Chapter 191
Chapter
191
2026
The method of using it was fairly straightforward. By placing her right hand on a living being, she could freely manipulate its life energy and impose her will upon it.
She could draw in their life force to restore her own strength. For example, if she grasped a wild weed with her right hand, it would wither into ash in the very next instant as its energy was reclaimed by her.
She could also manipulate life energy to alter any living organism. For instance, she could channel all of a tree’s vitality into a single branch, causing that branch to swell until it grew thicker than the trunk itself. Eventually, the imbalance would drag the tree down under its own weight, collapsing with a resounding crash.
If such a process were applied to a human body... Ye Zheng slowly raised her right hand. At a glance, it didn’t seem all that different from Sykes’s 【Destruction】.
However, compared to Sykes’s 【Destruction】, she was still burdened by considerable limitations. The more complex the organism, the longer her right hand needed to stay in contact with it. She couldn’t release overwhelming destructive force with a mere wave of her hand the way Sykes could. On the other hand, her ability was far more flexible and adaptable than his 【Destruction】.
As for healing, 【Mother of All Things】 hadn’t shown any direct restorative effects. Still, Ye Zheng noticed that ever since acquiring it, her own regenerative abilities had become extraordinarily powerful, and even the healing capability of 【Stream】 seemed to have strengthened.
Ye Zheng was thrilled by the unexpected benefits that 【Mother of All Things】 brought her, yet one concern lingered in her mind. If she wanted to truly master it, she’d need to devote a significant amount of time to practice.
It wasn’t only a matter of time. If she intended to use 【Mother of All Things】 against formidable opponents, she’d also need to build up extensive experience, especially experience in dealing with people.
This meant she needed living human subjects to practice on.
At that realization, Ye Zheng’s heart gave a sudden, heavy thump, as though someone had struck a drum deep within her chest. Once a person held too much power and authority, certain moral boundaries seemed to grow indistinct.
When she was a child, Ye Zheng had listened to her grandmother recount stories of seafaring adventurers. She’d heard that before the Aberrant Realms descended, many had set sail to explore the vast and mysterious ocean. On a ship, an experienced captain with sharp judgment was the most crucial presence. Even the slightest deviation in direction or the smallest miscalculation could result in complete destruction at sea.
Ye Zheng felt as though she herself were the captain of such a vessel. She was following a course she had already set, yet unforeseen storms and surging waves would inevitably rise along the way, making it impossible for her to remain perfectly aligned with her original path.
Night had already fallen. As the clock struck nine, Ye Zheng returned to her office within the Pope’s Palace.
She spent a while searching through the bookshelves before finally retrieving the list of death row prisoners submitted by the Holy Wheel Court. Among them were individuals who had stolen sacred relics, those who had committed murder within the Church’s domain, and even some who had been condemned to death for opposing her…
Ye Zheng retained a vivid impression of that man. He’d gone around loudly proclaiming that allowing an “ignorant woman” to ascend as 『Pope』 signaled the beginning of the world’s end, and that Ye Zheng was undoubtedly a heretic who had defied God’s true will. This rhetoric had managed to attract a following, gaining a modest degree of momentum.
She had initially stayed her hand, letting him act for a time, until the faction he built finally crossed the threshold for capital punishment. Not long after, her knights apprehended them all during a clandestine gathering, and the founder was sentenced to death by the Holy Wheel Court.
Ye Zheng examined the documents in her hands, reading them again and again. Some of these individuals were unquestionably deserving of death, such as a priest who had abused his position to molest children. They were already fated for the gallows; whether they died there or by her hand seemed to make no difference to them.
For them, there was no difference, but for her, there was. Once she consigned them to her experimental practice, she wouldn’t be killing them solely in the name of a just verdict; instead, she’d be indulging her own desire to grow stronger.
In the past, she had often disregarded the procedures of Imperial and Church law to privately deliver the punishment sinners deserved. That had been her only form of rebellion when she was still a subordinate.
But now, she had become the very symbol of authority. If she bypassed the judicial process, a “just verdict” could easily devolve into an abuse of power.
Ye Zheng finally set the documents aside. She picked up a pen and swiftly began drafting a proposal on a blank sheet of paper:
Regardless of whether they’re sentenced to death, rapists must undergo the penalty of castration. Those not sentenced to death must have their pinky fingers severed prior to release as a mark of reprimand.
