Sage Monarch

'Sixtieth Young Sir Proud? Son of Proud Warpatience?'

Yang Qi was stunned. Of course, he knew that Proud Warpatience had a big family in the Titan Emperor Heaven. He had hundreds of sons, all of whom had sons of their own. And including the grandchildren and further progeny, the population of his clan reached the hundreds of thousands. In that respect, they were similar to the Yang Clan in the mortal world.

It was a common thing among powerful people.

This particular Sixtieth Young Sir Proud had a profound cultivation base; at the very least, he was an immortal general. And he acted the part. Each step he took was accompanied by what sounded like muffled thunder, and he seemed surrounded by an aura of dragons and tigers.

Furthermore, he was bossy to his core.

As for the violet power stone he held, it made him seem even more impressive than normal.

"That's a power stone from the Tusita Heaven, filled with magical laws!" one of the Mechfolk exclaimed. "There's nothing we Mechfolk could value more! We would pay plenty of brahmanints for a stone like that. Sir, if you have an entire lot of them, we'll give you a million brahmanints per piece!"

"Milord," Titan Duelbringer said gravely, "your power stones have been changing hands over the course of the past several months. They caused quite a stir, and a lot of top experts have been trying to get their hands on them. Proud Warpatience's army managed to acquire quite a few of them."

"He's right, Captain," Yuan Kuohai said. "Those power stones of yours are precious. I've heard of people offering five or six hundred thousand brahmanints a piece for them, only to find no takers. They're virtually priceless. Do you have any more? If you reshaped them into currency, it would probably significantly devaluate brahmanints."

"I don't think that would be a good idea," Yang Qi said. "Brahmanints are from the Brahman Society, and they're quite ferocious, right? Not even we would come out on top if we provoked a conflict with a society that holds sway over thirty-six thousand immortal worlds. Tangling with them would be too dangerous. Although it's true that I have a virtually endless supply of those power stones, I don't want to start flaunting them publicly. Using them to buy a few things here or there is fine, but reshaping them into a new currency is off the table."

"You're absolutely right, Milord," Titan Duelbringer said. "I've risen a bit in the ranks of the Department of Internal Affairs lately, and according to some of the confidential information I've gained access to, dynasties in immortal worlds are forbidden from minting their own currency. The penalty for violating that rule is death. The Brahman Society doesn't care much about other things, but they're very strict when it comes to currency."

Of course, they kept their voices down as they said these things.

Meanwhile, Sixtieth Young Sir Proud said, "I don't have many of these power stones, but I do have a lot of immortal items that I could offer in trade. And brahmanints, too. I intend to clean out all of your mechas today. That Princess Jadefall is a fool to pick a fight with my father. During the war games three days from now, his forces are going to crush hers. Then he'll humiliate her personally, and eventually take control of her armies. In the end, she's going to end up as his maidservant!"

It was only at this point that he looked over at Yang Qi, Titan Duelbringer, and Yuan Kuohai, and noticed that they were all wearing the uniforms of Princess Jadefall's troops. Suddenly, his expression turned vicious. "So, you scum are lackeys of Princess Jadefall. How dare you stand in my presence! Fuck off!"

RUMBLE!

Without any warning, he thrust out his palm, wreathed in lightning. "Five-Lightnings Heavenly-Heart True Magic!"

Sheets of lightning surged out in sheets, creating a world of lightning that shot toward Yang Qi and his companions.

Bzzzzzzzz!

Before anything else could happen, spatial fluctuations rolled out from Mech Tremor, dismantling the Five-Lightnings Heavenly-Heart True Magic and completely negating its effects.

"Please, no fighting!" he said. "You're all customers, and it's against the rules of our emporium to fight inside! If you do, you'll brand yourselves as enemies of the Mechfolk!"

Yang Qi's eyes widened with shock. The power that existed in the Mechfolk was completely different from true energy from the dao of immortals. Apparently, it was based on the power of physics instead.

"Are you looking to die?!" Sixtieth Young Sir Proud shouted. "How dare you interfere! Do you Mechfolk want to stop doing business in the imperial city!?"

"Sixtieth Young Sir Proud, please calm down," another of the Mechfolk said, his voice cold. "No one from any immortal world would ever dare to offend us Mechfolk. Forget a low-level immortal plane like the Titan Emperor Heaven, even places of a much higher level than this treat us with the utmost respect. We're in the business of making money, and we prohibit customers from fighting in our emporiums. If you dare to violate our rules, you won't be welcome here and we'll expel you. Furthermore, your entire clan will be banned from doing business in any Mechfolk emporium."

