by Feng Yue
The youth in the fog seemed to be shocked. After a while, he chuckled lightly. “I have a teacher.”
“Really? That’s a pity.” Naberius sighed. He looked at the accessory he had finished assembly. “Your teacher must have never taught you what special skills the guys on the wanted list have.”
Boom! Ye Qingxuan felt his vision go black. Blood rose to his head and he barely managed to stay standing.
Boom! With another muffled boom, Ye Qingxuan’s face flushed. It was difficult to breathe and he could barely make a sound. His heart was pounding furiously and almost jumped out of his chest. In the distance, a metallic heart suddenly appeared in Naberius’ hand!
The gentle yet sturdy heart assembled from metal pieces had seven holes like a flute. Naberius held it in his hand and played it. The sound was heavy yet fine; the music was melodious like the song of life. However, this song was despair. It was the song of life withering away.
Within a few moments, Ye Qingxuan’s blood was chaotic and his heart almost cracked from pounding.
“You’ve never personally experienced a battle with a Resonance level musician, right?” Naberius sighed. “Musician duels under the Resonance level are focused on countering different schools. It’s like chess. But above the Resonance level, it’s the defense and crashing of the sound of heart. Once the frequency of your sound of heart is grasped by your enemy and broken down, you’ll have no room to fight back.”
Ye Qingxuan stooped low. Blood trickled from his lips. Hearing this, he asked hoarsely, “You…you can hear my sound of heart just from my speech?”
“No, no, that would be too idealistic. You must have well-rounded calculations and a series of guidance with much experience. This is probably my most unique skill. Because of this, the Sacred City calls me the ‘heart hunter.’ So, give up, Mr. Holmes.” He looked down at his metallic heart and studied the pulsing atrium. “Thanks for talking to me for so long, letting me prepare with ease. Now, your heart is in my hands.”
“Ha.” The youth’s weak voice traveled in the fog. “Do you really have improper thoughts about me?”
“To be honest, I don’t reject close relationships between two men.” After short and serious consideration, Naberius nodded and said, “Let’s decide the technicalities after I see what you’re like. After all, everyone loves beauty.”
“Ha, your fantasies are pretty beautiful.” Ye Qingxuan coughed violently. “But fine. Come over and I’ll show you something good.”
“Okay,” Naberius said. However, his footsteps stopped thirty meters away. Thirty meters, thirty meters…that was a critical distance. “You want to show me that alchemy equipment that shoots lightning, right?” His expression was cautious. “I’m sorry for being a coward, but according to the information I’ve received, that extremely powerful weapon is a saint’s relic, correct? So how about no. I’ve already been transformed but I still won’t be able to withstand that type of power at a short distance.”
Ye Qingxuan muttered a curse. The cane that he had raised now fell to the ground listlessly. Indeed, a trick would lose effectiveness if used too many times. This time, his enemy was well prepared. The parliament had probably grown defensive of Indrah’s Eye.
“You tried so hard to make me fall but you’re too scared to come over. Don’t you think that’s laughable?”
“Safety first. I don’t mind being laughed at.” Naberius looked down at the metallic heart and murmured, “In my opinion, this isn’t enough. I must be more cautious when facing enemies like you.”
Ye Qingxuan was caught between laughing and crying. “You still need to be more cautious?”
“At least…I should at least make you too weak to speak.” Naberius clenched his fist. With a boom, Ye Qingxuan’s face turned red and purple. He gagged and spat out sticky blood.
“Look how pitiful it is for someone to control your heart.” Naberius’ voice traveled from afar. “Your sound of heart represents having control over your life. Once it is controlled by your enemy, it means that your life is controlled by him.”
“Yeah, just like the relationship between you and that god of yours—” Before Ye Qingxuan could finish, his vision went black again. The pressure in his eye was so strong that it felt as if his eyeball would burst. Under the guidance of his frantic heart, his organs started rebelling as well. The blood, veins, lymph nodes, and bone marrow all over his body were influenced as well.
