Chapter 160

Bai Muqing walked along the path in the church garden beneath the moonlight, her expression tight with heavy thoughts. Suddenly, she seemed to sense something and stopped beside a familiar oak tree. After waiting for a moment, someone approached from the other end of the path.

It had been a long time since they last met. The last time Bai Muqing had seen this face was on the projection of that world-shaking Holy Verdict.

That judgment had arrived very suddenly. Only one grand theater in the Upper District had broadcast the projection, and the scene had been extremely chaotic. The usually arrogant nobles behaved no differently from the commoners they usually looked down on. Bai Muqing disliked noisy crowds, but she had still squeezed into the very center of the crowd and watched the entire process with her head raised.

“Ye Zheng.”

Ye Zheng was also slightly surprised to see Bai Muqing. Bai Muqing was no longer a nun of the church. She had joined the royal knight order for training and shouldn’t have been here.

She was not wearing her previous nun’s habit, nor the red uniform representing the royal family. Instead, she wore a specially tailored white uniform that was so pure it almost blended into the moonlight.

A trace of amusement flashed through Ye Zheng’s dark eyes. “Bai Muqing.”

Whether becoming a nun or leaving the position of nun was equally difficult. Usually, only noble girls were qualified to become nuns who served the gods. Once they took their vows, the church would not easily allow them to leave that identity.

But Bai Muqing came from a noble background. Her family controlled military power that could not be ignored. Neither the church nor the royal family would mind granting her special treatment. After all, in their eyes, whether Bai Muqing chose to become a nun or a knight, the latter was only a small act of rebellion.

“Muqing, are you here to visit the Pope?”

Ye Zheng glanced toward the grand cathedral not far away and asked curiously.　

“You’re going to go see him?”

Bai Muqing didn’t answer the question directly. Instead, she asked Ye Zheng in return, her tone carrying a faint trace of barely noticeable impatience.

“Don’t go see him. Stay away from him, and from a person named Wen Xiaoxing.”

Ye Zheng let out a soft chuckle upon hearing that and slightly raised her brows. “What am I supposed to do then? I’ve already had dealings with Wen Xiaoxing.”

Bai Muqing’s cold, pale face went still for a moment. She recalled that today was the final day of the ability competition. Ye Zheng must have just returned after participating in it.

“Did Wen Xiaoxing make a move against you?”

Ye Zheng neither confirmed nor denied it. She studied Bai Muqing thoughtfully for a moment and then suddenly said, “Muqing, would it be convenient for you to come over to my place as a guest tonight?”

Bai Muqing’s empty eyes seemed to hollow out even further for a brief moment. She resembled a rusted machine, laboring to process the words in front of her.

Ye Zheng cast a subtle glance at the grand cathedral behind Bai Muqing. At first, she’d come to warn Wen Jian and try to extract some information. But after unexpectedly encountering Bai Muqing, who appeared to possess certain insider knowledge, Ye Zheng changed her approach and decided to test Bai Muqing first.

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This was the very first time Bai Muqing had ever visited a peer’s home and stayed overnight as a friend.

She understood that Ye Zheng hadn’t brought her back simply to chat or pass the time, so Bai Muqing stayed silent the entire journey, carefully arranging her thoughts.

Even so, when she received the gentle hospitality of Lady Shu Wan, an unfamiliar feeling rose within her, a mixture of awkward stiffness and a faint trace of happiness. She didn’t dislike it.

When Bai Muqing stepped into Ye Zheng’s room, she instinctively activated her ability to scan the surroundings. The room was neither large nor small, its layout simple, with very few unnecessary items, as clean and straightforward as Ye Zheng herself.

Through 【Divine Domain】, she detected some old toys and similar objects tucked away in one corner of the bedroom. It seemed that Ye Zheng was someone who held onto the past.

Bai Muqing frowned slightly and quickly narrowed the scope of her perception, restraining her curiosity. Acting this way was simply too impolite.

