Silent Crown - Chapter 491

Chapter 491: A New Era

 

“Another one?”

The ten people soon saw the light of the Chun Jun sword, and one recognized the fluctuation of the light and knew it was Changqing Yuan.

“In just a decade, you have already managed to disembody and appear as a soul?”

There was a laughing sound. “I never thought you could make such a good use of the soul fleeing swordsmanship and reach this level. I think you could even cut off a person’s head with a sword while you were a thousand miles away.”

“Mr. Liu Si?”

The vague figure of Changqing Yuan did the fist and palm salute and said, “We haven’t seen each other for a long time!”

Liu Si smiled and didn’t reply.

The ten people all belonged to the Nine Families of the Dragon Bloodline. Qingshu Yunlou who was sitting in the VIP seat, and Changqing Yuan and Liu Si came with the form of a Phantom Beast.

The Liu family was famous for their summoning sect.

However, they were truly talented at building legendary ghosts.

The shapeless legendary ghost was more difficult to control than the evil spirit or demon that had physical form, since a demon was alive, while a ghost was dead already.

Among the Nine Families of the Dragon Bloodline, only the Liu Family was able to gather the negative energy and keep the ghost. At the same time, the Liu Family was also the most unpopular family, since they spent all day around coffins or in tombs to sense the death. Besides, they usually slept with the skeleton in the tomb. In a word, they lived with the dead all year around.

It was said that the Liu’s definitely prefered to talk with the dead.

Wherever a Liu went, he was accompanied by a terrifying headless ghost, or other similar ghosts. Moreover, wherever an elite of the Liu Family traveled, he would be accompanied by hundreds of ghosts and ghost soldiers.

If a man who had been infected with Bestiality came across these ghosts, he would suffer a serious illness. A weak man would probably become ill and lie in bed ever after.

Besides, all the Liu’s were rather grumpy and hard to be friends with. Even if they also had the blood of Deva, everyone still kept them at arm’s length.

Liu Si was the representative of the Liu Family. He had transferred his mind into a ghost that had become a Phantom Beast. The beast was giving out negative energy and poisonous gas, and if not for its restraint, the people around would probably have been choked with terror and turned into a mess.

Changqing Yuan didn’t care why Liu Si had come, since he just came here to have a look.

Maybe everyone who came here also just wanted to have a look.

People in the city sensed the presence of those Holy Spirits in the air, and gave their greetings by giving out some energy.

There were many people in the Sacred City, and the whole city was chaotic and bustling. Meanwhile, in the air, it was also bustling, but when an ordinary stared at the sky, he could see nothing.

In the Central Holy Temple, someone observing the sky found that there were at least ten sun-ish objects wandering around.

When a person reached the level of Scepter, he became immortal. If he wanted to continue to live in the human world, he had to gradually turn his body into Aether organs; moreover, he even needed to go through various transformations and put his mind into an object.

Each school had their own way of doing this. One school might have done better in this regard, but the result was the same: putting the mind into an object.

All the powerful men in the air had Aetherized themselves and come in the form of invisible Holy Spirits. To show that they came with no intention of fighting, they didn’t transfer too much energy into their Holy Spirits. Most of them just put their mind into various Alchemy equipment to watch this holy city.

Apart from humans, all the other peculiar creatures in the Aether world were also looking forward to this grand meeting.

For example, the huge whale that usually swam in the clouds, the stone bird that could speak the human language, the eye in the form of fire, and so on.

Some peculiar creatures were even sitting in the VIP seating.

In the first rank of the VIP seating was a figure with a human’s body and the head of a rabbit. It was surrounded by fog and it was speaking the lingua franca with the people around it, obviously enjoying its time.

It came from a peculiar race of the Aether world. The members of this race often appeared in the form of businessmen in the physical world, where they liked to sell the strange products of the Aether world to humans.

It was said that many people had come across shops in the wilderness that sold rare and strange objects. When a person bought a box and returned home to open it, he would immediately grow a few decades older. Another person who bought a broken bowl returned home and poured some water into the bowl, and discovered that the water suddenly turned into gold sand. The bizarre stories surrounded the peculiar race.

Technically, a member of this peculiar race couldn’t be called a “creature,” instead, they were more like a mountain or water spirit. Their logic and thought processes were very different from a human’s, so it was very difficult for them to have a smooth conversation with a human.

However, the objects they dug out of the soil in the Aether world were very important to musicians. Whenever a musician wanted to explore the Aether world, he would have to hire a member of the peculiar race to be his guide.

The figure with a human body and a rabbit head was one of the leaders of their businessmen.

The peculiar race had very good trade relations with this holy city, and since a new pope was going to ascend to throne, their representative was invited to this grand meeting.

This time, the enthronization ceremony was very different. It was very hurried, and the organizer had simply sent messages to other countries, then opened the ceremony before those countries’ envoys arrived.

The leaders of these countries felt that something bad was going to happen.

Ludovic represented the radicals in this holy city. He suggested that the holy city, not the ridiculous parliament, should rule the other countries. Ludovic was going to become the pope of the holy city, which meant that a new game was on.

The former pope had worked very hard to mediate the conflicts between the holy city and the other countries. Now that Ludovic had become the new pope, the conflicts were sure to intensify.

However, Ludovic didn’t care which direction the human world would be heading or what system the human society would adopt. In fact, the mortal world meant nothing to a God or to Ludovic, who was just an incarnation of his own personality.

In the sacred hall, Ludovic was sitting in front of a mirror and watching his reflection.

He was dressed in a white ferraiolone and wore a thorn garland on his head. Verses of the Holy Bible were written with blue and golden string in the corner of his ferraiolone. He looked very noble, elegant, and magnificent.

“Do I look very holy?” Ludovic suddenly asked.

“Yes, Sancta Sedes.”

The attendant who was making him look more presentable said, “The divinity is the crown of Sancta Sedes.”

Hearing this, Ludovic shook his head and said, “You are mistaken. Although the divinity is created by humanity, it never really belongs to humanity.”

He got up from his seat and left the hall.

Numerous faithful followers were standing outside and cheering like crazy. They looked up at Ludovic who was standing on the stairs, tears rolling from their eyes. They all knelt on the ground and saluted Ludovic.

The bell in the clock tower of the Palace of Pope was ringing, and the Holy Choirs were singing the anthem, so loudly that everyone in the city could hear.

The spice in the hollowed-out gold ball was burning, the fragrant smell rising with the wafting smoke.

Two priests held the gold ball which hung from a silver chain. They were leading Ludovic to the utmost sacred hall.

Soldiers stood on both sides of the street. Behind them stood countless followers. They knelt on the ground, worshipping Ludovic.

An ordinary priest walked out from the crowd. After he showed his identity, he walked directly towards Ludovic.

He reported to Ludovic in a very low voice, “Something went wrong.”

“What?” Ludovic asked while happily waving to his followers.

“Samuel was injured in the underground palace last night,” the priest replied. “Somehow, Ye Qingxuan freed himself from the shackles and held Samuel under duress. He almost arrived at the third floor.”

“Then?”

“We finally managed to catch him, but we have lost four masters.”

The priest looked a bit worried and continued, “We have locked him in the bottom of the underground palace. Three masters of the School of Abstinence made an enchantment from which he can never escape.”

“Don’t worry, it’s not your fault.” Ludovic sighed with emotion. “After all, he is the son of Ye Lanzhou. It seems that he was not as tough as I thought; in fact, I am a bit disappointed by this. Maybe I am expecting too much from him? Anyway, he won’t cause any more trouble.”

The priest anxiously said, “He is trying to break the enchantment. We don’t dare to kill him, and we have no idea what we should do with him.”

“He is just behaving like a child.” Ludovic smiled and said, “Bring that young girl to him. He will behave himself when he has company.”

Hearing this, the priest hesitated briefly. Then he said, “But… Hermes once said that no one should ever touch that girl.”

“So what?” Ludovic looked coldly at the priest. “I am the new pope of this Sacred City, while he is just a little sh*t. Tell him that if he wants to stay in this city, he must follow the rules I make.”

“Yes.”

The priest retreated a few steps, then turned around and left.

The crowd was in high spirits. They all praised and worshipped Ludovic. From time to time, Ludovic would wave his hand to the followers and smile to them.

“May God bless, my dear child.” Ludovic reached out his hand and gently touched a child with no arms. He said to the child’s mother, “He was unfortunate, but now he has received the blessing of God, and he will become a defender of God in the future.”

“Thank you!” The parents of the child burst into tears and knelt on the ground, beginning to worship Ludovic.

Ludovic smiled, turned around, and walked to the center square, then he stepped onto the platform.

The Holy Choirs were still singing, and the bishops all lowered their heads and showed their loyalty to the new pope.

“He is the new pope then?” asked the figure that had a human body and a rabbit head, turning to Qingshu Yunlou.

“Yes he is.” Qingshu nodded. “What do you think of him?”

“I don’t know much about humanity or the rules in the human world,” it replied, “but I can feel he is different from the former pope, which makes me very worried.”

“Every pope has got his own characteristics,” Qingshu said. “I don’t think there is anything wrong with that.”

“Hope you are right,” the figure from the Aether world said, then stopped talking.

Ludovic took off his thorn garland and held the grand crown in his hands. There was a bit of bloodstain on the inside of the crown, and surprisingly, the crown even smelt a bit fragrant.

“I like this,” Ludovic murmured and smiled, then put the crown on his head.

The atmosphere was very solemn and filled with grandeur.

The followers began to scream with the utmost joy. Ludovic smiled and held his Scepter up high.

Everyone could see the two crossed keys on the scepter. One stood for the path to heaven, the other stood for the place that the soul belonged to.

Despite everyone’s expectations, the Enthronization ceremony went very smoothly. From now on, Ludovic would be the new pope.

Ludovic was standing on the platform and smiling to all his followers.

“Just a few days ago, we encountered a terrible crisis.”

“But now, we have managed to rise from the ashes like a phoenix. We now become as tough as iron.”

“Today, I become the new pope, but there is more than this…”

He smiled, holding up his scepter and saying rather seriously, “I, as the representative of the only God in this world, shall tell you and this world that a new era will come!”

Chapter 492: The Limitation of Ideas

 

“A new era.”

In a bar hazy with smoke, Albert held a bottle of beer in his hand and screamed, “The new era will soon arrive! People like us who belong to the old age don’t have the qualifications to sit in the boat that heads to the new era.”

“The huge wave of the new era is coming. My friends, let’s drink one more bottle before we are drowned!”

Albert took out a wad of bills and threw them into the air.

“Let’s drink more!”

People around him began to cheer when they realized they now had free beer, and some of them wondered how much money this weird old man had in his pocket.

Albert finally put the beer on the table and tears began to flow from his eyes. Maybe it was because of the smoke.

