CHAPTER 73: RED HEAVENLY LORD

Ye Meng's heart rate spiked up a little upon hearing this.

There were very heavy implications to what Fang Che had just said.

However, the more desperately she wanted to ask questions, the more she had to exercise patience in order to avoid rousing suspicions.

She couldn't say anything else, either, as that could divert Fang Che's thoughts elsewhere.

Given how much this was clearly weighing on him, Ye Meng was confident that he would volunteer the information himself.

"You wouldn't understand what's going on anyway. There's internal turmoil in the church, and the deputy pope is trying to overthrow the pope. Right now, the situation is really unclear, and I have no idea what's going to happen. I'm so weak and lowly in status that all I can really do is pray.

“I can only hope that the pope can weather the storm and hold onto his position. Otherwise, if the deputy pope takes over, he'll be sure to wipe out all of the pope's former subordinates, and that includes myself."

This was a very clumsy way to get the message out, but Fang Che had no choice. It had taken him so long to make these deductions, and there was no way that he could expect Ye Meng to do the same, particularly seeing as she hadn't even heard his earlier conversation with Yin Shengong.

Hence, he would just have to spell it out for her so that she could report the information to the Protectionists.

There was a risk of exposure, but the information was so important that it had to be reported.

Ye Meng was so astonished that her facade almost slipped.

Internal turmoil in the One Heart Church? Is this reliable information? Where did he hear this from?

She hurriedly concealed her astonishment behind an oblivious facade as she said, "I don't really understand any of that... I'll go cook up some breakfast for you, and it's about time you went to the academy after you've had something to eat. You didn't sleep at all last night, so make sure not to overexert yourself."

"I knew you wouldn't understand anything!" Fang Che harrumphed. "All you do is strut around like an idiot all day and waste my food! Hurry up and go cook! Are you trying to starve me to death?"

Ye Meng turned to depart while rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"Can you not grow some brains for once? Do you really want me to sell you to a brothel?" Fang Che grumbled after her, causing her to roll her eyes again.

***

Fang Che went to the academy in his set of new clothes.

At home on her own, Ye Meng immediately sent out a secret report.

This was a huge revelation that had to be reported right away!

***

Internal conflict in the One Heart Church? Yin Shengong is being undermined by the deputy pope?

Fan Tiantiao almost fell out of his chair upon receiving this bombshell of a report, and he immediately went to see Huang Yifan without even notifying Chen Ruhai.

Huang Yifan immediately relayed the report to the headquarters.

Before long, the report had reached Dongfang Sansan, who began issuing a string of urgent instructions.

"Launch an exhaustive investigation! I want to know everything that can be uncovered about the One Heart Church!"

In mere moments, all of the files regarding the One Heart Church had been compiled and placed in front of Dongfang Sansan, including the profiles of the church's deputy popes.

Dongfang Sansan didn't even bother to look at the profiles of the other deputy popes as he ordered, "Investigate Ren Zhongyuan!"

Ren Zhongyuan had an extensive history with the Protectionists, so his profile was very thick.

Dongfang Sansan was reading through the files while pondering the report he had just received.

According to our knowledge, Ren Zhongyuan has been Yin Shengong's righthand man for close to two hundred years. He's always been seen as Yin Shengong's staunchest supporter, and we never even considered the possibility that he could turn on his master someday. This is an oversight on my part. I really should've considered this.

“Given Ren Zhongyuan's power, charisma, and connections to high-ranking figures, it only makes sense for him to grow restless and discontent after serving as deputy pope for two hundred years. Having said that, it looks like he may not be able to successfully overthrow Yin Shengong because the latter seems to have already caught onto his ambitions.

“Otherwise, there's no way even a new church inductee like Fang Che would've been made aware of the situation. Could he have been informed of this by his master? But didn't his master leave for the New Chu Nation a while ago? Is he back?

Dongfang Sansan only followed this train of thought briefly before casting it aside. How Fang Che had learned this information wasn't important. What he had to focus on was the information itself.

If Ren Zhongyuan really is plotting a rebellion, then the One Heart Church is in for quite an ordeal. How can we use this situation to our advantage? When is the conflict going to arise?

A string of thoughts was racing through Dongfang Sansan's mind.

***

Upon arriving at the academy, Fang Che immediately approached the instructors of his class.

"I want to enter a spirit qi gravity cultivation chamber."

He had to reach the General tier in four months no matter what!

If he wanted to achieve this objective, then he would have to focus solely on his cultivation for the next four months, sparing him no time to make any waves in the academy, but it should all be worth it.

