Chapter 65

The messy golden hair was like a blazing sun tearing through the gentle rain curtain, hurtling toward the quietly seated black-haired girl.

Ye Zheng did not dodge. She let Sela, descending from above, seize her by the throat. The red pupils burned as they stared at her.

The rain continued to fall. The girl whose neck was gripped moved her fingers slightly—good. As expected, since there was no intent to attack Sela, her ability would not be nullified.

“Hahaha, are you having fun? Seeing me suffer so much, are you happy!”

Sela tightened her grip. Ye Zheng felt breathing become difficult. She quietly covered her neck with water flow to cushion the force. After testing for a moment, she confirmed her ability was still there. It seemed mere defense would not be nullified—though the boundary between attack and defense was always blurry.

Sela looked at Ye Zheng’s still calm face. Even with rain lashing wildly against it, even with her neck gripped hard, this girl still wore that nauseatingly composed, in-control expression.

So she released the girl’s throat. Strangling her to death like this was too easy. Then what did all her years of suffering count for?

Sela’s hand stroked the girl’s smooth black hair—so silky and lustrous, something only those privileged people could possess.

I clearly have the same golden hair as Sykes, so why do I look so different from Sykes, from this woman? Sela wondered in confusion.

“Why? I was right there that day. Why were you the one saved?”

Ye Zheng tilted her head and lowered her gaze, looking at Sela’s hand playing with her hair. Those extremely pale hands were obviously rough, even purplish at the fingertips—signs of anemia, or perhaps something more serious like heart disease.

“Because Wen Jian needed someone to witness the most successful day of his life.”

“Back then I was dressed properly, looking small and innocent. He could pick me up easily.”

Ye Zheng said calmly.

Sela’s eyes widened. “So that damned person was named Wen Jian.”

She fell into recollection, her red pupils growing unfocused.

“Yes, I remember you wore a very pretty dress that day—purple. You looked fair and plump, obviously the daughter of a respectable family. While I was always filthy, skinny and small, never changing… Of course he chose you.”

“So that’s how it is. No one would pick up a little beggar.”

Sela suddenly laughed and leaned close to Ye Zheng’s ear. “Thank you. You solved a doubt I’ve carried for so many years.”

“Your name is Ye Zheng, right? It wasn’t in vain that I remembered you for so long… so long…”

Sela stared at the girl whose face showed a trace of confusion. The smile at the corner of her mouth grew colder and more mocking. She would not tell her that she had already known her even before that day.

In the lower district, it was rare to see such a delicate and cute girl. Once seen, she was unforgettable. The little girl had everything little Sela wanted most: a superior life, a refined and gentle mother. She could shed two innocent tears at the sight of a beggar child her age on the roadside, then have her mother take out money to reward them.

“Look, even animals listen so obediently to that little girl. You should listen to your mother too—eat less sweets. Don’t think I don’t know you secretly ate at Grandma’s.”

The little girl with soft black hair hugged her mother’s waist and acted spoiled. Her mother stopped scolding her and led her away hand in hand.

While little Sela could only stare blankly as the noble mother and daughter walked farther away—until her father yanked her messy hair, a sharp pain on her scalp finally waking her from the beautiful dream.

She had no mother, only a father who gambled and drank all day. When he discovered that his four-year-old daughter had the ability to manipulate animals’ minds, he began taking her everywhere to perform, earning money with her.

That life continued until she was seven. She went looking for her father, who was drunk somewhere unknown, to pay his tab. She saw her tear-streaked father surrounded by a group of fierce knights.

Little Sela hugged her money jar, not understanding what had happened.

Until her father, squeezed in the crying crowd, suddenly spotted her. Except for the day he learned of her ability, he had never looked at his daughter with such fervent eyes.

“My daughter is over there! Trade her in, okay? Trash like me isn’t worthy of dying for nobles!”

Icy raindrops slid from the corners of Sela’s eyes down her gaunt jaw. She suddenly grabbed Ye Zheng’s collar, her voice nearly tearing apart: “You, Wen Jian, Sykes… nobles or trash—everyone should die!”

“I want this aberrant realm to swallow the entire empire!”

The entire pale-red forest seemed to sense Sela’s will. Even the tall trunks began to twist. Deep-buried roots burst from the earth like crawling red pythons, stretching in all directions, continuously devouring the normal forest.

Sykes, who had quieted briefly due to the rain, raised his hand again. With a light clench of his fist, the flat ground seemed struck by massive force. Dust flew as cracks several meters long split open, forcing the Cloud Soarers back toward the waiting forest. Pale-red branches immediately coiled around Roy.

The powerless Bai Muqing was forced to follow behind Bai Mulin.

Ye Zheng took in all the disturbances beneath the skull. She turned to look at the girl’s face—manic yet filled with despair—and suddenly gripped the hand that held her collar.

“If hatred can bring you even a little redemption from your torment, then hate me.”

“But—I don’t like being hit.”

Ye Zheng suddenly exerted force on Sela’s hand, yanking the girl who gripped her collar to the left and immediately pinning Sela beneath her.

The situation reversed instantly. She looked down at Sela, raised her fist, and swiftly punched her, stunning Sela. Sela’s head tilted, red eyes wide open.

Ye Zheng felt the soft impact on her fist. Abilities and weapons would be nullified upon attacking, but fortunately human bodies would not—otherwise it would be too exaggerated. She let out a soft sigh.

Sela quickly came back to her senses. Her red pupils deepened with extreme rage. Ever since she had reawakened the damage-nullification ability in this aberrant realm, no person or monster had been able to harm her like this—not even the aberrant plant beneath her feet that had once devoured hundreds!

