Sage Monarch

"That's fine, Yang Qi," Proud World said. "Go put your league in order. We'll focus on stabilizing the new puppets. Later, we can continue our search for the essence of the Great Necropolis. It's true that the depths of the necropolis are particularly dangerous, so we need to be well-prepared. But I refuse to believe that with two pieces of the God Legion Seal, plus the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, we won't be able to unlock the secrets of the necropolis. So, we meet back here in three days."

The Shepherd nodded. "Yes, we absolutely have to uncover all the mysteries of the necropolis. You all know the maxim: he who controls the Great Necropolis controls everything under heaven. We know that Proud Heaven has already been venturing into the depths of the necropolis, and I'd say it's highly likely that he has a clone there exploring it even as we speak. If he gains control, we'll never get a chance to do the same. And that'll make it much more difficult to kill him. By the way, Yang Qi, did you ever unlock any of the mysteries of that Mahātmā Jade you took from me?"

The Shepherd obviously hadn't forgotten about the Mahātmā Jade, but considering how powerful Yang Qi was, he didn't dare harbor thoughts of trying to get it back. Yang Qi was so powerful and ferocious that it didn't seem like anyone could possibly be a match for him. Although the Shepherd was incredible in his own way, he wasn't confident in being able to come out on top in a fight against Yang Qi, and in fact, he knew it was likely that he would be killed if he tried.

Furthermore, everyone knew that, until the mysteries of the Great Necropolis were revealed and access to the Ancient Road to the Gods was restored, no one would have a chance to reach godly ascension. In other words, until the Great Necropolis' secrets were cracked, everyone was doomed to die.

Looking completely calm and unruffled, Yang Qi replied, "The Mahātmā Jade is extremely strange. It can absorb a person's spirit, soul, blood, flesh, and quintessence energy, then take all of those things and return them. On a few occasions, I was very nearly devoured by it. In the end, I'd say it's dangerous and deadly. In fact, I've given up on studying it until I can get some more pieces of the jade to add to the collection. Once we do, we can look into it further. I guarantee you won't be disappointed."

"That makes sense. I studied the thing for hundreds of millions of years, but never learned anything of substance. Having it in your care is probably for the best. Who knows, you might even find a use for it eventually." It wasn't that the Shepherd trusted anything that Yang Qi said about the jade, but he knew that he had no way to confirm or deny any of it. For now, he had no choice but to accept how things were.

Swish!

Yang Qi vanished, without any of them being able to tell how he had done it.

"He's only getting stronger and stronger," Proud World said. "And with that immortal-slaying clone and the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, he's like a tiger that had grown wings. There's no way we can stand up to him, and for all we know, he could end up being the death of us."

"That's not necessarily true," Doom said.

"Hmm?" Proud World said. "You're both bearers of the God Legion Seal, shouldn't that make you diametrically opposed to each other? You'll have to fight it out in the end. I can turn weapons of war into gifts of jade and silk with Yang Qi because we both want to kill Proud World. But it's not the same with you."

"Wrong. Yang Qi has already abandoned the God Legion Seal, and uses the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth as a tool for study and research. I wouldn't be surprised if, after he joins the legion of gods, he completely rejects the God Legion Seal. He has grand ambitions of his own. He wants to forge his own path and use his nascent divinity to create something that surpasses the God Legion Seal."

"What? He wants to surpass the God Legion Seal? That's impossible. Lunacy! The stronger our cultivation bases get, the more possible it is for us to sense the might of the legion of gods. How could we dare to think of surpassing them? Only someone who doesn't understand the gods would attempt something like that."

"It is lunacy. But I can tell you that nobody understands the legion of gods better than he does. Well, him and Proud Heaven. The only way to surpass the legion of gods would be to understand them, so in that sense, he's not crazy, he's ambitious. Very ambitious. That said, having ambitions and making them come true are two different things. So ambitions aren't necessarily a good thing. As the saying goes, ambitions can be as high as heaven, but one's life is as thin as paper. There are many things in heaven and earth that can hold us back, and it's hard to control everything. He might be a Fateless One, making him free and unfettered by fate, but does that mean he can change the fate of the legion of gods?" Doom sighed. "I don't need to kill him. He's cast aside the God Legion Seal, which means that eventually, the seal will come to be mine. Although I envy that he can forsake the God Legion Seal, I'm not like that. I can only become more and more connected to it."

