Sage Monarch

The Invincible Dugu's body contained a host of universes, so many that they were something like a maze. However, that didn't stop Yang Qi from searching for his Master's sea of consciousness in the hopes of identifying what his current condition was.

The body was secondary in importance. The most important aspect was the soul, which was in the sea of consciousness.

However, it was no easy task. It was like fishing a needle from the sea, considering how many universes there were within him.

The Invincible Dugu's sea of consciousness wasn't in his head. After all, the sea of consciousness wasn't always located in the head. And sending one's mind into the Invincible Dugu's body was dangerous, as it could get lost in the universes and ultimately devoured. In some ways, the Invincible Dugu's body was a treasure trove, but in other ways, it was a danger zone.

However, Yang Qi was willing to face the danger, if it meant saving his Master. True confidence stems from superb skill, plus he had the power of the Halls of Heaven to back him, and a psychic scale that was almost half-Annulled.

Whizz!

Eventually, Yang Qi located the central region of the numerous universes, where he found a huge world that was formed by a mountain of black rock. And at the bottom of the mountain was a gateway.

Rumbling sounds could be heard from inside the gateway, and it was covered with sealing talismans, all of them a mass of sprawling writing.

These ancient sealing marks couldn't be the work of human hands, and in fact, not even the Sovereign Lord could have done something like this. They were clearly the work of the essence of the god world.

'The essence of the god world!' Instantly, Yang Qi understood.

The Invincible Dugu definitely wasn't dead. His mind had been sealed, not by some human enemy, but by the god world itself.

If Yang Qi had to speculate, his guess would be that, while the Invincible Dugu was working on his cultivation, he had clashed with the essence of the god world, perhaps in an attempt to devour it. And that was how he ended up like this.

The essence of the god world wasn't something that could easily be defeated.

At least not at the moment.

Even the Sovereign Lord had perished because of reasons pertaining to the god world.

'So that's how it is. Master's will is sealed, thus his body is immobile. The only way to save him is to break open that seal. Then he'll be restored, and will once again be a half-Annulled expert.' Yang Qi studied the sealed gateway, but didn't dare to do anything to it.

This was his Master's sea of consciousness, and if he took action casually, he might damage the sea of consciousness and do nothing to the sealing marks.

Yang Qi could tell that if the sealing marks were suddenly broken, the essence of the god world would erupt with full power, and they would likely reduce the body to powder, simultaneously destroying the will inside.

For all intents and purposes, the Invincible Dugu was stuck.

WHOOSH!

Yang Qi extracted his psyche, his expression grave.

"Well?" asked Heaven-Extinguishing Dugu. "What's the situation with the patriarch?"

"I understand what happened," Yang Qi said. "Master isn't dead. His will and soul have been sealed by the essence of the god world. Break the seals, and he'll recover. Unfortunately, they can't be easily broken. Use force, and the essence of the god world will erupt, completely destroying Master."

"Then what can we do?"

"Is that really all there is to it?"

"Are you lying to us?"

The members of the Dugu Clan were elated to hear that the Invincible Dugu wasn't dead, but they were obviously worried about the sealing mark. Although it confirmed that there was hope he could be resurrected, the fact that the essence of the god world was involved made the situation grave. And worse, the threat of Proud Heaven still loomed over them. Proud Heaven had the essence of the god world on his side, which meant the Invincible Dynasty was already a big target.

"I'm not lying," Yang Qi said coolly. "And if you don't believe me, take a look for yourself. I left a path open that you can follow to reach Master's sea of consciousness."

"We wouldn't dare profane the patriarch's body in that way."

Some of the experts of the House of the Invincible were shaking their heads, and many were openly suspicious.

"Yang Qi," said Heaven-Sacrificing Dugu, "you're telling us our patriarch has been sealed by the essence of the god world, and that if you break the seal, he'll awaken. But how exactly are we supposed to do that?"

"I honestly can't believe that Master has progeny as useless as you people," Yang Qi said. "If he hadn't been sealed by the essence of the god world, he probably would've committed suicide because of your stupidity. If I had an easy way to free him, I would've used it already. Look, there's no time to lose. We need to take Master's body into the Everlasting Aegis. I can use my empire's destiny to save him. That's the best bet."

