Chapter 179

“Ye Zheng?” Pei Xi’s voice suddenly shot up, his pupils widening in shock.

There was no way the person Wen Jian had sent to receive him could be Ye Zheng!

At the deepest end of the hall, heavy red curtains hung over a faintly visible wide stage. Beneath the stage sat rows upon rows of seats. Ye Zheng stood right in the middle of the aisle. Sunlight poured in through the stained-glass windows, spilling across her body and scattering colorful patches of light and shadow over her face. Half of her face was swallowed by darkness, making that faint smile of hers impossible to read.

Pei Xi glanced around quickly. The layout and decoration were unmistakably that of an auditorium, but why was Ye Zheng here? She must’ve figured something out—like why Wen Jian needed him—and come here to stop it all.

He steadied his breathing and fixed his gaze on Ye Zheng with a hint of caution. “Saintess, I do have an agreement with Wen Jian, but I’m not here to help him. I only wanted to go along with it and probe what’s really going on.”

“If you’ve got any plans, I can assist you. Wen Jian is our common enemy.”

Ye Zheng tilted her head slightly, silently observing him without saying a word.

“You’ve used me for many things and always showed up wearing a false mask… However, during our first meeting in the cemetery, when we mourned the relatives who died in the Blood Flower incident together, I think that was the most genuine moment of yours.”

Pei Xi’s blue eyes stayed locked on Ye Zheng, still guarded and watchful. Even his tone carried a careful kind of probing.

After hearing him out, Ye Zheng walked toward him and stopped right in front of him. A faint trace of pity appeared in her eyes as she looked down at the young man and shook her head slightly. “You’re wrong. My sincerity exists in every moment, in front of everyone.”

“Do you still remember the promise I once made to you? As long as you kept that matter hidden, I owed you a favor.”

Pei Xi thought it over for a moment before finally recalling what she meant.

On the day of the Holy Verdict, Ye Zheng had used his blood to pass the divine blood test.

He still remembered her tone clearly—soft, gentle, and yet carrying a quiet threat.

“Swallow this matter down. I owe you a favor. If you ever reveal it… I’m very sorry.”

Pei Xi let out a laugh that felt almost absurd. He had only remembered the latter half of the warning, yet Ye Zheng actually remembered the first half of the promise?

“I don’t need the Saintess to repay me any favor now.”

“Really? If you don’t need it, then you’ll die today—aren’t you curious about why Wen Jian is looking for you?”

Pei Xi’s gaze darkened. “You mean he wants to kill me? What value do I even have that would make the Pope take action personally? I’m just a…”

“Just a rare dual-ability holder, a miraculous life the Hope Project spent centuries creating, an ordinary student with countless ties to the God of Hope?”

Ye Zheng finished his sentence smoothly, a faint smile still on her face.

Pei Xi went momentarily silent, caught off guard. He wasn’t foolish, and he quickly caught on. “So he needs this body of mine?”

Ye Zheng nodded. “perhaps.”

Pei Xi stared at her for a moment longer, hesitation flickering in his eyes. She still hadn’t given him a definite answer.

“I’m not an omniscient god, so how could I possibly know all of Wen Jian’s schemes and plots?” 

“Wen Jian is our common enemy. He wants to kill you to achieve some purpose. I won’t let Wen Jian succeed at anything, so I came.”

Ye Zheng’s words did alleviate some of his doubts. Pei Xi fell into thought. Today was the day the new Pope would be announced. Rumors said Wen Jian’s ability had the power to bring the dead back to life. Perhaps he had lured him here in order to seize this body of his, or something similar, and then continue living on as the new Pope.

　　Or perhaps this body of his, which carried a link to divine blood, could cure Wen Jian’s illness or something along those lines. Anything connected to the God of Hope always seemed to carry miraculous effects.

Saintess Ye Zheng and Pope Wen Jian had old blood feud from the Blood Flower incident and were already enemies locked in a power struggle, so Ye Zheng had come here to stop Wen Jian. Everything now seemed to make sense.

But Pei Xi still felt uneasy deep down. He asked, “Have you already dealt with the person Wen Jian sent to receive me?”

Ye Zheng let out a soft laugh and then asked a strange question. “Pei Xi, where do you think you are right now?”

Pei Xi glanced at her oddly. “The auditorium in the Pope’s Palace. Is there a problem?”

