Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“Right. The jade discs left behind by the Demon Master are inscribed with numerous taboo arts, and only Demonfolk gods can study them. Most of those techniques will cause cultivation deviation and death for those who look at them. Considering that brat is human, he’ll definitely die if he looks at them.”

The ghostface monkey-god burst out laughing.

The Demon Master had left behind a technique to develop a heart-devil and then defeat it. That was one way to achieve a breakthrough when faced with a barrier. Unfortunately, no one had ever successfully cultivated the technique to completion.

Many Demonfolk believed it was nothing more than a pipe dream created by the Demon Master. After all, even he hadn’t succeeded in cultivating it, and ended up perishing after cultivation deviation.

Neither the snake goddess nor the ghostface monkey-god would dare to look at that jade disc in order to give the information to Yang Qi. However, if they could get him to look at the disc, and he died as a result, they would be able to take whatever precious items he had.

It was a given that an Ascendant would have some treasures. At least, that was what they thought.

There were plenty of precious treasures from the god world that, because they had been caught up in the tribulations of whoever possessed them, ended up falling down into the mortal worlds. And Ascendants were peak entities from the mortal world, who would surely come across treasures like that and keep them for later use in the god world.

“Remember the seventy-two monarchs? I heard that a lot of their items ended up in the impure lands. Especially King Heaven-Devourer’s talismans. They all ended up there. If this kid is an Ascendant, maybe he has them. If so, I could use them to become completely domineering and invincible in all heaven and earth! Sadly, people in the impure lands couldn’t possibly unlock the full mysteries of King Heaven-Devourer’s talismans. Only we Snakefolk can do that. After all, we have the quintessence blood of King Heaven-Devourer in our veins.” The snake goddess sighed. “It’s too bad we can't descend to the lower worlds.”

“Quit dreaming,” the ghostface monkey-god said. “It's a lot easier to ascend to here than to descend to there. In fact, it's impossible. That is one of the most important magical laws governing humans and gods. In any case, it’s true that Ascendants tend to have treasures from the god world, and it’s usually a factor in why they can ascend to begin with. So that means this boy definitely has some sort of treasure. However, I suspect it's something related to the buddhist schools. Remember, he used that buddha head against me, and that's definitely something from a buddhist school.”

“I'd be happy to get a treasure from a buddhist school. Allowing things like that to remain in the hands of someone from the impure lands would be like throwing a bright pearl out into the darkness.”

The two demon-gods left, taking the hordes of demonlings with them into the night. In the blink of an eye, the storm became calm and the invasion was a thing of the past.

Back in Mine One, the Yue Clan elder sensed the pressure fading away from his spell formation, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He had been worried the whole time that some demon-gods might show up, which would have been a problem. Now the armies were leaving, for no apparent reason.

He had no idea why it was happening, but it was a good thing nonetheless.

Rushing over, Elder Brother Yue said, “Uncle, Uncle! The demonling armies are retreating! We're safe!”

“Don’t let your guard down,” the elder said. “Send orders to the disciples to remain in combat readiness until daybreak. If the demonlings are still nowhere to be seen by then, we can consider ourselves safe.”

Demonlings wouldn’t launch invasions in the middle of the day when the heat could be deadly; they preferred the darkness of night.

Everyone waited as the hours ticked by. At a certain point, light flared into existence, causing burning heat to press down.

The demonling army was really gone, and the danger had passed. No one had any idea it was all because of Yang Qi. If the sect knew it was him, they would have rewarded him with merit points. But since he had no way to prove that he was responsible, he said nothing.

“Alright, I'm going to call it a day,” the Yue Clan elder said, visibly relieved. “Don’t let the sect know about any of this. They’ll send envoys soon to inquire about what happened, and you just tell them that you worked in unison with the other foremen to repel the invasion. I’ll go back and try to find some information about which envoys will be coming. Unfortunately, the envoys are usually lone wolves without any clan affiliations. They're impartial and incorruptible, and live to serve the sect. Make sure to prepare plenty of money to offer as a gift, got it?”

“Yes sir!” Elder Brother Yue said. “But what about Yang Qi...?”

“He’s not important. Just let him do whatever he wants to do for now. When the right moment arrives, I’ll activate the godpower seed and force his energy arts to regress. Remember: for now, all of his cultivation will benefit you. So there’s no reason to fear him.”

