Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

The difference between faith and destiny could be summed up in this way: destiny was a business transaction, while faith was simple plundering.

Plundering brought profit much more simply and quickly than a business transaction, and it didn’t require capital. But it came with big risks and restrictions, primarily that of karma. And that twist was what had led many gods to their death. While it had initially been very popular, once the gods realized its side-effects, things had changed.

The ancient buddhist schools had been particularly skilled in the use of faith power, which was how they qualified to compete with the Sovereign Lord. But eventually, their faith power reached a zenith, then they collapsed, primarily because faith could only be taken, with no return. That, coupled with the karmic side-effects, made faith inferior to destiny in many ways.

In front of Yang Qi was an entire ocean of faith that the Sovereign Lord had collected.

Of course, the Sovereign Lord also knew of the brutal side-effects of faith, which was why he had collected and sealed it here, instead of using it.

This power was ancient and immense, considering it contained the faith of gods. And because of that, it was like a dangerous bomb that could rip anyone who unleashed it incorrectly to shreds.

Yang Qi could tell that if he absorbed this faith power, he would instantly jump to a psychic scale of a hundred billion. Unfortunately, the karma within it would ensure that, after he reached those heights, he would perish.

Nodding, Yang Qi thought, ‘Incredible. Simply incredible. I can’t believe the Sovereign Lord stored up this much unused faith power. I used to use faith power before, but once I got to the god world, I got rid of it to clear myself of any karma. Taking this faith power would definitely be suicide. However, this faith does seem to have transformed in some way.’

Studying it more closely, he saw that the faith power resembled dragons flying back and forth, and although they contained karma, that karma was slowly weakening. That was because the gods who had given their faith to the Sovereign Lord had all perished. Normally speaking, that meant their faith should have faded away, but for some unknown reason, the Sovereign Lord had ensured that it remained. And he had also done something to slowly weaken its karmic power.

If a few more tens of billions of years were to pass, the faith power might actually become completely free of any karma. Then it would be a real treasure that could lead someone to becoming like the Sovereign Lord himself.

But unfortunately, it couldn’t be used right now.

‘Is there something that can get rid of the karma in that faith sooner?’ He thought about it for a long time, but couldn't come up with any good ideas. As far as he knew, there hadn’t ever been anything that could negate karma effectively.

It would be like someone in the impure lands trying to come up with a way to commit robbery without breaking the law.

‘There must be something. But it’s probably a magical treasure that surpasses the god world. Only something that doesn't conform to the natural laws here could cleanse this faith power.’

After thinking about it for a bit longer, a flash of realization hit him. “The Great Necropolis. It’s got to be the Great Necropolis! It surpasses the god world, and wasn’t born out of ancient primal-chaos. No wonder I can sense the aura of the necropolis here. So that’s how it is! The Sovereign Lord stored this ocean of faith here and was using the Great Necropolis to cleanse it of karma. However, at some point, the necropolis ended up dropping down into the immortal worlds. But how?’

He continued along that line of thinking for some time.

‘I bet the passageway to the impure lands is somewhere in this ocean. I should be able to search the ocean as long as I don’t absorb any of the “water”.’

Exercising utmost caution, he summoned a bubble of energy from the Great Necropolis, surrounding himself before he jumped in.

The water of faith pressed down on the bubble, causing bubbling sounds to fill it. Ironically, it was Proud Central who had given Yang Qi the quintessence of the Great Necropolis, making him deeply linked to the necropolis wherever he went.

Over the course of the next several hours, he searched here and there within the ocean of faith. Eventually, he ran into an enormous cavern in its depths, which bore the shape of the necropolis. Peering inside he saw something like an ancient road.

Unfortunately, it was a dead end.

‘Damn.’ Of course, Yang Qi knew that the Ancient Road to the Gods had vanished. Back in the impure lands, it had ceased to exist in the Primeval Age and the Future Age. It only existed in the Immortal Dao Age. But now, it had apparently vanished from the Immortal Dao Age as well, which meant there was no longer any connection between the impure lands and the god world. Traveling back and forth was impossible.