Ye Zheng turned her head toward the door and gestured for him to push it.

Pei Xi turned around and pushed the door, but it didn’t budge at all. His expression shifted slightly. His metalized right hand pierced straight through the door, blasting out a black hole, but the door quickly regenerated and the black hole vanished, restoring it to its original state.

Ye Zheng also walked over to the door and let out a faint sigh. “You can’t get out. This is an ability domain.”

“This auditorium is actually a trap?” Pei Xi muttered in disbelief.

He lifted his gaze toward the ceiling. The dome was painted with the story of the God of Hope saving people from a sea of fire, very similar to what he had seen in the lower district auditorium… no, it was practically identical.

He touched the white carrier pigeon statue in his pocket, sensing that something about this place was off. Just as he was about to take it out again for a closer look, Ye Zheng’s voice rang out beside his ear.

“I was sent here by an ability user, while you were lured in. Whatever the reason, the priority right now is to get out of here.”

“…You’re right. Wen Jian wants to trap us here using this place. We need to leave as soon as possible.”

Pei Xi scanned the large auditorium and made a judgment based on experience. “For this kind of spatial domain ability, there should be a breakthrough point somewhere within the space.”

His right hand shifted, transforming into a heavy metal sword. With a grave expression, Pei Xi weighed his options. One method was to find a weak point within the space and break through it, but the most common approach was brute force destruction.

The vast auditorium stood silent and solemn. In the next moment, the heavy thud of metal striking the ground echoed throughout the entire hall. The neat gray floor suddenly split open. Pei Xi pulled out the heavy sword that had sunk deep into the ground and was about to strike again when Ye Zheng stopped him.

“It’s useless, Pei Xi.”

“We’ve only just started. How can you be so sure it won’t work?”

Ye Zheng said nothing. She first lowered her head to stare at the shattered ground, then lifted her gaze toward the ancient altar that had already collapsed. Fragments of broken reliefs were still falling, continuing to produce water-droplet-like sounds that mixed with Pei Xi’s voice, making the atmosphere feel inexplicably irritating.

What Pei Xi saw was the auditorium. What she saw was the altar.

Before Pei Xi had entered, she had already tried breaking through it with brute force.

This was Riley’s ability, which she had named 【Fantasy Township】. The first rule of this place was—what you see is what you think.

Pei Xi had been on his way to the auditorium when he entered this space, so he naturally assumed it was an auditorium. Meanwhile, she had been constantly thinking about the inheritance ritual at the altar, so the moment she opened her eyes after being teleported by the magician, she had seen the altar.

The two of them were in the same space, yet they saw completely different scenes. It was truly remarkable.

Ye Zheng’s shoe ground against the gravel on the floor. Under Pei Xi’s puzzled gaze, she slowly raised her head and said, “Because I’ve already discovered the weakness of this place.”

“I need your cooperation.”

Pei Xi looked at her in surprise. After thinking for a moment, he readily withdrew his metal heavy sword and nodded in agreement.

Since both of their goals now were to leave this place, there was no need to doubt Ye Zheng. Besides, she had entered earlier than he had and might already have made some discoveries.

“Tell me what to do. I’ll cooperate.”

“Mm. Now go to the front… the stage, and stand on it.”

Pei Xi looked puzzled. Following Ye Zheng’s instructions, he walked from the door to the stage at the deepest end of the auditorium and stepped up onto it.

Ye Zheng watched as Pei Xi stepped onto the altar and asked, “What do you see on the stage?”

“Curtains, a piano, flower petals, a choir platform.”

Pei Xi responded, doubts piling up in his heart. He looked over at Ye Zheng standing at the entrance. Why would she ask such an obvious question? If she was standing too far away to see things clearly, she could’ve just walked closer…

Suddenly, a look of sudden realization flashed across Pei Xi’s face. Maybe Ye Zheng’s positioning itself was also part of breaking the situation.

No matter what, Pei Xi had to admit that Ye Zheng was smarter and more capable than he was. During the time she had stayed with the Cloud Soarers team under the disguise of Zhao Mei, those had been their most reassuring days. It felt like everything had Zhao Mei—this clever and skilled healing teammate—to clean things up afterward.

“The curtains are on both sides, the piano is three meters to my right, the choir platform is all the way at the back, and flower petals are scattered everywhere across the stage.” Pei Xi took the initiative to give even more detailed information.

