CHAPTER 305: MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS

"Everyone, barrel formation!" Zheng Yunqi yelled frantically.

All of the branch helm members immediately began to gather around him to form a roughly cylindrical barrel, using the defensive formation to limit the growing number of casualties.

All the while, Starlight continued to oppose all of the most powerful enemy warriors on his own, preventing them from descending upon the branch helm, and he had even gained the upper hand.

A formidable lineup of over ten Warlords wasn't able to advance a single step on his watch, and three of them had already been slain!

Within just a few minutes, Starlight had already claimed over a hundred lives, and large swathes of blood were raining down from the heavens.

He was able to defeat a Warlord as a mere fourth-rank Lord, and now that he was at the seventh rank, he was completely unmatched on this battlefield.

With a thunderous roar and an almighty swing of his broadsword, he cleaved a Warlord cleanly into two down the middle.

Right at this moment, a speck of light appeared in the distance, and it began racing toward Starlight at an incredible speed.

A sense of impending peril instantly welled up in Starlight's heart, and he quickly lashed out to force all of the enemies in his nearby vicinity into retreat, then drew upon the entirety of his cultivation base to unleash Loatheful Blind Heavens.

An earth-shattering explosion rang out, causing the entire agency to tremble violently, and the latest intruder was sent flying back with an incredulous expression.

Never had he imagined that a mere Lord would be able to withstand an all-out attack from a King like himself.

Meanwhile, Fang Che was sent plummeting through the air like a cannonball before crashing into the ground, and a burst of saberlight erupted forth around him in the instant that he landed on the ground, claiming the lives of three more masked figures.

He felt as if his internal organs had been set alight and his body on the verge of falling apart at the seams as he threw up a mouthful of blood.

In the distance, reinforcements from the Hall of Protectionists were finally beginning to arrive.

The King in the sky signaled for everyone to retreat, then warned in a menacing voice, "I suggest the Unmatched Escort Agency minds its own business from now on!"

All of the masked figures immediately began to flee the scene, but Zhao Wushang and the others naturally weren't willing to let them get away, hurling a barrage of hidden weapons after them, with some even throwing their main weapons up into the night sky.

However, the King in the sky was able to strike down all of the projectiles with a single slash of his sword, then vanished into the night with all of the other masked intruders.

Fang Che swayed unsteadily on his feet for a moment, then fell onto his backside as blood began gushing out of his mouth.

"Head Escort! Are you alright?" Zheng Yunqi asked as he hurriedly rushed to Fang Che's side, and everyone else also gathered around him in a panic.

They were all well aware that if it wasn't for Starlight, it was very likely that not even a single one of them would've been able to survive the attack.

"I'm fine," Fang Che said as he took a Cloud Spirit Pill, but he still felt as if his organs were on fire with each inhalation of breath.

"How's everyone else doing?"

Before Zhao Wushang had a chance to reply, a whole host of Protectionists from the battle hall descended into the escort agency.

Shortly thereafter, Fan Tiantiao also arrived, and he shook his head with a disappointed expression as he sighed, "They've all vanished into the surrounding residential area. How many casualties has your agency suffered?"

"We've lost over thirty people," Zheng Yunqi replied with a look of burning fury in his eyes.

The number of on-duty Grandmasters had been increased to twenty per day, and thirteen of them had perished along with nineteen escorts, among which were two women.

It was truly a heavy blow.

"Who did this? Were they demonic church members?"

"We're not sure yet, but the bodies are all there."

The bodies of all of the deceased masked intruders had been gathered together, and there were 149 of them, the majority of which had been killed by Fang Che.

"Very impressive, Head Escort Yin," Fan Tiantiao praised as he examined the bodies.

"You're far too kind, Deputy Hall Master Fan," Fang Che replied in a feeble voice while blood continued to pour out of his mouth.

"They're all missing their hearts. That confirms it," Fan Tiantiao sighed after a brief examination.

Even without this confirmation, Zheng Yunqi and the others were already aware that these were demonic church members.

Some of the deceased intruders were familiar faces from the main church, but most of them were not.

While the Protectionists were gathering the bodies of the intruders, Zheng Yunqi and the others were gathering up the bodies of their fellow escorts.

If the Protectionists were to slice open the bodies of the escorts, they would discover that these bodies were also missing their hearts. However, they viewed the escorts as allies, and they certainly couldn't desecrate the bodies of their allies in death.

Everyone at the escort agency had to tend to their injuries and clean up the mess in the aftermath of the battle, so Fan Tiantiao only chatted briefly with Fang Che before departing with the rest of the Protectionists.