‘I can’t accept this. Don’t tell me I’ll never reunite with my friends and family. Impossible. With all the divine abilities I have, can’t I recreate the Ancient Road to the Gods? Can’t I pierce through the natural laws of the god world?!’

“You’re thinking about remaking the Ancient Road to the Gods, aren’t you?” the Lord of the Sword Dao said with a cold laugh. “Very ambitious, Yang Qi. But it won’t work. Not even the Sovereign Lord himself would’ve dared to entertain such talk, yet you think you can do it?”

“If you keep jabbering, Lord of the Sword Dao, I’ll make you suffer worse than you can imagine! Maybe I’ll force you to absorb all of this faith. Turn you into a killing machine that I can turn on the other three dynasties. How about that?”

“Do you have a death wish, boy?!” the Lord of the Sword Dao shouted. However, a moment later, he chuckled. “Alright, bring it on. I’ll take that faith power. It will kill me in the end, but at least I’d be able to break free and slaughter you in the process. As long as I can kill you, I’ll die happily.”

“Well thought out,” Yang Qi replied as he flew out of the ocean of faith. He knew that his attempt to find the ancient road had failed.

That said, as long as travel back and forth with the god world was impossible, that meant his friends and family were safe. They were the ultimate rulers of the impure lands, and no one would be able to overthrow them. Since no one from the god world could travel down to cause problems, they were secure.

Once he pushed his cultivation to the point where he was stronger than the old Sovereign Lord, he would try remaking the connection.

He was confident he would succeed, as he was certain he would surpass the Sovereign Lord.

Since he couldn’t rely on his friends and family from the impure lands to boost his destiny, he now had no other choice than to continue searching the halls of heaven for more treasures. If everyone among his people had preheaven treasures, then his empire would obviously be much stronger.

As he searched, he found all sorts of treasure troves with amazing things inside of them, all of which he sent to his empire. However, he didn’t find anything useful for himself. For now, the only thing that would give him a major boost was the final piece of the Mahātmā Jade.

And that was in the Central Dynasty.

With it, he could definitely reach the level of a hundred billion, and possibly push past it.

For the moment, he was acting like a delivery service, tracking down amazing things from the halls of heaven and sending them to his people.

A month passed.

The Sage Monarch Empire was getting bigger and bigger, and his people were all armed to the teeth. Its destiny and net of law were so incredible that they seeped outside of the Everlasting Aegis.

The Everlasting Aegis was big, but it had its limitations, and soon, the empire itself was growing beyond its borders.

The destiny valuation had already reached the same as the Invincible Dynasty and the Chiliocosm Dynasty, but it was a far cry from the Central Dynasty. Regardless, he was definitely the fourth major power in the god world.

At a certain point, Yang Qi stopped his work.

The time had come to try something new.

WHOOSH!

He vanished from within the Halls of Heaven, and headed to the imperial palace in the Sage Monarch Empire. The imperial palace itself was like a minor god world, and in the middle was a yin-yang taiji symbol of immense profundity, where all of his people with psychic scales of ten billion were converging for a meeting.

He now had nearly a hundred such people, and if he added in the people from the House of the Chiliocosm and the House of the Invincible that he had subjugated, he would definitely be at a hundred.

It was time to do something that would shake heaven and earth.

He was going to make a public announcement regarding the founding of the Sage Monarch Empire, the fourth major dynasty. And that would involve sending formal declarations to the other three dynasties asking for a non-aggression pact.

“Isn’t it a bit too early for that?” Yang Susu asked. “Why don’t we secretly invade the House of the Invincible? Maybe subjugate some more of their leaders. Take over the Palace of Destiny and get the confucians working for us. Perhaps do the same to the House of the Chiliocosm. Or maybe we could even target the Central Dynasty.”

“That’s right!” Jadefall said, sounding worried. “I feel like we need to spend some more time preparing. If we rush the announcement and things go bad, we can't go back and change it.”

“There’s no need for that,” Yang Qi said. “And subjugating more experts won’t do any good. If we tried, it would affect the destiny of the House of the Invincible, and their patriarchs would notice. Furthermore, subjugating too many people puts a strain on my mind. It's difficult enough just keeping the Lord of the Sword Dao under control. The time has come to make the announcement!”