Sage Monarch

With wings unfurled, one could fly high into the sky.

That was what Yang Qi was thinking.

Unfortunately, although the Sage Monarch Consortium was making headway in the Wasteland Bazaar, it wasn't quite in the position of having its wings unfurled. It needed to build up more resources, gain more experience in conflicts with enemies, maintain an undefeated record, and slowly make sure everyone realized that messing with the Sage Monarch Consortium was a quick way to die.

And he needed Unbounded will to truly accomplish that.

'I need to think of a way to get into the Nacrelight Sageland.' With that, he left the consortium and headed in the direction of the Nacrelight Sageland. The Wasteland Bazaar was huge, to the point where even Yang Qi would need time to fly from one end to the other.

He took the opportunity to take in some of the sights, with the hope of learning more about the Heaven-Wretch Continent, the location where the Wretch God had fallen.

As he flew along, he passed other consortiums that had been built by organizations like the Sage Monarch Society. Some were little more than stalls on the street, while others stretched across tens of thousands of square kilometers.

Yang Qi didn't need to actually enter the other consortiums; he could scan them with his divine will and easily identify what treasures and experts were inside.

Similar to the Sage Monarch Consortium, any consortium that covered an area of at least ten thousand square kilometers would have Perfect Gods present to watch over things.

Yang Qi didn't consider trying to plunder any of the valuable things he saw. He knew that the Perfect Gods would be backed by even stronger forces, otherwise they wouldn't have reached their current level of cultivation. Tangling with forces like those would only cause unneeded complications for the Sage Monarch Consortium.

And any gains made would not make up for the losses incurred.

As for Yang Qi, the only reason he had made such progress was because he had taken advantage of the destiny of the House of God Ordainment. Without it, he would just be a measly rogue cultivator desperately hunting for resources.

True, some of his gains were made by theft. But that theft was only possible because of his status as a disciple of the House of God Ordainment.

The point was that any extremely powerful individual would have impressive backing; it was an ironclad rule.

'Hm. Looks like there's a big consortium up ahead that has some impressive wares.'

He had been casually flying along for some time when he caught sight of something that resembled a school of learning. The people making their way to and fro inside all resembled confucian scholars, and the experts of the dao of devils refused to get too close to it. That was because it pulsed with a righteous, noble aura that repelled wretch-devils.

It covered an area of millions and millions of square meters, and was filled with towering structures of all sorts. Located in the very center of the Wasteland Bazaar, it was very unique in its style.

Yang Qi could sense several extremely powerful auras within it that came from medicinal pills. Clearly, they were pills or talismans that had been made by Paramount Gods, or at least something similar. Regardless, he could tell that they would boost his godpower and psyche.

It was worth taking a look.

Landing outside, he approached and was greeted by some confucian scholars.

"This is the consortium of the Truth Academy. Which organization are you from? Are you here to do business?"

"Er, hello. I'm a disciple from the House of God Ordainment, here in the Wasteland Bazaar for training. I'm hoping to buy some treasures to boost my cultivation base, and everyone talks about how impressive the Truth Academy is. So I decided to come take a look for myself, and see if any of your wares might be worth purchasing." Even as he spoke, he pulled out some godnotes and stuffed them into the palms of the scholars. "Do you mind leading the way for me? What kind of wares do you sell here? I especially need medicinal pills that can boost psychic power and strengthen godhood. Specifically, Unbounded pills."

The scholars stuffed the godnotes away, and at the same time, suddenly turned much more courteous. They were all Lesser Gods, and upon seeing that Yang Qi wasn't a wretch-devil, and was a Consummate God, they didn't dare to be anything but attentive.

"Ah, that's easy."

"We have a big auction house here, and auctions are held there every day. In fact, there's one starting right now. We can take you there."

Everything was easier with money. Yang Qi followed the scholars into the consortium and could see that it was a bustling place. He even saw high officials and noble persons from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty doing business here and there. And he spotted some extremely beautiful women who were obviously from the Nacrelight Sageland. He inwardly nodded at the realization that the Truth Academy was obviously a major force. People from all sorts of other organizations were here, and some even had taken advantage of the magnanimity of the confucians to open auxiliary campuses to provide instruction.

The confucians were a big group in the god world, and nobody wanted to offend them. People from both the righteous and wretched daos feared them, and often admired them. They focused on virtue, didn't fear death, and were generally idealistic.

