Dawnless Sovereign

Instructor Liu was even more incensed by the mockery from his colleagues, and he gave a cold harrumph before leaving the classroom to go after Huo Churan.

Huo Churan was walking along in silence with his head lowered, and his expression was becoming more and more twisted and deranged.

I'm the one who was beaten and humiliated, I'm the one who's lost family, yet I'm the one being punished!

In this moment, killing Fang Che had become a single-minded obsession of his, and he was determined to accomplish his goal at all cost!

***

A fire had been lit under Mo Ganyun.

He was an eighth-rank Warrior Master at the moment, which was already objectively rapid progress, but he was still two ranks behind Fang Che.

He was desperate to catch up, but he didn't dare to use any pills for fear of ruining the foundation that he had been building ever since he was still in the womb.

***

After making his breakthrough to become a Grandmaster, Fang Che was sent home by Li Changkong with a pill of Grandmaster tier Spirit Consolidation Pills to stabilize his spirit sense.

Upon returning home, Fang Che immediately sent Yin Shengong a message: "Pope Yin, Subordinate Night Demon has taken out three Lesser Grandmasters from the Huo Clan."

Yin Shengong didn't bother to respond, having already been made aware of this by Qian Sanjiang.

Qian Sanjiang's exact message had been: "Looks like there's no need to worry about Night Demon, Pope Yin. He poisoned three Lesser Grandmasters of the Huo Clan to death on his own, and I didn't even have to do anything."

Yin Shengong had been very pleased with this news.

It was one thing to have to rely on the church's protection, but an entirely different thing altogether to have taken care of his assailants on his own.

It was a reflection of his resourcefulness and ability.

However, by the time Fang Che's message arrived, Yin Shengong had already composed himself, and he couldn't be bothered to respond.

After waiting for some time with no response, Fang Che sent another message: "The Huo Clan has been dealt a heavy blow, so all that remains of the three clans is the Ding Clan. However, I've befriended Ding Jieran, so I don't want to target his clan for now."

Fang Che had a feeling that Ding Jieran was far from rotten to the core. Instead, it felt to him like Ding Jieran had been forced down the wrong path by certain circumstances outside of his control.

Eventually, Yin Shengong was going to find out about Fang Che's treatment of Ding Jieran.

There was no way that Fang Che was the only one that the One Heart Church had secretly planted into White Cloud Warrior Academy. Instead, there had to be more in his cohort alone, not to mention the other four year levels and the academy's panel of staff.

Hence, Fang Che decided to surrender this information himself to gauge Yin Shengong's response.

Sure enough, Yin Shengong's interest was immediately piqued, and he replied: "You can try to make use of him, but if he proves to be unuseful, then destroy him."

Fang Che was very pleased to see this.

With this response from Yin Shengong, he could now proclaim that he had been instructed by the pope himself to befriend Ding Jieran, thereby lending his actions much more credence and authority.

This would allow him to try and slowly uncover the circumstances around Ding Jieran, rather than being forced to target Ding Jieran right away.

"Also, I made a breakthrough to the Grandmaster tier yesterday."

Yin Shengong was quite surprised to see this.

Fang Che had entered the academy as a mere third-rank Warrior Master, yet he was already a Grandmaster after less than two months!

After some contemplation, he cautioned: "Make sure to establish a solid foundation."

"Yes, Pope Yin. Subordinate Night Demon is eternally grateful for your concern."

Yin Shengong didn't want to continue this conversation any longer, but Fang Che had other ideas.

"I'm preparing to use my status as captain to gather my peers in the academy."

However, this was sternly shut down by Yin Shengong.

"No, it's still too early! You have to reach the General tier first!"

Fang Che was very disappointed.

His plan was to gather everyone, then find out their true identities one by one based on their personal traits before throwing them to the wolves one by one.

He could simply proclaim that he had come under suspicion, so he had to sell out the other students in order to save himself.

However, it seemed that those plans would have to be put on hold.

At this point, he couldn't afford to go against Yin Shengong's orders as doing so would spell certain death for him.

However, at the same time, Yin Shengong had given him a concrete goal to strive for.

All he had to do was reach the General tier to put his plan into motion!

"Pope Yin, the Three Saints Church and the Divine Heavenly Church are most likely going to be targeting me soon."

"It's been taken care of!"

Yin Shengong's patience was wearing thin.

Fang Che was very relieved to see this.

"Thank you, Pope Yin. That's all I have to report."

Yin Shengong tossed his communication jade aside with an exasperated sigh.

