Sage Monarch

The people of the Wang Clan approached, led by a young man in white clothing with a long, gem-encrusted saber hanging at his waist. The gems were all beautiful godstones that pulsed with godpower fluctuations. The young man had sword-like eyebrows and a sharp gaze that he directed at Wang Juan.

"You survived without harm, Elder Sister Juan? That's wonderful. And who are these people?"

He glanced at Yang Qi's companions, his gaze lingering on Jadefall for a moment. Upon realizing that she was only in the mid Terrifying level, his eyes flickered with disapproval.

But then his gaze shifted to Yang Qi, and upon assessing his aura, he suddenly seemed to go on guard.

Nodding in greeting, Wang Juan said, "Well, if it isn't you, Wang Yi. These are my benefactors. They killed all the pirates and rescued me. The Wang Clan owes them a big debt of gratitude."

"Oh? They killed all the pirates?" Wang Yi looked at them a bit closer. "Despots, I see. Where did you all come from?"

"We're wanderers," Brahma replied quickly, "from the Five Phases Continent. We offended the wrong people there and ended up here, hiding for our lives."

"Wanderers, eh?" His expression changed suddenly. "Well, considering you rescued Elder Sister Juan, our Wang Clan won't treat you unfairly. In fact, if you become attendants of our clan, you can end your wandering."

"My apologies," Yang Qi said coolly, "but we can't agree to become attendants."

The Wang Clan was obviously powerful, but working for them would involve following orders from other people, and Yang Qi wasn't interested in that.

"What?!" shouted one of the disciples flanking Wang Yi. "Don't you bunch of wanderers know how powerful the Wang Clan is? We're a clan of gods! Our glory will never fade, and we—"

"Shut your mouth!" Wang Juan snapped. "These people saved my life! How could we possibly try to make them attendants? They're friends. Guests! Don't you people understand the height of the heavens and the breadth of the earth?" Turning to Yang Qi, she said, "Sorry about that. The people of my clan are used to being arrogant bullies."

"It's no matter," Yang Qi replied. "I'm not interested in bickering. You see, we've grown used to the wandering lifestyle, and aren't interested in relying on charity. That said, we wouldn't mind heading to a city near your Wang Clan to do a bit of business."

"I bet you plundered some godnotes from the pirates, didn't you?" Wang Yi asked with a disapproving expression on his face. "Those pirates took a lot of wealth that belongs to our Wang Clan, including those godnotes. So hand them over!"

"What?!" Jadefall erupted. "Do you have any sort of proof that they originally belonged to you?"

"Enough, Wang Yi," said Wang Juan, looking very displeased. "Those godnotes never belonged to us. And even if they did, we should offer them as thanks for the services rendered. How could we possibly demand them back?"

Wang Juan couldn't help but be frustrated that her fellow clan members were being as short-sighted as rats. The godnotes were valuable, but people like her rescuers were even more valuable. Getting on their good side would be far more advantageous than causing problems and turning them from allies into enemies. In fact, she was inwardly cursing Wang Yi to death for his stupidity.

Wang Yi snorted coldly, but apparently wasn't planning to quibble any further. Waving a hand to his men, he said, "Pull that pirate ship out from the shore and gather up the bodies. The corpses will fetch a high price from the consortiums."

His subordinates jumped into action, collecting all of the scattered sabers and weapons, hauling the corpses onto the pirate ship, then sounding the signal to have the ship dragged out to sea.

Their actions were more than a little domineering. After all, Yang Qi and his people had killed the pirates, so they belonged to him by right of conquest. Besides, the pirate ship wasn't an ordinary ship; it had been built on a framework of godling bones, which meant that it was worth at least two or three godnotes.

That was more wealth than most Despots would ever see, and now it was being snatched away right in front of them.

However, neither Yang Qi nor anyone else said a word. Instead, they stayed on full alert. It was obvious that Wang Yi was a petty and narrow-minded person. Of course, it made sense considering that he had only lived a few dozen years; there was no way an impetuous person like that would truly bother old-timers who had lived for millions upon millions of years.

By this point, even Yang Qi was over ten thousand years old.

After all, it was possible for a thousand years to pass in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart without hardly a moment passing on the outside.

Wang Juan was struck deeply by the indifferent expression of the faces of Yang Qi and his people, and realized that there was something unique about them. In fact, she was more interested than ever in recruiting them now. She had a good position in the Wang Clan, but wanted to bolster that position. And to do that, she would need capable helpers. Unfortunately, finding qualified people wasn't exactly easy.

