Chapter 215

“What’s going on?”

“It’s underground! Something’s moving beneath the ground!”

“There’s a monster! It has to be a monster coming this way!”

The crowd had only just barely calmed down when the earth began trembling violently once again. The destructive force behind it was no less terrifying than when the giant dragon had first appeared. The ballistae mounted atop the city walls toppled over one after another, crashing down and injuring several people in the process. The entire scene instantly fell into complete chaos.

However, the few high-level ability users present had already sensed it. An overwhelmingly powerful force was surging from beyond the city walls straight toward the center of the imperial palace.

“The moat outside!”

“What happened to the moat?” Bai Yi grabbed hold of a panicked guard.

“It’s drying up! I can’t believe it!”

Bai Yi instantly realized something. He looked into the distance, and the moment he saw that bizarre scene, his expression changed drastically. Turning around at once, he summoned several of his personal guards and quietly left with them, no longer paying the slightest attention to the panicking crowd.

He hadn’t gone far before a group suddenly stepped forward and blocked his path.

“Duke, are you heading there to support Her Holiness the Papess?”

The tall woman, who was usually silent and reserved, spoke with rare mockery laced through her voice. “How thoughtful of you to finally remember such a matter. However, I believe Her Holiness has no need to be disturbed at a moment like this. What do you think?”

“I think…” The middle-aged man’s face remained completely expressionless, but the hand hidden behind his back was burning with scorching heat. Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly raised his hand. Yet the opponent moved even faster. A massive bone blade stabbed straight into the ground right before his toes, splattering mud all over him and making the dignified Duke look as though he’d just rolled through the dirt.

Had he reacted even a moment slower, he would’ve been nailed directly to the ground.

“Very good. So you’re the new Knight Order Commander of the Church?”

A curved bone spike shaped like a blade burst from Wende’s back. Wende said nothing. Instead, several bone blades came raining down from the sky as her answer to Bai Yi. One of the personal guards failed to dodge in time, his thigh pierced clean through before he collapsed onto the ground, screaming in agony.

The pale bones formed into a cage, trapping Bai Yi within it. He grabbed one of the bone blades, but the sharp barbs sprouting from it instantly pierced through his palm. In the very next moment, the several-meter-long bone blade turned into charred black ash.

The searing pain made Wende feel as though her back had caught fire. She involuntarily bent forward, forcibly swallowing the instinctive cry of pain rising in her throat.

She didn’t know what these people were trying to do, but she knew that the strange phenomenon from earlier had been Ye Zheng’s counterattack. Their actions now were undoubtedly meant to interfere with her.

Wende raised her head and locked eyes with Bai Yi. Killing intent had already surfaced within them. She might find it extremely difficult to emerge unscathed against the lethal attacks of a double-S Class powerhouse.

But precisely because of that, she had to stop him here and prevent him from interfering with the Saintess!

Countless long, razor-sharp white bone spikes writhed and burst forth from Wende’s back. Letting out a furious roar, she charged toward the middle-aged man in the distance together with her knights, accompanied by the unstoppable storm of bone spikes surging alongside them.

✧✧✧✧✧

At the same time, amid the center of the rolling and continuously collapsing ruins, one person and one dragon stood facing each other.

The colossal, wave-like water blades ripped through the black dragon’s underbelly along the open wound. Blood burst out in torrents, gathering into crimson pools across the shattered ground.

As it reeled back in agony, Ye Zheng gave it no chance to recover. Not far away, Bai Muqing manipulated gravity for her. Ye Zheng lightly tapped the tip of her shoe against the ground and vaulted onto a towering mound of ruins. Raising the sword high above her head, she leapt down from the rubble.

This time, she didn’t bother trying to mislead Sykes. Just as it wished, the blade plunged deep into the wound across its underbelly. Then, carried by the force of her descending momentum, she tore out a gash nearly twenty meters long, ripping the dragon’s stomach wide open from top to bottom!

The spraying blood almost drenched Ye Zheng’s entire body red. Her white robe became a robe of blood, and even her sharply defined features blurred beneath the scarlet splatter.

