CHAPTER 39: SUN YUAN'S PARTING GIFT

"I do not, and even if I did I wouldn't tell you," Li Changkong replied with a shake of his head. "Duan Xiyang alone is already a source of dread for all warriors under the heavens. If it comes to light that we have an even more formidable enemy to deal with..."

Fang Che nodded in response. This was indeed a problem that was worthy of concern.

Thankfully, everyone was too distracted by Duan Xiyang and the Cloud Weapon Archive to take this matter into consideration.

"You can go now," Li Changkong said. "The world is not as simple and shallow as it appears, and the path of the warrior is not as bright and clear as everyone thinks. If you want to see more of the distant scenery, then you'll have to constantly climb to greater and greater heights.

“Whenever you ascend to a new mountain summit, your horizons will broaden a little further. For now, have a good think about it, then choose your primary weapon without telling anyone else."

***

After leaving the office, Fang Che didn't return to the classroom.

Instead, he made his way into a nearby forest, where he leaned against a tree and closed his eyes.

The light of the sun was filtering sporadically through the gaps in the canopies of the nearby trees before spilling down onto his face, reminding him of the morning of his resurrection.

His body and face were riddled with spots of light and shadow, which were constantly shifting as the leaves and branches of the nearby trees swayed with the breeze.

Most of his body was cast into shadow, far outweighing the spots of light.

His thoughts were very jumbled and unsettled.

He was thinking of the Cloud Weapon Archive, of Duan Xiyang, of the pope of the Church of the Self-Righteous.

Is the pope even the ultimate ruler of the Church of the Self-Righteous?

He then thought of Bing Shangxue's heartfelt advice to be someone that he could be proud of, and he also thought of Li Changkong's parting words to him.

Even at his peak in his past life, his cultivation base had been too low for him to witness the distant scenery that Li Changkong had mentioned.

I was only an Emperor in my past life, and I had no right to access the true secrets of this world, nor witness the distant scenery beyond the mountain summit. The only reason everything is going so smoothly for me now is because I get to hide in the body of a boy. If my enemies were targeting me like an Emperor, I would already be long dead by now.

After some fruitless contemplation, he channeled his Cool as Ice mental technique to banish all of these jumbled thoughts and emotions.

With his mind cleared, he focused his thoughts on his primary weapon.

On an official basis, his master was Soaring Saber King Sun Yuan, so the saber was too obvious a choice.

As for the sword, that was his primary weapon in his past life, and if he were to choose the sword, then he would inevitably instinctively fall back upon some of the habits and sword techniques of his past life.

If it were discovered by the enemy that he possessed memories of a past lifetime, then he would undoubtedly become the primary target of the Church of the Self-Righteous.

If that were to happen, then his fate would be sealed, even with Xue Fuxiao serving as his personal bodyguard day and night.

Furthermore, even though the sword was one of the Four Kingly Arms, Fang Che knew from experience just how much the sword struggled against heavier weapons.

In his past life, whenever he came up against opponents of comparable power using weapons like maces, hammers, and heavy sabers, he found himself constantly having to dodge enemy attacks while passively biding his time for an opportunity at retaliation.

Hence, the sword was also ruled out.

In fact, he had ruled out that option even before ruling out the saber.

What about the halberd?

The halberd was extremely versatile, simultaneously possessing the traits of multiple common weapons, including the saber, the spear, the hammer, the staff, and the sword.

Its weight and length could also be varied for battle at different ranges, but the problem was that it was very difficult to master.

However, Fang Che was very interested in it, and he had decided that it would be his secondary weapon.

As for his primary weapon, he had already made up his mind quite some time ago.

He had chosen the spear.

The blinding spear projection that had put an end to his past life had become a deep-rooted memory in his mind.

It was the first thing that he had thought of upon opening his eyes in this lifetime, and even now, whenever he saw the light of the sun, he would think of the White Bone Dream Shattering Spear's blinding radiance.

Someday, I will use the spear to defeat Duan Xiyang!

Fang Che opened his eyes to peer directly into a ray of sunlight shining through the canopy.

The ray of light was as straight as an arrow, crossing the boundaries of time and distance to shine straight into his pupils like a spear descending from the heavens.

Fang Che continued to peer directly into the ray of light, and before long, his eyes had become just as radiant.

***

Ye Meng heaved a sigh of relief as she emerged from the locked room.

