Chapter 159-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
Inside the Sei Curia.
A man in a white robe stood beneath a tall statue. Perhaps because his face was shrouded in shadow, his expression looked exceptionally grim.
A youth in a neat uniform stood opposite him, his white pupils empty, looking emotionless and cold.
"Captain Bai Muqing, I don't think I need to explain anything to you".
Bai Muqing reached out and produced an identification badge, her voice flat and cold. "With this identity, I have the right to ask you some questions".
A cold sneer crossed Wen Jian's face. "Very well, the youngest daughter of the General, current Captain of the Knights, former Curia Nun... what questions do you have?".
His tone was extremely gentle, which instead made it mocking, as if he were humoring a child who was using her power to be willful. In his eyes, Bai Muqing was indeed such an existence.
Bai Muqing pursed her lips and put away the badge. She rarely did such things, but in front of the Pope, she had to bring up some of her statuses to prove she was qualified to talk to him.
"What is your relationship with Wen Xiaoxing?".
She asked directly.
After confirming Yin Kong's death from Ye Zheng, she chose to hide it for Ye Zheng, but Yin Kong was her classmate after all. She wanted to comfort his family and friends.
Unexpectedly, following Yin Kong's identity, she discovered many incredible things.
"Or rather, what is the relationship between Wen Xiaoxing and Yin Kong?".
Her white eyes locked onto the man in front of her without blinking, carrying a sense of pressure that even Bai Muqing herself didn't notice.
Faced with Bai Muqing's questioning, Wen Jian let out a sigh.
"Yin Kong and Wen Xiaoxing are both children sponsored by the Sei Curia and future clergymen. After Yin Kong went missing, we chose Wen Xiaoxing as a child for focused cultivation. Is there a problem?".
"Or is it that you know something about Yin Kong's disappearance?".
For a moment, Bai Muqing pursed her lips and didn't answer. Wen Jian got an affirmative answer from her expression. His mind whirled, and he spoke, "Muqing, we have always seen your devotion to the God over the years. If it weren't for Ye Zheng back then, you would be the one standing here as the Saintess today".
"Lord Pope, such words are meaningless".
"That may not be the case." Wen Jian looked at her meaningfully. "If we were to re-select the Saintess, would you still be willing to participate?".
The man's voice was very soft, but it hit like a heavy hammer, making one's heart tremble. Bai Muqing's face turned cold and grim. She remained silent for a long while before saying, "Unless through death or committing a grave error, a Saintess is a Saintess for life...".
"Are you planning to deal with Ye Zheng?" Her voice suddenly became sharp.
Wen Jian's eyelid twitched, and the muscles at the corner of his mouth spasms. Fortunately, he had already cleared the surrounding people. Could such direct words be said out loud? Couldn't they just understand each other's intentions? He certainly couldn't admit to attacking Ye Zheng personally.
When did Bai Muqing become such an outspoken and rude child? Listening to her tone, she actually seemed unwilling to see him deal with Ye Zheng.
Clearly, Ye Zheng's fall would be beneficial to her. Without Ye Zheng, Bai Muqing would be the most high-profile girl in the Empire. Don't little girls care a lot about these titles? Wen Jian wanted to provoke her further, but seeing Bai Muqing standing there like a birch tree, not hiding her hostility toward him at all, he immediately lost interest.
"What do you mean, 'deal with'? The Saintess and the Sei Curia are one. As long as the Saintess makes no mistakes, she will forever be the Saintess of the Sei Curia".
Wen Jian's tone suddenly grew much colder. It didn't matter whose side Bai Muqing was on; Ye Zheng had probably disappeared forever by now. What a foolish and unwitting choice Bai Muqing had made by picking Ye Zheng.
"Please leave, child. I have things to do".
"If you want to look into Wen Xiaoxing and Yin Kong, why not wait for your good friend to return? She should know a lot." Provided that Ye Zheng could return, that is.
Wen Jian's words contained an imperceptible malice, the fine lines at the corners of his eyes crinkling together like wrinkled snake skin.
