Chapter 34: Is This Divine Power Essence?

After the meeting, Chen Ruhai and Fan Tiantiao met up briefly.

"This Fang Che is really killing a lot of demonic church members!"

"He has to if he wants to establish himself as an undercover agent! You'd be killing even more if you were in his place!"

***

On Ye Meng's end, her job of intelligence collection had become absurdly easy because she was constantly being fed detailed information on Fang Che's actions and whereabouts by the mysterious "Shadow."

Ye Meng felt like she was nothing more than a relay station, passing on Shadow's reports to her higher-ups.

However, now that she was relieved from her spy duties, she made use of her newfound free time by working tirelessly in her cultivation, fueled by her bruised ego.

Back when she first took on this role, she had been a General, while Fang Che had only been a Warrior.

She was now a ninth-rank General, while Fang Che was already a Lord.

This left Ye Meng feeling utterly humiliated, and she was working harder than ever before in her cultivation.

In reality, she was in an even worse position than Fang Che. At the very least, Fang Che had a caring uncle and grandfather, and even though he had only come from a ninth-tier clan, he had enjoyed a privileged upbringing.

In contrast, Ye Meng had spent her childhood undertaking secret training with hundreds of other children, and her foundation was actually rather lackluster compared with Fang Che.

After Fang Che entered the One Heart Church and began studying at White Cloud Warrior Academy, his rate of progress naturally far outstripped hers, especially considering she had to constantly hide her cultivation base and was often too busy with chores to focus on cultivation.

In fact, if it weren't for the Heaven Vein Vermilion Fruit and other resources given to her by Fang Che, she would've already been left even further behind at this point.

Now that she was in a far more ideal situation for cultivation than before, she was determined to take full advantage.

Fang Che wasn't expecting her to do anything in the near future. He could sense the changes in her mental state and the improvements that she had made over the course of their time together.

Ye Meng possessed meticulous attention to detail and exceptional aptitude for the sword.

She was still a little naive in Fang Che's eyes, but that was only a matter of inexperience, and she could easily go out into the world and fend for herself.

However, Fang Che didn't want her to go anywhere for now. At the moment, the best way for her to maximize her usefulness was to remain by his side and continue to carry out her spy duties.

Hence, Fang Che was intentionally giving her time and urging her to work harder in her cultivation while simultaneously providing her with all the resources she would need to progress as quickly as possible.

Once she left his side, Dongfang Sansan would be sure to arrange an official post that was best suited to her, but for now, this was where she belonged.

***

It was an uneventful day at work, and upon his return to the Hall of Protectionists in the afternoon, Fang Che walked into a rather gloomy and quiet atmosphere in the administration hall.

Many of Fang Che's colleagues found themselves staring at the empty desks in the hall, all of which had already been cleared, making it appear as if no one had ever worked there.

As the end of the workday arrived, everyone turned to Ren Chang's desk.

From this day forth, they would never hear that signature phrase again, and they couldn't help but feel as if something were missing.

"There goes another day! Have a safe trip home, everyone," Fang Che said as he rose to his feet before departing.

Everyone was silent for a moment, then collectively chimed in, "There goes another day!"

Tears began to well up in Zhao Ying'er's eyes, and she threw a hand over her mouth as she hurriedly rushed out of the administration hall after Fang Che.

"Administrator Fang!"

"How can I help you, Administrator Zhao?"

"Administrator Ren's birthday is coming up in ten days. He always treats everyone to drinks on his birthday each year, so I want to buy a few jars of wine and visit his grave on his birthday. Do you want to come with me?"

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"I'll come," Fang Che replied after a brief silence.

Zhao Ying'er was very happy to hear this, and she nodded eagerly as she said, "Alright, I'll see you on the day at Ren Chang's grave."

Fang Che was rather puzzled by this arrangement. Why weren't they setting off from the Hall of Protectionists together?

"Administrator Chang was always very kind and caring to me ever since my first day on the job. He was like a mentor to me, so I want to go to his grave a little early to talk to him," Zhao Ying'er explained.

