CHAPTER 88: YIN SHENGONG'S RAY OF HOPE

Over the course of just over a month, Yin Shengong had received close to twenty messages from Fang Che.

He didn't reply to a single one of them, but after Fang Che reached the seventh-rank Lesser Grandmaster tier, he had sent Mu Linyuan to deliver him some foundation-bolstering pills.

Yin Shengong was in the middle of attending to his daily administrative duties when he received Fang Che's final message, the one reporting his breakthrough to the Great Grandmaster tier, and he couldn't but slam the table in elation, startling all of the other church members present.

He was just looking so gloomy and frustrated just a moment ago, why does he suddenly look so happy now? What happened?

It had been a rather depressing time for him of late.

During the battle in the forest, Yin Shengong had arranged for all of his people to stay behind, while Ren Zhongyuan and his people had been sent to the front lines.

Hence, Yin Shengong and his subordinates had managed to retreat while suffering virtually no losses, while Ren Zhongyuan had lost a third of his men!

To further compound his woes, he was subjected to a furious tirade from Yin Shengong upon his return.

"Why didn't you issue the order to retreat when the situation was already so dangerous? Are you an idiot?! How are we going to replace all of the men that you lost? How am I supposed to report such a catastrophic failure to my higher-ups?"

Ren Zhongyuan didn't know what to say.

Yin Shengong was then reprimanded by the main church.

If Yin Shengong and Ren Zhongyuan had stayed to protect their subordinates instead of retreating right away, they could've severely cut their losses.

Having said that, the popes of the other churches had done the same thing, resulting in massive losses across the board, and the entire southeastern path was reprimanded by the main church.

The inspector of the southeastern path was also given an earful, and that left everyone feeling even more frustrated as they still didn't even know the purpose of the mission.

They had simply been instructed to lure in as many warriors as they could before killing them in that designated area of the forest, but somehow, the truth had been exposed, and a whole host of elite Guardians had stormed onto the scene.

Apparently, those in the main church were furious, and an investigation was underway to find the mole.

How had the plan been exposed? There was no way that any of the subsidiary churches could've exposed the plan because they didn't even know what they were doing!

Hence, the mole had to have been someone from the main church!

Apparently, at the moment, an exhaustive search was taking place throughout Xuanwu City, and several secret Guardian strongholds really had been discovered.

All of those strongholds were promptly decimated, laying waste to large sections of the city.

Yin Shengong was feeling very disgruntled.

They never even told us the objective of our mission, and now that things have gone wrong, we're somehow to blame?! How would it have made any difference if we had stayed to fight? There were so many people on the Cloud Weapon Archive on that battlefield! What were we supposed to do? Throw our lives away?!

Of course, he didn't dare to raise these complaints to the main church.

Having said that, he had managed to benefit from all of this by taking advantage of the opportunity to deal a heavy blow to Ren Zhongyuan's forces.

Furthermore, he had used this recent failure as an excuse to remove Ren Zhongyuan from the position of Enforcement Hall Master and had a trustworthy subordinate take his place.

Hence, Yin Shengong was feeling both frustrated and elated at the same time, making his mood even more unpredictable, and he was constantly throwing tantrums and killing people over the most insignificant of perceived slights.

On the surface, it seemed as if he were killing people at random in fits of rage, but in reality, he was methodically killing off Ren Zhongyuan's subordinates.

Fang Che's message had come right as Yin Shengong was holding a meeting for all of the leaders of the church, and he had just killed a helmsmaster that had been one of Ren Zhongyuan's most trusted subordinates, leaving the entire hall in a stunned silence.

It was during this silence that Fang Che's message had arrived.

Yin Shengong swept a menacing gaze over everyone present as he declared, "Let that be a lesson to you all! If I see anyone else slacking off in their duties with no ambition for self-improvement, I'll personally see to it that they suffer the same fate!"

With that, he returned to the rear hall, and in his absence, the meeting drew to an abrupt conclusion.

Ren Zhongyuan was feeling more frustrated than ever, having been on the receiving end of a furious diatribe from Yin Shengong throughout the entire meeting.

As he emerged from the hall, he took a glance up at the sun in the sky, then exhaled as he departed.

The church members in the hall filed out one after another, then went their separate ways, but many of them ended up at the same destination, namely Ren Zhongyuan's residence.

"It looks like Pope Yin has caught on," a man with a goatee said in a fearful manner.

He had entrenched himself firmly in Ren Zhongyuan's camp, and he was beginning to fear for his own safety.

