CHAPTER 124: SHIFTING TIDES OF FORTUNE

"He possesses tremendous aptitude and an innate swordsman constitution. I can tell that he's a good kid, but he seems to be very depressed and reclusive all the time because his clan is serving the Night Demon Church. At this rate, I fear he's going to become one of those tragic heroes who takes a Soul Splitting Pill to go out on his own terms."

Fang Che was very sympathetic to Ding Jieran, but was powerless to help him.

"An eighth-tier clan isn't anything significant, but it would truly be a waste if a prodigy possessing an innate swordsman constitution were to fall. Does he already have a Five Spirit Parasite in his body?" Dongfang Sansan.

"I would assume so. The Night Demon Church would've surely already seen to that."

"Actually, now that you mention it, how are you able to ward off the influence of the Five Spirit Parasite?" Dongfang Sansan asked in a curious manner.

"Honestly, I don't really know the exact reason myself, but I think it's my cultivation art, which seems to have a special suppressive effect on my Five Spirit Parasite."

Dongfang Sansan's eyes immediately lit up.

"Your cultivation art can suppress Five Spirit Parasites?"

"Yes."

"Can anyone else use your cultivation art aside from yourself?" Dongfang Sansan asked in an excited manner.

"I don't think so. I've gotten my mother to try it in the past, but it's completely incomprehensible to her, and as soon as she began attempting to use the cultivation art, her spirit qi was instantly thrown into disarray. If she had continued to try to force her way through, then she ran the risk of self-detonation."

"Your cultivation art must've been... bestowed upon you by this world, right?"

"That's right. After I was resurrected, this cultivation art appeared in my mind on its own."

"I see. In that case, this is a cultivation art that only you can use," Dongfang Sansan sighed.

"Should I write it down for you to try?" Fang Che offered.

"It's alright, there's no point. It's just like how Xue Fuxiao's saber techniques belong only to him," Dongfang Sansan sighed in a forlorn manner.

An astonished look appeared on Fang Che's face upon hearing this.

"Does that mean Master Xue was also..."

"He wasn't resurrected like you, but his experiences are also unique and irreplicable. In the future, you can perhaps try injecting your spirit qi into someone else's body to suppress their Five Spirit Parasite. You won't be able to accomplish that now, so you'll have to wait until you're at least at the King or Emperor tier."

Fang Che shook his head with a wry smile. He hadn't attempted this before, but he knew that it wouldn't work. He had injected his spirit qi into the bodies of Mo Ganyun and the others in the past to help them recover from their injuries, but as soon as his spirit qi entered their bodies, it was instantly converted to normal spirit qi, filtering out the power of the Boundless Sutra.

He could only hope that perhaps things would change once he made further progress in the Boundless Sutra.

"We should be able to do something," Dongfang Sansan said. "Now that you've made me aware of Ding Jieran's situation, I have time to take some measures. I'll find a way to banish the Ding Clan into obscurity, or strip them of their status as an eighth-tier clan. That way, they'll no longer be of any use to the Night Demon Church.

“As for Ding Jieran himself, I'll think of a way to put him in a special situation where the Night Demon Church can't order him to carry out any missions. At the very least, I'll be able to buy him a few years of time."

For a master strategist like Dongfang Sansan, these tasks couldn't be any easier, and he could basically carry them out in his sleep.

"In that case, I don't have any other requests to make," Fang Che said.

"After today, you and I won't be in contact again for the foreseeable future, and your identity will remain a secret, so you still won't have any handlers. I won't send anyone to contact you before you establish a stable foothold in the One Heart Church as that would be far too risky. You can continue to relay information to us through Ye Meng, but make sure to exercise discretion.

“For the most part, you'll have no one to rely on but yourself. Before we part ways, I must reiterate to you just how important you are. You are the only successful undercover agent in history! You are the only figure of justice who has ever managed to subjugate a Five Spirit Parasite!

“If we can emerge victorious in our war against the Church of the Self-Righteous someday, it will all be because of you! The fate of the entire world rests on your shoulders! You are even more important than myself and Xue Fuxiao! We can all die, but you must survive!"

Fang Che was stunned to hear this. Only now had he come to realize just how important he was.

He knew that he was a rare case of a successful undercover agent, but never had he imagined just how rare he was, one-of-a-kind, to be exact.

Never had he imagined that the fate of the entire world would someday rest on his shoulders.

"Do you know what my original plan was? Before you appeared, I couldn't see any hope. The Church of the Self-Righteous has a god on their side, while we have nothing. How could we possibly hope to contend against a god? Their most powerful warriors can even resurrect themselves after death, yet we can't do anything of the sort.

“I was already prepared for the worst. I was planning to instigate a worldwide war once the situation became untenable. The entire world would've been reduced to ashes and rubble, and after that, the Church of the Self-Righteous could do whatever it pleased. At that point, I would already be dead, and what became of this world would no longer concern me.

“Essentially, I was going to lay waste to the world to at least serve as some sort of hindrance and setback to the Church of the Self-Righteous. However, everything is different now. For the first time, I have seen a glimmer of hope! All my future plans are going to change from now on, and as long as you remain alive, I will not resort back to my original plan.

“I've forgotten just how good it feels to fight with some sort of belief and conviction in my heart."

There was an immense sense of relief in his voice. He was the spiritual leader of the Guardians, yet he bore the sole burden of the knowledge of just how hopeless this battle was.

He was in a constant state of despair, having to battle against an omnipotent deity.

He ran himself ragged every single day, trying to find any chance at victory, but he knew that all of his efforts were nothing more than a joke in the eyes of the enemy deity.

It was truly an unfathomably depressing position to be in.

He had lived like this for several thousand years, and his heart had already died a very long time ago.

However, he continued to toil out of a sense of duty, and he didn't dare to reveal this secret because morale would completely collapse.

Finally, a glimmer of hope had appeared, and for the first time in several thousand years, Dongfang Sansan felt alive again.

He appeared relatively calm and composed on the surface, but in reality, this was the most excited and emotional he had ever felt!

All of a sudden, his burden had become Fang Che's to bear.

"I... I'm worried that I can't carry such a heavy load."

"You can, and you must! You have no other choice! We have no other choice!"

Fang Che fell silent as a budding flame began to ignite in his heart.

Dongfang Sansan smiled as he sighed, "It's a pity that we've only met now. If only I had come to learn your significance just a little earlier."

"Why's that?"

"If I had known about you just half a month earlier, I wouldn't have allowed the Church of the Self-Righteous to found its nation! At the time, I was still setting my original plan into motion. Only after they had founded a nation and unified all of their forces would I have something to declare war against.

“Only then would I have been able to instigate the worldwide war I had envisioned and lay waste to the entire world! If I had known just a little earlier, everything would be different now."

Fang Che fell silent upon hearing this.

Dongfang Sansan was not to blame. No matter how brilliant his foresight, there was no way he could've anticipated this.

"Having said that, it's important to be able to take positives out of everything," Dongfang Sansan said with a smile.

"What positives could we possibly take out of the Church of the Self-Righteous successfully founding a nation?" Fang Che asked in a puzzled manner.

"In the past, there would've been no positives at all, but now that we have you, this is fantastic news to us!"