Sage Monarch

"Are you going to join me, or not?" Yang Qi asked imperiously.

Instead of answering Yang Qi's question, Cold Jade started fishing for information. "Given how strong you are, you should be someone really important in the House of God Ordainment. Except, I've never even heard of you before. Considering how openly you're trying to recruit me, does it mean you plan to found your new faction soon? Wait, you're not some sort of spy, are you?"

"No, I'm not," Yang Qi said. "Have you heard of Jadefall?"

"Jadefall? The one who's now an adopted daughter of an imperial concubine from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty? She's a very important person. Nearly invincible. Nobody can defeat that pet of hers, and some of the old-timers are even scheming to take it from her." All of a sudden Cold Jade realized what Yang Qi was implying. "Oh, you work for her. So you aren't some sort of mole."

"Now will you agree to join me?" Yang Qi said. "You obviously realize how powerful Jadefall is, and she's only going to get stronger. And she definitely won't join the Dragon Society or the Mystery Society."

"Hmph! Nobody cares about the Dragon Society or the Mystery Society." Cold Jade laughed. "And I suggest you don't bother making your own group. Why not join a truly powerful organization?"

"Which one?" Yang Qi asked curiously. "I thought the most powerful and enigmatic group was the Mystery Society. Beneath them are the Dragon Society, Preheaven Society, Honorable Glory Society, and Brilliant Radiance Society, who are always fighting amongst themselves. And of course, the smaller societies don't really count for anything. What society could possibly look down so much on the Mystery Society?"

"The Crown Prince Society," Cold Jade said. "Considering you're one of Jadefall's people, I'll be perfectly up-front. Compared to the Crown Prince Society, the Mystery Society is like nothing."

"Crown Prince Society?" It was a very familiar name that caused Yang Qi's heart to start pounding. "Where did this Crown Prince Society come from?"

In the impure lands, Yang Qi had struggled with the supposed Crown Prince for a long time. The Crown Prince had possessed one of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions, and if he had lived long enough, he would probably have made it to the god world and become an important person. Except that Yang Qi had killed him.

Now, here Yang Qi was in the god world, and he had run into another Crown Prince Society.

What was its origin?

During his time in the House of God Ordainment, Yang Qi had never even heard of it.

Could it possibly have anything to do with the Crown Prince he knew in the impure lands? Yang Qi had always felt like there was some destiny tugging at him. The Crown Prince, who had been a prominent member of the Demi-Immortal Institute in the Rich-Lush Continent, had been completely wiped out of existence. But for some reason, he felt certain that this new Crown Prince Society must have some destiny-based connection to the Crown Prince he had killed.

"The Crown Prince Society was put together by the crown prince of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty," Cold Jade replied. "Truth be told, I'm a member of the Crown Prince Society. And since your behind-the-scenes supporter in the House of God Ordainment, Jadefall, is the adopted daughter of an imperial concubine from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, there's no harm in telling her the truth. The Crown Prince Society has members in all the major sects, the reason being that the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty has already unified many locations in the god world, and plans to further that effort in the future. Let me ask you, who do you think is more powerful, the crown prince of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, or the junior houselord of the House of God Ordainment?"

"The crown prince," Yang Qi replied. The mere mention of a 'crown prince' caused his eyes to glitter. He even felt his Wheel of Fate stirring.

The fact that the Wheel of Fate was turning indicated that this new crown prince would definitely become entangled with Yang Qi in the future. Now, Yang Qi was very curious to meet this person and see what he was like.

Unfortunately, his cultivation base was now far too low to even consider causing problems for this crown prince.

It was a given that the man would be incredibly strong and powerful.

"Very impressive," Yang Qi said. "And how interesting that an outsider could set up his own group within the House of God Ordainment. Presumably he's confident that he'll become a Paramount God?"

"That's right," Cold Jade replied. "He's already at the peak of the Consummate God level, so he'll definitely be a Paramount God sooner or later. The crown prince has an invincible cultivation base, and has already developed Unbounded will convergence."

"What?!" Yang Qi said in shock. "Unbounded will convergence?"

Unbounded will convergence was a sign of true power. A person like that could destroy anyone they wished with a thought. Of course, considering that Yang Qi had developed Paramount will convergence as a Quasi-God, it was a foregone conclusion that he would eventually have Unbounded will.

And someone with Unbounded will convergence would most assuredly become a Paramount God.

In the god world, people with Unbounded will convergence were true potentates who were considered completely domineering and invincible.

"That's right, he has Unbounded will convergence. For all intents and purposes, he's deathless and undying. Eternally invincible. So, what do you think? Your cultivation base isn't bad, so why not join the Crown Prince Society? I'll vouch for you. You see, the Crown Prince Society has only just infiltrated the House of God Ordainment. I'm the first agent. If you join up early, then when the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty truly begins to take over everything, you can obviously play a very important role in the whole thing."

"It seems I made an error in judgment," Yang Qi said. "The Crown Prince Society, huh. Well, I need to think about this...." His original plan had been to recruit people to form a new Sage Monarch Society, and this Cold Jade had seemed like a perfect candidate. But as it turned out, he was already a member of a colossal monster of an organization.