Roughly twenty people had gathered in Ren Zhongyuan's residence, and he sighed, "I've noticed that as well. Recently, all of the casualties suffered by our church and all of the people that he's killed have been our people!"

"What should we do? Could it be that Pope Yin already has a list of names?" someone asked in a horrified manner.

"That's impossible! Even we don't have a list of names!" someone else countered.

"What should we do, Pope Ren?"

Everyone turned collectively to Ren Zhongyuan.

The One Heart Church was different from the Protectionists. If this type of internal unrest were to occur among the Protectionists, the usurper would normally only be transferred away, and only those whose actions caused extremely severe consequences would be executed.

However, in the case of a power struggle in the One Heart Church, the only way for things to end would be for one or both parties to meet their demise.

"Don't panic. I'll report this matter to our higher-ups, then make a decision once they've responded," Ren Zhongyuan said in a calm manner.

In spite of his unbothered facade, internally, he was feeling rather concerned.

He knew that Yin Shengong had managed to plant a mole among the top brass of White Cloud Warrior Academy, and he knew that this mole was one of Yin Shengong's most trusted subordinates, but he didn't know who it was.

Hence, he had selected several seeded prodigies to infiltrate White Cloud Warrior Academy as students.

He was hoping that they would be able to uncover the identity of this mole and report their f findings to him. The fact that the identity of this mole was unknown to him was a volatile factor out of his control, and that made him feel rather uneasy.

However, recently, he had been informed that one of those seeded prodigies had been eliminated, and by the One Heart Church, no less.

Furthermore, even her entire clan had been uprooted, and that only made Ren Zhongyuan even more uneasy.

Was Yin Shengong behind this as well, or had this been orchestrated by that mole in the academy?

***

Mu Linyuan arrived outside Yin Shengong's study.

Upon sensing his presence, Yin Shengong instructed him to enter the room, and he duly obliged.

"How did it go?"

"Your calculations were spot on as usual, Pope Yin. All of those traitors immediately went to Deputy Pope Ren's residence after the meeting."

"How many of them were there?"

"Over twenty. There were only fewer than seventy people at the meeting, so that equates to roughly a third! Those ungrateful bastards!"

"That's most likely not even the full extent of it. I have some other matters to take care of, so I'll let Ren Zhongyuan do as he pleases for now. If we want to eliminate him, we have to be prepared for the repercussions."

Yin Shengong was taking a very cautious approach. Now that he had been alerted to Ren Zhongyuan's ambitions, he was able to see the situation with far better clarity, and with this sense of clarity came confidence.

If it weren't for the fact that the timing wasn't correct, he would've already begun making sweeping changes to eradicate Ren Zhongyuan's influence in the church.

***

"Care to guess Night Demon's current cultivation base, Old Man Mu?"

"He had just reached the second-rank Lesser Grandmaster tier last time we visited him, so I'll say maybe the eighth rank now?"

In Mu Linyuan's mind, this was already a very high guess.

After all, it had only been just over a month since they visited Fang Che, and even reaching the sixth rank would've been a tall order.

"He was already at the seventh rank last time I sent you to deliver that batch of resources to him, and I was just informed that he's reached the Great Grandmaster tier. There are still three and a half months before the commencement of the Parasite Ascension Project, and that should be enough for him to reach the General tier! As for whether he can reach the second rank, that'll be down to luck."

Mu Linyuan was astonished to hear this, and he hurriedly said, "You must have the blessings of the heavens on your side, Pope Yin! This is nothing short of a minor miracle!"

"His progress has been remarkable, indeed, but he keeps sending me update messages, and it's a real pain in the backside," Yin Shengong grumbled.

"How about you get him to message me from now on, Pope Yin?" Mu Linyuan volunteered. "That way, you won't have to deal with him."

"Piss off!" Yin Shengong scoffed in amusement. "Now that he's reached the Great Grandmaster tier, I have to consider this matter more carefully. He even went out of his way to tell me that he's used up all of the cultivation resources from last time! He's going to get himself in trouble if he keeps wearing his heart on his sleeve like this. Everyone will be able to read him like an open book!"

"He's still just a child. I'm sure he'll learn to keep his cards closer to his chest once he's all grown up," Mu Linyuan said with a smile.

"We need to have a good think about what cultivation resources to give Night Demon," Yin Shengong said. "Up to this point, he's barely used anything to elevate his own cultivation base. Clearly, he's prioritizing a solid foundation above all else, and that indicates very lofty ambitions. Any suggestions?"