Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi easily destroyed the pirates that had been attacking him.

As for all of the other pirates who had been wrapped up in his net, his energy arts were so powerful that they all immediately lost consciousness.

As a peak Terrifying expert, Yang Qi was truly a fear-inspiring individual, with energy arts and godpower so advanced that he was hundreds, or even thousands of times stronger than experts of the same level.

The complete God Legion Seal truly bolstered his godpower and abilities. In fact, with the help of the God Legion Seal, any godly-class energy art could be used with deadly force.

The golden light of the seal danced back and forth on Yang Qi, remolding him in a way that would have been difficult if he were to rely only on the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth and the Sage Monarch Grand Magic.

“What do we do with the other pirates?”

“What do we do with them?” the Shepherd said. “Kill them all! They know that we come from the mortal world, and if they spread the word, we would be chased down relentlessly. In the god world, it's survival of the fittest. Besides, it's not as if these pirates are good people. No one will mourn them if they die, and they’ll be the perfect fuel for my Blood-Hell Soul-Refining Ability.”

“Fine,” Yang Qi said, nodding. “It would definitely be a disaster if people found out about us. And these pirates are murderers and villains, people who slaughter innocents without thinking. That said, Shepherd, you don’t need to continue cultivating that Blood-Hell Soul-Refining Ability. Things like that are insignificant. Without the God Legion Seal, you can't really cultivate the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, but you can definitely work with my Sage Monarch Grand Magic. In the days to come, it will definitely surpass the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth.”

“He’s right,” Doom said. He had been cultivating the Sage Monarch Grand Magic, and knew how incredibly amazing it was. Even the small taste he had experienced was enough to earn Yang Qi his respect. “Yang Qi, it’s great that you've imbued your Sage Monarch Grand Magic with the power of the God Legion Seal. The results are astounding. However, you need to be careful, otherwise you’ll experience cultivation deviation.”

“That won’t happen,” Yang Qi said, “at least, not when I use the Unspoiled Body to keep it in check. In any case, we need to leave some of the pirates alive for questioning.”

Whoosh!

He reached out, and one of the pirates flew right into his grasp.

‘It feels great to reach the peak Terrifying level and finally be able to unleash my true energy again,’ he thought.

Meanwhile, the pirate regained consciousness, whereupon a look of dread filled his face. “Mercy! Spare me! Oh great Gods, spare my life! Don’t kill me!”

“Presumably you realize that we're from the lower worlds,” Yang Qi said. “I killed your captain, and now your life is in my hands. Got it? So tell me. Where are we? Explain in detail.”

“I’ll talk!” the pirate gushed. “Really, I’ll talk. We’re on the... the Lightningbolt Continent.”

“Lightningbolt Continent?” Brahma said. “How come I’ve never heard of it? Which ocean district is this?”

“We’re in the Blackmare Ocean.”

“Blackmare Ocean?” Brahma shook his head. “I've never heard of that either. The god world is just too big for me to know every little location. Not even the Sovereign Lord knew how large the god world is. It’s almost like it goes on and on without end. But I know the fundamental laws that govern it. Just ask me whatever you need to know, Yang Qi. You don’t need pirates like this. Just go ahead and kill him.”

“No, don’t kill me!” the pirate shrieked. “Don’t you have any sense of honor or justice? Wait, I forgot something. We have a bunch of loot in our ship. And slaves. And even some children of important people!”

“Oh?” Keeping a tight grip on the pirate, Yang Qi flew up onto the bone-crafted pirate ship, which was several kilometers from prow to stern. Once there, he waved his hand to create a bridge of golden light connecting it to the shore.

Everyone else hurried over the bridge to meet him.

Upon seeing this, the pirate’s eyes went wide with disbelief. “You can fly? You just broke through to the peak Terrifying level and you’re already more powerful than all the other experts? Not even Pirate King Deku could do that!”

Of course, the pirate had no idea that Yang Qi was using the God Legion Seal.

There were some other pirates on the listing deck of the ship. As soon as they saw Yang Qi fly up, they turned to flee, but he waved his finger and they fell down dead, including the one he had dragged up from the beach. [1]

“Rise!” Yang Qi said. Waving his hand, he sent out an immense force that slowly pushed the stranded ship out toward deeper water.

A ship like this would be so incredibly heavy it would defy description. Not even their captain, the Pirate King Deku, had been able to do something like that.

Yang Qi walked into the cabin. It was large, but not large enough that it needed a spatial formation to establish the room. Creating formations in the god world required a lot of effort and resources, so they were generally considered luxuries.

