Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi had spent over a thousand years doing research, but not even he had any idea what would happen now. The fact that the Mahātmā Jade had absorbed Profound Valor’s psychic power, flesh, and blood was almost inconsequential. What really mattered was that it had taken the godpower seed.

Those seeds were the only way to get Inheritor powers. And if the jade worked like it had in the past, then it should be able to regurgitate the power it had sucked in with no limitations whatsoever.

In other words, taking the power that was inside the seed would make one an Inheritor. And not an ordinary Inheritor, but one who had a complete level of control over their powers.

That said, Yang Qi didn't dare to send his true energy into the Mahātmā Jade. He had no idea what would happen if he did, and didn’t want to risk his life that way.

After all, if the jade could overcome the godpower of the Great Necropolis, then what out there could be strong enough to fight it?

Originally, Yang Qi had actually hoped that the two powers would be equally matched, and he could learn something from the conflict, then suppress both of them.

Unfortunately, that plan had failed.

Yet again, his research and study were thrown for a loop.

He and his clone exchanged a glance; both of them were obviously itching to absorb the psychic power in the jade. Unfortunately, there was only a 50/50 chance of living, which meant that there was the same chance of dying.

And that was far too risky.

“Yang Qi, why don’t you help me to cultivate an Unspoiled Body?” the clone said. “It really does provide a huge boost in strength.”

“Are you sure?” Yang Qi replied, a very serious expression on his face. “Once you start cultivating it, you can’t go back. Also, the stronger your physical body gets, the more pressure it puts on your will. It’s good that we have the Mahātmā Jade, but considering we can't control it, it makes it relatively useless at the moment.”

“It should be fine,” the clone replied. “Since we've already started collecting pieces of the Mahātmā Jade, we’ll surely get answers one day.”

“Well alright then!” With the help of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions, Yang Qi imparted some tribulation energy into the clone, and soon he had cultivated the Unspoiled Body to the level of thirty tribulations.

Thanks to the godhood stars he had access to, he was able to cultivate energy arts much more quickly than the average person. And his will convergence was already at the Terrifying level. In other words, he could reach the level of thirty tribulations without suffering any ill side-effects. Furthermore, with the psychic scaling systems and godpower to fuel them, it was entirely possible for him to rise to the level of a hundred tribulations.

However, it would be supremely stupid to do that now.

Thirty tribulations was strong enough, and although it didn’t put the clone on the same level of Yang Qi, who could combine the Unspoiled Body with the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, it was enough that the clone could dominate most situations on the Ancient Road to the Gods.

The process took a hundred years to complete. At that point, Yang Qi finally left the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. His mission into the Hell of Sages and Mahātmās had been very beneficial. He had acquired incredible loot, and pushed his psychic scale to eighteen. Unfortunately, he had still failed to reach the Terrifying level. Nor had his extensive session of research and study produced any tangible results.

**

The time had come for the big assembly of sects.

A host of superpower sects were talking about joining forces to fight the Executors of the Ancient Road, and just like the fiend-devils, were going to select a league-Lord.

All of a sudden, Yang Qi felt like history was repeating itself.

Back in the early days of the immortal worlds, the Dao Defense League had been leaderless. And during the process to select the league-lord, he had been appointed the Emissary of Radiance and Light. Eventually, he had usurped his superior, forcing Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven to change his name to Yang Righteousness and become his servant. This time, there was no way he would get a high position like the last time. The superpower sects of the Ancient Road to the Gods had as many top experts as the sky had clouds. There was no way Yang Qi could compete with people like Archmonk Dharma Treasury, especially not before he reached the Terrifying level himself.

Right now, his main plan was to continue growing stronger within his current sect, and only then would he try to rise within the alliance.

The leading roles in the alliance would definitely be taken by incredibly powerful old-timers. He was actually looking forward to this assembly, as it would be his first true look at what other kinds of experts existed on the Ancient Road to the Gods. From what he could tell of Sectlord Will Manifestation, Yang Qi knew the man had powerful resources that remained hidden.

Yang Qi couldn’t even assess the sectlord’s cultivation base, but he was fairly certain that he was stronger than he seemed. Of course, it was only to be expected. Without a very strong sectlord, the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect would have long since been destroyed.

‘Ah, what a pity,’ Yang Qi said. ‘That godpower seed is now in the Mahātmā Jade, and I have no idea when I’ll be able to get it out and use it.’ He was done with research for now. The last thing he wanted was to test out the jade on some random person and have them suddenly become a powerful Inheritor. Although he might be able to get them under control in the end, it wouldn’t be worth the vital energy he would have to expend in doing so.