She had just made a breakthrough to become a second-rank General.

Recently, roughly half of the cultivation resources received by Fang Che had been consumed by her.

With his cultivation of the Boundless Sutra, Fang Che's aptitude and physical constitution were improving every single day, as was his cultivation base, and after consuming half of those natural treasures, they failed to have any additional effect on him.

Hence, he had given the rest to Ye Meng, and he had forced her to eat everything while putting on a hostile display.

As a result, Ye Meng had also been making rapid progress in her cultivation base of late, and that wasn't even to mention the enhanced aptitude she had received from consuming the Heaven Vein Vermilion Fruit.

Recently, her cultivation had felt like a dream.

After cleaning up the courtyard, she sat on the swing and looked at the manor that she was growing to love more and more with each passing day.

All of a sudden, Sun Yuan appeared in the courtyard.

"Welcome, Master Sun. I'll go brew you some tea," Ye Meng greeted as she hurriedly jumped down from the swing.

Sun Yuan sat down onto the reclining chair under the pergola in the courtyard, sipping on some tea as he asked, "What's going on over there?"

He was referring to the impressive arsenal of weapons that had been assembled beneath the awning, all of which had been forged from steel.

"Young Master Fang recently procured those weapons, and he trains with them late into the night every day after returning from the academy."

Sun Yuan was very pleased to hear this.

He could tell from the well-worn grips of some of the weapons that Fang Che was working very hard.

***

Fang Che returned as the sun was beginning to set.

"You're here early today, Master," Fang Che exclaimed.

"I'm setting off for the capital of the New Chu Nation today, and I'll probably be away for about three months, so I wanted to check up on you before I left."

Ye Meng's ears immediately perked up at this information.

"Why are you going there, Master? From what I've heard, our One Heart Church doesn't have a solid foundation there, and given the recent takeover, the entire nation is still in a very chaotic state. Even though you're a King, I fear for your safety..."

"It's true that I'll have to be extra careful over there, but Pope Yin specifically instructed me to go, so I have no choice but to comply. Besides, this is a good thing."

"How so? Are you being sent there for a mission, Master? Make sure you don't let down your guard."

Sun Yuan was very pleased with his disciple's concern for him.

He had originally planned not to reveal the purpose of his visit, but in order to put Fang Che's heart at ease, he explained, "The main church has assigned spots to all of its subsidiary churches and organizations, of which our One Heart Church has received three.

“Given my status in the church, I wouldn't have been considered, but Pope Yin chose me to go in light of my connection to you. I have been selected to receive an injection of divine power to enhance my cultivation base."

"Really? I didn't know that was a thing!" Fang Che exclaimed.

He was not feigning his surprise here. Never had he heard of anything like this in either of his two lifetimes.

A mysterious smile appeared on Sun Yuan's face, and he revealed through voice transmission so that only Fang Che could hear: "This is the biggest secret of our church!"

Fang Che immediately put on a stunned expression.

Why is he using voice transmission?

It was a pity that Ye Meng wouldn't get to hear what Sun Yuan was about to say.

Ye Meng could see that Sun Yuan wished for her to give the two of them some privacy, so she departed in a thoughtful manner, citing a need to check on the new pot of tea she was brewing.

Fang Che paid no heed to her as he said, "If it's a secret, then you don't have to tell me, Master."

Sun Yuan had already decided to talk, so he couldn't stop now. Otherwise, that mysterious display that he had put on and his insistence on voice transmission would've turned into a joke, and he certainly wasn't going to embarrass himself like that in front of his disciple.

With that in mind, he waved a dismissive hand as he continued through voice transmission, "It's fine, this is something you would've eventually found out anyway. Have you noticed that the Guardians and the so-called warriors of justice don't progress in their cultivation as quickly as the members of our Church of the Self-Righteous?

“It's often the case that a church member would be able to surpass an opponent of theirs in a short time when they were evenly matched not long ago. The most prominent example of this is the rivalry between Master Duan Xiyang and Xue Fuxiao.

“Prior to their latest battle, Master Duan had been defeated several hundred times by Xue Fuxiao, and there was a very clear gap between the two. However, even at Master Duan's already incredibly lofty cultivation base, he's still been able to make rapid progress to turn the tables on Xue Fuxiao. This is all due to injections of divine power."

Fang Che feigned a look of fervent excitement as he exclaimed, "That's incredible!"

Internally, he was stunned.