Most of the time, she regarded 【Divine Domain】 as a blessing. Although she didn’t possess ordinary eyesight, the vision it granted was far deeper and broader than anything human eyes could achieve. That was both its strength and its weakness.

The two of them sat side by side on the sofa. Ye Zheng poured a glass of water for Bai Muqing. It was already late, the ideal hour for sleep, yet the two of them were destined to remain awake through the night.

She had deliberately kept Bai Muqing here out of her own selfish curiosity. Too many things had happened today. She’d traversed dozens of world lines and brushed against the very essence of this world. Even after returning to her familiar and comforting bedroom, her heart was still beating faster than usual.

“Muqing, tell me everything you know about the Pope and Wen Xiaoxing.”

Ye Zheng rested her cheek against her left hand and looked sideways at Bai Muqing’s tightly pressed lips. She softened her tone even further.

“Today I almost got killed by Wen Xiaoxing. He’s truly a ruthless person. He might very well try to make another move against me again soon.”

“…I’ll find a way to deal with him. Upholding law and order is also part of a knight’s duty.”

“Handling Wen Xiaoxing, who appeared out of nowhere, is easy, but the person backing him won’t be so simple to eliminate.”

Bai Muqing fell silent for a brief moment. With her eyes half-closed, she spoke slowly, “Ye Zheng, why does the church, which represents the will of the God of Hope, conceal so much filth?”

After stepping out of her identity as a nun and following Yinkong’s trail to investigate the church she had once believed in, she’d awakened as if from a dream, only to realize she’d been standing on thin ice the entire time, with a bottomless abyss stretching beneath her.

“No wonder you don’t like the church or the gods at all.”

Before Ye Zheng could say anything to comfort her, Bai Muqing took a document from her bosom. A photograph was attached to it. When Ye Zheng looked over, she saw that it was unmistakably Wen Xiaoxing.

Ye Zheng picked up the document and studied it more closely. The boy in the photograph bore a strong resemblance to Wen Xiaoxing, but looked slightly more childish, with a timid demeanor. His clothing appeared dull and gray.

The document indicated that he was a child from a welfare institute in the Middle District. In the name column, it read “Yin Xing.”

The family relations section showed that he had an older brother. Because this brother possessed exceptional talent, he had entered the Divine Academy at the age of fourteen and had been raised there ever since.

Yin Xing himself had been an ordinary person with no talent whatsoever. He received a standard education, just like all the other ordinary children in the welfare institute, until he died of a sudden illness at the age of fifteen.

“His older brother is Yinkong. Not long after Yinkong… disappeared, Yin Xing died from a sudden illness.”

Bai Muqing took out another document. It showed that within a single year, thirteen children from this Middle District welfare institute had died from sudden illnesses. What stood out was that Yinkong had also suffered a sudden illness. Before the age of fourteen, he’d been an ordinary person. Not long after that illness, he awakened his ability, and then entered the Divine Academy.

The primary sponsor of this Middle District welfare institute was the church, and priests from the church who possessed healing abilities were responsible for treating the children’s illnesses.

Ye Zheng stared intently at the photograph. Yin Xing and Wen Xiaoxing had completely different temperaments, and Yin Xing had originally been nothing more than an ordinary person without any abilities.

And yet, Yin Xing, who had supposedly died of a sudden illness, had somehow transformed only a few months later into Wen Xiaoxing of the Cloud Soarers team, possessing an even more exaggerated fate-type ability than Yinkong.

Ye Zheng had already pieced it together. This Middle District welfare institute was, in all likelihood, Wen Jian’s experimental ground.

She thought back to Kieran, whom she’d already killed. His words had subtly implied that Wen Jian wasn’t an honest man. He’d so readily accepted her claim that she was Wen Jian’s private experimental product. It seemed that even Kieran knew Wen Jian liked to secretly meddle with things using 【Mother of All Things】.

From the commoners she’d encountered during charity events in the Lower District, to the children in the welfare institute used as experimental subjects in the Middle District, and even the dragon-bodied humans Wen Jian had covertly created in the Upper District, Ye Zheng no longer knew how to judge this person. She let out a cold, quiet laugh.

