Chapter 178

 Wen Jian was at the eastern altar. Thirty minutes later, Pei Xi would make contact with Wen Jian’s people at the northern auditorium. Ye Zheng decided to head to the auditorium first to assess the situation.

The inheritance ritual required divine blood. She had long suspected that Pei Xi was a being born from the God of Hope’s divine blood. The fact that Wen Jian had deliberately drawn Pei Xi to the Pope’s Palace must be related to the inheritance of 【Mother of All Things】.

Ye Zheng took one last look at Pei Xi as he gradually walked away, then turned and descended the stairs.

This building was used for receiving guests. Those waiting for the announcement of the new Pope included the cardinals of the Church as well as the imperial royals. Even Bai Muqing’s family had sent representatives of their own. They were all staying inside their respective rooms, enjoying fine wine and exquisite delicacies while chatting in a relaxed, leisurely manner as they waited.

Knights and guards stood watch at the doors of the rooms and also outside the main entrance downstairs. The vast public space contained only the occasional servant passing by with trays of drinks.

Therefore, when Ye Zheng saw a man in a tailcoat and top hat walking straight toward her, her footsteps on the stairs came to an abrupt halt.

She placed her hand on the railing beside the staircase, her fingers gently tracing the patterns carved into its surface. Lowering her gaze to the man who was lifting his foot onto the first step, she asked softly, “Sir, are you also a guest today?”

The man in the tailcoat looked up, removed his hat, and bowed politely, replying with a smile on his face:

“In response to the Saintess, I am not a guest. I am here to perform for the guests—the magician.”

As he spoke, the man placed his hat back on his head. The shadow of the brim covered his eyes, leaving only his faintly colored lips visible.

Ye Zheng let out a soft laugh. “The Pope truly knows how to treat his guests. Even performances have been arranged.”

She descended the stairs step by step until she was only one step above the man. Looking down at him, she said, “Unfortunately, I have important matters to attend to and don’t have time to enjoy your performance.”

“That may not be the case. My performances are never long, but they are always enough to leave the audience with—ah!”

Ye Zheng kicked the man away with an expressionless face. The man let out a startled cry and tumbled down the stairs with a series of heavy thuds. She walked down the stairs, turned her head, and glanced coldly at the motionless figure sprawled on the ground before heading indifferently toward the main entrance.

Yet in the next instant, the man wearing the top hat suddenly flashed into view right in front of her. There wasn’t a trace of dishevelment on him, and his bright red lips were curved into a smile.

Ye Zheng stopped. When she turned her head to look again, the “man” lying on the floor was clearly nothing more than a wooden puppet dressed in clothes.

“Are you satisfied with my magic performance?”

“The Saintess is far more impressive than I expected. Do the citizens who adore you know that you’re such a violent person?”

The man who called himself a magician shrugged and teased with ease and confidence.

Ye Zheng did not answer. Instead, she stared with interest at his now vividly red lips and said, “Your magic performance does show some sincerity. Not only can you produce a wooden puppet, but you even remembered to touch up your own makeup. Your lip color looks quite nice right now.”

What lipstick? The man wiped his lips with his hand and discovered blood smeared across the back of it. His previously composed posture instantly stiffened.

When he had tumbled down the stairs earlier, he had accidentally bitten through his lip.

The man jerked his head up and met Ye Zheng’s deep, dark eyes. She pushed him aside with one hand, her tone carrying a faint trace of mockery. “I’ve seen enough of the renowned 【Magician】. There’s no need to watch it a second time.”

Many ability users in the empire operated in the gray areas. Their powers weren’t used to protect the nation or its people, but instead served the private desires of the wealthy. The 【Magician】 had some reputation among these bounty hunters. Rumors claimed he came and went without a trace, always able to silently resolve any trouble for his employers with bizarre and unpredictable abilities.

But with a single kick, Ye Zheng had already tested the man’s true level. His abilities were far more bluff than substance. He tried to create an aura of mysterious oppression, yet he couldn’t even properly control his own reaction when he fell down the stairs.

