by Feng Yue
“The Iron of Decay.” Outside the door, Shi Dong’s voice rang from afar. It was as if he could feel Ye Qingxuan’s confusion through the thick walls.
He didn’t open the door to enter but just said hoarsely, “You’d better keep it properly. With the exception of you, no one here can withstand its harm…”
Ye Qingxuan was surprised. “Is this thing very dangerous?”
“Very, very dangerous,” Shi Dong replied. “In the pollutant rating, it is rated to be more threatening than the Cup of Hope. According to readings taken with the counter, the circulation and mining of the thing you have with you is absolutely prohibited in the East as well.
“It kills the cells in one’s body and destroys one, starting from the smallest structures in the body. Except for the few pure-blood Deva in the world, anyone else who dares to meddle with such a thing is committing suicide…”
Ye Qingxuan was stunned for a moment, then carefully put the Iron of Decay back into the lead tube. However, the illusory heat and stinging sensation still lingered and showed no signs of dissipating.
What is Maxwell even thinking about? Ye Qingxuan thought.
“It’s better for you to come out.” Shi Dong sighed. “I will make the necessary arrangements to seal this place up later. It’ll remain unfit for human habitation for half a year.”
Even after Ye Qingxuan came out, Shi Dong continued to maintain a distance of ten meters between the two, as if he was avoiding a fierce flood or a savage beast.
“Hey, what for?”
“Your Honor, I still want to live for a few more years.” Shi Dong cautiously put on a set of weird, thick protective clothing. “Actually, you are basically a lethal, human-form poison now. I would suggest that you avoid coming into contact with anyone before its traces in your body are thoroughly gone. Judging from your vital signs and metabolic rate, the time it will take is about several dozen times shorter than the ordinary person, so you should be fine after one night.”
Maxwell, what the heck are you up to!!! Ye Qingxuan rolled his eyes and sighed resignedly. “Okay, why are you looking for me so late in the night?”
Shi Dong pointed towards the room. “I believe that you have read my report?”
“You writing was too lengthy, I have only read the front parts.”
“It’s alright, you just have to be clear about the shameful happenings in the past.”
Ye Qingxuan was silent for a good while, before facepalming and sighed. “Indeed, shameful.”
The Lady of the Lake turned out to be Leviathan. Are you sure there’s nothing wrong with King Arthur’s brain?!
No, history has proven to us that something must have been wrong with that asshole’s brain.
Really really wrong.
-
Ye Qingxuan gave a wave of his hand, signaling for Shi Dong to follow him. Since the room could no longer be stayed in, they might as well find a place to sit and talk. Soon, they reached the central courtyard of the church.
Ye Qingxuan sat on the bench and spent quite a while to gather his thoughts. Finally, he couldn’t help but tug at his hair. “I know what you want to ask, but with the current situation, I don’t know where to start.”
Shi Dong was no stranger to such situations. He simply nodded, and suggested calmly, “Then let’s go through the whole thought process from the beginning once more. Don’t forget your purpose. What did you come here for?”
“To save Anglo, of course,” Ye Qingxuan replied.
But Shi Dong was still looking at him and asked, “What else?”
Ye Qingxuan couldn’t help but smile bitterly. “Save Maxwell at the same time.”
Shi Dong’s expression was still cold, like a dotard who wouldn’t even be surprised if the sky fell down. He simply scratched his chin. After a good while, he commented calmly, “It will be very difficult this way.”
“Of course I know.” Ye Qingxuan asked, “Do you have any suggestions?”
“Me?” Shi Dong pondered for a bit, scratching his steel skull. He sighed with a tinge of emotion. “Based on my experience in the past, if you aren’t sure of how to defeat the enemy, then purge your organization first. It’s not like you have anything better to do anyway.”
“Er, what?” Ye Qingxuan was stunned.
Shi Dong repeated himself, “Purge. I mean… Surely you understand what I mean?”
“I know what you mean, but why of all times now?” Ye Qingxuan asked.
