Chapter 39-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
[Current Popularity Points: Zhao Mei 23,500, Ye Zheng 2,100. Remaining Action Points: 120.]
[I have to remind you, even if you successfully save this shelter from disaster, the story here won't appear in the manga. At most, it will be mentioned in the background. The main focus will always be on Percy.]
[In other words, this will consume a lot of your action points, but it will be almost useless for your popularity.]
The System said earnestly.
"Hmm?"
"'Ye Zheng' has 2,000 popularity points?"
Hearing the System's real-time report, Ye Zheng pulled away from her deep thoughts and asked in her mind with confusion.
[Is that the main point?!]
"According to what you said before, my actions should be disliked by many readers, and it would be logical for my popularity to decrease instead of increase."
She remembered the last time she appeared as Ye Zheng, her popularity was only about 200. Now it had increased tenfold?
[Popularity is a mysterious thing. Your actions this time were indeed criticized by many readers, but hey, the last scene in the manga was full of atmosphere and impact! The contrast in your persona is super captivating!]
What last scene in the manga? Ye Zheng thought back. She shot a monster and then stayed behind with Bai Muqing. Other than changing the part where Percy saves her, everything else seemed quite ordinary.
She didn't understand the contrast in her persona. She had always been such a gentle and kind person.
The tastes of readers were still hard to predict, but they often gave her pleasant surprises.
"Popularity isn't a difficult thing to get, is it?"
The System thought for a moment. It was true. This person wasn't lacking in popularity points or action points at all. The popularity of both of her identities was rapidly increasing, giving her the capital to be willful!
Ye Zheng supported Bai Muqing as they walked down the stairs together. Under the expectant gazes of the shelter residents, she whispered in Bai Muqing's ear, "Muqing, can you find all the parasitic hosts?"
"I can, but, there might not be enough time."
Ye Zheng faced the dense crowd with a gentle, smiling gaze, her demeanor calm and elegant, as if nothing was a problem.
"That is a problem. I will handle it," she said softly, tilting her head slightly, her voice barely audible.
Bai Muqing, enduring the immense, unavoidable suppression within the shelter, activated her [Divine Domain] with her eyes tightly shut. Lucy helped to disperse the crowded people, making it easier for Bai Muqing to distinguish the hosts and ensuring the crowd would be safer if a bug outbreak occurred.
Both her companions were reliable. Lucy seemed carefree, but she was surprisingly quick and efficient in her actions.
Ye Zheng took out the bug eggs she had kept from outside. A stream of water slowly wrapped around the grayish-white eggs, sensing the life activity within them.
"Strange, their vitality has decreased compared to when they were outside."
This must be an important clue. Ye Zheng thought for a moment. This phenomenon could only have two possibilities. One, the suppression of the Demonic Domain's power inside the shelter also affected the bug eggs. Two... temperature.
After entering the shelter, she felt much cooler. This underground building had a much lower temperature than outside. Ye Zheng leaned towards both factors being at play.
The temperature in this Demonic Domain was constantly rising. The bug eggs successfully hatched when they reached a certain temperature. Perhaps the time required varied depending on the species, but a certain temperature should be a necessary condition for all bug eggs to hatch.
Therefore, in the original plot, the bug disaster didn't break out until a later stage in the shelter.
Ye Zheng guessed, why hadn't the Royal Team detected any powerful monsters? Perhaps because they were still in the process of incubating, just waiting to hatch.
"Done."
Inside the shelter, many people convulsed and fell down simultaneously, causing a wave of screams. Ye Zheng quickly raised her voice to calm them down, asking everyone to help her move the fallen people to her side.
Bai Muqing's voice sounded muffled, and her already pale face became even more bloodless. For other ability users, the suppression here only significantly reduced their abilities.
For her, who was naturally blind and relied solely on her ability to perceive her surroundings, her perception was greatly diminished. Her five senses felt as if they were covered in a layer of mist. This feeling of being out of control made her extremely uncomfortable.
Suddenly, a cold, refreshing sensation came from her arm. A stream of water had climbed up her arm at some point, becoming the most stimulating sensation she could perceive at the moment. Her mind instantly cleared up a lot.
Ye Zheng had already helped one of the hosts up, made an incision on their chest with a small knife, and the water flowed inside.
"Lucy, go and get some people to find the emergency water supply in the shelter and use cold compresses to lower their temperature."
The orange-haired, high-ponytail girl grumbled, "Why do you order me around so skillfully?"
"Please."
Despite her complaints, Lucy obediently organized a few people to go and find the emergency water supply.
Bai Muqing sensed the person's organized actions and thought to herself that she had failed to surpass Ye Zheng once again. She was indeed an unimpeachable Saintess.
Yin Kong never understood her, why she, an ability user with a near-double S-rank talent, would see a healing ability user with an A-rank talent as her opponent. Everyone praised her as the strongest female ability user of the younger generation. Although Ye Zheng was also well-known, in terms of strength, everyone would agree that Bai Muqing was far superior.
In her hazy state of perception, Bai Muqing leaned against the cold, hard wall, closed her eyes, and recalled some past events.
The year she competed for the position of Saintess, Bai Muqing also believed that with her strength, her memorized scriptures, and her piety towards the God of Hope, the position was surely hers.
Wasn't her ability, [Divine Domain], meant for her to be born as a divine emissary?
