Chapter 220-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
Ye Zheng bent down to look at Bai Mulin leaning against the wall. Seeing no response from him—he only stared blankly at her, as if lost in some thought he couldn't escape—Ye Zheng blinked, her expression carrying an inexplicable coldness.
She reached out to pull him up. Beside her, Bai Muqing's expression flickered with a momentary urge to speak, but she ultimately said nothing—until a voice called out to stop Ye Zheng.
"Your Holiness!"
Ye Zheng straightened and turned. She saw someone lifting her skirts and walking quickly toward her, a Holy Journey Knights Order Knight following behind.
"Heath?"
The golden-haired princess first gave Ye Zheng a proper bow, then spoke quietly: "Please come with me. I've already had them settled."
Ye Zheng asked no further questions and followed Heath at a quick pace toward a secluded palace within the Imperial Palace grounds. A tense, burning silence hung over them the whole way.
Pushing open the palace doors, Ye Zheng first caught a smell of scorched flesh. From not far away came faint, anguished moans—heart-wrenching to hear.
Entering a room, three healing-type ability users in uniform were busy inside. Over a dozen wounded lay there with injuries of varying severity—slash wounds from bladed weapons, skin that was festering and swollen red—but every single person bore burns and scalding marks.
Their white uniforms had turned charred black, the fabric fused with flesh and blood in a rotting tangle impossible to separate. The exposed skin was red and swollen. The relentless, searing pain left them unable to stay calm. A heavy, dispirited atmosphere permeated the entire room.
Ye Zheng looked back. Bai Muqing had not followed her in.
From the scorched battle marks she had seen along the way, and the roomful of wounded, she already knew who had done this.
Bai Muqing's father—Bai Yi. Known as the Empire's Inextinguishable Flame, he had been celebrated in his youth as the Empire's foremost powerhouse, and remained one of the Empire's top figures even now.
Ye Zheng crouched down and examined a young woman. Her reddened eyes could only open a crack. Her smoke-dried, hoarse throat squeezed out a "Your Holiness." Ye Zheng shook her head at her, signaling her to lie quietly.
Ye Zheng took the woman's hand and activated [Mother of All Things]. Bai Yi's fire energy was lodged in her wounds, the leaping flames continuing to damage her even now.
[Stream] followed close behind, soothing the already-festering wounds. Though [Stream] was not a dual-S-rank healing ability, fortunately it countered the element. The woman's wounds visibly improved.
After healing one Knight, Ye Zheng stood and swept her gaze across the familiar faces—but did not see the one face most familiar and dear to her.
"Where is Wen De?"
Heath, who had been silently following behind Ye Zheng, raised her head. Her voice was slightly strained: "...She's in another room."
Ye Zheng studied Heath's expression. Her heartbeat instantly grew heavy.
The two entered the adjacent room—a living quarters. Looking around, there was not a single person in sight. Ye Zheng listened for sounds and pushed open a small door inside the room.
Behind the small door was a water cistern. Wen De was sitting inside it, eyes closed, leaning against the cistern's edge. Her upright uniform was soaked through. Her brow was knotted in pain, yet she made no sound at all.
Ye Zheng approached. Wen De showed no reaction. Ye Zheng gripped her shoulder and closed her eyes to assess the situation.
After a moment, Ye Zheng's half-kneeling body swayed at the cistern's edge. She turned in disbelief to look at Heath and the Knight beside her. Her voice carried an almost imperceptible tremor: "What exactly happened?"
"At the time, that General Bai seemed to intend harm toward you. We had no choice but to stop him. His ability was truly... Wen De used her [Bone Spurs] to shield the front, and took the worst of it."
"Fortunately, Princess Heath brought the Emperor's order. That man stood down—though he was injured too." The extremely young Knight said, still shaken.
Wen De's [Bone Spurs] were a part of her body. She had used her [Bone Spurs] to face that man's ability head-on, so the flames had raged directly inside her body, burning her to the brink of death.
