Chapter 75-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation

"How much do you know about the Pope's ability?"

The topic abruptly jumped to the Pope. Ye Zheng thought for a moment and replied, "The Pope's ability, [Hand of Spring], is a very powerful healing ability. I have personally seen him turn a man who had been bitten until only half his body was left back into a complete, healthy person."

She couldn't do that. Her [Stream] could at most reattach a person's severed limb; it couldn't conjure a whole body for them out of thin air.

"To say his ability is healing isn't entirely accurate. He can even create from nothing. As long as a person isn't dead, he can save them," Ye Zheng added.

Ye Zheng stared at Qin Lu's increasingly silent face and had a guess. She took the initiative to bring up the taboo topic, "On the day the former Empress gave birth to Sykes, it was said that the previous Pope was in charge of the delivery. Could Wen Jian have been there as well?"

Otherwise, why would Qin Lu mention Wen Jian? Judging by his age, when Sykes was born seventeen years ago, Wen Jian, from a minor noble family, would have been in his early twenties, just graduated from the Divine Academy. It was unlikely he would have participated in something as major as the birth of a prince.

Qin Lu finally spoke, her tone light and dismissive. "You mean the current Wen Jian? Of course, he wasn't there. He was just a nobody back then."

Hearing Qin Lu's words, Ye Zheng's heart skipped a beat. She thought of a contradiction.

Until she was seven, Wen Jian was just a Priest in the lower district. As a minor noble from the upper district, being sent to do insignificant work in the lower district was impossible for a rare S-rank healer, unless Wen Jian himself was full of love and enjoyed helping commoners.

Obviously, Wen Jian was not that kind of person. As long as he had the opportunity to climb, he would do so by any means necessary.

So why was Wen Jian, who possessed such a powerful ability, so obscure back then?

There were only two possibilities: one, he had offended someone powerful and was demoted; two, back then... he simply didn't have such an outstanding ability.

Ye Zheng looked up at Qin Lu. She knew her teacher would give her the correct answer.

Qin Lu slowly smiled. "It seems you've noticed something is wrong too."

"The Pope's ability was originally called [Mother of All Things]—I'm talking about the ability of every Pope."

The room was quiet for a long while. Even the gears of thought in Ye Zheng's head jammed. She mulled over Qin Lu's sentence and came to an unbelievable conclusion.

"Are you saying... the Pope's ability is passed down from generation to generation?"

The girl was so surprised that even her eyelashes trembled slightly.

Qin Lu nodded calmly. "Yes. This ability is just like the Pope's scepter. Whoever becomes the Pope will possess it."

The woman wore a bored expression, as if the ability and the scepter were some kind of unsold goods at a clearance sale that couldn't pique her interest in the slightest.

Ye Zheng, however, kept her eyes wide open, listening attentively, hoping her teacher would say more.

She only knew that every Pope of the Sei Curia was a healer. Not just the Pope, but bishops and Priests also tended to be healers, and the expression of healing abilities was more or less the same, at most showing different levels of proficiency.

Ye Zheng had never heard of an ability being inherited! And the original name of this ability was [Mother of All Things], a name that also bothered her for some reason.

Without a doubt, a shocking secret of the Sei Curia was hidden behind this inheritance!

Ye Zheng blinked at Qin Lu. Seeing no reaction, she furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Why are you looking at me like that? This is all I know."

"Your teacher doesn't know everything. You are the Saintess of the Sei Curia; you should know more than I do."

Qin Lu raised an eyebrow at the girl, her tone returning to its usual teasing manner.

But Ye Zheng couldn't smile. It seemed she, the Saintess, was truly just a mascot in name. Even Qin Lu, a leisurely duke, knew more than her.

Qin Lu shouldn't know this much. She had no connection with the Sei Curia. The only channel through which she could access the Sei Curia's secrets... was her sister, the former Empress.

"So, back then, did the previous Pope also use [Mother of All Things] to deliver Sykes?"

Ye Zheng knew this was the biggest scar on Qin Lu's heart, but to get closer to the truth, she had to keep picking at it.

