CHAPTER 90: MY COUSIN HAS GROWN UP

Mu Linyuan was astonished.

This was a massive move, and it may not even be a feasible one!

"Make them do it," Yin Shengong ordered with a cold look in his eyes. "That branch helm is firmly under Ren Zhongyuan's control, so regardless of whether they succeed or not, it'll be beneficial to us. Once you've done that, contact Night Demon and tell him..."

Mu Linyuan listened intently to Yin Shengong's orders before nodding as he declared, "You can count on me, Pope Yin. My only concern is that such a move is definitely going to get a reaction out of Deputy Pope Ren. Won't it be too dangerous for you with both Qian Sanjiang and I over in the White Cloud Prefecture?"

"You don't need to be concerned for my safety," Yin Shengong scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "Don't forget that I've been the pope of the One Heart Church for centuries! So what if Ren Zhongyuan is trying to plot against me? If he dares to confront me directly, only one person will come out of that encounter alive, and it certainly won't be him!"

Mu Linyuan knew that Yin Shengong was speaking the truth. Even though Ren Zhongyuan had built up a huge base of support in the One Heart Church, Yin Shengong's authority was still unshakeable.

With that, Mu Linyuan set off to carry out his orders.

***

Fang Che really was running out of merit points.

He only had around seven hundred merit points in total, and it cost five merit points per two hours spent in a cultivation chamber, amounting to twenty per day.

For each rank of progression, he received a reward of ten merit points, but even that had been burned through, and he currently only had sixteen merit points left, which wasn't even enough for a single day.

As for Mo Ganyun and the others, they had gone broke long ago, and they were all going out on missions to earn merit points.

Over the past month, the seven brothers had fought four times, with Fang Che and Mo Ganyun's top two positions proving completely unshakeable.

Ding Jieran was able to hold onto the third spot until the fourth and more recent set of sparring matches, during which he was knocked down to fourth by Qiu Yunshang, and Yu Zhongge was also nipping at his heels.

At this rate, it wasn't going to take long before Ding Jieran fell down to fifth.

Jing Shuanggao and Xie Gongping remained in the sixth and seventh spots, respectively, and by Fang Che's estimates, Xie Gongping was going to spend all of eternity languishing at the bottom.

Fang Qingyun had already returned from his third mission, and he was stunned by the collection of natural treasures brought to him by Fang Che.

"Again?! Where are you getting all this stuff from?"

"Don't worry about it, I have my ways."

"Keep it for yourself! Why are you always giving this stuff to me? Your aptitude is superior to mine, so you should be getting more cultivation resources than me! I should be the one giving you this stuff, not the other way around!"

"I wouldn't be giving you this stuff if I didn't have enough for myself."

"Surely you can't have this much leftover!"

"But I do have this much leftover!"

In the end, it took an almighty effort to convince Fang Qingyun to accept his gift. This was proving to be an even more difficult task than trying to suck up to Yin Shengong!

"Don't give this stuff to anyone else! Make sure to keep it a secret and eat it all yourself," Fang Che warned.

"Do I look that stupid to you?" Fang Qingyun asked with a wry smile.

"You do."

Fang Qingyun was speechless.

He was very honest and generous, but he wasn't actually stupid, and he certainly knew better than to share such precious natural treasures with others.

Fang Che didn't ask any questions about the composition of Fang Qingyun's team in the wake of Wan Zhimei's passing. He could tell that even though Wan Zhimei had been outed as a member of the One Heart Church, Fang Qingyun was still rather sad about her untimely demise.

I suppose suffering a little now is a good thing for him. That'll teach him not to be so trusting of everyone.

In the wake of Fang Che's departure, Fang Qingyun looked down at the collection of natural treasures laid out before him, feeling very touched.

My cousin is all grown up.

Fang Qingyun heaved an emotional sigh as he consumed one of the natural treasures.

Fang Che's future lies among the stars. There's no way he'll be relegated to our Fang Clan. In fact, our Fang Clan may only serve as a hindrance to him as his enemies will try to get to him by striking at our Fang Clan. Hence, I also have to become strong. That way, Fang Che will be able to travel the world, content in the knowledge that I can look after our clan in his absence!

With that in mind, Fang Qingyun felt much better about accepting the natural treasures.

