Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

Yang Qi was now quite proficient at taking a magical treasure, then producing a virtual version. It was a product of both his Life-Death Void-Destruction God-Lightning energy art and the powers of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.

After all, if the chart could already make a virtual god world, then how much more simple would it be to make virtual treasures?

Furthermore, the replicas were so realistic that even if the storehouse guards came in to inspect the items, they would have no way to identify any fakes unless they actually used them. And who would actually go to the length of using an item when merely performing an inspection?

In other words, it would likely be a long time before anyone realized that any of the treasures had been stolen. That was a major aspect of Yang Qi’s plan. After all, his current power index was only at the level of two hundred eighty. Usually, people who reached the peak of the Destabilizing will convergence level would have incredible fighting prowess, but would be far from being able to fight people like the empress of the Joyflower Palace, whose power index was definitely far beyond a thousand.

Thankfully, there were a lot of treasures to be had, which would benefit both Yang Qi and his core loyalists in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. His father, family, and friends were all furthering their cultivation in the virtual god world, and he was doing everything to make sure they experienced stable growth. Before long, the entire group would advance to the Grand Emperor level.

Even as Yang Qi took the firmament-blood lightning-origin and began making a fake version of it, Flower Mildcloud, who was able to observe from within the chart, noticed one particular shelf filled with medicinal items.

“So many god pills,” she murmured. The pills almost seemed alive, as if they were actual gods performing breathing exercises and demonstrating energy arts.

“That’s a Dragon-Tiger Life-Snatching Pill!” she exclaimed, looking at one particular crystal vessel which contained a fist-sized medicinal pill. It seemed to be a murky world of its own, in which two gods were locked in combat, one a humanoid figure with the head of a dragon, the other a humanoid figure with the head of a tiger.

They fought back and forth using martial stances of all sorts, and their energy arts were filled with innumerable variations and complex profundities of their martial arts. There were even powerful magical laws on display. In fact, their interactions were so amazing that one could actually gain significant enlightenment just by observing them, without even consuming the pill.

This medicinal pill came from the dao of gods, and contained the energy of true dragons and true tigers. It was definitely something very rare. On one occasion in the past, Flower Mildcloud had seen a pill like this given out as a reward to one of the flower goddesses, who used its power to achieve heaven-shaking, earth-toppling advancement in her energy arts.

Yang Qi waved his hand, and the crystal vessel disappeared, to be replaced a moment later by an exact duplicate. Meanwhile, the real Dragon-Tiger Life-Snatching Pill appeared on his palm, whereupon he shrank it down until it was the size of a longan fruit. Now that the pill was out in the open, it emitted pulsing, godly music that would eternally enchant anyone who listened to it too closely.

A stream of sword energy flew out and cut the pill in two. Yang Qi took the larger portion and assimilated it, which instantly caused the projections of a dragon and tiger to appear behind him. They weren’t the kind of dragon or tiger one would see in the mortal world, but rather those that existed in the god world. After all, even maggots from the mortal world who later reached the god world would become godworms.

“You assimilate this smaller portion,” Yang Qi said, cutting the remaining section in half again. “The rest, I’ll send into the virtual god world for my people to use. The more followers I have who are on the Deathless Heavenly Stairway, the better.” With that he distributed the rest of the pill to Flower Mildcloud and his people in the virtual god world.

Next, his attention was drawn to an enormous, emerald-green slab, within which was sealed some sort of god grass. It resembled a ginseng root, a magical mushroom, or a licorice root, yet was none of those things. It looked like a humanoid entity floating within the green slab, an odd-looking creature with three heads.

“Three-headed god-origin grass!” Flower Mildcloud exclaimed loudly. “That’s a holy medicine that can heal all sorts of injuries. In fact, even someone who has died, with their spiritual souls gone and physical souls dissipated, can be restored by sending the vital energy of that herb out into heaven and earth. It will restore the soul and reform the flesh and bones. Anyone who isn’t a god can be brought back to life with it!”

