Chapter 119

“My lord, where are you going?”

In the central garden, the guard captain had never seen Bishop Kieran so frantic and out of sorts. Thinking that something major had happened ahead, he hurried over, only to be grabbed by the collar.

“Take people and kill Annabella. Now.”

The captain’s eyes widened as he double-checked.

“Kill? On the spot? Lady Annabella is the… uh!”

Expressionless, Kieran pulled the small knife from the man’s abdomen. The blade was now red to the point of glaring. He looked at the terrified young team member beside him and pointed the dripping blade at him.

“Now you are the captain of this guard team. Immediately take people and kill Annabella… and everyone around her.”

The suddenly promoted young man showed no joy. He nodded frantically.

Kieran didn’t spare the new captain another glance and continued deeper into the base.

He should have realized it earlier.

Annabella had been in this base far too long, longer than any Western District overseer who had led the project. Even if she had no access to the core secrets, over so many years she must have noticed things she wasn’t supposed to know.

That location could never be exposed. It was a secret that only each successive Western District overseer could access.

As the emperor’s appointee, he was the sole exception.

Now there was another exception. Ye Zheng.

Urgent footsteps echoed through the empty corridors.

Kieran entered his study. When he saw the disarray inside, the last trace of hope in his heart vanished.

Ye Zheng was waiting for him in that secret location.

Kieran stepped forward and glanced at the moved bookcase. He didn’t approach it. Instead, he rummaged through a small cabinet in the corner for a moment, took something, then left the room and ran in another direction.

“Bishop Kieran, why are you here?”

A young woman with red hair opened the door. When she saw the usually composed and handsome bishop with disheveled hair and sweat on his forehead, she immediately ushered him in with concern.

“No, Lily. I only came because there’s one thing I need to ask of you.”

The red-haired woman named Lily grew flustered. Had the Fallen Ones outside already broken through the protective shield?

Suddenly, a chain was placed around her neck.

Looking down, she saw a metal card hanging from it. Engraved on it was the name: Kieran Aston.

“Listen. If I don’t come back for you in thirty minutes, take the necklace to the central control room. When those people see it, they’ll let you pass.”

“The central control room has a small room inside. Use the card to swipe the door open. Oh, and there’s a password too…”

The young woman shook her head in disbelief, tears glistening in her eyes. The more she listened, the more these words sounded like Bishop Kieran’s final testament. Why was he entrusting something so important to her?

“I trust you, Lily. If I handed something this vital to those seemingly loyal men, they’d only use it to satisfy their own hunger for power. But you wouldn’t.”

“You’re noble and selfless. I knew that from the first moment I saw you.”

Her trembling, panicked hand was suddenly taken in his. Through tear-filled eyes, the man’s gentle and affectionate face blurred. Lily nodded vigorously and chaotically.

She watched the man’s retreating figure disappear down the corridor. The young woman wiped away her tears and gripped the metal card tightly in her hand.

She had followed Bishop Kieran here and had willingly given up a comfortable life. Long ago, she had prepared herself to sacrifice everything.

To perish alongside him for the great Hope Project would be the most beautiful ending for everyone…

“Why are you crying?”

Lily jumped in fright and quickly hid the necklace. The brown-haired girl from the neighboring room poked her head out from behind the door, looking puzzled.

“Annie, shouldn’t you be at the Holy Academy at this hour?”

“Never mind. I need to rest.”

Lily slammed the door shut.

When Kieran returned to the study, he first drew the ceremonial sword hanging on the wall, the symbol of glory, and then walked toward the depths of the room.

Facing the tall bookcase, he took a deep breath. His hand trembled slightly as he placed it against the shelf.

Even though he had prepared himself mentally, actually facing this day still made it impossible to remain composed.

Ye Zheng was the girl chosen by the God of Hope, just like Pei Xi and Sykes. She was one of the prides of the Hope Project. If she hadn’t forced matters this far, he would never have developed the intent to kill her.

The bookcase rumbled and slid apart to both sides, revealing a hidden door.

Kieran stepped forward into the darkness.

He still hesitated. Should he really kill Ye Zheng? She had already discovered this place. With her intelligence, she might soon uncover the empire’s greatest secret regarding the dragon bones. If that secret were exposed, the entire empire would descend into massive turmoil, perhaps no less catastrophic than the appearance of a world-ending aberrant realm.