"[Mother of All Things] is clearly so powerful, capable of reviving the dead and fleshing out bones. Why did the Empress still die on that day?"

The popular story was that Sykes awakened [Destruction] at birth. When he was born, the newborn infant unintentionally used his overly powerful talent, killing his mother.

Although Sykes's ability was absolute—whatever his right hand touched would be destroyed—and this explanation was logical, Ye Zheng, looking at Qin Lu's attitude, felt it wasn't that simple.

Qin Lu laughed, but there was no mirth in her eyes. She shook her head. "I don't know either. Perhaps it's just as they say, the newborn Sykes couldn't control his ability."

Ye Zheng leaned forward, mimicking Qin Lu's posture by placing her hands on the table. This posture carried a hint of interrogative pressure as she met Qin Lu's gaze.

"Sykes killed your sister at birth, so you think he is a monster."

"Ye Zheng, do you think my mindset is unreasonable?"

"It's very reasonable. But the Qin Lu I know wouldn't torture herself for so long over a simple accident."

Qin Lu removed her hands from the table, wiped her face, turned, picked up a cigarette from the table, lit it, and stuck it in her mouth.

Ye Zheng watched her desolate face. Teacher Qin always smoked, but she would consciously extinguish the cigarette whenever a student came. Today was the only exception.

"Sykes should not have been born."

The woman exhaled a low whisper amidst the thin smoke. One hand held the cigarette, while the other subconsciously fiddled with the neatly arranged test tubes on the table, the most orderly spot in the room.

"You should know at your age, right? A woman's body undergoes some changes after becoming pregnant, so it's easy to tell. Especially since she and I were always very close; I would go to the palace to see her every few days."

"After the Pope confirmed the Empress was pregnant, I worried about her and went even more frequently. She seemed melancholic and always forced a smile. I knew this was common for pregnant women, so I could only accompany her more."

"I could tell the Emperor wasn't too happy about my visits, but he still tolerated them. My sister always seemed to want me to come, yet at the same time, she didn't."

Following Qin Lu's description, Ye Zheng pictured a woman with the same chestnut hair as Qin Lu, always sitting quietly by a magnificent window, like a caged bird, waiting for the free little bird outside the cage to fly back and forth.

"Until one day, I was forbidden from visiting the palace anymore."

"Because I discovered that my sister, after being 'pregnant' for four months, was still menstruating. Her stomach was still completely flat, and she was even thinner than before."

A look of shock crossed Ye Zheng's face. Her knowledge of physiology told her this was impossible.

Unless the Empress wasn't pregnant at all!

Qin Lu took another drag of her cigarette. "Five months later, however, she gave birth to Sykes, and met her death."

"Ha, you tell me—where on earth did Sykes come from?"

Ye Zheng could only think of one possibility. "Sykes isn't the Empress's child?" And was passed off as hers?

Qin Lu shook her head. "But on that day, I saw with my own eyes that she gave birth to Sykes. That devil-like child crawled out of her belly, as if it had drained all her lifeblood."

"Before I could see her final expression clearly, her body completely disintegrated."

Ye Zheng seemed to understand. Sykes probably wasn't the Empress's naturally conceived child, but more like... a parasite that was suddenly implanted in her womb? And this parasite was known to the Empress, the Emperor, and the Pope, and was even personally arranged by them.

Why sacrifice the Empress to create such a monster? Thinking of Sykes's 3S-rank ability and the abnormality in his body, Ye Zheng already had the answer.

Qin Lu seemed to be choked by the smoke and coughed several times, her voice growing fainter.

"I should have realized it sooner. She was very fond of going to the Sei Curia to pray back then. I always found it oppressive and boring and would run off to wait for her."

"Every time she returned from the Sei Curia, she would look even sadder and say strange things, like 'this is the will of the God of Hope,' 'the duty of an Empress,' 'the future of the Empire'."

"She said that child's future would surely be that of a strong and compassionate hero. So, I began to look forward to Sykes's birth with her."

Qin Lu closed her eyes. After she discovered the anomaly, the Emperor placed her under house arrest. One day, five months later, she was at home when her heart suddenly started pounding as if it would burst. As if she had a premonition, she rushed out of her room, broke all the way into the palace, and into the Empress's chamber.

