Chapter 53-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation

 Sykes strode back to his bedroom and pushed open the door. Scattered limbs were strewn across the intricately embroidered carpet. A pale white head was placed precisely in the center, staring at the person who had entered.

With a loud bang, Sykes's fist slammed into the door. Even Ye Zheng was startled by his tendency to fly into a rage, frowning as she took a small step back.

Initially, she had planned to place it at the gates of the Royal Palace, which would have brought shame upon the entire Royal Family. But on second thought, placing these provocative items in Sykes's room might be more interesting.

Ye Zheng didn't know if Sykes would go to the Blood-colored Demonic Domain in the original manga plot. Given the Royal Family's way of doing things, it was unlikely they would let the Crown Prince take such a risk personally, even though, in theory, Sykes was the Empire's most powerful ability user and the most likely person to destroy that A+ Demonic Domain.

Regardless of the original plot's arrangements, as far as she was concerned, Sykes had to go to that place.

Besides the royal relatives and nobles, a large number of civilians were also trapped there. The Royal Family was reluctant to send the "savior" they had cultivated with the nation's resources to save people. They would only continue to blindly send people in for search and rescue, and even wanted to dismantle the lower district's Shelter to build a rescue passage.

And now, Ye Zheng had chosen the most efficient course of action for the Royal Family.

Sykes walked to the center of the bedroom and squatted in front of the head, which stared with wide, unseeing eyes. He placed a hand on top of it, and the head instantly turned to dust.

A hint of despair crossed Yu Tianming's face again. Olin was the son of a Prince! It was one thing for him to be killed by rioters, but the Crown Prince didn't even leave a body for his family. This matter must never get out.

"Clean up all this disgusting stuff for me," Sykes said coldly.

"Your Highness, please allow me to investigate the scene. We might be able to find clues about the person behind this. It's very likely they haven't gotten far, and we can take this chance to catch them."

Yu Tianming quickly spoke up to stop Sykes's willful behavior.

"Your Highness, what Yu Tianming says makes sense. Why don't you first order a temporary lockdown of the Royal Palace?"

Hearing the girl's words, Yu Tianming turned his head. The Saintess's face was a little pale, and she frowned in discomfort, as if the scene before her was a great shock. Yet, she persisted in observing, looking both fragile and strong.

He turned his head again to look at the carpet, his eyes sweeping across the entire room without a sound—there were no water stains.

It seemed he had been overthinking.

Yu Tianming couldn't figure himself out. Why did he always pay some attention to Ye Zheng, a character who wasn't particularly important?

"Pass the order, lock down the Royal Palace," Sykes commanded, glancing at Ye Zheng who had made the suggestion.

The girl, having received the Crown Prince's approval, let out a slight sigh of relief, as if encouraged, and continued, "Your Highness, Olin and the others were clearly trapped in the Demonic Domain, yet their bodies could appear in the Royal Palace. The person who did this very likely possesses an ability like spatial travel. Perhaps we can investigate suspects based on their abilities."

Yu Tianming shook his head. "Even with a spatial ability, it's impossible to travel between a Demonic Domain and the outside world. At least, I've never heard of anyone succeeding."

As he spoke, Yu Tianming also began to hesitate. "However, these things must have been brought out of that Blood-colored Demonic Domain by someone."

The girl's expression grew more solemn, her dark eyes filled with worry. "In that case, this person's strength might be extremely formidable to be able to do something so unprecedented..."

"Heh."

Sykes let out an abrupt laugh. The two others in the room fell silent and looked at the noble Crown Prince. A blazing fighting spirit surged in his golden eyes, and the knuckles of his clenched fist cracked audibly.

"No need for a lockdown. I'm going into the Demonic Domain to kill him right now."

It wasn't just because of the mastermind's arrogant provocation. Sykes had been designated as the heir to the Empire at birth due to his immense power. From a young age, he had felt satiated and empty with a life of extreme luxury. Only the thrill of violence and death could pique his interest, and his threshold for such stimulation was constantly rising.

The Royal Palace grew busier due to the Crown Prince's willful decision, preparing equipment and personnel for him to ensure his safety.

