Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
chapter-1187

Yang Qi was using bloody tactics to deal with the surviving members of Huang Weilong’s faction. When Ba Tianxiong saw hundreds of his followers thrown into furnaces to burn alive, he nearly fainted from terror.

Yang Qi had no intention of being merciful with traitors. He still planned to provide medical supplies to the miners in general, but his willingness to be moral and benevolent in that regard didn't mean that he would be kind in everything he did. He was fully aware that good people were often taken advantage of.

These were rebels who had allied themselves with demonlings and fomented rebellion. Without dealing harshly with them, how could Yang Qi keep the rest in line?

In a world of chaos, a ruler had to use severe punishment to establish their authority. Decisive action was required, including executions to crush rebellions. That was how an emperor had to act. After all, if the uprising turned into a large-scale rebellion, people would easily give in to their devilish nature, and far more would die as a result. It was a truth Yang Qi knew about after becoming familiar with the histories of countless civilizations. Over and over again, when rulers showed too much kindness, the end result would be even more slaughter and death.

Many miners, and even many of the disciples, were only now coming to realize that the new foreman was capable of shedding blood without hesitation. In fact, he was even more willing to slaughter the miners than Huang Weilong had been.

“Starting right now,” Yang Qi said loudly, “I hope I never see any miners rioting again. Ba Tianxiong will have his godpower removed and be thrown out into the light until he's baked to death. As for the demonling, skin it and chop it up. We’ll boil it into a soup for everyone to enjoy for dinner!”

Two screams rang out as both Ba Tianxiong and the delvebrute felt Yang Qi extracting their godpower until they could do nothing but grovel on the ground. Ba Tianxiong was then thrown out into the burning light, where he began to smoke and burn as he was strung up on a pillar.

For several hours, his screams filled the mine, piercing into the ears of hundreds of thousands of miners, leaving them cold, shaken, and terrified.

The miners had been afraid of Huang Weilong, but could defy him on certain occasions. In contrast, Yang Qi had single-handedly executed hundreds of powerful miners and crippled Ba Tianxiong, all with casual ease. The other miners were struck with fear down to the core of their being thanks to that. In fact, most of them already realized that even if hundreds of thousands of miners rioted at the same time, it would be easy for him to wipe them out.

“Aaaiiiieee!”

The delvebrute screamed as a disciple hacked it apart with a saber, pouring its blood into an enormous wok, then cutting the meat off its bones. The aroma of boiling meat soon wafted out as they slowly turned it into a soup.

Normally speaking, the fare offered at the mine was rustic and not particularly delicious. It was usually coarse grain and cereals, with only occasional morsels of demonling meat thrown in. Therefore, this meal was met with much rejoicing.

Night fell as abruptly as ever, and the light disappeared, to be replaced by pitch black and biting cold. The chill that came with night was a stark contrast to the biting heat of the day. However, torches were lit, illuminating the entire mine and making it easy to see. There was no rest for the miners. At the most, they could take short breaks in which they would nap for an hour or two, then continue working.

It was extremely tough manual labor, the kind that only Quasi-Gods could handle. Weaker people would die from it fairly quickly.

More than ever, Yang Qi was curious about how day and night worked in the god world. The impure lands and the immortal worlds had suns and moons, which was what created the cycle of night and day. But the god world had no sun or moon, nor even stars, with nights so dark it was impossible to see your own hand if it was held out in front of your face. He had put a lot of thought into the subject, and had searched the Great Classic of God Ordainment for clues, but still had no idea why the god world was like this.

The god world’s seasons were completely chaotic as well. Sometimes, the day was burning hot and the night was freezing. Other times, the day was freezing and the night was even more freezing.

The only thing that was even slightly normal was the rainy season, which Yang Qi had only experienced a bit of when he first arrived.

The disciples weren’t holding anything back in trying to get on Yang Qi’s good side.

“Elder Brother,” Zhang Jufang said, “thanks to your swift and decisive actions earlier today, the entire mine has turned over a new leaf. The miners are working harder than ever, and none of them dare to do anything out of line. I’d say we’ll definitely surpass the quota this year.”

