Sage Monarch

The top experts of the three empires were all gathered in the Central God-Palace, wrangling over the details of the soon-to-be signed agreement between them. There was no way the discussion would be wrapped up in less than two weeks, which meant Yang Qi had plenty of time to work with.

Unfortunately, that wasn't going to do much for the Sage Monarch Empire. As had just been said moments before, the three dynasties had been around for billions of years, so there was no way Yang Qi's empire could easily surpass them in a short time. The Sage Monarch Empire had reached a limit in its destiny growth, and significant gains weren't going to happen.

Yang Qi knew full well that the only way to improve his empire's destiny was by means of personal action.

Once he broke through to the level of a hundred billion, he would be incomparably powerful. Furthermore, all hundred million of his sage monarch magistrates would rise to the level of peak Paramount Gods.

At that point, his destiny would finally surpass that of the other three empires. And all of that rested on him acquiring the final piece of the Mahātmā Jade.

Now, he had it in his sights, and knew that it would be his shortly.

RUMBLE!

Yang Qi was making his way through the Central Dynasty as smoothly as a fish through water. The net of law gave him a slight bit of resistance, ensuring that he needed to act with caution. Thankfully, by faking the aura of Proud Central, he was able to fool the net of law.

In the past, Proud Central was untouchable as long as he was in the Central Dynasty. But then he had created a fatal weakness for himself.

Yang Qi made all the preparations in Proud Mindtravel's quarters, where he was completely safe and didn't have to worry about any interlopers.

Pulling out Proud Central's aura from his reserves, he expanded it until it was a sphere roughly the size of a human. Then he shrank it down until it took a form that resembled Proud Central. It was similar to what Yang Qi had done with the will projection from Eternal Millennium, so he was very familiar with the process.

'This is really a virtuous cycle. Proud Central plotted against me, and it's helping me plot against him. The net of law won't be able to do anything about me!'

After the husk was built, Yang Qi sent his own will inside, taking control of it. Now, he was like a second version of Proud Central.

'Time to connect to the net of law and pull off a true hoax....'

Sending out his will, he touched the net of law, resulting in a white stream of light shooting into him. It was destiny, the purest and most intense form he had ever encountered.

As of this moment, he was Emperor Proud Central.

He actually had better control of the destiny of the Central Dynasty than Proud Heaven.

Proud Heaven was a crown prince, while Proud Central was an emperor. There was a fundamental difference between what they were capable of. The effectiveness of destiny wasn't just about how much of it one could tap into, but rather the structure of control. An imperial prince would have a lot of power and influence, but there were still restricted areas that he couldn't enter. In contrast, nowhere was beyond the control of the emperor.

Although Proud Heaven could tap into the pure destiny, it wouldn't be as pure as what Yang Qi could now tap into.

Only Proud Central could access the truly deep type of destiny of the dynasty.

In the countless civilizations that had existed throughout history, there had often been preposterous situations in which an emperor was so caught up in living a life of pleasure that he found a person to stand in as his double.

If that puppet emperor eventually managed to tap into the destiny of the empire, he could kill the true emperor and actually take over his position.

That was very similar to what Yang Qi was doing right now.

As soon as he was connected to the destiny, he could send his thoughts out through the net of law, filling the entire Central Dynasty. He could see everything, including the ministers, armies, secret reserves, and even some of Proud Heaven's secrets.

The eyes of the emperor could see anything and everything in his empire. Nothing could hide from his gaze, not even Proud Heaven.

Upon connecting to the empire's destiny, Yang Qi's godpower and psychic scale skyrocketed. After reaching the level of ninety billion, further advancement had become very difficult. For instance, medicinal pills were essentially useless to him. But having made himself a fraudulent copy of Proud Central, things were different. Truth be told, this was an act that had occurred in the past, but only in lower-level civilizations, never in the god world.

Yang Qi was only pulling it off because, first, Proud Central was completely wrapped up in the effort with King Immortal-Slayer, and thus couldn't afford to be distracted. And second, Proud Heaven was presiding over the meeting, and wasn't taking time to check in on the empire's destiny.

Who would ever think that someone would do what Yang Qi was doing? It was completely unheard of.

The process went on for a few hours, during which time Yang Qi's psychic scale climbed from ninety billion to ninety-two billion. However, he knew this process wouldn't get him all the way to a hundred billion. As long as the true Proud Central existed, that would never happen. As a fake version of Proud Central, he could only siphon away a bit of the destiny.

Right now, he was like a rat that had slipped into the storehouse and was helping itself to a bit of the fine oil inside.

After reaching the level of ninety-two billion, he couldn't benefit himself any more. However, he could use some of the destiny to make a few more sage monarch magistrates. But unfortunately, the only way to get them from a hundred million to two hundred million was to improve himself.

Having done all that, his aura now resembled Proud Central's so much that the empire was essentially his. He could have walked into the Central God-Palace and not even Proud Heaven would have realized that he was a fake. He could theoretically even use that as an opportunity to try to assassinate Proud Heaven. Unfortunately, he had no way to know if he would succeed in that, so there was no way he would try.

Right now, he needed to use his command of the aura and destiny to track down Proud Central.

Chuckling, he rose to his feet in the guise of Proud Central. 'I know you have that piece of the Mahātmā Jade, Proud Central. Are you using it as bait for me? Even if you are, I'll beat you at your own game. Let's see who comes out on top. You're standing out in the open, and I'm hidden in the shadows. Plus, I'm the incarnation of fateless energy! You have no way to calculate or divine any information about me. Once I take that piece of the Mahātmā Jade, I'll kill Yang Voidprime and become whole. Then no one in the world will be a match for me."

It didn't take long for him to use his connection to the destiny and net of law to lock on to the position of the Mahātmā Jade.

With that, he opened his Lord's Eye!

RUMBLE!

His psyche connected to the Halls of Heaven, allowing him to look down on the god world as a whole.

With that view, it wasn't possible for anything to be hidden from him.

There were some low-level civilizations that had technology that allowed them to create satellites that could even see ants in full detail. To Yang Qi, the Halls of Heaven were like a satellite. They let him see everything.

As he looked at the Central Dynasty, he saw many secrets; he also realized that the aura of the Mahātmā Jade could be sensed in multiple areas.

'Hmph! Just as I thought. It's a trap. If I head to any of those locations, I'll stumble into a spell formation. Proud Central is just as cunning as you'd expect. Thankfully, I have other options at hand. Thanks to being connected to the destiny here, and having the Halls of Heaven, I can see many secrets.'

With that, he continued his inspection.

Before long, he saw a location deep in the Central Dynasty where the space-time created a complex labyrinth. And in its depths was a necropolis.

The Great Necropolis.