Sage Monarch

Yang Qi really hadn't considered the possibility of simply purchasing a piece of the Mahātmā Jade. Perhaps if he made payments, slowly building up to three thousand perfect caliber godstones, he might be able to avoid attracting undue notice. If he pulled them all out in one lump sum, he would definitely make himself a big target, and probably end up losing his life.

Right now, he needed to go through with the baptism, reach the Unbounded level, and gain enlightenment of his new powers. Then he could go through with the purchase.

"I'm very curious what this baptism is all about," Yang Qi said. "Viceroy, please lead the way."

"Of course. Come right this way." Ser Temple led Yang Qi deeper into his mansion, a trip through numerous winding corridors that took a full hour. Eventually, they stepped into a teleportation portal and vanished.

The actual teleportation process took a full four hours. When they emerged, Yang Qi looked around and saw an altar set up in the middle of the void. It was surrounded by the most quiet and still of auras, which made it seem particularly majestic.

It was covered with complex silver designs, through which pulsed holy power that provoked a reaction from his God Legion Seal. It was almost as if the seal was familiar with the power.

'This really is a place where the Sovereign Lord baptized gods in the distant past,' he thought. 'I wonder how these nine Paramount Gods plan to perform the baptism on me.'

"Please have a seat, Patriarch Bloodcloak, and begin praying. Before long, the wills of the nine Paramount Gods will pierce through the void and bless you. You mustn't speak or cry out during the baptism, and you must avoid any extraneous thoughts. Remain calm and pious. That will ensure the best result."

"Alright!" Yang Qi said, sitting down.

With that, Ser Temple left.

Two hours passed, then rustling sounds could be heard as the flags adorning the altar lifted up as if a breeze was passing through. Lightning appeared in the dome of heaven, creating a dense web of electricity that resembled dancing dragons. The electricity gradually transformed into talismans that descended like flower petals, immortals, goddesses, and angels, surrounded by the chant of holy hymns.

Bzzzzzzzz!

Tranquil and majestic power flowed into Yang Qi's mind, piercing all the way to his sea of energy. Godpower filled his sea of consciousness, extruding impurities from his flesh and blood. At the same time, power rose from the altar, transforming his fleshly body and causing him to pulse with a holy power that made him glow with radiant light.

'Very domineering power. This is a really dramatic transformation. And the power is on par with that of the High Priestess, or perhaps even beyond that level. I wonder exactly who these Paramount Gods are.' Yang Qi reached out with his psyche, following the power to its source. Eventually, he saw a distant god kingdom in which existed the immense projection of some spectacular figure. And seated next to that figure were nine experts.

Each of those experts were roughly on the same level as the Lord of the True Void. They were mid Paramount Gods, and when they combined their power, it was hard to say exactly what level they would match up to.

'Patriarch Deva himself? With nine of his apprentices? That immense figure must be Patriarch Deva, and it looks like he's a late Paramount God. Not quite at the peak, but close to it. That means he's not on the level of the Lord of Civilization. He needs another breakthrough first.'

As Yang Qi observed, he manipulated his 'Patriarch Bloodcloak' form to accept the power of the baptism and store it in a devil embryo. Later, he would send it to Jadefall via teleportation, to help her reach the Unbounded level.

There were definitely hidden dangers within the power of the baptism, but with the God Legion Seal, he could cleanse it for use by his friends and family.

"Hmm?"

He suddenly sensed a new development. The immense figure that he took to be Patriarch Deva had stirred, waving a finger and sending a beam of lightning-like light piercing out, filled with a myriad of transformations. Soon, Yang Qi saw a lake of lightning building up, which then rumbled down toward him.

A moment later, he found himself surrounded by the lightning, which was actually pure psychic power.

In the god world, it was a sign of incredible skill and power to be able to use psychic power to create a lake of lightning.

In the blink of an eye, the lightning caused profound transformations within him.

The old fleshly body of 'Patriarch Bloodcloak' dissolved into ash, and a new fleshly body was formed.

Lightning appeared within his godhood, as well as his sea of consciousness, immense psychic power that could dry up rivers and drain seas.

"Retract!" nine voices said in unison, and nine streams of power retracted. Then, one of the voices said, "Master, why did you join in on the baptism of this person? Normally, we nine apprentices handle such things. Your version requires at least two hundred perfect caliber godstones, which means we won't make any profit at all. This guy is just some patriarch from the dao of devils. Is he really worth your time and effort?"

