Only after withdrawing his spirit sense back into his consciousness did he come to realize that he was sweating profusely, and he was so drained that he felt like he could fall asleep on the spot. At this point, four hours had already passed, and it was past midnight! No wonder it normally takes at least a King to harness divine metals. The spirit sense of the average General or Lord would really struggle to encompass such a massive area to tame the will of the divine metal inside. I can see why some people with insufficient spirit sense can take months to tame a piece of divine metal. As expected, I'm a generational prodigy! Fang Che was ecstatic to have tamed the divine metal. His spirit sense was very powerful to begin with following his resurrection, and thanks to the Boundless Sutra, his spirit sense had always been over ten times more powerful than other warriors of the same cultivation base. In addition, the Formless Divine Jade had been constantly nourishing his spirit sense of late, enhancing it by twofold every few days. To top it all off, his soul had been further nourished by Dongfang Sansan in the "Path of Self-Inquisition," so his spirit sense most likely already exceeded that of the average King! Furthermore, it was broader and more elastic than the spirit sense of many warriors far above him in cultivation base. It was only thanks to all of these factors that he was able to tame the divine metal in just one night. If his spirit sense had failed to completely encompass the divine metal, then just a tiny gap the width of a strand of hair would've been enough for the little fairy inside to play hide and seek with him for half a month. He meditated for some time to recover his spirit sense, then laid a hand onto a divine metal. Some time later, the little fairy awoke, then began drifting joyfully through his spirit sense. At this point, it had almost completely fused as one with his spirit sense. "Do you want to be friends?" Fang Che communicated. The little fairy offered no response. It was very shy and hesitant. "We can be together forever. Does that sound good to you?" The little fairy was thinking, and it was clearly tempted. "If you agree, you can sleep here every day from now on." This was Fang Che's trump card. Sure enough, the little fairy's eyes instantly lit up as it nodded in agreement. This blissful sensation of warmth was something that it had never experienced before, and if it could always experience this from now on, then it would have nothing more to ask for in life. "You'll have to get your body in here as well. Otherwise, how can we be together?" The little fairy immediately agreed. "Make sure to be gentle when you come in so you don't crush me." Fang Che enveloped the divine metal with his spirit sense, while the little fairy worked alongside him. The piece of divine metal instantly began to emanate faint, purple light, following which it raced into his spirit sense space as a streak of white light. Fang Che felt as if a mountain had just come crashing down into his consciousness, almost knocking him unconscious. "Hurry! I'm getting crushed!" The little fairy worked frantically to integrate the divine metal into Fang Che's spirit sense, and the crushing weight instantly vanished. Fang Che had turned as pale as a sheet, and his clothes were drenched in sweat. That was way too heavy! No wonder there are people who've sustained injuries from taming divine metals in the past... Divine weapons were exceedingly rare, and not even all of the warriors ranked near the top of Cloud Weapon Archive were guaranteed to have one. In his past life, Fang Che hadn't seen a single weapon of that caliber, or perhaps he had, but he simply wouldn't have recognized it. However, given that he was only an Emperor at his time of death, it was more likely that he had simply never seen one. Hence, he was extremely excited to be coming into possession of one for himself. Given his circumstances, there was no way that such a large piece of divine metal should've ever been assigned to him, and it was only because of his unique status that he had been granted such a privilege. In fact, he had semi-coerced it out of Dongfang Sansan, but it was something that he truly needed. With this divine metal in his possession, he wouldn't have to expose the Formless Divine Jade, and it could serve as a vessel for the Golden Horn Flood Dragon. Once the divine metal was molded into the form of a spear, no one would be able to tell that it had once been a piece of divine metal, and it would simply look like an ordinary spear. However, this was going to be a very long process, and he didn't know how much he would have to communicate with the will of the divine metal to accomplish this goal. In any case, he could now begin setting all of his plans into motion. In the past, he had always wondered how something that weighed several hundred kilograms could possibly be drawn into one's spirit sense space. However, now that he had undergone the process, it seemed natural and intuitive to him. The sun was already beginning to rise. Fang Che played with the little fairy for a while, but it quickly grew weary and fell asleep again. It had suddenly been blessed with such a warm and blissful environment after spending so much time in solitary darkness, and it clearly wanted to take a few naps to fully enjoy itself. Fang Che consumed some spirit recovery natural treasures alongside cultivation foundation bolstering fruits, then meditated for two hours, at which point it was time to go to the academy. High up in the sky, the white-robed man had been secretly keeping an eye on Fang Che this entire time, and he gave a nod of approval at Fang Che's feat of taming such a large piece of divine metal in just a single night. