Chapter 12: Return to the White Cloud Prefecture

"You need to work harder in your cultivation. When I'm not home, buy a little maidservant to take care of the chores so you can dedicate more time to cultivation. Otherwise, neither of us will be alive for much longer," Fang Che said in a grim voice.

"Yes, Young Master," Ye Meng hurriedly replied, still immensely relieved that she had managed to allay Fang Che's suspicions.

"Those people should be gone by now, so we should get out of here as well," Fang Che declared, then examined the other entrance of the cave, which had been sealed shut, before reinforcing the blockage with more large rocks.

After that, the two of them left the cave through the pond that they had entered, breaking through the ice to return to the surface.

Fang Che really wanted to know what was buried here to have given rise to a pond capable of nurturing spirit bodies.

However, this place was serving as a secret base of his, and he didn't want to ruin it by digging up the entire area, so he reined in his curiosity for now.

They had been here for a day and a night, and the Golden Horn Flood Dragon was ecstatic to be back at its former home.

It summoned all of its lackeys, many of which were in hibernation, and after showing off its newfound power to them, it strengthened the toxins of its existing lackeys while also nurturing a new batch to further bolster the defenses in the area.

With that, the two of them departed in silence.

It was still snowing, intermittently getting heavier and lighter in accordance with the will of the heavens.

"It's been a very long time since we've had such heavy and prolonged snowfall," Ye Meng remarked.

She was feeling very free and exultant now that she finally no longer had to hide her true cultivation base.

"Perhaps the heavens are lamenting my master's passing," Fang Che mused.

Ye Meng internally scoffed at the notion of the heavens lamenting the passing of a demonic church member, but she kept those thoughts to herself as she sighed, "Perhaps so. Master Sun was such a good man, it's a shame he had to go out in such a tragic fashion."

Fang Che fell silent again, and before long, they reached the place where Sun Yuan had met his demise. Countless trees had been felled in the area to create an artificial clearing, and Fang Che stood in the clearing with a dazed expression.

He began digging through the snow, but was unable to find Sun Yuan's remains.

Only after a long search was he able to dig up a leg bone, and he shuddered as he pursed his lips tightly.

From there, he expanded the scope of his search, and he was able to dig up more bones that he was able to painstakingly assemble into a skeleton, but there wasn't even a scrap of flesh left.

After an extensive search, Fang Che returned to Sun Yuan's remains with a look of murderous rage in his eyes.

"Where's the head?! Where's my master's head?!"

He had already searched through the entire area in a radius of several thousand feet, but no head had been uncovered.

In this instant, he was overcome by such an intense surge of fury that his hair began to stand up on end.

He seethed in silence for a moment, then removed his cloak and used it as a pouch to carefully pack up Sun Yuan's remains.

All that was left of the tall and imposing Soaring Saber King was a small bundle of bones.

Fang Che's plan was to take the remains to be buried in the Sun Clan's ancestral grave, but before that, he had to find Sun Yuan's head.

The fact that it was absent from this place meant that those people had to have taken it.

As for why they would've done that, Fang Che could only think of one possible reason: to goad him out of hiding.

Hence, those people had to have been in the White Cloud Prefecture.

He carried the pouch of Sun Yuan's remains on his back as he cast his gaze into the distance in the direction of the White Cloud Prefecture.

"Let's go back to the White Cloud Prefecture!" he spat through gritted teeth.

Prior to setting off, he altered his own appearance slightly. Even though he had already altered his appearance last time, and he had concealed most of his face from Li Mengyun's trio with a scarf, he still felt it best to err on the side of caution.

Right as they were about to reach the White Cloud Prefecture, the snow miraculously stopped.

However, the prolonged snowfall was nothing short of a disaster for many impoverished families, and tents had been set up outside the city gates of the White Cloud Prefecture for displaced people to take refuge in.

Countless old people and children were shivering from the cold as they trudged through the snow with looks of despair in their eyes.

