Chapter 33

Sykes, sitting in the center, sensed a gaze that made him uncomfortable.

His brows furrowed. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked toward Ye Zheng sitting diagonally in front. The girl shifted her gaze upward to meet his and very naturally smiled at him.

Sykes was used to women's gazes of admiration, worship, or fear. Yet Ye Zheng's subtle scrutiny just now made him very uncomfortable.

His dangerous golden eyes darkened. In his team, all members' lives were their own responsibility. He was curious how long this eyesore would last in the aberrant realm. He hoped she would not die too early—his fun would be much less.

Ye Zheng withdrew her gaze, unconcerned with Sykes's attitude toward her. The Pope's task was only to assist him well—no specifics on how. If he felt hot, cutting a big hole in his clothes to cool him down would count as assisting too, right?

The pitch-black aberrant beast glided and landed steadily. The two boys in the cabin nimbly jumped down directly. Ye Zheng glanced at her white long dress, waited for servants to set up the ladder, and slowly descended.

This symbolic white long dress was the foundation of her saintess persona—like this annoying long hair, temporarily unchangeable. Otherwise, she would face the manga laws' OOC warning.

Strange. She had clearly done so many things deviating from the original plot—even cross-dressing as a male had appeared—yet changing the saintess's appearance triggered the most severe warnings.

『Because your original plot is too sparse—personality vague and tag-heavy—so it's hard to judge if your actions are OOC.』

The system explained.

『But your saintess appearance is what the author put the most effort into drawing. The author even referenced a super popular predecessor work for your hairstyle. Because of this, you got mocked even more in the original plotline...』

Ye Zheng's gentle expression froze slightly. This hairstyle was both troublesome and tasteless—yet this level was even borrowed from someone else?

"System, do I have a chance to personally greet the author?"

Cold laughter filled the girl's curved eyes.

『Don't think strange thoughts. Next is your massive appearance as Ye Zheng. If overall reception is like the original plotline, things won't look good once Zhao Mei is exposed.』

The system thought: At least keep the "Ye Zheng" character at a not-too-hated level. Otherwise, Zhao Mei's accumulated popularity could easily go to waste.

"I know. I'm not someone who easily annoys people."

Ye Zheng walked toward her three waiting teammates ahead. Three gazes of different temperaments fell on her.

"Saintess, keep up properly. There are no Church knights to protect you here."

Sykes turned his head to stare at her leisurely figure and sneered.

"Naturally. As a subject of the Sacred Citadel Empire, I will not only protect myself well but also properly guard you."

Hearing this, Ryan and Yu Tianming showed strange expressions, while Sykes paused, then laughed loudly. He brushed back the scattered golden strands on his forehead and gazed at her with burning eyes.

"Even Raven wouldn't dare say such words. Saintess, I look forward to your protection."

With that, Sykes turned and strode toward the semi-transparent massive light dome not far away—the new aberrant realm in this area.

As Ye Zheng walked, she noticed another team hurrying over, covered in dust. Upon seeing them, that team showed hesitation and annoyance, no longer approaching.

This aberrant realm had become prey locked by the Crown Prince. Even if they were not afraid of his authority and wanted to compete, the strength gap made them back off.

Currently, the team with the highest points was precisely the Royal Academy.

Actually, the competition system was not fair, Ye Zheng thought. She had observed the team distribution—strong ones like Divine Academy and Cloud Soarers were clustered together, while teams on Sykes's side were weaker—

Perhaps it was not distributed by strength. The competition officials did not want conflict among these three teams, after all—they respectively represented imperial power, divine authority, and the hopes of the lower district that made up seventy percent of the empire's population.

The dragon bone competition prize was meant to stabilize the lower district. If Sykes impulsively caused a major incident there, it would be a huge political accident. No wonder Teacher Qin Lu was sent to oversee this team—mainly to restrain Sykes.

The moment she stepped through the semi-transparent light dome, Ye Zheng closed her eyes. Her landing foot felt scorching hard discomfort. Before opening her eyes, she felt irritable hot air hitting her face.

Ye Zheng surveyed the extremely arid, barren surroundings—no blade of grass grew. She silently rolled up her long sleeves. In just a short time inside, she already could not endure this high heat.

She slowly exhaled a breath of warm turbid air, looking down at the hard, cracked ground. She thought: This time is bad. This high-heat environment completely countered her water-type ability.

She herself could control very little water. Her specialty was not conjuring water from nothing but using her 【Stream】 to draw and guide existing water flows.

Look at this cracked earth—not even grass could grow. Worse than a desert. At least deserts had many water-storing plants she could utilize. If she released her 【Stream】 here, it might dry up just like this land.

Ye Zheng's hand touched her thigh side through the long dress. Her somewhat heavy expression suddenly bloomed into a smile. Good thing she brought some other things.

"Quick battle, quick resolution."

Sykes's voice was suppressed—clearly very dissatisfied with the situation.

He wore the dark red royal uniform—thick fabric with glossy texture. Normally it looked very luxurious and imposing, but now Ye Zheng merely glanced at him and felt hot in her eyes.

Yu Tianming and Ryan were also clearly struggling with the extreme temperature. Even the usually talkative and flattering Yu Tianming did not want to speak. Everyone quickened their pace, searching for monsters in this aberrant realm.

As time passed, the group grew more uncomfortable. Sykes had already discarded his uniform jacket, leaving only a fitted white shirt on his upper body. Ryan, mindful of noble etiquette, did not dare directly remove his top but quietly rolled it up a bit.

