Sage Monarch

'Apparently this eunuch Nie Yinyang is actually more terrifying than God-King Ruthless.' Yang Qi immediately started thinking of how to deal with him. Glancing at his brethren, he hurried over and clasped hands respectfully. "I am your humble servant, Yang Qi of the Crown Prince Society. My respects, Your Excellency."

Clasping his hands behind his back, the eunuch said, "I'm Nie Yinyang. Presumably Dream Daylily mentioned me to you. I've been watching your performance here in the Sage Hall over the past two months, and you've done well. You and these friends of yours are all people of exceptional ability. You're even more impressive than the imperial disciples. Among people in the same level as you, I doubt anyone exists that could be considered your match. Word has spread in the imperial clan, and no one dares to take you lightly. You've done well with the blessing you were given to be able to train here in the Sage Hall."

"Yes. Many thanks for your words of praise, Your Excellency. Although, I should make it clear that my brethren here aren't interested in joining the Crown Prince Society yet. I'm still working on that. Furthermore, Jadefall and the supreme concubine, well—"

"There's no need for any further explanation. Everyone knows about the supreme concubine helping Jadefall. And it's common knowledge that the supreme concubine opposes the crown prince. I won't hold that against you. I know that you received training from God-King Ruthless, and that you're completely loyal to the crown prince. Furthermore, I can sense the crown prince's aura on you. The crown prince is interested in meeting you, but he was delayed in the Eternal Void, where he went to search for the opportunity to become a Paramount God, but ended up in a big fight with some other Paramount Gods. In any case, because of that, he can't see you."

Yang Qi immediately plastered a look of disappointment on his face.

"That said," Nie Yinyang continued, "he's already spent a huge amount of effort grooming you, so he ordered me to take you from this place and escort you to the imperial treasure storehouse and let you pick a treasure as a reward. How about that?"

"The imperial treasure storehouse?" Yang Qi's heart immediately soared. The whole point of this venture was to get into that storehouse, and up to this point the most progress he had made was determining its general location. He had infected quite a few people here with devil embryos, allowing him to spy on their thoughts and memories. Using that method, it hadn't been very hard to track the place down.

Once the opportunity arose, he had planned to sneak in and take the piece of the Mahātmā Jade.

By drawing on the piece of the jade he already had in his possession, he was able to sense the general presence of the other piece nearby. Furthermore, he had recently used his monarch godhood to create a Sagelight Body, which would allow him to travel through these mountains undetected.

"Let's go!" Eunuch Nie Yinyang said. Grabbing Yang Qi, he flew up, leaving the Sage Hall and heading over toward another nearby mountain. Given the ease with which Nie Yinyang moved about, it was obvious how powerful he was in the imperial city. Apparently, he was the majordomo that oversaw all of the eunuchs on staff. Furthermore, from the way he had easy access to the treasure storehouse, it was clear how influential the crown prince was.

They soon arrived at a mountain that shone with intense radiance and light that was shaped into a powerful spell formation, and was guarded by powerful Consummate and Perfect Gods.

Nie Yinyang landed, and numerous streams of energy shot toward him. However, when they reached him, they immediately backed down as they realized he was their superior.

"Our respects, Majordomo," the eunuchs chorused, dropping to their knees.

"Open the treasure storehouse," he said. "The crown prince has given orders to take this person inside to select a treasure or medicinal pill as a reward."

"Yes sir."

The eunuch guards immediately complied, and Nie Yinyang led Yang Qi inside.

Looking around, Yang Qi saw that the entire interior of the mountain had been hollowed out and restructured into a huge storehouse filled with goods. Medicinal pills, building materials, magical treasures, spell formation charts, godstones, god corpses, godhood, antiques, and even stacks upon stacks of ancient records.

It was too much to take in with a single glance. That said, Yang Qi couldn't care less about all of the ordinary treasures. He sent his divine will out, and drew on the power of his Sagelight Body to connect to the vital energy inside the mountain as he searched for the Mahātmā Jade.

One thing was certain: the jade was here.

