Chapter 28

 The sudden flood was like a ferocious giant white serpent devouring everything. In the face of irresistible natural force, the young people in the midst of battle had to hurriedly stop fighting and run madly in another direction to escape this inexplicable disaster. 

Even the invincible giant sword was swallowed by the surging torrent. Pei Xi, who had just been struggling against the giant sword, ran while turning her head, showing an incredulous expression. Was this flood an enemy... or an ally?

The system, watching everything from a switched perspective, nearly short-circuited. It knew Ye Zheng had something up her sleeve, but her ability was called Stream, right? Whose stream looks like this!

It quickly pulled up the character design the manga author had originally given to the editor.

【Ye Zheng

Ability: Stream (surface A-level, actual ?)

Appearance age: 17

Height: 175

Personality: Gentle and kind, idealistic

Identity: Young lady from a judge's family, Church saintess

Hobbies: Healing, reading

Goal: Wants to bring justice and hope to the world (a very cute and naive idealistic personality (lol))

Design tags: Seems gentle but has a rebellious streak little saintess

Background: Lived with grandparents in the lower district for a time as a child, lost important relatives in the Blood Flower Incident, planting a seed in her heart. At 17, meets Pei Xi who had similar experiences, disregards noble status and pressure to join the protagonist group, serves as the healer in the team

PS: Her ability holds a secret. Later, she will erupt her true power for Pei Xi, sacrificing herself in a critical moment to pave the way for Pei Xi to defeat Sykes, beautifully fulfilling the saintess's mission (revival may be arranged based on popularity and plot development)】

Looking at this character design, aside from the height being changed by the editor—

Originally planned at 155, too short. Editor suggested 165, but the 165-tall manga author insisted on 155 for Ye Zheng, so the angry editor sister forcibly changed Ye Zheng's height to 175.

Other than that, Ye Zheng's current actions hadn't deviated from the author's design. Personality, identity, hobbies, goal, including background—all matched the author's setting. But what exactly was off?

It always felt the Ye Zheng the manga author envisioned was vastly different from the Ye Zheng it actually interacted with.

In its understanding, the author wanted a naive, cute yet idealistic noble young lady—a pure saintess with immense dedication spirit, the quintessential ideal woman in men's minds.

"Hmm, I've washed them all to the square. That location is better for fighting; it won't affect ordinary people or their private property."

The girl sighed.

Ye Zheng laughed, the pure black eyes hidden beneath her green pupils shimmering with light.

"Aren't you going to stop me? Such an important thing is now in my hands."

『A single small replica like this isn't important on its own, unless you can actually use it to dig up the entire truth.』

"You think I can't?"

『...It's precisely because you might be able to that I advised you like that before. This isn't just the core of the aberrant realm , it's the core setting and suspense of the entire "Throne of the Aberrant Realm." How could they let you easily get the truth?』

『The ones guarding the dragon bone and weaving the dragon bone legend are those two forces. Are you sure you want to offend the roy—』

The system suddenly went silent. Her mind abruptly quieted, and Ye Zheng felt a bit unaccustomed to it.

Ye Zheng remembered the character OOC warning she had once received. The system had probably gotten some warning too.

She hoped it would come back. She had grown used to this noisy and not-very-smart partner.

After a moment of silence, Ye Zheng turned her attention back to the black bone in her hand. Since in the original plot, Pei Xi and the others could clear the stage without discovering this replica...

This dragon bone replica itself had no offensive power—only the ability to amplify strength. So as long as all the black shadows were killed, this aberrant realm would pose no threat.

Ye Zheng lowered her gaze, her thick eyelashes fluttering. Sitting in the ruins, she looked like a statue of a fallen goddess whose elegance remained undimmed.

After an aberrant realm was destroyed, the monsters inside would vanish with it, while inanimate objects like ores would remain as human spoils.

She could wait for Pei Xi and the others to clear this aberrant domain according to the original plot, but now with this dragon bone replica in hand, she was impatient to study this spoil.

The lofty royal family and Church, the ability competition teeming with strong individuals, the mysteriously appearing dragon bone... What kind of grand drama was the manga author planning to stage?

"Healing is too delicate and taxing. Fighting is simpler."

Ye Zheng supported herself on the ground with both hands. She had used her ability to mobilize nearby rivers, covering this area. If someone could see through the ground, they would be shocked to find water-colored fine streams branching and intertwining underground, as if the crowded buildings were tall trees held up by coiled branches of water.

"If the core here was just Pei Xi's or Bai Muqing's shadow, they couldn't possibly be helpless against it. The core must be something else, perhaps still hiding in the dark."

"System, thank you for tipping me off again."

Ye Zheng curved her eyes, smiling with a gentle and sweet flavor. The system looked at her seriously. The words the author used to describe her... none seemed wrong?

Risking her life for what it saw as insignificant manga NPCs, exhausting herself—the rescued people wouldn't even know her true identity. She was indeed a dedicated idealist.

