Chapter 262-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
In the South District of the lower district, Percy and his companions rested for the night. The next day, guided by Bai Yi, they entered a secluded bell tower.
Bai Yi felt along the dusty bricks of the Bell Tower floor, his expression grave, muttering numbers under his breath. Percy stood nearby watching him, silently observing the pattern, while Roy kept his head down, lost in thought.
Suddenly the floor trembled, the ground gave way beneath them, and they plunged into a bottomless dark pit, their cries of alarm swallowed whole.
Far away in the Sei Curia of the upper district, Ye Zheng was walking along an elegant white corridor. Lush flower beds swayed around her as two Bishops she had promoted were giving their reports. Ye Zheng suddenly glanced outward, as if sensing something.
Percy and the others should be making their move by now.
Ye Zheng's brows furrowed slightly. In the manga, Bai Yi had told Percy that the Divine Sword could destroy Dragon Bone. Though after careful assessment, given his performance level against Sierra, Percy's strength couldn't possibly pose a real threat to the Dragon Bone.
But just in case, she had made other preparations.
Heath and Roy shared a special rapid communication channel. By now, Roy should have received Heath's message.
Ye Zheng didn't know the full picture of the relationship between Heath, Roy, and the Emperor, so she had only told Heath to have Roy prevent any action that could damage the Dragon Bone.
Even she couldn't predict exactly how Heath would carry out her request.
Ye Zheng trusted Heath would execute it flawlessly—after all, Heath could even direct Roy to engineer a horrifying accident at the tournament without leaving a trace. To Roy, Heath likely represented cold-blooded authority.
"Your Holiness, we have finished delineating the new Dioceses. Please review them."
The white-haired new Bishop spoke respectfully at her side.
Ye Zheng came back to herself. She took the documents, slowing her pace, and studied the new Diocese boundary map in meticulous detail.
With the collapse of the Bai Family, commoners dissatisfied with aristocratic rule were stirring in regions everywhere. But deterred by the powerful ability users under the nobles' command, no major unrest had broken out.
Ye Zheng, however, seized the opportunity to propose that the Sei Curia redraw the Dioceses in order to better assist with maintaining public order.
Redrawing the Dioceses meant the power structures of regional Bishops and senior clergy would be disrupted, and Ye Zheng could use the reshuffling to appoint new Bishops to replace entrenched, conservative local powers—further consolidating the Pope's authority.
Ye Zheng gently rubbed the thin paper between her fingers, her lowered face unreadable.
"Your Holiness, I'm truly honored that you would give me this opportunity. Redrawing Dioceses that haven't changed in five hundred years—this is a moment destined for the history books!"
The elderly woman was so excited she was gasping for breath. The younger Bishop beside her hurriedly helped steady her.
They had originally been nuns at a convent, engaged in religious practice and charity work—technically not even clergy in the strict sense. They never imagined that one day they would be part of something this momentous.
Ye Zheng smiled warmly. "You've done wonderfully. I'm honored to ride on your coattails into history."
Now she sat in a position others could barely dream of reaching, wielding ever-greater power. She no longer needed to scheme and calculate over every little thing as she once had.
The Ye Zheng of today could topple giants with a wave of her hand. Yet beneath the shadow of her sky-blotting authority, she couldn't personally attend to every corner. She had countless subordinates, allies, and resources at her disposal, but she couldn't control everything down to the finest detail.
Even so, they never let her down.
The young Bishop's expression turned to alarm, and she waved her hands frantically. "It's us riding on your glory! You are our divine emissary—no, practically a new god of the Empire..."
Halfway through, she abruptly shut her mouth, realizing how presumptuous her words were.
Ye Zheng couldn't help but let out a soft laugh. She handed the documents back to the two Bishops. "I'm no great figure—just an inevitable part of history. Even without me, sooner or later a woman would have stood in this very spot."
Watching the dawning realization on the two Bishops' faces, Ye Zheng said nothing more.
Perhaps many years from now, no one would stand here at all, and divinely granted authority would become a relic displayed in a glass case.
A breeze carrying the scent of fresh grass lifted her black hair. Ye Zheng tucked a loose strand behind her ear and caught sight of a lush oak tree in the distance. Years ago, she and Bai Muqing had stood beneath that tree together.
The oak rustled its leaves. Beneath it, two young nuns stood with their backs to her, chatting about who knew what.
The convent nuns were all of noble birth. Promoting them served two purposes: first, their familiarity with the Sei Curia's operations; second, their backgrounds could pressure certain people into compliance. By now, the upper district's aristocrats had largely stopped caring whether women serving as clergy was proper or not—so long as their families could keep their footing.
In extraordinary times, when self-interest was at stake, their thinking was remarkably flexible. They could swallow their pride without complaint.
But Ye Zheng's ambitions didn't stop there.
Dappled sunlight filtered through the leaves and glinted in Ye Zheng's dark, luminous eyes—like black obsidian holding a restrained gleam, with a hint of sly amusement upon closer look.
Fine, what she'd just said was a bit too noble and grand. She wasn't entirely without selfish motives. She was quite honored that the person standing here today was none other than Ye Zheng herself.
