Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

As Yang Qi and Princess Jadefall worked together to push their energy arts to new heights, all sorts of things were happening in the imperial court.

Of course, Yang Qi had earned a lot of clout by humiliating the Director of Internal Affairs, defeating the imperial guard, and publicly standing up to the crown prince.

Now everyone knew that his cultivation base was so strong that he could devastate multiple ninth stage Dao-Demolishers. That was the highest cultivation level in the Titan Emperor Heaven, and in many other immortal worlds as well. Such people were called sovereigns of heaven, and they qualified to lead entire immortal worlds.

As for Princess Jadefall, the fact that she had such a powerful right-hand man went to improve her own reputation. And now many people were speculating that after Emperor Titan ascended, the Eminent Princess Jadefall would become the new ruler of the place.

It didn't matter that the emperor had already named a crown prince. Obviously, that crown prince was now in a very tenuous position.

There were now two major forces within the court to consider.

Even more worrisome to many was the fact that no punishment had been inflicted on Yang Qi. Many of the more conniving factions in the imperial city were wondering if perhaps the court was thinking of disposing with the crown prince and naming Eminent Princess Jadefall the crown princess.

Titan Duelbringer was hard at work recruiting new henchmen and expanding his society to new levels of power and influence.

As for Yang Qi, he was doing his best to strengthen Princess Jadefall’s forces. It helped that he had plenty of wealth at hand, which he had long since handed over to Titan Duelbringer to manage. All in all, recruitment was going marvelously.

One day, the sound of tolling bells could be heard in the imperial city as the monthly session of the imperial court was called.

Whenever court was held, all of the countless civil and military officials would come for a huge meeting. This time, the bells tolled nine times in a row, indicating that there was something special about this particular session.

Officials of all sorts were streaming into the imperial palace, and naturally that included Yang Qi and Princess Jadefall.

The mood was somber and there were soldiers on guard everywhere, including giants in mechas, armed to the teeth and standing there on full alert. Considering their auras, they seemed like killers who had slaughtered entire battlefields full of enemies and had climbed mountains of corpses and swam through seas of blood to reach their current level.

“Those are the Slaughterplexus Godguards,” Princess Jadefall said to Yang Qi, visibly surprised. “They’re the most elite troops at the command of the emperor, all of them fiendish killers. You don't see them very often, which makes me wonder what exactly is going on here today.”

“I wonder if something unusual is going to happen,” Yang Qi said. “It's been a month since I was named grand prince and you were appointed as the eminent princess. Shortly after that, I humiliated the Director of Internal Affairs and the court didn't say a single thing. Now they have all this special setup in place. It seems fishy. We need to be careful.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it. You’re a Space-Demolisher now, right? You can even defeat Dao-Demolishers like me. And you also have armies of fiend-devils at your command, enough to take down this entire immortal world. With all of that, what do you have to be afraid of?”

“I'm not afraid,” Yang Qi replied. “But that doesn’t mean I want to resort to using my armies. Maybe I'm strong enough to defeat everyone here, but I'm not strong enough to truly control the entire Titan Emperor Heaven. Besides, if I overthrew the dynasty, the result would be absolute chaos and there are plenty of other immortal worlds out there who would take advantage of the situation. If I did all the hard work and someone just came and took the prize away from me, what would be the point? Right now, the best thing to do is to maintain the balance.”

“So, you really do want to take over this place eventually?” Princess Jadefall said.

“Of course. The resources here are vital for the growth of my people in the lower world. That said, if you want this place then I'm sure we can come to an agreement. After all, there are plenty of immortal worlds. Once I'm a bit higher in my cultivation, I’ll go destroy the Hanging Heaven, the Megaplexus Heaven, and so on.”

“I'm fine. If you want this immortal world, you can have it. Ever since I awakened my powers as a Reincarnated One, I'm less interested in political power. I just want to break through the fetters separating me from the Godmyth level. I need to demolish my dao heart. Everything else is irrelevant to me now. Even if you handed me this immortal world, I wouldn’t care.”

“We’re almost at court.”

Upon arrival, they saw countless officials taking their places. Considering Yang Qi’s rank of grand prince, he had a place toward the front. Matters of rank were strictly adhered to in the imperial house.

Princess Jadefall stood directly next to the emperor, in an equal position as the crown prince.

The crown prince was as expressionless as ever and didn’t even look at Yang Qi. In another part of the hall was Proud Warpatience, flanked by other henchmen of Proud Heaven, a mix of grand princes and important ministers, who were looking at Yang Qi with mocking smiles.

