Dawnless Sovereign

This was nothing short of a confession from Huo Churan.

Then again, even if he denied any wrongdoing, Fang Che had come with evidence anyway.

"Huo Churan!" Instructor Liu snapped, feeling as if he were on the verge of exploding from fury.

Not long ago, he had just attended Fang Che's Grandmaster banquet, and that made Huo Churan's repeat offense feel like a particularly harsh slap to the face.

Fang Che extended a bow toward Instructor Liu, then said with a cold expression, "Please pardon my intrusion."

Instructor Liu heaved a long sigh as he closed his eyes in a weary manner.

Fang Che entered the classroom, then threw down a pair of identification tokens onto Huo Churan's desk.

"Huo Churan, did you not promise not to target me again after what happened last time?"

"That's right," Huo Churan replied with a derisive sneer.

"I haven't laid a finger on you since then, right?"

"That's right, but was I supposed to just let you get away with what you did to me up to that point?" Huo Churan spat through gritted teeth. "You killed members of my family! Am I just supposed to let that slide?!"

Fang Che tossed a pair of heads down onto the ground, then pointed at them as he asked, "These are also your family, right? Do you recognize these two faces?"

"I do!" Huo Churan replied with bloodshot eyes.

He knew that there was no point in trying to deny it.

Identification tokens were linked to their owners through blood, so it was impossible to make counterfeits.

"Is your clan going to keep sending people after me then?"

"What do you think?" Huo Churan snapped as he glowered at Fang Che with intense resentment. "Are we supposed to just let these sacrifices be in vain?"

"I see. In that case, I won't have any qualms about beating you today," Fang Che said, then turned to Instructor Liu as he asked, "Instructor, do I have permission to kill him today?"

The entire classroom of students instantly tensed up upon hearing this.

"No!" Instructor Liu replied in a stern manner. "Infliction of lethal and permanently crippling injuries are strictly prohibited in battles between students of the academy!"

Despite his fury and chagrin over this matter, Instructor Liu was also feeling a little relieved because he knew that there was no way Huo Churan would be permitted to remain in the academy after his repeated attempts on Fang Che's life.

Hence, at the very least, he wouldn't have to put up with Huo Churan any longer.

"I see," Fang Che replied, then pounced on Huo Churan like a whirlwind.

Huo Churan let loose a loud roar as he met Fang Che halfway, and the two of them clashed violently, but only for an instant before Huo Churan was sent flying back like a rucksack with an agonized howl.

In the wake of Fang Che's breakthrough to the Lesser Grandmaster tier, the two of them were no longer on the same level.

With one punch, Huo Churan's nose was broken yet again amid a sickening crunch.

He stumbled back as blood gushed out of his mouth and nostrils.

With another punch, Fang Che sent Huo Churan crashing through the window, where he tumbled to the ground outside.

From there, he was beaten to a pulp, but not a single person stepped in to help him.

With one final kick, Huo Churan was sent flying over a hundred feet through the air, then crashed into a tree before crumpling to the ground.

"Useless trash! Go back and cry to your clan so they send more people after me! I'll kill every single one of them until there's no one left!"

***

The panel of staff of White Cloud Warrior Academy was furious.

Huo Churan's previous attempt on Fang Che's life had already pushed him to the brink of expulsion, and it was clear that he hadn't learned his lesson at all!

After a brief meeting, it was unanimously decided that Huo Churan was to be expelled, and at the same time, the Huo Clan was ordered to issue an apology and further compensation!

Furthermore, a formal request had been made to the Hall of Protectionists to demote the Huo Clan.

As for Huo Churan, he was ordered to leave the academy right away as soon as he was sufficiently recovered from his injuries.

Fang Che had beaten him to the point that he was bedridden, so he had to be afforded a short grace period before he could leave.

***

"Pope Yin, Subordinate Night Demon reporting. I beat Huo Churan and he expelled!."

Fang Che was eager to share the good news.

He had intentionally made a grammatical error in his message to make it seem as if his excitement had gotten the better of him, and that he was so eager to report the good news to Yin Shengong that he was stumbling over his own words.