Pursuing such grand and illusory ideals could accurately be called naive. As for cute... well, that couldn't be denied either, the system thought helplessly after spending so long with Ye Zheng.

Though Ye Zheng often showed that knowing-everything smile that made it feel subtly scared, occasionally when stumped by professional forum terms, looking confused with innocent eyes as she came to ask it—yeah, that was kinda cute.

The manga author's tags for Ye Zheng were ordinary and thin. Under such tags, the real Ye Zheng had derived enormous possibilities.

The system watched the howling torrent outside with fear. The author gave her hidden advanced talent just to set up Pei Xi's decisive battle, sacrificing herself to achieve Pei Xi's power and ideals.

But now, even if it—this system—hadn't appeared, would Ye Zheng really follow the author's design down that path?

Ye Zheng was keeping her eyes closed, searching for the true core.

Ability users and aberrant realms monsters had special energy fluctuations—the stronger, the more intense. As long as the water followed these fluctuations, finding the hidden core monster wasn't hard.

But why was there no abnormally strong energy aura in this area?

The girl furrowed her brows. Nothing on the surface, then underground? That was the only possibility. Beneath the ground, tiny yet numerous streams advanced toward the depths.

Suddenly, the girl's beautiful face tensed abruptly. She opened her eyes wide, as if encountering something troublesome.

Ye Zheng's lips moved, as if wanting to ask something, but soon silently closed her eyes again. The veins on the hand supporting the ground bulged, her ten fingers gripping the surface forcefully.

A few minutes later, the floor in front of Ye Zheng cracked. A water column wrapped in a black object shot up. The girl tilted her head back and reached out to catch it.

Cylindrical, about the length of her palm, hollow in the middle, edges uneven—like black bamboo snapped by force, just much thicker than bamboo.

This was what her water had detected deepest underground with the strongest energy fluctuation.

"...Excluding the color, it's more like bone."

Ye Zheng's eyes widened slightly, her expression frozen, a bold guess forming in her mind.

"This black thing is a replica of some bone!"

If her speculation was correct, this rule-based aberrant realm could produce replicas of ability users—black shadows—but that description was inaccurate now. The biggest difference between ability users and ordinary people was their powers—

And those powers were brought to humans after aberrant realms descended, forces of the same origin as the realms. In other words, anything bearing this power—person or object—could be replicated by this realm into black shadows.

"The core of this aberrant domain, the strongest monster, is actually this piece of bone."

Mentioning strange bones, any imperial citizen would think of that sacred relic. Life might be absurd and illogical, but manga surely followed some internal plot connections.

Ye Zheng let out a laugh, her eyes coldly examining the black bone in her hand, showing a complex expression.

"This might not sound respectful enough, after all, this is regarded as the symbol of hope for the Sacred Citadel Empire—"

"Dragon bone."

Legend said the demonic dragon spread its wings to cover the sky, coiling over the empire bringing endless shadow. After the god slew it, its massive body was buried beneath the upper district, protecting it from aberrant realms ever since.

One wing bone was buried in the middle district, reducing frequent aberrant domain descents there. The lower district only buried one demonic horn, providing some shelter.

And now, something suspected to be a dragon bone replica was in Ye Zheng's hand.

Having a replica meant the original was surely within this aberrant realm's range, but besides this replica, Ye Zheng detected no other activity.

The lower district clearly only had the demonic horn, buried nowhere near here. So why would dragon bone appear here?

And detecting no original—only the replica—meant someone was deliberately concealing it. With her current strength, she couldn't yet break through that person or force's barrier to touch the original.

The girl's breathing quickened slightly, her eyes growing brighter, like a predator unexpectedly spotting prey in the night.

Ye Zheng carefully sensed the overflowing power from this dragon bone replica. The energy she had consumed earlier seemed to be slowly recovering after contact?

"This black shadow dragon bone is the true core of this aberrant domain. If I'm not wrong, it's supplying power to the other black shadows—that's why they're so hard to deal with."

Ye Zheng's hand gripping the dragon bone replica tightened slightly. Normally, eliminating the core destroyed the realm, but—this was dragon bone, even if just a replica.

Aside from the royal wielders, no outsider had ever touched dragon bone. It was merely legendary. And now, the legend's secret was in her grasp.

Ye Zheng took a deep breath, calming her surging emotions. After a while, the girl regained her warm and calm expression.

She had been too absorbed in thought; her other hand responsible for treating the injured in the ruins had become unsteady, nearly breaking the healing connection. That wouldn't do—several were gravely injured.

Calm down, Ye Zheng told herself. There must be a way to take this replica while resolving the aberrant domain.

Suddenly, she asked.

"System, in this plot segment, Pei Xi doesn't discover this dragon bone replica, right?"

Otherwise, the manga laws would have stopped her before she obtained it.

The system was silent for a long while.

『You truly always exceed my imagination... This dragon bone replica won't directly appear in the plot, but the secrets it represents will be gradually revealed. That's a major manga plotline.』