Chapter 20: Helmsmaster Starlight

"Yes, Master. I'll be sure to remember everything."

"Oh, before I forget, I had a discussion with your uncle-masters earlier, and we've decided to appoint you as the helmsmaster of the White Cloud Prefecture branch helm."

Fang Che was astonished to hear that he had been assigned such a lofty position, skipping the stronghold and incense hall rungs in the hierarchy to jump straight to helmsmaster!

"Your mission is to reconstruct the White Cloud Prefecture branch helm in secret. The White Cloud Prefecture branch helm won't be incorporated into the One Heart Church merit system. Instead, it'll be overseen directly by me. Otherwise, if your identity is leaked, that would be a major problem."

"Surely the position of helmsmaster is too high, Master! I don't have any leadership experience, isn't this all happening too fast?"

Yin Shengong burst into laughter.

"No leadership experience? You're far too modest, Administrator Fang!"

"Master! You're making fun of me!"

Yin Shengong could imagine Night Demon's face flushed with embarrassment and chagrin on the other end, and the mental image had him chortling with mirth.

"The decision is final!"

"But I don't have any subordinates."

"Elder Mu will send you a list of all of our church's residual forces in the White Cloud Prefecture. On top of that, you're also free to use all of the prodigies that we've planted in White Cloud Warrior Academy as you see fit."

"I don't trust them, Master. All those people have most likely already become bait for the Protectionists."

"In that case, you can round them all up as Administrator Fang and convert them into merit points at the Hall of Protectionists."

"But if I do that, I'll just be a lone helmsmaster with no one under my command."

"I'm going to come clean. All of those people, including the prodigies planted in White Cloud Warrior Academy, are Ren Zhongyuan's people."

"I see. I know what I need to do then. By the way, what exactly is it that a branch helm does?"

"Essentially, a branch helm's objective is to remain hidden while providing a source of revenue for the church through any means necessary. The church has a lot of operating costs, and it requires injections of funds from its branch helms. On top of that, a branch helm must carry out all types of missions, such as assassination, disruption, and infiltration.

“You can also keep an eye out for people that you can potentially convert to join our church. Additionally, you must preserve all of the branch helm's shops and territories so that they aren't encroached upon by others. According to my knowledge, the other subsidiary churches of our southeastern path are also constructing new White Cloud Prefecture branch helms. Do what you will with that knowledge."

"I see, but if we do all of that, then the secret branch helm would no longer be secret, would it?"

Yin Shengong was momentarily stumped. Indeed, he had failed to consider this.

"What do you think should be done then?"

"I think I should just construct a branch helm without bothering to keep it a secret, but I can't use my codename of Night Demon. Instead, I'll use a different codename, and we can just say that Night Demon was sent out for training."

"That's a great idea!"

Yin Shengong was thoroughly impressed. This way, the branch helm could be incorporated into the One Heart Church merit system, and it would be an above-ground entity that wouldn't have to worry about being exposed.

Furthermore, with Night Demon's mastery of the Covert Shapeshifting Technique, he could easily adopt a different identity.

"What new codename should I give you?"

"How about Number One Demon, Master?"

"Piss off!"

What a terrible suggestion!

After some thought, Yin Shengong decided: "Let's call you Starlight. That'll be your new codename."

He was standing in front of his window, drawing inspiration from the brightest and most radiant star in the night sky.

"That's a great name!"

Fang Che would've accepted any codename assigned to him by Yin Shengong, even something like Dog Shit!

It hardly mattered to him anyway, and the worse the name was, the more it would be a reflection of Yin Shengong's affection.

Meanwhile, Yin Shengong continued gazing up at the brightest star in the sky.

If I die someday, may I become that brightest star to illuminate your path.

He heaved a forlorn sigh as those words resonated in his mind.

Rest easy, Ruochen. I've found a new star to illuminate my path ahead.

***

After a good night's sleep, Fang Che made his way to the Hall of Protectionist with Sun Yuan's saber, head, and all of his skeletal remains.

Meanwhile, Ye Meng stayed home to work on her cultivation.

Now that the secret was out, she was able to cultivate without restraint, and her rate of progress was significantly improved.

By the time Fang Che arrived at his desk, Tang Zheng was already there, and he was looking rather guilty, as if he had done something he shouldn't have.

"What's up?" Fang Che asked.

"Nothing," Tang Zheng hurriedly replied as he lowered his head to avoid Fang Che's gaze.

As it turned out, he had gone to report Fang Che yesterday for taking down the head on the city wall and also embezzling Sun Yuan's saber.

Fan Tiantiao was notified of this matter, and his response was a stern "What does that have to do with you? Shut up and do your job!"

Never had Tang Zheng imagined that he would be reprimanded for reporting a blatant act of corruption!

To further compound his woes, even his battle hall master brother-in-law wasn't on his side.

"Put your head down and focus on your work! Mind your own business or I'll send you home to work in the fields!"

As it turned out, Fan Tiantiao had paid a personal visit to the battle hall master and issued him a warning.