With the five-hundred-year prophecy of the end times drawing ever closer, the Empire remained in constant unrest, and the crime rate was steadily rising. Ye Zheng had long intended to intensify the severity of certain punishments. Although Church law could only govern the Church’s own territories and matters related to the deity, many policies started on a limited scale before eventually becoming the standard regulations for the wider public.
『So, you’ve decided not to use the death row inmates for your experiments?』 the system asked abruptly.
“I think drafting a decree like this is what I should be doing in this position.”
『Drafting this decree doesn’t conflict with you making use of those prisoners. Besides, you already despise them, don’t you?』
“My bottom line isn’t high. I can use the power of 【Mother of All Things】 to threaten and control the Archbishops into passing my proposals. Though the methods are dishonorable, my conscience is clear; this is a necessary path toward the light.”
“However, when justice already has a clear and reasonable path for its execution, resorting to violence in the name of justice feels... hypocritical.”
The system had always assumed that once Ye Zheng became Papess and inherited 【Mother of All Things】, her way of acting, given her intricate schemes and ruthless methods, would only grow more thunderous and overwhelming. It hadn’t expected her to display such unexpected restraint at certain moments.
This restraint wasn’t directed toward her enemies, but rather toward herself.
“System, even though I occasionally joke about being the villain of the story,” Ye Zheng’s dark eyes narrowed slightly, touched with a faint smile, “I’ve always believed that I’ll be the protagonist who brings a beautiful future to the world.”
Walking the boundary between black and white while maintaining a perfectly balanced point was no easy task. Even Ye Zheng couldn’t determine whether she had strayed at this moment.
Perhaps far in the future, wise successors would look back upon the path of her life, and they would be the ones to deliver the final answer.
『If you don’t practice on human bodies, it likely won’t be easy for you to kill Sykes in less than a month.』
The more complex a living organism was, the harder it became to manipulate its life force. Although Sykes’s brain structure was relatively simple, the physical composition of his body was incredibly complex.
“Human practice...”
Ye Zheng suddenly tapped her own chest. Perhaps she herself was the most suitable subject for her experiments.
Aside from Sykes, who else was a SSS-class powerhouse with a Dragon Bone within them?
Only herself.
“Hm? You said less than a month?”
Lost in her thoughts about the experiment, Ye Zheng suddenly caught the implication hidden within the system’s words. She took out her phone and opened the manga app.
✧✧✧✧✧
Late at night, within the Imperial Palace.
“Sykes, I’ve already sent people to make arrangements for you. Go there and stay for a while. I’ve had them prepare everything according to your preferences. You…”
Sykes stared at the Emperor seated behind the desk, his golden eyes deepening into a darker crimson because of his agitation. He cut in rudely, “I’m not going. I loathe that filthy place, the Lower District.”
The dignified middle-aged man’s expression darkened slightly, yet his tone remained indulgent.
“Only the shelters in the Lower District can isolate the Aberrant Realms, Sykes. If it weren’t absolutely necessary, how could I bear to send you to such a place? This isn’t your fault. I’m not punishing you, I’m protecting you!”
Sykes stared at the Emperor’s expression of sorrowful concern and couldn’t help but let out a mocking scoff.
“I was born from the remnants of a Demonic Dragon’s bones, burdened with the power of destruction, and now I’ve even awakened the special ability to summon Aberrant Realms. Of course this isn’t my fault. No matter how you look at it, it’s your fault, isn’t it? Havel.”
Faced with his son’s contemptuous and mocking tone, Emperor Havel didn’t erupt in anger. Instead, he buried his face in his hands, his shoulders trembling faintly. When he raised his head again, his eyes were bloodshot with grief.
“You’re right. All of this is my fault. I sacrificed the person I loved most, yet I still failed to forge our child into a hero who could save the world. I failed her, and I failed you.”
“Sykes, go ahead and hate me. I’m a wretched father.”
“But allow me, as the Emperor of the Empire, to beg you today. Go and stay there for a short while. Once you learn to control your new ability so that you won’t harm innocent people, this matter will be resolved.”
Sykes’s clenched fists trembled, yet he forced a grotesque and awkward smile onto his face.
“Since you’re begging me like this... give me some time to prepare, and then I’ll follow your arrangements and get the hell out of the Upper District.”
Sykes turned and strode out, slamming the door shut with a deafening crash.
