Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“You’ve got a lot of guts to be talking about assimilating Dragon King.”

Winter Bloodless and Patriarch Kingheaven were both completely taken aback by Yang Qi’s plan. If word got out that he’d assimilated Dragon King, he would make himself a full-blown enemy of the God Dragon Tribe. They wouldn't stop going after him until he was dead. Few immortals would ever even consider such a thing. Even the most powerful old-timers would avoid conflict with the Dragonfolk, and they’d even just suck up any losses they suffered.

Besides, considering he had Dragon King hostage, the Dragonfolk would hesitate to shoot the rat for fear of breaking the vases, providing Yang Qi at least a certain measure of safety.

And it would theoretically be possible to ransom Dragon King to the Dragonfolk, who would definitely pay an incredible price to get one of their important old-timers back.

“Young Sir Dragon Proudheaven, you absolutely, positively shouldn’t try for small gains only to lose big. Why don’t we take some time to think this matter over?”

“I’ve already thought it over,” Yang Qi said. “I understand that you’re worried about retaliation from the God Dragon Tribe. How about this: we can do it in secret and not tell anyone. What do you think?” Even Yang Qi had to admit that offending the God Dragon Tribe would make things difficult for him.

“This….”

The two patriarchs were truly shaken by how things were developing.

And hanging over their heads the entire time was the fact that Yang Qi wouldn't heal them unless they agreed to help.

His expression hardening, Yang Qi said, “You should be aware that I’ll assimilate Dragon King eventually anyway, even if you don’t help me. And I’ll do it before the three-month deadline is up. Your help will just speed things up a bit. I would much prefer to finish assimilating him within ten days, or perhaps a few weeks at most. You see, I have a very important task to attend to in about a month, and I need to reach the Godmyth level beforehand. If you two refuse to help me, I’m going to be facing a very inconvenient delay.”

General Samman would be arriving in about a month, and hopefully he would head right for the Tusita Heaven to try to take out Leaf Dao-Denier. If Yang Qi wanted to take advantage of that crisis for personal gain, he would definitely need to be a Godmyth beforehand.

If Winter Bloodless and Patriarch Kingheaven refused to help Yang Qi, they would quickly lose any value to him.

He wasn’t worried that they might turn on him. After all, they knew that he controlled the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart and could easily make them disappear.

The two patriarchs could tell that Yang Qi was about to lose his temper with them, and although that infuriated them there was little they could do. “If that’s the case,” Winter Bloodless said, “we’ll help you deal with Dragon King. But afterward, you have to heal our injuries. If you don't, we’ll have little choice but to join the Nine Yangs God Sect and oppose you.”

Yang Qi chuckled. “Well, that’s only natural. And of course I’ll heal your injuries. That said, Dragon King is very tough, so before dealing with him I’ll need to set up a spell formation in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart for us to use.”

“Alright.”

The patriarchs were under no illusions about the situation; they knew that Yang Qi was pulling them into a cabal of sorts, yet they had no other options.

As Yang Qi made the initial preparations for the spell formation, the two patriarchs secretly conferred via divine will.

“I never could have imagined that Dragon Proudheaven would be such a schemer!” Winter Bloodless said. “He pulled us into his gang, even though he didn’t say that outright. What happens if we outlive our usefulness and he tells the God Dragon Tribe what we did?”

He was furious. He’d originally hoped to team up with Yang Qi, but at the same time take advantage of him. And his support of him had only been lip service. But now, in order to get the healing he so desperately needed, things were going completely opposite of his original plan.

“You’re right,” Patriarch Kingheaven replied. “If we help him assimilate Dragon King, there’ll be no going back. And if we end up at odds with the God Dragon Tribe, we’ll be in big trouble. Dragon Proudheaven can escape any time he wants into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, but we have clans and sects to worry about. What happens if the Dragonfolk try to wipe us out?”

“Normally I would never agree to his demands, but you can tell from his facial expression that he’ll do something crazy if we refuse to cooperate. Besides, what do we do about our energy art problems if he doesn’t heal us?”

“We have no choice but to be two-faced and simply agree for now.”

“Yes, let’s wait patiently and watch how the situation develops. Maybe after we arrive in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, we can demand that he heal us before we deal with Dragon King. After all, what happens if Dragon King puts up a big fight? We might all end up getting killed.”

“But why wait until we're inside the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart? Why not just bring it up now?”

“No way. Dragon Proudheaven will refuse.”

“But once we’re in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, we’ll be completely under his control. What if… what if he locks us up in there along with Dragon King?”

