Chapter 80: Pope Yin's Unexpected Reaction

Yin Shengong was beginning to grow a little agitated.

Is Night Demon starting to grow soft from spending all this time in the Hall of Protectionists? This is pure nonsense! So what if he's killed a few allies to keep himself safe? Besides, those people can't even be referred to as allies! The other churches and factions are constantly trying to knock our One Heart Church off its pedestal!

"You think those are allies just because we all serve the Church of the Self-Righteous? What about Ren Zhongyuan then? He was my deputy for centuries! What about Sun Yuan and the Wang Clan and the Li Clan? They all serve the Church of the Self-Righteous, but did they spare him?

“By your logic, all of us exist on the same continent as the Protectionists and the Guardians, so we're all allies! You better get rid of these foolish thoughts right now! How could you be so naive?!"

If Night Demon were standing before him at this moment, he would've been pummeling some sense into him!

"Are you a demonic church member or a fucking saint? If you're going to be this stupid and naive, then you may as well kill yourself now before someone else gets to you!"

"That's not the whole story, Master. What's really making me feel this way is what just happened at the celebratory banquet held at the Hall of Protectionists earlier tonight. I was promoted to a second-rank administrator, and a deputy supervisor came from the southeastern headquarters..."

Fang Che gave Yin Shengong a recount of events, then concluded with: "With everyone watching, he rewarded me with twenty merit points! That's all I get for killing so many of our own people? It just feels like a massive waste, not to mention the humiliation that I was dealt! How am I supposed to face my colleagues after what happened tonight?

“I want to return to our One Heart Church, Master. Zhao Shanhe has gone too far! I'm going to kill that old bastard someday! He clearly did this intentionally to humiliate me in front of everyone!"

Fang Che was desperately painting himself as a victim in order to win sympathy from Yin Shengong, but things didn't go according to plan this time.

His outpouring of indignation was met with complete silence.

What's going on? Why isn't he consoling me?

After a long and uneasy wait, a response finally came from Yin Shengong.

"Who was this deputy supervisor from the southeastern headquarters?"

Fang Che was perplexed.

Shouldn't you be consoling me? Why are you asking about something like that?

"An Ruoxing."

Everything went silent on Yin Shengong's end once again.

After waiting for a while longer, Fang Che tentatively asked: "Why aren't you consoling me, Master?"

"Piss off!"

This time, the response was immediate.

Fang Che was stunned!

Something's not right! Something's definitely not right here! What kind of response is this? Have I somehow fallen out of favor with the old bastard?

After that, Yin Shengong went radio silent once again.

Fang Che felt very uneasy as he made his way to the branch helm, and upon his arrival, he immediately began throwing a temper tantrum.

Zhao Wushang and Zheng Yunqi received a beating with no explanation provided, and everyone else in the escort agency quickly suffered the same fate as well.

After venting his fury on his subordinates, Starlight stormed away, yelling, "Go and suck up to Administrator Fang tomorrow! Stick to the original plan, and if anything goes wrong, I'm going to skin all of you alive!"

Everyone was left scratching their heads in befuddlement, wondering what they had done to deserve this.

In the end, they concluded that Starlight had to have been reprimanded by Pope Yin, and that he had taken his frustrations on them.

"Come to think of it, it's our fault that he was reprimanded by Pope Yin in the first place, so we can't really blame him for coming after us..."

"Let's just focus on doing a good job tomorrow. We need to all go out and search for our friends and acquaintances so we can recruit them to our branch helm. Otherwise, they'll all end up dead once we report them. The helmsmaster's most likely going to be in a very foul mood for the next few days, so make sure to be on your guard."

Fang Che returned home to sleep, while Ye Meng routinely transcribed Shadow's message before sending it to her higher-ups.

Thanks to Shadow's help, her spy duties were barely taking up any of her time, and she was able to return to her cultivation.

Sometime after midnight, a burst of potent spirit qi fluctuations proliferated outward in all directions as Ye Meng opened her eyes with an ecstatic expression, having just made a breakthrough to the Lord tier.

However, immediately thereafter, another burst of far more formidable spirit qi fluctuations erupted out of the neighboring room, and boundless spirit qi came gushing into the courtyard from all directions.

Fang Che had also made a breakthrough to become a third-rank Lord.

