Chapter 211

Bai Yi silently watched as Bai Muqing left. The surrounding temperature rose sharply. Bai Mulin felt the scorching heat from the ground was almost about to burn through the soles of his feet. He quickly retreated to the side without saying a word.

His father was clearly truly furious. At a critical moment like this, defying orders and ignoring his authority, even if it was his own daughter, she couldn’t be allowed to leave so easily.

A battle between father and daughter, no, a clash between two S-rank ability users was about to erupt. The destructive power wasn’t something to joke about. He’d better find a reason to stop it, or the situation would only spiral further out of control.

Bai Mulin glanced at the massive black shadow in the distance. It was twisting its head and neck, its long, thick black tail lashing violently against the ground. The dust it stirred up lingered in the air for a long time, like dark clouds gathering before a storm.

It was too far away for him to see clearly whether anyone was near it, but judging from experience, some ability users were already fighting it, and it was clearly enraged.

Where on earth had this thing come from? And why did it start to look strangely familiar the longer he stared at it?

Bai Mulin paced back and forth anxiously on the spot. Then, all at once, his eyes brightened as he spotted an opening.

A gray pigeon was circling overhead. Bai Mulin recognized it. It belonged to another team captain, an ability that functioned as a mobile recording device. By touching it, one could access the visual intelligence it carried.

Before the giant dragon had appeared, that team had already ventured deep into the Aberrant Realm as an advance scouting party.

Bai Mulin reached out his hand. The gray pigeon seemed to recognize him and flew toward him, only to be abruptly snatched mid-flight by a powerful, large hand.

“Father?”

Bai Mulin looked at Bai Yi and realized his father’s expression looked even worse than when Muqing had insisted on leaving earlier. His untrimmed brows were twisted tightly together, like a rope drawn taut across his face. After a long while, he let go of the pigeon as if it had burned him, his hand still suspended in the air as he froze in place.

Bai Yi turned and hurried away. Bai Mulin should’ve felt relieved that his father was no longer trying to stop his sister, but for some reason, as he watched the direction his father was heading, his heart only grew heavier.

Just what had his father seen through that pigeon?

Bai Mulin moved to pick up the gray pigeon, but the instant his hand made contact with it, the pigeon crumbled into ashes.

His eyes shot wide open. The fact that it vanished from a single touch meant the pigeon had been carrying highly classified information that couldn’t be passed on. And yet, that kind of confidential intelligence had been circling aimlessly in the sky… It was possible that even the pigeon’s owner hadn’t decided who to report to, or perhaps the owner was already dead, leaving the gray pigeon as his final, fleeting trace of consciousness.

✧✧✧✧✧

Ye Zheng stood on the vast, empty ground. Using the last fading rays of the setting sun, she looked into the distance, her gaze locking onto those enormous, razor-sharp golden pupils.

She had originally been uncertain whether Sykes still retained any consciousness after transforming into a giant dragon. But the instant their eyes met, she became completely certain. Sykes was definitely not mindless!

The sharp claw resting atop the tower spire slowly loosened. In the very next instant, the sky-obscuring black dragon beat its wings and plunged downward at a terrifying speed, as sudden and as fierce as a summer rainstorm.

Its speed far surpassed Ye Zheng’s expectations. Normally, a body of such immense size shouldn’t be capable of maintaining both speed and agility, yet it was unbelievably fast!

Ye Zheng immediately turned and ran. She had no intention of clashing with it so suddenly and directly.

She had barely taken one or two steps when a murderous gale howled from behind her. Just as she was about to turn her head, her body suddenly felt weightless, and the crushing pressure at her back vanished completely.

In the blink of an eye, Ye Zheng found herself pressed against a broken wall. Wu Shu was gripping her shoulder, warily staring behind them.

She had to admit, Wu Shu’s teleportation ability was extremely useful at critical moments. Ye Zheng let out a soft breath of relief.

Wu Shu turned her head, and their eyes met. Ye Zheng saw overwhelming shock and confusion in Wu Shu’s eyes. She was clearly asking, What the hell is that thing?

Ye Zheng tapped Wu Shu’s fingertip, then pointed in another direction. Wu Shu understood and shook her head, indicating she couldn’t perform long-distance teleportation again so soon.

The two consecutive teleports, first to reach Ye Zheng and then to bring her to this relatively safe spot, had already consumed a large amount of her energy.

Wu Shu quickly glanced behind the wall again. The target had disappeared. The giant dragon was now raising its long neck where it stood. Its non-human golden vertical pupils contracted as it slowly turned its head, scanning the ground. Its long black tail, covered in spikes at the tip, struck the ground from time to time. The fragile surface had already cracked under the heavy impacts.

They were already quite far away from it, yet Wu Shu carefully controlled even her breathing. That monster gave her an especially strange feeling.

For some reason, she found its expression somewhat familiar.

Ye Zheng leaned against the cold, hard wall, lost in thought. When she turned her head slightly, she noticed the wall was painted with an image of the God of Hope. She turned around to examine the broken wall more carefully, then surveyed the surrounding environment and recognized the place.

This was the imperial palace’s chapel, a place used by the royal family for worship and prayer.

Suddenly, the ground let out dull rumbling sounds that grew louder and louder. The wall she was leaning against began to tremble. Ye Zheng didn’t need to turn around to know the dragon was heading straight in their direction.

