Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“Dammit, dammit...!” When Hong Lie was out of sight, Meng Guo couldn’t hold back any longer and unleashed a blast of godpower, detonating some nearby boulders and sending debris showering down onto the surrounding trees. He was obviously so mad he was in a killing mood. “That bastard. How dare he! He took our payment and then did nothing!”

“What do we do now?” said the elder with the godhood rating of six. Obviously, he didn’t have any good ideas at the moment.

“We have to report what happened. There’s nothing we can do now other than wait to be punished.” Meng Guo knew full well that he had made a huge mistake. And considering how much he had cost the Dragon Society, it was a given that he would be punished for it.

Upon hearing the word ‘punishment’, the elder’s face fell for a moment before his expression turned cold. “Look, I'm not taking responsibility for any of this, Meng Guo. I'm not a member of the Dragon Society. I just work for you, that’s all. This whole thing is Yang Qi’s fault. I didn’t do a single thing. And if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have done any of this for you.”

“What did you just say?” Meng Guo growled, glaring at the elder with bloodshot eyes. “It was with your own mouth that you vowed to join the Dragon Society after all of this was over. And that’s a big opportunity. Don’t tell me you're going back on your word now.”

“I did say that I would join the Dragon Society after all of this was over. But now it's obvious the mission was a failure. And I'm not a member yet. Furthermore, I don’t want any payment for my services. Considering I'm no fool, there’s no way I’ll just accept punishment for no reason.” He chuckled coldly. “I think you should try harder to get Hong Lie to pay up.”

“Y-y-you!” Meng Guo shouted. “I can’t believe you’re sneaking away at a critical juncture! Aren’t you afraid you’ll get yourself killed?”

“Killed? I'm an important elder from the Missions Sanctuary, and a Lesser God with a godhood rating of six. Would you really dare to kill someone like me? Do you think your Dragon Society runs our sect or something? That’s a joke if I've ever heard one.” He let loose another cold laugh. “I agreed to help your Dragon Society, and maybe I failed in the end, I still worked hard to make it happen. And I never even got paid. In fact, not only am I not getting paid, but now I'm even being threatened with punishment. Are you fucking kidding me? Do you really think I’m stupid?”

The elder was now worked up enough that he was really turning hostile.

“Alright, fine,” Meng Guo said, suddenly looking at the elder as calmly as if he were looking at a corpse. “It seems you really aren’t afraid of getting killed. Sadly for you, anyone who betrays the Dragon Society has no choice but to die!”

“Don’t push things too far! The only thing that happened was you failing a mission. If your Dragon Society dares to kill me over this, you’re all finished! I've already made detailed records of all of this, so if I die, there’s plenty of evidence that’ll implicate you. I have a friend who’ll hand it all over to the council of chief elders. Heed my warning, Meng Guo! You may be a Common God, but you won’t escape punishment from the sect if you break any rules!”

“You!” Meng Guo shouted furiously. “You’re quite the troublemaker aren’t you? Well, you just wait. Even if you don’t end up dead, you’ll suffer for this!”

With his words hanging in the air, Meng Guo turned and flew off.

‘I'm not that easy to kill! Who would’ve thought it’s so difficult to turn a profit from the Dragon Society. And on top of not getting paid, they’re threatening to punish me. Fucking Dragon Society. Although, how did that Yang Qi get Hong Lie to switch sides?”

Lost in thought, the elder turned to leave.

Swish!

But then, without any warning at all, a beam of sword light appeared and stabbed right through him, slicing into his godhood and piercing his sea of consciousness. At the same time, a bubble popped into being around him.

It was an assassination!

And whoever was assassinating him was so ferocious and ruthless that he could kill with a single blow.

As the sword energy slashed through him and his godhood, damaging his psyche as well, he saw a black-cloaked man appear in front of him, face hidden in the deep hood of the cloak.

Voice gurgling weakly, the elder said, “Dragon Society?! You actually had the gall to kill me?! I won’t let you get away with this!”

BAM!

He exploded, flames consuming every last bit of him.

He was dead. Finished.

Then the black-cloaked figure faded away.

Some distance away, in a hidden location, the black-cloaked figure appeared again. The cloak faded away, revealing a smiling Yang Qi. “Down to the last moment, he believed it was the Dragon Society. Hmph. His energy will only bolster my own godhood. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be enough to have any meaningful effect.”

In the moment of the assassination, Yang Qi had activated the devil embryo to search the elder through and through. Unfortunately, the man didn’t have any wealth or treasure on him. It was all in his private chambers, which meant Yang Qi wouldn’t benefit much from killing him.

‘As a Fateless One, it’s easy to assassinate people like that. No one can predict my actions like they’d be able to if I were an ordinary person.’

Secretly killing people wasn’t easy to do in the House of God Ordainment. Once word spread, it would generally be possible for Consummate or Perfect Gods to analyze the workings of heaven and dig up clues to identify the culprit.

Thanks to being a Fateless One, though, Yang Qi couldn’t be investigated in that way.

