Chapter 186

Mercè’s consciousness had not disappeared. For Ye Zheng, this was temporarily a good thing. She could inherit the other party’s abilities and memories, but she could not inherit her wisdom and experience.

“Since you lost that memory, why are you certain that the other party was a true god?”

Ye Zheng noticed this suspicious point and asked.

『In my cognition, the fact that it is a god is as unquestionable as the sun rising in the east every single day.』

“…That sounds a bit strange,” Ye Zheng said.

Deep within her consciousness, Mercè let out a soft laugh. 『Strange? If a human could mentally implant something into me to that degree and also grant me the ability to pass down 【Mother of All Things】, then there would be little difference between that being and a god.』

Mercè’s answer made Ye Zheng fall briefly silent. She blinked and quickly noticed another inconsistency.

“Wait, Pope Mercè, is this god you’re talking about the God of Hope, or… is there a second god?”

『I don’t know, Ye Zheng. I have no memory of it's appearance or voice. I only remember the prophecy it brought and the pact I made with Him.』

Without needing Mercè to explain further, Ye Zheng closed her eyes again. She had already learned what happened afterward from the memories.

The god brought a prophecy that an apocalyptic-level Aberrant Realm would descend again five hundred years later. After receiving this prophecy, Mercè immediately asked for a method to save the world. The generous god granted her the ability to pass it down.

After waking up, Mercè chose to make the prophecy public, but she fabricated the part about a representative of the God of Hope coming to save the world from doom. This drew the empire’s attention and encouraged early preparations without causing excessive panic among the public.

Of course, it also allowed her to use the prophecy to give the Hope Church an even more sacred aura.

Everything went exactly as Mercè had predicted. In order to face the prophesied disaster, the empire increased investment in ability research and Aberrant Realm studies. People’s faith in the God of Hope grew even more devout. The Church’s power even surpassed the royal family for a time, and Pope Mercè’s influence became unmatched.

Then, at the peak of her life at fifty-five years old, Mercè decided to die.

To preserve her consciousness within 【Mother of All Things】, a price had to be paid. After death, her value would continue through generations of inheritance.

At fifty-five, Mercè still looked young. If not for her mature and gentle demeanor, some might have thought she was only in her twenties. 【Mother of All Things】 was so powerful that even Mercè found it dreamlike. Almost no one in this world could kill her. If she had not chosen death herself, she could have lived to two hundred years old, or even longer.

Mercè chose her student as her successor.

From the moment she had saved her before awakening 【Mother of All Things】, the girl had followed her, from the girls’ school in a small city all the way to the imperial Church. She was her most intelligent student and had become a highly respected Saintess of the Church.

Everything was prepared, but just before the secret inheritance ritual, the royal family announced news that shocked the entire empire.

The royal researchers had discovered that the demonic dragon’s remains could repel Aberrant Realms. In the future, the royal family would bury the dragon bones across the empire to protect people’s safety. However, in order to concentrate strength against the apocalyptic disaster five hundred years later, they could not balance protection across every region.

Mercè immediately sensed something was wrong. She wanted to delay Aston XIV’s actions, but she encountered an assassination attempt.

The attacker possessed extremely strong destructive power. Their speed of destruction even surpassed her speed of creation. If someone had not arrived in time, she might have fallen into permanent slumber together with 【Mother of All Things】 before she could even pass down the ability.

But at that time, Mercè already felt her life force draining away at an irreversible speed. Her consciousness was nearly collapsing. She grabbed the hand of the Saintess who had rushed over and completed part of the inheritance ritual on the spot.

She used 【Mother of All Things】 to create a vessel. At the moment of death, her self-consciousness merged with 【Mother of All Things】 into that vessel. The vessel would consume the successor, and the successor would internalize the vessel into their body, thus completing the first and most important step of the inheritance ritual.

The second step was to complete the Pope’s coronation ceremony.

The final step was to receive Mercè’s ultimate approval.

The memory Ye Zheng saw stopped at the moment Mercè created the vessel and chose death. She could not peek further into Mercè’s memories as a consciousness.