Yet the God of Hope had specifically bestowed the Divine Sword upon Ye Zheng, something even Pei Xi and Sykes had not received. Perhaps Ye Zheng was the true key to saving the future from destruction.

Whether he killed her or not, the empire would be plunged into great peril because of Ye Zheng.

His thoughts churned in turmoil as Kieran quickened his pace along the dim, endless staircase until he reached the small door at the end.

The door that had once required a password had been forcibly broken open. The shocking scene beyond lay completely exposed.

An immense floor stretched endlessly before him. High overhead arched a slightly dim, colorful painted dome. Angels with countless eyes rested across the dome, gazing downward.

Below, a winding spine of bone stretched like an endless mountain range. It nearly burst through the already vast underground space. Atop the mountains of dragon bones sat a small, inconspicuous figure, like a wave that had surged up by accident or a white moth pausing briefly to rest.

Kieran looked up. The moment he saw the youthful figure perched on the dragon bone, her face carrying a half-smile that wasn’t quite a smile, he immediately made his decision.

Even if he hadn’t resolved to kill her before, he had to confront her with the determination to do so.

Atop the towering white spine, Ye Zheng was reading.

She had discovered something interesting in Kieran’s study. It was the original documentation of the “Hope Project,” densely filled with names.

Then she turned to the final page.

【Our predecessors wove benevolent lies for a future that was destined to be doomed, but we will twist those lies into a beautiful reality.】

【If there is no god, we will create one. If there is no hope, we will create hope.】

【The Mother of All Things passed down through generations, the Hope Project carried from one torchbearer to the next, and the unextinguished spirit of exploration. These are the greatest gifts we leave to those who come after us.

—Saintess Marian】

This was the signature of the second-generation Saintess.

How strange. Every signature in this document belonged to a woman. The original initiators and leaders had been women, and the entire exploration revolved around the secret between women and dragon bones. So why were the actual controllers of the Hope Project now all men?

Aside from mentioning the generational inheritance of the “Mother of All Things,” the document contained no specific details about how the Hope Project operated. Moreover, aside from this file, Ye Zheng had found no other records related to the initiator, Saintess Marian.

Even if the Hope Project were ignored, the mere fact that such a massive quantity of dragon bones had been secretly buried beneath the Western District would be enough to shake the faith of every person in the empire if it were exposed.

The dragon bone beneath her felt rough and cold. Ye Zheng felt as though she were sitting atop a colossal lie, as if everything stood on the verge of collapse.

She braced one hand behind her until she felt the surging power within the dragon bone. Then she took a deep breath.

Footsteps suddenly echoed through the silent space. Ye Zheng looked up toward the approaching white figure below. She put away the document and greeted the man walking toward his death with a polite smile.

The two stared at each other without moving. The thin air became deathly still and heavy.

“I guessed you’d come alone. Even so, it deserves applause. At least in your final moments, you’re still clinging to your foolish fantasy.”

According to the empire’s official narrative, the spine of the aberrant dragon had been buried in Xixie County in the upper district to protect it from aberrant realms. Yet here it was in the Western District of the lower district, a secret so subversive it overturned everything. Kieran would never allow anyone else to witness it with their own eyes.

“So can you explain why the aberrant dragon’s spine is here?”

Ye Zheng sat high atop the white spine and looked down as she spoke.

“Perhaps one day you might have been told this secret. But that day definitely isn’t today.”

Kieran smiled and shook his head.

“Secrets told by others are often unreliable. I prefer to search for answers myself.”

Ye Zheng leaped down and tore away the white robe she had used as a disguise, revealing the gray vest and black trousers beneath. The black scabbard rested close against her side.

She said, “Whether you choose to keep the secret or not, you’re destined to die today.”

“You do have a chance. But you’d better not underestimate who you’re facing. I’m Kieran Aston.”

Once he realized that Ye Zheng was waiting for him inside the dragon bone burial chamber, Kieran’s mind had already begun analyzing countless scenarios and countermeasures.

His greatest disadvantage lay in this place itself.

For reasons he didn’t fully understand, this underground palace that housed the dragon bones had been built from power-isolating aberrant stone. The moment he stepped inside, he felt a powerful suppression.

Ye Zheng was also restricted by the underground palace. However, unlike him, she could draw strength directly from the dragon bones.

Countless experiments had already proven that only women could accept dragon bones. A woman who had already fused with dragon bone would absorb and control its power even more skillfully.

