Chapter 157: You Have My Thanks

"He's using Yin Shengong's Seven Blood Spirit Swords," Ling Kong said. "Looks like he must be Yin Shengong's disciple, and the fact that Yin Shengong taught him the full set of Seven Blood Spirit Swords indicates that he has very high hopes for him."

"It's a pity that the One Heart Church is ranked so low," Lu Yuan sighed.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"It's alright, that's only because Yin Shengong has exhausted his connections," Ling Kong said. "He possesses all of the personal qualities required to go higher, but his mistake was pledging his allegiance to the logistics department. As I'm sure you're aware, up to a certain point, the logistics department can't really help much with further progression.

“Essentially, his ceiling was capped from the very beginning. Once Yin Shengong realized this problem, he tried to deepen his ties with Deputy Pope Bai, but by then, it was already too late. Even though he's been doing his best to make amends, his future isn't looking very bright. From what I've heard, Yin Shengong has no intention of coming to our main church anyway.

“He knows that given his cultivation base and connections, even if he comes to the main church, he'll only be a bottom-dweller, so he would rather be the pope of a subsidiary church. However, this Night Demon is a different story. With the support of our battle hall, he'll be sure to surpass Yin Shengong as long as he doesn't die prematurely.

“Hence, even though Yin Shengong's future prospects are limited, the One Heart Church has a bright future ahead."

"If everything goes smoothly, how many years do you think it'll take to reach that step?" Lu Yuan asked.

Ling Kong considered the questions for some time, then said in a hesitant manner, "Somewhere between thirty to sixty years? What do you think?"

"My guess is about the same, perhaps a little earlier," Lu Yuan replied. "Right now, Night Demon is a General, and he's eaten the Cloud Water Heavenly Fruit, so he should be able to reach the Lord tier pretty much as soon as he leaves this place. My projection is that he'll become a Warlord in two years, a King in five, and an Emperor in ten.

“He should be able to reach the Sovereign tier in twenty years, and once he goes beyond that point, he should be able to claim the spot of pope or deputy pope of a subsidiary church. If everything goes smoothly, your prediction should ring true."

"By then, all of us should also be at or above the Sovereign tier, and that's when Night Demon will be able to truly help us in our power struggles against our peers," Ling Kong said with a hint of excitement in his eyes.

"Things may not work out so perfectly, Boss," Lu Yuan said. "Don't forget that there will be a period of time in which we'll be sent down to the subsidiary churches."

"Shoot, I did forget about that!" Ling Kong said as he slapped a hand to his forehead.

However, his excitement hadn't died down in the slightest.

After his brief killing spree, Fang Che returned to find Ling Kong and Lu Yuan discussing something with each other in an animated fashion, and he smiled as he asked, "What sinister plot are you two hatching now?"

Over the past few days, they had grown very casual and friendly with one another.

"We're busy planning out a future path for you, you ungrateful little bastard!" Ling Kong harrumphed.

"Oh? I didn't know there were such kind people like yourselves in our main church," Fang Che chuckled.

Everyone else also burst into laughter upon hearing this.

From there, Fang Che went on a tireless killing spree, using up all of his Soul Devouring Incense in just seven days.

He asked Ling Kong if the latter could return those two pieces of Soul Devouring Incense to him, only to be firmly turned down.

"Have you no shame? How could you ask for something that you've already given out?"

"Are the people of our Church of the Self-Righteous supposed to have a sense of shame? This is news to me!"

"That's blasphemy! Don't go casually speaking the truth like that!"

"Relax, there's no one else around. Whenever I'm speaking with our pope, I always make sure to butter him up real nice."

"You really are a two-faced scoundrel, aren't you? Ling Kong chuckled."

In the end, Ling Kong insisted on holding onto the two pieces of Soul Devouring Incense.

"You've already killed more than 2,600 people over these past seven days, how many more kills do you want?"

"The more the merrier," Fang Che grinned. "Ideally, I want to take a shot at the top spot!"

Ling Kong and the others let loose a collective groan of despair upon hearing this. They were already utterly exhausted.

Fang Che was truly a lean, mean killing machine. He was the most hard-working and conscientious killer they had ever seen!

Throughout the history of the Parasite Ascension Project, there had never been anyone that was still going on huge killing sprees at such a late stage, yet it seemed like Fang Che's bloodlust was insatiable!

It looked as if he wanted nothing more than to kill everyone in here!

***

Outside the Parasite Ascension Domain, some people had begun placing bets on the outcome of the project.

"No bets are to be placed on the main church. Let's bet on which one of the subsidiary churches will come out on top!"

All of the popes were eagerly casting their bets, and this had already become a customary event in all of the past editions of the Parasite Ascension Project.

After all, the popes were stuck here for an entire month, and they had to find some forms of entertainment to pass the time.

"Who should we bet on, Pope Yin? Should we bet on ourselves?" Qian Sanjiang asked.

