Chapter 200-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation

Qin Lu was dressed very formally today, a departure from her usual lazy, casual image. Without her small braids, her shoulder-length short hair made her look younger.

She had also brought a bouquet of white flowers, their petals still dotted with fresh dew, as if just picked from somewhere.

After her initial surprise, Qin Lu calmly placed the dew-covered bouquet on the stone coffin, then looked at Ye Zheng.

She asked perceptively, "Are you here to find me, or to find Sykes?"

Ye Zheng didn't answer immediately. Qin Lu studied her expression and nodded in sudden understanding. "I see—both."

"Tell me, what do you want to ask? Your Holiness."

Ye Zheng looked at Qin Lu with her arms crossed, clearly in a bad mood today, her fingers tapping impatiently.

Today was Qin Tian's death anniversary. Ye Zheng knew without asking that Qin Lu would definitely come here, and to avoid certain troublesome people, she would come very early.

Qin Lu probably hadn't expected that even coming so early, she would still run into two uninvited guests.

She must have already crossed paths with Sykes just now, which was why she was in a bad mood when she entered. And then she ran into her.

Actually, today was also Sykes's birthday. To avoid the taboo, the Emperor had set Sykes's birthday as the day after his birth, so tomorrow was Sykes's official birthday.

But regardless of which day Sykes celebrated his birthday, Qin Lu would never accept him—never accept this monster who had taken her sister's life.

"Qin Lu." Ye Zheng didn't address her as teacher. Her earnest tone carried a hint of unrefusable forcefulness. "Please help me. Could you describe in detail everything you witnessed on the day Sykes was born?"

Qin Lu's pupils suddenly contracted. Her body, which had been leaning against the stone coffin, slowly straightened.

"What if I say... it's not convenient?"

Ye Zheng lowered her head and laughed softly, then looked at her with probing eyes.

"A few months ago, I visited you, wanting to learn Sykes's secrets."

"But you told me an even bigger secret—[Mother of All Things]."

"I'm very grateful to you, Teacher Qin Lu. Without the clue about [Mother of All Things], I could hardly have come this far."

As Ye Zheng spoke, she circled to the other side of the stone coffin, watching Qin Lu's slightly trembling pupils across the coffin.

"[Mother of All Things] is the Sei Curia's greatest secret. You were willing to tell me not just because I'm your dear student, but more importantly, because you believed I had the ability and determination to bear this secret."

"So why not continue to trust me?"

"Trust me—to continue advancing your cause of revenge."

Hearing Ye Zheng's soft, coaxing words, Qin Lu closed her eyes. "I didn't purely use you to get revenge on the Sei Curia. I don't like treating people as chess pieces."

In other words, she still preferred to treat Ye Zheng as a student who needed her guidance.

Ye Zheng shook her head. "I don't mean to blame you at all. Rather than the word 'use,' a tacit understanding and mutually beneficial cooperation is more appropriate."

"So, Qin Lu, are you willing to continue cooperating with me?"

At these words, Qin Lu's eyes half-closed, and she didn't speak for a moment.

Her pupils were small with prominent whites, the kind of eyes that easily gave an impression of coldness and distance, especially when expressionless—making it hard to read her thoughts.

Ye Zheng also lowered her eyes. Judging from Qin Lu's reaction... she most likely already had some plan.

She had already used Ye Zheng to get revenge on the Sei Curia and the Hope Project. Only the final culprit remained—Sykes perhaps didn't even count; the Emperor was the one she hated most.

Ye Zheng had already seen Qin Lu's refusal. Her lips pressed together, and her hand suddenly gripped the edge of the stone coffin.

"What are you doing?" Qin Lu was startled by her sudden movement.

Ye Zheng smiled at her quite innocently.

"—I'm going to open the coffin."

The moment she finished speaking, Qin Lu swiftly pressed down on her hand, staring in disbelief at this usually sensible and polite good student.

"Since you're unwilling to tell me what really happened that day, I have no choice but to use this offensive method to search for clues myself..."

"Ye Zheng!" she roared in fury.

"Hmm?"

Qin Lu's eyes were nearly splitting with rage. She forcefully pulled her hand away. Ye Zheng's strength was much greater than she had imagined. After stopping Ye Zheng, she looked at her, panting.

"...I'll tell you. You are never to come near her again."

Having achieved her goal, Ye Zheng raised both hands and nodded.

Qin Lu leaned back against the stone coffin, looking up at the magnificently carved high dome, and began recounting what had happened on the day Sykes was born.

She had been only sixteen that year. Through her contact with her sister, she had accidentally discovered an astonishing secret. Though the Emperor had announced the good news of the Empress's pregnancy two months earlier, her sister was still menstruating. Qin Lu, familiar with biology, realized her sister wasn't actually pregnant.

