Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
chapter-1480

The Kingdom of Roland had been subjugated and added to the Sage Monarch Dragon Kingdom. Any interest groups or factions within it were disbanded, and all of its people were cleansed and brought under the control of the sage monarch magistrates. Soon, they were busy concocting pills, practicing cultivation, and growing stronger.

Never had a massive kingdom been subjugated so quickly.

With all of its people subordinate to the net of law, they would follow all orders and never think of fanning the flames of disorder.

Even if the House of the Invincible conquered a kingdom, they wouldn't be able to root out the old factions, and it would inevitably lead to trouble. Yang Qi didn’t have to deal with that. Anyone who harbored such thoughts would cause tremors in the destiny, and would be quickly tracked down and arrested.

Destiny came from the hearts of the people.

When the peoples’ hearts were unsettled, destiny would be affected.

Of course, in the Invincible Dynasty, they had the Palace of Destiny to inspect the destiny. And one aspect of that was to hunt down errant behavior among the citizens. But that didn’t stop important people in the dynasty from setting up private stockpiles of resources and destiny. In the end, it ensured that the dynasty was a hodgepodge of good and bad people.

There was no way anything like that could happen in the Sage Monarch Dragon Kingdom.

Many of the Dragonfolk old-timers had spent years campaigning on the outside, and had captured kingdoms of humans as their personal fiefdoms. But the sage monarch magistrates uncovered all such private stashes, and appropriated them for public use.

Unfortunately, Yang Qi knew that the Central Dynasty already had command of the truly orthodox destiny that existed. Even if his own destiny grew more intense, he couldn’t compare with that. So he decided to take his destiny in a different direction.

As soon as the Kingdom of Roland became part of the Sage Monarch Dragon Kingdom, its destiny transformed. Yang Qi could clearly see the net of law becoming a heavenly canopy that filled the souls of the people, transforming their fate in a heaven-shaking, earth-toppling fashion.

The destiny valuation was climbing.

Although he was still far from the level of the House of the Invincible, what he had at his command was in no way inferior to any of the top leaders there. After all, the destiny they could tap into was only a small fraction of what the sect as a whole controlled. In contrast, Yang Qi controlled all of the destiny in the Myriad Dragons Lair.

“Yang Qi,” Jadefall said, “with the Kingdom of Roland having joined us, our destiny increased significantly. Do you want to initiate a large-scale takeover of the Myriad Dragons Lair? In my opinion, the sooner we take full control the better. Who knows what outside factors could cause problems.”

“There’s no rush. I control all aspects of the Myriad Dragons Lair, which means I even control time here. I’ll shift things so that a single day on the outside is a thousand years inside. A thousand years should be enough time to unite the entire lair. Unfortunately, creating the minor god world I want to isn’t going to happen that quickly. After all, I can’t adjust the time in the Halls of Heaven.”

“There’s nothing you can do about that. The best we can do now is unify the Myriad Dragons Lair. After all, the more we take over, the more sage monarch magistrates we’ll have. I was just doing some initial calculations with Yang Immortal-Slayer, and we came to the conclusion that running the entire lair isn't going to be easy. We need at least a hundred million magistrates, and right now, all we have is two million.”

“I already thought of that. Since we don't have enough sage monarch magistrates, we have to subjugate as many Dragonfolk old-timers as possible, and enforce our laws strictly upon them. As long as I use the God Legion Seal on them, they’ll have no choice but to follow orders. Although they won’t run things as well as the magistrates, it’s at least better than going on the warpath.”

“That’ll work,” Jadefall said. “Should we start working on those old-timers right away?”

“No. First, let me make some adjustments to this influx of destiny. It should help to make some more sage monarch magistrates, which will make things easier overall. I want things settled and in balance before making another move. Furthermore, with all of the continents and minor god worlds I’ve created, there’s plenty of resources and treasures to be harvested. Let's not let them go to waste. For now, focus on consolidating what I’ve already made, and continue sending delegations to the other dragon kingdoms to win them to our side.”