The giant dragon released an earth-shaking roar. Beating its enormous wings, it shakily lifted itself into the air. Its survival instincts screamed at it to get as far away as possible from the tiny human standing beneath its feet.

Ye Zheng raised her head upward. The dense rain washed the blood from her face, revealing a pair of clear, brilliant black eyes.

She lowered her gaze and saw that the sword in her hand had been reduced to nothing more than a hilt.

Ye Zheng casually tossed the hilt aside and stared bare-handed at the struggling black dragon in the sky. Killing it was turning out to be somewhat troublesome.

Her chest rose and fell faintly as she steadied her rapid breathing.

【Destruction】 covered its entire body. Anything that came into contact with it would rapidly be destroyed. If it concentrated 【Destruction】 onto a single point, it could reduce an opponent to ashes in an instant.

Sykes was the final villain of the original story. Ye Zheng had no idea how Pei Xi had managed to deal with it. From what she could tell at this point, she still hadn’t found a truly fatal opening.

Pei Xi possessed the indestructible divine sword, something that perfectly countered Sykes’ ability.

Not only that, he also wielded the power of metal transformation. He could turn any object into metal and manipulate metallic objects however he pleased…

Wait. The divine sword itself was also a metallic object. Could it be that, in the end, Pei Xi had completely fused with the power of the divine sword and used it to defeat Sykes?

“System?”

『Hmm. Looks like you’re already pretty familiar with manga tropes…』

The system answered her question in a deliberately roundabout manner.

Ye Zheng immediately understood that her guess had been correct. She turned to glance at Bai Muqing, who was standing guard not far away, then shifted her gaze again and spotted Wu Shu observing the battle from another direction.

Wu Shu understood at once. With a single teleportation, she appeared beside Ye Zheng in the blink of an eye.

“Go take Pei Xi’s sword. The golden one.” Ye Zheng spoke briefly and directly.

Wu Shu was puzzled. She had already located Pei Xi and the other two earlier. Pei Xi appeared to be heavily injured and unconscious, posing no threat whatsoever to Ye Zheng.

Even so, Ye Zheng had instructed her from the very beginning to keep watch over the three of them. There had to be something on them that Ye Zheng wanted… Wu Shu thought as she lowered her eyes. Then she suddenly froze, her eyes widening in shock.

She saw a golden sword hilt.

Ye Zheng was still staring up at the wounded giant dragon in the sky, every muscle in her body taut, her concentration pushed to its limit.

Wu Shu bent down, picked up the hilt, then casually tossed it into the air in front of Ye Zheng before catching it again. “I’ll go get that sword for you. As for this one, I’ll hold onto it for you for now.”

Wu Shu raised an eyebrow with a faint smile, took several steps backward, and instantly disappeared from sight.

Ye Zheng let out a quiet laugh. Fortunately, she’d prepared plenty of spare “divine swords” beforehand. Losing one wasn’t really a big issue. She just couldn’t allow anyone to notice that something was off.

Still, Wu Shu’s reaction caught her somewhat by surprise.

She’d instantly pieced together the truth behind the God’s Chosen, yet she accepted it with astonishing calmness. Her nature was cautious and meticulous. Even after realizing Ye Zheng was a dangerous ship to board, she still chose to step onto this vessel with no way back and an uncertain future awaiting her.

As Ye Zheng met those golden pupils high above in the sky, the smile on her face slowly disappeared.

She’d told Wu Shu to take away the divine sword not because she intended to use it to kill Sykes, but because she had to stop Pei Xi from slaying the Demonic Dragon just as he had in the original storyline. If he succeeded and the truth surrounding the divine sword came to light, the position she still hadn’t completely stabilized would very likely crumble apart.

So, the one who had to kill Sykes could only be her, Ye Zheng!

The enormous dragon in the distance released another thunderous roar as it charged forward. It plunged down from the heavens at a horrifying speed. The ruins on both sides surged toward it as though they possessed a will of their own, unbelievably rising into towering walls one after another.

Yet the dragon’s speed didn’t slow in the slightest. Its massive horns shattered through one barrier after another. Countless stones cascaded from the sky, as though the entire world were collapsing around them.