She pestered her sister asking what was going on, but her sister was always vague, occasionally saying things she couldn't understand. Two more months passed, and the Royal Family seemed to have noticed something was off and no longer allowed the sisters to meet.

Until one day, four months later, from the moment she woke up that morning, Qin Lu's heart began pounding with unease, as if something earth-shattering was about to happen.

Without hesitation, she nimbly slipped out of the house, tricked the palace guards, and finally burst into her sister Qin Tian's room.

There were only three people in the room, and all three stared in shock at her in the doorway.

"I didn't know that they had actually prepared a real pregnant woman as a stand-in, disguised as my sister, giving birth in another room to cover up the secret."

Sixteen-year-old Qin Lu only knew to come to this room to find her sister every time. She hadn't expected to stumble upon an earth-shattering secret.

Her sister lay on a small bed that had been temporarily brought in, her belly grotesquely swollen. The Pope at the time was pressing on her belly, chanting something strange. Beside them was a strange transparent jar with obvious scratch marks on it, as if some small animal had been kept inside.

Qin Lu closed her eyes. What came next was too painful to even recall.

Ye Zheng waited quietly. She knew she had forced her hand this time. She felt apologetic, but she had no choice.

"The Emperor was going to kill me on the spot, but my sister suddenly woke up. Her body was convulsing. I pushed the Emperor aside and ran over to hold her hand."

"She couldn't speak. I looked into her eyes. I knew she was regretting, crying for help!"

"I wanted to pull her up and leave this place, but the Emperor grabbed her other hand, crying, calling her pet name, saying things like 'our child, the hope of the Empire, is about to be born.'"

"Then she let go of my hand."

Qin Lu suddenly laughed. "I should have cried loudly like the Emperor back then. Maybe she would have softened and left with me. But I couldn't cry. I was anxious, furious, desperate to take her away."

Ye Zheng said nothing. Qin Lu couldn't have taken Qin Tian away. And Qin Tian might not have been swayed by the Emperor—the moment the Emperor grabbed her, she probably understood there was no way out. Giving birth to the child might at least leave Qin Lu a way to survive.

"Actually, Sykes's birth wasn't much different from an ordinary child's, except he was temporarily stuffed into her belly, didn't stay long, and was then 'born.'"

Qin Lu shrugged.

When Ye Zheng heard Qin Lu mention the transparent jar in the room, she had already guessed. Sykes was originally an independent life form created using Dragon Bone, surviving in monster form inside the transparent jar.

Without human form, he could only be a demon dragon. With a human shell, he could become humanity's hope.

And the former Empress Qin Tian had become nothing but a tool. They used her flesh and blood to fill the monster's skeleton, and thus Sykes was born.

Marcy was listening to this account. Since it involved [Mother of All Things] and Dragon Bone, Ye Zheng had awakened her early on.

"The energy of [Mother of All Things] varies from person to person. Those without a womb cannot create humans, so they could only use a woman's womb to complete the transformation... A bunch of damned things. Hanging is too good for them—they should be flayed alive..."

Marcy cursed properly and articulately. Ever since learning the demon dragon's true identity last time, it was as if some personality switch had been flipped—she no longer spoke with her former self-restraint.

Ye Zheng's gaze was dark. Beyond her fury, she truly couldn't understand—they had gone to such lengths to create Sykes. Why did they think a being born this way would be the hope of salvation?

No matter how you looked at it, Sykes seemed more like a monster destined to bring destruction. And facts proved he was indeed developing in that direction.

Qin Lu paid no attention to Ye Zheng's thoughts, only immersed in her continued recollection.

The Pope's right hand gently pressed on the woman's belly, yet the woman was trapped in inescapable agony, her screams filling the entire room.

"Before long, a baby was born quite normally from her body, just like an ordinary pregnant woman and ordinary child. At the time, I was thrilled, thinking it was all over."

Ye Zheng couldn't help asking, "After Sykes was born, how was Lady Qin Tian?"

"Very well. She was even quite lucid. All the pain seemed to have disappeared. She leaned forward to see the baby. I was about to bring the red, wrinkled baby to show her—"

"That man stopped me. He said he needed to cut the umbilical cord, and took the baby."

In her memory, the Emperor, in the prime of his life, was radiant. He happily picked up the newborn baby with one arm, tears still on his face, looking like a husband and father who truly cared for his wife and child.

He first showed the wrinkled baby to Qin Tian. Qin Tian smiled weakly and said, "His eyes are like little grapes."

Qin Lu knew her sister loved eating grapes most. She too wanted to lean in curiously, but the man turned away.

Then he set down the baby and picked up the scissors.

