Sage Monarch

Yang Qi didn't do anything other than observe the one hundred God-Lord-level experts training in the use of the Purification Thorn. It was obviously a huge drain on their animadestiny godpower, and they were going to need a full ten-day period to get back to full strength.

Yang Qi knew his opportunity had arrived.

He had ten days to subjugate all of those experts. Then he could use them to turn the Purification Thorn on Dugu Sheji and Yang Primal-Chaos, catching them unawares, then subjugate them too.

Everything was working out perfectly to his satisfaction.

The only hitch was Yang Voidprime, who was an expert on almost the same level as Proud Heaven. Dealing with him was going to be very difficult. That was why Yang Qi had to be absolutely prepared with all of the other subjugated experts before tangling with him.

"You're all dismissed," Dugu Sheji. "Our alliance is now formal. Although our Chiliocosm Dynasty and Invincible Dynasty are weaker, if we work together, not even the Central Dynasty would dare to tangle with us."

With that, the meeting ended.

Yang Qi also slipped away and prepared to make his move against the hundred experts.

His first target was someone from the Invincible Dynasty who had a psychic scale of twenty billion, making his fighting prowess roughly equal to Paragon-King Sage Dragon. His name was Dugu Badao, and he pulsed with a divine blade aura that made him seem capable of destroying anything in his path.

Yang Qi followed him deep into the command center, where his quarters were located. Inside was an enormous lake of liquid jade.

Dugu Badao entered the lake and sank into its depths, allowing the liquid jade to wrap him up like an embryo.

'Incredible,' Yang Qi thought. 'I've heard of this thing before. It's a jadevoid pearlspring, which erupted from a preheaven spring of jade in the ancient preheaven primal-chaos. Only the most favored of the Sovereign Lord's concubines were allowed to use them. But now the House of the Invincible has them. Anyone who practices cultivation in that spring will be able to concentrate destiny to lead to rapid cultivation progress.' With that, he sent his thoughts piercing into the liquid jade.

Thanks to his command of so many streams of destiny in the House of the Invincible, no one could tell what he was doing. Soon, he was part of the liquid jade itself and was slowly surrounding Dugu Badao.

Having just worked so hard with the Purification Thorn, Dugu Badao was exhausted, and had only begun recovering.

"What? What's happening?"

All of a sudden, Dugu Badao realized that something strange was happening around him, and just as he was preparing to shoot out of the jade, he realized he was stuck as surely as a fly in amber.

If he had attempted to escape earlier, he might have had a chance, but now it was too late.

Yang Qi had sent his thoughts to fill the jade spring, turning it into an incarnation of himself.

"Be subjugated, Dugu Badao," he said. "I am the true Sovereign Lord, and you are my servant. For all eternity, you will follow my commands, and never defy me. Open your spirit and soul...." Without any hesitation, Yang Qi unleashed the Sovereign Lord's Holy and Far-Reaching Consummate Omnicurse, sending it stabbing into Dugu Badao.

RUMBLE!

A shockwave passed through the lake as Dugu Badao's mind went blank. A moment passed, then he dropped to his knees in front of Yang Qi. "Milord!"

The moment Yang Qi subjugated him, he felt a shift in destiny as he gained a greater foothold in the net of law.

Dugu Badao was a marshal in the armed forces, and commanded millions upon millions of troops. When he marched into battle, countless nations could be destroyed. He had access to even greater destiny than Dugu Ruxia, so with his additional destiny, Yang Qi was almost on the level of a member of the imperial house.

The shift in destiny wouldn't be noticed by the net of law, because it involved a personal possession of Dugu Badao. The destiny generated by personal possessions could be freely used or distributed by whoever owned it.

Yang Qi smiled. Having subjugated Dugu Badao, it would be easier to subjugate the next target. It was a snowball effect.

WHOOSH!

After giving orders to Dugu Badao to simply continue his session of cultivation, Yang Qi headed to a different part of the encampment.

He had decided to focus on the experts from the Invincible Dynasty first, as each one would give him a boost in destiny, and also greater command of the net of law.

The next location was another spring of liquid jade, and the expert inside it was Dugu Shiwang, whose cultivation base was on the same level as Dugu Badao.

This subjugation went even more smoothly.

Within less than ten breaths of time, Yang Qi had him completely under control, and had gained access to even more destiny.

In Yang Qi's view, the destiny from the House of the Invincible had taken a shape that resembled a crown, further cementing the fact that he was like a member of the imperial clan.

He now had so much destiny that, if he had to fight any of these marshals or generals, he wouldn't even need to use his divine abilities to crush them. He could just use destiny.

Whooosh!

He visited one location after another in the military camp, targeting the marshals who were soaking in their springs of liquid jade. For all intents and purposes, those jade springs were like tombs now.

Over the course of the next hour, he subjugated about a dozen marshals.

RUMBLE!

Something like a vortex of power could be seen above Yang Qi as more and more destiny flowed toward him, and the shape of the crown became clearer.

For now, it was completely illusory, and no one knew anything about it. Only after he subjugated all of the top leaders, and took over the position of emperor, would he become a recognized ruler.

That said, his crown of destiny made him so powerful that not even the grand princes of the imperial house could surpass him. And once he subjugated all of the marshals, the House of the Invincible would become home ground for him.

'Even with only a dozen marshals subjugated, I don't have to fear the Purification Thorn anymore!'

Yang Qi was able to pick up speed now, and started subjugating the marshals even more quickly. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. Eventually, it reached the point where he didn't need to do anything to subjugate them. He would just wave his finger and say a few words, then their destiny would shift to him.

Soon, he had subjugated all of the marshals from the House of the Invincible who were assigned to the Purification Thorn mission. And thanks to the surging destiny, his psychic scale and godhood rating had both improved. Before, he had been at the level of about thirty billion, but now he was closing in on forty billion.

It seemed his breakthrough to forty billion was just around the corner.

Next, he shifted targets to the marshals from the House of the Chiliocosm. It would be even easier to deal with them, now that he was like a shadowy version of the emperor of the House of the Chiliocosm.

One. Two....

Using the same methods, he eventually subjugated all of the marshals who were involved in the Purification Thorn mission. With the increased flow of destiny from both the House of the Chiliocosm and the House of the Invincible, he finally broke through to forty billion!