Dawnless Sovereign-Chapter 126 (2): Fang Ches Spear

"Do you know why I didn't leave, Yin Shengong? It's because of you! If I don't kill you, I'll never be able to rest easy, even in death! The rest of my life is now dedicated solely to killing you!"

"You have no one to blame but yourself!" Yin Shengong snapped. "You were the one who put yourself in this situation, how does it have anything to do with me?"

"I don't care what you say, Yin Shengong. My life may be as good as over, but I'm taking you down with me, no matter the cost!"

Yin Shengong was furious. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

So many people conspired together to bring about your downfall, why are you only targeting me?!

"Why go to such extremes, Hai Wuliang? I am willing to extend an olive branch to you here. I am missing a deputy pope in my One Heart Church, and I invite you to join me. You don't have to use your real name. You and I both know that there are plenty of ways for you to secure a new identity, and from there, we can work together for our common glory!"

Hai Wuliang offered no response.

"Think about it," Yin Shengong enticed. "Together, we can easily elevate the One Heart Church to the foremost subsidiary church on the entire continent!"

"You must be dreaming!" Hai Wuliang scoffed. "First, you screw me over, and now, you want me to be your servant? How..."

Before he had a chance to finish, Yin Shengong had already launched himself into the forest, his sword held aloft.

A string of loud clangs rang out in rapid succession, following which Hai Wuliang vanished once again like a plume of smoke.

"You thought you could get me with such a basic trick? What a joke!" Hai Wuliang scoffed.

"But it almost worked, did it not?" Yin Shengong countered as he glanced at the trace of blood on the tip of his sword. "Honestly, if I were you, I would've already killed myself long ago. What's the point in continuing to cling to life in such a pathetic fashion?"

Hai Wuliang offered no response, while the remaining four elders had formed a defensive circle with backs to one another, and they were on full alert.

A sneak attack from Hai Wuliang may not be able to pose much threat to Yin Shengong, but for the four elders, even the slightest lapse in concentration could spell their demise.

Yin Shengong returned to join the four elders, then decided through gritted teeth, "Let's go back for now."

With Hai Wuliang constantly lurking in the shadows, the remaining four elders would be dead long before they could reach the Mountain Moving Sect.

Hai Wuliang had clearly already been hiding here in ambush for quite some time, and his ultimate goal was most likely to destroy the One Heart Church, with Yin Shengong's death only an important milestone along the way.

Unfortunately for Yin Shengong, there wasn't much that he could do. Hai Wuliang's cultivation base was roughly on par with his own, so if the former refused to come out of hiding, then Yin Shengong was powerless to do anything.

With that in mind, he immediately reported the situation to the main church.

"Hai Wuliang is currently lurking outside my One Heart Church headquarters, ambushing everyone that he comes across. Please send reinforcements to get rid of this scourge once and for all."

After returning to the headquarters, Yin Shengong sat down in his study with his brows tightly furrowed.

How could he avert this crisis now that he couldn't go to the Mountain Moving Sect?

Meanwhile, Fang Che was also pondering this problem, and he was confident that Yin Shengong would be able to take care of it.

However, he was then informed by Yin Shengong that the latter was stuck in the One Heart Church headquarters, and the news left him completely dumbfounded.

***

Fang Che felt as if he had shot himself in the foot.

The Guardians couldn't do anything to the Mountain Moving Sect. In order to protect the Unmatched Escort Agency, the Mountain Moving Sect's association with the Church of the Self-Righteous couldn't be exposed for now.

The Guardians had to pretend to be oblivious to the Mountain Moving Sect's allegiance to the Church of the Self-Righteous in order to maintain the Unmatched Escort Agency's status of legitimacy.

The clans of Zheng Yunqi and the others could exert pressure on the Mountain Moving Sect for now, but once they left, the Unmatched Escort Agency was surely going to have to face the Mountain Moving Sect's wrath.

Fang Che was at a loss for what to do.

He didn't regret killing those two disciples, but he had completely failed to anticipate that Yin Shengong wouldn't be able to get involved.

Let's just wait and see what happens. I already killed those two, so there's no going back now.

Meanwhile, the newly assigned leader of the main church's assessment teams finally arrived.

***

That night, Fang Che arrived at the large rock where he usually sat every day to bask in the spear intent from the nearby cave, only to discover that it had been occupied by an azure-robed man.

The man was sitting on the rock with his legs crossed, staring intently at the cave entrance in the distance.

In his hand was a golden serpent spear, one that sent chills running down Fang Che's spine at the mere sight of it, and it seemed to have been filled with boundless killing intent.

