Chapter 228

After ending a conversation that had crossed the boundaries between worlds, Lin Zhixing instructed the system to erase the access records, then hurriedly left the main control room.

She had originally intended to keep Ye Zheng's influence under control. Unfortunately, the family had already recognized the potential surrounding Ye Zheng, and the situation had grown far beyond anything she could manage alone.

Her family, consumed by a fanatical desire to seize the resources of other worlds, was beyond redemption. After weighing every possibility, the most dependable and powerful ally she could find was, ironically, Ye Zheng.

The day before, the old patriarch had told her inside that surveillance room that the family had actually been observing her all along. She had simply seemed too lazy and too lacking in ambition to be worth their attention. But recently, the competence she'd displayed at work had made them see her in a new light, and the family now intended to give her project their full support.

Lin Zhixing had entered the room with nervous apprehension and left it wearing an expression as rigid as stone. The old patriarch's approval and encouragement hadn't given her the slightest sense of familial warmth. Instead, they left a chill that settled deep into her bones.

Had her cousin not previously been parachuted in to replace her, Lin Zhixing might actually have believed every word of that carefully crafted speech.

They kept calling it “her project,” yet she had never wanted any part of it, nor would she ever be its ultimate beneficiary. What they truly needed was someone to carry the risks on their behalf. After all, her cousin's accidental death had genuinely frightened them.

Even the threat of death from another world couldn't extinguish their greed. If anything, it seemed to have injected them with adrenaline, driving them into an even greater frenzy. Their methods became more reckless with each passing day, alarming her more than ever.

Warm lamplight spilled across a sheet of white paper covered in hurried, chaotic handwriting. Ye Zheng studied the key points she'd written down in silence.

The doubts that had lingered in her mind for so long had finally been answered. The price, however, was that she had taken on yet another mission to save the world.

Now, within the shortest possible time, she had to travel five hundred years into the past, uncover the truth behind the Demonic Dragon, and prevent the apocalyptic catastrophe awaiting the world she lived in.

At the same time, once Throne of the Aberrant Realm reached its conclusion, she would have to kill the manga author and prevent the disaster threatening the other world.

The new mission sounded far simpler on the surface. It was merely the task of killing an ordinary person with no special abilities. Yet, for the moment, Ye Zheng had no idea where to begin. Crossing into another world to hunt someone whose appearance and whereabouts were both unknown was, without question, an exceptionally troublesome task.

【At the beginning of the project, the manga author's information was kept under extremely tight security. The only things I know are what he looks like and where he lives.】

【But two weeks ago, he was taken away by people from the family. Officially, they claimed he'd fallen ill. For the time being, I can't uncover where they've taken him.】

Even Lin Zhixing couldn't find him.

Ye Zheng considered it for a moment. Perhaps the family had taken the manga author away precisely to prevent any unforeseen incidents. Otherwise, Lin Zhixing could've simply had him eliminated herself, without needing Ye Zheng to intervene.

As their conversation drew to a close, Lin Zhixing promised she would use the system's power to help Ye Zheng return to five hundred years in the past, and that her assistance would extend beyond that alone.

So Ye Zheng made one final request, a small one.

Find out the manga author's real name.

Beside the words "manga author," a question mark had been drawn on the paper. Ye Zheng locked the sheet away inside the bookcase.

She rose from her chair, left the study, and returned to the brightly lit palace. Settling into the deep crimson high-backed chair, she quietly reviewed the stack of accumulated documents before drafting a classified file.

✧✧✧✧✧

Three days later.

The train station bustled with people. Amid the endless tide of passengers, a petite girl blended into the crowd almost unnoticed. A few strands of orange hair slipped from beneath her hood as she hurried toward the platform, glancing over her shoulder every few steps.

"Announcement: All trains today have been suspended! Please leave the station in an orderly manner!"

"Repeating the announcement: All trains today have been suspended..."

The impatient voice of a station employee echoed from somewhere in the distance. Passengers clutching their tickets immediately erupted in protest. Before long, armed personnel arrived to restore order. The crowd gradually quieted, lowering their voices to anxious murmurs before letting out resigned sighs and filing out of the station.

Lu Qi stood rooted to the spot. Forgetting all concern for remaining unnoticed, she pushed against the stream of departing passengers until she reached a uniformed conductor.

