Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)

The empire’s destiny had temporarily been reduced by a third, but now it was completely restored, and in fact, had doubled in total! Every moment that passed, the destiny of the empire grew; at this point, it was far beyond the level of the three dynasties. Furthermore, the population level wasn’t a problem anymore. Virtually overnight, it had been quintupled, which was a completely shocking development.

Now, the main task at hand was to rest and be rejuvenated. Once the Ascendants’ fighting prowess was at a peak level, the Sage Monarch Empire would finally be in a position to go on the warpath. Of course, that was a process that had to be taken slowly but surely.

Yang Qi returned the Everlasting Aegis to the normal flow of time, and a tremor passed through it. Then, the empire entered a state of complete calm and balance. The Everlasting Aegis continued to absorb primal-chaos paleo-energy and convert it into resources, making up for the dramatic loss of resources due to cultivation. As of now, the empire was in a golden age of both population and resources.

It actually wasn’t a good thing to have resources and wealth just lying around accumulating, but neither was it good to have a population that was too large for the resource pool at hand. That would lead to a drop in destiny.

Right now, there was neither a surplus of resources nor a deficit, which ensured that there was a positive destiny cycle. When the cultivation bases of the citizens improved, it added power to the empire. And as its power grew the empire could absorb primal-chaos paleo-energy more rapidly.

Yang Qi was very pleased, as all of this was his own creation. And as his empire expanded, he could sense his own cultivation base and psyche growing stronger. He truly felt like he had all of the Halls of Heaven under his control.

Right now, he wanted to take things easy and fully assimilate the Halls of Heaven. Once he did, it would be time to step into the half-Annulled level.

At that point, he would be in a position to kill Yang Voidprime. Unfortunately, Yang Voidprime was in the alliance, protected by the High Priestess. And even with his destiny, Yang Qi couldn’t take her on.

He absolutely had to be in the half-Annulled level first.

That was why assimilating the Halls of Heaven and making them part of the Everlasting Aegis was top on his list of things to do.

Only then would he truly be in a position to challenge the god world.

The Ascendants in his empire were growing stronger, not just because of their cultivation, but because of prayer. In fact, prayer had become a part of their daily routine. They had already come to find that, the more pious they were in their prayers to the empire, the more pure the empire’s destiny became. And that would help them advance their cultivation base more quickly.

That discovery led to them becoming even more faithful, and praying even more often.

In the impure lands, people would often give faith to a single person, who would then bless them as a result. It was similar here, except instead of a person, they were giving faith to an empire. Because an empire was a collection of its people, it broke the fetters that were normally put in place by karma.

That, in turn, avoided heart-devils and other impurities that normally came with cultivation.

Yang Qi had truly discovered the right path to follow.

Throughout history, there had been many empires that tried to do what he was doing, but hadn’t succeeded. That was because the government officials always tapped too deeply into the destiny of the empire. The prayers of the common people were essentially being commandeered by the leaders.

Because of that, the commoners would never pray in full piety.

But here, the sage monarch magistrates ensured that everything was fair and just, and that the laws applied to everyone. As a result, people could pray in full faith and piety.

Thus, a grand empire was born.

The empire changed dramatically on a daily basis, with new and amazing treasures popping up in all corners for people to find.

Yang Qi could sense the prayers becoming more pious, and the destiny of the empire rising as a result. He was the emperor, so he benefited most from the destiny. However, the specific ratio was fixed and couldn’t be changed. He couldn't draw too much on it, lest it harm the empire. He needed the empire strong so that the destiny would improve.

Only with a strong empire could he himself also grow stronger.

His boundless psyche had already permeated every corner of the Halls of Heaven, and it was now possible to see something like a gigantic primal-chaos elder-snake outside the halls, its mouth open wide to devour them the same way that a snake would devour a mammoth. Once the mammoth was inside that snake's belly, it would slowly be digested.

The Bastille of the One God was filled with endless treasures that were now flying up to aid in the process of assimilating the halls. At a certain point, the Bastille of the One God simply vanished. It didn’t exist anymore. In fact, once the Halls of Heaven were also assimilated by Yang Qi, there wouldn’t be any remaining trace of the Sovereign Lord.

That said, Yang Qi was still suspicious that the Sovereign Lord had really just vanished so simply. He must have left behind contingency plans. Perhaps he was hiding. Waiting for just the right opportunity. Perhaps he was still in slumber, or perhaps he had already been transmigrated, and was alive in the world. If he was alive, who was he?

There were too many variables for Yang Qi to make a determination. He just had to get stronger, strengthen his empire, and take over the god world. That said, Yang Qi still couldn't see exactly what the god world as a whole looked like; however, he could see that it contained a multiverse.

No matter what angle it was viewed from, one could only see the tip of the iceberg, not what lay beneath or within.

Yang Qi focused on his cultivation and assimilating the Halls of Heaven. Time passed.

**

“What’s going on?”

The alliance of three dynasties was in tumult. In the face of the expansion of Yang Qi’s empire, the three dynasties had thrown aside their previous differences, and were working together in full cooperation. Before, this could never have happened. But now they were truly becoming united, to the point where they were revealing to each other what resources they actually had.

Furthermore, their destinies were rising, although they were fused together.

Thanks to the way they were working together, everyone hoped that they would finally be able to deal with the Sage Monarch Empire. And they were finally starting to forget about their previous defeat.

The people from the three dynasties who manipulated the destiny had created a huge spell formation that constantly analyzed the destiny of the Sage Monarch Empire.

When they noticed Yang Qi’s empire suddenly lost a third of its destiny, they went wild with joy. Thinking that there was chaotic infighting in the Sage Monarch Empire, they started to hatch new plans.

But even as they did, the destiny suddenly recovered completely, then rose higher than before. In fact, every moment that passed, the destiny improved, to the point where it could reach out to the highest and lowest aspects of the god world. It seemed like it was reaching the point where it could take control of the god world, which left everyone in the alliance exchanging awkward glances.

Alarm claxons suddenly blared to life, filling the three dynasties, shaking the leaders to the core, and alerting both the High Priestess and the countless old-timers she had contacted to help her.

A huge meeting was being called.

There were many new faces in this meeting, all of them God-Lords, and all of them clustered around the High Priestess. Proud Heaven and the forces of the Central Dynasty were in another part, while Yang Chiliocosm and the Dugu patriarchs had their factions. Everyone had an impressive destiny, making it obvious that everyone had been working hard to get stronger.

The various empires had entered into periods of immense glory.

Previously, they had begun to atrophy, with the top leaders ignoring day-to-day affairs while they spent time in seclusion, meditating.

But now they had taken control of their organizations. For the moment, everything was in high gear.