Chapter 190

Ye Zheng stepped into the back garden of the Pope’s Palace. The Empire had already entered winter; flowers and trees had long since withered, and bare, twisted branches crisscrossed the grounds. Hardly anyone came to this place anymore.

Originally, a vast, climate-controlled conservatory had stood here, where countless varieties of flowers bloomed throughout the year. It had once been the favorite retreat of the former Pope, Wen Jian. After Ye Zheng assumed control of the Pope’s Palace, she had the conservatory dismantled, as it demanded an immense amount of labor and resources to maintain, leaving the back garden transformed into something entirely ordinary.

Ye Zheng lifted her gaze toward a branch that still clung stubbornly to its yellow-green leaves and reached out to pull it downward.

She planned to begin by using plants to test the power of 【Mother of All Things】.

Closing her eyes, Ye Zheng concentrated her consciousness to an extreme degree upon a single point. To her, an ability wasn’t merely an inanimate tool, but a companion with which one could communicate. 【Stream】 was her friend, and she hoped that 【Mother of All Things】 would become one as well.

Veins swelled across her right hand as she tightened her grip on the branch. Her skin, along with the flesh and blood beneath it, began to burn, yet Ye Zheng didn’t perceive the scorching sensation as pain; instead, it resembled reaching toward a warm stove in the depths of winter.

But it still wasn’t enough. Ye Zheng soon encountered a bottleneck, and the surging motion of her blood began to calm. Her tightly shut eyelids trembled faintly. Steeling her resolve, she thrust her hand completely into the "stove," determined to seize the flames before they could fade away.

A fierce agony exploded from the palm of her right hand, as though a volcano had erupted from deep within her flesh. It felt as if her nerves, muscles, and skin were being melted away layer by layer, until she could barely even sense the existence of her hand anymore... 

　　Crack—

Ye Zheng’s eyes snapped open, and she immediately looked toward her right hand. It turned out she’d accidentally snapped the branch with too much force.

“Hm?”

The half-withered branch in her hand was now covered in emerald-green leaves. Tiny buds had sprouted from both sides of the wood. As Ye Zheng reached out to touch the buds, her eyes widened slightly. She felt a faint tremor at her fingertips. The buds were growing at a speed that could be sensed by human touch.

She lifted her gaze, only to find the space before her empty. The tree had vanished.

Looking down, nothing remained on the ground except a handful of unidentifiable black residue.

“The tree’s entire life force has been transferred into this single branch?” Mercè let out a soft gasp of astonishment.

Ye Zheng lowered her gaze. As she tightened her right hand, the lush emerald branch began to wither at a visible rate. Within moments, it crumbled into dust in her palm and scattered into the wind.

“Now, the life force has been transferred to me.”

Mercè’s consciousness fell silent. For a while, only the biting howl of the cold wind lingered in the air.

Ye Zheng wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but the exhaustion from a full day of office work seemed to have eased a little.

Life force transfer? Ye Zheng hadn’t expected 【Mother of All Things】 to manifest in this way in her hands.

Even though Mercè had said that the specific manifestation of 【Mother of All Things】 varied from person to person, Ye Zheng had studied the past Popes. From their deeds, she’d inferred that the ability leaned toward healing and the modification of life. That was how they’d used it for generations to push the Hope Project forward.

Ye Zheng stared at her right hand, sinking into quiet contemplation.

After a long while, Mercè’s voice sounded in her ear once again, breaking her train of thought.

“At the moment I awakened 【Mother of All Things】, my heart held only a single wish: to save the lives of those children. I believe that’s why my healing power became exceptionally potent.”

Ye Zheng listened in silence. She’d seen it within Mercè’s memories. The woman had once saved a person who’d been sliced in half. That person had wailed as their lower body regrew. It had been nothing short of a divine miracle.

“After me, those greedy and foolish thieves assumed that 【Mother of All Things】 was nothing more than that, and they even twisted it with their avarice. From the lingering consciousness of those people, I saw how they used 【Mother of All Things】. They created those wretched monsters, all while gloating over its power.”

“Ye Zheng, what were you thinking at the moment you received the inheritance?” Mercè asked.

Ye Zheng looked down and grasped the Holy Key hanging against her chest, the symbol of the Pope’s authority. She softly recalled:

“When I donned the Triple Tiara and truly became the Papess, I heard the thunderous cheers from the square. Some called out my name, ‘Ye Zheng.’ Others addressed me as ‘Your Holiness’ or ‘the Saintess.’ Until I turned to leave and the cheers gradually faded, I heard the voice of an old nun beside me. She was calling me ‘Holy Mother.’”

Ye Zheng suddenly let out a soft laugh, faint ripples stirring within her dark eyes. “I haven’t even reached adulthood yet. To have someone address me with the word ‘Mother’ felt like quite a novel sensation.”

