Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

BAM!

In Buddha Shockheaven’s study, the Second Devil General slapped a peak Paramount God so hard he tumbled onto the ground. Then Yang Qi pounced like a tiger and subjugated him in the blink of an eye. This expert had a godhood rating and psychic scale of one billion three hundred million, and was none other than the generalissimo of the armed forces.

He was roughly as powerful as Buddha Shockheaven himself, being the commander of the army, with a whole host of subordinates and interest groups under his command. In fact, he was strong enough that he could even oppose Buddha Shockheaven directly if he wanted.

During the past few days, Yang Qi had been in the royal study, subjugating government officials one after the next. After being subjugated, they had no choice but to heed all of his commands without defiance. As a result, the king’s power seemed to be growing constantly in the realm, as opposed to how things usually worked, with numerous officials feigning compliance but opposing him behind the scenes.

It was a snowball effect that led to more and more leaders answering the summons.

The final obstacle had been the generalissimo, whose cultivation base was no weaker than the king’s, and who commanded immense military might. Because of the power he commanded, it was impossible for the king to openly move against him.

All of the leaders in the army would follow his instructions, and he was so strong politically that he would often make direct demands of the emperor, even causing harm to the national destiny as a result.

After all, when the military was idle and demanded resources, the government officials would have to comply. Even the common people would have to bear responsibility, causing the destiny of the entire country to slowly decline.

It was only after securing the loyalty of numerous other powerful figures that Yang Qi had finally summoned the generalissimo.

As soon as he stepped in, the Second Devil General smacked him silly, and then Yang Qi struck him with the power of the God Legion Seal. He never stood a chance.

Just like that, Yang Qi took control of the destiny of a dynasty.

RUMBLE!

The destiny flowed toward him without any hindrance whatsoever. There was now truly a state of centralized state power. The competing interest groups were being done away with.

Yang Qi immediately took the flows of destiny from the king and used them to refine his nascent divinity and hopefully do the final assimilation of the Everlit Godlamp.

However, after a moment he stopped and focused on the sage monarch magistrates. When they rose to a higher level, it represented Yang Qi’s cultivation base rising. And of course, it made their administration abilities even more refined.

In the past, a single sage monarch magistrate could govern a population roughly the size of the Eternal-Life God-Dynasty. If they were assigned to govern anything larger than that, their effectiveness would break down and the destiny would suffer.

But if he could improve them, their potential for governing would increase to match the size of the Deva Dynasty.

“Your destiny is improving. Now you’re really benefiting from this unification.” The Second Devil General could see what was happening, and could tell that the previously chaotic destiny was now much more unified.

No longer was this country a dish of loose sand, a change that was nothing short of astonishing.

“Yes,” Yang Qi said. “With this destiny, it's the equivalent of ten lands back in the House of the Invincible. Unfortunately, it’s still not good enough. Considering this kingdom’s location in the middle of this sea of blood, it should have a destiny equivalent to thirty or forty lands. With that much destiny, we could really claim to have struck it rich, Second Devil General. We need to enact some reforms. I'd say it’ll take another month of work. You’re not going to start disagreeing now, are you?”

“Whatever you want,” the Second Devil General said. “Take this juicy morsel on your own. Just don’t forget that you owe me half of everything.”

“Well, that goes without saying,” Yang Qi said. “Come forth, sage monarch magistrates!”

Rumbling could be heard as more than a hundred thousand sage monarch magistrates appeared.

By now, the empire in the Cruiser of Civilization didn’t need constant oversight. Yang Qi had absolute control of the Cruiser of Civilization, including all of its various systems. Therefore, it was possible for him to take all of those sage monarch magistrates and use them to control this enormous kingdom of Dragonfolk.

Of course, he had already subjugated all of the high-level government officials. However, compared to the officialdom as a whole, they were few in number. But with the sage monarch magistrates to back them up, getting all of the lesser officials under control was completely possible.

“Buddha Shockheaven, call all of the subjugated officials to a meeting. We’re going to initiate some major reforms. Henceforth, this place will be called the Sage Monarch Dragon Kingdom! These are my sage monarch magistrates, and one will be assigned to each of you. They’ll be making the decisions, and you just have to follow along with them. It's that simple.”

“Yes sir!”

RUMBLE!

With that announcement, a major undertaking got underway. Yang Qi sat down in the palace and watched as things played out. Orders were issued, interest groups were disbanded, and more unity was achieved. And this led to a more intense destiny.

Yang Qi was now the true leader here, and destiny was growing and converging on him on a daily basis.

His sage monarch magistrates were constantly proliferating, and improving in quality. In fact, a month later, they reached a major watershed point. They were now on the verge of reaching the mid Paramount God level.

Eventually, every last interest group was dissolved and the destiny in the kingdom shuddered, becoming like a bright red beam of light that shot through the air like a dragon. As it flew along, it sent out a net of law that covered everything, similar to the way things were in the House of the Invincible.

Although this one was much smaller, it was just as orderly.

During this past month, the sage monarch magistrates pushed their numbers all the way to three hundred thousand! And all of them were mid Paramount Gods with psychic scales of ninety million.

Yang Qi breathed deeply as the destiny of the place filled him. Shockingly, it was almost at the level of forty lands, which meant he had access to the same amount of destiny that a viceroy of seven or eight hundred lands would have.

‘Now this is how progress is supposed to be made,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘Not even a month of time spent right beneath the halls of heaven in the Bastille of the One God could be as beneficial as this. No wonder all those old-timers give up on cultivation, choosing instead to build their own kingdoms and foster their own destiny. It can lead to progress millions upon millions of times faster than ordinary cultivation.’

Yang Qi knew all about how destiny worked. For instance, how much effort normally went into a Quasi-God going all the way to the Paramount God level? But in the House of the Invincible, it took little effort for them to ordain a person directly into that level.

Yang Qi could practice cultivation in the Bastille of the One God for a thousand years and not benefit as much as he had in a single month from this dragon kingdom.

“You’ve unified this kingdom, Yang Qi,” the Second Devil General said. “And you’ve benefited immensely. Now, according to our agreement, I get half of that destiny!” He had been watching enviously from the sidelines this entire month, and knew full well that if he’d been in charge of things, all of the destiny in this place would have crumbled. [1]

And now, he wanted his share.

1. There’s some wordplay here that doesn’t come across based on the translation choices I’ve made. It’s all based on the two characters that make up destiny, which are “energy” and “fate”. And it makes a wordplay explanation based on a line from chapter one, the part that reads “energy is the essence of life.” The wordplay goes as follows: “energy is the essence of life, and fate is the order/trajectory of life. Therefore, destiny (energy-fate) is the foundation (of everything).” In my opinion I don’t believe this to have any real or mechanical weight. It’s just meant to sound cool.