Night Demon was truly very obedient and loyal, and his aptitude was unmatched, but he was also just a bit too chatty.

Giving you a communication jade and permission to communicate with me is a massive reward, but you're not supposed to report every single thing that happens in your day! At this rate, he'll be messaging to tell me that he's wiping his arse after taking a shit!

Fang Che was messaging him even more frequently than the deputy pope!

However, now that he thought about it, there wasn't really anyone else reporting to him now that Sun Yuan had been sent to the New Chu Nation.

All of a sudden, Yin Shengong's expression stiffened slightly.

Now that I think about it, why have the reports from the deputy pope been so infrequent of late?

A sense of foreboding suddenly welled up in his heart at this harrowing thought.

Something's not right...

A cold look appeared on Yin Shengong's face as he carefully pondered this matter, and he and he realized that the deputy pope's reports had become very infrequent starting from around two years ago, which was right around when he made a breakthrough to the seventh-rank Sovereign tier.

Yin Shengong's expression darkened even further as he followed this train of thought.

He immediately sent a message to summon Mu Linyuan, and while waiting for the latter's arrival, he began pacing back and forth in an agitated manner.

Is it possible?

Ever since rising to the position of pope, Yin Shengong had always kept a very tight leash on his subordinates.

At the time, he had gotten rid of everyone in positions of power and replaced them all with his own people.

However, several hundred years had passed since then with no incident, and he had grown a little complacent.

Is it possible that someone could be plotting to overthrow me? If so, who could it be?

All of a sudden, he realized that this revelation wouldn't have dawned on him had it not been for Night Demon's string of messages, and a strange feeling welled up in his heart.

It's almost like he's my lucky star! Recently, Deputy Pope Ren Zhongyuan has been going from strength to strength, while I've been growing rather complacent, granting him more and more jurisdictive power in order to take more load off myself. That's a mistake.

The more he considered the possibility, the more plausible it seemed.

Upon Mu Linyuan's arrival, he discovered Yin Shengong pacing back and forth with palpable killing intent emanating from his body.

"What's wrong, Pope Yin?"

As the top elder of the entire One Heart Church, Mu Linyuan was naturally an extremely powerful warrior, and he was also Yin Shengong's most trusted subordinate.

The two of them had already forged a close bond even before Yin Shengong became the pope, and he was very familiar with Yin Shengong.

Hence, he could immediately tell that something was very much amiss. He looked around to discover that none of Yin Shengong's personal guards were present, so the two of them were the only ones in the entire hall, and a sense of foreboding instantly welled up in his heart.

Yin Shengong turned at the sound of Mu Linyuan's voice, and he stared directly at the latter in silence for a while.

All of a sudden, the cold and brooding look on his face gave way to a benevolent smile, and he said, "Take a seat, Old Man Mu."

Mu Linyuan was even more anxious upon seeing this, and the atmosphere in the hall was very tense.

"How may I be of service, Pope Yin?"

"I just wanted to have a chat."

Yin Shengong was playing with a translucent, purple seal in his hand, and there was a reminiscent look on his face as he said, "Remember back when you gave me this Purple Frost Jade Seal? We were sharing a drink with Deputy Pope Ren Zhongyuan at the main church at the time. It suddenly reminded me of you today, so I wanted to see you and catch up for old time's sake."

Mu Linyuan was feeling highly anxious. He knew that Yin Shengong definitely hadn't brought up the deputy pope for no reason, and he certainly didn't believe that Yin Shengong had summoned him just for a casual chat.

"Indeed, Pope Yin. You have a very sharp memory. If I recall correctly, Deputy Altar Master Bei Mingxin of the Enforcement Altar was also drinking with us at the time," Mu Linyuan replied with a smile.

"Why did Bei Mingxin invite us for a drink again?" Yin Shengong asked.

"I recall that Master Bei invited you for a drink because he wanted you to look after Deputy Pope Bei."

Mu Linyuan was gradually beginning to realize why he had been summoned.

"Back then, Bei Mingxin was still only the deputy altar master, but I recall that he became the altar master three years ago, right?" Yin Shengong asked with a smile.

"Indeed, Master Bei received a promotion," Mu Linyuan replied as the anxiety in his heart continued to build.

"A promotion, eh?" Yin Shengong chuckled in a meaningful manner before falling silent.

Mu Linyuan couldn't help but gulp nervously.

What is he trying to say? Bei Mingxin is Ren Zhongyuan's most powerful backer, so what does a promotion for him entail?

All of a sudden, Mu Linyuan was struck by a harrowing realization.