Animal instinct drove her to counterattack Ye Zheng immediately. Wild, disorderly fists rained down on the saintly girl in her pure white dress.

One was an elegant, holy Saintess in everyone’s eyes; the other was a madwoman who threatened the entire empire. Like beasts stripped of all social restraint, the two grappled fiercely atop the cold white remains!

The towering branches supported the massive skull. Below, the flat ground was in utter chaos.

After losing her ability for the second time, Bai Muqing handled it with slightly more composure than the first. Though her brother was awkwardly dragging her blind self around to dodge the aberrant plants’ attacks.

She could feel that after this rain fell, the forest’s attacks had slowed somewhat, as though the wild beast had been soothed. But soon after, the things seemed stimulated again and went berserk.

Yet now, strangely, the aberrant plants’ assault had eased once more.

Even stranger—her ability flickered like elusive rain threads. The energy in her body waxed and waned. Bai Muqing tilted her head back, feeling these raindrops carrying faint power.

Suddenly, she clenched her fist. 【Divine Domain】 returned!

Based on her first experience, it should not have come back so quickly. However, Sela—who had temporarily suppressed her ability—seemed unstable this time. The nullification quickly failed on her.

Bai Muqing blinked her empty white pupils. Now she could “see” everything around her—even distant and high-up things.

“Muqing, stay calm! Your brother is here!”

Bai Mulin shouted, tearing apart one aberrant branch after another with his bare hands. Suddenly, an extremely dangerous premonition surged in his heart. He pulled Bai Muqing aside, dodging a massive impact from the side. The row of trees behind them was completely obliterated.

Bai Mulin saw the tall golden-haired figure and cursed. “Damn it! What the hell is His Highness Sykes doing?”

Suddenly, his hand was released. Bai Muqing stepped in front of him. Her white pupils faced Sykes’s direction. Like a rampaging monster, he attacked everything indiscriminately in the forest.

“I’ll handle Sykes.”

Bai Muqing closed her eyes.

“Hah? You’re going to fight Sykes?”

That was the empire’s once-in-five-hundred-years 3S powerhouse—and now in a berserk state!

Bai Mulin was about to shake his sister awake when a red branch suddenly coiled around Sykes, who had been about to attack Luqi. Sykes’s golden pupils darkened. The branch instantly shattered—but what greeted him was a sky-full of madly growing branches, instantly locking down his movements!

“You all go southeast. The true core of this aberrant realm is there.”

This location had the densest energy in the entire realm, so everyone naturally assumed the core was hidden here.

But most of the energy here belonged to Sykes and that strange massive skull. That meant the true core of this aberrant realm had instead taken the chance to hide elsewhere!

Bai Mulin stared dazedly as his sister’s pale body gradually became ethereal, as though merging with heaven and earth.

“Divine Domain—descend.”

The white-haired, white-eyed girl completely vanished. Immediately after, holy specks of light fell alongside the rain threads, like a true miracle.

Watching his sister disappear, Bai Mulin felt no panic. He even sensed that Bai Muqing was everywhere at this moment, almost having become the very space of this heaven and earth!

So he no longer advanced. While Sykes was restrained by Bai Muqing, he turned, grabbed the nearby Cloud Soarers, and sprinted toward the direction of the true core that Bai Muqing had indicated.

✧✧✧✧✧

This was the first time Bai Muqing had used her complete 【Divine Domain】—not to find people or cats, but to confront the empire’s most proud Crown Prince.

She felt her soul seemed to float to the highest point, yet also seemed to split into countless fragments, melting into every blade of grass, every grain of sand. All of Sykes’s movements appeared slowed countless times, magnified countless times, presented before her in exhaustive detail—even the dilation and contraction of his pupils were crystal clear.

Of course Bai Muqing also saw Ye Zheng. On the remains’ skull, she had pinned Sela down, brought healing rain, liberated her ability, and paved the way for everyone.

So she emptied her mind and fully unleashed 【Divine Domain】.

The soil beneath the golden-haired prince’s feet rolled as though about to collapse. Wild grass grew madly taller than trees. Even the gentle rain threads instantly sharpened into killing blades.

In his muddled mind, Sykes took a few steps forward. Suddenly his body lightened—he was actually floating in midair.

This was her 【Divine Domain】. Within the domain, she was the only god!

What “strongest young female ability user in the empire”? Bai Muqing had always hated that title. She thought it was because of her humble upbringing and dislike for empty fame. But now she understood—she did not want the condescending label “female ability user” at all!

Even the title of the empire’s strongest could not be claimed by her. What right did she have to stand as Ye Zheng’s opponent? What right did she have to replace Ye Zheng as the proxy of the God of Hope?

Sykes, stripped of gravity, reached toward the forest opposite him. A massive wave of destruction erupted instantly, collapsing half the woodland. The recoil flung his body backward, allowing him to seize a branch, step onto a trunk, and barely regain his footing.

His golden pupils, now unfocused and hollow, radiated an inhuman pressure. He lifted one hand. The wildly spreading grass that attempted to bind him was instantly reduced to ash.

Bai Muqing gazed coldly over the battlefield from above. She had endured enough humiliation over these past days. She would make everyone see, and make Ye Zheng see, who truly deserved the title of the empire’s strongest.

As if sensing something, Sykes raised his frigid golden eyes, locking onto an unseen enemy. Hostility surged, taut and ready to erupt at any moment.

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Authors Note

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Two high-talent ability users fought for half a day, yet in the end, the true number-one powerhouse is still that little girl currently engaged in hand-to-hand combat.