"During the course of observing the baptism," Patriarch Deva replied, "I noticed some interesting aspects of this young patriarch from the dao of devils. So I decided to take a closer look. Don't worry. I'll make sure you all benefit from this, and that your psyches will improve dramatically. You see, I implanted him with a Deva Psychic God-Lightning Seed in order to see what secrets he's keeping. All I need you nine to do is keep a close eye on him. Incidentally, don't forget about that young man from the Proud Clan. He's no minor figure. He accepted ten baptisms from us, yet managed to negate all of the side-effects. He even reached the Unbounded level afterward."

"We understand, Master."

The psychic fluctuations of their conversation were minute, but Yang Qi could pick up on them.

Heart pounding, Yang Qi drew on his own power to scan himself. It took effort, but he finally saw something entangling his soul. If it weren't for the fact that he already had some of Patriarch Deva's aura in his God Legion Seal, it would have been impossible, and he would have suffered significant harm.

As the lightning settled down into a rippling lake, pulsing with power, it made it seem like he was just on the verge of being able to rise to the Unbounded level.

However, he knew it was an illusion. That immense power was actually a restriction on him, something that would make it eternally impossible for him to achieve further breakthroughs.

Of course, it was the doing of the Deva Dynasty.

'Hmph! After I leave this place, I'll negate those restrictions. Patriarch Deva was once a minor god in the service of the Sovereign Lord. He may have reached incredible heights since them, but what do I have to fear from him? The God Legion Seal can destroy warding spells put in place by Paramount Gods as if they were nothing. Jadefall might not be able to use this power to experience a breakthrough, but it will still be a big upgrade for her. And if I go through more baptisms, it will help the rest of my friends and family, too.'

The fluctuations settled down, and Yang Qi was already thinking of the specific way to negate the magic.

A moment later, Ser Temple returned. Smiling, he said, "The baptism is over, Patriarch Bloodcloak. How do you feel?"

"It was worth more than I paid! I'll head back now to work on my cultivation and absorb everything I just received. After I'm done, I'll be back for another purchasing deal!" He followed Ser Temple back, then returned to Bloodcloak Island and went into seclusion.

Using the teleportation portal he had created, he sent everything back to the House of God Ordainment, both the resources he had purchased and the devil embryo.

Of course, that devil embryo was covered with countless talismans from the God Legion Seal, locking it down.

Inside it was the warding spell Patriarch Deva had cast into Yang Qi, which he was now giving to Jadefall for her benefit.

Filled with lightning, the devil embryo was fully nine meters tall and glittered with incisive light.

As usual, the teleportation process took seven days.

Afterward, the Cruiser of Civilization had that enormous lightning-filled devil embryo resting within it. Jadefall had analyzed the message from Yang Qi and was preparing to assimilate the embryo.

Yang Immortal-Slayer was by her side, using his own Unbounded will convergence to help her.

"This lightning is incredibly powerful," Yang Immortal-Slayer said. "A Paramount God used one of the Sovereign Lord's tools of baptism to unleash it. It's even more incredible than the power I received from the sacrifice of the High Priestess. I'll help you break it down to use for your own benefit, Jadefall. You'll definitely have a chance to break through to the Unbounded level. This is the equivalent of ten thousand years of bitter cultivation."

"Okay, let's begin. Activate the powers of the Cruiser of Civilization to use on the devil embryo. And also, let's distribute the resources Yang Qi purchased for our core disciples in the Sage Monarch Society. We're going to rise to even higher levels of power now."

With that, she began a major session of cultivation.

Yang Qi had purchased an unimaginable collection of resources that the disciples of the Sage Monarch Society couldn't even fully benefit from. Therefore, they began a new recruitment drive....

The House of God Ordainment was growing rapidly, adding one new city after another.

And its destiny quickly tripled.

Eternal Millennium watched all this from the Harvestland and sighed in delight. 'The House of God Ordainment is performing far better than I ever expected. Ever since Yang Immortal-Slayer reached the Unbounded level, it's been expanding like crazy. I wonder where they're getting all the resources for this. Not even the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty would be able to keep up this pace!'