No matter how history twisted and turned, no matter how every timeline in the universe fluctuated, Ye Zheng would always arrive at this place.
She was young, and she had seen too early the boundlessness of her ideals. The beautiful vision was so impossibly distant that even a lifetime devoted to greatness might never witness its fulfillment.
And yet Ye Zheng felt neither discouraged nor powerless. The endless peak ahead only filled her with surging motivation.
"I already have candidates for the new regional Bishops. Let's formally announce the new Diocese boundaries tomorrow."
Ye Zheng's voice lilted upward at the end, light and buoyant.
*
The West District. The sky hung dark and heavy.
A crumbling, abandoned factory belched black smoke. Firelight painted the cold metal red. A crowd ringed the open ground with no intention of leaving, their eyes fixed unblinkingly on the two people fighting in the center.
Some occasionally glanced upward, eyes darting. No one dared make a sound.
"Sierra, you've already lost."
"Lost the Dragon Bone and can't even hold your current territory. What a sorry state."
The brawny woman rubbed her head. Her buzz-cut black hair was stained with faint traces of blood. She clicked her tongue, but her mood lifted immediately when she saw the even more battered Sierra across from her.
Ever since Sierra—that lunatic—blew up the Empire Central Station, the upper district's nobles could no longer sneak down to the lower district to watch the illegal Arena fights. She'd lost a major source of income overnight. So she killed the money-grubbing crook of a boss, rallied her friends, and headed to the West District to try her luck.
Word was that Sierra had looted plenty of good stuff in the West District, then taken heavy losses under the Empire's crackdown. Who wouldn't want a bite of that weakened prey?
Sierra's ability was Nullification—legendary for being able to erase the abilities of dozens of people at once. But to this woman, that ability wasn't frightening.
She was only a C-rank ability user with an auxiliary-type enhancement. She won her Arena fights through masterful technique and an endless arsenal of hidden weapons.
That made her the Arena's money-printing machine. Despite her consistently high win rate, spectators refused to believe someone with such a weak ability could keep winning and gleefully bet against her every time.
The woman grinned so wide her eyes nearly disappeared. See? She was about to win again.
On the other end of the arena, Sierra stood expressionless, clutching her dislocated right arm. Her eyelid twitched faintly, her eyes blood-red.
"Sierra, take your ragtag remnants and get out of here. I won't come after you."
"..."
"Your power only works on those big babies who can't even walk without their abilities. Your followers are just a bunch of ordinary people waving flags."
"You want to keep going?"
Sierra's expression was dark as a thundercloud. With a sharp crack, she gritted through the pain and popped her dislocated arm back into place.
She replied, "Yes, it's time to end this."
"Oh right—did you forget? I have one more ability."
The buzz-cut woman's grin froze. She suddenly felt the sky was far too dark. She looked up—the darkness overhead seemed about to crash down on them.
On second glance, what loomed above wasn't the night sky. It was a pitch-black Giant Dragon with its wings spread wide.
...Impossible! She had done her homework thoroughly. Sierra had lost the Dragon Bone, and the dragons—which had appeared from who knows where—no longer followed her, roaming the West District and even the neighboring North District.
"I just sent them out to fetch something."
The buzz-cut woman stood frozen, staring upward. The Giant Dragons' dense black scales reflected the cold moonlight as they perched silently atop the abandoned factory.
"You were playing me?"
The woman flared with rage—these beasts had been sitting up there in silence the entire time, clearly on Sierra's orders. She could have unleashed the dragons and made her beg for mercy from the very start...
At the thought of begging, the woman's expression shifted at lightning speed. She immediately raised both hands and slowly crouched down.
"Lady Sierra, what an honor it is to have crossed blows with you. Thank you for the generous lesson..."
Sierra's expression showed no sign of softening. She approached slowly, her crimson pupils churning with intense emotion.
The woman's heart pounded wildly. She held her breath and locked every sense onto the approaching Sierra, all her awareness converging on a single spot—where her explosive weapon was concealed.
She didn't doubt for a second that this girl would kill her once she'd had her fun.
But as the reigning Arena champion, she always had the confidence to take down her opponent—even if it meant she wouldn't survive either.
Just as the buzz-cut woman's hand was reaching for that hidden spot, she saw Sierra stop in front of her—and suddenly smile.
The smile tugging at the corners of the youth's mouth was utterly dissonant, as if it belonged to a different person than those rage-filled, murderous scarlet eyes. It was like a beast wearing a human skin, mimicking human expressions.
"I admire you. I'll allow you to stay."
Sierra practically spat the words through clenched teeth, as though someone held a blade to her throat.
The buzz-cut woman felt no joy—only terror. For a moment, she didn't even know what to do with her hands.
Sierra glared, her gaze piercing through the woman before her as if seeing someone else entirely.
She would personally go to the upper district and kill Ye Zheng!
To achieve that goal, she could grudgingly resort to the same heart-winning tactics Ye Zheng used.
Author's Note:
Sierra: Learn the barbarian's tricks to defeat the barbarian.
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