Sage Monarch

As Yang Qi entered, the gathered officials joined their voices in a formal greeting. "Our respects, exalted Viceroy. May you command boundless magic and bring untold blessings, wealth, and peace!"

The viceroy held their very lives in his hands, so there was no way any of them would defy him in any way.

Yang Qi grunted a response, then looked around to find that there were over nine thousand officials gathered, all of them Unbounded experts. Thinking back, he recalled that not even the Deva Dynasty, Nine Dragons Court, and Sumeru Temple had boasted so many experts. Yet the Land of Dreamvoid was considered to have a relatively low population of top experts.

It reinforced the point that reaching the Unbounded level was extremely difficult to reach.

Logically speaking, if the Land of Dreamvoid was hundreds of times larger than the Deva Dynasty, it should have had hundreds of times as many Unbounded experts. Instead, it had dozens of times more. Furthermore, it didn't have any late Paramount God patriarchs. It really was a very difficult thing to reach a high level of power.

"Rise, everyone," Yang Qi said, waving his hand. After they got to their feet, he continued, "There's no need for you to fear. Although I'm the new viceroy of the Land of Dreamvoid, I don't plan to do anything wildly dramatic. What I do require is loyalty and unity. I want to get rid of any lingering influence of Dugu Nimou, and improve the destiny of this land. Understood?"

The gathered officials were already feeling a bit less nervous.

However, some were still a bit anxious at Yang Qi's demand for an increase in destiny. Unfortunately, the Land of Dreamvoid had already reached its limit in terms of destiny. Dugu Nimou had not only poured resources into it, he had also called in favors from his sphere of influence to help improve its destiny. Now that Dugu Nimou was gone, and the land was cut off from that old sphere of influence, it was going to be difficult to keep things going as they had been in the past, much less improve the destiny.

In fact, the most likely outcome was that the destiny was going to decline in the coming years. If that happened, the viceroy would definitely be punished. All the officials knew how things worked in that regard. It occurred all the time when there were changes in leadership.

Yang Qi could tell what they were thinking. Voice cool, he said, "I bet you're thinking that with Dugu Nimou gone, the loss of the resources and sphere of influence he had provided will be a big blow to the destiny here."

"Exalted Viceroy, asking for more destiny is going to make things extremely hard for us," said the minister of finances. "Truth be told, our Land of Dreamvoid was previously doing business with the Central Dynasty and the Chiliocosm Dynasty. Dugu Nimou was making money off of both sides, but now things are very different. We're losing money everywhere, and our old trade routes have dried up. The Land of Dreamvoid is in a really bad financial situation right now. We're incredibly low on both godnotes and godstones. I hate to say it, but virtually all of our income used to come from the Central Dynasty. Right now, it's hard for us to even keep up with daily expenses."

"What's the real problem, though?" Yang Qi asked coolly. "Why were we getting godnotes from the Central Dynasty to begin with?"

"In the Central Dynasty, they have the means to print godnotes. Neither the House of the Invincible nor the House of the Chiliocosm can do that. The reason is that the Central Dynasty got control of the Sovereign Lord's Eye of Wealth, which is a boundless magical treasure from ancient times that can be used to print godnotes. Furthermore, the Central Dynasty took control of an uncharacteristically rare preheaven spirit meridian, which produces godstones of exceptionally high quality. The upside for the House of the Invincible is that we excel at making medicinal pills, which we can sell for godnotes. Sadly, the Land of Dreamvoid doesn't control any of the resources needed to make medicinal pills. Any wealth we do generate goes to our superiors, or is reinvested into business. But now that our trade routes aren't accessible, it's going to be hard to make any profit."

"No problem." Yang Qi said. "I can solve this problem immediately. I have access to endless godnotes and godstones, which you can use to expand our territory. However, let me make one thing very clear. You're all prohibited from stuffing your own pockets. Any who try something like that will be executed immediately. I want destiny. Lots and lots of destiny. Got it?"

Yang Qi produced the bottle gourd he had taken from Marquis Three Realms, which was a powerful magical treasure filled with numerous worlds. It wasn't quite on the level of the Cruiser of Civilization, but it was perfectly suitable to store treasure.

"Come forth, thralls!"

RUMBLE!

Ten thousand sage monarch magistrates poured out into ranks around Yang Qi, all of them Paramount Gods with stony expressions on their faces.

"These are my ancient thrall troops," Yang Qi said, "and from here on out, they'll serve as private advisors to you. They'll help you manage wealth and create destiny. You'll find that they're all very competent, and won't tolerate any sort of corruption."