This was the same elder who had taken Yang Qi’s antidotal pill without giving him a single merit point in exchange. Yang Qi’s hands were tied back in the Missions Sanctuary, and he had been waiting for a moment just like this to kill the man.

When Yang Qi made a killing move, he didn’t show mercy. He could suffer in silence for however long it took, but when the time came to make a move, he struck with deadly force!

A moment later, he vanished.

**

In the House of God Ordainment’s god kingdom, there was a certain mountain covered in a lush bamboo forest, and was wreathed in clouds year-round. Meng Guo was currently climbing the mountain. He didn't dare to fly in the air, so it took him about an hour to reach the palace at the peak.

“Elder Brother, I screwed up. Hong Lie took the medicinal pills, but didn’t do the deed. And now he’s denying involvement.”

“Get in here!” a voice growled, and a vortex sprang up and dragged Meng Guo inside.

A moment later, Meng Guo found himself inside a mansion grotto, facing a young man in a white robe, with long white hair and white fingernails. He seemed untainted by even a speck of dust, and was the picture of elegance.

His gaze was so sharp that Meng Guo felt uncomfortable, and it was made only worse when the young man said in the coldest of voices, “Despite the immense resources our Dragon Society gave you, and the time you had to work with, you still couldn’t handle a measly Quasi-God?”

“I really don’t know what's going on!” Meng Guo said. “It’s all the fault of that Hong Lie! Please, Elder Brother, give me another chance. Who could’ve guessed that he’d be so undaunted of our Dragon Society and would just take our reward then refuse to follow through with the agreement?”

The white-haired young man snorted coldly. “You want another chance? Our leader is waiting impatiently for results! The birthday of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty’s emperor is coming soon, and our leader needs the blood of that pet beforehand! He needs it to form his Unbounded will and crush all of his competition. And you want him to keep waiting? For how long?! Are you saying you want the leader to personally handle this brat? That’s completely ridiculous! Do you think I should do it myself or something?”

“Please, give me a chance, Elder Brother. I know I can pull it off. Worst case scenario, we can resort to calling on the law enforcement team. We can frame him for some random thing and call in the crime to have him arrested.”

“Frame him for some random thing? And what happens when they investigate the situation? If you casually report a crime to the law enforcement team, and they find out the truth, then I’ll be in big trouble! When you frame someone for a crime, you can’t leave any loose ends. Make sure everything is in perfect order, then call the law enforcement team. Got it?!”

“R-right, of course,” Meng Guo stammered. “I’ll make sure that the losses our Dragon Society have suffered are completely made up for. And I'm also going to make sure that Hong Lie from the Scripture Pavilion gets what’s coming to him!”

“Listen, scum, if I have to, I’ll send some people from the law enforcement team to help you. But you can’t just randomly arrest him without good cause. Got it?” The white-haired youth thought for a moment. “This Yang Qi seems particularly clever, but not even the cleverest mouse can outsmart a cat”

It was at this point that whooshing sounds could be heard as several experts landed on the mountain peak and rushed over to the white-haired young man. All of them were elite disciples, and down to the last one, they all looked flustered.

“This is bad! Something big is happening!”

“What do you mean? Why do you look so discombobulated!? You’re from the law enforcement team, you shouldn’t have anything to be afraid of!”

“You don’t understand, Elder Brother. An elder from the Missions Sanctuary was just killed. And right before he died, he sent a message implicating the Dragon Society. A few of his friends are already submitting evidence to the council of chief elders, who’re going to file a case against the Dragon Society and start a formal investigation! And Grand Elder Meng Guo is named in the evidence. There are even witnesses who say the victim was seen with Meng Guo right before he died.”

“What did you just say?” Meng Guo blurted in shock. “Impossible. Completely impossible! I would never kill someone. How could I be getting the blame for this?”

“What exactly did you do, Meng Guo!?” yelled the white-haired youth.

“I can explain, Elder Brother! It was like this: I just said a few threatening things. But that doesn’t mean I killed him! He was refusing to work with our Dragon Society, so I had to put him in his place. This is a setup! I'm being set up! I know this looks bad, Elder Brother, but you have to help me here!”

“Help you? How?” The white-haired youth thought for a long moment. “No, you brought this on yourself. You wanted to get on the good side of the leader, so you came up with a plan to frame Yang Qi and use him against Jadefall. The Dragon Society is filled with straightforward and upright people. How exactly did a traitor like you sneak into our midst!?”

“What? But, Elder Brother....” Meng Guo looked completely devastated. “Elder Brother, don’t tell me you’re abandoning me?” Of course, he knew exactly what the white-haired young man was doing.

BAM!

The white-haired youth chopped his hand out and hit Meng Guo, causing numerous explosions inside his body. Then blood oozed out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and he collapsed, dead.

“Get him out of here. Meng Guo killed an elder from the Missions Sanctuary, so I executed him.” Eyes glittering with frigid light, the white-haired young man waved his hand dismissively. He had just dispatched a Common God with a single blow, which just went to show how incredibly mighty he was.