Kieran gripped his sword tightly and slowly raised it, pointing the blade toward the Saintess before him.

Ye Zheng possessed an A-rank ability. With the palace’s suppression and the dragon bone’s enhancement offsetting each other, her effective strength wouldn’t exceed the A-rank level.

As for his own strength at this moment…

“I won’t underestimate my opponent, Kieran Aston. You possess a SS-rank ability, mastery of combat and swordsmanship, and control over this entire base. If I underestimated you, I wouldn’t have survived until now. I wouldn’t have endured long enough to reach this place.”

Ye Zheng also drew the golden-glowing sword from its plain scabbard.

The reason she had made it this far was precisely because she never underestimated any opponent. Yet Ye Zheng also admitted she had a reckless side. Now wasn’t the ideal moment to kill Kieran, but she has to do it anyway.

Kieran was correct. Zhou Yun, who now threatened five hundred thousand lives, was the greatest danger. Even if she brought Kieran’s head to negotiate with Zhou Yun, it might not persuade her… In the end, Ye Zheng had gone soft. She didn’t want to see another woman die in this place.

But what did it matter? The more righteous they claimed to be, the more they deserved to die!

If even she insisted on maintaining so-called rationality in the face of such oppressive righteousness, then what right did she have to lead these women in resistance?

Water first flowed slowly around the blade of her sword like a supple white snake, then surged toward the man standing not far away with his sword in hand.

Kieran’s pupils contracted. With a swing of his sword, he severed the snake-like stream of water. At the same time, he activated his ability. The water lost the pull of gravity and floated motionless in midair.

Ye Zheng’s expression remained unchanged. She had known about Kieran’s gravity ability from the beginning, so she hadn’t rashly moved in close.

“Although rumors claim the Saintess’s 【Stream】 is a healing-type ability, I suspect it’s actually water manipulation?”

Kieran flicked the water droplets floating beside him away with the tip of his sword. He smiled and stepped closer.

“Based on the performances of Saintess Ye Zheng and that Zhao Mei during the competition, your 【Stream】 itself lacks overwhelming raw power. You can’t summon devastating floods, but you can control them.”

“But unfortunately, this dry underground palace isn’t your home field.”

Ye Zheng watched the man approach without retreating.

“Unfortunately for you, your gravity won’t remain at full strength for long under the suppression of this palace either.”

“You’re right. So I must kill you as quickly as possible.”

Before Kieran finished speaking, his swift figure had already closed the distance to Ye Zheng. His movements were agile. He moved less like a church bishop and more like an exceptional knight.

Three gunshots rang out. Ye Zheng switched to holding the sword in her left hand and the gun in her right, using the bullets to temporarily halt Kieran’s advance.

One bullet missed and flew past him. The other two were about to strike Kieran’s body when they suddenly froze in midair.

Kieran instinctively stepped back and thrust his sword toward Ye Zheng once more. The Saintess, who usually appeared so quiet and composed, proved remarkably agile. She retreated to evade every strike. The two continued moving backward until they reached the foot of the towering, endless aberrant dragon spine.

Shadows enveloped the two of them. The man looked up at the dragon bone that nearly blocked the view above and let out a laugh. “The closer you are to the dragon bone, the stronger your ability becomes, right?”

While swiftly thrusting his sword, each strike aimed at vital points, he continued the casual conversation as though he still held an insurmountable advantage.

A slender gleam of the sword shot straight toward her. Ye Zheng shifted her body to the left rear to dodge. Suddenly her foot sank, her movement slowed, and the sword tip nearly grazed the tip of her nose.

Ye Zheng leaped back. She raised an eyebrow slightly. “Your ability’s range is one meter?”

Just now she had stepped into his range, and he had manipulated her gravity.

It seemed his ability allowed him to control objects within a certain radius, but judging from the current effects, this aberrant stone underground palace restricted him. Both his range and the objects he could control were limited.

“Originally it was ten meters, and the effects weren’t just this limited.”

Kieran answered quite sincerely.

Even if he couldn’t kill Ye Zheng, it was nearly impossible for Ye Zheng to kill him. No attack could get close to him!

Under Ye Zheng’s wary gaze, Kieran suddenly released his sword. The slender blade clattered to the ground. He spread his empty hands toward Ye Zheng, his handsome face wearing an utterly sincere expression.

