Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

‘This guy is so strong! Definitely far beyond my ability to fight directly. I have to keep my cool and be smart about dealing with him. After all, he probably has even more powerful people backing him. And if he breaks through and becomes as powerful as the Shepherd, he’ll be even more impossible to deal with.’

After all the tempering he had experienced throughout the years, Yang Qi knew how to keep his cool when dealing with powerful opponents.

Back when he was dealing with the Crown Prince years ago, he had experienced an even greater cultivation base discrepancy. By slowly but surely dealing with such dangerous situations, he had built immense confidence, and knew that even bitter defeats could provide valuable help to his nascent divinity and will.

For example, he had just advanced his Purrfect God Art.

Time passed as he studied the true energy he had just expelled from within him. After a while, he chuckled and exhaled his own stream of true energy to wipe the other one out of existence. He had already identified a way to deal with the technique. Although it wouldn’t necessarily put him in the position to fight Bastard Seacliff, it would at least give him a tool to avoid being injured so badly.

Now that he was healed up, he looked around the pill repository more thoroughly. It was huge, and filled with all sorts of medicinal pills. From what he could tell, it was actually a treasure storehouse of some sort.

He didn’t touch any of the pills.

This was the junior empress’ pill repository and it would be rude of him to simply take things, even if she had extended an offer for him to do just that. Besides, although the pills were all supreme-grade, none of them would be much help to him. He had long since reached a level in which such medicinal pills were useless to him.

‘That Bastard Seacliff is definitely going to cause more problems for me. He’s obviously narrow-minded and petty, so I can’t afford to be off guard. He’ll try to do something to the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect eventually, and no one in the sect is strong enough to fight him. If he attacks the sect outright, my only option right now would be to take everyone into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. I have to get stronger, and the only options I have now are to either go ahead with my next breakthrough, or figure out a way to make use of the Mahātmā Jade.’

Yang Qi had long since reached a point where he liked to plan things out well before taking action. Obviously, the easiest way to deal with Bastard Seacliff would be to finally ascend to the Grand Emperor level. But if he did that, it would become exceedingly difficult to enter the mid Terrifying level.

He needed to reach the Terrifying level first. And once he did, all of the preparations he had made up to this point would ensure that he would reach an incredibly high level of power.

Instead of aiming for a breakthrough, he could focus his efforts on the Mahātmā Jade. After all, it had consumed Profound Valor and his godpower seed, which, if Yang Qi could extract, would provide a big boost to his psychic scale. Furthermore, Yang Qi had the feeling that if he managed to assimilate the godpower seed, not only would it help him reach a higher level of enlightenment, but it would also make him an Inheritor.

Although the Inheritors were all very strong, Yang Qi had a sneaking suspicion that they would end up under the control of the Great Necropolis itself, like puppets. He also suspected that there was some sort of wicked entity deep in the necropolis, pulling all of the strings. After all, why would the Great Necropolis eject a host of godpower seeds, then force all the Inheritors to slaughter each other?

Perhaps the Mahātmā Jade could cleanse the wickedness in the seeds, but Yang Qi wasn’t completely confident that he could use the jade safely. In addition to all of this, there was the Purrfect God Art. Although he could use it to some effect, he was nowhere near the level of the purrling.

And he had no idea how to control the purrling, which meant that he couldn’t rely on it to deal with Bastard Seacliff.

The fact that someone like Bastard Seacliff had shown up out of the blue seemed to confirm that there were hidden dragons and crouching tigers deep in the Great Necropolis, people with immensely powerful cultivation bases.

“You did well,” a dainty voice said. The junior empress had finally come to see him. “You already dealt with Bastard Seacliff’s true energy? That's quite a feat. You must have other secrets you’re not letting on about.”

“Greetings, Junior Empress,” he said, rising to his feet and offering a formal salute. “Thank you for stepping in and saving me earlier.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” she replied. “I think you would have been fine even if I didn’t step in. You were just trying to fool your enemy into underestimating you, weren’t you?”

“You flatter me, Junior Empress,” he said with a wry smile. “I really did end up getting hurt pretty badly. That Bastard Seacliff is no one to take lightly. I'm not sure his full story, but it seems to me you just spent quite a bit of time with him. Did you uncover any useful information?”

