Role Playing the Dark Horse Character

Chapter 95: The Prophet’s Contingency

Upon returning to reality, Li Li’s first reaction was disbelief.

Had Yu Xiao been chased by a dog-goose all the way from Zhusheng City to Ranmu City?!

What kind of joke was this?

What kind of cosmic coincidence?

She didn’t believe it.

Just as she didn’t believe the backstory she’d casually fabricated had somehow connected to Yiming, she didn’t believe Yu Xiao could get lost and wander from Zhusheng City to Ranmu City.

What kind of genius-level klutz was that?

Though Yu Xiao’s character design did seem to have that minuscule chance of pulling it off.

In the bedroom, Li Li lit the desk lamp, spread out a sheet of paper, and began scribbling with a pen, sorting through her thoughts.

Since its serialization, Extreme Black and White had introduced many new characters, but among the main cast, Yu Xiao was the most veteran.

From the very start of the manga, he had been by Yiming’s side.

He was Yiming’s first companion, a trouble-magnet with wildly fluctuating luck, and a fan-favorite character who ranked high in popularity polls thanks to his face.

It was Yu Xiao who accompanied Yiming in the beginning, adventuring together, and to some extent, gave Yiming the drive to grow and move forward—after all, he had to clean up the messes Yu Xiao caused.

Though Yu Xiao often dropped the ball, and Yiming went from initial shock to complete indifference, even saying he’d leave him be, whenever Yu Xiao was in real trouble, Yiming would always save him, just like in the Illusory Reality Arc.

Yu Xiao’s character image was set from the manga’s outset, and readers never questioned it—after all, “Flipping Fish trading brains for beauty” had become a meme.

Li Li was a manga reader first before she transmigrated into the manga, taking on the role of a character.

Her first impressions of the manga world’s characters came from the manga itself, including Yu Xiao’s airheaded beauty persona.

Why was he in Ranmu City?

Was it really a coincidence?

Why did he leave traces in every major event yet vanish at critical moments? Just a coincidence?

Thinking carefully, the Jiao Huang Arc began with Yu Xiao finding Tang’s father’s letter, the Zhusheng Arc was also Yu Xiao’s suggestion, and in the Illusory Reality Arc, Yiming and the others got involved in the Yue and An clans’ conflict because Yu Xiao was captured.

Too coincidental.

The white paper gradually filled with words, and then she put down the pen, crumpled the paper into a ball, and tossed it into the trash.

She admitted she’d been biased.

She viewed the manga world as fictional, observing it through the lens of a manga reader.

To her, that world was merely an illusory stage, but until the manga artist revealed the foreshadowing, anything was possible.

Like the relationship between Li and Heige, or the yet-to-be-revealed turmoil from six years ago in the manga.

She should be more cautious, and she truly needed to be.

Her experiences in Ranmu City made things feel even more convoluted—whether it was the Imperial Family, the movements of high-rank ability users, her own arrival, or the system’s existence.

But she wasn’t entirely unprepared.

Regardless of Yu Xiao’s motives, whether he was a genuine airhead or a fake one, as long as he appeared before her, she could closely examine what kind of fish he really was.

After sorting her thoughts, Li Li let out a breath.

The next manga update was related to Sang Feiling and the Prophet, and she might glean some information from it.

A few days later, at midnight on Wednesday, the manga updated.

This update was part of the main storyline, continuing from the previous chapter, starting with Yan Changxiao’s perspective.

Caught off guard by his opponent’s unexpected ability, he instantly fell into a disadvantage, and the tide of the match flipped in a moment.

The Sang clan nobles sat high above, savoring the blood, violence, and the challenger’s final despair.

But they miscalculated.

On the life-or-death arena, this man, determined to fight to the death from the start, was pinned to the ground.

His opponent raised a fist high, but he, like an untamed wolf, surged upward at that moment, sinking his teeth into his opponent’s neck.

Surrender? He would never surrender.

Yan Changxiao’s strength lay in his tempered physique and exceptional martial skills, but even more in his vast combat experience.

And up to this point, he hadn’t even begun to use his ability!

The ability activated, and this muscular man’s power was, surprisingly, soft green grass, vibrant flowers, and their fragrance.

A flourishing life force brought renewed vitality to an arena forged in blood and death.

The frail, boneless flowers and grass climbed over human limbs, drawing blood to grow, irrigated by their own fervor, shedding their fragile exterior to become immensely powerful.

Mimicry-type, Flower of Fervor.

A sacrifice, but also an unyielding tenacity.

At his weakest, he was at his strongest.

The scene shifted to the prison below, where Yiming asked Sang Feiling the question all readers were dying to know.

“Do you know me?” he asked, puzzled.

The chains clinked, and Sang Feiling instinctively flashed a bright, gentle smile, but it seemed stiff, as if she hadn’t moved her facial muscles in ages.

“Yes, six years ago, before Sir resolved to face his death, he told me a prophecy,” she said.

The scene changed, and with Sang Feiling’s narration, it shifted to six years ago, where she received a letter from a faceless figure.

