Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

After assimilating the sheepskin scroll and the Mahātmā Jade, Yang Qi’s cultivation and godpower had improved dramatically. In fact, his godpower was almost at the point of being able to fuel a breakthrough to the Paramount level of will convergence.

Hopefully, he would soon be able to get his hands on more pieces of the Mahātmā Jade. He was certain that they were somewhere to be found in the god world. After all, he was the ultimate ruler of the immortal worlds now. The past world and the future world had both been sacrificed by Proud Heaven, and no pieces of the jade had turned up during that time. It seemed to indicate that there were no more pieces in the immortal worlds.

And that meant that they had to be in the god world.

As soon as he walked out into the open, he saw a young woman waiting respectfully outside.

“Young Sir,” she said, “do you need anything to eat? You were in seclusion for more than a month.” She was the very same young woman he had saved from being raped by Huang Weilong.

She was a delicate beauty who called herself Cherry. Clearly she wanted to keep her true surname and given name a secret, and Yang Qi wasn’t inclined to press the issue. He hadn’t harbored any ulterior motives in rescuing her, and in fact, after gaining new understanding into the value of morality, he had been attempting to add more moral actions into his behavior.

“I don’t need anything to eat,” he said. “From here on out, I want you to be in charge of this entire mountain. Keep an eye on all the other young women and concubines, as well as the female miners. We’re going to have new rules around here to make sure the women don’t get raped or killed. In fact, I want the men and women kept apart. Can you handle that?”

“I've already started doing it, Young Sir,” she replied. “There are quite a few related matters I wanted to report to you about, but you've been in seclusion, so I had no way to do so. Now that you’re out, I can catch you up. Young Sir, I truly hope you reach godly ascension soon!”

“I'm not in any hurry. By the way, we have a few more months before we reach the end of the year and need to turn in the year's production results. How are we doing in that regard?”

“Considering Zhang Jufang recovered Huang Weilong’s private stash, we have enough reserves that we can meet our quota for three years without doing any mining for a single day.” Cherry had already fallen into her role as Yang Qi’s stewardess.

“Wonderful. Please call in Zhang Jufang. I want to take a look at the mineral storehouses and inspect the mine itself. I'm interested to see how deep the ore deposits run.” With that, he waved his hand dismissively.

Cherry hurried away, then returned with Zhang Jufang and a handful of other disciples who were his loyal followers.

“We kowtow in salute, Elder Brother!” Zhang Jufang said, dropping to his knees and kowtowing deeply. He had quickly become very important, and now no one in the mine dared to defy his authority. He could essentially do whatever he wanted, although he was fully aware that all of it was thanks to Yang Qi. And he knew that Yang Qi could take everything away from him at a moment's notice.

Because of that, he hadn’t done anything rash in the month Yang Qi was in seclusion, such as using his authority for personal gain. Instead, he had been cautious and conscientious. Already, the mine was operating much more smoothly, with fewer miners engaging in embezzling operations, and many of the old ringleaders having been brought in line.

“Take me to the storehouse.”

“Yes sir!”

Zhang Jufang led him off the mountain and to the mine itself. The entire mine had an area of only a few hundred kilometers, and was constantly expanding, with tunnels being dug in every direction.

There were actually a few storehouses, which were constructed from rock and looked like enormous castles.

Upon entering the first of the storehouses, they saw piles of godstones, most of which were of low or middling quality and needed to be refined before they could be of use.

In another location in the mine, there were furnaces that could be used for just that purpose. By heating the ore, it was possible to extrude the impurities within it, which would result in the larger clumps being reduced to something the size of a walnut. That was the final product which would be handed in to the sect.

Every year when the time came to hand over the year's production, someone from the sect would come to inspect the godstones and make an official record of the results.

And of course, the storehouses were kept under strict guard by both men and spell formations.

However, upon seeing it all, Yang Qi shook his head. “Spell formations like this wouldn’t stop a true expert. I bet the storehouses get stolen from all the time. Am I right?”

“Yes. In the past, disciples from the dao of devils, and also certain demonling experts, would sneak in and steal godstones. Occasionally, the culprits are even people from other mines. We suffer losses every year because of theft.”

