Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“Well, what do you think? Have you considered matters thoroughly? You’re definitely strong, and there’s no reason for us to cause problems for you. Considering you’re an Ascendant, you’ll obviously accomplish great things in the future. So why don’t we work out a deal?”

The ghostface monkey-god and the snake goddess obviously wanted to buy some time and escape, then come up with some other plan to deal with the situation. From the interchange moments ago, they knew how strong Yang Qi was and could tell that if they kept fighting they would die. Both had only become Lesser Gods fairly recently, and hadn’t even had time to earn a reputation as such. So there was no way they wanted to simply throw their lives away here.

One could only imagine how difficult it must have been to struggle up through the ranks of the Demonfolk until they were actual gods.

Despite being gods, they knew how to endure humiliation in order to survive. The Demonfolk were powerful beings, and the fighting among them was fierce. Even gods had to learn to endure certain situations; if they didn’t, they would die. Humans were the only ones who liked to protect each other, leading to concepts such as dignity and honor.

“Work together? Work together how? Normally speaking, I would just let you go. As the saying goes, river water shouldn’t mix with well water. But here you are, trying to invade my mine. Don’t tell me you think you can just walk away after that.” Yang Qi’s mind was spinning as he tried to decide what to do. He didn't want to kill these two now that he had infected them with devil embryos. If he let them go, it was entirely possible he could eavesdrop on them and learn some of the secrets of the Demonfolk. Furthermore, he could possibly use them to start creating his own personal power structure.

There was nothing in the rules of the House of God Ordainment that prohibited disciples from building power structures. For instance, it was common to establish businesses outside of the sect, which made it easier to acquire items to hand in for merit points. In fact, the sect actually encouraged disciples to do just that. The stronger the disciples were, the stronger the House of God Ordainment would be.

“What, you want us to give you a reward or something?” the ghostface monkey-god said. “If we work together, we can both benefit. As you surely know, these mountains go on forever, and there are all sorts of Demonfolk tribes in them. If we make a deal, you’ll profit like a madman. What’s the point of working so hard to defend this mine? Are you running short on money? Breaking your back just to get a few merit points seems like a real waste.”

“What kind of deal are you proposing?” Yang Qi said.

“You’re just doing more to prove you’re an Ascendant,” the snake goddess laughed. “Any native of the god world would know how profitable it is to do business with Demonfolk. These mountains are full of medicinal ingredients and precious materials that we don’t have any use for. But you humans love to collect those kinds of things. Unfortunately, we can’t exactly go into your cities to sell them. So you just get some disciples together to form a consortium to do business with us. You’ll start earning a huge profit right away.”

There were plenty of disciples who would secretly deal with the Demonfolk. The only downside was that it wasn’t easy to actually work with Demonfolk. The disciples were often viewed simply as carriers, and thus found it hard to make a profit. For instance, Huang Weilong had struck a deal with the Demonfolk, but had only been able to maintain a very meager profit margin. Most of the profit went to the Demonfolk.

As for Yang Qi, he was strong enough that the Demonfolk couldn't take advantage of him.

“Fine,” he said. “What do you want from me? Obviously I can provide godstones. That said, don’t even think of trying to pull a fast one on me. Remember, all I have to do is take you captive and hand you over to my sect to earn a huge sum of merit points, enough to reach godly ascension.”

“You really think becoming a god will be that easy?” the snake goddess said. “And do you really think turning us into the sect would be such a simple thing? The people in your sect would definitely want to know how you pulled it off, and then your secret would be out. You can still become a god by working with us. Your godpower is plenty strong, you just need the right catalyst. Since you ascended from the mortal world, you have extensive experience. Unfortunately, that experience also creates a barrier that you need to break through. To do that, you need to find a breakthrough point. And we can give that to you.”

“What breakthrough point?” Yang Qi asked, his heart starting to pound a bit.

Although he was indeed strong enough to defeat gods in battle, he wasn’t in the position to form his own godhood yet. All he knew was that he was missing something, something profoundly mysterious and enigmatic. And thus, the snake goddess’ words struck a chord.

“We Demonfolk have all sorts of medicinal pills that we use for godly ascension, as well as certain secret magics. In particular, we have the Psychic Devil-Raising Demon-Sacrificing Heaven-Defying Grand Magic. By feeding a heart-devil with your own psyche, you can grow it to the point where it can control your psyche. When it parasitizes you, you’ll become half human and half devil. And in that moment of extreme danger and potential death, you summon your valor and fight yourself. If you defeat that heart-devil, then no matter what obstacle you face in your cultivation, or what bottleneck you’re in, you’ll achieve a breakthrough. All of that comes from defeating your heart-devil.

