Chapter 169

 Hearing Ye Zheng’s answer, the man’s face twisted in rage, making the scar writhe as though it were a living flesh worm.

He suddenly burst forth with power and tried to rush toward Ye Zheng. The knights standing guard on both sides immediately subdued him. He let out an unwilling roar and lifted his gaze toward the approaching Saintess.

“Let me go!”

“Is this your answer, using power to oppress others?!”

The Saintess, dressed in luxurious attire with a tall, straight posture, stood in stark contrast to the poor, grief-stricken man being pinned to the ground by the knights. The scene was intensely sharp, stinging many people’s eyes and hearts. In the crowd, someone had already begun shouting “Let that gentleman go!” while others waved their fists.

Amid the uproar, Ye Zheng remained silent. She raised her hand and held it suspended above the man’s head.

The next moment, the man’s struggling movements froze. His face twitched as the scar that had nearly killed him gave off a cool, itchy sensation. He desperately wanted to reach out and scratch it, but his hands were pinned down by the knights.

“I can have them release you, but don’t move. The healing cannot be interrupted.”

“First, let me treat your injury. You can speak slowly to me afterward.”

Her voice was extremely gentle and accommodating, carrying a faint hint of helplessness. It made the angry man seem like a childish, unreasonable boy. For a moment, even the crowd shouting “Let him go” fell silent.

Realizing that the Saintess was healing him, a flash of disbelief crossed the man’s eyes. Then his body gradually relaxed. The knights retreated to both sides, leaving him kneeling stiffly before Ye Zheng.

Even if he spent all his family’s savings, it would be extremely difficult to find an ability user of the Saintess’s level to heal such a life-threatening scar… But… but he had not come today seeking help from Ye Zheng. He had come to tear off the hypocritical mask of these nobles!

The man abruptly brushed away Ye Zheng’s hand and stood up.

He quickly glanced down at the audience, his expression turning unpleasant. Ye Zheng’s action had disrupted his rhythm, and even the heated atmosphere had cooled down.

“I, Yu’an, do not need your charity. It’s true that your healing ability is very high, but if the Ye family had used the money spent raising you from childhood to give us fair compensation, this scar would never have appeared on my body.”

Ye Zheng smiled. “The Ability Tribunal is currently reviewing this matter. I believe you will soon receive substantial compensation.”

The man named Yu’an shook his head, his face showing determination. “I did not come for money. I came for fairness—the victims are living in fear in cramped temporary shelters, while the daughter of the culprit enjoys the admiration of tens of thousands!”

“I know that by standing here today, I have offended the God of Hope and the Saintess’s supporters. I might even be stabbed to death by the knights on the spot, but I have no fear of death.”

“I want to awaken more people. Hypocritical pretenders who put on an act aren’t worthy of guiding us forward!”

Pei Xi in the crowd couldn’t help but push forward. Even though the man’s behavior came off as somewhat radical, parts of his words resonated with Pei Xi’s own thoughts. The people of the lower district shouldn’t place so much blind trust in Ye Zheng or rely on her so heavily. Her background meant she would never truly become their Saintess in the way they imagined.

What’s more, the real Ye Zheng wasn’t the flawless, sacred God’s Chosen at all. She was deep, calculating, and willing to do anything… completely different from the Saintess everyone admired and believed in.

To some extent, everything the man said wasn’t wrong. Pei Xi held his breath and looked up, waiting for Ye Zheng’s response along with everyone else gathered there.

On the high platform, Ye Zheng allowed the man to finish his long stream of accusations without interruption. Then she calmly turned her gaze to him and replied: “If the culprit you speak of is my father, Ye Fanjing, he is currently undergoing review at the Ability Tribunal in the upper district. I can take you to him. Even without a permit, I can bring you into the upper district.”

Lower district citizens needed a permit from the upper district to enter, otherwise it would be illegal.