“Yinkong is dead. I wanted to look after his family, so I investigated and found Yin Xing. That’s when I realized something was off.”

“I don’t know how Yin Xing ended up becoming Wen Xiaoxing, a student at Cloud Soarers Academy, with a Lower District household registration and an S-class ability. But according to what I’ve found, Wen Xiaoxing has ties to the Pope.”

“I suspect that Yin Xing really did die, and Wen Xiaoxing is a… monster created through some unknown method.”

Ye Zheng fixed Bai Muqing with a slightly probing look. “Why do you think Wen Xiaoxing isn’t Yin Xing, but a monster?”

Bai Muqing’s voice turned cold and heavy. “Because I found the monsters the Pope’s hiding in the Upper District. Their voices are shrill, they have hard scales, thick wings, a human upper body, and…” 

“And dragon-like horns.” Ye Zheng completed the sentence for her.

Bai Muqing slowly turned her head. Ye Zheng saw her usually emotionless white pupils tremble faintly, and she looked genuinely startled.

Ye Zheng herself was a bit surprised as well. She hadn’t expected Bai Muqing to investigate the dragon-bodied humans on her own. But on second thought, given Bai Muqing’s ability, within the range of 【Divine Domain】 she was practically omniscient. Detecting anomalies would be as effortless as turning her hand.

After returning from the Western District, she’d asked Wende to lead a team to search for the dragon-bodied humans the Pope might be hiding. Once they’d located them, aside from threatening Wen Jian once, Ye Zheng hadn’t taken any further action.

Because the dragon-bodied humans weren’t yet fit to be revealed to the public. The moment their existence came to light, the empire, in order to calm public panic and maintain stability, would inevitably make the same choice Sykes once had. No matter how powerful they were, the empire’s ability user army outnumbered them a hundredfold.

Ye Zheng needed to first secure 【Mother of All Things】 and gain control over the church. Only by establishing a stable force on her side could she truly begin resolving this issue.

In the end, even though she currently held prestige and the church and royal family didn’t dare act against her openly, without real power and a dependable force, moving forward would still be extremely difficult, let alone leading others out of this mire.

That was why she had to deal with Wen Jian. Even putting aside old grudges, she needed to seize both his ability and his position.

Ye Zheng had chosen 【Mother of All Things】 as the breakthrough point. This ability was the core of the Hope Project and also the very symbol of identity for every generation of Popes.

Those old men would never willingly allow her to ascend to the position of Pope. But what if she took 【Mother of All Things】 by force?

The more urgently Wen Jian tried to use the power of 【Mother of All Things】 against her, the more flaws he would expose. Ye Zheng slipped her hand into the pocket of her windbreaker. The green fragments were stored inside. Wen Xiaoxing’s ability had originated from those very fragments.

“Ye Zheng, it seems you know even more than I do.”

Hearing that, Ye Zheng snapped back to the present and offered a reassuring smile. “No, I just happened to come across a few things. The clues you’ve given me are really helpful. Thank you, Muqing.”

After hearing her thanks, Bai Muqing’s expression actually grew colder. Her voice turned as sharp and frigid as ice. “Ye Zheng, I didn’t come here to provide you with clues.”

“I discovered this matter myself, and I’ll investigate it to the very end. The empire shouldn’t harbor such shadows.”

Ye Zheng restrained her smile and looked seriously at Bai Muqing’s stern face, which carried an icy, cutting killing intent. Bai Muqing was the kind of person who couldn’t tolerate even a grain of sand in her eyes. She was pure, and also unyieldingly stubborn. Ye Zheng wasn’t surprised.

At that moment, Ye Zheng’s thoughts drifted briefly. If one day she herself became the empire’s dark side, Bai Muqing would likely be wearing this exact same expression.

“In that case, let’s investigate together.”

Ye Zheng revealed her gentle smile once more.

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Authors Note  

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I’ve been really busy lately. I have to work on my thesis and accompany my mom to court. I’m not sure when I’ll have time for a big update…