The officials' faces fell. The truth was that most of them had immediately begun coming up with little plans and schemes to benefit themselves. As soon as they found out that their new viceroy had apparently come across a massive treasure trove of wealth, including perfect caliber godstones, they expected that they would be able to skim some off for themselves.

But then they found out that he was dispatching thrall troops to supervise them. And those thralls were ten thousand Paramount Gods! Their faces were ashen as they realized that there was obviously no way they would be doing any skimming off the top. With these thrall troops as their 'assistants', they might as well be puppets.

"Very well, you're all dismissed. Incidentally, these thralls are versed in the calculation techniques of the ancient mechanical civilization. Because of that, their understanding of finances and management are far beyond yours. Now, go ahead and use the money in that gourd to facilitate the operations of the Land of Dreamvoid." Yang Qi waved his hand dismissively.

"Yes sir!"

RUMBLE!

The sage monarch magistrates responded with a thunderous affirmation, then split apart to attach themselves to individual government officials, to whom they all said the same thing. "Exalted Sir. The viceroy has commanded that we put the finances in order. Please, lead the way so we can begin."

Yang Qi had taken swift and decisive control. With the government officials being monitored by sage monarch magistrates, they couldn't cause problems or embezzle funds.

Meanwhile, he reached out to Marquis Three Realms and his other moles in the House of the Chiliocosm, ordering them to open up some new trade routes.

A month later, the destiny in the Land of Dreamvoid was flourishing.

The highest quality godstones were here, the type that surpassed perfect caliber. And Yang Qi provided endless amounts of godnotes to purchase whatever needed to be purchased.

The truth was that he didn't use his godstones to benefit the House of the Invincible as a whole. That would have been a conflict of interest. The Sage Monarch Empire didn't need to have outside dealings with any group. In contrast, it could produce goods that the businesses in the Land of Dreamvoid could use to promote foreign trade.

As a result, the Sage Monarch Empire was becoming very profitable.

Of course, there wasn't just business to be had with the other two major sects. There were all sorts of people who were eager to make deals. There were Mechfolk, Spritefolk, Magefolk, Demonfolk, Dragonfolk, and others that Yang Qi had never seen or heard of before.

Now that he was a viceroy in the House of the Invincible, he was benefiting a lot.

The destiny of the Land of Dreamvoid was rising, and the same was happening in the Sage Monarch Empire. Meanwhile, his cultivation base was improving with his daily cultivation routines. He was assimilating the Everlit Godlamp and gaining further enlightenment of its profundities. The lamp was from the Lord of Radiance and Light, and was definitely not something that could be considered easy to assimilate. But Yang Qi had the God Legion Seal and the Mahātmā Jade, and therefore, was making constant progress. Already, he was capable of unleashing radiance and light the likes of which the God Legion Seal had never seen before.

He spent most of his time outside of the House of the Invincible. Instead, he used the teleportation portal he had set up to return to the halls of heaven, where he absorbed starlight and used it to temper his physical body, nascent divinity, and substructure.

As the months went by, he grew stronger and stronger, until his godhood rating reached the level of nine hundred and ninety-nine million, nine hundred and ninety thousand. With only a bit more progress, he would become a peak Paramount God with peak Unbounded will convergence.

When he achieved his next breakthrough, the God Legion Seal would transform again, and he would be able to enter the halls of heaven like the purrling had, to find magical treasures left behind by the Sovereign Lord. The halls of heaven had wealth that surpassed the combined reserves of the House of the Invincible, House of the Chiliocosm, and the Central Dynasty. With them, he could further grow his empire, ultimately taking control of the halls of heaven.

As he looked up at the halls of heaven from the Bastille of the One God, the destiny of the Land of Dreamvoid was rapidly growing, and it was attracting the attention of the leaders in the House of the Invincible.

Deep in the sect, surrounded by countless snaking corridors, there was a palatial meeting hall, the entrance of which bore the description 'Palace of Destiny'.

This was a testing location where various viceroys would be assessed. Furthermore, the contributions of the viceroys would be measured here. The viceroys' contributions weren't about prestige, slaughter, relationships, or the likes. It was all about the destiny they produced in the lands they controlled, and how much they provided to the sect.

Everything else was meaningless in comparison.

At the moment, a host of late Paramount Gods, all of them clad in flowing robes, were looking at an enormous mirror. In that mirror was a visible representation of the destiny of the Land of Dreamvoid.