Dawnless Sovereign-Chapter 43: Yin Shengongs Wrath

"However, there were simply no suitable candidates for me to choose from. Old Man Shen isn't particularly powerful, but he's very well respected in the White Cloud Prefecture and can influence both White Cloud Warrior Academy and the Hall of Protectionists. Also, according to my knowledge, his lifespan was extended by none other than Master Nine, so there must be a connection there as well.

“In light of all of that, I decided to give him the divine power essence. He has no wife or children, and he says that he'll treat me as his son from now on, so I can rely on him as a long-term backer. However, I did end up using the divine power essence, and that is a transgression deserving of punishment."

Sure enough, Yin Shengong was not very pleased.

"The divine power essence is yours, so you can do with it as you please. There's no need to tell me."

"Please don't be angry, Master! Even my life is yours, so everything that's mine naturally belongs to you as well! I've already recovered the remaining divine power essence. If you're still not satisfied, then I'm willing to accept any punishment you have in mind."

Yin Shengong's discontentment was assuaged slightly at this message.

"Good. Divine power essence is extremely precious, so it would've been a massive waste had you not recovered what was left."

"Please forgive me, Master. You told me yesterday to find a backer as soon as I can, and after mulling it over, I thought that perhaps you were implying that I should turn to Old Man Shen. I can see now that I've misconstrued your intentions and made a grave error, and for that, I deserve to be punished!"

Yin Shengong was rather taken aback to hear this.

You did this because of what I said?

He scrolled up to check the past message logs, and he quickly came to realize that his earlier messages could've indeed been easily misconstrued.

He began scratching his own head in an awkward manner.

He had told Night Demon to find a backer in the White Cloud Prefecture as soon as possible, but that was much easier said than done.

It was not an easy task to establish ties with powerful warriors, but Old Man Shen was a special exception, and all things considered, he really was the easiest option for Fang Che to turn to.

So it's my fault all of a sudden? This may not have been my intention, but all Night Demon did was carry out my instructions of finding a backer as soon as possible, so he really can't be blamed either way!

With that in mind, he immediately began feeling a little awkward for reprimanding Night Demon when the latter had done nothing wrong.

In order to save face, he replied: "I did instruct you to find a backer, but I didn't think you'd find one with such a paltry cultivation base! Even after condensing his mental state for all these years and making a breakthrough upon his recovery, he's still only a first-rank Overlord. Given your rate of progression, it won't take long before you outgrow the protection of a warrior of his caliber."

This was a rather unreasonable justification, but Yin Shengong couldn't think of anything better.

"My apologies, Master. At the moment, I have no avenues of establishing ties with warriors of a higher caliber than Old Man Shen, and even if I could, I wouldn't have given such a warrior my divine power essence.

“If I help such a formidable warrior recover to their former strength, only for them to turn on you, then I will have made you a powerful enemy! The only reason why I dared to pull the trigger on Old Man Shen without consulting you is because I know that he poses no threat to you."

Yin Shengong was very pleased with this response.

"As long as you don't give your divine power essence to someone from the Guardian headquarters or a warrior formerly on the Cloud Weapon Archive, you won't be putting me in any danger. Don't underestimate your master! I'm still the pope of the One Heart Church, after all."

Fang Che was very relieved to see this message.

At this point, it was clear that Yin Shengong's anger had completely subsided. In fact, he appeared to have been feeling a little awkward and was trying to lighten the mood in order to make amends for giving Fang Che that unwarranted scolding earlier.

However, Fang Che remained cautious, choosing to take a careful approach.

"I still feel uneasy, Master. Someone like me shouldn't be in possession of something so precious. The next time Uncle-master Mu comes to visit, I'll get him to take the divine power essence back with him so you can hold onto it in my stead."

Yin Shengong was beginning to feel a little embarrassed. Night Demon had acted on his orders, only to be scolded for it, and he was clearly terrified as a result.

"Nonsense! Keep it for yourself!"

"But Master, what if I lose it someday or use up the rest of it on an impulsive whim? If that happens, there will be none left for you!"

"Keep it! That's an order! How is your work going at the Hall of Protectionists?"

"Things have slowed down quite a bit of late. Everyone's gone into hiding, and my daily patrols have become very uneventful. Night Demon is walking down the streets out in broad daylight, yet no one dares to come and kill him! I feel like I killed all those people for nothing!"

