Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi had pulled everything off as planned, and acquired a huge windfall. He was now in a position to be a truly powerful person in the god world.

People who didn’t have their own kingdoms or empires couldn’t be considered potentates of the god world. After all, such potentates required immense destiny.

Yang Qi didn’t have the billions of years it would take to build up an organization from scratch. Therefore, he had to steal the fruit of others’ labor. His most recent efforts had netted him more pieces of the Mahātmā Jade, the Myriad Dragons Lair, the Chiliocosm Pagoda, the head of King Heaven-Devourer, and the blood of the King of Godmammoths. The only thing he had failed to do was subjugate Dugu Yunkong. Everything else had succeeded wildly.

That aspect was a true pity. It was a blemish in an otherwise perfect thing, like a slight flaw in white jade.

That being said, Yang Qi wasn't worried too much about losing Dugu Yunkong. Right now, his first priority was to conquer all of the Dragonfolk, and make sure the destiny of the Sage Monarch Dragon Kingdom burned like the sun.

Without getting his internal affairs in order, how could he possibly lead the kingdom to glory on the outside?

His second priority was to bring more humans in to populate the Myriad Dragons Lair. The dragon kingdoms weren’t sufficient. Therefore, he planned to reconstruct the lair in a large way, making it a free and independent world. That would make it far more formidable.

Few people would dare to even attempt such a thing, but Yang Qi was different.

He had a plan.

The Myriad Dragons Lair was similar in many ways to the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. Unfortunately, it wasn’t big enough to support a colossal organization like the House of the Invincible. But it could serve as a foundation to stockpile resources.

The first step in reconstructing it was to draw upon the power of the Halls of Heaven, then pour it into the essence of the lair and use it to expand it, and also alter its fundamental structure.

Right now, any non-Dragonfolk who was under the Paramount God level couldn’t even enter the place safely without being dragonized. That was what made it unsuitable for humans; or any other beings for that matter. Only by making it safe for all kinds of people could it be considered a grand and unified nation.

Yang Qi wanted it to be a place for everyone, irrespective of their background.

“Rise, Third Devil General. True, I’ve subjugated you. But I haven’t harmed you in any way. And considering the level of your cultivation base, there’s no need for you to grovel. As you may have guessed, I'm a Fateless One, who came to exist out of nothing. And I'm foreordained to become like the Sovereign Lord. Neither you, nor the Second Devil General, will suffer due to serving me. You’ll only benefit in the long run. For now, I want the three of you to go out into the Myriad Dragons Lair and get in contact with the Dragonfolk old-timers and leaders. Get them to acknowledge allegiance to me. Given how strong you three are, you should be able to do that. In the meantime, I’m going to start reconstructing the lair, transforming its dao of heaven and altering its magical laws.”

WHOOSH!

Already, the destiny of the Sage Monarch Dragon Kingdom was becoming purer and stronger, causing intense rumbling sounds to fill it. And at the same time, it surged with an aura that represented justice, righteousness, order, and law.

After all, its leader, Yang Qi, now had the Dragon Compendium, which made him the orthodox ruler of the Myriad Dragons Lair. However, it wasn’t a case of true orthodoxy in the general sense. Only the Central Dynasty was truly orthodox.

“Third Devil General, Yang Jian, let’s go,” said the Second Devil General. “We're going to pay a visit to the Dragonfolk old-timers!” The Second Devil General was already in line with Yang Qi’s will, and would do whatever he asked.

In the depths of the Myriad Dragons Lair, there were old-timers who had cultivation bases of ten billion or more. They weren’t to be looked down on, and absolutely had to be subjugated before Yang Qi could truly unify the place. Otherwise, fighting would eventually break out, leading to immense casualties that would severely harm the destiny.

“Before you leave, I’ll bless you with the essence of the Myriad Dragons Lair. You’ll be able to travel anywhere in this place without being affected by any of the spell formations. Now go and help me cleanse this place.”

His gaze had long since pierced into the depths of the lair, and he knew that many of the powerful old-timers had gathered together in defense, setting up spell formations to help. But since Yang Qi controlled the essence of the Myriad Dragons Lair, he could obviously deal with such spell formations.

Those formations were like tumors that would need to be excised eventually. And any of the old-timers who refused to give in also needed to be crushed.

Yang Qi even saw some old-timers holding secret meetings and trying to come up with plans to break out of the lair.

Sadly for them, the lair was now like the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. It existed in a state of Nevasaññānāsaññāyatana, which meant that escaping it was impossible. Only someone with a cultivation base like King Immortal-Slayer, a half Annulled expert, could stand a chance. And none of the old-timers were that strong. If they were, they would have already taken the King of Godmammoths’ sealing mark, established a larger kingdom, and waged war on the Central Dynasty.

Having blessed Yang Jian and the Second and Third Devil Generals with the essence power of the lair, they were equipped with a powerful weapon that would let them decapitate enemies first, and report the matter later. There was no way the old-timers in the lair could stand up to these three. And that was even more so, considering the Third Devil General was an actual dragon.

It was true that each generation will produce talented individuals; their dissertations will be passed down for centuries, but right now, there were simply no dragons who could match up to the Third Devil General.

“Do we start expanding now, Yang Qi?” asked Jadefall. “Do we start conquering more dragon kingdoms? Now that you have the Dragon Compendium, there’s no way we’ll meet defeat. We should be able to expand much more rapidly. Once this place is united, the destiny convergence will be incredible.”

“There’s no rush. Although I have the Dragon Compendium, I still have lots of reconstruction work to do. Going around fighting and killing will only damage the destiny of the Dragonfolk right now. I just sent the Second and Third Devil Generals out with Yang Jian to start spreading word about the Sage Monarch Dragon Kingdom. Soon, everyone here will know that I'm the rightful ruler, and hopefully we’ll be able to start taking over the dragon kingdoms without having to wage war.”

“What if they attack us in the hopes of getting the Dragon Compendium?” Yang Immortal-Slayer asked.

“That won’t happen,” Jadefall said. “With the compendium in hand, we control the various natural laws of the Myriad Dragons Lair. There’s no way anyone could launch a full-scale assault on us. Doing it this way is perfect. The Second and Third Devil Generals are already famous, and the news about the Dragon Compendium will seal the deal. The dragon kingdoms will know that going up against us is just too dangerous.”

“Jadefall’s right. The compendium makes us unbeatable. And because no one can attack us, we don't need to go out waging war. In the past, we went on the offensive to stay alive. That's the dao of the sage monarch. Remember, sage inside, monarch outside. For now, we’ll simply make sure all of the Dragonfolk know who the rightful ruler is, and wait for unity to result.” Yang Qi’s way of ruling was vastly superior to that of the viceroys of the House of the Invincible. And he had thought things through in a lot of detail. “Start setting up the spell formations. I’ll tap into the starlight of the Halls of Heaven and start transforming the Dragon Compendium and the Myriad Dragons Lair into something suitable for me. Right now, they’re designed for the Dragonfolk. I'm going to make them into something more like the Cruiser of Civilization.”

By now, Yang Qi’s cultivation base was no weaker than that of the Lord of Civilization himself. His cultivation base was at the level of ten billion, which was the ancient designation for the God-Lords. If Yang Qi were to be given a title in the old way, he would be the Lord of Sage Monarchs. Of course, he wasn’t interested in a title like that. Besides, it would only make it easier for Proud Heaven to track him down.

He would rather remain hidden in the shadows.

With that, he reached out to the Halls of Heaven, causing dazzling starlight to fall into the Myriad Dragons Lair. Instantly, the flesh and blood that made it up started crystallizing, and in some locations, it exploded because of incompatibility with the power.