Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“I’m curious to see what this Lord of the True Void is like, and what his story is.”

Some of Yang Qi’s people wanted to take advantage of the situation, while others wanted to play it safe. The latter view did make sense; they were a group of people with many secrets to keep. However, Yang Qi didn’t think that the Lord of the True Void was a wretch-god. It was more likely that he was scouting for talent.

Besides, if he was a wretch-god, why would the houselord have invited him? The House of God Ordainment was considered to be a major orthodox group, and their core teachings and doctrines were righteous. True, they had infighting and power struggles. And they would wage war, exterminating other sects and enslaving their members to work in brutal mining colonies.

But they weren’t like people from the dao of devils, who openly robbed, murdered, and assimilated the souls of their enemies. The god world was a bloody place where foul winds blew everywhere, and life was bitter and tragic. But in general, the House of God Ordainment’s destiny was positive, not steeped in destruction and foulness. Even in the most orthodox of empires, slaves and thralls existed, and such practices couldn’t be eliminated. And even the most prestigious confucian institutes would engage in slaughter of their enemies.

“Does anyone in the Sage Monarch Society know anything about the Lord of the True Void?” Jadefall said.

“I’ll ask around,” Brahma replied. “I doubt he’s a god from ancient times. He’s from after the time of King Immortal-Slayer, when the Sovereign Lord and the halls of heaven were gone. He’s an expert of the new age. In any case, I don’t remember anyone like him existing in ancient times.”

Brahma left, then returned shortly after with more information. “I got some interesting information. The Lord of the True Void is indeed a powerful Paramount God. However, he's not affiliated with any particular sect. He's essentially a wandering expert who rarely shows his face in public. Most of the time, he drifts about in the void of the god world, working on his cultivation and enlightenment. Occasionally he’ll show up on a continent and look for geniuses, then provide them with a blessing of enlightenment. When the houselord was young, he received a blessing of enlightenment from him, and even followed him around the god world for a time. In fact, there are many experts like that. That’s why everyone is going crazy now that he’s here. Everybody wants to be noticed by him and taken as a novitiate. Whoever gets taken with him will be in an amazing position upon returning to the House of God Ordainment.”

“So that's how it is,” Yang Qi replied, nodding. “No wonder King Immortal-Slayer said that Yang Immortal-Slayer would get an amazing Master. Why don’t we come up with a plan to attract the attention of this Lord of the True Void?”

“That’s not necessary,” Doom said. “All we have to do is act normal. The Lord of the True Void is a Paramount God, so he’ll be able to detect the traces of genius on us. Even my natural talents have already vastly surpassed those of ordinary gods. I used to be a bearer of the God Legion Seal, so what if he notices me?”

“I can use my Devil-God Seal if I have to. Let’s wait and see if the situation is actually dangerous. After all, this man is a Paramount God. Thankfully, I just learned a lot from King Immortal-Slayer and the purrling. With the energy of the Exalted Purrling to help me, he shouldn’t notice anything about me, so long as he doesn't inspect me closely.” Yang Qi had utter faith in the purrling, to the point where he wasn't even afraid of Paramount Gods. After all, Patriarch Deva was more famous than this Lord of the True Void, yet Patriarch Deva’s talisman hadn’t been able to do a thing to the purrling. It stood to reason that the Lord of the True Void wouldn’t be able to either. King Immortal-Slayer viewed the purrling as an equal, which meant the purrling was on the same level as the Sovereign Lord, Wretch God Ultimate, the Demon Master, and the True Devil.

But then, a thought occurred to him. ‘What if the houselord invited a Paramount God for a more specific reason? What if he wants him to try dealing with the Exalted Purrling?’

Yang Qi had switched his form of address to ‘Exalted Purrling’. After all, if the purrling was on the same level as King Immortal-Slayer, it was important to show it respect.

“That’s very possible,” Jadefall said, suddenly sounding very nervous. “The purrling has caused a huge commotion in the god world recently. And during this entire time, the houselord has never shown his face. But there’s no way he isn’t aware of everything that happened. Maybe he did invite someone to make a move on the purrling....”

“I don’t think so,” Yang Qi said. “The houselord couldn’t be that monumentally stupid. I doubt he wants to openly make a move against the Exalted Purrling. More likely, he wants to use the powers of a Paramount God to try getting more information about it. It's lucky for him the purrling doesn’t seem to have any ambitions at all. It just sleeps and enjoys life. Otherwise, it could accomplish a lot. As far as it's concerned, people aren’t even worth worrying about.”

The purrling really did view humans as being too low-level. Only people like King Immortal-Slayer were worth dealing with.

