Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi was becoming truly invincible!

Now that he was in the half-Annulled level, everything had become clear to him. He knew how to deal with all of Proud Heaven’s machinations, and was pushing his own psychic scale toward the level of a trillion.

That made him far beyond even the Sovereign Lord.

With his power, he could definitely conquer everything that existed. For all intents and purposes, there was no one who could possibly match up to him.

‘Proud Heaven is integrating the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart into his empire’s destiny. It seems he's getting ready to fight a war of attrition. Or perhaps he’ll use it to strengthen his Ten Universes. I need to take a closer look at what's going on. If he succeeds, and his cultivation base reaches the ultimate level, it’ll be even easier for him to control the High Priestess. So what will she do about all this?’

Even as he contemplated these things, he could sense the aura of the High Priestess in the depths of the Deathless Heaven Empire.

She sat unmoving as she focused her attention on what was happening in the dynasty. Her expression was grim. Next to her was Hailan, who said, “Master, it seems Proud Heaven is trying to fuse the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart with the destiny of his empire. If he succeeds, he’ll be in even more control, and we’ll be in an even more passive position. But is there anything we can do to stop him, considering how much he’s shored up his defenses?” From the murderous expression in her eyes, it seemed she wanted to immediately attack Proud Heaven.

“The Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart was a powerful treasure belonging to King Immortal-Slayer. If Proud Heaven assimilates it, the dynasty will fall even more firmly under his control, and we’ll lose even more influence. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s anything we can do other than watch how things play out.” Yang Voidprime seemed similarly worried. “It's too bad that swine Yang Qi forced me to use my Fate Seal. Otherwise, I might’ve been able to reach the half-Annulled level by now.”

“You’re still half of a Fateless One,” the High Priestess said. “Logically speaking, you should still have a chance to reach the half-Annulled level.” As she watched the empire’s destiny flow into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, her expression turned more and more furious. “This Proud Heaven is really pushing things too far. I'm not going to let him get away with this. Unfortunately, I'm not strong enough to deal with him alone. If we just had a third half-Annulled expert, we could take him on.”

“I'm the most likely to reach that level,” Yang Voidprime said. All of a sudden, he seemed to realize something, and laughed. “High Priestess, don’t tell me you want to help me break through? I don’t see how that’s possible. The only way for me to do it would be to devour Yang Qi and take the rest of the fateless power he has. If I became a full Fateless One, then I’d definitely be strong enough to take on Proud Heaven. But Yang Qi won’t be easy to kill. His empire has been transforming lately, and its destiny is constantly growing.”

“That’s true. Yang Qi’s empire keeps improving in destiny, although I'm not able to see inside to identify exactly what’s going on.”

To her, the Everlasting Aegis and the Sage Monarch Empire seemed like an enormous sphere of stone, hanging in the middle of primal-chaos, slowly rotating as it absorbed the surrounding energy. It was even drawing on the power of the god world.

“He’s very audacious to be feeding off the god world like that,” the High Priestess said angrily. “The essence of the god world is bound to be furious, and want him dead. But his empire’s defenses are so strong, and he's already independent from the god world. He has plenty of advantages over us. After all, we’re completely dependent on the god world for our resources. I wonder what level his cultivation base has reached. Logically speaking, he shouldn’t have much trouble reaching the half-Annulled level. Once he does, he should create a resonance with heaven and earth, allowing me to sense it. But so far, I haven’t sensed anything.”

“Master, forget about Yang Qi,” Hailan said through gritted teeth. “We won’t need to worry about him later, and when we do, it should be easy to either kill him or force him into flight. As they say, before defending against invaders, pacify the interior. I can sense that Proud Heaven is getting more influential, and more old-timers are siding with him. For example, the Patriarch of the Universe has already defected from us. We absolutely have to kill Proud Heaven as soon as possible. Why don’t we lend someone a knife and have them do our dirty work for us?”

“Oh? Who exactly do you mean?” the High Priestess said. “We can’t use Yang Qi as our ‘knife’. He’s too clever, and besides, his cultivation base is too weak. He's only strong when he taps into that destiny of his. I say that we use the King of Godmammoths and the Demon Master. Use them to crush Proud Heaven. Furthermore, the Dugu Clan and their Invincible Dynasty seems to have gained new momentum, and their energy is growing. I wonder if the Invincible Dugu has awakened. If so, the god world will be partitioned even further.”

