Chapter 30: Which Clan Are You From?

Fang Che slowly strode forward with a faint smile as he mused, "Sometimes, when the situation demands it, even a coward can instantly become a hero. Perhaps this will be a life-changing opportunity for you, Tang Zheng."

"I hope so," Tang Zheng replied, but he was praying to himself that this wasn't going to be a life-ending opportunity instead.

Right at this moment, a guttural roar rang out from afar, immediately following which a signal flare was launched up into the sky.

"I'll go ahead, you come at your own pace," Fang Che ordered before immediately departing, instantly leaving Tang Zheng behind.

In a small forest nearby, all of the hundred or so trees in the forest had lost all of their leaves.

A man in an administrator uniform had been nailed to one of the trees, and his companion had also suffered a grievous injury, but he was still just barely clinging onto life.

As soon as he spotted Fang Che, he immediately mustered up all of his remaining strength to point in a certain direction, but he was unable to speak through the blood that was gushing out of his mouth.

Not far away from the two administrators was a young girl whose heart had been gouged out of her chest, and she was laying dead on the ground with a look of shock, horror, and despair still etched on her face.

Clearly, she had been attacked by demonic church members, and these two administrators had tried to save her, only to lose their own lives in the process.

Fang Che set off in the direction that the dying administrator was pointing in without any hesitation, and his Golden Horn Flood Dragon had already sprang forth ahead of him.

As a spirit body, it was able to phase directly through buildings and other obstacles, instantly racing through three blocks in the blink of an eye.

All of a sudden, the Golden Horn Flood Dragon drew to a halt, and Fang Che found it staring it up at a windowside table in a restaurant occupied by three people.

It was a trio of young individuals who were looking down with intrigue at the commotion taking place below.

They had just committed a heinous crime, yet here they were, drinking tea as if they hadn't done anything.

However, there was no blood at all to be seen on their bodies, nor were they carrying any residual baleful qi from the cold-blooded murder they had just committed, so even if they were confronted by Protectionists, there would be no signs to indicate their guilt.

All of them had legal identities, so they couldn't just be apprehended for no reason.

Unfortunately for them, the Golden Horn Flood Dragon had locked onto them right away, and their fates were sealed.

Fang Che slowly made his way up the staircase with a faint smile.

The three individuals were chatting amicably with one another, as if they were old friends that had been reunited here after a long separation, and they weren’t concerned at all about being caught.

They had even used secret techniques to cleanse themselves of baleful qi, so what about them could possibly arouse the suspicions of the Protectionists?

"Who's that guy smiling at us? I don't think I've ever seen him before," one of them asked through voice transmission.

"I don't recognize him, either. Is he one of us?"

One of the trio was a young woman, and she remarked, "He's quite the piece of eye candy!"

"You shouldn't have gone after that girl earlier. That was way too risky."

"I couldn't help it! You know what cultivation arts I'm using. Virgin women who are non-warriors and possess pure yin bloodlines are extremely rare, and their hearts are invaluable to my cultivation. I couldn't afford to let her slip away!"

"Alright, what's done has been done, just make sure to be more careful from now on. That guy's coming straight to us. Let's see what he wants."

"Are the three of you here for tea?" Fang Che asked as he approached the trio with a faint smile.

"We are. Would you care to join us?" the young woman invited.

"That would be my pleasure," Fang Che replied as he sat down at the table with them.

"How can we help you?" one of the young men asked.

"Which clan are you from?" Fang Che asked with a meaningful smile.

Bewildered looks instantly appeared on the trio's faces at this question, and the young man asked, "Who're you?"

"I saw what you did earlier," Fang Che said with a hint of condescension in his voice. "The three of you were a little too sloppy back there. Why didn't you cover your tracks and dispel the energy fluctuations that you left behind during your escape?"

The trio's expressions changed slightly upon hearing this.

That was indeed an oversight on their part, but such faint energy fluctuations were virtually negligible, and they couldn't imagine that someone would be able to track them down with that alone.

"Rest assured, I've already covered your tracks for you," Fang Che said with a reassuring smile. "I noticed that you were still around, so I decided to join the three of you for some tea."

"Thank you," the trio said with a collective sigh of relief.

They were still feeling a little skeptical, but whoever this man was, he had clearly already identified them as demonic church members and was aware of what they had just done, so he was, in all likelihood, also one of their own.

However, the main church was not exactly the picture of cohesion, so they still didn't let their guards down.

"That's why I asked you which clan you were from earlier," Fang Che explained.

The question finally made sense to the trio, and they quickly gave their answers.

"The Wang Clan."

"The Li Clan."

"The Ma Clan. How about you?"

"I'm from the Si Clan."

Fang Che's killing intent was already beginning to rear its ugly head as soon as he heard the words "Wang Clan" and "Li Clan."

