Chapter 160-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
Bai Muqing walked along the small path in the Curia garden under the moonlight, her face tense with a heavy heart. Suddenly, sensing something, she stopped beside a familiar oak tree. After waiting for a moment, a person walked over from the other end of the path.
They hadn't seen each other for a long time. The last time Bai Muqing saw this face was on the projection of that world-shaking Divine Adjudication.
That adjudication came very suddenly. Only one grand theater in the upper district projected it, and the scene was chaotic. Usually, the group of self-important nobles was no different from the commoners they looked down upon. Bai Muqing disliked noisy crowds, but she still squeezed into the center of the crowd and looked up to watch the whole process.
"Ye Zheng."
Seeing Bai Muqing, Ye Zheng was also somewhat surprised. Bai Muqing was no longer a nun of the Curia; she had joined the Royal Knight Order for training and shouldn't be here.
She wasn't wearing her usual nun's habit, nor was she wearing the red uniform representing the Royal Family. Instead, she wore a specially made white uniform, so cold and clear it almost seemed to melt into the moonlight.
A hint of a smile flashed across Ye Zheng's dark eyes. "Bai Muqing."
Whether becoming a nun or leaving the status of a nun, both were very difficult things. Usually, only noble girls were qualified to become nuns following the gods, and once sworn in as a nun, the Curia would not easily allow them to leave this identity.
But Bai Muqing came from a noble background, and her family controlled negligible military power. The Curia and the Royal Family wouldn't mind making things convenient for her. After all, in their view, whether Bai Muqing chose to be a nun or a knight—although the latter was a bit rebellious—was just a small matter.
"Muqing, are you here to visit the Lord Pope?"
Ye Zheng glanced at the large cathedral not far away and asked curiously.
"Are you going to see him?"
Bai Muqing didn't answer the question directly but asked Ye Zheng back, her tone carrying an imperceptible impatience.
"Don't go see him. Stay away from him, and a person named Wen Xiaoxing."
Ye Zheng laughed upon hearing this, raising her eyebrows slightly. "Then what should be done? I've already dealt with Wen Xiaoxing."
The cold, pale face froze. Bai Muqing remembered that today was the last day of the ability competition; Ye Zheng must have just returned from participating in the competition.
"Did Wen Xiaoxing make a move on you?"
Ye Zheng remained noncommittal. She looked at Bai Muqing thoughtfully and suddenly spoke, "Muqing, is it convenient to visit my home tonight?"
Bai Muqing's vacant eyes seemed even more hollow for a moment. She was like a rusty machine, unable to react for a bit.
Ye Zheng glanced at the large cathedral behind Bai Muqing without a trace. Originally, she came to warn Wen Jian and incidentally fish for some information, but she unexpectedly bumped into Bai Muqing. She seemed to know some inside information, so Ye Zheng changed her mind and decided to fish for information from Bai Muqing first.
This was the first time Bai Muqing had gone to a peer's house to stay overnight as a friend.
She knew Ye Zheng didn't bring her home to chat and play like friends, so Bai Muqing spent the whole journey silently organizing her language.
Despite this, when she received gentle hospitality from Ms. Shu Wan, a strange feeling welled up in her heart—a stiffness from not knowing what to do, mixed with a bit of happiness. She didn't reject this feeling.
When Bai Muqing stepped into Ye Zheng's room, she subconsciously used her ability to sense the room. It wasn't big or small, the layout was simple, and there was very little clutter, just as concise as Ye Zheng herself.
She used [Divine Domain] to detect that in a corner of this bedroom, there were some old toys and similar items. It seemed Ye Zheng was also a nostalgic person.
Bai Muqing frowned and hurriedly tightened her detection range, controlling her curiosity. Such behavior was too offensive.
Most of the time, she regarded [Divine Domain] as a gift. Although she didn't have a pair of normal eyes, the vision of [Divine Domain] was far more profound and vast than human eyes. This was the advantage of [Divine Domain], and also its disadvantage.
The two sat side by side on the sofa. Ye Zheng poured a glass of water for Bai Muqing. It was getting late, the best time to sleep, but the two of them were destined to stay up late tonight.
She selfishly kept Bai Muqing because she was too curious. Too many things happened today. She had traversed dozens of worlds and touched the essence of this world. Even though she had returned to her most familiar and reassuring bedroom, her heart was still beating faster than usual.
"Muqing, tell me everything you know about the Pope and Wen Xiaoxing."
Ye Zheng propped her left cheek with her hand, turning her head to look at the corners of Bai Muqing's tightly pursed mouth, her tone becoming lighter.
"I was almost killed by Wen Xiaoxing today. He's really a ruthless guy. Perhaps he will make a move on me again soon."
"...I will think of a way to deal with him. Maintaining law and order is also one of a knight's jobs."
"Dealing with Wen Xiaoxing who appeared out of thin air is easy, but the person behind him is not easy to remove."
Bai Muqing fell silent for a moment, half-closing her eyes, and said slowly, "Ye Zheng, why does the Curia, which represents the will of the God of Hope, hide so much filth?"
When she jumped out of her identity as a nun and investigated the Curia she once believed in following the clue of Yin Kong, she woke up to find that she had been stepping on floating ice all along, with an abyss beneath.
"No wonder you don't like the Curia and the gods at all."
Without waiting for Ye Zheng to comfort her, Bai Muqing took out a document from her bosom with a photo attached. Ye Zheng looked and saw it was shockingly Wen Xiaoxing's appearance.
Ye Zheng picked up the paper and looked closer. The boy in the photo looked very similar to Wen Xiaoxing but was a bit more immature, with a timid temperament and dusty clothes.