The cabin was packed with goods, foodstuffs, clothing, ores, minerals, tools, and weapons, none of which were particularly eye-catching to Yang Qi. However, there were bags of rice that glowed with such luster that they seemed similar to god pills from the mortal world.

“That's just rice,” Brahma said. “There’s nothing particularly unusual about it. It’s too bad we can’t return to the Ancient Road to the Gods and give it to our people. With stuff like that, your brothers would be able to reach the mid Terrifying level in less than a thousand years.”

“Yes, I can tell that it can completely change one's constitution,” Yang Qi replied. “Unfortunately, the effects of rice like this are going to be limited. It can make you strong, but can’t make you a Quasi-God. Reaching that level will definitely take god pills. Let’s keep looking around and see if we can find any currency. I'm very curious to see what godnotes look like.”

Thanks to the information provided earlier by Brahma, Yang Qi knew that the main currency of the god world was the godnote.

“Look here,” Jadefall said after a moment, holding out a godsteel strongbox. Placing it down in front of her, she struck at the lock with a saber, snapping it off. After opening it, she revealed stacks upon stacks of what appeared to be paper talismans, all of them pulsing with godpower.

“Those are godnotes, alright,” Brahma said. “They look like ordinary banknotes from the mortal world. Millions upon millions of years ago, the boundless Sovereign Lord established the use of currency, and its use spread so far and wide that it became the standard way to pay for expensive items throughout the god world. The Sovereign Lord later died, but the godnote system remained. If I'm not mistaken, I’d say it’s because of the efforts of some of the Paramount God clans. You see, you can find the mark of a Paramount God on every note. Only those clans can mint currency like this.”

Yang Qi picked up one of the godnotes and examined it closely. It was three inches wide and seven inches long, conforming to the common ratio of seventy to thirty. It was possible to see a host of talismans swirling inside the note, and even more telling, it was so heavy that it obviously wasn’t made out of paper or fabric. Sending some true energy into it, Yang Qi immediately saw the image of several majestic figures in his sea of consciousness, all of whom had the aura of Paramount Gods.

Given that, it was obviously impossible to forge godnotes.

“How much is one godnote worth?” Yang Qi asked. “There must be dozens of notes in that box. Considering it was locked up, it must be worth a lot.”

Brahma chuckled. “Godnotes are very valuable. Even just one is enough to buy a lot of goods. You see, godnotes aren’t just useful as currency. If you tear them up with true energy, it will release the might of a Paramount God, which can be used to cow countless godlings. And that’s just one thing you can do. Suffice it to say, they’re very useful. Back in my day, one godnote would be enough to buy a god pill that could propel an ordinary citizen to the level of a Quasi-God.”

“Very valuable indeed,” Yang Qi said, nodding. “It looks like there are about twenty godnotes here. If we can find a city where they sell god pills, we should be able to improve all of your cultivation bases. We need to get you all into the Quasi-God level as quickly as possible.”

Eating wild beasts when stuck in the wilderness was fine. But they eventually needed to get to civilization.

“Yang Qi,” Jadefall said, “considering you have the God Legion Seal, can’t you copy or forge some godnotes? The seal is so powerful you’d think it could do that. It has the auras of Paramount Gods in it, as well as the spirit of loyalty they showed to the Sovereign Lord.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Yang Qi said.

He extended his hand and a stream of true energy appeared, which then converged into something that looked like a godnote. However, on the inside, it was obviously a fake.

Letting it dissipate, Yang Qi shook his head.

“What’s wrong?!” Jadefall asked. “It didn’t work?”

“No. My cultivation base isn’t strong enough yet. The godnotes contain magical laws and many other things I need to study further. And what’s more, the aura of a Paramount God isn’t easy to replicate. Anyone would be able to tell its fake the moment they picked it up. But once my cultivation base advances a bit more, I should be able to create some good forgeries!”

He smiled confidently.

Of course, everyone sucked in breaths of astonishment. The idea of forging godnotes was completely heaven-defying. Wouldn’t it give them a huge advantage in the god world if they could do that?

“I get it,” Doom said. “Now I realize why Proud Heaven wanted the God Legion Seal. He would ultimately have been able to create godnotes.”

“That's one of the reasons,” Yang Qi said. “Sooner or later, the god world is going to be ours.”

1. The part about Yang Qi killing all the pirates is actually an addition from me. The author wasn’t paying close attention to this part and left all the pirates alive. However, in the , they’re all said to be dead. I actually don’t think the author’s intention was to have Yang Qi simply execute them all, but this is the easiest way to fix the plot hole.