Sage Monarch

The most difficult part of forging godnotes was replicating the aura and will of a Paramount God.

But with the complete God Legion Seal, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility for Yang Qi. And when the day came that he could create massive quantities of godnotes, who could possibly compete with him?

Furthermore, he would be able to create godnotes that surpassed the current versions. After all, these godnotes had the wills of ten or so Paramount Gods, all of whom were considered potentates in the god world. But the God Legion Seal contained the auras of over a hundred Paramount Gods.

Some of them had perished, and some had simply vanished.

But by adding their wills and auras into a godnote, it would create something of immense power and value. For now, though, Yang Qi didn't need to do that. He just wanted to create godnotes that were identical to the ones currently in his possession.

Waving his hand, he sucked the over twenty godnotes into his sleeve. Then he found garments for everyone else to wear instead of beast hides. After all, having them dress like savages would only draw unwanted attention.

The new garments were all extremely tough and durable, although not quite on the level of being powerful magical treasures. Even the dirt in the god world would be considered a marvelous material in the lower worlds.

"Didn't that pirate mention something about some prisoners?" Yang Qi asked. "Let's go see what they were talking about. They must be down below."

Searching around, they found a shadowy staircase leading to the decks below.

"I'll go get some fire," Sword Seventeen said.

"No need," Yang Qi replied. Opening his hand, he summoned a burning fire that illuminated everything around them. The area belowdecks was actually a small prison, which contained over a hundred slaves locked behind bars.

Most of them wore clothing that had once been extravagant and luxurious, but was now worn down to threads.

All of them were unconscious.

Apparently, they had been knocked out when the ship ran aground. Some of them were mid Terrifying experts, in other words, Despots. Apparently, there weren't any Quasi-Gods.

Looking around, Yang Qi noticed that the central cell contained a young woman who was sealed with a paper talisman. From the flows of power, it seemed she was a Quasi-God, except she was restrained with a powerful warding magic.

Waving his hand, Yang Qi summoned a host of energies from within the prison area and converged them into an attack that he launched at the paper talisman. With a crack, the talisman exploded and the young woman jerked awake. Eyes snapping open, she said, "Damn you Pirate King Deku! I'm going to rip all of you to—"

"She's strong!" Doom said, exchanging awkward glances with the others.

"She's a Quasi-God," Jadefall added, "just as strong as Pirate King Deku. How did he capture her?"

Seeing herself surrounded by Yang Qi and her companions, the young woman's jaw dropped. "You people are here to rescue me?"

"That's right," Yang Qi said with a cool smile. "We killed the pirates, and have already released you. Miss, we had no idea you were such a top expert. How did someone as strong as you fall victim to these pirates?"

"Damned pirates!" she said, her eyes flashing with killing intent. "I was on a merchant ship heading out to sea when Pirate King Deku ambushed us, using the Dragon-Sealing God Talisman to capture me. My clan's vessels gave chase, but in the middle of it, a typhoon hit and led to the current situation. Many thanks to you, my saviors. Who exactly are you? You have my immense gratitude. Now please awaken my subordinates so that we can send out a call for help to my clan."

"We're just some wanderers," Brahma said. Having lived in the god world in the past, he knew the conventions of speech, and at the same time, was careful to avoid providing any hints that they had ascended from the lower worlds. "Please forgive us for any offense, Your Ladyship, but nomads like us don't need any reward for rescuing you. It wasn't anything special."

"Regardless, I owe you my thanks." Smiling, she waved her hand in the direction of the other cells, causing a fragrant aroma to sweep over her subordinates that immediately woke them up. The energy art she used seemed familiar to Yang Qi. He could tell that it was a godly-class art, and that it originated with one of the ancient gods of medicine. Obviously, she had cultivated it by means of all sorts of powerful spirit medicines.

The truth was that, although people in the mortal world could cultivate godly-class energy arts, they could never push them to the ultimate peak because they could never get the true quintessence elements required.

It was only possible to do that in the god world.

The transformations of godly-class energy arts relied upon the transformations within the magical laws of the god world.

"Miss..." her subordinates said as they woke up. Many of them were weeping.

"You're okay, Ma'am! This is wonderful. Is that damned Pirate King Deku dead? Our clan battleships will surely catch up soon and cut him down."

"Shut your mouth!" the young woman snapped. "We happened to be rescued by these noble friends who killed the pirates. All of you follow me out of the ship and onto the beach. We'll rest up and send out a call for help to the clan fleet."