He probably tried to use the puppet to take the hit for her, yet his reaction had been so slow that he probably only remembered it after rolling down the stairs twice.

The man’s face stiffened. Beneath the brim of his hat, his eyes grew solemn. He understood that he had already fallen into a disadvantage in front of Ye Zheng. He liked to create psychological pressure on his opponents; as long as they panicked, his magic would have countless ways to exploit their openings.

Damn it. He had clearly been paying attention to her energy fluctuations the entire time. Who could’ve expected this Saintess to be so crude as to kick him directly? It had caught him completely off guard.

“Wait!”

He tried to stop Ye Zheng as she was leaving. Through the window, he noticed that the guards outside had already sensed the disturbance inside and were already about to come in to check.

He had prepared several spectacular magic tricks for the Saintess, whom tens of thousands revered, but Ye Zheng was about to walk out, and the people outside were about to come in. The situation no longer allowed him to keep clashing with her. His employer had specifically told him not to draw attention.

Seeing that Ye Zheng’s hand was already resting on the gilded doorknob, the man reached up and grabbed the top hat on his head. Gritting his teeth, he shouted, “Wait, Saintess! The secret of the inheritance!”

“Do you want to know the secret of the inheritance!”

Halfway through the man’s roar, Ye Zheng lowered her hand from the door. She turned her head in surprise.

The moment Ye Zheng turned her head, the man yanked off his top hat and hurled it toward her. The black top hat instantly transformed into several white doves that flew straight at Ye Zheng!

Ye Zheng’s pupils contracted. She immediately dodged aside, but she failed to notice a single feather that had landed on her sleeve.

The white doves crashed into the door and turned into several white statues that fell to the ground with crisp clinking sounds.

Ye Zheng stared at the small statues on the floor. They were white carrier pigeon statues, the symbol of the Colonna family.

In that split second, a string in Ye Zheng’s mind snapped taut. She instantly understood what the other party wanted to do!

She looked up at the man in the tailcoat, who wore an expression of relief. In the next moment, her figure vanished from the spot in the blink of an eye, like an evaporated droplet of water, leaving only the white statues scattered across the floor.

“What happened? We heard something unusual over here.”

The door was suddenly pushed open. The statues on the ground were shoved behind the two swinging doors. The entering knights did not notice them, nor did they see any sign of anyone.

　　“……Strange.” Why was no one there?

The knights walked into the hall and conducted a cursory inspection. They found nothing unusual, except for a small wooden puppet and a single feather inexplicably left on the floor.

At a certain corner of the garden, the man in the tailcoat suddenly flashed into view. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. Although he had failed to injure the Saintess as his employer had demanded, he had at least completed the most important task.

His 【Magician】 ability consisted of three types of magic. The first was transformation, such as turning a small wooden puppet into his own appearance or statues into living doves, lasting fifteen seconds. The second was suggestion, any spoken sentence could gain an inducement effect. The third was object transfer.

For example, at the moment of injury, he could swap his real body with the small wooden puppet placed in the center of the hall. Another example was swapping Ye Zheng’s position with a feather he had prepared elsewhere.

That was a bizarre place, one his employer had carefully prepared for the Saintess. If the employer did not intend to use a movement ability, it was quite possible the Saintess would be lost inside forever.

The man wiped his face. When he saw the tall hedge maze not far away, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

He recalled the final glance Ye Zheng had given him.

There had been no panic, no hatred. Her eyes had curved slightly, and the faint, shallow smile was like ripples stirred by a breeze across a lake, only calm understanding, along with a craftiness that made one’s heart flutter with unease.

The man paced back and forth anxiously in place. Either her control over people’s hearts had already become instinctive, allowing her to stay composed even when facing danger and, instead, unsettle the opponent, or she had already known about their trap in advance!

The man in the tailcoat thought for a moment and decided he should inform his employer about Ye Zheng’s unusual behavior. Although his task was already over, his commission still had to be completed perfectly.

