Chapter 120 (2): Sansan's Plan

Fang Che was at a loss for words. He knew that Cripple Hong was telling the truth.

The latter was always receiving insider information on where demonic church members had appeared, and his sources were even able to provide physical descriptions of the demonic church members in question.

While he didn't rank near the top on the monthly merit points leaderboard, he was always above average, and over the past few months, his merit point totals had been rapidly rising.

Fang Che had always been perplexed about this, and the truth was finally out.

"Why can't you just earn merit points like everyone else?" Fang Che snapped. "Why do you have to resort to these shady tactics?"

"Not everyone can be like you, Chief Fang!" Cripple Hong wailed. "My cultivation base is too low, and I'm a huge coward, but I still want to earn cultivation resources, so I have no choice! Essentially, my junior brother and I are giving the Hall of Protectionists a two-for-one deal, where we're both working for the Hall of Protectionists, but only receiving one set of wages!"

Fang Che had no response for this. The logic was irrefutable!

"I'm not the only one, either!" Cripple Hong continued. "As far as I know, there are at least seven or eight other administrations in our hall doing the same thing!"

Fang Che was completely speechless. There was no point in investigating Cripple Hong's claims because Fang Che knew they were all true! This would've been how he had earned almost all of his merit points during his time at the Hall of Protectionists!

"What's the deal with these two jade pendants then?"

"That one was given to me by my mother."

"What about this one?"

An awkward look appeared on Cripple Hong's face as he explained, "There was an Administrator Huang that passed away five years ago, leaving behind a widow and a son. Administrator Huang was a good friend of mine, so I often go help out his widow wherever I can, and she gave me that jade pendant as a gift."

"You really are something else, Cripple Hong!"

"Can I have those back?" Cripple Hong asked with a sheepish smile.

Fang Che tossed the two jade pendants back to him, and he hurriedly caught them before returning them back to their rightful places, one around his neck and one under his clothes.

"Where the hell are you putting that?" Fang Che yelled as he hurriedly wiped his hand on his uniform in disgust.

"It's not down my pants! I swear!" Cripple Hong yelled in a panic.

He could tell that Fang Che was about to beat him, and he hurriedly lifted up his shirt to display the jade pendant, which sat snugly in an indentation in his flesh where his belly button should've been.

"When I was born, they cut off a little too much with my umbilical cord, so my belly button isn't airtight. Administrator Huang's widow had this made for me to cover the hole."

Fang Che was unable to hold back any longer, giving Cripple Hong a disdainful kick before undoing the seals on his body and exiting the training room with a disgusted expression.

All of the administrators watched as a sheepish Cripple Hong emerged behind the disgruntled Fang Che.

What happened? Chief Fang looks really angry, but Cripple Hong seems to be unscathed! This is a miracle!

Right as this thought occurred to everyone, Fang Che turned around and began administering a brutal beating on Cripple Hong, much to everyone's relief.

Order had been restored in the world.

***

"While you're all out on patrol, try and find leads on Night Demon's whereabouts, but if you find him, do not engage him in battle."

After a day of work, the administrators were able to catch six demonic church members. During the course of the battles that ensued, five administrators sustained severe injuries, while twelve sustained minor injuries, but thankfully, Fang Che was able to arrive in a timely fashion on all six occasions to prevent any casualties.

Overall, it was a very fruitful day of work.

***

After work, Fang Che went straight to the northern area of the city, and after a quick patrol, he returned to the cave left behind by the One Strike Spear Demon.

Upon his arrival, he was immediately reminded of the trauma that he had to endure several days ago.

He remained outside the cave, extending a deep bow into its shadowy depths.

After that, he began fully immersing himself in the devastating spear intent emanating from the cave.

Strapped to his back was a two-segment spear, which he assembled to form a complete spear, and he began meticulously honing his senses over every single inch of the spear.

He then sat down with the spear in his arms and channeled his Boundless Sutra and Cool as Ice mental technique in unison.

From there, he brewed some Spirit Raising Tea using a teapot that he was carrying with him, and after taking a sip of the tea, he closed his eyes to imagine the almighty spear strike that had given rise to this cave.

