by Feng Yue
“Hydra, hydra, hydrarg…”
Before the priest spoke the complete name of Hydrargyrum, Ye Qingxuan pressed his finger to the priest’s forehead to freeze his consciousness and erase his memory of Lola.
“I should still hide in the Underground Palace for now.” Lola touched her sharp ear and sighed. “Anyway, you have the Heaven Ladder, and I can support you at any time.”
However, Ye Qingxuan still felt the implied meaning through Lola’s flat tone.
He looked into her eyes and asked after a moment of silence, “You don’t want any troubles, or… don’t want to meet Ye Lanzhou?”
Lola looked downwards and brushed her bangs, then smiled softly and said, “I said goodbye to him more than a decade ago, and it’s as if he has been dead for years. If we meet each other now, we will both feel awkward.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Lola turned around with no more hesitation and walked back to the underground palace with her servants. “If he is still alive, please tell him that I didn’t disappoint him.” She was silent for a second. “I’m going to give him a sound beating.”
Ye Qingxuan shouted to her back, “If you don’t come, I’ll take your share and beat him until he cries.”
Lola froze, then turned back to see his serious look and smiled.
It was like a sudden release from a cage. She smiled with a sense of relief.
“Well then, please!”
Her final words came with the wind.
The door was closed.
“Just leave it to me.” Ye Qingxuan clenched his fist and spoke to himself.
In front of him, the young priest who had lost his mettle finally recovered. Seeing Ye Qingxuan, who had saved his life, he suddenly recalled what had happened and broke down, crying out loud on the ground.
“Hey, don’t cry!”
Ye Qingxuan kicked him impatiently and said coldly, “Tell me your name, age, gender, where you came from, where to go.”
“Nor–Nora, 22…”
The young man stammered his name, and then stammered about his hometown, birthplace, family background, graduation school, and even his internship department.
Finally, Ye Qingxuan interrupted impatiently, “You said that you would repay me, right?”
At the sight of Ye Qingxuan’s fierce and arrogant expression, Nora was shocked and nodded self-consciously.
“Then take me to the Central Temple.” Ye Qingxuan waved to the young priest. “Don’t tell me that you don’t know the way.”
The Central Temple was another place of extreme danger, so Nora’s face instantly became pale after hearing that. “Don’t go, sir! The Central Temple is out of control! I just escaped from there! There are demons everywhere!”
“Out of control?” Ye Qingxuan looked up to the sky: “Well, that explains why.”
The dying enchantment in the sky looked like broken glass, and it struggled to resist the powerful and endless darkness. The situation had become so dangerous in a short period of time, which shouldn’t have happened, let alone the appearance of the “flooding outlet” inside the Sacred City.
Even the most powerful tool would become rigid and stiff when it lost the control of its operators. It could defend itself in the face of other enemies, but when it came to the pressure of the abyss, it was not strong enough to win.
At that moment, the entire sky lost its color and turned dark. At first glance, there was only empty and lifeless darkness.
The turbulence of the Aether World continued.
Compared to the Sacred City and Hyakume, Ye Qingxuan was too weak. He couldn’t even see through the situation, for he had already fallen into it. Without doubt, the situation had already become very terrible.
The Sacred City, at this moment, was in the overlapped area of the Physical World and the Aether World.
The world in this area was gradually losing light.
It was bad.
Very bad.
“Don’t be silly, let’s go.” He kicked Nora again. “We have no time to waste.”
“Are we still going to the Central Temple?” Nora cried with no tears and retorted reluctantly, “What can we do there? “
Nora was so terrified that he couldn’t even get up from the ground. Ye Qingxuan looked at him and couldn’t help but sigh. Then he pulled on Nora’s back collar and went forward.
“Idiot! We are going to make this world a little brighter!”
498 The Executioner in the Sacred City
The deeper they went, the more mutated the world around them became, and the fewer people they could see.
Gone was the prosperous community or the bustling market; around them, everything was plated with a layer of peculiar color. In this corner, it was full of blood; in that corner, it looked very old and shabby. There were even people dancing and singing in some corners, and some heavy drinkers were yelling and shouting in an eccentric pub.
No matter where they went, it all looked amazingly magnificent.
A musician could create both a legend and a miracle.
There were too many marks about “history” and “legend” left in this place. Since the rule of the Physical World had been broken and gone out of control, the scenes of the past showed up again.
These scenes showed automatically without a musician’s command.
The whole city had become an enormous maze. Take one more step, and you might walk into a totally different world.
Many illusions appeared in front of Ye Qingxuan and Nora.
Accompanied by sad singing, countless phantasms of friars who were holding the holy emblem in their hands walked out from the void. They solemnly walked into the graveyard while supporting an iron coffin.
This incident happened almost six years ago when Schumann, a holy believer, was buried.
The next minute, numerous dancers in masks and colorful clothes appeared in the street. They were yelling and shouting with excitement. Among them, there were strong and tall men, enchanting female dancers, and topless singers. They danced very enthusiastically and asked the pedestrians to join them in their parade.
This incident was actually the “Carnival Day,” held in the Sacred City almost one hundred and ninety years ago.
