Chapter 220

 “Knight, lift your head and tell me what happened here.”

Ye Zheng bent slightly and looked at Bai Mulin, who was slumped against the city wall. When she saw that he gave no response and merely stared at her blankly, as though trapped within thoughts he could not escape, Ye Zheng blinked slowly, an indescribable chill surfacing in her expression.

She reached out, intending to help him to his feet. At her side, Bai Muqing revealed a fleeting expression as if she wanted to say something, yet in the end remained silent. Only when a voice called out to Ye Zheng did she finally stop.

“Your Holiness the Papess!”

Ye Zheng straightened and turned around. She saw someone lifting the hem of her skirt as she hurried toward her, followed closely by a knight of the Order of Sacred Conduct.

“Heath?”

The golden-haired princess first offered Ye Zheng a perfectly proper curtsey before lowering her voice and saying, “Please come with me. I’ve already had them settled.”

Ye Zheng asked no further questions and swiftly followed Heath toward a secluded palace deep within the imperial grounds. A suffocating silence hung heavily in the air the entire way.

The moment the palace doors were pushed open, a scorched stench rushed out to meet her. Weak groans drifted from somewhere nearby, each one tugging painfully at the heart.

As she stepped into one of the rooms, she found three uniformed healing-type ability users working frantically inside. More than a dozen injured people lay scattered throughout the room, their wounds varying in severity. Some bore deep cuts from bladed weapons, while others had skin ulcerated and swollen crimson. Yet every single one of them carried traces of burns and scalding.

Their once-white uniforms had been burned into charred black rags, the melted fabric fused together with ruined flesh in a mass of rotting meat that was nearly impossible to separate. The exposed skin beneath was swollen, blistered, and raw red. The relentless burning pain left them incapable of calming down. A low, oppressive atmosphere saturated the entire room.

Ye Zheng turned her head and realized Bai Muqing had not followed them inside.

From the scorched battle scars she had seen along the way, to this room overflowing with the wounded, she already knew who had caused it all.

Bai Muqing’s father, Bai Yi. The man known throughout the empire as the Undying Flame. In his younger years, he had been worshipped as the empire’s strongest powerhouse, and even now he still stood among the empire’s highest-ranking figures.

Ye Zheng crouched beside a young woman and examined her injuries. The woman’s swollen red eyes could barely open into thin slits. In a smoke-scorched, hoarse voice, she forced out the words, “Your Holiness the Papess.” Ye Zheng gently shook her head at her, signaling for her to remain still.

Ye Zheng took hold of the woman’s hand and activated 【Mother of All Things】. The fire energy left behind by Bai Yi still lingered within the wounds, flickering flames continuously eating away at her flesh.

【Stream】followed immediately after, soothing the already festering injuries. Although 【Stream】was not a SS-Class healing ability, its attribute fortunately countered the flames. The woman’s wounds visibly began to improve.

After treating one of the knights, Ye Zheng slowly rose to her feet and swept her gaze across the familiar faces in the room. Yet among them, she could not find the person she knew best, nor the one she cared about most.

“Where is Wende?”

Heath, who had been silently following behind Ye Zheng the entire time, finally lifted her head. Her voice carried a faint strain as she answered, “...She’s in another room.”

Ye Zheng stared at Heath’s expression, and suddenly, her heartbeat turned unbearably heavy.

The two of them entered the adjacent room, which appeared to be a lounge. Yet there was no one inside. Following the faint sounds ahead, Ye Zheng pushed open a small door deeper within the room.

Beyond the door lay a water reservoir. Wende sat submerged within the pool, leaning weakly against the edge with her eyes closed. Her usually immaculate uniform was soaked through completely. Her brows were drawn tightly together in pain, yet not a single sound escaped her lips.

Ye Zheng walked toward her, but Wende gave no response whatsoever. Ye Zheng placed a hand on her shoulder and closed her eyes to examine her condition.

A moment later, Ye Zheng’s body, half-kneeling beside the pool, trembled violently. She turned in disbelief to look at Heath and the knight standing nearby. Her voice carried a faint but unmistakable tremor as she asked, “What exactly happened?”

“At that time, the General Bai seemed intent on harming you. We had no choice but to stop him. His ability was truly… terrifying. Lady Wende stood at the very front and used her bone spikes to block him, so she suffered the most severe injuries.”

“Fortunately, Princess Heath arrived with the Emperor’s orders, and that man finally stopped. But he was injured as well.” The exceedingly young knight spoke with lingering fear still evident in her voice.

