Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Doom smiled coldly. “Exactly, Yang Qi. Houselord God Bastard, Mu Renwang, Su Xin and Huangfu Genesis are all extremely powerful experts that are roughly on the same level as us. If they rise up in revolt, you won’t be able to deal with them alone. But with us on your side, things would be different. Look, I know what's going on here. You suspect that we might not be acting in good faith, and need some time to take precautionary measures. So why not let us help you crush and puppetize your enemies? Then we can all go explore the depths of the Great Necropolis.”

“It's a good idea,” the Shepherd said. “Houselord God Bastard and Huangfu Genesis are both clever old bastards who would be very difficult to kill. In fact, I could probably only fight one of them at a time. But with them as puppets” —he chuckled darkly— “it would give us an even better chance of beating Proud Heaven.”

“Puppetize them?” Yang Qi thought about it for a moment. “Do you intend to give them all to me as puppets? Or are you talking about splitting them up? Considering there are four of us and four of them, is your plan for each of us to have one? That doesn’t really seem appropriate to me. They’re mine, so why should I distribute their power if we kill them? That would only weaken my Sage Monarch League and make it much easier for the Executors of the Ancient Road to cause problems. There wouldn't be any truly powerful expert left in the alliance to watch over it.”

The truth was that Yang Qi wasn’t necessarily opposed to having their help. He knew that the status quo wouldn't remain forever, and that he would eventually have to think of a way to deal with Houselord God Bastard and the others. For now, all he could do was pit them against each other and keep control that way.

There was no way he could kill all of them at the same time, not given the level of his cultivation base. In fact, killing just one of them would be difficult.

Of course, now that he had acquired the psychic cultivation aspects of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, and his psychic scale was at a hundred and ninety-nine, he would probably be able to kill one of them. But definitely not all of them simultaneously.

Right now, four mid Terrifying experts working together could definitely cause big problems for him.

It was a disaster waiting to happen.

But if he could get help from this group, it would be a very different situation. With four powerful puppets, he might even have the forces necessary to level the executor's headquarters to the ground.

Yang Qi hadn’t forgotten about their treasure storehouse.

Ever since the immortal-slaying clone had reached the mid Terrifying level, Yang Qi had been thinking about a plan to get inside. After all, the executors had the Gate to the Gods inside their storehouse. Now that Yang Qi had such control over the godpower of the Great Necropolis, he was getting close to being able to do what he had done to the treasure storehouse of the Joyflower Palace.

The truth was that his suggestion to return for half a month to take care of some matters was actually an excuse to try to plunder the executors’ treasure. Not only would he get a big advantage by doing so, but he would also undermine the executors and significantly weaken them.

It would also help his people from the Will Manifestation Heaven Sect, putting them in a much better position to defend themselves. And it would put pressure on Houselord God Bastard and the others.

But now that he thought about it, simply getting rid of them by turning them into puppets actually made a lot more sense.

Except that he wasn’t about to agree to give all those puppets away to other people.

“Of course we would get one puppet each,” Proud World said. “It's not as if we’ll put forth a lot of effort with no expectation of compensation. Besides, if you got all four, it would disrupt the balance of power, which would be bad for the rest of us.”

“He’s right,” the Shepherd said. “It’s a bit too selfish to expect to get all four puppets. Besides, there’s no guarantee that we would come out on top in this little effort. If even one of them escaped, it would severely weaken the Sage Monarch League. The fair thing is to split the puppets one per person. Service should be rewarded.”

“I suppose it would count as a service,” Yang Qi said. Even though it didn’t seem like they were willing to back down, he said, “Don’t forget that I have an expert on my side in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. He’s in the mid Terrifying level, so if we add him into the mix, we would be a group of five. Are you saying that his work wouldn’t count for anything?”

“What?!” the Shepherd said, looking shocked. “You have a mid Terrifying expert as an ally, hidden in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart? In that case, we could definitely help you puppetize those four, without any risk of one of them escaping.

“How about this,” Proud World said. “That bastard Huangfu Genesis has a treasure that he refined into a second nascent divinity. It’s almost the same as a mid Terrifying expert. How about you give that to me for my share?”

“Fine, but I want the Cursed Bastard Mountain!” Yang Qi said. “After all, this fight is likely going to cause some damage to the Sage Monarch League. How about that? You can have Houselord God Bastard, and that will still work out to a puppet for each of you.”

