Sage Monarch

The eighth of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions had appeared, and Yang Qi had absolutely no reason not to try snatching it. After all, it would come with immense benefits. Unfortunately, the central palace in the Passionless God Flower was an incredibly dangerous place, and it would be easy to instigate mountain-crushing, sea-shattering catastrophes.

Yang Qi could sense that the garden he was in abounded with warding magics. The ornamental rocks, streams, flowers, stone benches and tables all contained enigmatically powerful spell formations. Obviously, such things would completely ignore authorized personnel. However, if outsiders intruded they would react with terrifying power, attracting a lot of attention.

He suddenly extended his hand, and back in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, Flower Mildcloud suddenly felt a very odd sensation, as if she had just lost something. Looking around, she shrugged, assuming it was some strange transformation of the chart around her. The truth was that Yang Qi had just taken a bit of her aura and destiny.

It was similar to how, after killing Chancellor Demi-Immortal, he had taken his soul destiny, which later enabled him to travel into the Heaven Beyond Heaven and the Aeonic God Temple.

With her destiny, Yang Qi could immediately sense that the surrounding vital energy wasn't trying to expel him, leaving him able to move much more freely. Drawing on the full abilities of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, he headed toward the sound of conversation up ahead. Eventually, he was able to see inside the structure, where several people were seated around a table having a discussion.

One of the nearby pillars was protected with powerful warding magics, but using Heaven-Devouring True Energy, he quickly acquired the approval of the spell formations, and slipped into their protection, making it seem like he was part of the pillar.

The first person at the table that drew his attention was a graceful woman dressed in elegant garments. She wore a crown of myriad flowers, all of which were as green as emerald. In fact, she herself seemed to be sculpted from jade, and she emanated a profound aura that indicated her cultivation base was vastly superior to that of Elder Sister Purity.

There were also some men sitting at the table, all of them dignified and imposing, wearing military uniforms. Unexpectedly, they weren't from the Joyflower Palace, but from the future world!

The highest-ranking among them was a young man with sword-like eyebrows and a profound smile. Most shocking of all, he bore a striking resemblance to Proud Heaven.

He was flanked by several generalissimos, all of them equipped with strange, organic mechas. In the future world, these mechas were legendary, and were supposedly crafted from the bones, flesh, and blood of gods and devils. Obviously, such mechas were incredibly powerful, and came with all sorts of mysterious functions.

'Is that one of Proud Heaven's sons? And why exactly do the people of the future world want to work with Joyflower Palace?' Yang Qi's eyes drifted to a white jade box that lay on the table, within which was an object wrapped in cloths embroidered with powerful scriptures. That object emanated the aura of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions. Yang Qi had to resist the urge to instantly jump out and grab it; obviously, getting his hands on it wasn't going to be easy. And if he failed, the consequences could well be death.

Instead, he stayed in place and listened to the conversation.

"Young Sir Proud Ethics," said the woman in the crown of emerald flowers, "we heard that the ten magisters of your future world have extremely profound cultivation bases. Supposedly, they're almost at the level of the legion of gods. I'm very curious as to their exact level.

"It is upon the request of your magisters that you brought a precious gift in the form of one of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions. But why, exactly? What type of cooperation do you want with our Joyflower Palace?"

The young man named Proud Ethics chuckled. "You flatter the magisters. A Grand Emperor on the ninth stair of the Heavenly Stairway would have a power index of a few dozen. Perhaps the ten magisters have power indexes in the tens of thousands, but your empress is roughly at the same level. The reason we're offering you this gift of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallion is that we want to acquire godhood. It's that simple. It's wonderful that the Great Necropolis has come, but the ten magisters are currently in the Primeval Age, working hard to unravel a warding spell that will give them a God Legion Seal. Obviously, they have no time to come to the Ancient Road to the Gods right now. However, once they get that God Legion Seal, the Great Necropolis will belong to the future world, and then they will proceed to the god world!"

"God Legion Seal…?" she said, her face falling. "The legendary God Legion Seal is a boundless treasure from the god world. In fact, it shouldn't even exist in the god world itself. It was split into three parts, which were sent to the past, present and future. You expended all of the incredible resources and effort to go to the Primeval Age to add another piece to your collection? Does that mean your purpose in the Immortal Dao Age is to find the third piece of the God Legion Seal? Do you already know where it is?"

