Chapter 123-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
Tang Mingxi was happily munching on the crumbs in the forum.
The current Ye Zheng push wasn't the pushover bun from before that anyone could step on; now, any fan of a male character could get trampled underfoot. These days, the King of the Demonic Domain fandom was divided into three major factions, with Pei Xi, Sykes, and Ye Zheng's popularity forming a clear top three tier, and Ye Zheng faintly showing signs of overtaking the other two to claim the throne.
Just this kind of career fan bliss! As soon as a male character with rapidly rising popularity popped up, Ye Zheng took him out right away—nothing warmed the heart like the main character delivering the goods herself.
But she hadn't expected that after getting the short end of the stick in the forum, this crowd would immediately activate their second skill and start stirring up trouble under the old uncle's account. Looking at the avatars and profiles, quite a few guys had specifically registered accounts just to protest.
[#1: For the sake of propping up the big female lead's darling daughter, you've ignored the story logic entirely—no character arcs, causes and effects that come out of nowhere. Old uncle, who are you even accountable to?]
[#2: You built up so much for Kiran, and then one second he's standing fine in the hall, the next his head's in Ye Zheng's bag. Did you crack up while drawing that, creator?]
[#3: It's not that we don't want Kiran to die, but this death is way too offhand. Aren't villains characters you created yourself? Do you hate him that much?]
[#4: I seriously feel like the creator's been hijacked by PC... Kiran's too controversial, so you rushed to kill him off.]
[#5: Ye Zheng's even more controversial—how come she's still bouncing around?]
[#6: Straight male creators are like this; they can't stand characters under their pen who are more perfect and outstanding than themselves. Kiran really drew the short straw being born into this work—put that kind of character design in any other manga, and he'd be a big boss surviving at least a hundred chapters...]
[#7: Old uncle, you really need to pay attention to the recent plot logic. At least explain how Kiran died—give the character a complete life!]
[#8: Redraw it! Kiran doesn't deserve to be treated so casually by you!]
Tang Mingxi looked at these comments, scratching her head in some confusion. Were they trying to see exactly how Ye Zheng killed Kiran? Wanting a high-def death replay?
She held her phone and let out a mischievous chuckle, immediately liking those protest comments. She supported the old uncle drawing out the process of Ye Zheng brutally slaying Kiran—give him a complete life!
Soon, the creator also responded to this wave of public opinion.
[An Unremarkable Ordinary Manga Laborer v: Thanks to everyone for your continued support. This work has given me a ton of pressure since it started serializing. I've never tried drawing manga like that before—the one-of-a-kind experience has made the characters in this manga especially vivid, and I think that's a big reason why the work is so popular.
Kiran is a character I really like, and I deeply regret his ending, but it's also beyond my control. Compared to being the creator now, I'm more like a recorder. For various reasons, I have to honestly draw out their lives, but my brushstrokes inevitably carry my own biases. I feel like this is already the best way I've handled Kiran.
After reading everyone's feedback, I've realized this handling does have some issues. In the next chapter, I'll fill in the plot points that left everyone confused.]
The comment section quickly flooded with hundreds of replies, still a sea of curses, but Tang Mingxi was already looking forward to next week's plot. How exactly had Ye Zheng killed that disgusting man Kiran? She showed up carrying his head in front of Pei Xi—there was a feeling her girl was about to stir up something big next.
She thought of something and reread the creator's statement. This old uncle was really a bit mystical; every statement he made was strangely abstract.
"Percy, hand it over. Hm?"
Percy stared in disbelief at the head in his hands, his fingers frozen stiff like they'd been flash-frozen in extreme cold. Ye Zheng had no choice but to yank Kiran's head from Percy's grasp with more force.
Ye Zheng slowly straightened up, and Percy, still crouched, kept his shocked gaze fixed on that head the whole time. After a good while, his blue eyes finally shifted, meeting the black eyes watching him. Her expression was so calm, her tone so natural.
"Percy, pass me the bag beside you."
Percy dazedly picked up the bag and handed it to her. Suddenly, he remembered he was still squatting and immediately stood up.