In the blink of an eye, he vanished from the spot once again.

✧✧✧✧✧

Thick, majestic colonnades formed a circle around the open-air tall altar. The base of the altar was carved with reliefs depicting various heroic postures of the God of Hope, there was a holy figure smiling and preaching, a thunderous form glaring angrily at monsters, and two people currently standing in front of a relief of the God of Hope, who was shedding tears, conversing.

“Pope, is there anything else… I can do for you in the end?”

The young man with reddish-brown long hair asked softly, his voice carrying a trace of sorrow.

A heart-wrenching cough echoed through the empty altar. The old man remained hunched over. Only after the itch in his throat had fully subsided did he slowly reply.

“I can only accompany you up to today. After inheriting it, you must shoulder the responsibility of the Pope, eliminate the heretics and rebuild the holy and pure Hope Church…”

“Must it really be today to inherit 【Mother of All Things】? Without Ye Zheng as a threat, there’s no need for you to be in such a rush.”

Wen Jian tugged at the shriveled skin clinging tightly to his bones. A faint trace of mockery crossed his bark-like face. If his lifespan hadn’t already reached its end today, he wouldn’t have had to… Wen Jian cleared his throat and spoke again, reassuring the young man.

“The world will eventually be handed over to you young people. I believe you’ll do better than I ever did.”

Looking into the Pope’s caring and appreciative eyes, Riley felt a rush of mixed emotions—joy and sorrow tangled together. He was happy to be openly valued by such a great figure, yet at the same time, he felt a quiet sadness knowing that in just a few hours, he would have to leave him forever.

He was the illegitimate son of the Colonna family. His mother had once been favored, but she was timid and weak. Fearing that Lady Colonna would target him for the sake of her two legitimate sons, she had publicly declared him to be a girl. Because of that, he had been forced to live as a girl alongside his mother, tucked away in a small villa.

His mother fell out of favor after only a few years. Fortunately, due to his exceptional abilities, his father eventually took notice of him.

If Lady Colonna’s two sons represented the bright face of the Colonna family, destined to inherit its glory in the most orthodox and open way, then he was the family’s dark side, responsible for weaving the filthy spider web hidden beneath its surface.

But his fate had changed completely with the appearance of Pope Wen Jian.

In just four more hours, he would surpass his two arrogant brothers and reach the peak of power within the Colonna family.

From that moment on, the Colonna family’s unseen “daughter” Riley would be sent away to a remote region in the middle district and disappear without a trace, while the youngest Pope in the empire would steadily rise in the upper district.

Thinking about the future ahead, Riley’s hands trembled slightly. He replied to the Pope in a steady tone, “Rest assured, I’ll always remember your teachings.”

Wen Jian nodded slightly and asked again, “By the way, what about the Saintess?”

Riley smiled confidently. “At this point, she’s already entered my domain exactly as I arranged.”

“…Don’t let your guard down. She’s a cunning and vicious monster.”

“Of course, I’ll be careful. Everything is proceeding exactly according to my plan,” Riley replied.

Wen Jian suddenly turned his head, his gaze sweeping through the columns toward the deeper end of the colonnade. A sharp glint flashed in his clouded eyes. “Oh? Is that rat eavesdropping on our conversation also part of your plan?”

Riley’s expression changed. Following Wen Jian’s gaze, he saw a man step out from behind a stone pillar with both hands raised.

“Employer, I only came to report that the Saintess has fallen into the trap. I didn’t intend to eavesdrop.”

The man in the tailcoat adopted a respectful posture and walked toward them.

There was no need to feel guilty. In fact, he hadn’t heard anything. Inheritance ritual? Mother of All Things? He had no idea what any of that meant.

Besides, his employer had instructed him that if any accident occurred during the mission, he could come to the altar to find him.

Riley recognized him immediately as the person he had hired and let out a relieved breath. The man also relaxed upon seeing Riley’s expression and stepped forward with an enthusiastic smile.