Bang!

The door opened. A heavily armed group came into the bar and kicked away the drunk men who were in their way. The priest who lead the army took out an arrest warrant.

“Albert archbishop. You are arrested for your neglect of duty, and having caused a huge loss for the Sacred City,” the priest said coldly. “Please come with us.”

“Oh?! You already come to catch me?” Albert shook his head with a drowsy look. “Just let me have one more drink, okay?”

Seeing Albert’s withered face, the priest sighed.

“Fine, but only one more drink.”

“One more drink will do.”

Albert laughed, held up a mug of beer, and started to drink. The beer flew out of the corner of his mouth and wet his beard.

It dropped on his chest like tears.

“Mr. Wagner, we shall leave now,” the priest said coldly, standing in front of Albert.

“I am too old now, can you help me with the luggage?”

Albert looked at the end of the street and didn’t see the old man he was waiting for. He sighed, “The old b*stard, he didn’t show up at last.”

It seemed that he thought something through. Then Albert sighed and decided to leave with the armed men.

“Fine, let’s go.”

He turned around and stepped onto the boat that was headed to the dark world.

He knew that there was a significant chance that he would never come back.

“It’s a new era now, and we should celebrate it, right?”

Ye Qingxuan listened to the sound coming from the Aether ball, and looked at the other side of the enchantment.

“How about some wine?”

No one answered back.

“Brother Zhiyi, why have you put on such an indifferent face?” He sighed.

Ye Qingxuan’s hands were tightly fixed to the wall and he could not move at all.

Half of his body was soaked in a dark purple liquid. The liquid continually absorbed his vitality. Ye Qingxuan was too weak to lift even a finger, and felt very dizzy and sleepy.

“Brother Zhiyi, your master Paganini is my very good friend, he will be very angry if he knows this.”

“Brother Zhiyi, are you male or female?” Ye Qingxuan asked in curiosity. “Although you are just a set of clothing, clothing should also have its own sex. You come with Paganini? I once saw Paganini performed in the ‘Dance of the Witch,’ and, well, at that time, I could not tell if Paganini was male or female. Could it be possible that you—”

“A brother is just like a man’s hands; beauty is like a man’s clothes.”

Ye Qingxuan was silent for a while and said, “Since you are called the ‘clothes of original sin,’ not the ‘hands of original sin,’ so you should probably be a girl! Am I right?”

“Ye Qingxuan…”

A hoarse voice came from the darkness. “There are many means of torture in this world, and if you keep talking, I will make you suffer.”

“Alright, alright.”

Ye Qingxuan sighed. “We’d better change the subject. I should not have killed Samuel. How was he?”

The clothes of original sin sneered and said, “Almost two-thirds of his body was burnt by you. How can you be so shameless as to ask about this? He is still soaking in the blood pool and wants to kill you… I should make you accompany him.”

“I never thought you would come to the Sacred City.”

Ye Qingxuan sighed. “Earlier, I made the third floor, but you appeared and put me in the bottom of the underground palace… Why get involved in this damn business? I should have realized this would happen. You must have been staying in this underground palace for a long time, right?”

Hearing this, the clothes of original sin sneered but gave no reply.

Ye Qingxuan whistled. He didn’t give a sh*t whether the clothes of original sin replied or not.

Since the last war of Auschwitz, the musician group “Perishing Praise” had been hiding in the Sacred City.

They inherited the music theory of “Channeling Change,” and were very good at disguise. Some of them had managed to make connections with people in the higher class in the Sacred City, and had helped their peers.

Since Paganini himself was too important, it was not easy for him to avoid being recognized by people, while it was very easy for the members of the musician group to disguise themselves and work under Ludovic.

Paganini was still recovering, and Ye Qingxuan never thought that the clothes of original sin could have already recovered its strength and even grown much stronger.

It seems that Paganini was greatly inspired by the fight between him and the Gate of Heaven.

“Hey! Brother Zhiyi.” Ye Qingxuan was feeling very bored and asked again, “How is your master doing, recently?”

The clothes of original sin sneered and looked at Ye Qingxuan in a terrifying way. “My master has been missing you very much, and if there is a chance, he will want to meet you in the abyss.”

“I do not want to meet with him.” Ye Qingxuan shook his head. “We shall never see each other again.”

The clothes of original sin laughed and said, “It is not up to you.”

Ye Qingxuan became silent for a long while, then said, “Hey, Brother Zhiyi, I have a question for you. I sincerely hope that you can give me an answer; it will be very nice of you to do so.”

The clothes of original sin sneered and didn’t reply to Ye Qingxuan. Ye Qingxuan didn’t care about its cold face at all, so he laughed and asked, “Technically, you are not even human, right?”

Hearing this, the clothes of original sin grew very gloomy. It looked at Ye Qingxuan and found that his face was very sincere and serious.

It frowned and said, “So what?”

“Sorry, I do not mean to laugh at you,” Ye Qingxuan murmured. “If we look at this in a different way, it may be a good thing. I mean, my way of thinking may be limited, while yours is not.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Ye Qingxuan answered, “as a piece of clothing, you do not care about people’s lives, right?”

“Yes, you are right.”

“Beautiful, ugly, rich or poor all mean nothing to you, right?”

The clothes of original sin nodded.

“As a piece of clothing, your owner could not be called a mortal, which means that if you won’t even come to the physical world if you don’t feel it necessary, am I right?”

“As a divine weapon, you won’t give a sh*t about the ordinary clothing of a mortal, right? No matter if they were made of cloth, iron, or silk, and you can’t find anything valuable in them, can you?”

“…”

The clothes of original sin was confused by his words and asked, “What on earth do you mean?”

“I mean…” Ye Qingxuan was clearing his mind and trying to speak logically. “One day, if you go to great pains to hide yourself in a pile of ordinary clothes… can you tell me what would be your purpose of doing so?’

The clothes of original sin said without thinking, “I would do it only if my owner asked me to do so.”

“What if you didn’t have an owner?” Ye Qingxuan chipped in.

“…”

Ye Qingxuan had confused it. It could not understand what “not having an owner” really meant, and besides, it had never thought about what it would be like to be without an owner.

In its mind, it was impossible that it would be alone.

Ye Qingxuan became very confused and excited. He then said, “A divine weapon won’t ask for anything from any clothes. When you see a coat sewn with blue and golden silk thread, or a piece of armor, or a pair of underpants, you won’t feel jealous… You are so very different from those clothes and there is no need for you to hide in them, unless… unless…”

Ye Qingxuan was suddenly in a daze.

“Unless…”

Seeing this, the clothes of original sin frowned and became alert, “What are you murmuring to yourself? Unless what?”

“Unless… hahaha…”

Suddenly, in Ye Qingxuan’s head, it all came together.

He became very excited. If he was not fixed to the wall, he would definitely have danced.

He was staring at the clothes of original sin and said, “Unless you would hide yourself in a pile of ordinary clothes to find another divine weapon! Am I right? As a divine weapon yourself, it is only possible that you would take great pains to find another divine weapon… I see, I see!”

Ye Qingxuan was becoming manically excited, as if he was crazy. He murmured, “I was wrong earlier. Well, I am a human, so my way of thinking is limited… even if Ludovic becomes the new pope, still, it means nothing to Hyakume. I thought he only wanted to get the Holy Ax, but I was wrong, since the Holy Ax is just a symbol to commemorate the event of humanity’s changing the Originator. What Ludovic wants is probably the thing hidden behind the Holy Ax!”

Hearing this, the clothes of sin became gloomy and said, “Ye Qingxuan, what on earth are you talking about?”

“I mean Ludovic, no, the real body of the former Dark Pope—Master Hyakume, his real purpose. He wants to master everything humanity has written into the Originator via the Holy Ax and the rule of music theory set by the musicians of the seven systems. So he can avoid the suppression of ‘Quiet Moon,’ and merge himself with the sheer void! Then he would become the only God who truly mastered the Originator!”

Chapter 493: Resurgence

 

In the dark palace, the dim flame lit the face of a broken statue of a saint. The statue was covered with moss, and small cracks crawled all over it. It held a torch in its hand and gazed into the darkness.

In the huge palace, the green air moved like a snake. Accompanied by a scary melody, the green air expanded and shrank, again and again. Every time the air shrank, someone in the darkness screamed with pain. In the depths of the palace, a few people moaned and cursed.

“Ludovic, how dare you usurp the Pope?!”

“Black musician… as the Cardinal, how dare you collude with the Black musician?! You have infuriated God! You will soon be burnt to death by God!”

“Lord Ludovic, I give in, I would do anything for you…” Before he finished his sentence, he suddenly screamed in extreme pain. Crack! A bone was broken.

A man said with a hoarse voice, “Ludovic, you can kill us if you want! Even if you are the new Pope now, the sacred Palace of Sarroman will never be blasphemed by you! The glory of the Sacred City that has existed for thousands of years will never be tarnished by you either!” Meanwhile, a holy light appeared in the poisonous green air and was soon devoured by the sheer darkness.

In the darkness, these people were being chewed, their blood splashed onto the face of the statue, and soon the face of the statue was covered with red blood.

Finally, silence reclaimed the palace.

The green air began to wriggle and gather together, then turned into a shred of fluorescent light and went back into a skull-made wine glass.

An old and withered musician held up the glass and smirked. He turned around and said, “My Lord, they have died.”

A group of priests walked into the darkness and stopped next to the torch. They wore the sacred ferraiolone and scary beak-shaped masks on their faces.

When the green air finally dispersed, Ludovic took off his mask. He stood next to the corpses and looked at them coldly.

“They are such idiots! Why there are so many of them?”

No one answered.

Ludovic held the scepter in his hand and walked to the bottom floor of the underground palace. In front of him, there was a bronze door. He stopped and stared at the terrifying relievo on the door.

There were three bronze statues of ugly sinners on the huge door. Their necks were shackled and their faces were twisted as if they were in great pain. The relievo looked both scary and magnificent. It consisted of hundreds of bronze statues. It was a scene of hell; they were suffering in hell, and the light of heaven was shining upon them. They desperately looked up to the man who was shining and surrounded by numerous angels.

This door was the door of hell and redemption.

Ludovic reached out his hand and touched the faces of the bronze statues of ugly sinners. Then he showed his sympathy and smiled.

The holy Sarroman temple was a forbidden area that only the Pope could step into, and the Holy Ax was sealed in this place. Besides, only the King of Red knew about this place, and only he could reign over it.

“Nibelungenlied,” Ludovic said.

“Pope, what can I do for you?” A sound came from the roof.

“Nothing in particular, I just want to show you my gratitude.” Ludovic stared at the Three-inch Void in front of him and solidly said, “The holy temple of Sarroman is hidden in the deepest part of the Sacred City. If it were not for your guidance, I could never manage to cross the ‘Minotaos road.’”