"Cocky little brat! Why don't you tell everyone that you're Night Demon and see what happens?"

"It's not that I wouldn't dare to do that, but I still have to keep myself alive in order to be useful to you, Master."

"Piss off!"

"Yes, Master! By the way, I've reached the second-rank Lord tier!"

"Alright, good job."

Fang Che heaved a long sigh of relief as he set down his communication jade.

He had intentionally led Yin Shengong to say certain things during their conversation the day precisely so that he could justify using his divine power essence on Old Man Shen.

However, thinking back, he had still been a little too hasty. He should've given it at least a few more days, slowly bringing up the idea of giving Old Man Shen the divine power essence to Yin Shengong in order to mentally prepare him.

He had taken an enormous risk here, and if it weren't for the goodwill that he had earned with Yin Shengong from his performance at the Parasite Ascension Project, he had no doubt that his actions would've led to his demise.

Looks like I have to begin making contributions to the One Heart Church. I have to display my value and constantly keep in touch with Yin Shengong to ensure that he doesn't get suspicious of me.

Now that Old Man Shen had recovered, Fang Che wasn't going to be handing out any more of the resources that he had won from the Parasite Ascension Project, so his risk of exposure was going to be quite minimal.

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to him, and he began messaging Yin Shengong again. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Master, I have something to discuss with you."

"What do you want now?"

"I wanted to talk to you about all of the people sent down from the main church. It seems to me like all of them are helping the other churches. Why weren't any of them assigned to our One Heart Church?"

"How could they possibly help us when they were sent down for the explicit purpose of targeting our One Heart Church?"

"I think we can try to win them over, Master. They've been sent down here to accumulate experience, so why can't they do that in our One Heart Church? It should be all the same to them. I want to give it a try. Do I have your permission to do so, Master?"

"You don't have to ask permission for every little thing that you do."

"I still feel bad about what happened with the divine power essence, so I felt like it was best to consult with you before making all of my future decisions."

"Don't bring up the matter about the divine power essence again!"

"Alright, Master. What do you think about my plan to recruit the people from the main church to our side?"

"You can call the shots on that yourself, but you must make sure not to expose your identity as Night Demon!"

"I'll make sure to be careful! Thank you, Master!"

Yin Shengong set down his communication jade with a vexed sigh, and he was still feeling a little awkward.

Shortly thereafter, he was paid a visit by Mu Linyuan, Qian Sanjiang, and Hou Fang.

"How did it go?"

"It's finally the turn of our elder hall. The three of us were questioned one after another, and the other elders are currently being questioned now," Qian Sanjiang replied. "By the way, they asked me about Sun Yuan, and I told them that as far as I'm aware, Sun Yuan went to receive a divine power injection, then disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and he's still missing."

"Sun Yuan? Why would they ask about Sun Yuan?"

"They asked us if any of us knew of Sun Yuan's disciple," Hou Fang replied. "I told them that I'm a first-tier elder, while Sun Yuan is only a third-tier elder, so I don't know much about his personal affairs."

"What about all the other elders?"

"None of them know anything, either. Back when Sun Yuan first took Night Demon as his disciple, he was really pleased with himself and came to the headquarters to brag about how tiresome it was, having to teach a prodigy. However, we recall very clearly that he never told anyone his disciple's name.

“Hence, none of the other elders know anything. Immediately after that, we went to Green Wave City with Sun Yuan to arrange the Iron Will Fort siege, and from that point onward, Night Demon's identity became strictly confidential. Hence, it's easy to trace Fang Che to Sun Yuan, but it's impossible to trace Sun Yuan to Night Demon because those two lines don't overlap at all! In light of that, we don't believe there's anything for us to worry about."

"Good. Night Demon's safety is a top priority."

"Is there something wrong, Pope Yin?" Mu Linyuan asked, sensing that Yin Shengong was bothered about something.

"I gave Night Demon a scolding just now, only to find out afterward that it was unjustified," Yin Shengong admitted in an awkward manner.

The three elders were rendered speechless.

"What happened?"

The three of them were very interested in anything and everything related to Night Demon, so they immediately began asking for further details.

A wry smile appeared on Yin Shengong's face as he gave the trio a recount of events.