by Feng Yue
The flames and electric light washed away the colors off of the earth and stone like water, giving them a crystal-like texture. Numerous huge blocks were born out of the lightning bolts.
In the end, the entire Ultimate was transformed into sparkling clear crystals. Thousands of streams of light flowed beneath the crystal, intertwining and gathering together. Tens of thousands of alchemy arrays overlapped on top of it, complicated beyond human imaging and wrapping through the Ultimate like blood vessels. The followed the meter of the movement as they carried the torrent of aether.
Music theory was born and died within it. They joined together and formed an exaggeratedly huge movement. It seemed as if there were countless people within the void singing in unison, yelling and roaring as a grandiose melody burst forth from the core, resounding between heaven and earth.
It was only praise, but it set off countless waves in the sea of aether.
It was only revolution, but it cracked the seabed, caused the seas to boil and numerous electric lights to surge out.
And in the protection of that unlimited power, the reborn Ultimate broke free from the confines of gravity. It lightly and easily distorted the laws of the Physical World and wrote new ones. Within that chorus of countless voices, it slowly rose up from the sea, shaking off the dust and dirt and revealing its new form.
The darkness was dispelled as its glow hit everyone’s eyes.
It was cut and polished as if by the gods, as exquisite as a miracle: a perfect crystal cube!
Under the pull of music theory, numerous crystal blocks precise to a scale of less than a millimeter made up its suffocatingly huge form, each of which was thousands of meters long.
Under the electric light, the blocks slowly rotated around an axis as if pushed by some invisible hand. There were no obstructions, but as they rotated music theories collided with each other, giving off terrifying thunderclaps.
A stream of light flew out of it and spread out in all directions before it was finally hidden in the void as it plunged into the depths of the sea of aether, echoing the resonance of all things.
The music theory changed rapidly along with the rotating blocks, showing many different faces. Soon, the alchemy arrays gathered at the axis were revealed.
Was this… an instrument of harmonious melody?
A giant instrument of harmonious melody the likes of which had never been seen before and never would be seen again!
Even if all the Church’s instrument’s of harmonious melody that were scattered around the world gathered together, they would not compare with this crystal cube that had just been born.
It seemed to be directly connected to the sea of aether. Massive waves of aether spread out in all directions. The Heaven Ladder and Haydn’s ultra wide-area character interference had combined, it had increased to hundreds of times its original size.
Even though they were in international waters, the huge interaction range still reached to the Anglo Kingdom, Burgundy, and Asgard, and even faintly reached to the endless deserts of the North. And in the center of the crystal cube, the Scepter called “Land of Dreams” slowly rotated, driving the final transformation.
At that moment the deep sea was illuminated by a light, and the magnificent scenery of the Kingdom of Heaven and earth emerged from the reflection. Numerous people cheered and sang. The throne room appeared in the reflection. The queen looked across the vast distance, her line of sight seeming to pierce through the reflection and fall upon Ye Qingxuan.
Then, the Firebird swept out from Avalon. It was the resonance of the music theory from the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth.
A brilliant stream of light rose up from the ocean and refracted through the crystal cube. The roar of the Jiu Xiao Huan Pei could now be heard. The Heaven Ladder extended out in all directions under the guidance of the crystal blocks.
…
In Avalon, Christine awoke from her dream to find that the light of the Firebird was shining right in front of her. This formless object formed by willpower and aether covered her body, shrouding her and turning into intangible armor. Next, a complicated alchemy circuit formed on it, imbuing her with spirituality, and the music theory was connected to her spinal cord, merging her and the Firebird into one.
Christine was stunned.
“Is this…” she whispered softly. She looked behind her in a daze but saw only a stream of light extending out from the void and entering her body.
The armor felt strange to her, but also familiar. It was as if she was destined to wear it.
“Lancelot?”
…
And in the deepest part of the Royal Institute of Research, there was a constant roar in the underground testing site. A blazing light streamed continuously from old fingers, turning into real flame and frost and flew forward in accordance with the will, completely destroying all the iron testing blocks. The loud noise continued to ring out, shaking the dust off the floor and ceiling, which fell onto the old man’s ecstatic face.
The researchers who were awakened by the loud noise threw on their coats and rushed to the testing site. But all they found was Newton flying in the air and letting loose fire and destruction.
A musician?
Had Newton become a musician in a single night? Everyone looked at him in a daze. Only Newton continued to shout with abandon, letting loose his miraculous power, constantly releasing the movement.
“What…what the h*ll is this?”
“This is change, children!” Newton laughed hoarsely as he beheld their stupefied expressions. “Change is coming!”
Outside the Anglo Kingdom, the same changes were happening all over the world.
As long as they were in range of the crystal cube, every musician in the Royal Navy felt their music theory rising wildly under the blessing of the light, reaching its peak in an instant. Even apprentices turned into full-blown musicians in an instant.
This strange scene lasted a few short minutes and then disappeared with the stream of light. But a blazing hot sun had appeared in their perception, shining on them from a distance.