Yin Shengong rolled his eyes as he scoffed, "If I bet on our church, I'd much rather lose than win!"

Qian Sanjiang heaved a forlorn sigh.

Indeed, out of the 257 One Heart Church Generals, only one was Yin Shengong's. Just the mere thought of the ratio of 256:1 was enough to cast Yin Shengong into a state of despair.

To further compound his woes, his only hope had incurred the wrath of everyone prior to going in.

Yin Shengong was even more incensed by this thought, and he grumbled, "If Night Demon manages to make it out alive, I'm going to break his legs and make sure he's bedridden for at least half a year! What the hell was he thinking? He turned everyone against him before he even went in! Does he have a death wish? Even before coming here, I told him that this place was teeming with seventh, eighth, and ninth-rank Generals...

“He's just a fifth-rank General, yet by the way he acted, you could easily have mistaken him for a fifth-rank Sovereign! I'm screwed! There's no hope left for me! How could a fifth-rank General possibly survive after being trapped in a wolves' den for an entire month with over 150,000 seventh, eighth, and ninth-rank Generals all thirsting for his blood?

“I had such high hopes in him, yet he's completely dashed my hopes along with any chances of his own survival!"

"Night Demon's very smart and resourceful, perhaps he'll be able to make it out alive," Qian Sanjiang said in an unconvincing manner.

Yin Shengong turned to Qian Sanjiang with an exasperated look of mockery in his eyes as he asked, "Is that really what you think?"

Qian Sanjiang heaved a faint sigh and fell silent.

Yin Shengong felt as if he were on the verge of depression.

How cruel fate had been to grant him a glimmer of hope at the last second, only to dash it under such farcical circumstances!

All of a sudden, he was overcome by a sense of powerlessness. Through his connections, he had learned that Bei Mingxin and Ren Zhongyuan had already paved all the groundwork for the latter's rise to the top.

At this point, the only missing piece was for one of Ren Zhongyuan's Generals to secure a top-ten finish in the Parasite Ascension Project.

Once that happened, the best outcome that Yin Shengong could hope for was to be transferred to some tiny, rural church to serve as pope there.

What was even more of a slap to the face was that Ren Zhongyuan had already been plotting this since the previous edition of the Parasite Ascension, yet he had been completely oblivious to all of this until just recently!

What happened to my backers?! Have they already abandoned me?!

His sense of powerlessness was only further compounded by this thought.

"Fuck me!" Yin Shengong cursed.

"What're you cussing at over there, Yin Shengong?" the pope of the Moon Demon Church asked as he approached the group. "Come place your bets. I guarantee you'll win if you bet on my church!"

"Yeah right!" Yin Shengong scoffed. "You can maybe get a top-ten finish or a top-three finish at most, but there's no chance you'll take the top spot!"

"Who're you betting on then? You have to bet on someone!" Jiang Yihe snapped with a disgruntled expression. "Things are different from my Moon Demon Church this time! We all know that the Generals of the main church never aim for the top spot, so this is a contest between all the subsidiary churches. I even sent my son in there this time. You know what that means, right?"

"So what? The pope of the Flame Demon Church sent both his sons in there!" Yin Shengong scoffed.

"You don't know shit! My son is a prodigy!" Jiang Yihe snapped.

"Your son's probably already been turned into fertilizer in there by now!" Yin Shengong sneered feebly.

"Fuck you, Yin Shengong!"

Jiang Yihe was furious! Not only was Yin Shengong not offering any words of praise or encouragement, he was cursing him instead!

Yin Shengong wasn't fazed by Jiang Yihe's fury in the slightest. Such was his despair that he had almost lost the capacity to be afraid.

There's no hope left for me anyway, how could you possibly make things any worse for me?

"What're you gonna do, Jiang Yihe? Fight me?" he sneered.

Fighting was strictly prohibited here by the main church, so Jiang Yihe definitely wouldn't dare to take the bait, but there were no rules against verbal abuse, and he treated Yin Shengong to a live recitation of his entire vocabulary of derogatory terms.

Yin Shengong sat back lazily in his chair as he watched Jiang Yihe's performance with an amused smile, as if he weren't even the one on the receiving end of Jiang Yihe's furious tirade.

Before long, everyone's attention had been drawn to the duo.

"What's going on?"

Pope Xue Hun of the Ice Demon Church approached them to mediate.

"Yin Shengong was asking for it!" Jiang Yihe snapped in a furious manner.

Yin Shengong remained reclined lazily in his chair as he spread his hands open and argued, "Am I wrong? There are over 150,000 Generals, what makes you so convinced that your son is definitely still alive? If he's alive, then he's in luck, but he's far likelier to be dead! It's just statistics and probability!"

"I hope every single one of your One Heart Church Generals die in there!" Jiang Yihe raged.

"I sincerely hope for the very same thing!" Yin Shengong replied with an earnest smile.