Chapter 128

The black dragon flew slowly, drifting forward like a mass of dark clouds and casting vast shadows over everything it passed.

The group soon caught up to it. Thick white mist lingered in the wide canyon. A dense swarm of dragon-bodied humans carried the white spine aloft as they advanced overhead. Beneath the shadow, the canyon lay as dark as night.

Ye Zheng looked up and surveyed the surrounding terrain. This place wasn't suitable for intercepting them. Fighting a group of airborne creatures in a canyon was unwise. Yet given the current situation, they could no longer allow the creatures to keep moving forward.

"Once we leave this canyon, we'll soon enter the Northern District. Quite a few people live there."

Pei Xi held a map, his voice laced with concern.

"Stop here. Kill them in this place."

Sykes, at the head of the group, halted. The people behind him immediately came to a stop. A knight beside him hesitated before speaking.

"Your Highness, this isn't a good spot to deal with them. Should we perhaps..."

"His Highness Sykes cherishes the people like his own children and doesn't wish to cause further trouble. Let us resolve this as quickly as possible."

Ye Zheng interrupted the knight's advice with a gentle smile.

Sykes fixed his gaze on the enormous black shadow in the sky. He was thoroughly fed up with this place and simply wanted to end it quickly.

For some reason, the closer he got to these monsters, the more irritable and agitated he became, as if something were drawing him in. Sykes stared at the faint white gleam flickering within the black swarm of monsters and frowned.

What exactly were they transporting?

A small squad moved forward first. A tall male knight stood at the forefront. He raised both hands upward and chanted under his breath. A violent tornado roared toward the black shadow in the sky. The orderly formation was thrown into disarray, and the creatures shrieked as they plummeted.

Black specks scattered and fell like rain. The white mountain-like spine lost its support and crashed down with a thunderous boom. The earth shook violently. Dust billowed up instantly, filling the entire canyon. Everyone instinctively raised their arms to shield their eyes.

Pei Xi nearly lost his footing amid the intense tremor. The swirling dust that followed robbed him of his vision. He closed his eyes, yet the shocking sight he had glimpsed moments earlier refused to leave his mind.

What was that enormous pale thing that looked like a snow-capped mountain?

What exactly were they carrying?

Amid the yellow dust blanketing the mountains and fields, Ye Zheng half-covered her eyes with her hand. She realized this was a perfect opportunity.

She turned her head and slowly blinked at Wende behind her. With her eyes half-open, Wende immediately understood the signal. She turned quietly and moved toward the rear of the formation without a sound.

Seeing that Wende had already taken Sela and slipped away from the group to wait for the right moment to coordinate with her as planned, Ye Zheng turned back to observe the situation ahead.

The moment she looked forward, a massive black scaled claw burst through the rolling yellow smoke and lunged straight toward her face.

Ye Zheng reflexively started to crouch and dodge, but then she remembered the people standing behind her. She immediately straightened, drew her sword in a flash, and the black scaled claw scraped past the blade.

These dragon-bodied humans had excellent vision, Ye Zheng thought. Even through the flying dust, they could still see her drawing her sword.

Soon shrieks rose one after another. The dragon-bodied humans, whose collective activity had been interrupted, seemed extremely furious. They circled above the canyon, locking onto their prey and instinctively hunting within the chaotic environment.

Only after a wind ability user gathered strength and blew the dust away did everyone's vision clear again. The disordered group barely managed to regain some semblance of order.

"Your Highness, please don't rush ahead so fast!"

The knight who had spoken earlier finally got a clear look at the surroundings. The Crown Prince, dressed in fresh red attire, was striding forward urgently. A dragon-bodied human swooped toward him at high speed. The knight's heart leaped into his throat.

Yet the Crown Prince merely raised one hand to block the massive black claw. The monster let out a piercing scream and disintegrated into ashes.

The knight patted his chest in relief. No matter what, the Crown Prince truly lived up to his reputation as the empire's unparalleled SSS-class genius. With such strength, he would surely lead them to swiftly eliminate these bizarre monsters.

Pei Xi was locked in combat.

As he fought, he observed. The dragon-bodied monsters varied in size. Some were as large as villas, their wings nearly blocking out the entire field of vision. Others were only two or three meters tall, roughly the size of a room.

Even the smaller ones carried an overwhelming sense of oppression toward ordinary people.

The one before Pei Xi was medium-sized. He tilted his head back and could just make out the human upper body at the creature's top.

