Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“Yang Qi.”

“Here, sir.”

“The divine will I sent to the impure lands has long since faded away, scattered by the essence of the god world. I'm speaking to you now through another sliver of will that I managed to squeeze through the sealing marks. But it won’t last for long. Yang Qi, the essence of the god world is incredibly powerful. It has imprisoned your mother, and is trying to assimilate her in its effort to become the mother of all things. If it succeeds, your mother will become the god world, and the god world will become your mother. However, she could also be destroyed in the process. Worst of all, you can’t do anything to save her right now. The most pressing matter at hand is to destroy Proud Heaven. Then you can unify all the people in the god world and lead the fight against its essence. In the end, devour it!”

Thanks to the Invincible Dugu’s booming voice, none of the members of the House of the Invincible could even move. All of them were completely shocked by what their Patriarch Invincible was saying to Yang Qi, and by their relationship.

“Therefore, Yang Qi, I want you to run the Invincible Dynasty as its emperor,” the Invincible Dugu continued. “You have to promise me that you’ll do as I ask. I'm at war with the essence of the god world. It views all powerful entities as threats, thus it’s the greatest enemy to us cultivators. The Sovereign Lord. The True Devil. They’re all gone because of the essence of the god world. Be wary of Proud Heaven. He isn’t an ordinary person. He has the Great Necropolis, and it doesn't originate with the god world. In fact, it’s the bane of the god world. The main reason the god world picked Proud Heaven to represent it is to control him, and eventually destroy the Great Necropolis. Of course, Proud Heaven wants to use the necropolis to recreate the essence of the god world in the way he wishes. Remember: destroy the Great Necropolis. Destroy the essence of the god world. Use your empire to transcend the civilization of the gods. Create a new civilization, a new age, a new world. You have to change everything! And remember... to save me, Yang Qi.”

Toward the end of his speech, the Invincible Dugu’s voice weakened until it eventually faded away.

Yang Qi nodded. “Don’t worry, Master. I’ll find a way to save you.”

Turning to the members of the Dugu Clan, he said, “Well, what do you think? You heard my Master’s words. He entrusted the Invincible Dynasty to me. What’s your stance?”

The leaders of the clan were absolutely flabbergasted.

As of now, they realized that everything Yang Qi had told them was true. The Invincible Dugu himself had confirmed it all, and had even said to make him emperor. In fact, they could do nothing but watch as the destiny formed something resembling a crown that settled onto his head. It was something that couldn’t be imitated or forged. It was formed from pure destiny.

The only way for that crown to have been created was if the Invincible Dugu really had decreed for Yang Qi to be the emperor.

After all, the Invincible Dynasty belonged to the Invincible Dugu, and his words were law there. The Dugu patriarchs couldn't do anything in opposition.

“What do we do?” they said amongst themselves as they exchanged awkward glances.

Generally speaking, they couldn’t go against the will of their Patriarch Invincible. However, none of them really wanted to go along with his instructions.

“Are you really thinking of going against Patriarch Invincible’s wishes?” Yang Qi said. “If you refuse to accept me as your emperor, so be it. The days of the Invincible Dynasty are over anyway, and it doesn’t really matter who the emperor is. My Sage Monarch Empire could crush this dynasty to powder in an instant. I'm going to take Master's body with me, all in accord with his wishes to save him. I won’t let him fall into the hands of Proud Heaven or the essence of the god world. If you try to stop me from helping Master, I’ll slaughter every last one of you, down to the chickens and dogs.”

Yang Qi’s words were spoken with a decisiveness that could sever nails and chop iron, and they left the Dugu Clan leaders shaken.

Using destiny to crush him wouldn't do any good, because he now controlled that destiny. Attacking him would be counterproductive. Furthermore, all of them were deeply afraid of the Invincible Dugu, and didn’t dare to defy him.

“Ah, whatever,” said one of the patriarchs. “If that's what the patriarch wants, we’ll acknowledge allegiance. I hereby swear an oath that I’ll go along with you, Yang Qi. However, you have to agree to use the Invincible Dynasty to save our patriarch.”