Upon hearing this, the man froze as if he had heard something absurd. It took him a long moment to understand Ye Zheng’s meaning. He stared at her with widened eyes.

“Don’t worry. Although you have prepared yourself to face death without fear, I can guarantee your safety.”

“Even if you stab Ye Fanjing to death on the spot, I can plead for you in court and spare you from the death penalty.”

Ye Zheng’s voice fell calmly. The man, however, was completely shaken. He suddenly lost the ability to organize his words. His voice turned hesitant and stuttering, lacking all of his previous momentum.

“I… I didn’t come here today to find him… You’re saying such things… Ye Fanjing is your father…”

Ye Zheng raised an eyebrow. She flung off her heavy cloak and turned to face the dense crowd below the platform. She pointed at the man standing on the stage with one hand.

“Sir, you said you came for fairness. You said that as the daughter of a noble, I am not qualified to guide you…”

“But now, I am willing to betray my father and defy the laws of the upper district to take you to the culprit and demand justice, why are you hesitating?”

Faced with Ye Zheng’s piercing gaze, the man felt as though he had been thrown into a world of ice and snow. His face went deathly pale.

The Saintess’s resounding words echoed through every corner of Sieg Square. The crowd first fell into stunned silence, then erupted into heated discussion.

Pei Xi stood frozen in shock. The buzzing chatter of the people around him filled his ears, making his head ache.

“Yeah, why doesn’t he just go find Ye Fanjing?”

“Saying he isn’t afraid of death—he’s just taking advantage of the Saintess’s good temper to bully the weak.”

“The Saintess’s position was chosen by the church and the God of Hope, not bought by the Ye family. What does he want? To make the Saintess never set foot in the lower district again?”

“The Saintess’s knight order is made up entirely of commoner girls. Don’t we all know how much she cares about us? Just because the Saintess is kind, he have to be so harsh on her…”

Waves of questioning voices rose and fell one after another. On the high platform, the man struggled to gather his thoughts. Feeling as though he had found a solid point, he launched another accusation.

“Saintess Ye Zheng, even though Ye Fanjing is a criminal, he is still your father, the closest kin who raised you!”

“To protect your Saintess title from being tainted by your father’s crimes, you actually want me to kill him. Do your actions truly match the identity of a Saintess?”

After roaring out these words, the man stared directly at Ye Zheng, as if his confidence had been restored.

Not to mention the Saintess, even an ordinary person showing such coldness toward their own father would face condemnation from basic human decency. How much more so for Ye Zheng, whom people regarded as a benevolent and noble Saintess?

Hearing the man’s forceful and resounding accusation, Ye Zheng simply lowered her head with a faint smile. When she lifted her eyes to look at him again, the smile in her gaze vanished in an instant.

Bang!

Amid the crowd’s gasps of shock, Ye Zheng removed her dazzling, ornate crown and slammed it heavily onto the ground.

Her long black hair spilled down, swaying gently in the wind without appearing disheveled. Next, Ye Zheng took off her cloak and the coat embroidered with gold thread and gemstones, tossing them to the ground. She remained in only the simplest white robe, yet her tall, straight figure became even clearer, more eye-catching than the statue of the God of Hope standing behind her.

“From the moment I took the oath as Saintess, my life has belonged to the God of Hope and to the people. Since I was fourteen, I have been Saintess Ye Zheng, not the Ye family’s Ye Zheng."

“Ever since I took on the title of Saintess, I’ve always placed my duties as Saintess above everything else. When my personal emotions come into conflict with fairness and justice, no matter how painful it becomes, I must abandon my private feelings…”

Ye Zheng’s voice grew a little deeper, carrying a barely noticeable tremor, as though her heart itself were struggling and suffering alongside her words.

Yet many people could still sense the complicated emotions hidden behind the Saintess’s speech. Even if one’s own father had committed a crime, who could truly remain completely cold and impartial when facing such a situation? For the sake of upholding fairness and justice, the Saintess was willing to let her own father face punishment. Just how much pain must she be enduring inside her heart?