It would be easy for Naberius to kill him. The man only needed to hold that heart and play a few tritone intervals. After a few measures, Ye Qingxuan would be more dead than dead.
But that *sshole clearly wanted to keep him alive. And the bad thing was that he could really do it! Ye Qingxuan realized that if this continued, he really would not be able to speak anymore.
Lowering himself, he tore open the hidden button in his sleeve with difficulty and injected the cardiac needle, local anesthesia, and stimulant. The prick of the needles brought immense pain. His lungs trembled and swelled as he said hoarsely, “You know why…I don’t want to be a dark musician?”
“No, normal people all want to be dark musicians, right?” Naberius could not help but whistle. “Let me guess. Is it because of prejudice?”
“No.” Ye Qingxuan shook his head painfully. He collapsed onto the ground involuntarily as he lost support.
After pondering, Naberius asked again, “Is it because of your ideals? Are you like those revolutionary soldiers who want anarchy?”
The youth laughed mockingly. His voice was weak and hoarse.
“Oh, then is it because the rewards aren’t enough? You must be the core student of some school then, right? Indeed, a contract with a saint is looser than relying on natural catastrophes.”
This time, the youth in the fog did not even feel like replying.
Naberius chuckled. After thinking again, he sighed involuntarily. “If it’s not because of interest, prejudice, or ideals…Hey, are you really into keeping the vow as a musician?”
No one replied. The youth in the fog could no longer spoke. Even his breathing had become irregular. The breathing sounds came once every few seconds.
Wait, once every few seconds?
Naberius froze. He counted in his head, five, four, three, two, one, exhale, five, four, three, two, one, exhale…
His expression changed drastically. Cutting through the fog, he rushed to where the youth was.
No one was there.
There was only a coin with an auditory illusion shining there. It would make a breathing sound every five seconds. Beside it, he could see the blood the youth had spat out. As well the trail of him crawling away painfully.
Beside the coin, he could also see the answer that the youth had written with his blood: Why don’t I want to be a dark musician? The reason is simple. It’s because you’re all too stupid.
Naberius’ face changed. In the end, he could not help but burst into laughter as if he had heard the world’s greatest joke. Rather than feeling anger or confusion, he felt appreciation from the bottom of his heart.
“He really escaped? Mr. Holmes, you’re an opponent I must respect from every aspect!” Watching the direction the youth had crawled in, he rubbed his hands excitedly. “Then let’s see how far you can run!”
271 The Most Dangerous Place is Not the Safest Place
How far would he run? Of course he would run as far as possible!
After escaping from Naberius’ range, Ye Qingxuan’s heart recovered. It no longer pounded crazily but he was still in bad state. In other words, he was pathetic.
There was a music score that was popular amongst dark musicians called the Devil’s Murmur. It could vibrate the aether and create terrifying sounds that humans could not hear. The capillaries of all organisms would burst under that sound. The organs would be affected as well, going crazy until bursting. The organism would swell into a giant due to the bursting vessels while the innards would turn into messy paste.
Naberius’ attack was no w
eaker than that; however, it was more specific. It worked directly on the sound of heart. Ye Qingxuan could not even fight back unless he was at the Resonance level. He was probably bleeding internally right now.
Other than the stimulant for his physical strength and the hemostatic agent, he also gulped down the recovery medicine Lola gave him as if he was drinking water. The side effect to all these drugs was that his mind became muddled. Now, it was as if he was drunk. He could no longer maintain the rational thinking he was so proud of.
In reality, the fact he could escape had nothing to do with his brain. It was actually because of the jacket that he had neglected and had gradually forgotten about—the Dungeon Gentleman. Created by Charles, this was not alchemy equipment and had average quality. It could only protect the critical locations.
Its essence though was Charles’s kinetics masterpiece—the steel skeleton that fit closely to his body. After adding the chainsaw monk’s technology to it, it provided ten times the amount of strength support than regular humans, making up for his fatal weakness. Here, it had saved his life.