“The truth is that I have no desire to be your emperor,” Yang Qi said. “But I’ll respect Master’s wishes. Unfortunately, you have too much hidden misfortune in your empire for me to bring it into my Everlasting Aegis. The Everlasting Aegis is a place of perfect balance, and having you there would throw things into chaos. It’d take years to recover from that. Therefore, you won’t be part of the Sage Monarch Empire. Furthermore, any large-scale activity here would alert the Central Dynasty that something is going on.”

“So what do we do?”

The Dugu Clan had acknowledged Yang Qi as their emperor, and they had no choice but to bow their head to him, lest they openly acknowledge that they had no Dugu blood in them.

The matter had been settled, and as they thought about it, being in the Sage Monarch Empire actually wouldn’t be that bad, especially considering there were endless resources there.

Unfortunately, Yang Qi had nixed that idea.

He left them on their own, which was a really big blow. They had originally thought he was trying to take their empire, but in the end, he actually didn't care about them. It was far beyond anything they could have predicted.

“Master did entrust me with his empire,” Yang Qi said. “Therefore, I’ll send some sage monarch magistrates here to help you run things. It’ll be a major reform, considering your empire has become rotten to the core. Maybe after you’ve been cleansed, I’ll let you into the Sage Monarch Empire. In addition to that, I’ll send some resources to help. However, make sure that no one outside has any idea what’s happening. Keep your borders locked down during the next ten days.

When the High Priestess and Proud Heaven come out of seclusion, don't attend the meeting they call. Tell them the Invincible Dynasty doesn’t want anything to do with their shady dealings, and you’re withdrawing from the alliance. I'm curious to see what the High Priestess and Proud Heaven will do in response to that. If they attack you, the Sage Monarch Empire won't sit idly by. We’ll make sure they don’t hurt you.”

“I guess that’s all we can do,” the Dugu leaders said, nodding.

“Master, I have to go now. Come into my God Legion Paradise so that I can take you to the Everlasting Aegis....” Yang Qi opened the God Legion Paradise, which was more than large enough to contain the Invincible Dugu.

As soon as the God Legion Paradise was open, it was possible to see the Halls of Heaven inside it, pulsing with destructive power. Shocked, everyone backed up.

A teleportation portal appeared and Yang Qi stepped inside, using the destiny of the Invincible Dynasty to power it. Through it, the Everlasting Aegis could be seen.

Compared to the Invincible Dynasty, the Everlasting Aegis was like the Halls of Heaven.

RUMBLE!

Sage monarch magistrates poured out of the teleportation portal into the Invincible Dynasty, as well as some of Yang Qi’s brethren with psychic scales of a hundred billion.

By now, the Sage Monarch Empire had over twenty such individuals, God-Lords of immense power. In addition, there were Ascendants, Yang Qi’s fellow apprentices from the Invincible Society in the impure lands, and his old sword siblings.

They had all experienced the blessing of the Thousand Years Dream formation, as well as god pills from the Halls of Heaven. That was how they had become powerful so quickly.

Throughout history, only the Sage Monarch Empire had ever been able to do anything like this. Because of Proud Heaven’s recent gains, the Central Dynasty could rival the Sage Monarch Empire in terms of destiny. However, that had resulted from a sudden eruption that was already starting to die down.

Furthermore, the quality was different.

The destiny of the Sage Monarch Empire was like gold, while that of the Central Dynasty was like black iron.

“Now,” Yang Susu said, “close your borders and go into seclusion. Don't let anyone in or out.”

Yang Susu’s cultivation base was already superior to the Dugu patriarchs, and she was in command of the army.

In the past, the destiny of the Invincible Dynasty had been formidable, but now they had to follow Yang Qi’s orders. And by extension, they had to listen to Yang Susu.

She represented the crown.

In response to her orders, the Invincible Dynasty went on immediate lockdown.