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from the spot. He had other matters to take care of, such expelling Duan Xiyang's residual spear intent from Dong Changfeng's body. After that, it was time for him to leave. He had decided to speak to Dongfang Sansan upon his return. In his eyes, Fang Che was an outstanding saber prodigy, and he wanted to take him under his wing as his disciple. Read full story at novel-fire.net Of course, that would have to wait until the conclusion of Fang Che's undercover stint at which point his reputation would be cleansed by becoming Xue Fuxiao's disciple, so it would be a win-win arrangement for both of them. The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. "No! That's absolutely not going to happen!" Dongfang Sansan declared in a resolute manner. "We can't expose him that early! If we wanted to expose him so soon, why would I have gone out of my way to hatch such an elaborate plan?" "I can wait until he reaches the Sovereign tier or even above that." "That would be even more out of the question then! If he can reach the Sovereign tier without being exposed, then he'll surely be able to infiltrate the main church! All I asked you to do was deliver a piece of divine metal to him, why are you getting all these funny ideas? I'm telling you right now, don't even think about it!" "What the hell's your plan then?" Xue Fuxiao snapped. "He told me he wants to become a deputy pope of the Church of the Self-Righteous." Xue Fuxiao was stunned into silence, then erupted into raucous laughter. Xue Fuxiao was on the verge of tears from laughter. "If he manages to become a deputy pope of the Church of the Self-Righteous, he won't have to become my disciple, I'll become his disciple instead!" "If you trust me, I suggest you change your goal to becoming brothers with him instead. Otherwise, you're going to regret it." "That's fine with me as well!" Xue Fuxiao said in an eager manner. "If that's all you came here to say, then get out!" Dongfang Sansan snapped. Xue Fuxiao departed, and a faint smile appeared on Dongfang Sansan's face as he continued to attend to his daily tasks. Only in the presence of a handful of people did Dongfang Sansan ever display such a wilful and immature side of himself. When facing everyone else, Dongfang Sansan always had to put on a display of unshakeable confidence, and it was a very tiring facade to keep up. He was very thankful for this band of close friends. Otherwise, the burden of the knowledge that he was fighting a completely hopeless war would've crushed him into the depths of despair long ago. Yin Shengong was finalizing the One Heart Church's Parasite Ascension Project roster. There were going to be 257 One Heart Church Generals taking part in the Parasite Ascension Project, and one of them was none other than Night Demon. The list of names was sent to the main church without being witnessed by anyone else from the One Heart Church. The logistical staff of the Church of the Self-Righteous were busy at work, registering all of the names to be taking part in the upcoming Parasite Ascension Project. "The Divine Heavenly Church roster has arrived." "The Moon God Church roster has arrived." "The One Heart Church roster has arrived." It was a very simple archiving procedure with not much care taken, as long as the numbers added up. The rosters of names didn't really matter right now, the only ones that were truly of value were the ones that were going to emerge from the Parasite Ascension Project alive. Those who didn't make it out alive would be quickly forgotten. The Parasite Ascension Project was set to commence on December 29th, and there were only two days left until assembly. At the moment, Fang Che was at the fifth-rank General tier, while Mu Linyuan had mostly recovered from his injuries. Mo Ganyun and the others were set to depart in two days. That afternoon, Fang Che went to see Li Changkong. "You want to apply for leave? Why?" "I've... not been in the best headspace recently. And it's not purely going on leave, I'll be carrying out some missions to collect natural treasures while I'm away." There was a smile on Fang Che's face, but it didn't reach his eyes. "You must be feeling left out, seeing as Mo Ganyun and the others are going to take part in the tournament," Li Changkong sighed. "Your request for leave is approved, make sure to be safe out there. How long will you be away?" "I should be back by the time Mo Ganyun and the others are back," Fang Che replied with a bright smile. If he couldn't come back from this break, then he would never be back. The World Academy Tournament was really just a series of glorified sparring matches, while the Parasite Ascension Project was truly going to be an ordeal of life and death. At the moment, Fang Che was only a fifth-rank General, and he didn't know how many eighth and ninth-rank Generals he would have to face. He knew that his chances of survival weren't very high, and he didn't know how many people he would have to kill in order to ensure his own survival.