She saw the Pope place his hand on her sister's belly, which had grown large at some point. She witnessed with her own eyes the birth of that little monster.

Ye Zheng listened quietly, having already pieced together the general picture.

The Pope's inherited ability, [Mother of All Things], was incredibly creative. And every bone in Sykes's body was homologous to Dragon Bone. Sykes was likely a... creature created by the Pope using Dragon Bone.

As for why it was placed in the Empress's womb, it was probably because no matter how powerful the [Mother of All Things] ability was, it couldn't directly incubate a real person from a single bone. So the Pope chose an opportune moment to place the little monster in the Empress's uterus to continue its development until it became him.

In this whole affair, there was one person whose presence was low-key, yet who cast a shadow over the entire story.

Ye Zheng asked with confusion, "What about the Emperor? When you broke in back then and saw what you shouldn't have, he seemed to..."

"You mean to say he treats me well? Making a woman with no achievements an Imperial Duke, allowing me to live freely and leisurely."

Qin Lu laughed coldly. "According to his own words—it's because he loved my sister, Qin Tian."

"'Qin Tian wanted you to be well. I will fulfill her last wish, even if you know so much that you shouldn't.'"

"'I will protect you, protect the relative she cared about most.'"

Seventeen years ago, the man in magnificent robes, his face pale and his expression mournful, had promised this.

Hearing these words, Qin Lu only wanted to vomit. And she didn't just think it; she followed her heart and vomited right in front of the Emperor.

The filth splattered on his boots. The Emperor's mournful expression changed. He stepped back in disgust, the self-pitying warmth gone from his face and words.

"Qin Lu! Do you think I was heartless, that I forced her to her death? She was the woman I loved most in my life!"

"Unlike a wild girl like you, she was kind, selfless, magnanimous, and generous! She agreed to this willingly. It was all for the Empire! For the future of humanity!"

The man at the pinnacle of the Empire's power suddenly began to weep sorrowfully. "She lost her life, and I have lost her forever! I have lost the ability to love forever! My grief is no less than yours!"

Pfft—

Realizing she had laughed out loud, Ye Zheng covered her mouth, taking a moment to compose herself.

"My apologies, Teacher. That is just a little too ridiculous."

People in power were inevitably a bit dramatic and good at acting, but to act to the point of being immersed in such a bizarre logic was simply too amusing.

She hadn't had any contact with the Emperor yet, but she didn't expect him to be such a hypocritical and self-pitying person.

Qin Lu laughed along, the corners of her mouth curled with a cold, murderous intent, yet her eyes welled with faint tears. "It's fine. I was so angry I laughed back then too."

"I don't care about some grand imperial cause, but I know my sister. With such a heavy title pressed upon her, she would have agreed no matter what."

"He knew Qin Tian so well. The moment he asked her, he had already decided to send her to her death!"

Ye Zheng's eyes darkened. For the future of the Empire? It seemed to make sense. The former Empress was thus helplessly forced onto a path of certain death, all while trying to convince herself it was a noble sacrifice.

But in Ye Zheng's eyes, this was clearly just the strong exploiting the weak, packaged in a beautiful exterior.

Since the [Mother of All Things] ability was so powerful, the Pope and the Emperor could have just installed a uterus in themselves and personally gestated the future of the Empire—wasn't that their responsibility under the crown?

Ye Zheng thought, how were they worthy of using an ability called [Mother of All Things]?

The thought that this ability was still in Wen Jian's hands made Ye Zheng's heart sink further.

Suddenly, the girl's pupils contracted. She remembered Zoya, whom she had hidden in the lower district. There was Dragon Bone hidden in Zoya's body!

The girl's hand gripped the corner of the table tightly. The secret that Zoya was unwilling to reveal seemed to have been partially uncovered.

Could it be that those people weren't satisfied with just one Sykes?

"What's wrong? Heard too much today and got scared?"

"Good girl, you're the one who threatened me into telling you this."

Ye Zheng's face was a little pale. She shook her head.

"Thank you, Teacher, for trusting me and telling me all this. I have to hurry to a place now."

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