But she also noticed something wrong with Mercè’s inheritance ritual.

Because the name and life story of the second Pope had been fully preserved. His name was Kendi Colonna, and he was not the first-generation Saintess at all.

The first-generation Saintess had no clearly recorded time of death in the Church’s history books, but based on the timeline of her belovolent deeds, she had died around the age of thirty or forty, far too early.

The inheritance ritual was passed down from Pope to Pope. Mercè had clearly already passed 【Mother of All Things】 to the first-generation Saintess.

Suddenly, Ye Zheng’s eyes darkened. She said with near certainty, “So the person who rushed over when you were on the verge of death was not the real Saintess.”

The atmosphere froze for a moment. Mercè’s slightly tired voice sounded. 『It was an ability user with transformation powers. Although I killed the assassin at that time, my consciousness had already scattered. I thought I had grasped the last straw, but it turned out to be the enemy’s backup plan.』

Ye Zheng thought for a moment and said, “Even if you had discovered that the other party was a disguised enemy, you still would’ve passed it on to them.”

“Because at that time, you had only one choice. For the sake of the future, you had to pass down 【Mother of All Things】.”

『…You’re right.』

Mercè answered after a brief silence.

Ye Zheng smiled. “So there’s no need to blame yourself.”

“Let me guess. After your consciousness entered the other party’s body, you discovered something was wrong, so you didn’t give them your approval. The inheritance ritual was missing one link.”

“Does that missing link have something to do with every subsequent Pope only having twenty-five years of life after taking position?”

After she finished speaking, Ye Zheng waited patiently for an answer. Instead, she suddenly heard a round of applause echo in her mind.

『That’s correct. The short lifespan is the backlash from the missing link in the inheritance.』

『Consciousness retention is tied to life force. After the assassination, my life force drained extremely quickly and could not support five hundred years, so I chose to put my consciousness into slumber and wake again after five hundred years.』

Mercè’s tone was clear and solemn, steady yet reassuring. She said, 『I am very glad that when I woke up, I saw you, Ye Zheng.』

『【Mother of All Things】 is an ability that belongs to women. I believe it was your existence that awakened me. The moment I saw you, I believed we shared the same goal.』

『My consciousness cannot appear frequently. When you need me, you can call my name.』

Ye Zheng nodded and showed a friendly smile. She extended her right hand forward, half-clenching it into a handshake gesture, then tightened her fist.

“Thank you, Papess Mercè. I think we’ll work well together.”

Ye Zheng withdrew her hand and interlaced her fingers to support her chin. She suddenly showed a puzzled expression, a trace of slyness flashing quickly in her eyes.

“Papess Mercè, the memories you showed me seem to have skipped some details. Maybe you think they’re unimportant, but I’m very curious. Would you be willing to satisfy my curiosity?”

“What is it?”

“For example, between the time the royal family announced the dragon bone news and the time you were assassinated, two months passed. Given Papess Mercè’s status and personality, you must’ve taken some action. Would you mind satisfying my curiosity?”

Ye Zheng asked politely, with a sharp edge hidden beneath her calm words.

In that segment of memory, Mercè had already prepared everything for the inheritance, yet she had paused the ritual after learning about the dragon bones. This meant she still had something even more important to do, something temporarily more urgent than the inheritance ritual that concerned the future five hundred years later.

The dragon bones had always been the royal family’s most important secret. So far, Ye Zheng had dug up quite a few shocking secrets by following the clues of the dragon bones. Yet in the memories Mercè had given her, something so crucial had only flashed by briefly.

Moreover, was that assassination attempt merely ordinary political strife, or had Mercè uncovered some terrifying secret that made someone want her dead?

『…I originally didn’t want to tell you this so soon.』

Mercè’s gentle voice grew slightly indifferent as she said, 『It will bring you fatal disaster. Even so, do you still want to know it now?』

Ye Zheng raised her eyebrows lightly. She had always been dancing on the edge of a cliff, carrying countless secrets and killing intent on her back. She didn’t mind adding just a little more danger.

