Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

In the impure lands, a nation couldn’t simply say that all the citizens were nobility. It would quickly go bankrupt, then be destroyed.

In the civilization of gods, ordaining someone as nobility involved tapping into the quintessence and destiny of the nation. Although it would give an immediate boost in strength, the harm to the destiny would be irreversible.

Without taking the ocean of faith from the Halls of Heaven, Yang Qi could never have done this. His empire’s destiny would have collapsed, which would mean that the individual strength of his citizens didn’t matter.

However, with the ocean of faith, not only did his destiny and net of law not suffer any damage, they actually expanded.

Faith and destiny could both be considered types of wealth. But while individuals couldn’t really use faith, nations could. Yang Qi had long since gained enlightenment of this point. With that ocean of faith pouring into his net of law, it was as if he was receiving the destiny of the ancient legion of gods, plus that of the Sovereign Lord.

Because of that, when his people were ordained, they didn’t have to deal with tribulations, bottlenecks, or any of the negative aspects to growing stronger quickly. And the people could accept the karma of the original living beings who had created it. People as a whole could accept the faith of other peoples. As a result, individuals could benefit.

The strength of the people rose, not just by a single level, but by many. In many instances, Quasi-Gods rose through the ranks, becoming Lesser Gods, Common Gods, or Greater Gods. And there were many Greater Gods who became Paramount Gods.

There were even numerous individuals becoming peak Paramount Gods.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi’s closest friends and family experienced boosts in cultivation base, with some of them reaching psychic scales of fifty billion.

Yang Qi could well be said to be taking all the wealth of the ancient Sovereign Lord.

Unfortunately, the Sovereign Lord’s kingdom had never contained destiny, as he had been too focused on faith. Sadly for him, faith came from the people, and belonged to the people.

Yang Qi was like a bandit who plundered a huge treasure trove, then redistributed the loot to the common people. The illicitly taken treasure was thus given back to those who it had been taken from.

As a result, everyone benefited. Everyone was ordained.

Everyone transcended.

This was Yang Qi’s ultimate trump card. Without it, he would never have started a war with the three dynasties. Although he had impressive destiny, he just didn’t have the population to stand up to them. But with this major upgrade, he could definitely break through their front lines.

Destiny surged, and mountain-crushing, sea-shattering force swelled out in all directions, causing everyone to get stronger, and as a result, making the spell formations many times stronger. In some cases, a hundred times stronger.

“Warriors of the empire,” Yang Qi howled, “YOU are the mightiest of all. You can seize victory and destroy the three dynasties!”

In the fierce fighting leading up to this point, many people had died, and as a result, the empire’s destiny had waned. But now, not only had it recovered, but it had reached a much higher level than before.

RUMBLE!

Everyone in the empire was at their ultimate personal peak.

“This is bad. Retreat! Everybody retreat!”

Proud Heaven knew that they couldn’t stand up to this enemy. This final trump card had been too crushing to their morale. Yang Qi was like an unbeatable fiend-devil, a domineering figure backed by an empire nobody could stop.

Right now, the only option left was to run. Return home and hope to find some way to turn the situation around.

After all, the army Proud Heaven had brought wasn’t made up of all the members of the Central Dynasty. Seventy percent of the citizens had remained at home to defend it. And obviously, the Sage Monarch Empire couldn’t take on that many people.

They might have an advantage right now, but facing numbers like that, they would be crushed.

Unfortunately, a full-scale retreat wasn’t really possible right now.

“High Priestess, hurry up and help,” Proud Heaven shouted. “We need time to escape!”

The enormous monument once again descended from the sky to block Yang Qi, but this time, it collapsed in only a few breaths of time.

However, that was all the time the three dynasties needed to stabilize their situation.

“I, the High Priestess, will protect ye peoples who are fleeing to your homes!” All of a sudden, immense power flowed out and encompassed the forces of the three dynasties.

Whooosh!

At the same time, numerous copies of the Deathless Monument fell, blocking Yang Qi and his armies.