It was as if they had but to think and endless power would be at their fingertips.
The news spread throughout the nations in an instant. In a few short moments, countless people were woken from their pleasant dreams and read the news. Their backs were drenched in sweat, and they wanted nothing more than to open the window and have a smoke.
They all more or less understood…
The world might have changed at this moment.
It might have changed under Ye Qingxuan’s hoarse declaration.
“With this achievement…
“…the Catastrophe Net of Aether!”
Under the guidance of the blueprint given by the Originator, the purely conceptual King of Aether had finally reached perfection, even though compared to what it was expected to be in the future it was still merely a model, a prototype. After merging the Chapter of the Golden Victory and the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth, it was able to give all users the full music theory of a Royal Musician.
After completing the “Virtual Alchemy Array Projection,” it had even surpassed the limitations of materials and manpower. It was able to create Armor of the Round Table at any time through the use of the Firebird, allowing for an almost unlimited expansion of the Knights of the Round Table.
After this, the Royal Musician Division and the Knights of the Round Table would enter the era of mass production!
And what was more, as long as Ye Qingxuan integrated the core music theory that he had plundered from dozens of different schools into the Net of Aether, it would be easy to mass produce other Masters. Even though it was limited by the range of the Net of Aether, as long as there were relay stations to extend its range its coverage would be nearly unlimited!
No matter how far away it was, the Heaven Ladder could provide a supremely stable transmission.
The thousand-year dream of the Ye family had been destroyed at Ye Qingxuan’s hands.
He had no intention to revive the inheritance of the Ye family.
Let old things stay in the old days. In the future, there would be no need to seal off the gradual improvements of generation after generation. As long as you could access the Net of Aether, the whole world would inherit the Ye family’s music theory.
The whole world would be the heirs of the Ye family.
At this moment, the Net of Aether had just been officially born and had not yet had far-reaching impact. But everyone there had already sensed the stormy waves of the future.
It was not only because it could create musicians.
Nobody was worried about there being more musicians. There were about 100,000 musicians in the world at that time, but even if another 100,000, 200,000 or even 300,000 were added they would simply be swallowed up by the vast world.
But that was not where the damage was coming from.
It came from the complete destruction and subversion of musicians’ inheritance!
Starting from the age of eight, an apprentice would undergo decades of training, and with the held of their teacher’s careful cultivation and with a little bit of luck, and after consuming who knows how many materials, only then could one officially become a musician before the age of 25.
The Royal Academy of Music enrolled 600 people each year. These 600 students underwent six years of research, after which it would be ridiculous to think that even thirty of them would graduate and become official musicians.
And now, it would only take a moment.
697 It’s Settled Then
You could be bestowed with a miracle without having to pay a huge price.
You need not spend a lifetime saving money to buy a house in midtown Avalon. You only needed to pay a negligible price to rent a new house for your use.
As long as you bowed and pledged your loyalty, you could obtain power…
It was foreseeable that once word spread throughout the world, Ye Qingxuan would become the common enemy of all the musicians in the world, the number one heretic in the world.
Simply no joke could be funnier.
The Grand Inquisitor of the Religious Court of Inquiry had become the biggest heretic…
It could almost be predicted that after the next ten years, musicians would be totally overflowing, and their status would fall from that resembling demigods at the moment
to the point of being like civil servants.
Anyone could have power.
As long as Ye Qingxuan was willing to give them power…
Ye Qingxuan who had grasped such authority would totally become their master, their leader, their… god!
After realizing it, the expressions of the four household heads of the Deva bloodline, who were initially grieving over the lose of the legacy of House Ye which had been passed down for millenniums, changed as well. Looking at the crystal Rubik’s Cube hanging high behind Ye Qingxuan, their fingers could not help but twitch slightly. They exchanged a look and their gazes changed.
The situation continued until Bai Heng, on the warship in the distance, withdrew his gaze.
“The less trouble the better.” With an odd smile, he said softly, “Our goal has been reached, we need not be involved too deeply, as for the rest… just let our Holy See worry about it.”
The projection of the Great Wall dissipated. In the grand melody of Yun Men Da Juan, the four household heads took the fragment of the Wheel of Balance and left in an instant.
In the sky, only the silent King of Red was left.
He looked down at Ye Qingxuan for a long time.
Ye Qingxuan also looked up at him.
“Why must you do so?” His voice was cold. “Ye Qingxuan, from the beginning to the end, I have never ill-treated you.”
“But you have connived in it, didn’t you?” Ye Qingxuan asked softly. “The bad, the ugly, the unsightly, the rotten, the collapsed, they are all the results of other people acting on their own, and have nothing to do with you, because all you have done was just remaining silent.
“You do want to make the world a better place, but you were blinded, manipulated, and could do nothing — So, the world has descended into the f*cking state it is today, in your hands.”
“You are no longer a child, Ye Qingxuan.” The King of Red opened his mouth, and his voice sounded like dozens of hoarse voices overlapping. “Don’t live in a fantasy. In order to maintain the world, necessary sacrifices are indispensable.
