Chapter 33: Vengeance

Fang Che raced through the night behind the Golden Horn Flood Dragon, his killing intent even colder than the freezing winter chill.

His heart was filled with a muddled mess of emotions, to the point that he didn't even know what he felt.

Ren Chang was a man of few words and always kept to himself, so the only thing that struck him as memorable to Fang Che was that same phrase that he uttered at the end of each workday.

"There goes another day."

As soon as Ren Chang uttered those words, everyone in the administration hall would begin packing up their things, and those who were in a good mood would occasionally repeat the phrase back to him.

Some days, someone would preemptively yell "There goes another day!" as soon as Ren Chang stood up from his desk at the end of the day.

After learning about the misfortune that Ren Chang had suffered, Fang Che came to realize that every day was a tortuous ordeal for him, and that was why he was so keen for each day to pass by.

His torment had finally come to an end on this day, and that was why he had asked Fang Che if the day was over.

Even though Fang Che was racing through the freezing wind, he could feel his blood burning in his veins, scorching his heart like molten lava!

Up ahead was an abandoned temple, and the white-robed man was resting inside with a resentful look in his eyes.

He had been severely wounded during his very first battle in the White Cloud Prefecture, and he desperately needed to ingest human blood to aid in his recovery.

He waited until it was the dead of night before claiming his victim, only to be caught by that old fart who had no regard for his own life!

As a result of the interruption, he was forced to flee after only taking a few sips of blood, and his injuries were still nowhere near healed.

He had to go out searching for another victim soon, perhaps even more than one.

Right at this moment, he was broken out his train of thought as he sensed a murderous aura racing toward the abandoned temple far afar.

Surely they're not after me! There's no way anyone else could've tracked me from there!

However, his hopes were quickly dashed when the roof of the temple was cleaved open, and a saber projection came crashing down upon him with mountainous force.

He yelled in alarm as he hurriedly drew his sword to defend himself, only to be sent crashing through a wall, feeling as if all of his internal organs had been set alight.

"Stop! I'm not a demonic church member!"

Fang Che's second blow had already arrived.

The white-robed man threw up a huge mouthful of blood.

With his third blow, Fang Che snapped the man's sword and severed his arm.

He turned in a desperate attempt to flee, only to have both legs severed by Fang Che's fourth blow, and with the fifth and final blow, the man's head was separated from his body.

Fang Che didn't utter even a single word this entire time.

He swooped down like lightning to catch the man's head, then picked up his headless body in his other hand before flying back like the wind.

Blood was gushing out of the headless body, but Fang Che didn't care at all, using the man's filthy blood to fertilize the land below.

On the way back, he encountered several Protectionists who had also set off in this direction to search for the perpetrator.

"Administrator Fang?"

"It's me. I've just killed Ren Chang's killer, and I'm going back to perform a blood ceremony!"

The Protectionists were ecstatic, and they hurried back to the scene with Fang Che.

At this point, a group of seven or eight people had already gathered in the courtyard, and they were carefully examining Ren Chang's body.

Fang Che swooped down from above as he yelled, "Set up an altar! Ren Chang, you have been avenged! Your efforts were not in vain, and the White Cloud Prefecture will forever remember you as a courageous hero! Ren Chang, today is finally over!"

Ren Chang's smile remained, even in death, as if in a gesture of approval to Fang Che.

Kong Xiang was sidled up tightly against him, a picture of tranquility and bliss.

"Salute our fallen hero!"

All thirteen Protectionists present immediately stood up ramrod straight before extending a parting salute.

"See you in the next life, a life in which you'll have the courage to pick the flower at full bloom!"

***

Fang Che felt utterly exhausted upon his return to the Virtue Manor.

The mental exhaustion far outweighed his physical exertion.

He stood on the roof of the Virtue Manor, looking out at the countless bright lights in the darkness as he heaved a silent sigh.

How many demons are there lurking under this serene veil of night? How can I possibly kill them all?

There was still some residual medicinal power from the Cloud Water Heavenly Fruit lingering in his body, funneling spirit qi from the surrounding environment into his meridians.

If the heavens had eyes, surely such atrocities wouldn't be tolerated!

He suddenly thought of the first Heaven Loathe Saber Technique, Loatheful Blind Heavens.

Indeed, at times, it truly did feel as if the heavens were blind.

A burst of incredibly fearsome and baleful saber intent tore its way out of his body, erupting into the night sky.

In that instant, it was as if some shackle in his body had been broken, and spirit qi came gushing in like a mighty river.

He was now a second-rank Lord.

An invisible stream of spirit qi was surging into his body in a frenzy, and the spirit qi in his dantian was becoming denser and denser.

