Chapter 236

“I'm to kill Ye Zheng?”

The middle-aged man regarded him with calm, concerned eyes.

“Is there a problem?”

Pei Xi found himself at a complete loss for words.

He was supposed to kill Ye Zheng?

There was clearly something wrong with that… with everything.

“There are countless ability users throughout the empire who are stronger than I am. Besides, we still have no proof that Ye Zheng will ever become a threat to the empire… Forgive me. I simply can't bring myself to do something like that.”

The emperor's golden eyes darkened ever so slightly. The corners of his mouth drew taut by almost nothing at all. Though the gentle smile remained on his face, it no longer reached his eyes.

Pei Xi realized he must've said something that displeased the emperor. Even so, this was one matter he truly couldn't force himself to accept.

“Do you believe that simply because you refuse to act against Ye Zheng, she won't act against you?”

Pei Xi's lips gradually tightened into a thin line. “She used me, placed a bounty on my head, and even sent people to seize the Divine Sword by force. She's never once shown me the slightest mercy. I don't harbor any such naïve illusions about her.”

“Is that so? Then I think you've still underestimated her. Otherwise, you wouldn't have refused me.”

Looking down at him from above, the emperor spoke in a calm, measured voice.

“What does Your Majesty mean?” Pei Xi asked, bewildered.

Without warning, the emperor tossed a golden sword into Pei Xi's arms. Caught off guard, he barely managed to catch it, his confusion deepening as he stared at the weapon.

“Take the sword and go.”

“Your Majesty, this is the true Divine Sword. I can't guarantee I'll be able to keep it safe.”

He'd hidden the Divine Sword with the utmost care, yet it had still failed to escape Ye Zheng's notice. She'd already sent Wu Shu once to take it by force. There would undoubtedly be a second attempt, then a third.

“Take it. You're the only one who can wield it.”

“I'll find a way to have the Church revoke the bounty on you. You and your companions may continue living as you always have until the day you're needed finally arrives.”

“Be prepared, Pei Xi.”

The emperor's loaded words weighed heavily on Pei Xi's mind. He couldn't see through the emperor's intentions or discern what he was truly planning, just as he couldn't understand Ye Zheng.

Yet deep within his heart, one path had always remained unmistakably clear: use the power in his hands to drive every monster from before his eyes. That was the path of a hero, one that could never be wrong. If he'd failed to move forward, it was only because he still wasn't strong enough and because hesitation still lingered within him.

Just as it had ten years ago. Had he possessed the strength to destroy the Blood Flower back then, he wouldn't have lost his adoptive parents… and perhaps Ye Zheng wouldn't have grown into the person she was today, her personality twisted to such extremes.

“I understand. Thank you for Your Majesty's trust.”

Lately, he'd spent all his time staying hidden and had neglected his training. Nor had he yet mastered the Divine Sword to the degree he wanted. Although he had no idea when the “moment he was needed” would arrive, once the bounty against him was lifted, devoting himself entirely to becoming stronger could never be the wrong choice.

Pei Xi bowed once more before turning to leave.

The instant he did, a trace of hesitation stirred within him. In the end, however, he swallowed the question that had nearly escaped his lips. The emperor's concern for him seemed unusually profound. Surely it couldn't be explained solely by his origins or the Divine Sword. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't shake the feeling that something far deeper lay beneath the surface.

✧✧✧✧✧

Outside the manga world, on the forums.

【1L: No way, our memes actually came true? (Take this punch, Ye Zheng!.jpg)】

【2L: Use the Divine Sword on Ye Zheng! (Emperor clenching fist.jpg)】

【3L: Ye Zheng's seriously busy. She just finished killing Sykes, and now here's another one. What is this, a tag-team match?】

【4L: I'm dying. Ye Zheng: “The Aberrant Realm is one big stage. If you've got the guts, come on in.”】

【5L: This week's update was ridiculously short. Looks like the old man's health really has taken a turn for the worse.】

【6L: The company should just replace the artist already. Everyone's figured out that someone else is writing the plot anyway. They might as well switch to a more capable artist too.】