Even after standing, towering a full head over her, Percy still felt an inescapable pressure weighing on him. He watched, head lowered, as Ye Zheng placed the grotesque head into the bag, then hefted the bag with a little bounce to test its weight. Then Ye Zheng looked up, greeting him as if nothing had happened.
"It's been a bit since we last saw each other—nothing you want to ask me?"
Percy swallowed hard, his voice hoarse. "That's... Kiran?"
"Yeah, him."
Ye Zheng nodded.
"What exactly happened? Did he make a move on you? Why are you carrying... his head?"
"You know he wouldn't lay a hand on the Hope Project's results himself. The base has already been breached by Zhou Yun's forces. I figured bringing this to her might make Zhou Yun willing to negotiate with us."
Percy's expression shifted in shock. "The base was breached?"
He hurriedly asked, "Did you see Lucy? She's in the base too!"
Ye Zheng's eyes lowered slightly. "I'm trying to find her now too."
After hearing Ye Zheng's words, Percy felt his mind even more muddled. Though he loathed the Hope Project and its leader Kiran, he'd only just left, and now the base and Kiran were both gone. The anger and hesitation bottled up inside him suddenly deflated like a punch landing on cotton, all force lost in an instant.
And Ye Zheng—her account was clearly glossing over the heavy stuff; a lot must have happened in between. But his gut told him it was best not to press.
Weirdly, he felt like he could kind of read Ye Zheng now. She wouldn't want him dragged into the scandal and trial of killing the West District Bishop, so it was best if he stayed in the dark too.
Percy shifted his gaze away, taking a deep breath of the mist, his heart and lungs growing even chillier.
"You just got here—let me fill you in on the situation. Right now, 500,000 people are trapped in this town and can't get out. Sykes and I tried, but we couldn't leave either. Zhou Yun's whereabouts are still unknown—did you see her at the base?"
"The base was overrun by her dragon-bodied humans, shrouded in white mist. I didn't see her, but it's possible she's there."
Ye Zheng recalled her time in the base.
After killing Kiran, she'd gotten stuck in the stairwell leading out, the twisting stairs like a maze. It took her a while to find the exit. When she opened the door, white mist poured in, and right in her face came a flapping black wing. She realized then that Zhou Yun's forces had already broken through the base's defenses.
Those things the Hope Project called Fallen Breed—dragon-bodied humans—had pretty much taken over the entire base. They tore apart the men in white robes with their razor-sharp claws, leaving deep, bloody gashes on the hard walls.
Ye Zheng observed as she went, noticing the dragon-bodied humans didn't pay her much mind. She guessed it was because they retained human female forms in their upper bodies, so their aggression toward human women was lower.
She didn't care about the deaths of the men in the base who ran the experiments and kept things operating. The only ones qualified to survive in the whole place were the women treated as guinea pigs. In the thick fog filling the base, she couldn't find them for the moment, so after thinking it over, she decided to head out and find Zhou Yun first.
But even carrying Kiran's head, she wandered in the white mist for ages without Zhou Yun acknowledging her.
This was getting tricky. Zhou Yun was dead set on pushing her plan forward.
"If she's not at the base or in this town, where could she be? If we don't find her soon, everyone's in real danger."
Percy's voice carried a hint of urgency.
Ye Zheng scanned the new surroundings through the hazy silhouettes in the mist, replying, "Maybe we don't need to rush. Remember her plan?"
Percy paused mid-step, recalling, "Kiran said her goal is to destroy the Hope Project, along with me, you, and Sykes—the three symbols of the empire's hope..."
His blue eyes darkened. "I get it. She's already wrecked the base; next, she'll come for us soon enough."
"Let's go rendezvous with Sykes. Who knows—maybe the three of us standing together will summon Zhou Yun right out."
Ye Zheng joked with a smile, though her black eyes held not a trace of amusement.
Amid a cacophony of wails and sobs, Sykes stood with arms crossed, silently watching the blurred faces of the crowd. His subordinates were carrying out relief and soothing efforts in his name as Crown Prince, but he felt no ripple in his heart—just irritation.