Wende’s bone spikes were a part of her own body. She had confronted that man’s ability head-on with them, allowing the flames to rampage directly through her body and burn her to the brink of death.

“Your Holiness, please relieve Captain Wende’s suffering,” the knight pleaded as she looked up hopefully, her expression still carrying traces of youthful innocence.

Ye Zheng looked at the face before her, one just as young as her own. The girl herself had hardly sustained any injuries. Even in a situation where she could scarcely protect herself, Wende had still refused to let the youngest child in the team get hurt. She had always been that kind of person: a protective older sister, a dependable elder.

Ye Zheng’s gaze slowly shifted toward Heath.

Heath was even younger than she was. Having lived within the palace for so long, her skin was pale and lustrous, untouched by either wind or sun. Yet there was not the slightest trace of childish innocence within her eyes or brows. She returned Ye Zheng’s gaze with faint apology in her expression.

It seemed Heath also understood that the flames raging inside Wende could not be extinguished. Placing her within the water reservoir was merely a way to lessen her suffering, even if only slightly.

【Stream】 could resist Sykes’ 【Destruction】, but it could not extinguish flames that had already seeped deep into the bone marrow. Perhaps she could attempt to use 【Mother of All Things】 to transfer that energy away, but since it did not belong to the category of life force, the results would likely be poor. Or perhaps… she should simply go find that damned man right now?

A thought suddenly flashed through Ye Zheng’s mind. She reached into the inner lining of her clothes and tightly grasped the bone hidden there. To her disappointment, the bone gave no response whatsoever.

Feeling Wende’s life force gradually weakening, Ye Zheng thought that perhaps she should simply charge out and drag Bai Yi back here by force. No matter what methods she had to use, she would make him dispel his ability…

『What if I try?』

A gentle voice suddenly echoed within her mind.

Ye Zheng’s expression froze briefly. She asked Heath and the knight to leave first before speaking softly, “Mercé, what do you mean?”

"【Mother of All Things】 is an ability that differs from person to person. When I, Mercé, wield it, there is no injury in this world that I cannot heal. Even if someone has already died, I can still snatch them back from the hands of the God of Death."

Mercé spoke calmly, yet every word carried unmistakable arrogance.

Ye Zheng lowered her eyelashes slightly. She knew Mercé was not exaggerating. She had witnessed it herself within Mercé’s memories. Even a heart that had already ceased beating could recover its vitality beneath her hands. It was precisely because of this that she had been able to gather countless followers and establish the Church of Hope.

“How do I do it?” Ye Zheng asked without the slightest hesitation.

『Allow my consciousness to temporarily take control of your body.』

The moment Mercé finished speaking, silence descended upon the room. For a brief instant, the only sound that remained was the faint flow of water within the reservoir.

“Alright.”

Ye Zheng lowered her head. Strands of hair, left disordered by the battle, fell across the side of her face. After a brief moment of thought, she gave a resolute reply.

This time, it was Mercè who seemed taken aback. She asked, “You’re not afraid that I… ha, might do the same thing as that old monster?”

Ye Zheng remained half-kneeling at the edge of the pool. With one hand, she tilted up the chin of the unconscious Wende. A smile devoid of warmth surfaced on her lips, vanishing almost as soon as it appeared.

“I’ll be keeping a very close watch on you, Mercè. Controlling others has always been my specialty. I won’t allow anyone to surpass me in that regard.”

“Not even you, the first Pope who founded the Church, the original master of 【Mother of All Things】.”

A brief silence echoed within her mind before Mercè let out a short laugh, its meaning impossible to discern.

『What a terrifying junior… Now close your eyes. Temporarily lower your guard and follow my guidance…』

Ye Zheng obediently closed her eyes. The sound of flowing water beside her ears gradually receded into silence. Little by little, she lost all sensation of her body’s weight, and her consciousness became incomparably light.

✧✧✧✧✧

In the third month of the imperial calendar, the wind still carried the lingering chill of winter, yet the flowering trees lining the streets had already begun to herald the arrival of spring. It was amidst such a beautiful season that the entire empire suffered a catastrophic shock.

After five hundred years, an Aberrant Realm had descended upon the Upper District once again, and it had occurred during the Papess’s birthday celebration, right within the empire’s safest and most magnificent imperial palace!

The palace and castle that had stood proudly for centuries were reduced to ruins overnight. The once-crystal-clear moat had become utterly murky, its water level dropping to the lowest point recorded in history. The imperial family had no choice but to temporarily relocate to other palaces.

