Proud Heaven had risen to power, but his attack on the Invincible Dynasty had been thwarted by the rise of the Demonfolk Empire. The news spread like wildfire throughout the god world, and before long, everyone knew the current situation.
A tripartite balance of power had arisen again.
Before, that balance of power had been provided by the Invincible, Central, and Chiliocosm Dynasties. Yang Qi had then risen with deadly force, establishing the Sage Monarch Empire, vanquishing the triple alliance, and assimilating the Halls of Heaven.
But the Demon Master and the King of Godmammoths were back, having founded the Demonfolk Empire, which was filled with Demonfolk old-timers and demon-devil wretch-gods.
The Demon Master was the most honored teacher among the Demonfolk, while the King of Godmammoths had specialized in crushing the horde of devils in hell. It was a given that they would be able to keep the demons and devils in line to form their empire.
However, how would they fare in terms of management and governance?
Yang Qi and his experts could see that, deep in the multiverse of the god world, a greyspace had been erected with immense destiny. However, the destiny was hazy and scattered, which was very strange.
That said, within the haze, Yang Qi could see glimpses of golden light that reflected the newly established order.
“Lord’s Eye!”
Adjusting his vision, he was able to see numerous golden giants wielding immense power, traveling within the greyspace to subjugate the wretch-devils.
‘What? Why do those thralls look so similar to my sage monarch magistrates?’
Apparently, the King of Godmammoths had succeeded after years of seeking enlightenment, and with the help of the Demon Master, had created something similar to Yang Qi’s sage monarch magistrates. In other words, they had expert government officials.
No wonder the hazy destiny was slowly taking an orderly shape and gradually becoming clearer.
Before, the Demonfolk Empire’s destiny had been like a lightning bolt in the clouds. But as time progressed, it was becoming more like human destiny.
‘Impressive,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘The Demon Master and the King of Godmammoths are nothing short of geniuses. It’s not an easy thing to gain enlightenment of the sage monarch magistrates. That said, my version was made by the combination of the God Legion Seal, the Mahātmā Jade, the Cruiser of Civilization, and even bits of the Great Necropolis. There’s nothing in the god world that can compare to them. Furthermore, as the sage monarch magistrates work, they gain valuable experience. In fact, their debates with the confucians made them vastly more skilled and effective. My dao and my civilization are things the Demon Master and the King of Godmammoths can’t possibly comprehend.”
Yang Qi shook his head.
“What are we going to do, Yang Qi?” Jadefall asked. “The balance of power in the god world has been disrupted again. And if the Demon Master and the King of Godmammoths bring their empire against us, how will we defend against Proud Heaven?”
“That’s right,” Yang Susu added. “What if they work together to try to destroy us?”
“Don’t worry about it. There’s no way Proud Heaven will work with them. If he did, his empire would be infected by demon energy. He leads an orthodox organization, so working with wretch-devils would cause too many problems. At most, he could cooperate with them in small matters. Besides, the fact that the Demonfolk Empire is being so aggressive is going to ensure that nobody does anything rash. And they know that if we were to assimilate Proud Heaven’s empire into our own, it would be very bad for them. That’s why they made their move when they did. They wanted to do it before we started fighting Proud Heaven’s empire. Although we both would’ve suffered casualties, whichever one devoured the other would then have been completely capable of devastating the Demonfolk Empire.”
“Besides, this is actually going to create an opportunity for us.”
“What opportunity?” asked a few people present.
“To sow discord between the High Priestess and Proud Heaven. Think about it. Proud Heaven got the approval of the essence of the god world to become the emperor. But what about the High Priestess? She’s not the type to willingly submit. She’s definitely not happy, and it’s only going to be a matter of time before she has to vent her fury. Now that her old partner the King of Godmammoths has shown up, she’ll definitely try getting him to join her in taking down Proud Heaven. She doesn’t care at all who’s human and who isn’t. She’d be perfectly content to have the Demonfolk running the god world, as long as she benefits in the process. So let’s see how things go between the King of Godmammoths and the other two. For now, let’s lock everything down and just focus on getting stronger.”
“Lock down the empire?” Yang Susu said, visibly surprised. “You mean we’re really not going to rid the world of devils and demons?”