“What? The Dugu Clan? The Invincible Dynasty?” The High Priestess cast her vision in the direction of the Invincible Dynasty, and found that it was as sealed as tightly as a turtle in a shell. No one came in or out, which meant there was no influx of resources. It was almost as if they had endless resources at their disposal.

“This is really strange,” Yang Voidprime said. “There’s no way a dynasty could have that many resources stockpiled. The Invincible Dynasty is entirely made up of humans, which means they’re definitely using up a lot of resources. And everyone knows that just sitting and eating, one can deplete even a mountain of wealth. They can’t be doing what Yang Qi’s Everlasting Aegis does, and constantly producing their own resources. Can they? And how is the destiny of their dynasty so strong? Everyone there seems peaceful and calm, as if they aren’t afraid of anything. It's what you might expect if they had a half-Annulled expert stationed there. Could it be that the Invincible Dugu really is awake now?”

Everyone else was similarly shocked.

“The Invincible Dugu has a mysterious and unfathomable cultivation base,” the High Priestess said, and she sounded worried. “Not even I'm confident that I could handle him. If he's awake, then everyone is going to be worried about him. However, based on what I can see, I don’t think he is. If he was, the Invincible Dynasty wouldn’t be hiding away like a turtle. As for their resources, it’s likely the Everlasting Aegis is helping them.

“What?” Yang Voidprime said in shock. “You're saying Yang Qi worked out a deal with the Invincible Dynasty? How is that even possible?”

“It's not impossible,” Hailan said coldly. “Yang Qi needs the help of the Invincible Dugu to keep his empire safe. And the Invincible Dugu needs Yang Qi for resources. It makes perfect sense for them to reach an agreement. Although, I wouldn't worry too much. They’re definitely going to end up plotting against each other, and it will end up weakening Yang Qi and his empire. Furthermore, if they were really working together sincerely, why wouldn’t they combine their empires? Why would they leave things as they are?”

Although Hailan’s analysis seemed to make sense, she was actually playing right into Yang Qi’s hands.

After all, the reason he hadn’t combined empires was because he didn’t want impure destiny staining his Everlasting Aegis. Of course, now that the Invincible Dugu was awake, it would be easy to fix that problem. But he still wanted to keep the smokescreen up.

If they combined empires and revealed that they had two half-Annulled experts, it was a given that Proud Heaven, the High Priestess, the King of Godmammoths, and the Demon Master would find out, and they would do everything possible to destroy them.

Maintaining a front of weakness wouldn’t ensure that people would ignore them, but would at least give more time to prepare. Only when the time was right would Yang Qi grow his empire.

Furthermore, he could make it seem to outsiders like his empire and the Invincible Dynasty were struggling for dominance.

So far, everything was going according to plan.

In the past, he had wanted news of his empire to spread, so that people would flock to join him. But now he had his Ascendants, who weren’t connected to the god world, and he had made himself independent from the god world. That meant the essence of the god world had less and less control over him.

“Alright, I'm going to go see the King of Godmammoths and the Demon Master!” the High Priestess said, rising to her feet.

“No, Master!” Hailan said. Then she smiled. “I suggest you and Yang Voidprime go together. Tell the King of Godmammoths and the Demon Master that you want to overthrow Proud Heaven. Kill him. But Yang Voidprime needs to step into the half-Annulled level first. You can’t do it yourself, but if they help you, it’ll definitely be possible.”

“Ah, yes. That sounds good.”

The High Priestess chuckled. “That said, Hailan, I also need to make all of this worthwhile for you.”

“Agreed,” Hailan said. “I’ll trust your judgment, Master.”

“Yang Voidprime, you come with me.”

WHOOSH!

The two of them vanished into thin air as they headed in the direction of the Demonfolk Empire.

‘You’re finally going to meet your end, Proud Heaven,’ Hailan thought, a vicious smile playing out on her face. However, a moment later, she ground her teeth. ‘Of course, I'm not going to let Yang Qi off the hook. Heh heh. Yang Voidprime, do you really think that my Master is so kind-hearted to just freely help you reach the half-Annulled level? Once you succeed, I’ll rip the husk of your body away and get your Fateless One status. I'm going to devour both you and Yang Qi!’