Pei Xi glanced down toward the area below the stage. There were petals there too. Had a performance just ended here not long ago?

“I see. Pei Xi, grab a handful of flower petals.”

Pei Xi still felt confused, but considering how urgent the situation was, he didn’t ask Ye Zheng for a reason and obediently followed her instructions.

“Very good.”

Ye Zheng’s voice echoed through the empty auditorium hall, sounding somewhat ethereal and unreal, as if it didn’t belong entirely to this space.

“Now, eat the flower petals.”

Pei Xi was so shocked his mouth fell slightly open. He stared at Ye Zheng in disbelief from afar.

“What did you say?”

“I said, eat them.”

Ye Zheng walked down through the aisle and stopped beneath the stage. She looked up at Pei Xi standing on the stage, her gaze falling on the handful of… crushed stones he was holding in his hand.

Pei Xi looked at the flower petals in his hand, then back at Ye Zheng. His eyes were filled with questions and outright refusal.

How could the breakthrough point of this spatial domain possibly depend on eating flower petals?

These petals used for stage performances had already been stepped on by who knows how many people. Pei Xi subconsciously weighed them in his hand, feeling that those light, fluttering petals carried an indescribable heaviness.

“Ye Zheng, are you sure…”

“Pei Xi, I’m not sure, but I can guarantee eating them won’t kill you. However, it might be the only way for us to leave.”

Ye Zheng’s eyes shimmered faintly. Under the dim lighting of the auditorium, Pei Xi could see a soft, almost reassuring encouragement in her gaze.

He drew in a deep breath, tightened his grip on the flower petals cupped in his right hand, tilted his head back with his neck muscles tensing, and slowly brought the petals toward his mouth.

“It’s better to swallow them in one go.”

Ye Zheng prompted him. She watched the young man on the altar closely, seeing his hand hesitate for a brief moment before he tipped the crushed petals into his mouth in one decisive motion.

Bright sunlight suddenly poured down. Ye Zheng narrowed her eyes slightly. In the warm golden light, Pei Xi, who had swallowed the unknown object, suddenly clutched his throat with both hands.

The soft flower petals had entered his mouth and should have slid down easily, yet Pei Xi felt a sharp pain spreading vaguely through his oral cavity. His throat burned as if it were on fire. He grabbed his throat and tried to vomit, but nothing came up.

The pain was so intense it felt like something had sliced through his throat, yet he didn’t cough up even a trace of blood.

Pei Xi’s body swayed as he tried to step down from the stage. He wanted to ask Ye Zheng what was going on. In his moment of distraction, he stepped off the edge. Ye Zheng, standing below, caught him with 【Stream】 and gently placed him on the ground.

“Ye… Ye…”

Pei Xi tried to speak. The intense pain came and went like lightning, completely unpredictable. One moment it felt like crushed stones were lodged in his throat, and the next it felt like nothing more than ordinary flower petals, leaving only a faint foreign sensation behind.

“Don’t look at me. Look around you.”

In his blurred vision, the indistinct figure of the Saintess spoke again. Pei Xi lay on the ground and slowly, with effort, turned his head to look at the ceiling. Instead of the painted God of Hope, he saw a clear blue sky and tall hedges.

He reached out and touched the ground. It was a stone path.

The moment he realized the auditorium had vanished, Pei Xi sat up in shock and slowly got to his feet.

He touched his throat in disbelief. The near-death pain had completely disappeared without a trace, as if everything had just been a nightmare. His body showed no abnormalities at all.

“Ye Zheng, what exactly happened just now? And where is this place?”

“This is the real world. We must’ve just entered an ability-created illusion space.”

“Don’t look at me like that, Pei Xi. I was also suddenly sent here and only just figured out its true nature.”

Ye Zheng gave a helpless smile. “As for how I found the way to break it, let’s talk about that after we deal with the situation. Wen Jian may have already received news from here and could send people against us again very soon.”

Hearing Ye Zheng’s words, Pei Xi felt his already chaotic mind buzzing even more. At some point, he seemed to have stepped into an illusion, but had he truly escaped it?

Pei Xi stood still, sinking into deep thought, when he suddenly heard Ye Zheng’s serious voice ask:

“Pei Xi, do you have something like a white statue on you?”

Pei Xi looked up in shock. “—How did you know?”

“Because I came into contact with a white carrier pigeon statue and was teleported here.”

