Chapter 257-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
Inside the banquet hall, the guests watched Ye Zheng spend a brief moment with Princess Heath before departing. There was no small measure of disappointment—getting close to the Pope was simply too difficult.
It was at this point that Heath stepped forward, her voice crisp and commanding as she hosted the banquet with poise. Only then did the guests take notice of this princess who had always had such a minimal presence. On closer inspection, she carried herself with considerable grace—poised and elegant in every gesture. A true Imperial Princess, after all.
The sharper minds were already moving to engage her. This princess was more favored than they had imagined—worth getting acquainted with.
Night deepened. The harp's melody faded. The guests dispersed.
Heath returned to her chambers, a faint weariness coloring her face. The banquet had concluded without incident, and no unusual reports had come from within the Imperial Palace. It seemed Ye Zheng had struck a deal with him, and Professor Qin Lu could leave safely.
She might not have gained the Emperor's deeper trust, but…
She had gained Ye Zheng's trust.
Ye Zheng's support was equally indispensable.
Though Heath wasn't sure whether to call it trust—or tolerance.
Heath dismissed all the handmaids. She sat before her vanity mirror and looked up—only to find a woman's reflection suddenly in the glass.
She wore a maid's uniform, her face vaguely familiar. Heath thought for a moment and realized it was the handmaid who had presented the banquet checklist earlier—likely someone from palace procurement.
The maid slid a note onto her desk. Heath glanced at it and recognized Ye Zheng's handwriting.
Heath picked up the note and looked back at the mirror. The maid had already vanished.
…What a long, roundabout road it had been. She had finally established a relationship of genuine trust with Ye Zheng—when they had been the closest of friends from the very start.
They had drifted apart in different directions, and at this moment, their paths converged once more.
Heath stared at the note in a daze. When she read its contents, her eyes flew wide.
"…Roy."
Heath murmured the name, her feelings tangled.
She had originally planned to push the Emperor into moving against Roy as quickly as possible, using the opportunity to unravel the mystery of his power. Since Ye Zheng still needed Roy alive, there was no rush after all.
Still—they were planning to collect Dragon Bone? Heath hadn't received any such report from Roy yet.
If even Ye Zheng knew about this and Roy still hadn't reported it, Heath's eyes turned thoughtfully. A faint smile appeared. So Roy had his own agenda too.
Was he also unwilling to remain the Emperor's puppet?
*
"Roy!"
"What are you daydreaming about? We need to go."
Caleb nudged Roy's shoulder in puzzlement. Up ahead, Percy glanced back curiously, his eyes carrying an imperceptible appraisal.
"My leg just went numb for a second, that's all—General Bai said the South District's Dragon Bone is at the city center. Are we heading out now?"
Roy said, then frowned. "That's the city center we're talking about. How are we supposed to get to it?"
The middle-aged man in the wide-brimmed hat turned around. "The South District's central area is undergoing reconstruction. That actually gives us an opening. I still have some loyal subordinates who can help."
"But once we dig it up, where do we put it?" Roy pressed.
Bai Yi's brow creased. He looked hard at Roy, then at Percy.
Percy replied, "Let's find them first. We can choose a suitable location when the time comes."
The group emerged from the narrow alley and immediately fell silent. Bai Yi pulled his hat lower and turned up his coat collar. Even so, he could feel gazes like physical weight—as though every passerby on the street was watching him.
He knew it was only his imagination. If they had actually recognized him as Bai Yi, given their fanatical devotion to Ye Zheng, the reaction would be anything but calm.
In the distance, Percy spotted the towering statue of the God of Hope standing in a busy plaza. Nuns from the convent were leading a prayer service. Drawing closer, they overheard a devout believer praying for the divine to protect Ye Zheng, their posture and expression the very picture of piety.
Percy glanced at the visibly uncomfortable Bai Yi and steered the group away from the area.
He had originally worried that Ye Zheng would locate all the Dragon Bone before them. To his surprise, the Sei Curia still hadn't made a move. Ye Zheng seemed to have forgotten her promise entirely.
Had he been overthinking it? Ye Zheng wouldn't be so insane as to revive the demon dragon—it served no one's interests.
Percy shook his head, banishing the stray thought. If Ye Zheng wasn't going to dig up the Dragon Bone, then it fell to him—to him, to liberate the beleaguered civilian districts.
Suddenly, Percy's gaze shifted to the absent-minded Roy beside him.
Had Roy received new orders from the Emperor?