“There’s no way he would be that vicious and merciless. And it’s not like we’ll be completely powerless to fight back. For example, I have a boundless energy art that I can use to create a power double to send in there instead of my true self. Dragon Proudheaven’s cultivation level is too low to pick up on the truth.”

“That’s too dangerous.” Winter Bloodless frowned. “You can’t underestimate this guy. He easily diagnosed our injuries, so what makes you think he won’t notice if we use out-of-body incarnations?”

“Who cares? We can just tell him we don’t want to go into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart with our true bodies. After all, it could be very dangerous in there. If he insists, then worst case scenario we can just fly off the handle! We’ll team up with the God Dragon Tribe and the Nine Yangs God Sect to wipe him out of existence!”

“That might be our only option. We just refuse to go in with our true bodies, and refuse to help him assimilate Dragon King. In fact, maybe we can even rescue Dragon King! That’ll keep Dragon Proudheaven in check!”

“Good idea! We save Dragon King, which will appease the God Dragon Tribe, possibly even gaining us their friendship. In the end, Dragon Proudheaven will end up the loser, with no choice but to heal our energy art injuries.”

And thus, the two patriarchs hatched a scheme.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi seemed completely oblivious. Opening the passageway, he said, “Patriarchs, you two head in first. I’ll follow right behind you.”

“Alright!” the patriarchs responded. They’d already created their power doubles and converted their true bodies into tiny, barely perceptible particles. With a brief vital energy surge, their power doubles flew into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.

Malicious grins appeared on the faces of the patriarchs as they began to revel in the success of their plan.

But then Yang Qi smiled and vanished without a trace.

“Agggghhhhh!”

“What's going on!?’

Inside the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, the two power doubles vanished, and in the space they had just occupied, an enormous spacecraft suddenly appeared. Then, two particles popped out of the spacecraft, which were none other than Winter Bloodless and Patriarch Kingheaven.

Despite having transformed into tiny particles that they thought were hidden from sight, they were now right in the middle of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.

They were inside with their true bodies, which meant that they were now stuck. They unleashed some attacks, but were completely powerless to do anything to the greyspace of the chart. At first, looks of stunned shock could be seen on their faces, but their eyes quickly burned with anger.

Meanwhile, the enormous spacecraft shrank down into a disc that dropped onto Yang Qi’s palm.

“You! Are you looking to die!? I can’t believe you brought our true bodies in here!” Both Winter Bloodless and Patriarch Kingheaven seemed like they were about to start fighting immediately.

Yang Qi laughed. “Our original deal was for you to come in as your true selves, not power doubles. How else are you supposed to deal with Dragon King? This isn’t some game, you know. You can’t underestimate Dragon King, otherwise you’ll end up dead. By the way, the place we were meeting in earlier was a product of my fragment of the Cruiser of Civilization. You turned yourselves into particles, but those particles were inside the spacecraft. And the craft easily intercepted your divine will fluctuations, and even created a recording of your conversation. Would you like to hear it?”

Two voices suddenly rang out from the Cruiser of Civilization.

“We just refuse to go in with our true bodies, and refuse to help him assimilate Dragon King….”

“In fact, maybe we can even rescue Dragon King….”

The two patriarchs’ faces turned as pale as death. Trembling, Winter Bloodless pointed accusingly at Yang Qi and said, “Y-y-you! Your sinister treachery and evil machinations know no bounds! This is terrifying! How could we possibly meet a good end in dealing with you?”

Yang Qi snorted coldly. Expression flickering dangerously, he said, “I proposed a very good deal to the two of you. You help me assimilate Dragon King, I heal you. And you two agreed. But afterward, you secretly conspired to plot against me. If it weren’t for my fragment of the Cruiser of Civilization, you would have succeeded.”

Patriarch Kingheaven sighed. He knew that they’d been fooled by Yang Qi, and that they had no justification to get angry.

“It was for your own good!” he said. “If you offend the God Dragon Tribe, no good will come of it. But in the end, you’re right, we plotted against you. When you stand under low eaves, you have no choice but to bow your head. Now that we’re here in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, we might as well help you deal with Dragon King. Why not just heal our injuries first, though? Won’t that make us even better equipped to achieve victory.”

“No,” Yang Qi said with a decisiveness that could sever nails and chop iron. “You already violated my trust, and I don’t give second chances. We crush Dragon King, and I achieve my breakthrough. Only then will I help the two of you. And if you don’t agree, then you can just remain here in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart for all time.”

“You!” Winter Bloodless shouted. “How dare you go back on your word!”