It was obvious Sykes intended to end everything through sheer overwhelming force.

Ye Zheng drew in a deep breath and lifted her hand. Water burst upward from beneath the earth, rapidly forming a curtain of water dozens of meters high, resembling a magnificent waterfall stretching across the battlefield.

In the original storyline, she had been the healing-type Saintess capable of resisting Sykes’ 【Destruction】 to a certain degree. Her existence within the plot line had seemed as though it’d been created solely to support Pei Xi, shielding him from a fatal strike delivered by Sykes.

But Ye Zheng understood that regardless of which world line it was, every “Ye Zheng” fought for herself and for the ideals she believed in.

【Stream】 could resist Sykes’ 【Destruction】. This battle was destined to belong to her!

The instant the dragon, dozens of meters tall, crashed into the water curtain, it was like an unscalable mountain collapsing into a raging river. A dull and thunderous impact reverberated through the rain-soaked night. The shattered walls and surrounding ruins trembled violently before crumbling apart.

Bai Muqing kept her eyes shut tightly. The swirling dust and debris couldn’t stain even the corner of her clothes. She concentrated entirely on Ye Zheng, continuously channeling 【Divine Domain】 to strengthen Ye Zheng’s power.

Her body had already reached the brink of exhaustion, yet her mind remained abnormally sharp and alert. The moment Ye Zheng’s voice reached her ears, the muscles on her face twitched slightly.

Bai Muqing suddenly opened her pale white pupils in shock.

Within the vision granted by 【Divine Domain】, the water curtain shattered apart like glass struck by a diving eagle, breaking into lifeless, silent puddles scattered across the ground. The black dragon standing amid those puddles threw back its head and let out a deafening roar. Its enormous tail smashed heavily against the earth, sending freezing water droplets splashing in every direction.

…Where was Ye Zheng?

Where had Ye Zheng disappeared to?

Her mind felt like a clock that had abruptly stopped moving. The entire world was drowned in harsh, chaotic buzzing. Bai Muqing mechanically turned around, barely remembering the soft whisper Ye Zheng had spoken only moments earlier.

“Protect Shu Wan.”

The black dragon’s front claw scraped heavily across a patch of water. Its emotions were obviously in turmoil. Before long, however, it abruptly changed direction, spread its wings, and flew toward the tunnel. It landed atop a ruined building, lowered its head, and pressed its horn against the structure as though searching for something hidden within.

Then, with a single stomp of its foot, it crushed the entire building apart.

Bai Muqing suddenly recalled that Lady Shu Wan and the others had followed Ye Zheng’s instructions and concealed themselves inside the monster pens of the hunting grounds. They were also carrying the strange bone Ye Zheng had handed over to them.

Bai Muqing practically shot toward the ruined pens. She even forgot to activate 【Divine Domain】 to investigate the area ahead of time. Her mind, pushed far beyond its limits, no longer had any room left for rational thought. She forcibly kept her white pupils open, yet everything before her eyes had already turned into a boundless expanse of pale white.

It wasn’t until she stumbled and crashed to the ground that she finally remembered to activate 【Divine Domain】.

Using 【Divine Domain】 was as instinctive to her as breathing. How could she have forgotten how to breathe?

The power of 【Divine Domain】 swept across her trembling nerves. Only then did Bai Muqing finally “see” the scene hidden deep within the tunnel.

A stunned expression surfaced on her face almost unconsciously.

The prison that had barely remained standing had already collapsed completely. Terrified monsters scattered in every direction as they fled in panic. Beneath the night sky, the black dragon’s enormous body had fallen into a dense white web, its entire form glowing with a strange fluorescent light.

Meanwhile, Shu Wan sat on the ground not far away. One hand gently caressed a mushroom as large as a human head, her expression soft and tender, as though she were comforting a child.

Countless strands of mycelium spread outward from the mushroom, twisting and climbing layer upon layer across the enormous dragon’s body.

Spores clung to the mycelial threads. They continuously burst apart across the giant dragon’s body, releasing paralyzing toxins. Trapped within the mass of mycelium, the dragon roared and struggled without pause. The threads snapped and dissipated almost the instant they touched its body, yet they multiplied far too quickly, surging toward it in an endless flood.

