Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

‘What the fuck! This Second Devil General really does want to steal the fruit of other people’s labor. There’s no way I’m going to give him any of this destiny.’ It was obvious that the general was drooling over the destiny of the dragon kingdom.

In the past month, Yang Qi had purged the Sage Monarch Dragon Kingdom of all private interest groups and unified the hearts of the people. Thanks to the major reform, destiny had converged, and although it couldn’t completely match the pure destiny of the Sage Monarch Empire in the Cruiser of Civilization, it was still profoundly abundant.

After all, destiny as pure as that of the Sage Monarch Empire wasn't something that could come about in a short moment.

Perhaps he could throw the dragon kingdom into the Cruiser of Civilization and torment it with karmic retribution for a thousand years. Then its destiny could be forcibly purified, and be much more than the level of forty lands.

But he wouldn't do that.

There was also no way he would give any of the destiny to the Second Devil General. This was his destiny from his kingdom, and forcibly giving it away would be harmful. As was said, when a nation is about to perish, villains will always arise.

It was a simple truth. If a nation’s destiny was about to dissipate, it would obviously be in a weak state, allowing baleful energy to seep into the country. As a result, all sorts of ambitious and ruthless individuals would rise up, revolt against authority, and sow chaos.

In a similar vein, it was said that turbulent times call for great heroes.

For instance, back in the impure lands, the Rich-Lush Continent had abounded with the baleful energy of heaven and earth. If it hadn’t, then how could a nobody like Yang Qi rise up and eventually take over the place?

If the Second Devil General suddenly took away half of the national destiny, the country would become weak, baleful energy would enter it, and ruthless villains would rise up. Perhaps Yang Qi could suppress them, but it would damage the vital energy of the nation in the process.

What good would it do to kill a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of his own troops in the process?

“I might have successfully established this Sage Monarch Dragon Kingdom, Second Devil General, but things aren’t stable. If we both tap into the destiny, it's going to damage it significantly. Why don’t I foster some more growth first? Wait until the destiny has reached its true potential, then we can conquer all the other dragon kingdoms and get access to some truly amazing destiny.”

“You’re going back on your word, boy!” the Second Devil General shouted angrily. “How dare you! We had an agreement. I help you conquer this dragon kingdom, and we split the destiny fifty-fifty. What, you think that I’d just help you take down Buddha Shockheaven and you reap all the rewards?!”

“You’re looking at it the wrong way, Second Devil General. Look at all the destiny out there in the Myriad Dragons Lair. Do you know how many top experts were slaughtered in ancient times, their flesh and blood quintessence sacrificed to create this place? And do you know how much baleful energy resulted because of that? If we split the destiny right now, it's going to severely damage the foundation of the nation. Furthermore, the destiny I'm taking is just going to make more of my sage monarch magistrates, which I can use to govern these lands and establish an even more orderly nation. And what exactly are you contributing? You just want to take the destiny and harm everything. Think about it. What would be better for a vampire? To suck a pig dry of blood? Or raise more pigs? Simply put, Second Devil General, now is not the time to be splitting up the destiny.”

“So you’re saying you really are going back on your word?” the Second Devil General growled, his killing intent roiling in a way that made it obvious he was about to take action.

“It’s not going back on my word. It's building a strong national foundation. Things haven’t been established yet, so why would we possibly go about damaging things? Also, second Devil General, don't forget that when you get access to the destiny, you have to give a lot of it back to the nation. It's sort of like farming. After the harvest, you still have to fertilize the farmland. Or did you have some other way to increase destiny? After all, this is our mutual property here, and I don't want to see you do anything self-destructive.”

“Er....” The Second Devil General thought about it, but in the dao of devils, there wasn’t much emphasis on order. People just took what they wanted and never offered reciprocation. There was no virtuous cycle that could lead to an increase in destiny, thus, the concept was quite foreign to him.

Yang Qi was actually telling the truth in this regard.

“We worked really hard to establish this kingdom, so we don’t want to do anything to harm it,” Yang Qi continued. “Think about it, Second Devil General. If we do things my way, we can continue expanding and slowly conquer all the other dragon kingdoms. Eventually, all of the Dragonfolk in the Myriad Dragons Lair will be under our control, and we’ll control an immense empire! Although we won’t be invincible, we’ll at least be in the position to stand up to the Invincible, Central, and Chiliocosm Dynasties. We don’t want to mess things up now. We want to expand! What we’ve experienced so far is only a minor achievement. How could you not have surpassed the basic weakness of the dao of devils already? Don’t you realize why you devils were ultimately defeated? Why you could never conquer everything under heaven? It's because of your natural weaknesses. The power of construction surpasses the power of destruction, and the power of order surpasses the power of chaos. It’s a fundamental truth.”

