CHAPTER 105 (1): NIGHT DEMON STRIKES AGAIN

Everyone fell silent at this sobering thought, and in the end, they could only heave a collective sigh.

The prospect of remaining here permanently was a very alluring one, but it was unfeasible in practice.

Ultimately, they would have to return to their clans and continue to be oppressed, while Starlight would have to remain here.

***

Starlight wasn't as excited as everyone had anticipated he would be after being informed of the Night Demon Church's demise.

In fact, he hardly even reacted to the news at all.

His response was a rather indifferent: "I see. Your clans have not disappointed me. This is the expected outcome. Just how useless would your clans have to be if they still couldn't get rid of the Night Demon Church even after the path has been entirely paved for them?"

In response to everyone's astonished expressions, Starlight casually shrugged and asked, "Why're you all looking at me like that? Are all of you very surprised by this outcome? If you had any foresight at all, you would've been able to easily anticipate this."

Everyone was struck by a sense of inferiority at the sight of Starlight's nonchalant display.

Is he really this far ahead of all of us? We were so stunned that we couldn't even speak when we first received this news, yet Helmsmaster Starlight...

"Could it be that you already anticipated this from the very beginning, Helmsmaster?" Zheng Yunqi asked.

"Of course not!" Starlight scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "I'm not some omniscient deity!"

"Then why don't you seem surprised at all?"

"Given the way that everything went, the decay and fall of the Night Demon Church was one of the outcomes that I had envisioned could potentially come out of this. I just didn't think it would happen so quickly. I thought it would've taken at least a month or so before things could escalate to this extent, so I'm very surprised that we've already reached this step."

Very surprised?! You don't look very surprised at all!

With the look of serene composure on his face, it felt like his proclamation of surprise was something that he was only saying to make everyone else feel better about themselves!

"Having said that, I still have to congratulate you all," Starlight continued as a hideous smile appeared on his face. "The sword that was previously hanging over your heads is now gone. From now on, you're all innocent, and you can return to the main church without having to worry about any vengeance being sought against you."

"It's all thanks to you, Helmsmaster!" everyone collectively declared in earnest gratitude.

They knew that without Starlight's incredible handling of the situation, there was no way that they could've vindicated themselves of all wrongdoing, and they would've had to constantly watch their backs.

In fact, there was a good chance that many of them could've already been killed at this point, so the gratitude that they felt for Starlight was extremely sincere.

"I also have to congratulate you on one more thing, and that's the fact that you've managed to see your own power," Starlight continued with a smile. "Through this incident, I'm sure you've come to realize what your combined powers are capable of achieving, and you should now have some sense of direction for the future."

Everyone's eyes lit up with gratitude and excitement, and they silently extended deep bows toward Starlight.

"I know that you're all very shocked by what happened to the Night Demon Church, but it's all in the past now. Even if all of the churches disappear at once, life still has to go on, so don't think too much about it.

“The most important thing for all of you is to have a clear evaluation of yourselves. Your crisis has been averted, and you've managed to turn a dire situation into a net positive. Your future paths have also become clear, so now, it's time for all of you to repay me."

"Please give us your instructions, Helmsmaster. We'll do everything in our power to repay you, even if it means having to go to hell and back!"

"It's not that serious. I want all of you to repay me by continuing to bolster this branch helm of mine, so in a sense, you'll be working for your own collective benefit as well. I want you to recruit more people and take our branch helm to greater heights, establishing a solid foundation for a potential future promotion from branch helm to branch hall. That is all that I ask of you, I hope that is not too lofty a request."

"Not at all, Helmsmaster! You can count on us!" Zheng Yunqi declared in an earnest voice.

***

From that point onward, everyone's enthusiasm for their work was at an all-time high!

The eagerness with which they took to their work was astonishing from an outside perspective, and all those who returned from their escort assignments were immediately subjected to brainwashing sessions, in which they were told over and over again about their helmsmasters brilliance.

Before long, Starlight was being revered as a god-like figure in the branch helm, and all of his orders were met with the highest level of compliance.

Even though he was still very short-tempered and aggressive to everyone, none of his subordinates had any complaints, and they only became more obedient and reverent.

All of a sudden, even his hideous face no longer appeared so unsightly, and during private conversations, many of the girls were praising him for how manly he was, with some of them even blushing at the mention of his name.

A few of the most bold ones among them began actively approaching Starlight, openly flirting with him in the branch helm, and they refused to relent no matter how much Starlight lashed out at them.

Once they realized that their advances were making Starlight feel embarrassed and uncomfortable, they became more encouraged, and over time, they began to almost treat him as their plaything.

"Look at him! He's blushing! You look so cute when you're embarrassed, Helmsmaster!"

As time wore on, Starlight was gradually becoming more and more afraid of going to the branch helm for fear of being eaten alive by these feisty women!

***

The days passed one after another, and the Unmatched Escort Agency was going from strength to strength, taking in new recruits like a parched sponge taking in water.

Before long, the number of armed escorts had ballooned to five hundred, and everyone was carrying out their escort assignments and other duties with an absurd amount of zeal and enthusiasm.

