Sage Monarch

Double-Nines God-Dragon Starry-Sky Pellets didn't have the same level of godpower as Chaos-Cavern Grand-Magnate Pills, but fifty-five of the former were at least the equivalent of about three or four of the latter.

Yang Qi had helped Bai Yin to purify himself in body and soul, but kept all of the pills. Overall, Bai Yin actually came out on top of it all. Meanwhile, as he focused on the transformations occurring in his fleshly body, Yang Qi took all fifty-five of the Double-Nines God-Dragon Starry-Sky Pellets and popped them into his mouth, resulting in an instant surge of power.

Energy flows rushed through him like dragons, releasing enough force to cause an ordinary person to explode. However, his cultivation base still lacked the godpower, so the merest twitch of his virtual monarch godhood sucked in all of the power. Then, a moment later, he exhaled a stream of pill energy that was nothing more than a collection of impurities.

"Dear lord, are you trying to kill yourself!?" Bai Yin exclaimed in shock. Even a Lesser God would need many months to consume and assimilate that many pills. Probably even a year.

Yang Qi was a Quasi-God, and in the end, was only human. Normally speaking, if someone like that consumed fifty-five Paramount god pills, they would simply explode.

However, no such explosion occurred. From what Bai Yin could sense, Yang Qi's sea of energy was like a black hole that sucked in all of the godpower without cease.

Winds screamed as Yang Qi breathed in and out, his interior seemingly a void.

After exhaling all of the impurities, he rose to his feet, his monarch godhood so close to completion that he was only one step away from finishing.

Unfortunately, that final step wasn't going to be easy, and would require incalculable amounts of energy. In fact, not even fifty-five more pills like those he had just used would possibly be enough.

However, after accomplishing everything he had, Yang Qi could now see that his monarch godhood was fist-sized and featured nine orifices, twenty-four types of energy, thirty-six acupoints, and formed a three hundred and sixty degree circle.

After he made that step, he could fully connect with the boundless heaven and earth, and reach godly ascension.

"Dominate Everything under Heaven!" Slashing his hand down like a knife, he sliced open the void in front of him, creating a vortex that erupted with a spatial tempest. However, before the tempest could do anything, he grabbed it, pacifying it and turning it into a pitch-black wind dragon that writhed back and forth in his grip.

"You can manipulate spatial power!" Bai Yin blurted. "You—"

"It doesn't matter," Yang Qi cut him off. "There's no need to say it out loud. As I said before, as long as you stick with me, I'll change your fate." A tremor passed through Yang Qi, and the vortex vanished as though it had never existed.

Bai Yin looked up in thought for a moment, but was confused and couldn't quite grasp what Yang Qi meant. However, one of Bai Yin's strong points was that when he knew he couldn't understand something, he didn't waste any time trying to figure it out.

"You know, we're going to have to deal with the aftermath of all this eventually," Bai Yin said. "Grand Elder Hong Lie obviously has no idea that you impersonated him and made a deal with the Dragon Society. In three days, they'll definitely come looking for him. What do we do then? I can't see how any good will come of it."

"It doesn't matter. We can just wait and see how things play out. Grand Elder Hong Lie isn't going to take responsibility for my actions when I impersonated him. So there will definitely be some sort of altercation. In fact, you need to deny involvement as well. Just say you never accepted any payment, and that someone was impersonating you."

"Well, that's obvious. Who would possibly admit to being involved in a deal like that? Besides, my cultivation base is a lot better than before. I'm someone else entirely now." He chuckled. "Best of all, this was a private deal, which means they have no contract or any other evidence to rely on."

Yang Qi also chuckled. "Let's see how Meng Guo handles the situation. Alright. For the next three days, we have to stay hidden here in the Scripture Pavilion."

And they did just that. Over the course of those three days, nothing noteworthy happened. As for the two men from the Dragon Society, Yang Qi kept an eye on them by means of the devil embryo. And what he saw was that they were simply waiting in keen anticipation.

Sadly for them, after the three days passed, nothing happened....

**

Deep in a mansion grotto somewhere.

BAM!

Meng Guo smashed the table in front of him. "The three days are passed! How come we haven't received any update? Hong Lie took those pills, but didn't follow up on his end of the bargain. Was he just scamming us?"

"Perhaps there were some complications that came up," said the elder from the Missions Sanctuary. "There must be some sort of explanation. In any case, we need to bring Hong Lie here to explain things. I'll get in touch with him right away."

"Yes," the grand elder said. "Let's meet up in the same place as before."

A short time later, the elder arrived at the Scripture Pavilion only to find that the second floor was closed. Eyes glimmering with hatred, he ascended to the third floor, where he sent someone to ask for an audience with Grand Elder Hong Lie.