He strode toward the door and was about to push it open when a flustered priest pushed it open from the outside, the door frame nearly hitting Wen Jian.
Wen Jian looked displeased, but after hearing the other person's words, his face turned as dark as water.
"The Saintess... the Lady Saintess is coming back...".
*
Ye Zheng sat on the hill. The view here was excellent, though the only downside was the deep night; she could only observe the situation on the lake by the dim moonlight.
The surroundings were very quiet. The cold wind made her head clearer. Ye Zheng took out the phone hidden on her person. A new chapter had been updated, but the new manga spoilers weren't out yet, so she clicked into the forum to browse.
Everyone was arguing heatedly. After the initial confusion and novelty wore off, Ye Zheng mostly smiled at the readers' debates. Their lives must be very full, with all sorts of interesting ideas bursting with vitality. This was good; she was curious and even felt a bit of longing.
[Lady Saintess, please keep winning!]
The words on the forum were dense. Ye Zheng's gaze lingered on this sentence for a long time. She would, until this world also had fertile soil for happiness.
Ye Zheng's lips instinctively curled up. Just then, the nearby waters suddenly erupted in massive waves, and the splashing mist swept over. She put down her phone and stood up.
She watched the water below, her black eyes shimmering with a hint of a smile. Wu Shu must have noticed she hadn't left and designed a way to drive the giant eel to this area.
Ye Zheng scanned the surroundings and found a small boat docked at the shore, carrying heavy canisters. A boy was guarding the boat, looking around. On the other side of the lake, two more boats were chasing the giant eel.
Ye Zheng observed for a while but didn't see Wu Shu. Wen Xiaoxing remained on the boat without taking further action. Seeing the giant eel whip its body around and prepare to leave this area at high speed, with the two boats behind completely unable to keep up, Ye Zheng's fingertip tapped on the splashing mist.
Her finger paused with a slight hesitation.
Where was Wu Shu? Had Wen Xiaoxing followed Wu Shu's orders? Should she step in now to stop the monster?.
Just as the giant eel turned to swim in another direction, Wen Xiaoxing opened the canisters on the boat and pushed them all into the water. The sedative spreading in the water slowed the giant eel's movements. Percy, trailing behind the eel, seized the chance and delivered a heavy blow.
However, most of the giant eel's body had already swum out of this area; the sedative had only slowed it slightly. Having taken a heavy hit, it reared out of the water in pain, its mouth wide open, before quickly vanishing back into the water to speed away.
"What the hell is Wen Xiaoxing doing!".
On the boat, Roy shouted in frustration. They had worked so hard to drive the giant eel in this direction. If the sedative had been poured into the water earlier, they might have succeeded by now!.
Percy's expression was somewhat grim. He breathed heavily, as if trying hard to calm himself. "Let's not dwell on that for now. We need to think of another way".
His sharp eyes noticed the Crown Prince's boat approaching as well. Their Cloud-Soaring Squad had allied with the Upper District First Academy team and Wu Shu's team. Each had left someone behind to block the biggest threat in this competition, and even Wu Shu had taken the initiative to stay and hold back the Royal Academy team, sending another teammate with an A-rank offensive ability to chase the giant eel with them.
He hadn't expected Sykes to lead the Royal Academy team through the blockade so quickly. Percy's sense of urgency grew; the glory of first place wasn't important, what mattered was the Dragon Bone reward. He had to get it.
Percy looked at the boat beneath his feet. There was only one way left: he could turn the entire boat into a giant spear and then, with the help of Roy and the others, have the spear chase the giant eel and pin it completely into the lake.
He suddenly clutched his chest. To this day, he didn't understand why his Death Rewind ability had suddenly activated once while he was unconscious, draining a lot of his energy.
But he couldn't hesitate any longer. Even if it cost him all his strength, he had to stop that big fish!.
Just as Percy focused his breathing and channeled his power, his blue eyes suddenly widened. He looked in disbelief at the churning lake in the distance, where the water was splashing violently as if a fierce fight were happening beneath the surface.