"Excuse me, has something happened at the station? Did thugs break in? Or... was a train blown up?"

The conductor stared at her in confusion.

"What... what thugs? Oh, no. It's not that thugs showed up at our Western District station."

Lu Qi let out a quiet breath of relief.

Ever since she'd escaped, Sela had been relentlessly hunting her down.

She could've fled to the Upper District alongside Pei Xi and the others. Instead, Pei Xi's group had revealed a truth so shocking that it shattered everything she thought she knew, along with the real purpose behind their journey to the Upper District. In the end, she'd refused to go with them.

Why had Ye Zheng done such a thing?

Her thoughts remained a tangled mess. She couldn't bring herself to stand against what her former companions believed were righteous actions. All she knew was that Ye Zheng had once saved her. How could she possibly join those determined to oppose Ye Zheng?

Yet she couldn't force herself to report Pei Xi and the others' plans to Ye Zheng either.

They had once been her closest companions.

They had shared quiet days on campus, studying and working side by side, and had survived dangerous adventures together. They'd trusted her enough to reveal their secret. She couldn't betray that trust the moment their paths diverged.

Lu Qi remembered Sela's mocking words.

Coward.

Tag-along.

Soft rotten orange...

Lu Qi buried her face in her hands, overwhelmed by despair. Sela had been right.

Compared to the others, she was painfully ordinary, utterly unremarkable. The only reason she'd ever believed otherwise was because she had been surrounded by people who shone so brilliantly that their light had fooled her into thinking she glowed as well.

During this time, Sela had completely severed ties with Annabella and the others. By some unknown means, she'd managed to draw every dragon-bodied person under Annabella's protection over to her side. Now, commanding the enormous remains of the Demonic Dragon alongside a force of dragon-bodied followers with overwhelming offensive power, Sela was no longer content to remain a mere thug lurking in the shadows of the Western District.

Ye Zheng had to know about Sela's recent movements already. There was no real need for Lu Qi to travel all the way to the Upper District just to report them. She understood that perfectly well.

Even so, like a traveler stumbling through endless darkness toward the only visible light, she still wanted to see Ye Zheng just once.

"It's not that thugs appeared at our Western District station..."

"It's that thugs appeared at the Imperial Central Station in the Upper District!"

The conductor's words sent Lu Qi's heart lurching again.

"What happened in the Upper District?" she asked at once.

"There was a baffling explosion at the Imperial Central Station. From what I've heard, it was an organized operation. Because of it, every train across the entire empire has been suspended!"

"Then... then when will service resume?"

The conductor waved her off with growing impatience.

"How should I know?"

"These days, even the imperial palace and the Imperial Central Station aren't safe anymore. Who knows what'll happen next?"

Lu Qi remained standing alone on the now-empty platform, her face clouded with bewilderment.

She'd finally managed to get hold of a ticket and had planned to travel to the Upper District to find Ye Zheng, only for something like this to happen.

The Imperial Central Station was the empire's most important transportation hub, constructed atop an S-class spatial Aberrant Realm. It possessed the empire's fastest transportation network and the most heavily fortified security.

Even Lu Qi, whose carefree optimism rarely faltered, caught the unmistakable scent of something deeply wrong.

First the imperial palace.

Then the Imperial Central Station.

The Upper District, once considered the safest place in the empire, had all but become the most dangerous.

She couldn't help worrying about Ye Zheng.

Grandma Annabella had once told her that the Upper District's arena of political power was a place that devoured people without leaving even their bones behind.

Back then, Lu Qi hadn't understood what that meant.

But now...

The Upper District no longer merely felt like a place where people metaphorically devoured one another.

It felt like a place where a monster could swallow someone whole in a single bite.

Once again, Lu Qi sank into uncertainty.

She didn't dare seek shelter with Annabella and the others, afraid Sela would trace her there and drag them into danger as well.

Yet now that she forced herself to think calmly, she realized this endless running away was causing Ye Zheng trouble too.

The girl absentmindedly took several steps backward.

Then another.

And another.

Her pace quickened almost without her noticing, until she suddenly spun around and broke into a run.

She wasn't fleeing from Sela.