He said, “Ye Zheng, I’ll give you two choices. First: abandon your hostility and fully join us. You’re a child chosen by the God of Hope. The empire will grant you the highest treatment.”

As he spoke, Kieran even took a step back voluntarily, creating distance to show he was harmless.

“The empire’s highest treatment? As a Blessed Reliquary?”

The girl before him instantly lost all expression. Her gaze turned extremely cold. The hand holding the gun tightened further.

Kieran lowered his eyelids, taking in every subtle movement she made.

He continued slowly, “No. You’ll be more precious than the Blessed Reliquaries in the base. They won’t implant you with a dragon bone life form like the others in the base. Because of Sykes’s existence, there is now a method that conforms more to natural laws. This was decided the moment he was born. And now, you’re the most suitable candidate…”

Bang bang bang!

Bullets fired in rapid succession until smoke rose from the barrel, venting her fury. Kieran watched several shots fly toward him without moving, his lips curving into a smile just as he had expected. A trace of pitying regret flashed in his eyes.

As he had predicted, Ye Zheng would definitely be provoked by such words. Even knowing bullets were useless against him, she would instinctively fire to vent her anger.

She truly was a bold, meticulous, intelligent, and brave child. Her overall qualities even surpassed the two carefully nurtured lives, Pei Xi and Sykes. If she could be more rational and hold a longer-term vision, he couldn’t imagine how far she might go!

However, today she was destined to stop here.

The several bullets halted beside the white-robed man, just as before. Kieran sighed. The stopped bullets didn’t fall. Instead they shot back in the reverse direction, catching her off guard and flying straight toward Ye Zheng!

He had deceived Ye Zheng. Even with the restriction, his ability range was still three meters!

His ability wasn’t limited to nullifying gravity. It could also control the direction of gravity!

Kieran had waited for this moment. This was the moment when his prey would be caught off guard and counter-killed. His pupils widened, whether from excitement or sorrow, reflecting the pale-faced girl not far away.

In an instant, several bullets assaulted Ye Zheng, nearly sealing off all her dodging possibilities. Kieran saw Ye Zheng appear shocked into immobility, frozen in place. Or perhaps she had already given up useless resistance and was ready to accept her fated end, the inevitable outcome for those who opposed hope and justice!

His heart pounded violently. Kieran watched everything while breathing excitedly. Suddenly his expression changed. He clutched his abdomen. His palm felt wet.

He looked down. It was viscous blood.

Kieran looked up again in disbelief. Not far away, Ye Zheng stood completely unharmed in the same spot. All the bullets had fallen to the ground around her.

No. Only six bullets had fallen. One was inside his stomach.

“Im… impossible. Your ability is clearly…”

Kieran’s hand covering his abdomen suddenly felt a thread of cold pass over it. He forced his eyes wide and finally saw a fine line of water, so thin it was almost invisible.

Amid the excruciating pain and dizziness, Kieran stared at Ye Zheng with splitting fury. His holy white robe was now mostly stained red. He supported himself and staggered toward her.

“I’ve got a SS-rank friend whose ability is also range-limited control. I know what you just said was a lie.”

Ye Zheng stepped forward slowly toward the hunched Kieran. He could no longer stand straight and collapsed to the ground.

“You hid a card, and I hid one too. Fair, right?”

She drew her long sword again, pressing the golden tip against Kieran’s throat. More dangerous than the blade was the flowing, snake-like thin stream of water wrapped around it.

In that moment, Kieran’s pupils shrank to the size of the sword tip as he stared at the living water flow.

He understood! Ye Zheng hadn’t fired several shots purely out of anger. While venting her rage with furious shots, she had also wrapped each bullet with an almost invisible 【Stream】 and sent them along the trajectories together.

When he activated his ability, he only noticed the bullets. When he reversed their gravity to send them back, Ye Zheng had also been controlling the bullets through 【Stream】, silently wrestling with him.

With a water line thinner than a needle’s eye, she had overcome his gravity law and forced one bullet back!

“You’re right. 【Stream】 itself has very little water volume. What makes it shine is its powerful control.”

“Hah… you really are only A-rank… or did Wen Jian use dragon bone to upgrade you to a higher rank?”

“I’ve always been double S-rank. I just like hiding a card, same as you.”

Bang. Ye Zheng spoke slowly. She changed the magazine and fired another shot at Kieran’s left arm as he tried to move.