Earlier, he wouldn't have been able to do anything untoward with Nie Yinyang present. But the past two months of cultivation had put him so close to the Greater God level that not even a Perfect God would be able to kill him. Furthermore, he had the crown prince's aura and the sagelight of the God Legion Seal. As long as he played his cards right, there was no way Nie Yinyang would notice a thing.

Truth be told, this was only an outer section of the storehouse; there were interior sections that not even Nie Yinyang could access.

As Yang Qi looked around, he sent his Sagelight Body ahead into the deeper parts of the storehouse. The Sagelight Body was made from the very same kind of sagelight that filled the imperial city, and was bolstered by the aura of the crown prince and the God Legion Seal. Because of that, it could move about freely, regardless of what spell formations were set up.

Soon, his Sagelight Body was in the depths of the storehouse, passing numerous enormous spell formations that were designed to instantly kill anyone who entered them. If he had gone into this place with his true self, he would have instantly been discovered. But his Sagelight Body was impossible to detect.

Truth be told, there were some very impressive treasures here, but in the end, he wanted to stay focused on the Mahātmā Jade. If what he had heard was correct, the Paramount Gods of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty had studied the Mahātmā Jade, but hadn't learned much of anything from it. Supposedly, a few people had even experienced cultivation deviation because of it, which eventually gave it the reputation of being inauspicious.

Of course, if a Paramount God had been in possession of it right at that moment, Yang Qi wouldn't have any chance of getting it. But considering it was known to drive people crazy, and even absorb the psychic power of anyone who worked with it for too long, few people were interested in getting too close to it. Therefore, it was kept locked up in the storehouses, suppressed by the very mountains of radiance and light whose power the Sovereign Lord had used to suppress the True Devil.

In other words, it was the perfect situation for Yang Qi.

'Wow, there are so many treasures here,' he thought, looking around with the Sagelight Body. It was a dazzling sight, but he knew he couldn't take anything, or he would be discovered.

He could look, but not touch. In other words, he was window shopping.

'What's that?' It was the corpse of a Perfect God, a boundless entity from ancient times. He also caught sight of numerous high-quality medicinal pills, as well as some of the items belonging to the seventy-two monarchs. And there were spell formations that could lock down entities as strong as Paramount Gods.

He even caught sight of a fragment of a spacecraft that he instantly identified as the godhood manufacturing systems of the Cruiser of Civilization. Here it was, abandoned in a storehouse! Without the imperial-heaven pre-beginning systems, Engine of the One God, genetic systems, power assessment systems, and the like, the godhood manufacturing systems weren't particularly useful.

'Hot damn. If I grabbed this stuff I would be discovered immediately. But if Yang Immortal-Slayer could complete the Cruiser of Civilization, it would definitely be strong enough to create a god kingdom superior to that of the House of God Ordainment.'

Yang Qi couldn't help but drool over what he saw. However, he kept his excitement in check.

Continuing on, he passed through a destructive spell formation in which he saw numerous flowers. Strangely, one of the flowers lacked petals, consisting only of stamens, which was when he realized it was the missing part of the flower of time he had taken from the Chaos Forge God-Shrine. If he could complete the Flower of Time, he could unleash its powers and alter time itself. And with it in his monarch godhood, he would definitely reach a much higher level of formidability. In fact, he had no idea what exactly would happen if he did that.

Unfortunately, he could only look, not touch.

Continuing on, he saw all sorts of treasures. And as he proceeded, the vital energy grew stronger and stronger, as did the sensation of history. From what he could tell, it had been thousands upon thousands of years since anyone had been in this place.

All of a sudden, his Sagelight Body caught sight of something up ahead. It was an ancient piece of jade, resting on a magical altar.

It was only a fragment, half the size of a palm, but the designs that had been etched on its surface depicted hell and the dao of devils. They contained profound meanings, and were similar to the ten thousand tribulation characters from the sheepskin scroll.

It was the piece of the Mahātmā Jade he had been looking for.

'Incredible. I've been dreaming of this moment for a long time. Nobody else can use that thing, as it turns into a disaster for them. But in my hands, it's on the same level as the God Legion Seal.'