In the crowd, quite a few emotionally sensitive people had already turned red around the eyes.

“As a Saintess, I failed to properly supervise my family. As a daughter, I failed to show enough respect and love toward my father.”

Ye Zheng took a deep breath and picked up the sword sheath resting on the table. Many people assumed it was just a prop left behind from the earlier drama performance, but those with sharper minds had already been shaken, quickly guessing the sword’s true identity.

“I can’t fulfill both identities at the same time, so I must give up one of them.”

A flash of golden light carved a sharp arc through the air as Ye Zheng drew the divine sword!

“My family comes from the mysterious and ancient East, where there’s a saying: a child’s body and hair are given by their parents and must not be harmed or destroyed.”

[T/N- it's a real quote (not 1 to 1 though) from imperial china. Book was The Classic of Filial Piety (孝经 / Xiào Jīng)

This text, written around the 4th century BC and attributed to Confucius's disciple Zengzi] 

Ye Zheng lifted her hand and gathered her long black hair in front of her. Her right hand held the sword, while her left hand gently stroked the silky black strands.

Her black hair flowed with a lustrous sheen under the sunlight, even more captivating than a night sky filled with stars. Everyone’s admiring gazes were drawn to the beautiful long hair. No one knew how much effort and money it must have taken to maintain something so long and flawless.

“Such beautiful long hair requires a great deal of money and effort to maintain. I don’t like it, but in order to show respect to the first Saintess, every generation of Saintess must have long, beautiful hair.”

“However, its existence doesn’t benefit my work. It’s nothing more than a glamorous burden and a useless excess.”

Portraits of past Saintesses were preserved within the church, and every single one of them appeared as a gentle and beautiful “Saintess.”

Yet they did not possess the true power of the first Saintess, only a similar appearance was passed down.

“Today, I will defy both the grace of my parents and the rules of the church by cutting it off and discarding this useless burden.”

Ye Zheng gathered her long hair with one hand while slowly raising the divine sword with the other, holding it suspended above the black strands.

“From now on, I have only one identity, the Saintess who will lead everyone toward light and happiness!”

The man on the stage had already fallen silent. Like everyone else present, he stared at Ye Zheng with trembling eyes filled with shock. He knew he had lost completely. No one could remain unmoved by the Saintess’s determination.

Just as thousands of people raised their heads in unison, ready to witness this historic moment, and excited cheers were about to erupt from their throats, a white light screen suddenly blocked out the sun. It quickly descended from above and enveloped the entire Sieg Square.

The excited cheers instantly turned into terrified screams. The crowd surged in panic, it was an Aberrant Realm descending!

An Aberrant Realm had descended.

Ye Zheng’s sword, which had been about to cut off her hair, stopped mid-motion. She raised her head and stared at the white light screen that had replaced the sun. Intense emotions churned in her black eyes, and the muscles on her face twitched uncontrollably. Her entire being looked like a heavy dark cloud, one that was about to unleash a violent storm.

Was this a coincidence, or was it intentional? Why did it have to happen at this exact moment!

Although there were quite a few ability users in the square, there were simply too many ordinary people present. Even a single monster appearing could injure many of them!

Fate seemed to be playing a massive joke on her. Sieg Square was rumored to be protected by the statue of the God of Hope and was considered one of the safest places in the lower district. Aberrant Realms almost never appeared here. Yet she had encountered this tiny probability at such a critical moment.

Seeing the Aberrant Realm descend, Wu Shu on the top of the tower vigilantly stared downward, while Bai Muqing at the periphery charged against the flow of people and rushed straight into the white light screen.

Just before entering the Aberrant Realm, Bai Muqing seemed to sense something and paused for a moment, but she still chose to go in first.

Pei Xi, down below the platform, was trying his best to calm the panicked crowd. The cries of children and the desperate calls for help from adults kept drowning out his voice. At this level of chaos, even before any monsters appeared, people might already die from a stampede.

