CHAPTER 184: THE JEALOUS YIN SHENGONG

Huang Yifan and the others were momentarily stunned into silence.

"Qin Fengyun is a true character," Huang Yifan praised. "As expected of someone bearing the honorable title of Star Lord."

He then gave Gao Qingyu a recount of the Xue Wanshi incident.

After hearing the story, Gao Qingyu nodded as he sighed, "I see. Dean Qin is a wise man. Celestial Being Warrior Academy has always reigned supreme in the World Academy Tournament, but not because they have better talent, teachers, or facilities than us. Instead, it's simply because their sole focus is on elevating cultivation base. I've brought this up to Xu Chengyun many times in the past, but he always brushed me off.

“Their model of education is to have their students elevate their cultivation bases in as risk-free an environment as possible, then gain real-world battle experience after they graduate and enter the Hall of Protectionists. In contrast, we encourage students to go out on missions as soon as possible. As a result, our students will have less time to cultivate, so we're no match for them in a tournament context.

“The Celestial Being Warrior Academy approach to education is not necessarily wrong. In times of peace, this would be the right way to go, but given the current social climate... What happened with Xue Wanshi is naturally a massive disgrace to the academy, but it also serves as a warning. All the sparring in the world can't prepare one for a true battle! Academy students deal in grades, but true warriors deal in kills!

“If Celestial Being Warrior Academy changes its curriculum in light of this incident, then countless students will have their lives saved when they go out into the world. On top of that, Fang Che has to bear pressure from the Xue Clan, so he's definitely worthy of this brocade banner. In his letter, Qin Fengshan says that Fang Che is not at fault for what happened to Xue Wanshi.

“On top of that, Celestial Being Warrior Academy has already contacted Xue Wanshi and claimed full accountability for the incident. They've taken it solely upon themselves to compensate the Xue Clan for the damage sustained to its reputation."

Huang Yifan and the others were thoroughly impressed with Qin Fengshan's handling of the incident.

This was a man who truly had an eye for the bigger picture.

With that in mind, Huang Yifan and the others couldn't help but compare Qin Fengshan with the shameless Gao Qingyu, and they heaved a collective sigh.

Why can't we have a dean like that? Instead, we're stuck with this shameless old fart that only knows how to throw fits!

Gao Qingyu could immediately tell what they were thinking, and true to form, he erupted into one of his signature fits, slamming the table as he yelled, "Why're you all looking at me like that?! You have no respect for authority! Why, I ought to..."

***

By the time Fang Che stumbled back to his classroom, his entire body reeked for makeup and perfume, and even his hair was slightly disheveled.

"Academy Idol Fang is back!" Mo Ganyun squealed, eliciting a chorus of raucous laughter from his classmates.

"Let's give a round of applause to the Red Heavenly Lord, everyone!" Fang Che retaliated. "Congratulations on your second-place finish!"

Mo Ganyun's expression instantly darkened as he challenged, "Fight me!"

Shortly thereafter, Mo Ganyun laid on his back outside the classroom, looking up at the sky in despair.

He had been sent flying by nothing more than a nonchalant swipe from Fang Che!

"How are you able to improve this fast?" he wailed.

He was fighting tooth and nail to catch up to Fang Che, but the gap between them only continued to widen!

The tournament preparation phase was the fastest period of improvement that he had ever experienced, yet he had somehow only been left further behind, and even for someone with a berserker constitution, this was a very heavy blow to the psyche.

"You've fallen off, Little Yunyun," Fang Che sighed with a shake of his head.

"Fallen off my arse! I'll surpass you sooner or later!" Mo Ganyun snapped as he sprang to his feet.

"Sure."

"Quit condescending me!"

"What're you gonna do about it? Beat me up?"

Mo Ganyun could only mope his way to the drill grounds with Fang Che in accompaniment.

Before long, Mo Ganyun was in a much better mood because he had three others to share in his suffering!

In a four-on-one battle against Fang Che, they were all annihilated within three attacks.

Yu Zhongge, Qiu Yunshang, and Jing Shuanggao were laying on the ground, wondering if they should quit as warriors and become farmers.

They could tell that Fang Che had grown much stronger during his "battle" against Xue Wanshi, but they hadn't realized the full extent of his strength.

Is he really the same age as us?

Yu Zhongge and the others were confident that they could beat even the top second-year prodigies, and surely even the best that the third-years had to offer couldn't crush them so easily!

"I'm going to the missions hall! Who's coming with me?" Yu Zhongge yelled.

