Dawnless Sovereign

Everyone else merely looked on in silence.

Huo Churan had shown his true colors, and no one was willing to help him.

Before long, Huo Churan was beaten into submission, but the pummeling continued.

However, Fang Che knew that he couldn't kill Huo Churan here. He still had to use Huo Churan to lure out more big fish!

Hence, he focused his efforts on inflicting as much pain as possible, and by the time he was done, Huo Churan was left laying limply on the ground like a puddle of mud.

Fang Che rose to his feet, but the sight of Huo Churan's resentful gaze triggered another fit of fury within him, and he picked up one of the heads from the ground before slamming it down onto Huo Churan's head.

The head exploded, sending brains and intracranial fluids splattering everywhere.

"Is that your uncle or your cousin?"

The second head was slammed down as well.

"How about this one?"

The third head quickly followed.

Three massive, swollen bulges had appeared on Huo Churan's head.

"Keep sending people to kill me! I'll kill them all until there's no one left in your clan!"

The entire class was stunned into silence by Fang Che's brutality.

By the time Fang Che departed, Huo Churan was only just barely drawing breath.

Before leaving the classroom, Fang Che slapped Wei Zihao in the back of the head, sending him toppling forward onto the ground.

Fang Che then kicked him a few times as he scoffed, "You're a piece of shit as well! Try and rob me again, I dare you!"

Wei Zihao curled up into a ball on the ground with a look of shock and fury on his face.

Are you still going on about that?! Are you never going to get over this?!

***

The Huo Churan incident sent massive waves sweeping through the entire academy, and Supervisor Meng Chizheng insisted on an official punishment.

"This is unacceptable! If such a grave transgression is left unpunished, our White Cloud Warrior Academy would be reduced to a laughing stock!"

He was right. Huo Churan had committed an unforgivable transgression, and the evidence was undeniable.

A stern punishment was handed down, and the academy sent a very strongly worded letter to the Huo Clan, demanding an explanation.

Fang Che just so happened to have been at the pinnacle of the ninth-rank Warrior Master tier at the time, and as Li Changkong declared this news, he abruptly made a breakthrough in front of the entire class.

Everyone could only look on with stunned and speechless expressions.

Just how happy are you to hear this news that you made a breakthrough on the spot?!

Even the instructors were astonished. They had never seen anything like this before.

A breakthrough made on the back of vindictive schadenfreude? The world truly was full of wonders!

Fang Che had become the first Grandmaster of his cohort, and he had only been at the academy for less than two months.

The four instructors of the fourth class were naturally very pleased.

According to the rules of the academy, new students had to focus on their studies for their first half-year at the academy, and they were only permitted to take on missions in the second half of the year. However, there was an exception to this rule, which was that any new student could begin taking on missions as soon as they reached the Grandmaster tier.

In other words, Fang Che could begin taking on missions if he wanted, but he had no plans to do so for now because there was still unfinished business.

He couldn't just settle with killing three Grandmasters from the Huo Clan, he had to do more!

Only by luring out people from the Three Saints Church could he expose the Huo Clan while also dragging the Three Saints Church into this mess.

Ideally, he would find a way to get the Divine Heavenly Church involved as well so he could pit all of the churches against one another.

Furthermore, he also had to mobilize the other students in the academy that were affiliated with the churches.

He had been appointed captain of the One Heart Church by Yin Shengong himself, so he possessed the jurisdictive power required to pull this off.

With so much bad blood accumulated, the Huo Clan was definitely going to continue sending people after him, so he had to take extra measures to ensure his own safety.

I wonder how many people there are protecting me in secret...

He had sent a message to Qian Sanjiang, but received no response.

These church scoundrels aren't reliable at all!

***

Li Changkong went to the coordinator's office to apply for a reward. There was always a reward for the first Grandmaster of each new-student cohort.

Mo Ganyun was very displeased to have been left in the dust by Fang Che.

"Fight me! Now!" he challenged with battle intent radiating from his entire body.

The entire class looked on with keen interest, knowing that he was about to be subjected to another beating.

After just three blows, he was sent toppling to the ground.

