Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi was now an official member of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect. For some reason, he felt relaxed to be part of an organization as powerful as this. He was bursting with vital energy, and was ready to face the new challenges ahead of him.

“It seems simple to join the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect, doesn’t it?” An Yiru said jovially as they left the mountain peak.

“Yes. Very. There wasn't even a test. Aren’t you people worried I might be an infiltrator? With such a simple entrance ceremony, how do you prevent spies from coming in and causing trouble?”

“Only people who are tired of living would dare to sneak into the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect to cause trouble. We have people that could crush any troublemakers without any effort at all. Besides, Master looked deep inside you and confirmed you aren’t keeping any secrets. Although, I should point out that Memory Peak is a bit different from the other mountain peaks. Master doesn’t have any wild ambitions, and cultivates a godly dao focused on being unconstrained and forgetting sorrows. In other words, the core teachings and doctrines of Exalted Celestial Unconstrained, who had a profoundly high cultivation base. The other mountain peaks tend to have very strict recruitment rules. And most people can't just immediately come to the mountains to work on their cultivation. They have to start by tempering themselves in the outer and inner sects.”

“So you’re saying I skipped right to the front of the line?” Yang Qi said with a smile.

“That’s exactly right,” she replied. “You're definitely qualified to skip ahead. Of course, if you were an Inheritor, you would’ve advanced to an even higher position. You might have immediately been appointed as an elder.”

“So, what do we do now?” he asked.

“We do our best to advance the interests of Memory Peak. Our goal is to be the top faction in the sect. And since Master is too busy to handle daily affairs, all of that is resting on our shoulders. You see, right now, Memory Peak is one of the weakest of the fifty mountain peaks. But with you as a disciple, it’s almost like we have a second chief disciple. Things will definitely be different going forward. We can now go out on more missions, plunder more opponents, and even get some thralls. We finally have some hope to turn our situation around.”

“What happens if I reach Terrifying will convergence?”

“Then you would become invincible,” she replied. Giving him a piercing look, she continued, “But you don’t really think you can do that, do you? There’s no way it's possible. Do you know how hard it is to reach the Terrifying level? The only way you might get such a chance would be to do something like Sorrow Might, and kill one of the Executors of the Ancient Road. If you brought the corpse back for a reward, the elders would give you their approval and let you use the psychic scaling systems to make your breakthrough.”

“Psychic scaling systems? Where are they?”

“Not even I know for sure. They’re somewhere in the depths of the sect, in an extremely dangerous location kept under constant guard by the elders. You see, the reason why our sect has so many Terrifying experts is all because of the psychic scaling systems. That, and the fact that, thanks to the appearance of the Great Necropolis several hundred million years ago, there’s much more godhood to go around. If it weren’t for that, we’d have only one or two Terrifying experts at most. The only downside is that people who reach the Terrifying level using the psychic scaling systems are actually weaker than those who do so the usual way. Thankfully, Master is one of the older generation. Because of that, even though Memory Peak is weak, we’re still able to intimidate the experts from the other peaks. Hardly anyone out there is a match for Master.

“Unfortunately, Master isn’t the absolute top expert among the fifty mountain peaks. That spot is claimed by Peaklord Celestial, another one of the older generation. In order to deal with him, Master began cultivating the Sage-Embryo Perfect-Complete God-Child Vitality-Soul energy art, which is the reason she looks the way she does. If it weren’t for that, she would definitely be an incredible beauty.”

Yang Qi’s eyes widened with surprise. He had never heard of the Sage-Embryo Perfect-Complete God-Child Vitality-Soul, and had no idea where it came from. Could it possibly be something as strong as the Secret-Ensconcing All-World Anything-Everything Fundamental-Law Magic? Even if it was, it didn't seem like the type of technique suited for him.

“Do all fifty peaklords have Terrifying will?” he asked. That was probably the most important and relevant question at the moment. If that were the case, then this sect really could be considered supremely powerful.

“How could that possibly be?” An Yiru said. “Of the fifty peaklords, only eight have Terrifying will convergence. The rest are on the cusp, but not completely there. Even still, people like that are vastly stronger than the two of us. We couldn’t possibly fight such a person. And unfortunately, we have no real way to improve our power index. We’re both at our limit. At the most, we can improve our skills and abilities.”

