Monarch Night

Finally done with the bandaging.

Fang Che felt like he turned into a mummy, frowning as he looked himself over, puzzled, "Do I really have that many wounds? I look like a zongzi."

Zhao Ying'er rolled her eyes, "There are a few smaller ones, I figured they wouldn't matter, so I didn't bandage them."

Fang Che shivered with disgust.

He quickly stepped into the cemetery, retrieving both Ge Fei's sword and Zhao Ying'er's sword, and said, "Let's go."

The mist rose in the Heroic Spirit Cemetery.

The two supported each other, slowly descending the mountain.

Through the dense fog, their voices could be heard.

"It's been so long, yet the people guarding the cemetery here haven't shown up," Zhao Ying'er said puzzled, "Should we go take a look?"

"No need, they're probably already killed by him..."

Fang Che sighed.

"...No wonder he wasn't worried about coming over, he must have already... That damn demon."

Zhao Ying'er said resentfully.

Their voices gradually faded away.

...

On the way, Fang Che had already communicated with the Five Spirits Gu, reporting to the Yin Shen Palace: "Master, the Mingguang Sect sent people to assassinate me, but I killed them in defense. Apparently, their sect has issued an order for everyone to kill me."

Yin Shen Palace replied, "Do they want to kill Steward Fang, Yemo, or Starlight?"

Fang Che replied, "They want to kill Steward Fang."

Yin Shen Palace did not respond.

They were so tired of his antics, they couldn't even be bothered to curse him.

How can they not want to assassinate you when your Steward Fang identity has killed so many of them?

…

That night, a large force came out from the Guardian Hall, heading to the Heroic Spirit Cemetery, and another force, led by Zuo Guanglie, raided the Tiexue Platform tavern.

Inside were more than ten people, all captured by Zuo Guanglie and his men.

Steward Fang single-handedly slew a Marquis, earning four hundred merits, and because of him, an undercover tavern was taken down, earning another one hundred merit points.

During the day, he slew two Marshal level demons.

Earned two hundred merits, totaling seven hundred.

Originally, nineteen thousand seven hundred seventy, adding seven hundred, becomes twenty thousand four hundred seventy.

He was successfully promoted to First level Gold Star Steward!

And it was achieved through a leap!

The entire Baiyun State Guardian Hall was shocked.

The fastest promotion to Gold Star Steward in history.

Fang Che joined as a Third level Steward with only a few thousand points, then in less than a month, he was promoted to Second level Silver Star Steward; and after a few more days, he was directly promoted to First level Gold Star Steward.

The entire process, less than a month!

It's unprecedented.

Even Chen Ru Hai and Fan Tiantiao were speechless when they saw such news.

Sighing in comparison.

"If only our own people could be as desperate as the Demon Sect's moles... how great that would be."

"Ah, stop talking nonsense. He makes one move, gains merit on both sides, gets merit here, and there, how could we be the same?"

"True, true."

"I won't be going to the promotion ceremony, just thinking about it gives me a toothache."

"I'm not going either, let the Hall Master handle it."

"Should we have a drink tonight? Your place or mine?"

Chen Ru Hai eagerly suggested.

Fan Tiantiao looked at his foot, and with a cold face said, "I have no desire to drink, I just want to get transferred away!"

"You bastard!"

Chen Ru Hai instantly took off his shoe, raised it, and said, "You ungrateful brat, you're forcing me to take off my shoe!"

"Ugh!"

Fan Tiantiao dashed out of the room.

...

That night when Fang Che managed to get back home, his entire body felt as if it had fallen apart.

He simply didn't go to the sub branch for the whole night.

Too tired.

Will go tomorrow.

The Starlight Master didn't show up!

This left the little demons waiting for the exam at the Worldwide Escort Agency in uncertainty, worried about a sudden attack by the Starlight Master, they didn't dare sleep, clutching the Law Codes and reciting it all night!

Zhao Wushang and Zheng Yunqi were all on edge, anxious and uneasy.

Why didn't the Master come?

Did something happen?

In the past few days, they had taken over ten orders and were thinking of having these guys take a guard mission and make money once the exam was finished tonight, and tomorrow... So, it seems it can only be postponed.

It was midnight.

The two unluckiest guys returned.

Zhao Wubai and Jiang Bin.

The two of them came back extremely dusty from completing a guard mission, hadn't even had a sip of water before they noticed everyone looking at them with sympathetic eyes.

"What's up?" Zhao Wubai didn't care whose water it was, picked it up, and drank.

"Exam tonight... the Law Codes."

Zhao Wushang looked at his unlucky brother.

"Pfft..."

The two of them spewed the water they were drinking in a puff, their faces instantly turning pale, frantically running to their rooms: "Where's my Law Codes!"

Zhao Wushang and Zheng Yunqi exchanged a look, both sighed, and said, "Why don't we wait until after the exam to recruit people?"

"Guess we have to."

Zheng Yunqi frowned and said, "But when we recruit, we must be moderate. I feel the Starlight Master is already showing signs of impatience."