『Alright, then I’ll tell you.』

『After the Emperor announced that he would bury the dragon bones across the empire, I secretly sent people to investigate. In the end, I pieced together the truth about the Aberrant Realms.』

『It was the demonic dragon that brought the Aberrant Realms.』

『The empire had the demonic dragon first, and that attracted the descent of the Aberrant Realms. We found the royal family’s research documents from that time. Aston XIV had already been raising that demonic dragon long before the Aberrant Realms descended.』

『The demonic dragon’s curse invited the arrival of the Aberrant Realms. Even after its death, its remains continue to endlessly attract those Aberrant Realms.』

Upon hearing this, Ye Zheng drew in a soft breath. She had long discovered that the dragon bones attracted Aberrant Realms, but she had never imagined that the demonic dragon was not a creature from another dimension, but a monster that had been bred on the empire’s own soil.

From Mercè’s memories, she had seen the era before the Aberrant Realms arrived, an era with no monsters at all. How had the royal family managed to raise such a monster?

Even Mercè had no way of knowing the answer to that question.

Ye Zheng’s mind spun rapidly. Her expression turned grave as she guessed how Mercè, upon learning the truth back then, would have acted.

Mercè’s goal had always been to prevent the apocalyptic Aberrant Realm from destroying humanity five hundred years later. Once she learned that the source of the Aberrant Realms was the demonic dragon, destroying the dragon bones would stop the continued arrival of the Aberrant Realms.

This solution didn’t even need to wait five hundred years. As the Pope with supreme authority, Mercè could have acted back then. That was why she had placed the inheritance ritual on hold.

『Back then, I had only just learned the truth and hadn’t yet had time to take action when his people had already come for me. I never expected that Aston XIV was still hiding such a powerful expert.』

『The royal family’s secrets may only be the tip of the iceberg, Ye Zheng. Can you try to guess, how many secrets has the Aston royal family is has kept buried?』

Mercè’s calm voice carried a gentle, persuasive tone, yet it somehow felt damp and cold against her ear.

Ye Zheng looked up toward the small prayer room. The once peaceful, serene room now seemed suspicious in every corner. The sunlight filtering through the small window grew glaring, and the eyes of the divine statue seemed to be watching her closely.

“Thank you for your answer, Lady Mercè.”

Ye Zheng suddenly rose from her seat and walked toward the door.

“You should rest now. All problems will find a way to be solved.”

A faint, almost imperceptible sigh echoed within her mind.

Sensing that Mercè’s presence had briefly faded away, Ye Zheng paused mid-step. She then summoned another presence within her mind.

“System.”

『I’m here.』

A mechanical voice answered instantly.

“Can Mercè sense your existence?”

Ye Zheng asked straight to the point.

『Unless I choose to reveal my existence to her, she cannot perceive me. We are not within the same dimension.』

“Good.”

“If it’s possible, keep an eye on her for me.”

Mercè’s existence was an incredibly powerful asset, but Ye Zheng still couldn’t bring herself to fully trust her, even though they now shared a very close connection and a common objective.

Perhaps it was precisely because they shared the same goal and held similar life philosophies that Ye Zheng had to remain even more cautious of Mercè.

A teacher driven by ideals and passion, a seasoned politician skilled in winning hearts, a Pope with an intense obsession for saving the people—Ye Zheng could see a faintly familiar shadow within her and felt a subtle sense of kinship because of it.

But no matter what, as long as their goals remained aligned, she still hoped to walk forward into the future path alongside more people.

“Papess, Miss Bai Muqing is still waiting for you.”

As Ye Zheng stepped out of the prayer room, a knight immediately stepped forward to report. Ye Zheng looked slightly surprised, glanced at the time, and then let out a small, helpless smile.

“Let’s go. Take me to see her.”

Bai Muqing was pure and stubborn. That kind of personality sometimes made Ye Zheng feel it was a bit troublesome, but after just speaking with Mercè, she once again felt that Bai Muqing’s nature was precious and genuinely endearing.

Besides, she usually only came to visit when she had something important to say.