Before long, he had entered a completely immersive state.

He had obtained a method to manifest spear aura from White Cloud Warrior Academy, but he still had no idea how to integrate spear aura with star aura.

Even though the residual spear intent in this cave was already very faint, it provided some direction to him, and that was why he had come here to cultivate, fully knowing that returning to this place would only reopen his mental scars.

He wasn't expecting to directly glean something from cultivating here.

Over the tens of thousands of years that this cave had been in existence, countless people had come here to try and get something out of the lingering spear intent, to the point that the rock that Fang Che was sitting on had already been polished smooth.

However, none of these people had succeeded, and Fang Che was not so conceited to believe that he was somehow special.

He had come here to find his own path.

There were all types of auras laid out in the book that he had obtained from White Cloud Warrior Academy, but he didn't want to follow any of those paths as the spear intent and spear aura that he manifested from following a manual would be far too mundane and general.

However, after learning of the existence of this cave, he had decided that he wanted to follow the same path as the Black Gold Spear Demon.

He sat with his eyes closed, continuing to immerse himself in the spear intent emanating from the cave.

An hour later, Fang Che awakened from his immersive state, then poured himself another cup of Spirit Raising Tea, only to discover that it had become ineffective.

Thus, he had no choice but to brew a second batch of tea with some new tea leaves.

Once again, he became fully immersed in the spear intent, and after what seemed like an eternity, he rose to his feet and departed.

His direction had become clear, but he had made no progress in aura manifestation.

***

Later that night, Fang Che's entire body was drenched in sweat as he laid sprawled over the limp and feeble Ye Meng, who was gasping for air as she stared up at the ceiling in a daze.

"How should I train my spear, Ye Meng?" Fang Che suddenly asked.

"Your spear doesn't require any further training, Young Master," Ye Meng replied in a feeble voice.

Clearly, she had completely misconstrued his question.

Before long, Fang Che's "spear training" resumed.

The next morning, Ye Meng was unable to get up, and she slept in while Fang Che made his way out into the backyard.

Once there, he picked out a spear and began practicing his basic spear forms one after another, slowly familiarizing himself with his weapon.

The little fairy in his consciousness seemed to have been inspired by his training, and it resumed its work in molding the divine metal into a spear.

At this point, the process was already about 80% complete.

Bursts of spear intent flowed incessantly into Fang Che's consciousness as he continued his training, and the little fairy harnessed his spear intent to assist it in molding the divine metal into his ideal form.

Finally, as Fang Che concluded his training, the exhausted little fairy instantly fell asleep in his consciousness.

After his morning training, he went to the Hall of Protectionists, but everyone else was absent as they were attending the funeral for Zuo Guanglie and his band of brothers.

***

Fang Che heaved a forlorn sigh as he made his way to the northern area of the city, and after patrolling the area, he returned to the cave.

However, instead of cultivating, he began examining the nearby terrain by exploring the entire area, even taking the time to learn the names of the two mountains that housed the cave.

The names of the mountains at the time the cave was created were already lost to time, but in the present day, the two mountains were collectively known as Spear Demon Mountain.

Fang Che toiled away the entire day, trying to search for the spot where the Black Gold Spear Demon could've been standing when he created this cave.

The cave was quite level, with not much altitudinal disparity between its entrance to its conclusion, virtually running perfectly parallel to the ground, so the Black Gold Spear Demon wouldn't have been standing very high up at the time.

However, it was impossible to tell how far away he had been standing, and that left Fang Che feeling a little frustrated and disheartened.

He returned to the entrance of the cave, then brewed some Spirit Raising Tea and continued cultivating.

Spirit Raising Tea was truly an exceptional cultivation aide, but two hundred grams was far too little! Up to this point, he had already used up roughly an eighth of his entire supply!

Over the next half a month or so, Fang Che continued paying the cave daily visits, using up all of his Spirit Raising Tea in the process.

He still hadn't made much progress in terms of aura manifestation, but he had reached the eighth-rank Warlord tier.

Is this tea meant to sharpen my mind or enhance my cultivation base? If I had a hundred more grams, I'd be able to reach the King tier, but it's barely helped at all in aura manifestation!