“My Deathless Monument won’t hold out against them for long,” the High Priestess continued. “Ladies and gentlemen from the three dynasties, why don’t you temporarily allow me to be your leader? Then, I can wield your destiny. What do you say?”

Yang Chiliocosm and the Dugu patriarchs all knew that if something didn’t immediately happen to change the situation, they were going to die.

“We name you our leader, High Priestess!”

As soon as they agreed to the suggestion, the destinies of their dynasties shifted, gathering on the High Priestess.

Waving her hands, she sent the various projections of the Deathless Monument rumbling toward Yang Qi and his army.

“Get into formation!” Yang Qi shouted, and countless formations appeared. Then, the Tribulation Monarch Cannons were unleashed, slamming into the monuments. At that point, he caught a glimpse of the High Priestess’ true form. She wore a long priestess’ robe. She had facial features that seemed to come from an older time, and her hair was bound up with a long hairpin. She also had a dot of red on her forehead, and it looked like blood. In fact, it emanated a sound like that of a flowing river of blood, which was either righteous or evil. It was hard to say.

Furthermore, she emanated the energy of a half-Annulled expert!

It was a terrifying thought.

However, Yang Qi wasn’t afraid. What did he have to fear from the half-Annulled level? Not even someone like that could halt the progress of his empire. His destiny was powerful enough to force even the High Priestess into retreat.

Glaring viciously at Yang Qi, the High Priestess said, “Warriors of the three dynasties, I, the High Priestess, am now your leader. Hear my commands. Retreat immediately, but maintain order. Your homelands are there behind you, filled with countless citizens who support you. They are what make us strong. We have to stop fighting now, lest we be routed. We’re thousands of times more numerous than the people of the Sage Monarch Empire, so as long as we remain united, they can't do anything to us!”

Her words calmed the hearts of the people, and numerous spell formations popped up as people began calmly retreating.

“Do we chase them, Yang Qi?” Yang Susu said.

“No. It won’t do any good. We won today, but we also sustained heavy losses. That said, we made a name for ourselves, and solidified our destiny. With the addition of faith to the net of law, we’ll be fine. However, we need to sort out the details of the newly appointed nobility, and get more people to join us, replenishing our ranks. Fall back, everyone. Return to the empire.”

It wasn’t a complete victory, by any stretch of the imagination. And now that the three dynasties were returning home, it would be difficult to strike at them. Worse, they had the High Priestess on their side, a half-Annulled expert that surpassed the level of anyone currently in the god world.

She was like the King of Godmammoths, so Yang Qi was certain that if he pressed the attack in full force, he would still lose. But he was already pleased with the results of this battle. At least he had forced the three dynasties into retreat, and established his name in the god world.

“Do you think the High Priestess will help them recover?” Jadefall asked. “Maybe even form a new dynasty? If they truly become united, it's going to be difficult to stand up to them, considering their population.”

If nothing else, the battle had shown that the Sage Monarch Empire’s true weakness was its low population. They just couldn’t sustain heavy losses.

“What a pity,” Jadefall replied. “If only we could open the Ancient Road to the Gods and call everyone up from the lower worlds. Then we would really have a population explosion. And with that many Ascendants on our side, things would be different. Sadly, the Ancient Road to the Gods isn’t accessible. And it's going to be hard to grow our population just from the denizens of the god world. After all, the three dynasties still have big reputations, and now they even have the High Priestess.”

“Don't worry about it. I'm going to gain enlightenment of the half-Annulled level soon. And I'm already strong enough that I might be able to rebuild the Ancient Road to the Gods. Maybe I won’t be able to do it permanently, but I should be able to open a way to the lower worlds for at least a few hours. That should be enough. If we can do that, I can use the divine abilities of King Heaven-Devourer to quickly bring up a huge group of people from the lower worlds. Our empire’s population would increase dramatically, and our destiny would rise. For now, everyone needs to focus on stabilizing your strength and getting the empire back in order. I'm going to go up to the Halls of Heaven to take control of the entire place. I’ll also send every last bit of that ocean of faith into our net of law.”