Chapter 197-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
Beneath the black scales, the human body had a porcelain-like pallor. Even at such close range, Ye Zheng could barely detect the other's breathing. They were like the undead of legend.
Ye Zheng tentatively reached out her hand. The other's black scales flared, a threatening hiss squeezed from her throat, and the massive wings behind her rose.
Yet she didn't hesitate at all. The next moment, her right hand touched the face so close before her—
Ye Zheng activated [Mother of All Things].
The human torso at the top was the most vulnerable part of a Dragon-Bodied Human. When they chose to extend their human body toward her, she had no reason to fear—she should respond to their gesture of goodwill with sincerity.
The moment they touched, the Dragon-Bodied Human in close contact with her suddenly calmed down. Her unfocused pitch-black eyes seemed to be staring blankly, yet also seemed to be carefully watching the human before her.
The skin beneath her fingertips was colder than expected, making one wonder if this was even a living body. But [Mother of All Things] told Ye Zheng that the life energy within them was incredibly vast—beyond imagination.
The energy within a living being was like flowing water. If an ordinary person's body was half a bucket of water, an ability user's body was a small pool, and a powerful ability user was a pond... Ye Zheng's eyes were tightly shut, her eyelids twitching as if in disbelief. She suddenly opened her eyes.
The Dragon-Bodied Human before her was only about the size of a room, yet the life energy contained within her body was equivalent to a surging ocean—completely boundless!
Ye Zheng awakened Marcy.
"Such vast energy... I've seen it before."
"On the demon dragon?" Ye Zheng asked.
Marcy sighed. "They look almost like... descendants of the demon dragon."
"They became this way after losing control from Dragon Bone implantation. Is there a way to restore them to human form?"
"You've become familiar with [Mother of All Things] these past days. The larger the life form, the harder it is to transform. You can easily drain a small puddle, but can you move an ocean?"
Hearing Marcy's response, Ye Zheng fell into a brief silence.
"The current me cannot do it yet, but my future self may not be unable to."
Marcy laughed. "Alright then, let me remind you of one more thing. Although their current bodies are massive, they are not true demon dragons. It's abnormal for them to contain so much life energy. I suggest you check the condition of the other children."
Ye Zheng withdrew her hand from the Dragon-Bodied Human's face. Marcy had a point—she should first examine the others' conditions.
She wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but Ye Zheng felt that after activating [Mother of All Things], all five Dragon-Bodied Humans present had become much calmer, their massive dragon bodies lazily sprawled on the ground.
She easily made contact with the other four Dragon-Bodied Humans and examined each one.
Ye Zheng soon discovered something even more astonishing.
Every life was unique. Even an unremarkable leaf had its own distinctive veins. Ye Zheng could distinguish the subtle, unique energy of each life through [Mother of All Things].
Yet five Dragon-Bodied Humans, five different individuals, displayed identical life energy!
"I cannot sense them together with you, but I suspect their energy shares the same source as the demon dragon from back then."
Marcy analyzed, "The demon dragon's vast energy has suppressed their individual consciousness and life force. Their current state is like being extensions of the demon dragon."
"If you want to save them and restore them to their original state, you'll probably need to completely strip the demon dragon's power from their bodies."
Ye Zheng said nothing. She had long closed her eyes, pressing her right hand firmly against the Dragon-Bodied Human's cold body, channeling all her power to try to move the vast energy within—
Until cold sweat beaded on her forehead, Ye Zheng withdrew her hand, panting. As she steadied her breathing, a flash of unwillingness crossed her dark eyes.
She had sent [Mother of All Things] probing into the other's body, like a giant ship sailing on the ocean. No matter how large the ship, it was still too insignificant compared to the sea.
The demon dragon's physical body had died, but its power and shadow still loomed over this nation.
Why had it appeared back then? Would the world-ending Demonic Domain prophesied for five hundred years later be related to the demon dragon?
Clearly, the "God of Hope" from back then had already destroyed the demon dragon, and even the gods had abandoned this land. Yet the demon dragon remained deeply rooted in the soil beneath their feet—its remains buried under the bustling streets, its bones continuously creating new "demon dragons."
Ye Zheng looked at her palm. A fragment of Dragon Bone was also embedded in her right palm.
Dragon Bone only worked on women. Was this also connected to the demon dragon's origins?
"Marcy, have you ever been in close contact with the demon dragon?"
"I saw it once from afar. You should be able to see it in my memories."
Ye Zheng lowered her gaze, consciously accessing memories that weren't her own. It was Marcy's second year after obtaining [Mother of All Things]. As the war situation continued to deteriorate, ability users were constantly sent to the front lines. Marcy, as a healer, stayed in logistics. But one day, the front lines suddenly collapsed completely, and the demon dragon advanced at a speed no one could have imagined.
She saw the massive black creature slowly moving through the sky-darkening sandstorm, buildings collapsing one after another, the ground caving in.
It was so enormous that she couldn't even make out its specific parts. Like encroaching night continuously swallowing the bright human world, swallowing the cries and screams that filled the land.
In the midst of utter despair, Marcy, who was fleeing with the crowd at the time, heard a child's wailing. She instinctively turned back, but only saw a human head flash through the air, appearing and disappearing in the swirling sand, as if swallowed in one bite by the pitch-black monster.
