Chapter 235-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
[Mother of All Things] had returned, yet Ye Zheng's expression suddenly shifted, light and shadow playing across her face.
She realized she could no longer sense Marcy, who dwelled within [Mother of All Things].
Why had her abilities vanished the moment she entered this era? Because supernatural powers were brought by the demon dragon. Before Margaret transformed into the demon dragon, such powers simply didn't exist in this world.
The demon dragon's power must have radiated across the entire nation gradually, following Margaret's movements.
Perhaps because of the demon dragon's innate trait of sharing power with kindred beings, women were better suited to harness it. That was why, in the early days of the disaster, female ability users were far more stable while male ability users were extremely prone to losing control.
Ye Zheng stared at her right hand. A shard of Dragon Bone was embedded in it—she fit the concept of "demon dragon companion" better than anyone in this era.
So her abilities had been the first to return. No—more likely—
Her abilities had just been born!
"The first owner of Mother of All Things… was me?"
Ye Zheng slowly voiced the staggering hypothesis. The surprise in her eyes gradually settled into a complex swirl of emotions.
If that were true, what role had she played across the next five hundred years of history?
"Who… on earth… are you?"
Nearby, the young man dragged his bullet-riddled body closer, curiosity in his sluggish voice. "In my memory… you are… that woman's… little sister?"
Suddenly, a sizable chunk of debris crashed down, pinning Vincent beneath it. He didn't seem to notice at all, simply lying prone and craning his head up to keep asking, "Who are you?"
Ye Zheng suppressed her killing intent. Through [Mother of All Things], she could detect no life energy whatsoever from the current Vincent. This body was indeed dead. She couldn't determine what kind of monster the current Vincent actually was.
Bai Muqing had once mentioned that Aston XIV's soul was extremely strange. In hindsight, perhaps it had never been a human soul at all. The real Vincent Aston had already been killed by her hands.
Some external species resembling a specter had taken over Vincent's dead body. The one she was looking at now was the true Aston XIV—the one who would live on for another five hundred years.
Faintly, the clatter of hurried footsteps was approaching. Ye Zheng knew it was time to go.
She walked up to Vincent and crouched down, peering at him with a child's wide eyes.
Vincent gazed into those profoundly incongruous eyes, and his stilled heart seemed to start beating again. The unfamiliar, vivid emotion caught him off guard.
Fear—this was the first human emotion that the future's celebrated Aston XIV ever learned in this world.
His golden eyes strained wide, eager to study the human before him, but in the next instant his eyeballs were gouged out.
Before he even realized what had happened, everything went black. The process of reading this body's memories was abruptly interrupted, leaving him like a broken clock, frozen in place.
A thread of water slashed toward the man's eyes in a flash. Then one of Ye Zheng's hands settled over his empty eye sockets—beneath what looked like a tender, comforting gesture, [Stream] plunged deeper, tracing along the nerves into the depths of the brain.
Human memory is primarily stored in the brain. Destroying certain regions would impair this body's capacity for recollection.
The fewer memories this body retained of her, the better. Although she currently wore the face of Margaret's sister, certain mannerisms and expressions could leave a nagging sense of déjà vu.
More importantly, he must not remember the process of Margaret's transformation into the demon dragon.
Because the demon dragon's weakness was the bone blade Margaret had driven into her own chest. That blade came from the true otherworldly dragons—the very source of Margaret's power—and she had hidden it in an inconspicuous corner of her body.
After the demon dragon's death, Aston XIV had buried the remains in scattered locations to suppress her power, keeping only a small portion of Dragon Bone and Margaret's human body for research.
Ye Zheng could not let him discover the demon dragon's true weakness—which was also the demon dragon's core.
With that done, Ye Zheng couldn't imagine how the arriving guards would react to the Emperor's nearly destroyed body. She had no time to stay and find out.
"System, open the passage. It's time to go back."
After speaking, Ye Zheng paused, her brow furrowing. A question occurred to her—[Mother of All Things] had only just been born in her palm moments ago. Did the energy she had drawn from that temporal Demonic Domain still exist?
Ye Zheng closed her eyes and felt for it, surprised to find that [Mother of All Things] was still connected to that Demonic Domain's power.
[Ye Zheng, we were unable to locate your coordinates for the longest time. You weren't brought to this place by us.]
Ye Zheng's expression turned grave.
