Sage Monarch

The junior houselord was fuming with intense rage. He had created what he thought was a seamless plan that would manipulate the rules of the House of God Ordainment to strike a mortal blow on the Sage Monarch Society. But now, the chief elders had all gone into seclusion and were ignoring him. Even the most foolish dolt in the world would realize that something had gone awry.

The junior houselord knew exactly what was going on. Yang Qi had been appointed a child of primeval chaos, which meant the junior houselord now had another major antagonist to deal with. If the junior houselord wanted to seize power, he would have to destroy the Sage Monarch Society or die trying.

The chief elders that were still in the presence of the junior houselord quickly tried to offer explanations. "We're going to look into the situation, Junior Houselord. I refuse to believe that there aren't any clues. Unfortunately, now that Yang Qi is a child of primeval chaos, he has the same status as you. That means not even elders from the Law-Enforcement God-Palace can punish him. It's going to be very difficult to do anything to him. It was bad enough that we had Jadefall to deal with, but now Yang Qi is a factor. I'm afraid you're in real danger."

"Either the fish dies, or the net splits. If I have to, I'll take them down with me into death. If only they would leave the sect on a mission or something. Then I could have some Perfect Gods from the dao of devils ambush them. The third prince has connections with the League of the Devil-Dao and the League of Wretch-Gods, and is planning to use them against the crown prince."

"The League of the Devil-Dao and the League of Wretch-Gods?" one of the chief elders said. "The wretch-gods and devil-gods are ruthless, vicious, and greedy. Working with them is asking a tiger for its skin."

"That doesn't have anything to do with us," the junior houselord replied. "As long as some of their experts can help us get rid of the Sage Monarch Society, it'll be worth it. Right now, I need to pay whatever price is necessary to break through to the Unbounded level. I'm a peak Perfect God right now, just on the verge of Unbounded will convergence. If I break through, I'll be on the same level as the crown prince. In fact, then the third prince would have to take orders from me, instead of me having to bow and scrape like I do now."

"That's right. The House of God Ordainment has never had an Unbounded expert. If you could reach that level, you'd be the first throughout all history. And then you could absolutely crush the Sage Monarch Society."

"Unfortunately, I don't have enough medicinal pills or magical treasures for that, and I'm not sure where to get them. Although, I heard that the Nacrelight Sageland has one of the top ten godflowers of all time, the heaven-fate godflower. If I could get it, I'd surely be able to reach the Unbounded level."

"You absolutely, positively must not think along those lines, Junior Houselord," another chief elder said. "The Nacrelight Sageland is a big enemy of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, and we're an ally of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty. As soon as they realized who you are, they'll kill you."

"I'll be fine," the junior houselord said, laughing. "I already have contacts in the Nacrelight Sageland. The Eternal-Life God-Dynasty wants to control us, but we can play both sides against each other. You see, the Nacrelight Sageland wants to take advantage of us too. We've actually been communicating with them for some time now, and as long as we can harm the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, they'll reward us. Right now, Jadefall is the adopted daughter of the supreme concubine, and the Sage Monarch Society in general is being supported by the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty. So we simply use the third prince to take down the Sage Monarch Society, then hand them over to the Nacrelight Sageland for the bounty. After that, well...."

"You're a real genius, Junior Houselord!"

Multiple chief elders made similar expressions of praise.

"I'll go talk to my contact in the Nacrelight Sageland," the junior houselord said, and then he faded from sight.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi had called a meeting of his people in one of the halls of the Sage Monarch Society's headquarters. The Sage Monarch Society had grown much larger and more powerful over the past three years. Their headquarters rose up in the middle of the House of God Ordainment's god kingdom, and above the main gate was a sign that shone with golden light: Sage Monarch God Temple.

While Yang Qi had been spending time reaching the Consummate God level and achieving half-Unbounded will convergence, his people weren't sitting around wasting time. They were all mid or late Greater Gods, and it seemed a given that they would break through to the Consummate God level within five or ten years.

Ascendants were different from ordinary people, and that was especially true of Yang Qi's friends and family, who had been remolded with the God Legion Seal. That made it possible for them to achieve even faster cultivation speeds than should have been possible. Furthermore, Yang Immortal-Slayer had brought gifts with him on his return visit, things that had provided even more cultivation benefits.

Looking around at them, Yang Qi nodded in approval. Unfortunately, they still had a lot of room for improvement if they wanted to stand up to Proud Heaven in the future.

According to King Immortal-Slayer, major unrest would soon visit the god world, and Yang Qi was firmly convinced that he was right. It would likely be similar to what happened years ago with the Sovereign Lord. And if the river of time reached its end and was destroyed, the god world would end and the legion of gods would perish. It would truly be doomsday.

Right now, he had no idea what he would do if that happened.