Sixtieth Young Sir Proud took a step back, looking somewhat intimidated. Then a moment passed, and he snorted coldly. Looking back at Yang Qi and his companions, his gaze settled onto Yuan Kuohai. "You're Yuan Kuohai, aren't you? General of the Special Reconnaissance Division? Well, you're a nobody as far as I'm concerned. Three days from now, our Ninja Division will show you a thing or two."

"Oh?" Yang Qi said with a smile. "And who the hell might you be? Do you really think you're some big shot or something? Let me tell you something. The Titan Emperor Heaven belongs to the imperial house, the Titan Clan. You Proud Clan people are like pet dogs to us. And it's a grave offense for a dog to bite its master. A very grave offense."

Yang Qi was taking full advantage of his identity as a member of the imperial clan, and was cursing to his heart's content. In fact, Sixtieth Young Sir Proud was so infuriated he nearly coughed up blood and could hardly hold back from starting a fight right then and there.

When he finally gained his composure, he said, "That's a very sharp tongue you have. Well, I'll make sure you regret those words, scum. How dare you insult me! In three days' time, I'll make sure you die a horrific death. Listen up, Mechfolk. I'm buying all of your mecha. Get them boxed up immediately."

"Slow down," Yang Qi said. "I want these mecha, and I have the power stones to pay for them." He waved his hand, producing a single power stone, pulsing with violet energy. "How much will you give me? A million brahmanints per stone? I can give you a very large lot. You're asking fifty billion for the sonic-class mecha, right? Let's see. One stone is a million. A hundred stones would be a hundred million. Fifty thousand stones would be fifty billion. And I want all three sonic-class mechas. What do you say—how about two hundred thousand power stones?"

In response to Yang Qi's words, all of the Mechfolk began clamoring at the same time.

"Really?"

"Are you serious?"

"If you really have that many power stones from the Tusita Heaven, then not only will we give you a big discount but we'll consider you a top customer of the Mechfolk. No matter which Mechfolk emporium you visit in the future, you'll have access to the best merchandise. And if you're ever in trouble for any reason, you can seek refuge with us."

"Two hundred thousand power stones? My god! Am I hearing things? Do you really have that many? The Tusita Heaven is so high up it's incomprehensible! The ancient mechanical civilization operated completely on power stones. And the better quality the power stones, the stronger the mechas are. We actually have mechas that won't work because we don't have the proper power stones. But if you can provide us with Tusita Heaven power, we could activate our cosmic-class mechas!"

"Excellent! Now this is doing business. Assuming you're not trying to pull a fast one."

Obviously, some of them didn't even believe he was telling the truth.

"This is a business deal of immense proportions," Yang Qi said. "If we can work out all the details, I might be interested in buying some of your battleships as well. What do you think? I'll pay for them with power stones too." Looking at Sixtieth Young Sir Proud out of the corner of his eye, he smiled faintly and said, "This probably isn't the best place to talk about the details. Do you have somewhere more private to finish the negotiations? I really don't like being stared at."

"Of course, of course. Please, right this way." Mech Tremor waved his arm, causing a wormhole to spring up in front of them. Of course, it had been created not by Mech Tremor's personal power, but by the machinery he had on his person.

As soon as it opened up, Yang Qi and his companions followed the Mechfolk inside.

Meanwhile, a few of the lower-ranking Mechfolk remained behind with Sixtieth Young Sir Proud.

"Young Sir," one of them said, "I'm afraid there's nothing we can do about the situation. Someone else already reserved these mechas. If you really want to, you can place an order and wait a few months for new models to arrive."

"Screw you!" Young Sir Proud shouted angrily. "Screw all of you! Come on, men, let's get out of here. I'm not going to forget this, Mechfolk. I'll be watching you. And I'm going to find out who exactly that imperial clansman was. He's going to die, too. The Proud Clan is the real imperial house as far as this immortal world is concerned. If it weren't for our patriarch Proud Heaven, this place wouldn't even exist!"

"We'll run investigations immediately, Sixtieth Young Sir," one of his fellows said. "However, I think the most pressing question is where that imperial clansman got so many power stones. We need to find out immediately. Perhaps we should pass this information up the chain of command. So far, we know that the power stones have come from the Department of Internal Affairs and the Heaven's Net Consortium. But where did they get them? Who is the ultimate source?"

"You're right," Sixtieth Young Sir Proud said. "That imperial clansman is a nobody. There's definitely a much bigger fish backing him. If we could find out who, maybe we could hook ourselves an actual dragon. It seems to me we might have a treasure hoard on our hands. Maybe even a godrelic filled with power stones. Only the ancient legion of gods could possibly gather the power of the Tusita Heaven like that."

Thus, Sixtieth Young Sir Proud left the Mechfolk emporium.