Sage Monarch

No objections were voiced.

Yang Qi had clearly proved himself. He wasn't even in the Terrifying level, but had easily vanquished a host of Terrifying chief elders. Then he had vanquished old-timers who had reached the Terrifying without the psychic scaling systems. It left everyone wondering exactly how marvelous his cultivation base was in the end.

And intentionally or otherwise, the sectlord had just revealed that Yang Qi had even more secrets, which only further strengthened his case for protecting him.

The peaklords all stepped forward to pay respects, even Peaklords Celestial and Memory. They all uttered the same formal words. "My respects, Junior Sectlord...."

As respects were given, Yang Qi felt his own flow of destiny shifting and growing stronger. His Wheel of Fate grew larger and more prominent, casting light upon all creation.

Yang Qi had cultivated many devil arts, but with this flow of destiny, any side-effects that came along with them were crushed. The energy of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect vastly surpassed anything from the Dao Defense League; obviously, the people from the Ancient Road to the Gods were beyond the compare of ordinary mortals.

"Excellent. Wonderful. I'll definitely ensure that the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect earns more glory with each day that passes." Yang Qi had established himself as a powerful person in the sect, and no one would dare to oppose him. Soon, he would arrange for his people from the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart to come to the sect for training, and to earn experience in battles in the Great Necropolis. Life in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart was too peaceful; to develop truly powerful experts, real combat experience was vital. Those who failed to live up to the standards would die.

Losing the weaker ones was a loss that Yang Qi could accept.

"Now that this matter has been settled," the sectlord said, "we need to announce it publicly. The superpower sects from the Ancient Road to the Gods are scheduled to meet to talk about resisting Executors of the Ancient Road, anyway, so send out announcement cards to that effect. For now, the junior sectlord will make all the arrangements for the sect, and assign relevant tasks to qualified individuals. Our focus will be to strengthen the sect, impart boundless energy arts, and identify the top talented people in the sect."

"We'll follow the instructions of the junior sectlord!" everyone replied in unison.

Yang Qi nodded.

He had just spent a thousand years in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart working on his cultivation, seeking enlightenment of the Cruiser of Civilization, and learning the Civilization Founding Grand Magic from the psychic scaling systems. He had also picked up something called the Vital-Power Heaven-Filling Lord-God Dao from the power assessment systems, as well as boundless cultivation arts from the genetic systems and the vivicreation systems.

Meanwhile, he had the Three Lives Stone, which helped him deal with the tribulation energy from the True-Devil Unspoiled-by-Myriad-Kalpas-and-Tribulations Body. By now, his psychic scale was at the level of three.

It was for all of those reasons that he had so easily won in the fighting just now.

Thanks to self-improvement through diligent study, he was able to contend with boundless Terrifying experts.

His own imperial-heaven pre-beginning systems in his heart had advanced to another level; as of now, he could master just about any energy art he encountered, which was how he had used Elder Brother Jade's Thirty-Six Jade-Tower Golden-Bell Subjugations against him. Although his ability to do that had already been impressive in the past, it was now possible with virtually no effort at all.

Right now, Yang Qi was solely focused on getting the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect in order as the junior sectlord. After coming up with a clear plan, he spent the following months reorganizing things and helping various members of the sect improve their energy arts.

Thanks to his own advancement, it was easier than ever for him to spot ill side-effects that had resulted from cultivation. Yang Qi's own cultivation base had even improved as a result. Meanwhile, the sectlord had essentially handed him responsibility for all daily affairs, even giving him access to the Will Manifestation Bible, which was a sacred text left behind by Exalted Celestial Will Manifestation from the god world. It contained various cultivation practices created by the exalted celestial, and although Yang Qi didn't really need any of them, it would be helpful to have them in his arsenal.

Soon, the time would come to meet with the other superpower sects to discuss resisting the Executors of the Ancient Road. If he took the lead, but couldn't use any of the abilities of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect, it would make him a laughingstock.

He had already brought Empress Jadefall, Eldest Brother, and other key individuals out to occupy important positions, and even sent them out on campaigns to gain valuable experience.

He took great pains to help Emperor Heart-Celestial from Celestial Peak, helping him refine his true energy to the point where he was just on the verge of breaking through to the Terrifying level.

The entire sect was filled with a sensation of activity and progress.