“Right, thanks for the reminder, Uncle.” Elder Brother Yue watched with a smile on his face as the elder entered the teleportation portal and vanished.

“You’re dead, Yang Qi! I'm going to reach godly ascension soon. And as for you... you never will!”

‘He’s confused about who’s going to end up dead,’ Yang Qi thought. He had seen enough of what was going on in Mine One. In front of him on the wall was a rippling screen that allowed him to see everything the Yue Clan elder was doing and even thinking.

The two demon-gods were also visible there.

That said, it was a bit draining to be using the Heaven-God Hell-Exterminating Devil Embryo on three Lesser Gods at the same time. After all, Yang Qi wasn’t a god himself yet, and these Lesser Gods had godhood ratings of one, two, and three.

‘I’m done observing for now. I’ll just let the devil embryos grow.’

He dispelled the screen and sent orders to Zhang Jufang to send all the other foremen back to their respective mines. And he emphasized to let them take all of their ore and wealth with them, and not take a bit.

Then he sank into a trance of cultivation.

For now, he wasn't going to attempt to intentionally foster a heart-devil. After all, he wasn't sure he could get rid of it. And in cultivation, one of the most important things was to maintain a mind free of extraneous impurities.

Distracting thoughts in one's heart was an easy way to slip into cultivation deviation.

His current cultivation consisted of working on the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth and the Sage Monarch Grand Magic, as well as seeking enlightenment of the Mahātmā Jade and the Unspoiled Body. In addition to cultivating, he took care of some other tasks. For instance, he ordered some of his people to go meet with the demon-god people and start doing business.

He also gave some divine abilities to Cherry, enabling her to be as competent an assistant as Zhang Jufang. He was in charge of overseeing the male miners and disciples, while she supervised the female miners and disciples.

The mine was now operating at peak efficiency, and the business with the Demonfolk was bringing in plenty of extra wealth. Eventually, Yang Qi selected some of the most reliable disciples to become part of what he called the Sage Monarch Consortium. Such disciples were then sent out to the surrounding cities to establish business relations. Usually, big business consortiums were only taken seriously if they had an impressive backer, and thankfully Yang Qi and his followers were disciples of the House of God Ordainment. As long as they didn’t cause any conflicts with the other consortiums, no one would cause problems for them.

The rules of the House of God Ordainment were very strict. Disciples weren’t allowed to fight and kill each other. However, if outsiders caused major problems for them, they were permitted to react with lethal force. And they always knew that the sect was there to provide backup. Everyone knew that causing problems for any disciple of the House of God Ordainment was like poking a hornet’s nest, and anyone who did so would risk their sect or clan being wiped out. In fact, the reason there were always new slaves being sent to the mines was partly because of situations like that.

Three months passed. Yang Qi watched as his mining operations expanded, and his subordinates made advancements in their cultivation. It was a glorious feeling.

In fact, he was finally starting to understand what it must feel like to be one of the legion of gods.

Unfortunately, his cultivation was stuck in a bottleneck.

He couldn’t reach godly ascension, nor could he reach Paramount will convergence. Without that breakthrough, his energy arts couldn’t progress, and any further attempts at enlightenment would be in vain. He never would have guessed that this step would be so hard.

At a certain point, he thought about his father, Jadefall, Brahma, Doom, the Shepherd and even his immortal-slaying clone. Where were they? How were they doing? He had lost contact with them after entering the House of God Ordainment. Any previous communication methods didn't seem to work, thanks to being in such an immense god kingdom.

That said, he wasn’t worried. They had all been looked upon with favor by important people. Considering how intelligent they all were, they were sure to have made names for themselves. It was likely that Brahma was already a god, and the others would most likely succeed as well. They shouldn't have as hard a time as Yang Qi was having.

Even as everything seemed to be going perfectly, the sound of bells could be heard from Mine One.

They were bells that rang when welcoming visitors, which seemed to indicate that envoys from the sect would be arriving shortly.

The envoys would be tasked with inspecting the mines, and would also check the quotas. Those who met the quota or exceeded it would be rewarded by them.

“You keep an eye on things here in the mine,” Yang Qi said. “I'm going to Mine One to meet the envoys.” Reaching out, he grabbed a bag full of godsand and ore of high enough quality that it would definitely meet the yearly quota, or possibly even exceed it.

In addition to the main stockpile, he kept some imperial caliber godstones in reserve in case the envoys were initially unhappy.