Chapter 121 (1): Whipping Rookies Into Shape

Having made up his mind, Dongfang Sansan immediately wrote up a letter, then ordered, "Get Yang Luoyu to come and see me."

Yang Luoyu was quickly summoned to Dongfang Sansan's office, and the latter instructed, "Go and pay a visit to the main church. Deliver the 10% cut of the Amethyst Ore I promised to them along with this letter."

Yang Luoyu immediately picked up the allotted batch of Amethyst Ore from the storehouse, then set off for the headquarters of the Church of the Self-Righteous.

***

With Dongfang Sansan pulling some strings behind the scenes, some rumors quickly began to spread across the continent.

"Do you know of any standout prodigies among the younger generation of warriors from the demonic churches?"

"I've heard of a few names like Night Demon, Obsidian, and some others."

"Do you know of any prodigies from our side?"

"I've heard of some names, but I don't really know anything about them."

"Apparently, they're going to release a ranking."

"Really? In that case, I'm sure our young warriors will dominate the rankings! There's no way any of the trash from the demonic churches can compete with our prodigies!"

"I agree!"

Initially, these discussions only took place in the form of hushed whispers, and no one dared to openly discuss these matters.

Before long, an official order was released, prohibiting such discussions, but that only worked to generate more interest on the subject, and many people had begun making up their own unofficial rankings.

***

Dongfang Sansan issued yet another order, reiterating the importance of hunting down Night Demon as soon as possible, and Zhao Shanhe was about to be driven insane by the mounting pressure!

Virtually all of the Guardians and Protectionists in the entire southeast were keeping their eyes peeled for any leads on Night Demon, and as a byproduct of the heightened vigilance, many of the people sent down to the southeast by the main church were exposed and killed.

In the short span of just half a month, the demonic church members in the seventeen southeastern prefectures had suffered over 2,300 casualties, and every single day, there was more and more bad news traveling to the clans of the main church.

There was a pervasive air of tension and anxiety in all of the clans, and in particular, the mothers of all of the young men and women still stuck in the southeast were about to be driven mad with agitation and concern.

"Bring our son back, you useless piece of shit! All you do is drink all day! Our son is going to die out there!"

"At least go and ask around to see if our son is still alive! How can you sit here and play mahjong when our son's life is under threat?!"

***

All of the husbands were being driven to the verge of mental breakdowns by their overbearing wives, but the women really couldn't be blamed.

There were people from the main church dying every single day in the southeast, so how could the mothers not be concerned for their children?

Whenever a white flag of mourning appeared on someone's rooftop, all of the mothers in the nearby area would collectively go into grieving. The child who died is around the same age as my son! Who's to say my son won't be next?

Under the unbearable pressure exerted upon them by their wives, the men of the main church were forced to take action.

Their children were all in a state of peril, but they knew that some people were doing very well in the southeast. Not long ago, a bunch of them had sent letters back to their clans, alerting them to Hai Wuliang's actions, and they had all been alive and well at the time.

Thus, many people began approaching clans like the Zhao Clan, the Zheng Clan, and the Wu Clan to beg them for favors.

As a result, the branch lineal descendants of these clans, who had been looked down on their entire lives, were suddenly given an unprecedented level of importance and attention.

"Brother Zheng, I heard that Yunqi is doing very well in the southeast. My son is also over there, and he's really struggling. Would it be possible for Yunqi to help him out a little? If you can do me this favor, I'll be sure to compensate you handsomely!"

"Brother Zhao, I heard Wushang and Wubai are both thriving in the southeast. What a pair of exceptional sons you have! Unfortunately for me, my son is much less competent, and he's really in need of a helping hand..."

"Brother Wu, our two clans have been close for generations. Please ask Lianlian to look out for my daughter and at least ensure that she survives until she can come back to us. You have to help me, Brother Wu! If you don't agree, my wife is going to kick me out of the house!"

Before long, everyone at the One Heart Church's White Cloud Prefecture branch helm was receiving messages from their parents, relaying the requests for help from the other parents.

Everyone immediately got together for a meeting over this matter.

"No! Absolutely not! We absolutely cannot allow them to join our branch helm! The finish line is already within sight! If we recruit so many new members at this crucial juncture, the chances of something going wrong will go up exponentially! If something goes awry, not only will we have to answer to Helmsmaster Starlight, all of our futures will also be ruined!"

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Even if we can somehow ensure that nothing will go wrong, why should we allow those people to join us? I'm already really pissed off that we let those twenty-seven people in!"