However, in the blink of an eye, before either of them could even react, a sharp steel needle suddenly shot up from the ground. The man in the tailcoat widened his eyes in terror as the steel needle pierced through his head, pinning him firmly in place.

Riley stared in disbelief at the scene before him. The man had been skewered on a steel needle like some ridiculous kebab, yet he couldn’t even bring himself to laugh.

He turned his head and watched the old man step out from behind the altar. His voice failing him, he asked, “Why did you activate the mechanism? He was my man. We’ve worked together more than once…”

“I’m very sorry, child. He knew about the inheritance ritual and the Mother of All Things. Riley, you know this too—those who climb higher must become more ruthless if they want to stay there.”

“The moment he chose not to reveal himself right away, but instead eavesdropped on our conversation, he was already destined to die.”

The old man let out a helpless sigh, yet a cold glint flickered deep in his eyes.

No, in the moment he had instructed Riley to tell that person, “If Ye Zheng doesn’t take the bait, tell her you know about the ‘inheritance ritual’,” that man had already been marked for death.

A flicker of disappointment crossed Wen Jian’s eyes. He had thought Riley would be ruthless enough, but it seemed the boy was still far too naive.

Still, it didn’t matter. His ability held great potential, he had ambition, a powerful family backing him, and he was easy to manipulate. Those advantages alone were more than enough.

He narrowed his eyes and glanced at the time. Ye Zheng had already been trapped. All that remained was to wait for someone to bring Pei Xi over.

The key to the inheritance ritual was divine blood. That divine blood would guide 【Mother of All Things】 into the next successor’s body. Yet for some reason, Wen Jian could feel that the 【Mother of All Things】 within him was unusually restless and slipping out of control. He had a premonition that even with divine blood as guidance, 【Mother of All Things】 might not obediently enter Riley’s body.

Wen Jian needed more “divine blood.”

Now that Ye Zheng, this hidden threat, had been dealt with, he could begin the inheritance ritual as soon as Pei Xi arrived.

✧✧✧✧✧

Pei Xi followed the guard team for a single patrol round. The moment he checked the time, he immediately requested to leave the team from the captain. The captain pointed at him furiously and cursed this privileged outsider who came and went as he pleased for several sentences before finally letting him go.

Pei Xi rubbed his nose in mild embarrassment and left. He had simply joined the Colonna family’s guard team according to the letter’s instructions. Though he still didn’t understand why it had to be the Colonna family—did they have some kind of cooperation with Pope Wen Jian?

He walked along the path toward the northern auditorium, his fingers brushing against the white statue hidden in his pocket. That too had been specifically requested in the letter.

Under the bright, clear sunlight, he took out the white carrier pigeon statue and held it up, studying it for a moment. There was nothing unusual about it at all. He couldn’t figure out why it had been requested maybe it was meant to prove his identity.

Wen Jian would send someone to receive him at the auditorium. Pei Xi didn’t know what the purpose was. From the moment he stepped into the Pope’s Palace, alarm bells had been ringing nonstop in his mind. He felt something bad was coming, but he had no choice but to go and find out what the other party wanted.

Heavy thoughts pressed down on Pei Xi’s mind. He walked with his head lowered for a while, then took a deep breath to steady himself. When he looked up again, the auditorium was already right in front of him.

The auditorium was coated in red lacquer, which didn’t quite match the solemn holy style of the Pope’s Palace. Instead, it looked more like one of the large halls in the lower district, where free dramas were sometimes performed and were quite popular.

Pei Xi tightened his grip on the white statue and pushed open the red door.

He scanned the room. In the empty auditorium stood a pure white figure wearing the Church’s symbolic white robe, her back turned so her face couldn’t be seen.

This must be the person Wen Jian had sent to receive him, Pei Xi thought. He quickened his pace.

“Hello, I’m Pei—”

“Pei Xi?”

Not far away, the figure with her back turned slowly rotated, revealing a gentle yet concerned face.

　　She brushed her short, choppy hair back behind her ear and let out a soft chuckle. “Faster than I expected.”