Meanwhile, Yang Qi had his Lord's Eye open as he attempted to learn more about the ore veins in the mines. His gaze pierced into the ground, then, backed by his immense godpower, flowed through the subterranean veins like a fish swimming through water.

Right now, he didn't have any divine abilities that were specifically designed for drilling through the earth. And of course, the lands of the god world weren’t ordinary in any way. Not even ordinary gods could dig through the ground using physical might alone. Only demonlings with special physiology could do that.

That said, his observations had already revealed some interesting things to him. He knew that this mine had existed for over a hundred years, and that the ores on the surface had long since been extracted, making it necessary to dig deeper and deeper to get any results.

‘This vein of ore goes down so far,’ he thought. From what he could tell, the ground went down for thousands of meters, and the vein snaked back and forth through it like an enormous dragon. It was only in the deepest parts of the god world that the truly high-quality godstones were located, which meant it would be virtually impossible to reach them. If the miners were gods, perhaps they could dig down that far. But Quasi-Gods simply couldn’t.

In the impure lands, Yang Qi could break apart continents with a simple chop of his hand. But here, not even Greater Gods could accomplish something like that. That was the realm of Consummate and Perfect Gods.

However, even just casting his vision down so far was very beneficial for Yang Qi. He saw how the power of heaven and earth sank into the depths of the land, where it was crushed with immense pressure that eventually crystallized it, although the process took a lot of time.

As years passed, and more pressure weighed down on that crystallized power, the quality of the ore would improve. At the same time, the immense pressure in those depths made it very, very difficult to extract those ores.

‘Now I understand how it all works,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘This has been very helpful.’

The wind had picked up, making it even colder, and forcing the miners to use more godpower to protect themselves and avoid freezing to death.

Soon, it was possible to hear what sounded like weeping or wailing in the wind, making it seem like something powerful and dangerous was coming.

‘Is there a big storm on the way?’ he thought. Suddenly, he whistled, and the sound was filled with such explosive godpower that everyone present was shaken. It was almost like a thunderclap, and after it shot out, the winds seemed to die down a bit.

Yang Qi’s godpower was so incredible that he could affect meteorological phenomena, which was really the realm of the gods.

‘This mine really is a nasty place. And I have to keep the miners alive, otherwise production will slow down too much. Just to extract some ore, I have to put together a huge spell formation. Unfortunately, I need a formation the likes of which only a god could produce. If I did it myself, it would attract too much attention.’

Looking around at the mine, he began formulating a plan.

“Aaaiiiieee!”

Suddenly, a shrill scream echoed out from deep within the mine.

“What happened?” one of the disciples shouted. “Why are they causing such a fuss? Can’t they see the foreman is in the middle of seeking enlightenment!? Anyone who interrupts him is just asking to be executed!”

“Go see what happened,” Yang Qi said, waving his finger.

As the disciple was about to head into the mine, a group of miners tumbled out screaming and yelling. Then some of them fell to the ground, their mouths frothing and their skin turning dark. It looked like they had been poisoned.

“Snakes... snakes... in the tunnels. They started crawling out of the cracks and biting us. They’ve got deadly venom!” The miner then dropped dead.

“Snakes?” Yang Qi said, visibly surprised. “Where’d they come from? Hmph! Did that miner just die? Well in that case, I’ll bring his soul back and extrude the poisons. Stand!”

Waving his hand, he sent out some godpower that entered the dead miner, filling him with life force. Then the poison was extruded and he opened his eyes.

“Is it some sort of snake attack?” Zhang Jufang said, looking around. However, there were no snakes outside, only in the mine tunnels.

“Foreman, there are definitely a lot of snakes in there,” one of the miners said, “and they're in the tunnels with the highest quality ore. What are they doing in there?”

“Take me to them,” Yang Qi said, flicking his sleeve. Soon they were in a tunnel as tall as four or five people and wide enough for multiple horse carts to ride through. It was lit with numerous torches, but their light couldn't dispel the sinister air which filled the place.

Whoosh!

All of a sudden, a viper lunged out at Yang Qi.