That deep sense of despair—even Marcy didn't dare look back again, her mind blank as she ran forward.
"...A human head?"
"What is it?" Marcy asked.
Ye Zheng pondered for a moment, as if still recalling that scene. Gradually, she formed a bold conjecture.
"Marcy, the head you saw back then might not have been a human the demon dragon was hunting... but the demon dragon's true body, just like them."
"You just said they're like extensions of the demon dragon."
Ye Zheng reached out and touched the cheek of the Dragon-Bodied Human beside her again. The Dragon-Bodied Human had her eyes closed, motionless as if resting, her head tilting slightly toward Ye Zheng's hand. The massive black dragon body behind her rose and fell rhythmically, like a breathing hill.
The air fell silent for a moment. After a while, Marcy's voice sounded again, her steady tone carrying an imperceptible tremor, as if she too was shocked by this conjecture.
"That memory has always been one of my nightmares. I never thought about it carefully. They said the demon dragon was larger than a city, that it ate people. I subconsciously assumed that head was the demon dragon's prey..."
Marcy's voice gradually steadied, carrying a faint hint of anger. "You're right. That head was very likely the demon dragon's true body. The real demon dragon had a human body just like them!"
Both were intelligent people. Without needing to say more, they instantly understood the shocking and infuriating truth behind this discovery.
Five hundred years ago, the Empire had deliberately concealed the demon dragon's true appearance, misleading everyone into thinking the demon dragon looked like the evil dragons in picture books.
But in reality, the demon dragon had a human body just like the Dragon-Bodied Humans.
Why did the Empire conceal and cover up the demon dragon's true appearance?
Because once the demon dragon's human body was exposed, someone would surely recognize the demon dragon's original identity!
Ye Zheng's right hand cradled the Dragon-Bodied Human's cheek while her left hand gently tapped a small mole on that cheek. Even though the black scales obscured her features, Ye Zheng could still match the identity in the documents from that small exposed mole.
The girl before her was named Gu Xue. She had been seventeen when she disappeared—the same age as Ye Zheng—from West District in the lower district, studying at an ability academy in the middle district.
Then who was the demon dragon from five hundred years ago?
What was her name? Where did she come from? Why did she become the demon dragon?
In Marcy's memory, that head had flashed by in the unreachable sky. Apart from being able to tell it was a human head, no other details could be discerned.
After Marcy became Pope and established the Sei Curia, she had long been at odds with the Royal Family. In the period before her death, she happened to be investigating the Royal Family's connection to the demon dragon's remains.
From her investigation, she learned that the demon dragon was not a creature from another world—it was a creature the Royal Family had been secretly raising even before the Demonic Domain descended. Its origins were unknown.
However, before Marcy could investigate further, she was assassinated.
The demon dragon was the Royal Family's greatest secret.
Back then, the Royal Family had misled people about the demon dragon's appearance and hidden from the public that the demon dragon had a human body. Most likely, the demon dragon's true identity was someone quite famous at the time—someone many people had seen.
Once someone recognized the demon dragon's true identity, a certain secret would be exposed. So the Royal Family had to conceal it. This way, even if someone happened to discover the tiny human body on the dragon, they would only assume it was prey the demon dragon hadn't finished eating.
"Damn it!" Ye Zheng heard Marcy curse—quite different from the elegant, kind teacher and Pope image in her memories. It was as if long-suppressed resentment had finally erupted all at once.
Marcy continued cursing, "Damn Aston! Cunning villain! Scum! If I could have lived another ten years back then, how could I have let them live comfortably until today..."
Ye Zheng didn't even have the energy to be surprised or tease Marcy about her loss of composure. Her eyes darkened, her expression tense as she organized all the clues gathered so far.
Whether it was the demon dragon or the Demonic Domain, the source of the disasters pointed to the Royal Family—or perhaps more specifically, the Emperor from five hundred years ago, Aston XIV, known as a young genius.
He had experienced the decline of royal power and the impact of a new era during the Royal Family's period of decay, then led the Empire against the sudden disaster. With the nation's full support, the God of Hope defeated the demon dragon, and finally he rebuilt the Empire. The Aston Royal Family once again became the light of the Empire.
Ye Zheng didn't believe the demon dragon's appearance and the Demonic Domain's descent were accidents. The greatest beneficiary of that disaster was most likely the mastermind behind it all!
She unconsciously bit her lip, her dark eyes deep, her expression ice-cold.
What a pity that Aston XIV had already passed away. How could such a hypocritical, sin-laden villain have enjoyed glory and died peacefully of old age as the history books described?
"The demon dragon, the Royal Family..."
Ye Zheng ground these two words between her teeth. She suddenly thought that the current Royal Family must still retain clues from back then, and had been continuing that secret for five hundred years. They had never given up on exploiting the demon dragon.
—For example, Sykes, born through the Dragon Bone.
Was his birth truly to combat the world-ending Demonic Domain in the prophecy?
Perhaps Sykes's destined rampage at her coming-of-age ceremony was also connected to the demon dragon secret the Royal Family was hiding.
Comments
Post a Comment