"That's just what Wang Yi is like," she said to Yang Qi. "Thank you for not getting into an argument with him. I'll make sure that all of this is worth your while. You're currently honored guests of mine, and I'd like to invite you to the Wang Clan for a visit. I'd be happy to show you some of the sights on the Lightningbolt Continent as well. It seems that most of your friends are stuck in bottlenecks. Thankfully, the cities under the control of the Wang Clan have plenty of spirit pills available that can clear the magical laws from within your bodies and help form a resonance with the world around you. With pills like that, your friends should have no problem becoming Quasi-Gods. Does that sound good?"

"That's exactly what we were hoping to do," Brahma said. "We all need god pills to help reach the Quasi-God level."

A short distance away, Wang Yi snorted coldly. Looking over disdainfully, he murmured, "How could scum like you become Quasi-Gods? I was specially groomed by my clan, going through endless training sessions and brutal combat exercises. And even then, it took huge amounts of spirit medicine for me to reach this level. And incidentally, I just broke through. As for Wang Juan, the only reason she's this strong is that she has a special master and is favored by the clan because of her betrothal to the Proud Clan. She already has the hope of reaching godly ascension, which means that I'm no match for her."

One of the Wang Clan advisors next to Wang Yi stepped forward and said, "Young Sir Yi, it's obvious that Young Lady Juan wants to recruit those wanderers. Their leader has obviously reached a very high level. You can't afford to underestimate him."

"I know that," Wang Yi said. "The fact that these wanderers killed so many pirates shows that they're extraordinary. I'm just pissed that they cleared out all of the pirates' godnotes. Considering how much raiding those pirates were involved in, they must have accumulated a dozen godnotes, or possibly even as many as twenty. That's a huge amount of wealth! Just imagine the resources I could acquire with that much money. You know, my yearly stipend from the Wang Clan is only a single godnote. I can hardly imagine what it would be like to have twenty years of savings to work with."

"That would definitely be a huge sum," the advisor replied. "Unfortunately, the wanderers are under the protection of the young lady now, so there's no way they'll just hand over the godnotes. Let's worry about it after we get back to the clan."

"Good idea. Wang Juan is strong, but there's no way she could ever attempt to win the position of clan leader. She's already engaged to one of the young elites from the Proud Clan, one of the most unimaginably large clans in existence, with subsidiary branches on countless continents. Maybe the Lightning Clan rules the Lightningbolt Continent, but they still have to acquiesce to the Proud Clan. Otherwise, how could the Proud Clan's trading company have begun operations here? Well, at least we can sell the pirate corpses and their ship for a good two or three godnotes. This troublesome venture won't have been a complete waste."

As this conversation between Wang Yi and the adviser was playing out, Yang Qi accepted Wang Juan's invitation and boarded one of the Wang Clan battleships.

The ship hoisted its sails and headed out onto the water. The deeper waters were occupied with all sorts of water-based godlings, and although some attacked the ship, they were easily repelled.

The ship had ballistas that could hit targets several kilometers away, as well as spell formations powered by godstones. Surprisingly, such weaponry actually reminded Yang Qi of the products of the ancient mechanical civilization.

Thanks to information from Brahma, Yang Qi knew that in ancient times, the god world had used godstones as currency. It was only later, when the godstone reserves ran low, that the Sovereign Lord and various Paramount Gods had instituted the use of godnotes. Eventually, godnotes became widespread. However, that didn't mean that godstones were any less useful.

For example, even mid Terrifying experts could use them to power spell formations.

For all intents and purposes, godstones in the god world were like spirit stones in the mortal world.

"We'll arrive at the main harbor of the Lightningbolt Continent soon," Wang Juan said, "which is connected to the capital city. By the way, how many godnotes did you happen to take from those pirates?"

"Not many," Yang Qi replied coolly. "Only about twenty."

"Twenty?" Wang Juan said, gasping involuntarily. "That's a huge amount of wealth. Your group should easily be able to establish a foundation in the Lightningbolt Continent with that. Settling down here would be a lot better than wandering in the wilds. Or you could join one of the major sects, which would be a great way to achieve faster progress."

"Oh? What are the top organizations here on the Lightningbolt Continent? Would you mind explaining a bit, Miss?" Of course, Yang Qi was interested in learning as much about the god world as possible, this continent included.

"Well, that's simple. The Lightningbolt Continent is a small place, but to people like us, who haven't reached godly ascension, it's still enormous. You see, there aren't any major sects here, just factions overseen by the Lesser Gods. The top group is the Lightning Clan, whose patriarch is a Lesser God that's supposedly just on the verge of becoming a Common God. The patriarch of our Wang Clan is a bit behind him. You see, he has a godhood rating of two, whereas the Lightning Clan patriarch has a godhood rating of five."

"Godhood level of two. And five?" Yang Qi had long since come to the realization that godhood was the quintessence of the gods, and determined exactly how strong they were.

1. Wang Yi: Yi means "wing", and is also the name of a constellation, among numerous other definitions.