Chapter 16: Take Down the Head

The chief administrator had no choice but to turn a blind eye to all of this.

Fan Tiantiao had warned him to keep a close eye on Fang Che, and that he wouldn't accept any request from him to transfer Fang Che away under any circumstances.

Hence, he didn't dare to do anything. If he were to reprimand Fang Che, only for the latter to blatantly disrespect, then there was nothing he could do! It wasn't like he could fire Fang Che or have him transferred away.

If that were to happen, then he would lose all authority in the eyes of his subordinates, so the only safe course of action was just to ignore Fang Che and let him do as he pleased.

After taking some time to drink tea and read through the files, Fang Che called upon Tang Zheng to take a stroll with him in the southern area of the city.

Tang Zheng could only trail along behind him with a fearful expression.

"Don't be too ambitious, Administrator Fang," Ren Chang cautioned. "While it's good to have enthusiasm for your work, don't expect to be able to do much on your first day."

"Thank you for your concern, Administrator Ren. I'm just going to take a stroll and familiarize myself with my work environment," Fang Che reassured with a smile.

***

As it turned out, Fang Che had overestimated Li Mengyun.

Furthermore, he was mistaken about something.

It was very easy to uncover Fang Che's connection to Sun Yuan, but it was near impossible to piece together Sun Yuan's connection to Night Demon.

All of the top brass of White Cloud Warrior Academy were aware that Fang Che's master was Sun Yuan, but if the other subsidiary churches were to try and use Sun Yuan as an incision point, then they would be faced with a monumental task.

Churches like the Church of Light, the Three Saints Church, the Divine Heavenly Church, and the Night Demon Church weren't even aware that Sun Yuan was in the White Cloud Prefecture.

They had no idea that Sun Yuan had taken on a disciple, and that wasn't even to mention the fact that Sun Yuan was dead!

On top of that, the White Cloud Prefecture had just undergone a mass cleansing in the wake of the jade search incident.

Upon her arrival in the White Cloud Prefecture, Li Mengyun immediately began searching for Night Demon, but when she contacted Pope Hai Wuliang of the Night Demon Church for assistance, she was informed that the Night Demon Church's forces in the White Cloud Prefecture had already been completely uprooted.

The same applied to the Three Saints Church, and no one had any idea that Sun Yuan had taken on a disciple.

Sun Yuan was just a low-ranking elder of the One Heart Church, so no one had paid him any attention.

In fact, several of the churches didn't even know who Sun Yuan was!

With no one else to turn to, Li Mengyun reached out to her contacts in the One Heart Church, ones that had been introduced to her by Ren Zhongyuan, but all of them had already been decimated during Yin Shengong's purge.

In the end, she had no choice but to directly contact Yin Shengong, but she received the same response: "Our church's forces in the White Cloud Prefecture have already been completely uprooted by the Protectionists."

"Who is Sun Yuan's disciple? What's his name?"

"Sun Yuan had a disciple? I'm afraid I wasn't aware."

"Are you truly unaware, or do you simply not wish to tell me?"

"I genuinely don't know. Am I supposed to keep tabs on the disciples taken on by all of my subordinates?"

Li Mengyun had no response to this.

"May I ask what crimes Sun Yuan has committed, Young Mistress Li? Surely you must provide a reason for killing him. Emperors are very hard to come by in subsidiary churches like ours, and the loss of Sun Yuan is a heavy blow."

Once again, Li Mengyun was at a loss for how to respond.

It wasn't like she could tell Yin Shengong that she wanted to kill his disciple, and that she killed Sun Yuan because he deceived her instead of leading her to Night Demon.

Hence, she ignored the question altogether and posed one of her own.

"Where is Night Demon?"

"Do you need me to tie him up and take him to you so you can avenge your brother? If so, feel free to tell me."

"It's fine, I'll find Night Demon myself. All the best, Pope Yin. May you rise up the ranks and join us in the main church someday."

Yin Shengong read the message with a cold sneer.

This was a veiled threat from Li Mengyun, implying that his path for future progression was non-existent now that he had made an enemy out of the Li Clan.

