Sage Monarch

As she approached, Princess Charming smiled and said in a honey-sweet voice, "Mister Second, how has your cultivation been progressing lately? Can you give me any tips about the fundamental nature of the dao of devils?"

Anyone who wasn't careful would fall into the sweetness of her voice and be forever lost.

She was calling Yang Qi 'Mister Second' because although he was in disguise as the Second Devil General, there was no way Patriarch Deva would want word spreading that a consummate devil general from ancient times was present. Therefore, he had his people address Yang Qi as 'Mister Second'.

Not even Princess Charming knew that 'Mister Second' was really the 'Second Devil General'. She only knew that he was a vassal chief elder king, which meant he was very important.

Yang Qi was an early Paramount God, and his aura didn't seem extremely impressive. Although Paramount Gods were looked up to in the Deva Dynasty, they generally didn't deserve to be vassal chief elder kings. Because of that, some experts weren't impressed by Yang Qi, and would even intentionally provoke him to see what he was capable of. When he simply sloughed off such provocation, it made him seem even more mysterious to some people.

Princess Charming was one of those people.

When Patriarch Deva originally assigned her to Yang Qi to learn from him, she had been completely unconvinced that he qualified to teach her anything. Yet none of her attempts to seduce him had been effective.

Sometimes, he ignored her outright, although he would occasionally provide her with useful aid.

"Princess Charming, your Red-Dust Devil Voice still isn't quite up to snuff. Although you can seduce people on a physical level, you have no way to truly stir the heart and soul of any Paramount God. In fact, if you encounter someone strong enough, they might be able to turn your technique back around and use it to harm you. Patriarch Deva might have asked me to help you, but if you don't put your heart into it, my help won't do you any good."

Princess Charming smiled. The truth was that she didn't believe what Yang Qi had just said, and assumed he was trying to get a rise out of her. "Mister Second, I came today because there's an upcoming banquet I was hoping you would agree to attend."

"Banquet?" Yang Qi said. "Don't bother me with things like that. I'm only interested in furthering my cultivation. Patriarch Deva might have invited me here to serve as a vassal chief elder king to handle various matters, but that doesn't mean I need to waste my time on trivialities. You think I have spare time for that kind of thing?"

"It's an important banquet," Princess Charming quickly explained. "You simply have to attend, Mister Second. The Nine Dragons Court and Sumeru Temple are both sending people here to do business. And most likely, cause problems. Patriarch Deva can't attend, which means that you'll need to take charge."

"Nine Dragons Court? Sumeru Temple? Those are two important sects. In that case, I suppose I should go check in." Yang Qi's heart was already starting to pound a bit. The Deva Dynasty had amazing destiny, gathered as it was from countless billions of islands and continents. And the Nine Dragons Court and Sumeru Temple had destiny of a similar nature.

In fact, in some ways, their destiny was superior.

After all, the Nine Dragons Court had been founded by a patriarch of the ancient Dragonfolk. In the distant past, the Dragonfolk were extremely impressive. In fact, back in the immortal worlds, there was a thirty-third ranked immortal world called the Eight Tribes Heaven, where eight tribes of the Dragonfolk held sway over everything around them. Although Yang Qi had ultimately subjugated them, as far as ordinary immortals were concerned, they were an extremely impressive force.

There was little need to mention the Sumeru Temple. It was a group founded by an ancient buddhist school, and the buddhists were even more impressive than the Dragonfolk. In years past, the buddhist schools had built impressive organizations of faith, which put them in the position to rival the Sovereign Lord. Although they had paid lip service to following his commands, they had actually been more than willing to flippantly defy him.

The leader of the ancient buddhists hadn't been on exactly the same level as the Sovereign Lord, but had at least surpassed the High Priestess.

Whatever organizations remained from those days were sure to be able to shake heaven and earth. And it was a given that the Nine Dragons Court and the Sumeru Temple would have immense treasures stored up.

Yang Qi didn't know where they were headquartered, so he was curious to see what their people were like.

"There's some more news, Mister Second," Princess Charming said. "It seems the reason the Nine Dragons Court and the Sumeru Temple have sent people here is that they want to join forces with us to take a trip to the Bastille of the One God to dig up some more treasure. I'm sure you'd be interested in a venture like that."

"Dig up treasure in the Bastille of the One God?" Yang Qi said, his heart rate increasing.

