Sage Monarch

Yue Tianlin was still around. Despite having been put in his place on more than one occasion by Yang Qi, he had never learned his lesson. But there was one big difference this time: from the cassock he wore, it was obvious that he now ranked higher than Yang Qi. He was an elite disciple!

In the House of God Ordainment, if you were an elite disciple, then by default, you were a god.

And Yue Tianlin was indeed a god. He had formed his godhood and was now a Lesser God. Considering that only a few months had passed since Yang Qi had encountered him at the Scripture Pavilion, it was obvious how much one could benefit by working at the Thrall Camp.

That was what you would expect when numerous disciples blessed you with godpower on a virtually daily basis. Stepping from the Quasi-God level to the level of an actual god required a lot of godpower, in addition to enlightenment. And Yue Tianlin obviously had plenty of enlightenment, otherwise he wouldn't have become an official disciple.

Only people with a certain level of skill and ability could come out on top in the Bloodgore Trials.

Reaching godly ascension and becoming an elite disciple brought incredible changes. One's word, identity, and mere bearing became far superior to anything from before. After all, there were many official disciples in the House of God Ordainment, while elite disciples were much more in the minority.

And obviously, elite disciples had a lot more formal power than official disciples.

"Well, if it isn't Yue Tianlin. What do you want?" Yang Qi saw that Yue Tianlin was in a group comprised solely of elite disciples, each of them looking very high and mighty. It was hard to say whether they were coming to hand in a mission, or preparing to leave on one. But down to the last disciple, they were all looking at him with unfriendly gazes.

In fact, they almost looked like a pack of wolves staring at a sheep.

"Oh nothing," Yue Tianlin said with a smile. "I'm actually surprised you haven't become a god yet, Yang Qi. I guess you're taking your cues from Bai Yin and are trying to form monarch godhood. Only fools would dream of doing something like that."

"So, it's another delusional disciple, eh?" one of the other elite disciples said. "There are always children of sect leaders who try to form monarch godhood, but none of them ever succeed. And you're trying the same thing on your own? Do you think you're the main character of all heaven and earth or something?"

"Look, I've got business here," Yang Qi said. "So if you don't mind, please get out of my way. I'm not interested in chatting."

"Grandstander!" snapped another disciple. "Haven't you read the sect rules? Don't you know that official disciples have to bow low and make way for elite disciples? In other words, you get out of our way! If you're so stupid you don't understand basic rules like that, perhaps I should teach you a little lesson."

WHOOSH!

The elite disciple thrust out his hand, his godhood thrumming and godpower coursing through him. He was using a profound technique that caused an enormous iron hand to appear, weighing down with force that caused the ground to slowly sink down.

It was a move called Heaven-God's Descending Wrath, and it was a powerful technique designed to take people captive. One's five fingers became like godly pillars that could crush the head of anyone caught within them.

"Screw the hell off!" Yang Qi said, waving his own hand in the air. Unexpectedly, he also used Heaven-God's Descending Wrath, except he unleashed it in the opposite direction. When the two hands met, the elite disciple felt the bones in his hand shattering, forcing him to quickly pull a medicinal pill out of his robe, crush it in his mouth, and spit the content onto his arm to heal the bones.

"Y-you... how do you know the Heaven-God's Descending Wrath?!" the elite disciple said, looking visibly shocked. "When did you steal my martial art?"

Yang Qi laughed. "Very funny. I work in the Scripture Pavilion, so I have access to all sorts of martial arts records. Why would I steal anything from you?"

"Profound-Truth Grand-Millstone Hand!" Another elite disciple had slipped behind Yang Qi and unexpectedly attacked him with both hands, summoning a huge millstone of godpower that rumbled forth to crush him.

Yang Qi didn't even look over his shoulder. He thrust his hand behind him to summon his own millstone, which crushed the original and sent the elite disciple staggering backward three paces, his face draining of blood.

Yang Qi wasn't using any deadly moves, just stopping them in their tracks. He wasn't even doing anything to really hurt them. Giving them ammunition to use against him wouldn't make any sense. In the end, official disciples really were ranked much lower than elite disciples.

All he had to do was unleash his Paramount will and he could detonate all of them instantly.

"I can't believe you know the Profound-Truth Grand-Millstone Hand!" the disciple said in astonishment.

"Get out of my way, all of you," Yang Qi said, waving his hand. "Don't let Yue Tianlin convince you to cause problems for me. None of us have any grudge with each other. It's true that I want to form monarch godhood. Why do you think I can come out on top of a clash with multiple Lesser Gods? Without a strong foundation, I could never form monarch godhood."

The two disciples he had just defeated were no fools. Nor were they rash. Although it was difficult, they suppressed the fury in their hearts. One of them said, "Well done. It seems you're even stronger than Bai Yin. Not even he could casually defeat us like you just did. You never know what you'll see in this small world of ours. Well, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see if you really can form monarch godhood."