“You’re right, I just spent a few hours chatting with him in my study, and managed to get a better idea of who he is, and what this House of God Bastards is all about.” Suddenly, her expression turned cold. “Young Sir Yang Qi, the truth is that I want to talk with you about how to deal with him.”

“You mean you and the Woodfern Couple Palace aren’t going to groom him to become the league-lord?” Yang Qi asked doubtfully.

“What do you think?” she replied. “You’re obviously an intelligent person, Young Sir. I'm sure you picked up on the clues. The two big sects don’t just want any old puppet. They want a puppet that can help smooth out relations. Did you really think we would install a person we can’t control? This guy came out of nowhere, completely spoiling all of our plans with the distiller’s yeast. Considering we can’t control him, we have to kill him!”

Her eyes flared with killing intent as she spoke the final words, making it clear that she was absolutely set on killing Bastard Seacliff. It was little surprise, considering that he obviously was a threat to both the Woodfern Couple Palace and the Genesis Sanctum.

But would killing him really be that easy?

“Junior Empress, you still haven’t told me what you know about this so-called House of God Bastards.” Yang Qi wanted to get as many details as he could; that would be the easiest way to find an opportunity to take action. In response to his question, the junior empress nodded in approval. She was now more convinced than ever that there was more to Yang Qi than met the eye, and that he might be the perfect person to use against Bastard Seacliff.

That was especially true considering the two of them were already on their way to becoming enemies. Of course, Bastard Seacliff didn’t think of Yang Qi as being a qualified opponent, which was why he had so arrogantly demanded the godpower seed.

“The House of God Bastards really is made up of the children of gods,” she replied. “Illegitimate children. You see, when gods have offspring, those offspring aren’t gods. And some, being tainted by preexisting sin, can never become gods. Many of them turn out to be particularly vile and are expelled to the Ancient Road to the Gods, to be watched over by the executors. Such offspring are said to be god bastards, and they bear the sins of the god world on their back. Being the children of actual gods, they’re all extremely powerful and are generally only surpassed by the gods themselves. Of course, the god bastards are furious at having been rejected and are usually crafty and murderous. They enjoy sowing chaos, and generally embrace nihilism. They definitely haven’t come to join our alliance with good intentions. Most likely, they want to turn us into cannon fodder they can use to attack the Executors of the Ancient Road. After all, if they can wipe out the executors, then they might have a chance to go back to the ancient road and, eventually, return to the god world. You see, the god world is a place so wonderful that none of us here can even imagine what it's like. By way of analogy, you could say that the god world is like a royal palace in the mortal world. And right now, we might as well be in a filthy alley in a remote village. When you think of it that way, it's little wonder that the god bastards are so angry and resentful.”

“So that’s how it is!” Yang Qi said, inwardly shocked at this new information.

“So how are we supposed to deal with them?” he asked. “If they’re really the children of gods, then we have to put an end to them, otherwise we’ll be in profound danger.”

“It seems highly likely that they’re an organization that could actually take on the executors. Sadly, we are not even close to being on that level. If you were going to rank the current major factions, it would be like this: first, the Executors of the Ancient Road. Second, the House of God Bastards. Third, the future world. Fourth, the Fiend-Devil League. Fifth, the locals from the Great Necropolis. And we superpower sects would come in sixth.

“Do you see, Young Sir Yang Qi? We’re the weakest. Although the Woodfern Couple Palace and the Genesis Sanctum seem powerful, we actually have an extremely treacherous path to tread. We’re already in the crosshairs of the Fiend-Devil League, the Executors of the Ancient Road, and the local savages. And now the god bastards are eyeing us? We’re really in a dangerous position. There are no unbroken eggs beneath an overturned nest. Whatever plan we come up with needs to be perfect.”

“I see. Well, Junior Empress, I'm willing to follow your lead in everything.” Right now, there was no reason not to cooperate.

Seeing his attitude, she nodded. “Not bad. Not bad at all. A wise man submits to the circumstances. Furthermore, cooperating will benefit you, as we’ll personally help you get stronger. I could tell back when you killed the Flower-Seizing Marauder that you’re interested in being the league-lord. And the fact that this Bastard Seacliff took my distiller’s yeast without permission shows that he’s a big threat. There’s no way I'll let this insult go unanswered!”