Hypocrite! Going on about "harming innocent people"... he was simply afraid that Sykes would drag an Aberrant Realm into the Upper District. If the most peaceful and serene Upper District were ever to witness a Realm manifest, those fragile citizens would likely collapse into panic and refuse to obediently comply with the Upper District’s authority.
More than likely, Havel intended to use this opportunity to exile him from the palace so he could elevate his truly favored heir onto the throne of Crown Prince!
Sykes planted both hands against the platinum-colored wall, his gaze boring into the floor with such intensity it seemed as though it might split apart. In the eyes of those people, what the hell was he supposed to be?
He was the unwanted Crown Prince, a tool to be discarded whenever convenient, the demonic dragon that heralded disaster.
Soon enough, even his status as Crown Prince would be stripped away. Once his connection to the Dragon Bone was exposed, he’d become the reincarnation of the demonic dragon despised by all, the calamity that summoned forth the Aberrant Realms!
“Your Highness? Your Highness! Are you feeling unwell anywhere...” An anxious male voice sounded at his side.
“Get out!”
With bloodshot crimson eyes, Sykes lashed out with a single swing of his hand, knocking away the attendant who had approached him with concern. As though venting every ounce of his deeply buried resentment, the servant’s head slammed brutally against the wall, blood instantly staining the platinum-colored surface a vivid red.
He spared the man a glance and recognized him as the servant who had tended to his daily needs since he was very young, yet not a trace of emotion stirred within his heart. This manservant was nothing more than another one of Havel’s watchers, sent to keep him under surveillance.
Sykes strode down the corridor.
Tilting his head back, his blood-stained hand brushed through his golden hair, revealing those frenzied red eyes.
Fine. He’d grant them exactly what they wished for, he’d bring a complete and absolute disaster down upon this world!
✧✧✧✧✧
“Zhengzheng, Mom came to ask you… there are only half a month left until your coming-of-age ceremony. Where would you like to hold it?”
Shu Wan had been waiting for her daughter in the drawing room. She hadn’t expected that Ye Zheng, after becoming the Papess, would be busy until so late; a trace of helpless heartache appeared in her eyes.
Originally, she had “prepared” everything with great care for Ye Zheng’s coming-of-age ceremony, but so much had happened in the meantime that those plans were now completely unnecessary.
That wasn’t a bad thing. With Ye Zheng as the Papess, it was naturally impossible for the Imperial Family to seize her and force her into becoming the Crown Princess. Now, even the Crown Prince had to bow his head and greet her daughter.
Even so, Shu Wan still hoped to give Ye Zheng a grand coming-of-age ceremony.
“My coming-of-age ceremony? I remember an invitation sent by the Imperial Family over a month ago, granting me the ‘grace’ of holding it at the Imperial Palace.”
Shu Wan nodded, her expression turning puzzled. “That’s true, but now…”
Back then, Ye Zheng hadn’t yet become the Papess, and the Imperial Family had been harboring ulterior motives. Logically, both sides should now tacitly agree that the invitation was no longer valid, right? After all, a Papess celebrating her birthday at the Imperial Palace sounded incredibly strange.
“Mother, help me reply to that invitation. I accept this ‘grace.’”
Shu Wan looked at her in disbelief. Ye Zheng only smiled and brushed it off.
She couldn’t tell Shu Wan the real reason.
It was because she had already seen it. In the original plot, it was precisely during the coming-of-age ceremony held for her at the Imperial Palace that Ye Zheng was killed by Sykes.
It was an absurd twist of fate, but now that she possessed the advantage of foresight, it was more beneficial for her not to alter the plot too easily.
✧✧✧✧✧
Outside the manga world.
Li Yixin had accidentally fallen asleep at her desk and only woke up when her phone was flooded with calls from her friend.
She answered in a daze, then sleepily tapped on the link Tang Mingxi had sent, wondering if her friend was nudging her to check the latest manga update. Had some shocking plot twist happened again?
As the page finished loading and Li Yixin saw the contents of the blog post, her eyes flew wide open, and she became instantly alert.
【Extraordinary Ordinary Manga Laborer v: Has everyone finished reading this week’s update? An important character is going to die in the upcoming plot, so you might want to mentally prepare yourselves in advance.】
【Extraordinary Ordinary Manga Laborer v: You can also try guessing who it is in the comments, haha.】
“No way… is this guy out of his mind?”
Li Yixin couldn’t stop herself from cursing as she hurriedly clicked into this week’s update.
~~~End~~~