Feeling something, he urged his teammates to speed up. Soon after, a massive and sleek giant eel slowly floated to the surface, its belly facing up, and blood gradually stained the water red.
Sykes was still behind them; it couldn't be Sykes. None of them had the ability to catch up with the giant eel's speed.
Percy stood dazed, a name escaping his lips.
"...Wu Shu?".
Under the starlight and moonlight, the giant eel's belly was stark white. A bloodstain suddenly split open the smooth belly, and a dark figure crawled out of the bloody gap, standing atop the massive fish.
"So that's how it is".
Standing high on the hill, Ye Zheng saw everything. She had long ago spotted Wu Shu's figure. When Percy heavily injured the giant eel and it leaped out of the water in pain with its mouth wide open, Wu Shu, who had been lying in wait for who knows how long, seized the opportunity and flashed into the giant eel's body.
Wen Xiaoxing had missed the optimal time to release the sedative, so the time the giant eel was stalled was too short for Percy and the others to kill it. But for Wu Shu, that bit of delay was enough!.
Ye Zheng looked at the tiny black figure in the distance. She applauded her sincerely. Wu Shu didn't need any extra help; as long as she was given a single chance, she could climb to any position she wanted.
The cool breeze blew, and Wen Xiaoxing, leaning by the shore, witnessed the scene as well. He couldn't help but shiver. As an accomplice to the plan, he felt no joy at this moment. As expected of Ye Zheng's friend, this Wu Shu was just as terrifyingly calculating.
He hoped that Percy would remain stupid and not be too sharp. He, Wen Xiaoxing, had just accidentally failed to grasp the right time to release the sedative. He also didn't know why Wu Shu was lying in wait there and happened to seize the moment to enter the giant eel's body.
Wen Xiaoxing still needed to use his identity as a member of the Cloud-Soaring Squad to hang around for a bit longer.
But he would not forget: Ye Zheng and Wu Shu had treated him completely like a pawn to be used at will. In his eighteen days of life, he had never been so humiliated!.
Just wait. In less than a month, he would make them pay... Suddenly, a slight sound came from above, interrupting Wen Xiaoxing's grand ambitions. Squatting on the shore, Wen Xiaoxing's legs were already numb. He wobbled as he stood up and looked up in confusion.
He glanced upward, and then his body felt as if it had been thrown into an ice cellar, freezing in that looking-up posture.
Standing at the high point, Ye Zheng was looking down with a smile, her dark eyes watching him.
She only met his gaze for a second before turning away as if she had lost interest. Her black hair whipped in the wind as she vanished from Wen Xiaoxing's sight.
A complex and dangerous premonition surged in Wen Xiaoxing's heart. He touched his empty left eye socket, and at this moment, he finally clearly realized that what he had lost might not just be the [Fate Singularity], but fate itself.
Ye Zheng had become the fate pressing down on his—no, on everyone's—heads!.
*
Ye Zheng's hand toyed with a green shard. The shard reflected a small piece of her face, looking no different from an ordinary mirror.
"[Fate Singularity]". Ye Zheng whispered the term, a faint, rare hum of pleasure at the end.
Whether it was Wen Xiaoxing, the Pope, or the existence from a higher dimension trying to manipulate her destiny, they had all completely lost this round to her.
The only winners today were her and Wu Shu.
But they were always the ones making moves; wouldn't that be a bit unfair?.
After the competition and before the coming-of-age ceremony, she would have a relatively relaxed period. She wouldn't just break their schemes; she would return the favor.
"Lady Saintess, is the competition inside over?".
A staff member guarding the fence asked cautiously. Ye Zheng nodded gently. "It's over".
The staff member breathed a sigh of relief and asked curiously, "Did the Crown Prince win decisively, or did Percy's team pull off a surprise...".
"The winner is Wu Shu".
In the dazed gaze of the staff member, Ye Zheng laughed and left Amber Lake.
She was now more curious about another person's shocked and furious expression. This big gift from Wen Xiaoxing, she would return it to him as soon as possible.
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