Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“Aaarrrgghh!”

As the essences of various hells were poured into the whip, it eventually reached the point where there were over a hundred, and not even Green Merchant could handle the pain.

He screamed and howled, and although he was generally a tough person who didn’t fear pain, eventually he longed to simply die.

It was a terrifying torment that would strike fear into the hearts of any who heard of it.

“How dare you do this to me, Green Blaze!” Green Merchant shouted frenziedly. “Don’t you remember that I'm the next leader of the clan?! You're going to be punished for this!”

“Punished by the clan?” Green Blaze laughed. “Seems you’re still not thinking clearly, brother. You think I care about our clan? Not even Leaf Dao-Denier could save you from this, let alone the clan. I’ll be running the clan soon, so hurry up and submit. Open up your soul and release your faith. Pray to Young Sir Yang Qi, and your torment will end. Once you do, you’ll be illuminated by his glory.”

“Bah!” Green Merchant growled stubbornly.

“Light of Clarity!” Yang Qi said, causing a halo to appear on Green Merchant that instantly gave him further clarity of thought. And of course, that intensified the pain—and also ensured that he wouldn’t pass out.

“Arrggh! I'm not going to let you off the hook for this, you fiend-devil! Why are you tormenting me like this! Young Master Leaf! Young Master Leaf! Help me! I’m your loyal little bro! Don’t tell me you don’t care about my pain!” Green Merchant was still unwilling to give up. He clearly believed that Young Master Leaf was omniscient and would soon come to rescue him.

“Your Young Master Leaf is in seclusion right now. You think he’s paying attention to you? Besides, even if he wasn’t in seclusion, it’s not like he’s keeping an eye on you at all times. And I can hoodwink the dao of heaven itself! Even here in the Tusita Heaven, Young Master Leaf can’t find me unless I want him to. You’ve really underestimated me. I might be just a Godmyth, but I’m trillions of times stronger than even those of you with special constitutions! Well, since you refuse to give in, I guess I have no choice but to add more hellish essences. This one is from the Hell of Frigid Ice, which will freeze you to the core. And the Hell of Humiliation, which can force you to be reincarnated into the lowliest of individuals and experience horrific humiliation.”

Hundreds more hellish essences were added to the whips.

As Green Blaze continued to lash Green Merchant, he eventually began tensing up, and finally a look of terror appeared on his face as he looked at something only he could see. “No… no… he’s foaming at the mouth. Don’t come over here. Stop! You can’t humiliate me, I'm a man!”

Thanks to the essence of the Hell of Humiliation, he became a weakling that the male fiend-devils could violate with impunity. The humiliation he felt made him feel like he was simply going to die, except he wasn’t allowed to.

He was a Berserk One, one of the lofty seventy-two patriarchs, yet that only made the pain and humiliation worse.

“I… I’ll submit! I’ll betray Young Master Leaf. I’ll give you my faith and my soul. You will be my Sovereign Lord! Just let me go. I can’t take this humiliation!”

“Stop!” Yang Qi said, and Green Blaze took a step back.

In that moment, Green Merchant felt as if he had just ascended to the halls of heaven. Relaxation flowed through him, except when he looked into Yang Qi’s eyes he was struck with the most profound terror at the thought of having to experience further torment.

“Open your soul and take me as your Sovereign Lord,” Yang Qi said coldly. “Give me your faith. I advise you to not try to resist. If you do, the consequences will be brutal. A thousand times more horrific than what you just experienced.”

As the words left his mouth, he sent a stream of sagelight into Green Merchant’s sea of consciousness.

It was a transmission of faith and had to be accepted fully, without the least bit of resistance.

Green Merchant knew that if he fought back, the torment would be horrific. And of course, he didn’t dare to do that. He would do anything to avoid the Hell Scourge.

As Yang Qi’s sagelight flowed through him, his consciousness and soul fully submitted to Yang Qi.

At long last, Yang Qi had gained access to the seventy-two patriarchs. He now had a trump card he could use to set a deadly trap for Young Master Leaf. However, one trump card wasn't going to be enough. Green Merchant could be the foundation, but Yang Qi would need to turn more of the other seventy patriarchs against Young Master Leaf. The ultimate goal was to make sure Young Master Leaf was a general with no troops under his command.