"I see. That's not a problem," Fang Che said with an understanding smile.

"I'll see you tomorrow then!"

***

Fang Che returned home in silence.

He felt like he had become a lot more quiet during his time at the Hall of Protectionists, particularly after experiencing so much death.

Looking at his fellow administrators that were casually strolling out of the Hall of Protectionists behind him, he couldn't help but feel very perplexed.

They've also seen so much death, and they know how dangerous their occupation is, so why aren't they keen to grow stronger? Instead, all of them seem eager to go home and rest after each workday. Shouldn't they be dedicating all of their free time to cultivation in order to maximize their chances of survival?

In fact, Fang Che was feeling a sense of urgency on their behalf.

Cultivate! Why're you all so complacent?!

Unbeknownst to him, his colleagues also found

him

very strange.

They didn't understand why he spent every day like it was his last, dedicating all of his time to work and cultivation without taking any time to relax.

In their eyes, cultivation was a marathon, not a sprint, so it was important to enjoy life when they could. If they were to follow Fang Che's daily schedule, all of them would be completely burned out within a month!

Hence, even though they were all working together, they felt as if they were from two completely different worlds.

They had completely different values, so there was no way they would ever see eye-to-eye.

Having said that, Fang Che didn't despise his colleagues. Even though they were all rather lazy in their cultivation and tried to avoid trouble at all costs, they could always find the courage to put their lives on the line when it mattered most, placing the safety of others above their own, and that was very much worthy of admiration and respect.

Ren Chang and all of their colleagues that had fallen over the past few days were perfect examples of this. They all wailed and groaned at the prospect of having to face demonic church members in battle, but when the hour came, so did the man, and they could sacrifice themselves without any hesitation.

They couldn't keep up Fang Che's diabolical daily schedule, but that didn't mean that they weren't heroes in their own right.

As Fang Che began to approach White Cloud Warrior Academy, he couldn't help but feel as if the academy were another world.

Standing outside its entrance, Fang Che found himself lost in thought.

All of a sudden, a sense of enlightenment welled up in his heart as he arrived at an epiphany.

We all live in the same world, but our personal worlds are all molded by our individual experiences, and those independent worlds cannot come together. My world is separate from everyone else's, just like everyone else's worlds are also separate from one another.

In that instant, Fang Che felt an elevation in his own mental state, and his spirit sense began to churn violently.

The little fairy was sleeping soundly in Fang Che's warm spirit sense when it was abruptly awoken, and to its befuddlement, it could feel its own energy being significantly enhanced.

***

Upon his arrival at the scripture library, Fang Che was greeted by a smiling Old Man Shen.

"You came here emptyhanded this time!" he remarked, and it seemed that this was preferable to him over Fang Che bringing him wine.

"I figured you probably still had quite a bit of wine left, so I decided to come and freeload off you."

"Cheeky little brat!" Old Man Shen scoffed, but it was clear that he was very pleased.

After exchanging some small talk, Fang Che pulled out a divine crystal. Yin Shengong had won fifty thousand divine crystals, of which he had given a hundred to Fang Che on a whim.

"Elder Shen, is this divine power essence?" Fang Che asked with an excited expression.

"Divine power essence?!"

Old Man Shen was given a massive fright, but he quickly calmed down when he realized that what Fang Che was holding was, in fact, not divine power essence.

"Where did you get this from?"

"I was out on a mission for the Hall of Protectionists recently, and I killed a few demonic church members. I found this while searching one of their bodies. I can sense that it contains tremendous energy, and it seemed really precious to the demonic church member, so I figured it might be divine power essence."

"This is a divine crystal, not divine power essence. It's an associated mineral to divine power essence. In fact, it's a type of spirit crystal that can be used for cultivation or sold, and it's the highest form of spirit crystal."

"Oh, so it's not divine power essence," Fang Che said in a disappointed manner. "Is it still useful to you?"

"It won't allow me to recover my lost cultivation base, but it can regenerate my body somewhat to slow my aging. However, it would be a waste for me to use something like this. You should use it to accelerate your cultivation progress."