“It is my duty to lead the Pope.”

“So you regard me as the new Pope?” Ludovic smiled. “You are funny. So many people consider me a usurper, while you, a catastrophe, regard me as the new Pope.”

“For me, a Pope is a Pope,” Nibelungenlied replied. “I made an agreement with humanity, and my duty is to record their stories. In my view, a Pope is just the same as everyone else. Since you have been elected to be the new Pope in the Sixtinum conference, you are the official new Pope, and after you drink the sacred blood, you will become the new King of Red.”

“You have no stance on this issue?” Ludovic joked. “I never thought a catastrophe would be someone without their own stance.”

“As a recorder, I am not allowed to have a stance; otherwise, my records would be biased,” Nibelungenlied said. “‘Three Wise Men’ coexist with humanity, and they have their own personalities and ways of life. I am neither a leader nor a mentor, I am simply a witness. It is my duty to record the happenings and stories, and I won’t stop anyone from reading these stories or try to rewrite them. If you think I have bad intentions, you can choose not to believe me.”

Hearing this, Ludovic laughed and said, “Nibelungenlied, you really think you know everything?”

“Not now,” Nibelungenlied replied, “but as long as I continue to witness, record, observe, one day I believe I will be able to know everything.”

“I think it is impossible, but still I hope you can turn it into reality one day.”

Ludovic waved his hand and Nibelungenlied stopped talking.

The palace became quiet again.

“Finally, it is going to begin,” Ludovic murmured, while staring at the huge door in front of him.

The light was dim in the palace. His followers all gently backed off and knelt. Ludovic walked forward, held up his scepter, and read out the spell to open the door.

“The mortal shall all die at last.”

Bang!

As soon as the scepter was put into the hole in the ground, the whole plaza began to shake. On the ground, countless bronze rings began to rotate, and the gears hidden beneath revealed themselves. The gears rotated quickly and collided with each other. Numerous sparks appeared, and the gears kept running against each other and created a magnificent power.

This magnificent power was created by the collision between the gears made of iron and bronze. It surpassed the physical material, life and the death. The force was unimaginable. The power permeated the sheer darkness and created the sound of a dragon, and at the same time, the fire was lit and the iron melted.

A tornado appeared, and in the next moment, the Door of Hell opened.

Ye Qingxuan woke up in great pain. He raised his head and looked at his hands.

Both of his hands were nailed to the iron wall, the silver nails covered with his blood. Sometimes, having a strong vitality was not a good thing at all. Although his wounds had recovered, once he made a move, he would suffer great pain.

A man walked out of the darkness.

“I never thought you could recover in such a short time,” the man said.

The clothes of original sin glanced at Samuel who stood outside of the cage.

In the dim light, Ye Qingxuan found that the man was actually Samuel.

Samuel was wearing a red robe which covered the lower part of his body. The left side of his head was gone, and his face was full of hatred and insanity.

“Open the cage,” Samuel said with a hoarse voice. “I have just received a message from Lord Ludovic… everything is going as planned, so we don’t need to keep him alive anymore.”

“Then I will leave him to you,” the clothes of original sin said. “Please leave his brain as well as his consciousness to me; I will give them to my master, and he will be thankful to you.”

“No!” Samuel refused this request coldly. “I am going to cut him to pieces.”

Hearing this, the clothes of original sin were dazed. Before it could say anything, it heard a sound, as if an apple had fallen onto the ground.

It turned around and found that Ye Qingxuan’s head had been cut off.

Ye Qingxuan was wearing a surprised look on his face.

Ludovic walked in silence in the sheer darkness.

Beneath the Palace of Pope, which was located in the core of the Sacred City, there was the Holy Palace of Sarroman that had been heavily guarded and hidden behind the debris of the Aether world.

Even if the Door of Hell was opened, the Sacred Palace of Sarroman was still under the protection of countless enchantments and branch roads.

People knew the importance of the existence of the Holy Palace of Sarroman, so they did everything they could to protect it, set every trap they could think of to prevent others from coming near, and cleared all trace of its existence…

Even a God would get lost in this sheer darkness.

Ludovic’s scepter was shone, with its help, Ludovic walked straight forward and opened the doors one by one without being distracted by the illusions and light around him.

All the traps along the way lost their effect under the light given out by the scepter. Even so, anyone who cast his eyes on the traps would most certainly feel extremely frightened, as if he was walking on a steel wire stretched over an abyss.

At last, Ludovic arrived at the deepest part of the Aether world, and walked into a holy city.

He was surrounded by numerous stars. It was as bright and glorious as the Holy Heaven. The last door in front of him was also open, and on the other side of the door was an infinite dark space in which there was an ancient altar.

The Holy Ax was on the altar. With the shred of light, the ax produced the crystal clear holy blood.

Ludovic stared at the ax, his eyes sparkling with green light.

“The Holy Ax…”

The next moment, the smile on his face froze.

Ludovic heard someone coughing behind the altar.

It seemed that the man was suffering from a lung disease of some sort. He was coughing very hard, as if his heart and lungs were going to explode. Finally, he stopped coughing.

“I am so sorry about this. My health has been deteriorating these last few days.” A stooped old man walked slowly out from behind the altar. “My back hurts, especially… here…”

The old man pointed to the center of his back—which was supposed to be penetrated by a dagger—that was still intact.

The old man raised his head. With the help of the shred of light, Ludovic found that the old man was the former Pope.

He should be very dead by now. His body was burned to ashes and buried in the underground palace with all the other former Popes. All the other bishops saw it!

The former Pope, who should have been very dead by now, stood in front of the Holy Ax, watching and smiling at Ludovic, who was one of the black hands that killed him.

He was smiling in a rather bizarre way, his smile a mixture of happiness and mockery, which was really terrifying.

Everyone knew that the former Pope never laughed. The former Pope was famous for his indifference and impartiality.

“You must be very bewildered now, aren’t you?”

The former Pope sat on the stairs of the altar and mysteriously said, “As you have read from the Holy Bible…”

“I am back to life.”

Chapter 494: The Eternal Dark

 

“I am back to life.”

After hearing the former Pope’s declaration, Ludovic put on a poker face and coldly looked at him.

Resurgence?

Nonsense!

As a member of the cardinal church, Ludovic had already read many classified papers and knew that the so-called “resurgence” written in the Holy Bible was just bullsh*t.

If someone could be brought back to life, there would be no need to elect a new King of Red. Why not just let the first King of Red rule this world for eternity?

If someone wanted to make a dead person “alive” again, Ludovic knew many ways to do so.

People from the School of Modifications would do so by “rebuilding a human body.” By putting the basic elements, (iron, calcium, sodium, and kalium, for example), into water, they could make a perfect human body.

People from the School of Choir would do so via “proliferation of flesh.” With just a small piece of human flesh, they could create an intact human body.

People from the School of Magic would do so by turning an illusion into a reality; people from the School of Summoning would create a monster with a human body…

Of course, their way of doing so could never be called “resurgence,” or at least, not the perfect resurgence.

“I see, the one who died is actually your substitute?” Ludovic said. “I should have been more careful.”

The old keeper shook his head and said, “If there is a substitute, I should be the substitute, or to be more precise, I am the previous incarnation of the former Pope, but I am not the Pope, and neither are you.”

Hearing this, Ludovic sneered. “If you want to be the Pope again, at least do it like a man! I have known you for such a long time, but I still do not know how much strength you have. I will take this opportunity to test how capable you—the former King of Red—really are!”

Hearing this, the old keeper sighed deeply.

“There is no need. I am not the former King of Red. Why should I fight a human of the Hyakume? Please do me a favor and let me go! I promise I won’t take the seat of Pope from you.”

The old keeper shamelessly asked Ludovic to spare him. “You have already been elected in the Sixtinum conference. Everyone has seen you wearing the crown on your head and holding the scepter in your hand. You are the new Pope, aren’t you?”

The old keeper continued to say, “Although the Pope is just a title, or in other words, you become the new Pope after you wear the pope’s robe. Still, there is one last thing you have to do to become a real Pope.”

At the same time, the ground began to tremble and crack. Soon, the ground fell into pieces, and the machine operating beneath was revealed.

The iron and steel were rubbing against each other, and iron hammers were striking at the iron and steel-made floor. Beneath this floor, Ludovic saw the boiling lava. The machine was absorbing all the heat rising from the lava and operating very quickly.

A huge winch slowly rotated and lifted an iron coffin from the lava.

Since the coffin had absorbed a lot of heat, it turned red. When it landed on the floor, it didn’t give off any heat at all. In fact, something inside the coffin was absorbing the heat.

Ludovic looked at the Holy Ax and found that the crystal clear blood was gone.

At the same time, the coffin began to collapse.

Inside the coffin, there was a huge petri dish in which floated an iron and steel skeleton.

The Holy Blood poured into the petri dish. In the blink of an eye, it turned into numerous red crystals and stuck itself on the surface of the skeleton, covering it.

The red crystals became a layer of flesh.

The machine was making a deafening sound. The flesh was changing color, one moment the color of iron, the next moment it turned green or white. At last, it turned the color of human flesh.

Now what was inside the petri dish was a human body. Muscle, tendon, sinew, organs, skin, and hair, this body had everything.

Suddenly, the petri dish broke and the sticky liquid inside splashed around. The “man” finally opened his eyes and pulled up the long and sharp tube from the back of his head, then he threw it onto the ground.

Even his eyes looked like a human’s.

Surprisingly, his face looked exactly like Ludovic’s!

The old keeper was chewing nuts, then he coldly said, “You have changed?”

The new-born “Ludovic” nodded and looked at his palm: “I am feeling very good.”

At first, his voice was a bit hoarse, but soon, he began to speak fluently and his voice sounded exactly like Ludovic’s.

He glanced at the old keeper and said, “Your body is made of really bad material.”

“Even if that is true, I don’t think you should make that clear in front of my face!” The old keeper sighed. “Although my body doesn’t look good, after so many years, I have already gotten used to this body! Besides, without this body, how can you manage to go to the outside world? It is fine that you don’t say thank you to me, but you should not dislike my body! You are such a jerk!”

Ludovic was speechless.

Seeing this, the old keeper shook his head and sighed. “The process of copying the real Ludovic’s personality is still on? Or you have not got any sense of humor?”

The new-born Ludovic didn’t answer the old keeper. Instead, he turned to the real Ludovic, who was wearing a gloomy face and holding the scepter in his hand.

“Now you can give the scepter back to me,” he said.

“I see.” The real Ludovic looked at him coldly and said, “You are dead, right? You are not even a living thing, you just look like a human. I never thought that all the former Popes were just a bunch of puppets!”

