Chapter 138 (1): Duan Xiyang!

The next morning, Yin Shengong paid a visit to Deputy Pope Bai Jing's palace, bearing some presents.

As usual, he wasn't granted an audience with Bai Jing, but this time, he was rewarded with ten vials of pills and a cultivation manual.

Additionally, Bai Jing had asked one of his servants to pass on a message on his behalf, telling Yin Shengong to be careful on the way back.

Yin Shengong was almost moved to the point of tears.

He had been delivering presents to Bai Jing for over a thousand years, and he had finally seen some reciprocation.

After that, he went to various departments and altars, visiting a whole host of important figures to deliver gifts to them as well.

He knew that he couldn't actually count on any of these people to help him, but as long as they didn't actively screw him over, he would be content.

As he made the rounds, he discovered that he seemed to have suddenly become much more popular. Many of the people that he visited personally came out to meet him and strike up conversations.

Furthermore, they were all eager to reciprocate his gifts, and in the end, he ended up receiving more gifts than he gave!

Yin Shengong was completely overawed as he thanked his benefactors profusely, but as soon as he was out of sight and out of earshot, he would spit onto the ground in disdain at the two-faced, opportunistic nature of these scoundrels.

Where were you before this? Over the past thousand years, I've given you enough gifts to fill countless horse-drawn carriages, yet you've barely even come out to see me at all! You didn't do anything even when Ren Zhongyuan was about to usurp my position, yet now, you're suddenly putting on an amicable facade just because my fortunes have taken a turn for the better! What do you take me for, an idiot?

From there, Yin Shengong returned to the inn and checked out of his room, then casually strolled his way out of the capital.

Even though he was feeling very uneasy and apprehensive about the return journey, he had to appear relaxed and composed on the surface. Otherwise, he would be putting Yan Nan to shame.

He had to show everyone that he had full confidence in Yan Nan, that he wasn't concerned in the slightest for his own safety, that he was certain beyond a doubt that no one would dare to challenge Yan Nan's authority by coming after him.

This was an unspoken form of flattery.

What he failed to anticipate was that he was ambushed no more than fifty kilometers away from the capital.

Two masked figures in black darted out from either flank in a wraith-like fashion, and both of them were Sage tier warriors!

In the face of such formidable assailants, Yin Shengong was powerless to resist, and he could only close his eyes and accept his fate.

However, in the next instant, Aunt Hong appeared before him like a guardian angel before thrusting a palm toward each of the masked assassins, and the two of them each threw up a mouthful of blood with a muffled groan before racing away into the distance.

It seemed that they had already anticipated their own failure, so they were preemptively prepared to get away.

In the blink of an eye, they had already vanished into the distance, while Aunt Hong looked on with a cold expression.

"Th... Thank you, Senior Hong," Yin Shengong stammered, and it was taking a monumental effort to prevent his legs from giving out from under himself.

"Keep going!" Aunt Hong ordered in a cold voice. "Let me see who else would dare to so blatantly challenge Deputy Pope Yan's authority!"

Immediately thereafter, she also vanished out of sight, leaving Yin Shengong to stand on his own in the wilderness, feeling incredibly vulnerable.

He was one of the most powerful figures in the southeast, yet here, he was being dangled out as bait like a worm.

However, a look of resolve then quickly appeared on his face.

If I am to be a piece of bait, then so be it! You want to kill me? Come! If I die, at the very least, I'll be taking down a few clans with me. If I don't die, then I'll lure out all of you to be killed!

With that in mind, he continued onward at a casual and leisurely pace. After surviving that near-death ordeal and coming to terms with the powerlessness of his situation, he was now proceeding with a genuine sense of calmness and acceptance.

Even Aunt Hong couldn't help but nod in approval as she observed him from the shadows.

In her eyes, it was only now that he was finally beginning to display the flair befitting a pope.

However, much to the surprise of both of them, the journey ahead proved to be very smooth, and before long, Yin Shengong was already almost halfway back to the One Heart Church.