About an hour later, Hong Lie arrived, and when he saw who was waiting for him, his eyes flickered with surprise. "An elder from the Missions Sanctuary? What are you doing here at the Scripture Pavilion? If you want to browse the books, you could just ask for help from one of the disciples. There isn't any need to disturb my cultivation for something as mundane as that."

Grand Elder Hong Lie was obviously a bit irritated at having been disturbed, and that was especially the case considering he was a Common God and the visiting elder was a mere Lesser God.

Seeing the attitude of Hong Lie, the elder from the Missions Sanctuary ground his teeth in fury and said, "Come on, Hong Lie. Don't pretend you don't know who I am. You accepted a payment of medicinal pills from the Dragon Society to do a job for us, and the three-day time limit has passed. Have you lived up to your end of the bargain?"

"What are you talking about?" Hong Lie replied in confusion. "When did I take any medicinal pills from you? The Dragon Society? Wait, you work for the Dragon Society? How could I possibly have agreed to do anything for you people? I've been in seclusion for several months straight!"

"What the fuck, you old codger! How dare you play dumb!" Despite his outrage, the elder obviously couldn't do anything rash, and definitely couldn't take any action. Struggling to remain calm, he said, "Let me remind you of what went on. Grand Elder Meng Guo from the Dragon Society and myself had a nice discussion with you, in which you agreed to help us. And Meng Guo was acting on the authority of Dragon Floret himself!"

"The leader of the Dragon Society?" Hong Lie said. He was no fool, and as soon as he heard Dragon Floret mentioned, he knew that this was no minor affair. Snorting coldly, he said, "Fine, lead the way."

They left the god kingdom and headed out into the remote mountains.

When Meng Guo caught sight of Hong Lie, he shouted, "It's been three days, Hong Lie! What's going on here!? We wanted you to frame Yang Qi, what's taking so long? Don't tell me you intentionally took our medicinal pills and did nothing!"

"What? Frame Yang Qi? For medicinal pills?" Furious but at the same time confused, Hong Lie said, "Don't make the mistake of thinking your Dragon Society is invincible, Meng Guo. I've got powerful backers too. What makes you think I would ever take medicinal pills from you?"

"Alright, fine!" shouted Meng Guo, his fury rising to apoplectic proportions. "Apparently you aren't afraid of dying, Hong Lie! I've never heard of anyone who dared to run a scam on the Dragon Society. It was three days ago on this very spot that you took over fifty Double-Nines God-Dragon Starry-Sky Pellets as a down payment for framing Yang Qi. You had three days, and the time period is up. So why hasn't Yang Qi been framed?"

"Did you experience cultivation deviation, Meng Guo? Did you go insane? For the past three days, I've been in seclusion in the Scripture Pavilion. There are plenty of people who can corroborate that. There are even some other grand elders with whom I discussed various daoist techniques. Furthermore, why does your Dragon Society want to frame an unimportant disciple like Yang Qi? And why would you go to such lengths to pull it off?"

"Dammit! You old bastard! How dare you try to weasel out of this." Meng Guo was going crazy from anger to the point where he wanted to simply kill Hong Lie right here and now.

Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. He couldn't just kill an important elder with powerful backers like Hong Lie.

"You'd better think this through clearly," Meng Guo grated. "There's still time to go back and frame Yang Qi for a crime. I can even give you a few more days to do it. But if you insist on being stubborn, the Dragon Society won't let you off the hook."

"Are you threatening me?" Hong Lie said, his eyebrows shooting up in anger. "I never took any medicinal pills from you. And now you're trying to frame me? Look, I'm not going to deal with a lunatic like you. The Dragon Society might be powerful, but you have no right to simply cause problems for me for no reason. This is the House of God Ordainment! You can't just do whatever you want here."

The Dragon Society was indeed powerful, but they still couldn't order the law enforcement team to go arrest someone without evidence; that would be an abuse of power. The House of God Ordainment had very strict rules about that, and although there had been disciples in the past who tried to manipulate the system to their advantage, when they were found out, they were imprisoned and forced to cripple their own energy arts.

If the law enforcement team of a huge organization like this could be easily manipulated for personal reasons, it would lead to mass chaos.

For hundreds of thousands of years, the House of God Ordainment had worked this way. Although it was definitely possible to frame someone for a crime, the laws couldn't be openly manipulated to that extent.

Hong Lie turned on his heel to leave, furious at having been dragged out of seclusion only to be accused of such absurdities.

Looking over his shoulder, he said, "I'm going to pretend none of this ever happened. And if you insist on pressing the issue, I'll report the matter to the highest elders of the Scripture Pavilion. And if that happens, the council of chief elders will make the final decision about what happens."

With that, he flicked his sleeve and flew away, leaving Meng Guo and the other elder standing there wide-eyed with shock.

1. This passage literally says that the person would "explode directly into becoming a fried chicken". It sounds okay in Chinese, but doesn't quite carry across in English lol.