She was running from the version of herself that had lost all sense of direction.

Everyone else had a destination.

Everyone else had something they were striving toward.

So... where was her own future?

✧✧✧✧✧

The once magnificent Imperial Central Station now lay in ruins.

More than half of the vast structure had collapsed. Train after train lay overturned across the ground, surrounded by shattered steel, broken masonry, and scattered debris.

Fortunately, the explosion hadn't occurred while the station was in operation.

Many people had been injured.

But not a single life had been lost.

The deputy captain of the Public Security Bureau's action team had arrived at the scene at the earliest opportunity and was leading her officers in a systematic investigation of the wreckage.

Then, amid the dust and broken concrete, her eyes caught something.

She bent down, picked up a tattered sheet of paper from the ground, and stared at it in surprise.

“This is… the mark of the Saints!”

Wu Shu shouted at the top of her lungs. In an instant, the public security officers at the scene, the station management staff, and the imperial officials who had just arrived all crowded around.

“Look. This pattern of wheat ears and a sword is the very emblem of the Saints.”

An official with a protruding belly stroked his tiny mustache and let out a disdainful snort.

“Those thugs have actually grown bold enough to recruit followers in the Upper District? The Church has truly fallen so low that it allows a mob of ignorant rioters to trample upon the dignity of the God of Hope…”

Wu Shu smiled and nodded.

“Indeed, this is the Church's responsibility. Come, you brat. Go request instructions from Her Holiness the Papess and have her send people over to take charge of this incident.”

“Hold on a moment! The Imperial Central Station is property of the imperial government. There is no place for the Church to interfere here!”

The small-mustached official's eyes widened as he hurriedly stepped forward to block her.

Wu Shu ignored him. Her gaze swept across the crowd, taking in their varied expressions before she spoke.

“Based on my examination of the scene, this explosion was caused by prohibited weapons. The Saints are a violent organization with widespread influence among the common people, and their leader, Sela, habitually leaves behind symbolic objects after every act of violence. I therefore have reasonable grounds to suspect that this incident was carried out by the Saints.”

Wu Shu spoke with quiet certainty.

“Since this concerns heresy, it no longer falls within the jurisdiction of the Imperial Law. It's now a matter governed by the Church Law.”

She turned slightly toward the rear of the crowd.

“Director, my judgment is correct, isn't it?”

The elderly director slowly made his way forward, each step unsteady. Retirement was finally within reach, yet a disaster of this magnitude had erupted at the worst possible moment, leaving him frustrated and deeply unsettled.

“Correct. Summon the Church at once. Those arrogant heretics must be dealt with severely!”

The small-mustached official's face flushed with fury. His mustache quivered, his eyes nearly bulged from their sockets, and he immediately launched into a heated argument with the director of the Public Security Bureau. But the aging director, realizing the responsibility for the Imperial Central Station incident was about to land squarely on the Bureau's shoulders, answered back with a voice that rang like a great bell. By the end of the confrontation, the matter had been decisively ruled to be the Church's responsibility.

Wu Shu watched the entire spectacle in silence. A faint glimmer of amusement flickered across her eyes.

She had no idea what Ye Zheng intended to accomplish at the Imperial Central Station, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something momentous was about to unfold.

Before long, the Papess's order of knights arrived in force. Claiming they had traced the movements of the thugs, they swiftly sealed off the surrounding area, barring all unauthorized personnel from entering.

Once the cordon had been secured, Papess Ye Zheng crossed the blockade without the slightest hint of urgency and calmly stepped onto the shattered ruins of the Imperial Central Station.

Looking over the results she had orchestrated with her own hands, Ye Zheng narrowed her dark eyes ever so slightly and continued deeper inside.

She lifted her foot and stepped over the stone monument engraved with the words "Imperial Central Station," which now lay toppled upon the ground, silently whispering I'm sorry in her heart.

She had passed through this station more times than she could count. It had watched over her from a babbling infant to the awe-inspiring Papess she had become. Through every step of her life, it had stood in quiet silence, witnessing all that she had done.

But today, this legendary station had reached the end of its history.

From this day onward, the Imperial Central Station, once renowned for its mythical speed, would cease to exist. Ye Zheng needed it to exhaust every last trace of its power so it could help her complete one final journey.