At this point, Yin Shengong had already let go of all mental burdens. Whenever he encountered some particularly beautiful scenery on his journey, he would sit down and pull out some wine and dishes from his spatial ring to have a picnic.

At night, he would set up camp on the tallest mountain summit in the nearby area to gaze up at the stars.

It was only at times like this when he would show himself capable of genuine emotion.

He would repeat the same name over and over again in his heart, and out in the wilderness, with no one else around, there was no one to see the tears flowing down his face.

This was a sensation that he relished. It had been countless years since he last shed tears. As the pope of the One Heart Church, it would be a fatal display of weakness to shed tears before others.

As he basked in the sensation of the tears trickling down his face and the profound ache in his heart, his myriad complex thoughts and feelings culminated into a single sentence.

"I miss you so much, Ruochen."

Certain emotions that he had kept suppressed and bottled up in his heart for countless years were finally given an outlet through his tears, and Aunt Hong discovered that after each passing night, there seemed to be a change in Yin Shengong's mental state.

What's going on? Is all of this stargazing that he's doing every night some type of mental cultivation?

Two days later, Yin Shengong was walking along when his cultivation base was elevated from the ninth-rank Overlord tier to the pinnacle of the Overlord tier.

It was a breakthrough borne out of enlightenment, taking him to the cusp of the Sage tier.

Aunt Hong was dumbstruck, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out how Yin Shengong had accomplished this.

Could it be that stargazing can help one elevate their mental state?

She decided to give it a try herself once she returned to the main church.

Two more days passed before the peace was finally disrupted. Two masked figures in black drifted onto the mountain summit that night, seemingly convinced that Aunt Hong was no longer around to protect Yin Shengong.

"Yin Shengong, this is where you die!"

Yin Shengong slowly turned around as he asked, "Can I ask why you've been sent to kill me?"

Neither of the masked figures answered his question as they sprang forward in unison.

Right as Yin Shengong was about to be dashed to a pile of mincemeat by his two assailants, Aunt Hong abruptly sprang out of his shadow, and with her abrupt emergence came an eruption of blinding red radiance that encompassed the entire mountain summit.

At the same time, she thrust her palms through the air to send the two assassins flying, and blood came spewing out of their mouths as they stared at her with incredulous expressions.

"Get back here!" Aunt Hong yelled, and the red light abruptly contracted, drawing both assassins directly to her.

With a swipe of her hand, both masks were removed to reveal a pair of horribly disfigured faces.

Immediately thereafter, the faces of the two assassins took on a deathly black complexion as they collapsed to the ground, following which their bodies began to disintegrate into putrid puddles of pus.

They had bit into the pouches of poison tucked under their tongues without any hesitation, putting an end to their lives before Aunt Hong had a chance to interrogate them.

Aunt Hong was furious, and a burst of glacial spirit qi erupted out of her body, freezing the two bodies solid to halt the rapid decomposition.

A hint of foreboding welled up in her heart at the sight of their disfigured faces, and the feeling only became more pronounced after she searched their bodies to discover that they weren't carrying any items that could lead to their identification.

"If I'm not mistaken, these two are Faceless Reapers from the Faceless Assassins Guild, the most mysterious assassin organization in the world. Someone must've paid a very hefty price to have two Faceless Reapers deployed at once."

"The timing of this attack is very strange," Yin Shengong mused. "They could've easily waited until I was back at the One Heart Church to make their move, and by then, I would no longer be under your protection, so I would've been dead for sure. Why have they attacked me on the way back instead?"

"You're right, that is indeed rather strange."

After some thought, Yin Shengong speculated, "Perhaps this is a test, a test to see if Deputy Pope Yan cares enough about my safety to send someone all this way to protect me. But why would anyone want to do that?"

"I'll report this matter to Deputy Pope Yan once I get back," Aunt Hong said with a grim expression. "The fact that the services of the Faceless Assassins Guild have been employed is enough reason to bring this to his attention."