The nobles involved in the incident remained strictly tight-lipped. The empire had yet to release any official explanation, while both the imperial family and the Church maintained complete silence. Civilians from the Lower District who had remained out late that night claimed they had witnessed a colossal black dragon descending upon the palace, one that looked exactly like the Demonic Dragon spoken of in ancient legends.

The moment the rumor spread, panic erupted among the people. Tormented by apocalyptic prophecies, fear seized their hearts. If even the heavily fortified imperial palace could be ravaged so effortlessly, then would the Demonic Dragon descend upon their hometowns tomorrow? Where could ordinary people like them possibly run to?

But before long, a reassuring rumor spread throughout the empire and soothed the terrified civilians: the black dragon had already been defeated by Her Holiness the Papess!

Just like the God of Hope five hundred years ago, Papess Ye Zheng had become the undisputed God’s Chosen and the empire’s beacon of hope. On the very day of her eighteenth birthday celebration, she had slain the Demonic Dragon. Such an achievement was even more legendary than the stories once left behind by the God of Hope himself.

Rumors surged and spread throughout the empire like boiling tides. Ye Zheng did not instruct the Church to release any official statement. Instead, she secretly encouraged the circulation of those stories.

After all, the rumors were fundamentally true. Sykes could indeed be regarded as a Demonic Dragon, and she had personally defeated him in battle. Ye Zheng felt entirely justified in promoting those claims. Setting aside the political implications, she deserved to revel in that glory.

Even if the Emperor were someday to acknowledge Pei Xi’s identity and reveal the true divine sword, Ye Zheng believed that her own position could no longer be shaken by any so-called truth.

What was a God’s Chosen? What was the empire’s hope? The God of Hope had merely been an idol constructed upon layers of lies. When genuine chaos and disaster descended upon the world, people would only run toward the hand they trusted most.

Ye Zheng was curious whether the Emperor would choose silence and bury everything that had happened with Sykes forever, or whether he would fabricate a convincing explanation for the events of that day.

She would wait for his decision. If he chose concealment, then she, as the Papess, would personally announce the “truth.”

Ye Zheng sat in the high-backed chair, pinching the bridge of her brow. She set Wen Xin’s report aside and picked up another document, only to suddenly remember that Pei Xi and his team had been missing ever since the incident.

A full week had already passed since the chaos of the birthday celebration. Wende and Wu Shu were still recovering from their injuries, while Bai Muqing had not contacted her even once since that day. As for Pei Xi’s whereabouts, she had been completely unable to track them down.

After a brief moment of thought, Ye Zheng took out her phone. Perhaps she could uncover some clue about his location through the manga updates.

“By the way, System, how many action points were deducted when I killed Sykes?”

Ye Zheng asked. The system took an unusually long time to respond before it finally buzzed to life.

『1000 points. Since you had enough action points, I didn’t disturb you.』

“That’s cheaper than I expected.”

A faint laugh escaped Ye Zheng’s lips.

『Who told you to become more and more uncontrollable…』

The system abruptly cut itself off mid-sentence.

Ye Zheng noticed the abnormality in its behavior, but she chose not to press further. Lately, the system had seemed incredibly busy. A week earlier, after hearing Mercè’s proposal, she had secretly asked the system to monitor Mercè’s consciousness. Even then, the system had taken quite a while before replying.

“The manga update should’ve reached the part where I killed Sykes by now. I just hope the comment section isn’t full of people cursing me the moment I open it.”

Ye Zheng’s tone lifted slightly as she teased herself, clearly in a good mood.

Out of curiosity, she opened the forum first. To her surprise, things were exactly as she had hoped. There weren’t many people cursing her at all. In fact, after scrolling for quite a while, she could barely find any. It was completely different from what she had originally imagined.

Ye Zheng frowned in confusion. “System, didn’t you say Sykes was the most popular character in the later stages? I remember a lot of people really liked him.”

She had fully expected to face overwhelming backlash, especially considering how much the manga author loved portraying her in a negative light.

『The version’s already been updated! If you’d opened the forum a few days earlier, you might still have seen traces of the previous version.』

Ever since the anime adaptation began airing, Sykes had become the most popular character, just like in the original storyline, and his popularity had far surpassed Ye Zheng’s.

But who could’ve predicted that Ye Zheng would rise to fame by stepping over Sykes in a single kill? Every ounce of popularity and prestige Sykes had accumulated beforehand ultimately became nothing more than a stepping stone beneath Ye Zheng’s feet. Even the system had never witnessed such an absurd situation before.

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Authors Note  

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I’m going to figure out how to upgrade my account to VIP so my comments won’t have to go through review anymore.