The orders were sent down.

Of course, they had a big advantage, considering that the primary source of orthodoxy in the Myriad Dragons Lair was the Dragon Compendium in Yang Qi’s possession.

Soon enough, experts were going out in all directions to start persuading the locals to join Yang Qi.

With all the enticements that were being offered, numerous kingdoms threw in their lot with Yang Qi over the following ten years. The Tower Heaven Kingdom, Fierce Dragon Kingdom, Fiend Evil Kingdom, Silver Blood Dragon Kingdom, Dao-Defying Dragon Kingdom, Soaring Dragon Kingdom, Double Nines Dragon Kingdom, Warfare Dragon Kingdom, Giant Dragon Kingdom, Heart-Shaking Dragon Kingdom, Grand Sun Dragon Kingdom, Moonlight Dragon Kingdom, Precious Treasure Dragon Kingdom, Myriad Oceans Dragon Kingdom, and more.

Numerous Dragonfolk kingdoms were offering their letters of state. Yang Qi would send delegations to get them, then gift their leaders with golden light from the God Legion Seal. Of course, that just let him take control of them.

Supposedly, in years past, the Sovereign Lord would occasionally summon new gods, and have the High Priestess oversee a ceremony to make them part of the legion of gods. During that process, he used the God Legion Seal to take control of them.

None of the Dragonfolk leaders put up any resistance, and the interest groups were dissolved.

As their people were moved into the minor god worlds, they started to become more and more packed.

Eventually, hundreds of years passed, while less than a day had gone by outside. Because of the disparity, Yang Qi couldn’t draw on the power of the Halls of Heaven to make more minor god worlds. He could only maintain what he had already created.

To turn the entire Myriad Dragons Lair into a minor god world would probably take thousands of years of adjustments, and he didn’t have that time. The only way to speed up the transformations would be to improve his cultivation base.

During the time that passed, Yang Qi had taken over about fifty percent of the Myriad Dragons Lair, thanks to his careful planning and execution of those plans.

The sage monarch magistrates had increased in number over the years, and there were now five million of them.

Also, Yang Qi’s cultivation base improved, thanks to the increase in destiny provided by the sage monarch magistrates. His kingdom was expanding constantly.

Meanwhile, none of the other powerful Dragonfolk kingdoms dared to fight with him. Some were deluded enough to believe that they could form alliances to resist him. But in the end, all such efforts were useless. Perhaps if they had been vicious enough to gang up on him the moment he had taken the Dragon Compendium, not giving him any breathing room, and completely going for broke, they might have been able to force him to negotiate with them.

Sadly for them, even if they had been given more time to react, they could never have put their affairs in order to do that. And now that Yang Qi was on a roll, there was no alliance that could stop him.

As of now, forgetting about all the random tiny kingdoms that still existed, Yang Qi knew there were some places that had extremely powerful patriarchs, Dragonfolk with psychic scales and godhood ratings of ten billion. In fact, there were twenty-eight of them. Twenty-eight major dragon kingdoms.

After taking them, he would have all of the dragon kingdoms under his control. Unfortunately, the combined might of twenty-eight patriarchs of that level was nothing to look down on. Even the House of the Invincible, Central Dynasty, or Chiliocosm Dynasty would think twice about trying to take on a group like that.

‘They’re like the God-Lords of the past,’ Yang Qi thought. ‘And considering their numbers, they conform perfectly to the Twenty-Eight Mansions, which means they could form a very dangerous spell formation. I suppose I’ll just have to besiege them.’

He waved his hand and summoned a map of the Myriad Dragons Lair.

Clearly visible were twenty-eight enormous kingdoms that were now linked together to form something like their own net of law. Although it was laughable compared to what Yang Qi had created, it did create a system of order that allowed for their area to be like a separate world within the Myriad Dragons Lair, not governed by the Dragon Compendium or the local natural laws.

It was an annoying obstacle that Yang Qi needed to deal with before his unification effort was complete.