"Yang Qi, did you really defeat seven chief elders when you went to the Hall of Promotions?" asked the Shepherd. "It seems we finally have a truly powerful expert in the Sage Monarch Society."

"No, not yet. Only those with Unbounded will convergence are true experts. That's why I'm planning to try to find the other pieces of the Mahātmā Jade. Friends, I need your help."

"What do you need us to do?" Jadefall asked. "As long as you can find those other pieces of the Mahātmā Jade, you'll definitely reach Unbounded will convergence. And then we won't have to fear anyone."

"Locating its general position will be simple. I've already given you my Sage Monarch Grand Magic, which is divided into ten sections: Sage, Monarch, Ruler, Emperor, Sovereign, Lord, Hero, Hegemon, God, and Nothing. They encapsulate everything there is to be. Imperial-heaven pre-beginning powers, heavenly workings calculations, the Unspoiled Body, the power of godmammoths, the purrling, the Great Necropolis. They've all been combined into a dao of my very own. And all of you have a dao within it. Jadefall, you command the dao of the lord. Brahma, the dao of the sage. Shepherd, the dao of the hegemon. Proud World, the dao of the hero. Doom, the dao of the god. Eldest Brother, the dao of the monarch. Sword Seventeen, the dao of the sovereign. Patriarch Annalist, the dao of the emperor. Sectlord Will Manifestation, the dao of the ruler. Everyone else will be the dharmic guards who prevent anyone from entering the spell formation I'm about to create."

"Alright!"

Everyone sat down and got into position. Then Yang Qi loosed his psychic power, filling the area and causing a god kingdom to slowly form.

As the group drew on the Sage Monarch Grand Magic, nine shadowy images appeared behind Yang Qi. During the past three years in which he had fused his energy arts to an even higher level, his Sage Monarch Grand Magic had reached an incredible state. Furthermore, he had been drawing on the nation-fate of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, enabling him to create bodies related to the sovereign and the emperor.

There were actually ten aspects to the art, but the central-most one, Nothing, was not yet ready.

Therefore, the nine projections entered the bodies of his nine brethren, who shivered as their thoughts all merged together.

In the blink of an eye, ten days and ten nights passed.

The sky filled with dazzling colors as a huge spell formation took shape, with the God Legion Seal in the middle, and the Mahātmā Jade present as well. A huge river of psychic power was constantly flowing.

Eventually, an image appeared, seemingly without any order to it, a boundless cycle of flashing light. The group poured their psychic power into it, until images from the god world eventually appeared within it. No one knew how large the god world was, or exactly how many experts lurked within it. Not even Paramount Gods who could pierce through space were able to completely map the god world, and Yang Qi was no exception.

The image resolved into a landmass of extraordinary beauty, filled with flowers, streams, and mountains. Rain fell, and beautiful women danced about. There was no fighting or killing; everything was happy and blessed. In fact, there weren't even any men in this land.

There were ancient cities in the middle of it, perfectly built, with streams flowing through them. And in the middle of the countless cities bloomed an enormous lotus.

It wasn't a real flower, but rather a god kingdom, floating in the middle of a lake so green it looked like it was made from liquefied jade.

"The Nacrelight Sageland?" Everyone immediately realized what they were looking at. It was the colossal organization of women known as the Nacrelight Sageland, the biggest enemy of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty.

Within its depths, psychic power seethed as Yang Qi caught sight of a piece of jade floating in the air.

At that point, the image slowly faded away. He had located another piece of the Mahātmā Jade. Unexpectedly, it was in the Nacrelight Sageland.

"Right," Jadefall said. "During the past three years, I became privy to a lot more secret information, including details from the supreme concubine. Now it all makes sense. The Eternal-Life God-Dynasty and the Nacrelight Sageland have long since been fighting over a treasure trove from the dao of devils. Supposedly, it was left behind by the ancient halls of heaven. They fought fiercely over until finally splitting it, each one of them taking half. It must have been a piece of the Mahātmā Jade!"

"In that case, there's no question about what to do next," Yang Qi said. "The Nacrelight Sageland has a piece of the Mahātmā Jade, although finding it and getting it is going to be very, very difficult. I need to slip in there, find it, and put my mark on it. Then I can summon it to me from a distance later. Unfortunately, getting into the Nacrelight Sageland is going to be a lot harder than infiltrating the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty. After all, the mountains in the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty are remnants of the ancient halls of heaven, so my God Legion Seal is particularly effective against them, and made it impossible for anyone to detect me. If I'd been caught by a Paramount God, I would've been killed."

"So what do we do?" Jadefall asked. "Should I go? After all, the Nacrelight Sageland is made up only of women. Any men who go there get enslaved."

"No, you can't go. You're the adopted daughter of the supreme concubine, and they surely know that. If they catch you, they'll kill you. I actually have a foolproof plan."