“The way to rid the world of devils and demons is to provoke the King of Godmammoths and the Demon Master. Right now, let’s keep growing stably. That’s the smartest move. Our Ascendants are getting stronger and stronger, and when the time is right, we’ll be able to unleash immense fighting prowess. I’d say we’ll be ready in only a few years. And I need to take this chance to step into the half-Annulled level. Once I do that, I can finally rescue my Master, the Invincible Dugu.”
The Sage Monarch Empire was the weakest of the three powers, particularly because they had no half-Annulled expert defending it. If it wasn’t for their spectacular destiny, they would already have been wiped out.
In other words, they absolutely had to get a half-Annulled expert as quickly as possible.
Everyone in the empire was heading in the direction of becoming a sage or mahātmā. But even sages and mahātmās had weaknesses.
“Yang Qi,” Sword Seventeen said, “we have to produce a half-Annulled expert. The Deathless Heaven Dynasty has Proud Heaven and the High Priestess. The Demonfolk Empire has the King of Godmammoths and the Demonfolk Empire. If you can become half-Annulled, and bring back our Master, the Invincible Dugu, we won’t have to be afraid of anyone.”
By now, Sword Seventeen had a psychic scale of a hundred billion. Although he didn’t have an official position in the Sage Monarch Empire, he did teach the dao of the sword in many of the colleges there. And he was very influential. As such, he had a lot of destiny.
Yang Qi had imparted to him the combined daos of the sword from the Lord of the Sword Dao, Star Swordlife, and King Life-Killer. Sword Seventeen had then used those to perfect his own dao of the sword, which was extremely formidable.
“Yang Qi,” Jadefall said, “there are old-timers popping up all over the place. Most of them have been in hiding since ancient times, and they’re obviously itching to get stronger. We have to make sure we’re prepared.”
“This is good,” Yang Qi said with a cold smile. “As I suspected, there are quite a few half-Annulled experts from ancient times who never actually died. For all we know, the Sovereign Lord might be hiding out there somewhere, just waiting to jump out and try to possess me.” Although Yang Qi was smiling, everyone else felt their hair standing on end. However, as they considered it, it made sense. It wasn’t as if the Sovereign Lord was someone who could be easily killed.
“When do you think you’ll reach the half-Annulled level, Yang Qi?” asked one of his sword brothers from the impure lands.
Yang Qi had become sworn siblings with quite a few people on the Rich-Lush Continent, and they had stood with him against the Crown Prince. There was nothing that could possibly erase that friendship.
Few of those sworn siblings were very important in the Sage Monarch Empire. Despite that, Yang Qi had helped them all with their cultivation, not even sparing his own destiny to help them. He couldn’t give them an unfair share of destiny from the empire, so it had to be his own.
Not even the emperor could break the rules in Yang Qi’s empire. That was the only way to maintain true order.
“I think I’m going to seek some help from some of those old-timers,” Yang Qi said with a chuckle. “When it comes to half-Annulled experts, I know about the Sovereign Lord, King Heaven-Devourer, the True Devil, Wretch-God Ultimate, the Demon Master, the King Immortal-Slayer, and the High Priestess. King Immortal-Slayer has been devoured, although a bit of him remains behind that not even Proud Heaven knows about. The Sovereign Lord, the True Devil, and Wretch-God Ultimate haven’t shown their faces. Of those three, I need to track down at least one to devour and boost my cultivation base.”
“Which one are you going to target?” Jadefall asked. “Do you have any clues about where they are?”
“I do. I’m going to take advantage of this temporary lull to track down and devour… Wretch-God Ultimate! During my sessions of secluded cultivation, I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s resting in preparation to make a big move. But now that the empire is locked down, nobody will be coming in or out, so I’m free to make a move!”
With a whoosh, he vanished using the Myriad Worlds Greater Teleportation. A short while later, he was in the location where Wretch-God Ultimate had supposedly perished.
It was said that he had fallen in the vicinity of empires such as the Nacrelight Sageland, Eternal-Life God-Dynasty, League of Academies and League of the Devil-Dao. Of course, they weren’t really empires. They couldn’t even compare to the Deva Dynasty, much less the Sage Monarch Empire. They were like specks of dust compared to planets.
Back then, they had been bustling places, but now they were empty and filled with devil energy. After all, he had taken all of their members into the Sage Monarch Empire, and the devils among them had been genetically modified to become sages.
This was also the location where Yang Qi had picked up Wretch-God Ultimate’s consummate ability, the Wretched Brain God Art.
