Chapter 174-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
After Wu Shu refused the Dragon Bone, the Emperor announced the cancellation of the Dragon Bone display and left the venue surrounded by knights, leaving the guests with various expressions looking at each other amidst the cheerful music.
Wu Shu didn't stay long either, even though she should have been the protagonist of this celebration.
She already had considerable fame, and many people present harbored various mindsets wanting to talk to her, but Wu Shu didn't give them the chance. After leaving the stage, she hurriedly greeted Ye Zheng and left the celebration past everyone.
The grand celebration present ended hastily in a slightly strange atmosphere.
Ye Zheng stayed for a while to chat with her junior sisters. This kind of relaxed activity allowed her to find a bit of the reality of being a student.
"Saintess, do you know that Miss Wu Shu? I was originally happy that the Ability Competition produced its first female champion captain... I don't understand why she refused the Dragon Bone?"
"I know that positions and residency in the Upper District are very tempting to people from the Middle District, but to abandon the Dragon Bone, which is significant to one's hometown, for one's own future—is this righteous behavior? Her doing this will only make everyone disappointed in women."
A short-haired girl held it in for a good while, and seeing Ye Zheng was about to leave, she couldn't help but ask.
Because of the unreasonable price of reproduction, even though women with abilities accounted for half of the ability users, women basically had no opportunity to fully display their skills in fields related to abilities and Demonic Domains.
Many girls at the Royal Academy came from wealthy backgrounds and had high aspirations. For them, the greatest significance of Wu Shu winning the championship was that she was a woman, the first female captain to win the Ability Competition in history.
Today, this woman who carried countless expectations made a choice that shocked everyone.
Ye Zheng stopped her steps to leave and turned to look at the indignant girl. She walked closer and twirled a lock of the girl's short hair. The other party looked overwhelmed, not even knowing where to put her hands.
"This is freshly cut hair, right?"
Ye Zheng asked with a smile.
The girl nodded vigorously, her eyes full of admiration. "I've wanted to cut it for a long time. Thanks to you, I have a justified reason."
"You see, cutting hair is also unrighteous behavior in some people's hearts. Before me, women were swept out of their family homes for cutting their hair. After me, cutting hair became a trend of stating one's resolve."
"There always needs to be a first person to step out and be the 'unrighteous' one, so that latercomers have the chance to become righteous people. Time will prove everything."
The short-haired girl revealed a thoughtful expression. Ye Zheng patted her shoulder and didn't say anything more, turning to leave.
After stepping out of the Royal Academy gate, Ye Zheng looked back at the huge school dyed red by the setting sun and lowered her head to laugh once.
The significance of Wu Shu's championship was severely underestimated by people today. After today, people might spit on Wu Shu for being selfish and cold-blooded, selling out her homeland to climb up the ladder by hook or by crook. But wait another ten years, perhaps not even ten years, and people would be startled to realize she was the first champion captain from the Middle District in the history of the Empire, the first woman to win the championship, and maybe even the Empire's first female Director of the Magistrate's Bureau.
Of course, the premise for all this was that the Empire could survive for ten years.
The crisis of world destruction hung over the Empire's head, and chronic diseases were rotting this country. Wu Shu might also become smoke and dust instantly extinguished in the rolling river of history—and so might she.
Night pervaded.
Ye Zheng returned to the Holy Journey Knights Order base in the Lower District. In the rest room, two young women were waiting for her.
"Did you find any anomalies?"
The sisters Cheng Cheng and Cheng Che looked at each other and shook their heads. The older sister, Cheng Cheng, replied, "The two sons of the Colonna family stayed at school and didn't contact anyone special. The only son of the Si family serves as a priest in the Golden Wutong District and hasn't been summoned by the Pope or the Bishops..."
Ye Zheng crossed her arms and listened carefully to the sisters' report. Their abilities of light and shadow were very suitable for infiltration and intelligence work, so Ye Zheng established a special action team centered on them.
According to intelligence from the Papal Palace, seeing that Wen Jian was about to fail, the Cardinals were establishing the time to announce the new Pope and hold the succession ceremony, but not a word was mentioned about the candidate for the new Pope.
Ye Zheng screened several aristocratic families with deep connections to the Sei Curia. These families had produced Popes, Bishops, and many clergy; they could be said to be the faction of power behind the scenes of the Sei Curia. The new Pope candidate would likely come from among them.
Wen Jian was now completely discredited, but Mother of All Things was still in his hands. He had the power to appoint the next Pope.
How would he choose the next Pope? Ye Zheng thought with a bit of playfulness. Wen Jian's most important requirement for choosing the next Pope should be... having the ability to defeat Saintess Ye Zheng?
Given this standard, the new Pope candidate must possess powerful abilities, a superior background, a strong family, and preferably a good reputation, barely enough to contend with her.
The average age of Pope succession was around fifty, but Ye Zheng guessed this person wouldn't be old. With Wen Jian's dark and vicious mind, he wouldn't allow the possibility of her outliving the next Pope due to age to exist, and being young meant being easier to manipulate.
Now Wen Jian had completely given up on salvaging his reputation and lifespan, concentrating all available power in the Papal Palace to prevent her assassination, infiltration, and spying.
Until the new Pope inherited Mother of All Things, the Papal Palace would be an impregnable fortress.
Ye Zheng thought for a moment, drafted another list on white paper, and handed it to Cheng Cheng.
Cheng Cheng leaned in to look, furrowed her brows, and asked, "Saintess, do we have to monitor these women too?"
