Chapter 163: The Highlight of Yin Shengong's Life

A full fifteen minutes had passed since Fang Che's emergence, and no one else had come out after him. During this time, everyone was looking back and forth between him and the gateway with puzzled expressions.

All of the popes had erupted into chatter, and it was as if there were countless mosquitoes buzzing over the entire plaza.

"Silence!" the announcer roared.

Right at this moment, Yan Beihan flew out of the gateway before landing on the red carpet, followed by all of the Generals from the main church.

Everyone heaved a collective sigh of relief.

More and more people emerged from the gateway, then walked down the red carpet before standing behind the signs bearing the names of their respective churches.

Ren Zhongyuan was watching from afar, and he couldn't help but wonder why only a single One Heart Church General had emerged. What happened to all of the others? Are they still yet to come?

Finally, all of the surviving Generals emerged, and the gateway of light faded away, indicating that there were no survivors left in the Parasite Ascension Domain.

There seemed to be no end to the storm of flower petals raining down from the heavens.

Many of the popes were looking on in stunned silence. Not a single General from their churches had made it out alive. The signs bearing the name of their churches resembled tombstones, with no one standing behind them.

The most astonished one of them all was Pope Jiang Yihe of the Moon Demon Church.

Where's my son? What happened to my son?

Meanwhile, many of the other popes had observed that the number of Generals from the main church had also been significantly reduced.

Who could've been responsible for killing so many Generals from the main church?!

Bi Changhong was also watching the proceedings with a puzzled expression.

There had always been at least seventy to eighty thousand survivors in each of the past editions of the Parasite Ascension Project, yet there were clearly far fewer survivors on this occasion.

"Go and tally up the numbers."

"The numbers have already been tallied, Deputy Pope Bi. There are a total of 35,463 survivors."

Bi Changhong's eyelids twitched involuntarily upon hearing this.

153,612 people had gone in, and only 35,463 had returned...

How were there so many casualties this time?

"Tally up the Five Spirit Parasites and determine the final rankings!" Bi Changhong ordered.

"We will now begin tallying up the results!" the announcer declared. "We will call out the churches one by one in order of placings from the previous edition of the project. When the name of your church is called out, step forward to have your Five Spirit Parasites examined. First up will be the Ice Demon Church!"

Not a single person stepped forward.

The pope of the Ice Demon Church looked as if he wanted to murder someone.

"Ice Demon Church!" the announcer repeated.

"All of the Ice Demon Church Generals are dead!" the pope of the Fire Demon Church answered in a gleeful voice.

All of the popes erupted into laughter.

The Ice Demon Church had secured the top spot last time, yet this time, its pope would be forced to kneel. How the tables turned!

"Pope of the Ice Demon Church, come out and kneel!" the announcer ordered.

Pope Xue Hun of the Ice Demon Church emerged with a dazed look of disbelief on his face, then fell to his knees.

He cast his gaze toward the chairs up ahead. One of those chairs had almost always belonged to him, and it was only now that he came to understand just how terrible a feeling it was to be kneeling here under the scrutiny of hundreds of thousands of pairs of eyes.

"Metal Demon Church!"

Over fifty Iron Demon Church Generals stepped forward, forming a line to have their Five Spirit Parasites examined.

Some had several dozen kills, some had over a hundred, and the highest tally among them was over four hundred.

"Yin Demon Church!"

Around a dozen people stepped forward.

"Moon Demon Church!"

The call was unanswered.

"All of the Moon Demon Church Generals are dead as well!" the pope of the Fire Demon Church yelled once again, reveling in his role as the bearer of bad news.

Pope Jiang Yihe of the Moon Demon Church was already in a state of mourning.

Compared with the humiliation of having to kneel, the grief of losing his son was much more difficult to bear.

"Pope of the Moon Demon Church, come out and kneel!"

Jiang Yihe strode forward with his fists clenched and his head lowered, then knelt down beside the pope of the Ice Demon Church.

"Fire Demon Church!"

"Here!" the pope of the Fire Demon Church yelled.

Three people stepped forward.

Three?!

The announcer took an exasperated glance at the pope of the Fire Demon Church. He had taken so much joy in announcing the total annihilation of the Ice Demon and Moon Demon Churches, yet his church only had three survivors!

One church was called out after another.

The Church of Light, the Night Demon, and the Divine Heavenly Church also had no survivors, a fact that the pope of the Fire Demon Church was eager to point out.

Finally.

"One Heart Church!"

Yin Shengong gestured for Fang Che to step forward in an excited manner.

All of Ren Zhongyuan's people were dead, and the only survivor was his! On top of that, he didn't even have to kneel! This was the best outcome that he could've asked for!