After a moment's thought, she ventured, "Could it have been Margaret? She never mentioned anything about it, though."
Something else came to mind. She asked, "If I wanted to travel to certain specific points in time, could I do so with my current power?"
The System didn't quite understand.
[Specific points in time? If you mean down to a particular date and moment, that level of precision is beyond us for now.]
[It took considerable effort just to pinpoint your current location. The equipment was overheating.]
The System grumbled.
Ye Zheng looked at her right palm again. Had she been overthinking it? She wasn't the first owner of [Mother of All Things]—Marcy was.
Otherwise, she would need to travel to a specific day years from now and hand [Mother of All Things] over to Marcy. Only then would the logic form a closed loop.
"System, is it really impossible?"
Ye Zheng pressed once more.
The System hesitated.
[I can only help you locate plot points within the storyline of King of the Demonic Domain. But I'm guessing the time point you want falls outside the plot.]
"Never mind. Let's head back first."
The System opened a passage between dimensions. Ye Zheng reached out and touched a patch of empty air, channeling the power of time and space toward the passage.
Just before leaving, Ye Zheng's body had nearly faded from this timeline. She seemed to hover in another dimension, looking down at the events unfolding below.
Guards rushed over in a flurry. The captain of the guard cleared rubble from the ruins and propped up the blood-soaked young man.
The young man's hollow eyes suddenly clawed wildly at the captain's face, gouging out his eyes. The captain's screams sent the other guards stumbling back in terror.
"Give me eyes!" the young Emperor shrieked like a child throwing a tantrum.
Soon, this era receded from Ye Zheng's view. She wanted to catch one last glimpse of where Margaret had gone, but couldn't.
The System had opened the passage between dimensions. Every trivial event this world had ever witnessed flowed together like a river beneath Ye Zheng's feet.
Ye Zheng tried to make out details, even yearned to dive into some particular moment, yet had no way to do so.
The passage spanning five hundred years materialized before her. Without further hesitation, Ye Zheng unleashed the power she had absorbed and leaped to the far end—the very starting point from which she had departed.
When she opened her eyes again, the jagged tip of a crystal loomed so close it nearly touched her nose, its luster dim, drooping like a withered branch.
Ye Zheng let out a long sigh. She was back.
*
"Percy, you have beautiful eyes."
In a hidden chamber deep within the Imperial Palace, a middle-aged man of commanding, handsome features offered his compliment. His bearing struck the perfect balance—regal authority tempered with approachable warmth.
Percy was momentarily flustered; he couldn't fathom why the Emperor had abruptly pivoted from discussing the demon dragon to praising his eyes.
"Ha ha ha, don't be nervous."
"I've simply grown tired of looking at golden eyes—like an unchanging life, it gets irritating sometimes."
Percy had no idea how to respond, so he fell back on a generic compliment directed at the Emperor.
"Now then, where were we—"
"Ah, yes. We must prevent the demon dragon's revival. I'd like to entrust that mission to you, Percy."
"Me?"
Percy shook his head in protest. "The Divine Sword may have chosen me, but I'm hardly qualified for such a grave responsibility."
"Besides, you speak of preventing the demon dragon's revival, yet I haven't the faintest idea how…"
The Emperor placed a hand on his shoulder and said earnestly, "Rest assured—the Empire will spare no effort to support you. You are special, Percy."
"…Please guide me, Your Majesty. What must I do to prevent the disaster?"
The Emperor smiled. "The demon dragon never truly died. It will use a human woman as a vessel for its revival."
Percy looked puzzled. "Is that true?"
"Of course. You've studied history—you should know the demon dragon always had companions."
"I already have several suspects in mind, but after much deliberation, the most likely candidate is…"
Percy held his breath, waiting for the Emperor to reveal the answer—yet somewhere deep inside, a name had already surfaced unbidden.
"Ye Zheng."
Two voices overlapped.
Percy had blurted it out, startling even himself. Belatedly, he reasoned: Ye Zheng had forged the Divine Sword and impersonated the Chosen One—suspecting her was only natural.
He said hesitantly, "Then perhaps we should make the truth public…"
"The public may not believe it. A more direct approach would be better—kill her."
Percy's expression turned strange in an instant, a flood of memories surging through his mind.
"I'm to kill Ye Zheng?"
*
Author's Note:
Tomorrow a forum chapter to lighten the mood…
Comments
Post a Comment