There were people handing out rations at the city gates, but those rations were not going to be enough for them to survive this brutal spate of winter chill.

Fang Che made his way toward the city gates with a cold expression as he instructed, "Ye Meng, once we get back home, deliver a million taels of silver to the local authorities as a donation to help these displaced people."

"Thank you, Young Master! I thank you on behalf of all of these people!"

Ye Meng was ecstatic to see this display of humanity from Fang Che.

Could it be that the death of Sun Yuan had awakened something within him?

"Make it an anonymous donation," Fang Che instructed. "By saving the tens of thousands of people here, I won't feel as bad when I take the lives of others in the future."

Ye Meng was rendered speechless upon hearing this.

You're making a donation so you can feel justified killing others? I should've never gotten my hopes up!

Ye Meng cursed Fang Che internally as they approached the city gates, but right at this moment, Fang Che abruptly stopped in his tracks.

Ye Meng almost bumped into him from behind, and she turned to him with an inquisitive gaze, wondering why he had stopped, only to discover that he was looking up at something on the city wall.

High up above their heads, a head had been impaled into the city wall by a gleaming saber.

The saber had been plunged through the head's mouth, and even in death, the head's eyes remained wide open.

Ye Meng felt her skin crawl as she identified the head.

This was where Sun Yuan's missing head had been taken!

Beneath the head was a white banner that carried a message written in blood: "Scourge of the demonic church, Sun Yuan"

In this instant, even Ye Meng was overcome by a sense of rage.

How could they do this?

To further add insult to injury, Sun Yuan's head had been impaled to the city wall by his very own Soaring Saber!

The freezing weather had preserved his head exceptionally well, and there was a twisted look on his face, while his mouth was wide open in a silent roar.

His hair had been frozen solid, remaining completely stationary in spite of the chilling wind.

Gazing upon Sun Yuan's twisted face, Fang Che felt as if a red hot poker had been stabbed into his heart.

However, his expression conveyed no emotions as he patted the cloth pouch on his back, then made his way into the city.

The guards at the city gate still remembered Ye Meng for her stunning beauty, and as soon as they spotted her, one of them remarked, "Looks like Young Master Fang is back."

Fang Che had only slightly altered his own appearance so that those familiar with him could still recognize him, but he was looking somewhat frail and sickly.

"Looks like you had a rough trip."

"Sure did! Traveling through all this wind and snow is no easy feat," Fang Che chuckled. "That's an interesting piece of decoration up there. Who did it?"

"I don't know," the guard replied with a smile. "The head just suddenly turned up there one day. Our superiors speculate that one of the Guardians or Protectionists must've done it, so they're allowing it to remain up there. It's the head of a demonic church member anyway, so why not hang it up as a warning to the masses?"

"Well-deserved, I say!" Fang Che agreed. "This is what all demonic church members deserve!"

"Precisely!"

After a brief chat, the two of them were granted entry into the city, and Fang Che didn't seem fazed at all by what he had just seen.

However, Ye Meng knew that he was definitely not as composed as he appeared on the surface.

He kept his emotions bottled up, behaving as if it were any other day as they made their way back to the Virtue Manor.

After returning home, he set the pouch of bones down onto the table, then urged, "Hurry up and go sweep the snow and clean up the place, then start a fire and cook up some food."

After sending Ye Meng away, he began wiping down his weapons, and only after he had polished his entire arsenal did he pick up the pouch of bones and make his way into his study.

With the door closed, his cheerful facade finally gave way to a grim scowl.

He set Sun Yuan's remains down onto the reclining chair.

That was Sun Yuan's favorite place to sit whenever he came to visit.

"Some demonic church member you are," Fang Che scoffed. "Weren't you supposed to be selfish? Weren't you supposed to tell them that I'm Night Demon to save yourself?"

The weight of the cloth pouch caused the reclining chair to sway slightly, and it was as if Sun Yuan were still laying on it.