"That's fine. Think it over. But remember to keep the matter to yourself. Don't go talking about it publicly. Not that it really matters. It's not as though the House of God Ordainment could do anything to stop what's happening." Cold Jade laughed. "Although, if you do go blabbing about it, things will go bad for both you and Jadefall. The crown prince is more powerful than anyone throughout all history.'

"I know," Yang Qi said, smiling. "Besides, matters like this are for important and powerful people, not weaklings like me. I'm sure things will work out for you. And don't worry, I'm not stupid enough to go telling the House of God Ordainment about what's going on. It wouldn't do me any good at all, and would probably just end with me getting interrogated."

"Very wise and farsighted of you," Cold Jade said, clapping softly. "In all fairness, you're strong enough that you could be a major player in the Crown Prince Society here in the House of God Ordainment. You could probably even rise within the ranks of the Crown Prince Society in general."

"I'll definitely think about it. As long as it benefits me, I'm willing to do anything." Yang Qi was already wondering if this was his ticket into the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty to look for the Mahātmā Jade.

Glancing off in the distance at the other disciples that were fighting fiercely with the hordes of heaven-devils, Cold Jade said, "Alright, since we don't need to kill any more heaven-devils, let's just wait until the six-hour period is up."

**

Meanwhile, in the Law-Enforcement God-Palace, a group of people were in the middle of a discussion. One of them was a young man with long white hair and a vicious expression on his face.

"What?! Are you sure Yang Qi is taking the test? He could have strolled his way to heaven, but instead, he barged into hell."

"Did he really cause such big problems for you, White-Haired Boxer King?" asked a young woman with flaming red hair.

"I'm not in the mood for jokes, Crimson-Maiden Inferno," the White-Haired Boxer King said snidely. "Besides, I heard your ex had a run-in with the brat at Jadefall's banquet. He didn't come out on top, either."

"Don't drag me into this, White-Haired Boxer King," said Exalted Celestial Silver-Dagger. "Your Dragon Society tried to grab that kid to force Jadefall to give you some of the blood of her godling. But your plan completely failed, from what I can tell. And I was just testing the brat at that banquet. The kid's skilled, so in the end, I called it a day. That said, he won't find it as easy to become a law enforcement disciple."

"What, are you saying you're going to try recruiting him?" the White-Haired Boxer King said. "The boy's ambitious, so there's no way he'll play along and follow orders. In fact, he would probably take advantage of you."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things play out. I can see the killing intent in your eyes. Could it be that you're hoping the brat dies in the test? I can't see how that will be easy to pull off."

"It won't do me any good to kill him. Jadefall would look into the matter, and if she got any evidence at all that I was involved, I'd be in trouble." The White-Haired Boxer King chuckled darkly. "Besides, you two aren't exactly on my side. I'm from the Dragon Society, and you two are from the Brilliant Radiance Society. If I hit him when he's down, wouldn't you two take advantage of the situation?"

"Why make us sound so bad?" Exalted Celestial Silver-Dagger said. "That said, the boy did make me lose a lot of face, and I can't just let that slide. The best result would be for him to join the Law-Enforcement God-Palace as one of our subordinates. Considering we're all exam proctors, any of us can perform the final assessment. Who should it be? Me? Or you?"

"What if we do it together?" the White-Haired Boxer King said.

"I want in, too," Crimson-Maiden Inferno said with a charming smile. "He seems like quite the interesting fellow."

The six hours went by quickly. Yang Qi and Cold Jade chatted the entire time. Yang Qi learned that Cold Jade really was about sixteen years old, and was a native of the god world. It was really shocking. In the impure lands, there were old-timers who had lived for millions upon millions of years, but couldn't reach the same level.

Whooosh!

At a certain point, they were teleported out into a temple somewhere. This round of testing was over.

Some people had succeeded in acquiring three heaven-devil king souls. Some had failed, and wouldn't proceed to the next round of testing.

Yang Qi and Cold Jade had both passed, and would continue on.

The next test was one of individual combat. They were put into groups of a hundred, in which only one person would come out on top and go to the next phase of testing.

There was no suspense about how it would play out; Yang Qi easily passed, defeating all his opponents.

Next were tests of will. Participants would face illusions, traps, and spell formations, all of which were very challenging. Except not for Yang Qi.

Over the course of the next three days, he passed all the various rounds of testing, until he reached the final phase: one-on-one exams with official proctors.

1. At this point I want to remind everyone that, as I said many hundreds of chapters ago, the Crown Prince from the early parts of the story did have a name. Crown Prince. That is why I capitalized it. In contrast, the person they are talking about from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty is A crown prince, not THE Crown Prince. In Chinese there is no such visual distinction, because there's no such thing as capitalization in the language. That said, there is a clear difference between the identity and characteristics of the two characters. Furthermore, we do have distinctions of capitalization in English. On the English side, it makes it a lot easier to tell the difference between the two characters.