"Mn, go do it. Don't miss any suspicious points."
The two sisters glanced at each other, and their bodies melted into the shadows on the floor. In the blink of an eye, even the shadows disappeared completely.
She could guess Wen Jian's thoughts, and Wen Jian could also guess hers. He would definitely try to confuse her, and then protect the real successor in her blind spot.
She wouldn't give him the chance.
Ye Zheng lowered her eyes, a glint of cold light flashing in their depths. There was an information gap between her and Wen Jian. Wen Jian didn't know the extent of her knowledge about Mother of All Things. In fact, it was very likely he didn't even realize she had discovered the existence of Mother of All Things.
She wanted to find that successor, then quietly replace their existence, and personally take Mother of All Things from Wen Jian's hands!
After Percy attended the commendation celebration, he received another letter from the Emperor.
...To be precise, he received it from Roy's hands.
That day, he happened to bump into Roy stuffing something into the mailbox. After Roy left, he looked into the mailbox and shockingly found a letter from the Royal Family.
Roy occasionally disappeared for a while, saying he was going home. Percy suspected he might be a noble child from the Upper District or something, but he interacted with many Upper District students during the competition, and no one recognized Roy. Did he guess wrong, or was Roy wearing a disguise like Ye Zheng used to?
Roy went home for a trip, and as soon as he came back, he stuffed something into his mailbox. Percy didn't want to suspect his friend, but Roy was too suspicious.
Caleb looked for Wen Xiaoxing's whereabouts whenever he was free recently. This junior brother who suddenly appeared and suddenly disappeared was also very suspicious. Percy thought, was he really worth big shots spending so much effort watching over him?
Thinking of his own body, born from the Hope Project and having some connection with the God of Hope, Percy's heart sank. Did Roy get close to him for this?
Sykes, who was born with him, was the Empire's Crown Prince, while he was accidentally lost outside. Perhaps the Emperor had confirmed his existence long ago and just sent people to observe silently.
That brand-new letter invited him and his companions to join the Royal Knights' Guard.
Percy hesitated in his heart. He had been thinking for several days, his mind a mess as he walked on the road.
He walked to an unmanned tool shop. His knee pads and wrist guards were worn out during the competition, so he wanted to purchase new protective gear for the team. Picking out a few pieces of gear and walking to the unmanned front desk, he turned to call for the owner, and unexpectedly saw a portrait of Ye Zheng hanging in the store. His expression showed no surprise at all; he just increased the volume of his call.
Thanks to the fanaticism of the Lower District commoners for Saintess Ye Zheng, he was now completely numb and calm when seeing Ye Zheng. Anyway, the competition was over, and he and Ye Zheng wouldn't have any more interactions.
She was already the universally admired Saintess. All doubts and accusations transformed into fanatical reverence after Ye Zheng's sermon. Recently, calls for her to replace the depraved Wen Jian as the new Pope were very high in the Lower District. Maybe Ye Zheng would be the Empire's first female Pope.
As for him, he might enter the Lower District's security team according to his childhood dream, or he might enter the Royal Knights' Guard. In short, it had nothing to do with Ye Zheng anymore.
Seeing the owner taking a long time to come out, Percy looked around the storefront in confusion. Just as he planned to shout one more time before leaving the money and going, a tall young woman strode over.
"A total of 250 coins."
She had a pair of beautiful amber eyes, a red-brown ponytail, and heroic facial features. Her voice was slightly hoarse. If not for having long hair and wearing a long dress, she looked more like a man with soft features.
Percy paid the money. Just as he picked up his things to leave, that hoarse voice stopped him.
"Percy, you forgot this thing."
The young woman walked to his side and tossed a small object into the bag he was carrying.
Under Percy's puzzled and vigilant gaze, the woman explained with a smile, "It's a small gift for reaching a certain amount in our small shop. It has peculiar effects, oh."
Only when Percy walked out of this strange shop and was about to return home did he stop his steps, rummage through the bag, and find a small statue of a white pigeon.
The carving was exquisite, the texture extraordinary, and it looked lifelike in the sunlight.
"White pigeon?"
Ye Zheng held her phone, staring thoughtfully at the brand-new manga spoiler on the screen.
A young man with black hair and blue eyes squatted by the street, a cloth bag containing tools at his feet. Between two fingers, he pinched a white pigeon statue, which sparkled in the sunlight.
Ye Zheng enlarged the image on the screen, then enlarged it again. Looking closely, the small eyes of the white pigeon were a bit earthy yellow.
A pigeon with earthy yellow eyes... wasn't that the symbol of the Colonna family?
The Colonna family was within the scope of her investigation. This family was closely related to the Sei Curia, and a current Cardinal came from the Colonna family.
These large families often awarded useless family symbols to subordinates they wanted to rope in to show importance. This white pigeon statue looked like their little tactic to buy people's hearts.
Percy performed reasonably well in the Ability Competition, so it wasn't strange for Upper District families to extend olive branches. But given the timing, Ye Zheng had to think more.
The white pigeon statue couldn't have been suddenly thrown to Percy while he walked on the street. Ye Zheng looked at the cloth bag on the screen; Percy clearly went to purchase tools.
Where did Percy come into contact with people from the Colonna family? And who was the person who contacted him?
"Hm, looks like I need to investigate personally."
Ye Zheng propped her chin on one hand, staring at the screen. The manga spoilers only gave the most important scenes.
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