Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

As Yang Qi faced the woman, the photonic computers spoke to him.

[Beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep. Preliminary assessment suggests a power index of roughly forty. However, fluctuations indicate this individual has hidden power reserves not related to magical treasures or personal cultivation base. Given these additions, her composite power index likely exceeds forty. Correlative assessment indicates this person is not a major threat. Although defeating her is out of the question, she should not be able to injure you.]

‘So she’s stronger than me, but can’t beat me. In that case, I guess I have nothing to be afraid of. If what she just said is true, she comes from the Ancient Road to the Gods, huh….’

She stood there arrogantly in the kingdom of flames, and as the fire burned around her, it didn’t enter her body, but rather seemed to be purified by the energy field surrounding her. She had an icy and frigid aura around her that seemed to repel the fire and completely protect her.

“Are you someone from the Primeval Age who ended up on the Ancient Road to the Gods, and is using the Great Necropolis to try to get to the immortal dao civilization?” Yang Qi asked. “Might I ask for your honored surname and distinguished given name?”

“I'm Holy Daughter Joyflower,” she said coldly. “I doubt you've heard of me. Like I said, I stepped on the Ancient Road to the Gods hundreds of millions of years ago.”

Yang Qi knew that people who could enter the Ancient Road to the Gods were the type who stood head and shoulders above their contemporaries. Not even the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court had ever entered the ancient road. In fact, it was only after their stronger contemporaries had left that they ended up founding the Heavenly Court.

This Holy Daughter Joyflower had to be someone who entered the road before the Heavenly Court was set up, which meant that, to her, the four emperors were nobodies.

Long, long ago, there was a period of time after the legion of gods vanished in which new experts rose to prominence. And many of those experts ended up on the Ancient Road to the Gods, where they were still striving to reach the god world. In the Primeval Era, it was shortly after the legion of gods perished that the Ancient Road to the Gods disappeared.

That was the time period to which the Dragonfolk had opened a passageway, the era in which the buddhist schools thrived.

The primeval past. The medieval past. The present. The future.

Eldest Brother Secundus was from the Primeval Age, as were the Five Great Lokapālas. As for this Holy Daughter Joyflower, she had to have come from the medieval past.

“What exactly did you want to talk to me about?” Yang Qi asked. “Don’t tell me you want that godworm back.” It was a given that she wouldn't be happy about having her godworm taken, but now that he had it, there was no way he would just give it up. If she tried to pick a fight, he could always just leave. He didn’t want to waste any true energy fighting her.

“You’re strong, I’ll give you that,” she said. “I can tell that, although you’re a bit weaker than me, if we ended up fighting we’d probably both get hurt. And what would be the point of that? On the Ancient Road to the Gods, there’s no point in making archenemies. Why don't we join forces? Explore the inexhaustible secrets of the Great Necropolis together?”

When she spoke, her voice didn’t seem to contain a scrap of emotion, as if she really didn't care at all that Yang Qi had taken the godworm she was raising. It was strange, considering that he knew she must have spent a lot of time and resources on the thing.

“What do you mean inexhaustible secrets? Didn’t you just say the Great Necropolis floated down the Ancient Road to the Gods for tens upon tens of thousands of years? Considering how much time has passed, haven’t you already thoroughly explored this place? What would be the point of working together?”

Yang Qi was very curious why the Great Necropolis had appeared to begin with, and what exactly it contained.

“Not even I'm sure of exactly what the Great Necropolis is. After all, I’ve never been to the god world. My cultivation base just isn’t high enough, and I can only go so far along the road. However, I do know that the Great Necropolis contains deathless godhood, left behind by dead gods who ended up buried here. Due to the nature of the necropolis, that godhood will never fade away. There are a lot of other experts from the Ancient Road to the Gods here in the Great Necropolis, searching for it. Anyone who finds it will rapidly advance toward godly ascension, becoming so powerful that everyone else inside will be like bugs who can be reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye.”