Soon, he was back in the territory of the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect.

The sect was in something of an uproar. Everyone was furiously working on their cultivation, and many people were achieving breakthroughs. Of course, much of that was thanks to Yang Qi and the way he had set the sect in order after becoming the junior sectlord. All of the peaklords were in complete admiration of him.

Of course, Yang Qi hadn't forgotten about the executors’ treasure storehouse.

As for the sectlord, he had taken the corpses of the seven executors and the junior superintendent, and was using them to further some energy art of his.

Those eight were all top experts. It was especially true of Ghost Ace and his three companions, all of whom had royal blood. Yang Qi would have loved to study them a bit, and was now very curious as to what exactly the sectlord was doing with them.

All Yang Qi knew for sure was that when fiend-devils consumed the flesh of executors, it gave them access to incredible divine abilities and significantly boosted their constitutions. It would be no surprise to find out that the sectlord had some sort of devil art, and was using it with some other technique to create a combination of righteous and evil cultivation types. It was rare to find anyone who could combat devil arts without first being able to use them to some extent.

The sectlord even had some Eternal and Fortuned blood, as well as plenty of treasures from within the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart that he was now using in his secluded cultivation session.

Looking into the depths of the sect, Yang Qi saw that the sectlord’s meditation facility was a mass of pitch black, making it impossible to see what he was doing.

The fact that the sectlord was doing things in secret didn't matter. Yang Qi was the junior sectlord, and his authority had long since been established. There were new peaklords on Grand Might Peak, Nāropa Peak, and Spiritwall Peak, and the people truly loyal to the previous peaklords had either been imprisoned or executed. For all intents and purposes, Yang Qi controlled the entire Will Manifestation Heaven Sect.

Upon returning, he called a meeting in the Junior Sectlord Hall, summoning all of the peaklords as well as experts from the lower courtyards of the sect. It was essentially a session of court.

Of course, even emperors had to schedule sessions of court in advance, whereas Yang Qi simply called everyone together without warning; it was clearly a display of power on his part.

Yang Qi had long since felt that meetings like this were important. If a leader spent all of his time in seclusion working on mysterious secrets, his followers would soon forget him.

The bells tolled, and normally speaking, it meant that, within ten breaths of time, all of the experts should have assembled. However, today was an exception. Even after the bells tolled for a full hour, the only people present in Junior Sectlord Hall were his closest subordinates. The rest of the experts were nowhere to be seen.

Could it be that there were still people in the sect who didn’t respect his authority?

Frowning, he looked over at one of the nearby disciples and said, “What’s going on, Laichao Yuan? Where is everyone?”

“Er, I'm not sure...” replied Laichao Yuan, a young man who positively worshipped Yang Qi. He was the chief disciple of the Heaven-Dragon Courtyard, with a power index of two hundred and fifty. Obviously, he had a lot of progress to make, and was far from being in the Terrifying level.

Just then, An Yiru hurried in.

“This is bad, Yang Qi!” she said. Considering that Yang Qi was the junior sectlord now, she should never have called him by his full name, but instead, his title. The fact that she was in such a hurry that she forgot to do so only went to show how anxious she was.

“What happened?” Yang Qi said, keeping his expression calm. “Did the Executors of the Ancient Road show up?”

“It’s not that,” she said, sounding a bit strangled. “Three important disciples came back and gathered a whole group of other disciples to go search a very dangerous location in the Great Necropolis, the Peakfiend Wastelands.”

“What disciples would possibly have the gall to do that?” Yang Qi asked. He had heard of the Peakfiend Wastelands, and knew their reputation for being a dangerous place. Even Terrifying experts who went there had to be very careful. For someone to have taken a large group of disciples there without giving notice to the junior sectlord was nothing short of an open provocation.

“All three disciples are Inheritors. They were out for training for more than a year, then returned. You were in seclusion, so I wasn’t able to inform you. One of those disciples is already in the Terrifying level, and made a big show of how strong he was. He said that he wasn't convinced that you have the authority to do anything to him, and even said some insulting things about you.”

“What?!” Yang Qi said. It was a lucky thing for the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect to have acquired three disciples with Inheritor godpower seeds, and it was only natural that they had instantly become darlings of the sect. And having returned from their training, it meant that the sect should have much more impressive fighting prowess.

Many sects nowadays believed that only the Inheritors were truly worthy to be well-known, and that they were the only hope for sects to survive.