The real Ludovic stared at the old keeper and said mockingly, “I never thought the purpose of holding the Sixtinum Conference was just to find a new body for this damn thing! How about the individuality you have all been so proud of? Does this damn thing also get his own individuality?”

“You call me ‘damn thing’? It seems that you have not recognized me yet,” the ‘Ludovic’ said. “How disappointing! Ludovic, you have just mocked me and said I have not got my own stance.”

“You are Nibelungenlied?”

The old keeper shook his head and said, “No, he is the ‘King of Red.’”

The dim light in the altar began to expand, and soon lit the whole palace as well as the wall behind the altar.

The real Ludovic looked at the wall and found that sixteen crystal boxes were engraved into the wall.

The boxes were filled with liquid that was shining a strange color. Inside each crystal box, there was a brain.

The brains were still working. Some of the brains had withered a bit, but they still looked very fresh.

The strains were twining around the brains, connecting with the brains’ consciousness. If looked at from a distance, they looked like grass.

The strains stretched out of the crystal boxes and intertwined with each other and extended to the Alchemy Array. Along the array, they reached to the deepest part of the underground palace and connected with countless brains there.

Every month, some brains would be picked out to become part of the system of the Alchemy Array. Hence, the dead could be reborn in the underground palace, the “world of the dead.”

“See? This is the real Nibelungenlied.” The old keeper gently touched the crystal boxes and murmured, “This is the ‘world of the dead’ beneath the Sacred City.”

“You guys…” Ludovic was so angry that even his face turned blue. He clenched his teeth and said, “You guys dedicated yourselves to Nibelungenlied?”

“No, you are wrong. We coexist with Nibelungenlied.” The new-born Ludovic stared at the fragile strains and said, “Among the three saints, the real body of Nibelungenlied is just a parasite that is similar to the strain. Its consciousness is too weak to exist and can only exist with the help of a human.”

“The first King of Red made an agreement with it and integrated part of his brain into Nibelungenlied’s consciousness. The strains of Nibelungenlied remained alive by absorbing nutrition from the brains, and at the same time, they also helped to keep these former Popes’ consciousness working, and connected all their brains together.”

In this way, humanity was able to inherit the scary secrets of the ancient dark era and fight against the catastrophe.

With the help of all the former Popes, the consciousness of Nibelungenlied grew so large that a human could never compete with it. Now it had become the foundation of the Sacred City and the human world.

When a cardinal was elected as the new Pope in the Sixtinum Conference, he would come to this place and became the new “keeper” of the altar ever after.

When the new successor came, he would integrate part of his brain into the consciousness of Nibelungenlied, just like so many of his predecessors had in the past.

From the outside, what people saw was just the huge system of the church supported by the artificial intelligence “Catastrophe ·Nibelungenlied.” This system was also a financial system based on the “Black Gold,” and under this system, capital could flow freely between the Sacred City and other countries.

The “beacon” was the eyes of the system, which helped to monitor all the happenings in the world. The artificial intelligence that was made up of countless brains helped the cardinal group to maintain the stability and balance of the world.

Just like Ludovic had been told, the “Catastrophe Nibelungenlied” had been recording and witnessing all the happenings in this world, and this was just one of its duties.

In fact, the sixteen brains of the former Popes were the real boss that controlled everything.

With Nibelungenlied as the center, the dead, the living, the saints, the humans, and the catastrophe were all integrated into a whole.

In front of the altar, the puppet, or the “Pope” unfolded his hands and began to speak in the tone of a Pope.

“Ludovic, what you have seen is the real King of Red, which is a combination of all the sixteen former Popes!”

Next to the Pope stood the old keeper. He sighed and glanced at Ludovic and said, “Thanks to you, I now become the seventeenth… as for you, you will have to wait another thirty years, so you can join us in the crystal box.”

Ludovic didn’t answer him, he just stared coldly at the Pope and the old keeper in front of him and began to sneer.

“Humanity’s little tricks never fail to surprise me.”

“Just give in, there is no need to put on a show at this moment.” The old keeper looked at Ludovic and shook his head. “You have already lost. If I were you, I would say ‘this is impossible!’ Don’t you think it would be more appropriate in this situation?”

“Lost?” Ludovic sneered and dropped his scepter onto the ground. “You are wrong. You are the one who has lost!”

Bang!

Ludovic’s body cracked, and soon the crack crawled all over his body. He didn’t look like a human at all, instead he just looked like porcelain that was going to fall into pieces. There was no blood nehind the crack, only the infinite dark that led to the abyss.

Dark flame came from the cracks. Both his face and clothes were burnt, and his real appearance was revealed.

On Ludovic’s head rested a three-layer crown that had a dark purple gemstone on it. In his hand, there was a scepter. The scepter was made of bone, and there was a holy bone emblem on the end of it. Now the emblem had turned red.

Ludovic was wearing a pure dark robe that was decorated with silver lines. On his robe, there was a scene of hell.

When his flesh was all burnt, his bone revealed. His bones looked very solemn and were decorated with black gold, agate, and amber.

A black fog was swirling on his face, and it looked rather dark and holy.

He still looked like a Pope, a gloomy and bizarre Pope. He was the former “Dark Pope!”

At the same time, the whole Holy Palace of Sarroman was engulfed by the air of the abyss.

“Seriously? This is what you want?” The old keeper wiped away the sweat on his forehead and glanced at the Pope in front of him. “I will leave him to you then!”

Then, he quickly grasped the scepter on the ground, fell into the crack in the ground, and vanished.

“Now, let’s begin,” the former Dark Pope said.

His voice was very loud and echoed in the world.

His hoarse but solemn and magnificent voice could be heard everywhere in the Sacred City. Moreover, his voice quickly spread to the wilderness in all directions.

From the Permafrost Land in the north to the infinitive sea in the west; from the burning desert in the south to the tens of thousands of mountains in the east; his voice even reached to the dark world and the Aether world…

People in Asgard, Anglo, Burgundy, the Commonwealth of Caucasus, and the Empire of Aurora could all hear the sound; all of humanity, no matter if they were awake or asleep, old or young, man or woman, could all hear his sound.

The infinite darkness soon erupted from the abyss that was at the bottom of the Aether world. Meanwhile, the magnificent ring echoed in the abyss.

Hearing this sound, all the musicians were shocked. They felt like the whole Sea of Aether was boiling.

They had never seen such a scary scene before. In the Sea of Aether, countless waves were created and thousands of miles of wave crest were moving in all directions.

A violent storm blew across the sea and created countless tornados and hurricanes. Due to this, all the musicians lost the ability to practice the musical movements.

The ring was still echoing, and at the same time, the scary Aether wave began to rise from the wilderness.

The catastrophe had come!

In the central palace, sounds of alarm that no one had ever heard before were echoing.

The Silver Tide, the Holy White Storm, the Destructive Flame Rain, the Abaddon Locust Plague… the eight bizarre phenomena all appeared.

The silver Sea of Aether turned scarlet, numerous waves turned into the blood tide, which indicated the doomsday was coming.

Soon, ten burning suns appeared in the sky.

“They are coming! They are coming!” The observers in different countries yelled and screamed.

Hearing the ring of the Bell of Ruin, all the catastrophes in the forbidden area of the dark world woke up.

Following the sound of the bell, they came to the human world.

The beast of chaos, Bahamut, Eagle Wing Mother, the son of spider, Certus, the eyeless snake…

In just a few seconds, more than ten scary catastrophes had already woken up.

Even the Dark Gaia had showed herself again.

In the abyss, all the dark creatures cast their eyes to the physical world and stared at the Sacred City.

In the deepest part of the abyss, an extremely huge and scary figure opened its eyes.

One pair of eyes, two pairs of eyes, three pairs of eyes… countless eyes were blinking in the darkness. This was the body of Hyakume, and it was waking up!

“Your golden era is over!” it said, via the incarnation of the former Dark Pope. Everyone heard its hoarse sound, which was so loud that their souls were shaken. Accompanied with the ring, it seemed that everything was going to be devoured by the abyss.

“From now on! The eternal dark shall befall!”

Chapter 495: You Are Asking For Trouble

 

“Does this mean that the Dark World has declared war with humans?”

The ring was still echoing.

Ye Qingxuan was sitting on the bloody stairs. He took a blood-soaked cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

He sighed. “Hyakume, you are asking for trouble…”

Half an hour ago, Ye Qingxuan was decapitated. His head fell onto the ground with a loud thwop.

Samuel crawled onto Ye Qingxuan and sucked his blood as if insane. Although Ye Qingxuan’s blood was burning him, he didn’t stop.

The former Master had changed into a blood-sucking monster, and soon, he managed to tear Ye Qingxuan into pieces.

When the clothes of original sin collected itself, it found Samuel chewing on Ye Qingxuan’s corpse.

Seeing this, the clothes of original sin could not help sighing. “What a pity.”

Ye Qingxuan’s broken hand was still nailed to the wall. The clothes of original sin looked at the hand and recalled what Paganini had said to it.

“Ye Qingxuan always holds his ground, and he has good character. Even if he is our enemy, still, I perceive him as a genius. I am so glad to have him as my enemy.”

“Once you are in the Sacred City, if you have the opportunity, please to catch him alive. After we transform him, he will be as strong as I am in just a few decades.”

However, Ye Qingxuan had died just before.

The clothes of original sin was made by Paganini himself, and naturally, it also had the same personality and music theory as Paganini did.

The clothes of original sin was very angry after Samuel simply neglected its existence; at the same time, it also felt a bit sad. “The Ye Family is really powerful! Now that both Ye Lanzhou and his son are dead, I am afraid that the ‘seal of moonlight’ will soon become just another part of history!”

Then, it was drawn by the blood dropping from the broken hand.

The hand began to tremble mildly, blood oozing out of the puncture in the center of the palm and flowing along the creases in the skin.

It was just like a blossoming scarlet flower that looked strangely beautiful.

Suddenly, the clothes of original sin felt a bit bewildered and realized something was wrong.

However, it was already too late.

It found that it could not move at all, and the music theory inside its body began to work very slowly, as if it was a machine that had rusted. It felt that its mind had been frozen and could no longer react.

“Is this the music theory of Mind? Or have I been implanted with some sort of hint? If so, when and where did this happen?”

A scarlet rose grew from the blood oozing out of the broken hand, and in the blink of an eye, the rose blossomed and grew larger and larger. At last, the clothes of original sin was devoured by the rose.

“Go to sleep, go to sleep,” Ye Qingxuan murmured in the clothes of original sin’s ear. “You have been living in this world for such a long time, and you do not even have a woman’s dress of your own. How pathetic this is! If I were you, I would go to sleep and never wake up. Don’t worry, when you fall asleep, I will burn some woman’s clothes in front of your grave. Tell me, which do you prefer? Stockings or lingerie?”

