Sage Monarch

Not every location on this enormous planet was equal. There were tiny, poor villages, and enormous bustling cities. It wasn’t like the current Sage Monarch Continent, in which every location abounded with spirit energy and treasure.

There was no fairness here. Some cities were built directly on top of enormous veins of ore, while certain villages were devoid of even ordinary spirit energy, much less Proterozoic Violet Energy. People from those poorer locations rarely reached the Legendary level, much less the Great Sage level.

The disparity between rich and poor was dramatic, even more than it had been in the old Quake-Dawn Continent.

Right now, Yang Qi was in one of the remote, poor locations.

This was where the message from the Titan Emperor Collegium had originated.

After passing through the warding magics, Yang Qi realized that this kingdom made of cities and villages of human cultivators was more populated than he had thought. Overall, it was impoverished, which made him think back to his early days. After all, in the grand scheme of things, the Sage Ancestor Dynasty had been functionally destitute, and really, so had the entire Rich-Lush Continent.

Of course, in the eyes of the numerous immortal worlds, the Titan Emperor Collegium was probably also considered impoverished. And to the legion of gods, so were the immortal worlds in general.

In one particular village in this impoverished kingdom, Yang Qi saw a few hundred people wearing the uniforms of the Titan Emperor Collegium. In fact, some of the uniforms were particularly luxurious, almost like royal garments, which indicated that the people wearing them were royal-class students.

Obviously, they had secretly infiltrated this enormous planet and were hiding in one of the impoverished areas to avoid attracting attention.

Yang Qi could sense that this planet was a place of hidden dragons and crouching tigers, and was fairly certain that it had been created by ancient immortals.

It was only natural that infiltrators would need to be careful here, lest they end up being slaughtered.

The students were arrayed in ranks on a mountain that rose up above the sprawling, impoverished kingdom. They had even set up temporary mansion grottos in certain locations on the mountain, and from the way they carried themselves it seemed they were waiting for someone or something.

As for the royal students, they were all Demi-Immortals with profound auras.

However, they didn’t let any power fluctuations roll out, but instead kept them tightly reined in. The local kingdom didn’t even have any Great Sages, only Legendaries, and therefore they had no way of knowing that fiendish monsters were lurking in their midst.

When Yang Qi bypassed the warding magics and landed at the foot of the mountain, he immediately attracted attention. The students all looked over, their killing intent pulsing as though they intended to make a move at any moment.

However, Yang Qi quickly produced his Titan Emperor Medallion and the expressions of most of the students softened. However, a few of them continued to look at him coldly.

In fact, two of them, clad in yellow garments, went down to confront him. 

“Stop right there!” one of them said.

Yang Qi complied, and looked the two students up and down. Both of them were third step Eternal Sands Sages and had arrogant expressions on their faces. 

“So you’re from the Titan Emperor Collegium?” the second student said. “But you’re only a second step Great Sage! What are you doing here alone? What society are you from? Don’t you have an escort? This is the Coiling Arc planetary system, and the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart is about to appear. It's a tense situation, and a second step Great Sage like you shouldn’t be randomly poking his nose around. If you got captured, it could wreck the collegium's master plan!”

“I'm the eighteenth disciple of the Invincible Society, Yang Qi,” he replied coldly, looking at the two yellow-garbed students as if they were dead men. “I saw your message and thought you might be in trouble. But since you're not, I guess I’ll be leaving.”

The two students shivered with fear. 

“What? The Invincible Society?”

“Y-you’re… you’re the one who broke the fetters of the World of Mirages and killed a bunch of the mutant humans? Yang Qi? The eighteenth disciple of the Invincible Society?”

“That’s right. Little old me. So what?” At this point, his gaze was so sharp that the two students didn’t dare to do anything other than bow their heads. With that, he turned to leave.

Before he could, someone higher up on the mountain said, “Hold it right there!”