“Well, the style of the Religious Court of Inquiry has always been like that,” Shi Dong replied naturally as if it was something that could go without saying. “There’s nothing else to do anyway, so we might as well purge the nation of heretics first. To resist foreign attacks, one must stabilize the internal situation first. Cleansing and purification are necessary from time to time to strengthen an organization’s foothold and to ensure that it could be sustained in the long-term. At all times, you must make sure that the organization you are leading is pure. At least, we must first find out who the impure are.”
“After finding out?” asked Ye Qingxuan.
Shi Dong shrugged. “We add their names to the list of spare firewood of course. Demons can still be utilized after their deaths, but troublesome creatures like heretics can only be used as firewood. Fortunately, they can be burned dead or alive.
“As the Grand Inquisitor, how come you are so slow in this respect? I thought that you’d be very good at it. “
“…” Ye Qingxuan was at a loss for words. “Shi Dong, can you suggest something useful?”
“I feel that I have already given you quite an explicit hint, haven’t I?” Shi Dong looked at him, his gaze serious. “You know what I am reminding you of, right?
“If you want to save this country, you shouldn’t bother yourself with unnecessary concerns, and don’t let insignificant matters hold you back. In this world, never rely on other people. If you want something, you must get it yourself, Your Honor.
“All you have to do is nod, and stakes will be erected on Queen’s Road tomorrow.
“The politicians who have been attending secret meetings in the past few days, trying to control you, secure more power for themselves and obtain substantial benefits without contributing anything, as well as the aristocratic parasites who regard themselves highly but are totally useless to the country, all of them will form long queues and walk up to the stakes, one after another, turning into a pile of coal ash via this clean and pollution-free process.
“From then on, you will be free of all inhibitions, and you can show your capabilities fully. Surely you don’t have any more expectations for this bunch of good-for-nothings?”
Silence. A long silence.
Ye Qingxuan smoked a pipe and exhaled a cloud of gloomy smoke. He asked, “Is there really no one worth trusting, in your opinion?”
“Trust? That’s such a luxurious term.” Shi Dong sneered. “Your Honor, even the Religious Court of Inquiry could not resist certain temptations, let alone other people? I don’t particularly hate the aristocrats, and I understand their stupidity. After all, it is the nature of the ruling class.
“Many of them could even be considered kind, but their stances have been predetermined by their origins and the positions they hold. As long as you are willing to spare a thought on such boring matters, you can easily understand them. Show them your devilish side, Grand Inquisitor.
“Who do you think will never betray you?”
Ye Qingxuan pondered the question for a long time, and asked tentatively, “Maxwell?”
Shi Dong shook his head. “He loves you, I can see, but there are other things that he loves more.”
“Lancelot?” Ye Qingxuan asked again.
Shi Dong shook his head again. “He also loves you, but you get what I mean.”
“Alright, then what about Mephistopheles?”
Shi Dong snickered. “I don’t know if you have heard this saying before: Clergymen can be trusted when pigs fly. Do you really believe that he
will keep his mouth shut regarding the secrets he has heard in the confessional?”
Ye Qingxuan sighed and shook his head.
A lengthy silence ensued.
Ye Qingxuan’s eyes suddenly brightened. “I think I have one.”
“Oh?” Shi Dong raised his brow.
“In Avalon, the one I trust the most, the one that will never betray me and can even help me… I think I know who that is. Unfortunately, I don’t know where it has it gone, I can’t find it anywhere.”
“Wait… Did you just say ‘it’?”
“Yep, ‘it’.”
“…” Shi Dong was silent. After a long time, he sighed flatly. “In some sense, perhaps such trust can indeed stand the test of time…” He felt resigned due to Ye Qingxuan’s tactlessness.
Shi Dong didn’t bother to try and convince him anymore. In his view, reality was as such anyway, and the circumstances would force Ye Qingxuan to make a choice; it was just a matter of sooner or later. So, he got up, took his leave and went back to sleep.
