Sage Monarch

After reaching the Paramount level, Yang Qi flew as high into the sky as he could, then remained there until night fell. The experience gave him a lot of enlightenment. And although he couldn't pierce through the void here, he was at least capable of incredible speed.

It only took an incense stick's worth of time to fly out of the dense mountains and back to the mines. Before, that trip would have taken hours.

As of now, the speeds attainable by Quasi-Gods were snail-like to him.

In fact, compared to him, Quasi-Gods could do little more than glide. Part of that was due to the fact that they couldn't meet the godpower requirement, and also because flying, and dealing with the winds, were fundamentally difficult.

Even ordinary Lesser Gods couldn't fly particularly fast. At best, they might turn into a beam of light that shot off into the distance. As for Yang Qi, he could become a black streak that moved without sound and couldn't be tracked with the naked eye.

After landing back at Mine One, he reined in his energy arts and used the Devil-God Seal to keep the level of his will concealed. To any prying eyes, he would seem like a Terrifying expert, and wouldn't reveal any clues as to the truth.

"Zhang Jufang, Cherry, come here!"

Immediately, Zhang Jufang and Cherry hurried out and dropped to their knees. They were joined by others among Yang Qi's most loyal followers from the mines.

"Brother," Zhang Jufang said, "you're back! Did anything noteworthy happen in your meeting with the Demonfolk?"

"Not really. In fact, things didn't go very well." Yang Qi looked around at the various disciples. Although they were weak Quasi-Gods, they were all loyal. Over the past months, they had done a good job running the Sage Monarch Consortium, and considering the profits they had brought in, it was only natural for him to reward them.

He flicked his finger, sending a bean-sized conglomeration of crystallized godpower into all of them. "You all work for the Sage Monarch Consortium, and I always reward my people for their service. This is some crystallized godpower that will purify you in body and soul, giving you increased hopes of achieving a breakthrough. Going forward, I want to expand the operations of the Sage Monarch Consortium. Focus on the godstone trade, and use this bag of imperial caliber godstones as your initial capital."

"Yes sir," Zhang Jufang said, accepting the bag. "But once these imperial caliber godstones hit the market, it's going to cause a huge stir. A lot of powerful organizations will take a fresh look at our mines, and I'm afraid we aren't strong enough to defend against gods."

"Don't worry. The intention is for you to use those godstones to power your spell formations. I actually have additional plans for the consortium. Got it?"

"Yes!"

"Good. You stay here and work on your cultivation, I'm going into seclusion in the mansion grotto." He entered the mansion grotto of Mine One. It was currently occupied by the new disciple who had been assigned as the foreman, but as soon as he saw Yang Qi approaching, he respectfully let him in.

Entering, Yang Qi sat down and began a session of cultivation. He was worried that if he entered the god kingdom of the House of God Ordainment, his practice of cultivation would attract attention. After all, Bai Yin was no fool, and knew that Yang Qi had secrets. Right now, he wanted to focus on unraveling more mysteries of the godnotes.

His previous efforts had been too flawed, and he hadn't had any way to make up for them. Furthermore, he couldn't place a Paramount God sealing mark on the notes. But now he had replaced hunting rifles with cannons, and considering he had Paramount will convergence, it was entirely possible that he could produce actual godnotes.

He also had no idea how much more powerful the God Legion Seal would be now that he was in the Paramount level.

'Time to make some godnotes!'

He drew on his godpower, causing the God Legion Seal to produce an enormous golden hand. The hand reached out, and god vitality appeared, then began condensing into the form of a godnote.

One note descended onto his palm.

It looked like a piece of metal, and didn't seem like it would dissipate at any time. Yang Qi took out a real godnote to compare them, and confirmed that they were the same. His version even had a Paramount sealing mark on it.

That was the result of the God Legion Seal.

Even a single godnote was worth so much that it could be used to purchase all sorts of things. And now Yang Qi could make them. Rising to his feet, he laughed heartily. 'The Paramount level is extraordinary! I can actually make godnotes now!' Waving his hand, he summoned more notes.

Clink. Clank.

Within moments, godnotes were falling like snowflakes around him, until they covered the floor.

That said, the effort completely drained him of godpower, leaving him totally empty. Creating godnotes took a lot of godpower.

'What an effort,' he thought. With the help of the God Legion Seal, he drew on the godpower around him once again. Thanks to the seal, even if he completely drained himself, he could recover fairly quickly. He had no idea how long it would take, even if he had medicinal pills to help. For all he knew it could take months, or even longer.

The God Legion Seal was proving to be truly useful nowadays.

Even with the help of the seal, he still needed over a month to completely refill his reserves of godpower. His capacity had increased a lot, but that meant that it took longer to recover from draining it.

That said, the month of time he spent bolstering his godpower also resulted in it becoming much more refined.

With Paramount will, he had the perfect balance. If he wanted to erupt with power, he could. If he wanted to hide his power, he could. Sending his godpower into the ground, he reached out to the fifty-six mountains and subtly transformed them, creating numerous hidden spell formations. He also planted numerous high-quality ores in the mines to be extracted later by the miners.

During the month of cultivation, he truly came to understand how different monarch godhood was from ordinary godhood. It required nearly endless amounts of godpower, such that not even the God Legion Seal could keep up with it. At the rate he was going, he would probably need a hundred years before his monarch godhood would actually reach a state of completion.

What he needed now was medicinal pills to boost his godpower.

'A hundred thousand godnotes! I actually have a hundred thousand godnotes!' After replenishing his godpower, he collected the godnotes and counted them.

He shook his head. 'Ai, the only downside is that it drains my godpower so severely. It actually took a whole month to recover. And that's going to push back the date when my monarch godhood is complete. I won't be a dominating force in the god world at this rate.'

Sighing, he decided not to make any more godnotes going forward. The loss of godpower was just too significant, and the delays were too severe.

The most pressing matter at hand was to finish forming his monarch godhood.

After replenishing his godpower, it roiled in his sea of energy and poured into his virtual godhood, which was currently fist-sized. But no matter how much godpower he poured in, it didn't seem to get full. It was as if he was pouring his godpower into a bottomless pit.

The upside was that he could take the godpower back out if he needed to use it. That was why, when forming godhood, one needed to be able to cultivate in seclusion without worrying about fighting or being attacked.

Creating godhood was a very consuming process.

But how could one do anything worthwhile without paying a price?

Thankfully, Yang Qi had the God Legion Seal and could constantly draw on the essence of the god world and turn it into godpower. He also had medicinal pills to help. After all, it required so much resources for a Quasi-God to become a true god that many small clans couldn't even afford to sustain one effort.

'I need the godnotes to help fund the consortium,' he thought. 'It'll be very helpful to have the Sage Monarch Consortium grow larger. For now, I can use them to buy medicinal pills that bolster godpower. As for making more, I'll shelve that idea for now.'

"Zhang Jufang, take these godnotes. There are a hundred thousand. Use them to grow the consortium. If you have any important matters, don't hesitate to let me know."

"Yes sir!" Zhang Jufang said. Although he was shocked, he had been working for Yang Qi long enough that he wasn't completely stunned. And he didn't ask any questions. Oftentimes, knowing too many secrets about one's powerful superiors could be dangerous.

"You've done well in the past months, Zhang Jufang. However, you're still not a god. Right now, I'm going to anoint you with a secret magic that'll give you a solid foundation for godly ascension. If things go as expected, you should make your breakthrough within a year. At that point, with a god in charge of the Sage Monarch Consortium, I'll be much more at ease."

BAM!

Yang Qi placed his hand onto Zhang Jufang's head and sent godpower flowing into him, causing a golden flower to bloom around him.