“F*ck!” the clothes of original sin was furious. It quickly activated the music theory inside its body without considering the consequences. Accompanied by the magnificent melody, its body started to shake heavily and revealed its original form. By doing this, it managed to get rid of the music theory of Mind that was forced upon it.

Bang!

The music theory of Channeling Change materialized and flew out of its body.

The music theory began to erode the surrounding Physical World and broke the illusion the clothes of original sin had seen earlier.

At that moment, Samuel, who was just devouring the corpse of Ye Qingxuan, disappeared. His body mutated and became a pool of sticky blood. In the blink of an eye, the clothes of original sin was shrouded by the blood.

Inside the sticky blood, the clothes of original sin was struggling to get out. Samuel activated his scepter and began to play the music movement of Fate. Accompanied by the music, the sticky blood absorbed all the energy of the clothes of original sin.

“Samuel, what are you doing?” the clothes of original sin shouted angrily.

Samuel smiled to him and said, “It is my duty to punish evil and to promote good!”

“Today!”

Someone was yelling, “Today!”

Suddenly, the disciples of Samuel all came into the room and started to smile at the clothes of original sin. Then they transferred their energy to Samuel via the “Blood of Element.”

With the help of his disciples, Samuel managed to imprison the clothes of original sin with full strength.

“Are you crazy? Samuel!” the clothes of original sin shouted. “Ludovic will not let you go!”

“Ludovic?” Samuel laughed. “He is just a short-sighted coward! He is not strong enough to be a threat to me! You have to know that what I serve and believe in is the orthodox!”

“Orthodox!” his disciples shouted together, looking very frenzied. It seemed that they all believed in what they had said just now.

Hearing this, the clothes of original sin became desperate, as if it had fallen into an ice cave.

These guys have all turned crazy! No! Their personalities and consciousnesses are also changed!

“Hey, you woke up!” Ye Qingxuan looked at the clothes of original sin and smiled to it in a very strange way. “You reacted much faster than I thought; you really deserve the title of ‘clothes of original sin.’ I think you must be very confused now, and you must be wondering when I brainwashed them, right? Beg me, if you beg me, I will tell you!”

The clothes of original sin sneered and angrily stared at Ye Qingxuan. “You will pay for this!”

“How can you say things like this? I haven’t done anything yet!” Ye Qingxuan smiled. He glanced at the slim figure wearing a gray robe and said, “Lola, do something to make it quiet. It is too noisy and annoying.”

Hearing this, the girl grinned and began to play the bone flute. Immediately, a frightening illusion appeared again.

Lola played twenty-four musical movements one by one, and the clothes of original sin had been dragged into the deepest illusion. The “goodnight” almost made it go crazy; the “frozen rain” nearly broke its heart; the “wet dreams” created many temptations that were hard for it to resist; the “white head” sapped all its strength; the “crow” made it see an ominous scene… at last, the “old musician” degraded its music theory to a lower level.

The energy of the clothes of original sin was continually being weakened. Soon, its energy dropped from the level of Peak Scepter to the level of Greenhand Scepter. If it were not an artifact that possessed Paganini’s powerful and systemized music theory, it would have already been weaker than a Master.

The clothes of original sin was shocked by this and wanted to know where Ye Qingxuan managed to find this powerful Master of illusions!

Compared with Ye Qingxuan’s flexible and unpredictable style, the twenty-four music movements made the clothes of original sin feel depressed and creepy.

For a Master of illusions, if his illusions were see-through, the effect of his illusion would be greatly weakened.

Throughout the ages, all the masters of illusion worked very hard to create an illusion that no one could see through.

However, even if the clothes of original sin knew clearly it had been trapped in the illusion created by this girl, it still could not escape. It seemed to have been trapped in a quagmire, and no matter how hard it tried, it was all futile. As time went by, it sank deeper and deeper into the quagmire.

Even worse, the clothes of original sin suddenly felt very cold, cold that it had never experienced before. Then it realized that it was being invaded by Ye Qingxuan’s music theory.

“Ye Qingxuan, what are you!” it shouted through clenched teeth.

This b*stard! How dare he invade my body and rewrite my music theory with his own, while I am sealed and trapped by this girl’s illusions!

Inside the sticky blood, a raging cloud of dark air was struggling to get out. Everytime it slammed against the sticky blood, the illusions and seal that held it would grip even more tightly.

Ye Qingxuan was standing right behind the sticky blood. Countless lines of moonlight extended from his ten fingers and connected themselves with the music theory of the clothes of original sin.

Paganini’s music theory of Channeling Change, contained inside the clothes of original sin, was being altered by Ye Qingxuan.

Ye Qingxuan wanted to completely rewrite its music theory and make it his own possession!

Earlier, when he rose up from the operating table and stabbed a silver knife into Samuel’s head, he had already known that he was trapped in Ludovic’s underground palace. He knew that even if he defeated Samuel, there were still many dangers waiting for him.

At that time, he gave up the idea of killing Ludovic, and instead he destroyed most of Samuel’s brian and drove him insane. Then he implanted a shred of his mind into Samuel’s brain.

Then he made a scene in the palace and was willingly caught by the clothes of original sin.

He knew he could not defeat it, so he stopped fighting back.

But before he was caught, he had managed to make a connection with Lola, who was hiding outside the Sacred City via his Heaven Ladder, and send his position to her as well.

With the help of her illusions and the information she got from Ye Qingxuan, as well as her bloodline of powerful blood musicians, she disguised herself as a disciple of Samuel and sneaked into the underground palace.

When she approached the severely injured Samuel, she finished the process of brainwashing Samuel and totally destroyed his remaining defenses.

After this, she brainwashed all Samuel’s disciples one by one.

In fact, the so-called Vampire Musicians were just a bunch of copycats of hydrargyrum. So it was very easy for her to deal with them.

She not only got the “blood of element,” but also implanted the purifying music movement into their bodies. When this business was done, she would give an order with her mind, and they would be burnt from the inside out and turned to ashes.

When Lola was young, she was surrounded by thugs, and had lived in the downtown of Avalon ever since. She was born a monster, and her moral values had all been twisted.

Her cruelty was really frightening.

She controlled Samuel’s disciples’ consciousness, changed their music theory, and devoured their bodies.

When she tried to get Ye Qingxuan out, he told her that he wanted to make the clothes of original sin his own possession.

You want to make the clothes of original sin your possession? You must be crazy! It is an artifact that has Paganini’s personality, and besides, it also has its own consciousness! Maybe I am too old now, so I can’t understand this young man’s audaciousness and crazy ideas.

Ye Qingxuan was attacking the clothes of original sin with the line of moonlight! He not only used the trick of “Nature Interference” of the Path of Domain, but also the trick of the “Path of Commandment.”

In the school of commandment, students of the Path of Domain majored in the construction of music theory and planning of domain, while the students of the Path of Commandment majored in counterspells and the destruction of music theory.

Earlier, Ye Qingxuan had been as strong as someone of the primary level, but now he had grown terrifyingly powerful.

The clothes of original sin had already guessed that he would grow much, much more powerful in a few months, but it never thought that in just ten hours, Ye Qingxuan would grow this strong!

Ten hours earlier, it could easily defeat Ye Qingxuan. However, now it could not even stop its own music theory being changed!

“This is impossible!” The clothes of original sin gritted its teeth and felt that its consciousness in its core was about to collapse. “In just ten f*cking hours, he has grown this strong!”

“There is no need to be so shocked,” Ye Qingxuan murmured. “Ten hours ago, only I was fighting with you.”

Suddenly, the music movement of Fate inside his body began to expand and grow more powerful. Its structure became much more complex and sophisticated, more magnificent.

Three minds that belonged to three different schools gathered in the music movement of Fate and resonated with each other, thus creating an infinitive energy.

The clothes of original sin heard someone talking next to its ears.

“Brother Zhiyi, goodbye!”

In the blink of an eye, the music theory of Channeling Change inside its body collapsed. Along the lines of moonlight, Ye Qingxuan’s music movement of Fate crawled into its body and began to erode and change its body.

The clothes of original sin started to shudder with silent screams.

It felt that it was back in the smelter where it was created, and an invisible iron hammer was striking it until it fell to pieces… then it felt like it was being rebuilt.

Its consciousness collapsed and its intelligence faded away.

The personality Paganini left in its core was wiped away. It was being rebuilt by the music movement of Mind.

The clothes of original sin lost.

Chapter 496: You Are Asking For…

 

Half an hour later, Ye Qingxuan sat on the stairs outside the basement. In front of him, there was a closed door.

He was in the Sforza Family’s underground palace. This palace was heavily guarded and well built. The door of the palace, of course, was also specially made as well. It was two meters thick and would not make any sound while being opened or closed. Besides, the wall was excellent soundproofing.

“How desolate this place is.”

Ye Qingxuan was sitting outside the door and smoking. He was not sure if there was someone screaming behind the door, since the sound of it was too weak.

He could only hear the sound of a flute echoing in the underground palace.

It was Lola who was playing the flute. All the guards in the underground palace had been bewitched by the sound of it. They stood in a line and walked out of the room.

Ye Qingxuan had no idea what was happening behind the door. He could see the sticky blood continually oozing out from beneath the door.

The blood flowed along the ground away from the door and down to the sewer.

Ye Qingxuan put out his cigarette and looked at himself.

Against the dim yellow light, he was wearing a strange long coat. This silver grey coat was made of some mysterious materials and had the same texture as silk and iron. Most importantly, Ye Qingxuan could change its form at will.

It would turn into armor, or a uniform of the Anglo Royal Music School, or a long robe of the east, or a corslet that shrouded Ye Qingxuan’s whole body.

In fact, this coat was the former clothes of original sin that had been transformed by Ye Qingxuan.

The clothes of original sin inherited the music theory of Channeling Change from Paganini, and had also received the scepter of “Dark Sky.” It specialized in simulating reality with music theory and suppressing enemies on a large scale.

Ye Qingxuan had managed to duplicate the “Governor Armor” inside the clothes of original sin’s body, and the “Sigh Sword” as well. Although the robe might have looked very ordinary, it actually worked better than gospel armor in defensive and auxiliary power.

In a word, for a musician, it was even better than gospel armor.

Ye Qingxuan had wiped the personality of Paganini from the clothes of original sin and degraded its level. Since he knew how powerful Paganini really was, he had also wiped out every mark Paganini had left on the clothes of original sin, even if he knew he would also cause the clothes of original sin to lose many powerful abilities.

Flowing out, forming, creating, and moving… now, apart from the already transformed music theory of Channeling Change and Ye Qingxuan’s music movement of Fate, there was nothing inside the clothes of original sin’s body.