He had no more strength, but thankfully, Naberius’ sound of heart interference was ineffective against steel. He was able to crawl out of range with the help of the steel skeleton. It seemed that Charles was usually unreliable but could really save his life when needed.
Ye Qingxuan had never felt so grateful to Charles in his entire life. Charles’s image in his mind now was an angel with a halo and two chicken wings.
Angel Charles…huh, it sounded pretty nice.
Having slow and wandering thoughts and difficulty concentrating was another side effect. Ye Qingxuan felt like he had taken some opium. He started hallucinating uncontrollably.
He swayed as he walked on the street in the fog, using the last bit of his sanity to avoid the wandering demons. He instinctively searched for a safe spot. Danger lurked at every spot on the road. Many times, he brushed past a terrifying aura. He hid in the darkness, not daring to find out what demons were there.
His steps finally came to a stop after some time. He finally realized that he had somehow run to the lakeside of midtown in Avalon’s Shadow. He had run to the place his subconscious mind thought was the safest—the Royal Academy of Music.
-
“But where the f*ck is this?” The youth looked up under the heavy fog. He gazed at the slightly hidden building. It had a menacing silhouette and, hidden in the fog, it looked like a crouching beast.
The gates had been pushed open by some mysterious power. The surroundings looked like a battlefield. The ground was covered in corpses of demons, including strange creatures that terrified Ye Qingxuan. A trail of footprints led into what was supposed to be the academy.
Behind the walls of this place, rows of stakes rose toward the sky like a forest. Under the ghastly fog, they looked like ghosts restricting souls.
If Ye Qingxuan guessed correctly, this was not the Royal Academy of Music. It had not yet been established during King Arthur’s reign centuries ago. But no one had ever said what it originally was.
Ye Qingxuan knew now. This was a prison!
Darkness oozed under the pale fog. Under the silence, Ye Qingxuan walked through the gates and saw the sinister buildings sleeping in the mist. He also saw dried blood on the ground, corpses abandoned after torture, unruly weeds, and various dilapidated scenes.
The uniformed jailers had long died and lay on the ground as skeletons. Their long swords were rusted and looked like warped snakes. Recently, this was also a demon’s nest. But It was not anymore.
Now, they were deader than dead. Their pieces were scattered about, and blood covered every inch of the ground and walls. There seemed to have been a massacre.
So what the h*ll was this?
Ye Qingxuan was chilled to the bone. He really wanted to look up into the heavens and sigh. What was this? He had just gotten out of one danger, only to walk into another? He knew he was always unlucky, but this…was unprecedented.
His heart suddenly twitched and pain began to spread. Turning around in shock, he heard footsteps approach. That d*mn dark musician had actually caught up.
What had he used this time? He was able to put a tracker in Ye Qingxuan’s heart without any sign, so he was probably able to follow without any traces as well. Faced with an old creature who had been stuck at the Resonance level for sixty years and had an unreasonable amount of experience, Ye Qingxuan was clueless no matter how clever he was. There was no time to hesitate.
Gritting his teeth, he ran into the ruins. Since he was going to die either way, why not choose the slowest death?
-
The ancient gates opened abruptly with sharp grating sounds. Dust flew up, falling onto the youth’s white hair. Ye Qingxuan used all his power to close the gates. He leaned against it in exhaustion and looked up at the empty hall.
Scattered corpses lay under the strange and dim lantern light. Half was dust; half was blood. Half were decadent images that had been weathered for thousands of years. The other half was covered in blood from demons fighting.
The bones of the jailers who had died long ago were still sitting in their original positions. One could still faintly see their serious solemnity from yesteryear. The demons’ corpses and blood were poured on them, adding a menacing color to them.
The dark eye sockets on these withered faces seemed to study the suddenly-appearing guest. It was as if they would rise and unsheathe their swords at any moment.