"You want to enter a spirit qi gravity cultivation chamber?"

A surprised voice rang out from beside him, and it had come from Mo Ganyun rather than Li Changkong.

"Yes. I can sense the threat that you pose looming over me. If we both reach the Great Grandmaster tier at roughly the same time, I'll be sure to be left behind by you, and I'm sure you'll get me back for all of the beatings that you received from me. How embarrassing would that be!"

"Do you know how grueling the conditions in those chambers are?"

"I'd like to find out."

"You're a real man!"

Mo Ganyun took a deep breath, then gritted his teeth as if he were making a difficult decision before declaring, "I want to go as well, Instructor!"

Li Changkong rolled his eyes as he scoffed, "Fang Che has enough merit points to spare, how many do you have?"

"I have to go no matter how many merit points it costs me! I can't let Fang Che leave me behind!"

Over these past few days, he had also reached the Lesser Grandmaster tier, but for some reason, he felt like the gap between him and Fang Che was only continuing to widen.

Now that Fang Che was even resorting to using the spirit qi gravity cultivation chambers, he had to follow suit in order to keep up.

"At the lowest end, the spirit qi gravity cultivation chambers have ten times the normal gravity, and it costs five merit points per two hours," Li Changkong explained. "I suggest you go in for an hour first to see how it goes. If it proves to be too much, there's a bell inside that you can strike to alert people to come in and rescue you."

"How long are you going in for?" Mo Ganyun asked as he turned to Fang Che.

"I'll try four hours to start."

"Alright, I'll also do four hours!"

"The first one to come out is a sniveling coward!"

"Good things that's not going to be me!"

Li Changkong took the two of them to the spirit qi gravity cultivation chambers, where they issued the merit points required for entry.

Mo Ganyun had wrapped a strip of red fabric around his head with the words "Surpass Fang Che" emblazoned upon it in golden text.

"What the hell is that?" Fang Che exclaimed.

"I'm not taking this off until I surpass you!" Mo Ganyuan replied in a determined manner.

Fang Che heaved a sympathetic sigh. "Let me give you a title, Brother. You're going to need a title when you officially go out into the world as a warrior, and I can assure you that this title is going to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies and evoke a sense of respect among your peers."

"Really? What is it?"

"Red Heavenly Lord! What do you think?"

"That's not a bad title. I'd be very happy if I could reach the Heavenly Lord tier in this lifetime, but why red?"

Fang Che offered no response as he began making his way toward his designated gravity cultivation chamber.

"He's saying that you're never going to be able to take off that red headband of yours!" the instructor responsible for overseeing the cultivation chambers chuckled.

Mo Ganyun immediately flew into a rage as he yelled after Fang Che, "What's the meaning of this, Fang Che? Are you saying I'll never be able to surpass you? What a load of nonsense!"

Fang Che had already entered his designated ninth cultivation chamber, and as he closed the door, he scoffed out a single word: "Idiot!"

Mo Ganyun was even more infuriated.

"Just you wait! I'm going to leave you so far behind in the dust that you won't even be able to see me anymore!"

With unprecedented battle intent raging in his heart, Mo Ganyun stormed into the second cultivation chamber.

Shortly thereafter, Bing Shangxue also arrived in front of the cultivation chambers.

An instructor had to be present in order to ensure the safety of their students inside.

***

White Cloud Warrior Academy had already had spirit qi gravity cultivation chambers for many years.

Cultivating in these chambers was extremely effective, yet there hadn't been a single day throughout the academy's history where all one hundred chambers had been occupied at once.

This was because cultivating in one of these chambers was an intensely torturous experience.

During the course of normal cultivation, one absorbed spirit qi from the world around them and could make adjustments at any time based on how much their meridians and internal organs were able to tolerate.

Furthermore, one could also stop at any time.

Cultivation wasn't just a matter of spirit qi intake.

One couldn't just absorb spirit qi indefinitely, and it certainly wasn't the case that all spirit qi that was integrated into the body would be directly converted into spirit power.

Instead, the process of cultivation required one to circulate spirit qi through their meridians, and the vast majority of this spirit qi would seep out during circulation.

For those with mediocre aptitude, they may not even be able to retain 1% of the spirit qi that entered their body.

Furthermore, even if two people could retain the exact same amount of spirit qi, their progress would still differ depending on the state of their meridians, the capacity of their dantians, and the cooperation of their spirit sense.

These factors, among others, were the ones that determined one's aptitude.