He knew that there was most likely a piece of the Mahātmā Jade there, which meant that he definitely had to go there eventually.

He waved his hand dismissively. "You lead the way. I want to see these people from the Nine Dragons Court and Sumeru Temple."

"Right this way, Mister Second." She led the way, transforming into a flash of mist that quickly disappeared. Of course, Yang Qi was locked onto her psychic fluctuations, and he was able to keep up easily. Soon, a palace appeared ahead of them.

Ranks of guards stood out front, all of them Consummate Gods clad in resplendent ceremonial armor. They also held gleaming weapons, and bristled with killing intent that made them terrifying to behold.

However, as Yang Qi approached, all of the guards offered crisp salutes and said, "Greetings, Mister Second!"

Obviously, Patriarch Deva had issued orders for them to do this. He was the true behind-the-scenes power, while his son acted as the emperor.

Convinced that Yang Qi was the Second Devil General, it was a given that Patriarch Deva would try to avoid letting anyone openly offend him. He had even left standing orders that every demand Mister Second gave was to be met.

That said, Yang Qi hadn't made any excessive demands over the past few months. Instead, he had continued giving perfect caliber godstones to Patriarch Deva, which resulted in the dynasty's destiny growing stronger and stronger.

The dynasty was large and powerful, but they had to spend a lot of resources on training disciples and keeping the spell formations running. With Yang Qi's recent support, they were able to do all of that while also making plans for future endeavors.

Based on Yang Qi's secret observations, he could tell that the destiny of the Deva Dynasty had increased by thirty percent recently.

If things continued at this rate, it would only take eight or ten years for the destiny to increase by several times over, at which point they would be able to easily conquer other nearby sects. In fact, it was likely that was the real reason the Nine Dragons Court and Sumeru Temple had sent people over. Although they said they wanted to join forces to go to the Bastille of the One God, the truth was that they wanted to get a sense for how strong the Deva Dynasty was, and what their destiny was doing.

'Patriarch Deva is incredible,' he thought. 'Of course, it doesn't matter that the Nine Dragons Court and the Sumeru Temple have sent people here. They'll drum up some clues here and there, and eventually realize that "Mister Second" is responsible for the increase in destiny. But that's fine. If they try to make a move on me, I can take out some of their experts, and also get some more information about them.' It was more than obvious that Patriarch Deva was actually doing all of this in an attempt to deal with Yang Qi.

That said, he didn't care. He was actually short on top experts now, so the more he could capture, the better.

Not even Patriarch Deva would be able to capture and puppetize Unbounded experts. It would be just too dangerous and draining. But Yang Qi was different. With the God Legion Seal, he was like the boundless Sovereign Lord of old, leader of the legion of gods and master of the God Legion Seal. Years ago, the Sovereign Lord had come to realize that controlling the god world was too difficult to do on his own, which was why he had created the God Legion Seal.

Perhaps Patriarch Deva could have captured five or ten Paramount Gods, but not hundreds. The slightest mistake, and one could escape, then turn around and unleash ultimate destructive power.

But Yang Qi didn't have to worry about that.

In the end, the fact that the Nine Dragons Court and Sumeru Temple had sent people here was only going to benefit him.

"Right in here, Mister Second," Princess Charming said. Yang Qi followed her into the palace and into a huge banquet, which had been roughly divided into three sections. In the host's position in the middle were a few dozen Unbounded experts of the Deva Dynasty, including Paramount Gods. There was even a mid Paramount God!

On the left side, there were numerous monks with heads shaved clean. They wore kāṣāyas of different colors, including red, gold, and yellow. Some had austere expressions, and were well-built and physically intimidating. Those ones had a majesty and a baleful energy that would strike fear into the hearts of wretch-devils. Others were as skinny and withered as firewood, and looked like they might drop dead at any moment. Of course, those were the ones who were on the verge of transcending their physical bodies.

On the right side were the people from the Nine Dragons Court, about a dozen of them, all of whom were very domineering. There were young ones, old ones, and children, including both males and females.

Furthermore, everyone present was an Unbounded expert. Anyone beneath that level could only quality to serve food and tea here.

When Yang Qi and Princess Charming entered, they immediately attracted some attention.

Many of the gazes burned with a hidden passion for the alluring Princess Charming. Of course, all of those came from the Nine Dragons Court. Dragonfolk males were inherently licentious, even their top experts.