Sage Monarch

"It won't work, Yang Qi! I already freed myself from the God Legion Seal once, and I'll do it again. You're not the Sovereign Lord, after all! I escaped from his God Legion Seal, do you really think I can't deal with you?" The Lord of the Sword Dao was fully locked down, yet he refused to give in. He still believed he would find a way to make trouble, and eventually, kill Yang Qi.

Yang Qi snorted coldly. "You just refuse to give in, don't you, Lord of the Sword Dao? Don't forget that in this world, strength is what gets respect. I could just devour you and take your cultivation base. You're only a sword, after all. Remember, I've devoured the Dragon Compendium, the Mahātmā Jade, King Heaven-Devourer's talismans, the Everlit Godlamp, and all sorts of other preheaven treasures. You're no different than them."

Yang Qi knew that the Lord of the Sword Dao had made his mind up not to be a servant. Even if Yang Qi consigned him to the deepest depths of hell, the man would never give up on his quest to destroy the Halls of Heaven.

For now, the only thing he could do was get strong enough to assimilate him, thus reaching a psychic scale of a hundred billion.

That was the only way to deal with him. After all, this was no Second Devil General. The Lord of the Sword Dao had already escaped from the God Legion Seal once, so keeping him around like this was extremely dangerous.

Before long, Proud Central and the other dynasties would definitely come for Yang Qi and his empire.

Once that happened, the situation would turn extremely perilous, and there would be a lot of deadly fighting. If he got surrounded and besieged, it was possible that the Lord of the Sword Dao would use that chaos to try breaking free.

And if he succeeded, the first thing he would do was kill Yang Qi.

Obviously, he hated Yang Qi with a passion.

Assimilating him was really Yang Qi's only option. Besides, if Yang Qi could reach a psychic scale of a hundred billion as a result, who could possibly challenge him?

Once his psychic scale reached that level, and his cultivation base followed, the God Legion Seal would be even stronger, and the vital energy of the Halls of Heaven would be easier to control.

Once he had access to all the resources of the Halls of Heaven, everything in existence would essentially be his for the taking. The god world would be his.

The more destiny he had access to, the less effective the Lord of the Sword Dao's struggles would be. And while it was true he had escaped the God Legion Seal in the past, that was after the Sovereign Lord had died. While the Sovereign Lord was alive, he had been forced to be nothing but an obedient servant.

For now, Yang Qi was focused less on directly dealing with the Lord of the Sword Dao, and more on making sure his destiny was equal to that of the House of the Invincible. At that point, he would publicly declare the founding of the Sage Monarch Empire, the fourth empire alongside the Central, Invincible, and Chiliocosm Dynasties.

The news would spread rapidly, and his destiny would grow in kind. Eventually, he would reach the point of being able to thoroughly and completely assimilate the Lord of the Sword Dao. Until then, he would grow in secret. Thanks to the fact that he had agents in leadership positions in all three of the other dynasties, he had direct access to all of the latest news from all three places. That made it easy to make plans and arrangements.

As more medicinal pills flowed into his empire, it bubbled like boiling water, expanding rapidly. Of course, resources were being devoured like mad, but Yang Qi didn't care. The Halls of Heaven weren't running low yet.

"Grand-Clarity All-Soul Pill?"

"Double-Nines Paragonic Cauldron Pill?"

"Sun-Moon Radiance-Light Glitter-Sparkle Pill?"

"Primal-Chaos Hetero-Fruit Primordial-Vitality Pill?"

"First Energy Primordial Chaos Pill? I can't believe this pill is here. And there are so many of them! Incredible. This thing is truly incredible! It's specifically designed to bring empires to greater glory!" In the depths of the pill repository, he encountered an entire world filled with medicinal pills the size of longan fruits. They were pills that had long since been considered lost in the god world.

Anyone could make use of this pill. And while it wouldn't increase psychic power or godhood rating, it had the ability to change one's substructure, making it possible to absorb an aspect of primal-chaos paleo-energy called primordial chaos first energy.

After consuming it, the people of an empire wouldn't need ordinary resources to survive and flourish. The reason was that ordinary resources had their origin in primal-chaos paleo-energy. And normally speaking, only the power of the god world could be used to break down primal-chaos paleo-energy and turn it into precious materials, which could then be tapped into.

It was similar to how, in the impure lands, people had to eat food to survive. And food could only be grown from the dirt in the ground, with sunlight from above. But imagine what it would be like if the people of an empire could absorb energy directly from the sun, and could eat dirt for sustenance. Just how powerful would that empire become?

The Sovereign Lord had originally concocted the First Energy Primordial Chaos Pill in the hopes of improving the destiny of his own empire. But later, he realized that if his citizens didn't need resources, they would prove difficult to govern. After all, if they could directly grow by taking primordial chaos first energy from the larger primal-chaos paleo-energy, and didn't need resources from the empire, things would quickly get out of hand.

Of course, Yang Qi wasn't worried about such things. He could rely on his sage monarch magistrates to keep things running smoothly. He now had a hundred million of them, and their cultivation bases were growing constantly.

These pills would increase the empire's destiny, and that would make the people more content. After all, even the common citizens knew that the level of resources in a nation was important. The more resources there were, the more content the people would be.

As this pill was distributed among the populace, the people in general would know that they didn't need to worry about a lack of resources.

As word about this spread, the destiny would increase.

Yang Qi didn't hesitate to collect the pills, then distribute them in concert with a specific reward system designed for their use.

The sound of horns and drums filled the worlds of Yang Qi's massive empire. And in the middle of all those lands was a public square, in which the sage monarch magistrates had gathered.

"Hear ye, citizens of the Sage Monarch Empire," their voices boomed in unison. "Our boundless leader, His Majesty Yang Qi, has acquired an ancient boon, the First Energy Primordial Chaos Pill. It ensures that you don't need to use resources in your cultivation, but can instead tap directly into the primal-chaos paleo-energy. Observe the effectiveness of this pill."

Up in the air, a sage monarch magistrate hovered next to a Mechfolk chief elder, the latter a Paramount God who had recently joined the empire and made significant contributions.

"For his contributions to the empire, this Mechfolk chief elder will be given a First Energy Primordial Chaos Pill. Please, consume the pill immediately."

"Many thanks to the empire for this reward!"

The Mechfolk chief elder took the pill and popped it into his mouth.

RUMBLE!

All of a sudden, an enormous nascent divinity appeared behind him. It was a first energy primordial chaos nascent divinity, and it immediately began absorbing the primordial chaos energy, then turning it into precious materials such as godstones, medicines, and vital energy.

Everyone watching was stunned into envious silence.

The sage monarch magistrates then called an assembly to reward the most faithful and loyal people with First Energy Primordial Chaos Pills.

The same thing happened to everyone who could use them. What was even more amazing was that the resources produced by the resultant nascent divinity could actually be sold!

Anyone who took the pills turned into resource-making machines.

Not even the Cruiser of Civilization had been as effective at converting primal-chaos paleo-energy into medicinal pills. Now, Yang Qi realized that the Lord of Civilization must have devised his methods by imitating these very medicinal pills created by the Sovereign Lord.

However, the cruiser required large amounts of godstones to fuel the process.

But now, he didn't need any outside help, only primal-chaos paleo-energy.

And there was an endless supply of that out in the void.