Yang Qi was shaken by what he was hearing.

Of course, he was aware that Proud Heaven knew he possessed the God Legion Seal. But it was a surprise that he had told his son any detail about it. After all, it was a monumental secret, and it was impossible to predict what chaos could ensue, if word spread.

"We have no idea where the third God Legion Seal is," Proud Ethics said. "Of course, we'll do our best to find out. The main reason we've come here today is to ask the Joyflower Palace where we can acquire godhood of our own. The future world needs large amounts of it!"

"We need large amounts of godhood too," was the response. "So why should we work with you? Don't forget, here at the Joyflower Palace, we hate men more than anything. The fact that we're sitting down talking with people like you is kindness enough as it is."

"Miss Jade Nightqueen, whether or not you hate men is your personal affair. But matters of profit transcend everything. In this world, principles are principles, and profit is profit. Truly ambitious and ruthless people can abandon principles for profit and become truly invincible."

As it turned out, this young woman's name was Jade Nightqueen. Obviously, it was a reference to the night queen flower, which would blossom in an instant, then quickly fade into nirvanic extermination. It also represented incredible power.

"Why would we abandon our principles?" Jade Nightqueen said. "What kind of profit can you bring us? One of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions? What are we supposed to do with only one? If you were offering nine, it might be tempting."

Proud Ethics laughed. "Nine of them would provoke drastic transformations in heaven and earth. King Immortal-Slayer would be resurrected, and his will would descend upon myriads of worlds, putting an end to countless entities. Is your Joyflower Palace really so arrogant as to think you could deal with that? You can directly stand up to the will of King Immortal-Slayer? Fight it? Even if your empress were a Lesser God, it would be impossible for her. There is only one thing in existence that could control the wills of King Immortal-Slayer and the other seventy-two monarchs."

"The God Legion Seal," Jade Nightqueen said.

"Exactly. The God Legion Seal. You see, in the grand scheme of things, your Joyflower Palace is actually quite weak compared to the future world. It won't be long before the magisters return, and with two pieces of the God Legion Seal in our possession, do you really think you could resist us?" Proud Ethics's aura was particularly oppressive, as if he were drawing on some sort of powerful divine ability.

"You've got a lot of guts to come in here and talk to me like that!" Jade Nightqueen said, waves of killing intent pulsing from her. "Aren't you worried I might take you captive?"

"Take us captive?" Proud Ethics chuckled. "That's fine with me. You want us to be consorts? Clearly you didn't notice that we're not here as our true selves. These are all projections, the product of the science and technology of the future world. Only a god would be able to pierce through the illusion."

"Projections? All of you are projections?" Jade Nightqueen's cheek twitched. "I see. Very powerful projections. The future world truly is amazing. Well, I suppose we should carefully consider your offer of cooperation."

"I think it's safe to assume, Miss Jade Nightqueen, that you can't make a decision about that on your own. But still, please accept this legacy medallion as a show of good faith, and take it to your empress. Incidentally, there's a letter in the box, written by my father, Magister Proud Heaven, and addressed to your empress. In the past, one of my father's incarnations got to know your empress on the Ancient Road to the Gods. Hopefully their previous acquaintance can dispel some of her suspicions and convince her that the future world truly does want to work with her."

"Oh? I wasn't aware of that." Jade Nightqueen knew that her empress had been a powerful force on the Ancient Road to the Gods for hundreds of millions of years. She had killed countless enemies, subjugated numerous rulers, taken a host of god items, and eventually founded the sprawling Joyflower Palace. But all of that played out before Jade Nightqueen had come along.

After a moment of thought, she said, "If it's true that your Magister Proud Heaven is an acquaintance of our empress, that's a matter we should keep secret. At the moment, the empress is in a dangerous location in the Great Necropolis, trying to acquire some godhood. Not even we can get in there to pass along information. Until she returns, I'll take the legacy medallion and the letter, and seal them in the treasure storehouse. Once she's back, she can make the decision about what to do."

"Of course," Proud Ethics replied. "We can wait until she returns. Thanks for your hard work, Miss Jade Nightqueen. After the future world and the Joyflower Palace finalize our alliance, I hope you'll accept my invitation to go to the future world with me. I'd love to show you around!"