Wu Shu frowned, sensing something was off. What was going on? This place was clearly very well hidden. It shouldn’t have been able to discover them.

Was it just a coincidence? But out of all possible directions, it was choosing this one. Wu Shu couldn’t help but overthink it. She had never been someone who relied on wishful thinking. It was far more likely that it had truly discovered them and was now walking directly toward them.

Ye Zheng thought of something. She suddenly reached into the inner side of her white robe and grasped a cold object.

……Could Sykes be sensing her location through that vertebra?

Just like how those dragon-human entities could sense the position of dragon bones.

The white bone in her hand suddenly felt scorching hot. However, Ye Zheng couldn’t possibly throw it away and run. This was the only “human bone” from the Demonic dragon she had managed to obtain. She couldn’t give up such an important clue.

Moreover, if this bone returned to Sykes’s body, Ye Zheng’s intuition told her the situation would only become far worse.

Someone gently brushed her shoulder. Ye Zheng snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Wu Shu, who wore a tense, anxious expression. She was waiting for Ye Zheng to decide their next move.

“Run,” Ye Zheng mouthed the word to her.

Wu Shu nodded. She agreed with running. There was no shame in escaping. Charging in blindly without understanding anything was what idiots did. Did they really think they were the invincible protagonists of some adventure story?

“Where to?” Wu Shu asked silently.

If they were talking about the safest place, Wu Shu’s gaze shifted toward the towering city walls in the distance. The walls were lined with multiple towers and the main palace gate, and it was also the point where external reinforcements could enter the Aberrant Realm the fastest. There was an armory nearby as well. Most people had probably already retreated there by now.

Wu Shu hesitated, baring her teeth slightly. It felt a bit immoral to lead this aberrant dragon straight there. But quite a bit of time had already passed, and very few people had come to provide support. Compared to that, those people seemed even more immoral and cowardly.

Wu Shu looked at Ye Zheng. Using the dust on the ground, she sketched a rough diagram of the city walls. The drawing was crude and abstract, but Ye Zheng should still be able to understand it. Ye Zheng followed her lead, dipping her finger into the dust and drawing a large circle.

This large circle was even more abstract than Wu Shu’s version of the city walls. Wu Shu raised an eyebrow at Ye Zheng. Ye Zheng responded with a helpless expression, silently mouthing her reply.

“Hunting ground.”

Wu Shu thought for a moment before recalling the famous Crown Prince Hunting Grounds.

Immediately afterward, a question surfaced in her mind. Where was Crown Prince Sykes?

She knew that Ye Zheng’s goal today was to kill Sykes, but what about Sykes himself…

Wu Shu’s body suddenly jolted. She stared at Ye Zheng in disbelief. Was she overthinking this? It should just be an Aberrant Realm monster, right?

Before Ye Zheng could respond, Wu Shu turned around, grabbed onto the broken wall, and boldly peeked out. The massive dragon was already extremely close. She watched as it swung its tail, and everything in its path began to crack and collapse.

At first glance, it looked as though its majestic tail had smashed the buildings apart. But Wu Shu realized in shock that the areas the tail swept through didn’t shatter from impact, they simply vanished. The buildings were cleanly severed in mid-air before crashing down with a thunderous roar.

Wu Shu’s deep purple iris shrank almost to pinpoints. Her gaze was drawn uncontrollably upward along the giant dragon’s tail. Just as she was about to meet those golden eyes, she quickly crouched down and hid, pressing herself against the broken wall as she gasped for breath.

She now knew the giant dragon’s true identity.

But learning that truth only seemed to drag her into an even deeper mystery.

Ye Zheng also pulled back her gaze. She lowered her eyes, her eyelashes trembling faster than usual.

After transforming into a dragon, Sykes had actually retained his ability 【Destruction】.

Ye Zheng’s heart sank. A dragon’s body, far stronger than a human’s, combined with the empire’s current most powerful offensive ability, her original plan had been to kill Sykes, but the difficulty she now faced was comparable to having to kill three Sykeses at once.

The situation had completely spiraled beyond her control.

Ye Zheng subconsciously bit her lip. The faint sting made her even more clear-headed. Although the situation was extremely unfavorable for her, there had to be some way to break through it. The immediate priority was to get out of this passive position first.

『Of course, the second-stage Sykes is extremely hard to fight. He was originally meant to be the final boss for the protagonist!』

System had been observing for a while before it finally spoke up, sounding helpless.

The protagonist hadn’t fully grown yet, but Ye Zheng had directly dragged forward the final boss battle that was supposed to belong to the protagonist’s team. Naturally, the difficulty was ridiculously high!

Because of its rules and restrictions, the system couldn’t tell her how the protagonist’s team had defeated Sykes in the original storyline. Even if it did, it wouldn’t be very useful, since Ye Zheng couldn’t cheat the way Pei Xi could.

The system fell silent once more, leaving Ye Zheng with more time to think at this critical moment. The words it had just said had, in fact, given her a certain hint.

Within the tense and suffocating silence, Ye Zheng’s dark eyes suddenly blinked rapidly twice. She turned her head and looked toward a certain direction.

She didn’t see any figures, but holy white particles of light had already arrived soundlessly, like the prelude to a heavy snowstorm.