Zhao Wushang puzzled, "This time the Master didn't lose his temper much, seemed easygoing. How come you have such an inkling?"

"It's indeed a feeling. If the Master really lost his temper, I'd actually feel safe."

Zheng Yunqi said, "But now I can't quite figure it out. So I need to think on it a bit more."

Zhao Wushang said, "Wasn't the Master's intention to use us to develop some headquarters relationship?"

"Your brain..."

Zheng Yunqi said, rubbing his temple, "Do you really think our Master genuinely cares about headquarters relations?"

"Argh!"

Zhao Wushang was startled, "What do you mean?"

"Literally!"

Zheng Yunqi said, "Our Master, simply doesn't care about headquarters relations... you just didn't see it. In fact, if you think about it, the Master is just a Master in the Yixin Sect, how many years would it take for him to leverage such headquarters relations like us?"

"And would there be no opportunities at all over those years?"

"We're merely a side family... Even if there comes a day when he needs us, will we be able to help by then? What stage will we have developed to ourselves by then?"

Zheng Yunqi sighed, "Wushang, the direct descendants of the family aren't all dead, just a few died in the Cultivating Gu to Become a God Plan. There's still a big group of other direct descendants, don't you understand?"

Zhao Wushang lowered his head, dispirited, "I understand."

"As for the Starlight Master... he never participated in the Cultivating Gu to Become a God Plan. Thus, the chances of him needing us are slim."

Zheng Yunqi said in an extremely low voice, "Have you noticed, even to this day... the Master hasn't brought up adding us as friends?"

This sentence, he said very implicitly.

But anyone from the Weiwo Zheng Sect would instantly understand it.

"Right! There's indeed that!"

Zhao Wushang instantly grasped it.

"Therefore, unless there are major changes concerning the Starlight Master, or unless he's appreciated by the upper echelon, rising speedily, his career will likely remain at Hall Master for life, and even that Hall Master is merely within the subordinate sects, not a legitimate Hall Master."

"If his martial prowess is exceptionally outstanding, progressing rapidly, it might be possible to become an elder, eventually reaching the status of protector in the headquarters, or directly a protector in the headquarters..."

Zheng Yunqi said, "He can only take this path!"

Zhao Wushang nodded silently.

"So, our arrival is a chance for us, and also a chance for the Starlight Master. That's why he kept us, to develop his sub branch... Haven't you noticed that besides us and the Master, there isn't anyone else with higher cultivation from the Yixin Sect in this sub branch? It's practically a Starlight one-man show!"

"Hence the Starlight Master is vigorously developing the sub branch, keeping everything within his grasp, with no one to contest his power. Once the Worldwide Escort Agency is firmly established, so too will Starlight's status, moreover... such a large agency is practically bigger than a hall, the Yixin Sect definitely can't abandon it."

"Then when we leave, this place will become vacant, requiring someone to fill it again, disguise as head of the escort, and continue to openly exist in Baiyun State, isn't that the logic?"

Zhao Wushang nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, you're absolutely right."

"But where will the Yixin Sect find enough suitable people to replenish escorts, head of the escorts? An Master with no future, who would be willing to work under him? So in the future, the numbers of heads of escorts shouldn't be too many."

Zheng Yunqi said, "Currently, we already have seventy-eight people. The Starlight Master's pressing issue seems to lie here. I reckon... according to a large escort agency, about two hundred people are the baseline."

"But the Starlight Master might not even need that many."

"So if we recruit more people, we need to be more cautious. Otherwise, I guess the Master would unleash a massive bloodbath."

Zheng Yunqi said.

Zhao Wushang, nodding repeatedly, said admiringly, "Old Zheng, I never thought you were so smart, thinking so far ahead."

Zheng Yunqi smiled bitterly, "Smart my ass, I've been losing sleep just pondering over this issue. Then I traced back from the root of the Starlight Master to find the reason, little by little, until now, I finally made a little headway."

He sighed and said, "It must be admitted, Starlight Master is someone significant, from the very beginning, using Marshal level cultivation to directly suppress the Ninth grade King level Liu Hanshan... it's telling. Though he borrowed the Yin Sect Leader's influence, still, who can execute it as the Starlight Master did?"

"Then with seamless manipulation, he directly kept us here!"

"Next, he formed the escort agency using our strength. And this agency already possesses a legitimate identity... obviously, once we leave, no one from another sect in the Yixin Sect could manage this Worldwide Escort Agency, it would have to continually be managed by the Starlight Master."

"Moreover, involving our efforts strengthens ties with the officials, like reporting... leveraging our animosity, achieving it all at once."

"And then there's still the utilization of our power to uproot every sub branch organization of other sects, entirely eradicating them! To this day, the entire Baiyun State's factional strength has become a one-man act by the Yixin Sect!"

"Even people from the Main Sect come, they'd have to pay their respects first!"

"These means, one after another... I, being personally involved, still need to strain my brain to figure out after a few days of thinking. And the Starlight Master... achieved it all without even making a move. Is that a simple person?"

[Reserve tomorrow's base monthly ticket for me, alright?]