Dawnless Sovereign

In the One Heart Church, one thousand merit points was generally considered enough for one to be assigned to a base, and Night Demon was rapidly closing in on that mark.

"It's fine," Yin Shengong decided after some contemplation. "He doesn't know anything anyway, so it's not like he's going to ask me for an official post."

Mu Linyuan was not convinced.

He's already asking you for a reward, why can't he ask you for an official post?

"Please pardon my input, Pope Yin, but I think we already gave Night Demon too many merit points for taking out that Divine Heavenly Church base."

Yin Shengong's expression darkened slightly at the mention of this topic.

Technically, those points should've never been awarded.

The Divine Heavenly Church was an ally of the One Heart Church, and there was no way that one should be rewarded for eliminating their own allies.

In hindsight, this was indeed a bit of a misstep, but at the time, he was ecstatic to have gotten one back over the Divine Heavenly Church, so he rewarded Fang Che on a whim.

Having said that, this wasn't a decision that he regretted.

"I was just giving him a bit of encouragement," he harrumphed, and Mu Linyuan spoke no further on the matter.

Never had Yin Shengong treated any of the One Heart Church's past seeded prodigies like this, so it was clear that he held Night Demon in higher regard than all the rest.

Unbeknownst to Mu Linyuan, the key to Fang Che's heightened status in Yin Shengong's heart essentially boiled down to one word: glaze!

Aside from a select group of powerful figures in the One Heart Church, most of its members were too nervous to even speak in Yin Shengong's presence, let alone try to glaze him.

Mu Linyuan was already more casual around Yin Shengong than the vast majority of One Heart Church members, but he couldn't glaze Yin Shengong as comprehensively as Fang Che did.

Furthermore, Yin Shengong wasn't wary of Fang Che. In his eyes, Fang Che's paltry cultivation base meant that he posed no threat at all, so why should he be worried?

Hence, Fang Che was in a unique position where he was able to glaze and suck up to Yin Shengong without annoying the latter.

Ironically, the more power he attained, the less people dared to glaze him, so this was a feeling that Yin Shengong hadn't experienced in countless years, and on top of that, Fang Che really was living up to all of his lofty expectations.

Mu Linyuan carefully selected his words, then smiled and remarked, "I've never seen you take this much of an interest in a junior before. Could it be that you have some special plans for him?"

Mu Linyuan was feeling a little uneasy as he raised this question, but thankfully for him, Yin Shengong seemed more than happy to provide an answer.

"Have you ever met the pope of the main church before?"

"No," Mu Linyuan replied with a respectful expression.

"It's said that the Heavenly Centipede Deity displayed strong emotions of approval during the pope's baptism," Yin Shengong revealed through voice transmission.

Mu Linyuan was astonished to hear this.

"The same applied for Master Duan Xiyang as well," Yin Shengong continued.

"Those two were the only ones in history to have elicited such a reaction from the Heavenly Centipede Deity until Night Demon came around, so yes, Night Demon is indeed very much different from the rest in my eyes. He's only seventeen years old, and just four months ago, he was still just a Warrior Disciple.

“Ever since his breakthrough to the Warrior tier, it's as if something has awakened inside him. One time, Sun Yuan came to report an observation to me. He told me that with each breakthrough Night Demon made, his rate of absorption of spirit power from the world around him would increase by twofold, and this has been a consistent trend, not a fluke. Do you understand what that entails?

“He's gone from a Warrior Disciple to a Lesser Grandmaster in less than five months. Don't forget that he's from a ninth-tier clan, so he essentially had no resources to speak of aside from what's been given to him by us and Sun Yuan!"

A myriad of emotions were churning within Mu Linyuan's heart as he asked, "So what do you have planned for him, Pope Yin?"

Yin Shengong rose to his feet as he replied, "Over the years, Ren Zhongyuan has developed many close subordinates, quite a few of whom were gradually nurtured to their current positions from the bottom. While they only serve relatively minor roles in our church, they are absolutely loyal to him.

“Furthermore, I've discovered that Ren Zhongyuan has been consistently intercepting seeds that possess exceptional aptitude, and once he's gotten his hands on them, it's as if they've suddenly disappeared from the church's files."

