Chapter 241-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
"Hey, Percy—long time no see. You look quite different."
After two days of travel, the force dispatched to suppress The Disciples had arrived in the lower district. Percy and his two companions were following the column toward their lodgings when a bold, cheerful voice suddenly rang out from behind.
Percy instinctively pressed a hand to the sword at his side and spun around warily. His two companions tensed as well.
Choppy, deep-purple hair peeked out from beneath a black cap brim. Wu Shu greeted them with a beaming smile.
"Relax—I was just saying hello."
The three only grew more guarded. Clearly, they still remembered how Wu Shu had tried to kill them while going after the Divine Sword.
"Our target this time is Sierra. That makes us teammates, you know." Wu Shu sidled closer to Percy and lowered her voice. "Don't worry—I haven't been given any secret orders regarding you this time. Have you?"
Percy's expression darkened, brows knitting tight. He said nothing.
Wu Shu appeared to be making casual conversation to probe Percy, but her gaze swept imperceptibly over his companion Roy.
Compared to the irritated yet restrained expressions on Percy and Keller, Roy seemed unusually tense.
"Wu Shu, there's no need to probe us anymore. This time, we won't give you a chance to strike."
Percy practically spat the words through gritted teeth. On the day Sykes lost control and transformed into the demon dragon, if he had woken up even a moment later, Keller and Roy might already have been killed by Wu Shu.
Back when they first met Wu Shu at the Ability Tournament, there had been mutual admiration—even cooperation. Percy never could have imagined she was capable of such ruthlessness.
Wu Shu had no idea what he was brooding over. She raised both hands, shrugged, and turned to leave.
The moment her back was turned, someone behind her muttered, "The Pope's lapdog." From the voice, it had to be the Emperor's illegitimate son.
What a rude brat—worthy of being Sykes's half-brother.
With a scoff, Wu Shu kicked aside a soldier who had broken formation and was goofing around, then fell back into her own unit's ranks.
Residents lined both sides of the street, watching the troops sent from the upper district. Their gazes held hope and admiration, but also worry and unease.
The column was currently in the South District of the lower district. Tomorrow they would likely reach the West District.
By now, "The Disciples" had become a notorious name across the Empire. Most citizens in the other districts didn't want the group encroaching on their homeland. A few were curious about the organization, but for various reasons kept those thoughts buried.
Wu Shu had heard of "The Disciples" since childhood in the Middle District—claims like "the true God of Hope was persecuted," "what the Sei Curia worships isn't the real God of Hope," and "The Disciples are the true followers of the God of Hope." Few believed any of it, and the group was nothing more than a disorganized rabble—until Sierra appeared and became their leader, transforming the organization into a formidable force.
"Leadership" was an ineffable quality. Wu Shu had tried to become the kind of captain everyone admired and adored, yet somehow that exasperating woman Sierra won more hearts. Strange indeed.
"Oh, is that Percy?"
"Ah, I really thought he'd be the first person from the lower district to win the Ability Tournament and bring us Dragon Bone…"
"I heard he was wanted by the Pope over a misunderstanding. I can't believe that as soon as the warrant was lifted, he joined the Royal Knight Order? The most outstanding lower-district kids I've heard of only ever got to serve as a duke's bodyguard."
"Regardless, he came back to protect his hometown the moment he entered the upper district. A true pride of the lower district—stop messing around and learn from him!"
"Demonic Domains have been popping up more and more lately. If only Percy had won the championship back then—he definitely wouldn't have given up Dragon Bone for a career!"
Amid the crowd's animated chatter, Wu Shu pulled her cap low, her eyes hidden in shadow.
Wu Shu had always been self-aware. The day she publicly refused the Dragon Bone prize and opted for an upper-district appointment instead, she packed her bags and bolted for the upper district before anyone could corner her at her doorstep to hurl rotten eggs.
She had gotten out fast—but judging from her family's attitude toward her, she could well imagine how much the people of the Middle District despised her. "Traitor of her hometown" wouldn't be an overstatement.
Every person who died each day because of a descending Demonic Domain—it was as though every death was this traitor's fault.
Only her position in the upper district's Public Security Bureau kept people from openly denouncing her. In private, the Middle District was rife with rumors—that she used her authority to lock up anyone who badmouthed her, that she'd obtained her rank through illicit means.
Wu Shu found it amusing. Her standing in the Public Security Bureau had grown increasingly solid, and those people no longer dared to ignore her. Part of that was her own hard work—and part of it was, admittedly, "connections."
—How come none of those Middle District gossips ever dared guess that her connection was Pope Ye Zheng herself? Now that would be explosive.
Still not bold enough—imagination too limited. Wu Shu shook her head in mock disappointment.
The sky darkened suddenly. Sunlight that had been spilling across the street vanished in an instant. As if sensing something, Wu Shu dropped her smile, took off her cap, and looked up.
Dark clouds churned overhead—like an approaching storm, or like something monstrous lurking within, roiling ominously.
Up ahead, a Sei Curia knight was walking back, conferring with the Royal Knight squad captain about some report. The two huddled close, and Wu Shu saw the captain's face twist in disbelief.
Soon, Wu Shu received the order to evacuate civilians from the area.
No need to march any farther—the enemy had come to them.
*
In the upper district, the Imperial Palace and the Papal Palace received the news almost simultaneously.