In this way, Paganini could no longer take the clothes of original sin away from him. Ye Qingxuan could finally take as much time as he wanted to make good use of this divine object.

For the first time, Ye Qingxuan realized the great benefits a divine object could bring to a musician.

The Stone Sword was very powerful, and its tenacity and spirituality were even stronger than the clothes of original sin’s. But since it was the divine object of the Country of Anglo, it didn’t recognize Ye Qingxuan as its master.

Currently, both the tenacity and spirituality had not been activated, so Ye Qingxuan could not bring the Stone Sword into full play, and could only use it to frighten others.

In this situation, using the clothes of original sin as an auxiliary divine object could be of much help to him.

However, Ye Qingxuan was not a black musician, otherwise, he would upgrade himself to the level of a Scepter simply by integrating the clothes of original sin into his own music movement of sound of heart.

In the old times, in the Auschwitz, the clothes of original sin would change to a new host every time the “perishing praise” was played. Every black musician who had become its new host could reach the level of Scepter Musician.

The clothes of original sin had a strong simulation ability, and with the help of it, Ye Qingxuan managed to turn it into an exoskeleton that looked exactly like the gospel armor. Thus, he no longer needed to worry about lacking strength.

Ye Qingxuan’s Aether sensing had grown extremely powerful. When he was transforming the clothes of original sin, he found out how he could become a Master. There was a big chance that he would reach the level of Master in less than a month.

While half a month earlier, he just reached the Resonating level!

This has never happened before. If anyone knew about this, I would definitely be caught by people from different schools, then I would probably be cut to pieces and observed under a microscope.

Thinking of this, Ye Qingxuan sighed.

I received so much from Abraham when he died. All his knowledge, his experience, his interpretation of the Way of Deciphering, as well as all the music theories he had mastered as a Catastrophe Musician—they were all transferred to me via the perception thread.

Because Abraham had been sealed by the Aether, he could never reach the level of Master. Day after day, he worked so hard, and he finally reached to a level that few people could reach.

He had been waiting for this for decades, but he gave everything he had to me…

“How shameless I am!”

Ye Qingxuan cursed and forced himself to stop thinking about Abraham.

Ye Qingxuan realized that inside his body, the music movement of sound of heart had grown very powerful, and soon it was going to upgrade and become a real music movement of Fate.

Moreover, there were three cores in his music movement of sound of heart. The “seal of moonlight” of Ye Lanzhou, the “stone of sage” of Auschwitz, and the “Catastrophe Resonation” of Abraham.

He felt like there were three hearts in his body, and the three music movements were constantly resonating with each other in three different Aether waves.

If Ye Qingxuan managed to combine the three music movements into one and made it his own sound of heart, he would become a Master and reach the highest level a Master could reach.

However, to reach this level, there was one more step, which had been bothering him very much.

He needed to intensify all three cores to the same degree. Compared to the seal of moonlight that combined with the Heaven Ladder, and the stone of sage that combined with the sub-originator, the Catastrophe Resonation was not intact.

This was not due to the neglect of Abraham, rather it was because of the problems of the music movement itself.

The Catastrophe Resonation would only work when resonating with a catastrophe. The reason that Abraham was so powerful was partly due to the compatibility of his own personality with the “Silver Tide.”

However, Ye Qingxuan was not the same person as Abraham.

Although he knew the music movement that could resonate with the “Silver Tide,” he did not dare to play it. He was afraid that once he played it, he would be assimilated by the Catastrophe and simply become a “phenomenon”—a pool of moving hydrargyrum.

I’d better not play that music movement.

Since Ye Qingxuan was different from Abraham, he was afraid that if he did play that music movement like Abraham did, he would only cause trouble for himself.

Then, which Catastrophe should I resonate with?

Ye Qingxuan was completely lost.

Among the catastrophes, every one of them had different characteristics and disturbing aspects as well. Ye Qingxuan could not find any catastrophe that suited him.

After excluding all the weak ones, Ye Qingxuan drew closer to the catastrophe that suited him among the top-class catastrophes: the Three Pillar God, the Three Wise Men, the Eight Phenomena…

I think I should exclude the Eight Phenomena. Although they are really powerful and destructive, if I resonate with them, I shall lose all my sanity.

Among the Three Wise Man, the God of the Immortals had not been seen by anyone for many years; Nibelungenlied had been sealed by the Church; and Boss, who Ye Qingxuan was most familiar with, had basically become a useless man after coming back from Auschwitz. He could not even be called a catastrophe.

As for the Three Pillar God, the Holy Ax never responded to anyone’s summoning, and the mortal could only prove its existence via the music theory of the musicians of the Seven Systems. Throughout history, only three men had been aided by it, and they were the Kings of the Musicians: Blue, Red, and Yellow.

Ye Qingxuan knew he was clearly not as strong as the three Kings of the Musicians, and thus could never be aided by the Holy Ax.

How about Hyakume? Not possible. As for Quiet Moon, well, not impossible either.

Thinking of this, Ye Qingxuan could not help laughing. He shook his head and stopped trying to find a suitable catastrophe.

The Quiet Moon stood for extreme balance and punishment, and was even crueler than Hyakume and the Holy Ax.

Throughout history, many people who dared to resonate with the music theory of the Quiet Moon had been eradicated by its power.

Resonating with the Quiet Moon was playing with fire.

For example, Lola had decided to finish her life and dedicated herself to the Quiet Moon. She went through many hardships and managed to survive after finishing her transition. However, she would endure extreme pain as long as she was still breathing. After she died, she would become a part of the music theory of the Quiet Moon and never be free of the Quiet Moon.

Thinking of this, Ye Qingxuan felt headache coming on.

At the same time, the door behind him opened and Lola walked in.

After extracting much blood, Lola’s face finally grew a bit rosy and looked like a living person’s face. Behind her stood Samuel and all his disciples. They all looked very compliant and serious; clearly, Lola had successfully reshaped their personalities.

“All done?”

Ye Qingxuan stood up and said, “We should leave here immediately. On the ground, Hyakume is going to declare a war with the people of the Sacred City. It is too dangerous, and I have decided that I will never get involved in this fight.”

Hearing his words and seeing his anxiety, Lola did not feel relieved at all.

“What is wrong?” Ye Qingxuan asked.

Lola was silent for a while, then she sighed. “Ye Qingxuan, I just felt the Aether wave of my teacher… I think he is also in the Sacred City.”

“…”

Ye Qingxuan was shocked.

Lola’s teacher was actually Ye Qingxuan’s father, Ye Lanzhou.

Ye Lanzhou? Are you f*cking kidding me?

Ye Lanzhou had not shown himself for many years, and Ye Qingxuan had already accepted this fact and pretended to believe that he had been hiding someplace where no one could find him. After all these years, Ye Qingxuan had given up the hope of finding him, and kept telling himself that his father had already died.

Ye Qingxuan thought he had already gotten over this business, but when he heard that Ye Lanzhou was still alive, his heart began to beat rather fast.

He wanted to meet his father, which was perfectly fine and reasonable. But this mere idea also annoyed him very much.

He was silent. After a long while, he lowered his head and sighed. “Are you sure?”

Lola nodded.

“Fine…”

Ye Qingxuan massaged his face and took a deep breath and said, “Give me my Aether ball.”

Lola handed him his Aether ball. Then Ye Qingxuan turned around and began to walk in another direction.

There was a huge instrument of harmonious melody in the Sforza family’s underground palace. It was the foundation of this region, and secretly connected with many other countries.

Ye Qingxuan put his Aether ball into this instrument and began to make connection.

After a while, someone replied.

“Hello?” a man said in a hoarse voice.

“Naberius, this is Ye Qingxuan.”

“Ye Qingxuan? You managed to get out of the underground palace? I see that you are connecting with me via the line that belongs to the Sforza family… Are you trying to ask me to do some dirty work, or be your scapegoat again?”

Suddenly, Naberius’s voice became very high-pitched and he screamed, “I won’t do it! I will never do it! By the way, what have you done to get Hyakume involved in this? Anyway, it is none of my business, I am currently moving to a new place, I have got no time to…”

Ye Qingxuan laughed and said, “You are so afraid of Hyakume?”

“Yes! And so what? A decent and powerful man like you isn’t afraid of Hyakume, are you? I don’t care what are you intend to do, just leave me out of it. I am gonna cut off the connection now.”

Ye Qingxuan said, “I want to join your team.”

“Nonsense.” Naberius laughed. “I heard that you even rejected Ludovic’s offer, and he is much more powerful than I am.”

“So you knew it already?”

“Of course,” Naberius said. “I know many things, but I do not think there is any need to for me to tell everything I know to someone else.”

“Then let’s get back to business,” Ye Qingxuan said. “Give me what I want, and when I succeed, I will lend you the clothes of original sin, so you can have a good look at it.”

Ye Qingxuan then told Naberius what he wanted.

Naberius didn’t reply, and Ye Qingxuan could hear screaming and yelling from Naberius’s side.

After a long while, Naberius said in a very hoarse voice, “Ye Qingxuan, my dear friend. I know you are a genius and you may be even stronger than me. But I have to tell you that the way you have chosen won’t work.”

“It won’t work?” Hearing this, Ye Qingxuan laughed and said, “I like a way that won’t work.”

Chapter 497: Prologue

 

The moment Ye Qingxuan walked out of the underground palace, he almost suffocated.

In the chaotic streets, the crowds were screaming.

The sun alternated between strong and weak. Sometimes it even looked within reach. One side of Ye Qingxuan was dazzling and warm like he was walking under the sun, but the other side was so cold that his marrow was nearly frozen.

Under the sunlight, the shadows danced abnormally like living things.

The twilight sky became like a pot of boiling molten iron, spilling turbulently. Cracks appeared in ancient buildings, and the boom of something collapsing came from the depths of the earth.

The color of reality peeled off and faded under the erosion of the Aether waves. The steel city was gradually being corrupted into a magic world.

The roaring bells were deafening, ringing one after another. The enormous enchantment protected the foundation of the city and fought against the erosion of the Aether waves, trying to save the city from falling apart.

Thousands of towers spouted blazing lights and opened the dancing darkness, illuminating the world.

In this twilight where all the lights were rapidly dying, the Sacred City glowed as if it was on fire and red-hot cracks were spreading everywhere.

The power of the abyss blew out, impacting the Sacred City.

The first to be affected there were the human senses.

People who were more sensitive had already peeked into the large shadow emerging in the sky. Under the weight of countless pairs of cold eyes, their will was tortured and brought to the brink of collapse.

Insensitive people were unaware of that, so they just screamed and ran away when they saw others suddenly fall to the ground, vomit blood, and go insane.

They were like rats that didn’t know they were in a hot iron house.

As soon as the celebration of the Sacred City was over, the funeral started in a hurry.

