Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
chapter-869

“You’re not yet strong enough to destroy the Joyflower Palace,” Flower Mildcloud replied. “That said, considering how they treated you, it makes sense to seek revenge. Just don’t drag me into it. If you end up getting strong enough to take them down, then you truly deserve to be called a great hero. But involving me is just going to get me killed. After all, it is my sect we're talking about.”

Yang Qi laughed. “Great hero? I don’t think so. In this world, heroes don’t end up living very long. In any case, don’t worry, I won’t force you to do anything you don’t wish to do. But mark my words, I will destroy the Joyflower Palace sooner or later. With the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, I can go anywhere I want in the Joyflower Palace. The empresses’ palace is built on the Passionless God Flower, a magical treasure that rivals the Aeonic God Temple. And that flower is going to be mine soon.”

“I look forward to seeing that happen,” she replied. “Does this mean that you’re going to imprison me here in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart? Am I to have no freedom?”

“I want you to stay here for now and work on your cultivation. You know too many of my secrets, and it would be problematic if they leaked to the Joyflower Palace. Obviously, I can’t let you out, and I'm not going to negotiate on that point. Don’t waste your words. You know what kind of person I am; I'm not stirred easily by arguments or pleas.”

Although Yang Qi had not learned anything useful from Flower Mildcloud during their conversation, he still wasn’t inclined to use force on her. Obviously, she could still be of help in dealing with the Joyflower Palace.

“Are you alright, brother?” the Five Hegemons of the Heavenly Kingdom said as they hurried over to Yang Qi and set up a spell formation to heal him and replenish his energy.

A moment later, he opened his eyes as his true self returned and replaced the power double. “I offer my thanks to the five of you,” he said. “From now on, the six of us definitely have to work together on any missions we get.”

“Excellent, Brother. It's good to see you know how things work around here. We should be getting a new mission in a few days. When the time comes, we’ll definitely need your help.”

All of a sudden, sinister laughter reached their ears from several different directions, followed by equally sinister voices. “Five Hegemons of the Heavenly Kingdom, don’t you know that in a few days we’ll be heading out to the Exquisite Desert, one of the most dangerous locations in the Great Necropolis? Supposedly, the place is full of dangerous god souls, and we need to find the ones that have godhood. Few people have ever returned from missions like this, so do you really think recruiting some new cannon fodder will bring you the luck you need? Save your lives?”

“That’s right, not many of us will come out of the Exquisite Desert alive. It never hurts to have a little extra cannon fodder.”

“So, you five hegemons really are trying to become consorts of the exalted flower goddesses, eh?”

“Anyone who accomplishes the mission in the Exquisite Desert will be considered quite valuable, and will likely be rewarded directly by the flower goddess. Who knows, maybe there’s a chance to become a consort.”

“Yeah, but none of the open spots will go to the Five Hegemons of the Heavenly Kingdom, that’s for sure.”

From the words Yang Qi heard, he could tell that the Five Hegemons of the Heavenly Kingdom were definitely not good people. They wanted him as part of their team in the hopes that it would improve their chances of accomplishing their next mission. However, instead of commenting on that, Yang Qi just said, “As long as we stick together, we should be able to accomplish the mission no matter how dangerous it is. Remember, if we don’t immediately succeed, we have to avoid infighting. Otherwise we’ll definitely end up dead.”

“Excellent, Brother, you really can see the bigger picture! If we can just accomplish this mission, it will count as a huge service, and maybe we really can become consorts to one of the flower goddesses. Then we’ll completely outrank the other prisoners, and we also won’t be in danger of becoming eunuchs. We have to succeed!”

“I understand,” Yang Qi said. Closing his eyes, he pretended to focus on healing his injuries. However, what he really did was send his true body back into the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, leaving behind another power double.

The prison was built on primeval god formations, so without the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart, he would definitely have been stuck. It was for that reason that even top figures from the Ancient Road to the Gods would end up stranded there.

Thankfully, Yang Qi could get in and out easily, leaving him free to sneak into the central palace that was the Passionless God Flower. Once he was able to find the ultimate treasure storehouse, he would plan how to clean it out in one fell swoop before anyone from the Joyflower Palace realized what was happening.