　　“I had only just inherited your memories and your ability at that time. My mind was still in total disarray. You’re asking what I was thinking at the very moment of inheritance? I can’t remember it at all.”

“But I remember with absolute clarity that the instant I heard that cry of ‘Holy Mother,’ my senses snapped sharply back into place. My chest began to burn. It felt as though it was only after hearing that cry of ‘Holy Mother’ that I truly inherited 【Mother of All Things】."

“Every woman is born a mother. We come into this world already carrying the immense power to create all things. Everything exists because of us, so it’s only natural that a mother should lead!”

“I believe that’s the nature of the ability 【Mother of All Things】. That’s why, as this world stands on the brink of collapse, it chose to descend upon me.”

Ye Zheng let out a faint laugh and tightened her grip on the Holy Key. The overwhelming heat radiating from her right hand seeped into the cold, rigid key of authority.

“I will become a good ‘mother,’ a mother who leads this world toward a new life.”

She made that vow.

The moment the words left her lips, a scorching heat spread from her palm through every limb and bone in her body. Her hand no longer felt the unbearable agony of being plunged into volcanic lava. Instead, Ye Zheng felt herself merging with that blazing heat. Even her bones seemed as though they were being reforged within a roaring furnace.

Yet Ye Zheng felt no pain. Her eyes shone with a startling brilliance, and the dark flames within them seemed ready to ignite the withered, frozen earth itself. Even the howling winter wind appeared to recoil from the sharp intensity of her presence.

Mercè, watching from within, fell silent. She had never truly felt that 【Mother of All Things】 belonged to her. She had only ever been a fortunate, ordinary person. How could someone like her possibly bear such a vast and overwhelming title?

In her life, long yet fleeting as it had been, she had heard countless women say things like “I will be a good mother.” Some said those words joyfully while holding a newborn in their arms, some spoke them with guilt as they guided a troublesome child, and others screamed them in anguish at an ex-husband, demanding their children be returned.

Those mothers had been joyful, selfless, and great, their love deep and without limit. But Mercè had never once seen a “mother” like Ye Zheng, someone so righteous and yet so filled with killing intent.

She seemed to love this world more deeply than anyone else, and at the same time, she seemed to hate it beyond all measure.

At this moment, Mercè felt an unprecedented sense of crisis. This extreme coexistence of love and hatred might prove even more terrifying than the prophesied apocalypse. Should she really allow Ye Zheng to continue? There was still time to regret, still a chance to sever everything before it could fully take root.

Her consciousness began to heat up. Ye Zheng, in her current state, didn’t notice it, or perhaps the anomaly was too brief, like a spark that vanished the instant it appeared.

But 【Mother of All Things】 had already acknowledged Ye Zheng, Mercè thought.

Her own attempt to save the world had ended in failure. Because of her oversight, 【Mother of All Things】 had fallen into the hands of others, bringing about countless tragedies over the past five hundred years.

Did someone like her truly have the right to stop Ye Zheng?

As Mercè wavered in her thoughts, she suddenly heard Ye Zheng let out a soft gasp of astonishment. Following her gaze, she saw—

Ye Zheng loosened her grip on the key. Resting in the palm of her right hand was a beautifully formed green leaf. Its veins shimmered faintly with a golden glow beneath the dim light of the setting sun. Even at the height of spring, it would have been difficult to find a leaf so full of life.

Only a few minutes earlier, that branch had crumbled into dust in Ye Zheng’s hands and scattered into the wind.

Now, the fine particles remaining in her palm had transformed into the most exquisite green leaf of the imperial winter.

“Mercè, look. I only need the tiniest, most insignificant trace of life force to create a fresh leaf.”

A single leaf was, of course, nothing extraordinary. But the ability to restore life to something that had already perished was nothing short of miraculous.

This experiment made it clear that describing 【Mother of All Things】 simply as “life force transfer” was far too shallow. The true essence of the ability lay in the manipulation of life force itself.

It could gently grant life, and just as mercilessly, it could take it away.

“I’m very satisfied with the results of my fusion with 【Mother of All Things】. Mercè, what do you think?”

“Don’t lose yourself in these astonishing abilities. For now, you’re still only a beginner, probably capable of controlling only the simplest forms of life.”

Mercè paused, as if realizing she had sounded too harsh, and her tone softened.

“But I believe you’ll become a genius student, a genius ‘mother.’”

The mothers of this nation had been absent for far too long. And yet, at this very moment, Mercè believed without the slightest doubt that Ye Zheng would bring the true Mother back to this fractured and broken world.

　　Ye Zheng had no idea what Mercè was thinking, yet she suddenly felt a corner of her consciousness grow warm. She tilted her head slightly, a faint smile forming on her lips.

It felt as though she were gently knocking her forehead against an unseen soul.