The entire classroom was trembling from the impact of his fall, and everyone felt as if they had just witnessed an elephant collapse to the ground before them.

It was very difficult to describe the sheer sensory impact of watching someone so massive fall to the ground.

"How could this be?" Mo Ganyun murmured to himself with a dejected expression. "Only three attacks?"

Fang Che crossed his arms as he gloated, "If you feel like that's too many, I can take you down with just one attack!"

"No way! That's bullshit!" Mo Ganyun yelled as he sprang to his feet, only to almost immediately be knocked onto his back again.

Sure enough, only a single blow had been required.

He stood up again, then fell just as quickly.

The cycle repeated itself over and over again, and he set an academy record of being beaten down 124 times within fifteen minutes!

In the end, he was taken to the infirmary in a state of depression.

He still wanted to get up, but his body refused to listen to him.

"Fang Che! One day, I'm going to beat you down 124 times as well!" Mo Ganyun yelled as he was being carried away.

"What do you mean only 124? I've already knocked you down over nine hundred times since the school year began! I only have to knock you down about two dozen more times to get to a thousand!" Fang Che scoffed.

"I'll get you back for this!" Mo Ganyun yelled in a furious voice.

"The last person to threaten me like that was Huo Churan."

Mo Ganyun immediately fell silent, while the rest of the class burst into laughter.

After Mo Ganyun was carried away, Fang Che received an unexpected visitor.

It was none other than Ding Jieran, and he was still looking as cold and stiff as ever.

"Brother Ding! What a rare surprise!" Fang Che greeted in a warm and enthusiastic manner.

Indeed, a visit from Ding Jieran was an extremely rare occasion. Ding Jieran spent all his time cultivating and keeping a low profile, and he had barely even uttered a word since enrolment.

Even during mealtimes, he would always hurry in and out of the cafeteria, eating alone in silence in between.

Despite his best efforts at keeping a low profile, he was very renowned in the academy as everyone was intrigued by his excessively reclusive personality, and it was certainly a surprise to everyone that he had come to visit Fang Che.

"I heard Huo Churan sent people to assassinate you, is that right?" Ding Jieran asked with a cold expression.

"That's right, but I managed to kill them instead. Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

He reached out to give Ding Jieran's shoulder a reassuring pat, but the latter reflexively stepped back to avoid the physical contact.

"That's good to hear. If you need any help from me, let me know," Ding Jieran said as he put on a stiff smile, then turned to depart.

"You came here just to ask me that?" Fang Che asked.

Ding Jieran offered no response as he departed with his head lowered.

It was a bright and sunny day, but he gave off the impression of a lone swordsman walking through a dark and stormy night in a barren desert.

***

While Fang Che was pummeling Mo Ganyun, Huo Churan was listening to the terms of his punishment.

He remained completely expressionless, as if the announcement had nothing to do with him.

After the instructor was finished, he asked, "Huo Churan, do you have anything to say?"

"I'm going to kill Fang Che! I swear it!" Huo Churan declared as he looked straight into the instructor's eyes.

The instructor was furious.

"Huo Churan! Just how far do you plan to go down this path of no return? Fang Che was wrong for beating and humiliating you, but it wasn't without cause! If you hadn't rebuked him in front of so many people, none of this would've ever happened! Besides, this is a warrior academy! Sparring is everyone's bread and butter!

“He's at fault for coming to beat you when he's not your classmate, but if you had been beaten to that extent by a classmate during sparring matches, then no one would even bat an eyelid! If you feel like you've been humiliated by Fang Che, then strive to get stronger and get payback! Do you not even have the heart to do that? If you keep this up, you're going to ruin your own future, do you understand?"

Huo Churan remained silent as he turned to leave.

"Do you understand?!" the instructor repeated in an infuriated manner.

"I'm going to kill him," Huo Churan declared in a determined voice before exiting the classroom.

"Huo Churan! Get back here!" the instructor roared, only to be ignored.

Several instructors from other classes were present, and all of them were looking very amused.

"As expected of a veteran instructor like yourself, Instructor Liu. You sure have a unique way of disciplining your students."

"Indeed, I wish my students had this much backbone and personality!"