Black scales covered the pale human skin unevenly, spreading all the way to the neck. Above that was the smooth jawline of a human woman. He couldn't see its face clearly.

But he knew that aside from the eyes lacking whites, the face was otherwise indistinguishable from a normal human's.

Fragments of childhood memories flashed through his mind. There were the gentle women in the base who had cared for him, the twisted-faced researchers, and them.

The wind howled past his ears. Another giant claw lunged toward him.

Pei Xi simply raised his metalized arm to block sideways. The impact sent his body sliding backward uncontrollably.

He couldn't bring himself to strike.

Amid the painful childhood recollections, he remembered a woman. She had loved teasing him, the only child in the base, and had hidden him away multiple times to keep the researchers from finding him.

Later, she had undergone the experiment and received a dragon bone implant. She had become...

Pei Xi could hardly breathe. In a moment of distraction, he was flung to the ground.

Yet the sharp gleaming claw tip didn't attack him. Instead, it pinned down a knight beside him. The knight, who had been fighting another dragon-bodied human, was suddenly ambushed. The claw pierced straight through his chest!

Pei Xi's pupils contracted sharply. He watched the blood-dripping black claw withdraw from the corpse. Trembling with guilt, he turned toward the monster. His other arm also transformed into a cold sharp longsword.

They were no longer human, Pei Xi told himself. After becoming monsters, their human consciousness had vanished.

The black scaled giant claw swung toward Pei Xi again.

This time he didn't hesitate.

He leaped backward, dodging to the side. The claw slammed heavily into the ground and left deep gouges behind.

Pei Xi seized the moment. He jumped onto the claw, used it as leverage, and sprang upward. His blue eyes reflected a cruel metallic gleam.

He knew their weakness.

The weak point was the human upper body, the heart, the head.

Killing them wasn't actually difficult.

"Pei Xi, if I ever become a monster, and if you get the chance... please end my suffering for me..."

In his memory, the gentle woman had held his still-young hand and told him how to end her suffering if she became a monster.

Pei Xi reached a high point. His metalized arm transformed into a long spear. The tip aimed straight at the monster's heart.

Just as it was about to pierce through, he faltered for an instant.

His gaze shifted upward.

His dilated pupils reflected that human face.

His throat nearly lost its voice. Silently, he called out a name that was both familiar and strange.

"Aunt Mingyue..."

That single moment of hesitation allowed the black wings to swing toward him with irresistible force.

Pei Xi fell to the ground like a broken-winged bird. He coughed up blood. As he tried to get up, a heavy pressure bore down on him again.

A long sharp claw pressed against his throat.

That familiar face loomed above him.

The all-black eyes held no trace of emotion.

Pei Xi stared blankly at the face. More than ten years had passed, yet it showed no sign of aging at all.

Because of that, Pei Xi realized with painful clarity that it was no longer human. It was no longer Aunt Mingyue.

Feeling the lethal threat at his throat, Pei Xi closed his eyes.

If not for the creation of beings like him, none of these tragedies would've happened.

The chaotic noise around him was suddenly replaced by a piercing roar.

Pei Xi opened his eyes and stared upward in disbelief.

The massive black body disintegrated from the bottom upward, like paper set ablaze, until even that familiar face vanished completely.

"Pei Xi, get out of my way."

Sykes passed through the falling black ash.

His arrogant face remained expressionless.

He merely glanced sideways at the person lying on the ground.

Pei Xi climbed to his feet and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. He stared at Sykes in disbelief. "You killed her... she..."

Halfway through the sentence, Pei Xi fell silent. What was he supposed to say? Shouldn't Sykes have killed the monster? If Sykes hadn't acted in time, Pei Xi himself might've died beneath the claws of Aunt Mingyue, who had already become a monster.

"Idiot."

Sykes didn't even glance at him. He tossed out the two words and strode past.

Pei Xi covered his face with one hand. He was the one who needed to wake up. He'd promised Aunt Mingyue he wouldn't let her continue living in suffering as a monster.

He turned and looked around at the black figures surrounding them. His heart ached sharply. While they were alive, the base had treated them as caged experimental subjects. After death, they were still imprisoned inside monstrous bodies. How could such gentle and kind people ever allow themselves to become nothing more than killing machines?

Pei Xi raised his metalized right arm again. His expression grew heavy. This time, he wouldn't hesitate. He would grant them true release, and then he would avenge them. The Hope Project base had already been destroyed, but he knew the church was the real force behind the experiments.