Their energy arts pulsed with a righteous energy that repelled wretch-devils. And according to the stories, it could actually vanquish the righteous energy of the Sovereign Lord's radiance and light. Supposedly, the Lord of Civilization had been a confucian, which was why he was so adept at creating and preserving civilizations.

A short time later, Yang Qi was at the auction house, which was actually an enormous public square filled with a sea of people. No one from the dao of devils could be seen; because of the righteous energy that filled the academy, such people found it intolerable.

However, Yang Qi noticed that there were some experts from the dao of devils who were in disguise. However, they didn't dare to cause trouble, and were obviously only there in the hopes of taking advantage of the auction.

Everything was very orderly, which was a big exception to how things usually worked in the Wasteland Bazaar.

The auction had already started. Yang Qi didn't put in any bids; but just watched the buzz of activity, and kept an eye on who was participating.

At a certain point, he noticed that some officials from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty were in a frenzied bidding war with some experts from the Nacrelight Sageland. The two groups were diametrically opposed, and Yang Qi was thinking of using that as a way to somehow get into the Nacrelight Sageland.

Suddenly, Yang Qi realized that there was a top expert from the Nacrelight Sageland present in one of the private booths. It was a young woman who had already purchased quite a few treasures. She lay sprawled on a divan of icy snow, attended by a host of beautiful handmaidens. Of course, without his Lord's Eye, Yang Qi would never have noticed her.

'She's a peak Consummate God, and is half a step into the Unbounded level,' he thought. 'I wonder if I can get an audience with her.'

Heart pounding, he decided to wait a bit before taking action.

The auction went on for several hours, until a treasure appeared that caused the entire auction floor to erupt into a frenzy.

"Ladies and gentlemen," announced the confucian auctioneer, a Perfect God, "we are now offering a flower of wisdom up for auction. We discovered it while exploring some ancient ruins, and according to rumor, it can be added to over three thousand varieties of rare medicinal ingredients, and if refined by a Paramount God using the pill formula created by the Lord of Wisdom, it can create a Wisdom and Knowledge God Pill. With such a pill, a peak Perfect God will find it much easier to break through to the Unbounded level of will convergence. Unfortunately, our institute lacks the requisite pill formula, thus, we're offering it up for auction. Please, let the bidding begin."

Yang Qi immediately sensed that the woman in the private booth had become very nervous, as though she very much wanted to acquire the flower of wisdom.

'She must have come here specifically for this flower,' Yang Qi thought. 'And that means she must have the pill formula for that Wisdom and Knowledge God Pill, and possibly all the other medicinal ingredients as well. So how do I get in to see her? There's no way being a disciple of the House of God Ordainment will be enough. I think I need to change identities.'

All of a sudden, he remembered that he happened to have a very strange fleshly body in reserve. It was the scholar he had found in the Chaos Forge God-Shrine on the Toxic Continent. It was possible to tell just by looking at the corpse that the man had been a confucian.

It seemed like the perfect disguise.

Women from the Nacrelight Sageland generally abhorred men and would refuse to have dealings with them. But ironically, because of their incredible beauty, men would scramble like a flock of wild ducks to pursue them. Some of the women couldn't help but yearn for love, and would make exceptions when it came to certain men. And women were usually more tolerant of scholars.

This could very well be the ticket he needed.

Yang Qi surreptitiously switched his fleshly body with that of the confucian scholar. No one around him noticed the change.

His old body was no more, having been sucked into his godhood. Taking over another body was a simple matter that involved putting one's godhood and will into the new body.

Yang Qi felt very different. There were certain aspects of this scholar's body that he didn't understand, but he could tell that it was immensely powerful. Its sea of energy was like a black hole that seemed to constantly consume massive amounts of godpower.

RUMBLE!

Every move he made drained his monarch godhood by about half. Thankfully, he had the God Legion Seal to fill it back up, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to walk, much less fly.

This being his first time inside this body, he was completely shocked. 'How could this body be so strong? Was this guy a Paramount God? I'd say it's highly likely. How could anyone other than a Paramount God be this strong?'

Unfortunately, it wasn't easy to control a body like this, and he couldn't even unleash godpower outside of it.

Thankfully, he had the God Legion Seal to compensate.

More than ever, he was convinced that, in life, this scholar had been some inconceivably powerful individual.

After getting used to the new body, he looked up and saw that the auction of the flower of wisdom was nearing its end.