Ye Qingxuan was left alone, leaning against the bench and smoking his pipe. He looked helplessly at the gloomy night sky above his head, thinking hard, trying to come up with a solution.
“Such trouble.” He sighed and rubbed his forehead.
Then, he heard a rustling sound.
Amid the dead twigs and rotting leaves, something deftly strode towards him on all fours, with mud and dirt all over its golden fur. Not having been groomed for a long time, the fur was knotted and tangled all over. But its gaze was still arrogant, like that of a superior being, and insufferably proud.
It jumped onto the bench easily, sitting next to Ye Qingxuan. Glancing at his flabbergasted expression, it exhaled a gust of air from its nostrils with disdain. Then, it shook its body and splashed mud all over Ye Qingxuan’s clothes in an adept manner.
“Hey, Old Phil!” Ye Qingxuan finally came out of his trance-like state and jumped up from the bench, ecstatic. He laughed loudly and embraced the ‘person’ he trusted most in Avalon. “It’s been a really long time!”
576 The End of Solomon
Ye Qingxuan didn’t know how Old Phil felt so long after they last saw each other. But surely, Old Phil was not an ordinary dog, so it didn’t show much emotion. There was still a look of loathing in its eyes, however.
Being warmly welcomed by Ye Qingxuan, Old Phil just nudged him away with its nose and rubbed mud all over him. It acted like they had not been away from each other for so long, but rather that it had just gone next door to steal a cucumber for lunch.
However, a lot of people had gone since then.
Too much had changed.
A long time ago, they came to this city for the first time—a young man and a dog.
Ye Qingxuan had been worried that the virus might make Old Phil ill, yet it only sneezed once and shook some hair off. It didn’t feel anything at all. This was really astonishing to some, yet Ye Qingxuan was used to this He always believed that Old Phil was no ordinary dog; it was smarter than any man.
“Where have you been all this time?” Ye Qingxuan squatted down and said jokingly, “You found a wife, had a bunch of pups, and didn’t want to come back, right?”
Surprisingly, Old Phil didn’t bite him this time. It just looked at him as if to say your old man is really disappointed with you, which made Ye Qingxuan feel ashamed of making such boring jokes.
Old Phil opened his mouth and threw something on the bench. It was a piece of a broken chain. The decoration on the chain was gone, leaving only the chain, which seemed so familiar.
Ye Qingxuan blanked for an instant. After a long thought, he picked up the chain. It was so heavy that it must have been made of some sort of precious metal. The design was highly sophisticated and the chain was handmade. Even an experienced craftsman would find it difficult to make such a chain. There were not many good craftsmen in Avalon, not to mention someone who would bother to make such a nice chain.
Yet, he quickly remembered something. When he went to the Stein Chamber, he saw a necklace with the same design on someone’s neck.
“Marry?” Ye Qingxuan asked in astonishment. She was the second daughter of the king who went missing when Leviathan broke the second layer of seal; the princess of Avalon, the future Queen of Anglo.
He stared at Old Phil and asked, “You’ve found her?”
Old Phil peered at him and said nothing. It turned around and whipped him with its tail, meaning follow me.
Ye Qingxuan followed Old Phil and after some turns, they were suddenly on the street. Then they went through some streets and valleys. The further they went, the more unfamiliar everything became.
Ye Qingxuan felt a headache coming on. According to the map in his mind, they had been going in circles for a while and should be where they set off from. Yet, there was a deserted valley in front of them. When he lowered his eyes, however, he found that there was a stream of blood flowing along the way.
The path of blood!
When he raised his head again, a wave of mist came over and devoured him.
The mist was gone; everything was different. Old Phil had also vanished, like a phantom.
Ye Qingxuan was in the shadow of Avalon.
In the silence, he raised his head, looking at the dark sky. There must be something wrong! What was wrong?
The shadow of Avalon was different from before. Everything was shattered as if it had been twisted and folded by some great force. Numerous ruins flew up into the sky, stretching in every direction.
