Sage Monarch

Eventually, Yang Qi caught sight of what appeared to be vast fields of wheat, all of them just beginning to bear fruit. And it emanated an aura reminiscent of the preheaven beginnings of the god world and the universe.

He was secretly shocked at this Harvestland, which wasn't a god kingdom, but a brewing fragment of the primal-chaos of the god world itself, instead.

He opened his Lord's Eye and saw how each stalk of wheat was fully three thousand meters tall. Furthermore, what they were growing wasn't actually wheat, but fetuses, all of them pulsing with immense godhood.

It was extremely bizarre.

"This is the Harvestland?" Yang Qi said, looking around. "What are those things?"

"This is where the Crown Prince is growing his thrall army," God-King Ruthless said. "Don't ask too many questions. The Harvestland was originally a fragment of the god world that existed in ancient primal-chaos. The crown prince acquired it, then used a powerful divine ability to turn it into a smaller version of the god world. As for the crops, they're actually the result of an ancient and boundless organic technology that combines psychic and daoist techniques to create preheaven martial-god soldier-kings. Right now, they're only just beginning to grow.

"Most people assume the crown prince is only putting on a show of strength. But the truth is that his power comes from these martial-god soldier-kings. They require a huge amount of power to grow, and numerous perfect caliber godstones. In addition, they require all sorts of preheaven precious treasures and medicinal ingredients. They'll eventually form the most powerful army in existence. In fact, these troops were originally designed to fight the Sovereign Lord and the halls of heaven, specifically, to counter the angels."

"Martial-god soldier-kings?" Yang Qi frowned, never having heard of thralls like this before.

In the impure lands, immortal worlds, and the god world, thralls were a necessary aspect of all major organizations. And the mightiest of all thralls were angels, whose fighting prowess was second to none. Only slightly below them were the various forces of the Devilfolk, including the bronzeblaze fiend-devils, dark-gloom paleo-devils, asuras, and infernals, all of which had started out as thralls.

Later, the thralls became free, then proliferated and created new societies of their own.

As for what exact kind of thrall these martial-god soldier-kings were, Yang Qi had no idea. But he did know that the power on display in this Harvestland was incredible. It connected to the essence of the god world, and was absorbing all sorts of destiny.

As they neared the Harvestland's borders, they could sense an immense power pushing against them, something completely unsurpassable. But then Nie Yinyang released a fluctuation of energy, which became a talisman that sank into the defensive shield.

That allowed them to pass into the fields. As they proceeded toward the middle of the Harvestland, they eventually reached an enormous altar, upon which sat a single individual who emanated the aura of a Paramount God. It was none other than the crown prince.

That altar was designed to absorb the fate of a nation and bring it here, to the middle of the Harvestland. It was a nation-fate altar.

The crown prince was absorbing the nation-fate of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty and using it to create his martial-god soldier-kings. It was a clear case of taking advantage of public assets for personal use, and if he continued doing this, the nation-fate of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty would eventually dry up.

That said, the martial-god soldier-kings were obviously the crown prince's secret weapon, and once he finished creating them, he would be invincible.

These martial-god soldier-kings were completely beyond the compare of the reserve power of the House of God Ordainment.

RUMBLE!

As they approached, the crown prince turned, and Yang Qi could see that he looked exactly like the Crown Prince from the impure lands. He was burly, and emanated the aura one would expect from the Son of Heaven. He was completely domineering, like an emperor who commanded the great dao, and understood both yin and yang. When he opened his mouth, he issued imperial decrees, and when he closed his mouth, night fell for all eternity.

'It's him. The real crown prince!' Yang Qi quickly dropped down and kowtowed. "I am your humble servant, Yang Qi. My respects, Crown Prince. Congratulations on becoming a Paramount God! May you be invincible for tens of thousands of years! May you—"

"Hmph!" The crown prince interrupted with a snort that rumbled like thunder. "I spent a lot of resources grooming you, Yang Qi. But you can't even keep the Sage Monarch Society in check? They've taken over seventy percent of the House of God Ordainment! Now, admit to your crimes!"

"Your humble servant is deserving of death ten thousand times over!" Yang Qi blabbered. Inwardly, he was assessing the crown prince, and he came to realize that the man was extremely enigmatic. Furthermore, he was impossible to read clearly. But one thing was for sure: he definitely surpassed any ordinary Paramount God.

Yang Qi's original plan had been to assess whether or not this crown prince would be easy to deal with. If he was, then Yang Qi would simply have killed him, or at least used his commander's tally and other secret weapons to force him to submit. Then he could take over the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty with ease.