"Your Holiness, please heal Commander Wen De's suffering." The Knight looked up with an expression full of hope—carrying a touch of childlike innocence.
Ye Zheng looked at that face as young as her own. She herself had barely been injured. Even in a situation where she could barely look after herself, Wen De had not wanted the youngest member of the team to be hurt. She had always been that kind of older sister, that kind of elder.
Ye Zheng's gaze shifted to Heath.
Heath was younger than her. Having lived long in the Imperial Palace, her skin was fair and luminous, unmarked by wind and sun. But her eyes held not a trace of childlike naivety. She met Ye Zheng's gaze with a slight apology.
It seemed Heath also knew—the flames inside Wen De's body could not be extinguished. She had placed her in the cistern only to make Wen De feel a little better.
[Stream] could resist Sykes's [Destruction], yet it could not quench the fire that had burned into the marrow. Perhaps she could try having [Mother of All Things] transfer that energy—but that energy lay outside the domain of life, so the effect would likely be poor. Or perhaps... she should go find that damned man right now?
Ye Zheng suddenly thought of something. She reached inside her robe and gripped the bone. To her disappointment, the bone showed no reaction to her at all.
Ye Zheng felt Wen De's life force gradually ebbing away, and thought: it really would have to come to dragging Bai Yi here by force, using whatever means necessary to make him withdraw his ability...
"What if I tried?"
A gentle voice suddenly rang out in her mind.
Ye Zheng's expression stilled. She asked Heath and the Knight to leave first, then spoke: "Marcy, what do you mean?"
"[Mother of All Things] is an ability that varies by its wielder. In my hands—Marcy's hands—there is no wound in this world I cannot heal. I could snatch someone back from death's grasp even after they've died."
Marcy stated this calmly and with absolute confidence.
Ye Zheng lowered her lashes. She knew Marcy spoke no falsehood—she had seen it in Marcy's memories: even a stopped heart could be restored to life under her hands. It was this that had won her countless followers and allowed her to establish the Sei Curia.
"How?" Ye Zheng didn't hesitate for a moment. She asked decisively.
"Let my consciousness temporarily take control of your body."
Marcy's words fell. A brief silence settled over the air. For a moment, only the faint sound of water in the cistern could be heard.
"All right."
Ye Zheng lowered her head. The loose strands of hair disheveled from the battle obscured her profile. After a moment's thought, she gave her affirmative answer.
Now it was Marcy's turn to be surprised. She asked: "You're not afraid I'll... ha, like that old monster."
Ye Zheng half-knelt at the cistern's edge, one hand supporting the unconscious Wen De's chin. She gave a brief, emotionless smile—there and gone in an instant.
"I'll be watching you carefully, Marcy. Controlling others has always been my forte—in that regard, I permit no one to overstep me."
"Not even you—the founding Pope who built the Sei Curia, the first master of [Mother of All Things]."
A brief quiet settled in her mind. Marcy let out a short laugh of indeterminate meaning.
"What a terrifying successor... Now close your eyes. Let go of your vigilance for a moment. Follow my guidance..."
Ye Zheng obediently closed her eyes. The sound of water at her ears gradually faded. She slowly lost the sense of her body's weight. Her consciousness became weightless.
*
In the third month of the Empire, the wind still carried the last traces of winter's chill, yet the prelude to spring was already being played by the flowering trees lining the streets. In this beautiful season, the Empire from top to bottom received a staggering blow.
—For the first time in five hundred years, a Demonic Domain had descended upon the upper district. And it had done so at the Pope's birthday celebration, in the most secure and imposing place in the Empire—the Imperial Palace!
Palaces and castles that had stood for hundreds of years were reduced to more than half rubble overnight. The once-clear moat was now murky beyond recognition, fallen to its lowest water level in recorded history. The Royal Family members were forced to temporarily relocate to other palaces.