"The Si Clan?" the trio exclaimed. "Isn't that one of the top clans of our main church? We didn't receive any word that the Si Clan had also sent people to the White Cloud Prefecture!"

Fang Che smiled as he pointed a finger back in the direction of the crime scene, then asked, "Did you do that for the sake of your cultivation?"

The young man from the Wang Clan faltered slightly upon hearing this, then smiled as he replied, "You possess a keen eye, Brother Si. Indeed, my cultivation arts require me to devour the hearts of pure yin maidens. That was quite a delicious meal back there."

"That's a real shame. If you encounter another one..."

"I'm afraid I can't offer up something so precious to you, Brother Si," the young man from the Wang Clan chuckled. "Fine specimens like her are extremely rare, so it can only be first come, first serve."

"That's understandable," Fang Che said with a smile as he leaned forward to grab the teapot, and as soon as he did so, a tremendous burst of baleful qi erupted out of his body as he unleashed the first Heavenly Loathe Saber Technique, Loatheful Blind Heavens!

"When I said Si Clan, I meant Si as in death!"[1]

However, Fang Che's explanation fell upon deaf ears as the trio had already been decapitated.

Never had they imagined that Fang Che would suddenly lash out to take their lives.

They hadn't completely let down their guards around him, but the abrupt eruption of baleful qi had completely rooted them to their chairs, causing their blood to run cold and robbing them of the ability to think for a split second.

That split second of inaction was all it took for Fang Che to harvest their lives.

The three heads were flung up into the air before being caught by Fang Che by the hair, following which he kicked the three headless bodies out the window, with blood still erupting out of their necks as they fell to the ground outside.

Three plumes of black smoke rose up from their bodies, indicating the demise of their Five Spirit Parasites.

This was the only way to definitively prove that someone was from a demonic church member.

The bystanders outside shrieked in alarm and horror as Fang Che returned to the site where the two administrators had been killed, carrying the three heads of his victims.

There were already other Protectionists on the scene, and Tang Zheng was one of them.

He threw the three heads onto the ground as he declared, "The culprits have already been slain. Tang Zheng, give that woman and our two colleagues a proper burial, then take these heads back to redeem for merit points."

Tang Zheng and the other administrators on the scene turned to him with bewildered expressions.

That was way too fast! We only just got here!

"Are you sure you killed the right people?" one of the administrators asked.

"Their bodies are outside Liu's Teahouse. You're free to go and examine them."

Fang Che strode over to the bodies of the two administrators, then heaved a faint sigh before turning his gaze to the deceased young girl.

He felt as if there were a heavy weight on his chest as he gazed upon her delicate face, still etched with shock and horror even in death.

The two administrators had at least died on duty, while the young girl was an innocent victim that had had her life cut short just because her heart could be devoured to benefit someone's cultivation.

"Administrator Fang, should I deliver the heads back to the Hall of Protectionists?" Tang Zheng asked in a trembling voice.

"Go on."

Tang Zheng immediately departed with the three heads.

"We'll be on our way then, Administrator Fang."

The other two administrators present were both among those that had been beaten by Fang Che during his first day on the job, so they knew that he was a far more capable warrior than they were.

With their paltry cultivation bases, they would serve as nothing more than cannon fodder for the demonic church members on the loose, so they could only hope that Fang Che and their other more capable colleagues could make up for their shortcomings.

As for whether Fang Che had killed the correct culprits, some people had already been sent to Liu's Teahouse to check, and given his confident demeanor, it was more than likely that he had killed the correct targets.

Fang Che sprang up onto the top of a tree, and after examining his surroundings to ensure that nothing was amiss, he altered his appearance slightly before making his way to the street where he had just killed those three demonic church members.

He was hoping that some curious demonic church bystanders would've gathered on the scene, thereby presenting him with more victims.

If he were to hear that someone had died on that street, he would go and see if it were one of his colleagues, and he was hoping that these demonic church members would share the same psychology.

Upon Fang Che's arrival, there were already other Protectionists on the scene, examining the headless bodies.

The three bodies were all missing their hearts, a telltale sign that they had once been hosts to Five Spirit Parasites, so their identities as demonic church members had been confirmed.

A large circle had been drawn around the area, and many people were gathered on the edge of the circle, watching with curious and fearful expressions.

Nearby, a deathly pale waiter from Liu's Teahouse was being questioned.

"I don't know! Those three came first, and some other guy came to join them later. It looked like they knew each other, but the guy suddenly killed them! I was on my way to another table at the time, and all I saw were three heads flying up into the air, and..."

The waiter's voice was abruptly cut off as he began dry-retching uncontrollably.

1. In Chinese, the characters 死 and 司 are both pronounced Si, but the former translates to death, while the latter is a surname, hence the mix-up. ☜