"Never!"

"Are you looking to die!?"

"So, Yang Qi, you finally show your true colors, you evil villain!"

"Bah! Yang Qi, you claim that Proud Heaven will turn our patriarch into an out-of-body incarnation, but it seems you want that even more than him. You're not in the half-Annulled level yet, and that's why you want to assimilate him. Well, we'll fight you to the death before we let that happen!"

The Dugu Clan experts weren't going to agree to Yang Qi's suggestion, and were cursing him for it. In fact, they even seemed like they might be getting ready to attack him.

"You might be Master's descendants, but I have no room to show mercy. It'd probably be better to just slaughter all of you, saving me a bit of effort when it comes time to deal with the three dynasties." Yang Qi's killing intent was burning. He had never had any good impression of the Dugu Clan, to the point where he hadn't even considered subjugating them.

Now, his mind had been made up.

Truth be told, Yang Qi had long since begun freeing people from the fetters of the God Legion Seal. Originally, he had subjugated many people. But after order was established and those people realized the point of his empire, becoming willing to fight for it as citizens, there wasn't any need for him to force their loyalty.

Oftentimes, empires were built on blood and carnage. However, after they were established, such things became unnecessary.

It was the natural evolution of things.

It was like how savages would devour raw meat at first. But after they discovered how to use fire, they would leave such things behind. Yang Qi's empire was a place of order, where it wasn't necessary to subjugate people. In fact, even people like the Central Dynasty's old imperial preceptor, prime minister, and generalissimo of the armed forces had had their free will returned. Even people with psychic scales of three hundred billion had to admit that Yang Qi's way of running things was superior, to the point where they would risk life and limb to defend it.

By now, the destiny of Yang Qi's empire contained karmic recompense.

In other words, those who performed services for the empire would immediately get compensated with destiny. Government officials didn't need to embezzle things to benefit, and as a result, the thinking of everyone in the empire had shifted, and they all wanted to serve the greater good.

What was good for the empire was good for everyone.

Bringing the people of the Dugu Clan into the Sage Monarch Empire would only lead to chaos, so Yang Qi was more inclined to either kill them or puppetize them, bringing an end to the House of the Invincible.

Yang Qi had long since considered doing this, and the only reason he'd been holding back was for the sake of the Invincible Dugu.

"Activate our destiny and crush Yang Qi!"

"Kill him! Considering we're in the middle of the Invincible Dynasty, he can't deal with us. Draw on all the power of destiny we can muster. Send word to Proud Heaven and the High Priestess. Two fists are no match for four hands, so he has no choice here but to die!"

"What? He wants to take the patriarch's body away? That's treason! We'll die fighting before we let that happen!"

All of the experts were shouting angrily, and the destiny of the dynasty was gathering.

The space around them was being locked down.

"What do you think you're doing!?" All of a sudden, just when the fighting was about to break out, a thunderous voice erupted from within the Invincible Dugu, creating a resonance with the blood of the clan members, who were struck with the impulse to kowtow.

"The patriarch! That's the patriarch's voice! He's alive!"

Heaven-Extinguishing Dugu, Heaven-Reaching Dugu, Heaven-Sacrificing Dugu, and all of the others present were very familiar with the voice, and they knew what it implied.

"Patriarch, hurry and crush Yang Qi!"

"He's too big of a threat to the Invincible Dynasty. You have to kill him!"

"This guy is a freakish hellion!"

"Oh mighty Patriarch, now that you're alive, please save our Invincible Dynasty. Awaken and defeat Proud Heaven and the High Priestess. Seize the throne!"

All of the Dugu Clan members were calling out similar things.

"Fools!" the Invincible Dugu shouted. "Yang Qi is my apprentice from the impure lands. I sent a stream of will out of the god world to summon him to rescue me. And now I'm appointing him as emperor of the Invincible Dynasty!"

1. The "karmic recompense" here is what I previously called "karmic retribution" on occasion. Although "retribution" is the more common way to translate this term, it's obviously not being used in a negative sense. Later on, I'll go back and change all the other "karmic retribution" to "karmic recompense".