Ye Zheng brushed away fine sweat from her forehead. Looking around, this aberrant realm had only barren land, dead trees, and bare hills—monsters had few places to hide.

Yet why had she seen nothing?

Suddenly, she stumbled slightly. Looking down, her heel had gotten stuck in a ground crack. Pitch-black cracks crisscrossed the vast plain—especially unsettling, like ferocious, wriggling healing scars... wriggling?

Ye Zheng's pupils contracted instantly. She stared fixedly at the black cracks, where thick blackness surged within. She took a step back, covering her mouth with some nausea.

"Don't go forward."

"Our enemies are right under our feet."

The three walking ahead stopped. They immediately alertly stared at the ground. After Ryan clearly saw what was in the cracks, he jumped back in shock and shouted: "Damn it, the cracks are full of bugs!"

The shout completely startled the black insects in the gaps. Countless black dots surged densely from the cracks like a black tide sweeping toward them.

『So disgusting!』

The system screamed in Ye Zheng's ear.

Ye Zheng was about to use water flow to block the insects pouncing toward her when the layered black insects on the ground were suddenly shaken into mid-air. In an instant, they turned to powder and scattered onto the ground.

She turned sideways. Faint patterns emerged under Yu Tianming's feet, like some ancient ritual. Ryan beside him was pale-faced and panting.

"Ryan, remember your value."

Sykes glanced sideways at the red-haired boy, his face showing dissatisfaction.

"Yes, Your Highness. This time it was my negligence."

Ryan lowered his head, annoyedly grabbing a handful of his messy hair. His ability was 【Aberrant Beast Control】. In aberrant realms, it could help the Crown Prince most quickly find powerful aberrant beasts—these beasts were very likely the aberrant realm cores.

However, when he had just used his ability to probe, he had not considered the underground situation. He actually made such a low-level mistake, letting disgusting enemies lurk under their feet. Ryan glanced at Ye Zheng. She was unexpectedly perceptive.

Yu Tianming patted Ryan's shoulder, consoling with a mild face: "It's fine. You already made up for it just now."

The red-haired boy smiled gratefully. "Good thing your ability boosted it. Alone, I couldn't have made those bugs self-explode."

Ye Zheng watched this brotherly scene from the side. Yu Tianming's support-type ability was even stronger than she had heard. Ryan's 【Aberrant Beast Control】 could only manipulate aberrant beasts' physical behaviors, and the number was extremely limited. But just now under Yu Tianming's boost, Ryan had actually made so many disgusting bugs self-explode simultaneously—comparable to raising an A-Class ability to nearly S-Class.

So under Yu Tianming's boost, how strong would SSS Sykes be?

Sykes seemed to sense it and looked toward her, hooking an inconspicuous smile. "Just being smart isn't enough in this team. Saintess, hurry and show your value too."

"Hmm, if you need it, I can use water to cool you down. Quite a practical value, right?"

The girl replied with a beaming smile.

Sykes choked. His golden pupils darkened slightly. He turned his head somewhat stiffly. He was actually a bit tempted by this nonsensical suggestion.

Ye Zheng restrained her smile. She had already seen it—the entire Royal team was built around Sykes as the core.

Yu Tianming was responsible for enhancing Sykes's own power. Ryan served as a search dog. There was also the legendary shadow knight Raven to protect at critical moments. Now adding her—a healing type that could ignore Sykes's 【Destruction】—Sykes's existence was simply flawless.

She vaguely understood the Pope's word "assist." Perhaps it had no particularly deep meaning—just to protect Sykes's safety in aberrant realms and ensure he won smoothly.

Thinking carefully, this was strange too. Sykes was already the strongest of the younger generation. Among current competing teams, besides Pei Xi with protagonist halo, no one could threaten him. And from what she knew, the Church probably did not take seriously an E-class talent from the lower district like Pei Xi.

So what were they worried about?

Hot wind rolled up the black powder on the ground. Ryan was closing his eyes, nearly sweating profusely. Suddenly he opened them and gasped heavily.

"No good. I searched as hard as I could. This area is full of those bugs from earlier. No powerful energy fluctuations."

Sykes and Yu Tianming did not speak for a moment. In the dry hot wind, their faces were especially cold. Ye Zheng was also a bit disappointed but still nodded toward Ryan. "You worked hard, Ryan. Rest a bit."

Ryan was stunned. He had not expected someone to respond to him. He gradually associated Ye Zheng with the sister his friend Ye Di described—gentle and easy to talk to, also easy to use.

Gentle and easy to talk to—he had seen. As for easy to use... she seemed not as easy as that idiot Ye Di.

✧✧✧✧✧

The monsters appearing in this aberrant realm so far posed little threat, but the weather was truly deadly. And she did not know if it was her illusion—the temperature was getting higher.

Ye Zheng narrowed her eyes, gazing into the distance. At the end of the boundless flat land, a group of figures appeared, getting closer.

The leading person wore a black dress with a graceful figure. As she walked, fair slender legs flashed in and out of the high slits on both sides of the black dress. Ye Zheng lightly hissed.

This outfit was definitely of the new female character set to appear in the latest chapter.

『Correct! This one was once the most popular female character in this manga. In the original plot, she had way more presence than you, the female lead.』

"Once?"

Ye Zheng keenly caught the word.

『Uh, anyway, she was very loved by readers. I can't say more, or I'll get locked in the little black room again...』

Ye Zheng looked at the figure gradually clarifying in the wasteland, unable to suppress her curiosity about this high-popularity female character.