Yang Qi turned to find one of the students with the royal garb floating down toward him, pulsing with incredible power. The rest of the students gathered on the mountain were watching to see how things would play out.

Smiling enigmatically, the royal student said, “So you’re from the Invincible Society. No wonder you’re so arrogant and overbearing.

“I’d heard that the Invincible Society accepted a new disciple. You’re supposed to be quite the genius, right? Well, we’re all members of the Titan Emperor Collegium, so there’s no reason to be petty. Why not work together? We’re all waiting here for the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart to appear, so how about you join us? Just find a place to sit and wait, Junior Brother Yang Qi. This place is called Planet Darkbright. It’s so large it's almost like a planetary system, and it has plenty of top experts. However, the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart is supposed to appear here soon. When it does, it will most likely release some treasures, perhaps even some primeval godworm larvae. We definitely have to get any godworm larvae for our collegium. I’ll provide you the perfect location to rest, Junior Brother. We’ll just wait here quietly until the time is right.”

With that, he waved his hand, causing the mountain to open up and reveal a mansion grotto, complete with a royal throne.

There were actually numerous such locations on the mountain, and instead of giving Yang Qi a place at the bottom he opened up a mansion grotto halfway up the mountain.

At this point, Yang Qi’s expression softened a bit. “In that case, I’ll wait here for the spatial nexus to open and the treasure to appear.”

Without any pretense of politeness, he flew into the mansion grotto, sat down on the royal throne, closed his eyes, and ignored everything around him.

Many of the surrounding students took that to be an insult, and their anger burned because of it. That was especially true of the royal student who had come to talk with him, whose jaw went taut with fury. It was as if he had offered Yang Qi face only to be slapped in return.

However, he kept his anger in check and flew back to the mountain peak. Waving his hand again, he caused a blanket of mist to spring up, a warding magic that cut him and the other royal students off from the rest of the world.

After they were alone, one of them snorted coldly. “The disciples from the Invincible Society are so arrogant and overbearing. They're really the scum of the Titan Emperor Collegium. Elder Brother Hua, why were you so polite to him? That brat should die for being so arrogant. Doesn't he know our status in the collegium? What is he compared to us? How dare he act like this?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Elder Brother Hua said with a sinister chuckle. “Be polite for now, and let him be arrogant. After all, the people from the Invincible Society are really popular right now. Their Eldest Brother is only a student, but he actually beat up some elder kings. Not even the people from the Hall of Beheadings and Executions can do anything about him. And remember, even though this Yang Qi is only a second step Great Sage, he’s already invincible to anyone under the Demi-Immortal level. In that respect, he’s just like Sword Seventeen. The best thing is to use him while we can, then crush him when the time is right. I could kill him now, if I wanted, but that would anger the Invincible Society and could make things difficult. Maybe we can get him into conflict with experts from the Coiling Arc Collegium and have them kill him for us.”

“Very clever, Elder Brother Hua,” one of the other royal students said. “With someone from the Invincible Society on our side, we probably have a better shot at getting treasure from the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart. Who knows, we might even get a primeval godworm larva.”

“Exactly,” Elder Brother Hua said, nodding. “That stubborn hothead has no idea that he’s working for us now.”

“Hold on a second. Did you sense those spatial fluctuations? I think the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart might be about to appear. Now’s definitely not the time for infighting.”

Another of the royal students produced a mirror, which projected an image of the entire planet above it, including all of the terrain features, cities, ore veins, Proterozoic Violet Energy reserves, and space-time wormholes. It also revealed that, in the depths of the planet, there existed a massive violet wormhole fully three or four hundred million kilometers in diameter, which was constantly emitting Proterozoic Violet Energy. It almost seemed like something created by an immortal.

“That ancient immortal wormhole is a forbidden location in the Coiling Arc planetary system. Not even Paragon Demi-Immortals would dare to enter it. I’d say it’s highly likely the Myriad Worlds Monarch Chart will appear there!”