The next minute, the whole world began to shake, and the shadow of the Dragon of Catastrophe covered the sky. At the same time, the Rain of Ruin poured down.
This Dragon of Catastrophe was actually the Red Dragon of Doomsday that had been sealed by the Pope of the third generation.
Seeing the illusion, Nora was very frightened. While he walked through the streets, his whole body shook. He was constantly attracted by the phantasms or the illusions around him, and he had to try very hard to suppress the urge to join them.
“Be careful! This is the sixth time!” Ye Qingxuan said loudly. “Focus on your job and lead the way! You know you will die if you join them. Well, if this is what you really want, I will give you a good string so you can hang yourself and join them.”
Hearing this, Nora was stunned.
He held his holy emblem in his hand and calmed himself down. To avoid the illusions and phantasms, he led Ye Qingxuan on a more complex route.
While they walked, Nora could not help peeking at Ye Qingxuan.
Ye Qingxuan turned around and asked, “What’s wrong? Are there stains on my back?”
“No! No!” Nora’s shoulder trembled and he hurriedly stopped looking. Still, he could no longer suppress his curiosity and asked, “Sir, who on earth are you?”
For him, Ye Qingxuan was more of a “bad savior” than a “good savior.”
No matter whether Ye Qingxuan was good or bad, he had saved Nora many times, and Nora was very curious about his true identity.
Ye Qingxuan coldly replied, “I am a musician.”
“…”
Nora was speechless. No sh*t! I know you are a musician!
Nora could tell that Ye Qingxuan was not an ordinary m
usician, since an ordinary musician would already have been frightened to death by all these illusions and phantasms.
Because Ye Qingxuan had saved his life many times, Nora started to feel very safe when staying with Ye Qingxuan. Besides, his admiration towards Ye Qingxuan was getting stronger and stronger.
This guy looks so young, but he is so powerful. Maybe he was a master who has secluded himself from this world for almost a hundred years.
Nora forced out a smile and said, “You also arrived at the Sacred City just a few days ago?”
“What makes you think so?” Ye Qingxuan asked coldly. At the same time, he waved his hand, and suddenly more than ten burning crosses fell down to the dark alleys from the sky and burnt the devils into ashes.
Nora heard the screaming sound of those devils and was so frightened that his face turned pale. He jabbered, “I, I would think a powerful man like you would definitely become very famous in this city.”
“You really think so?” Ye Qingxuan laughed and asked, “Tell me, are there any famous people in this city?”
Hearing this, Nora began to think very hard on this. Soon, he said, “A few days ago, the School of the Secret Keeper of the College of Rock and Iron published a ‘silver name list.’ Have you read it?”
“No.” Ye Qingxuan shook his head. When the name list was published, he was still imprisoned and did not even have the opportunity to read a newspaper.
With the help of “beacon” and their information network, the School of the Secret Keeper would evaluate almost every living musician in the world and select the strongest and most promising musicians.
Normally, the name list had three papers, which were named “Black Gold,““Silver,” and “White Iron” respectively. Throughout history, the names had never changed. On the name list of Black Gold were the names of the scepters of each country, the holy followers in the Sacred City, and the three kings on the top.
On the name list of Silver were the names of the Masters of each country and the musicians of the new generation who were going to become Masters in the near future. Unlike the name list of Black Gold, the name list of Silver changed constantly. Sometimes, it changed every few months; sometimes it changed every three days; and sometimes, it would even change three or four times in a single day. Every famous musician in this world had been listed on the name list of Silver.
As for the name list of White Iron, it was simply a name list of good musicians. Although it had more than one thousand pages, not every good musician’s name had been listed on it. Most of the time, this name list was used as a reference to evaluate the achievement of teaching by each college and school. Since there were hundreds of thousands of good musicians’ names on it, even a person with broad education and a retentive memory could not remember all of the names.
“It is such a pity that you have not read it yet. By the way, thanks to the chaotic situation in the Sacred City, many talented musicians have earned their reputation by keeping this city in order. Besides, the names of the strong musicians of the new generation have also been listed.”
“For example, Mr. Rommel of Silence Governance, Mr. Alfonso, or the ‘Eternal Nightmare’ who was the third prince of the Kingdom of Asgard, the immortal Angelina, Kaspar Hauser, or the ‘Fierce Humanoid Beast,’ who was the strongest musician of scepter, Astrid, or the ‘Fireman’ of the Door of Ruin, and her cousin Samuel who died in the Auschwitz…”
“Finished?” Ye Qingxuan said.
Nora thought for a while and said, “Actually, there is one more guy who is called the ‘Executioner.’ His name was in fact listed on the name list of Silver. But since he was involved in the assassination of the Pope, so his name was wiped out.”
“‘Executioner’?” Upon hearing this, Ye Qingxuan had a strange feeling but he could not tell why.
“Yes, the ‘Executioner in the Sacred City,’ Ye Qingxuan,” Nora replied.
Bang!
Suddenly, Nora heard a huge sound from behind his back. He turned around and saw Ye Qingxuan standing up from the ground. He was stunned and asked, “What happened, sir?”