“You're very glib, aren't you, boy?” the Second Devil General said, but his tone had already softened.

After all, he knew it was just as Yang Qi had said. If creating a huge empire was as simple as conquering other dragon kingdoms, the Dragonfolk themselves would have done it long ago.

But Dragonfolk could never accept a true leader, and were always fighting amongst each other, reducing the destiny. Yet, even with the Dragonfolk in that state, the Central Dynasty didn’t seem eager to try to invade them militarily, but rather wanted them to accept some sort of agreement.

If Yang Qi could do as he said he would do, the destiny would increase by hundreds of times over, and they really could stand against the Central, Chiliocosm, and Invincible Dynasties. And that would be a truly good time to steal the fruit of other people’s labor.

Right now, the “immortal peaches” up for grabs were more like seeds. But in the future, they would be full grown peaches. [1]

At the moment, Yang Qi was planning many moves ahead.

“Another thing, Second Devil General. Take a look at what this destiny is doing to my cultivation base. Do you see? It's not doing anything. I'm using it to make more of my sage monarch magistrates, to replace the Dragonfolk as administrators of the kingdom. You see, the destiny of the Sage Monarch Dragon Kingdom is really being used to increase production capacity, nothing more.”

“But the sage monarch magistrates all belong to you,” the Second Devil General replied. “The more of them you have, the stronger you are.”

“There’s nothing I can do about that. And in the end, I'm the one doing all the hard work. As you can clearly see, the more sage monarch magistrates there are, the better the destiny of this kingdom. And the purer. If you start taking destiny now, it’ll change everything. Let me ask you this, Second Devil General. Would it be possible for you, using your power alone, to take over the entire Myriad Dragons Lair? That’s the goal we’re working toward, and that’s when we will split everything fairly. Why mess things up now?”

“Fine, boy,” the general spat angrily. “I’ll do it your way this time.”

Inside, he thought, ‘Just wait until I get you to unravel the sealing mark on the Dragon Compendium. When the psychic seal from the King of Godmammoths enters you, you’ll be thrown into complete chaos. After all, the King of Godmammoths will be attempting to be born again using your body. While you’re fighting him, the Third Devil General and I can work together to take complete control of the Myriad Dragons Lair. Of course, it would be a pity to kill you, so I’ll just turn you into a thrall and have you manage my empire and feed me destiny.’

The general had originally planned to devour Yang Qi, but after seeing how he could keep order so well, he decided to spare him.

“Let’s go,” Yang Qi said. “We need to find that Proud Mindtravel. He’s likely visiting other dragon kingdoms to recruit them. If we can subjugate him, those kingdoms will fall to us much easier. And you’re coming with us, Buddha Shockheaven.”

Buddha Shockheaven had a psychic scale of two or three billion, so having him around to follow orders was like Yang Qi becoming twice as strong!

If he could add Proud Mindtravel and his two companions as well, he would be in a much better position to deal with the Second Devil General.

Swish!

With that, the three of them flew off. The Second Devil General snapped his finger to use a tracing magic from the dao of devils, allowing them to follow the aura of Proud Mindtravel deeper into the Myriad Dragons Lair.

After a few hours of travel, the general said, “They’re just up ahead. There’s another dragon kingdom there.”

Yang Qi caught sight of it instantly. It wasn’t built in a sea of blood, but rather atop an enormous mountain range. And all of the towering mountains were made of flesh! Buildings covered the endless peaks, and rivers of blood flowed between the mountains.

This mighty kingdom was definitely no weaker than the Dragonswarm Society.

In fact, it might even be a bit stronger.

Yang Qi could see that the destiny was incredibly powerful, but at the same time, chaotic and violent. In fact, in that regard, it was actually worse than the Dragonswarm Society, which meant that the destiny would initially be less useful to Yang Qi.

Proud Mindtravel was in the middle of that kingdom, negotiating with the king and his advisors. As Yang Qi and the Second Devil General looked on, they realized that the mighty destiny of the place was connected to another powerful energy of some sort.

“Crap!” Yang Qi said, shaken. “That’s the destiny of the Central Dynasty. This dragon kingdom has already accepted Proud Mindtravel’s offer of recruitment! If we conquer this place, the Central Dynasty will know about it immediately. What are we supposed to do now?”

1. Immortal peaches are an important part of Chinese mythology, as I’m sure many of you are aware. More info here.