"Thank you for your well wishes, but I must regrettably inform you that I've reported your actions to the main church. According to the rules, no retaliatory measure is to be taken over events that transpire during the Parasite Ascension Project, so you've stepped out of line. On top of that, killing Sun Yuan is an additional transgression.

“I will be submitting these messages to my higher-ups as evidence to support my case. Instead of searching Night Demon, perhaps you should be focusing your efforts on thinking about how you're going to deal with the repercussions of your actions."

With that, Yin Shengong tossed his communication jade aside with a cold harrumph.

The dumb bitch must have a screw loose in her head! Who in their right mind would ask something like this?!

Li Mengyun was astonished by Yin Shengong's fiery response.

Never had she imagined that Yin Shengong would dare to display such blatant disrespect to someone of her status.

In terms of experience and cunning, Yin Shengong could run laps around her with ease, so she was never going to best him in a war of words.

She was furious, but powerless to do anything.

The bigger problem was that the Sun Yuan lead had run completely cold.

It was as if the White Cloud Prefecture truly was a power vacuum as far as the Church of the Self-Righteous was concerned.

Li Mengyun was bewildered.

How could there exist such a place on this continent?!

Only after some further digging did she learn about the recent jade search incident, a major catastrophe that had almost resulted in the demise of Bei Mingxin.

She was left speechless from what she had learned.

This had been a completely fruitless trip.

She still had no idea where Night Demon was, and at this point, it seemed like the only way to get to him would be to capture Yin Shengong for interrogation.

However, Yin Shengong had already escalated this matter to the main church, and the entire LI Clan was currently facing the persecution of the enforcement altar.

At a time like this, they certainly wouldn't dare to touch Yin Shengong. In any case, it wasn't like they had the personnel to capture a warrior of Yin Shengong's caliber anyway.

"Let's go to the southern area of the city. Surely Sun Yuan's disciple can't be such a spineless coward! His master's head has already been hanging on the city wall for close to ten days now!"

The four of them made their way to the southern gate in a dejected manner, and if they didn't find any new leads there, their plan was to leave and return to the main church.

***

Meanwhile, Fang Che was at the southern gate, having just received a message from Yin Shengong, one that instilled him with immense reassurance.

The Li Clan didn't know who he was at all!

He quickly realized that his made sense, considering his identity as Night Demon was an extremely closely guarded secret

There were only four people who were aware that he was both Night Demon and Sun Yuan's disciple, and there was no way any of those four people would betray him.

At the moment, Fang Che was patrolling the southern area of the city on behalf of the Hall of Protectionists, looking very dashing in his brand new uniform.

"Set up a congee stand here! All of these displaced people need to be fed!"

"Clear up the snow here! It's a huge potential hazard for anyone passing through!"

"Set up some fires over there. Those waiting for rations can at least sit by the fire and warm themselves up a little."

"Clean up that area over there. All that built-up manure is going to get people sick sooner or later. Tang Zheng, go and dispose of that dead dog over there."

"Are you blind, Tang Zheng?! You don't see that pile of manure? Hurry up and dispose of it!"

Tang Zheng was cursing Fang Che internally as he carried out the latter's bidding.

However, it had to be said that Fang Che's instructions were making a real difference, and the environment outside the southern gate was quickly becoming more orderly and hospitable.

Li Mengyun's group was standing in the crowd, watching as Fang Che issued one instruction after another.

"Looks like the Hall of Protectionists isn't just filled with incompetent fools," Li Mengyun remarked, and the others nodded in agreement.

"Is it just me, or does this administrator look a little familiar?" Li Changbo mused. "Does he not look like that disciple of Sun Yuan's?"

"That's impossible!" Li Mengyun jeered. "How could someone like Sun Yuan possibly have had an administrator at the Hall of Protectionists as a disciple? That's absurd! Think before you speak!"

"You're right, Young Mistress."

Li Changbo immediately dismissed the thought.

Right at this moment, Fang Che yelled, "How many days has that head been up there, Tang Zheng? Hurry up and take it down! The sun's already out, and it's going to start decomposing once it thaws out."