The moment the man grasped the umbilical cord, Qin Tian, who had been gradually recovering, suddenly changed expression, as if she had seen something utterly terrifying, all color draining from her face.

"Mon—monster—"

Qin Tian suddenly struggled, reaching toward the baby.

The man didn't even look up as he personally cut the umbilical cord.

"The instant the umbilical cord was cut, my sister suddenly vanished into thin air. I didn't even have time to react."

"She was like an ice sculpture that suddenly evaporated. Sykes was the last and only thing she left behind."

Sixteen-year-old Qin Lu had thrown herself frantically onto the bed, but on the bed there was only a baby—no other life. Even the cut umbilical cord had vanished without a trace.

"Sykes was the most beautiful baby I've ever seen. The moment my sister disappeared, his wrinkled skin suddenly became fair and smooth. Pale golden eyebrows, eyes closed and docile—he didn't look like a newborn at all."

"That's everything I witnessed."

Qin Lu said flatly.

"The surrogate pregnant woman in the other room died in childbirth. They had arranged it all along—Qin Tian couldn't possibly survive, so that pregnant woman had to die too. The Empress thus died in childbirth."

"I don't know if this helps you. For me, revisiting the past has lost all meaning."

Because in the depths of night, she had returned to the past countless times, dreaming that she had taken Qin Tian and escaped the palace, or that she had stopped that man from cutting the umbilical cord, only to wake up alone in the dark.

Only when they completely disappeared—more thoroughly than Qin Tian had—could she end her nightmares!

Qin Lu took a deep breath, glanced at the bouquet on the stone coffin, said nothing more, and turned to leave.

Watching Qin Lu's departing figure, Ye Zheng was still pondering what had happened that day, turning over every detail Qin Lu had mentioned again and again.

Very strange—several details were quite peculiar.

Qin Lu shouldn't have lied. She didn't like lying and had no reason to deceive her. Moreover, such heart-wrenching memories shouldn't be wrong—she must have remembered every detail with extreme precision.

For instance, when Qin Tian first saw Sykes, she had praised his eyes as being like little grapes.

Sykes clearly had golden eyes—nothing like grapes.

And Qin Lu had said her sister loved eating grapes most. Ye Zheng didn't know what kind of grapes Qin Tian liked, but Qin Lu herself often bought grapes to eat. Her favorite variety was a large, reddish-purple kind. Ye Zheng couldn't think of any resemblance between those grapes and Sykes's eyes.

There was another detail. After the Emperor had shown Sykes to Qin Tian, he had deliberately avoided Qin Lu, not letting her see Sykes's face.

Only after Qin Tian disappeared did Qin Lu see Sykes's face—but his eyes were closed.

And the moment the Emperor cut the umbilical cord, Qin Tian had suddenly lost control and screamed "monster"—was it because she felt all her life force surging toward Sykes?

Golden hair and golden eyes were the mark of the Royal Family. Not every imperial offspring could have such noble features—Heath, for example, had golden hair but blue eyes.

But every generation of Emperors strived to produce golden-haired, golden-eyed children. History of the Empire recorded that the first Emperor who established the Aston Royal Family seven hundred years ago had golden hair and golden eyes, symbolizing ancestral approval. So once a golden-haired, golden-eyed child was born, they were basically confirmed as the next Emperor.

Ye Zheng had spent the entire previous night reading. Fatigue showed between her brows. One hand was supporting her forehead when suddenly she tapped her own head, her gaze becoming sharp and alert.

Last night, searching for the demon dragon's true identity, she had read the second edition of History of the Empire. Though she had focused on the Aston XIV period, she had also skimmed through the earlier content to look for more clues—hence staying up all night.

The second edition of History of the Empire made no mention whatsoever of the first Emperor's specific appearance seven hundred years ago. Ye Zheng only remembered that he wasn't very tall; his looks were probably unremarkable.

Ye Zheng tried hard to recall. Even the third edition of History of the Empire hadn't mentioned that the first Emperor had golden hair and golden eyes.

Yet she—or rather, all citizens of the Empire—had learned from currently popular history books that Emperors must have golden hair and golden eyes.

But thinking carefully, the rule that every generation of Emperors must have golden hair and golden eyes, and that the Royal Family by default only considered golden-haired, golden-eyed princes eligible for the throne—this rule was very rigid, very strange.

Why would anyone think appearance could determine a person's ability and qualifications? Especially for a position as serious as ruler of a nation.

If her guess was correct, Sykes's true eye color wasn't golden at all.

Why did the Emperor want to conceal his true eye color—so he could legitimately become Crown Prince and inherit the Empire?

Ye Zheng couldn't find the answer for now. She left the monastery and headed for the Holy Journey Knights Order base in the lower district.

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