“What? People from the other mines rob us?” Yang Qi frowned. “Why would they do that?”

“Because the other mines are our enemies. True, we’re all members of the House of God Ordainment, but in the end, we have to meet our quota to the sect, and if we don't, we get punished. Thus, there’s constant infighting with the neighboring mines. In just the past month, we’ve had a number of fights with other miners we caught sneaking in to steal from us. They even have the support of their foremen.”

“I had no idea that was happening. Fellow disciples fighting and killing each other?” He smiled coldly. “What about us? Have we snuck into other mines to steal from them? Pay them back tooth for tooth?”

“In the past we would do that, but ever since you took control, Elder Brother, things changed. Huang Weilong had a deal worked out with the disciples from the dao of devils and the demonlings, and used them to strike at the other mines. He made quite a profit from that, but the arrangement is null and void now. Furthermore, we didn’t participate in the big meeting of gang leaders, which has made us the main enemy of the other fifty-five mines.”

As they walked out of the castle, Zhang Jufang went on to explain how the gang leaders from all the mines would occasionally meet to decide who was strongest among them. Whoever took the top spot would not only be immune from robbery, but would be given tribute. Of course, since Huang Weilong was dead and Mine Thirteen didn’t send anyone to the meeting of gang leaders, everyone assumed that they were weaklings who could easily be trampled on.

“Furthermore,” another disciple said, “word has spread that we confiscated Huang Weilong’s personal stash, and a lot of people would love to get their hands on it. With your remarkable abilities, Elder Brother, we hope you can strengthen our spell formations to defend us against outside incursions.”

“That goes without saying,” Yang Qi replied. He waved his finger, and cracking sounds could be heard as all of the existing spell formations collapsed. Then, the resulting vital energy swirled into the shape of new spell formations, which sank into the ground and faded to invisibility.

“Killing Intent of Heaven and Earth: Astral Redirection!” Yang Qi clenched his hands into fists, summoning the power of the one origin, two polarities, three powers, four divisions, five phases, six directions, seven stars, eight trigrams, nine palaces, and ten preeminences. He had created ten spell formations that were now secretly operating underneath the enormous castle. However, none of the disciples present could see what had happened.

One of the disciples looked around and said, “What happened? Elder Brother, did you just remove the spell formations? Won’t that leave the castle defenseless?”

Yang Qi smiled. “Why don’t you perform a little test? See if there are any spell formations in there.”

The disciple cautiously drew a saber, took a step forward, and lunged toward the castle. However, before he could get close, a field of bright light rose up and his saber collapsed into dust.

The other disciples immediately started sweating.

“Elder Brother, how do we get back inside?” Zhang Jufang asked.

“With these,” Yang Qi said. Waving his hand, he sent a paper talisman flying over to Zhang Jufang. “With that talisman, you can take an entire group inside. Understand?”

“Yes sir!” Zhang Jufang replied. “So if people come to rob us, do we kill them?”

“Just drive them away. They won’t be able to break through that formation, and if they insist on trying, they’ll die.”

“Aaaiiiieee!”

Turning, everyone saw someone working with one of the furnaces off in the distance being engulfed in a burst of flame. In the blink of an eye, he was turned into ashes.

“Another death at the furnaces,” one of the disciples said, shaking his head. “That fire is deadly. With the weather so hot, the heat of the furnaces is even worse than normal. It kills in an instant.”

Yang Qi looked up at the deadly light falling from the sky.

“There's already been a month of this intense, deadly heat, and the miners don’t have anything to protect against it. It's a given that there will be deaths in these conditions. Even Quasi-Gods who stay out in the sun long enough will run out of godpower and eventually die.” Yang Qi shook his head. “Go buy some medicinal items to protect against the heat.”

“But such things are very expensive,” Zhang Jufang said. “If we draw on our reserves, it’ll be difficult to meet the quota. Besides, Elder Brother, we have most of that set aside to make sure you make a good impression on the sect. Look, a few dead miners aren’t anything to worry about. They die all the time.”