【7L: Guys, is nobody worried about Ye Zheng? Even the strongest villain eventually falls before the protagonist's plot armor. She's obviously heading straight for the final boss role.】

【8L: Honestly, Pei Xi and Pei Xi’s fans are the ones who should be panicking. (Take this punch, Ye Zheng!.jpg)】

【9L: Normally, nobody worries about the protagonist, but with this manga… yeah, you really can't take anything for granted.】

【10L: Why do I smell an ending creeping closer? A world-ending catastrophe has to be the final battle.】

【11L: Nooo. Without "Throne of the Aberrant Realm," what other manga is going to keep me this entertained?】

【12L: This chapter is overflowing with information. Why's everyone just making memes? The emperor saying that Ye Zheng is a companion of the Demonic Dragon alone is enough fuel for countless plot theories.】

【13L: Come to think of it, Ye Zheng really has been dealing with dragon bones from the very beginning. Back in the Western District, she deliberately let so many Dragonic people escape. Everyone assumed she was simply showing compassion and helping the women who'd been forced into those experiments. Maybe she had another motive all along.】

【14L: What exactly are you trying to imply upstairs? Our Zheng has always been a kind and compassionate girl. Stop twisting everything into some conspiracy theory.】

【15L: Is Ye Zheng planning to summon the Demonic Dragon, tear down the entire old order, and rebuild the world into her own ideal paradise? That'd actually be kind of insane.】

【16L: Actually, the person who's willing to sacrifice innocent lives for the so-called greater good and lofty ideals is someone else. Who could it possibly be~ Such a difficult mystery~】

【17L: Can you all stop dragging Pei Xi into every single discussion?】

【18L: Zheng's fans really never get tired of trampling over everyone else. We Pei Xi fans are still far too nice. I've never seen the fans of a supporting character act this arrogant.】

【19L: "Far too nice." / "More like you just can't win."】

【20L: Killing one Sykes has seriously gone to Zheng's fans' heads. It only takes one sentence, "The protagonist of 'Throne of the Aberrant Realm' is Pei Xi," and it's game over. No matter how powerful she becomes, she's still nothing more than the protagonist's stepping stone.】

【21L: Ye Zheng's about to summon the Demonic Dragon. Isn't it obvious who's going to save the world in the end? Here's to Pei Xi's righteous final strike. Somebody's death CG is coming.】

……

Tang Mingxi opened the latest chapter the moment it went live. This time, "Throne of the Aberrant Realm" had updated right on schedule, but the chapter was unusually short. She finished reading it after only a few swipes.

Following Sykes's death, the emperor had taken the Cloud Soarers under his wing. Pei Xi had informed him about the Divine Sword, while the emperor responded in his usual cryptic fashion, revealing certain secrets to Pei Xi through deliberately vague and ambiguous hints.

Ye Zheng appeared only in passing through other characters' conversations. Even so, she remained the unquestioned queen of forum discussions.

The uproar surrounding Sykes's death still hadn't fully died down. Memes related to the incident continued circulating across every major platform, drawing in waves of casual readers who logged in every day for nothing but the jokes. Both the anime and the manga soared to even greater popularity. Plenty of people outside the fandom had begun following the story as well.

More and more readers had come to love Ye Zheng. At the same time, more and more people had begun to despise her.

Quite a few of those who hated Ye Zheng had only pieced together the story through brain-dead engagement-farming accounts. They had never actually read the manga. They just wanted to fawn over the male characters. Their reading comprehension was practically nonexistent.

To them, Ye Zheng's very existence was as strange and unbelievable as some prehistoric beast. They simply couldn't comprehend that a female character could refuse to orbit around the male cast, then casually plant her foot on their heads and crush them without breaking a sweat.

After Sykes's death, some of his fans finally let go of Sykes himself, yet they still couldn't let go of Ye Zheng. They stayed committed to one thing above all else and proudly evolved into full-time Ye Zheng anti-fans.

At times like these, hatred proved far more enduring than love.

