Chapter 99: The Night Demon Church Did It

Meanwhile, Fang Che was in communication with Yin Shengong.

"Master, our branch helm was attacked by around three hundred to four hundred men led by a King, and we've suffered severe casualties, with thirty-two people falling in battle."

Yin Shengong's was almost instantaneous.

"What happened?"

Fang Che provided Yin Shengong with a detailed recount of events, including the outcome of the discussion that he had with everyone following the attack.

Yin Shengong remained silent as the large slabs of text came through one after another, and his brows were furrowed tightly in deep thought.

After some contemplation, he summoned the three elders to provide him with some counsel, and before long, the four men were all gathered around his communication jade, reading the messages that were coming through from Fang Che.

The three elders were stunned by this turn of events, and even after Fang Che's recount drew to a conclusion, the four of them remained silent for a long while.

"I agree with their assessment that one of the other southeastern subsidiary churches had to have been behind the attack," Yin Shengong said in a contemplative manner. "I also agree that their objective is to eradicate the branch helm of our One Heart Church as opposed to the Unmatched Escort Agency, but who could've done this? I'm still on decent terms with Kou Yifang, so it most likely wasn't the Divine Heavenly Church.

“The Three Saints Church... Guan Shandu is also unlikely to have done something like this. Gu Shanfeng of the Church of Light could be a possible culprit, but right now, the Church of Light is still far from the prerequisite merit point total to become a second-rank church, so they really don't stand to benefit much from eradicating our branch helm.

“Hence, it doesn't make sense for Gu Shanfeng to do this at the risk of making an enemy out of me. In that case, all that's left is Hai Wuliang!"

A cold aura of killing intent began to emanate from Yin Shengong's body as he tapped the knuckles of his fingers against the table and analyzed, "In terms of merit points, the Night Demon Church has always been ranked quite highly among the southwestern subsidiary churches. In the past, they were second only to our One Heart Church, so Hai Wuliang is the one most resentful of our One Heart Church's promotion!

“On top of that, the seed that he planted in White Cloud Warrior Academy was recently taken by Bing Qianshan as a disciple, and that serves as a major boost to the Night Demon Church! If that seed truly manages to gain the favor of Bing Qianshan, then the status of both Hai Wuliang and the Night Demon Church will be significantly elevated!

“If, at the same time, we lose this branch helm and drop back down to become a third-rank church, then the Night Demon Church will be able to leapfrog us as the number one subsidiary church of the southeast!"

This was a very harrowing thought for Yin Shengong, and he typed out a quick response to Fang Che's message: "I understand the situation now. I'll talk to you later."

He then immediately sent a message to Hai Wuliang: "Hai Wuliang! What are you trying to do?"

Hai Wuliang's response was very swift: "What the hell's your problem, Yin Shengong?!"

"The pope of a third-rank church like you has no right to refer to me directly by name!"

"Keep strutting around while you still can! Your church is going to drop back down to the third rank any day now!"

"Even so, I'm still the pope of a second-rank church right now, and you must regard me as your superior, or else!"

Hai Wuliang immediately began smashing things in a fit of rage, but in the end, he didn't dare to defy the official hierarchy of the church, folding to Yin Shengong's threats as he asked, "What can I do for you, Pope Yin?"

If he were to continue rebuking Yin Shengong, then the latter would be able to send a record of their messages to southeastern headquarters to land him in hot water.

"Quit playing dumb! You sent hundreds of people to attack the White Cloud Prefecture branch helm of my One Heart Church!"

"That's utter nonsense! You can't just make these accusations with no evidence, Pope Yin!"

"If you didn't do it, then would you dare to swear a vow in the name of Heavenly Centipede Deity?"

"Of course I would, but why should I? Just because you're throwing a completely unsubstantiated accusation at me?"

"What's wrong? Feeling a little guilty?"

"If you suspect me of wrongdoing, then provide some evidence! Don't just throw out an accusation and try to goad me into a false admission!"

"You're in big trouble, Hai Wuliang. There are many people from the clans of the main church in my branch helm, and you're going to have to face the wrath of the clans of all those that you killed!"

"Why would they come after me if I didn't do it? You think you can just pin the blame on anyone that you please? I can just as easily accuse you of the same thing!"

Yin Shengong read the message with a cold sneer.

He spoke no further on the matter, instead saving the contents of the conversation before sending them to the main church with the accompanying message: "I would like to report Hai Wuliang for committing an act of treason by killing members of the main church! I hope this matter is addressed with the seriousness and swiftness that it deserves!"

He then tossed his communication jade aside, content to watch the situation unfold from here.

On the other end, Hai Wuliang was beginning to grow a little uneasy at Yin Shengong's prolonged silence.

Surely he doesn't actually have any evidence!

As it turned out, Hai Wuliang was indeed the culprit.

Liu Hanshan had reported back to Hai Wuliang the very same night that he returned from Fang Che's branch helm, and Hai Wuliang had immediately realized how potent a threat this branch helm posed.

The safe and steady approach would've been to do nothing, but that was not an acceptable course of action for Hai Wuliang.