Yin Shengong was rather amused, and he replied: "You need to brush up on your word skills."

"Yes, Pope Yin. Should I begin reading more books?"

"Piss off!"

"You got it!"

Yin Shengong erupted into laughter.

"What an idiot! Read more books my arse!"

"Is Night Demon bothering you again, Pope Yin?" Mu Linyuan asked.

Yin Shengong showed Mu Linyuan his communication jade as he scoffed, "Look at this fool! I was just saying that he should proofread his messages, and this is how he responds!"

Mu Linyuan also burst into laughter after reading the exchange of messages.

"With that, the seeds of both the Three Saints Church and the Divine Heavenly Church have been eliminated. I doubt they're just going to take that sitting down, so their retaliation is most likely coming soon," Yin Shengong said.

"We can throw their people out for Night Demon hand into the Protectionists, but we have to be discreet about it. Otherwise, we could get in trouble if we're reported to the main church," Mu Linyuan cautioned.

"That's not a concern. They're the ones sending people to assassinate our seeded prodigy, so why aren't we allowed to retaliate?" Yin Shengong scoffed.

Mu Linyuan nodded in agreement, but internally, he was thinking to himself that they had brought this upon themselves by instructing Fang Che to target the seeded prodigies of the other churches.

"I know what you're thinking," Yin Shengong harrumphed. "However, don't forget that Night Demon has not been exposed, so no one knows his true identity. Hence, the Three Saints Church and the Divine Heavenly Church think that their seeds were taken out by a prodigy from the Protectionists, so it has nothing to do with us."

"Then what if Night Demon is exposed someday?"

"Who knows how much time will have passed by then? At that point, all of this will be ancient history! You're raising a bunch of concerns about nothing! How is the investigation going? You better have something useful to report!"

"Yes, of course," Mu Linyuan hurriedly replied.

***

Fang Che settled down for a couple of days as he considered how he was going to completely crush Huo Churan.

He had to take things one step at a time, and he wasn't going to touch Wan Zhimei before Huo Churan was fully taken care of.

He didn't want to bite off more than he could chew.

Right now, my top priority is to get stronger, while my secondary objective is to weed out as many of the moles in the academy as possible.

Just like Mo Ganyun and other prodigies from prominent clans, he was doing his best to avoid advancing his cultivation base through the use of pills and natural treasures.

Instead, he mostly only ate things that bolstered his foundation or enhanced his soul and spirit sense.

As for things that benefitted his cultivation, he was only eating Blood Qi Pills from the academy and nothing else.

Even some of the pills that he had won from claiming the top spot in the new student tournament had been given to Ye Meng.

Additionally, he was constantly circulating his spirit power from the Boundless Sutra through his body over and over again, expelling as much of the lingering impurities from the previous pills that he had consumed as possible.

Bolstering one's foundation was a constant work in progress.

In his past life, Fang Che had been focused solely on advancing his own cultivation base, and only after stagnating at the Emperor tier did he come to realize that his foundation was too shaky for further progression.

Now that he was in the academy, he could learn the best way to cultivate from experienced instructors, and he could also look to other prodigies from powerful clans for an ideal template on his own progression.

Two days later, Huo Churan was just barely able to get out of bed, and he limped out of White Cloud Warrior Academy with his luggage while still wrapped up in bandages like a mummy.

Not a single person had come to bid him farewell.

Intense resentment was radiating from his entire body as he took a glance back at the academy, vowing to exact his vengeance on everyone here who had wronged him someday.

He had only taken a few steps when he was confronted by a mountainous figure.

It was Mo Ganyun.

Huo Churan gave a cold harrumph as he turned to take an alternate path around Mo Ganyun.

"Huo Churan!" Mo Ganyun snapped.

"What do you want?"

"I came to bid you farewell!" Mo Ganyun replied as he threw a punch into Huo Churan's face. "Cowardly scum! You can't beat someone fair and square, so you try to assassinate them? The hell are you looking at? I should gouge those eyes out and feed them to a dog!"

After delivering a thorough beating, Mo Ganyun spat onto Huo Churan's face, then stepped over him on his way back to the academy.

"Send people to assassinate me too! I dare you!"