‘A lot of other experts?’ Yang Qi thought, shocked.

No one knew just how far the Ancient Road to the Gods stretched, but it got wider as it went along. According to the rumors, the god world was at its end, and those who reached it could reach the same level as the legion of gods. It went without saying that any expert on the road would be an incredibly powerful individual who would make the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court seem like children.

This Holy Daughter Joyflower went to prove that point.

Of course, once Yang Qi was an actual Grand Emperor, he would definitely be able to crush her.

“I can tell you’re extremely strong,” she said, “so if we worked together, we would definitely have a shot at finding some deathless godhood. If you don't want to, that's fine. Just remember, there’s plenty of danger in the Great Necropolis, and I'm not the strongest person here. I’d say I'm somewhere in the middle. There are some experts around who are ten times as strong as me. Furthermore, there are undying expressions of will from perished gods in the depths of the necropolis. Things like that could easily destroy people like you and me. The only chance to get any godhood is to team up. In fact, the two of us might not be enough. We may need to recruit more people to help.”

“Alright. If you want to team up, then fine.” It could be very dangerous to form alliances with strangers. After all, you never knew when they might try to stab you in the back. But he could always escape to the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, if needed. Besides, he had been a part of enough temporary alliances in life to know to be on guard against backstabbers. If anything, he might be the one to suddenly turn on his ally.

“Didn’t you say you’ve been exploring the Great Necropolis for ten thousand years already?” he asked. “You must have a pretty good idea of the general state of things in here. Mind explaining? Incidentally, there’s a fleet of battleships from the future world some distance behind me. If we work together, we might be able to take them out.”

“I saw that fleet,” she said. “And I watched you fighting them, too. It won’t be easy to handle them. Besides, I don’t have any beef with them. And if you try to kill them, it could provoke a response from one of their magisters. The magisters all have unfathomable cultivation bases and are vastly beyond anything I could handle. It’s only a matter of time until they come here to the Great Necropolis. Long story short, they’re your enemy, not mine. Look, as long as you join me, I’ll explain everything I know about this place to you. For example, this kingdom of fire we're in is actually built on the bones of a god of fire from the god world.”

“A god of fire?” he said in surprise. He opened his Lord's Eye and saw an enormous plane of existence stretching out, with fire so hot that it would kill even Grand Emperors. “What if there’s deathless godhood hidden in here?”

“There’s no way,” Holy Daughter Joyflower said. “That god of fire was a mere Lesser God, and was a mere sacrificial burial item. That said, there should be a deathless god soul in the depths of this place. If you get that, you could probably refine it into an out-of-body incarnation, which would definitely give you a big boost in power.”

“Oh really?” Yang Qi said. He activated the power assessment systems and used them to scan the depths of the kingdom of flames.

[Beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep. Danger! Extreme danger! Unknown entity detected. The soul of a god. Power index one hundred and five.]

‘Incredible,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘That god soul has a power index of one hundred and five? That's completely heaven-defying.’ All of a sudden, Yang Qi realized that, before coming into the Great Necropolis, he had been completely ignorant regarding what an ‘expert’ really was.

The combined forces of the future world and the Mechfolk only had a power index in the hundreds, and that was like nothing. Even an army with ten thousand soldiers would be easily destroyed in the face of someone with superhuman powers. But if he could get the power of that god soul, he would be strong enough to defeat this Holy Daughter Joyflower and the future world’s fleet.

“Unfortunately, that god soul has a power index of well over a hundred. Even working together, could we really take it?” He shook his head. “It seems too risky.”

“What do you mean power index of over a hundred?” Holy Daughter Joyflower asked, clearly confused.

“I have a way to analyze power levels. A Grand Emperor on the Stair of the True Void has a power index of one. Your power index is forty, and I can tell that you have some hidden power reserves. As for me, I can reach about the level of forty as well. But this god soul is over a hundred. Do you see the problem?”