This document showed that he was a child from a welfare institute in the Middle District, and the name column read Yin Xing.
The kinship column showed that he had an older brother. Because this brother had outstanding talent, he entered the Divine Academy after the age of fourteen and was raised by the Divine Academy.
Yin Xing himself was an ordinary person with no talent. He received ordinary education like all ordinary welfare institute children until he died of a sudden illness at the age of fifteen.
"His brother is Yin Kong. After Yin Kong... disappeared, Yin Xing died of a sudden illness shortly after."
Bai Muqing took out another document, which showed that thirteen children in this Middle District welfare institute had died of sudden illness within a year. It was worth mentioning that Yin Kong also once had a sudden illness. He was an ordinary person before fourteen, awakened his ability shortly after the sudden illness, and then entered the Divine Academy.
The main sponsor of this Middle District welfare institute was the Curia, and priests with healing abilities owned by the Curia were responsible for treating the children.
Ye Zheng stared at the photo. The temperaments of Yin Xing and Wen Xiaoxing were widely different, and Yin Xing was originally an ordinary person with no ability.
Yin Xing, who died of a sudden illness, transformed into Wen Xiaoxing of Cloud-Soaring Academy a few months later, bearing a fate-type ability even more exaggerated than Yin Kong's.
Ye Zheng understood. This Middle District welfare institute was probably Wen Jian's testing ground.
She remembered Kiran, who had already been killed by her. That person's words implied that Wen Jian was a dishonest guy. She quickly accepted that this was the result of Wen Jian's private experiments. It seemed even Kiran knew that Wen Jian liked to use the [Mother of All Things] to make small moves in private.
From the commoners contacted during the charity activities in the lower district, to the welfare institute children used for experiments in the Middle District, and even the dragon-bodied humans Wen Jian secretly created hidden in the upper district, Ye Zheng didn't know how to evaluate this person anymore. She sneered.
"Yin Kong died. I wanted to look after his family. After finding Yin Xing, I found something wrong."
"I don't know how Yin Xing became Wen Xiaoxing, a student of Cloud-Soaring Academy, possessing a lower district household registration and an S-rank ability, but according to my investigation, Wen Xiaoxing has dealings with the Pope."
"I suspect that Yin Xing is indeed dead. Wen Xiaoxing is a... monster created by unknown means."
Ye Zheng looked at Bai Muqing with a slightly inquiring look. "Why do you think Wen Xiaoxing is not Yin Xing, but a monster?"
Bai Muqing's voice became cold and heavy. "Because I found the monsters the Pope hid in the upper district. Their voices were shrill, having hard scales, heavy wings, human upper bodies, and..."
"And dragon-like horns," Ye Zheng finished the sentence.
Bai Muqing slowly turned her head. Ye Zheng saw her white pupils, which usually had no emotional fluctuations, tremble. She looked very surprised.
Ye Zheng was also a bit surprised. She didn't expect Bai Muqing to be able to trace the dragon-bodied humans on her own. But thinking about Bai Muqing's ability, within the [Divine Domain], she was omniscient and omnipotent. Finding anomalies was easy for her.
After returning from the West District, she asked Wen De to take people to search for the dragon-bodied humans the Pope might be hiding. After finding the exact location, apart from threatening Wen Jian a bit, Ye Zheng made no other moves.
Because the dragon-bodied humans were not suitable to appear in front of people yet. Once their existence was exposed, to appease the people and maintain stability, the Empire would inevitably make the same choice as Sykes did back then. Although they had powerful abilities, the Empire's army of ability users was a hundred times theirs.
Ye Zheng had to obtain the control of [Mother of All Things] and the Curia. Only with a stable power could she truly set about solving this matter.
After all, although she had prestige now and the Curia and the Royal Family didn't dare to touch her openly, if she didn't have strong power and stable forces, she would still struggle to move, let alone lead others out of the quagmire.
So she inevitably had to deal with Wen Jian. Even not mentioning old grudges, she also wanted to take his ability and position.
Ye Zheng set the breakthrough point as [Mother of All Things]. This ability was the source of the Hope Project and also the identity recognition of every Pope.
Those old men would definitely not be willing to let her ascend to the position of Pope, but what if she seized [Mother of All Things]?
The more Wen Jian was anxious to use the ability of [Mother of All Things] to deal with her, the bigger the flaw that would appear. Ye Zheng's hand reached into the pocket of her windbreaker; the green fragment was inside. Wen Xiaoxing's ability originated precisely from this fragment.
"Ye Zheng, you seem to know more than I do."
Hearing this, Ye Zheng came back to her senses and revealed a comforting smile. "No, I just accidentally came into contact with some things. The clues you gave me are very useful. Thank you very much, Muqing."
After some words of gratitude, Bai Muqing's expression became even worse. Her voice was like a cold, hard block of ice. "Ye Zheng, I didn't come to provide you with clues."
"I discovered this matter, and I will investigate to the end. The Empire shouldn't have such shadows."
Ye Zheng restrained her smile and looked seriously at Bai Muqing's solemn face, which carried a killing intent as biting as ice and snow. Bai Muqing was such a person who couldn't tolerate sand in her eyes. She was very pure and also very stubborn. Ye Zheng was not surprised.
At this moment, Ye Zheng was distracted for a moment. If one day she also became the shadow side of the Empire? Bai Muqing would probably have this expression too.
"In that case, let's investigate together."
Ye Zheng showed a gentle smile again.
Author's Note: Too busy recently, have to work on the thesis and accompany my mom in the lawsuit. Don't know when I'll have time for a mass update...
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