Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“What did you just say?” the White-Haired Boxer King said, his eyes blank from shock. “He's not dead? How can he not be dead? I saw him dissolved by the toxic mist. There wasn’t even a corpse left behind. How could he be back now? Was he resurrected?”

“I don’t know. But he’s reached godly ascension. The upside is that when we assessed him, his godhood rating was low. So you don’t need to worry about that. He’s still a nobody, so killing him should be as easy as squashing an ant.”

WHACK!

The White-Haired Boxer King slapped the grand elder on the side of the face, much to the man’s surprise.

“Sir, why did you hit me?”

“You think he’ll be as easy to kill as an ant? He’s much cleverer than that. He fooled even me! This entire thing was a big trick. The brat is obviously far, far stronger than he’s letting on, so much so that he could fool me into thinking he was dead. And he even stole a Ten-Directions Many-Heavens Pill from me at the same time. That’s the only explanation for why I couldn't divine the location of the pill. The fact that he dares to return to the sect now shows that he’s even stronger than before, and isn’t afraid of me.” The White-Haired Boxer King had already put together all the pieces of the puzzle.

BOOM!

He stamped his foot into the ground, creating a small crater. “Fine. Fine, Yang Qi. You pulled the wool over my eyes. But now I see what happened. Exactly what remarkable ability did you use to do this?” Returning his attention to the grand elder, he said, “That godhood-assessing spell formation of yours is crap! If he could hide from me for over a year, do you really think it’d be hard for him to pass fake information into the formation? I couldn’t kill him back then, so it’s going to be even more difficult now. And now he's an elite disciple. To get rid of an elite disciple without a good reason is no easy task.”

“True, it’s not easy to kill an elite disciple.” The grand elder didn’t dare to say anything further. He was only an early Common God with a godhood rating of eleven. He could call the wind and summon the rain around Lesser Gods, but in the presence of the White-Haired Boxer King, he had to be very careful.

The White-Haired Boxer King was a mid Greater God, making him quite formidable. They were separated by five levels, which meant the White-Haired Boxer King could easily kill him, although how he would fare under the sect rules was a different matter.

Even worse, they were both members of the Dragon Society, which gave the White-Haired Boxer King even more authority over him.

“So what do we do now?” the grand elder asked.

“We do nothing. Jadefall went to the birthday celebration of the emperor of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, and while she was there, she earned the good graces of one of the imperial concubines. She was accepted as an adopted daughter, which means she's even more powerful in our sect now. Everyone is giving her triple the normal face! Yang Qi is one of her people, so if we actually kill him, not even our leader Dragon Floret could keep us safe.”

“Jadefall is just getting more and more powerful,” the grand elder said. “I can’t believe she's the adopted daughter of an imperial concubine from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty. How come everything goes so smoothly for her?”

“Because of her pet, that’s all,” the White-Haired Boxer King said. “Even the top experts from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty were intrigued by the thing. I heard that some of them intentionally provoked her, only to meet defeat. No one can last for a single move against her pet. It's just too strong.”

“Oh right. Was anyone from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty able to identify the creature?”

“No. Not even the wise and knowledgeable high priest or prime minister have any idea what her pet is. For now, we just need to bide our time. Jadefall has returned, and it’s only a matter of time before she meets with Yang Qi. If we make a move on him now, she would surely come to find out, and we would be in big trouble.”

**

Meanwhile, Yang Qi had returned to the Scripture Pavilion to work on his cultivation and think about what position he wanted to aim for. The ancient records in the Scripture Pavilion had been incredibly useful so far, and he was interested in learning more. So staying put was an option.

Or he could go to the Thrall Camp. Considering he didn’t need to worry about running out of godpower, it would be easy to work there.

The Treasure Storage Warehouse would be another good possibility, except that it was already under the control of powerful factions in the sect, which meant it wouldn’t be easy for him to have much authority.

The Medicinal Pill Warehouse might work, except he didn’t really need medicinal pills. In the end, it didn’t seem that he needed to change positions at all. He didn’t lack wealth, thus, it was probably best to just remain in the Scripture Pavilion, where he could relax and further his cultivation. That said, he was definitely interested in rising in the ranks of the House of God Ordainment. That would be the best way to get close to the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, which was where he knew he could get another piece of the Mahātmā Jade.

Even as he was contemplating all these things, someone came to see him. It was Yang Zhan.

“Father, what are you doing here?” Yang Qi asked. At first glance he could see that Yang Zhan had reached godly ascension! He must have come across some good fortune of some sort.