The city had already became the center of the battlefield.

A scorching fohn swept through, a sign of a tragic war to come.

Musicians with strong competencies like Ye Qingxuan would be fine under such circumstances. In the chaos, many musicians suddenly fell to the ground and died on the spot with their five sense organs oozing blood and their heart sounds having collapsed.

Even Ye Qingxuan felt the pressure of suffocation at the moment. Without the protection of the clothes of original sin, he would have been close to death, losing 40% of his fighting force.

Now the enchantment of the Sacred City was running at full capacity, so that the order of the human world could be maintained and the city wouldn’t devolve into a dark world.

The Physical World seemed to be chaotic, but had no other anomalies.

But in the deepest part of the Aether World, the vast abyss had already collided with the Sacred City, bursting out endless turbulence.

The Sacred City glowed with endless flames.

The abyss trembled, shaking off a layer of dust—that was the seed of the demon.

The combat between the two giants affected the whole Aether World. Under the impact of the terrible waves, even the far-reaching Scepter Light was like a candle flickering in the wind.

Numerous mysterious places fell apart.

It was the ants that suffered first in the combat between the giants.

Countless oddities in the Aether World panicked and scattered, fleeing to the rest of the world before the arrival of the next waves of terror.

The Aether World was in such chaos. Beneath the sea of Aether was brewing turbulence.

When the shock of terror spread through the nine layers of the Aether Sea to the physical world, it almost shattered the nearest Sacred City. The turbulent music theory and the terrible changes, for musicians, were like a storm and a tsunami mixed together.

The drastic changes in the outside world caused imbalances of the music theory inside human bodies, with disastrous consequences.

The orientals called this phenomenon the “dead wind.”

Almost all the musicians with weak foundations and unreasonable construction of music theory inside their bodies were affected more or less, with the light symptom of feeling nauseous and the severe of vomiting blood.

As for the musicians who hadn’t stabilized their music theory after taking precious pharmaceuticals to gain higher levels, or those who had long been controlling serious injuries from their early years, some suffered from the Aether riots inside their bodies, some burned themselves to death, and some went into shock because the Aether density in their blood soared and influenced their hearts and brains.

At this moment, the constant changes of Aether density in the Sacred City exploded numerous Aether balls for measuring. Just like being thrown into the eye of wind, the Aether density sometimes became as harmless as that of the White Area, and sometimes soared to a terrible degree that even the Black Area couldn’t be compared with.

For musicians, the Sacred City had instantly become a forbidden place with extreme horrors in the World of Dark or the ruins after catastrophe.

It wouldn’t be any better for the ordinary people.

At this moment, the Sacred City had turned into a huge cauldron for alchemists to mix their drugs. Even if it was enveloped in enchantment, the fierce reactions could still be carried out without a break.

The Aether World overlapped the Physical World in the areas where the alchemy matrix gathered, forming a series of “flooding outlets” through which the chaotic aftermath blew out.

Innumerable oddities and ethereal shadows flew through the air.

Some were harmless, but the others were the demons that rose from the abyss.

Human beings would be drawn into an empty shell in a twinkle, with no way to resist at all when they encountered those demons.

Even priests dressed in robes lost their protection from God and were slaughtered mercilessly. The young friars who went everywhere to preach the Word struggled and fled .

Then invisible things bit their heads off.

Blood splattered.

Fell on Ye Qingxuan’s boots.

When Ye Qingxuan walked onto the ground, the first thing he saw was such a chaotic scene.

“Help! Help!”

A young priest fell to the ground, screamed and trembled in confusion.

When he saw Ye Qingxuan, he saw him as a chance to save his life, and pleaded, “Help me, gentleman! Please help me! I will repay you! I swear!”

Ye Qingxuan hesitated and sighed.

“This is really … terrible.”

After saying that, he reached out and pointed at the priest at a distance.

A faint moonlight stretched out from his fingertips and pierced the priest between his eyebrows.

Just like a pot of boiling water, the scene in front of him suddenly twisted with strange screams and ear-piercing cries.

Viscous blood splattered everywhere.

The fierce turbulence of music theory left the demons nowhere to hide.

Around the young priest, a dozen demons were “pushed out” of the air with the all-pervasive fire of moonlight burning on their bodies. They were burnt into ashes before landing.

Ashes mixed with blood and became black mud.

Even behind the priest’s head, an eyeball-shaped demon fell down and burst into a mass of stenchy slurry.

Although the Sword of Moonlight ran through his head, the young priest was still safe, without even a scratch. He sat dully in a pool of blood and didn’t know what happened.

Lola saw the cowardly reaction of the young priest and couldn’t help but mock Ye Qingxuan.

“This coward was frightened silly. What’s the point of saving him?”

When the young priest heard Lola’s voice, he looked over and couldn’t help staring at her sharp ears and the tiger teeth protruding slightly between her lips.

As the young priest perceived the identity of Lola and the servants behind her, his face suddenly became pale and his teeth trembled.

“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!”

Chapter 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 musician, 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.

Chapter 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 standing 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?”

Quentin hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth, and nodded.

Then the machinists quickly went into action, lifting the armor that was too heavy and large for a human and placing it on Vasco.

Although there were no dressing racks specifically designed for assembly, their actions were as fast as ever. Vasco was soon covered with the steel armor as if he had walked into his coffin ahead of time.

Under the visor, only the heavy wheezing reverberated.

“This is the medium-sized armor of the exusiai level, equipped with the Halberd of Turbulence and Thermal Epee. Its performance is 40 times better that of Eagle the Shepherd, and so is the pressure.”

Quentin quickly warned, “There is no support from the enchantment of the Sacred City. Without army musicians, the power in the Aether Furnace is only enough for you to act minimally for ten minutes. Remember, don’t launch the Core of Glory! Your surgery has just been done, and you will be burnt into ashes with no buffer plug implanted.”

“I know.” Vasco nodded under the visor and said with a muffled voice, “The armored knights will follow me when we break through. The blade dancers are responsible for protecting the machinists… Don’t drop your teammates, Quentin, don’t drop any of them.”

He paused and whispered, “Otherwise my sacrifice has no value.”

“I swear.” Quentin nodded.

“Then what are you waiting for?”

“I’m sorry, only number eight.”

Quentin took the syringe from the adjutant, injected it slowly into a blood vessel, and said, “In addition to the painkillers, three times more epinephrine is added. Rest assured, you will not suffer.”

“Well done.” Vasco laughed. “Launch it!”

Several machinists glanced at each other and pulled out the brake valves on the armor at the same time.

In the explosion, hot steam sprayed out from the joints of the valves, making their welding masks red and hot.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The bolts on the gospel armor’s back were torqued in order. The fine nerve probes popped out of the armor bones and pierced into Vasco’s spinal column.

Almost immediately, the hubs rotated, and the last six control valves were screwed into the joints on his hands and back.

Iron and human were integrated into one.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh…!”

In silence, a terrible roar burst out of the armor, and the air shuddered like a monster swallowing and spitting sulfur and flames. In the flying dust, the huge gospel armor took a step forward, and the earth roared.

Vasco was screaming.

The voice was no longer human, like steel rubbing, with a trembling reverberation.

Just like the start of an oven, the heat spread. The heat flow, which was enough to burn people to ashes, centered on the Aether Furnace on the back of the gospel armor, ran above the armor, and finally flew into Vasco’s body.

If he couldn’t bear this inhuman power, then he would be completely turned to ashes.

If he couldn’t resist such suffering, he would be driven mad by this maniacal force. He wouldn’t be able to tell the enemy and himself apart, so everything, including himself, would be completely reduced to ashes.

In the silence, there was only the hissing in Vasco’s throat, like the terrible high-pitched screaming of an iron eagle.

With the iron and steel rubbing against each other, the steel giant stepped forward and pulled the three meter high steel flag from the ground. Above the scorched flag stood the Bronze Eagle spreading its wings.

Vasco pushed it into the sky, as if it were about to fly.

“…The eagle flag is here!” the steel giant cried. “Everyone prepare—”

The voice was thunderous and reverberated in the gloomy and shattered church.

“—to break through with me!”

Then, the sound of drawing swords rang endlessly.

“Fight till death!”

The Knights Templar roared, clasped their swords, and assembled again.

Boom! boom! boom!

On the back of the gospel armor, three alloy shunts were turned on at the same time and spewed hot blue-white flames.

The noise in the air burst like a thunderstorm.

As Vasco moved on, a hurricane set off from the church. In an instant, he broke through the iron wall of a spent force, and rushed into the innumerable crowds of demons outside the door.

It was as if the sharp blade of God fell from heaven. Wherever it reached, everything was cut open in a crisp and clear way. The straight cutting line extended forward, smeared with misery and blood.

Dragons of earth, white spiders… those ferocious demons were even weaker than dust for the steel giant. They were brutally crushed and smashed. The smelly blood splashed on the armor, spread in the hurricane and then evaporated, letting off the smell of death.

Among the demons, a giant stitched monster was enraged. Its massive body, weighing a few tons, stepped forward and let out an earth-shaking roar.

Rawr!

Vasco growled. The over two meters high steel armor crushed the slate and leaped up. The Eagle Flag in his hand shook. The Bronze Eagle cried. The iron wings on the flag cut through the air and sent out red lights as if they were breaking off.

The next moment, the Iron Eagle pounced down.

The Eagle Flag was out of hand!

Boom!

The huge blister was broken.

The smelly liquid splashed on the gospel armor and creaked, but it could not penetrate the surface of the gold coating.

Just like being hit by a massive hammer that fell from the sky, the deformed head of the stitched monster disintegrated in an instant. From the top down, the sharp end of the flag pierced through the giant body, cutting a bloody hole in the center of it, the blood pouring deep into the land.

The head of the flag was still shaking. The fervent Iron Eagle was dyed with blood, presenting a heartrending redness.

Boom!

Vasco stepped over the corpse of the stitched monster, landed on the ground, and drew the Halberd of Turbulence and the Thermal Epee from his back.

The heavy halberd, more than two meters long, looked like a short halberd in the hand of the steel giant. The Thermal Epee was as wide as a door, glowing with fervent flames.

Although there was no “sprinkler” for regional destruction, nor a crossbow that was large enough to shoot a few kilometers away, Vasco could still reverse gravity, fly up into the sky, and display the power of a demigod without the need to launch the Core of Glory. At this moment, he had already become a war machine.

Those who were covered by steel became steel.

People who held power in their hands made the power.

Never hesitate, even if the steel was incinerated by the power!

“Ahhhhhh!!!”

Under the lion visor, Vasco roared and held up his weapons. He directly faced the corps rushing forward without holding back. The Halberd of Turbulence split a demon that was more than three meters tall into two parts with a blast of wind. Even though the demon was wearing armor, even though it was powerful.