Seeing Aunt Mingyue's face again had stirred more forgotten fragments of his childhood memories. The base hadn't kept Fallen Ones out of kindness. It had been because of their formidable combat power. The church seemed to be using them to build strength against the royal family.

Pei Xi clenched his teeth. Facing another dragon-bodied human swooping toward him, his right arm no longer hesitated with a mere defensive block. The sword-sharp tip sliced directly through one of its claws.

He pressed the advantage and leaped onto the massive dragon body. The sword tip pressed against the human torso's heart and thrust forward.

His metalized arm shouldn't have had any sense of touch, Pei Xi thought. Yet he felt an icy resistance that stopped his movement.

"Pei Xi, why did you change your mind?"

"Is killing them really the right thing?"

A soft sigh brushed against his ear. Pei Xi turned his head in shock. At some point, Ye Zheng had appeared behind him. Water threads from her hand had wrapped around his arm.

"Ye Zheng? Why are you... No, you shouldn't be stopping me."

"They've already become monsters. Letting them live will only harm innocent people. I hesitated for just a moment out of softness, and it cost the life of someone right beside me..."

Pei Xi shook his head in confusion. He had only just sorted out his thoughts, and Ye Zheng had disrupted everything again.

"You didn't lose that life because you were soft. You lost it because you weren't strong enough."

Pei Xi's eyes widened.

"Not being strong enough isn't your fault, Pei Xi."

Beside his ear, Ye Zheng seemed to lower her voice. In the hazy blur, he thought he heard another familiar voice, one that had spoken similar words to him on a moonlit night when a gentle breeze stirred his hair.

"Lower your hand. Help me. I can save them, and I can save you too."

"Save the pitiful puppets who are being manipulated..."

The soft, gentle voice settled like a feather on the tip of his racing heart. Pei Xi's rigid metal arm trembled slightly.

"You really have a way... you..."

Pei Xi's expression softened. His other hand pressed against his forehead.

"No... no, you're Ye Zheng, you're from the church, you're the enemy, you're the oppo..."

Suddenly, Pei Xi's pupils dilated blankly, stripped of any light. His voice turned stiff and mechanical.

Ye Zheng calmly observed every sign of abnormality. Before her eyes, besides Pei Xi's stunned face, a line of red text appeared.

【Warning! Warning! Plotline correction in progress... Protagonist behavior under detection...】

The red text burned across Pei Xi's pale face. He remained completely unaware of it. He turned to look at Ye Zheng. Light returned to his eyes, sadness mixed with a trace of doubt.

"Ye Zheng, you're someone raised by the church. Your relationship with Zhou Yun, who used them, is suspicious. Can I really trust you?"

"Of course you don't have to trust me."

Ye Zheng's voice grew even softer.

At some point, rain had begun to fall from the sky. Fine droplets landed on both of them. Suddenly, one drop struck just beneath Ye Zheng's left eye, like a crystal tear that left a glistening trail down her cheek and added a strange, sorrowful beauty to her pitch-black pupils.

But when Pei Xi looked into her right eye, it was pure, absolute black, ruthless and utterly resolute.

That cold, unwavering gaze pierced straight into Pei Xi's heart. Before he could think further, intense pain surged through him all at once.

"Ah!"

In a daze, he saw a bloodied arm fly away. He couldn't hold back a cry of pain, but he quickly suppressed it. Shocked, he stared at Ye Zheng.

"You don't have to trust me."

"But you cannot stop me."

After severing Pei Xi's arm, Ye Zheng leaped down from the dragon body without looking back even once. Yet she had barely taken a few steps when, for an instant, all sensation vanished from her.

When she opened her eyes again, Pei Xi stood before her. His expression was complicated as he stared at her. Ye Zheng looked toward his arm. It was completely intact.

"Ye Zheng, are we truly enemies after all?"

Hearing the hoarse bitterness in Pei Xi's voice, Ye Zheng lifted her eyes and looked at him helplessly.

"If you insist on standing in my way, then yes, I am."

The fine rain pattered against their bodies. Within the increasingly suffocating atmosphere, Ye Zheng raised her hand and toyed with the threads of rain. Pei Xi expanded the metalization across his body.

The real battle was about to erupt.

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Authors Note  

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Zheng: I hands moved fast. I slapped the villain, the villainous second male lead, and the male protagonist all at once.