Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

“That won’t be a problem at all,” Yang Qi said. “I have plenty of money at my disposal. Why don’t you start by explaining your situation?”

“Milord, this is our mountain, and as you can see, the land beneath it belongs to us.” One of the men waved his finger, and everything trembled. The mists below cleared, revealing an expansive plane filled with cities, mountains, rivers, cultivators, nations, dimensions, god kingdoms, palaces, and worlds.

They were all arranged around the central mountain, and Yang Qi could see at a glance that it was at least twenty or thirty times as large as the Deva Dynasty.

“Milord,” the man said, “the lands we command are known as the Land of Flowerhill. This mountain is known as Dreamhill. I'm the viceroy, and I rank as a count.”

One of the women added, “We're also counts in the Land of Flowerhill. However, we’re not all viceroys. I'm the generalissimo of the armed forces, he's the minister of finances, and she’s the minister of officials. We’re all roughly the same rank, although the viceroy is the one who makes the final decisions. Of course, we always have to follow the orders from our superiors.”

Yang Qi nodded. “I see. So you split up the duties of running this place.”

The Land of Flowerhill was run by these four, with each having a different position: viceroy, generalissimo, minister of finances, and minister of officials.

It was a solidly-built organizational structure.

From what Yang Qi could see, the resources that had been built up in the Land of Flowerhill surpassed those of the Deva Dynasty by thirty times, yet its destiny was far more than thirty times. Obviously, it was well-managed.

“How many Paramount Gods do you have here?” Yang Qi asked.

One of the women, whose name was Dugu Wen, replied, “A total of two thousand three hundred and twenty-five that don’t have Unbounded will convergence. In terms of Unbounded experts, we have one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three. The mid Paramount Gods number one hundred and thirty four, and there are only four late Paramount Gods: us.”

“The destiny here is incredible, but obviously, it isn’t an easy thing to create Paramount Gods. Still, the fact that the Land of Flowerhill has over two thousand Paramount Gods is impressive. Although, it probably doesn't count for much in the House of the Invincible as a whole, am I right?”

“Exactly right, milord,” replied one of the men, whose name was Dugu Sheng. “The House of the Invincible is a monstrous organization in the god world. Over the past several hundred million years we've expanded so much that few other organizations can rival us. One is the Central Dynasty, the other is the Chiliocosm Dynasty. We three form a tripartite balance of power that not even the Dragonfolk can match up to. The Invincible Dynasty. The Central Dynasty. The Chiliocosm Dynasty. Those are the true powers in the god world.”

“What about the Proud Clan?” Yang Qi said.

“The Proud Clan is the Central Dynasty,” replied the other man, named Dugu Ti. “More precisely, the imperial clan that runs it is surnamed Proud.”

“That’s right,” said Dugu Hu, the other young woman. “Milord, other than the Sovereign Lord himself, the god world has never seen three dynasties as powerful as ours. Beneath us are the other forces such as the Dragonfolk, Spritefolk, Mechfolk, Demonfolk, and the various primal-chaos creatures that exist. But those lesser groups are slowly being integrated into the three major powers. In fact, an important upcoming event is the wedding between a princess of the Spritefolk, Sprite Susu, with Dugu Yunkong from our Invincible Dynasty. It’s intended to be a formal linking of the Spritefolk with the House of the Invincible.”

Dugu Sheng, Dugu Ti, Dugu Wen, and Dugu Hu formed a small interest group, one of thousands in the House of the Invincible.

‘So the Central Dynasty is run by the Proud Clan.’ Yang Qi was finally learning some good information about the Proud Clan. Now he was curious what the Chiliocosm Dynasty was all about.

Regardless, he now had a much clearer vision of who the truly major players were in the god world. After all, the House of the Invincible could easily make people into gods, which just went to show how amazing they were.

Unfortunately, Yang Qi’s previous plan seemed like a complete bust. He had hoped to infiltrate the House of the Invincible, then slowly take it over. But considering its incredible destiny, it would be too dangerous to try to secretly bring people from the Sage Monarch Society here. They would likely just end up dead. For now, it was better to have them in the depths of the Cruiser of Civilization, working on their cultivation.

For now, he and the Second Devil General would be enough to make some progress.

“Cut the crap and explain how you're going to help us infiltrate your sect!” the Second Devil General said impatiently. “The Invincible Dynasty is obviously a very powerful organization that I can benefit a lot from. And the first step is going to be tapping into the destiny here.”