He felt like he had no time to waste. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before Fang Che left them so far behind that he was completely out of sight!

Mo Ganyun and the others immediately sprang to their feet to join him, and they didn't even bother to bid farewell to Fang Che before rushing collectively to the missions hall.

Fang Che looked on in exasperation as they scurried away, then made his way to the spirit qi gravity cultivation chamber.

That night, Fang Che was struck by a sense of loneliness upon returning to the Virtue Manor.

Only then did he recall that he had left Ye Meng behind in Green Wave City.

He was initially planning to pick her up after the Parasite Ascension Project, but he would've missed the grand finals of the World Academy Tournament had he done that, so he decided to pick her up after the tournament instead.

Looking back now, if he had followed his original plan, then he could've avoided all that trouble with Xue Wanshi entirely.

After entering his study, he began communicating with the little fairy and his Golden Horn Flood Dragon.

The Golden Horn Flood Dragon had been able to feast to its heart's content and then some during the Parasite Ascension Project, and it was looking far more physically imposing than before.

Even the golden horn on its head had grown an inch.

Recently, it had been doing nothing but devouring baleful qi and sleeping, truly a blissful existence.

As for the little fairy, it had slept for a few days after devouring that portion of the Cloud Water Heavenly Fruit's power.

After waking up, it was much more energetic and began following through on its promise to Fang Che, altering the form of the divine metal to a spear.

Thanks to its efforts, the divine metal had been somewhat elongated, but it clearly still had a long way to go.

Fang Che enveloped the divine metal with his spirit sense, honing their compatibility, and he only emerged from his spirit sense space at around midnight.

He pulled out his communication jade to discover that it was jam-packed with new messages.

Out of his over two thousand contacts, over 1,900 of them had sent him greeting messages, while Ling Kong and the others had basically been spamming him entire novels.

Even Yan Beihan had sent him a message.

"What are you doing?"

"Digesting the Cloud Water Heavenly Fruit," Fang Che replied, instantly putting an end to the conversation.

Sure enough, Yan Beihan was furious at his reply, hurling her communication jade into the opposite wall.

Strangely enough, there wasn't a single message from Yin Shengong or the elders of the One Heart Church.

Why is Sun Yuan still not back yet?

He was supposed to have been only gone for three months, but he had already been gone for far longer than that.

With that in mind, he sent a message to Yin Shengong.

"Master, wasn't Master Sun Yun only supposed to be gone for three months? Why is he still not back yet?"

However, Yin Shengong didn't reply, and Fang Che could only head to bed.

***

Yin Shengong was in the process of formulating a plan with Mu Linyuan and the others when Fang Che's message arrived.

Ren Zhongyuan had to return to the One Heart Church soon, and they had to eradicate him and his forces once and for all.

Ever since their return, Yin Shengong and his trusted band of elders had been constantly eradicating Ren Zhongyuan's forces, and it had become abundantly clear to everyone that Ren Zhongyuan had been defeated in this power struggle.

His forces were cast into complete despair, and they were barely even able to bring themselves to put up any resistance, making them easy pickings for Yin Shengong.

Over the past few days, the One Heart Church had lost over a thousand members, and all of Ren Zhongyuan's most trusted subordinates had been eliminated.

Yin Shengong was particularly ruthless on this occasion, adopting a policy of zero-tolerance. In his mind, he would rather risk killing innocents than risk allowing any traitors to slip through the cracks.

Yin Shengong's wrath came down upon the One Heart Church like a vengeful force of nature, wiping out entire clans of everyone related to Ren Zhongyuan, even the children and elderly.

Fang Che's message had arrived right as they were discussing how they were going to deal with the imminently returning Ren Zhongyuan.

The cold killing intent in Yin Shengong's instantly gave way to mellow benevolence as soon as he spotted Night Demon's message, but his expression immediately changed upon opening the message.

He tossed his communication jade aside, opting not to respond.

"Heartless little shit!" he denounced with a cold expression.

"What's wrong?"

Mu Linyuan had taken the Cloud Spirit Pill that Fang Che had asked Yin Shengong to bring back for him, drastically speeding up his recovery, so he was feeling extremely fond of Fang Che.

That message had clearly been from Night Demon, and he was perplexed by Yin Shengong's furious reaction.

"Has he been causing trouble again, Pope Yin?" Mu Linyuan asked in a concerned manner.

"No. He asked me why Sun Yuan isn't back yet. Sun Yuan told him that he'll be gone for three months, and it's been more than three months since then."