“Humans have paid a huge price to make up for the mistakes of the past, allowing the era of humans to survive and continue. We cannot let humanity destroy itself again. “
“Isn’t it the outcome that humans deserve?” Ye Qingxuan asked back coldly. “Let human beings judge themselves. If the outcome is destruction, then destruction it shall be. Why should they linger on with their last breath like what they are doing now?
“Let the things that deserve to die die. Remaining in the world in such an abhorrent manner does no one any good. Why bother to keep the world in an iron cage on a stroller? “
So, the King of Red asked solemnly, “— So, Ye Qingxuan, are you going to be our enemy?”
“If you want to stop me, then I will be your enemy.” Ye Qingxuan looked at him, his expression indifferent. “I will change the world completely, starting from the musicians, from this point onwards, from now onwards. Your Holiness, a new era will arrive, such is the vow I made to the Originator!”
He paused and declared solemnly, “Let what belongs to human beings return to human beings, and let what belongs to the Originator return to the Originator!”
A rumbling thunder abruptly burst forth, tearing the silence apart and also making the face of the King of Red turn colder.
“Very good, Ye Qingxuan.” He withdrew his gaze. “From now on, the Holy City is your enemy.”
Seemingly not wanting to stay for too long, he took the fragment of the Wheel of Balance with him and left in displeasure. Meanwhile, a long sigh sounded from the wind tunnel in the distance, and the power of the King of Blue disappeared.
The sea and the skies fell into a silence.
Except for a guy who failed to see the gravity of the situation applauding in excitement.
“It is great, my junior.” Charles went over to him, not at all shy, draping an arm around his shoulder. “You were just too stylish just now, for real! As your senior, I support you!”
As if he did not see Charles at all. Ye Qingxuan lifted his head and looked at Paganini not far away.
“Paganini, first of all, congratulations on finding a good organization to accept you after leaving the abyss.” He said unceremoniously, “Now, can you please go to wherever you are supposed to be, and give us some time to catch up with each other?”
Paganini didn’t care about Ye Qingxuan’s scornful tone at all. He just smiled and glanced at Charles beside Ye Qingxuan. Then, his figure turned into a stream of light and flew toward the Caucasus.
The world returned to silence.
Ye Qingxuan looked up, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. He turned back and looked at Charles, smiling. “Do you have any cigarettes?”
“Eh? Yes, I brought a packet along, hang on…” Charles looked down and fished around in his pockets, but then he saw the shadow of Ye Qingxuan in front of him move, as if he had lifted something. Then, it was abruptly slammed down.
Bang!
I’ll whack your damn head off!
An expressionless Ye Qingxuan lifted the big stick formed with Firebird in his hand and smashed it towards Charles’ goddamn head, one blow after another. The sound of bones breaking rang out continuously.
It wasn’t until Charles’ breathing turned weak that he stopped. Charles, with his head broken and bleeding profusely, lifted his head and looked at Ye Qingxuan with an ingratiating look. “Junior, can we chat properly now?”
Ye Qingxuan sized the big stick covered in blood up, and frowned slightly. Soon, sharp spikes bulged out of the smooth big stick. Then, he continued whack
ing once more.
In the end, after Charles was battered to a pulp, he finally stopped.
It wasn’t that his anger had been vented completely.
It was that he had no more strength.
After so many years, his physical strength had always been his shortcoming, making him feel even more displeased. He kicked the pile of meat on the ground. “Get up, for whom are you playing dead?”
In the crisp sound of bones growing, Charles picked himself up again, wiped off the blood on his face, and set his crooked head right once more. The familiar bitchy smirk on his face made Ye Qingxuan feel like beating him some more.
“Junior, chill, chill.” Charles draped an arm around Ye Qingxuan’s shoulder and pleaded, “It’s all my fault, I’m sorry for what I’ve done to you.”
Ye Qingxuan took a deep breath, suppressed the anger in his heart, and threw the big stick of Firebird to the side. He turned back and looked at Charles. “Have you had enough fun? If so, go back to Anglo with me.”
Charles’ expression turned helpless. He looked down and avoided Ye Qingxuan’s eyes.
Ye Qingxuan reached out and pressed a hand on his shoulder. “Senior, come help me, okay? Together we can save our teacher from that goddamn place in the Sacred City, all of you can attend my wedding together, and you shall be the chief witness at my wedding.”
“I’m so sorry, Little Yezi.” Charles forced out a smile. “I’ve found a new job that suffices to get by, so I won’t give you more trouble.”
“Job? Sweating your guts out for Gaius, that *sshole?” Ye Qingxuan frowned and raised his voice. “You still haven’t had enough of him using you? You still want to continue acting as the son of god for him, continue being his signboard?”
“Don’t put it so uglily.” Charles scratched his head awkwardly. “I’m also very powerful now, fighting against a catastrophe is just a stroll in the park. Although the title of the son of god is a result of boasting, many still need me after all… Little Yezi, if I don’t do anything for them, they will die. Also, Mr. Constantine is not as bad as you think.”