Chapter 29

Translator: Exodus Tales

Editor: Exodus Tales

Accidents were always so unexpected.

Fang Zheng could swear that he had never thought that he would discover a brand new in-app purchase in this place, not even in his dreams.

There was nothing strange about it if one thought about it carefully. Fang Zheng basically gave up on in-app purchases after coming to this world. His reason was very simple. Naturally, he had left an online payment method in the game’s framework but also devised a method to directly deduct the money with certain treasures. After all, a mobile game was a mobile game; one could always innovate something new. The more convenient it was to make a purchase, the better it was. One wouldn’t find any mobile games deliberately making in-app purchase functions extremely complex.

The game designers couldn’t wait to deduct players’ money with just one tap of a finger!

But Fang Zheng was reborn in this world. It was no better than getting transported. And how would one make in-app purchases without a mobile phone? So basically, he didn’t care about any in-app purchases. But Fang Zheng hadn’t expected that the gardened flowers wouldn’t bloom but a willow tree that he hadn’t planted was providing the shade.

I just touched a spirit crystal and my in-app store started closing. 

If I had known about this, why would I have taken the risk of joining the church? 

At this moment, Fang Zheng was also regretting it a bit in his heart.

If I knew that the spirit crystal could be used for in-app purchases, why would I be afraid of the church’s pursuit? I would have ventured straight into the wilderness and killed several hundred magical monsters and taken their cores to draw a bunch of Soul Stones from the system store. At that time, I would not have been afraid of confronting the church directly. Afterward, I would have become a devil lord… sigh, forget it.

Unfortunately, just as this thought crossed Fang Zheng’s mind, he immediately threw it to the back of his head. The church was very powerful. It wasn’t a good idea to face it head-on. Furthermore, Fang Zheng, himself, had no hatred or grievances towards the church. Although it was said that the church had killed his parents, so what? According to Williams’ memory, this guy’s parents had crazy things like offering living sacrifices. As far as Fang Zheng was concerned, the two were let off lightly for the evil deeds they had committed; they were just cut down by the church. They should have been captured, tied to stakes, and burned; that would have been right and proper.

So, Fang Zheng’s heart wasn’t unsettled by the fact that the church had killed his body’s parents, rather he even wanted to laugh. As for making them pay for these crazy cultists, Fang Zheng was reluctant to do this kind of trade that would only put him at a loss.

With this in mind, he found it relatively safer to deal with the temple now.

“Thank you.”

These thoughts might have been circling in Fang Zheng’s mind, but there was no change in his expression, none at all. He just smiled and thanked Marth as he took those spirit crystals. Whereas Marth secretly nodded his appreciation from the bottom of his heart, looking at Fang Zheng’s performance. As a grand knight, he naturally had the vision to judge people. In his opinion, it wasn’t easy for the other party to have such a high-level knowledge and understanding of swordsmanship at his age. In fact, when Marth came looking for Fang Zheng, he was prepared for the possibility that the other party wouldn’t be easy to deal with. After all, nothing in this world was perfect, those geniuses had twisted personalities, even more so. Marth had seen many similar examples before. Therefore, he specifically questioned Knight Conan before dealing with Fang Zheng. Only then did he come over to negotiate.

However, what Marth didn’t know was that the young man before him wasn’t just strong but also very calm and steady in the manner of dealing with people. He was neither humble nor pushy, which was very rare these days. One’s great strength could be attributed to his overflowing talents; even a farmer in the countryside could have power on par with a dragon by chance. But a person’s manner of conduct and speech wasn’t that simple. One needed to have experience, manners, etiquette, and self-cultivation; these were the most important characteristics that indicated a person’s identity and class in the final analysis. This made Marth a bit apprehensive but puzzled as well. As a great knight under the Bishops’ Conference, he knew most of the nobles in the Sacred Empire but he had never heard of such a fearsome character in the younger generation. If there was such a strong and steady descendant among the nobles, he would have long been the target of gossip in dinner parties and receptions.

Moreover, his name was also pretty weird.

“Mr. Fang Zheng, are you a citizen of the Sacred Empire? I have never seen you before…”

“I am from Silver White County.”

Obviously, Fang Zheng was well aware that he would be asked about his origins. Since the law resonance, Fang Zheng had always been thinking of ways to solve his life experience problem. And quite coincidentally, he finally dug out a memory from Williams’ brain; Williams’ father had lived in Silver White County for some time once. Williams’ father had a lecherous disposition. He had seduced quite many women of Silver White County. And as a cultist, he was naturally brave and bold. He had even set up a PARTY in a grand and imposing manner.