The slick mycelium restricted its movements, yet it couldn’t inflict any direct harm. It only drove the dragon’s movements into increasing frenzy and violence.

Yet Bai Muqing could see clearly that the true danger lay within the toxins carried by those spores. Even Sykes’ 【Destruction】 couldn’t erase the poison lingering throughout the air!

When the cold raindrops landed against her deathly pale cheeks, Bai Muqing suddenly snapped back to her senses. Focus gradually returned to her white pupils. She turned her head and looked toward the young woman who had suddenly appeared at her side.

“Sorry for making you worry.”

Ye Zheng apologized softly.

During her earlier clash against Sykes’ charge, Ye Zheng had already realized that although the water curtain formed by 【Stream】 could block him, it wasn’t capable of killing him.

Even if the water blades created by 【Stream】 managed to slice into his body, they would still be disintegrated halfway through by 【Destruction】. Combined with Sykes’ terrifying regenerative ability, it simply wasn’t enough to kill him.

So she had deliberately shattered the water curtain herself. She used that instant to conceal her aura and presence completely, creating the illusion that she had already been erased by 【Destruction】. Only then could she lure Sykes, following the scent carried by that bone, straight into the grand “gift” she had prepared for him.

“She used to brag to me when I was little that she could easily control Aberrant plant. The moment I discovered this mushroom inside the cell, I immediately thought of her.”

This mushroom was at least S-Class. If she hadn’t possessed 【Mother of All Things】, she probably wouldn’t have been able to escape from that cell herself.

Ye Zheng hadn’t wanted to drag her mother into the battle, but this was the first time she had ever seen such determination in her mother’s eyes. Perhaps she could finally try treating her as a true companion.

“Looks like she wasn’t just bragging after all.”

Ye Zheng smiled faintly. However, the moment she noticed something strange in Bai Muqing’s expression and realized she still wasn’t responding, the smile on Ye Zheng’s face slowly disappeared.

Her expression grew serious. She reached out and took hold of Bai Muqing’s hand, intending to offer a more sincere apology, yet Bai Muqing suddenly tightened her grip around Ye Zheng’s hand instead.

“Happy birthday, Ye Zheng.”

Ye Zheng’s eyes widened slightly. She’d never expected Bai Muqing to say something like that at a moment like this.

“Hahahahaha…”

Ye Zheng suddenly broke into loud laughter. It was rare for her to laugh so freely and wholeheartedly, leaving Bai Muqing utterly confused and unsure how she was supposed to react.

Just as her laughter echoed through the rain-soaked night, clearer and sharper than the sound of the falling rain itself, an earth-shaking cry suddenly reverberated across the entire imperial palace. Everyone instinctively turned to look in the same direction.

Ye Zheng smiled and let go of Bai Muqing’s hand. Then she turned and walked toward the black dragon not far away.

“Thank you, Muqing. I had a very happy coming-of-age ceremony today.”

Ye Zheng stopped before the black dragon’s shadow. She watched as the growth of the mycelium slowed more and more. Under the giant dragon’s violent struggles, the tangled threads tore apart like fragile paper, while the number of spores dwindled rapidly.

She lifted her head and slowly spread her arms. Months ago, she had stood within the imperial palace in this exact same posture and declared to Sykes that she could redeem everyone fairly.

The black dragon, which had been frantically tearing through the mycelium, suddenly froze in place. Its golden vertical pupils contracted sharply.

Continuous raindrops poured over Ye Zheng’s body, layering around her like thin white gauze. As she raised her arms, streams of water slid from her fingertips like flowing silk. At that moment, every falling raindrop seemed to weave itself into transparent curtains, dimly veiling the entire world.

With a thunderous boom, the black dragon finally tore free from the mycelium nest. It unfurled its enormous black wings that blotted out the sky. It wanted to soar even higher. It wanted to kill her completely!

Yet the instant it rose into the air, it felt a brief moment of sluggishness. The paralyzing effect belatedly spread through both its body and mind, causing its movements and abilities to slow by half a beat.