At the moment, Fang Qingyun was already making very impressive progress. He had reached the seventh-rank Lesser Grandmaster tier, placing him quite high in his class.

With these cultivation resources from Fang Che, he was set for another spike in cultivation base, and his instructors and peers were sure to be stunned once again during the next exam period.

***

While Mo Ganyun and the others were out on missions, Fang Che was forced to resort to sparring with the instructors, and Bing Shangxue was assigned to be his designated sparring partner.

She was the most patient of the four instructors, and she treated all of her students like her own children, providing them with meticulous care and gentle encouragement.

She played many roles with Fang Che, including strict instructor, wise life mentor, and caring maternal figure. Most importantly, she possessed a vast wealth of knowledge and battle techniques, allowing her to calmly handle whatever attacks Fang Che threw at her before pointing out his flaws.

After each sparring match, Fang Che would take some time to reflect before going again, and Bing Shangxue couldn't help but be flabbergasted by his terrifying rate of progress.

She felt forced to draw upon more and more of her power with each passing sparring match. At this point, she already had to use an eighth-rank Great Grandmaster tier cultivation base just to match Fang Che's third-rank cultivation base, and even then, she was only just barely getting by thanks to her tremendous wealth of battle experience.

After their afternoon sparring matches, Bing Shangxue remarked with mixed emotions in her eyes, "With your current combat prowess, you can already go out into the world and fend for yourself."

"I don't think I'm quite there yet," Fang Che replied in a candid fashion. "There are far too many powerful warriors in the world, and there's always a chance of running into a cold-blooded killer that takes innocent lives for no reason. That would be a terrible way to die."

"Indeed," Bing Shangxue sighed. "The Church of the Self-Righteous is becoming more and more brazen of late. Over the past month alone, three villages near the White Cloud Prefecture have been completely wiped out, and there have also been over four hundred mass killings with at least close to twenty lives lost in each one. The majority of the victims are innocent and helpless non-warriors."

A cold look flashed through Fang Che's eyes upon hearing this.

"We can only teach you for five years. In that time, we do our best to help you prepare to face the world on your own, but I always wish that I can do more. Over the years, I've had the pleasure of nurturing thousands of students. All of them have since gone out into the world on their own."

"How are they all doing right now?"

A complex mix of pain, sympathy, and affection surfaced in Bing Shangxue's eyes at this question.

"Several thousand of them are working, over a thousand of them have returned to their clans, over two thousand of them have joined organizations like sects and guild, over three thousand of them have already perished, and there are 514 that are missing to this day. There are also 204 that were proven to be spies for the demonic churches and have been executed.

“Seventeen of them came from clans tied to demonic churches and had Five Spirit Parasites planted in their bodies, but defied their fates by taking Soul Splitting Pills to fight the demonic churches to the death. They're all my children, and I'll never forget them for as long as I live! My biggest regret in life is that I wasn't able to save them."

Bing Shangxue's voice trailed off into a pained silence.

She was staring into space with tear-filled eyes that were filled with motherly love, as if those seventeen children were standing before her again.

Fang Che remained silent with a heavy heart.

Soul Splitting Pills contained a type of poison that could allow the consumer's soul to temporarily suppress their Five Spirit Parasite. The poison would spread through all of one's meridians, elevating their cultivation base by roughly twofold, but once the effects wore off, death was unavoidable.

All those who could bring themselves to pursue this option were heroes!

These people were fed Five Spirit Parasite as children before they even knew anything, and by the time they realized the position they were in, it was already too late.

One could only imagine the despair they felt as they took those Soul Splitting Pills.

It was truly a bleak mental image, but also one of immense inspiration and heroism.

No ordinary person would be able to make such a decision, but unfortunately, all those who had made this decision had perished.

It took Bing Shangxue a long time to compose herself, and she sighed, "As instructors, we have such mixed feelings for all of you. We want you to be safe, but we also want you to become heroes. We want your lives to be easy, but we know that the most grueling of hardships build the strongest of character.

“We want what's best for everyone, but after investing so much energy and emotions, we know that many of you are going to die within just a few years of graduation. We try to make ourselves cold and unfeeling, but how could we not care when our students are with us for five years at a time? My heart is already riddled with far too many holes than I can count."