Sage Monarch

Throughout history, it was generally known that royal authority surpassed divine authority. The person who held royal authority handled practical matters, while in contrast, divine authority was related to faith. When a dynasty changed, people would have no choice but to alter their faith in order to stay alive.

The reason Yang Susu had been able to reach the level of the God-Lords so quickly wasn't specifically because of the Spritely Sage Grail, but rather because she bore divine authority.

Because of her divine authority, she had destiny constantly flowing into her, that equivalent to that of a viceroy of tens of thousands of lands in the House of the Invincible.

That said, it wasn't enough.

To achieve the goals she sought, she would need both divine and royal authority, combined and united.

Yang Susu understood this as well. She had learned a lot in her time in the god world. Although she had limitations in terms of her cultivation base, she had benefited a lot. And although she hadn't experienced as many complicated situations as Yang Qi, she had been through many things.

"The Spritefolk are broken up into numerous interest groups," she said. "Furthermore, there are multiple empires, not to mention the smaller kingdoms. Everyone fights for power and authority, and frankly, it would be impossible to subjugate them all. This arranged marriage between me and Dugu Yunkong is the work of several emperors, all of them old-timers who don't want me to gather any more divine authority. You see, it's all a big plot. After the wedding, they'll make up some excuse to strip me of the Sage Grail. It's sort of like a royal seal, so whoever has it is considered the official ruler. Unfortunately, I don't have the influence to oppose these old-timers. But I do have some loyal followers. For instance, most of the members of the army protecting me. Although, there are outside agents among them. For instance, the man you subjugated, Sprite Guyuan, is a mole placed in my army by the Gu Dynasty. It's actually good that you subjugated him. It removes a big thorn in my side, a potentially deadly one."

"I knew that bastard was no good. Otherwise, why would he be meeting with the priestesses of the Palace of Destiny? You've done well up to this point, Aunt Susu. I suggest that right now, you summon all of the peak Paramount Gods who work for you to a meeting. We'll use the opportunity to find out who's really loyal to you, and who's an agent. If we don't clean house a bit, it's going to lead to disaster later on."

"But how exactly do we do it?" She knew that Yang Qi had a lot of experience in running national affairs. And although she had long since hoped to gain greater authority, she was simply too weak to pull it off. But with Yang Qi's support, she was like a tiger that had grown wings.

"Simple. Call the meeting, with the excuse of forming a palace guard. Then, announce that with the authority granted to you by the Sage Grail, you're going to call on your divine authority to bring new glory to the Spritefolk. In other words, you're going to found a new empire. Taking your palace guard with you, you'll secretly leave the House of the Invincible and travel around to the numerous royal dynasties to recruit ambitious experts. When the time is right, use your divine authority to call a huge meeting of all the Spritefolk, where you'll force all of the other emperors and old-timers to submit to your authority. With your divine authority, you should be able to get plenty of ambitious people to work for you, not to mention that I'll be helping you. We'll overwhelm your opposition with unstoppable momentum."

"How many experts can you provide me to help?" she asked calmly. "I don't have enough to pull this off. There are too many Spritefolk old-timers who can tap into the dao of heaven. And the Spritefolk empires opposing me are powerful. They have access to destiny that ordinary people could never even dream of."

"Don't worry about all that. When you tap into your divine authority, I'll have all of the Dragonfolk old-timers with me to act as dharmic dragon guards. Since you're now the senior princess of the Sage Monarch Empire, having them act as guards for you makes perfect sense."

"Alright. I'll call the meeting now."

"Alright!"

Bells tolled as Yang Susu entered one of the main halls of the Cloud Palace, whereupon the troops rushed inside.

Yang Qi was actually surprised by what he saw. There were several thousand people, all of them peak Paramount Gods. It went to show how important Yang Susu's wedding was to the Spritefolk. After all, a lot of the people present were obviously moles sent to make sure she didn't try to escape the marriage.

However, this would just make it easier to handle them all at the same time.

