove the sealing mark, even if we just left you here alone. So why would we possibly work with you?”

“I can’t remove the sealing mark?” Yang Qi said. Turning, he thrust his palm out toward the altar.

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