Yang Qi’s control of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart had reached the point of almost complete perfection, especially after the most recent three-month period of cultivation. His immortal-slaying clone had also advanced rapidly.

The chart currently contained all of his long-time supporters, including everyone from the old Rich-Lush Continent. The Invincible Society was also there, along with Empress Jadefall. He didn’t want to leave those people behind in the Dao Defense League, where they might attract the wrong kind of attention.

As for Cipher Rite-Heaven and the others, he kept them near the immortal-slaying clone. The more deeply he was able to draw on his King Immortal-Slayer legacy medallions, the more skills and abilities they seemed to unlock. The godpower of the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart only continued to benefit the clone and the seventy-one patriarchs.

Given some time, and assuming he could get another of the legacy medallions, the clones and the patriarchs’ cultivation bases would reach the level of those experts who traveled the Ancient Road to the Gods.

‘Time to open a pathway to the palace!’

Moments later, he saw a panoramic view of the universe that contained the Passionless God Flower. It hung there in one of the pathways in the Great Necropolis, specifically, in what was some sort of empty stone chamber, the walls of which were laced with god crystals.

Clearly, this place had once been the lair of some enormous god soul.

“Zoom in!” Yang Qi commanded, and his view of the Universe of Flowers began to magnify, closing in on the palace itself. It was huge, obviously too large to explore bit by bit. And most likely, overt surveillance of the place would be noticed, which would cause a lot of problems.

‘The Joyflower Palace really is incredibly powerful. In fact, I don’t even think experts with power indexes over a thousand could do anything to it. If I sneak inside, I need to be very, very careful, otherwise I’ll find destruction raining down on my head. Worst case scenario, I can flee through the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart and hope they didn’t notice there was a god-general where he shouldn’t be.’ The first step would be to enter the palace in a safe place.

Obviously, if he entered in a dangerous location, he could easily end up dead, and that wasn’t an option.

He continued to observe the palace, utilizing various energy arts to analyze the movements of the place. After a while, he hadn’t been able to find any suitable location to enter it, but at least he had a better idea of its general configuration and movement.

RUMBLE!

All of a sudden, the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart identified a secret location in the depths of the Passionless God Flower that provoked intense trembling in the chart.

The immortal-slaying clone opened his eyes and looked up to see the legacy medallions vibrating.

‘What? Another of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions? My god!’ Yang Qi nearly leaped to his feet in excitement. ‘There are only two pieces left out there, and I thought they were in the future world! Are they really here? Wait, it looks like only one piece is here, not two.’

It was to his complete and utter shock that he had sensed another legacy medallion right in the Joyflower Palace. If he could acquire that piece, he would have eight in total, and his immortal-slaying clone would instantly become hundreds or thousands of times stronger. Furthermore, he would be able to access even more items and abilities in the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart.

‘And here I thought I wasn’t strong enough to deal with the Joyflower Palace. But if there’s one of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions in there, and I can get to it, maybe it will lead me right to the treasure storehouse. Where else would they store them? God Legion Seal!”

Golden script suddenly flowed out of Yang Qi’s forehead, connecting to his seven legacy medallions and ensuring that no one would be able to detect them.

‘It looks like heaven is really on my side in this. If the Joyflower Palace has one of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions, their destruction will come sooner rather than later!’ He shrank down to the size of a mote of dust and drew upon a consummate art from the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. It put him into something like a state of hibernation in hell, drawing on the boundless devils of the yellow springs to turn him into something like a lifeless and destructionless god.

It was another aspect of the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth called the Lifeless-Destructionless Nirvanic-Destruction Kalpa Body Magic, which would make him almost impossible to detect.

Having no other options in the Great Necropolis, Yang Qi was drawing on all sorts of abilities from the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth.

WHOOSH!

With that, he slipped into the Joyflower Palace, heading to a distant garden filled with mountains, rivers, and plenty of flowers. At first, he did nothing, hoping to avoid causing vital energy fluctuations or activating deadly spell formations.

In the middle of the garden was a temple, and within the temple, two people were talking.

Also in the temple was one of King Immortal-Slayer's legacy medallions.