The thought that Ye Zheng only had to breathe ever so lightly for so many people to lose their composure all on their own struck Tang Mingxi as rather amusing. Ye Zheng was simply that formidable of a woman.

She didn't pay much attention to idiotic comments, but that didn't mean she intended to give the anti-fans free rein to act like idiots.

【123L: You're the same people who went home crying, blaming the old man for killing off characters just to turn them into stepping stones for Ye Zheng. Now you're out here solemnly insisting that Ye Zheng is Pei Xi's stepping stone. Life really is hard when your favorite man has no backbone.】

【124L: Looking for the Pei Xi fans' confidence tutorial. Your mighty male lead isn't even strong enough to serve as a warm-up for our girl.】

【125L: Even Pei Xi himself doesn't believe he can kill Ye Zheng. So where exactly is all this confidence on his behalf coming from?】

【126L: Enough already. Your son was never destined to be a child model.】

【127L: Our Emperor Pei clearly has the strength, yet he's still out there playing Running Man. Do you seriously think he hasn't gone after Ye Zheng because he's too softhearted to kill her?】

【128L: Zheng's moms are just built differently. Full-power indiscriminate bombardment.】

【129L: I support the reunion of the dual-young-master CP. Never before have I tasted a weak × weak male-male pairing this delicious.】

【130L: Sykes says hell is too cold. Who's coming down to keep me warm?】

……

【267L: Still, aren't you Zheng moms worried about Ye Zheng at all? If she really sides with the Demonic Dragon and brings about a world-ending catastrophe, then by any normal moral standard she'd have to be defeated, wouldn't she?】

【268L: Seriously? Since when are the emperor's words automatically trustworthy? Just take whatever that old man says with a grain of salt.】

【269L: Ye Zheng's characterization is right there for everyone to see. She'd never sacrifice innocent people on a massive scale for some lofty ideal, unless the company forces her completely OOC.】

【270L: I have this faint premonition that Ye Zheng won't go OOC. She gives me the impression that she's someone who's genuinely alive in another dimension.】

【271L: Zheng's moms stay forever young, forever believing Zheng will one day grow flesh and blood. Zheng-god power, activate!】

【272L: I'll gladly accept the blessing from upstairs. Ye Zheng, you absolutely have to grow flesh and blood and come down to Mom's side.】

【273L: I honestly think some people have developed an addiction to getting slapped in the face by Ye Zheng. Every single time they underestimate her, Zheng-god smacks them without mercy. They enjoy acknowledging Ye Zheng as their master even more than little Steam does.】

【274L: The one and only master of "Throne of the Aberrant Realm" has always been like this, dominating absolutely everyone.】

Tang Mingxi lingered on the forums a while longer before chatting with Li Yixin about the latest developments.

From the way things were unfolding, Ye Zheng was very likely to become the final villain of the manga. Li Yixin remarked that characters of that archetype rarely received happy endings. More often than not, they met a glorious death in pursuit of their all-consuming ideals. Or, if the author's writing wasn't up to the task, or they simply didn't care about the character, the same figure might instead be killed off in an absurdly anticlimactic fashion.

Yet for reasons they couldn't quite explain, both of them felt far more anticipation than anxiety.

By all appearances, the story's current trajectory was stacked against Ye Zheng. Judging by the author's usual style and the tone of the series, those claiming Ye Zheng would ultimately become a stepping stone on the protagonist's road to heroism seemed far more likely to be right. After all, the protagonist of a story was always the one who emerged victorious in the end.

And yet, the moment their eyes fell upon the image of Ye Zheng on their phone wallpaper, her composed expression softened by that faint, restrained smile, a quiet yet immense sense of confidence instantly swept away every trace of doubt.

Because Ye Zheng was simply that kind of character. She never gave people a reason to worry. Instead, she merely smiled, reached out her hand, and lifted everyone upward alongside her.

Even if Pei Xi was the protagonist of "Throne of the Aberrant Realm," they believed that within Ye Zheng's own life, she would forever remain the protagonist guiding the course of her own story.