However, Ye Zheng's sudden rise shattered her long-held confidence.
The fourteen-year-old Bai Muqing was far more stubborn than her seventeen-year-old self. She found the black-haired, black-eyed girl under an oak tree in the Sei Curia's central garden. The girl was holding the scriptures and sitting quietly under the tree in a white dress.
"Why you? The Saintess shouldn't be you."
"You have no faith at all."
Bai Muqing could 'see' clearly through her [Divine Domain] that there was no trace of piety towards the divine in the girl's chaotic black-and-white soul.
Faced with the rude question, the black-haired girl was surprised for a moment. She looked around to confirm that no one else was there before whispering, "Did you run for Saintess because of faith?"
"Of course. The Saintess acts on behalf of the divine in the human world, bringing the gospel of salvation. This is the noble honor of an imperial woman."
The black-haired girl smiled. The fourteen-year-old Saintess was not yet very good at disguising herself. Her smile was a bit mischievous and sly, with a hint of teasing in her eyes. "That's why you lost to me."
"Whether it's for the commoners, the royalty, or the Sei Curia, I am the most perfect candidate for Saintess. Or rather, I can become the most perfect Saintess in everyone's eyes."
The fourteen-year-old Bai Muqing came from a noble family, was exceptionally talented, and was spoiled by her family. She had never been challenged like this before. A look of sullen gloom even appeared in her pure white eyes.
"I will prove that they made the wrong choice."
"Ah, well, good luck with that."
The black-haired girl didn't even look up, focusing on browsing the scriptures, stumbling over the difficult words. Damn it, she couldn't even read the scriptures fluently! Bai Muqing became even angrier.
The fragrance of the grass and trees in the Sei Curia garden stayed with Bai Muqing for years. She liked that place but not the girl who would sit under the oak tree. Afterward, she went to the Sei Curia many more times but never lingered in the garden again.
Now, in the hard and noisy shelter, Bai Muqing sensed Ye Zheng's busy figure and realized that she didn't hate her. She hated herself for failing, for being foolish. Even now, she didn't know the 'reason for her failure' that Ye Zheng had mentioned all those years ago.
"Saintess, you should rest. Or is there anything we can do for you?"
"It's fine. My daily job is to heal and save people. This amount of work is nothing."
"That's right!" a child shouted proudly. "When the Saintess came to our neighborhood last time, she saved so many people!"
Bai Muqing listened to all this quietly. Ye Zheng was also an ability user, and her ability was at least halved here. Faced with such a heavy workload, she still acted as if it were nothing, which in turn helped the people around her relax from their fear.
She once thought that Ye Zheng, who had no faith, could not be a good Saintess. But now, it seemed that what Ye Zheng had said to her back then was completely true.
Bai Muqing couldn't understand what kind of feeling Ye Zheng, who had no faith in the divine, held to do all these things. The older she got, the more she discovered the Sei Curia was full of filth and people who sought fame and praise. So was Ye Zheng's heart true or false...?
After thinking for a long time and getting no results, the white-haired, white-eyed youth moved. She had gotten used to her current level of perception. She walked out of the corner and into the crowd, learning from Lucy and the others, and pressed a wet cloth onto a comatose parasitic host.
"Hey, hey, hey! You're supposed to press it on their chest, not smother them to death!"
Lucy shouted loudly and quickly stopped Bai Muqing's action. The other girl stiffly retracted her hand.
Ye Zheng heard the lively commotion and smiled, continuing her work. She threw all the bug eggs she had taken from the people into a bucket, ensuring they would not hatch for now.
Fifty people were detected to have bug eggs by Bai Muqing, which was fewer than she had expected, making her feel relieved.
Her ability was suppressed here. Fortunately, she was used to working overtime in the lower district, so she could still handle the current situation.
After an unknown amount of time, Ye Zheng finally finished healing the last person's chest wound and removed all the bug eggs.
She straightened her body and, under the grateful and concerned gazes of everyone, announced that the crisis was temporarily averted and told everyone to wait patiently for the Demonic Domain to be destroyed.
[You have changed the original plot where fifty people would suffer a bug outbreak. Deducting 50 action points.]
"It only costs 50 points to change this?"
[This crisis plot doesn't affect the main storyline. The focus of this Demonic Domain arc is the protagonist team fighting the Bug Queen.]
Having done everything, Ye Zheng leaned back in a hidden corner, her posture uncharacteristically relaxed and casual, and took out her phone.
The new manga chapter had been updated, so the original plot spoilers must have also been updated. Although she had removed the hidden danger in this shelter, she still felt a little uneasy.
She opened the new chapter and scrolled down. The readers in the comments seemed to be full of controversy about her appearance. Ye Zheng didn't have time to review these young readers' comments for now.
She scrolled to the very bottom of the manga. The short-haired woman with a bold and generous demeanor appeared in the manga. Her expression was tense, lacking the initial warmth and friendliness. Her posture was secretive, as if she was hunting for something.
—Wu Shu. She hadn't given up on the points in this Demonic Domain after all.
Ye Zheng thought to herself. It seemed that Wu Shu would have a significant role in the upcoming plot.
Author's note:
Ye Zheng is too complex for the very pure Bai Muqing, but a complex person is very attractive!
HOLY SHII IT'S 百合!!!
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