Yin Shengong was grinning from ear to ear. All of his depression and despair had faded away, and he resembled the proud father of a scholar who had claimed the top spot in the imperial examination.

Fang Che strode forward and extended a respectful salute. The announcer was holding some type of black box in his hand, and it was able to draw his Five Spirit Parasite out of his body.

His Five Spirit Parasite was clearly larger than everyone else's, and its exoskeleton was such a glossy black that it was practically glowing.

The announcer's eyes widened in shock as he stared at Fang Che, looking as if he had seen a ghost.

Clearly, he had been stunned beyond words by the number displayed on the box.

Unbeknownst to Fang Che, the kill counts of his victims all contributed to his final kill count. For example, if he killed someone with a kill count of three, then he would essentially be claiming four kills in one.

Fang Che had only counted the people that he had personally killed, so by his estimates, his kill count was only in the thousands.

The announcer quickly composed himself and informed Fang Che that the process was complete.

The entire tallying procedure took far less time than it did during previous editions of the Parasite Ascension Project, which was unsurprising, given the significantly reduced number of survivors.

"I will now be announcing the top ten!"

"Tenth place, the Fire Demon Church."

"Ninth place, the Red Demon Church."

"Eighth place, the Flame Demon Church."

"Seventh place, the Wood Demon Church."

"Sixth place, the Orchid Demon Church."

"Fifth place, the Earth Demon Church."

"Fourth place, the Dark Demon Church."

The popes of the churches that had just been announced sat down one by one.

There were only nine chairs on the stage, and the pope of the Fire Demon Church was standing proudly beside the nine chairs as if he were the guardian of the nine popes.

Yin Shengong looked on with envy at the seated popes. In his eyes, there was no way that Fang Che could've secured a top-three finish, so he had to have landed somewhere outside the top ten.

However, that didn't matter. His position of pope had already been secured, and he wouldn't have to kneel. Both of these were already tremendous blessings in his eyes.

"Third place, the Water Demon Church!"

"Second place, the Metal Demon Church!"

The announcer intentionally paused here momentarily to build some suspense, then concluded, "First place..."

He paused here once again.

Everyone thought that the announcer was only doing this to build more suspense, but they quickly realized that something wasn't right. The announcer's gaze was roaming over the entire venue, seemingly searching for someone.

With each of the top-ten placings that he had announced, his gaze had fallen upon the pope of the respective church, and he was doing the same here, but he couldn't find the pope that he was searching for.

He couldn't be blamed for this, considering Yin Shengong was standing far away from the elevated platform, and his head was lowered as he whispered to Qian Sanjiang, "Now that my position has been retained, it's time for us to weed out Ren Zhongyuan and his allies as soon as we get back."

Qian Sanjiang nodded in response with an excited expression.

With the crisis averted, it was time to exact vengeance!

Both of them then turned their attention to the announcer with perplexed expressions.

Who came in first place? Why have you suddenly gone quiet?

Yin Shengong looked up to discover the announcer looking right back at him with a smile.

The hell are you smiling at me for?! Hurry up and tell us who came first!

As soon as he locked eyes with Yin Shengong, the announcer declared, "First place, the One Heart Church!"

All of the popes collectively turned to Yin Shengong with astonished expressions, and the popes ahead of him hurriedly parted to let him through.

Yin Shengong gawked back at the announcer with a dumbstruck expression, feeling as if he had just been struck by a bolt of lightning.

He stupidly pointed at himself with mouth gaped wide open, then asked, "Me?"

The announcer nodded in confirmation, then repeated, "First place, the One Heart Church!"

Even though this was the second time the announcement had been made, he still felt just as stunned as the first time.

All of a sudden, he jumped up and began flailing around in excitement.

He had never sat in one of those chairs before! Actually, no, he had, but on that occasion, the General that had secured the top-three finish perished to his injuries before he even made it back to the One Heart Church, so it didn't really count.

Officially speaking, this was his first time!

Not only that, but he was about to ascend the staircase!

Countless thoughts were racing through his mind, and the one that rose to the fore was: What pose should I strike to show off to everyone else?

He stepped forward in as elegant and composed a gait as he could muster, only to almost trip on his first step.

This must be a dream! There's no way this is real! But please let it be real!

He made his way toward the central seat reserved for the first-place finisher.

All the while, Hall Master Hu Qiu of the treasury altar, the one who had been running the betting station earlier, was looking on in seething fury.

He had eagerly accepted that bet of one thousand divine crystals from Yin Shengong, encouraged it, in fact, but it had now come back to bite him in the bottom more viciously than he could've ever anticipated.

Right at this moment, a loud, dissenting voice rang out.

"Wait!"