Kieran could no longer maintain even a sitting posture. He collapsed completely to the ground. Gazing up at the vast white remains overhead, his pain-twisted face suddenly forced a wide smile.

“I knew you had the ability to kill me, so I made some other preparations.”

“Ye Zheng, even if I don’t win, I absolutely won’t lose.”

The man, now pale as death, lifted his neck and even pressed his own throat toward Ye Zheng’s sword tip, drawing blood.

“The moment you raised the Divine Sword, the Hope Project has already succeeded… You know one of the legends about the Divine Sword, right?”

Originally, the Divine Sword was the God of Hope’s gift to the empire. Later, it was lost because of a group of extreme believers in the God of Hope. Rumor said the God of Hope, deeply disappointed in the empire, reclaimed the sword and no longer wished to protect this nation.

Kieran closed his eyes and placed one hand over his chest, where he kept the photo he cherished most.

Soon he would go to see them. His entire life and death had been devoted to humanity’s future. He would surely reach the beautiful realm where the gods dwelled.

In the end, it was Ye Zheng who killed him, not Pei Xi or Sykes. This outcome satisfied and fulfilled him even more.

To die under the God of Hope’s Divine Sword was an unparalleled blessing!

“Ye Zheng, thank you… Ending my life this way, I’m very satisfied.”

“Kill me with the Divine Sword. Achieve our final glory together…”

The handsome man lying on the ground closed his eyes like a newborn angel awaiting the gods’ embrace.

“Kill you with the Divine Sword?”

Ye Zheng crouched to Kieran’s left, bringing the right side of her face close. She tilted her head, her eyes widening in apparent confusion as she looked at him.

“But I don’t have the Divine Sword.”

Kieran’s eyes snapped open.

“And I don’t plan to kill you myself.”

Ye Zheng stood up. She looked toward the depths of the underground palace. A sticky black mass was wriggling closer.

On her way to the study, she had passed the nursery. Thinking it might cause more trouble for the base, she had casually smashed the glass tanks. Unexpectedly, this dragon-bone-created monster seemed to have smelled the dragon bone and followed her here.

“You… what do you mean you don’t have the Divine Sword!”

Kieran’s eyes bulged in fury, yet his throat was once again pressed by the sword tip like a fish pinned to a chopping board.

“The sword at my throat is clearly the Divine Sword! It is the Divine Sword!”

“This sword was crafted by the empire’s top artisans. I think the person who forged it would feel very honored to hear that the legendary Bishop Kieran liked it so much.”

Kieran’s increasingly twisted face flashed through countless possibilities. Perhaps the Divine Sword was too precious. Ye Zheng had only brought a replica when going out. The royal family and church wouldn’t allow her to take something so dangerous to such a place.

“The real Divine Sword… is it kept by the royal family? Or the church?”

Kieran breathed carefully. His eyes held an expectation he himself hadn’t noticed. Hopeful and pleading, he looked up at the girl above him.

“The real Divine Sword? It refused to be drawn by me, so I left it in an aberrant realm.”

Ye Zheng said lightly. A trace of cunning flashed through her lowered eyes. She deliberately curved her lips into a somewhat malicious smile.

“It entered Pei Xi’s dreams and guided him to find it. Something so disloyal that won’t serve me… how could I keep it?”

The black sticky mass had already climbed to Kieran’s toes and was tentatively creeping upward. But the man seemed to feel nothing. He shook his head in disbelief again and again.

“What have you done… what have you done!”

He no longer cared about the sword at his throat. He roared without dignity, blood flowing from his neck.

“By the way, the dragon bone wasn’t implanted by Wen Jian either. I found it myself and implanted it myself. It has nothing to do with your Hope Project.”

“You… you…”

“You know why? Because the two children you nurtured, and your Hope Project that you’ve worked on for hundreds of years, are both…”

“Trash.”

Ye Zheng said softly. Her teeth ground out each cruel word, carving them straight into Kieran’s heart. He stared with wide eyes, twitching nonstop, still trying to stand and use his last strength to kill the usurper, the blasphemer before him!

However, the black viscous substance had already covered more than half of his body and had begun secreting concentrated acid.

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Authors Note  

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As long as no one resorts to personal attacks, I’m open to discussing any opinions. As for Zheng’s hair issue, it had been planned long ago as a key scene for her adulthood ceremony. I think placing it during the coming-of-age ceremony carries the most meaning. It isn’t because I don’t want to give Zheng a haircut.