And when this matter finally came to light, he drew the ire of many noble families as many noble of heirs of Silver White County were involved in it. And as expected, Williams’ father patted his ass and ran away. But as for the victims, who were charmed by him, some of them were imprisoned or exiled by their families, and some even went missing.

Williams’ father, on the other hand, was quite proud of this when he came back. He brought it up more than once and bragged to his son. Apart from bragging, “See, how great your dad is. So many noble women have been captured by your father”, he also explained, “As a cultist, it is really exciting to corrupt culture and destroy ethics.”

This was proof in and of itself of the extent of the cultists’ distortion of values. 

But as far as Fang Zheng was concerned, this came as a pleasant surprise.

After being reborn into this world and obtaining this damn body and identity, Fang Zheng had been thinking about how to distinguish himself from Williams.

And now, he had finally thought of a good way.

Fang Zheng’s choice was Silver White County. Initially, it was just a vague idea but as the days went by, his idea grew more and more vivid. Fang Zheng needed to solve two problems in this world. First was why he looked like Williams…God knows if fate was playing with him, Williams bore a striking resemblance with Fang Zheng. Therefore, he didn’t find it strange when he looked at this face.

Of course, it might have been because two were quite similar that he crossed into this damn body!?

The second problem was the blood relationship of Fang Zheng’s body. Fang Zheng came to know that the magical civilization of this world was extremely developed through Williams’ memories. It was easy to determine one’s relationship through blood. Once someone came to doubt Fang Zheng’s appearance, Fang Zheng would face investigation no doubt. He had to make his origins and his relationship with Williams’ family clear.

So in the end, Fang Zheng drafted a version of events with the help of Williams’ father’s past events.

In this version of the background story, Fang Zheng was from Silver White County. He was the son of a noble’s daughter who was exiled because of Williams’ father. He knew nothing about his life and was dependent on his mother since childhood. And not long ago, his mother died of illness whereby Fang Zheng came to the Sacred Empire with the rest of his wealth…

And this background story was perfect to solve the two biggest questions of his life. He and Williams were half-brothers, so their resemblance was quite normal. And since they were half-brothers, it wasn’t surprising that they were related by blood.

Of course, this identity might draw some people’s dissatisfaction but Fang Zheng didn’t care. The biggest problem he was facing in this world was his identity, that he would be marked as a cultist.

And what Fang Zheng had done was separate Williams from himself completely. Even if he and Williams were half-brothers, as long as he wasn’t a cultist and wasn’t listed as a wanted man by the Church, that was enough.

As for the rest, it wasn’t that important.

Obviously, Fang Zheng didn’t explain this to Marth because Fang Zheng, himself, wasn’t aware of his life experience in this setting. So, he just exchanged a few sentences with the other party according to the background he had set. After having come to learn that Fang Zheng was from the Silver White County, Marth nodded in understanding and didn’t talk about it anymore. Instead, he began to discuss the next course of action with Fang Zheng.

And this put Fang Zheng in an extremely helpless position. According to the original plan, He and Shidon would find these Templar Knights with Miss M and then, bring them away. But now, the Templar Knights had been found but now, Shidon and Miss M had gone missing instead. And without Miss M’s star path, they had nowhere to go in this enclosed space of Shadow Canyon.

Now, there were only two roads in front of them; either they would find Shidon and Miss M, and then use the star path to teleport away from here, or they would escape on foot, just like the way they came in at the beginning.

But what surprised Fang Zheng was that Marth proposed a third way.

“Keep going!?”

Fang Zheng furrowed his brow upon hearing Marth’s suggestion.

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“It’s indeed dangerous, but Mr. Fang Zheng, we can’t leave just like this.”

Facing Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Marth nodded and then explained with a serious look on his face.

“In fact, even though we were ambushed by the lich in Shadow Canyon, we didn’t find anything. We may not be sure whether this lich is the one we are looking for but we have confirmed one thing, that this lich has been hiding in Shadow Canyon under a plot! It seems to be performing some kind of evil and profane dark ritual in Shadow Canyon!”

“What!?”

Fang Zheng was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.

“Dark ritual!?”

“That’s right. It ambushed us because it wanted to use our Templar’s blood and souls for rituals! We have lost many companions before. It might have collected sufficient souls and blood already. We must snatch it back before the ritual is over, to stop its nefarious plan!”