“What is this? Are you planning a Christmas party or something?” Ye Qingxuan stared back at them. “Want me to join? I have some new poker cards we can play with too.”
No one replied.
The corpses obviously would not open their mouths to retort at them. They retained their original posture. They would shatter if he touched them.
Seeing this, Ye Qingxuan’s tensed body relaxed a bit. He could not help but laugh. What was he thinking? Was he truly panicking? How could these dead things come back to life and kill him?
If that was the case, he should be overjoyed instead of afraid. Rebirth was a miracle that the School of Choir had been searching for for a millennium. It was a great proposition second only to the ‘man in a beaker’ from the School of Modifications.
Ye Qingxuan shook his head, chasing away the ridiculous thoughts. He must hurry. Sensing the Ripper’s traces, he quickly followed it.
Along the way, everything was barren. There was no life at all. In the prison that had been turned into a school, all was in ruins.
He gazed around at the decadent scenes and felt more and more anxious. If this was a prison…what was kept here? After thousands of years, were the…weird things here still alive?
Extremely cautious, Ye Qingxuan pushed open the gate to the underground. Dust fell in clumps, dropping through his suddenly thinning figure onto the ground. He carefully raised his lantern and illuminated the darkness.
The dungeon was silent. The only sound was the dripping of water. He padded down the stairs and entered the darkness.
The jailer’s dried corpse at the entrance fell down the steps. Its head bounced on the stone tile until it broke into three pieces. The empty eye sockets rolled into the darkness with the other shards.
The silence returned. There was no sound on either side of the cells. There was nothing there, other than the dust-covered chains and the bedrolls which had decayed to dust.
For some reason, Ye Qingxuan let out a relieved sigh. And then there was laughter in the darkness. Laughter…
Laughter came from the cell beside him.
Ye Qingxuan spun around.
And saw himself.
272 Must Treat the Disease
“Sir, I have sinned.” In the cell, the white-haired boy in shackles gazed at the newcomer. His dirty face had a fawning expression. “I betrayed my mother’s hopes and came back to Avalon.”
“Sir, don’t listen to him! I’m the sinner!” In another cell, a white-haired man yelled in fear, “I’m th
e one who had sinned! I betrayed the priest’s discipline and did many unethical things!”
“Sir, I have sinned as well!” A frail old white-haired man in the cell up above poked his head back. His face still looked vaguely like Ye Qingxuan. He studied his younger self and cried, “I missed so many opportunities and wasted my entire life for a shallow excuse. I’ve accomplished nothing in my life.”
“I was born a sinner, sir!” an angry white-haired youth pounded on the bars and yelled. “I was born locked up in this cell! I was destined to lead a painful and pitiful life!”
“I have sinned too! In order to return to Avalon, I purposely became closer to Wolf Flute, gained his trust…”
“I’ve sinned! I broke the Father’s heart to follow my own ideas.”
“No, I’m the sinner! I harbor sinister thoughts and keep my teacher and senior in the dark. I never tell them what I truly wish to do…”
“I took advantage of a little girl! That girl sees me as an elder brother!”
“I…have sinned!”
“Have sinned!”
“Sinned!!”
“Sinned!!!”
The quiet dungeon was filled with rising voices. The boy, youth, man, and old man behind the bars screamed hoarsely, pleaded fawningly, accused angrily, cried, yelled, shrieked, laughed…The sounds rose like waves, digging into Ye Qingxuan’s heart, cutting apart his mind. He could barely breathe. It was as if he had been torn into thousands of pieces. They accused and denounced his crimes without talking.
Sinned, sinned, sinned, sinned…He was a great sinner with multiple crimes!
Sweat rolled down Ye Qingxuan’s back as he began to pant. All that remained in the world was the angry and chaotic accusations, until finally—boom! A crisp sound shot out. The echoes from the instrument head resounded in his brain. They transformed into rolling thunder, dissipating the cacophony.