“It's really that miraculous?” Yang Qi said, reaching out and taking it. He quickly realized that the grass had three kinds of magical laws from the dao of gods in it. One pertained to yin, yang, life and death. Another conformed to the transformations of the five phases, and the third contained the myriad profundities of the past, present, and future. The three heads were the embodiments of those three magical laws.

Even just looking at it, Yang Qi gained new enlightenment of the quintessence of humans and their transformations. There were countless worlds and places, but in all of them, the pinnacle of magical law and evolution were humans. Humans would form the ultimate foundation of a thriving world; as for the gods, they were simply a higher type of human.

“Incredible,” Yang Qi murmured. “Three origins combined in one. Three lives to encompass all creation. This grass contains the profundities of both life and death, and is something that could only come to exist in the god world. If it can truly save any life, then I need it. It will definitely be helpful at some point in the future.”

“It really is a treasure,” Flower Mildcloud said. Obviously, she would love to have it, but wouldn’t go to the length of struggling with Yang Qi over its ownership.

With the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth and the Seventy-Two Monarchs Energy Art, Yang Qi was just too powerful and unpredictable. Even if she fought him to the death and somehow won, she would be nearly dead afterward. And what good would it do to win a life-saving treasure, only to be forced to use it immediately to save her own life?

“That’s a Great Dao Dissemination Pill,” she said as the two of them proceeded along. Thankfully, she was familiar with many of the items in the storehouse and was able to provide clear descriptions of most of them.

Yang Qi was quite surprised. “How do you know so much about these treasures?” he asked. “You've never been inside, have you?”

Flower Mildcloud shrugged. “Disciples in the Joyflower Palace are given textbooks describing treasures of all sorts. That makes it easy for us to identify objects both in the Great Necropolis and on the Ancient Road to the Gods, and by extension, save time. And it also means that most of the items in the storehouse are things I’ve read about in the past.”

“Well, that makes sense,” Yang Qi said. As they went along, they picked up speed. Some of the medicinal pills they came across seemed particularly useful, some didn’t. Some were designed to improve the cultivation base, while others were actually deadly poisons. There was a huge variety.

Thankfully Flower Mildcloud was there, otherwise he would have been quite befuddled by so many unidentifiable objects.

As they picked up speed, Yang Qi’s skill with manufacturing virtual replacements improved as well. It eventually reached the point where not even Flower Mildcloud could visually track what treasures he was taking and replacing.

He was so skilled that, even if the guard were present, they might not realize what was happening. It was like how, in the mortal world, so-called magicians would use sleight of hand to confuse audiences and make it impossible to see what they were really doing.

‘This is incredible,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘My God Legion Battle Robe, my Life-Death Void-Destruction God-Lightning, my virtual god world… all of them are benefiting immensely. And with these skills I’m perfecting, I could probably rob opponents of their magical treasures and replace them with virtual fakes without them even realizing it.’

Eventually, Yang Qi had so many medicinal pills, magical treasures, and god items that he could probably raise an army of millions to the level of Grand Emperors. And not ordinary versions like the old Grand Emperor Ragefire Broilheaven, but rather experts with power indexes of twenty or more.

Eventually, they reached a point where there were no longer medicinal pills and magical treasures to be taken, but rather spell formations.

Flower Mildcloud’s expression flickered. “We need to be careful here. We’re reaching the very depths of the treasure storehouse. See those banners? There are seven hundred and twenty of them, and they form the Windflame Circumvolution God Formation. The banners are named Windflame God Banners. They’re created from the feathers of windburst god falcons and flameking god hawks. The formation itself is filled with magical laws from the dao of gods, and is particularly deadly. Even if you’re fighting someone far more powerful than yourself, as long as you can trick them into that formation they’ll die beyond the shadow of a doubt. It can actually be considered the signature defense item for an entire sect.”

“So these things form a spell formation, huh?” Yang Qi waved his sleeve, and a moment later, a host of tiny banners were in his hand, as well as two pearls which were spell formation eyes.