A grim look appeared on Mu Linyuan's face upon hearing this.

"For all these years, I thought I had absolute power over our church, but that's far from the truth. If I don't make some preparations of my own, I could easily end up dead someday without knowing how or why. At my cultivation base, even if I receive a few more divine blessings, at the very most, my ceiling would be a position of altar master or something along those lines in the main church.

“However, I'll actually have less power in such a position. In comparison, I have much more self-autonomy and freedom as the pope of the One Heart Church. However, Night Demon is different. Give him a hundred years, and he'll have already caught up to me in cultivation base. As for two hundred or three hundred years from now, it's impossible to say how high he'll have climbed.

“Furthermore, he seems to be blessed by fortune. Ever since he appeared, our church's fortunes have taken a turn for the better. It seems like a coincidentally fortuitous sequence of events, but I think there's something more to that. Fortune is an ethereal and intangible thing, but it's not to be brushed off as nothing. I haven't told you this, but in a sense, it was Night Demon who tipped me off to Ren Zhongyuan's ambitions."

"What? How?" Mu Linyuan exclaimed.

"He doesn't even know it himself, but the fact of the matter is that I have him to thank for helping me realize the perilous situation that I'm in, and that has me even more convinced that he's blessed by some type of innate fortune. I'm sure you sense it as well, Old Man Mu. At our cultivation base, you begin to realize that the heavens do seem to possess a will of their own."

Mu Linyuan nodded in agreement.

Younger individuals generally scoffed at this concept, but the older and more accomplished one became, they would come to discover that there were many bizarre coincidences in life that couldn't be logically explained.

For example, someone could sustain severe injuries, only to then encounter an enemy and be killed, even though said enemy was normally far inferior to them in power.

On the flip side, someone else could sustain severe injuries in a hostile place, thereby all but sealing their fate, only for them to stumble upon some fated opportunity that not only ensured their survival, but also elevated them to unprecedented heights.

The more things of this nature one experienced, the more they would come to believe in the will of the heavens.

For the likes of Mu Linyuan and Yin Shengong, both of them had experienced countless unimaginable things that the average warrior wouldn't encounter even in an entire lifetime, so they were convinced of the notion that certain individuals harbored innate fortune.

"The main church is actually very unhappy with how all of us are always at each other's throats. In their eyes, if it isn't for the constant infighting between the churches, we would've already taken over the entire continent long ago. Little do they know just how incredibly absurd and out of touch such an idea is."

"Indeed," Mu Linyuan chuckled. "In our position, it's either outcompete others, or perish."

"That's right. You either use others as stepping stones, or serve as stepping stones for others. How many times have we been screwed over by the other churches over the years? Are we just supposed to take it and not retaliate? Besides, you're telling me there's no infighting among the Guardians? Everyone fights among themselves for resources, benefits, and career and cultivation base progression.

“Life is a battle, and Night Demon's ruthlessness is the thing that I like most about him. He serves only our One Heart Church, and he has no qualms about lashing out at the other churches. He doesn't care about anything else as long as what he does benefits himself and our One Heart Church.

“Hence, from the very beginning, he's essentially burned all his bridges. By turning all of the other churches against himself, he has no choice but to wholeheartedly serve our One Heart Church, and that's perfect for us. Furthermore, he also presents an opportunity for future progression for the two of us.

“If he can continue to maintain this rate of progress even after reaching the Great Grandmaster tier, the sky is the limit for him, and we will be the ones credited for discovering him! At the moment, I'm only watching and providing him with some assistance here and there, but if he can keep this up even after reaching the Great Grandmaster tier, then that is when I will truly throw my support behind him.

“However, when that time comes, the Five Spirit Parasite on its own won't be anywhere near enough to keep him in check. Having said that, it's still too early to be thinking about all of this. If he falls into mediocrity after reaching the Great Grandmaster tier, then he will have outlived his usefulness.

“Normally, I wouldn't invest this much thought and effort into someone of his status, but I've taken a particular interest in him, seeing as he's inadvertently turned the fortunes of our church on several occasions."