Sierra had slipped into the South District with her forces, completely undetected.
Word was that Sierra had originally set up an ambush along the column's route. Fortunately, a scout from the Sei Curia had been sharp enough to notice something was off—otherwise the force might have suffered devastating losses.
But the fact that Sierra had infiltrated the South District without anyone noticing was an undeniable blow to the task force. She was no ordinary bandit to be easily subdued; her grip on the West District was far stronger than anticipated—strong enough to pull off something like this.
Worse still, she was reportedly accompanied by over a hundred creatures suspected to be mutant beasts, posing a threat on par with an A-rank Demonic Domain—possibly S-rank or even higher.
In the Imperial Palace and the Papal Palace alike, everyone who learned of this grew grimmer still.
Both palaces blazed with light through the night, bustling with activity. Yet the two figures seated high upon their respective thrones both, by silent coincidence, picked up a chess piece and smiled.
"Heath, if you were to destroy Ye Zheng, how would you go about it?"
"…Destroy? I think killing someone is the most thorough form of destruction."
Death meant losing everything. As long as a person was alive, even if they fell, there were still countless chances for a comeback—that hardly counted as destruction.
Heath thought this answer would satisfy the Emperor.
"No—what does the death of the flesh matter? Annihilating the soul is the most terrible death of all!"
"Do you know how a soul dies in agony? It must be at the most devastating, the most—"
Midway through, the man abruptly cut short his impassioned speech and pivoted to another topic, the shift almost jarring.
"Heath, there's something I need you to do."
His tone turned cool.
"Command me, Your Majesty. I will see it done without fail."
The Emperor regarded the bowing Heath with satisfaction. She had been willing to betray her closest mentor for his sake. Whether it was genuine loyalty or ruthless self-preservation, that was precisely the kind of person who was most useful.
More importantly, having a former close friend deliver the fatal blow to Ye Zheng herself—he couldn't wait to see what exquisite expression Ye Zheng would make!
Did Ye Zheng think he would wait until the task force dealt with Sierra before making his move?
He hadn't sent people to join the campaign in order to suppress Sierra—he'd sent them to expose the existence of those abominations to the public. And now Sierra had gone and brought those things right into the heavily populated South District all on her own.
He had nearly burst out laughing.
All he had to do was let the task force fail, let Sierra and her monsters rampage through the South District, then tell the public that the demon dragon could descend upon a certain woman—that the woman would lose control and become the demon dragon…
And finally, use Percy to reveal the truth about the Divine Sword and direct every spearhead at Ye Zheng.
Everything she had painstakingly built would crumble to dust!
This was the price for defying him!
The man's golden eyes gleamed under the dim lamplight like an excited predator. Heath stole a glance, then averted her gaze.
More than the Emperor's schemes against Ye Zheng, Heath was fixated on a peculiar detail.
A person's words and deeds were a mirror reflecting their inner self. She feared death, and so she believed that killing someone was the ultimate destruction. But this man before her—Aston XIV, who had once stood at the pinnacle of glory—he feared the annihilation of his soul.
Heath admitted she was selfish—she had manipulated her most caring mentor, Qin Lu, into paving the way for her.
But her reasoning had been sincere. She had told Qin Lu the Emperor's secret: destroying his body might not truly kill him—it might only give him the opportunity to switch bodies. She needed to uncover more secrets before she could find a way to defeat him for good.
Though the notion of a "soul" was rather abstract, Heath filed it away in silence.
Under Ye Zheng's efforts, Teacher Qin Lu's execution had been postponed considerably. If Heath could make a breakthrough in that time, perhaps she wouldn't need to rely on Ye Zheng stepping in…
"Heath, look at me."
"I recall you have a way with words. Draft something for me—an article denouncing Pope Ye Zheng, published under the name of Princess Heath."
Heath's blue eyes widened in surprise.
"What's the matter? This is an opportunity for you. Don't you want your name to be known across the entire Empire, with Ye Zheng's beneath your feet?"
"…It's not that I don't want to, but the people of the Empire place great trust in Ye—"
"They won't for much longer."
Gazing at the Emperor's enigmatic—almost mischievous—smile, Heath felt a deep unease. Unable to voice her objections, she nodded in agreement.
*
Inside the Papal Palace, Ye Zheng watched the reporting nun depart, then sat alone in the hall and let out a soft laugh.
Sierra's move didn't surprise her. If anything, she had anticipated it.
Sierra wasn't one to overthink. The moment she learned someone was coming to deliver a crushing blow, she would strike first and take their head.
Facing a joint campaign by the Royal Family and the Sei Curia—two entities she loathed equally—Sierra would undoubtedly inflict maximum pain on her enemies. She would deploy every last Dragon-Bodied Human, and the Dragon Bone as well.
Once the Dragon-Bodied Humans were exposed this way, it would certainly hurt their side. But that day was bound to come sooner or later.
The question was: while Aston XIV was drunk on his own schemes, had he forgotten the colossal lie he himself had told the people of the Empire?
She would wait until Aston XIV was reveling in what he believed to be an effortless victory—and then drag the entire Aston Royal Family down from their throne as guardians of the Empire!
"System, open a channel between me and Wu Shu."
"Just like last time."
The System didn't hesitate the way it had the first time. After a brief silence, the sound of breathing reached Ye Zheng's ears, followed by a puzzled "Hm?"
*
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