***

The twenty-seven new recruits had already been bullied into submissive slaves by their six hundred peers. They were assigned with all of the most grueling and tiresome jobs, but they had no complaints.

Their future paths had already been paved by the six hundred people before them, so it was only right that they did all the hard and dirty work as compensation.

Hence, even the twenty-seven new recruits were also opposed to the intake of new members.

"Why should we accept them? We don't need anyone to do our work for us! We enjoy doing all the dirty work! We don't need any new recruits to bully, we're content being bullied ourselves!"

"What if we allow them to join us and benefit from our hard work, only for them to then outcompete us once we all return to the main church? If everyone excels, then no one excels!"

It didn't take long at all for everyone at the branch helm to reach a consensus, and they all began sending letters of refusal back to their clans.

"It's not that we don't want to help, it's just that everything has already been finalized on our end. Pope Yin of the One Heart Church has already reported the situation of our branch helm to the main church, including the number of members that we have, and we're just waiting for an inspection from the main church now."

"Both Pope Yin and Helmsmaster Starlight have strictly forbidden us from taking in any further new recruits. If we take in a bunch of new people now, only for something to go wrong, then all of our hard work will be ruined!"

"Right now, we already have too many people. An escort agency with over six hundred escorts is almost unheard of! If we allow more new recruits to come in, we'll be heading for a thousand, and that's sure to arouse suspicions from the local authorities and the Hall of Protectionists!"

"Yes, our escort agency is a completely legitimate business, but that doesn't mean we can do whatever we want without fear of investigation! We're in the territory of the Guardians, we can never afford to become overly complacent!"

"You think far too highly of me, Father. I'm just a little footsoldier with no jurisdictive power over here..."

All of these refusals were relayed by their parents to the parents of those seeking help.

These refusals naturally left many people disgruntled, and they began resorting to threats.

"Brother Zheng, do I really have to tell you about how this Unmatched Escort Agency came into existence? Everyone has accepted the fact that all of the blame has been pushed onto Hai Wuliang, but are you really going to tell me that the Unmatched Escort Agency doesn't have any skeletons in its closet?"

"Let's talk about the people that were reported in the past. If they didn't play any part in that, how did they become an official partner of the Hall of Protectionists? They were even made a role model of the entire prefecture! Did they really manage to accomplish that without getting any blood on their hands?"

These threats were immediately met with emotions of anger and denial.

"They became official partners of the Hall of Protectionists through meticulous planning and great execution! How does it have anything to do with the people that died? It's already been confirmed that those people were killed by Hai Wuliang, how can you try to pin the blame on our children now? If you really think you have a solid case, then take this matter to the deputy popes and see what they say!"

"Hai Wuliang didn't even deny the allegations, and the families of the victims have already accepted the outcome, so why are you still carrying on about this? Are you trying to sow dissension among the clans?"

"How dare you make such baseless accusations and try to drag our children through the mud! What are your intentions with these nefarious threats?"

Thus, conflict began to arise among the clans, and things escalated to the point where people began to try and get the families of the deceased involved.

"Are you sure your son was killed by Hai Wuliang? I think the Unmatched Escort Agency played a very suspicious role in all of this! Otherwise, how did they manage to curry so much favor with the Hall of Protectionists? You can't just accept this outcome! How can your son rest easy on the other side when the real culprit is still at large?"

However, the families of the deceased displayed no interest in taking the bait.

"Retribution has already been had, and the Night Demon Church was the culprit. I understand what you're saying. They must've done some sketchy things to become official partners of the Hall of Protectionists, and they definitely have a lot of blood on their hands, but what does that have to do with my son?

“Does it make any difference whether my son was killed by the Hall of Protectionists, Hai Wuliang, or as a result of a report? Why come and try to stir up trouble now? Everything has already been said and done, so let's just move on. Even if we had concrete evidence that our children were screwed over, what can we do? They have hundreds of clans on their side! Are we supposed to try and seek retribution against them?

“Are you trying to help me or get my entire clan wiped out? You're just trying to use it as cannon fodder! If you have so many gripes against them, why don't you go after them yourself? Oh, it's because your son isn't dead, isn't it? Get out of my face before I kick you out! You want to save your own children, so you're trying to rile up the families of the deceased to use as cannon fodder!

“What a scummy piece of shit you are! Don't ever show your face here again! I was blind to have considered you a friend! I hope your son dies tomorrow!"