Snap.

A faint and nearly imperceptible sound quietly rang out. Ye Zheng pressed her palms together in a gesture resembling prayer. Even her dark, luminous eyes appeared calm and devout.

Within the pure curtain of rain mist, countless strands of water reflected an icy gleam. In the very next instant, the water threads surrounding the prey twisted violently, and bloody flowers burst apart everywhere!

Bang!

The black dragon didn’t even have the chance to release a howl. In the blink of an eye, massive chunks of flesh scattered from the sky, crashing heavily onto the ground with deafening thuds.

A rain of blood began pouring down between heaven and earth.

Standing atop the mountain-like remains of the black dragon’s dismembered corpse, Ye Zheng saw Sykes.

His eyes were half-open. His complexion was deathly pale, his clothing had completely vanished, and the lower half of his body had fused together with the dragon’s flesh. Even his arms had merged into the black dragon’s mangled, blood-soaked meat.

His bloodless lips moved, clearly trying to say something, yet all that emerged from his throat were meaningless, ragged gasps.

Ye Zheng stepped forward. Crimson water threads coiled tightly around his neck.

“Your Holiness the Papess!”

Ye Zheng turned her head and saw a middle-aged man dressed in a red uniform. His carefully maintained, handsome face was frozen in disbelief as he stared at her.

The Emperor had arrived with a group of attendants and now stood not far away.

“Sykes was devoured by the black dragon. I’m deeply grateful for your intervention in saving him. Please hand him over to me. I am his father…”

Ye Zheng turned back to look at Sykes once more. That usually arrogant face now appeared so frail that even his breathing had become faint and shallow. The moment he heard that familiar voice, his half-dead body trembled violently with agitation. Within those beautiful golden pupils swirled hatred, confusion, and a faint trace of instinctive hope.

He was looking at her.

Killing him in front of everyone would undoubtedly bring her enormous trouble.

But she had promised Sykes that she would grant him fair redemption, even if he was a source of calamity, even if he was rotten to the core.

Ye Zheng bent down slightly and whispered in a low voice beside his ear, “Farewell. This is the only redemption I can give you.”

Beneath the moonlight, those fragile golden pupils widened abruptly.

The water threads tightened further. A permanent blood-red mark was left across that fair, slender neck, forever freezing Sykes in that final moment.

A magnificent yet miserable tool. Bringing such a tragic life to an end was the greatest mercy she could offer.

Ye Zheng turned around. The Emperor’s gaze toward her was no longer filled with false pleading and pretense. What now filled his eyes was an unfamiliar, genuine fury and shock.

After a moment, every knight behind him raised their weapons and aimed them at her.

Ye Zheng showed no fear at all. She slowly walked toward Emperor Havel and stopped at a distance where they could clearly see each other’s expressions.

Her lips moved soundlessly.

After the Emperor clearly read the words she mouthed, his golden pupils froze completely in that instant. He lifted a hand and ordered his men to lower their weapons.

【Vincent.】

The Emperor raised his head and gazed at the eternal moon. Suddenly, he felt like laughing out loud.

Five hundred years. At last, someone had spoken that name again, his real name.

The corners of his mouth twitched upward stiffly before tightening once more. He could only watch helplessly as Ye Zheng killed Sykes right in front of him, then calmly turned and walked away. Violent emotions surged uncontrollably through his body.

✧✧✧✧✧

Ye Zheng’s posture, always held so straight and rigid, finally loosened slightly. The exhaustion struck her belatedly, but she still had to go find her mother and the others.

Suddenly, a loud explosion rang out, followed by a continuous chain of sounds. She looked toward the distant night sky along the horizon.

The rain had already stopped. Sometime without her noticing, the Aberrant Realm had disappeared as well.

The fireworks celebrating her coming-of-age ceremony bloomed on schedule, illuminating more than half the night sky. A daylight-like brilliance reflected within her eyes.

She welcomed her eighteenth birthday in the posture of victory.

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Authors Note  

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Her birthday’s set on this day! I’ll buy a cake as soon as I wake up.