Sage Monarch

"What?! You want to use paramount god pills for an experiment? Have you gone crazy or something? A single paramount god pill is worth ten thousand merit points. Neither of us have enough to afford even one! If I were you, I wouldn't use a pill like that unless I was absolutely certain it would work. You know, there are a lot of people in the world who want to form monarch godhood. Even junior sect leaders of big sects, who actually have the resources to use paramount god pills. Even the high-quality versions. And none of them have ever succeeded. I'd suggest not wasting your time on that. It isn't going to work."

Yang Qi knew that Bai Yin was just trying to give him some good advice.

And the truth was that he wasn't interested in Paramount will convergence, but rather bolstering his godpower. Compared to the truly rich and powerful experts of the god world, Yang Qi and Bai Yin were ants. There were definitely junior sect leaders from major sects who could afford to snack on paramount god pills, yet none of them had ever formed monarch godhood.

In short, it just wasn't possible for Quasi-Gods to use outside power to acquire Paramount will.

Bai Yin and people like him hoped they could figure out some secret that would lead to success. But could they compete in resources with junior sect leaders?

"I still want to give it a shot," Yang Qi said, smiling.

"Whatever. If you want to waste time being crazy, go ahead. But I'm not coming. I'd rather enjoy my time with my books. Seek enlightenment and improve the compatibility of my psyche and fleshly body. Besides, if you use outside power, you're going to have to deal with dependency-devils and heart-devils." He shook his head. "Just go to the Missions Sanctuary. I'm sure you can find some missions to earn good merit points. But ten thousand? How long will that take? All for a single pill to do an experiment? Is it worth it? If I were to bet, I'd say it'll take you between three to five years to save up that much. And how many years do you have left to live?"

No matter how strong Quasi-Gods were, they had limited longevity, perhaps a few hundred years at most.

For example, if Bai Yin didn't acquire Paramount will within the next few dozen years, he would eventually reach the point where he couldn't hope to succeed. At that point, he would have to form his godhood and become a god, lest he die.

As for Yang Qi, he could actually live a lot longer now that he had reached Paramount will. In the impure lands, Terrifying experts were essentially undying. But in the god world, it required Paramount will to achieve the same thing.

"Go on," Bai Yin said, waving his hand dismissively. "I can handle things in the Scripture Pavilion by myself. I'll just wait till you're done wasting your time, or perhaps crawl back bruised and bloody."

'I like this Bai Yin,' Yang Qi thought, 'although, he's too independent. He can be a friend, but he wouldn't do well as a subordinate.' With such thoughts on his mind, Yang Qi left and headed toward the Missions Sanctuary.

That was the majestic building in the sect where missions could be acquired. Disciples and elders alike would take missions there, then return later to turn them in for merit points, which they could exchange for magical treasures.

The god kingdom was so huge that it seemed almost endless. Thankfully, the Great Classic of God Ordainment contained a map. Furthermore, he had now been a disciple for over a year, so he was much more familiar with the place than he used to be.

He flew for about an hour until he found a sprawling plane, upon which were a host of temples and halls of various sizes. It looked almost like an imperial city from the impure lands, with countless disciples going to and fro. This was the Missions Sanctuary.

Some disciples were gathered in groups of four or five, while others formed teams in the hundreds. Some missions were so difficult that a single person could never accomplish them. Instead, large teams were required.

In fact, that was one way that various halls and factions in the sect were formed.

A good example was Elder Sister Xue's Snow Society, which had many disciples as members, including gods.

Generally speaking, the Quasi-Gods in the House of God Ordainment were official disciples. Ordinary gods were called elite disciples, with higher-ranking ones called holy children. Above them were the children of primeval chaos. That was the ranking system for disciples in the House of God Ordainment.

There were only four ranks, and the differences between them were vast.

Upon arriving, Yang Qi ignored all the people going in and out, and simply went to get a mission. Inside, there were disciples whose job it was to describe the various available missions.

Yang Qi knew the rules. He slipped a few godnotes into the hands of the disciples, who smiled broadly in response. One of them said, "Junior Brother, are you from the Scripture Pavilion? Not bad. Not bad at all. In the future, I hope you can take care of me when I go there. This jade plaque contains all the missions we have right now. Send your divine will inside and pick one."