As for Jadefall, although she wasn’t very strong, she was its mother, and it treated her like that. Yang Qi also wasn’t an ordinary person. He had monarch godhood and the God Legion Seal, and was a Fateless One. But everyone else might as well have been trash in its eyes.

In terms of accomplishing something big, it viewed that as laughable as a human gathering a bunch of pigs and declaring himself an emperor among them. Of course, the fact that Yang Qi had established the Sage Monarch Society had a lot to do with the threat of the purrling. He wouldn’t have been able to accomplish it alone.

“Purrling, is there any chance the Lord of the True Void could forcibly take you?” Jadefall asked.

The purrling gave her a sidelong glance that obviously meant, “I'm not even going to bother answering that question.”

At that point, Yang Qi felt a bit better. “We still need to come up with a plan for what to do if the Lord of the True Void notices any of us. There has to be more to this situation than we understand.”

With that, they went on to discuss the matter in further detail.

Several hours later, a booming voice echoed out and filled the entire House of God Ordainment. It entered the souls of everyone present, and although no one knew who exactly it belonged to, it was obviously the voice of a Perfect God.

“All disciples will gather at the square in front of the God-Ordaining Dais. Organize yourselves by faction. We’ll be offering greetings to the Paramount God, the Lord of the True Void.”

“Alright, let's go,” Jadefall said. “The Sage Monarch Society needs to find a place to gather.”

Before long, everyone was at the square, which was a huge place that spread out in front of the God-Ordaining Dais itself. The dais was immense, and had several thrones spread out in front of it for the leadership of the sect to use. Other than when important meetings were called, it was a restricted area.

Usually, it was only used when it came time to vote for a new houselord, but today was different. Today, the sect was meeting to receive a Paramount God.

It was an impressive sight to see all of the factions in the sect. Overall, the Sage Monarch Society wasn’t particularly large. The biggest factions were the Brilliant Radiance Society, the Honorable Glory Society, and the Preheaven Society. As for the Mystery Society, it didn’t have any representation at all; the identities of its members were top secret.

Bells tolled as important people flew out of the Primeval Chaos Palace and took their places on the thrones. Of course, they were the chief elders, all of them Perfect Gods. Fully a hundred of them appeared, most of them people who were generally in secluded cultivation. They were powerful individuals down to the last, many of them mid or late Perfect Gods.

A moment later, two individuals appeared, one of whom was a burly man who seemed to pulse with energy. He was the houselord, who was at the peak of the Perfect God level and had peak Paramount will convergence.

The other was shorter and less muscular, but at the same time, physically resembled the houselord. He glowed with divine light, and seemed to pulse with unending power. He was the junior houselord, the leader of the Mystery Society.

As soon as they appeared, the entire House of God Ordainment went absolutely silent, and the atmosphere turned somewhat stifling. Many of the disciples assumed the houselord was going to give them some sort of speech, but instead, he just said, “I offer respectful greetings, oh venerable Lord of the True Void!”

RUMBLE!

As soon as the words left his mouth, an immense passageway appeared, piercing through the god kingdom to reveal a daoist with empty hands, strolling along through the spatial tempests. Such tempests could shred Consummate Gods to pieces, but not this man. He simply stepped out in front of the God-Ordaining Dais and looked around at the surrounding god kingdom.

He didn’t have even a trace of a wretched, evil aura, making it obvious that he cultivated a very righteous and orthodox energy art. There was no doubt that he was definitely not a wretch-god.

The Lord of the True Void had come.

All of the disciples prostrated on the ground, including Yang Qi. The only exception was Jadefall, who stood there to allow the purrling to get a look at the Lord of the True Void.

Their eyes met, and instead of the respect the purrling had shown to King Immortal-Slayer, all that could be seen in its gaze was ridicule. In that moment, Yang Qi realized that the purrling definitely wasn’t worried about the Lord of the True Void.

Paramount Gods were sorted into various grades and ranks, and it was obvious that the Lord of the True Void couldn’t compare to King Immortal-Slayer.

Ordinary Paramount Gods had early Unbounded will convergence. In terms of the mid, late, and peak levels, they would reach the level of King Immortal-Slayer, and step halfway into the Annulled level. Logically speaking, it seemed unlikely that the Lord of the True Void was in the late or peak level. At the most, he was in the mid level. That said, even mid Unbounded will convergence could shake heaven and earth. With a single thought, a person like that could create a god kingdom or bring devastation to the dome of heaven.

After looking at the Lord of the True Void for a moment, the purrling closed its eyes and went to sleep. It was obviously bored. The Lord of the True Void casually retracted his gaze as well. However, Yang Qi could tell from the look in his eye that he didn’t dare to do anything to the purrling. Their simple exchange of glances had made it clear who was the superior, and who was the inferior.