Immediately afterwards, the Thermal Epee swept through, smashing everything that dared to come close and burning it into ashes.

Among the chaotic crowds of frenetic demons, the dark musicians frowned through the dark cracks.

Gospel armor… It was an unexpected factor.

When he laid this trap, he had never thought there would be someone who had done the implantation among the Knights Templar stationed in the Sacred City, and that someone would happen to take the armor out of the armory when they broke through.

Even if it was old-fashioned, it still could bring tremendous power to bear.

Although the demons were fierce and large in number, it was still impossible for them to conquer the gospel armor.

The gospel armor was the top technology of mechanical engineering in the church, and regarded as the most powerful technology by the Knights Templar. It could eradicate the crowds of demons and get all their people out without launching the Core of Glory.

“Such a trouble.”

The snakificated black musician whispered, “A big trouble.”

He put down the flute on his lips, reached out his hand, and broke off the bone of his little finger. With a crispy sound, the music movement stored in advance was released.

The Solemn Evening Prayers of Confessors!

It was the anthem dedicated to the Hyakume by the black musicians. The core spirituality of it was the urge and the voracity to embrace darkness. The sacred, mournful anthem rang, absorbing the power of the Hyakume.

In mid-air, a vague shadow emerged.

It was the indifferent glance that the Hyakume cast from the abyss.

In a flash, the earth cracked and the church collapsed.

The gravitational force of terror roared ten times, falling from the sky and instantly pressing the gospel armor on the ground. Then, the broken slate completely collapsed. The entire ground quickly desertified and the sand stirred and flew like waves.

The darkness boiled and adhered to the sand, forming a huge whirlpool, pulling the gospel armor into the deepest part of the music movement in order to seal it in the core for good!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Loud noises came continuously, followed by furious roars.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”

The heavy giant suddenly unlatched his buckles. The add-on armor covering the core continued to separate from the gospel armor.

The gospel armor was lightened to less than one-third of its original weight in an instant.

In the sand whirlpool, a fiery glow lit under the pressure of gravity.

“Oh sh*t…” Quentin pressed himself to the ground.

With no buffer pump, Vasco launched the Core of Glory, abandoned the heavy weapons that were used frequently on the battlefield, but awakened the core circuit inside the armor.

And the real power!

Chapter 500: Angel (II)

 

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A burning halo appeared behind Vasco. It was so bright, and it looked just like an iron and steel-made gear that swirled and rubbed against the air, creating numerous sparkles.

The gospel armor had grown hundreds of times heavier, and even so, it was gradually rising up from the gravel whirlpool. Soon it stopped and floated above the whirlpool.

The snakificated musician frowned and played the flute. The sound of chanting prayer and psalms got louder and louder.

The energy created from the prayers gathered around the gospel armor and enhanced it. Vasco was trapped by the gravity of the armor and the seal of gravel, like prey caught by a huge hungry beast.

“Run!” Vasco shouted. “Quentin! Run!”

A ball of fire was burning inside the armor, and the armor had turned red from the high heat and became as bright as the shining sun.

The ball of fire was actually Vasco; he was burning.

Inside his body, the Aether that had grown hundreds of times denser began to liquify. The liquid started to flow all over his body.

“I swear I will defeat the enemy even if I lose my life!” Vasco shouted. His voice was as loud as the banging sound of iron and steel.

Six streams of flame flew out from the splitter. Vasco abandoned his Halberd of Turbulence and held tightly to the Épée in his hands. On the surface of the Épée, countless burning-hot streams of light rose up and formed a flame blade more than ten meters long.

At that moment, Vasco became an angel guarding the Door of Heaven. The angel stood for the anger of the God and threw the sword of flame towards the enemy.

Vasco’s blood now became the coolant, and his internal organs turned into an Aether stove. His body was going to explode, and his consciousness broke itself from the body and possessed the armor.

The next moment, Vasco wielded the sword of flame towards the armor and the gravel whirlpool.

Both the gravity and the seal of gravel were destroyed by the blade of flame. At the same time, the flame also cleared a path through the devils, killing and burning them to ashes.

Vasco was trapped by the gravity and the seal of gravel, and his gospel armor was already broken, not to mention that both of his body and armor were being heavily squeezed by an invisible force. He still managed to clear a path for Quentin.

Out from nowhere, someone sighed.

The snakificated musician dropped his scepter onto the ground. A white moon slowly rose up from the horizon, moving across the sky, and stopped in the middle of the sky.

The moonlight was so pure, gentle, and mild. Apart from the snakificated musician, all the other devils stood still on the ground.

The snakificated musician was not affected by this illusion and screamed.

All the music movements that came from the abyss were activated. The musical instrument in his hand suddenly broke. The next minute, countless moonlight perception threads penetrated his body and connected with the music theory inside his body. A seed was planted in his body…

That seed was a ball of fire.

This was all Ye Qingxuan’s doing. He played the “above the burning ashes,” a music movement that was once played by Abraham. With the help of the moonlight, the purifying music theory contained in the fire was much enhanced.

Soon, flames erupted from the snakificated musician’s nose, mouth, eyes, and ears. He began to run around and scream with pain. After a short while, his body collapsed.

His bones became ashes, the last ounce of his blood evaporated, and what was left on the ground was only a sack of skin.

As for the surviving knights, what they saw was a rather different scene; with the moon rising up, all the devils vanished as soon as they were bathed in the moonlight. They also heard someone screaming, while a dark smoke rose up from the ashes and gradually dispersed.

The survived knights were totally shocked by this scene.

A young man with white hair walked towards them, without caring about the extremely high temperatures and the force field around him. He reached out his hands, and easily moved the light and lightning out of his way.

Then he stopped in front of the burning armor and gently put his finger on its surface.

“Don’t move, and I can save you.”

Inside the armor, Vasco almost lost his consciousness and still managed to hear Ye Qingxuan’s voice.

The moonlight flew into the gospel armor like water, and in the blink of an eye, numerous perception threads appeared from nowhere. The threads began to adjust their frequency and rebuild Vasco’s music theory.

Suddenly, a half-transparent assembly stand appeared from nowhere and shrouded the burning-hot gospel armor.

Six perception threads that were embedded with the music theory of Heaven Ladder connected with the socket on the armor, and in this way, the barrier between Qingxuan Ye and the Alchemy Array was cleared.

“Tell me the control code.” The young man looked at Quentin.

When the gospel armor was made, there was a “taking over negotiation” contained in the internal Alchemy Array. When necessary, someone could control the changes of the music theory of the armor from the outside.

As long as there was a control code and an assembly stand, any engineer could change all the internal configuration of the gospel armor.

“Holy Bible, Ezekiel, 18:6,” Quentin said.

Bang!

A huge cloud of steam erupted out from the gospel armor; in fact, the steam was the gasified condensate. Still, the armor was burning-hot.

If the configuration was incomplete, activating the Core of Glory equated to committing suicide.

Earlier, Vasco almost managed to activate the core of glory…

With the help of the control code, Ye Qingxuan was able to get inside of the armor.

Thanks to the way of deciphering, the huge and complex system was quickly organized, and countless music theories became ordered and spread out in Ye Qingxuan’s mind. The extremely complicated mechanical system beneath the armor also became very easy to understand and analyze.

It was like someone who was trapped in an unknown dark world getting a detailed map of the world, and suddenly knowing all the topography and dangers in this world.

While the moonlight perception thread was connecting with the Alchemy Array, Ye Qingxuan’s sense moved along with it. The music theory of Heaven Ladder began to extend and turned into Ye Qingxuan’s “hands,” then the hands began to explore into the deepest part…

Formation world, flowing world, moving world, creating world…

Finally, Ye Qingxuan’s hands reached to the Core of Glory that was heavily protected by layers of black boxes.

“The inside of this armor is just like a melting pot, I can not even imagine it is not equipped with a fluid director!”

An engineer said to Quentin in a very low voice, “Officer, we have to find a specialized operation desk before we open this armor, otherwise, we will take Vasco’s last layer of shield, and he will burn to ashes.”

At this moment, the burning-hot air blew towards them.

The other engineers were shocked and had no idea what they should do. Ye Qingxuan reached out his hands and tore the armor apart and pulled the Core of Glory out.

Just a few minutes ago, the Core of Glory was about to explode. But when Ye Qingxuan held it in his hands, it changed to the silent mode.

The infinitive energy gathered inside the core was leaking and then flew up to the sky. As soon as it was out of Ye Qingxuan’s control, it instantly exploded.

The gospel armor quickly went back to its normal state, as if it had been fixed by more than ten engineers and musicians on the specialized emergency operation desk.

The moonlight perception thread penetrated Vasco’s last layer of shield and shone upon his body. Then it began to repair his mind and helped him to collect his consciousness.

Moreover, Vasco did not feel numb anymore. Earlier, whenever he breathed, his lungs would ache, as if he was chewing iron. Now that feeling also disappeared.

The blood in his body began to flow and his fingers were flexible again, and even the array that had been implanted in his body was repaired.

He felt very energetic, as if he had injected some sort of stimulant. He now felt extremely good!

“What happened to me?!” Vasco was amazed. He could feel his body was still not in a very ideal state, but he could move at his own will now.

“You know your body has not totally recovered yet.” Ye Qingxuan pulled back his hands and said, “Since I am not a professional chorale doctor, so I can only ease your symptoms. Currently, your body relies solely on my music theory. You’d better find a good doctor and have emergency surgery within six hours.”

Then, Ye Qingxuan put the Core of Glory back into the gospel armor.

The gospel armor was under great protection. When Ye Qingxuan touched this armor, he instantly realized that there were more than nine layers of protection arrays and self-destruction music movements.

It seems that I can not decipher the Core of Glory now.

In the past two minutes, Ye Qingxuan had already grasped almost ninety-nine percent of the technology information about the gospel armor, then he applied the technology to his own clothes of original sin.

Although the clothes of original sin did not have such a power engine as the Core of Glory. After all, it was also a powerful destructive weapon that once belonged to the church. Besides, he also had the sub-originator.

Ye Qingxuan could feel that the outer skeleton he made for himself had grown much stronger. If he wanted, he could disguise himself as a Knight Templar and no one would ever find him out.

The surviving knights all looked at him respectfully. Ye Qingxuan felt very proud and said coldly, “Who is your commander?”

“I am,” Vasco said. He stared at Ye Qingxuan and frowned, “May I know who you are, sir? If you will excuse me, I would have to say that you look very similar to a reported criminal…”

Hearing this, Nora could feel something was not right. He immediately came to mediate and said, “You misunderstand us. I swear on my life that this gentleman…”

“Yes, you are right,” Ye Qingxuan said. “I am Ye Qingxuan, the executioner and the murderer known by the people in the Sacred City.”