Two hours later, first light arrived.

Fang Che exhaled, and a long stream of spirit qi flowed out of his mouth, then circled around the entire courtyard before returning to his body.

As his eyes sprang open, a vast torrent of baleful qi cascaded out of his body.

***

Inside a dense, snow-covered forest, Mo Ganyun and the others were locked in a fierce battle against a demon beast.

All four of them were riddled with wounds, and the surrounding snow was stained red with human and demon beast blood.

The demon beast had proven to be an extremely formidable foe, subjecting each of the four of them to at least a dozen close brushes with death. Thankfully, their teamwork ensured their survival, and at this point, both they and the demon beast were close to completely spent.

"Let's make one last push, everyone!" Yu Zhongge roared. "Once this thing's dead, those Crimson Jewel Spirit Fruits will be ours!"

Everyone immediately heeded his call, stuffing handfuls of pills into their mouths to make one final, concerted effort.

They had pills, but the demon beast didn't.

***

Shortly thereafter, the four of them sat around the demon beast's carcass, each munching on a spirit fruit with blissful looks on their faces in spite of their injuries.

"Man, I've never met anyone with even half your luck, Yu Zhongge!" Mo Ganyun said in an envious manner.

Yu Zhongge had been tasked with leading the way on this mission, and his luck was truly extraordinary.

While leading everyone through a snowy mountain, they fell down a ravine that had been concealed by snow, only to discover Meridian Nourishing Vines growing inside.

After consumption, the vines would nourish the consumer's meridians for half a year.

After that, Yu Zhongge was bitten by a Snow Wind Snake. Snow Wind Snakes thrived in freezing conditions, and they possessed lethal venom, but their gallbladders had exceptional medicinal properties.

Its venom naturally posed no threat to a warrior of Yu Zhongge's caliber, but he set off after it in a fit of fury, and the four of them ended up in a snake-ridden valley.

After killing tens of thousands of these things, they discovered a cave deep within the valley, within which were two Dragon Whisker Fruits that could nourish the meridians and enhance the consumer's cultivation base!

Just a few hours ago, Yu Zhongge led them into a cave to rest, and they ran headfirst into this formidable demon beast, which was serving as a guardian to Crimson Jewel Spirit Fruits!

Mo Ganyun and the others had only ever seen such extraordinarily fortuitous sequences of events in novels before, and they had never imagined that something like this could actually play out in real life!

Yu Zhongge was virtually a walking treasure detector, and Mo Ganyun were beginning to grow numb from amazement.

***

In stark contrast with the freezing cold environment that Mo Ganyun and the others were in, there existed a flowing river of molten lava deep within the belly of a mountain, giving off intense heat capable of melting common metals.

Standing beside the lake of lava was a fiery figure.

It was none other than Huo Churan.

His entire body was riddled with scars, and he was virtually completely unrecognizable.

Right at this moment, a strange voice that resembled the sound of charred, crackling wood rang out.

"Find the Fire Spirit Fruit within this lake and eat it. Once you've managed to do that, you can go out and exact your vengeance. If you fail, then you can burn to death here."

Immediately thereafter, several fiery red snakes sprang out of the lake of lava to pounce at him with murderous intent.

Huo Churan let loose a loud roar as he grabbed one out of the air. The skin and flesh on his hand began to sizzle and burn, but he fought through the pain and quickly sliced its belly open with a knife, then gouged out its gallbladder before devouring it raw.

The other snakes had already sank their fangs into his body, setting him alight, but he didn't seem to feel any pain as he gutted them one by one.

After devouring their gallbladders, he skinned them before devouring their flesh, with a look of burning resentment in his eyes.

Fang Che! Mo Ganyun! Huo Churan! Just you all wait!

***

In the morning, a meeting was being held in the Hall of Protectionists.

"Over the past six days, there have been over ninety battles. Our Hall of Protectionists has suffered twenty-two casualties and slain thirty-five demonic church members!"

Song Yidao turned his gaze to Fang Che, then continued, "I must give special praise here to Administrator Fang, who killed seventeen out of those thirty-five, bringing his merit point total to 6,600! Administrator Fang will receive an additional reward for his efforts at a later date. Two days from now, we will gather together in the afternoon to commemorate our fallen comrades.

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

“The first wave may be behind us, but that only means that all of the remaining demonic church members have managed to successfully infiltrate our prefecture, so we need to be even more careful from now on. We are Protectionists, and our duty is to protect. The safety of the entire prefecture rests on our shoulders, so we must continue to give our full effort and diligence every single day! Once again, I wish you all safety and good health! Meeting adjourned!"