CHAPTER 105: NIGHT DEMON STRIKES

The village graveyard wasn't far away, so Fang Che decided to go and take a look.

On the way there, he heard more and more people discussing this subject.

"Did you hear about the Sun Clan's ancestral grave?"

"I did! I wonder what terrible things they must've done to deserve this."

"You think Landlord Sun just came into his wealth out of the blue? He definitely did some unscrupulous things to accumulate his wealth!"

"How could you say that, you ungrateful prick? Did you not eat the rations they handed out during the past droughts?"

"If you're so grateful, why don't you go help repair their ancestral grave?"

"I just haven't gotten around to it! Stay away from me, you ungrateful bastard! You ate his life-saving rations, then immediately turn around and slander him! You should be ashamed!"

"Fine, whatever you say, I'm an ungrateful bastard. I did eat their rations, but have you thought about how they became so rich? You think they could've gotten that rich without doing anything shady?"

"That's none of your business!"

The conversation quickly descended into a heated exchange of insults, and Fang Che shook his head in amusement as he sighed, "Such is human nature."

"What do you mean, Young Master?" Ye Meng asked.

"There is both good and evil in human nature, and both sides are capable of generating power," Fang Che elaborated.

"That's true. There are both good and bad people in this world."

"Do you think there are more good people or more bad people in this world?"

"More good people, of course," Ye Meng replied without any hesitation.

"No, there's an equal number of both!"

"What makes you say that?"

"All of the people in this world are good, just as all of the people in this world are evil."

"I disagree," Ye Meng objected with a displeased pout.

"What do you think of the people of our One Heart Church then? Are we good or evil?"

Ye Meng pondered the question for some time, then replied, "You're a good person."

"What about the others?"

"......"

"I knew you wouldn't dare to answer that question," Fang Che harrumphed. "Let's go take a look. We have nothing better to do anyway, so let's see exactly how this ancestral grave has exploded."

Ye Meng didn't understand why Fang Che was so interested.

In her mind, it was most likely due to an avalanche, or the collapse of an earth vein, or the tremors from a nearby battle.

However, seeing as Fang Che was interested, she had no choice but to follow along.

As they continued onward, Fang Che continued to eavesdrop on conversations, and he learned that the Sun Clan's ancestral grave had always undergone annual repairs and had never had any problems, but just a few days ago, it had inexplicably exploded in a bizarre turn of events.

It didn't take Fang Che and Ye Meng long to reach the village graveyard, but as they were approaching the graveyard, both of them suddenly caught a whiff of an unsettling scent.

It was the smell of blood.

At the same time, the sounds of a battle were ringing out in the distance.

Fang Che immediately sprang up into the air from the back of his steed, and his gold-embroidered cloak fanned out behind him like the wings of a giant eagle as he soared through the air.

"Hide yourself for now," he instructed in an urgent manner before vanishing into the distance.

Ye Meng hurriedly did as she was told, concealing herself in a nearby forest.

***

While soaring through the air, Fang Che channeled his Covert Shapeshifting Technique to adopt an alternate appearance.

He flew over a distance of around ten thousand feet in a flash, quickly arriving at a graveyard that was currently also serving as a battlefield.

There were many lifeless male bodies strewn throughout the graveyard, all of which belonged to members of the Sun Clan.

Additionally, there were two groups of people locked in battle nearby.

"We found it first!"

"You think this is a game of finders keepers? What are you, five?"

Out of the two groups of combatants, one side had around a dozen people, while the other side was only a party of two, yet at the moment, it was the latter that held the upper hand.

It seemed that they were fighting over something.

Fang Che quickly hid behind a tree as he scanned his gaze across the scene.

Some of the bodies on the ground were dressed in farmer attire, while others were wearing more lavish clothing, but they were all dead, and not far away from them was a half-repaired grave.

It was a massive grave that was dozens of kilometers in size, indicating that the Sun Clan was a very auspicious clan, indeed.

Much of the grave had been dug up, and Fang Che could immediately tell just by looking at the new bodies laying on the ground that they belonged to non-warriors.

Meanwhile, the two-man party dominance was only continuing to grow, and they had already slain several of their enemies.

However, the rest refused to back down.