The Emperor was still in a meeting with his ministers, but Yu Tianming thought that even if His Majesty found out and came to stop him, it would probably be useless. No one could stop a determined Sykes. Besides, he always felt that His Majesty was somewhat... afraid of this son of his.

In the midst of the chaos, no one noticed Ye Zheng taking her leave. She strolled unhurriedly through the vast Royal Palace.

If anyone had observed closely at this moment, they might have discovered that Ye Zheng was quite familiar with the paths of the Royal Palace. On the complex route from the Crown Prince's bedroom to the palace gates, she didn't ask any of the passing maids for directions, simply walking silently and slowly.

"It's really hard to remember," Ye Zheng muttered quietly, a helpless smile crossing her face. Not that she could blame anyone; she was the one who liked to make trouble for herself.

She had obtained a layout map of the entire Royal Palace from Teacher Qin Lu, which even included the drainage system. It had been raining in the upper district for the past two days, so she had carefully designed a route to "deliver" those things. Considering that accidents might happen, Ye Zheng simply memorized the general map of the entire palace to facilitate acting according to the situation.

If Yu Tianming had been a bit more suspicious, he might have been able to deduce from the drainage channel in the grass below Sykes's room that she had used water flow to achieve her goal. Ye Zheng had observed his expression; he had probably thought of it but gave up the guess due to the dry bedroom and his underestimation of her ability.

Even if he didn't know her true strength, the precision of her [Stream] ability was enough to perform surgery. Making a few small moves without leaving a trace was naturally not a difficult matter.

Now, Yu Tianming had no time to continue thinking about this. Just preparing for Sykes's expedition was enough to keep him overwhelmingly busy.

[But what if Qin Lu tells someone you asked her for the palace map...] the System worried.

"Teacher Qin Lu respects my secrets, and I respect hers," Ye Zheng said softly, staring at the exquisitely patterned pavement beneath her feet.

[!]

Hearing Ye Zheng's words, the System wondered, could she have some dirt on Qin Lu? Recalling the plot, Qin Lu did indeed have a huge secret... the kind that would lead to the execution of nine generations of the family in a certain ancient eastern country. But considering Qin Lu was the Emperor's sister-in-law, executing those nine generations would be a bit tricky.

"I just have some guesses about Teacher Qin Lu's thoughts; I don't know the specifics. It's probably the same for her regarding me. We just have a tacit understanding."

Ye Zheng could tell that Qin Lu held an extreme aversion to the Royal Family, especially her brother-in-law the Emperor and the nephew her sister had left her. She even had a strong loathing for the Sei Curia. In the beginning, as the Saintess, Ye Zheng had been turned away by Qin Lu more than a few times.

Qin Lu was a person who loved and hated fiercely and was very magnanimous. The late Empress, her sister, was the most important person to her, but she had died in childbirth because of Sykes. It was understandable that she would harbor hatred for her brother-in-law, her nephew, and even the Sei Curia, which was responsible for the delivery. But intuition told Ye Zheng that Qin Lu's hatred was not that simple.

[Every time you do something like this, I can't help but be on edge for you, afraid that you'll mess up.]

The System sounded as if it had lingering fears, its tone much more nervous than Ye Zheng, the person involved.

Ye Zheng had already smoothly gotten into the Ye family's car and instructed the driver to head to the Sei Curia.

"I have everything under control. You don't need to worry about me," she replied faintly to the System in her mind, her fingers stroking the palm of her right hand. After the piece of Dragon Bone was embedded in her palm, the strong foreign body sensation had gradually disappeared, slowly becoming as natural as if it had merged with her flesh and blood, including the power the Dragon Bone carried.

If it were the her from a month ago, she might not have dared to act so boldly.

Ye Zheng couldn't help but think, what if she got a few more of these helpful Dragon Bone fragments?

She quickly calmed down again. Merely possessing great power was definitely not enough to achieve her goals. She couldn't let power go to her head. Sykes possessed such a powerful ability, but in her eyes, he wasn't a major threat, just a crazy dog that was easy to use.