“He said he would die, and their guild would be seized, becoming a tool of the nobles.”

“Companions died, enslaved, or hunted to extinction—our dawn was no longer within reach.”

Under a blazing sun, smiling companions in one panel closed their eyes forever in the next.

Blood, severed limbs, and the irrepressible sorrow before death.

Their sun sank below the horizon, and a faceless, long-haired man knelt on a platform, under a sharp blade, turning his head at the last moment to gaze at the fading afterglow.

“This is a dead end, an unavoidable future, an unchangeable path to ruin.”

The candlelight flickered, and the woman with half her face ruined spoke with dim eyes.

Then they lit up again.

“But this isn’t the end.” She looked at the youths outside the prison, and at the brown-haired boy standing at the forefront, meeting her gaze without flinching.

“Six years later, we will gain a rising new star, a spark of life that belongs to us.”

“Our deaths will have meaning. The spark we left behind will inherit our unfulfilled wishes, leading us to see the light of dawn once more.”

It was as if she had memorized these words for a long time, closing her eyes in this lightless space, repeatedly recalling them, etching them deeply into her heart.

“And I will stay here, alive, surviving.” She reached out to Yiming.

Even in pain, even in numbness, even in the despair of day-after-day torment.

She still remained in this prison, waiting for the person foretold in the prophecy to appear.

And then

“I’ll tell you the truth, everything you want to know.”

In the scene, beyond the range illuminated by the candlelight, Yiming stood in the shadows outside the prison, his eyes slightly widened.

He lowered his head and asked, “Six years ago?”

That was when his foster father, Shuang Buyan, left without a word.

“What does ‘the spark left behind’ mean?” he asked.

Sang Feiling said, “Do you still remember your foster father?”

She directly revealed Shuang Buyan’s existence!

In this cramped prison, Sang Feiling brought Yiming news he had never known.

His foster father had long since died, in a corner he was unaware of.

Just like the lessons his foster father taught him, the rules of how this world operated.

In places Yiming couldn’t see, he gave his life for ordinary people and low-rank ability users, spilling his blood where others couldn’t see.

The people of the Former Ability Guild fought and then fell in the darkness before dawn.

Yiming recalled the words spoken by that black-haired youth he once saw as an enemy.

If he wasn’t strong, he could do nothing.

He couldn’t save anyone, not even himself.

“But even the strong can’t protect anyone,” he said softly.

Like his foster father, like Yan Changxiao, like An Huyu’s brother, like so many people he met along the way.

And like Li Baige, who turned his back on him, rejecting his approach under the guise of weakness.

“The strength of an individual is useless. All the injustices they endure stem from this societal system.”

Why did Buyan tell him to protect himself? Because he was so weak he could only protect himself.

He hadn’t thought about why before, but now he seemed to understand.

He didn’t like this world that separated him from his family and companions.

Because he had experienced loss, he didn’t want others to feel that same pain.

And the only way, as Sang Feiling said, was to overthrow the current system and usher in a new dawn.

“Sir said to give you the right to choose,” Sang Feiling said. Even after wasting six years in this place, she didn’t demand anything from the person she had waited for. Instead, she said, “I won’t force you, because it’s very dangerous, but I hope…”

“I’ll join,” Yiming raised his head, his gaze unwaveringly resolute.

The perspective shifted again, returning to the arena.

The flowers that absorbed the blood of ability users revealed their sharp side, their delicate branches encircling the enemy, enveloping the arena in vibrant green foliage.

They blocked the view from the audience seats, shielding the arena from the Sang clan nobles’ amused gazes.

A member of the Sang clan nobles straightened up, the mockery in his eyes fading, replaced for the first time with a serious expression, staring at the sea of green.

And within this space wrapped in vines and flowers.

“The weaker I am, the stronger my ability becomes.”

Yan Changxiao didn’t hide his ability, instead revealing the truth to his opponent.

He had collapsed to the ground, blood pooling beneath him, then absorbed by the flower branches, making them grow sturdier.

He looked at his enemy, surrounded by the flower branches, all attacks ineffective, their face obscured by the green.

“When I’m on the verge of death, my ability becomes indestructible,” he said. “That’s my essence.”

In an era where the weak had no path to survival, where everything was controlled by powerful ability users, this was his will.

The flower branches tightened, and his opponent let out a pained groan.

All his attacks failed to cut through the supposedly fragile branches, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t break free from their restraints.

This was the immense power born from life, an unyielding soul.

The sound of bones cracking echoed.

“Swap!”

At the last moment, the ability user chose to retreat.

In an instant, their conditions switched, and Yan Changxiao’s strength returned.

The flower branches became fragile, falling apart with a slight shake.

But the wolf had already locked onto its prey.

A fist struck like a gust of wind, breaking through the green foliage, piercing the opponent’s heart under their stunned gaze.

The outer greenery shielding the audience’s view withered, revealing the two figures standing on the arena.

The Sang clan noble stood up from his high perch, looking down at the two below.

“Sang Feiling’s disciple, a mere commoner, could achieve this much,” he said.