Ye Meng's mouth gaped open in shock, and the look of elation on her face was instantly replaced by an indignant pout.

Why is there such a massive difference? And why did he have to make his breakthrough right after mine?

Inside his room, Fang Che's brows were tightly furrowed in contemplation.

He had been suppressing his cultivation base this entire time in order to accumulate as much gaseous spirit qi as possible before making a breakthrough, but the effects of the Cloud Water Heavenly Fruit had completely spoiled those plans.

As he was sleeping just now, a huge wave of spirit qi had suddenly swept over his body from Ye Meng's breakthrough, triggering a breakthrough within him as well before he had a chance to suppress it.

Disgruntled by this premature breakthrough, Fang Che stormed out of his room before asking, "Did you just make a breakthrough to the Lord tier?"

"I did," Ye Meng replied in a joyful manner.

"Let's have a sparring match."

"What? But I'm no match for you!"

"It's to help you consolidate your cultivation base."

"... Alright."

The sparring match turned out to be a brutal, one-sided beating.

Even Ye Meng's face had been punched a few times, and in the end, she laid feebly on the ground with a resentful expression, unable to lift even a single finger.

"You just wanted to beat me up, didn't you?" she accused.

"That's right," Fang Che readily admitted.

Ye Meng began pounding the ground with her fists in indignation.

Fang Che lifted her up by the back of her clothes like a kitten, then carried her into her room before tossing her onto the bed.

"Rest up."

With that, he departed without so much as an apology.

After laying on her bed for a moment to catch her breath, Ye Meng began pounding her pillow in frustration, her chest still sore from being lifted up by Fang Che.

***

After beating up Ye Meng, Fang Che was in a much better mood as he made his way to the Hall of Protectionists.

An entire night had passed by with no further messages from Yin Shengong, and he was left feeling very perplexed.

Clearly, there was something wrong, but Fang Che couldn't understand why he was suddenly being given the cold shoulder.

Could it be that he and this An Ruoxing used to be gay lovers or something?

Upon his arrival at the administration hall, Fang Che immediately became the center of attention.

Zhao Ying'er instantly sprang up from her chair before asking in a concerned voice, "Are you alright, Fang Che?"

Fang Che gave everyone an indifferent nod as a gesture of reassurance, then ordered in a cold voice, "Tang Zheng! We're going on patrol!"

With that, the two of them promptly departed, and Fang Che didn't even bother to greet any of his colleagues before he left.

Everyone quickly erupted into chatter following his departure.

"He's definitely still hung up about it."

"How could he not be? If I were him, I wouldn't even have showed up for work today!"

"He's still young and has many opportunities in the future. My only concern is that he'll do something extreme now and squander his bright future..."

Zhao Ying'er remained silent as she bit down on her lower lip, her eyes filled with concern.

Just now, she could sense that Fang Che had severed all of the emotional ties that he had forged with everyone in the Hall of Protectionists.

***

Fang Che made his way out of the Hall of Protectionists with a cold expression, while Tang Zheng trailed along behind him, looking very indignant on his behalf.

"Don't be disheartened, Administrator Fang. Everyone can see that you've been subjected to unfair treatment, but with your abilities, there's no way they can permanently keep you down! Eventually, you'll rise above all of them, and they'll regret ever targeting you!"

Fang Che stopped in his tracks as he turned back to look at Tang Zheng.

Tang Zheng had undergone a drastic change of late. He was far more eager on the job, and he had also become far more courageous.

He was much more diligent and efficient, and even though he would still display fear in the face of danger, he now stood his ground instead of running away.

He was beginning to become a worthy administrator.

Fang Che's cold expression softened a little as he patted Tang Zheng on the shoulder and said, "You've been doing very well lately."

Tang Zheng was almost moved to the point of tears by the compliment.

His voice was trembling slightly as he said, "Everyone in my family says that I've become more manly, and my mother says she wants to come and personally thank you. I've been living for over thirty years, but I've never felt so manly and purposeful in my life! Thank you, Administrator Fang!"

Fang Che turned his gaze to the bustling streets ahead, and his eyes went slightly out of focus as he sighed, "There's no need to thank me. I don't even know if I've helped you or condemned you."

As he continued onward, he spotted a white-robed figure out of his peripheral vision. The man had a very special aura that was rather intriguing to Fang Che, so he decided to give him a show.