Let him and Sierra have a dog-eat-dog fight. She wondered which was more dominant: the world-destroying [Destruction] or the all-dissipating [Nullification]?

She didn't dislike Sierra, but her strange obsession with her could easily cause trouble in the Demonic Domain. Letting Sykes suppress her was the most suitable choice.

This time, she would also go to that place, but not as Ye Zheng.

[Fortunately, both Sykes and Sierra are quite gullible. They are not the intelligent-type villains.]

The System analyzed for Ye Zheng.

[The Pope, as one of the main villains, although powerful and scheming, has an ability that is more supportive in nature. His oppressive presence isn't that strong, so he's not a particularly difficult villain to deal with.]

"What kind of villain is considered particularly difficult to deal with?" Ye Zheng asked curiously.

[The kind that is scheming, extremely intelligent, and also possesses abnormally powerful strength and a resilient mind. They are even experts at disguise, and everyone thinks they are a great person at first...]

The System recalled several classic villains and felt a moment of relief.

Fortunately, King of the Demonic Domain didn't have such a villain. Otherwise, with Ye Zheng's style of loving to deviate from the plot and jump around everywhere, it would be easy to attract fatal danger. Although, judging from the current results, not only could she easily resolve danger, she could also bring a little danger to others...

[Rest assured, King of the Demonic Domain doesn't have such an OP villain. You just have to survive the plot-induced death from the great battle between Sykes and Percy, and you'll be safe!]

"Ah, that's good. The kind of person you described does indeed sound very tricky."

Ye Zheng thought that among the people she had come into contact with so far, the one who best fit the System's description was Wen Jian. But she was too familiar with him, and her aversion to him far outweighed her apprehension. His disguise as a great person was also transparent to her. As for his scheming, it wasn't that difficult to see through; it was merely an information advantage.

With this thought, the girl's heart relaxed a little. The obstacles in her path were not that difficult to remove.

Inside the Sei Curia, a middle-aged man in a simple white robe was tending to the flowers. He carefully trimmed the branches with a pair of scissors, a gratified smile on his face as he looked at the neat and beautiful flowerbed.

"Your Holiness."

"Did you bring them back?"

"We found the bodies of those two, but that woman is still missing..."

Snip. A delicate flower instantly fell from its branch. Wen Jian stared blankly at the empty branch, then bent down to pick up the fallen flower. His expression quickly returned to its gentle state, a hint of pity in his eyes as his fingers gently caressed the flower he had just cut.

"Send people to continue the search."

"Not just for that woman, but also for the culprit who caused my flower to be cut."

The man reporting was stunned for a moment before he understood what the Pope meant by "culprit"—the "culprit" who had killed the people they sent out, ruined the Pope's mood, and caused him to accidentally cut his beloved flower.

A chill ran down the man's spine. He responded respectfully and quickly left the Pope's small garden.

The middle-aged man stood in the center of the garden, holding the cut flower in his left hand. A faint green light glowed from his right hand, covering the already slightly wilted flower.

The light in his hand flickered on and off. Wen Jian moved his right hand away with anticipation, observing the newborn flower.

The flower, which had shown signs of withering, was once again vibrant. Its delicate and beautiful petals bloomed even more magnificently, so beautiful that one couldn't look away.

But Wen Jian's smile faded. He looked with dissatisfaction at the "branches and leaves" and "stem" kicking his palm.

Beneath the beautiful petals were small, green human limbs. It was stretching its newly formed arms and legs, like a newborn baby, just that its "head" and "skin color" were a bit strange.

Wen Jian let go, and the newborn flower fell to the ground again. He crushed it with his foot, and a shrill scream came from the ground.

"Your Holiness, the Saintess requests an audience."

An elderly Bishop bowed, not looking up into the garden.

"Mm."

Wen Jian responded perfunctorily, moved his foot, and left the small garden.

All that remained was a small puddle of red and green slime on the ground. No one would have guessed that this inconspicuous puddle once belonged to a tiny life.

Author's Note:

Zhengzheng: "Oh my, a villain who is smart, profound, powerful, and good at hiding? So glad I haven't met one!"

People who will be tormented by Zhengzheng in the future: "..."

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