Chapter 228-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
After concluding a conversation that spanned across worlds, Lin Zhixing had System delete the access logs and hurried out of the main control room.
Originally, she had planned to keep Ye Zheng's influence under control. Unfortunately, the family had already noticed Ye Zheng's potential, and the situation was no longer something she could manage alone.
Her family members, crazed with greed for otherworldly resources, were beyond saving. After much deliberation, the most reliable and powerful ally she could find turned out to be Ye Zheng.
One day earlier, the great-elder had told her in that surveillance room that they had actually been watching her all along. She had come across as too lazy and lacking in ambition, so they had overlooked her. But recently, her work performance had impressed them, and the family would fully support her project.
Lin Zhixing had entered nervously and left the mysterious surveillance room with a stiff expression. The great-elder's affirmation and encouragement gave her no warmth of family—only chills down her spine.
If the incident with her cousin being parachuted in to replace her hadn't happened, Lin Zhixing might have believed those words.
Calling it "her project" at every turn—she had never wanted to participate in the first place, and she certainly wouldn't be the final beneficiary. They simply needed someone to execute the plan and bear the risks on their behalf, since her cousin's accidental death had genuinely frightened them.
The threat of death from another world still couldn't stop their greed. If anything, it was like a shot of adrenaline that made them even more fanatical, their methods growing increasingly alarming.
A warm lamp illuminated the erratic, scattered handwriting on white paper. Ye Zheng stared at the key terms she had recorded. Her long-standing questions had been answered, but the price was yet another save-the-world mission.
Now, she needed to travel five hundred years into the past as soon as possible, uncover the truth about the demon dragon, and prevent the apocalyptic catastrophe threatening her world.
At the same time, before King of the Demonic Domain concluded, she had to kill the Creator to avert disaster in the other world.
The new mission sounded simpler—merely killing an ordinary person without any supernatural abilities. Yet Ye Zheng was at a loss for the moment. Hunting down someone across worlds whose appearance and whereabouts were unknown to her—this task was truly daunting.
[From the very start of the project, the Creator's personal information was placed under strict surveillance. All I know is his appearance and his residence.]
[But two weeks ago, he was taken away by family members. The official story is that he fell ill. I haven't been able to find out where he is for now.]
Even Lin Zhixing couldn't locate him.
Ye Zheng thought for a moment. Perhaps they had taken the Creator away precisely to prevent any accidents. Otherwise, Lin Zhixing could have simply sent someone to kill him—there would have been no need for Ye Zheng's involvement.
At the end of their conversation, Lin Zhixing promised she would use System's power to help Ye Zheng travel five hundred years into the past, and that her assistance wouldn't be limited to just that.
So Ye Zheng made one additional small request—find out the Creator's real name.
On the paper, a question mark was drawn next to the words "the Creator." Ye Zheng locked the sheet in her bookcase.
She stood up, left the study, and returned to the bright palace hall. She sat composedly in the deep red high-backed chair, reviewed several accumulated documents, then drafted a classified document.
*
Three days later.
At a bustling train station, a short girl blended inconspicuously into the crowd. A few strands of orange hair poked out from beneath her hood as she walked briskly toward the platform, glancing back from time to time.
"Attention: all trains are suspended for today! All passengers, please leave the station in an orderly manner!"
"Repeating: all trains are suspended for today..."
An impatient staff member's voice echoed from a distance. Passengers clutching their tickets immediately erupted in complaints. Soon, armed personnel arrived to maintain order, and the crowd quieted considerably, whispering among themselves before sighing and filing out of the station.
Lucy froze in place. Abandoning any attempt to stay hidden, she grabbed a uniformed conductor against the flow of the crowd and asked him urgently what had happened.
"Excuse me, did something happen at the station? Did thugs break in? Or was a train bombed?"
The conductor was bewildered. "What—what thugs... Oh, no, it's not our West District station that has thugs."
Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. Ever since she had fled, Sierra had been hunting her.
She could have escaped to the upper district with Percy and the others, but they had told her a shocking truth and the purpose of their trip to the upper district. She had refused to go with them.
Why had Ye Zheng done what she did? Lucy's mind was in chaos. She couldn't oppose the "righteous action" of her former companions—all she knew was that Ye Zheng had saved her. How could she join the ranks of those opposing Ye Zheng?
But she also couldn't bring herself to report Percy and the others' plans to Ye Zheng. They had been her closest companions—they'd shared the calm, striving days of school life and heart-pounding moments of adventure. They had trusted her enough to share their secret. There was no way she could betray them.
Lucy recalled Sierra's mocking words: coward, tagalong, mushy orange...
Lucy clutched her head, thinking dejectedly that Sierra was right. Compared to them, her existence was utterly unremarkable and mediocre. It was the brilliance of the people around her that had given her the illusion that she too was someone extraordinary.
Recently, Sierra had completely fallen out with Annabelle's group. By some unknown means, all the Dragon-Bodied Humans that Annabelle's group had been caring for had flown to Sierra's side. Now she commanded a massive demon dragon carcass and formidable Dragon-Bodied Humans, and was no longer content being a mere thug in the shadows of the West District.
