Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

In the Second Devil General’s attempt to get control of the Cruiser of Civilization, he had spent a lot of quintessence vitality to create a devil seed. But Yang Qi had outwitted him and assimilated the seed before it could do anything. The general was furious, but couldn't do a thing about it lest he lose Yang Qi’s help in unsealing the Third Devil General. And the Third Devil General was absolutely critical to his ultimate goal of revitalizing the dao of devils.

‘I'm just taking advantage of you to free the Third Devil General, boy. As soon as I don’t need you, I'm going to slaughter you and take your cultivation base for myself! Then what’ll you do?! Everything of yours will belong to me! The God Legion Seal. Your destiny. The Mahātmā Jade. The Everlit Godlamp. The Cruiser of Civilization. Once I have all that, I’ll become something that surpasses even the old Sovereign Lord!’

Of course, he didn't dare to give Yang Qi any clue as to what he was really thinking.

“Alright, boy,” he said, “your task is accomplished. Now we need to go find the Dragon Compendium. I wasted a lot of quintessence-blood helping you reforge the Cruiser of Civilization with the essence of the Myriad Dragons Lair. Now the cruiser has become your brain, and your physical body is ten times what it was before. If I’m not mistaken, you should be able to fully assimilate the Everlit Godlamp at any time, and rise to the peak Paramount God level. In fact, I bet you’ll be able to do that while we go about getting the Dragon Compendium.”

Yang Qi chuckled. “There’s no rush, Second Devil General. Furthermore, you promised to help me reforge the Cruiser of Civilization and assimilate some dragon kingdoms. So let’s get to work on some of those kingdoms, alright? Once my Sage Monarch Empire is large enough, and has enough destiny, then I’ll achieve that breakthrough. At that point, our success with the Dragon Compendium will be even more assured.”

The Second Devil General was so infuriated he nearly coughed up blood. “Give you an inch and you take a mile, huh?! You want more hard labor from me?”

“You’re looking at it the wrong way,” Yang Qi said. “How about this. Whatever dragon kingdoms we take, we split the destiny fifty-fifty. Dragon destiny is far superior to human destiny, which is why emperors in the impure lands are called True Dragon Sons of Heaven. I have the feeling you could benefit from some of that as well, right?”

“Fifty-fifty?” the Second Devil General said, realizing that it wasn’t a bad deal.

He had developed a taste for destiny in the House of the Invincible, except that what he had access to there was trifling.

The idea of capturing some Dragonfolk and establishing a kingdom to harvest destiny was intriguing. Unfortunately, he wasn’t cut out to administer a government. Any nation that he led would quickly be infected with devilishness, leading to widespread carnage and chaos.

There was no way a kingdom like that would provide any good destiny.

From the birth of the universe to now, the dao of devils had never been able to achieve any sort of decisive victory over the dao of righteousness. One of the reasons was that the dao of devils lacked order. And without order, there couldn't be destiny.

One of the biggest differences between the dao of righteousness and the dao of devils was, of course, destiny.

The Second Devil General knew that, but there was nothing he could do to change it. So Yang Qi’s offer of splitting the destiny of any kingdoms they conquered was obviously very attractive.

“What do you think? You talked about being hired labor, Second Devil General. But in reality, taking dragon kingdoms and adding them to my empire is going to be hard, complicated work. I'm going to be doing the labor, and you're going to reap the rewards. You know just as well as I do that managing an empire is a lot harder than assimilating a magical treasure!”

The Second Devil General had to agree with Yang Qi. Thus, their deal was sealed.

RUMBLE!

The two of them flew into the air and headed deeper into the Myriad Dragons Lair. Almost immediately, they ran into a large Dragonfolk kingdom. It took some time, but they conquered it and inserted it into Yang Qi’s empire, adding to its destiny.

The destiny of a dragon kingdom was superior to that of any ordinary human kingdom. However, there were downsides to it. The destiny was chaotic, as dragons generally didn't have official leaders. Dragons valued independence and individuality, which led to a very different type of destiny.

The difference between humans and dragons was like the difference between ants and humans.