After digesting Doom's words, Proud World nodded. "Is there anything you can tell me about Proud Heaven? Although I'm his son, and I hate him down to my bones, I don't actually know much about his general plans. Do you know what he's up to? What is he trying to accomplish? I really can't figure it out. Considering how you waged war against him in the Primeval Age, you must know a bit about him."

"For one thing, he's not human," Doom said, his eyes flickering with hatred. "Sometimes, he acts awe-inspiring and righteous, other times, he's profoundly evil and wicked. Sometimes he acts like a treacherous schemer, other times he almost seems slow-witted. It's impossible to pin down his personality. In fact, it almost seems like he has multiple personalities, and randomly changes back and forth between them. Perhaps the version you dealt with is just one of those personalities. In the end, it's like I just said: he's not human."

"Not human? Then what is he?" Proud World was truly confused.

"When the time comes to actually kill him, you'll understand. With me and Yang Qi working together, I'd say we have a fifty percent chance of killing him. If you really want to kill him, Proud World, then don't have a falling out with Yang Qi, and don't plot against him. Does he seem like the kind of person that plots work against? He can produce clouds with one turn of the hand and rain with another. Even Proud Heaven is nervous about him. And as for all the other people who have tried to plot against him, they're all dead. In the past, I'd considered trying to lay a trap for him to get the God Legion Seal. But after I realized he forsook the seal, I abandoned such thoughts. He's beyond our ability to deal with. Furthermore, once we get to the god world, he might be able to help us a lot. The god world is a dangerous place, and the affairs we deal with here in the mortal world are inconsequential compared to what goes on there. Hmph! Immortal worlds with a rank of three thousand? In the god world those might as well be considered bubbles."

"Ah, the god world," Proud World murmured. "The world of worlds. Compared to the god world, everything here is like dust. It's a place of deathless beauty, of eternal luxury, and anyone who reaches it will never return here, no matter how much difficulty they face. Such people are like caterpillars that have become butterflies. Once a butterfly feels the freedom of being able to fly with wings, they would never dream of changing back into a caterpillar, crawling around one inch at a time...."

"Alright, enough blathering. Remember, don't cause any problems with Yang Qi, and don't plot against him. He's no fool, and knows that people at our level are prone to scheming. He'll be on guard."

"I know," Proud World said, nodding.

The Shepherd didn't say anything. Earlier, he had been considering trying to get the Mahātmā Jade back from Yang Qi, then perhaps joining forces with Doom to take Yang Qi out. But after Doom's speech just now, he realized that was a foolish idea and dispelled such thoughts.

With their conversation over, the three of them began working on their cultivation.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi was back at the Sage Monarch League.

During the ten years that had passed, the Sage Monarch League had continuously expanded and grown. The Executors of the Ancient Road had attempted a few incursions, but hadn't been able to penetrate the grand spell formation that Yang Qi had set up. The flows of destiny inside continued growing stronger, and Yang Qi's Wheel of Fate was growing more powerful.

If it weren't for the growth of the alliance, and the increase in destiny, Yang Qi would never have achieved the breakthroughs he had, and would definitely not have been as impressive to Doom.

As soon as he returned, bells began tolling.

Ding. Dong. Ding. Dong.

Instantly, the top experts began gathering.

Sect leaders, elders, and other leaders gathered in the Sage Monarch Temple, which was the main area for meetings in the Sage Monarch League, just as the Heaven-Dao Operation God-Temple had been the place of meeting in the Dao Defense League.

Experts from the House of God Bastards, the Woodfern Couple Palace, and the Genesis Sanctum were there, and it was immediately obvious that their leaders were nowhere to be seen.

Yang Qi looked out at the hundreds of thousands of experts, most of whom were leaders of superpower sects.

"I have something very important to announce," he said. "A time of reformation has come to the Sage Monarch League. All sects will be gathered into a unified body. There will be thirty-six empyrean heavenly societies, seventy-two baleful earthly societies, and three hundred and sixty heavenly zodiac societies."

The chamber erupted into a commotion. Of course, many of the sects who had joined the alliance had assumed that a day like this would come. However, during the past ten years, the other four experts had obviously been able to keep Yang Qi in check.

But now, Houselord God Bastard, Mu Renwang, Su Xin, and Huangfu Genesis were nowhere to be seen. Obviously, everyone was wondering what was going on.

"League-Lord," said the junior pontiff of the Genesis Sanctum, "Do you really think it's appropriate to make such a big announcement without my father and the other three experts present? I think you're being a bit too imperious!"