"Right now, Tang Zheng is working under Administrator Fang. I won't go into any details, but I'll tell you now that Administrator Fang is not someone you want to mess with. If Tang Zheng does something out of line and gets himself killed by Administrator Fang, even I won't be able to do anything, do you hear me?"

The battle hall master was naturally greatly alarmed, and he immediately passed the warning onto Tang Zheng, albeit in far less amicable terms.

Not long after Fang Che's arrival, he was paid a visit by the battle hall master.

"You must be Administrator Fang! It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Who're you?"

"I am Yuan Jingjiang, the battle hall master. I heard that my brother-in-law was working under you, so I've come to pay you a visit. Please look after him, Administrator Fang," Yuan Jingjiang said with a warm smile.

Fang Che put on a cold and unapproachable expression as he replied, "I'm not good at looking after people. If you want someone to look after him, maybe you can transfer him to work under someone else."

Yuan Jingjiang was at a loss for how to respond.

His official position was far higher than Fang Che's, and he was putting on such an amicable display, yet Fang Che had mercilessly shut him down!

Fang Che rose to his feet with a cold expression as he ordered, "Tang Zheng, it's time for patrol. You think you can slack off and get lazy with work just because your brother-in-law's here? Get over here!"

He then turned to Yuan Jingjiang as he said, "I have my official duties to attend to, so I'm afraid I won't be able to keep you company, Hall Master Yuan."

With that, he departed without another word.

Tang Zheng shot a pleading glance at his Yuan Jingjiang, then hurriedly departed with Fang Che.

Yuan Jingjiang's chest was heaving with rage, and his complexion had turned bright purple.

His humiliation had just been witnessed by all of the dozens of administrators in the hall, and he had to fight back the urge to punch a hole into the wall!

"What's this Administrator Fang all about? Does anyone know?"

All of the administrators shook their heads in unison.

"What the hell's his problem? I only came over to greet him, but it's like he had gunpowder for breakfast or something!"

"He's like this to everyone, Hall Master Yuan," Ren Chang consoled. "The first thing he did on his first day at the job yesterday was beat up over thirty of his fellow administrators at once."

"Where the hell did this idiot come from? Does he not have any social skills? I would've never come here if I knew this is what I would be dealing with!"

All of the administrators silently turned their attention back to their work.

In their eyes, this was well-deserved.

He had come prancing here as the hall master to stand up for Tang Zheng, and of course, anyone without sufficient backing would've been eager to accept this extended olive branch.

However, Fang Che clearly didn't fall into that category, so of course he was quick to shut Yuan Jingjiang down.

Everyone knew what Tang Zheng was like, so they were glad to see that he had ended up with a hardheaded superior like Fang Che.

As a Great Grandmaster, Tang Zheng was too much of a coward to do anything other than stay indoors to do odd jobs. During the brief stint where he had been made to go out on patrol, he was always the first to run away at even the slightest sign of danger.

Furthermore, he was a two-faced little scoundrel who appeared respectful and amicable to everyone on the surface, but was constantly bringing up his brother-in-law and reporting the people that he didn't get along with.

Following Yuan Jingjiang's departure, everyone erupted into chatter.

"Damn, that was kinda badass! I've never seen anyone like this before!"

"He definitely has some really powerful backers. Didn't you see Deputy Hall Master Fan personally guiding him on a tour yesterday?"

"Oh, for sure! He's so badass! He gets to do whatever he wants because he's got people in high-up places wiping his ass!" someone scoffed in a facetious manner.

"Why don't you say that to his face when he gets back? All you do is talk shit about other people when they're not around! How about you get some powerful backers too? You only have yourself to blame for not choosing better parents!"

"You certainly chose great parents! How's that butcher of a father of yours doing?"

"My father's a butcher, what about it? He raised me and my siblings, and he can now say he has a son that works in the Hall of Protectionists! Also, at least he's not a cuck like your father!"

"You wanna say that again?!"

A physical altercation quickly ensued, much to the alarm of several of the female administrators.

***

Fang Che had already led Tang Zheng out of the southern gate, mercilessly scolding him the entire way.

"You called your brother-in-law over to intimidate me? Cowardly piece of trash! You think your brother-in-law's a big deal because he's the battle hall master? Think again! See that shithole over there? Keep pulling stunts like that and I'll shove your head in there for you to drown!"

Once they were outside the southern gate, Fang Che ordered, "Continue carrying out my orders from yesterday. I'll come back to examine your work later. If it's not up to scratch, I'll beat the shit out of you!"

"Wh... Where are you going?"

Tang Zheng's question was answered by a slap across the face.

"Mind your own business!" Fang Che snapped, perfectly playing the role of a cocky and short-tempered young master who feared and respected no one.

He knew that he couldn't just follow the status quo in the Hall of Protectionists.

Otherwise, he would be sucked into a daily grind of work, and he would slowly lose his value as a double agent.

Hence, from the very beginning, he had decided that he had to take a unique path.