The nobles who had been present refused to speak of the matter. The Empire had yet to offer any explanation. The Royal Family and the Sei Curia were equally silent. Lower district residents who had been stranded until late that night reported that what had descended upon the Imperial Palace was a great black dragon—identical to the demon dragon of legend.
The moment the rumor spread, the populace erupted. Already tormented by the doomsday prophecy, people were gripped with fear. Even the most heavily guarded Imperial Palace had been flattened with ease—would the demon dragon come for their homes tomorrow? Where could ordinary people like them even flee?
But soon, a reassuring rumor spread widely and soothed the frightened common people—that black dragon had already been dealt with by the Pope!
Just like the God of Hope five hundred years ago, Pope Ye Zheng was the undisputed Chosen One, the Empire's hope. She had slain the demon dragon at her eighteenth birthday celebration—a legend even more legendary than the one the God of Hope had left behind!
All manner of rumors seethed throughout the Empire. Ye Zheng did not have the Sei Curia issue any official response—she simply worked behind the scenes to stoke the narrative.
Those rumors were true anyway. Sykes did count as a demon dragon, and she had indeed bravely defeated him. Ye Zheng felt entirely at ease letting these accounts spread. Setting aside the political purpose, she had earned the right to enjoy this glory.
Even if the Emperor one day acknowledged Percy's identity and the existence of the true Divine Sword, Ye Zheng was confident her position could no longer be shaken by any so-called truth.
What made someone the Chosen One? What made someone the Empire's hope? The God of Hope was nothing but an idol built on lies. When true chaos and crisis—the real apocalypse—descended, people would only run toward the hand they trusted most.
Ye Zheng was curious: would the Emperor choose to remain silent and bury the matter of Sykes entirely, or would he find a plausible excuse to explain what had happened that day?
She was waiting for his choice. If he kept quiet, she—as Pope—would be the one to announce the "truth."
Ye Zheng sat in her high-backed chair, pinched the bridge of her nose, set down Wen Xin's report, and picked up another document. She suddenly thought of Percy and his group, who had been missing ever since.
A week had passed since the harrowing birthday celebration. Wen De and Wu Shu were recovering from their injuries. Bai Muqing had not contacted her since that day. She had found no trace of Percy.
After a moment's thought, Ye Zheng took out her phone. Perhaps she could find clues about his whereabouts from the manga update.
"By the way, System—how many action points were deducted when I killed Sykes?"
Ye Zheng asked. System took quite a while before crackling to life.
[1,000 points. Your action balance was sufficient, so I didn't interrupt you.]
"Cheaper than I expected."
Ye Zheng laughed softly.
[Who told you to become more and more uncontrollable...]
System abruptly cut itself off.
Ye Zheng noticed its oddness but said nothing. System had seemed very busy lately. A week ago, when she heard Marcy's proposal and quietly asked System to keep watch on Marcy's consciousness, System had taken quite a while to respond.
"The manga update should have reached the part where I killed Sykes. I hope it's not all people cursing me when I open it."
Ye Zheng's tone lifted with good humor as she made a self-deprecating joke.
Curious, she opened the forum first. Looking carefully, just as she had hoped, there were very few people cursing her—she couldn't even find any in the short term. It was completely unlike what she had originally imagined.
Ye Zheng was puzzled. "System, didn't you say Sykes was the most popular character in the later chapters? I also remember quite a few people liked him."
She had expected large-scale opposition. After all, the manga Creator also liked to portray her in a negative light.
[The version has long since updated! If you'd opened the forum a few days earlier, you might still have caught a glimpse of the previous version.]
Ever since the anime began airing, Sykes had become the most popular character just as in the original storyline, his fame far surpassing Ye Zheng's by a wide margin.
But who could have predicted that Ye Zheng would step on Sykes and make a name for herself like this? All the popularity and fame Sykes had accumulated beforehand became entirely a stepping stone for Ye Zheng. Even System was witnessing such a remarkable turn of events for the first time.
Author's Note
I'm going to look into how to upgrade my account to VIP status. Please stop putting my comments through review!
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