Percy had no intention of reporting this to the Emperor. From the moment he grasped the truth about Dragon Bone, he could no longer trust the man.
But Roy was his companion. Even knowing that Roy's joining them had ulterior motives, Percy couldn't discard that bond… Besides, he could use Roy's behavior to monitor the Emperor in reverse.
The group continued toward the station, each lost in their own thoughts.
Percy had initially planned to search for the East District's Dragon Bone first, since they were already there. But Bai Yi had worn an inscrutable expression and deflected, speaking instead about the South District.
Bai Yi noticed the crowd growing suddenly agitated—people were running in their direction. He closed his eyes. A Demonic Domain had appeared nearby!
Percy sensed it too. His expression hardened, and he exchanged a wordless look of understanding with his companions before heading toward the Demonic Domain.
Bai Yi didn't hesitate either. He risked exposing his identity, but retreating at a time like this would be an insult to his dignity and honor!
He ran against the panicked crowd, leading the way, pulling his hat low. But after only a few strides, he gradually slowed to a stop.
He sensed it—the Demonic Domain had vanished.
In under three minutes, the Demonic Domain had simply vanished.
The oblivious crowd was still fleeing. The middle-aged man's shoulders were jostled this way and that. He held down his hat and saw a familiar figure walking calmly toward him.
She was impossibly composed, her steps unhurried, standing out like a still point in the chaos.
What made her even more conspicuous was her extraordinary appearance—white hair, white eyes, skin so pale it was stark and blinding.
She wore no disguise, looking every bit as powerful and unflappable as she was.
Bai Yi watched as Bai Muqing drifted past with the flow of the crowd, as though she hadn't noticed his presence at all.
The hand holding down his hat trembled slightly. He swallowed the name that had been about to escape his lips.
"Bai Muqing, you're so amazing."
Once they were clear of the crowd, a little girl suddenly darted in front of Bai Muqing, wide-eyed with curiosity.
"You're already this amazing—does that mean Ye Zheng is even more, more, MORE amazing?!"
Bai Muqing's expression didn't change. "Where do you live? I'll take you home."
This was the little girl she had just rescued from the Demonic Domain. She seemed to have gotten separated from her family, but the child showed no concern whatsoever for her own safety.
"The Legend of the Saintess says that when fourteen-year-old Lady Ye Zheng defeated you in the Saintess selection by reciting Divine Revelation backwards, you were so upset that you challenged her to a duel, and then she beat you, and then you still weren't over it, so you mobilized the Bai family's forces…"
Bai Muqing listened to the little girl's chatter the entire way. The child had recognized her instantly and had started yelling, even resisting the help of this "villainess." In the end, Bai Muqing simply picked her up by force.
"What are you talking about?"
"The Pope would never allow people to make things up about others freely. If it wasn't published by the Sei Curia, it's an illegal publication."
The little girl said sheepishly, "I heard the author is… is a Nun from the Sei Curia. She was inspired by the Saintess."
"That's false."
Bai Muqing replied coldly, a barely perceptible hint of annoyance creasing her brow.
She seemed to play a rather peculiar role in these popular publications…
There was no way Ye Zheng would waste time memorizing Divine Revelation backwards. She wouldn't bother with something so pointless.
Only Bai Muqing would do something like that.
She had gotten used to it by now. Because of the Bai family and her history of competing with Ye Zheng for the Saintess title, she was forever cast as Ye Zheng's adversary.
She had felt conflicted and frustrated about it, certainly—but whether someone was an enemy or a friend was never a relationship defined by others.
Bai Muqing's expression grew somewhat heavy. The little girl clinging to her leg flinched, assuming she had made the woman angry, and obediently fell silent.
"Strange."
Bai Muqing murmured to herself. She lived in the zone where Demonic Domains appeared most frequently, yet they had been fewer than she expected.
In the past week alone, only two Demonic Domains had appeared in the entire East District. Bai Muqing didn't have exact historical data, but her instinct told her this frequency was unusually low.
Fewer Demonic Domains was a good thing—yet Bai Muqing couldn't shake a strange premonition.
Stranger still, she had traversed the entire East District during this time, and [Divine Domain] could not find where the Dragon Bone was buried.
Bai Muqing had been exposed to Dragon Bone at Ye Zheng's side. [Divine Domain] remembered its aura and had indeed detected Dragon Bone's presence in the East District—yet no matter what, it could not pinpoint the location.
*
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