Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

This dragon kingdom was essentially made of pure flesh, and was even more fertile than the kingdom of the Dragonswarm Society. The mountains of flesh and rivers of blood were far superior to the sea of blood. Yang Qi could also see that there were mines in the mountains, from which the dragons excavated spirit stones that were as pure red as blood. From sight alone, he could tell that they were roughly equivalent to perfect caliber godstone.

Any items crafted in this location would be so amazing they would make people gasp in astonishment. Furthermore, the mountains of flesh teemed with godtrees, godgrass, godflowers, and all sorts of medicinal ingredients.

Although this place didn’t have orderly destiny, as it was ruled by numerous opposing warlords, Yang Qi knew that if he conquered it, he would definitely reach a higher level of enlightenment, and increase his force of sage monarch magistrates to the level of five hundred thousand.

Also, the disunited state of the place would make it much easier to conquer. After all, dealing with squabbling warlords was a lot simpler than dealing with a single king.

This place was a juicy morsel that Yang Qi couldn’t help but start drooling over. In fact, he had to resist the urge to gobble it down right away. After all, after conquering the Dragonswarm Society’s kingdom, it had only taken a month for him to achieve cultivation benefits that would normally have taken thousands of years. Perhaps even ten thousand.

And adding them together wasn't going to provide a simple linear increase.

With those two kingdoms added to his Sage Monarch Empire, he would have destiny equivalent to over a hundred lands. And with that destiny, it would be much more likely that he could eventually reach the peak Paramount God level.

Unfortunately, he was now in the situation of having that juicy morsel placed right in front of him, only to find that he couldn’t take it. From the power thrumming in it, he could tell that it already belonged to the Central Dynasty. Clearly, the various warlords here had already sworn oaths to be feudal lords loyal to the Central Dynasty.

Buddha Shockheaven’s kingdom, that of the Dragonswarm Society, was now Yang Qi’s, but no one had any idea, as the destiny had always remained under the control of Buddha Shockheaven. If one bandit stole from another, no one would be the wiser.

But if Yang Qi tried to conquer this new kingdom, it would be like a bandit trying to steal from local authorities.

The Central Dynasty would know about it immediately, and it would definitely cause a fuss.

“We’re too late,” the Second Devil General said. “Ah, what a pity. This place has already acknowledged allegiance to the Central Dynasty. If we touch it, the Central Dynasty will chase us down until we’re dead, no matter where we run. They might not be willing to send their army here right now, but they’d definitely send some top experts to take care of the situation.”

Yang Qi snorted coldly. “What’s the problem, Second Devil General? Scared? Even you fear the Central Dynasty? I want this juicy morsel, and I'm going to get it. It's not a simple open-and-shut case. Do you really think I'm willing to let the Central Dynasty just go around marking out territory in the Myriad Dragons Lair?”

“You’ve got a lot of guts to talk to me like that, boy. I'm not scared! Are you kidding me? The Proud Clan with their Central Dynasty were important even in ancient times, and they clashed with the dao of devils on numerous occasions. And trust me, they never matched up to us. However, we were always preoccupied by waging war with the halls of heaven, so we never had a chance to put them in their place. That said, boy, you have to be careful when dealing with them. How come you usually sit around coming up with crafty plans, but now you’re planning to do something so impulsive?”

“Impulsive? You don’t understand.” He chuckled. “I'm going to divert the floodwaters to the east. In other words, I’ll subjugate Proud Mindtravel, then have him go back to the Central Dynasty and tell them that the House of the Chiliocosm or the House of the Invincible are opposing them here in the Myriad Dragons Lair. If I can get a fight going between them, we would obviously benefit from it. Furthermore, you're right. They won’t send an army in, just some individual experts. And not their top old-timers. And in that case, I’ll just subjugate them one after another.”

As long as Yang Qi didn’t have to deal with an army, he wasn’t worried. Armies could be backed by national destiny, but individual experts wouldn’t.

It was similar to how an individual expert might have a shot at killing Yang Qi if he was out on his own. But if he was in the House of the Invincible, it would be impossible, as he was officially appointed as a viceroy there.

Anyone who wanted to kill him in the sect would first have to deal with the net of law. And early on, not even the Second Devil General had dared to trifle with the net of law in the House of the Invincible, much less other random people.

“So, boy, your plots are as complicated as ever. What do we do next?” The Second Devil General was generally fine relying on Yang Qi’s plans, that way he didn’t have to do any thinking.

“We start by subjugating Proud Mindtravel. Then we use his help to unify this kingdom and harvest its destiny. The people from the Central Dynasty will assume Proud Mindtravel is taking it, which is probably par for the course in matters such as this. He’s helping expand the dynasty’s territory, and carving out areas for himself along the way. In any case, they won’t suspect it's actually the work of an outsider.”