He looked toward Ye Zheng’s direction, his feelings complicated. Even he had been impressed by Ye Zheng’s speech and actions earlier. She had been on the verge of a complete turnaround, but the sudden descent of this Aberrant Realm had reduced all her efforts to nothing. Public opinion would only grow even worse.

This wasn’t Ye Zheng’s fault. It was fate forcing her to the forefront of the storm. She could only consider herself unlucky.

On the high platform, the unlucky Ye Zheng still maintained her posture with her head raised. Her pupils had almost shrunk to pinpricks. Dark clouds were already beginning to gather in the sky above. She could sense water vapor rising and condensing, this was a water-core Aberrant Realm!

The wind grew stronger and stronger. Ye Zheng’s long hair whipped wildly around her as she looked around.

Under the horrified gazes of the knights and the man on the stage, Ye Zheng suddenly let out a laugh. With one hand she grabbed her flying long hair, raised the golden sword, placed it against the hair at her neck, and slashed downward.

The black long hair instantly cascaded to the ground. The damp wind swept across Ye Zheng’s now-short hair.

Her short hair was uneven on both sides—the right side slightly longer, reaching her jaw, while the left side was a bit shorter—but Ye Zheng had no time to care whether it looked neat or not.

Strands of severed hair still clung to the blade of the sword. Ye Zheng lifted the golden sword high, pointing it toward the ever-growing dark clouds in the sky.

When the first corrosive raindrop landed on the tip of the sword, the 【Stream】 wrapped around the blade surged upward along the rain threads like a greedy snake devouring the falling water. In the blink of an eye, it wove the strange rainwater into a vast net suspended in mid-air.

Some people were the first to be splashed by the corrosive rain, their skin turning red from the burn. Others cried out in pain and panic. Some shouted hoarsely, urging those around them to hold their clothes over their heads. Just as the scene was descending into utter chaos and despair, voices suddenly began shouting, “Look up!”

At some point, no more raindrops were falling.

The rainwater descending from the dark clouds converged into a waterfall-like curtain of water, surging swiftly toward the divine sword raised by the Saintess upon the high platform.

The Saintess had already cut off her long hair. She stood firmly on the high platform, gripping the divine sword with both hands and swinging it upward. The water curtain split apart like a blade, cleaving through the dark clouds in the sky. Along with it, the white light screen symbolizing the aberrant space also cracked open!

Everyone raised their heads to watch the scene, deeply etching it into their eyes. Ye Zheng, swinging the divine sword, no longer had the iconic beautiful long hair of a Saintess, but at this moment, no one questioned that she was the Saintess of the empire, the Saintess who could lead everyone toward light and happiness!

The bright light screen had fallen suddenly and vanished just as fast.

Those who had been standing at the edge and felt relieved to have escaped the Aberrant Realm now wore puzzled expressions.

They gazed at Sieg Square which had returned to normal and heard the thunderous cheers rising from inside there.

Instinctively they rushed toward the square once more.

“Ye Zheng!”

“Saintess Ye Zheng!”

Cheers from every direction threatened to overturn the whole square.

Even the grand statue of the God of Hope appeared to shake from the vibrations.

Ye Zheng smiled while she looked at the excited crowd below.

Her hand clenched the sword hilt firmly.

She didn’t speak just swung the sword toward the sky once more which triggered an even louder wave of cheers.

It drew a steady stream of people rushing here to witness the Saintess’s sermon that could only be described as a miracle.

The moment the first drop of rain landed on the tip of her sword, Ye Zheng understood this time fate was lifting her even higher

It was destined.

She would lead this era toward a new epoch!

┳⁠━━━━⁠━⁠⁠━⁠━⁠━━━⁠┳  

Authors Note  

┻━⁠━━━━⁠━━⁠━━━⁠┻  

The next chapter will eventually arrive at the forum…