“Hurry and come with me,” Yang Zhan said. “I’m going to take you to see Jadefall. She returned some time ago, and has been asking to see you. But you’ve been gone for the past year. She’s really made some major advancement. She was taken in as the adopted daughter of an imperial concubine from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, and is now a princess there! It’s definitely nothing to look down on. Unfortunately, she now has a lot of suitors, which she finds annoying, so she wants your help to resolve the situation. By the way, how is your cultivation base? I heard that you—”

“Shh!” Yang Qi interrupted. “The less you say out loud the better. My cultivation base has improved significantly, but for now, I don’t want to reveal that to anyone. I need to reach an even higher level of enlightenment, and be truly powerful and invincible.”

“So you really have reached godly ascension!” Yang Zhan said, looking visibly delighted. “Brahma told me that you achieved Paramount will convergence even when you were a Quasi-God. As a god, you must be even more domineering.”

“That’s right. I’ve reached heights no one has ever reached before. There's definitely no one that can pose problems for me now. I know Jadefall has made some major advancements lately. Unfortunately, there are villains everywhere; people have been targeting me in the hopes of taking her down. I'm actually looking forward to meeting some of those people in person. Come on, let's go. It's been a long time since I’ve seen anyone I know. It's time for a reunion. I got a lot of incredible stuff while I was exploring the ruins in the Toxic Continent.”

Yang Zhan nodded. “Let’s go. I’ll take you right to Jadefall.”

“You lead the way!”

They flew out of the Scripture Pavilion and headed to a distant location in the god kingdom. Before, Yang Qi never would have been able to access places like this.

After all, there were locations that official disciples weren’t allowed to go to. But now that he was an elite disciple, he could go to many places that had previously been restricted.

In the depths of the god kingdom, there were many experts flying about. Some were Common Gods, others were Greater Gods. Eventually, they caught sight of numerous palaces floating in the air, surrounded by clouds.

“They’re all mansion grottos of the Consummate Gods,” Yang Zhan said. “Only Consummate Gods are allowed to have residences here. Jadefall lives with her Master in a place called the Jade Daylily Paradise. That said, her Master is in a session of critical seclusion right now in the God-Ordaining Dais, so Jadefall is in charge.”

“I read about some of this in the Great Classic of God Ordainment.” The clouds looked like they were made from jade, and when they landed on them, they were firm. It was almost as if they were made from nephrite, and emitted a fragrant aroma as they walked along them. They stretched out for hundreds of kilometers in all directions, and were covered with buildings of all sorts.

“Who are you?” an armed female disciple said. The area was patrolled by elite disciples, all of them Lesser Gods. As soon as they saw a newcomer, they would stop them and ask for identification. However, as soon as she realized it was Yang Zhan, she politely offered a salute and said, “Well, if it isn’t Mr. Yang Zhan. You’re one of Jadefall’s guests, right? Please, come this way.”

With full courtesy, she led Yang Zhan and Yang Qi into the depths of the jade-colored clouds.

Upon entering one particular palace, the sounds of lovely traditional music reached their ears, as if someone were throwing a banquet.

“Is Jadefall throwing a party?” Yang Zhan murmured.

There were some young women who were attendants standing nearby, and one of them said, “That’s right. There are some princes and princesses from the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty here, and Jadefall is entertaining them. And of course, there’s some important people from the House of God Ordainment as well.” Considering that Yang Qi wore the garments of a mere elite disciple, they obviously didn’t think he qualified to attend the banquet. But if Jadefall had issued orders that he come, none of them would dare cause any problems.

They were escorted into the banquet itself, where they saw a host of young women in the middle of performing a dance. Seated at the surrounding tables were all sorts of important guests, who were chatting amongst themselves. There were also some people standing in various parts of the room talking to each other.

Beautiful female disciples drifted through the crowd, serving the guests. Considering how important the guests were, the servers were doing their best to make a good impression; if one of these guests took a liking to them, their days as a lowly disciple could be over.

Yang Qi immediately caught sight of Jadefall. She was in the seat of honor, the purrling nestled in her arms. Two years had passed and she looked better than ever, her aura strong and powerful. The purrling hadn’t changed much, and just lay there lazily, looking around with a gleam of condescension in its eyes, as if it viewed the guests as little more than animals.

Then the purrling noticed Yang Qi; its eyes flashed and it started purring loudly.

‘The purrling is incredible!’ he thought. ‘With one glance it realized I have monarch godhood.’ In the past, the purrling had always looked at him with vague contempt. But now things were different. It seemed to be looking at him as if he were finally worthy of notice.