“Sounds like a perfect plan,” the Second Devil General said. “Look, Proud Mindtravel is on his way out.”

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh...!

Three blurs exited the kingdom, then stopped to hover above it in the air.

“Exalted Mindtravel,” one of them said, “who could ever have guessed that this dragon kingdom would be so easy to take over. Buddha Shockheaven really doesn’t know how to accept favors. But why don’t you take some time to put this place in order? The destiny Dragonfolk can provide is amazing. If you consolidate it, and simply refrain from telling the Central Dynasty about this place, you could push your cultivation base to a higher level. With this destiny, you could gain tens of thousands of years’ worth of cultivation, just like that.”

“I considered that. But this kingdom is leaderless, and breaking up the various interest groups wouldn't be easy. The destiny wouldn’t be worth all the effort. Besides, without the name of the Central Dynasty backing me up, nobody here would follow my orders. It's a juicy morsel, but not one that can be swallowed easily. So I'm not going to try. Besides, this will count as a big service to the dynasty. Once I’ve returned and reported this, I’ll be rewarded handsomely.

“Is that so, Proud Mindtravel?”

Yang Qi suddenly appeared right in front of him, flanked by Buddha Shockheaven.

Back when Yang Qi had first laid eyes on Proud Mindtravel, he knew he was too powerful to subjugate. But after bringing order to Buddha Shockheaven’s kingdom, and receiving a huge boost in destiny, his cultivation base had advanced. He could assimilate the Everlit Godlamp with greater ease, and his psychic scale was getting closer and closer to a breakthrough.

Coupled with the fact that he had Buddha Shockheaven on his side, he was now in a position to deal with Proud Mindtravel.

Even better, he still had the Second Devil General as well.

“Who are you?” Proud Mindtravel reacted first with surprise, then with vigilance. He could see that Yang Qi was only a late Paramount God, someone he should be able to kill with the snap of a finger. However, he didn’t react with arrogant confidence. He knew that such a weak person wouldn't dare to block his way unless he had a very good reason.

In the impure lands, there were a lot of people who were suicidally reckless. But in the god world, people like that were much rarer. Gods had to gain enlightenment of the dao of heaven, understand the rotation of the cosmos, and have deep control over magical laws. So how could such people blindly throw themselves into deadly situations?

“Me?” Yang Qi said with a smile. “I'm a friend of the Central Dynasty. And I know you’re from the Central Dynasty, so I wanted to ask if you have any information about a friend of mine. He's an Ascendant named Proud Heaven. Ring a bell?”

“Proud Heaven?” Proud Mindtravel’s expression flickered. “Who exactly are you? And why are you asking about Proud Heaven? What makes you think you can go around doing that?”

“Why couldn’t I? Proud Heaven and I were close friends back in the impure lands, and on our journeys on the Ancient Road to the Gods. He even gave me an identification token so that I could prove that. He said that after we reached the god world, I should go to the Central Dynasty to find him. Well, I'm a late Paramount God now, and I'm almost about to break through to the peak level. So it seems like the perfect time to go looking for my old friend.”

Proud Mindtravel was already falling for Yang Qi’s casual fabrications. “What? You’re an Ascendant? What are you doing here in the Myriad Dragons Lair? Of course I know Proud Heaven. But he’s not a person you qualify to have dealings with. In fact, it's not even permitted to speak his true name aloud. That’s considered blasphemy! Understand? What’s this token of identification you mentioned? Let me see it.”

“It’s a seed, that’s all,” Yang Qi said. “It's not very important. But I can’t just give it to you. Proud Heaven said that it comes from the Great Necropolis. I can only hand it to him personally. And that’s why I want you to take me to the Central Dynasty to see him.”

“What? The Great Necropolis? You know about the Great Necropolis?” Proud Mindtravel was quickly losing his composure.

Swish!

All of a sudden, a devil hand shot out of nowhere and latched onto Proud Mindtravel’s neck. It was the Second Devil General.

Someone like the Second Devil General launching a sneak attack on Proud Mindtravel would normally be like an emperor starting a fistfight with a street thug. It just wouldn't be considered appropriate. But the Second Devil General was from the dao of devils, and didn’t care about such conventions.

All it took was for Yang Qi to distract Proud Mindtravel, and he made his move.

“Are you looking to get killed!?”

The two experts flanking Proud Mindtravel were both peak Paramount Gods with psychic scales of over a billion. And they reacted quickly.

However, Yang Qi and Buddha Shockheaven leaped into motion, each unleashing a finger attack that was impossible to evade.