“We have two options,” replied Dugu Wen. “First is to give you a position here in the Land of Flowerhill. After performing some services, you’ll eventually rise in the ranks. Unfortunately, Milord, you’d only be able to benefit from the destiny given to mid Paramount Gods. That's the extent of our authority. The second option is to declare war on one of the rivals of the Land of Flowerhill. If we could install you or the exalted Second Devil General as a new leader there, it’d be a much faster way of getting power.”

“I don’t really care,” the Second Devil General said, “as long as it's helping me out. I'm not interested in planning and managing. Look, it's simple. Tell me who your enemies are, and I’ll go kill them. Simple.”

“Enough, Second Devil General,” Yang Qi said. “We don’t need chaos here. Nowadays, things don’t work like they did back in your day. The House of the Invincible is a huge organization, and cannot be taken lightly. I'd say they have some good plans. Even if there are competing interest groups, simply killing the opposition won’t help. After all, they’re not our direct superiors, so it won’t facilitate a true rise to power. We need to stay here in the Land of Flowerhill, make a name for ourselves, and improve the destiny of this place. That will help our four agents rise to better positions, and by extension, us.”

“We don’t have that kind of time on our hands!” the Second Devil General said with a cold harrumph. “King Immortal-Slayer is getting anxious! And those enemies he talked about are only going to continue working on their plan!”

“Those conspirators have to be from the Proud Clan. And they’re not really going to take action until there's a major development. I know you’re not good at leadership, Second Devil General. So let me handle this. You be the puppet emperor while I run things behind the scenes. And whenever I run into a sticky situation I can’t handle, you take over. What do you say?”

“Fine. I suppose you’re right. The dao of devils is all about chaos. I'm not good at making complicated plans. But there’s nothing complicated about taking out enemies. I normally just kill anyone I don’t like, devour them, and wipe out their people.”

“Fine. Now, the four of you listen well to my plan.”

Taking out some heavenly caliber godstones, Yang Qi said, “This is a type of godstone I can make that surpasses perfect caliber godstones. They don’t exist anywhere else in the god world, and I'm the only person who has them. Take them to your superiors and say that you found them in the Bastille of the One God. You’ll definitely be rewarded well for them. Furthermore, I'm going to give you some capital to work with. Use it to improve the Land of Flowerhill. By the way, Second Devil General, what do you think of these four in terms of their cultivation? It seems to me we ought to work together to strengthen them up a bit.”

The Second Devil General snorted coldly. “Why the hell don’t I get any sort of reward? Ever since I met you, boy, the only thing I’ve received is endless trouble!”

Despite his words, he knew that when it came to doing business, you have to make an investment before you can earn any profit.

All of a sudden, he erupted with devil energy, then waved a finger at the four experts. Before they could even react, popping sounds rang out as devil seals appeared within them.

“This is a consummate technique from the dao of devils, the Devil-Sealing Triple-Myriad Seal. It’ll create a combination of devilish and godly within you, a contrasting mix of darkness, gloom, radiance, and light. And of course, as you assimilate it, it will give you powerful divine abilities. It's something I gained enlightenment of during the billions of years I was imprisoned in the Everlit Godlamp.”

The four experts immediately felt their cultivation bases rising, making them like house cats transforming into tiger cubs. Although house cats and tiger cubs had roughly the same fighting prowess, in terms of future growth, it was obvious who was superior.

They were different on a substructural level.

“Many thanks, exalted Second Devil General!” the four experts said exultingly. Then they looked at Yang Qi.

Nodding, he sent out a stream of radiance and light as he imparted other divine abilities to them. “Go. You’re definitely going to get amazing rewards from the sect.”

“Yes sir!”

After they were gone, Yang Qi and the Second Devil General sat down, not daring to do anything to attract attention before getting official positions in the sect.

About a day passed, whereupon his four agents hurried back and dropped to their knees.

“Milord, congratulations!” said Dugu Wen. “When we handed in that heaven caliber godstone, we received a lot of attention from the leaders. The emperor personally blessed us! We received a lot of rewards, such as medicinal pills, and were also allowed to make a request. We asked for approval to add two new positions to the hierarchy of the Land of Flowerhill. The two of you can be supervisory inspectors, with a rank roughly similar to ours. You’ll essentially be like police chiefs!”

“Good,” Yang Qi said. “Excellent. Bring out the book of appointment.”

The four experts pulled out the book and handed it to Yang Qi.

RUMBLE!

In the blink of an eye, unimaginable changes occurred in Yang Qi.