"You got lucky this time, Yang Qi," Yue Tianlin said through gritted teeth. "For your sake, you'd better hope you keep getting lucky." He had been hoping to sow dissension between Yang Qi and his new Elder Brothers, but the elite disciples weren't stupid. Just because they came out on the bottom of a minor clash didn't mean they would then go all out to get revenge. Instead, they were acting quite cool and collected.

"Let's go!" one of the elite disciples said, waving his hand. With that, they headed into the Missions Sanctuary without a single one causing any problems for him. Clearly, they were here to get some dangerous and important mission as a group.

Without further ado, Yang Qi left.

The event hadn't gone unnoticed. For a person with a Quasi-God cultivation base to stand up to actual gods was something that only true geniuses could pull off. It was something that could only happen in the immense sects like the House of God Ordainment, but even then it wasn't anything to be taken lightly.

As such, there were some discerning eyes who had been paying attention to everything that just happened. Among that group were men and women, including one young woman who was none other than Elder Sister Xue.

She was wearing an elite disciple's garment, as were the other disciples. Contrary to expectation, she apparently had the cultivation base of a god. And not a Lesser God, either; she was a Common God with a godhood rating higher than ten.

As for the other disciples, their cultivation bases were no weaker than Elder Sister Xue's. They were all Common Gods. Considering how strong both of them were, it was obvious they weren't ordinary people. People like them generally had a lot of influence in the House of God Ordainment.

"So, Junior Sister Xue, that was the Yang Qi you mentioned?" one of the men said. "He really does have some skill. Why not recruit him into the Snow Society?"

"He's the independent type who won't join up with other factions," she replied. "Also, he's a friend of Jadefall, and she's watching out for him. You're right though, it would be great to recruit him. You saw how strong he is. He dealt with those gods as easily as drinking some water."

"Your incarnation is getting stronger and stronger, Junior Sister Xue," another disciple said. "You already have a Common God cultivation base. It seems your Snow Fills the Cosmos secret magic has already reached the highest level. Your true self is still a Quasi-God. Maybe you really will pull off a miracle and develop Paramount will as a Quasi-God. Maybe you'll be the first person throughout the aeons to cultivate monarch godhood."

"I got lucky, that's all. I found a soul treasure left behind by the ancient Ice-Snow Goddess, which is how I formed this second version of myself. The Ice-Snow Goddess was the wife of the Lord of Civilization, and according to the stories, the two of them formed an unparalleled dao of clones. The truth is that my true self is probably strong enough to equal a Common God. Unfortunately, forming monarch godhood is no easy task. I'm actually planning on pushing this clone to an even higher level of will, then fusing back with my true self. Hopefully that will give me the advantage I need."

"Seems very difficult," one of the other disciples said. "Throughout the years there have been a lot of people who tried similar things, but no one has ever succeeded. I even heard that there are children of leaders here in the House of God Ordainment who have access to unending resources, yet still fail. You're very well informed, Junior Sister Xue. Your Snow Society might not be a top faction in the House of God Ordainment, but even the fabled Preheaven Society shows you courtesy. In fact, their leader Wang Xiantian wooed you unsuccessfully for quite a while before ultimately going after Jadefall. Do you think he'll win her hand?"

"I suspect Jadefall ascended from the lower worlds, which would explain how her cultivation base has advanced by leaps and bounds. But her pet is even more impressive. Wang Xiantian might be strong and have a lot of followers, but there's no way that even he could do anything to Jadefall's pet. In fact, a few days ago, I heard that she firmly turned him down. Then he tried to force her to accept him, and she turned her pet on him. One bubble from that thing, and Wang Xiantian lost nine clones. Lucky for him, his true self was safe in seclusion, otherwise he might have been killed. By now, he's already laid down the flag and stilled the drums. Incidentally, I heard that the junior houselord has his eye on Jadefall, so I doubt Wang Xiantian will cause any more trouble."

"What? The junior houselord?"

Everyone shivered as though she had just mentioned some incredibly terrifying person. "The junior houselord hasn't shown his face in public for years now. Supposedly, he's been seeking enlightenment of some consummate technique of our House of God Ordainment, something from the God-Ordaining Profound-Righteousness Stele. Once he succeeds, he'll be able to dominate everyone. But are you saying he's going to make a public appearance soon?"

"It's all rumor," Elder Sister Xue replied. "We don't count as high-ranking members of the House of God Ordainment. How could mid-tier people like us catch wind of the true secrets of the sect? However, rumors generally have a kernel of truth in them. So that's why I say to avoid causing problems for Yang Qi. If Jadefall links up with the junior houselord, she'll only get more and more powerful."

1. Wang Xiantian: Wang is a very common surname which also means "king, royal". Xiantian literally means "preheaven". Honestly this is probably a contrived name, but translating it literally would be King Preheaven, and I don't see the need to conflate this guy with the seventy-two monarchs, who all have names that follow the pattern of King XYZ. In the case of the monarchs, "king" is a title, whereas this guy is using it as a surname. So for this specific name, I'll transliterate it and treat it as an actual name.