When those who he thought were his most faithful disciples were actually traitors, Yang Qi would launch a surprise attack that would hopefully kill Young Master Leaf.

Having forced Green Merchant to submit, Yang Qi was now confident in dealing with the other patriarchs. By forcing others to submit, he would, by extension, be gaining control of many of the aristocratic clans in the Tusita Heaven.

And that would make the next step of his plan go even more smoothly.

Obviously, the Tusita Dynasty wouldn’t just let him do anything he wanted here. They had plenty of Chaos Gods and demigods, and if they all joined forces against Yang Qi, he would be in big trouble. Right now, the only way he could deal with them would be to take them out one at a time. Back during his big heist, the only reason the old-timers didn’t show up was that they were in seclusion and had been too busy to go down to the Dao Defense League to handle matters. But if Yang Qi started causing bigger problems, they would definitely interfere.

“On your knees, Green Merchant!”

“Yes sir! Milord!”

Green Merchant dropped to the ground, looking just as pious as Green Blaze. His soul now belonged to Yang Qi and he had been converted into a faithful believer. Yang Qi’s immortal-slaying clone in the Heaven Beyond Heaven immediately sensed the influx of faith, and it improved his cultivation speed.

‘What an incredible constitution and sea of consciousness,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘If he’d held strong, it would have been difficult to force him to submit. I would’ve had to kill him. And unfortunately, the seventy-two patriarchs are bound together in spirit and action, so his death would have been immediately noticed by Young Master Leaf. And there’s no way I can beat Young Master Leaf in a single shot right now. But if I slowly force his disciples to turn on him, then when he comes out of seclusion it will be to his doom.’

“Tell me, Green Merchant. What exactly is Young Master Leaf up to right now? And when is he coming out of seclusion?”

Kowtowing, Green Merchant replied, “Milord, Young Master Leaf sent word three days ago that he was entering a state of deep meditation. He wanted us seventy-one patriarchs to work with the Tusita Dynasty to go and enslave everyone from the Dao Defense League. The ultimate goal was to take you out, Milord. However, I myself just came out of meditation, so I'm not sure of all the details. All I know is that you stole the Tusita dynasty’s path to godly ascension, er—”

SMACK!

Green Merchant slapped himself. “I mean took, not stole. I was careless with my wording, Milord, please punish me!”

“It’s fine. Look, I want to force all of the other seventy patriarchs to submit. Can you think of any way to lure them into an ambush? Of course, I can’t face them all at the same time. That would be too dangerous.”

“Your humble servant will think of a way. A few of my companions are currently in seclusion. For instance, there’s the Courageous One, Huang Yunwu, and the Warrior One, Crooked Soul. Also the Devil-Crushing One, Ling Ding. I can send messages to them asking them to meet. You simply wait for them to show up, Milord, then jump out and capture them.”

“Excellent. By the way, I’ll reward you well for your service. As long as I manage to kill Young Master Leaf, I’ll bestow some of his riches on you. Send the word to those friends of yours.”

“Yes, Milord!” Green Merchant immediately sent the messages.

Before long, he shivered. “Milord, they’re all out of seclusion and on their way. There are five of them, and they think I want to discuss an important matter with them before connecting up with the rest of our brethren to head to the Tusita Dynasty. At the moment, there are thirty-six of our brethren in talks with the old-timers there. The rest are all in their various clans, working on their cultivation.”

“That’s fine. We’ll take care of them all one by one.”

Nodding, Yang Qi surreptitiously sent some divine will out.

“They’re here!” Five streaks of light could be seen, all of them Measureless Gods with fighting prowess no lower than Chaos Gods. All of them were pulsing with seventy-two unique auras, giving them such a resonance with the magical laws of the universe that even Chaos Gods would find it hard to kill them.

Yang Qi didn’t go into hiding. He just stood there.

“Milord, they’re almost here,” Green Merchant said anxiously. “Hurry up and hide!”