Chapter 21: Fang Ches Dream

Chapter 21: Fang Che's Dream

Fang Che's plan was very simple: show respect only to the truly good people and bully the shit out of everyone else!

In any case, he was a demonic church member in the eyes of Chen Ruhai and Fan Tiantiao, so he may as well act the part.

With Dongfang Sansan backing him in secret, no one could fire him, so he could do whatever he wanted!

Eventually, Yin Shengong would learn about his behavior, and he would surely be very pleased, so there were two birds being killed with one stone here!

***

Fang Che departed into the snowscape, leaving Tang Zheng to work on his own.

Tang Zheng clasped a hand over his stinging cheek as he began carrying out Fang Che's orders from the day before.

Over the past day and a bit, he had come to realize that Fang Che was truly someone that he couldn't afford to mess with.

Even if Fang Che really were to follow through on his threat of drowning him in a shithole, Tang Zheng doubted that he would face any repercussions.

Hence, he had no choice but to change his past ways of slacking off wherever he could and actually put in some hard work.

***

Fang Che made his way to the Sun Village with a black cloth pouch on his back, containing Sun Yuan's remains.

It was time for a proper burial.

Some of the snow that had fallen on the day of Sun Yuan's death was still around, covering the earth in sporadic patches of pristine white.

Fang Che altered his appearance using the Covert Shapeshifting Technique, not wanting to appear before Sun Yuan's clansmen in his true appearance, then stripped off his uniform and buried it under a tree.

***

The leader of the Sun Clan, Sun Chengcai, was sitting in a chair, warming his hands over a fireplace.

The weather was terribly cold, chilling him to the bone even in spite of the three fires that had been lit in the hall.

"How many years has it been since we've had such heavy snowfall?" he sighed.

His woes were compounded even further by the thought that the renovations on the ancestral grave were still incomplete.

Not long ago, the ancestral grave had suddenly exploded, and during the renovations, a bunch of warriors from some demonic church had suddenly swooped in to kill a bunch of the Sun Clan's clansmen.

According to the traditions of the area, a ceremony had to be performed for those who suffered untimely deaths, and that dragged on for many days.

Finally, the renovations resumed, yet right as work was about to be completed, it was forcibly put on hold again by the heavy snowfall.

In fact, much of the work had to be redone after the snowfall subsided.

It seemed like the Sun Clan had been blighted by misfortune ever since the inexplicable explosion of their ancestral grave, and even Sun Chengcai himself was beginning to grow a little superstitious.

Could it be that our Sun Clan really is being punished by the heavens for some reason?

Right at this moment, a black-robed figure appeared before him without any warning.

"Are you the leader of the Sun Clan?"

Sun Chengcai was terrified, immediately falling to his knees as he pleaded, "Please spare me! I have money! Take whatever you want!"

Fang Che's expression instantly darkened as his pathetic display.

However, he knew that this was a very normal reaction. The members of the Church of the Self-Righteous often committed daylight robbery like this, and a non-warrior like Sun Chengcai was naturally completely powerless to defend himself.

If he offered up everything that he had right away, perhaps the robber would be willing to spare him, but then again, given how cruel and belligerent demonic church members were, the robber would be just as likely, if not more so, to kill him in cold blood just for sport.

"Get up! I'm not here to rob you!" Fang Che snapped. "Do you know Sun Yuanxiu?"

Sun Chengcai shuddered upon hearing this name, then replied, "He's my great grandfather! How do you know him? He's a warrior! A King! But he hasn't been home for a very long time, and nothing that he does has anything to do with us!"

Fang Che could only heave a forlorn internal sigh at Sun Chengchai's desperate ramblings.

It seemed like he wanted to simultaneously use Sun Yuan's status as a King to intimidate Fang Che, but also to deny all ties with Sun Yuan to avoid being implicated by any of his actions.

"He's dead," Fang Che revealed. "I'm his disciple, and I've brought back his remains for a proper burial."

"My great grandfather's dead? Oh lord, why?!"

Sun Chengcai immediately began bawling in grief, but it was such a fake display that Fang Che was struck by the urge to pummel him to a pulp.

Shortly thereafter, the entire Sun Clan was assembled for the return of their ancestor's remains.

A day was selected for his burial, and Sun Yuan's saber served as proof of his identity.

As Sun Yuan's disciple, Fang Che naturally took his place as the patriarch of the Sun Clan, and everyone knelt down and kowtowed to him.

Fang Che was a very generous patriarch, shelling out five hundred thousand taels of silver.

"From now on, I'll come to visit every once in a while, and you can tell me if there's any trouble that you can't address yourselves. These are my master's savings, and I have a bunch of things that he left behind as well. Also, where is his study? I need to look for something in there."

Sun Chengcai led Fang Che to Sun Yuan's study, and there on one of the beams, he found the saber manual that Sun Yuan had spoken of.

"Alright, I'm leaving now. I'll come back to pay my respects in a few days once my master has been buried. Give him the best burial possible, and don't try to skimp on any expenses, you hear me?"