As soon as everyone was inside, Yang Qi waved his hand and closed the door. Then, a huge greyspace sprang up, ensuring that whatever happened inside would remain secret. After all, they were still in the middle of the House of the Invincible, so if word spread, it could lead to disaster.

The assembled Spritefolk looked over at Yang Susu, and from the way their eyes flickered, some could obviously sense that something strange was going on. Finally, one of them stepped forward and said, "Exalted Princess, why exactly did you call this meeting? Is there some important matter to discuss?"

"Well, if it isn't General Sprite Tushan from the Totem Empire." Yang Susu smiled. "I called this meeting because I have an important announcement. The Spritely Sage Grail has suddenly become active, and issued an official decree regarding the fate of the Spritefolk."

"What? The fate of the Spritefolk?"

"Can that even happen?"

"What the hell is going on?"

"Keep it down! The princess is going to explain the official decree. It's completely inappropriate for you to be talking so loudly."

Yang Susu's announcement had already led to a big stir, and Yang Qi was already starting to identify who was loyal, and who were moles.

"Quiet, everyone!"

Whizz!

Yang Susu used a special voice technique to silence the hall. When that happened, two of the experts present who had been standing there with eyes closed the entire time, suddenly looked up.

"Princess, your psychic scale has reached ten billion!"

Those two, as well as the man Yang Susu had just addressed, all had psychic scales of ten billion. They were very important people among the Spritefolk, and were the commanding officers of the army that guarded Yang Susu.

All three were clad in bright red armor, with red cloaks and tall helms. They all held scepters in their hands, and were surrounded by thrumming energy fields.

Obviously, they were the ones who held primary authority over the task of watching over Yang Susu.

She had already told Yang Qi about them. Their names were Sprite Tushan, Sprite Zhangang, and Sprite Gufeng.

They were old-timers from powerful empires who, despite being at odds with each other, were united in their resolve to keep Yang Susu under control, and prevent her from expanding her influence and seizing royal authority.

Before, it had been an easy thing to control her, but now that she had a psychic scale of ten billion, it would be a lot harder.

They knew that she could control divine authority with the Spritely Sage Grail, which made her very dangerous.

"That's right. The Spritely Sage Grail gave me the power I needed to break through last night. It also gave me an order regarding how to lead the Spritefolk. It said that we should leave the Invincible Dynasty, lest we be destroyed in the future."

Silence reigned. Hearts pounded, and quite a few people actually twitched because of the tension.

Everyone knew exactly what Sprite Susu meant. She was planning to break her promise of marriage and go out on her own. If news spread, it would cause a major commotion. The House of the Invincible, the House of the Chiliocosm, and the Central Dynasty would definitely be riled up into a huge stir.

RUMBLE!

Sprite Tushan stepped forward. Voice hard, he said, "Princess, I can respect you because of your title. But you don't have the right to go around randomly making official decrees. This wedding has already been set in stone by the real leaders among the Spritefolk. We and the Invincible Dynasty are going to merge to form a grand empire, and you have no choice but to go along with it. You're nothing by a figurehead, and have no royal authority. Understand? Don't tell me you plan to break the law here today."

"What gall!" Yang Susu barked. "You'll follow all the rules and laws of the Spritefolk when you address me, Sprite Tushan. Have you no respect for the Sage Grail? You're a disgrace to the totems of the Spritefolk. Maybe I should just have you burned at the stake!"

"I wouldn't dare disrespect the Sage Grail," Sprite Tushan replied. "I'm just asking you to not randomly announce official decrees. Perhaps you think that because you have a psychic scale of ten billion you can now interfere with royal authority. But that's not how things work. Let's join forces to teach a little lesson to the princess, and make sure she stops this melodrama."

"Alright!" Sprite Gufeng said. He and Spring Zhangang stepped forward as, behind them, their followers started shouting out to admonish the princess and call for her to be punished.

RUMBLE!

Even the Spritefolk who were loyal to Yang Susu were struck speechless by what was happening.

It went to show how lacking in influence and power Yang Susu really was. Without Yang Qi there to back her up, she would have had no choice but to go through with the wedding to Dugu Yunkong, after which she would be stripped of any power she did have.