Pei Xi quickly took out the white statue. No wonder it had felt strange that the other party specifically insisted he bring this small object. So this was the trap, the teleportation medium.

Wen Jian and the Colonna family had been plotting against him from the very beginning, yet he had been foolish enough to think he could still maneuver around them.

If not for Ye Zheng, he might’ve been trapped here forever until they drained every last bit of value from him.

The statue in his hand was suddenly snatched away. Ye Zheng tossed it into the bushes with a grave expression and said, “We need to leave this place as quickly as possible. I hear someone coming.”

Pei Xi steadied himself and followed Ye Zheng’s pace. Right now, his chest was burning with rage toward Wen Jian and the Colonna family, and his steps grew increasingly urgent.

The two of them quickly moved out of the decorative hedge maze. Pei Xi looked around and realized this was exactly the same small garden he had passed through not long ago. 

“Saintess, where are we going now? To the real auditorium?”

“I received information that Wen Jian is at the eastern altar.”

The two exchanged a glance and decided to head straight to the altar where Wen Jian was located.

Ye Zheng stared at Pei Xi’s back. Without anyone noticing, she turned her head and glanced at the hedge maze slowly fading into the distance. No one would ever discover that she had left behind a white carrier pigeon statue there.

Pei Xi would never know that the letter asking him to bring the white carrier pigeon statue had been written by her.

—【Fantasy Township】 Rule Two: “White Letter” is the key to entering 【Fantasy Township】.

【Fantasy Township】 had originally been intended to trap her. Wen Jian needed Pei Xi to participate in the inheritance ritual, so he would never allow Pei Xi to also fall into Riley’s ability.

However, after studying it, Ye Zheng had discovered that breaking 【Fantasy Township】 required at least two people.

【Fantasy Township】 Rule One: You see what you think. But what would happen if two people thought of different things?

Two people existing in the same space while seeing different scenes might not affect the operation of 【Fantasy Township】, but Riley’s ability carried extremely strong causality. Anything that happened inside 【Fantasy Township】 would be forced to be interpreted as something that truly occurred.

For example, even after Ye Zheng had purchased nonexistent gloves from a nonexistent white-letter shop within the domain, 【Fantasy Township】 still interfered with her cognition after she left, making her believe the gloves were real.

【Fantasy Township】 would automatically complete the logic for anything that happened inside the domain. This strong sense of realism and cognitive manipulation was both the ability’s greatest strength and its weakness.

She saw the altar while Pei Xi saw the auditorium. These two things could coexist peacefully. However, Pei Xi eating flower petals and Pei Xi eating crushed stones were two things that could not reasonably exist at the same time.

Eating flower petals would leave one unharmed, while eating crushed stones would cause severe damage to the human body.

It was impossible for Pei Xi to be dead in her cognition while still being perfectly fine in his own cognition. Because of 【Fantasy Township】 Rule Four: the people inside 【Fantasy Township】 were real.

At this point, 【Fantasy Township】 could no longer continue operating logically. It could not create a Pei Xi who was both alive and dead at the same time.

Ye Zheng had prepared many plans for today’s operation. This was simply one that happened to be used. After receiving the news that the inheritance ritual required divine blood, new guesses and plans had surfaced in Ye Zheng’s mind.

Pei Xi, who was walking ahead, slowed his steps at some point. The two of them moved behind the wall of a building to conceal themselves.

The altar was close at hand. Outside, over a hundred knights stood in formation on guard.

✧✧✧✧✧

In the open-air, majestic altar, Riley paced back and forth with a somewhat anxious expression. Their ritual could begin as soon as Pei Xi arrived, so why hadn’t Pei Xi shown up yet?

He had met Pei Xi in person before and had a fairly good impression of him. Although the inheritance ritual would require his blood, it shouldn’t be fatal. He had also heard that even the Emperor highly valued Pei Xi. Riley had already begun to regard him as his future subordinate. As the new Pope, he needed more fresh blood to support and follow him.

He glanced at Wen Jian, who was resting with his eyes closed, then walked toward the entrance and sent someone to investigate the situation.

“Go to the auditorium and bring that Pei…” He suddenly stopped, clutching his forehead in shock.

His ability had been broken!

“No, first send people to track down Saintess Ye Zheng’s whereabouts!”

If Ye Zheng had discovered Pei Xi’s role and intercepted him in advance, the ritual would spiral completely out of control!