Yin Shengong was so close to falling back down to earth!

He may have had Night Demon, but in Hai Wuliang's eyes, Ding Jieran wasn't inferior at all, particularly now that he had caught the eye of Bing Qianshan!

Furthermore, it was clear to anyone with even half a brain cell that the Night Demon Church's White Cloud Prefecture branch helm had been sold out by the One Heart Church!

In light of that, Hai Wuliang felt fully justified in his retaliation.

That branch was Yin Shengong's final ray of hope, and once it was destroyed, the Night Demon Church would leapfrog the One Heart Church to become the dominant force in the southeast.

Once Ding Jieran returned from training under Bing Qianshan, the Night Demon Church would soar to even greater heights, so this was a monumental opportunity!

As for the people from the main church in the One Heart Church branch helm, this had indeed been a cause for concern for Hai Wuliang.

It was most definitely not in the Night Demon Church's best interests to make enemies out of so many of the clans from the main church, as evidenced by the example set by the One Heart Church. In the wake of Night Demon's killing spree, the One Heart Church had become public enemy number one, even though Night Demon was fully justified in killing those people, given the rules of the Parasite Ascension Project.

This was certainly a huge risk to take, but a glorious future was beckoning so seductively to Hai Wuliang, and everything would work out as long as he could ensure two things.

Firstly, he had to kill as few people from the main church as possible, ideally none, and secondly, he had to ensure confidentiality.

Hence, after extensive consideration, he ultimately decided to take the risk.

However, given how perilous things were in the White Cloud Prefecture, he couldn't simply send hundreds of people into the prefecture at once. Instead, he had sent them through in close to twenty batches, and once they infiltrated the prefecture, they reconvened to carry out the attack.

The original plan was just to take out Starlight, but he proved to be extremely difficult to track down, and even after close to an entire month of observation, they weren't able to find a good opportunity to attack him while he was on his own.

The only times when they could ever track him down were when he was at the branch helm!

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Furthermore, now that the branch helm had received a status of legitimacy, it was going from strength to strength, and Starlight was like an insatiable beast, recruiting more and more subordinates by the day!

With the situation unfolding in such a grim fashion, Hai Wuliang knew that he couldn't wait any longer, so he called for an attack and specifically stated that Starlight was the sole target, while everyone else was to be spared as much as possible.

However, these instructions were far from easy to execute in the heat of battle, and in the wake of the attack, Starlight was completely fine, yet they had killed nineteen people from the main church!

The only source of consolation for Hai Wuliang at this point was that no one was aware of the role that he had played in the attack, or so he thought.

Never had he imagined that Yin Shengong would contact him right after the attack happened!

How did he even find out? Isn't he supposed to be confined in the One Heart Church headquarters?

Hai Wuliang immediately checked in with his subordinates. "None of you were exposed, right? Give me a detailed recount of everything that happened tonight."

The subordinate on the other end did as he was instructed, concluding with: "You can rest assured, Pope Hai. They definitely won't be able to trace the attack back to us."

However, Hai Wuliang still wasn't feeling completely reassured. He wanted to try and do some probing on Yin Shengong's end, but he was worried that doing so would come across as an indirect admission of guilt, and he was worried that his refusal to swear a vow as Yin Shengong had demanded would be something that could be used against him.

Meanwhile, Yin Shengong had already sent a very conclusive message to Fang Che: "It was the Night Demon Church!"

He was absolutely certain.

This only served to confirm Fang Che's suspicions.

"I see. What would you like me to do from here, Master?"

***

The entire night, Zhao Wushang and the others were gathered in Zheng Yunqi's room, watching him write letters.

To put it more accurately, these were drafts of letters that were going to be sent out via communication jade.

These letters were going to play pivotal roles in their futures, so they were taking the task very seriously.

"Salutations, Father. I hope you and all of the seniors of our clan have been well."

Zheng Yunqi removed his brush from the sheet of paper before him and fell into deep thought after writing out that sentence.

Everyone else heaved a collective sigh.

That was the easy part of the letter.

"Right now, I am residing in the White Cloud Prefecture branch helm of the One Heart Church. I am safe and well, and I have obtained a legitimate identity, so there's no need to worry about me. However, I must regrettably inform you of a tragic incident that took place last night, one in which nineteen of our branch helm's members lost their lives, namely Niu Xiaohong of the Niu Clan, Hong Laohu of the Hong Clan..."

After writing out the list of nineteen names, Zheng Yunqi stopped once again, scratching his head in frustration as he sighed, "Bad news is always so difficult to deliver."

"I don't think this is the right way to word the letter," Zhou Mei'er said.

"Why's that?"

"You should save the bad news for last. To start off, you should write about how safe we are in the One Heart Church branch helm and how well Helmsmaster Starlight has looked after us, then write about how we've founded an escort agency and how much motivation and direction in life that has given us. You should also write about everything that Helmsmaster Starlight has taught us and how much we've improved in all areas during our time here.

“On the surface, it looks like we're doing nothing but praising Helmsmaster Starlight, but in reality, we're also showing our clans how much we've improved and how reliable we can be in the future. That is the true display of our worth."