It was similar to how, back when he first arrived on Memory Peak, he had helped many disciples achieve spectacular progress. Now, he was even more knowledgeable than he was then, and could quickly identify the most talented disciples to aid.

The disciples who benefited in such ways already worshiped Yang Qi, and were his staunchest supporters. There were even some of the Terrifying old-timers who came seeking aid. They were people who had used the psychic scaling systems to achieve their breakthroughs, which meant that further cultivation advancement was impossible for them.

By using the Civilization Founding Grand Magic, Yang Qi could identify the various side-effects they were suffering from, and help negate them. Such old-timers suddenly sensed their cultivation improving, and their psychic power growing, something that hadn't occurred for years for most of them.

About a year passed, during which time the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect flourished. Yang Qi's cultivation base grew more refined, and his position in the sect had stabilized. Eventually, it reached the point where he needed to go out into the world again and start looking for pieces of the Mahātmā Jade.

Without the Mahātmā Jade, he couldn't fully cultivate the Unspoiled Body, which would simultaneously limit his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. By now, he was extremely frustrated with his stalled cultivation.

However, there was one final thing to do before embarking on his quest for the Mahātmā Jade, and that was to destroy the Joyflower Palace and kill Empress Joyflower.

Even if Empress Joyflower had finally broken through to the Terrifying level, she still wouldn't be a match for him.

And he still needed to take the Passionless God-King's tear and the Passionless God Flower itself. As for the ordinary members of the Joyflower Palace, they would either become servants or thralls.

And there were some people in the old Dao Defense League that he needed to bring into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, people who were longtime loyalists.

Swish!

He left the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect and began to travel through the Great Necropolis.

Both the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect and the headquarters of the Executors of the Ancient Road were located so far into the depths of the Great Necropolis that people under the Terrifying level had to be careful not to be killed by the god rain, god lightning, and god wind.

First-tier sects were too far below the level of superpower sects to have any dealings with them. And the Joyflower Palace was only a first-tier sect, meaning that it couldn't compare to the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect.

Yang Qi drew on the Godly Positioning System of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart and quickly locked on to the location of the Joyflower Palace.

Unexpectedly, the Joyflower Palace was in the middle of a major expansion! It was much larger than before, and the female disciples' cultivation bases were in a state of constant improvement. In the central palace, the women all had slaves and thralls to assist them. And of course, there were always men being castrated and turned into eunuchs.

An immense expression of will covered the place, and from the fluctuations, Yang Qi could tell that Empress Joyflower had reached the terrifying level.

Having a Terrifying expert was one of the qualifications to building a superpower sect. Obviously, a newly ascended Terrifying expert would mean the sect was weak, but they would still count.

'Where is the empress?' he thought, scanning the palaces. Considering how far his cultivation base had advanced since his time here, it was easy for him to assess the entire place, even the spell formation within the god-king's tear.

Before, he had been an ant, but now he was like an eagle. And once he reached the Terrifying level himself, he would be like a dragon.

'Is there some sort of meeting going on in the palace? A banquet of some sort?'

Indeed, his eyes were now fixed on Empress Joyflower, who sat on her throne presiding over a royal banquet of some sort. Everyone else present was the sect leader of a first-tier sect, including some people with power indexes at three thousand or even more. Of course, even people that powerful were still speaking to the empress in very flowery language.

Dropping to his knees, one of the men present held his wine glass aloft and said, "Congratulations on reaching the Terrifying level, Empress. Of course, a great person does not remember a petty person's trespasses, so we truly hope you'll forgive us for past slip-ups. Our Yang-Trampling Sect will definitely remain loyal to the Joyflower Palace, and in fact, I'm even willing to become a consort. Hopefully your consort, Empress."

This man had a power index of over three thousand, putting him roughly on the same level as An Yiru, yet here he was, bowing and scraping. Obviously, Empress Joyflower had already done plenty to convince people to acknowledge allegiance to her.

"Oh? I'm afraid you don't qualify to be my consort, Sectlord Yang-Trampling. However, I'm sure some of the eldresses will be interested. Eldresses, do any of you wish to take this man?"

1. The idiom self-improvement through diligent study is a reference to someone named from the Three Kingdoms period. Supposedly, he was an uneducated and illiterate soldier who devoted himself to study, eventually earning himself a reputation for being wise and knowledgeable.

2. Technically, what I'm translating as "superpower" means "surpassing first-tier"