Every single day, escort teams from the agency were coming in and out of the prefecture, and out of necessity, they had to purchase all of the surrounding residential houses and courtyards to facilitate expansions. All of the newly purchased properties were demolished and reconstructed to fit their needs, and this entire time, Starlight didn't have to spend even a single copper coin.

The other escort agencies were naturally very unhappy about this, and they began to join forces to oppose the Unmatched Escort Agency.

In response, Zheng Yunqi sent people to visit these escort agencies and propose "friendly" sparring matches.

Within a single day, all of the head escorts of the other agencies in the White Cloud Prefecture were beaten to a pulp, and they instantly became much more docile.

There were some people who orchestrated traps to try and screw over the agency, but that was not a concern. The agency would simply compensate them for the lost or damaged goods, then pay them an additional hefty sum of compensation to get them to reveal who it was that had instructed them to set those traps.

In the face of the agency's enormous wealth, no one was able to resist, but as soon as they confessed, they would immediately be oppressed by the Unmatched Escort Agency.

They would then discover that the compensation that they had just received had somehow gone missing, taken without their knowledge.

Furthermore, if they returned to the Unmatched Escort Agency to hire the agency's services again, they would be informed that there had been a massive price hike.

"It's too expensive? Fine, go somewhere else then!"

"You're going to report us for discriminant pricing? Go ahead!"

"You want to report us for theft? Be my guest! If you can supply concrete evidence, we'll go to the Hall of Protectionists and hand ourselves in!"

There were many things that the members of the branch helm didn't dare to do, such as break the law or go against agency policy, but they were more than ready to retaliate if anyone dared to try and screw them over.

Our only objective is to sweep away all potential obstacles for our Helmsmaster! Anyone who opposes our agency is opposing our helmsmaster, and that's absolutely unacceptable to all of us!

While the Unmatched Escort Agency has been touted as a positive role model by the Hall of Protectionists, it was important to remember that all of its escorts were still demonic church members, and they were unmatched when it came to punishing other nefarious individuals!

There was a wealthy merchant who was in opposition against the Unmatched Escort Agency. During his son's wedding, he was naturally asked to step onstage to deliver an address as the groom's father, but right as he was about to begin speaking, his pants were suddenly dropped, following which the rest of his clothes also flew away, leaving his completely nude body on full display for all of the wedding guests to see!

Everyone knew that the Unmatched Escort Agency was most likely to blame, but they didn't have any evidence!

In the face of this type of vicious retaliation from the Unmatched Escort Agency, all of the merchants in the prefecture quickly folded, and no one dared to oppose the agency anymore.

Business was booming for the agency, and at this point, Starlight barely had to do anything himself because everything was taken care of by Zheng Yunqi and Zhao Wushang.

They even arranged tests on the legal code on their own, and the punishments that they administered were even more severe than back when Starlight was around!

At this point, everyone in the escort agency knew the legal code like the backs of their hands, and they were all receiving perfect scores on every single test.

Seeing as the tests had become largely redundant, Starlight decided to switch things up by holding cultivation base examinations instead.

Every half a month, the ones who had made the least progress in their cultivation base would be stripped nude, hung upside-down, and whipped for everyone to see.

In the southernmost section of the courtyard were eighteen large willow trees, each of which had a thick and sturdy that was at the perfect height for hanging.

Thus, it was stipulated by Starlight that only the eighteen bottom-ranked escorts for each semimonthly period would be punished.

However, what he had completely failed to anticipate was that a day that should've been dreaded by everyone quickly became a festive occasion that everyone was looking forward to!

The punishments were a brilliant viewing experience for everyone else, and even the eighteen willow trees had been collectively named the "Eighteen Levels of Hell!"

After each examination, everyone would remain seated on their stools to watch the whippings being carried out, and each whip lash was always met with cheers and applause.

Backed by popular demand, it was decided that instead of whipping everyone at once, the eighteen victims had to be hung up and whipped one by one. That way, the show would be prolonged.

On this day, everyone would eagerly wipe down the Eighteen Levels of Hell until every single leaf was glistening under the light of the sun before waiting in excitement for the examination to begin.

Of course, everyone wanted to watch the show, but no one wanted to provide the entertainment.

Thus, everyone was frantically cultivating with all their might, even taking pills to enhance their cultivation bases to ensure that they didn't end up occupying one of the dreaded eighteen spots.

Of course, the ideal outcome would be for one or more of the female escorts to fall onto the list. All of the male escorts were eager to see their female counterparts stripped nude and whipped, and all of the female escorts, of which there were now seventy-two in total, were well aware of this, so they were making sure to work even harder in their cultivation than everyone else to protect their dignity.

They had to avoid the punishment at all costs!

The whipping was bearable, but the humiliation would mak them want to die, and it was especially unacceptable to be humiliated in such brutal fashion in front of Helmsmaster Starlight!

Hence, all of the girls were going all-out, and their efforts were really shining through in the form of the rapid progress that they were making.

Of course, despite their best efforts, their rate of progress was still far outmatched by Starlight.