The azure-robed man had a head of extremely disheveled hair and a tall and imposing physique.

Even in his seated posture, he was taller than the average standing person, and Fang Che speculated that he had to have been over two meters tall.

As soon as Fang Che caught sight of the unique serpent spear, he knew that there was nothing for him to worry about as this was an ally of his.

It was the wielder of the legendary Golden Serpent Spear, Dong Changfeng.

Fang Che didn't dare to disturb this venerable senior, so he sat down in silence around a hundred feet behind Dong Changfeng to bask in the spear intent from both the cave and from Dong Changfeng himself.

Both of them remained silent, and Dong Changfeng's gaze remained fixed on the cave entrance directly up ahead, as if he were completely oblivious to the fact that someone had appeared behind him.

However, Fang Che knew that there was no way he could've actually avoided Dong Changfeng's detection. A warrior of Dong Changfeng's caliber would be able to sense even an ant crawling past within a radius of a thousand feet, let alone a living, breathing human in such close proximity.

Around an hour later, Dong Changfeng heaved a disappointed sigh as he lowered his gaze.

All of a sudden, a flurry of spear projections came flying back out of the cave in rapid succession.

In total, there were over nine hundred spear projections, and all of them returned to Dong Changfeng before vanishing into his body.

Then, still seated with his back to Fang Che, he asked, "What's your name, kid?"

"My name is Fang Che. I am currently serving as the chief administrator of the second administration hall of the White Cloud Prefecture Hall of Protectionists."

"Ah, so you're the Chief Administrator Fang that I've been hearing so much about," Dong Changfeng exclaimed as he turned around to face Fang Che with an intrigued expression.

"You seem very young, Chief Administrator Fang," he remarked with a friendly smile.

"I'm eighteen."

"It's very impressive that you're already at the pinnacle of the Warlord at such a young age. Back when I was eighteen, I was only a General."

"You're far too kind, Senior Dong. You are a brilliant role model that all warriors of my generation strive for."

"Oh? It sounds like you know who I am."

"I don't think there are many warriors in the world who would fail to recognize your Golden Serpent Spear."

"That's true," Dong Changfeng grinned, revealing two rows of sparkling white teeth through his thick beard.

Fang Che discovered that just like Mo Ganyun, even Dong Changfeng's teeth were around twice the size of the average person's.

"I've been living in seclusion in the White Cloud Prefecture for some time, and recently, I've been hearing your name a lot. Aren't you a wielder of the saber? What are you doing here?"

"I've been training all types of different weapons. After all, I don't know what type of opponents I'll be facing in the future, so it can't hurt to be better prepared."

"That's true. I used to come and sit on this rock all the time, but I haven't been here for a while, yet it remains as smooth as ever, so I figured someone had to have been coming to sit here. A couple of years ago, there was another young bloke who would come and fight over this spot with me every day. If I recall correctly, his name was Wu Zhibing, and I heard that he was a student of White Cloud Warrior Academy."

Fang Che nodded in response. It seemed that Dong Changfeng was a very talkative man, and despite his status as the thirty-sixth ranked warrior on the Cloud Weapon Archive, there was no sense of authority or superiority when he spoke. Instead, he seemed just like any chatty old man, albeit an extremely tall and imposing one.

"How long have you been coming to this cave?" Dong Changfeng asked.

"Close to a month now."

"Have you managed to glean anything from it?"

"No."

"Have you found a wife for yourself yet? I'm assuming the answer is no, given your age, right?"

Fang Che: "???"

How are these two topics related in any way?

"I'm married."

"Already? It's far too early! You young people nowadays have no patience. So you've already been here for close to a month, yet you haven't managed to glean anything from this cave? Looks like you're rather lacking in aptitude."

"I suppose."

"Well, your aptitude probably isn't too bad. I've already been looking at this cave for over two hundred years without anything to show for it."

Fang Che didn't know what to say.

Are you just chatting for the sake of it? Just how lonely are you?!

It then occurred to Fang Che that Dong Changfeng had been living in seclusion ever since he was wounded by Duan Xiyang all those years ago, and right as he was about to fully recover and reinvent himself, he had thrown away all of his centuries of hard work in order to confront Bei Mingxin.

Back then, he had stood against Duan Xiyang, even though he knew that he had no chance of victory, and it was this same sense of duty and pride that had urged him to confront Bei Mingxin, even though he could’ve easily pretended to be oblivious to Bei Mingxin's presence in the White Cloud Prefecture.

In doing so, his past few centuries of hard work had been reduced to nought, and he had lost all chance of making further progress in his cultivation base.