An ant colony was extremely orderly, where every ant had a specific task and purpose. A human kingdom was obviously not as orderly as an ant colony. However, the ant colony’s destiny was pitiful in comparison to the kingdom of humans.

Yang Qi was extremely sensitive to destiny, so all he had to do was close his eyes and concentrate.

“That way, Second Devil General.”

The Second Devil General just casually followed his directions, and before long they found themselves closing in on an enormous sea of blood, covered by floating mists that were, naturally, the color of blood.

If those blood mists entered the body of even a mid Paramount God, that person would soon find dragon scales rippling out over their flesh and their godhood transforming into a dragon core.

With his Lord's Eye, Yang Qi could see that in the depths of that blood-colored mist was an enormous Dragonfolk kingdom. It featured huge palaces, cities, and countless gigantic dragons in human form. This place was, at a minimum, ten times the size of the Land of Dreamvoid or the Land of Flowerhill.

In other words, if Yang Qi took this place, he would instantly become a ‘viceroy with ten lands’. And he wouldn’t need to give most of that destiny to the sect.

Unfortunately, he wasn't quite sure how to go about conquering this place.

“What a pure sea of blood,” the Second Devil General said with a sigh of admiration. “Such plentiful dragon vitality. This is the perfect place for dragons to roost. In fact, it's much better than most other locations in the Myriad Dragons Lair. I can even sense the aura of preheaven dragon blood and god vitality. The kingdom in the depths of this blood sea is incomparably invincible, and the destiny there is mighty to the extreme.”

“It’s mighty, alright,” Yang Qi said. “But the destiny is chaotic. Too chaotic. Using it for cultivation purposes isn’t going to be possible. It’s unmanageable.”

The truth was that, although the massive destiny was impressive, it contained numerous smaller flows of conflicting destiny that represented the constant conflict between the various competing dragons.

The destiny here was similar to ten lands from the House of the Invincible. But in terms of how much of it was usable, it was more like one or two lands. If Yang Qi could fully conquer it and use his sage monarch magistrates to govern it, he could theoretically increase the destiny output to rival that of thirty lands.

It all came down to the governing. It was similar to how untended farmland would end up choked with weeds, severely damaging the crops. But if the weeds were cleared out, that same piece of land could be extremely productive.

This Dragonfolk kingdom was fertile, but in desperate need of care.

“It's an amazing kingdom. The question is whether or not the Cruiser of Civilization can take it in.” Yang Qi wasn’t interested in making any rash decisions. “The cruiser is huge, and has plenty of resources, but that doesn’t mean it can handle something this immense.”

Having a huge slab of meat was great, but the method of eating it was important. Trying to stuff it down whole could lead to choking to death.

“What are you waiting for, Yang Qi?” the Second Devil General said eagerly. “Conquer this place!”

“Hold on!” Yang Qi replied. “Are you trying to beat the grass to startle the snake? Trying to tackle a kingdom this large is virtually suicide. We have to come up with a good plan. For instance, we can infiltrate it and find the emperor. Ambush him and use the God Legion Seal on him, then force him to do whatever I want.”

“That’s going to be a huge waste of time!” the Second Devil General snapped.

“We're doing all of this to help you get the Dragon Compendium, right? Let me ask you a question. Are the old-timers among the Dragonfolk unaware of the compendium? If I break the King of Godmammoths’ seal, it's going to cause a big uproar that will alert all of the old-timers. And if they all show up in the middle of it, what will our chances of success be? Or could it be that you're not really after the Dragon Compendium? Do you have some other motive that’s causing you to be in such a rush?”

“That's utter nonsense!” the Second Devil General blurted. Of course, the truth was that Yang Qi had hit the nail on his head. Quickly regaining his composure, the general put on a bored expression and said, “The Dragon Compendium is a huge secret. I’m just worried that word will leak somehow. You’re very cunning, boy. So fine. Let’s do it your way.”

‘He’s so worried I’ll “find out the truth” about the Third Devil General that he’s willing to do just about anything. I think I ought to take full advantage of this. And when I finally become a peak Paramount God, I’ll put him fully in his place. Although, I need to keep up the act until I achieve the breakthrough. After I have all the resources I need, I’ll do it in one shot and really shake things up.’