At this point, there were only seven of them left, and one of them yelled in a furious manner, "Our One Heart Church discovered this place first! Your Divine Heavenly Church can't just butt in and take all the spoils!"

They were facing two high-rank Great Grandmasters, one of whom sneered, "Do you realize how naive you sound right now? You expect us to turn around and leave just because you discovered this place first? What a joke! Is the One Heart Church full of idiots like you?”

This exchange of words revealed to Fang Che that these were members of the One Heart Church and the Divine Heavenly Church that were locked in battle here.

In the wake of this revelation, he decided to continue to wait and observe.

"This is a mission assigned to all of the churches, you can't claim this solely for yourselves!"

The leader of the One Heart Church party was also a Great Grandmaster, and at the moment, his body was riddled with wounds, but he was still fighting with all his might.

However, the two Divine Heavenly Church warriors were immediately able to see through his intentions.

"You're trying to find an opportunity to get away, aren't you? Rest assured, none of you are getting away today!"

Fang Che was instantly intrigued upon learning that this concerned a mission assigned to all of the churches, and he immediately sprang into action in a covert fashion.

Before long, three more One Heart Church warriors had been slain, leaving only four left.

All of them were severely wounded, while their two opponents were largely unscathed.

A look of despair appeared on the face of the One Heart Church Great Grandmaster, but all of a sudden, he spotted a symbol carved into a tree across from him.

It was the symbol of the One Heart Church.

A hint of elation instantly welled up in his heart, and he roared, "Even if I'm going down, I'm taking you two with me!"

He then rushed forward in a full-frontal assault, followed closely by his three companions.

The two Divine Heavenly Church warriors were rather taken aback by the resolve of their enemies, but this also played right into their hands.

They were worried about their opponents getting away, but it seemed that they intent on laying down their lives here.

In the blink of an eye, two more One Heart Church warriors were decapitated, while the remaining two continued to fight with all their might.

Fang Che descended onto the scene in a wraith-like fashion.

At the moment, he was a fifth-rank Great Grandmaster, and he could've easily slain the two enemy Great Grandmasters in a direct battle, yet he had chosen to present a signal to the remaining One Heart Church warriors so that they would create a distraction to help him.

Sure enough, the two Divine Heavenly Church warriors were completely preoccupied by their two assailants, and Fang Che was able to decapitate one of them from behind before they even sensed his presence.

They had already been battling here for a long time without any One Heart Church reinforcements arriving on the scene, so he had grown complacent.

Immediately thereafter, Fang Che swung his saber at the second Divine Heavenly Church warrior, who hurriedly parried the attack.

However, Fang Che's saber was imbued with tremendous power, and the Divine Heavenly Church warrior felt as if he were parrying a mountain, sending him toppling to his knees.

"Who are you?!" he exclaimed in a stunned manner.

"This is what you get for opposing our One Heart Church!" Fang Che declared as he promptly decapitated the final Divine Heavenly Church warrior, bringing the battle to an abrupt conclusion.

The two warriors were no match for Fang Che to begin with, and they certainly had no chance against him after falling prey to a sneak attack.

The two remaining One Heart Church warriors were only just barely clinging onto life, and they almost fell unconscious on the spot from relief.

They hurriedly expressed their gratitude to Fang Che, then stuffed some pills into their mouths.

Fang Che offered them some water to wash down the pills, and their complexions quickly improved slightly.

Once they had a chance to catch their breath, Fang Che asked, "What happened here?"

"It's a long story..."

The One Heart Church Great Grandmaster didn't doubt Fang Che's identity. The symbol that Fang Che had carved into the tree was one that only members of the One Heart Church were familiar with, not to mention Fang Che had just saved his life.

"As you're probably already aware, Pope Yin has instructed everyone to search for pieces of natural jade. All of the jade in the city had already been purchased, so we came out to try our luck in the nearby villages."

"How could there possibly be any jade in these villages? I searched through the entire city and was only able to gather around ten pieces!" Fang Che said.

"That's already much better than we fared, we couldn't even find a single piece of jade that matched the mission description in the city! As we were making our way through this village, we heard that the Sun Clan's ancestral grave recently collapsed and was under repair. At first, we didn't pay that any heed, but we then heard that the Sun Clan dug up a piece of jade during the repairs."