In the wake of the Protectionists' departure, the entire branch helm reeked of blood, and there were thirty-two lifeless bodies lying in the main hall.

All of the surviving branch helm members had tears swimming in their eyes.

They had just been taking a test together, yet now, they were separated by the boundary between the world of the living and the afterlife.

Some of the girls began sobbing quietly.

"I'll give you all some time to tend to your injuries. After that, return here for a meeting."

Shortly thereafter, everyone returned with solemn expressions.

Starlight's body was wrapped in bandages as he sat on his throne, and his expression was just as grim as everyone else's.

He had actually already recovered from his injuries after taking that Cloud Spirit Pill, but he had to keep the bandages on for show. The main cause for concern for him was that he was burning through these pills far too quickly. He had already consumed seven since returning from the Parasite Ascension Project, and he had only been given twenty to begin with!

He didn't bother to do any washing up, so there was still some blood on his face, while everyone else had given themselves a quick clean.

"Do any of you have anything to say?" Starlight asked in a cold voice.

Zheng Yunqi stepped forward as he said, "I had a look at the intruders that we managed to kill earlier, and I could see that there weren't many people like us among them."

"That's right! Most of them seem to have been hired mercenaries."

"I don't think this attack was orchestrated by the people from the main church."

"I agree. Even though they assembled a bunch of Lords, I think all of us will agree that we have some sense of other people like us, particularly those who are also from prominent clans like ours."

Everyone was eagerly weighing in on the conversation, and an intrigued look appeared on Fang Che's face as he asked, "Are you saying you can sense other demonic church members? How does that work?"

"It's not an exact science. It's... something similar to intuition," Zheng Yunqi explained. "As you already know, none of us are direct lineal descendants of our clans. For people like us, we have to constantly live with our tails tucked between our legs, and whenever we see someone from the main branch of the clan, we have to salute them.

“Sometimes, if we come across a good natural treasure, we'd rather give it to someone from the main branch instead of eating it ourselves, just to curry favor with them, if nothing else."

Everyone else nodded in agreement with wry smiles on their faces, and it was clear that they were all in the same situation as the one described by Zheng Yunqi.

"We're all in our mid-twenties already, yet we're still only Lords. We receive monthly allocations of cultivation resources, but it's not a lot, and no matter how hard we try, we can't catch up to the prodigies of the main branch of our clans, most of whom are already high-rank Warlords or even Kings at our age. In fact, some have even reached the Emperor tier, and receive completely different treatment from us.

“Technically, we're all from the same clan, but realistically, we're essentially slaves and manual laborers to them. Over time, we've all developed a natural sense of inferiority to our main branch counterparts. The only reason why we're all able to get along so well is because we're all branch lineal descendants of our clans, so we can all relate to each other."

Zheng Yunqi lowered his head in shame as he spoke.

This deepseated sense of inferiority was not something that he was proud of admitting.

A look of realization appeared on Fang Che's face, and he asked, "Is this intuition what you've been using to pick out other demonic church members? You're looking for people who appear very proud and dignified on the surface, but actually have very low self-esteem and are used to serving others, right? You're like slaves looking for other slaves, is that the right analogy?"

Yes, but can you not be so blunt about it?!

Everyone lowered their heads in embarrassment.

"That's the general gist of it. Sometimes, we make mistakes, but generally, our success rate is very high."

Fang Che was completely speechless.

This was truly a unique ability, and it immediately occurred to him that perhaps he could take advantage of this mentality.

He had just saved their lives, so this was the perfect opportunity to further cement their loyalty to him.

This was an opportunity that didn't come around every day, and he had to take full advantage.

Meanwhile, everyone was still expressing their thoughts and feelings on the attack.

"Hence, we all think that the attack wasn't orchestrated by people like us. If we were to plan an attack like this, we would do it completely differently. Those people displayed great teamwork, the type you'd see in comrades-in-arms that have battled alongside each other for a very long time. If we had planned this attack, then our teamwork would've been much worse."

Zhao Wushang's admission was rather embarrassing for everyone, but they had to admit that it was true.

"I see. So what you're saying is that you think this attack was orchestrated by one of the subsidiary churches," Starlight mused with a cold gleam in his eyes.

"That's right," Zheng Yunqi confirmed. "Do you still remember what the leader of the enemy said right before he left?"

"What did he say?"

"He told us to mind our own business. It sounds like he said this from the standpoint of someone from the main church, but if we had orchestrated the attack, then we definitely wouldn't have said something like that."