“Nothing.”
Ye Qingxuan lowered his head and brushed the dust off his clothes. “I was just amazed by what you said just now, and somehow lost my balance and fell onto the ground.”
“I see.” Nora nodded.
The Executioner in the Sacred City? Seriously? Am I so notorious that people in this city even call me an executioner?
“It is absolutely abhorrent!” Ye Qingxuan rolled his eyes. Maybe I have become as notorious as a rat now.
Ye Qingxuan shook his head and stopped thinking about it.
Suddenly, Ye Qingxuan stopped walking.
“What happened? Sir?”
“Something is not right,” Ye Qingxuan said and waved his hands. The moonlight perception threads appeared on the tips of his fingers and began to extend forward. At the same time, Ye Qingxuan’s facial expression grew strange.
This had happened more than once during this journey. Seeing Ye Qingxuan’s facial expression, Nora could not help asking, “Could it be another illusion this time?”
“No!” Ye Qingxuan shook his head. “This time, it is the Holy Temple Knight Group.”
…
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The earth began to shake. The steel and iron inserted into wall had gotten twisted, and on the tip of the steel and iron, blood had dried.
Outside the door, devils were screaming.
“This is a trap! This is a trap!” The dying knight tightly pulled Vasco’s collar and shouted, “Don’t you understand? They lured us here so they could kill us all! Run! Run!”
He was almost begging, “You should leave now, otherwise…”
Bang!
Outside the church, there was something pounding at the iron door like crazy.
The sound of the collision of steel and iron was very piercing. The dust on the door fell into the pool of blood.
The torch of hydrargyrum on the shoulder pauldron of the knight’s armor was shining in a cold light, lighting up the dried corpses that had been nailed to the wall. Every ounce of liquid in the priests had dried up, and their bodies had been torn. They trembled from time to time with the knocking on the wall.
On the platform, the officiant’s head had been penetrated by a long rusty spear. It was looking at the Knights of the Holy Temple and smiling at them.
Half an hour earlier, the Sacred City had turned chaotic.
The whole city had not changed into the wartime state, even the defensive line of Armageddon had not been set up.
As soon as the sound of Hyakume began to echo in the air, the two groups of knights who were camping inside the Sacred City were attacked. After they made their way out, they received the SOS from their temporary headquarters.
However, when they arrived at the temporary headquarters, they were shocked by the scene.
Nobody was in the temporary headquarters, and the roof and walls were covered with dried corpses.
This was a trap!
Now the knights of holy temple had been trapped in this church.
The stimulant had lost its effect, and the dying knight, half of whose body had been cut through, finally lowered his head and stopped breathing.
Vasco reached out his hand and helped him close his eyes.
“May your soul rest peace in heaven and never feel lonely.” Vasco sighed.
499 Exusiai 1
“Now you are at the highest rank among us,” Quentin said, standing beside Vasco with a tower shield on his back. “Make a decision, Aquilifer! To break through or to defend?”
“How many people do we have?” Vasco asked wearily.
“Thirty-one,” Quentin replied. “Six of them are seriously injured. We have only seventeen blade dancers, two shooters, four armored knights, and one scout. The rest are unarmored retainers…”
“Is there any news?” Vasco raised his voice and shouted huskily.
The retainer standi
ng beside the aether communication box looked up with a gloomy face and said, “Three minutes ago, the headquarters of the Praetorian Cohort announced through global broadcast that the Sacred City had been isolated. So there is no news outside the city. Now, we are probably the only squad of Knights Templar in the Sacred City. “
“Oh sh*t.” Vasco said.
Boom!
The walls thundered and cracked. Through the cracks, dozens of fuzzy things could be seen crashing into the church.
The Knights of Death.
They were the abyss demons most rarely mass-produced. Cultivated as a heavy weapon of destruction, each of them was strong enough to compete with an armored knight.
Now, the heartrending flute reverberated, stinging people’s eardrums and urging the Knights of Death to attack the last church.
“Is there any good news for me before I give the order?” Vasco looked at his quartermaster. “Really, anything.”
After a moment of silence, Quentin leaned to one side and said, “When our squad broke through, we brought this thing out of the weapon and equipment database… I thought it might come in handy for someone.”
Behind him, several machinist retainers put down the giant bags from their back. The giant bags hit the ground, echoing dully like iron stones.
One of the bags tore and a heavy helmet covered with scratches rolled out, revealing a cold and vicious lion visor.
“Gospel armor?”
Vasco was shocked for a long while and smiled sturdily. “What a coincidence! The size suits me well.”
He bowed his head, bent down, and took off his belt. The steel armor attached to his body was removed automatically and his upper body was exposed. Surgical stitches still could be seen on his upper body. The unhealed wounds, after a long time of sultriness and friction, had become red and inflamed, twisted with raised stitches.
However, his spine and arms showed several metal joints that were embedded in the flesh. The thumb-size joints had not been yet truly integrated with him, being covered with dried blood.
“Put the armor on me.”
He nodded to the machinists and smiled with self-mockery. “Am I the first one who put on the gospel armor just after the implantation surgery?”