Ye Zheng was surely aware of Sierra's recent movements—Lucy didn't need to go all the way to the upper district to tell her. Lucy knew this in her heart, but like a traveler in the dark drawn to the only source of light, she simply wanted to see Ye Zheng.
"It's not our West District station that has thugs..."
"It's Empire Central Station in the upper district!"
The conductor's answer made Lucy's heart leap again. She pressed further, "What happened in the upper district?"
"Empire Central Station had some kind of explosion out of nowhere. I heard it was an organized attack—all trains across the entire Empire have been suspended!"
"Th-then when will service resume?"
The conductor waved his hand impatiently. "How would I know?"
"These days, even the Imperial Palace and Empire Central Station can be hit. Who knows what'll happen next?"
Lucy stood dazed on the empty platform, her face blank. She had gone to so much trouble to get a ticket, planning to go to the upper district to find Ye Zheng, only to run into this.
Empire Central Station was the Empire's most important transportation hub, built atop an S-rank spatial Demonic Domain, boasting the most efficient transit system and the tightest security.
Even Lucy, who was usually optimistic to the point of seeming carefree, sensed something was off. First the Imperial Palace, then Empire Central Station—the once-safest upper district had practically become the most dangerous place.
She worried about Ye Zheng. Grandma Annabelle had once said the power arena of the upper district was a place that devoured people without spitting out the bones.
She didn't know exactly how it devoured people, but right now she had a feeling the upper district had literally become a place that ate people—the kind where a monster swallows you whole.
Lucy was lost again. She didn't dare seek refuge with Annabelle's group for fear of drawing Sierra's trouble to them, but thinking calmly now, her avoidance was only creating trouble for Ye Zheng as well.
The girl stumbled back a few steps, her pace quickening, until she finally turned and broke into a run.
What she was running from wasn't Sierra—it was herself, lost and directionless. Everyone else had their own goals. So where was her future?
*
The once magnificent Empire Central Station had collapsed halfway. Train cars lay overturned on the ground amid scattered debris and rubble. Fortunately, the incident hadn't occurred during operating hours—many were injured, but no one had died.
The deputy captain of the Public Security Bureau's action squad, first to arrive at the scene, was leading her team through the investigation when she suddenly picked up a torn piece of paper from the dusty ground and held it up in astonishment.
"This is... the mark of The Disciples!"
Wu Shu called out in a ringing voice. Instantly, the magistrates at the scene, the station's management staff, and the Imperial officials who had just arrived all crowded around.
"Look—this emblem of wheat and sword is the symbol of The Disciples."
A pot-bellied official tugged at his small mustache and snorted, "Those thugs have grown bold enough to recruit followers in the upper district? How far has Sei Curia fallen, to let a mob of ignorant rioters trample the dignity of the God of Hope..."
Wu Shu smiled and nodded. "Indeed, that is Sei Curia's responsibility, isn't it? Here—you, go petition Her Holiness the Pope and have her send people to take over this case."
"Wait—Empire Central Station is Imperial government property! Sei Curia has no business meddling here!"
The mustached official's eyes went wide as he rushed to object.
Wu Shu ignored him. Her gaze swept over the people at the scene, each wearing a different expression, and she spoke. "Based on my examination of the scene, this explosion was caused by prohibited weapons—the work of a violent civilian organization. The Disciples' leader Sierra is known for her high-profile methods, always leaving a calling card after every violent act. I have reasonable grounds to suspect this was The Disciples' doing."
"Since heresy is involved, this falls outside the scope of Imperial Law and into the domain of Canon Law."
"Director, my assessment is correct, isn't it?"
At the back of the crowd, the elderly director shuffled forward a few steps. He was on the verge of retirement, and having something like this happen now made him both irritated and anxious.
"Yes, send for Sei Curia's people. These brazen heretics must be severely punished!"
The mustached official was so furious his whiskers bristled and his eyes bulged. He immediately began arguing with the security bureau director. But the old director, seeing the blame for the Empire Central Station incident about to land squarely on the bureau, suddenly found his voice and argued back thunderously, ultimately pinning the matter as Sei Curia's responsibility.
Wu Shu watched the farce unfold with cold detachment, a smile flickering across her face.
She didn't know what Ye Zheng intended to do with Empire Central Station, but she had a feeling something big was about to happen.
Soon, the Pope's Knight Order arrived at the scene, claiming they had tracked the assailants' trail. They forcibly cordoned off the surrounding area—no unauthorized personnel allowed.
Once the lockdown was complete, Pope Ye Zheng stepped across the perimeter and appeared, unhurried, amid the ruins of Empire Central Station.
Surveying the results she had orchestrated, Ye Zheng narrowed her dark eyes slightly and walked deeper in.
She stepped over the stone plaque engraved with "Empire Central Station" that now lay on the ground, silently murmuring an apology.
She had passed through this station countless times. It had witnessed her journey from a babbling infant to the formidable Pope she was today, silently watching over her every move.
But today, this legendary station had reached the end of its history.
The mythically fast Empire Central Station would exist no more, for Ye Zheng needed it to give everything it had—one final time—to carry her on her journey.
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