Given the current level of Yang Qi's cultivation base, he could definitely kill an ordinary Paramount God. But the crown prince wasn't ordinary in any sense of the word. If they started fighting, Yang Qi had no idea if he could come out on top. In fact, he was sure that he couldn't win. At best, they might seriously injure each other. And that would just be beating the grass and startling the snake, thus making things difficult for the House of God Ordainment, where he still had a lot of work to do.

Furthermore, Yang Qi could now see that the crown prince was even willing to take the nation-fate of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty to grow his martial-god soldier-kings. It made sense. Clearly, this crown prince operated in just the same fashion as the Crown Prince from the impure lands.

"You're not going to argue?" the crown prince said, clearly surprised that Yang Qi had simply admitted guilt.

"If your humble servant has failed in his tasks, he will accept any punishment he deserves!" In order to make his show of subservience complete, Yang Qi drew on the Life-Death Void-Destruction Lightning. For someone who wasn't in the Unbounded level, he wouldn't have had to resort to such methods. But the crown prince was just too formidable to fool easily.

'It seems this crown prince is probably on the same level as me. But he definitely has secret weapons up his sleeves, and if he used them, I might not be able to win a fight. But if he thinks he can defeat me, he'll find it's much harder than he supposes. Furthermore, I have a big advantage. He's out in the open, whereas my advantages are hidden. And it's easy to dodge an open spear, but hard to ward off a hidden arrow. So I may as well be as merciless as can be. I'll show him what it means to break the bones and suck the marrow. I'm going to take all of his secret weapons away from him!'

"Good," the crown prince said. "I like your attitude. If you fail, live up to it. I hate people who avoid responsibility, or people who try to argue when they're at fault. Those are the people I just kill immediately. But since you've admitted your crimes, I won't punish you. I've seen the chaos in the House of God Ordainment, and I know that the sect has split into two factions. That said, its destiny continues to grow. In fact, it's already many times stronger than before. Perhaps a hundred times. So what exactly is going on? It seems to me there are only two possibilities. One is that the sect has been growing so much that some imperial dynasty has thrown their support behind it. But only the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty could do something like that, and we haven't given them our open support. Which leaves only the Nacrelight Sageland. That said, I don't see why the Nacrelight Sageland would support them, nor why it would lead to such an increase in destiny. It would require a huge investment, and multiple Paramount Gods working together. And why would the Nacrelight Sageland work so hard to do something like that?"

"There is merit to your speculation, Crown Prince," Nie Yinyang said. "Mother Voidwalker from the Nacrelight Sageland has thrown her support behind the Sage Monarch Consortium. That said, her personal wealth wouldn't be enough. From what I've heard, there are countless experts rising up in the Sage Monarch Society."

"In that case, there's a second possibility. Perhaps the sect discovered an ancient treasure trove. That would explain their soaring destiny. Remember, long ago, our Eternal-Life God-Dynasty was only a tiny court. But the founding emperor discovered a treasure storehouse of the ancient halls of heaven. After that, we expanded rapidly and conquered everything in our path. It seems to me that the Sage Monarch Society, and by extension the House of God Ordainment, are in a similar situation. Don't you agree, Yang Qi?"

"You are a person of outstanding ability and grand vision, Crown Prince," Yang Qi replied, bowing respectfully. "You're exactly right. According to what I've heard, Jadefall found a treasure trove belonging to the ancient legion of gods. I'm not sure what exactly it contained, as I don't have Jadefall's complete trust at the moment. She's not going to reveal such secrets to me."

The crown prince nodded. "That's no surprise. She wouldn't reveal the truth of such matters even to her most trusted confidants. I don't even tell my secrets to my father. Yang Qi, do you know the purpose of my Harvestland?"

"To grow martial-god soldier-kings?" Yang Qi replied. "Unfortunately, I'm ignorant and ill-informed, so I'm not actually sure what martial-god soldier-kings are."

"It's not that you're ignorant and ill-informed. Martial-god soldier-kings have never appeared in the world before. Only a handful of Paramount Gods know about them. They're the ultimate type of thrall, created by a secret method devised in ancient times. They were originally designed to fight angels, and the only reason I can grow them is because I happened across four hundred and eighty million martial-god soldier-king seeds. After planting them in an ancient section of primeval chaos and feeding them with the nation-fate of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, I've been able to grow them to the fetus stage. There's still a long way to go before they're complete. Now that the House of God Ordainment's aura is increasing, I want you to take control of the Sage Monarch Society, then give its destiny to me."