"Yes, of course."

After leaving the Sun Village, Fang Che turned back to take a parting glance, and he felt as if he could see Sun Yuan smiling down upon him.

I'll come visit you in a few days after you're buried. Rest assured, your saber manual is in good hands now. I won't forget what those people did to you. I assure you I will slay them with my own two hands someday, using your Soaring Saber Techniques!

Fang Che dug up his uniform from under the tree, then put it on as he reverted back to his true appearance.

He couldn't help but heave a forlorn sigh as he thought back to Sun Yuan's clansmen.

The entire Sun Clan had gathered together to pay their respects to him earlier, and after examining them all, he discovered that not even a single one of them had any aptitude for warriorhood.

It was truly unfathomable to think that a clan like this could've given rise to a King.

***

Upon returning to the southern gate, Fang Che saw Tang Zheng busy at work, and everything was in good order.

"Masochistic little shit! You must enjoy being abused because it's the only way you get any good work done!"

Tang Zheng was completely flabbergasted.

Is that meant to be a compliment?!

That afternoon, they returned to the Hall of Protectionists, and Fang Che was struck by just how lax the work environment was.

The administrators barely had anything to do all day, and they were virtually being paid to do nothing!

Right as he was about to sign off for the day, he heard the sounds of an altercation erupt from the other administration hall.

A woman was yelling at the top of her lungs at a profusely apologizing fatso, while everyone else stood around, watching in amusement.

After learning what had happened, Fang Che couldn't help but join in everyone's amusement.

The woman's name was Jing Xiuyun, and she was a low-rank General. The fatso was her colleague, and it seemed like he had been born a natural sleazeball. While Jing Xiuyun was out on an errand, he snuck over to her desk and borrowed her brush to write something.

The brush was obviously very much to his liking, as evidenced by the message that he left behind for her on a slip of paper: "You have a very fine brush, Xiuyun. It's supple, wet, and exceptionally tight."

The blatant sexual harassment was already egregious enough on its own, and to make matters even worse, someone else spotted the slip of paper before showing it to everyone else.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Before long, the entire hall was roaring with laughter.

Jing Xiuyun was understandably furious upon her return, and she immediately lashed out at the perpetrator.

The fatso knew that he was at fault, so all he did was apologize and plead for mercy.

Fang Che wasn't a fan of these situations, and he was always quick to shy away from gossip and cheap workplace drama, but he also knew that these types of sleazeballs were present in all workplaces.

They insisted their vulgar actions were expressions of humor, constantly testing the patience and tolerance of others before advising people to lighten up and learn to take a joke better whenever they were met with any resistance.

Quickly losing interest, Fang Che shook his head in exasperation as he walked away, not wanting to waste any more of his time with something so absurd.

Ren Chang rose to his feet from the desk behind Fang Che's as he sighed, "There goes another day..."

Fang Che found himself slightly intrigued. Every single day at the end of work, Ren Chang would utter this exact same phrase as if it were a sacred ritual of his.

Ren Chang was a very quiet and reclusive character, virtually never speaking with others unless he was spoken to, and no one ever knew what he was thinking. Those four simple words "there goes another day" always seemed to carry a myriad of emotions, leading Fang Che to wonder about his life story.

Fan Tiantiao was standing at the entrance, his wrinkly face contorted into a comical smile as he asked, "How do you feel?"

"I feel like I'm wasting my life, doing nothing all day," Fang Che sighed.

"That's just how the world is," Fan Tiantiao chuckled. "We can't be dealing with massive cases all the time. The vast majority of the time, life is comprised of a bunch of mundane and trivial events."

"You mean like what just happened in there?" Fang Che scoffed.

"Don't you think there's some merit to living like this as well?" Fan Tiantiao asked.

"Not at all," Fang Che replied.

"What's so good about having to fight and put your life on the line all the time? We became warriors not for the sake of war, but instead to reach peace, isn't that right?"

"Yes, but I want to use my power to fight for peace and happiness. That way, I can be prepared even if disaster strikes. Instead, you're saying I should live in peace and happiness, then close my eyes and wait for death when disaster comes. I want to fight and have a say in my destiny, while you're saying we should all just be happy while we can and pray that the happy times last."

Fan Tiantiao was stunned into silence. He couldn't help but agree with Fang Che.

Hold on a second, I'm here to try and change

his

mindset, but he's pulled a switcheroo on me!

"Fang Che, can I ask you what your dream is?"

"My dream?"

It was Fang Che's turn to be stumped now.

He had never really thought about this concept.

Fan Tiantiao was still taking it upon himself to try and sway Fang Che back from the path of evil, and he continued, "Everyone has to have a dream. Now that you've made it to the Hall of Protectionists, what's your dream from here?"

"Even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me, so I'm not going to bother."

"How do you know I won't believe you if you don't tell me?"

"My dream is to kill every last person in the Church of the Self-Righteous. Do you believe me?"