It seemed the city had jumped up into the sky and stayed there. The buildings just floated in the air, frozen in time forever.
In the second that the city was ruined, the sky must have collapsed and the earth cracked.
In the sky, the king’s palace was left in the center, releasing horrible aether waves like a dark sun. There was surely something terrible brewing there.
The city had been destroyed, yet some monsters occupied the ruins of the city and seemed to have given the city some sort of evil life.
There seemed to be a sort of terrible power dominating the whole city. It had devoured the city and made the city part of it. They were crawling out of their tomb and would be alive again soon. Numerous sounds of worms and insects crawling, and beasts howling were hidden in the silence, making the place even more terrible.
In the empty streets and the deepest darkness, something was staring at Ye Qingxuan with its blood-red eyes.
One, two, three… There were so many of them
“It seems I have been targeted,” Ye Qingxuan murmured. Then a bronze emblem slid out of his sleeve and into his hand. The music theory of Jiu Xiao Huan Pei flew out from the Symphony of Predestination and wrapped around the emblem. When the music was played, swords of moonlight were released, which was intertwined with red fire, burning the sins of the humans and lighting up the world.
This was the most useful skills he had learned in his classes at the Religious Court of Inquisitors, which covered all musical instruments and alchemy devices and hundreds of purifying music movements created since the establishment of the Religious Court of Inquisitors.
Besides the four most essential music movements, including the Night on Bald Mountain, 16 for supporting utilities and 34 for purifying, the more than 70 other music movements were all created to kill all creatures except for humans.
This was my exercise class, then? He went forward at his normal speed and felt that the pressure was becoming more and more tense.
Suddenly, something like a dying beast howled from afar. It sounded so familiar. Ye Qingxuan was so surprised that he raised his head to see what it was. Numerous monsters with blood-red eyes jumped at him, howling. There were also waves of little bugs in the air, extracting aether from the air, which created a temporary vacuum around Ye Qingxuan.
Ye Qingxuan heaved a sigh and waved a sliver of moonlight from his fingers. Numerous music notes were played in such a short time that the sound was not even distingui
shable. Then, fire and light spread around very quickly and quietly. All the monsters and bugs were burned into nothing, leaving not even ashes.
In the fading light, Ye Qingxuan looked to the direction of the howling.
It was Firebird. And he was familiar with that.
“Mary?”
…
In the ruins of the church, black blood spurted and fell on the mask. A giant monster was cut in half. It fell on the ground, twitching and howling. Yet more monsters were coming.
Surrounded by layers of monsters, a knight shouted angrily. He waved his sword again with his great power, generating a gust of strong wind which cut through the space.
The wind tore everything apart on its path and chopped up all the monsters within a hundred-meter radius. With the blood of the monsters sprayed on the ground, the smell of blood was even stronger.
Behind the knight was a girl who was crying bitterly. “They are here, Christine. They are here. They are here. They are right here.” Her gown torn, her arms were shown. Ye Qingxuan could saw there were red scales showing and disappearing on her arms. Her pupils changed forms as if she were a beast one moment and a normal girl the next. She was struggling between being a beast and being a human.
“It is looking at me.” Mary murmured, “Christine, give me the sword. Quick! Give me the sword. It was inside me. I saw it. It is tearing me apart.”
“Your Highness!” Christine half-kneeled on the ground, shaking her violently. “Don’t give up! Don’t be defeated by it!”
“It is killing me, Christine.” Mary raised her head. Her eyes were full of emptiness. She could no longer see the knight but the felt the beast inside her.
“Give me the sword, Christine, give me the sword.” She held Christine’s arm and begged. Her strength was so mighty that she crushed the steel of Christine’s armor and left her indentations from her fingers on it.
She looked at Christine, red-eyed as if she were a demon. “Give me the sword! I can kill it!”
Christine became silent. She was so sad that she couldn’t help but shed tears.
“My princess, it is you that you will be killing.”