With that, An Yiru went on to introduce all of the fifty peaks to Yang Qi, as well as the top experts from each one, including information about their cultivation bases, magical treasures, and so on. She also pointed out the main complex in the middle of the sect, which was like the imperial palace of a mortal empire. That was where the ‘emperor’ resided, or in other words, the sectlord, in addition to other elders and important people.

The sectlord was a very mysterious and unpredictable entity who was always in seclusion, seeking enlightenment of who knew what. In fact, An Yiru had only laid eyes on the sectlord three times, and in all of those situations it had actually been a clone. Because of that, it was the council of chief elders that made the decisions in the sect, for all intents and purposes.

An Yiru explained where all the restricted areas were, as well as the prison, which housed various old-timers that the sectlord had captured on the Ancient Road to the Gods. Most of them refused to fully surrender but were impossible to kill, so they were kept imprisoned.

It took quite a few hours to explain everything. Although she could have saved time by simply imparting the information directly into his mind, she seemed interested in establishing a good relationship with him, so she stuck to verbal explanations.

“By the way, who are these Executors of the Ancient Road that I heard mentioned?” Yang Qi asked.

“They’re the strongest people on the Ancient Road to the Gods, and they enforce the general laws, making them sort of like the feudal officials of the mortal world. The thing is that they simply have too many rules. For example, if a cultivator comes across some godhood, they’re prohibited from keeping it, and are required to hand it over to the executors. If anyone finds a treasure trove, they have to officially report it. Any cultivators who want to start a sect have to register with the executors. Furthermore, personal duels are actually prohibited on the Ancient Road to the Gods. It's almost like the executors are trying to turn the road into their own empire.

“But in the end, do you know how large the road is? Do you know how many sects there are? From ancient times until now, there have been simply too many to count. And everyone wants to progress toward the dao of gods. There are countless people favored by the heavens, all of whom are the obstinate and unruly type that hate following orders. Throughout the millions upon millions of years that’ve passed, you can only imagine what bloody conflicts have erupted.

“At a certain point, a host of experts rose up and waged war on the executors, nearly wiping them out. Although they made a comeback, they were never able to oppress the Ancient Road to the Gods as they did in the past. But that was long, long ago, before the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect was even founded. Nowadays, cultivators on the ancient road view the executors as the most vicious and wicked people there are, all of them deserving of death. In other words, they’re essentially the top public enemy that everyone wants to kill. Whenever a lone executor appears, all of the nearby sects will join together and try to take them out.

“Unfortunately, the executors’ power only continues to grow, to the point where they’re on the verge of restoring their former glory. In fact, the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect has already held quite a few meetings to try to decide how to deal with them.” An Yiru frowned in thought. “If you and I ran into an executor, our first priority would be to try to escape, lest we lose our lives.

Yang Qi digested her words, then asked, “What kind of cultivation bases do these executors have?”

“Every single one of them has Terrifying will, and power indexes of five thousand or higher. Some of them are even on the verge of becoming gods! If they all joined forces to do something, it would definitely bring about devastation and destruction. After all, their main goal is to bring complete law and order to the Ancient Road to the Gods, with them in control of everything.”

“So that’s how it is.” Yang Qi understood. Essentially, they claimed to enforce the law, but they really just wanted to maintain their own power. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. “Do these executors have special constitutions?”

“Yes. Their constitutions are uniquely linked to the Ancient Road to the Gods itself, although the details are unclear. One thing we do know is that the profound secrets of the road are wrapped up in it. You know, some people suspect that the ancient legends are true, and that the legion of gods left this road behind for the purposes of godly ascension. By now, the road is inaccessible in the Primeval Age and the Future Age. It only exists in the Present Age. Unfortunately, now the Great Necropolis is blocking the entrance. And not even we who are in the necropolis can get onto the road. No one has been able to find the way. Maybe it's because the legion of gods has decided not to allow mortals to become gods.”

She shook her head. “Even people whose cultivation base reaches the level of the gods are still not able to achieve godly ascension and go to the god world.”

“It's scary,” Yang Qi said, “but I have the feeling that sooner or later, someone is going to take control of the Great Necropolis. Maybe it’ll even be me!”

An Yiru burst out laughing. “You’ve got a lot of confidence! Well, if you want to take control of the necropolis, you’ll need to become one of the Inheritors.”

Right in the middle of their conversation, a disciple flew over and whispered something in An Yiru’s ear, causing her face to fall.

“Something's happened, Yang Qi.”