So what if they soothed the two thousand in front of him? With a full 500,000 trapped, two thousand was a drop in the bucket. Their gratitude meant squat for his ambitions. Right now, all he wanted was to find that woman, kill her, and end this maddening mess.
Sykes thought with some self-mockery: Look what the Hope Project churned out? If even someone like him was what Kiran called a success, they might as well rename it the Destruction Project.
Percy, that mediocre guy, was negligible. As for Ye Zheng—expecting a freak like her to bear the hope they wanted was a joke.
Suddenly, his sharp ears caught two sets of footsteps amid the clamor. Sykes narrowed his golden eyes and turned toward the doorway on the left.
"Aren't you locked in the confinement room?"
The instant he saw Ye Zheng, Sykes was slightly surprised. Kiran didn't seem the type to go back on his word; he wouldn't have let her out voluntarily.
"You escaped?"
Ye Zheng tilted her head slightly, humming in affirmation.
Sykes eyed her suspiciously, then noticed the black bag she was carrying and asked, "What's in that bag?"
"Garbage."
Ye Zheng replied with utter naturalness, while Percy off to the side turned his head, his expression subtly awkward.
"Are there injured people here? I smell blood."
Ye Zheng scanned the crowd, frowning.
Sykes kept a cool face. "There was a stampede over the rations; someone's handling it. As someone on Zhou Yun's hit list, you'd better conserve your energy."
Ye Zheng didn't spare a glance at Sykes's icy demeanor. Anyway, with Zhou Yun nowhere to be found, treating civilians was just her saintess routine.
Plus, they'd come to the West District partly to investigate the Curia's secrets on the Dragon Bone, but the main goal was still to save people. How could she ignore the ones she could treat right in front of her?
At that moment, over two thousand people were crammed into the underground shelter, faint mist seeping into the basement. Not long ago, there'd been a stampede despite the Crown Prince's swift arrival to restore order—the damage couldn't be undone. Most of the injured were women and children, and two had already died.
Ye Zheng held a little girl in her arms, the Stream rank ability she'd used to kill a bishop earlier now flowing gently into the girl's body.
The stampede had fractured her ribs, puncturing a lung. Ye Zheng handled the complex internals with utmost care, a light sweat beading on her forehead—
Killing could be rough, but healing couldn't afford sloppiness.
Percy and Sykes watched the healing saintess in wordless silence, suddenly feeling utterly useless just standing there. They exchanged a glance, their irritation deepening—who knew when they'd track down Zhou Yun.
After finishing the delicate healing session, Ye Zheng looked at the little girl with a bit more color in her cheeks, the sense of accomplishment far outweighing killing Kiran.
She assessed the wounded; she'd only treated three in critical condition. After all, with Zhou Yun—who bore her ill will—potentially striking anytime, it was wise to hold some strength back.
With that in mind, Ye Zheng curiously asked the system a question.
"Was I on Zhou Yun's must-kill list in the original plot too?"
[No, not on her list—after all, in the original plot, you didn't have the Divine Sword or the title of the Godsent. But she still went after you.]
"Hm? Why?"
[Because you're the female lead. In general, in male-oriented stories, the female lead mainly serves as a beauty accessory and resource pack. Beyond that, there's one key role in the plot.]
Ye Zheng's eyes held a clear hint of puzzlement; the system seemed to have said something like this when it first appeared, but she'd completely forgotten.
"What's the other role?"
[Like, getting into some mishap, falling into the villains' hands to drive the plot, creating a hero's big moment with a damsel-in-distress save—]
Before the system could finish, Ye Zheng suddenly sensed something and stared at the basement door. It had swung wide open at some point, white mist rushing in eagerly.
"Shut the door quick—"
Someone shouted in terror.
In the thickening white mist, Ye Zheng vigilantly scanned her surroundings, water currents slowly coating her arms.
"Zhou Yun?"
She called out tentatively, and the mist around her immediately converged.
Suddenly, Ye Zheng's body lightened, her vision blurring, ears catching only fragmented sounds—like Percy shouting "Ye Zheng" from not far off.
Enveloped in the damp, cold mist, Ye Zheng closed her eyes. Fine, then—time to walk the original plot after all this time.
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