“So, what do you think? If you want, I can find a way to give you this secret magic of the most ancient arch-patriarch of the dao of demons. With it, maybe you can become a god.”

Yang Qi smiled. “I can tell just from the name what that technique is all about. It’s obviously extremely dangerous. I’d bet that out of a hundred million people who use it, only one or two will succeed, with the rest suffering cultivation deviation and either being possessed by their heart-devils, or dying as lunatics. The Psychic Devil-Raising Demon-Sacrificing Heaven-Defying Grand Magic. Not bad. Not bad at all. I'm definitely interested in seeing it. It’s a technique that runs counter to the norm. It obviously had to have been created by a boundless patriarch of the Demonfolk.”

All the cultivation techniques and daoist magics in existence, even those cultivated by actual devils, involved expelling heart-devils, knowledge-devils, wisdom-devils, ambition-devils, greed-devils, lust-devils, and the like. Only by removing them completely was it possible to cleanse the sea of consciousness, develop true understanding, and control one’s vital energy.

Devils who cultivated devil arts would seem to abound with devil energy, but that was because their power thrived on things related to darkness and gloom, not because of inner devils.

If they actually had inner devils, their cultivation would eventually reach an end, and they would die.

Cultivation involved using one’s wisdom and strength to subjugate the inner devils, while also subjugating oneself.

But this Demonfolk secret magic seemed to function completely contrary to the norm. It involved growing the inner devil until it surpassed the self and tried to take over. Only in the final climactic battle would one subjugate it. And that would be a complete and utter subjugation of the self.

There was only one way to describe something like that: heaven-defying. Yang Qi had to admire whoever it was that had developed the technique. It was a technique that didn’t relate to fighting prowess at all, and was extremely dangerous, to the point where one’s chances of survival would be minimal at best.

Generally speaking, people who had the most trouble achieving breakthroughs were those who were far stronger than average. And people like that would have particularly formidable heart-devils.

Defeating enemies in battle was an easy thing, but defeating oneself was the opposite. Even the most amazing people would have trouble in that regard.

It had been the same for the Sovereign Lord.

Truth be told, now that Yang Qi knew of this technique, he could make his own version if he wanted to. However, that would take time, effort, and systematic study. If he could get a perfected version and study it instead, it could provide a big boost to his Sage Monarch Grand Magic.

“Alright,” Yang Qi said, “if you can get me that technique, then I’ll let bygones be bygones.”

“It’s a very formidable technique,” the snake goddess said, “so it's going to be very expensive to get it. Alright? If you agree, we can seal the deal.”

“That's fine. The deal is sealed. Later on, I’ll send people to get our business going. For now, the two of you can leave. I’ve opened the spell formation. And don’t even think of trying anything funny. Even if you send more demonlings against me, I’ll just wipe them all out.” With that, he waved his hand, causing a wind to spring up around the two Demonfolk that sent them outside the spell formation.

Once outside, they exchanged an awkward glance before shooting up into the sky and disappearing. Down below, the other Demonfolk backed down and retreated.

Within moments, the area around the mine was completely empty.

Later, deep in the mountains, the snake goddess said, “Where did that brat actually come from? He's definitely an Ascendant. And why did he let us go so easily? Do you think he has some trick up his sleeve?”

“A boy like that can’t have much experience, er—” the ghostface monkey-god actually cut himself off. Now that they knew he was an Ascendant, it would be ridiculous to claim that he had no experience. And it was a given that any Ascendant would be adept with crafty plots and machinations. He shivered. “There’s no way he did anything to us. Isn’t he worried about us causing more problems?”

“That's what I was thinking.” She shook her head. “All I know is that I have a very strange feeling when dealing with him. Like I have no idea what he's really thinking. There was something very odd about the whole thing. Should we just go ahead and do business with him? Maybe we should just give him the Psychic Devil-Raising Demon-Sacrificing Heaven-Defying Grand Magic and let him cultivate it.”

“It's the most taboo art among us Demonfolk, with an almost one hundred percent rate of cultivation deviation. Not even we would dare to look at the thing lest we start cultivating it automatically. So how are we supposed to give it to him?” The ghostface monkey-god shivered.

“I guess we have to take him to the Demon Master’s jade disc collection to look for himself.”