“Done,” Doom said. “Besides, Cursed Bastard Mountain wouldn’t be of much use to us. Then it's set. We’ll go back and handle those four. Of course, the best thing would probably be for you to lure them into our hands.”

“That won’t be a problem at all,” Yang Qi said. “If this works, it’ll be a windfall for us all. Four Terrifying experts; that’s a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering force.”

“It will be a windfall indeed. With four mid Terrifying puppets, dealing with Proud Heaven will be a lot easier.” A vicious smile could be seen on Proud World’s face, as though he could already taste the flavor of Proud Heaven’s blood in his mouth.

With that, Yang Qi and his newfound allies flew back in the direction of the Sage Monarch League, ready to unleash devastating force in an instant.

**

Crash!

In the Sage Monarch League, in the depths of Cursed Bastard Mountain, the shattered remnants of a table lay at the feet of the furious Houselord God Bastard. Everyone else in the room stood there as silent as cicadas in winter. That included Su Xin, Mu Renwang, and Huangfu Genesis.

Glaring viciously at them, Houselord God Bastard said, “Enough with this stupid and cowardly behavior! Ten years. Ten years! We’re like dragons tied up in a pool, completely incapable of flying to the highest heavens! It's all because of how Yang Qi kept us under such tight control. There’s only one thing we can do now: kill him! If we don’t, we’re going to end up dead.”

“You’re right about that,” Su Xin said. “But Yang Qi’s cultivation base is so strong! None of us are a match for him. We would have to team up, and then maybe we could capture him. But don’t forget that he has a mid Terrifying expert hiding in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. How are we supposed to deal with that?”

“It's simple,” Mu Renwang said. “None of us are a match for Yang Qi individually, so the only safe way to deal with him is to team up. Huangfu Genesis, I did a lot of thinking during the past ten years, and although the two of us have a grudge between us as deep as the ocean, if we don’t work together here, Yang Qi will only get stronger and stronger. And in the end, he’ll devour us. Do you really think he’s not aware of the true reason we can't unite? He knows everything, he just doesn’t say it out loud. And he’s just waiting to get strong enough before he makes a move.”

“Before, we could use his sect as a threat against him,” Houselord God Bastard growled. “But then he got that damnable purrling, and now nobody can do anything to him. He's been gone for seven days now. We should’ve taken this chance to take all of his people captive. Then we could definitely destroy him!”

“That purrling really is too terrifying,” Mu Renwang said. “Luckily, Yang Qi can’t actually control it. Otherwise we would be in real trouble. If we don’t kill the kid, he’s going to be our undoing. We need to take back the universal fortune of heaven and earth! I can’t believe he killed so many of our old-timers. We lost more than half of them! We definitely have to make him pay for that.”

“It comes down to this: we have to work together,” Houselord God Bastard said, glaring around icily. “We absolutely, positively must not fight amongst ourselves. Yang Qi will take advantage of that, and it will lead to catastrophe for all of us. In the end, we’ll end up as little more than puppets or slaves.”

“So what do we do?”

“How about this,” Houselord God Bastard continued. “Let’s swear oaths to work together for the purpose of destroying Yang Qi. For the time being, all previous grudges or conflicts are off the table. We’ll swear the oath by mixing our blood together! What do you say?”

“Alright!” Mu Renwang said. Looking at Huangfu Genesis, he said, “What about you, you old bastard? Our two sects have a lot of bad blood, but if we don’t stop fighting each other, we’ll both get killed by Yang Qi eventually. If we’d been working together from the beginning, Yang Qi would never have taken control to begin with.”

Without another word, Mu Renwang sliced open his finger, causing blood to flow out into a sphere hovering in front of him.

Houselord God Bastard did the same, as did Huangfu Genesis and Su Xin. Then, they combined the blood and joined their voices together to say, “We forsake internal conflict until Yang Qi is dead! We’ll work together for a common purpose, that being to slaughter Yang Qi.”

With that blood oath, they resolved their differences and stood united in their effort to kill Yang Qi.

However that was when they suddenly heard a voice saying, “I ran into the Shepherd from the Fiend-Devil League! He and some other mysterious person have me surrounded. Hurry and help me fight them. We can't let the Shepherd escape! I’m going to turn him into a puppet!”