Yang Qi did just that, and quickly had information streaming through his mind. The missions were broken up into various categories, including Assassinations, Plant Harvesting, Information Gathering, Godly-Class Energy Art Acquisitions, Demonfolk Extermination, Execution of Enemies of the House of God Ordainment, Execution of Devils, Medicinal Pill Concocting, and so on.

"What kind of mission are you looking for, Junior Brother?" one of the disciples asked. He knew that, considering how many countless missions there were, it could be hard to pick. "Given the level of your cultivation base, you should probably stick with one of the simpler ones."

Right now, Yang Qi was only revealing what could be described as an average cultivation base.

"Oh, I'll be fine. Hey, what's this? This looks like a nice mission." Yang Qi tapped on one particular mission, whereupon the details appeared in front of him: Enter the ruined temple of the ancient Pill-King God. Search for lost medicinal pills. Paramount pills will earn a reward of ten thousand merit points. Unbounded pills will earn a hundred million merit points....

It included a map to the very ruins that were mentioned in the mission description.

"I'll take this one," Yang Qi said, pointing.

"What?!" the disciples exclaimed, looking incredulously at Yang Qi. "That's not a mission for ordinary disciples; you'd have to be an elite disciple at the minimum. The ruins of the Pill-King God's temple are very dangerous. Although there are medicinal pills there to be found, there are also incredibly dangerous toxic medicines. There was even a holy child who went in there once, and although he got some pills that he exchanged for some magical treasures, it turned out that he was infected with a poison named Three-Lives Three-Lifetimes Despair Powder. He turned into a madman and started killing people left and right. He was eventually locked up in prison, and hasn't seen the light of day since."

"I still want to give it a try," Yang Qi said as he continued to study the mission details.

The ancient Pill-King God was a Paramount God who excelled in concocting pills. He created his own god kingdom, and even made pills that contained godpower strong enough to support entire worlds. Later, the Pill-King God was killed during the insurrection of the seventy-two monarchs, and his god kingdom was brought to ruin. However, the moment of his death came in a clash with one of the seventy-two monarchs, namely, King Hypertoxin. King Hypertoxin infected his god kingdom with toxins that remain to this day. In other words, even gods can be killed there.

That said, over the years, many people have explored the area and found valuable items inside. Some have been lucky enough to find god pills, although most have come up empty-handed, and others have even been killed by the toxins they encountered. Most noteworthy is that in the depths of the ruins there are experts who transmuted from medicinal pills, and will attack any outsiders.

This mission has a ninety percent death rate.

"You should really think this through, Junior Brother." The truth was that there were a lot of disciples in the House of God Ordainment who didn't pay attention to the facts, believing that they were unparalleled under heaven. They would take the most dangerous missions in the hopes of earning a name for themselves, only to end up dead. Obviously, the disciples in charge of the missions assumed that Yang Qi was like them.

"I have thought it through," Yang Qi said.

"In that case, I'll make note of it." The disciple sighed. "Hand over the five godnote fee, and you can start the mission. This one isn't that bad in that, if you fail, you won't get punished."

"Yeah, well, death is the biggest punishment," another disciple said, shaking his head. "Besides, if you fail the mission and hand it back in, you can't accept another mission. According to the sect rules, you have to finish a mission before you can select another one. The system is designed that way to avoid disorder."

"I know that," Yang Qi said, taking the mission plaque. The truth was that he was more interested in exploring the Pill-King God's ruins in the hopes of finding paramount god pills to bolster his cultivation base. If he could form his monarch godhood that way, it could save seven or eight years. And if he could find an unbounded god pill, it would be even better.

Of course, that was unlikely. Unbounded god pills were filled with so much power that they usually developed spirits that were as strong as Consummate Gods. And that made them almost impossible to deal with.

Following his map, he headed to the teleportation portal that led to the Pill-King's temple ruins.

Some disciples had gathered there, most of them elite disciples. When they caught sight of Yang Qi, one of their number laughed and said, "Well if it isn't the brat Yang Qi. I can't believe you're not a god yet. You're still just an official disciple. What a big disappointment!"

It was none other than 'Elder Brother Yue', Yue Tianlin.