"Yes, yes of course," her handmaidens said, and they hurried along to the beach. Of course, the sight of all the dead pirates caused them to cast furtive, admiring glances at Yang Qi and his people. The god world was no exception to the general rule of respect being given to the strong.

As for the young woman, the evidence of the slaughter only went to prove to her how vicious and merciless Yang Qi could be, and she nodded inwardly with approval.

Once out in the open, she pulled out a handheld flare that resembled a rattlesnake. Pointing it up, she released it, sending it flying up into the clouds accompanied by a piercing shriek of a sound.

After sending the message, she turned back and resumed her conversation with Yang Qi. Obviously, she was very perceptive, as she already realized that he was their leader.

"Miss, might I ask your honored name?" Yang Qi asked.

"I'm from the Wang Clan of the Lightningbolt Continent. My name is Wang Juan." From her smile and the confident way she carried herself, she seemed to be a capable and experienced person. "As you may know, our clan is one of the most powerful on the continent. Might I ask which continent you wanderers hail from?"

"We're from the Five Phases Continent," Brahma replied quickly. "Unfortunately, we offended the nobility there, and had nowhere else to go to, so we fled here."

"The Five Phases Continent." Wang Juan frowned slightly. "It sounds familiar, but it must be very far away, so far that it would be difficult to calculate the exact distance. How did you possibly find your way all the way here?"

"Oh, we made use of an old teleportation portal," Brahma replied. "As for our subsequent adventures, we'd prefer to keep the details confidential." He was trying his best to word things in a way that wouldn't attract too much suspicion. After all, this Wang Juan seemed very intelligent. If the pirate captain had been able to determine that they were from the lower worlds, then she would likely be able to pick up on the clues as well.

Yang Qi's other companions knew exactly what Brahma was doing and kept their mouths shut, hoping to learn a bit from the conversation. If nothing else, they were getting used to how people in the god world spoke and interacted.

Considering they were all old-timers from the immortal worlds, people who had experienced just about everything there was to imagine, it wasn't a hard task for them to get up to speed.

From the conversation so far, they had already been able to piece together some basic information.

The Lightningbolt Continent was obviously a large place with many people. As a continent in the middle of a huge ocean, it would have multiple kingdoms, or even empires in it. And there were definitely gods on the continent. Most likely, the patriarch of the Wang Clan was at least a Lesser God, with numerous subjects including Plebeians and Despots.

Wang Juan was obviously an important young one from the Wang Clan, probably someone who had a significant chance of forming godhood and becoming a Lesser God. In the god world, even Lesser Gods were vastly removed from the common people. Not even the Despots or Quasi-Gods could compare to them. The gods were the ultimate rulers of the god world, and it was only with a god in charge of a clan that it could truly prosper and flourish. And the only way the Wang Clan could be so important in the Lightningbolt Continent was if they had a god watching over them.

As for the pirate king that had kidnapped her, he was from the pirate forces who were led by a wretch-god. However, that pirate king was only a peak Terrifying Quasi-God.

There were many Quasi-Gods in the god world, but not all of them could become Lesser Gods.

Now that Yang Qi knew about the Wang Clan and the Lightningbolt Continent, he was already starting to form the next stage of his plan. After all, he could sense that Wang Juan was thinking of recruiting them.

Aaaaoooooo!

Even as they chatted, the sound of a bugle echoed out over the surface of the ocean and a huge battleship appeared off in the distance. It was pure white and sailed across the water without needing a sail.

"That's our Wang Clan battleship fleet!"

Three enormous battleships appeared, all of which were just as large as the pirate ship and pulsing with immense energy. And all of them flew flags that were embroidered with the character Wang, written in the script of the Godfolk.

Of course, this was no harbor, so the battleships couldn't get too close to the shore. After stopping, colorful beams of light shot off the decks of the battleship, hitting the water and turning into a substance as hard as crystal.

Afterward, people from the ship hopped down onto the solidified water and approached.

From what Yang Qi could tell, it wasn't a daoist technique, but rather some unique substance specifically designed to turn water solid, yet didn't make it into ice. Nodding inwardly, he marveled at how amazing the god world was.

1. Wang is a common surname that also means "king." Juan means "beautiful, graceful." Juan is basically pronounced similar to the Spanish name Juan, except with a hard J sound.

2. There is a completely random sentence I'm leaving out in which Yang Qi speculates that the god world isn't a sphere, except he has no idea what shape it is.