‘Hmm,’ Yang Qi thought. From the looks on their faces, it seemed they thought that something bad was going to happen to him during this session of court.

‘Something’s off here. Aren’t they afraid of me fighting back if they punish me?’ It didn't seem likely that the emperor would be so foolish as to do something like that, especially considering that he was allied with Princess Jadefall.

Yet there didn’t seem to be any explanation for the mocking smiles other than them anticipating him falling to some disaster.

Feeling more than a little suspicious, he drew on his Wheel of Fate to try to divine what danger he might be in. However, that was when a beam of dazzling light descended and imperial might filled the entire hall.

The emperor had arrived.

Everyone dropped to their knees to kowtow, and joined voices in saying, “Our respects, Your Imperial Majesty!” [1]

“Rise,” the emperor said, and all of the civil and military officials complied. “This session of court is very special. Just recently, we received a message from the Brahman Society, the strongest faction within the Thirty-Six Thousand Immortal Worlds Coalition. They will be sending an emissary here today for an inspection, although for what specific reason I'm not sure. That said, the Brahman Society made it clear that we should support their emissary in every way possible. Now, activate the teleportation portal!”

RUUUUUUMBLE!

All of a sudden, an enormous teleportation portal opened in the middle of the hall. Immense power erupted out, a tempest of energy from beyond the heavens. Everyone trembled as they sensed something like a wretch-god of evil stepping out of the portal, ready to bring destruction to all mankind.

The officials trembled in fear. After all, the mere mention of the Brahman Society was like a lightning bolt to their hearts.

They were the largest society in the entire Thirty-Six Thousand Immortal Worlds Coalition, and essentially controlled the entire alliance. Compared to the Brahman Society, the Titan Emperor Heaven was nothing.

In fact, for years, the Brahman Society had completely ignored the Titan Emperor Heaven and had never sent a single emissary there for any reason. Therefore, everyone was wondering why exactly this emissary had come.

Whoever this person was, they were obviously a top expert and some sort of fiendish killer. The wretch-god aura they emanated actually resembled that of a Godmyth.

‘Don’t tell me they sent a Godmyth,’ Yang Qi thought, his heart starting to pound a bit. ‘No, it doesn’t seem so. More like a half-Godmyth. Even so, this is no one to take lightly.’

Crunch. Creak.

As the immense aura radiated out of the teleportation portal, a host of shadowy figures appeared, led by a tall man in an inky-black robe embroidered with suns, moons, and planes of existence. He strode out with the dignified manner of an emperor, looking down his nose at everyone present.

As was proper in this situation, the emperor rose from his throne, clasped his hands, and loudly said, “Emissaries, your presence brings light to the humble Titan Emperor Heaven. Welcome!”

“Forget the pleasantries,” the emissary said harshly. “The Titan Emperor Heaven might be the dregs of the thirty-six thousand immortal planes of existence that make up our alliance, but you’re still a member. I've been sent here by the leaders of the Brahman Society to investigate a certain matter, which is the only reason I would ever come to a remote place like this.”

Of course, the officials weren’t exactly pleased by his words. They were important leaders in an immortal world and oversaw millions upon millions of immortals. But as the saying goes, there is always a heaven beyond heaven, and there are always people more important than you. In the presence of this important figure from the Brahman Society, they felt like country bumpkins, or at best, nouveau riche farmers.

In the end, when you stand under low eaves, you have no choice but to bow your head.

Throughout history, there had been many situations in which the Brahman Society executed an entire imperial court of some immortal world and established a new court. Considering how weak the Titan Emperor Heaven was, there was no way they would do anything to defy the Brahman Society.

“Whatever the Brahman Society wishes to investigate, please just say the word,” the emperor said. “We’ve gathered all of the imperial court’s officials here today. Whatever it is you want to know, I'm sure we can get to the bottom of it.”

“It’s nothing particularly important. Recently, large amounts of power stones have been coming out of the Titan Emperor Heaven.” The emissary extended his hand and a violet power stone appeared on his palm, the size and shape of a coin. “This type of stone comes from a high-level immortal world, the Tusita Heaven. And it's done severe damage to the brahmanint. Nowadays, the Mechfolk aren’t even accepting brahmanints for the purchase of mechas. I'm here to investigate. I want to know who exactly has been devaluating the brahmanint! Whoever it is, they’ll be punished to the full extent of the law!”

1. This session of court is supposed to be like when court was held in ancient China, in which everyone stood in the presence of the emperor. See a picture here (original picture is from a museum model obviously).