Chapter 143: Aftermath

Chapter 143: Aftermath

The most troublesome thing was the attention from the Dragon Clan. After all, his identity was right there. Previously, the Red Dragon had been so annoyed by him that it didn’t notice his abnormalities. In other situations, it would have been quite easy for the Dragon Clan to discover something was off about him. Even now, his identity hadn’t been exposed, and he still hid under the banner of the Dragon Clan.

But if his identity were exposed later… there wouldn’t be many places in the whole world where he could take shelter. Especially the Dragon Clan— they would probably come after him relentlessly. As for those factions that became his enemies, they would likely be overjoyed to add insult to injury, kicking him while he was down.

Wealth tempted people’s hearts. He, Zheng Yichen, had snatched the person back, but the fallout from this incident was far from over. Now, wherever Zheng Yichen’s Alchemical Avatars went, they could hear rumors about the Witch Hunt—though heavily altered. Honestly, it was a massive slap in the face. All the major powers had been tricked by a Little Dragon right under their noses, and he stole someone away!

The whole thing sounded like something out of a knight’s tale—a knight charging alone into some Demon Abyss or Purgatory to rescue a princess… What? An Evil Dragon?

There used to be many stories like that. But when a certain dragon from the Dragon Clan was active on the Continent and read related novels, it voiced its dissatisfaction. Which idiot was spouting nonsense? Sure, we love money, but why kidnap a princess while robbing?

Putting aside different aesthetics, bringing a princess back meant having to feed and shelter her. Not to mention listening to her crying and wailing all day, making it impossible to sleep soundly. A dragon with a bad temper upon waking might, in a groggy state one morning, just slap such a sleep-disrupting Human to death, princess or not…

Instead of kidnapping a princess, it’d be better to snatch a couple of tough old men, throw them in a pit, and watch them fight and struggle as a pastime. Even more unbearable was the trope that the dragon who kidnapped the princess must inevitably be slain by a hero.

Leaving aside those tales of taming dragons… some powerful Humans indeed had good relations with the Dragon Clan. But the idea that the Evil Dragon would always end up beheaded was completely unacceptable. Fine, write that stuff, but why kill off the dragon? That had to change! If it wasn’t changed, a certain dragon hinted it might get bored and pay a visit.

So, stories about Evil Dragons mostly vanished. Not entirely, but the endings were usually sanitized. Write too outrageously, and the Dragon Clan would 404 you!

In reality, this world did have places like the Demon Abyss and Purgatory. But not even Human knights, let alone a Dragon Clan member going alone, would return from such places alive. In short, Zheng Yichen’s recent action was a huge embarrassment, prompting many factions to quietly agree to “beautify” the related events.

To put it bluntly, they heaped all blame and slander onto Zheng Yichen. Zheng Yichen found this annoying, but annoying as it was, he could only watch. Actually jumping out to argue was out of the question. Who knew how many people were just waiting for him to show his face? Even if Zheng Yichen kept a low profile, things weren’t easy now.

The Sanctuary Church showed overwhelming capability. Even though Zheng Yichen had erased all his extra traces, the Sanctuary Church still uncovered many clues based on his past activity areas. The most serious was the Alchemical Avatars!

Now, whenever Zheng Yichen sent out a new Alchemical Puppet, it wouldn’t be long before someone tracked it down, and that Alchemical Avatar would be lost. He didn’t know what method the Sanctuary Church used to consistently locate his Alchemical Avatars.

Or perhaps, while these Alchemical Avatars were highly disguised, they still exposed themselves under specific targeted detection. Using better materials to craft higher-level Alchemical Avatars might fix this flaw, but Zheng Yichen lacked the resources to do so.

The previous operation seemed perilous yet surprisingly smooth, even easy, as he took Loris away. But all that was built on the foundation of the opponents’ complete ignorance of his abilities, along with those factions’ “arrogance.”

Yes, arrogance. Under those circumstances, probably none of the participating factions imagined anyone would dare cause trouble under such enormous pressure. The consequence of causing trouble would be facing retaliation from all of them. Anyone with a bit of sense would know what to do.

Due to various reasons, Zheng Yichen, this cheating person from the Otherworld, found a loophole and successfully humiliated everyone. If they had known about Zheng Yichen, even just his ability’s characteristics, he wouldn’t have been able to stir up trouble so easily.

“Hmm… by my estimate, it should be about time,” Zheng Yichen muttered as he walked down the street. Suspicious, he glanced left and right. Sure enough, he spotted several people staring at him. By now, Zheng Yichen was used to this; he turned and ran. These people were basically from the Sanctuary Church or the Dark Church.

Other than them, there were some large, old-school factions. Others? They’d need the ability to identify Zheng Yichen’s Alchemical Avatars first.

Seeing Zheng Yichen run, these pursuers didn’t hurry. They had conducted too many operations targeting Zheng Yichen’s Alchemical Avatars and knew how troublesome these things were. Trying to capture one? It would self-destruct. The Sanctuary Church had been tracking these Alchemical Avatars recently.

Their goal was to find clues about Zheng Yichen through these Alchemical Puppets.

“Huh? This time they aren’t chasing me,” Zheng Yichen muttered in slight surprise after running two blocks, seeing that the Sanctuary Church members he encountered earlier hadn’t followed. But he soon realized he was overthinking it. They hadn’t just followed—they had deployed a big Boss!

As Zheng Yichen’s Alchemical Avatar turned a corner, it encountered the young maiden with milky-white long hair he had met before in the Witch Restricted Zone. Without hesitation, she released several Light Ribbons that seemed unique to her. These Light Ribbons easily bound the Alchemical Avatar, so fast that Zheng Yichen didn’t even have a chance to make it self-destruct.

While the Light Ribbons restrained the Alchemical Puppet’s movements, they also sealed the Mana Source inside it. “…Miss, the incident is already over. Is it really necessary to keep hounding me like this?”

Unable to move, Zheng Yichen looked at the girl with a troubled expression. “Can’t we sit down and have a proper talk?”

“Sure,” the milky-white-haired girl nodded gently. She snapped her fingers in the air, and the Light Ribbons wrapped around Zheng Yichen before vanishing. Their effect remained, but Zheng Yichen regained his mobility. However, the Alchemical Puppet’s Mana Source output was reduced to a trickle—like a small pipe dribbling water—making self-destruction utterly impossible…